Here’s what I learned about Mexican wine pairing

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August 12, 2024

Cheers — Bel Woodhouse headed to Tulum to learn about Mexican wine pairings. What she found was even better than she had imagined. (All photos by Bel Woodhouse)

Mexico’s wine industry is booming and quickly becoming a contender on the global stage. Finca El Empecinado in Baja California’s Guadalupe Valley, produced a Grand Gold medal winner at the 2023 Concours Mondial de Bruxelles (CMB), one of wine’s biggest prizes. Selected as the 2023 Revelation White Wine, this canary colored beauty was the top choice out of 7,054 entrants, from 50 different nations. But what would this go well with? To find out more about the best Mexican wine pairings, I went in search of answers.

My friend and I could barely contain our excitement when we went to stay at the Conrad Tulum Riviera Maya. We were about to meet the Director of Wine for Hilton Tulum and Conrad Tulum, Aaron Alvarez, for a tasting of top Mexican wines, each paired with traditional dishes from the regions where the wines are grown. It was hands down the best tasting of my life. That includes tastings in Italy, the US, Australia’s top wine regions, and European nations (Slovenia, Bratislava, Slovenia). As I said, I enjoy a glass.

Starting with a white

Tres Raíces 2023 Sauvignon Blanc, great with Mexican seafood starters.

Tres Raíces bright, light yellow 2023 Sauvignon Blanc was our first wine. It was fresh with hints of mango, pineapple, and citrus. This makes it the perfect white for a ceviche pairing. Mine was a little different though because I’m a vegetarian. So, instead of seafood, a traditional ceviche from the Dolores Hidalgo region of Guanajuato arrived.

Faced with the xoconostle (prickly pear) and mushroom ceviche, my taste buds sang. If it wasn’t rude to do so, I may have licked the bowl. Judging by the noises coming from my friend, I could tell the traditional seafood ceviche was every bit as amazing.

Aaron added that, in his opinion, Tres Raíces is “the best Sauvignon Blanc in Mexico.” I’m trusting that opinion, because it certainly was sublime.

Rosé all day, wine not?

A light rosé from Valle de Guadalupe, Pitaya, was incredible when served alongside a fruit pallet cleanser.

Yes, we all giggled at the pun. Aaron introduced a special rosé from Casta de Vinos. From the Guadalupe Valley in Baja California. Pitaya, a Rosé Grenache, has some very special ingredients.

Passion, courage, feeling, and love are all essential parts of the wine. Each bottle is in remembrance of winemaker Claudia Horta’s mother, who lost her battle to cancer. Now, Pitaya, the special rosé grenache blend, has helped over 300 women with cancer by donating a portion of their profits to support medical costs.

This wine is bright and clean, a beautiful soft coral color with copper flecks. It tastes of berries and pink roses. Served alongside strawberries and dragonfruit, it was refreshing and lovely. With a touch of honey and wildflowers, it was a perfect pairing.

Onto my personal favorites, reds

Don Leo proved a wonderfully medium-bodied Cabernet Sauvignon. (Passion Spirits)

I’ve been a red wine lover my whole life. So, I most looked forward to the part of the tasting where I tried a medium-bodied and then a full-bodied red. And I must say, I was not disappointed.

The first red was a medium-bodied cabernet sauvignon from Don Leo in the Parras Valley, Coahuila. Even while Aaron poured, I could smell the blackcurrant and berries. But there was something else. Do you ever have that sensation that something is on the tip of your tongue?

Raising the glass to my nose, I felt a hint of beautiful dark chocolate fill my senses. This was ticking all the boxes for me. I love blackcurrant and dark chocolate, so I couldn’t wait to take the first sip. At a medium-high acidity, I was impressed that it was so smooth.

Then came the perfect pairing: a traditional dish from Coahuila. My friend delighted in a chicken filled with sweet corn on a tomato and red pepper sauce. My veggie substitute was one of the best things I’ve ever eaten — so much so that I kissed the chef at the end of the tasting and asked for the recipe!

Saving the best for last

Megacero is probably the best red wine I have ever tasted. I have tasted a lot of red wine, so this is no small claim.

The Megacero is a full-bodied premium blend from Encinillas Winery in Chihuahua. Organic and sustainably farmed, this wine was magnificent. It may have skyrocketed to my all-time favourite Mexican wine in fact.

It was a deep carmine color, known as sangre (blood), Aaron explained. The smell of currant, mushroom, and earth was heavenly. It reminded me of my grandfather, who was a wine distributor and avid leather worker. His workshop always smelled of earthy fragrances and red wine so for me, it was home.

It paired beautifully with a regional specialty: Discada. Traditionally, discada is cooked on a hot plate over a fire in the field and usually contains meat. Mine was mushroom with blue cheese and bell pepper. It turned out to be the perfect mouthful of flavor to bring out the smoothness of the wine.

Honestly, I could eat that for the rest of my life. It was magic.

This was more than a wine tasting. As Aaron and his team said, “It was an activation of our soul and identity. The team of Tulum makes it a culinary tour around Mexico. We put our heart and soul into this experience.”

Mexico Correspondent for International Living, Bel is an experienced writer, author, photographer and videographer with 500+ articles published both in print and across digital platforms. Living in the Mexican Caribbean for over 7 years now she’s in love with Mexico and has no plans to go anywhere anytime soon.

How a colorful novel changed the course of tourism in Los Cabos

By

Chris Sands

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August 12, 2024

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During the waning days of World War II, pilot Luis Cóppola Bonillas found himself with some unexpected downtime. The Tucson, Arizona native was attached to the U.S. Eighth Air Force and had flown just under three dozen missions in his B-17 Flying Fortress, the aircraft responsible for more bombs dropped over Europe during the war than any other. Grounded one day in Greenland due to inclement weather, he had time to read a book.

