“The person I knew has nothing in common with the monster that the press describes.”
Those are the words of José Refugio Rodríguez, a Mexican lawyer who defended notorious drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán for three years until his client was extradited to the United States in January 2017.
Guzmán, the 61-year-old former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, is currently on trial in New York, where some of his former criminal associates have given detailed testimony about the ex-capo’s life and the inner workings of the powerful criminal organization he once headed.
Later in the trial, the jury heard from Miguel Ángel Martínez, a former Sinaloa Cartel pilot and one-time close associate of Guzmán, who said that Chapo was so rich that “he had houses at every single beach” and “ranches in every single state.”
A private zoo at a property in Acapulco “with a little train” that was used to ride around and see lions, tigers and panthers, a trip to Switzerland for an anti-aging treatment, private jets, opulent gifts and “four to five women” were among Guzmán’s excesses, the court heard.
But Refugio Rodríguez, who retains close ties to Guzmán as lawyer for his father-in-law and brother-in-law, told the Chilean newspaper La Tercera that his former client didn’t live the life of luxury that Martínez described.
“I go to Sinaloa a lot and I hear the people speak very well of Joaquín Guzmán. They say that he led a very austere life. I never heard about that ranch with the train,” he said.
“Those [claims of] luxuries and those millions that place him among the richest people in the world, I’ve only seen them in the press. I’ve even been to his mother’s house and it’s an austere house. The people in Sinaloa love him a lot,” Refugio added.
Asked whether he had any knowledge about Guzmán undergoing a facial rejuvenation treatment in Switzerland, the lawyer responded by portraying his former client as an unassuming and kindly person.
“The last thing that they could be said about Joaquín Guzmán is that he is a vain person. I met a very simple and modest person who was ready to lend a hand to anyone who needed help . . .He didn’t wear brand clothes, he didn’t wear jewelry and friends that I met through him . . . have told me that they slept on the floor with him [in his home] in the mountains, they never spoke of having been in a luxurious residence owned by Joaquín Guzmán,” Refugio said.
“He is not the monster they say he is, there are testimonies from people who have received help from him without knowing him,” he declared.
Refugio said that a lot of the witnesses testifying against Guzmán in court are doing so for their own benefit, adding that “it’s very easy to blame an emblematic figure like Joaquín.”
The legal defense for Guzmán, who faces possible life imprisonment if convicted of charges including drug trafficking, conspiracy and money laundering, has attempted to depict former cartel members and criminal associates turned prosecution witnesses as unreliable and self-serving.
Lawyer Jeffrey Lichtman dubbed them “liars,” “degenerates” and “scum” early in the trial, charging that “they’re here because they want to get out of jail by any means necessary.”
Getting out of jail is something that Guzmán knows a thing or two about, having twice successfully escaped from prisons in Mexico, feats that Refugio admitted had caused his notoriety to increase.
“I am convinced that Joaquín Guzmán is a very intelligent person. As a result of that intelligence, he made two spectacular escapes [from prison] that not even the best novelist could have dreamed up,” he said.
“Escaping from the most secure prisons in the country caused his reputation to begin to grow and good and bad myths about him were created. A cinematic escape of such a level is difficult to achieve without large resources and networks. That reflects power and money and a lot of intelligence. But he’s not manipulative . . . He never asked me to bribe any authority,” Refugio said.
The lawyer told La Tercera that Lichtman is “one of the best criminal lawyers in the United States” and that Guzmán’s entire legal team is “very optimistic of obtaining a good result.”
The strategy to portray El Chapo as nothing more than a scapegoat – an underling of real cartel boss “El Mayo” Zambada – “could work,” Refugio said.
“I see the possibility that Joaquín Guzmán will do well and according to private information, the trial is progressing in a way that is favorable to him,” he added.
Jurors have now heard four weeks of often-grisly testimony in a trial that could last up to four months. It continues this week but will break for a two-week recess over the Christmas-New Year period.
The Magical Town of Teotihuacán broke a Guinness World Record on Saturday with the largest floral carpet in the world.
Thousands of poinsettias of nine different varieties were provided by the Jardines de México garden center and arranged by the designers of the carpet as a representation of the nearby Pyramid of the Sun in this México state pre-Hispanic city.
The carpet measured 17,805 square meters, beating a record set last year by Saudi Arabia with a 16,134-square-meter carpet, a state tourism official said.
