What do cave experts have to say about the Maya Train project?

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June 2, 2023

Geologist Chris Lloyd admires the beauty of Laughing Grackle Cave in the Sac Actún system. — Geologist Chris Lloyd admires the beauty of Laughing Grackle Cave in the Sac Actún systemin Quintana Roo. (Photo: David Dusek)

A few years ago, any encyclopedia — remember those? — would have told you that the longest cave in the world was the Mammoth Cave system in the United States. The combined length of Mammoth Cave’s passages would have depended on the year of the encyclopedia’s publication, as people made more and more discoveries about it.

As of this writing, on May 28, 2023, that system is measured at 685.6 kilometers (426 miles) long. But today, the worldwide community of cave explorers — speleologists, as we call ourselves — is starting to suspect that the longest cave in the world lies not in the U.S. but in Mexico.

Caver Elsi Lara floats blissfully inside the Pool Tunich (the Belly Button in Mayan) system, deep inside what might be the world’s longest underground cave. (Chris Lloyd)

Cave divers have been exploring and mapping southeastern Mexico’s cenotes — natural sinkholes exposing groundwater — for years, discovering kilometers of underwater passages and linking them together.

At the same time, other researchers were mapping the region’s dry caves. As the various groups have compared their findings, they are discovering that the wet and dry caves are much more interconnected than previously suspected.

Some experts even suspect that the caves of the southeast are entirely linked.

“There’s only one cave in Quintana Roo,” says cave management specialist Peter Sprouse, who has been studying the area for years. “It’s just a case of connecting all the pieces.”

Diving in the crystal-clear waters of an ancient ochre mine in Quintana Roo, now flooded. (CINDAQ.ORG)

The biggest of those pieces is the 436-kilometer long Ox Bel Ha system, followed by Sac Actún (386 km). To these, Sprouse believes, will probably be added 29 other systems already mapped in Quintana Roo.

All of the above, when totaled, add up to a megacave that’s 6,898 km long (4,286 miles).

So there it is: Mexico houses what could be the longest cave in the world…and what are they building right on top of it?

Ah yes, we all know: the Maya Train. But what only a few of us know is the result of building a train track on top of karst.

Map of the Jaguar Claw cave in Quintana Roo, showing the trajectory of railroad tracks passing over it. — A section of track for the Maya Train is planned to run directly over the Garra de Jaguar (Jaguar Claw) cave in Quintana Roo.

Karst is a kind of terrain formed when bedrock made of rocks like limestone and gypsum is dissolved by water. For speleologists, it’s that lovely kind of terrain where caves are likely to be found, and it typically looks like Swiss cheese, full of interconnected holes and topped with sharp, pointy prickles.

This means that anything accumulated on the surface of karst, like fertilizers, pesticides or anything leaked from a cesspool or spilled from a tanker, will be washed directly into the aquifer within seconds after a rainfall.

In Europe, legislation regulates the construction of roads on top of karst. For example, a trench plus holding tanks must be built on both sides of a highway in a karst area in order to collect the kind of hazardous materials that recently caused havoc in East Palestine, Ohio — where 100,000 gallons of dangerous liquids were spilled from a derailed train.

To make matters worse, the aquifer housed inside what might come to be recognized as the world’s future longest cave is still mostly unpolluted.

So I decided to gather together the opinions of a few speleologists who work in Mexico, as I believe their ideas count more than the comments of those who have never trod (or swam) beneath the surface of our poor, besieged planet.

Geologist and speleologist Chris Lloyd has explored and surveyed caves in Quintana Roo over many years and has come to agree with Peter Sprouse that the region’s many caves are in fact one system.

Dr. Ramón Espinasa, left, inside a lava tube in Tepoztlán. The geologist specializes in volcanic caves. (Chris Lloyd)

“What is the Maya Train doing to those caves?” I asked him.

The Maya train, he told me, is “obviously… affecting all of the caves that it goes over.” “There’s already been one collapse along the corridor where the train is going, and there will undoubtedly be more collapses of existing caves. One of the caves I surveyed in that area has a 30-meter-wide entrance, and the train goes over it, right over the open space.”

Another problem that Lloyd pointed out is related to that huge aquifer housed inside the cave system.

The problem, says the geologist, is that the new train track is going over the higher part of the aquifer, while the existing roads and population centers are close to the coast, at the lower end of the aquifer.

“So water goes into the aquifer through the jungle, and it leaves the aquifer near the coast,” he says.

That water, Lloyd points out, is unpolluted because no one lives in the jungle. But the Maya Train has created new access points, and in many places there will be a road next to the railroad tracks.

Water security map of Mexico. — Areas of Mexico safest from drought are shown in blue. (Courtesy Arreguin-Cortés et al, Sustainable Earth, 2020)

“Whatever purpose it may have,” says Lloyd, “it is still a road, and people will use it. They will be building on properties out in the jungle. Eventually, whatever is built above the aquifer will pollute it.”

