2-year-old girl dies from dehydration in Los Mochis, Sinaloa

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July 27, 2018

The scene of two-year-old's death from dehydration.

The extreme heat being experienced across much of Mexico has claimed another life.

A two-year-old girl died from dehydration after spending two hours inside a sport-utility vehicle in Los Mochis, Sinaloa.

Municipal officials in Ahome have established that the child was playing outside the family home in the Cañaveral residential area, and was in the care of a grandparent.

When the family realized she was missing they called police. Officers found the youngster unconscious inside a vehicle on the property and took her to a clinic, but they were too late.

A doctor said she died of cardiac arrest brought on by dehydration.

Authorities in Sinaloa have declared an extraordinary emergency in 13 municipalities, including Ahome, where the two-year-old died. The other municipalities are Angostura, Guasave, Navolato, Culiacán, Elota, San Ignacio, Mazatlán, Rosario, Escuinapa, Choix, El Fuerte and Badiraguato.

The heat is forecast to continue today in 25 states, where temperatures will exceed 35 C. Parts of Baja California, Sonora, Coahuila and Hidalgo will see temperatures higher than 45.

Seven people have died either from heat stroke or heat exhaustion this week in Baja California.

Source: Reforma (sp)

Chona Challenge: hopping out of moving vehicle and dancing is all the craze

By

MND Staff

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July 26, 2018

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A wacky — and dangerous — viral dance phenomenon that first took off in the United States has hit Mexico, with a Latin twist.

In late June, a video challenge in which people act out the lyrics to the song In My Feelings by Canadian artist Drake went viral.

Some participants started jumping out of their moving cars while singing or miming the lyrics “are you riding,” ensuring that the craze became even more popular.

Now, in Mexico and other Latin American countries, the In My Feelings challenge has morphed into La Chona challenge, replacing Drake’s hit with the 1995 song La Chona by the Mexican norteña band Los Tucanes de Tijuana.

However, as in the original challenge, people are still jumping out of their cars and doing so remains just as dangerous — particularly when it’s the driver: all that has changed is the soundtrack.

It’s behavior that one might expect authorities to frown upon. But that’s not necessarily so.

In videos posted to social media and later pounced upon by news websites, a municipal police officer, a soldier and a machine-gun-toting state police officer in Nuevo León all take up La Chona challenge.

The northern border state’s Secretariat of Public Security issued a statement saying that it knew who the participating officers were but didn’t say whether they would face any kind of penalties.

But in Querétaro there is speculation that a municipal employee who posted a video of herself taking part in the viral challenge was dismissed for doing so and Mayor Marcos Aguilar Vega issued a statement this week calling on residents of the city to act responsibly and not accept “absurd” challenges that could cost “the lives of those who take it on.”

▶ Con todo y metralleta, un policía de #NuevoLeón se una a #LaChonaChallenge https://t.co/sIgmb1rWG2 pic.twitter.com/dc5XFgYhZ9

— Milenio.com (@Milenio) July 26, 2018

One woman who did take on La Chona challenge provided a stark example of what can go wrong.

After jumping out of the driver’s seat, she jogs alongside her slowly-moving car while someone in the passenger seat films her through the open door.

The woman clearly enjoys her performance and hams it up for the camera but when she tries to get back into the vehicle, in a manner akin to mounting a bobsled, she trips and instead of ending up behind the wheel as she intended, finds herself lying on the road.

Source: Diario de Querétaro (sp), The Daily Mail (en), Milenio (sp)

LA CHONA CHALLENGE 😩😂 This Hurt SOOOO BAD!!!!!

Watch this video on YouTube

Mexico, Canada insist on three-way deal as NAFTA talks resume

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MND Staff

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July 26, 2018

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NAFTA (TLCAN in Spanish) talks took place today in Washington.

Mexican and Canadian officials insisted yesterday that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) remain a three-way pact as speculation continues that the United States will seek separate trade deals with its two neighbors.

After a meeting in Mexico City, Economy Secretary Ildefonso Guajardo and Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said they were still optimistic that an agreement to update the 24-year-old treaty can be reached.