The one he chose would change the course of his life and forever change the landscape of Los Cabos. Inspired by the Antonio de Fierro Blanco novel The Journey of the Flame, Cóppola had relocated to the Baja California peninsula by 1948 and was busily ferrying passengers in war surplus DC-3s as a pilot for the regional airline Trans Mar de Cortés. Over the next six decades, he would also help open (and own) some of the pioneering resorts in La Paz and Los Cabos during the birth of the tourist age and would play an important role in founding what is today the world’s richest fishing tournament.

‘The Journey of the Flame’ and the story of its mysterious author

Trans Mar de Cortés airliner on the tarmac in Loreto, circa 1961. (Howard E. Gulick Collection at the UC San Diego Library)

What appealed to Cóppola about the book? That’s unknown, but he’s hardly the only person to revere it. My first Los Cabos landlord, for example, upon learning I was a writer, immediately asked for help in petitioning the publisher for a Spanish-language translation.

Certainly, no novel has ever captured the rich culture of the Baja California peninsula quite like The Journey of the Flame. First published in 1933, it opens with the 104th birthday celebration of its narrator, the flaming-haired Don Juan Obrigón, then flashes back to the journey he took as a 12-year-old boy, accompanying the Spanish viceroy from San José del Cabo to Monterey, California, circa 1810. Along the way, readers are treated to a succession of compelling episodes, generously punctuated with archaic and often delightful Spanish idioms, that allusively refer to important figures and events in the region’s history.

Amazingly, the novel’s backstory is every bit as colorful. Antonio de Fierro Blanco was a pen name, of course. The real author was Walter Nordhoff and his Baja bona fides were legit. His father, Charles B. Nordhoff had written a highly influential 1872 work about California (California: A Book for Travelers and Settlers), so his proposed follow-up on Baja California (Peninsular California) led the Mexican International Company to gift him with 50,000 acres of land near Ensenada. Walter was soon put in charge of that tract, which became Rancho Ramajal, an experience that would help to inspire his great Baja novel. Walter’s son Charles, meanwhile, would later become the family’s most famous author, co-writing The Bounty Trilogy with James Norman Hall.

The pioneer resorts of Los Cabos and the people Who built them

Cabo San Lucas as it looked in 1961. (Howard E. Gulick Collection at the UC San Diego Library)

When Cóppola came to Baja California as the first pilot hired by nascent airline Trans Mar de Cortés, what is now the peninsula’s southernmost state, Baja California Sur (which wasn’t legally recognized until 1974), had about 60,000 residents and only one modern hotel: the Hotel Perla in La Paz. That would soon change. Cóppola and his wife Evangelina Joffroy bought the 12-room Hotel Los Arcos in 1952. It had opened two years previously, the same year Abelardo “Rod” Rodriguez and partner W. Matt “Bud” Parr premiered Rancho Las Cruces, and a year before Fisher House, the first modest inn in Los Cabos opened.

Partnerships would be a feature of many of the region’s early resorts. Rodríguez and Parr teamed up again for Hotel Palmilla in 1956, and Cóppola was a partner in Parr’s Hotel Cabo San Lucas, which opened at Chileno Bay in 1961, Luis Bulnes Molleda, the former Cabo San Lucas cannery manager, would get in on the act for Hotel Finisterra in 1972. But Cóppola was the driving force and principal owner of that stunning property. Bulnes would open his own Hotel Solmar two years later at Land’s End. These and Rodriguez’s Hotel Hacienda in Cabo San Lucas, that city’s first lodging in 1963, pioneered tourism in Los Cabos, setting the stage for the opening of the Transpeninsular Highway in 1973.

Before the highway was completed, building hotels was anything but easy. So opening two benchmark properties and expanding the Hotel Los Arcos to 182 rooms by 1976 were feats worth crowing about. As Cóppola remembered in a 1992 interview with Baja Explorer: “When Bud Parr and I built the Hotel Cabo San Lucas, we didn’t have a damn thing. There was nothing here. We had to load up boatloads of lumber and plants. We recruited carpenters from Manzanillo and boated them over here. We used to fly in our own people, supplies, and a lot of the materials for construction.”

The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue and the birth of Bisbee’s Black & Blue

The 1965 Swimsuit Issue celebrated “little known” Los Cabos. (Sports Illustrated)

Photography for Sports Illustrated’s second Swimsuit Issue in 1965 took place in Baja California and the magazine published an accompanying article on emerging tourism in Los Cabos. Pioneering hoteliers Parr and Cóppola were each quoted, with the latter telling a colorful anecdote about the difference in attitude between local fishermen and those who visited.

“Señor, they are coming in with the boats and the motors and they go out and fish with a captain and two more men to help,” exclaimed a local boy, according to Cóppola. “And I said, ‘Well, this is great fishing down here,” and he said, ‘Yes, but they spend all this money to get maybe one marlin, and you know my father? My father, he goes out and gets 10 or 15 marlin in one day all by himself.’ I never could make that boy understand the ways of the North American.”

Cóppola did understand the importance of fishing to the early resorts in Baja California Sur and proved it in the early 1980s when he was instrumental in launching Bisbee’s Black & Blue marlin fishing tournament. His and Hotel Finisterra manager Bill Baffert’s impromptu meeting with Bob Bisbee’s Sr., then running a fuel dock on Balboa Island in Newport Beach, led to the inaugural tournament in Cabo San Lucas in 1982. The first purse was modest ( US $10,000) but by 2022 it had grown to $11.5 million, the richest ever offered by any fishing tournament.

The book for which Luis Cóppola was an inspiration

Pool scenery at Luis Cóppola’s landmark Hotel Finisterra; now the Sandos Finisterra. (Sandos Finisterra Los Cabos)

Cóppola passed away in 2008 and only one of his hotels remains open, the now Sandos-managed Finisterra. But his legacy still looms large and he and hoteliers Parr, Rodríguez, and Bulnes are honored by name at Plaza Pioneros in Cabo San Lucas.