This aquifer, points out Sprouse, is more accessible to humans than any other on the planet.

“Near inhabited areas, you can dive into this system and see a pipe coming down through the ceiling of the cave with feces and toilet paper coming out. So anything encouraging more development without waste management is going to have a negative impact.”

The Yucatán aquifer, explains geologist/speleologist Ramón Espinasa, is Mexico’s biggest, and one of the largest in the world, lying under one of the planet’s largest stretches of karstic terrain.

“The train is not the last problem of this aquifer,” says Espinasa. “We are just at the beginning of the problem. Once you have that train working, it’s going to attract more people. You are going to have more growth, more towns and more pollution of the aquifer that they are drinking from.”

Espinasa also backs the single-cave-system theory.

“It’s sad that they are going to harm the world’s largest cave, but it will survive. However, contamination of the aquifer is the real problem. The aquifer only needs one contamination point to foul up the whole thing. Because this is karst, there’s nothing between the surface and the water to filter the contaminants.”

Mexico will not need just strict regulations to prevent contamination of this aquifer: it will need literally the strictest regulations the world has ever seen. This is the message that Mexico’s speleologists and geologists want to convey to the country’s president.

The Maya Train is located right on top of the nation’s most precious aquifer, a karst aquifer that will be extraordinarily difficult to protect. Are you ready to take on this Herculean task, Mr. President?

The writer has lived near Guadalajara, Jalisco, since 1985. His most recent book is Outdoors in Western Mexico, Volume Three. More of his writing can be found on his blog.

Chiapas town’s residents heading home after fleeing cartel violence

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MND Staff

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June 2, 2023

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Habitantes del ejido de Joaquín Miguel Gutiérrez intentaron impedir el paso a la caravana de seguridad que fue desplegada por parte de los tres ordenes de gobierno, los pobladores señalaron que la violencia estaba en otras comunidades, al final se enfrentaron verbalmente por lo que soldados lanzaron gases lacrimógenos para dispersarlos. — Initial reports estimate that 3,000 people were forcibly displaced from the town of Frontera Comalapa due to a violent outbreak between cartels near the border with Guatemala. (Isabel Mateos/Cuartoscuro)

About 1,000 people have returned to their homes in Chiapas on Thursday after being displaced due to an outbreak of violence between criminal groups near the border with Guatemala last week.

Residents of Frontera Comalapa, a municipality about 90 kilometers south of Comitán, fled early last week amid gun battles between members of gangs presumably affiliated with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel. The conflict between the rival groups has flared up periodically during a period of over two years.

Frontera Comalapa is located just 12 miles north of Ciudad Cuauhtemoc, a border crossing with Guatemala. (Wikimedia Commons)

Over 3,000 people were reported as having left their communities due to the recent spate of shootouts, although the National Guard chief in Chiapas denied that the figure was that high.

The EFE news agency and the Milenio newspaper were among the media outlets that said 1,000 people had returned to their homes after fleeing the violence, taking refuge in the nearby municipality of Chicomuselo.

The violence had emptied out the returning residents’ communities of Nueva Independencia, Nueva Libertad and Flores del Grijalva. Soldiers, members of the National Guard and Civil Protection personnel escorted them back home in military vehicles after some 1,500 police and military personnel took control of the area on Wednesday.

“Little by little the situation is normalizing,” said municipal official Humberto Robledo. “Before the arrival of the army, there were people displaced in the mountains, in the streams, … in areas difficult to access,” he said.

Chiapas’ diverse Indigenous groups have long defended their right to self-governance. In recent years, however, the state has seen an increase in cartel activity, leading to territorial conflict. (El Sureño)

Robledo said that the number of people who fled their homes was unclear but could be as high as 4,000.

Osiel Tomás, who left Frontera Comalapa with his family, told EFE that his family had had to take shelter from stray bullets. Orlando López decided to return home but left his two daughters in Chicomuselo.

“We want to be sure that everything is OK there, and then we’ll come for them later,” López told EFE just before he departed for Frontera Comalapa.

“… We would have liked this protection we have today to have been [there] during the gunfights,” he said.

He called on state and federal authorities to guarantee peace in the border region of Chiapas, and noted that the recent violence forced the closure of schools and disrupted health services.

Human rights organizations have also urged authorities to guarantee peace in Frontera Comalapa and other nearly municipalities.

Rocío Mérida López, a resident of Nueva Independencia, told Milenio that at least four people were abducted by armed men during the outbreak of violence and that criminals were “recruiting men” to swell their ranks.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has previously called on Mexican authorities to establish measures for the protection of persons displaced by cartel violence. (ACNUR México)

Mérida said she and other residents left their homes “without money, without food, without clothes, without anything.”

According to the Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Human Rights Center, forced recruitment of locals — in addition to shootings and blockades set up by crime groups — have recently occurred in several Frontera Comalapa communities.

