Security in Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo has improved, the mayor says.
Security has improved in the popular Guerrero tourist destination of Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo and the mayor wants the United States to know about it.
Mayor Jorge Sánchez announced that his administration plans to work on having a U.S. travel warning lifted.
He explained that coordinated efforts by the local, state and federal governments have obtained good results in terms of security for the Pacific coast destination.
But the U.S. Department of State classifies Guerrero as a Level 4 destination, which means “do not travel there” due to crime.
“Armed groups operate independently of the government in many areas of Guerrero,” the warning reads. “Members of these groups frequently maintain roadblocks and may use violence towards travelers. U.S. government employees may not travel to the entire state of Guerrero, including Acapulco, Zihuatanejo, Ixtapa and Taxco.”
Sánchez said no expense will be spared in achieving his goal, including arranging meetings with officials at the United States embassy in Mexico City, as well as with their counterparts in the Mexican embassy in Washington.
“We are planning a trip where the federal, state and municipal governments will work hand-in-hand,” said the mayor, adding that while insecurity is a nationwide problem, there is good coordination among security forces in his municipality.
A special security operation is scheduled to start Friday for the two-week-long Easter vacation.
Bank customers in Mexico will soon have two new options to make electronic transfers and payments using a smartphone.
Santander México has launched a pilot program for a service that will allow its customers to send between 10 and 4,000 pesos using WhatsApp, a messaging service owned by Facebook.
The bank said there will be no charges for sending or receiving money and that the only additional app needed is Santander’s SúperMovil.
The service is available to Santander TAP customers now and will be rolled out to all other customers in May.
To make a transfer, customers simply open WhatsApp, choose the contact to whom they wish to send money, enter the peso amount as well as a unique code generated by the Santander app, and hit send.
Santander is the first bank in Mexico to offer its customers the ability to send money using the popular messaging service, which is used by the vast majority of smartphone users.
Recipients of the transfers will need a Santander account, but the bank has developed a new digital account that can be opened quickly on line to receive the funds.
The process will eliminate the need to input interbank CLABEs or account numbers in order to transfer money.
Another new digital financial service that is currently being tested is CoDi, an app that generates bar codes that customers can use to pay for purchases and transfer funds.
CoDi, short for Cobro Digital (Digital Charge), was developed by the Bank of México in conjunction with financial institutions and the Secretariat of Finance (SHCP) and makes use of the electronic interbank payment system known as the SPEI.
Like Santander’s WhatsApp service, people will not be charged for using CoDi.
Financial consumer protection agency Condusef said the aim of the service is to offer essential banking services to the entire population of Mexico “through the use of new technologies.”
However, some parts of the country suffer from poor internet and mobile coverage, which could limit people’s ability to access CoDi on their phones or other devices.
The sale of teaching jobs, a longstanding practice in Mexico’s education system, was a lucrative business for organized crime in Michoacán, the governor revealed this week.
Silvano Aureoles Conejo told an education conference that the head of the Caballeros Templarios (Knights Templar cartel) was involved in the practice.
Servando “La Tuta” Gómez Martínez, a teacher himself who was even on the state payroll until 2011 while running his criminal operations, sold teaching positions for as much as 300,000 pesos (US $16,000), Aureoles said.
Organized crime sold thousands of job in what became a lucrative business, he said.
Gómez’s involvement came to an end when he was arrested in 2015.
Eliminating the practice, and that of inheriting positions of teachers who died, was a key element of the 2013 education reforms.
The focus of the governor’s speech was the state’s education funding crisis, which came to a head earlier this year when protesting teachers shut down the railway system, causing billions of pesos in losses.
He said it began in 2014 when the state’s share of teachers’ salaries shot up from 10% to 40%. Aureoles called the situation unsustainable and said the state’s teachers were justly dissatisfied because they were not always getting paid.
More than 700 children and teenagers are among a large number of migrants waiting to file visa requests with the National Immigration Institute (INM) in Chiapas, and yet more are on the way from Honduras.
The minors have been stranded in Tapachula and Mapastepec for more than two months, according to a report by the news agency EFE.
The Central American, Haitian, Cuban and African migrants are seeking transit visas that will allow them to legally travel through Mexico to the northern border, where they plan to request asylum in the United States.
Many of the minors have been camping with their families outside the immigration office in Tapachula, where a Cuban migrant “crucified” himself on Sunday to protest arbitrary deportations and demand safe passage for migrants.
