Sonora journalist Santiago Barroso Alfaro, 47, was shot and killed last night in his home in San Luis Río Colorado.
Barroso was the anchor of the news radio show San Luis Hoy, director of the online news website Red 653 and collaborator on the weekly journal Contraseña. He also taught at two universities.
According to neighbors, Barroso’s attacker, accompanied by a woman, arrived in a vehicle at around 9:10pm. The man knocked on Barroso’s door and started shooting when he opened it. At least 10 gunshots were heard.
Barroso was injured by three bullets, but managed to go back inside and call for an ambulance.
Paramedics rushed him to a nearby IMSS hospital, where he later died.
He is the fourth journalist murdered so far this year. Ten journalists were murdered last year in Mexico.
Since 2000, 121 journalists have been murdered in Mexico, according to the advocacy organization Reporters Without Borders.
Four incidents of violence in less than 24 hours in Veracruz have been attributed to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), Mexico’s most powerful and dangerous criminal organization.
The chain of violence began on Thursday night when suspected CJNG members killed a state police officer and wounded two more in a confrontation on the highway between La Tinaja and Cosamaloapan. The criminals also set at least one police car on fire.
After the confrontation, the same cartel members allegedly traveled to the police station in the municipality of Tierra Blanca and launched another attack. No casualties or fatalities were reported.
However, another gun battle yesterday morning between presumed CJNG members and state and Federal Police in the community of Joachín in the same municipality left four gangsters dead.
Three narco-banners appeared yesterday in the metropolitan area of the port city of Veracruz threatening the state police and Public Security Secretary Hugo Gutiérrez.
Gangsters left their signature on this trailer before setting the truck alight.
The secretary said the threats were a response to the state government’s crackdown on organized crime and vowed that operations to “return peace and tranquility to Veracruz” would continue.
Later yesterday, three tractor-trailers and a smaller truck were set alight to form a narco-blockade on the highway between La Tinaja and Córdoba in the municipality of Cuitláhuac. All four vehicles were painted with the CJNG initials, the newspaper Reforma reported.
The blockade began at around 2:30pm but after 5:00pm the Secretariat of Public Security was still warning motorists to avoid the highway.
Since December, Veracruz security forces have been involved in several confrontations with the CJNG in municipalities across the state.
The CJNG, headed by Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, is engaged in criminal activities in several states including Jalisco and Guanajuato, where it is engaged in a bitter turf war with the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel, a gang of fuel thieves.
Last year, the cartel is alleged to have committed a range of high-profile crimes including the torture and murder of three students in Guadalajara, an attack on state Labor Secretary Luis Carlos Nájera, also in the Jalisco state capital, and the disappearance of three Italian men in Tecalitlán.
It is also suspected of dumping 19 bags containing human bodies that were discovered in the metropolitan area of Guadalajara this week.
The United States Government is offering a reward of US $10 million for information that leads to the capture of Oseguera Cervantes.
The pricey municipality of San Pedro Garza García.
Apartment shoppers considering Mexico’s richest municipality or a suburb of Guadalajara can expect to pay top dollar.
According to a study by the real estate website Propiedades.com, prices in San Pedro Garza García in the metropolitan area of Monterrey, Nuevo León, average 61,685 pesos per square meter (US $3,200), the highest in the country.
In second place was Zapopan, Jalisco, where prices average 56,977 pesos per square meter.
In third place was the Mexico City borough of Benito Juárez, where apartments cost on average 46,554 pesos per square meter. The Quintana Roo municipalities of Felipe Carrillo Puerto, Cancún, Playa del Carmen and Othón P. Blanco were all high on the list.
In terms of houses, the Miguel Hidalgo borough in Mexico City was the priciest at an average of 48,149 pesos per square meter and Isla Mujeres in Quintana Roo was next up at 48,029 pesos.
Prices in the capital’s Benito Juárez borough were third highest at 46,554 pesos per square meter.
Several other Mexico City boroughs were close behind: homes in Álvaro Obregón, Cuauhtémoc, Magdalena Contreras, Cuajimalpa and Tlalpan were well above the national average.
Mexico’s new ambassador to Canada has warned Canadian mining companies operating in Mexico to expect greater scrutiny of their environmental practices and treatment of indigenous people.
“President López Obrador has been very public about this, that we really want a strong, profitable mining sector – and Canadian mining companies are large investors in Mexico – but we expect them to operate in this country with exactly the same standards as they do in Canada,” Juan José Gómez Camacho told reporters in Mexico City.
Speaking at the Secretariat of Foreign Affairs, Gómez said that enforcement of existing laws will strengthen under the current federal government, which has just passed its first 100 days in office.