Nueva Libertad resident Consuelo López Ramírez and her family stayed inside her father’s home in Nueva Independencia for three days with almost no food as gun battles raged outside.

“I went to see my dad because he was sick, and then we were unable to go out … [for] three days. … There was a lot of gunfire, but thanks to God, we got out alive,” she said.

The National Guard escorted a reported 1,000 or so displaced people back to their homes, most of whom fled on foot. (Isabel Mateos/Cuartoscuro)

Some 60 people have been reported killed in the confrontations, but the National Guard chief in Chiapas Víctor Fernández Mondragón said that the figure hasn’t been confirmed.

“Three thousand displaced persons and more than 60 people dead were spoken about in the media. So far we haven’t found evidence that verifies this information,” he said Wednesday.

Fernández said Thursday that a “maximum” of 500 or 600 people had left their homes in Frontera Comalapa due to violence.

He also addressed a statement endorsed by hundreds of nongovernmental organizations and over 1,000 individuals that asserted that “Chiapas is on the verge of civil war” due to turf wars between paramilitary groups and “gunmen from several cartels.”

Several organizations in Chiapas, mainly the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), have warned for several years that “Chiapas is on the verge of civil war.” The National Guard chief in Chiapas denied that assessment. (Wikimedia Commons)

The June 1 statement, issued in support of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) — an organization best known for staging an armed uprising in Chiapas in January 1994 — was endorsed by numerous high-profile figures, including academic Noam Chomsky, former presidential aspirant María de Jesús Patricio Martínez (Marichuy), writer Juan Villoro, film director Alfonso Cuarón and actors Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna.

But Fernández asserted that “there is no civil war” in Chiapas and that authorities, including the National Guard and army, have “at all times … guaranteed and maintained the rule of law,” although that hasn’t appeared to be the case recently in Frontera Comalapa.

While he did acknowledge that cartel presence has increased in the southern state — where according to official data, there were 155 homicides in the first four months of the year — the Chiapas National Guard coordinator said that when security forces entered the municipality, people were going about their business normally and shops were open.

The statement issued in support of the EZLN focuses on attacks on Zapatista communities allegedly carried out by the Regional Organization of Ocosingo Coffee Growers (ORCAO), which the EZLN has previously described as “a paramilitary organization serving the Chiapas state government.”

The statement demanded the “absolute dissolution of ORCAO,” and a thorough investigation into the Chiapas government led by Governor Rutilio Escandón.

“We also demand that the silence of [President] López Obrador cease being an accomplice to the violence in Chiapas,” it added.

With reports from EFE, Milenio, El País and Radio Formula

Remittances up 6.3% annually, reaching US $5B in April

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Cat Rainsford

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June 2, 2023

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A money exchange in Mexico — While remittance income is up, purchasing power is 10% down as a result of the peso appreciation against the U.S. dollar.(Andrea Murcia/Cuartoscuro)

Mexico’s remittance income in April reached US $5.003 billion, a 6.3% annual increase from the same month in 2022.

Nearly 4.9 million Mexican households and 11.1 million adults receive remittances from relatives abroad, according to figures from the Center for Latin American Monetary Studies (Cemla). In April, the Bank of Mexico (Banxico) reported 13.1 million remittance transactions, with an average amount of US $381 per transaction.

Banco del Bienestar branch in Mexico — In April, the government-run Well-Being Bank announced it would exit the remittance market, which experts worried would most affect the rural poor in the country. (Banco del Bienestar/Facebook)

However, Gabriela Siller, director of economic analysis at Grupo Base, pointed out that sustained appreciation of the Mexican peso, coupled with high inflation, means that the purchasing power of remittances to Mexico in fact shows an annual drop of around 10%.

The last time such a sustained drop in the purchasing power of remittances was seen was a decade ago, between August 2012 and August 2013.

“This is relevant, because remittances are a determinant of Mexico’s consumption, so the loss of purchasing power of remittances will be reflected in a slowdown in consumption,” she said.

The face value of remittances to Mexico from other countries – primarily the United States – has shown year-on-year increases in almost every month since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, when remittance income surpassed US $4 billion for the first time.

Although April’s year-on-year increase is a record for a single month, remittance income through January-April showed a 10.1% increase from the year before, reaching a record US $19 billion across the four-month period. Electronic transfers accounted for 98.8% of transactions.

In early May, the government agency Finance for Well-being (Finabien) announced a new program to make it easier for Mexicans to send money back from the U.S. The program allows Mexicans to open dollar accounts in the U.S. using only Mexican identification papers, and then send money home directly via cell phones. It remains to be seen how this will affect overall remittance income.

President López Obrador is a vocal supporter of Mexican nationals who send home money from abroad, which is a major booster of Mexico’s economy, bringing in a total of nearly US $58 billion in revenue in 2022, a 13.4% increase over the 2021 figure.