They also reiterated their opposition to the so-called sunset clause that the United States has been pushing for, which would see NAFTA automatically terminated if the three countries don’t renegotiate the deal after five years.

Trilateral trade discussions started last August and were originally scheduled to conclude by the end of 2017 but have dragged on due to differences on key issues such as rules of origin for the automotive sector.

In the lead-up to Mexico’s presidential election, the talks stalled again amid increased trade tension arising from the United States decision to impose tariffs on Mexican and Canadian steel and aluminum.

During the drawn-out negotiation process, United States President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to pull out of NAFTA if a deal that better favors the U.S. is not reached.

Last month, he said that two separate trade deals with Mexico and the United States could replace the trilateral agreement and floated the idea again last week.

However, in a letter to president-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador dated July 20 Trump wrote: “I believe a successful renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement will lead to even more jobs and higher wages for hard-working American and Mexican workers — but only if it can go quickly.”

He continued, “otherwise I must go a much different route,” adding “it would not be my preference, but would be far more profitable for the United States and its taxpayers.”

Trump’s missive came in response to a letter sent earlier this month by AMLO, as the 64-year-old president-elect is known, in which he wrote he wanted to maintain a three-way NAFTA and called for a swift conclusion to negotiations.

United States Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue yesterday raised the prospect that the U.S. could seek separate deals, and that an agreement with Mexico could come first, in September.

But Guajardo — who traveled to Washington D.C. today with Foreign Secretary Luis Videgaray and AMLO’s prospective chief NAFTA negotiator Jesús Seade to resume talks with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer — stressed that the goal was to maintain a three-way pact.

“The fact that we are going to Washington to participate in bilateral talks is to reinforce the concept of the trilateralism of this agreement,” he said. “The essence of this agreement is trilateral, and it will continue being trilateral.”

Mexico’s next foreign secretary, Marcelo Ebrard, also expressed support for NAFTA to remain a trilateral treaty.

“It should and can be modernized but we’re not thinking about it having a different nature to that of today,” Ebrard said, speaking outside López Obrador’s transition headquarters after the president-elect met with Freeland.

At that meeting, AMLO personally told Freeland he supported a trilateral trade treaty and also proposed that Canada increase its investment in Mexico in order to contribute to the country’s economic development.

Specifically, the president-elect invited the government of Canada to participate in the Cancún-Palenque train project and the development of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec region, Ebrard said.

The prospective foreign affairs secretary also said that López Obrador and Freeland agreed to widen cooperation between Mexico and Canada in areas such as the aerospace industry and transportation logistics.

While the communication channels between the three countries are open, some analysts believe that a deal remains unlikely in the short term in contrast to Guajardo who said last week a new agreement could come as soon as next month.

“It’s hard to see an agreement in August without the U.S. falling off some of its positions,” said Bill Reinsch, senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Eric Miller, a former Canadian diplomat who is now a Washington-based trade consultant, said the White House’s NAFTA strategy to conquer and divide through hardline tactics such as the imposition of tariffs and now the proposal to negotiate separate deals is nothing new.

“The NAFTA negotiations appear to be repeating the same pattern that they have followed since the beginning: the United States sets unrealistic deadlines and tries to pressure their counterparts into a deal,’’ he said.

Source: Reuters (en), El Universal (sp), El Financiero (sp)

La Perla Records & Books in Guadalajara: a passion for great literature and music

By

John Pint

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July 26, 2018

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Domene with a collectible Beatles album.

Thanks to the enthusiasm and dedication of its proprietors, La Perla Records & Books may be the biggest and best used book and record shop in Latin America.

Some 15,000 books in English line the shelves of this establishment and touring them with their owner, Gerry Smith, is quite an experience.

“If you’re interested in gastronomy,” he told me, “I have about 300 books on cooking and food, but if you’re looking for literature, you might enjoy these great books by Willa Cather, or those by Upton Sinclair, over there.”

