US man wanted on sex charges found 27 years later in Nayarit

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July 31, 2018

A man wanted in the United States on sex charges that date back nearly three decades was found living in a small town in Nayarit.

Earl Jay Slaton, 72, was arrested Saturday in San Juan de Abajo, located about 30 kilometers northeast of Puerto Vallarta.

He has been a fugitive since 1990 when he fled charges of sexual battery and aggravated child abuse in Lee County, southwest Florida.

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The Lee County Sheriff’s Office, working with the United States Marshals Service, discovered that Slaton was living with his new wife in the Nayarit town.

“With the assistance of the Mexican Federal Police and the U.S. marshals stationed in Mexico City, Slaton was located living near the small village of San Juan de Abajo,” the U.S. Marshals Service said.

Mexican police arrested Slaton on Saturday and he was deported the same day to Los Angeles due to his undocumented immigration status.

He is now being held at the Lee County jail. His arraignment is scheduled for August 26.

U.S. authorities believe Slaton had been living in Mexico for about 26 years.

Source: El Horizonte (sp), News-Press (en)

Through a non-profit, Tlaloc the rain god provides water in CDMX and beyond

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Susannah Rigg

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July 31, 2018

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A Tlaloque rainwater capture system in San Gregorio Atlapulco, Xochimilco. Cate Cameron

An ingenious rainwater harvesting system developed by a Mexico City organization is helping the most marginalized communities of the city have access to clean water.

“Tlaloques were helpers of the rain god, Tlaloc,” Nabani Vera Tenorio told Mexico News Daily, explaining the name behind the system developed by Isla Urbana.

As the Mexica cosmology goes, Tlaloques were children that Tlaloc sent around the world with clay pots full of water. When Tlaloc gave the order, the Tlaloques would smash the pots together, creating thunder and letting water rain down upon the earth from above.

It is the perfect name for the system created by this highly skilled and dedicated organization to collect and filter rain. After all, these filters are helping Tlaloc to make the most of his abundant offering.

Anyone who has spent time in Mexico City will know that this bustling capital can see more rainfall in an hour than many places see in a week. The streets flood, there is traffic chaos and the storms can have an almost apocalyptic feel.

And with a rainy season that lasts for many months, it seems incongruous that a city with so much rain should suffer from constant water shortages. Residents in even the most connected areas sometimes go without water for days at a time and some 250,000 people have no access to piped water at all.

Perhaps the fact that around 21.5 million people live in this city built on a lake goes some way to explain the supply-demand issue. The population, including the greater city limits, has grown from around 13 million in 1980 to 21.5 million in 2018, putting an obvious strain on the water supply.

Seventy per cent of Mexico City’s water comes from underground aquifers but as they are being drained to meet the city’s water needs, Mexico’s capital is sinking. In the last 100 years alone the city has sunk some 10 meters.

In addition, Tenorio explained that an estimated 40% of the city’s water is lost due to leaks in the old, sputtering underground pipes. This means that for every liter of water used another 40 milliliters is lost.

Isla Urbana has been working to find solutions to Mexico’s water problems since 2009. It all started with a degree thesis and a woman called Clara.

Renata Fenton and Enrique Lomnitz were studying for degrees in industrial design when they came upon the idea of working on a project that would help their home city. For research they talked to the Señora Clara, who lived in Ajusco on the outskirts of Mexico City, to find out what her needs were.

Of the many problems she faced, the lack of access to water was the most pressing and the one that Fenton and Lomnitz decided to focus on. An idea that began with a single house has now made a big impact in the city and beyond: 7,500 rainwater harvesting units have been installed across the country, close to 54,000 people helped and some 333 million liters of water saved so far.

Tenorio explained that Mexico City is the perfect environment for the system. The flat roofs and the fast and heavy rainfall make conditions for collection perfect. “The first volume of water cleans the sky and the roof,” explained Tenorio, which allows for cleaner water to fill the cistern and as long as the system is maintained correctly, it provides water that is of drinking quality.

While there are a few variables, it is possible that a family of four that has a good size roof and saves water can have enough for the whole year, Tenorio said. That means one entire family is not draining the average 920 liters of water per day from the aquifer.

The system not only saves water but also drastically changes the quality of life of the recipients, who no longer have to rely on water delivery trucks or walk each day to collect water for their homes.

Isla Urbana is focusing its efforts on the areas of the city that have no access to municipal water. Remote parts of Tlalpan, Milpa Alta and Xochimilco are of particular focus.

But a system cannot be installed and left. It requires work and maintenance on the part of the homeowners. Residents who are interested in capturing their rainwater have to attend a mandatory workshop to understand their role in the upkeep of the Tlaloque.