“One area that is very important to us, in the case of the mining industry, is that we see a stronger, more robust impact on the socio-economic development of the communities where the mines are,” he said.
Gómez, ratified as ambassador on Thursday, said that strengthening the rule of law will help to ensure that local communities benefit from mining operations, explaining that the government will play a more prominent role “in making sure that the standards of operation in Mexico from foreign companies in this or any other sector are sustainable.”
However, he added that companies have a responsibility to conduct themselves ethically regardless of whether the state is holding them accountable for their actions or not.
“It’s . . . self-discipline, it’s a question of companies’ values on how they operate,” Gómez said.
About 70% of foreign mining companies operating in Mexico are based in Canada, according to Canadian government statistics, and in 2015 they held assets here totaling almost US $20 billion.
But Canadian companies’ presence in the Mexican mining market hasn’t been without problems.
Indigenous residents in the Puebla municipality of Ixtacamaxtitlán are currently pursuing legal action against the mining operations of a Mexican subsidiary of Canada’s Almaden Minerals.
Canadian mining companies have also faced opposition to their projects in other parts of the country, such as Durango, as well as security problems in some states.
“We are having constant conversations between the three [countries] . . . to make sure that we consult each other and we try to be on the same page in this process,” he said.
“One of my most important tasks as soon as I get there is precisely to persuade . . . the Canadian authorities to move forward in the ratification process. But in the end, the U.S. process and timing will define Canada’s and ours, so this is why it’s so important for us to really stay always in communication with our Canadian friends.”
Although acknowledging differences between the two countries on Venezuela – Canada has recognized Juan Guaidó as the legitimate president whereas Mexico continues to recognize Nicolás Maduro – Gómez said that there are a lot of similarities in the political perspectives of López Obrador and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
“There are very important similarities of vision and views between the prime minister and the president on social issues, environment, gender equality, migration, indigenous issues, efficient energies,” he said.
That, he contended, makes it a good time to be going to Canada.
The former ambassador to the United Nations added that he hopes to do more to “even out” trilateral relations in North America and concluded that Mexico and Canada “don’t know each other well enough.”
Dan DeFossey, left, and Roberto Luna of Pinche Gringo BBQ.
On one side of the border, one gringo is determined to build a wall between Mexico and the United States. But on the other side, another gringo is building a bridge between the two countries instead.
The latter is Dan DeFossey, who for the past six years has run the Pinche Gringo BBQ restaurant in the Mexico City neighborhood of Narvarte with his business partner Roberto Luna – el pinche Mexicano.
“We want to be a cultural center where we offer a variety of activities and a bridge between Mexico and the United States,” DeFossey told the newspaper El Economista at the restaurant’s newer second location, the Pinche Gringo BBQ Warehouse in the neighborhood of Anáhuac.
“. . . We want to send a message that there is no wall between us. This place is a letter of friendship between Mexico and my country,” he added.
One way that DeFossey has helped strengthen his business while responding to the increasingly strict immigration policies of the United States government is by hiring Mexicans who have been deported.
Pinche Gringo BBQ in Mexico City.
“That’s our government. I feel responsible for it,” DeFossey, a New Yorker, told TheLos Angeles Times last year. “You ask yourself, ‘What can I do?’”
In addition to serving succulent Texas-style barbecue and traditional American sides year-round, El Pinche Gringo also hosts Fourth of July, Super Bowl and United States election parties, among other events. Live music and comedy in English also keep diners entertained.
“When someone comes into this house [El Pinche Gringo] it’s as if they’ve arrived in Austin, Texas, and for two hours you have the chance to get up close to a little bit of the food and culture of the United States in an environment where social classes or where you come from don’t matter. When you leave, you return to Mexico, my country for the last 10 years,” DeFossey said.
The concept has proved popular, with long lines of hungry diners often waiting to get a seat at one of the two locations.
El Pinche Gringo goes through a tonne of meat on a typical weekend and serves countless pints of beer, including the Mexican craft variety.
DeFossey said in his job he can act as a kind of cultural ambassador for the United States and show Mexicans that many gringos are intent on developing good relations with their neighbors, not the other way around.
However, he added, “what matters most to us with the concept of El Pinche Gringo is to bring about a change and I think we’re achieving it.”
The adventure continues. As my regular readers will know, The Captured Tourist Woman (TCTW) and I have spent the last three months working towards arrangements for the long awaited renovation of and additions to our recently purchased home.
