A group of adventurous soccer fans followed a long route to Russia for the World Cup tournament: they traveled 16,000 kilometers by bus from Durango.
The six friends set off in April from the northern state in their colorfully-painted, converted school bus dubbed La Bendición (The Blessing), bound for the Tamaulipas port city of Altamira.
From there the bus and its occupants — including a Canadian and a Chilean who tagged along for the ride — crossed the Atlantic Ocean before arriving in the German city of Bremerhaven on May 26 to start an 18-day road trip to Moscow.
Along the way, the red, green and white bus adorned with paintings of mariachi musicians, the female skeletons known as catrinas and a taco stand passed through more than 10 European cities, making longer stops in Amsterdam, Berlin and Krakow.
Message on the roof: ‘Sing and don’t cry.’
Written across the roof of the vehicle is the most famous line from the popular Mexican song Cielito Lindo: Canta y No Llores (Sing and Don’t Cry), perhaps suggesting that even if the Mexican team doesn’t perform well on the pitch, the party will go on.
In a video uploaded to social media yesterday, La Bendición is seen passing slowly through a street in the Russian capital, sounding its horn as Mexican fans cheer and sing to celebrate its arrival.
One of the bus travelers told the newspaper El Universal that Europeans’ reaction upon seeing the vehicle has been nothing short of extraordinary.
“People laugh, take photos, say hello to us and generally treat us very well and ask us what the bus is about,” Daniel Garza said.
While in Russia, the die-hard fans will travel to the port city of Rostov-on-Don for Mexico’s second match against South Korea and the team’s third group match against Sweden in Yekateringburg, ensuring that several thousand more kilometers will be added to the bus’s odometer.
Two of the enthusiastic fans first got the idea of setting off on the adventure to Russia by bus after attending the World Cup in Brazil four years ago.
One of the men told broadcaster UnoTV that the bus is furnished with beds, a kitchenette, a fridge and a couch, while it also has regular seats in the front so the fans can travel in safety.
“If you organize things well with your group of friends, it works out much cheaper than buying flights and paying for accommodation and other expenses,” Fernando Osorio said.
Héctor Galindo, who also traveled to Moscow on board La Bendición, said the aim of the trip is to enjoy the experience with friends and to “take Mexican culture to all the counties we travel through.”
The four Mexican supporters on the bus will be among 45,000 Mexicans that FIFA has estimated will travel to Russia for the month-long tournament.
The Mexican team, nicknamed El Tri because of its tricolored uniform, will play its opening match against defending champions Germany in Moscow at 10:00am Sunday.
Some dinosaur fossils unearthed eight years ago in Coahuila have led to the discovery of a new species that lived in Mexico 85 million years ago.
Acantholipan gonzalezi, which belongs to the nodosaurus family, is the oldest dinosaur to have been found in the region.
Paleontologists based their discovery after eight years of research on bones and bone fragments excavated in Ocampo in the northwest of the state, and believe that the young animal had died and its body was swept away by a river, later depositing it on what at the time was the coast.
A team of paleontologists from Coahuila’s Desert Museum, Chiapas and Germany judged that the remains were sufficiently distinct to be described as a new species, despite having only a partial skeleton to go on.
The animal would have weighed a little over half a tonne and measured 3.5 meters long. An adult would have been five to six meters long.
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Specialists say the finding confirms that many species of dinosaur inhabited Mexico tens of millions of years ago.
“Here in Mexico, we have a significant paleontological wealth, specifically in the state of Coahuila. We have this paleontological richness, and it is worthwhile for the population . . . to get involved in getting to know this heritage that belongs to all Mexicans,” said José Rubén Guzmán Gutiérrez, a Desert Museum collaborator.
The name Acantholipan gonzalezi combines the Greek akanthos, which means spine, with lipan, in honor of a tribe of Apaches who lived in the area of the discovery, and Mexican paleontologist Arturo González González, the director of the Desert Museum.