With reports from La Jornada Maya and El País

Study: marine park fishing ban didn’t hurt national catch

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Cat Rainsford

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June 2, 2023

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Revillagigedo marine park in Mexico — The study, published on May 31 in the journal Science Advances, examined the effects on commercial fishing of declaring the Revillagigedo marine park a protected area in 2017. (Semar/Cuaroscuro)

Banning fishing in marine protected areas (MPAs) has not reduced the overall catch across the rest of the Mexican fishing industry, a new study of Mexico’s Revillagigedo marine park has shown.

Known as the “Galapagos of Mexico”, the Revillagigedo National Park, located in the Pacific Ocean west of Mexico, measures 147,629 square kilometers, and is the largest concentration of megafauna in the world and the largest marine protected area in North America, according to National Geographic.

Fishing ships in Cancun — Despite opponents’ dire predictions that the ban would provoke decreases in catches and more fishing in other areas, catches have remained consistent, and fishing boats have reduced their travel distance by around half, the study says. (Elizabeth Ruiz/Cuartoscuro)

The study, published in Science Advances journal, assessed the productivity of Mexico’s industrial fishing fleet before and after fishing was banned in the Revillagigedo in 2017. It found no decrease in catch as a result of the MPA, a piece of legislation designed to protect humpback whales, whale sharks, silky sharks and manta rays in the region.

The study’s authors told the Guardian newspaper that “large, fully protected MPAs can contribute to a more sustainable and equitable use of the ocean, without major economic repercussions on the fishing industry.”

This contradicts the fishing industry’s frequent claim that protecting ocean ecosystems requires economic sacrifice. Before Revillagigedo was declared an MPA, industry representatives argued that banning fishing in the 147,629-square-kilometer Pacific Ocean reserve would reduce their tuna catch by 20%.

Conservationists had long contested this claim, pointing out that even before the ban, only 3% of catches were landed in the area.

Despite good progress in Revillagigedo, said one of the study’s authors, Mexico is in need of more fishing exclusion zones to meet global ocean protection goals set at COP15’s biodiversity conference last year. (Sea Shepherd)

The paper’s lead author, Fabio Favoretto, a postdoctoral scholar at San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, supported conservationists’ view in an interview with the Guardian newspaper. He said that it might be that the protected area had accounted for an “almost insignificant” amount of the area of ocean available to the Mexican fleet.

Favoretto dismissed the possibility that significant illegal fishing in the reserve went on after the ban went into effect. He said the study looked at data from vessel monitoring system (VMS), transponders, which Mexican fishing vessels are required to carry by law.

“You can switch off AIS [a type of boat tracking system], but you cannot switch off VMS, and our data is from the VMS,” he said.

Overall, fishing in the reserve declined by 82% after the ban – an unexpectedly high level of compliance. Most infractions occurred soon after the ban, dropping to near zero after the “Skylight” marine crime monitoring program was fully implemented in 2021.

Favoretto also said there was little evidence that fishing activity had been “displaced” to new areas, such as the deeper ocean. Rather, the evidence suggests the fleet caught the same amount of fish in a smaller area following the MPA’s implementation.

The findings also strengthen conservationists’ arguments that countries should comply with an agreement made at last year’s COP15 biodiversity conference to protect 30% of oceans by 2030. In Mexico’s case, that would require “two to four more Revillagigedos,” said Octavio Aburto, another of the study’s coauthors.

“It’s really a myth that we can’t protect more of the ocean because we need more fish to feed more people,” study coauthor Enric Sala told the Guardian. “The global fishing catch has been declining since the mid-90s, yet only 3% is protected from fishing.”

“The worst enemy of the fishing sector is not protected areas,” he said. “It’s overfishing.”

With reports from El Pais, The Guardian and National Geographic

Indian multinational Tata Consultancy Services invests in Monterrey

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MND Staff

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June 1, 2023

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Tata Consultancy Services offices in Chennai — Tata's offices in Chennai. The multinational is the latest foreign company to invest heavily in Nuevo León in 2023. (Naveen Komar Kotta/Wikimedia Commons)

Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard and Governor of Nuevo León Samuel García unveiled the new offices of the outsourcing company Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in Monterrey on Wednesday.

The unveiling was timed to coincide with the company’s 20th anniversary in Mexico.

An opening ceremony for TCS in NL — Tata Consulting Services, part of the huge Indian Tata conglomerate, hopes to eventually employ up to 3,500 in various roles across Mexico. (Samuel García/Twitter)

The consulting arm of the Indian conglomerate, headquartered in Mumbai, is one of the largest multinational IT service consulting companies in the world. It operates 16 offices across Latin America, including in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Perú, Uruguay. In Mexico, the firm has offices in Guadalajara, Querétaro and Mexico City.

From Mexico, TCS serves more than 260 local and international clients from multiple industries, offering solutions for IT and cloud computing operations. TCS also provides services for the Internet of Things (IoT), the network that links low-level smart devices such as thermostats, ovens and refrigerators.

