A 30-year-old woman died in the Tabasco municipality of Comalcalco after receiving a liposuction from an uncertified doctor.
Tirso Aguilar, president of the Tabasco College of Plastic Surgeons, said that when the woman arrived at a Comalcalco hospital, she was intubated and suffering from a heart attack and brain death. Doctors tried to revive her for 15 minutes, but were unsuccessful.
Aguilar said the doctor in the case is named Cámara, and that he is an intern who is not certified to perform the procedure.
He is known in Comalcalco for offering cheap liposuctions. He was in the process of removing fat from the woman’s abdomen, back, bottom and chest when she started to suffer from progressive respiratory failure.
Doctor Cámara had previously offered liposuctions from a house that he had set up as a clinic in Comalcalco. That clinic was shut down by federal inspectors, but Cámara opened a new one in another building and continued performing the illegal procedures. The new clinic remained open in spite of being reported for violations.
Aguilar added that liposuctions should only be performed in established clinics by certified doctors.
Ecatepec couple have each been sentenced to 114 years.
A husband-and-wife pair who terrorized the sprawling Mexico City suburb of Ecatepec are facing at least 114 years behind bars after being sentenced for four crimes that include femicide, hiding human remains and human trafficking.
On Thursday, a judge sentenced Juan Carlos Hernández Bejar and Patricia Martínez Bernal, known as the “Monsters of Ecatepec,” to 40 years each for the femicide of Arlet Samanta on April 25, 2018. Hernández told the court that he had maintained a relationship with Samanta, who lived in the same apartment building as the couple in Ecatepec, and described her as “beautiful, intelligent and perceptive.”
But after Martínez grew jealous of Samanta, she “gave the order” that her husband’s lover be killed. Hernández and Martínez conspired to lure Samanta to their apartment, where Martínez stabbed her to death in the bathroom.
The couple had previously been sentenced to 40 years for the September 2018 femicide of Nancy Noemí, four years for selling Noemí’s baby to another couple and 30 years for hiding a body. The sentences will run consecutively and total 114 years. They also face five other criminal proceedings for femicide and one for forced disappearance.
Hernández and Martínez were arrested on October 4, 2018, when they were transporting human remains in a baby carriage. In a subsequent police search of their residence, more body parts were found.
Police say that for six years the couple had been killing women by luring them to their apartment with the pretext of selling used clothes and other items. The couple has confessed to killing as many as 20 women and eating and sexually abusing some of their remains.
Six-year-old Violeta was on her way to her kindergarten graduation when she was killed.
Violeta Castorena would have graduated from kindergarten on Tuesday but a stray bullet cut her life short during an attack in Chihuahua.
The six-year-old girl and her parents were on their way to her last day in kindergarten at the Luis Donaldo Colosio school in Ciudad Juárez when armed civilians traveling in a truck opened fire on their target, a man who was also walking his daughter to school.
His daughter made it safely inside the building but the bullets found their target, reaching him and the innocent Violeta as well. The man was killed instantly, but the young victim lived long enough to be taken to hospital, where she died from a gunshot wound to the head.
No arrests have been reported by Juárez police.
The Network for the Rights of Children in Mexico reported in April that children and teenagers are increasingly becoming targets and victims of acts of violence. They were victims in 767 homicides in 2015. Last year the figure was 1,238.
Senators and foreign affairs undersecretary Jesús Seade, second from left, celebrate trade deal's approval.
The Senate yesterday approved the new North American trade agreement, making Mexico the first country to ratify the deal that will replace the 25-year-old NAFTA.
President López Obrador congratulated lawmakers in a video posted to social media and described the ratification as “very good news” for Mexico.
“. . . The majority of lawmakers from all of the country’s parties voted [in favor]. That means there is unity, that we’re in agreement with strengthening our relationship with the United States and Canada. We’re opting for, we’re choosing free trade. We don’t have any doubt,” he said, neglecting to mention that three Morena senators voted against ratification.