Smith handed me one of the volumes by Sinclair. “Albert Einstein said if you really want to understand the history of the first half of the 20th century, read Sinclair’s Lanny Budd series. These are the books to read. I love them. I think I’ve read them five times.”

As you must have already guessed, the books in this shop did not land on its shelves by accident, but were hand picked with understanding, care and, I would say, with love. “This next section is Western Americana,” Smith went on. “Most of these come from my personal collection.” Note that, with a few exceptions for rare books and first editions, most books at La Perla sell for between 70 and 200 pesos.

We wandered out to the store’s balcony overlooking Guadalajara’s Zona Rosa and I asked Gerry Smith to tell me a bit about himself.

“When I was in my 20s,” he said, “I turned into an avid reader. Books became my great love and I’ve spent the last 30-some years reading. Wherever I lived, all the librarians knew me and whenever I traveled, I’d stop at every bookstore I could find and any junk shop I thought might have books. I’ve surely been in a thousand bookstores in the U.S. And I also started buying books in those days.

“So I ended up with a houseful of books and then I started filling my brother’s house with them. And now, after about six years in Mexico, I ended up with yet another house full of books. Inadvertently, I had become a book expert, so I finally decided to open my own bookstore.”

La Perla Records & Books is located in the middle of Guadalajara at 1530 Calle Pedro Moreno. The entrance is small and unassuming, but as you climb the stairs you are greeted by the faces of Bob Dylan, Crosby, Stills and Nash and other rock legends. These posters and album covers make it clear that at La Perla you will find not only books, but an extraordinary collection of vinyl records as well, owned by Ernesto “Bola” Domene.

“Bola really knows music,” Smith told me. “He has a great collection that nobody else can match . . . and he has a passion for music.”

A few weeks later I returned to La Perla and had an opportunity to interview Bola Domene.

J.P. Why do they call you Bola?

I’m the 12th child in my family and I was born fat, so they called me Bola (Butterball). I’m the owner of La Perla Records and Books. Gerry and I collaborate together. I started with this as a record shop, a subsidiary of Roma Records of Mexico City. Then Gerry came along and said, “You know, my dream is to rent a room where I can put shelves full of books.

Well, I liked the idea of books and records together because there’s a movement now to go back and rescue technology that we’ve left behind. We are saying ‘Stop the frenetic rush! Stop and make time for your soul.’ So I love the idea of having records and books together.

Gerry and I are very happy we did this. For both of us this place has turned into a kind of sanctuary, our refuge. At a certain time we also tried to put a restaurant here. Well, it didn’t work out, but the beer fridge stayed and we are delighted that now we have both beer and culture in the same establishment and as far as I am concerned, these two should be together all the time!

J.P. How did you get interested in music?

Well, I’m a drummer and since the age of 15 I’ve been with a legendary band from Guadalajara called Rostros Ocultos. It has nothing to do with the occult: the name just means Hidden Faces.

As for the music industry, I think it has undergone more changes than any other during the last few decades. We made a great leap from analog to digital, but a teacher of mine, a painting teacher, opened my eyes to a new way of looking at an old LP. He saw each record album as a work of art: the music, the cover and even the information on the jacket: where was it recorded? Who played which instrument?

All of it together is like an engraving or a limited-edition book. It’s fascinating and it makes you want to collect them, to play them and even to caress them. So if the perfect client comes along and I know he’s going to love this album the way I do, well, then I sell it. So you could say I now have a transitory collection.

J.P. Can you show me an example of a really special album like that?

(Bola led me to a little, hidden-away closet.)

OK, these are some Beatles records that were made in Mexico City by an outfit called Musart during a short period of six months. They were simply labeled Beatles 1, Beatles 2, etc. They only got to five when EMI came along and said, “Stop! We have the rights for these!” So a limited number of those five Mexican Beatle albums are still floating around and in some places like Japan or England maybe, they are highly prized. It would be like finding a José José record made in China.

J.P. So if people come here to La Perla, they can end up getting a lesson in music history.