Thus, his name will always be remembered in Los Cabos and forever associated with two great books about the Baja California peninsula: The Journey of the Flame and The Sea of Cortez. The latter, a bestselling travel book by Ray Cannon published in 1966, was enormously important in spurring tourism to the region. However, Cannon could not have written it without the help of Trans Mar de Cortés owner Mayo Obregón, who authorized pilots like Cóppola to take the writer wherever he wanted to go free of charge.

Naturally, Cóppola welcomed the duty. After all, who knew better the power of a good story?

Chris Sands is the Cabo San Lucas local expert for the USA Today travel website 10 Best, writer of Fodor’s Los Cabos travel guidebook, and a contributor to numerous websites and publications, including Tasting Table, Marriott Bonvoy Traveler, Forbes Travel Guide, Porthole Cruise, Cabo Living and Mexico News Daily. His specialty is travel-related content and lifestyle features focused on food, wine and golf.

Mexico City-Puebla highway blockade ends after 5 days

By

MND Staff

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August 12, 2024

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The Mexico-Puebla highway, without a car (or blockade) in sight. — The highway was completely open as of Saturday morning, Puebla Interior Minister Javier Aquino Limón said. (Guardia Nacional Carreteras/X)

All lanes on the Mexico City-Puebla highway are now open after protesters ended a five-day blockade early Saturday.

Residents of the municipality of Santa Rita Tlahuapan, Puebla, commenced a blockade of the Mexico City-Puebla highway and the Arco Norte toll road last Tuesday.

They hoped to pressure on authorities to compensate them for land expropriated more than 60 years ago for the construction of the highway.

The protesters, among whom were ejidatarios or community land owners, cleared their blockades on Saturday morning after several hours of dialogue with state authorities.

Puebla Interior Minister Javier Aquino Limón told reporters on Saturday morning that the Mexico-Puebla highway and the Arco Norte road had been “completely reopened in both directions.”

Earlier last week, the protesters agreed to clear one lane in each direction after their blockades halted truckers and motorists for two full days and caused economic losses in excess of 10 billion pesos (US $524.3 million), according to business groups.

Semi-trailers wait in long lines on the Mexico-Puebla highway, before the blockade ended on Saturday. — Protesters lifted the blockade Saturday morning, after five days. (Alaín Hernández/Cuartoscuro)

Aquino said that ejidatarios and their “committees and advisors” would meet with federal authorities on Monday to discuss their compensation claim for 41 hectares of land on the López Rayón ejido that the government expropriated for highway construction in 1958.

As of 2:30 p.m. CST, there was no news of the outcome of that meeting.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said last week that the government couldn’t pay more than the amount established by an appraisal carried out by a federal authority.

“The appraisals are done, we have the money to pay the campesinos but the lawyers say, ‘We don’t agree with the appraisals.’ They want more,” he said last Thursday.

“[But] we, as public servants, can’t pay more than an appraisal establishes,” López Obrador said without revealing the valuation amount.

With reports from El Universal, Proceso and La Jornada

Fresh off the Olympics, Alan Cleland becomes first Mexican to win ‘world’s largest surfing competition’

By

MND Staff

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August 12, 2024

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Mexican surfer Alan Cleland catches a wave. — Surfer Alan Cleland took first place in the US Open of Surfing on Sunday. (Conade/X)

Two weeks after making history as Mexico’s first surfer in the Olympics, 22-year-old Alan Cleland Quiñonez took his burgeoning career to yet another crest by winning the US Open of Surfing on Sunday.

The Colima native became the first Mexican champion in the 65-year history of the event, which is held every year in Huntington Beach, California, and is regarded as the world’s largest surfing competition.

In the grand final, Cleland bested another Mexican-born surfer, Marco Mignot, 23, of Sayulita, Nayarit. Thanks to his dual nationality, Mignot now represents France.

Cleland was born to a Mexican mother and an Irish father in Boca de Pascuales, a remote fishing village — and surfing hotspot — in the municipality of Tecomán, Colima. His father, also a surfer, put his son onto his first surfboard when he was only 2 years old.

As he grew, Cleland became better and better, turning professional at age of 13. Eight years after that, he qualified for the Summer Olympics in Paris during the 2023 World Surfing Games in El Salvador.

He made his Olympic debut on July 27, finishing second in a six-man heat to advance to the second round. The competition took place in the legendary surfing spot of Teahupo’o, Tahiti, which is 16,000 kilometers (10,000 miles) from Paris but is part of French Polynesia, an overseas territory of France.

Surfers Alan Cleland and Marco Mignot hold trophies after the US Open of Surfing. — Alan Cleland, right, took first place over his friend Marco Mignot, a Mexican-born surf representing France. (Marco Mignot/Instagram)

Surfing made its Olympic debut at Shidashita Beach in Japan as part of the 2020 Tokyo Games, which were held in 2021 due to the COVID pandemic.

In Tahiti, Cleland made it through the second round but was defeated in the third round on July 29, one level shy of the quarterfinals. He lost to Frenchman Joan Duru, who scored 18.13 on his two best rides compared to 15.17 by Cleland.

Cleland’s participation in the US Open of Surfing began less than two weeks later on Aug. 9, when he took second in his heat. The Mexican surfer won his next heat to get into the round of 16, where the format turned to head-to-head competition and he beat Brazilian Michael Rodrigues.

In the quarterfinals, he beat American Crosby Colapinto, then topped Australian Jarvis Earle in the semifinals.

In a final that pitted two Mexican-born surfers against each other, Cleland’s 12.70 was just good enough to beat Mignot’s 12.60. Score one for Colima over Nayarit — and a big one for Mexico.

“It means everything to me to represent my flag, my entire country, my people,” he said. “It is an honor. Being able to put this flag up high is incredible. Viva Mexico!”

Cleland was appearing in his first final in surfing’s important Challenger Series, which will determine which 10 surfers will automatically qualify for the 2025 Championship Tour.