It’s not that there is any shortage of contractors, architects or other self-proclaimed construction experts in our area; we are just a bit picky. My decades in the construction industry — 30 years in the States and 10 here in Mexico — mean I am not an easy mark for those builders who want to charge a high price for mediocre results.
The hard-working and very capable crew that I built up over my time here in Mazatlán has, in the time since I gave up that work, formed their own company complete with the addition of an architect and a project manager and more workers.
Of course, my first choice was to go with my old crew. However, they have cleverly moved on in a more substantial way than I had envisaged. They now have a business focus on expats who believe that if something costs less than “back home” it’s a deal.
When we first talked about them doing our job, my former team members apologetically told me my years of training in north of the border standards had put them in a very profitable position. Sure enough, after much goodwill on their part but an inability to reduce their new and larger income by an appreciable amount, it became clear that they were in a far more profitable position than we were willing to contribute to. So we had to look further.
As a general contractor in California, I was only allowed a thousand dollars as a down payment prior to the start of a project. After the down payment, the only funds that would come my way were based on the percentage of completion of the contracted work. However, things work differently here in the land of mañana.
Mexican builders of residential homes want, and sometimes get, an outrageous amount money up front; some will ask for half or more of the bid amount and others will be more reasonable, requesting only a 30% down payment. I know of expats who have forked over 60% of the project cost prior to anyone showing up to work. Most of these heavy down payment projects have serious problems when the builder has spent the upfront money and needs much more than the bid amount to finish the job.
In the early days we checked on all possibilities, and many builders would only do an all-inclusive job; of those, all the contractors required the local gringo standard of a huge down payment. That didn’t slow us down much because we then aimed for a labor only arrangement (in which the contractor supplies the work force while we pay directly for all materials and subcontractors).
Many gringos are not keen on that because of a fear that workers will take forever. I’m confident our job will be relatively time efficient. This type of arrangement is not unknown to builders, even if not preferred (because the builder won’t be making anything on his ordering of materials), so I knew there would be possibilities.
However, the unusual aspect in our case was that we would not require the builder to be present on the project site, nor would he need to supervise in any way. This arrangement relieved him of any serious effort or responsibility. Although demanding for me, it would give me much more control over the product, and other advantages.
For this type of service, the builder would be given a percentage over and above the labor costs. All he would have to do would be to show up on payday to get his cash; a trouble-free arrangement for the right builder.
We finally got down to the wire with two people. One is an architect, and the other a contractor. They were both amenable to the arrangement offered, which would allow them to lunch long on our largess. Of course the closing of the deal would be dependent upon the weekly labor cost. It would consist of amounts payable to albañiles (masons) and their peones (yes, that’s what they are called) along with general laborers. We explained to both potential builders we wished to start as soon as conveniently possible.
At 8:00am on the Monday following our request for labor prices, none of which had yet been provided, our doorbell rings. When I answer, I find the architect along with four other men, all in work clothes and armed with a variety of construction tools. With a large toothy smile of the style one associates with used car salespersons, the architect announces that they are here to begin our project.
I stepped outside and quickly closed the door behind me so TCTW would not assail this brazen architect who wished to begin without providing any prices. I believed my action kept this smiling con-man from an ambulance ride; she is Australian, you know.
When I asked for the rates, he gladly informed me of the weekly cost of each individual with him. The rates were somewhat over the standard but I moved on. When I asked what he wanted per week for his part in this unfolding fiasco, he looked me in the eye and with a straight face gave me a figure which brought forth a string of Spanish expletives.
Unfazed, he went on to claim, apparently with complete seriousness, that all construction projects in Mexico required an architect and I had little choice in the matter but to use him. Needless to say, I sent him and his unfortunate crew packing. By the time I told TCTW of my conversation with the audacious architect, he was well out of harm’s way.
The builder we ended up with is quite happy to have his crew working while he sleeps in, enjoys long lunches and collects his not unreasonable number of pesos each week.
He assured me that none of the workers drank beer or smoked pot during working hours; I did, however, wonder about lunch time. But what the hell, we were ready to roll and the deal was as good as it was going to get.
Today we have only three workers at the house. The next edition of this saga will follow the antics of “Larry, Moe and Curly” and their lively romp through different parts of our house while creating massive amounts of dust and rubble.
The writer describes himself as a very middle-aged man who lives full-time in Mazatlán with a captured tourist woman and the ghost of a half wild dog. He can be reached at buscardero@yahoo.com.
Police remove six-year-old Beto from his home yesterday.
Mexico City police have rescued a six-year-old boy who was allegedly tortured by his aunt and a 22-year-old man.