The president said the agreement will bring foreign investment to Mexico, generate jobs and guarantee a market for Mexican products in the United States, “with the bonus that there will be well-being in our country, with the bonus that there will be justice in our country.”
“It’s balance, growth with well-being, progress with justice because progress without justice is a backward step. That’s why I’m very pleased that this treaty has been ratified, with all respect, we’re ahead of Canada and ahead of the United States . . .” López Obrador said.
The Business Coordinating Council, a leading business organization, said that ratification of the trilateral pact would help generate investor certainty, better opportunities for workers and favorable conditions for the development.
United States President Donald Trump, who repeatedly threatened to withdraw from NAFTA during a contentious and drawn-out negotiation to reach the new pact, congratulated López Obrador for Mexico’s approval and said that it’s “time for Congress to do the same here!”
Once ratified by the United States and Canada, the USMCA will enter into force and remain valid until 2035 unless it is renegotiated.
Canada is moving ahead with its ratification process but Democratic lawmakers in the United States have threatened to block its passage. Speaker Nancy Pelosi said yesterday that she still has many concerns about the USMCA.
However, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said he believed that concerns about the enforcement of labor and environmental provisions in the agreement can be resolved quickly.
Mexico’s lower house of Congress approved a landmark labor reform package in April that was considered crucial for the ratification of the trade deal in the United States.
The updated three-way trade pact includes new chapters on anti-corruption measures, labor and digital trade, and stipulates new rules for telecommunications, small and medium-sized businesses, intellectual property, competitiveness and the environment.
Mexico also agreed to establish high-wage areas where auto-sector workers will earn at least US $16 per hour.
Under the terms of the USMCA, new cars must have at least 75% regional content in order to qualify for tariff-free access to the North American market.
Mexican and United States authorities are investigating overpayments of hundreds of millions of dollars in the state oil company’s purchase of several fertilizer plants and a phosphorite reserve during the presidency of Enrique Peña Nieto.
The investigations have implicated high-level officials in the previous administration for bribery, including the former president himself.
The plant that has received the most attention is the Agro Nitrogenadas plant in Pajaritos, Veracruz, which was purchased by Pemex from steelmaker Altos Hornos in 2014 for US $475 million, which the current government says was more than nine times the plant’s value.
Both Altos Hornos CEO Alonso Alcira and then-Pemex CEO Emilio Lozoya are facing criminal charges for the transaction.
But at least three other facilities purchased under Peña Nieto have also fallen into disuse: two fertilizer plants in Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán, and Camargo, Chihuahua, and a phosphorite reserve in Baja California Sur.
The Lázaro Cárdenas plant was owned by Fertinal, a fertilizer company that owed US $264 million in debt in 2015, when Pemex purchased the company for US $635 million. According to a sworn statement by a witness made to investigators at the U.S. Department of Justice, Peña Nieto received a bribe from Fertinal’s majority shareholder Fabio Massimo Covarrubias in exchange for approving the overpayment.
Another investigation by Mexican authorities has targeted Lozoya and former energy secretary Pedro Joaquín Coldwell for allegedly receiving bribes relating to the purchase of Fertinal.
According to President López Obrador, both the Veracruz and the Michoacán plants were once owned by Fertimex, a state-owned fertilizer company that was privatized during the presidency of Carlos Salinas de Gortari.
“Let’s remember that the state had a company called Fertimex, which produced all the fertilizer,” he said in his morning press conference on Wednesday. “We became self-sufficient in the production of fertilizer. With the privatization started by Carlos Salinas, Fertimex was dismantled.”
During the presidency of Peña Nieto, Pemex Fertilizers, a subsidiary of the state oil company, began buying back former Fertimex facilities as part of a supposed effort to promote domestic fertilizer production and reduce the dependence on imports. But in the first two years of the venture, fertilizer production in Mexico declined even further.