Tata’s head of Latin America’s Nearshore Business Unit, Rajeev Gupta, said that the new business center has employed 700 people in the northern state. It hopes to raise that number to 1,000 before the end of the year. Gupta added that TCS expects to add 2,500 jobs throughout the country as operations expand.

“Nuevo León is eager for these jobs,” García said during his inauguration speech, “high-impact jobs and skilled labor jobs.”

Signing of international tech agreement by Mexico's Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, left and India's Science/Tech Minister Jitendra Singh, right — Foreign Affairs Ministry Marcelo Ebrard, left, shakes hands in New Delhi with India’s Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh earlier this year. The two men signed an agreement for their two countries to collaborate on tech development projects ranging from areas such as electromobility to low-cost vaccine development. (Marcelo Ebrard/Twitter)

García touted TCS as “the type of [company] that make the perfect ally for Nuevo León, as they promote entrepreneurship and new technologies, transforming families and improving their quality of life.”

CEO of TCS Latin America Marcelo Wurmann added that Monterrey is “key” to the company’s expansion in the country.

“Nuevo Leon is undoubtedly the industrial heart of Mexico, and Monterrey is key for our expansion strategy throughout the country.,” he said.

Mayor of Monterrey Luis Donaldo Colosio, who also attended the inaugural event, said that TCS’s latest investment in the city, “strengthens its position as a high-level technological city and the world.”

To date, Nuevo León has received direct foreign investment worth US $13.5 billion, estimated to grow to US $18 billion by the end of the year, García told reporters.

In May alone, Nuevo León announced major investments from international companies, including Brembo, Yinlun, Quanta Computers, Kia Motors and Sungwoo Hitech, as foreign firms flock to nearshore in the state. In March, Tesla announced it will build a Gigafactory close to Monterrey.

During his speech, Foreign Affairs Minister Ebrard told reporters that since his visit to India, where he met with the CEO of TCS, “the relationship between the two countries has continued to improve.”

Mexico’s presence in India has grown in strategic sectors, he said.

According to statistics from the India’s embassy to Mexico, India was the country’s third largest global market in 2022, primarily due to the export of crude oil.

Mexican companies like Kidzania, Bimbo Group, Cinepolis, Nemak, Metalsa, Mexichem, Great Foods & Beverages and RuhrPumpen have all made recent investments in the Asian country.

Mexico’s investments in India reached US $610 million last year.

With reports from El Financiero, La Jornada and SDP Noticias.

Navy chief: Mexico to become “world shipping power”

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MND Staff

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June 1, 2023

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Navy Day event — President López Obrador and Navy Minister Ojeda Durán (to AMLO's right) at an event in honor of National Navy Day in Tamaulipas. (Presidencia / Cuartoscuro.com)

Navy Minister José Rafael Ojeda Durán asserted Thursday that Mexico will become a “world shipping power” thanks to the construction of a trade corridor between the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico.

In an address in Ciudad Madero, Tamaulipas, on Mexico’s National Navy Day, Ojeda noted that the government is building a “new route for global trade” between Salina Cruz, Oaxaca, on the Pacific side and Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, on the Gulf coast.

“In the near future we will become a world power in the field of shipping,” he said.

The Isthmus of Tehuantepec Interoceanic Corridor will have a modernized railroad and upgraded highways between the port cities of Salina Cruz and Coatzacoalcos as well as 10 new industrial parks.

The government is touting the corridor as an alternative to the Panama Canal given that it will connect the Pacific and Atlantic oceans across a relatively narrow strip of land.

Once the new railroad is operational, freight shipped from Asia, for example, could be unloaded in Salina Cruz and put on a train for a journey of approximately 300 kilometers to Coatzacoalcos. It could then be reloaded onto another ship before continuing on to the Gulf or Atlantic coasts of the United States.

AMLO at Thursday press conference — AMLO demonstrates the trans-isthmus corridor on a map at a morning press conference. (Gob MX)

Ojeda described the multi-billion-dollar trade corridor undertaking, which also includes the modernization of the Salina Cruz and Coatzacoalcos ports, as “one of the projects of the century” and asserted that it will stimulate economic development in the region and the entire country.

President López Obrador, who also spoke at the Ciudad Madero National Navy Day ceremony, announced in 2021 that the navy would be given control of the trade corridor once it is completed. He said Thursday morning that freight trains will begin running on the new railroad in August and that passenger services will begin at a later date.

To facilitate the rail project, López Obrador published a decree on May 19 that ordered the “immediate temporary occupation” of three sections of railroad in Veracruz operated by Ferrosur, a rail subsidiary of the mining and infrastructure conglomerate Grupo México.

The president announced Thursday that the government had reached an agreement with Grupo México under which the conglomerate will permanently cede control of the sections, which were taken over by the navy the day the decree was published.