Earlier this year, the INM quickly issued more than 10,000 humanitarian visas that allow migrants to work in Mexico for a year and access services – or travel freely to the northern border – but more recent waves of arrivals have faced long waits for visas to be processed or even to plead their case to immigration authorities.
Interior Secretary Olga Sánchez said late last month that the government would no longer issue long-term humanitarian visas, although the INM implemented an emergency measure in Tapachula on April 1 to issue a limited number, with priority given to women, children and seniors over 65.
Yet the situation of most of the minors remains uncertain, and their impatience and fear are growing.
The children and teenagers only have limited access to food, medical services and education, EFE said, and as is the case with adult migrants, they are vulnerable to deportation, physical and sexual abuse and human trafficking, both while waiting to be attended to by INM personnel and during their journey through Mexico.
Some of the minors are suffering from medical problems such as malnutrition, insomnia and dehydration, and high temperatures and rain in Tapachula have made their situations even more difficult.
Meanwhile, another caravan of an estimated 1,000 migrants left San Pedro Sula, Honduras on Tuesday night for the United States. San Pedro is where the first of the migrant caravans originated last October.
The latest, which includes many families, was coordinated through social media.
The latest migrant caravan left San Pedro Sula last night. afp
“We’re screwed with this government, there is no work,” one of the Hondurans told the news agency Agence France Presse.
Another said he was heading north for the second time. The 18-year-old had been caught in Houston, Texas, and sent back home. “You cannot live here,” explaining that a gang had tried to coerce him into joining.
According to one report, hundreds of migrants are entering Mexico illegally every day. In Honduras, transportation services are keeping busy with the traffic, with six buses running full every night from San Pedro to the Guatemala border and carrying 30-50 passengers, a ticket agent said.
Fleeing poverty and violence in their countries of origin, tens of thousands of migrants have entered Mexico in recent months, many of whom arrived as part of several large caravans that originated in Central America.
Most have chosen to travel to northern border cities to seek asylum in the United States, drawing the ire of U.S. President Donald Trump, who has threatened to close the border if Mexico doesn’t do more to stem migration flows.
Long lines of trucks waiting on a highway is not a picture exclusive to the northern border.
A political conflict that led to a blockade 10 days ago by an estimated 1,200 citizens of San Juan Mazatlán, Oaxaca, continues to this day on federal highway No. 185, linking Oaxaca and Veracruz.
Residents of at least 16 municipal agencies within San Juan, which is in the north of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, are demanding the payment of 29 million pesos (US $1.5 million) in funds allocated by the municipality, but the latter has declared it doesn’t have the cash.
Protesters have accused San Juan Mayor Macario Eleuterio Jiménez of embezzlement.
The newspaper Milenio reported that the blockade, located near the community of Boca del Monte, has cost businesses millions of pesos in losses.
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Trucks carrying perishable goods, fuel and cash have been stranded for the duration of the protest, effectively bringing commercial activity in the region to a halt, and severely affecting trade between Oaxaca and Veracruz.
The movement of private citizens has also been affected, and there have been reports of delivery trucks and private vehicles being set on fire.
Other reports say that protesters have been charging pedestrians if they wish to pass through the blockade.
The Oaxaca government has sent riot police to San Juan Mazatlán, who told reporters that they are only waiting for an order to disband the protest and open the road.
But the state said today it would not use police to break up the protest.
Stolberg, left, and Covarrubias were arrested this week.
Authorities captured two drug lords this week, one a leader of Los Zetas and the other a godson of the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
José Roberto Stolberg Becerra, also known as “La Barbie” and one of the main leaders of Los Zetas la Vieja Escuela (Old School Zetas) was detained in a residential complex in Tlajomulco de Zúñiga, Jalisco, during an operation by federal forces.
Police seized packets of cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamines ready for sale, along with two vehicles.
According to federal authorities, Stolberg has been an active part of the leadership of Los Zetas la Vieja Escuela since 2016 when the group, together with two other gangs, split off from the main branch of the Zetas cartel, itself notorious for brutal murders, torture and beheadings.
Tamaulipas authorities say the faction has been responsible for a wave of violence in the state in recent years.
A judge issued an arrest warrant for Stolberg in June of last year for ties to organized crime and kidnapping. In December, the Attorney General’s Office offered an award of 1.5 million pesos (US $80,000) for information leading to the cartel leader’s capture.