In some cases, they are also asked to pay a small amount for the systems, a well-researched and proven way of creating more engaged recipients. It is important that the systems are being used properly and effectively for the benefit of the residents and the city as a whole, so the Isla Urbana team provides yearly maintenance and is always on hand for questions and queries.

What about standing water and mosquitoes? The systems are mosquito-proof, tightly sealed and protected with mosquito netting to avoid the possibility of the spread of disease.

As well as supplying the rainwater capturing systems, Isla Urbana sees it as its duty to educate citizens about water usage. With a project called La Carpa Azul or The Blue Tent, the plan is to make Mexican citizens active rather than passive water users.

To do this they work with communities and with schools, offering theater productions and art projects related to water.

Tenorio described how positive acts like coming together as a community and painting a gray wall with a mural of an “axolotl watering the houses and seeing them bloom, for example” creates a more open and enjoyable space from which to talk about and think about water.

Isla Urbana’s work is proven to create resilience too. Last year’s September 19 earthquake left a large number of people struggling without water for weeks. In San Gregorio Atlapulco, a remote part of Xochimilco where Isla Urbana works, the houses with the Tlaloque rainwater systems continued to have water after the earthquake while everyone else did not.

“They were the only ones who had water and they started to share it with their neighbors,” Tenorio explained. The earthquake also motivated the team to create an emergency drinking water system to be prepared for any future emergency.

As well as providing the Tlaloques free of charge or at a very small fee to marginalized communities, the organization also runs a business entity that sells the systems to anyone looking to live a more sustainable life.

The small profit made from selling the products is used to help fund the operations of the social side of the business.

While the kits cannot be installed in buildings higher than about three floors (because the water collected would simply not be enough to serve all the apartments) Isla Urbana does sell household kits that can be easily installed and help residents use up to 50% less water.

Despite the many challenges the city faces with regard to water, Isla Urbana feels positive about the future. The new government is already indicating it wants to collaborate with the organization to solve those problems, calling on Isla Urbana’s expertise and its new, alternatives ways of dealing with the city’s water shortages.

By the end of the year, Isla Urbana’s goal is to have 10,000 water-harvesting systems installed and Tlaloc’s little helpers will continue to provide water for those who need it most.

To find out more about the work that Isla Urbana is doing across Mexico City and beyond, check out their website.

Susannah Rigg is a freelance writer and Mexico specialist based in Mexico City. Her work has been published by BBC Travel, Condé Nast Traveler, CNN Travel and The Independent UK among others. Find out more about Susannah on her website.

Book finds new generation of ‘caciques’ among today’s governors

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MND Staff

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July 30, 2018

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Paxman and his new book about effect of democratization. — Paxman and his new book about the effect of democratization.

The editor and contributing author of a new book that compares and contrasts six modern-day political leaders with their counterparts from the past has charged that democratization in Mexico has given rise to a new generation of caciques, or regional strongmen (and women).

Andrew Paxman, an English historian and journalist based in Mexico, told the newspaper El Universal that state governors today could equally be described as “the new viceroys” because of the autonomy they enjoy — and power they exercise — while in government.

The book Los Gobernadores: Caciques del pasado y del presente (The Governors: Caciques of the past and present) examines the recent governorships of five states as well as the administration of president-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador when he was mayor of Mexico City and the political reigns in days gone by of leaders in the same six entities.

The modern-day politicians included in the book were mostly chosen because at some stage in the past they showed interest in pursuing the presidency, Paxman said.

They include former governor of Hidalgo and ex-interior secretary Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong, former México state governor Eruviel Ávila, ex-governor of Puebla Rafael Moreno Valle, the now-imprisoned former governor of Veracruz Javier Duarte and the ex-governor of Yucatán, Ivonne Ortega Pacheco.

“We didn’t consider the most prominent leaders but rather those who were possible presidential candidates 15 months ago when the [book] project started. Five of the six — all except Javier Duarte — had expressed an interest in competing for the presidency and that’s interesting because it’s a sign of their growing power,” Paxman said.

“Features [of their administrations] to control the state such as selectively using violence, sometimes killing inconvenient people and a tendency to stick their hand in the money chest, to get rich from their position, were tendencies that these people admitted to.”

Paxman, a professor and researcher at the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE) in Mexico City, said “this new caciquismo is the result of federal level democratization and the decentralization of power and treasury resources.”

He also said the governorship of a state was previously the “peak of power” to which a state-based politician would aspire but explained, “that’s not the case anymore, governors are aspiring to be president.”