With his victory, Cleland jumped a whopping 42 spots in the rankings, all the way up to No. 9.

“It’s crazy … It feels amazing,” Cleland told the news and information website Surfer.com. “Especially having a final with one of my good friends who I grew up surfing with, literally since we were 8 years old. It’s an honor to see how far we’ve come. To have the support crew, the Mexico crew, all my friends and my dad, everybody here, it feels crazy.”

With reports from Récord, ESPN, El Financiero and Surfer.com

Lime producers in Michoacán go on strike to protest insecurity

By

MND Staff

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August 12, 2024

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Harvested limes in a truck in a field, in Michocán where lime producers are currently on strike. — Lime packers are on strike again and this time, some farmers are considering joining their cause. (Juan José Estrada Serfaín/Cuartoscuro)

Organized crime is once again strangling the lime industry in the state of Michoacán as five lime-packing houses decided to strike and shut down operations to protest the lack of security.

The packing houses say they might continue their work-stoppage through Wednesday, the day farmers are set to harvest their crop. Lime farmers — many of whom expressed a willingness to join the work-stoppage — told Milenio newspaper that the packing houses are located in Apatzingán and Buenavista.

Limes for sale at a market — Extortion at multiple stages of the supply chain has pushed up the price of limes while cutting producers’ profits. (Mario Jasso / Cuartoscuro.com)

Both packers and farmers have been urging authorities to take action because, despite existing security measures, extortion remains a serious concern for the entire industry.

Elements of organized crime “demand payments from the producer, the packer, the shipper, the wholesaler and even at the final point of sale,” Juan Carlos Anaya, director general of GCMA, a farmers’ market consultancy, told Reforma newspaper. “The entire chain of production is threatened by insecurity.”

In June, the United States paused safety inspections for avocados and mangos in Michoacán due to a security incident involving U.S. Department of Agriculture staff. After a 10-day suspension, inspections restarted pending a new security model.

Last year in September, 600 soldiers deployed to Michoacán to re-establish security in the lime-growing region. Organized crime had targeted the state’s lime industry, causing prices to spike, while also exerting control over avocado production. The ongoing extortion practices are again causing lime prices to soar while reducing producers’ profit margins, Anaya said.

Michoacán is Mexico’s No. 2 producer of limes and is the world’s No. 1 producer of avocados. But it is not the only state facing extortion-related violence.

Minerva Pérez Castro, the president of Baja California’s Chamber of Fishing and Aquafarming, was murdered in July, just hours after publicly decrying ongoing extortion operations in the fishing and restaurant sectors in her state.

Also last month, Julio Almanza, president of the Tamaulipas Chambers of Commerce, was shot and killed in the border city of Matamoros. Almanza had blamed widespread crime, including extortion, for causing the Oxxo convenience store chain to temporarily close all 191 of its stores in Nuevo Laredo, another border city in Tamaulipas.

With reports from Milenio, Infobae and Reforma

Consumer confidence declines in July

By

MND Staff

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August 12, 2024

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Price signs in a produce market, showing inflation in Mexico — Headline, or overall, inflation fell to 3.59% in January. (Mario Jasso/Cuartoscuro)

Consumer confidence in Mexico declined in July compared to June, but remains higher than a year earlier, according to official data published on Monday.

National statistics agency INEGI reported that the consumer confidence index (ICC) declined 0.4 points between June and July to reach 46.9. On a year-over-year basis, the ICC increased 0.6 points.

Two hands count Mexican pesos, a currency that is recovering from a recent depreciation — Mexicans were less optimistic in July than a month earlier about their capacity to save some of their income, go on a vacation in the next 12 months and buy a car. (Cuartoscuro)

The index score is calculated based on responses to a range of questions in the National Survey on Consumer Confidence.

INEGI, in conjunction with the Bank of Mexico, conducted the survey at 2,336 homes in cities across all 32 federal entities during the first 20 days of July.

It asked respondents about:

Their current economic situation compared to a year earlier.
Their expected economic situation over the next 12 months.
Their opinion about Mexico’s current economic situation compared to 12 months earlier.
Their opinion about Mexico’s expected economic situation over the next 12 months.
Their current capacity to purchase furniture, a television, a washing machine and other home appliances compared to their capacity 12 months earlier.

Their responses — derived from the options of much better, better, the same, worse and much worse with regard to the first four questions, and greater, the same or lesser with respect to the fifth — were weighted and used to formulate the ICC score.

The biggest driver of the month-over-month decrease in consumer confidence was a decline of 0.7 points in the sub-index that measures perceptions of Mexico’s economic outlook over the coming year. The four other sub-indexes also declined compared to June, with the reductions ranging between 0.3 and 0.4 points.

The survey also found that Mexicans were less optimistic in July than a month earlier about their capacity to save some of their income, go on a vacation in the next 12 months and buy a car (new or used) in the next two years.

#TomaNota ✍🏼 El @INEGI_INFORMA publicó hoy el Indicador de Confianza del Consumidor (#ICC) de julio de 2024 y los resultados indican que la confianza del consumidor tuvo una disminución ⬇️ mensual y un aumento ⬆️anual.
🧵Te explicamos más en este mini hilo. pic.twitter.com/jrKmvXJSMl

— México, ¿cómo vamos? (@MexicoComoVamos) August 12, 2024

The survey was conducted after economic growth in Mexico slowed to just 1.1% annually in the second quarter of the year.

Last month, the International Monetary Fund cut its 2024 growth forecast for Mexico to 2.2% from 2.4%.

Another issue on consumers’ minds is inflation: the National Consumer Price Index rose for a fifth consecutive month in July, with annual headline inflation hitting 5.57%.

Meanwhile, unemployment ticked up to 2.8% in June from 2.6% in May, and the Mexican peso has weakened considerably since the June 2 elections, making imported goods more expensive.