Another Jalisco arrest took place in Zapopan where federal forces captured Adrián Alonso Guerrero Covarrubias, known as “El 8” or “El M,” godson of Jalisco cartel boss Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes. He was arrested for ties to organized crime and kidnapping.
Authorities told reporters that Guerrero was an important regional leader in his godfather’s cartel, with territorial control in the Ciénega and northern Los Altos regions in Jalisco, along with southeastern Guanajuato. The cartel is one of the most powerful in Mexico and has been responsible for a dramatic increase in violence in several states in recent years.
When I was living in Querétaro I once saw what I am sure was a foreign 20-something woman walk over to an older lady covered in a shawl who was always stationed in the middle of a busy, touristy walkway, hand cupped and outstretched to passersby who’d rush on, trying not to make eye contact.
She carried over a gallon of water and some plastic cups and sat down next to her on her piece of cardboard. The old woman looked up and smiled at her — I think it was the first time I’d ever seen her face — and I immediately felt shock and shame that it had never occurred to me to do the same.
In Xalapa, where I live, the same woman has been sitting outside the downtown Sears with a plastic cup for the coins of sympathetic commuters, usually with a dust-covered child or two under the age of six in her company.
It’s been 18 years since I first saw her, and we’ve aged together in this same city, in our different worlds.
A couple of years ago I was walking home, headphone in, but wasn’t in any particular hurry. I passed an old woman who was crying alone on a bench. I thought of stopping to comfort her and ask what was wrong, but my worry that I might feel compelled to help her and see it through to the end when her problems were most likely insurmountable stopped me, and I kept walking. I’m not proud of that moment, either.
In my city, there are beggars. In every city there are beggars. And in every city, every person has an opinion about them. The level of derision, in my unscientific, anecdotal experience, tends to correlate to one’s socioeconomic status, with those who are (precariously) middle class but feel that they’re just getting by handing out the most scorn.
I’ve always been resistant to criticize anyone asking for help on the street, not least because I’ve had the experience of watching people close to me sink to the point of (nearly) no return.
When you’re poor, problems are magnified and can rapidly snowball, and what is a small inconvenience for someone with even modest resources can become an insurmountable mountain when you’re already trying to make your last few pesos stretch.
With good jobs scarce and a minimum wage (depending on the region, it’s a range of 102 pesos — about US $5 — and 176 pesos — about $8.70 — a day), it’s not shocking to me that anyone would decide to try their luck asking for more money than they can make at a “regular” job, especially if they lack the education and social capital to land any kind of decent-paying position.
Desperation and the need to feed one’s family, I think, trump the absolute humiliation of receiving the dirty looks and other indignities of asking for the help of strangers.
“All they do is stretch their hands out! Why don’t they get a job? Why should I support someone that doesn’t want to work? I’d love to just sit around all day and have people give me money!”
This is always said with exaggeration, as if desperate people risking kidnapping, death and all manner of trauma and abuses were entitled vacationers.
But here’s the thing: if it’s possible for people to earn more money simply through donations on the street than working at (or even getting in the first place) a minimum-wage job, what really is the scandal here?
We complain about so-called ninis (ni trabajan ni estudian — “they don’t work, they don’t study”), but it’s no surprise that young people would see those with hard-earned college degrees being offered 4,000 pesos a month and conclude the effort is hardly worth it.
Dirty people with pleading eyes and ragged clothes that make you feel guilty for your state of non-misery are much easier targets of our own angst than the minority of already-wealthy, good-looking people that are quite literally bleeding the country dry through graft and corruption.
And besides, it’s hard to be angry at people whom you can’t immediately and easily identify as scoundrels. (To be safe, just assume all rich people are criminals. Kidding! Do you see, though? Did you feel immediately defensive at the prospect of being judged without being known?)
What do we owe each other? To what extent is “self-care” and emotional/physical insulation simply selfish, and when does it mean helping others, who in the end, are just us in different circumstances? We are ashamed to see people in these horrible conditions, and the discomfort of it makes us rush by to quickly forget.
I don’t have the solution, but I don’t think it’s to angrily gripe about them, or worse, directly to them, about hard work and responsibility. Spare a smile, some eye contact, maybe some conversation if you feel safe.
If you have some money, give it; if you can buy someone some food or water, do it. So what if they’re taking advantage of you? Cosmically (and you can trust me on this), they’re not.