After receiving a tip from neighbors yesterday morning, officers found the boy alone in a locked room with his hands tied together at an address in the southern borough of Tlalpan.
According to neighbors, the boy identified only as Beto has been tortured in a variety of ways for the past six months. His incessant screaming yesterday prompted them to alert authorities.
In addition to having his hands tied together and being held behind locked doors, the boy had allegedly been tied up by his neck, burned with cigarettes on various parts of his body and forced to go without meals.
Occasionally, the minor escaped from his home or was allowed outside during which time neighbors noticed that he showed signs of abuse, the newspaper El Universal said.
After forcibly entering the Tlalpan home yesterday and rescuing Beto, police called paramedics to check the boy’s health. Recent wounds and scars were evident on his body.
A 46-year-old woman who said she was the boy’s aunt and a 22-year-old man were arrested outside the property and taken into custody. Neighbors described the boy’s family as “problematic” and that as many as 10 people lived at the home.
The case is similar to that of a four-year-old boy who was found in the Mexico City borough of Gustavo A. Madero in 2017.
The minor, named only as Antony, was suffering from severe malnutrition, head injuries and cigarette burns on his back.
His uncle and aunt were found guilty of abusing the boy and sentenced to 50 years in jail.
Jorge Monroy with his watercolor, The Lake of Seven Colors at Bacalar.
The Guadalajara Chamber of Commerce has put on display a collection of 44 watercolors celebrating Mexico’s Pueblos Mágicos (magical towns) program, all of which are by local artist Jorge Monroy, whose mural Under the Wings of Mercury can be seen in the chamber’s foyer.
Mexico’s Secretariat of Tourism launched the magical towns in 2001 in recognition of the fact that tourists come to the country not only to bask in the sun on a beach, but to experience Mexican hospitality and culture.
Thirty-two towns were originally selected for the program and over the years the number has grown to 121. Last year it was announced that President López Obrador would cancel the program, but in February of this year the tourism department said it would continue “more strongly than ever.”
All of the paintings in the Guadalajara exhibition originally appeared in the Sunday edition of the newspaper El Informador which, over a period of some 20 years, has published around 1,000 of Monroy’s works.
“The Chamber of Commerce wanted to celebrate the Pueblos Mágicos,” Monroy told me, “so they asked the Jesús Álvarez de Castillo Foundation to lend them around 50 of my paintings representative of the most beautiful magical towns in every state of the republic. Of course, they made sure to include all of those in Jalisco, which now number eight.”
Aqueduct near Mineral de Pozos in Guanajuato.
While accompanying Jorge Monroy through this outstanding collection of canvases, I discovered that the painter could not only speak about every one of these sites, but could recall minute details of his visit, down to what he had eaten for lunch when he was there and where he had eaten it.
When I asked him to name his 10 favorite Pueblos Mágicos, he said it just could not be done because “each one is different” and I suddenly realized this was the same answer I have always given to people who ask me to name my favorite hiking trail.
“OK,” I said, “why not just tell me a bit about a few places where, after visiting the streets of the pueblo itself, I can wander out of town and find even more attractions to enjoy.”
“Here’s a good example of that,” said Monroy, stopping in front of one of his paintings. “This is the town of Huasca de Ocampo in Hidalgo and by chance it was the very first town to be designated a Pueblo Mágico, back in 2001, by the Secretariat of Tourism. Not only is the town itself beautiful, but it is surrounded by spectacular historical and natural attractions.
“In colonial times it was important for its mines and, in fact, mining still goes on there today. Great riches were generated for Spain and as a result, lavish haciendas were built. Two of the most notable are San Miguel Regla and Santa María Regla, both of which are now luxurious hotels. Then, just minutes away, you have the Basaltic Prisms, which are polygonal columns with five or six sides, ranging in height from 30 to 50 meters, among the longest in the world and much admired by Alexander von Humboldt in the early 1800s.
“The whole area is so extraordinary that it was recently incorporated into the Comarca Minera Geopark, a new member of the UNESCO Global Network of Geoparks.”
Basaltic Prisms at Huasca de Ocampo in Hidalgo.
As we continued walking along the long corridor at the Cámara de Comercio, we came to Monroy’s painting of the magical town of Coatepec in Veracruz. Its streets are beautiful and well-preserved, he told me, and it is located at so high an altitude that both the town and its surroundings are often shrouded in fog.
“This whole area,” he said, “is dedicated to coffee production and on the outskirts of the town you find fincas cafeteras, beautiful coffee plantations surrounded by exuberant vegetation. Many of the local mansions have now been converted into hotels and all around you find gorgeous waterfalls. One of the nicest in my opinion is the Cascada de Xico.”