The peso was trading at 19.08 to the US dollar shortly after 1 p.m. Mexico City time, down from a closing position of 18.83 to the greenback on Friday, and 17.01 just before the comprehensive victory of Claudia Sheinbaum and the ruling Morena party in the presidential and congressional elections on the first Sunday in June.

Mexico News Daily

‘El Mayo’ releases statement on his arrest: ‘I was kidnapped’

By

MND Staff

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August 12, 2024

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Alleged Sinaloa Cartel leader Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García has sought to set the record straight about the events leading up to his arrest in the United States last month.

He asserts that he was kidnapped and forced onto a U.S.-bound private plane after traveling to Culiacán, Sinaloa with the belief that he was going to help resolve a dispute between the Sinaloa governor and a former mayor of the state capital.

El Mayo Zambada, older and thinner than in other photos, in a car wearing a blue shirt. — Some reports speculated that El Mayo might have made a deal with the U.S. government, but recent statements by Ambassador Ken Salazar and El Mayo himself confirm otherwise. (X)

In a statement sent to media outlets by his lawyer Frank Perez, Zambada also claimed that former mayor Héctor Cuen was killed “at the same time, and in the same place, where I was kidnapped” — a version of events that contradicts the official account of the politician’s murder.

The 76-year-old co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel and Joaquín Guzmán López, a son of convicted drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, were arrested on July 25 after arriving at a small airport near El Paso, Texas.

Initial reports suggested that Guzmán López tricked Zambada into boarding a U.S.-bound plane by telling him they were going to inspect clandestine airstrips within Mexico.

However, Perez subsequently said that Guzmán López “forcibly kidnapped” his client before he was put on a plane bound for the United States. The lawyer also said that Zambada “neither surrendered nor negotiated any terms with the U.S. government” before he flew into the Doña Ana County airport, located about 25 kilometers northwest of El Paso near Santa Teresa, New Mexico.

United States Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar issued a statement on Friday that said that evidence “indicates that El Mayo was taken [to the U.S.] against his will.”

Salazar also said that Guzmán López “voluntarily” turned himself in to United States authorities.

Mi declaración acerca de los hallazgos sobre la custodia de Ismael Zambada García “El Mayo” y Joaquín Guzmán López #SeguridadCompartida

👉 https://t.co/uLrKBQrLRM pic.twitter.com/vMof6OLfGR

— Embajador Ken Salazar (@USAmbMex) August 9, 2024

Both Zambada — who had avoided capture during a decades-long criminal career — and Guzmán López have pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking and other charges they face.

On the day of their arrest, the U.S. Justice Department said in a statement that both men face “multiple charges in the United States for leading the [Sinaloa] Cartel’s criminal operations, including its deadly fentanyl manufacturing and trafficking networks.”

“I was ambushed. A group of men assaulted me”

In his statement, Zambada said there have been “many inaccurate reports” about the events leading up to his arrest, and affirmed that he was providing “the true facts.”

“… I wish to say at the outset that I did not turn myself in, and I did not come voluntarily to the United States. Nor did I have any agreement with either government. To the contrary, I was kidnapped and brought to the U.S. forcibly and against my will,” he said.

Zambada said that Guzmán López asked him to attend a meeting to help resolve a dispute between Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rocha Moya and Cuén over who should head up the Autonomous University of Sinaloa (UAS).

On July 25, Zambada said he went to a ranch and event center just outside Culiacán where the supposed meeting was to take place.

Upon arriving, El Mayo said he saw “a large number of armed men wearing green military uniforms” who he assumed were gunmen for Guzmán López and his brothers, collectively known as “Los Chapitos.”

Zambada said he entered the property with two security personnel: a commander in the State Judicial Police of Sinaloa, José Rosario Heras López and Rodolfo Chaidez, “a long-time member of my security team.”

Cuén Ojeda, founder of the Sinaloa Party (PAS) — Zambada says the former mayor of Culiacán Héctor Cuén Ojeda was present at the meeting where he was “ambushed” on July 25. Cuén Ojeda was killed that same day. (Carlos Sicairos/Cuartoscuro)

“While walking toward the meeting area, I saw Héctor Cuen and one of his aides. I greeted them briefly before proceeding inside to a room that had a table filled with fruit. I saw Joaquín Guzmán Lopez, whom I have known since he was a young boy, and he gestured for me to follow him. Trusting the nature of the meeting and the people involved, I followed without hesitation. I was led into another room which was dark,” Zambada said.

“As soon as I set foot inside of that room, I was ambushed. A group of men assaulted me, knocked me to the ground, and placed a dark-colored hood over my head.”

Zambada said he was tied up, handcuffed and forced into the bed of a pick-up truck before being driven to a nearby landing strip and “forced” onto a private plane. During the “ordeal,” he said he was “subjected to physical abuse” causing “significant injuries” to his back, knee and wrists.

Once on the plane, Zambada said that Guzmán López removed the hood from his head and used zip ties to bind him to a seat.

He also said that Cuén — mayor of Culiacán between 2011 and 2012, founder of the regionally influential Sinaloa Party and rector of the UAS between 2005 and 2009 — was not shot at a gas station, as Sinaloa authorities have said. Rather, Zambada asserts that he was killed at the property outside Culiacán where he believed he was going to meet with the ex-mayor and Rocha Moya, who denied any knowledge of the meeting allegedly arranged for July 25, and who has said he was in Los Angeles that day.

El Mayo’s claim that was lured to the meeting on the understanding he was to meet with the Sinaloa governor — a representative of Mexico’s ruling Morena party — is not preposterous. Security analyst Chris Dalby told Mexico News Daily earlier this year that “playing ball” with the Sinaloa Cartel is “just part of the game” for municipal and state officials in parts of northern Mexico.

Zambada says he traveled to Culiacán on July 25 with the belief that he needed to help settle a dispute between Cuén and Rubén Rocha Moya, governor of Sinaloa. (Presidencia/Cuartoscuro)

In his statement, Zambada also said that Heras — who was reportedly El Mayo’s security chief in addition to being a police commander — and Chaidez disappeared the same day as his kidnapping and haven’t been seen since. He described Cuén as a “longtime friend” and lamented his death.