Sarah DeVries writes from her home in Xalapa, Veracruz.
Indoor and outdoor shared seating encourages conviviality.
Following the common custom of contemporary Colonia Roma, MercadoRoma begins with a pet boutique — Woow Guau, a flash of colorful, artisan-influenced collars, vests, sweaters and capes for the most fashionable and patriotic of Mexico City’s tailed citizenry.
Sure, nearly every mercado has pet supplies, but MercadoRoma is a bit different, modernized, curated.
MercadoRoma opened its doors in 2014 as “the first gourmet market in Mexico City, where product, quality, food, and architecture coexist.” It’s the Mexican public market reimagined for the 21st century, chock full of newfangled foods, handcrafted goods and other artisanal offerings.
The market opens up into an opera of world culinary fusions set behind bright orange counters that elicit the old-school Mexican lonchería, with a chic repurposed warehouse vibe and more angles than a graduate level geometry class. The winding, offset counters encourage you to get lost in food discovery.
Dive into sweets and treats like Theurel & Thomas macaroons, La Otilia gluten-free bakery and the insanely gorgeous chocolate creations of Chef José Ramón Castillo of QuéBo! Or travel the world of taco fusion with La Taque or ITALIANTaco.
The entrance to the Roma Norte’s market of culinary delights, MercadoRoma.
Eat at the restaurant counter or one the large and lively communal tables in the back. MercadoRoma encourages its patrons to try something (or many things) new.
Perfect prime beef cuts, paella, handmade sausages, Hindu, Arabic and Italian classics, and nearly every region of Mexico are represented. MercadoRoma is also great for vegan and vegetarian options with, among others, Gold Taco serving some of Mexico City’s best rated vegan tacos.
“The idea of introducing this format of social food was inspired by other similar spaces around the world,” explains public relations director Fernanda Vasconcelos. “And the objective has always been to offer the public the best gastronomic experience, changing the dialogue between chef and diner, to create a unique and special social moment.”
The communal tables buzz with laughter from a mostly 20-something crowd. English, French and Russian mix with Spanish to give the impression that we’re on some kind of university Esperanto retreat.
The smiles are big. There doesn’t appear to be a bummed customer among them as we sit down to our salmon bowl with chile morita and peanut dressing from Kome Comida Oriental. It’s fresh and spicy, with toasted sesame seeds, avocado, rice and pickled cabbage, carrots and scallions.
Beer and mezcal cocktails flow heavily for a Monday afternoon as the staff of Palomiux takes advantage of the patrons’ altered states to push weird and wild gourmet popcorn flavors from table to table.
The fresh tuna bowl from Kome.
At Tinto MX, the passionate oenophiles serve up specialty boutique wines and cocktails. Their wines are all Mexican, mostly from Baja California – particularly the new international hotspot of Valle de Guadalupe. But Tinto MX works to support the tiniest, hardest-to-find wine producers from around the country, many of whom don’t even have proper distribution.
Tinto MX has five to six reds, three whites and two rosés always available to try out by the glass, or take home the bottle of your choice. They serve up classic wine cocktails like clericots, kalimotxos and tintos de verano, but the current favorite is the white wine mojito with lime, mint and a touch of sugar, topped off with sparkling water.
If mezcal is more to your liking, Finca Robles offers a generous variety of the maguey distillate. They too specialize in small producers, some creating as few as 100-200 bottles at a time.
Gustavo Faro tells me his customers are mostly foreigners. “They often know more about mezcal than most Mexicans,” he says. “And each time they come to learn a little bit more.”
Finca Robles’ bottles change completely about every three months, depending on what styles are currently in production, and they bottle their own brand in Sola de Vega, Oaxaca.
Just above, on the mezzanine, are some of the gift-worthy goods, like Botanicus natural soaps, scents, and lotions; the wonderful salsas, spices and marmalades from Chilipines; and Uchiya, with chef-quality Japanese knives and cute home goods.
Finca Robles offers a number of boutique mezcal producers.
All the way upstairs, on the roof terrace, Grüner Hof Biergarten, overlooking Calle Querétaro, is a pleasantly shaded, mellow respite from the afternoon sun. Their craft beers go deep, and the bratwurst and blonde tourists give an authentic taste of Germany.