López Obrador promised there will be a thorough investigation of damage done to the public purse by officials in the former government.
“These are losses for the government, for the treasury,” he said. “This money belongs to all Mexicans, and we are obligated to protect the budget.”
Both Peña Nieto and Coldwell denied the accusations. “I categorically reject these false accusations against me . . . . They are lying, of course,” said the former president.
David, left, and Carlos Ríos are suspected Gulf Cartel operators in Oaxaca.
The suspected leader of the Gulf Cartel in the Central Valleys region of Oaxaca was arrested yesterday by federal agents and state police in Oaxaca city.
Carlos Abraham Ríos Suárez, also known as El Oaxaco, is suspected to be involved in the cartel’s drug trafficking operations, namely shipping illegal substances to the United States.
Ríos has also been linked to extorting local businesses and trafficking in firearms.
Federal officials reported that Ríos was arrested without violence, and that four restricted firearms were seized in the process.
Ríos rose to the regional cartel leadership after the arrest of his brother David. In statements to authorities, David Ríos has confessed that his brother operates with the support of the Familia Michoacana cartel.
Carlos Ríos is also the state chairman of the Autonomous Confederation of Workers and Employees of México, and his arrest triggered a series of protests by affiliated taxi drivers.
They demanded the release of their leader and used their vehicles to block traffic going in and out of Oaxaca city.
A change in the route of the Maya Train provides an opportunity to relieve the pressure of urbanization and population growth faced by Tulum, according to a state government official.
The National Tourism Promotion Fund (Fonatur) announced this week that the train will no longer run directly between Valladolid, Yucatán, and Cancún, but instead from the former city to Tulum via Cobá, Quintana Roo.
At Tulum, travelers will be able to take another line north to Cancún, or south into Campeche and Chiapas.
Eduardo Ortiz Jasso, director of the Quintana Roo Strategic Projects Agency, said the route modification will attract real estate development and encourage population growth in the center of the state and alleviate pressure on Tulum as a result.
The once sleepy Caribbean coast town has seen rampant construction of hotels, restaurants and other tourism-oriented infrastructure in recent years although some projects have been halted or blocked due to environmental concerns.
As a result of Fonatur’s announcement, Ortiz said the design of a new town in the area where the Cobá train station will be built is already under analysis.
The official said the development will seek to benefit people already living in communities in the area, where there has been little previous investment.
“The section that was eliminated, Valladolid-Cancún, didn’t benefit any town. In contrast, the new line will mean urban and real estate development in an area that currently lacks development opportunities . . .” Ortiz said.
He also said that the addition of the stretch of railway linking the archaeological sites of Cobá and Tulum will make travel on the Maya Train more attractive to visitors and allow the creation of new tourism products.
The Quintana Roo government is reviewing land it owns along the proposed route with a view to ceding it for the development of the rail project.
Ortiz said that by July at the latest the government will commission three studies of the land between Valladolid and Tulum: an analysis to determine where rights of way need to be obtained, a topographic survey and an aerial photography study.
It is estimated that the route change will knock as much as 7.5 billion pesos (US $394.8 million) off the cost of the Maya train project, which was originally expected to be built for between 120 and 150 billion pesos (US $6.3 billion to $7.9 billion).
Some experts have warned that construction of the railway, which is scheduled to begin operations in 2023, poses environmental risks to underground water networks on the Yucatán peninsula and the long-term survival of the jaguar.
Francisco Javier Bautista Ávalos, parish priest at the Cristo Salvador church in the Tlalpan borough of Mexico City where the victim was a deacon, had reported Avendaño’s disappearance to the deacon’s family on June 11.
After Avendaño was found dead in his pickup truck the next day, Bautista led the victim’s funeral service, and expressed hope that the murderer would be caught.
“We are sad, but at the same time, we have faith, and it gives us strength to know that he is with God,” said Bautista at the service.