Admiring the carpet’s design from the ground was difficult given its enormous size, but the organizers had all the bases covered: the event was held on the same day as the second annual Hot Air Balloon Festival.
More than 50 balloons provided a vantage point to view and enjoy the floral spectacle as well as the site’s pyramids.
An athlete who tested positive to an anabolic steroid has claimed that Mexican meat is to blame.
Guadalupe González, a 29-year-old racewalker who won a silver medal for Mexico at the 2016 Olympic Games, was found to have trenbolone in her urine after she was subjected to a surprise doping test in October.
The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), an agency founded last year to combat doping in athletics, announced last month that González had tested positive to the steroid and that she had received a temporary suspension.
Trenbolone is fed to cattle in Mexico to boost metabolism and burn fat, thereby increasing yields. It is similar to clenbuterol, a drug that is also fed to or injected in cattle and which has been found in hundreds of athletes’ urine.
González strongly denies she took the drug, which is also used by athletes to increase muscle mass, but says that she did eat meat in the days leading up to the test, which was administered by the National Anti-Doping Commission on the request of the World Anti-Doping Agency.
The racewalker is determined to prove her innocence and a legal team will plead her case to sporting authorities. González’s quest to clear her name will be supported by the Mexican Olympic Committee (COM).
“Lupita is a member of the Olympic Committee and has our complete moral support so that she can get through this difficult moment,” COM president Carlos Padilla Becerra told the newspaper El Universal.
“We have to wait to see what the final decision is . . .We’re going to give her the benefit of the doubt as a distinguished daughter of the Olympic family,” he added.
If González is found guilty of being a drug cheat “it would be tragic because it would mean that she can’t be at the [2020] Olympic Games in Tokyo,” Padilla said.
The Mexico City native, who also won a gold medal in the 20-kilometer walk at the 2015 Pan American Games and Silver at the 2017 World Championships, is not the first Mexican athlete to blame meat for a positive drug test.
Boxer Saúl “Canelo” Álvarez failed a doping test for clenbuterol in February but only received a six-month suspension from the Nevada Athletic Commission after he argued that contaminated meat he ate in Mexico was the culprit.
In 2011, more than 100 soccer players at the FIFA U-17 World Cup held in Mexico were found to have clenbuterol in their urine, which was also attributed to meat consumption.
The same year, five soccer players representing Mexico at the Gold Cup tournament in the United States tested positive to the steroid but were exonerated after they too argued that Mexican meat was to blame.
NFL footballers who traveled to Mexico in 2016 to play a match were warned to exercise caution with their meal selections due to the high risk of inadvertently ingesting meat containing clenbuterol.
Athletes competing at the 2011 Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Jalisco, were given a similar warning.
Alcalde, second from left, signed an accord yesterday with business representatives.
The federal government officially launched its youth training program yesterday, making good on President López Obrador’s campaign promise to foster becarios (scholarship holders) rather than sicarios (hired assassins).
Labor Secretary Luisa Alcalde said the apprenticeship scheme, called “Youths Building the Future,” will offer job training and monthly stipends of 3,600 pesos (US $175) to 2.3 million young people who currently neither work nor study (ninis, in Spanish, for ni estudian, ni trabajan). Its total cost will be 100 billion pesos (US $4.9 billion).
People aged between 18 and 29 will be eligible for the program, which will link them to businesses or other organizations where they will undertake training to develop their work skills and abilities.
The participants will also be offered medical insurance and receive a certificate upon completion of the program, which can extend up to one year. The scheme is designed to help young people find a permanent job in the labor market.
Alcalde said that 230 companies and organizations have already agreed to participate in the scheme and that young people can apply to take part from January 1.
She explained that it is intended to reduce risk factors that can lead young people to become involved in criminal gangs.
“This is so that every young person who wants [job] training can get it. We have the chance to change the lives of millions of young people . . . If I had to describe this program in one word it would be inclusion. It takes young people into account so that they don’t fall into the cycle of violence,” Alcalde said.
The labor secretary said that Mexico needs the nation’s young people to achieve its social and economic objectives, charging that past governments have neglected the demographic.
“It was Mexico and its governments who failed young people, this program begins with the profound conviction that there is still time to provide opportunities to this sector [of the population]. Youth are not a vulnerable group, they have been harmed and forgotten by the policies of government,” Alcalde said.