While we perused his collection of paintings, Jorge Monroy pointed out many other Pueblos Mágicos where the magic continues beyond the confines of the town. One of these was Mazamitla, which is located in Jalisco, 28 kilometers due south of Lake Chapala at an altitude of 2,240 meters.
“The streets are charming, the church is remarkable for its elements of Chinese architecture, and the town is located in the middle of the Sierra del Tigre, famous for its log cabins hidden away in a beautiful and peaceful pine and oak forest.”
Not to be missed, said the painter, is the 30-meter El Salto waterfall just south of Mazamitla and the curious Los Cazos cauldrons carved into the bedrock apparently for fermenting mezcal.
Over the years, Monroy continued, “I’ve learned that some of the most interesting Pueblos Mágicos — with plenty to explore on their outskirts — are the old mining towns, such as San Sebastián del Oeste in Jalisco, Real de Catorce in San Luis Potosí, Real de Asientos in Aguascalientes and Mineral de Pozos in Guanajuato. Actually, a visit to any of Guanajuato’s many ghost towns is always an adventure.”
Pátzcuaro, Michoacán.
At the end of the Cámara de Comercio’s U-shaped art gallery we came to the last painting in the exhibition, showing the magical town of Bacalar in Quintana Roo. “All I can say is that this town is situated on the shore of the most beautiful lagoon in the world: La Laguna de los Siete Colores (the Lake of Seven Colors). Its beauty is simply indescribable, but I hope I have caught a little of it in my painting.
“Bacalar is enchanting all by itself: it was a fortress and the old cannon are still there. All around Bacalar there are amazing archaeological sites like Kohunlich and Chetumal; there’s the enormous Biosphere Reserve of Sian Ka’an, which stretches all the way to Tulum; there’s dazzlingly beautiful Mahahual beach and then, just to the south, you have Belize: more than enough magical sites to keep even John Pint busy!”
• Jorge Monroy’s paintings of the Pueblos Mágicos will be on display — without charge — at the Guadalajara Chamber of Commerce until March 20.
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.
Metro staff carry a subway user up the stairs in Mexico City.
With many of the escalators down at Mexico City Metro stations, how do commuters with mobility problems negotiate the stairs?
With the help of subway system staff, of course.
Fifty Metro employees have been deployed to assist subway passengers who find it difficult to climb the stairs on their own.
As much needed maintenance work in 70 or so escalators in stations of the Mexico City subway system continues, 50 workers have been deployed to aid users
The service will be provided while maintenance is carried out on escalators in eight stations on the subway’s Line 7.
A subway worker provides assistance to a Metro passenger.
Metro officials explained that the service is aimed at senior citizens, disabled users and pregnant women who use the escalators on a daily basis. In some cases, workers are carrying subway users all the way to a station’s entrance.
The government of Michoacán is preparing to slash budgets and sell public assets including goods and property seized from organized crime in order to pay off debts owed to teachers.
Governor Silvano Aureoles told reporters yesterday that the government still needs 3.6 billion pesos (US $187.3 million) to cover salaries and bonuses owed to teachers and thus put an end to protests and blockades in the state.
To that end, Aureoles said the government is reviewing its assets with a view to putting them up for sale.
“We’re going to put vehicles on sale, all the helicopters, land, property and assets seized from organized crime . . .” he said
Aureoles also said that government programs and departments – with the exception of the secretariats of Health and Public Security – will see their funding slashed in order to free up resources to pay teachers.
More than 8 billion pesos will be required over the course of the year to meet payroll obligations, the governor said.
Aureoles explained that the government’s plan to cut costs and sell assets would be unlikely to generate enough so he will ask the federal government for more assistance.
“We won’t be able to draw blood from stones. Let’s see where [this plan] gets us,” Aureoles said, adding that he hoped that the federal government would contribute the additional funds needed to “stabilize the teachers’ payroll issue.”
CNTE teachers’ union members blocked railway tracks in Michoacán for about a month earlier this year to demand payment of unpaid salaries and other benefits.
The protest cost the economy billions of pesos because thousands of shipping containers were left stranded in Lázaro Cárdenas and Manzanillo, Colima, and many exporters couldn’t get their goods to the port cities.
After the rail blockades ended, teachers continued protests at other locations including municipal government offices.
Aureoles said that he is determined to end teachers’ protests once and for all and improve strained relations with the CNTE.
“As a government, we’re going to make sacrifices . . . We have to use [funds allocated to government programs] to pay teachers, that’s okay, teachers will never again have to go out to the streets to protest for their salaries . . .”