With reports from El Universal and Reforma

Indigenous art finally gets the spotlight at Popular Cultures Museum

By

Joseph Sorrentino

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June 1, 2023

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Museum of Popular Culture, Mexico CIty — Mexico City's Museum of Popular Cultures isn't a pop-culture museum but one dedicated to Mexico's Indigenous artists. (photos by Joseph Sorrentino)

While there are many museums in Mexico showcasing the work of its more famous artists — Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Francisco Toledo and Rufino Tamayo, to name just a few — there wasn’t a national museum dedicated to cultura popular, the culture and art of Mexico’s indigenous groups, until 1983. That year, the anthropologist Guillermo Bonfil Balla founded the Museo Nacional de las Culturas Populares in the Coyoacán borough of Mexico City.

Located on Avenida Hidalgo, just a half block from Coyoacán’s Plaza Hidalgo, the museum is made up of several buildings, most dating from the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries.

Museum of Popular Cultures in Mexico City — Handcrafted hats from various Indigenous groups, including the Colimote, Huichol and Tzotil.

The museum has five main exhibition rooms and three patios, where conferences, workshops and concerts are held. Though it doesn’t have an extensive permanent collection, it hosts several temporary exhibits each year. I’ve been to the museum four times over the last two years and have never been disappointed.

The current exhibit, “Espejo de Identidades,” (Mirror of Identities) includes a wide variety of art, from clay and cardboard figures painted in vivid colors to embroidered blankets, dresses and hats, representing pueblos across much of Mexico.

One of the museum’s permanent works is a 4-meter (13-foot) clay arbol de la vida (tree of life) that stands near the museum’s entrance. It was created by José Alfonso Soteno Fernández in 1992 as part of the commemoration of Columbus’s journey to the Americas.

The tree contains numerous figures: the Mexica leader Cuauhtémoc, Mexican independence hero Miguel Hidalgo, Spanish soldiers as well as Catholic and indigenous religious icons. It’s worth spending some time discovering them in the sculpture.

Museum of Popular Cultures, Mexico City — This tree of life sculpture by José Alfonso Soteno Fernández contains historic figures and touchstones, including Mexica leader Cuauhtémoc, Mexican independence hero Miguel Hidalgo, and indigenous religious icons.

On a wall just to the left of the Arbol de la Vida is a second permanent artwork, the huge Tejedores de Sueños (Dream Weavers) mural, painted in 2010 by Mexican street artists Saner and Sego to commemorate the bicentennial of the Mexican War of Independence. The brilliantly colored mural contains masked figures, fantastic animals and insects — another piece of art that deserves several minutes of perusal.

The majority — maybe all — of the artwork in the museum’s temporary exhibits is by people who have learned their craft from a family or community member. These are artists who didn’t attend an art school or a university. Their art not only expresses the artist’s vision but is also infused with their pueblo’s history, thus preserving its cultural identity.

The museum also gives conferences, concerts and other events celebrating the cultural diversity of Mexico. On Sunday, June 4, there will be a yoko savi, a traditional Mixtec petition for rain, with conferences, music and an art fair.

On weekends, there are usually stalls set up in the patios with artisans selling a variety of goods, including clothing, jewelry and food.

After perusing the galleries in the museum, which will take an hour or two, depending on what exhibits are on, take the time to enjoy Coyoacán, one of my favorite parts of Mexico City.

If you want more art, there are several other nearby museums. The most popular is undoubtedly the Museo Frida Kahlo, also known as La Casa Azul, which is about a 10-minute walk from Coyoacán’s center. Be aware that it gets packed on weekends; you should sign up online for a time to enter.

A little further away (about ten minutes by car) is the Museo Diego Rivera-Anahuacalli, which houses work by Mexico’s most famous artist as well as pre-Hispanic art. There’s also the Museo de la Casa de Leon Trotsky.

The Russian revolutionary was a close friend of Kahlo’s and Rivera’s — as well as Kahlo’s lover for a few years. The museum, located in Trotsky’s former home in Mexico, has permanent and temporary art exhibits. It also has kept intact the room where Trotsky was murdered.

After all that art, take your time to meander around and discover what else Coyoacán has to offer.

The San Juan Bautista church, which dates from 1522, is a beautiful example of Baroque architecture. Also nearby is the incorrectly named Casa de Cortés. Though Hernán Cortés did settle in the area of Coyoacán, there is no proof that he lived in this specific yellow house. In fact,the building dates from the mid-1700s, long after Cortés made Tenochtitlán his empire. Legend — again, unproven — has it that the building sits on top of the site where Cuauhtémoc, the Mexica leader, was tortured.

And if you like markets, there are plenty in Coyoacán.

Casa de los Artesanos and the Mercado Artesanal Mexicano, two markets where artists sell traditional crafts, are definitely worth a look. And less than a 10-minute walk away, at the intersection of Malintzin and Ignacio Allende streets, you’ll find the main food market, Mercado de Coyoacán. In addition to fresh fruits and vegetables, there are plenty of stalls where you can get a cheap and tasty meal.