“We have no right to fail young people. If we help them get ahead, this country will definitely change . . .” she added.
Security Secretary Alfonso Durazo, who also attended yesterday’s launch, agreed that the program would help to dissuade young people from getting involved in crime.
He said poor economic conditions and a lack of opportunities for youth over the past three decades had allowed drug cartels to prey on them.
“Starting this program is to settle one of the historic debts we have as a society and country with young people,” Durazo said.
Juan Pablo Castañón, president of the influential Business Coordinating Council (CCE), also gave a thumbs-up to the scheme, saying it would improve young people’s job opportunities and allow them to develop their talents.
“We’ll become tutors, we’ll encourage [the development of] technical as well as socio-emotional skills so that young people can succeed in the working world,” he said.
Nayarit Governor Antonio Echevarría, left and AMLO, who was presented the Tuxpan baseball team's jersey, bearing his nickname.
The president has pledged financial aid for victims in Nayarit of Hurricane Willa, which caused widespread flooding in October.
Andrés Manuel López Obrador visited the municipalities of Acaponeta and Tuxpan yesterday, where he announced that families will receive 25,000 pesos (US $1,230) in aid.
The federal Wellness Secretariat (formerly the Social Development Secretariat) will deliver 10,000 pesos over two months for cleaning houses that had been subject to flooding.
The other 15,000 pesos will be delivered next week for the purchase of new appliances and furniture.
The president also announced the allocation of 480 million pesos — 60 million for each of the eight affected municipalities in the state — for the reconstruction of infrastructure including sewer and water systems, roads and schools.
López Obrador also said he will return to the region on January 25 to check the progress of the work.
Without stating figures, the head of the federal Secretariat of Agriculture and Rural Development said that insurance will cover damage to 15,000 hectares of crops. Insurance will also cover affected livestock breeders.
Willa was a Category 3 hurricane that made landfall October 23 in southern Sinaloa. Residents of Tuxpan were particularly hard hit, even though Willa’s track was 80 kilometers away. Torrential rains caused rivers to overflow their banks, causing extensive flooding.
Almost 45 million international tourists are predicted to visit Mexico next year, a 5.8% increase over the number projected for 2018, the new tourism secretary said this week.
Miguel Torruco Marqués told a press conference that the number of tourists predicted for 2019 – 44,884,000 – were forecast to spend US $23.26 billion while in the country, or 4.3% more than the expected expenditure this year.
He explained that tourism contributes 8.7% of Mexico’s gross domestic product (GDP), which is higher than the contributions from sectors including mining, petroleum and financial services.
Last year, Torruco pointed out, the tourism industry grew at a rate of 3.4% whereas the economy as a whole recorded 2.3% growth. Mexico is currently the sixth most visited country in the world.
A record 39.3 million foreign visitors came to Mexico last year, spending just over US $21.3 billion while they were here, while the total number of international visitors projected by the end 2018 would represent 8% growth on 2017 figures.
“In 2018, in accordance with the trend from January to September, the outlook is that we will have had 42,423,000 tourists by the end of the year and a total expenditure from international visitors of US $22.3 billion is estimated, in other words, 4.6% more than 2017,” Torruco said.
He added that by the end of the year, 23,200 hotels are expected to be in operation across the country, offering 834,000 rooms.
The figures represent a respective 5.5% and 4.9% increase compared to the end of 2017. Growth in the number of hotels and rooms is forecast to continue at a slightly higher rate in 2019.
Torruco stressed that domestic tourism will continue to be the cornerstone of the industry, pointing out that Mexicans account for almost 80% of hotel stays.
Mexico City is one destination aiming to increase its share of both the domestic and international tourism pie.
The capital’s new tourism secretary, Carlos Mackinlay, said the government is targeting at least 10% growth in visitor numbers for 2019.
Last year, 13.5 million visitors stayed in hotels in Mexico City, meaning that for the government to achieve its goal it would need to attract around 15 million tourists.
Mackinlay said the city’s advertising and promotion campaigns would be refocused and would have a better understanding of the markets at which they are directed. He added that a new Mexico City tourism website would be launched in the coming days.
The new government, led by Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, is planning a range of new cultural festivals and celebrations and will continue with those that are already popular, such as the Day of the Dead parade, which was first celebrated in 2016.