“I believe it is important for the truth to come out. This is what occurred, rather than the false stories that are circulating,” he said.

“I call on the governments of Mexico and the United States to be transparent and provide the truth about my abduction to the United States and about the deaths of Héctor Cuen, Rosario Heras, Rodolfo Chaidez and anyone else who may have lost their life that day.”

Zambada also called on “the people of Sinaloa to use restraint and maintain peace in our state.”

“Nothing can be solved by violence. We have been down that road before, and everyone loses,” he said.

Salazar: “It was not our plane, not our pilot”

In his statement, the United States ambassador described the arrests of Zambada and Guzmán López as a “great victory” for both the U.S. and Mexico, asserting that the detentions will disrupt the trafficking of synthetic drugs such as fentanyl.

The U.S. was offering separate multi-million-dollar rewards for information leading to their arrest.

Salazar offered five points about the arrests of the two men.

Guzmán López surrendered voluntarily.
The evidence at the time of his arrival to the United States “indicates that El Mayo was taken against his will.”
No United States resources were used to facilitate Guzmán López’s surrender. “It was not our plane, not out pilot, not our people.”
No flight plan was presented to United States authorities before the private plane took off. “We understand that the flight began in Sinaloa and landed in Santa Teresa, New Mexico.”
The pilot is not a United States government employee nor was he hired by the U.S. government or “any U.S. citizen.”

Guzmán López’s lawyer, Jeffrey Lichtman, said in late July that his client hadn’t reached any agreement with U.S. authorities before arriving in the United States.

“We’ve got no agreement with the government. There has never been an agreement with the government with Joaquín Guzmán López. Period,” he said.

FGR investigating El Mayo’s alleged kidnapping

The Federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) said in a statement on Sunday that immediately after the arrests of Zambada and Guzmán López it opened an investigation into a range of “possible crimes” including the operation of an “illegal flight,” violation of migration and customs laws, kidnapping and treason.

The FGR has asked the Sinaloa Attorney General's Office to cede responsibility for the investigation into the murder of Cuén to federal authorities due to its "possible link" to the events described by Zambada. — The FGR has asked the Sinaloa Attorney General’s Office to cede responsibility for the investigation into the murder of Cuén to federal authorities due to its “possible link” to the events described by Zambada. (fiscaliasinaloa.mx)

The FGR said it subsequently initiated probes into “other crimes,” including homicide and “illegal deprivation of freedom,” or abduction.

In light of the statements issued by Zambada and Salazar, “specific” investigative tasks were carried out in “the area known as Huertos del Pedregal de Culiacán” and “the aerodrome possibly used in this case,” the FGR said.

Zambada said he was kidnapped at “the ranch and event center called Huertos del Pedregal.”

The FGR also said it has asked the Sinaloa Attorney General’s Office to cede responsibility for the investigation into the murder of Cuén to federal authorities due to its “possible link” to the events leading up to the arrests of Zambada and Guzmán López.

Zambada is currently in prison in El Paso, but is set to be transferred to New York to stand trial in the same Brooklyn courthouse where “El Chapo” Guzmán was convicted in 2019.

Guzmán López is in custody in Chicago, where his brother Ovidio is also imprisoned.

Federal Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez said last week that Joaquín turned himself in to United States authorities after reaching an agreement to surrender with Ovidio, who was captured in Culiacán in early 2023 and extradited to the United States last September.

Mexico News Daily

Storms cause severe flooding in CDMX

By

MND Staff

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August 12, 2024

0

Seven boroughs of Mexico City got at least 30 mm of rain on Sunday, leading to severe flooding on several roadways. (Tajo Oveda/X)

Residents of Mexico City were hammered by heavy rain on Sunday afternoon, causing localized flooding in several areas south of the city.

At least three boroughs — Coyoacán, Tlalpan and Álvaro Obregón — were on red alert (50 to 70 mm of water), while an orange alert (30 to 49 mm) was issued for Cuajimalpa, Iztapalapa, Magdalena Contreras and Xochimilco.

💧🚨 Se aproximan equipos de emergencia para atender inundación en Hermenegildo Galeana y Calz. de Tlalpan, colonia Tlalpan Centro, @TlalpanAl

↔ 150 metros de espejo de agua con 40 centímetros de tirante.

⚒️#OperativoLluvias2024 @SacmexCDMX @SGIRPC_CDMX #TrabajandoJuntos… pic.twitter.com/cOSzsqHh5u

— C5 CDMX (@C5_CDMX) August 11, 2024

Images shared on social media showed flooded streets and cars floating during Sunday’s storms. In some areas, the water level exceeded one meter in height.

Local authorities also reported fallen trees on main roads and buildings, including along Avenida Revolución in Benito Juárez and several streets of the San Francisco neighborhood in Coyoacán. The Universidad Panamericana (UP) in the Insurgentes Mixcoac neighborhood reported a downed tree on campus measuring nine meters in length and 30 centimeters in diameter.

Authorities also reported flooded houses in some areas.

Following the deluge, some vehicles were stranded due to mechanical breakdowns, while others got stuck around potholes and manholes, causing traffic chaos in the southern part of the city.

The city’s Comprehensive Risk Management and Civil Protection Ministry (SGIRPC) reported that emergency teams were working to clear the damaged streets of water and fallen trees.

Local authorities have called on the population to remain alert for “water currents on streets and avenues,” as well as fallen branches, trees and tarps.

Light rail service in Mexico City was suspended on Sunday due to flooding — Light rail service in Mexico City was suspended on Sunday between Huipulco and Xochimilco due to flooding along the tracks. (STECDMX)

More rain in the forecast for Mexico City and other states

Mexico City’s residents will see more rain tonight, according to the National Meteorological System (SMN). During the day, temperatures will remain warm with cloudy skies.