Rows of restaurants and cafés border the Plaza Hidalgo and the Jardín Centenario, two of the many picturesque squares that give Coyoacán its colonial character. Jardín Centenario, in the very heart of the neighborhood, is known for its fountain with a sculpture of two coyotes. (Coyoacán in Nahuatl is thought to mean “Place of the Coyotes”)

Heading north of Jardín Centenario along Avenida México, you can reach Los Viveros de Coyoacán, a beautiful national park created by Miguel Ángel de Quevedo in 1901. Walking in that park — which is like walking through a forest — makes you forget you’re in Mexico City!

It’s always fun to grab a cup of coffee or an ice cream (or both) and hang out in the plaza and park, where, especially in the evening, there’s always something going on: performances, music, tarot card readings, traditional cleansing rituals, and more. It’s a great way to unwind after a long day of walking around Coyoacán’s cobblestone streets.

The museum opens 11:00 Tuesday-Sunday and the entrance fee is $60 pesos (about US $3).

Joseph Sorrentino, a writer, photographer and author of the book San Gregorio Atlapulco: Cosmovisiones and of Stinky Island Tales: Some Stories from an Italian-American Childhood, is a regular contributor to Mexico News Daily. More examples of his photographs and links to other articles may be found at www.sorrentinophotography.com He currently lives in Chipilo, Puebla.

Pre-Columbian sculpture found in Veracruz may depict female ruler

By

Cat Rainsford

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June 1, 2023

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The new Amajac statue — The remarkably well-preserved statue was uncovered during road paving work in Veracruz. (INAH)

A pre-Columbian sculpture has been discovered by residents of a Veracruz town on Tuesday that resembles one of Mexico’s most important recent archaeological findings, made in the same village of Amajac in January 2021.

The remarkably well-preserved statue was uncovered during road paving work and is believed to represent the same figure as the “young woman of Amajac.” The new discovery was presented to the public at a press conference on Wednesday hosted by local authorities and officials from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH).

The statue will be cleaned and repaired before work begins on determining its origins – including the identity of the mysterious woman depicted. (INAH)

Standing 1.54 meters high and weighing between 200 and 250 kilograms, it is slightly smaller than the 2-meter-high previous find. But the two statues wear headdresses with very similar decorations, leading experts to hypothesize they are representations of the same figure, possibly a female Huasteca ruler.

“In Huasteca tradition, important characters appear in various relief images or sculptures, but always with an identifying attribute,” said Veracruz archaeologist María Eugenia Maldonado Vite. She referenced the case of 13 Conejo, a ruler whose depictions have been found at the archaeological site of El Tajín.

13 Conejo, Maldonado said, “has appeared in various monuments and always wears a headdress that must have been specific to him.”

Although the original statue of the young woman, also called the “young ruler of Amajac,” dates from the Late Postclassic period (1450-1521 AD), Maldonado said the new piece may be evidence of a sculptural tradition dating from the Early Postclassic (1100 to 1200 AD), before the Mexica conquest of the Huasteca region.

Joven de Amajac 2021 — The original “Young woman of Amajac,” assumed to be a depiction of the same person as the new find, was discovered in the area in 2021. It suggests that there was female leadership in the Huasteca culture. (Galo Cañas/Cuartoscuro)

However, she added, “none of the sculptures were found in the original place where they were displayed, which would surely have been a public space to present the figure in a position of power… they may have been hidden by their creators in order to protect them.”

Lilia Arrieta Pardo, the mayor of Álamo Temapache, the municipality in which Amajac is located, said it was a “historic” day for the community.

The first sculpture, found in a local orange grove, has since become an icon in Veracruz and had even been proposed as a replacement for the statue of Christopher Columbus on Mexico City’s Paseo de La Reforma Avenue.

The Columbus statue ended up being replaced in November 2021 by a monument erected by a feminist group.

The head of INAH’s Veracruz center, José Manuel Bañuelos, praised the residents who made the discovery.

“News like this gives us encouragement and vigor for the… daily life of our communities to strengthen and move forward,” he said.

The local city council, he added, has already requested to begin cleaning and restoration work on the newly discovered piece, after which more detailed research can begin on its origins.

With reports from La Lista

Popocatépetl activity level has diminished

By

MND Staff

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June 1, 2023

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Low activity at Popcatepetl — Cenapred announced that Popocatépetl has decreased in activity, with fewer emissions and low-level tremors recorded at the volcano. (Twitter)

According to the National Center for Disaster Prevention (Cenapred), activity at the Popocatépetl volcano has diminished, although the yellow Phase 3 warning still remains in place.

On Wednesday, Cenapred reported that in the previous 24 hours, El Popo (as the volcano is commonly known) had seen 315 exhalations, 502 minutes of high-frequency tremors of low-to-medium amplitude, and two explosions — one at 2:23 p.m. and the other at 5:08 p.m. On Thursday at 11:49 a.m., the agency reported there were 219 exhalations and 11 minutes of high-frequency tremors in the previous 24 hours.