President López Obrador will send a proposal to Congress next week to repeal the education reform and replace it with a new one, the education secretary said yesterday.
Esteban Moctezuma Barragán told reporters that the new reform will be informed by information gleaned from the national education consultation which was conducted in all states across the country except Oaxaca.
The 2013 education reform implemented by the past federal government was vehemently opposed by the dissident CNTE teachers’ union, which took particular umbrage at subjecting teachers to compulsory evaluations.
Moctezuma said that more than 100,000 teachers and principals who had been consulted were not against being evaluated as long as the results were not used as justification for dismissal.
Under the new reform, teacher evaluations will “only be used to offer information and training to teachers,” he said.
“It won’t be punitive and linked to labor issues but linked rather to continuous training that the teachers of Mexico must have.”
Under the new government’s education plan, 10 million scholarships will be made available to students from families with limited economic means and there will be an increased focus on teaching indigenous languages. Teachers will also have the opportunity to increase their salaries.
The new secretary also said the government will maintain open communication with the teaching profession during its six-year term, explaining that teachers will be able to report irregularities such as the sale of jobs – which has been a common practice in Mexico – via a direct telephone number set up for the purpose.
President López Obrador has said that his government will restore cordial relations with the nation’s teachers after years of protest but in a radio interview today, Moctezuma said that cordiality wouldn’t extend to teachers who don’t show up to teach their classes.
“We will be ruthless in demanding that they teach and [if they don’t] there will be labor consequences,” he said.
In some states where opposition to the reform was particularly strong, such as Oaxaca, striking teachers left students without classes for up to weeks at a time.
Martha Armanta is the founder and president of Conrehabit, a Mexican conservation organization which provides wildlife rescue services as well as community outreach programs in the rural areas of southern Sinaloa, Mexico. Part 1 of this series can be found here.
I had been working with Martha for about a year when one day she announced a trip to the village of the bramador to test the potential for ecotourism.
I bombarded Martha with questions about the nature of the mission, where we would stay, how many people would come — and what is a bramador? With a smile and a palpable sense of enthusiasm she said, “El bramador is a master jaguar caller and he will try to call in a cat for us.” Bramador means “roarer” or “one who roars,” in this case a jaguar caller.
She went on to elaborate about how this place is not on any tourist itinerary and that the people were ready to share some of their natural treasures with the outside world. This looked to be an excellent cultural encounter with people very lightly touched by modern society.
This outing would be a test of the viability of ecotourism in areas where jaguars are being hunted because of livestock predation or “sport” shooting. If villagers perceived that the jaguar could be worth more alive than dead, it would be a first step in slowing the pervasive process of wildlife depredation along with habitat destruction.
A kitchen in the village.
So our theory was that if eight gringos between the ages of 55 and 65 survived the culture shock of a trip with no restaurants, no hotels, no pavement, no telephones, no internet, no toilet seats and best of all, “no way out” until the next day, it just might work.
After arrangements had been put in place and enough brave souls had been located, Martha and I left town as a caravan of three vehicles with 10 people — along with my half wild dog Snickers — and headed into the lower reaches of the western Sierra Madre.
We arrived in the village about sunset and were greeted by a group of a dozen men and boys dressed in their Sunday best. The village jefe, Don Panchito, directed us to the home of the bramador where our vehicles disgorged their passengers.
The nine foreigners milled about and met the locals, while Martha helped to translate the many questions and corresponding answers that spilled forth from both sides of the language barrier. The minute that Snickers emerged from my truck she was surrounded by a dozen village dogs and all hackles were raised.
The attending canines went through the body language requirements, seemed to accept each other, and Snickers drifted off with them into the background menagerie of chickens, horses, mules and a few burros.
The talk turned towards the jaguars and the coming attempt to call one to within hearing distance. The plan was to head into the forest around 9:00pm, get four to five kilometers out and then let the bramador roar.
Making tortillas for breakfast.
Don German was a man of medium height, slight build and somewhere around 60 years old, though it was hard to tell. The device he employs to imitate the low roar of the jaguar is a polished gourd less than a meter in length, with a hole in each end, one large and one small.
Up until now, this device was used primarily for the purpose of bagging a big spotted cat; this encounter could possibility be the first steps in a transformation of how rural Mexico perceives the natural world.