The museum, located in Saltillo, plans to display a replica of the dinosaur.
Meanwhile, the project that spawned the new find, Dinosaurs of the Desert Region of Coahuila, will continue, Guzmán said, with further work in the Ocampo area.
The four heroes of the train rescue and one of the inflatable toys.
Four young men who helped rescue nearly 100 people trapped in flooded rails cars Sunday in Guadalajara have been recognized for their efforts by the governor of Jalisco.
Aristóteles Sandoval Díaz commended the men and described them as “anonymous heroes” when he met them at the bar where they had been working when they went to the aid of stranded transit passengers.
The train was stationary at the Dermátologico station when heavy rains caused a massive flash flood, with water levels rising as high as four meters.
It was an employee at the nearby Salam Beach Bar who observed that passengers aboard the train needed help getting out.
“They’re drowning!” yelled Alicia Sandoval, grabbing the attention of the four young men, who ran from the bar, cleared the fence enclosing the station and headed for the floodwaters. There, they called out to observers for rope to rescue passengers, many of whom were in the deep water around the train.
But Sandoval had another idea. She grabbed surfboards and inflatable beach toys that formed the bar’s decor and they were passed along to the rescue team.
Interviewed shortly after, the four friends — who were joined by three other young men who came to help — described a chaotic and claustrophobic scene inside the rail cars. With the surfboards and flotation devices they helped the nervous passengers, crying children and seniors among them, to higher ground.
In one instance, a five-month-old baby was retrieved from the train by placing the chid on a floating backpack, making sure the child didn’t move during the process, Mauricio Covarrubias recounted, his clothes soaking wet.
He said the most desperate moment came when they felt an electrical shock upon touching the side of the train. “I said, ‘My god, perhaps this is where it ends, but just give me strength.'”
Half an hour later everyone had been removed from the cars and observers began to applaud the rescue.
#LluviaGDL Otra grabación más de la severa inundación que se vive en la línea 1 del Tren Ligero en el Dermatológico.
The owner of the bar wasn’t too pleased upon seeing images on social media that showed people removing the decor from the walls of his establishment, apparently intending to play with them. He soon learned the truth and said later of the rescuers, “. . . they’re good guys.”
Three days later, the four were still receiving messages of gratitude on social media.
Wheat lines the tracks after yesterday's train robbery.
Thieves struck another blow against rail transportation yesterday, stealing 50 tonnes of wheat in Puebla as auxiliary police stood by and watched.
Officials at the Ferromex railway consortium said thieves physically assaulted rail personnel when they attempted to call for help.
The theft occurred at about 1:00pm in the San Pablo Xochimehuacan district in the municipality of Puebla.
The estimated 50 people who participated in the robbery are believed by authorities to be members of Puebla-based gangs known as the Panteoneros and the Barranqueros.
Located to the northwest of downtown Puebla city, Xochimehuacan has become a hot spot for train robberies. Despite the large number of thefts over the last few months there hasn’t been a single arrest since February, when police thwarted a robbery in progress.
According to statistics, there were 1,986 train robberies in Mexico in the first five months of the year, with the central-eastern Mexico states of Puebla, Hidalgo, Tlaxcala and Veracruz seeing the largest number.
Cutzamala de Pinzón, where few want to stand for election.
A group of candidates running for office for the same party in a municipality in the notoriously-violent Tierra Caliente region of Guerrero have quit just two weeks after they replaced another contingent of candidates who also resigned en masse.
Off the record, party officials are saying the resignations are probably due to threats by organized crime.
The 11 Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) candidates (or their substitutes) had been nominated to stand for mayor, trustee and councilor positions in Cutzamala de Pinzón, one of nine municipalities that make up the Guerrero portion of the tri-state Tierra Caliente.
Their candidacies were registered with electoral authorities on May 31.