But after interviewing the priest, police began noting inconsistencies in his testimony, and after reviewing messages on Avendaño’s cellphone discovered that the two had met the night Avendaño went missing. Police began searching for the priest on June 16.
Today, a judge ordered that he be held in preventative custody.
Authorities indicated that the motive for the crime was a personal conflict, but Avendaño’s family say that the murder was premeditated, and was an attempt to prevent Avendaño from going public with certain accusations.
The Archdiocese of Mexico released a statement promising to cooperate with the authorities in the investigation.
“The Catholic Church in Mexico City trusts that the work of the authorities tasked with the investigation and prosecution will be effective, rigorous and respectful of the law and human rights of the victims, the families and those who are eventually charged with the crime,” read the statement.
Avendaño had recently graduated from the Intercontinental University with a master’s degree in psychoanalysis. He had previously completed a bachelor’s degree in theology from the same institution, and he had hoped to study to become a priest himself.
Mexico City Attorney General Ernestina Godoy will hold a press conference today where she will make public more details of the case.
Supporters of the jailed priest protested today in Mexico City carrying placards to demand his release. “We are with you, Father,” read one.
Property seized from ex-Veracruz governor Javier Duarte was to become a research center to study orchids and coffee cultivation. The plan has been cancelled.
The ongoing operation of 26 scientific research centers is at risk due to budget cuts implemented by the federal government, scientists warn.
As part of the government’s austerity program, President López Obrador signed a memorandum on May 3 that instructed the Secretariat of Public Administration to make additional cuts to public spending in a range of areas, including funding for the research centers operated by the National Council of Science and Technology (Conacyt).
One scientist said the scientific sector has faced budget cuts for the past five years but described the latest one as a tipping point.
“. . . Now we’ve crossed a red line that means the dismissal of operational personnel . . . and other restrictions,” said Fabián Rosales of the National Institute of Astrophysics, Optics and Electronics (Inaoe).
Miguel Rubio, director of the Institute of Ecology (Inecol), said the budget cuts extended to allowances for gasoline, which makes it difficult for researchers to conduct field work.
“. . . Obviously we have to go out into the field, our raw material is biological material and the data we collect. If the gasoline allowance is insufficient, that limits us from performing one of our essential activities. We can’t do ecology from Google Earth,” he said.
Rubio highlighted the importance of the work carried out by Inecol researchers, recalling that in 2004 the United States implemented an embargo on Haas avocados from Michoacán because it feared they were introducing fruit flies to that country.
However, Inecol scientifically proved that was not the case and a California court lifted the ban, he said.
“As a result of that, an economic spillover of US $6.5 billion has been generated and development in the Uruapan area has taken off. There are several projects like this that are in danger, ones in which we apply knowledge to solve social problems. Austerity measures make sense for the bureaucratic secretariats but for research centers the cuts . . . hit the essential, not the superfluous,” Rubio said.
Morales said the gasoline cuts also threatened the work of Inaoe researchers, explaining that it would possibly prevent them from traveling to the Large Millimeter Telescope located on top of the Sierra Negra volcano in Puebla.
“You have to go up the mountain in 4x4s; the resources for gasoline are essential in order to reach the telescope,” he said.
López Obrador’s May 3 memorandum also slashed by half the funding allocated to the research centers to contract third parties, including those who carry out maintenance of highly-specialized equipment.
Eugenio Rafael Méndez, a coordinator at a Conacyt research center in Ensenada, Baja California, said that maintenance of the northeast earthquake monitoring network will be affected.
“Maintaining the network is a matter of national security,” he said. “The equipment . . . is deteriorating and if it stops operating, we’ll lose a comprehensive vision of the country’s seismic activity.”
The president has said that implementing austerity measures will free up resources that can be directed to the heavily indebted state oil company but Méndez pointed out that scientific studies also have the capacity to help Pemex.
He explained that an oceanography team from the Ensenada Conacyt center had analyzed and modeled water currents in the Gulf of Mexico in order to avoid oil spills reaching the United States coastline.