Paxman stressed that not all the modern-day leaders profiled in the book were as cacique-like as each other in their conduct while in power, adding that López Obrador was included because of allegations that he had acted authoritatively while in office from 2000 to 2005.

However, he explained that a close examination of his administration revealed that his governance style was notably democratic.

“. . . He delegated a lot and didn’t often enforce [his views]. He didn’t try to coerce the press and refused opportunities to cultivate a corporatist power base,” Paxman said.

“Despite all the accusations and all the contradictions he [creates] himself in terms of his statements and vague proposals, the precedents we saw in his five years of government are encouraging. It appears that he will govern much more democratically than his critics say,” he added.

Among the challenges López Obrador will face as president, Paxman said, will be to promote a more democratic culture at the state level and to ensure that governors are held accountable for their actions.

He also said the president-elect will have to “implement mechanisms” to help him fight corruption, charging that he has put too much faith in the belief that he can hold himself up as an example of virtue and expect others to follow.

Source: El Universal (sp)

12-year-old Mateo has all it takes to become ‘a great musician’

By

MND Staff

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July 30, 2018

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Mateo González Tamariz is just 12 years old but already well on his way to a successful career as a pianist, with pieces by Beethoven and Debussy in his enviable repertoire.

The Veracruz native performed a concert at the National Palace in Mexico City Saturday, playing his favorite sonata by the former composer and Children’s Corner by the latter.

“Mateo has a talent that covers everything needed to be a great musician,” Luisa González Parda, the youngster’s teacher and an acclaimed pianist herself, told the newspaper Milenio.

“We’re talking about a virtuosity in terms of energy, strength and speed [combined] with sweetness, communication and art,” she added.

Mateo, one of the standout students of the “Las Notas de Guido” music program and the Veracruz State Institute of Music, told Milenio that when he is on stage he tries to block everything out and focus solely on the music.

“Sometimes I don’t hear the audience, I put myself inside the music and in my mind, I start to think of stories that relate to what I’m playing. And suddenly everyone claps and it’s comforting. In the last pieces, it feels like the piano belongs to you,” he said.

Mateo has been honing his musical talent for almost half of his short life.

His mother, Elisa Tamariz Domínguez, explained that at the age of seven Mateo started playing around on the same piano that she had played as a child.

It wasn’t long before he was making up his own ditties, she said, adding “in six months he advanced as much as I did in five years.”

Now, Mateo describes music as a “way of life” and his passion for his instrument is obvious for all to see and hear.

“The sound of the piano is very beautiful, it’s spectacular. You can make sounds [ranging from] the very faint to the very loud,” he said.

The prodigy has been rewarded for his dedication and passion by receiving first and second places in two national music contests while he has also performed at the Universidad Veracruzana, the Museum of Anthropology in Xalapa and the International Piano Festival at the National Autonomous University (UNAM) in Mexico City.

Despite his growing experience, Mateo admits that he still gets nervous before he plays and also said he is worried about whether he will become as successful as he hopes to in the future.

But judging by his performance at Saturday’s recital as part of the National Institute of Fine Arts’ “Young people in music” program, his teacher’s acclaim and his love for his instrument, a glittering career probably awaits.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Manzanillo tunnel opened; work on port to begin in September

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César Hernández

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July 30, 2018

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Three years late and nearly three times over budget, a new railway tunnel has been officially opened in Manzanillo, giving the port much improved transportation capacity.

The federal Transportation Secretariat project was originally budgeted to cost 933 million pesos (US $50 million). Five years after construction began, the total has come to 2.5 billion pesos.

Transportation officials explained that costs rose due to the unforeseen construction and improvement of adjacent roads, relocation of Pemex pipelines and the modernization of existing railway infrastructure.

As well as boring the 450-meter-long tunnel, the department also built a new railway yard and bypass.

The tunnel is part of a larger project intended to allow for the swift movement of railway cars through the port city without affecting traffic or the public.

The tunnel and bypass will allow trains to go to and from the port 24 hours a day, with the result that the total amount of goods shipped annually from Manzanillo could triple.

Manzanillo is the main port for shipping cargo containers in Mexico, and moved 440,000 TEUs (the equivalent of a 20-foot container) in the first six months of the year, an increase of 5% over the same period of 2017.

In September, the Transportation Secretariat will begin an expansion of the port’s cargo handling capacity with the construction of a new dock for general and automotive cargo.

By the end of the year, Manzanillo will be capable of moving 44 million tonnes of cargo a year. Six years ago, its capacity was just 26 million tonnes.

Source: Milenio (sp)

On crosswalks in Mexico City, 58-second ballet performances

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July 30, 2018

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Ballet dancers perform on a Mexico City crosswalk.