Actually, I learned a lot myself, just this way, from record stores. You would go in and talk with a guy who knew everything about everything and you’d ask him, “Hey what do you think about this band? Should I buy this record or that one?” And he would always say, “Wait a minute, man, have you heard about this other band? I bet you’d like it!”

So people come here and ask me about music, but at the same time I myself am learning more about music than ever before in my life. Even though I’m a musician, when somebody comes along and asks me a question about some band and I don’t have a clue, that customer is really opening a door, a door to a long corridor of music, and that’s beautiful.

“There is more music than life,” is a saying I like, which means that if you put all the records available in big stacks, you are never going to have enough time in one life to listen to them all, even once. Just here in this store we have maybe 10,000 records.

I’m happy that every day a kid will come along, maybe a 13-year-old and he walks in here and looks at one of these LPs and he’s amazed because it has music on both sides. And I say, “Yeah, check it out my friend, there’s a Side B too.” That’s one more youngster getting on the boat — and that’s cool.

A frequent customer of La Perla Records & Books is Clemente Orozco, grandson of Mexico’s famed muralist, José Clemente Orozco. “It’s one of my favorite places, perhaps the best in Latin America,” he told me.

So if you have an appreciation for music on vinyl or books on paper, you may agree with me that La Perla is truly a pearl without price. The telephone number is (52) 331 525 3015 and everyone there speaks English. On top of that, they actually have a couple of parking spots in front!

The writer has lived near Guadalajara, Jalisco, for more than 30 years and is the author of A Guide to West Mexico’s Guachimontones and Surrounding Area and co-author of Outdoors in Western Mexico. More of his writing can be found on his website.

[soliloquy id="57362"]

Gunmen attack vigil for assassination victim and kill six more

By

César Hernández

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July 26, 2018

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Police at the scene of the funeral vigil.

Assassins shot and killed a man in Michoacán on Tuesday but they weren’t done yet. Later that day they showed up at his funeral and killed six more.

The first victim was killed in Uruapan, Michoacán, and his body abandoned near an area known as La Pinera.

By nightfall, the family of the deceased had gathered for a vigil when they were interrupted by an armed gang that killed six and wounded four others.

The state Attorney General’s office said the four wounded were rushed to a hospital, which was being kept under under tight surveillance.

The attack was followed by a deployment of security forces to patrol the area of the attack and mount a special operation throughout the city in response to reports of the presence of armed civilians.

Located 112 kilometers to the west of the capital city Morelia, Uruapan is considered to be territory controlled by the Los Viagras crime gang, which is embroiled in a violent turf war with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

Another similar attack was reported in Fresnillo, Zacatecas, two weeks ago when 17-year-old Diego Rosendo was shot and killed outside a nightclub on July 14. On the night of his funeral a group of armed men attacked, killing six and wounded 16.

But the attackers were not finished.

Tuesday was the last day of the nine-day novena following Rosendo’s death and his family had gathered for the occasion. Armed civilians burst into the Rosendo family home, killing the youth’s father and a female relative.

Authorities have theorized that a wave of violence in the state could be linked to rivalry between the Gulf and Northeast cartels.

Source: El Universal (sp)

‘We’ve had it with organized crime:’ self-defense forces now in 9 municipalities

By

MND Staff

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July 26, 2018

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Armed civilians on patrol in Tlayacapan.

Constant extortion of public transportation operators has now triggered the formation of self-defense forces in at least nine Morelos municipalities, the newspaper Milenio reported today.

Residents of Totolapan, Tlalnepantla, Tlayacapan and Atlatlahucan formed self-defense forces last month to combat rising levels of extortion and other crimes allegedly committed by a gang known as La Maña.

Milenio said today that civilian security groups are now operating as well in the municipalities of Tetela del Volcán, Ayala, Ocuituco, Zacualpan and Yautepec and that residents of Temoac, Jantetelco, Jonacatepec and Axochiapan have attended meetings at which they expressed their willingness to participate in community-based security operations.

In Tlayacapan and Tlalnepantla — both located in the north of the state — armed and masked civilians have set up checkpoints where they decide who can and can’t enter their municipalities.