Arturo Pacheco Bedolla, a PRD representative at the Guerrero Electoral Institute (IEPCG), said he didn’t know why the candidates had quit, adding that the party’s previous group of aspirants didn’t reveal their reasons for withdrawing either.
But the fear of becoming a victim of political violence — at least 113 politicians and candidates have been killed during the current election period starting last September — and/or coercion from criminal groups are likely factors, according to a PRD official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Last month, Guerrero Governor Héctor Astudillo warned that that organized crime is seeking to influence the electoral process in the state in order to gain control of the next generation of mayors and members of state Congress and the regions they will represent.
In a radio interview, Astudillo explained that “criminal groups don’t only try to extort money [from politicians] but also to control territory through the authorities,” citing the Tierra Caliente region as a prime example.
Pacheco Bedolla explained that in accordance with the state’s electoral laws, candidates who quit voluntarily cannot be replaced after a May 31 cut-off. Only those forced to withdraw due to death or mental illness can be substituted.
But the PRD official charged that the legislation is unconstitutional and said the party would challenge it before both state and federal electoral authorities with the intention of nominating a third list of candidates.
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On May 31, the IEPCG approved the replacement of 477 municipal and state candidates who had voluntarily decided to pull out of the July 1 elections.
The full lists of candidates for the PRD and the Morena party in the municipality of Pedro Ascencio Alquisiras — located in the north of Guerrero — were among those who quit the race.
According to risk analysis firm Etellekt, 23 politicians or candidates have been assassinated in Guerrero since September, the highest toll of any state in the country. An election official was also murdered in Guerrero last month.
More than 8,000 candidates will appear on ballots in the southern state to contest elected positions in 81 municipalities as well as seats in the Guerrero and federal congresses.
Heavy rain turned streets in Guanajuato into raging rivers yesterday after a dam in the city burst its banks.
The floodwaters brought traffic to a standstill in the state capital and inundated businesses in the historic center and the Sangre de Cristo district as well as at the IMSS medical clinic in El Cantador.
A torrential downpour began at 5:30pm and didn’t start to ease off until 7:00pm, causing the Presa de la Olla dam to overflow and fill the surrounding streets with water.
The dam is located about four kilometers southeast of downtown Guadalajara and 500 meters from the state government building.
Among the thoroughfares affected were Subterránea Street, which runs beneath the city’s downtown, and Benito Juárez Avenue. Both roads — and others — were shut off completely to traffic and pedestrians for more than two hours.
In several videos that circulated on social media, partially submerged vehicles can be seen on city streets. The road leading to the swollen dam, Paseo de la Presa, was also flooded.
Guanajuato Mayor Édgar Castro Cerillo convened a meeting last night with Civil Protection authorities to assess the impact of the flooding and ordered the dam’s floodgates to be left open to allow the large quantities of excess water to flow to the Guanajuato river.
“A large amount of water fell in a very short time . . . the rain was so quick that it caused flooding and the overflowing of the dam,” the mayor commented.
However, Castro explained that “Guanajuato is not in a state of maximum alert, we’re not in an emergency” although he added that all of the city’s relevant authorities and security forces were on the ground and ready to respond to any situation.
There were no reports of injuries or loss of life.
The mayor also said that city personnel were working to unblock rubbish-clogged drains that were exacerbating the flooding.
By 8:30pm the floodwaters had begun to recede and Castro said that no one remained in danger.
In a preliminary report, Civil Protection authorities said that torrents of water “ran with a lot of fury” through the streets, while the city’s water utility said that all of the city’s reservoirs were at elevated capacity levels.
The French utility company Engie has begun distributing natural gas in the Bajío region, an area made up of 22 municipalities in the states of Aguascalientes, Jalisco, Guanajuato, San Luis Potosí and Zacatecas.
Among the cities that are covered by the new service are Aguascalientes, Guanajuato, Celaya, Salamanca, Irapuato, Silao, León, Villa de Reyes and Lagos de Moreno.