Ballet dancers returned to perform in the streets of Mexico City Saturday, entertaining motorists and pedestrians alike with crosswalk performances between light changes.

The dance company Ardentía is behind the initiative, intended to brighten the day of drivers on congested city streets.

Their 58-second performances — that’s how long they have between traffic signal changes — consist of interpretations including Waltz of the Flowers, the Nutcracker Ballet, Swan Lake and even Michael Jackson’s Rock With Me.

Dancers converge on the sidewalk until the light turns red and then dash on to the crosswalk to complete their performance to the sound of a boombox connected to an iPod, much to the delight of onlookers.

“We never thought we’d have this much impact,” said dancer Manuela Ospina Castro.

At a location in the northwest of the city on Saturday, seven dancers offered seven distinct performances, each with its own choreography and costumes.

The performances began two weeks ago and will continue every weekend through September 2 at La Bombilla park, Tláhuac avenue, Tezozómoc avenue, México avenue, Marina Nacional and other locations. The dance troupe is working with the Mexico City Secretariat of Culture on the project, called Theatrics in Urban Spaces.

Source: AP (sp), Excélsior (sp)

Police arrest director of school where student died during hazing

By

César Hernández

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July 30, 2018

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The Chiapas school where a hazing is under investigation.

Police on Saturday arrested the director of a Chiapas school where one student died and two were seriously hurt during a hazing ritual.

Conrado Borraz León is accused of homicide and attempted homicide in connection with the death on July 21 of José Luis Hernández Espinosa, a 19-year-old freshman at the Mactumactzá Rural Teacher Training School in Tuxtla Guitiérrez.

He is believed to have died from kidney failure, presumably caused by the rupture of muscular tissue during a hazing or induction organized by senior students.

Two other students, Ulises Jiménez de la Cruz and Sergio Ballinas Zambrano, were admitted to hospital with similar injuries. There have been reports since that were not only physically injured, apparently beaten during the initiation ritual, but were also severely dehydrated.

They are now reported in stable condition.

The Mactumactzá school has a military-style training ground, where the freshmen students were apparently forced to perform exhausting exercises.

The school’s new batch of students, who are scheduled to start their first school year on August 20, were also forced to mount a guard for at least 20 days. They were left incommunicado for the duration of the ritual after their cell phones were taken from them.

Prosecutors said the investigation is continuing and that more arrest warrants could be issued.

The school’s students’ council has remained silent about the hazing but spoke out after Borraz was detained, condemning his arrest and demanding he be released.

The students mounted a street blockade in protest.

The school itself also criticized the director’s arrest, claiming that he was in fact kidnapped and detained in a brutal manner.

It said it would hold responsible the state government and the “disgraceful, imperialist puppet governor” for any physical or psychological suffering on the part of Borraz.

Source: Milenio (sp), El Cinco (sp), Reforma (sp)

Michoacán turf war fuels crisis of violence that is worst in 10 years

By

MND Staff

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July 30, 2018

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Lots of security forces, but lots of crime too.

An attack at a funeral parlor that left eight mourners dead is just one of many acts of violence in Michoacán that have put 2018 on track to join 2016 and 2017 as the state’s most violent years of the past decade.

There were 598 intentional homicides in the state in the six-month period from January to June, according to the National Public Security System (SNSP), continuing a high murder rate that has prevailed during the administration of current Michoacán Governor Silvano Aureoles, who took office on October 1, 2015.

Of the 3,369 intentional homicides in the state since he was sworn in 1,277 were in 2016 and 1,260 last year.

This year’s rate equates to an average of 99.6 murders per month or 3.6 per day, with almost four out of every five homicides committed with a firearm.

In contrast, there were 326 intentional homicides in the first six months of 2015, or 45.5% less than the figure recorded in the same period this year.

According to security authorities, the two most powerful criminal organizations that operate in the state — the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and Los Viagra — are engaged in a bitter turf war that is responsible for much of the violence in several Michoacán municipalities.

State authorities have identified Los Viagra leader Nicolás Sierra Santana, also known as El Gordo and El Coruco, and at least three of his brothers — all leaders in the new Familia Michoacana cartel — as priority targets.

On the CJNG side, a leader known as El Rambo along with several plaza chiefs, all of whom are believed to be close to cartel leader Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, are considered key targets.

State security sources told the newspaper El Universal that both the CJNG and Los Viagra have strongholds in the Tierra Caliente, Sierra Costa and Sierra Occidental regions of Michoacán, where their turf war has also been concentrated.

Marijuana and opium poppies are both grown in parts of the state and synthetic drugs are produced in clandestine laboratories.

Cocaine controlled by the Sinaloa Cartel also transits through the state, a source told El Universal.