Community guards in other municipalities have employed similar strategies although some are armed only with radios rather than weapons and work with authorities rather than outside the law.

“We don’t use weapons, we don’t put hoods on, we’re people who just protect [the town], we’re eyes for the authorities, who intervene in the case of someone suspicious [being detected],” said Jair Villanueva, a community guard in Totolapan.

María de Jesús Vital, mayor of the same municipality, told Milenio that local authorities have decided to financially assist self-defense members who collaborate with official security forces so that their rudimentary blockades made out of sandbags can be replaced with formal security checkpoints equipped with cameras.

She said she was aware of the reports of extortion against local transportation operators but added that authorities couldn’t act because no official criminal complaints have been filed.

In Tetela del Volcán, a municipality in the northeast of the state that borders both México state and Puebla, local residents swung into action after twice being forced to collect 300,000 pesos (US $16,100) to pay off criminals threatening public transportation drivers and licensees.

Apart from forming a self-defense force, residents also held a mass protest on the highway to Cuautla and for a while detained two municipal officials.

They also declared they would no longer make extortion payments to criminals.

On July 16, a driver from Hueyapan was attacked by gangsters who warned him that the extortion payments would be permanent but residents continue to be defiant in their refusal to succumb to threats.

Ana Karina Pérez, a Hueyapan resident and wife of the Tetela del Volcán municipal assistant, said if they continue to make the payments extortion would become more widespread, affecting not just transportation operators but also shopkeepers and farmers, among others.

In the municipality of Ayala, located to the south of Cuautla where residents claim organized crime has a stronghold, a self-defense group has also sprung up to combat rising levels of extortion, homicides and kidnappings.

“Thank god, there are a lot of us. We’ve already put the first barricade in place in the neighborhood of Benito Juárez,” a masked self-defense leader known as El Comandante said in a video posted online.

“We’re going to continue neighborhood by neighborhood. Autodefensas will go to every street [if that’s what’s needed] to bring confidence and security [to the people] . . . We’re going to install loudspeakers and alarms so that if an asshole comes along and wants to charge extortion payments, the alarms will go off and we’re already organized,” he continued.

“Now, we’re ready for everything . . . If it’s a question of going to war with the government, we’ll do it. We’ve had it with organized crime.”

Source: Milenio (sp)

Federal prosecutors to investigate journalists’ killings in Quintana Roo

By

César Hernández

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July 26, 2018

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Pat Cauich, second of two journalists murdered in Quintana Roo.

The federal Attorney General’s office is taking over the investigation into the assassination of two journalists in less than a month at an online publication in Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo.

Publisher Rubén Pat Cauich of the Playa News Aquí y Ahora was shot and killed outside a bar on Tuesday morning when he was attacked by gunmen. By the time emergency services personnel arrived, he was dead.

According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Pat had been beaten, detained overnight and threatened by local police in June.

He often reported on police activity and prior to his detention had written a story accusing police of colluding with a criminal gang.

Jan-Albert Hootson, CPJ’s representative in Mexico, said Pat had been enrolled in a government protection program at the time of his death.

The Playa News said in a Facebook post that Tuesday was “a black day for journalism”, adding “killing journalists will not silence the truth.”

Pat’s murder was preceded by that of reporter José Guadalupe Chan Dzib, who was slain late last month at a Felipe Carrillo Puerto nightclub.

The state Attorney General’s office reported early today that the Special Prosecutor for Crimes Against Freedom of Expression (Feadle) had taken over both investigations.

Pat was the focus of several investigations between 2011 and 2018, state prosecutors said. In some he was a victim while in others a suspected offender.

Also on Tuesday news surfaced of the murder last week of Luis Pérez García, an 80-year-old journalist and presenter.

According to the Federation of Associations of Mexican Journalists (Fapermex), firefighters discovered Pérez’s body after putting out a blaze at his home in the borough of Iztapalapa in Mexico City.

National media reported Pérez was beaten and asphyxiated before his home was set on fire.

Fapermex denounced the killing and called for government protection for Pérez’s family.