For our evening meal we ate standard village victuals and truly enjoyed every item served, especially the blue corn tortillas and the gordita cakes. We had watched the blue corn paste processed by hand in an ancient stone metate with a matching mano.
The dough was then patted into a tortilla and placed on the polished lid of a 55-gallon drum with a wood fire nestled in its blackened innards. Most of the villagers there cooked their food on the lid of a drum or on a grill supported by loosely laid bricks.
Even though all the adventurers had been told to bring some type of bedding and sleeping pads, only about half of them did so. This was my first experience in escorting gringos on such a trek, and I didn’t foresee this development.
It was clear that at least some guests would have a tough time without help from our new friends so we explained that some guests had nothing to sleep on. Of course, the villagers put their heads together to find a solution.
Martha and Snickers.
So we moved to plan B — some homes had extra beds available. Most of our group would enjoy a peaceful and comfortable night ensconced in village beds, while three of us ended up on the ground in a dilapidated structure with twinkling views up to the stars through roof holes.
Now it was time to sit around the campfire and listen to the bramador take a couple of practice runs on his gourd. I was expecting a deep cat-like roar to emanate from the dried vegetable shell, but it sounded much more like a cough than a roar; a low guttural burst of air.
After lubricating his throat with a long pull from a jug of cheap tequila, the next rendition of the cat’s cough sounded much more primal; a timeless echo resounding across the ancient flanks of the Sierra Madre.
Then it was time to take a ride into the forest in search of the elusive cat. Since I had the only large four-wheel-drive vehicle within miles, my truck became the tour bus. Our group numbered 10 people and a dog. In addition, it seemed that the number of locals required to guide this expedition was no less than six.
Fortunately the truck had a lumber rack with a mesh floor in the section over the cab, which was quickly commandeered by two campesinos with a 100,000-candlepower search light. As I plugged their heavy corded device into my cigarette lighter, I was beginning to think our expedition more resembled a redneck buck hunt than a stealthy insertion into jaguar territory.
Those in the back of the truck were standing in the bed, using the upper rails of the rack as necessary handholds. They were armed only with a few cameras, and the steely determination not to get pitched out on our short drive. After one look at the humanity packed into the confines of my truck, along with my suspicion that the roads would be in a high state of disrepair, I knew it would be a notable adventure for all.
A creek in jaguar country.
The bramador was sharing the back seat with two women, the half wild dog and his by now somewhat depleted jug of tequila. After some time the road plunged into an old stream bed and then followed the dry water course, which morphed between a faint road to ruts and rocks. In time, conditions deteriorated into four-wheel-drive and low-range crawl as we left the creek bed and headed up a 20% grade.
As the search light panned the huge trees towering around us, dozens of large bromeliads could be seen clinging to outstretched branches of the old-growth cypress. The low hanging vines and occasional branches added a real organic element for those in the open-air section of the conveyance, including Martha.
Knowing her fears, several times I wondered if I should caution her about the potential for various types of slithery reptiles falling from the low hanging canopy. However, I figured if it actually happened, the event would be vastly more entertaining without the forewarning.
We came to a place where the road (the term road here is very generous) became a narrow shelf with a drop on the passenger side and a steep bank on the other.
In the middle of this side hill traverse, the ledge took a turn to the right with a washed out hole close to where one rear tire would track the turn. I made the turn high on the bank and thought the truck was in the clear.
But the back end suddenly dropped. In that split second of uncertainty, the search light wobbled and a collective gasp arose from all passengers, including myself and probably the dog. After a quick application of throttle, the truck popped back up on the ledge; but we were all awake now.
When we reached a point where it was no longer possible to distinguish exactly where to aim our tour bus, I was told to stop “because farther on the road is bad.”
We all climbed out of the truck, some with weaker knees than others, but we were all struck by the absolute stillness, the stark clarity of the night sky and how agreeably dark it was without the search light on.
The bramador wandered a few meters up a hillside and prepared for his one-act show, complete with gourd, and the now nearly empty tequila jug. He imitated the call of both the male and female jaguar with an amazing amount of dignity and aplomb, particularly considering the amount of spirits he had consumed.
I don’t think any of us actually expected the reward of a return call, especially after we had arrived in the area with all the aural subtlety of a steam-powered UFO. However, the bramador continued his show for some time. All the outsiders enjoyed it and were enthusiastic until he declared that even his brilliant efforts were unproductive against our pandemonium.