“When deep water exploration started, they realized that there was a security problem on the [oil] platforms. The research team saved Pemex millions,” Méndez said.
The budget cuts have even forced Inecol and a Conacyt technology center in Jalisco to impose restrictions on their employees with regards to the use of electricity.
Bans on the use of air conditioners and the charging of electronic devices as well as strict closing times are among the measures introduced to help cut power costs.
While Conacyt’s total budget was slashed by 12% – or almost 3 billion pesos (US $157.7 million) – this year, cuts to spending at its research centers have ranged between 30% and 50%.
Director María Elena Álvarez-Buylla has pledged that Conacyt will “do more with less” but scientists are skeptical about the claim and question the logic of López Obrador’s cuts.
“The president hasn’t realized that science is also an ally for the development of the country,” Méndez said.
Walk across the 50-plus seating area at Cha-Cha-Cha for views from above into Mercado de Medellín.
Amidst the precious, luxurifying streets of high-grade tourism in the middle of Colonia Roma resides a market to harken at least a few decades back in the history of Mexico City, even if it’s not entirely Mexican.
Officially named Mercado Melchor Ocampo, this delightfully organized, utilitarian but gourmand-applicable market is colloquially referred to as Mercado Medellín because it runs along Medellín street. Yet the name is also appropriate as it features a number of South American and Caribbean imports, most noticeably Colombian.
On an early morning, before the Jehovah’s Witnesses have had a chance to set up their kiosk at the “food court” entrance on Coahuila, you enter to the sound of chopping carrots, onions and tomatoes. A kid consolidates bottles of hand sanitizer, preparing for the contaminated hordes.
At Cocinas Juanita e Hijas – as the name suggests – the women are in charge, razzing a young coworker about his T-shirt featuring a bird in a gas mask.
“What’s with the bird on your shirt?” one of them asks. He begins to answer, but they just laugh. They’d made their point: the shirt is dumb.
Under Juanita’s clear plastic tablecloths pamphlets from the Secretary of Social Welfare are on display with information to ensure that, as the pension system moves into the digital era, seniors aren’t duped out of their rightful payments.
A grandfather, father and son walk by, each sporting a variation of Spider-Man-themed gear. It’s a warm and cordial family scene.
Into the market proper and the Colombian, Venezuelan, Brazilian and Cuban flags come into view, hung proudly from rafters or across shelves. Produce vendors shine and stack everything neatly – best product to the front.
It’s nice to enjoy the quiet market mornings, when all but a few are still setting up. At Las Delicias juicery they offer straight-up squeezed and pressed juices, as well as a number of proprietary blends designed to cure the hangover or the prostate – and morning is certainly the best time to take care of either.
At Amor Perfecto, they serve some of the neighborhood’s best espressos and lattes, all made with Colombian beans, and it’s one of the few cafés that’s (almost consistently) open by 8:00am.
As the morning advances, the butchers begin to chop and sewing machines whir. The no-nonsense, practical man running the housewares and furniture section in the back might just be the only market vendor in the whole of Mexico City that can consistently make change, right down to the peso.
The Sunday crowd at Las Tablas Roma.
The flower vendors are always the most assertive dealers: self-confident egomaniacs certain that everyone needs some “more goddamn flowers in their lives.”
Fortunately, there are a number of beautiful fruit and vegetable stands to price shop, as their prices seem to vary quite a bit from location to location.
Local Verde 63 – the hippie shop with handmade soaps and lotions, fresh herb crackers and crystal bracelets – truly has the best eggs in the market. They are tiny, perfectly oviform and crack gorgeously into the frying pan. The yolks are creamy but not cloying, salty like a mild cheese.
At Pablo García Peluquería (barber shop), I’d always assumed Nicolas Cote was the owner because he was the only one I’d ever seen at the hair chair. Yet, even though he’s been cutting hair for 72 years, he’s only been working at Medellín for eight.