The company already distributes natural gas in México state, Jalisco, Puebla, Tlaxcala, Tampico, Tamaulipas and Querétaro, where it collectively has about 500,000 residential and commercial customers.
The first client to take advantage of the service in its seventh distribution region was dairy producer Productos LDM in Lagos de Moreno, Jalisco.
After the plant’s new gas valve was opened, the CEO of Engie México said the company’s expansion plans are progressing well and explained that its goal is to reach one million customers in the coming years.
“. . . This important region of the country offers us more business opportunities,” Fernando Tovar said.
In an interview with Notimex, the company’s distribution director, Álvaro Corona, said plans are well advanced to provide natural gas in the Yucatán capital Mérida and that Campeche, Hidalgo and Colima are also on the list.
Engie has gradually increased its presence since it first started distributing natural gas in Mexico 20 years ago.
It has also diversified its business interests by moving into the renewable energy sector and is currently developing five solar and two wind projects, which are backed by a US $800-million investment. Together they will have the capacity to add more than 925 megawatts of clean energy to the national grid.
Over the past five years, Engie has invested more than US $2 billion in new projects in Mexico.
Apart from its natural gas and renewable interests, the company also operates two power stations with a capacity to generate 345 megawatts of electricity.
A small mud turtle first discovered by residents of Puerto Vallarta 20 years ago was recognized as a new species last month, but now it is also considered one of the most threatened freshwater turtle species in the world.
The distinct looking turtle became known in the Jalisco city as casquito de Vallarta, or little Vallarta helmet, due to the shape of its shell.
Residents alerted experts some 20 years ago about the find, but they decided they were nothing more than juvenile specimens of another species.
But five years ago they gave another look at the diminutive turtle, the results of which were published on May 16 in a study entitled A Distinctive New Species of Mud Turtle from Western México in the journal Chelonian Conservation and Biology.
Studies performed on nine turtle specimens, five of them dead, led by a team of scientists from research institutions in the states of Tabasco, Jalisco, Mexico City, Guanajuato and Veracruz found that the turtle indeed belonged to a new species, Kinosternon vogti.
The Vallarta mud turtle, the largest specimens of which are 10 centimeters long, has only been found in a few human-created or human-affected habitats such as small streams and ponds found only around the resort town of Puerto Vallarta. All of the mud turtle’s currently known habitats have been damaged by urban growth.
Of the four known living specimens only one is a female. It was sent along with a male to a reproduction center in Tabasco, while the two other males remain in Puerto Vallarta.
The five turtles found dead have been deposited in a collection at the National Autonomous University of México, where they will be subject to further studies.
The Chelonian Conservation and Biology paper said “an urgent conservation program is necessary as well as explorations in the area to find viable populations of the species.”
The name of the new turtle species pays homage to Richard Vogt, a herpetologist and turtle conservationist who has studied the reptile for 40 years.
An estimated 4,000 people marched in Tijuana yesterday to demand justice in the case of a 15-year-old girl who disappeared last Friday.
Diana Laura Piggeonountt Gómez hasn’t been seen since she left school. Yesterday, some 4,000 of her schoolmates and teachers joined her relatives and marched on the state Attorney General’s office (PGJE).
The march by teachers and students was organized by senior student Andrea Rincón, who told the newspaper El Universal that even though she didn’t know the missing girl personally, she had to do something: “Violence in Tijuana is at a level where anyone could be the next to disappear.”
After marching from the Lázaro Cárdenas preparatory school, participants proceeded to the headquarters of the state Attorney General, where they were received by the deputy prosecutor for special investigations.
Diana Laura Piggeonountt, missing since Friday.
José María González Martínez pledged that he would stay in close communication with those concerned about the disappearance, and revealed that the investigation so far has led authorities to dismiss human trafficking as a motive.
His office issued an amber alert in the case on Monday after deciding the girl could be at risk due to her age.
Piggeonountt’s case is one of 703 cases of missing persons currently being investigated by the PGJE.