Next door, Cigar Point tends to a bit more of an upscale audience, with a fully-stocked humidor and mid-century modern design in leather and dark wood. They have one of the largest, very serious, scotch and whiskey lists you’re likely to find outside of Polanco, along with other cigar-sipping favorites like tequila, rum, cognac and all the French and Italian liqueurs that can be hard to come by in Mexico.
The terrace begins to heat up when the post-work, happy-hour crowd files in. And it can turn into a pretty big party well into the night. Adds PR director Vasconcelos, “MercadoRoma always keeps our audience excited about events, happenings, activations and other content we offer, to create experiences beyond the culinary.”
They have stand-up comedy nights, a monthly card of classical and contemporary jazz groups and regular DJ sets that are well-rooted in the local community.
“As more gourmet markets and similar culinary projects have developed,” says Vasconcelos, “it’s led to an increase in local gastronomy, and more brands and independent projects have emerged that seek to leave a mark on the history of the kitchen.”
Stop in for some sweets, have a bite to eat while you shop for gifts or come to party on DJ nights – you can find it all at MercadoRoma.
• MercadoRoma is located at Calle Querétaro 225, Roma Norte, open daily at 9:00am till late. Check the website for actual opening and closing times for each market level and business.
This is the fifth in a series on the bazaars, flea markets and markets of Mexico City:
Bachelet and López Obrador at yesterday's press conference.
The homicide rates recorded in Mexico since 2006 are similar to those of a country at war, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said at the conclusion of a five-day visit to Mexico.
Former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet told a press conference that she was surprised by the magnitude of the security crisis that Mexico is facing.
“What I’ve found has been a surprise. The Ayotzinapa case [of 43 students who disappeared in Guerrero in 2014] is certainly well known but the 40,000 missing persons wasn’t something that was so clear to me, nor the 26,000 unidentified bodies or that almost 10 women are murdered every day. I knew about the violence but I didn’t have an idea of the extent,” Bachelet said.
Since former president Felipe Calderón initiated a militarized public security strategy shortly after he took office in late 2006, there have been more than 250,000 homicides, and 2018 was the most violent year on record.
In addition to making the war analogy, Bachelet said the high homicide rates were evidence of the need for a comprehensive, long-term solution to violence, adding that the new National Guard could be a large part of that solution.
“The creation of the National Guard could open the opportunity to create a new civilian police force capable of fighting the overwhelming challenge of organized crime,” she said.
She also said that weak rule of law in Mexico contributes to the epidemic of violence.
“The truth is you have laws for everything,” Bachelet said. “There isn’t a lack of laws, but rather a need to implement them.”
However, she expressed confidence that the new attorney general’s office (the Fiscalía General de la República has replaced the the Procuraduría General) will be an autonomous institution capable of carrying out competent criminal investigations while guaranteeing human rights.
Earlier yesterday, the high commissioner and President López Obrador signed an agreement to allow the UN department to assist in human rights training for National Guard members.
“Experience shows us that you can’t have security without full respect for human rights and you can’t enjoy human rights without security,” Bachelet said.
López Obrador said he will announce the commander of the National Guard Thursday as well as details about its size and how it will be deployed. He described the human rights agreement with the United Nations as a historical achievement.
The president said in February that the new security force will conduct itself in a way similar to United Nations peacekeepers, pledging that “human rights will be respected.”
The force will be made up of military police from the army and navy as well as Federal Police officers.
The federal government threatened today to go into retail fuel sales if private gas station owners don’t charge “fair prices.”
President López Obrador called on gas station owners and fuel distributors to act responsibly and not be “abusive” towards their customers by charging them excessive prices.
The president said his words amounted to a “friendly invitation” for fuel wholesalers and retailers to review their profit margins.
If they don’t listen, López Obrador continued, “we would think about creating a group of [gas] stations . . . not a lot, just enough so that fuel is sold at a fair price.”
Arturo Herrera, an undersecretary at the Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP), said that profit margins for regular, premium and diesel fuels were 55%, 84% and 36% respectively.
López Obrador said that there is a range of tools, such as mobile apps, that consumers can use to locate the cheapest place to buy fuel.
He also said he will announce at his morning press conference every Monday which gas stations are selling the cheapest and the most expensive fuel.
The leftist leader reiterated his pledge that his government won’t increase fuel or electricity prices beyond the annual inflation rate.
The Mexican retail fuel market was opened up to private and foreign companies as a result of the previous government’s energy reform.