Volcanic activity at Popocatepetl — The volcano has been highly active in recent weeks, though authorities say that this activity is now diminishing. (Twitter)

The volcano also spewed incandescent fragments at a short distance from the crater, as well as water vapor, volcanic gasses and ash. The quantity of ash was less than in previous weeks.

A tectonic 1.6-magnitude earthquake was also registered at 9:52 a.m. on Wednesday.

Since El Popo’s increased activity began on May 16, winds have blown ash over the states of Puebla, Tlaxcala and Morelos. Towns in the vicinity of volcano have been coated with layers of volcanic ash.

According to Mexican authorities, the yellow Phase 3 alert — one notch below the red Phase 1 alert status that could mandate evacuation — indicates low to intermediate “explosive eruptive activity,” low to moderate ashfall, “significant” growth of lava domes and the possibility of magma expulsions.

With reports from Infobae and Excelsior

AMLO says deal reached with Grupo México over seized railway

By

MND Staff

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June 1, 2023

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A Ferrosur locomotive — According to the President López Obrador, Ferrosur agreed to drop legal action over the expropriation of the section of track in Veracruz, in exchange for an extension of a rail concession elsewhere in Mexico. (Wikimedia)

President López Obrador announced Thursday that the government had reached an agreement with Grupo México under which the mining and infrastructure conglomerate will cede control of a section of railroad in Veracruz that was occupied by the navy last month.

Speaking at his morning news conference, López Obrador said that Grupo México, parent company of the railroad firm Ferrosur, had agreed to “voluntarily hand over” a 120-kilometer section of the Southeastern Railway to the nation.

Ferrosur railway facilities occupied by Mexican military — A soldier watches over Ferrosur railway facilities, shortly after the government seized control of the railroad. Ferrosur will now relinquish their claim over the 120-kilometer section of track. (Ángel Hernández/Cuartoscuro)

In exchange, Ferrosur’s concession to operate another section of railroad in Mexico’s southeast will be extended by eight years to 2044, the president said. No monetary compensation will be paid to Grupo México, López Obrador said.

He said that Grupo México — owned by billionaire businessman Germán Larrea — also agreed to drop legal action related to the government’s cancelation of a 17.8-billion peso (about US $1 billion) contract for construction of part of the 1,554-kilometer long Maya Train railroad, which is scheduled to begin operations in December.

The 120 kilometers of railroad that Grupo México agreed to cede are located in the Veracruz section of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, where the government is working on a trade corridor project to connect Salina Cruz on the Pacific coast of Oaxaca to Coatzacoalcos on the Gulf coast of Veracruz.

The project — envisioned as a rival to the Panama Canal — includes the modernization of the railroad between the two port cities.

To facilitate that project, López Obrador published a decree on May 19 that ordered the “immediate temporary occupation” of three sections of railroad operated by Ferrosur between Medias Aguas and Coatzacoalcos, Hibueras and Minatitlán, and El Chapo and Coatzacoalcos.

The decree declared the combined stretch of railroad to be of “public utility” and relevant to national security, and ordered their temporary occupation by Ferrocarril del Istmo de Tehuantepec, a military-run state-owned company working on the trade corridor project.

Grupo México Transportes (GMXT), which runs Ferrosur, said that armed navy personnel occupied Ferrosur facilities along the 91-kilometer Medias Aguas-Coatzacolacos section starting at 6 a.m. on May 19.

“The surprising and unusual takeover … by the armed forces is being analyzed by Group México Transportes, its investors and advisors,” the firm said at the time.

López Obrador rejected claims that the government expropriated the 120-kilometers of railroad, asserting that it simply “recovered” a concession granted to Ferrosur.

On Thursday, he described the deal with Grupo México as a “good agreement because the navy is now going to operate the entire isthmus railroad.”

“… It’s a matter, I repeat, of national security,” López Obrador said.

“… [The trade corridor] is a very important project because it’s about connecting the Pacific to the Gulf; we’re talking about no more than 250, 300 kilometers, and we’re investing. The new railroad will be finished in August, and will begin operating with freight trains and later passenger trains,” he said.

López Obrador said that trains that use the military-run railroad will have to pay a fee to Ferrocarril del Istmo de Tehuantepec.

The president declared the Isthmus of Tehuantepec railroad issue “resolved” and said he was “very happy” because a section of railroad in a “strategic region” was returning to the nation.

“With this asset, we’ve recovered more than 2,000 kilometers of railroad tracks under concession,” he said.

“I hope to end my term delivering 2,000 kilometers of tracks with passenger trains,” López Obrador added.

“… [Such a situation] hasn’t been seen for a long time, [not] since the bad decision to privatize railroads was taken,” he said, explaining that former president Ernesto Zedillo — who was in office between 1994 and 2000 — granted concessions for “the country’s entire railroad” and that passenger trains consequently “disappeared.”

With reports from Reforma and Expansión