We returned to the village and wandered off to our predetermined sleeping places. That night, those of us in the dilapidated dwelling were serenaded for two hours by numerous village dogs attempting to drive several stray burros from the bramador’s yard.
Shortly after the cacophony of dogs and burros died off in the distance, 10 or more roosters decided it was dawn. They were only three hours early.
After packing up, we thanked our indigenous hosts for their gracious hospitality and reluctantly headed back to modern Mexico. My time spent visiting this area over the ensuing years has given me a deep admiration for the people who live the hard and lean life experienced by most of the rural communities.These people have very little, but what they do have, they are more than willing to share with trusted strangers.
(We began our ecotours in 2009 and are continuing to bring small groups into this remote area. Two years ago, the Mexican government granted protected reserve status to 17,000 acres held by this small community.)
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.
Attorney General Godoy: yes, there is organized crime.
Mexico City’s new government has conceded that organized crime groups operate in the capital, a claim that the previous administration had rejected.
Attorney General Ernestina Godoy made the admission yesterday during a press conference.
“Is there organized crime here in the capital?” a reporter asked. “Yes, there is,” Godoy responded unequivocally.
She added that the government is continuing to analyze the security situation and will soon provide more information.
Although former mayor Miguel Ángel Mancera denied that organized crime had a presence in Mexico City, there is evidence to suggest otherwise.
In September, hitmen believed to be members of La Unión de Tepito, a criminal gang based in the notoriously dangerous neighborhood of Tepito, killed four people and wounded six more in Plaza Garibaldi, a square popular with tourists known as the capital’s home of mariachi music.
The gang is allegedly supported by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, considered Mexico’s most powerful and dangerous criminal organization.
In July last year, narco-blockades made an unprecedented appearance in Mexico City after the suspected boss of the Tláhuac Cartel, Felipe de Jesús Pérez Luna, was killed in a confrontation with marines.
Godoy said that the new government is concerned about the current security situation, especially the high number of homicides committed with firearms.
In just two days since Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum was sworn in Wednesday, 16 murders have been reported in the capital.
They occurred in several boroughs including Gustavo A. Madero, where eight people were killed Wednesday and yesterday, including three in one incident of gun violence and two in another.
On Wednesday, a presumed criminal was gunned down in the Benito Juárez borough, a Canadian man was killed in a shopping center parking lot in the business district of Santa Fe and a man was beaten to death near the Merced market on the fringe of the historic center.
Sheinbaum told a press conference yesterday that the security situation was serious, explaining that at the beginning of the past government in 2012 there were an average of two homicides per day but that figure doubled to four in the third quarter of 2018.
Francisco Rivas, director of the civil society organization the National Citizens’ Observatory, told the newspaper Milenio that “Mexico City is living through the worst moment of violence in its history.”
In the last 21 years, he said, “there has been a substantial increase in intentional homicides.”
City authorities are also confronted with the task of combatting high levels of other crimes such as violent robberies, whose incidence is at a six-year high, and retail drug trafficking known as narcomenudeo.
A 2017 report by the city’s Public Security Secretariat (SSP) and the Attorney General’s office identified 20,000 places where drugs were being sold.
Inter-departmental communication problems in the new federal administration led to confusion yesterday after contradicting statements were issued regarding the future of Mexico City’s airport facilities.
Tourism Secretary Miguel Torruco Marqués told a press conference early yesterday that the Santa Lucía Air Force base would become the terminal for international flights while the existing Mexico City airport would be home to domestic flights.
The result would be “a great metropolitan airport project,” Torruco declared.
But later in the day, the Communications and Transportation Secretariat said there had been some confusion and confirmed that the airports at Santa Lucía, Toluca and Mexico City would all handle both international and domestic flights.
The three facilities are to take the place of the new Mexico City airport, whose construction was cancelled by the new government.
Under the Torruco plan, international passengers arriving in Santa Lucía would have to travel 46 kilometers to making a connecting flight in Mexico City. When a reporter with the newspaper Reforma put the proposal to the test, it took 53 minutes to travel in a taxi from Santa Lucía to the Mexico City airport in light traffic.
The trip cost 457 pesos (US $23), including taxi fare and tolls.