The Mexican monsoon will cause strong gusts of wind and heavy rains accompanied by lightning and potential hailstorms in several states across the country. Here is the rain forecast by region for Monday, Aug. 12.

Very heavy rains (75 to 150 mm): Jalisco, Colima and Michoacán.

Heavy rains (50 to 75 mm): Sonora, Sinaloa, Chihuahua, Durango, Nayarit, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Chiapas and Veracruz.

Light rains (25 to 50 mm): San Luis Potosí, Querétaro, Hidalgo, Puebla, Tlaxcala, Morelos, State of Mexico, Mexico City, Tamaulipas and Tabasco.

Showers (5 to 25 mm): Baja California, Baja California Sur, Coahuila, Nuevo León, Zacatecas, Aguascalientes, Campeche, Yucatán and Quintana Roo.

Most of the country can expect persistent and scattered rainfall throughout the rest of the week.

With reports from TV Azteca, Aristegui Noticias, Meteored, Reforma, and MVS Noticias

Oxxo to expand to the southern US

By

MND Staff

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August 12, 2024

7

Oxxo's parent company announced the purchase of 249 convenience stores in Texas and New Mexico. (Shutterstock)

Oxxo, the ubiquitous Mexican convenience store, is officially expanding to the southern United States.

More than one decade after opening its first and only storefront in Eagle Pass, Texas, parent company Femsa has acquired 249 convenience stores from Delek US Holdings. The stores acquired by Femsa are located in Texas and New Mexico.

An Oxxo in Eagle Pass, Texas — Oxxo’s expansion to the United States is a decade in the making. The convenience store opened its first U.S. storefront in Eagle Pass, Texas in 2014, but closed it during the pandemic. (@SergioChapa/X)

Femsa filed a statement with the Mexican Stock Exchange (BMV) earlier this month reporting the US $385 million acquisition. The deal includes inventory and a small fuel transportation fleet, the companies said in separate news releases on Aug. 1.

José Antonio Fernández, CEO of Femsa’s retail operations, said: “At Femsa, we have a long-held ambition to enter the U.S. convenience and mobility industry, and this transaction represents the ideal way for us to take our first step in this compelling market.”

The transaction is subject to regulatory approval in the United States. The partners expect that to happen during the second half of 2024.

Oxxo is a Mexican chain of convenience stores and gas stations, which, with roughly 30,000 stores in over 17 countries, is the largest chain of convenience stores in Latin America.

Oxxo is wholly owned by Femsa (Fomento Económico Mexicano, S.A.B. de C.V.), a Mexican multinational beverage and retail company headquartered in Monterrey. It operates the largest independent Coca-Cola bottling group in the world and the largest convenience store chain in Mexico.

Delek US Holdings, based in Nashville, Tennessee, has assets in petroleum refining, logistics, pipelines, renewable fuels and convenience stores, 90 percent of which are located in Texas. Most Delek stores include a gas station under the DK and Alon brands.

Avigal Soreq, president and CEO of Delek, said: “The transaction creates an exciting opportunity for Delek US Retail and its employees as they become part of Femsa’s growth strategy in the United States.”

Femsa reiterated its long-held plans to expand into the United States in April, after divesting its shares of Heineken in 2023. According to the news site Expansión, Femsa director José Antonio Fernández told analysts in an earnings call that the company was evaluating opportunities in U.S. border states where customers were likely to be familiar with the Oxxo brand.

An earlier attempt to expand into the U.S. market was foiled by its Heineken holdings, according to Expansión. In 2014, Femsa was blocked by fair competition rules that declared the relationship with Heineken a conflict of interest for having an exclusive agreement to distribute the Dutch brewer’s beverages.

With reports from Milenio, KTSM and Expansión

MND Where to Live in Mexico 2024 Guide: Jalisco

By

Greg Custer

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August 11, 2024

11

Agave field — From sweeping beaches to heart stopping mountain vistas, Jalisco has it all. Find out why the MND Where to Live in Mexico 2024 Guide: Jalisco rates the state so highly. (Mexico Travel and Leisure)

With this instalment, the MND Where to Live in Mexico 2024 Guide: Jalisco, our extensive series, is nearing its mid-point. We’ve covered Mexico living in some diverse settings — both peninsulas (Baja and the Yucatan) along with cultural and coastal Oaxaca. This brings the total of Mexican states reviewed to five so far. It seems natural now to highlight Jalisco State, a cultural wellspring that has done more to define “Mexicanidad” than anywhere else. It’s also the place I’ve called home since 2015, exposing me to the State’s truths and myths when it comes to living here.

Our ratings highlight three very viable places to live — the quintessential beach vacation resort of Puerto Vallarta, fast-paced and forward leaning Guadalajara, and the de facto “birthplace” villages for overseas living for foreigners that are Lake Chapala. Having these three eclectic choices (not to mention twelve Pueblos Mágicos and three UNESCO World Heritage Sites) positions Jalisco as a kingpin for folks seriously seeking a viable place to live or retire in Mexico.

Verdant Jalisco is easily one of the most attractive places in Mexico for expat living. (Mexico Travel and Leisure)

Jalisco’s relevance stems from attributes no other state can match. First up are iconic cultural traditions innately associated with Mexico’s national image: tequila, mariachis and charros. Tequila (yes, it’s really a place) and Mexico’s joyous and sorrowful musical gift to the world are both a part of living here. Salud to that! The Jalisco economy is a powerhouse in technology, cinema (Hollywood auteur Guillermo del Toro hails from here), manufacturing, automobile production, agriculture, foreign remittances, foreign direct investment, medical care, and tourism. Much of Jalisco oozes prosperity, and there is a sense of political independence from the rest of Mexico. As for the climate? Well, its highland plateau offers spring-like year round living. The seasonally pleasant seacoast meanwhile, affords some residents a “seagull” existence with winters spent on the coast and the rest of the year in the mountains!.