The Mexico office of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) issued a statement on Tuesday demanding that Mexican authorities adopt effective measures aimed at ending the violence targeting journalists.

” . . . Death threats against journalist for doing their job are multiplying,” said the global federation of journalists’ trade unions.

At least eight journalists have been killed in Mexico so far in 2018.

Source: El Universal (sp), Al Jazeera (en)

One student dead, two injured, after hazing ritual at Chiapas college

By

César Hernández

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July 26, 2018

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The Chiapas college where the hazing took place.

A hazing gone wrong in Chiapas cost the life of a young man and sent two more to hospital with kidney failure.

Senior members of the student council of the Mactumactzá Rural Teacher Training School of Tuxtla Guitiérrez rounded up the junior students on Saturday for what was to be an induction course.

The freshmen expected to learn about the school’s ideological orientation, but were instead subjected to a hazing ritual in which their heads were shaved and they were forced to perform extreme physical activities.

An official medical report stated that three of the freshmen suffered renal failure, presumably caused by the rupture of muscular tissue. In the case of José Luis Hernández Espinosa, the injuries were so severe that he died.

The condition of the other two students was reported as delicate, and both remain under medical observation.

The Chiapas Interior Secretariat said relatives of the young men have filed several formal complaints and that the state Attorney General’s office is working to determine who was responsible for the incident.

The state government offered its condolences to the family of Hernández and assured there will be no impunity in the case.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Heat wave: weather service predicts temperatures over 45 in 5 states

By

MND Staff

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July 26, 2018

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Temperatures are forecast to exceed 45 C in five states today, according to the National Meteorological Service (SMN), continuing a heat wave that saw the mercury hit 49 yesterday at locations in two states.

Residents of Baja California, Sonora, Coahuila, Nuevo León and Hidalgo can expect to swelter through searing heat above 45 while temperatures will reach between 40 and 45 in parts of Baja California Sur, Sinaloa, Michoacán, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Chihuahua and Tamaulipas.

Maximum temperatures between 35 and 40 are predicted in 13 other states.

Yesterday, temperatures of 49 were recorded in both San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora, and Huejutla, Hidalgo, the SMN said.

Municipalities in Nuevo León, Baja California, Coahuila, Michoacán, Baja California Sur and Nayarit recorded temperatures of 42 to 47.

In Los Mochis, Sinaloa, authorities are investigating the death of a two-year-old girl who was found unconscious inside a vehicle in which she is presumed to have spent several hours.

Early reports indicated that the girl had hidden in the parked car while playing with friends near her home and was later unable to get out. Temperatures in the city reached 37 yesterday.

Seven people have also died in Baja California from heat-related illnesses during a sweltering heat wave.

The SMN is forecasting that Tropical Wave 21 will bring strong storms to Sinaloa, Durango and Nayarit today, with rainfall between 50 and 75 millimeters predicted in parts of the three states.

Storms with rainfall of between 25 and 50 millimeters are also forecast for Chihuahua, Jalisco, Michoacán, Veracruz, Guerrero, Oaxaca and Chiapas.

Source: El Universal (sp), Milenio (sp)

Gay pageant winner tortured and assassinated in Veracruz

By

Tony Richards

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July 26, 2018

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The winner of a gay beauty pageant in Veracruz was tortured and assassinated, according to local authorities in the municipality of Martínez de la Torre.

The body of Luis Contrera Ponce, the 2018 Gay Queen in the same municipality, was found yesterday in the Ejidal neighborhood, half nude with signs of torture and wearing a barbed-wire necklace.

A human rights activist described the murder as a hate crime and said it was similar to others. Yazz Yazziel Bustamante said there have been 15 hate-related homicides in the state of Veracruz so far this year.

An anthropologist at the social anthropology research center Ciesas said Veracruz ranks in first place for the murder of transsexuals.

Contrera, who went by the name Alaska Bout, was the second gay pageant queen to be assassinated this year. Yamileth Quintero, who won a beauty contest in Elota, Sinaloa, was killed in May in Culiacán.

Source: El Universal (sp), Milenio (sp)