Federal intelligence sources also confirmed that in some areas cartels use municipal police as an armed wing of their criminal organization, adding that operations to break up the complicity are already under way.

But despite authorities’ efforts, violence continues to plague Michoacán — one of five Mexican states subject to a “level 4: do not travel” advisory from the United States Department of State.

While many of the deaths reported are the result of gun battles between opposing criminal organizations, the high levels of violence make it inevitable that innocent people also become victims.

One of the eight victims at the Uruapan funeral parlor last week was a 17-year-old adolescent identified only as Eduardo who attended the vigil because he worked for the father of the man being mourned who had been killed earlier the same day.

“Eduardo was a good boy, he was never a bad person, very hardworking,” the young man’s uncle told El Universal at a vigil for his nephew.

“What’s happening at the moment in the state scares us. There’s so much killing, so many massacres of women, children and innocent people that we don’t know what’s happening anymore and what will happen later,” he added.

Fear coupled with anger at authorities’ failure to combat the presence of organized crime have triggered the reformation of at least three self-defense groups that have pledged not to put their weapons down until peace has returned to their towns.

One of the reformed groups is made up of around 200 residents of the Sierra Costa municipalities of Aquila, Coalcomán and Chinicuila who came together on July 20 with weapons at the ready to declare that they are back in business.

The vigilantes, all ex-members of a self-defense force that formed in 2013, started their public security duties the same day but some local residents rejected the reborn force, running them out of the town of Ostula with assaults rifles of their own while shouting “we don’t want you here!”

Michoacán was the first state in Mexico to see self-defense groups rise up to fight organized crime.

In 2013, an armed struggle began against the Caballeros Templarios cartel that went on for 10 months and extended to 32 communities.

However, the so-called autodefensas agreed to become officially registered community police forces in May 2014 and were consequently supplied with uniforms and weapons by the state.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Police arrest cartel boss believed responsible for missing Italians in Jalisco

By

César Hernández

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July 30, 2018

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A regional leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) arrested in Zapopan, Jalisco, is believed responsible for the January 31 disappearance of three Italian citizens.

The arrest of José Guadalupe “Don Lupe” Rodríguez Castillo was the result of a joint investigation by the Federal Police and the National Defense Secretariat and carried out by agents from the Criminal Investigation Agency (AIC).

AIC chief Omar García Harfuch said “El Quince,” as Rodríguez is also known, is believed to have controlled cartel activities in the Jalisco municipalities of Ciudad Guzmán, San Gabriel, Tecalitlán, Tolimán, Tonila, Tuxpan Zapotiltic and Zapotitlán de Vadillo.

The gang leader was also active in neighboring Colima state in the municipalities of Minatitlán and Tecomán, and in the capital, Manzanillo.

García also said that Rodríguez is presumed to be linked to the disappearance six months ago in Tecalitlán of Raffaele Risso, 60, his son Antonio, 25, and his nephew, Vincenzo Camino, 29.

Investigations have indicated that Tecalitlán municipal police were on Rodríguez’s payroll. Four officers were arrested in February.

They gave evidence that the three Italian citizens were intercepted in Tecalitlán and taken to Jilotlán de los Dolores to be delivered to the CJNG. The officers also stated they were under orders of former police chief Hugo Enrique Martínez Muñiz.

The cartel boss Rodríguez was arrested in the company of an accomplice, José Guadalupe Rodríguez Doroteo.

Both have been transported to Mexico City and placed in the custody of the Special Prosecutor for the Investigation of Organized Crime (SEIDO).

Source: Milenio (sp)

Armed civilians wake up Guaymas residents with gunfire

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July 30, 2018

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One of 11 vehicles damaged by gunfire in Guaymas.

No explanation has surfaced for a demonstration of fire power by armed civilians early Sunday in Guaymas, Sonora.

Gunfire in San Vicente panicked residents at 6:00am who awoke to a hail of bullets being fired at homes and vehicles in the area, but no one was hurt.

Eleven vehicles were damaged in the process. Police found dozens of spent cartridges of assault rifles at the scene.

They said no one has filed a complaint for fear of reprisals.

Meanwhile, increased crime in both Guaymas and Empalme have triggered a joint operation of vigilance and prevention by federal, state and provincial security forces in the two municipalities.

The operation has been put in place by the Sonora Coordination Group, a security coordinating agency. Checkpoints have been installed to look for stolen vehicles, illegal weapons and drugs.

Increased police patrols have been initiated in high-crime areas and in tourist and commercial areas including Miramar beach, Las Playitas, San Carlos and El Cochorit beach.

Source: El Imparcial (sp)