Jalisco is, at its core, cowboy country. Its rural, socially conservative identity even permeates the temperament of big city Guadalajara. Less-than-welcome realities are narco violence and an embrace of “machismo” in some societal and familial settings. There are nagging social ills (teen pregnancy, gun violence and drinking water contamination) to consider. Unbridled growth across all three of our featured places is also impacting quality of life for both Mexicans and expats alike.

But no one should bet against Jalisco’s future — economically or socially. Put down roots here and you’ll have a front row seat to both the hyper-local (municipal government ups and downs) and big picture of Jalisco’s unbridled future.

Puerto Vallarta

Let’s start where millions of Americans embrace Jalisco, Puerto Vallarta. People fall hard for PV, many having a natural vacation connection that stretches back decades. As beach resorts go, it’s the place that comes closest to being all things to all vacationers in all of Mexico. With a population of 224,000, PV lost its fishing village virginity decades ago. But it’s still Mexico’s most picturesque coastal city.

Hugging the shore of Mexico’s largest natural bay, the epic Bay of Banderas, PV’s Malecon boardwalk is a top five Mexico experience at all hours of the day. The street food to gourmet dining selection is unsurpassed. Aquatic and inland eco-adventure stuff to do is also hard to beat. There’s also a heightened sense of place in the city’s architecture, color palate and vestiges of once-isolated village life in the city’s riverside downtown core, all of which feel very “Jalisco.” It’s all quite remarkable, really. In defiance of the high-rise tower invasion in the city’s Zona Romantica, neighborly relations and Mexican familial sensibilities prevail. Monumental change has been lurking for decades, but the PV “centro” is still a special place to live and visit.

Living here comes with a snappy urban resort pace mixed with pockets of residential and neighborhood community connections. It’s Mexico’s most LGBTQ-accepting destination and has a lively performing arts/live entertainment scene. An hour south is Jalisco’s emerging Costalegre, some of Pacific Mexico’s most beautiful, undeveloped coast.

Guadalajara

“Guadalajara, Guadalajara…” so goes the popular mariachi song. With a population topping 5 million, this is Mexico’s second largest urban area with some 1,500 named neighborhoods. It stretches across a sloped plain that’s truncated in the north by a gapping gorge. Guadalajara is a contradiction when it comes to understanding its personality. It’s socially conservative, and stridently original in the visual and performing arts. It’s got more skyscrapers under construction than any city in Mexico, yet is home to cozy, leafy neighborhoods filled with parks, trees, and color. Guadalajara’s universities attract hundreds of foreign medical students. Paradoxically, there are surprisingly few museums to frequent.

I guess, “who needs stuffy museums,” when “tapatios” can rejoice at outdoors events and venues that host Mexico’s most diverse and robust monthly happenings: film, fashion, tequila (of course), microbreweries, sports — most notably soccer and baseball, but motorsport, athletics and even rugby have long traditions in the city — music, dance, books (the world’s second largest book fair), along with secular/religious happenings in stadiums, parks, expo centers, and historic buildings across the city. One online calendar of events highlights the 12 months of artsy things to do in Guadalajara.

Traffic snarls are part of everyday living, but so is an eclectic dining and bar scene, an American Society of Jalisco to help you get settled, and more live music than you could possibly take in. Mobility challenges can be mitigated by using bike lanes or the city’s excellent 18 station, 22 km-long metro line, crossing the city from northwest to southeast. Other lines are under construction. Mexico’s second largest airport is here, serving over 60 locations, non-stops to Europe, Central and South America).

Lake Chapala

If this is all too much stimulation, 45 minutes south is one of Mexico’s most iconic and original expatriate hang-outs. If lakeside village living is your calling, Lake Chapala might be your village in the sun. Lake Chapala living is clustered along the lake’s northwest shore. Across two municipalities, Chapala and Jocotepec, no one really knows how many foreign-born residents call this place home.

The numbers swell from October to March, exacerbating some automobile traffic challenges, rising rental costs, and the area’s water shortage. These growth concerns come with village and small-town settings (Chapala, San Antonio, Ajijic, San Juan Cosala, Jocotepec) inhabited by retirees from over 40 countries! The demographic is certainly “older,” but that doesn’t necessitate a nap on the hammock of things to keep you busy. Three English-language theater companies, a symphony, a community choir, the renowned Lake Chapala Society campus, Mexico’s longest standing weekly English lecture series, (Open Circle, and dozens of non-profit volunteer opportunities are relished in Mexico’s best year-round climate). Residents feel very safe being out at all hours. There is near zero homelessness.

The first pioneering foreigners living here started coming in the 1940’s. Lake Chapala boasts a very hybrid Mexico-a-la-Expat lifestyle. Foreigners and Mexicans live here in mostly symbiotic ways, with gentrification offset by a balanced commitment to helping the area thrive. If you want to embrace a social improvement cause, there’s a community of like-minded folk to connect with.

Yes, the lake itself is facing ecological challenges. But few living here connect with the lake beyond gazing at its majesty, backed by verdant mountains rising three thousand feet above the lake-facing towns. Will growth continue to eat away Lake Chapala’s mountainscape and drain over-taxed water wells? It’s a fair criticism.

Jalisco State is home to resort, urban and village settings. It’s pretty unbeatable for just about any overseas living aspiration. Or combine all three and show your friends and family up north a Mexico living reality they can barely imagine.

The ratings

A full breakdown of our rating system can be found here.

What did we get right? What do you disagree with? Let us know in the comments.

You can see more of our Where to Live in Mexico 2024 series here, including ratings for Yucatán, Oaxaca, Quintana Roo and the Baja California peninsula.

Author Greg Custer lives in Mexico. He’s worked for over 40 years in international tourism, educating travel advisors around the world about Mexico and other Latin American destinations. He helps folks explore Mexico for living at www.mexicoforliving.com.