Querétaro, Mérida, Álvaro Obregón, Morelia – Cote rode his scissors through a big piece of Mexico, but the shops seemed to close down wherever he went, and he finds himself, once again, back working in Mexico City.
He’s deliberate with the clippers and will make conversation if you want to, but he’s not pushing anything. Cote wears his soft wrinkles kindly and has that beautiful, full head of white hair that makes for a trustworthy barber. Even though you’re balding, you think his special brand of tonic might just work this time.
Upstairs, Restaurante Cha-Cha-Cha provides an uncommon, top-down view. Decked out with cutouts and giant photos of film stars of years gone by, Cha-Cha-Cha’s Yucatan and Central American specialties are good and cheap, with the full-coursed comida corrida running from 50 to 70 pesos.
But the view, right up in the rafters overlooking the bright green foliage of the plant vendors, is the real draw, a chance for a rare look at a market unselfconsciously just “hanging out.”
In the middle, with the prime real estate, is Las Tablas Roma – the grill. Fresh steaks, fish, and seafood – most of them coming from right inside the market – are seared to order on the hot flattop grill. They’ve been a Roma staple since 1958. They were originally just outside of Centro Médico, but the ‘85 earthquake forced them to move, and they’ve been at Medellín ever since.
A just sliced, wonderfully prepared 250-gram ribeye with fixings for 170 pesos is the real reason to come, but Las Tablas is known for their alambres (usually grilled steak, veggies and melted cheese). They have 17 alambres on the menu with ingredients ranging from standard to offbeat: chiles, mushrooms, Argentine sausages, shrimp and even pineapple create unique combinations that can mix and match into dozens of options.
Rosa Martha Jasso has been managing Las Tablas Roma since 2001 and is one of Medellín Market’s more well-known personalities, always ready to welcome new guests. She says Sunday is without a doubt her favorite day in the market because it’s family day.
A vegetable stall at Medellín.
“I get to spend my time with special, friendly clientele on a daily basis,” says Jasso. “They come from all over the world, and I enjoy sharing good food and conversation. I love my job!”
At Delicatessin La Reyna, they specialize in housemade Italian and Spanish-style sausages and imports from Argentina and Uruguay. Or take home a bone of serrano ham for the perfect DIY broth. Other shops specialize in European cheeses, hard to come by Asian staples, or simple items from points north, like Heinz hamburger pickles.
But still holding strong to the market’s identity as “Little Havana,” Helados Palmeiro Cuban ice cream keeps a steady crowd throughout the afternoon. Everything is made natural, right there behind the counter. Coconut and mandarin appear to be among the favorites, but nothing beats the mantecado, a traditional Cuban vanilla custard from grandma’s secret recipe.
In the middle of the market, towards Medellín street, you dive deeper into the dedicated Latin American imports: whole cacao; famed Caribbean rums; anise-flavored Colombian aguardiente; dozens of sweets and snacks; and coffee, coffee, coffee. Depending on where you’re buying, the thick cornmeal arepas, deep-fried empanadas and sweet and salty dough ball buñuelos could be claimed by any number of flags flown throughout the market.
But the tradition is solidly Mexican – a comfortable hybrid at least, I realize as I chat with a man about his experience selling at Mercado Medellín.
Coffee is their most popular product, he tells me. “This is the largest Colombian community in the city,” he says, friendly and forthcoming until his father intervenes, asking me for identification and rebuking his son for putting their lives in danger talking to a nosy journalist.
I show them a previous article from Mexico News Daily with my name attached.
“What’s the name of your business?” I ask the son, hoping he’ll warm up after his father walks off.
“That, I can’t tell you.”
• Mercado Medellín is located at Medellín 234, Colonia Roma, Mexico City and is open 8:00am to 7:00pm Monday through Saturday and 8:00am to 6:00pm Sundays.
This is the 15th in a series on the bazaars, flea markets and markets of Mexico City:
