So far in 2024, Mexico has hosted more than 1,200 cruise ships, including the world's largest, Royal Caribbean's Icon of the Seas, seen here docked in Mahahual, Quintana Roo, in February. The number of cruise ship tourists visiting Mahahual in 2024 increased by 35% over last year. (Elizabeth Ruiz/Cuartoscuro)
In the first four months of 2024, Mexico welcomed 3.88 million cruise ship tourists, up 2.2% compared to the same period of last year, the Tourism Ministry (Sectur) reported Sunday.
Tourism Minister Miguel Torruco Marqués said in a statement that the passengers arrived aboard 1,200 cruise ships and spent a total of US $325.8 million tourist dollars in Mexico — 6.2% more compared to the same period of 2023.
According to Tourism Minister Miguel Torruco Marquéz, Mexico cruise ship tourists in 2024 spent an average 3.9% more while docked here than in 2023. (Galo Cañas Rodríguez/Cuartoscuro)
Torruco added that the average cruise ship tourist expenditure in Mexico was US $83.9 per person, 3.9% more than in 2023, or $80.7 dollars per person.
Mexico’s ports with the highest number of cruise ship tourists included:
Cozumel and Mahahual in Quintana Roo
Ensenada in Baja California
Cabo San Lucas in Baja California Sur
Puerto Vallarta in Jalisco.
Altogether, these four ports hosted 90% of the total number of cruise ship tourists that arrived at Mexico’s ports from January to April.
Cozumel, which had 520 cruise ship arrivals and welcomed 1.81 million passengers, saw a 14.2% increase in visitors and a 5.5% rise in the number of ships compared to the same period of 2023.
Ensenada welcomed 281,007 passengers onboard 93 cruise ships, while Cabo San Lucas saw 83 ships and 257,069 passengers.
Finally, Puerto Vallarta docked 78 cruise ships and 238,471 passengers.
One of the cruises that arrived in Mahahual, Quintana Roo, was the Icon of the Seas, recently named the world’s biggest cruise ship. The ship, operated by Royal Caribbean Group, reached Mahahual in February carrying 8,000 passengers — double the population of the port village.
Home to the world’s second largest coral reef, Mahahual is a small fishing town that comes alive during the winter cruise ship season. It has grown in popularity recently as it is the only cruise port in southern Quintana Roo.
AMLO said Mexico is "very happy" about Julian Assange's release, saying "now...the Statue of Liberty is happy." (Cuartoscuro)
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador welcomed the news of Julian Assange’s release from a prison in the United Kingdom after the Wikileaks founder accepted a plea deal from the United States and departed London’s Stansted Airport on Monday for a U.S. Commonwealth in the northwestern Pacific Ocean where he will appear in court on Wednesday local time.
“I celebrate Julian Assange’s release from jail. At least in this case, the Statue of Liberty did not remain an empty symbol,” López Obrador wrote on social media on Monday night.
Julian Assange, seen here in 2014 in Ecuador, was released after accepting a plea deal from the United States. (Wikimedia Commons)
On Monday afternoon Mexico time it was revealed that Assange had agreed to plead guilty to a single felony count in the U.S. of illegally obtaining and disclosing national security material.
The 52-year-old Australian — who published troves of classified material on the Wikileaks website including a 2007 U.S. military video dubbed “collateral murder” that shows a U.S. helicopter in Iraq fatally attacking civilians, including two Reuters journalists — is scheduled to appear in a U.S. federal court in the Northern Mariana Islands at 5 p.m. Tuesday Mexico City time.
Assange, who spent more than five years in London’s Belmarsh Prison as he fought extradition to the United States on espionage charges, is expected to fly to Australia from the island of Saipan after his court appearance.
Because of the time he already spent in Belmarsh — following his 2019 arrest in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London on a charge of failing to appear in court — he will not be required to serve any additional jail time.
His release, Wikileaks said on X, is “the result of a global campaign that spanned grass-roots organizers, press freedom campaigners, legislators and leaders from across the political spectrum, all the way to the United Nations.”
AMLO: Assange’s incarceration ‘like having freedom in prison’
At his morning press conference on Tuesday, López Obrador said that his government was “very happy” with Assange’s release from jail and described his imprisonment as “a very unjust thing.”
“It was like having freedom in prison, especially freedom of speech,” said AMLO, who has been an outspoken supporter of the Wikileaks founder for years.
“… Now … the Statue of Liberty is happy,” he added.
AMLO hosted Julian Assange’s father and brother in 2023. (Lopezobrador.org.mx)
López Obrador said he didn’t expect to speak to Assange or members of his family in the near future, but remarked that “they know what we did” in support of the Wikileaks founder’s quest for freedom.
He noted that his government lobbied the administrations of both former U.S. president Donald Trump and current president Joe Biden on the issue.
AMLO displayed a letter he sent to Trump in December 2020 in which he asked the then president to consider pardoning Assange and said that Mexico was willing to grant asylum to him if he was released from prison.
He also displayed a letter he gave to Biden during the U.S. president’s visit to Mexico for the North American Leaders’ Summit in January 2023. In that letter, López Obrador requested that Biden ask U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to “review the legality” of the accusations against Assange in the United States as well as the U.S. government’s request to have the Wikileaks founder extradited to the U.S.
“I dare to make this request because I believe that in addition to being an injustice, this case affects the image of the United States in the world,” he wrote.
“I’m in favor of him being pardoned. Not only that, I’m going to ask the foreign affairs minister to do the relevant paperwork to ask the government of the United Kingdom about the possibility of allowing Mr. Assange to be freed and for Mexico to offer him political asylum,” he said at the time.
“His crime, in quotation marks, was to report serious human rights violations in the world as well as interference of the United States government in the internal affairs of other countries – that’s what Assange did,” he said at the time.
“He’s the best journalist of our time in the world and, I repeat, he’s been very unfairly treated, worse than a criminal. This is a disgrace for the world,” AMLO added.
“What he did was reveal information, the same information that The New York Times and other media outlets revealed,” he said “Why aren’t those media outlets being tried?”
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies (peter.davies@mexiconewsdaily.com)
Some streets of Mérida were knee-deep in water by Monday. (@Planoinforma/X)
Several neighborhoods in Mérida were underwater on Tuesday after intense storms battered the northern part of the Yucatán Peninsula for two days, causing severe flooding in the capital.
The storms, starting on Sunday, knocked out electricity in parts of Mérida, but the accumulation of rain was proving to be the bigger problem on Tuesday.
Municipal officials are assessing drainage systems and providing relief services to victims of the intense flooding, particularly in the historic center, where water high water levels have forced commuters to find alternate routes.
Many left their cars and splashed home on foot through the flooded streets. Just north of the historic center, several commuters, unable to cross the Itzimná borough, abandoned their stalled cars.
José Collado Soberanis, director of Mérida’s Municipal Public Services, said teams were unclogging drains, drilling wells to help water flow and cleaning up the muddy mess. Special attention was being given to areas around hospitals, schools and shelters in order to ensure roads were passable, he said.
Municipal Public Services also was delivering 78 water tankers to residents after the loss of electricity shut down Mérida’s water distribution system on Sunday.
Outside the capital, about 15 kilometers to the northeast, the municipality of Conkal was inundated by 238 millimeters of rainwater.
The inclement weather forecast is due to the arrival of Tropical Storm No. 4 over southern Campeche, which is coming into contact with a band of low pressure over the Yucatán Peninsula.
In the municipality of Caucel, just west of Mérida, intense storms and flooding brought down a tree in the Sante Fe neighborhood, Monday night, forcing authorities to close parts of 17D street for hours. (SSP Yucatan/Twitter)
The U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) issued an advisory on Tuesday morning that another storm with the potential to cause more intense flooding in the region, called a tropical wave, is approaching the Gulf of Mexico. As of midday Tuesday, the wave — currently located in the southeastern Caribbean — was headed west at 25 mph and bringing heavy rain and electrical storms.
There is a low chance that the tropical wave will reach the southwestern Gulf of Mexico this weekend.
The Mexican economy grew 3.2% in 2023, but the pace of growth is forecast to slow this year, partly due to a slowing in the United States' economy. (Moisés Pablo/Cuartoscuro)
Economic growth in Mexico slowed markedly in annual terms in April compared to March, while the economy contracted on a month-over-month basis, according to official data.
The national statistics agency INEGI reported that the economy grew 0.9% in April compared to the same month of 2023.
Mexico’s manufacturing industry, part of the secondary sector of the economy, declined 1.5% in April compared to the previous month. (Cuartoscuro)
INEGI data also shows that the Mexican economy contracted 0.6% in April compared to the previous month.
The newspaper Reforma reported that the month-over-month contraction, as measured by INEGI’s Global Indicator of Economic Activity (IGAE), was the worst result for the Mexican economy in 32 months.
On an annual basis, the primary sector of the economy contracted 1% in April, while the secondary and tertiary sectors grew by 0.6% and 1.3%, respectively.
On a month-over-month basis, Mexico’s primary, secondary and tertiary sectors all went backward. The primary sector contracted 2.5%; the secondary sector declined 0.5%; and the tertiary sector — which contributes to more than 60% of Mexico’s GDP — shrank by 0.6%.
The International Monetary Fund is currently predicting a 2.4% expansion this year, while the consensus forecast of more than 30 banks, brokerages and research organizations recently surveyed by Citibanamex is that the Mexican economy will expand 2.1% in 2024.
For that to occur, Mexico needs to be promoted as a nearshoring destination; water, electricity and highway infrastructure needs to be built; and the country needs “certainty in internal economic policy,” the analyst wrote.
They don't call Oaxaca the street food capital of Mexico for nothing. Here's where to get the best of everything. (Photos by Anna Bruce/Instagram)
The smell of fresh corn tortillas permeates the streets of Oaxaca city, as people hustle to get tacos from their favorite stall before it runs out. Known as the cradle of corn, the state is renowned for its cuisine because of its history of domesticating this staple, Oaxaca gastronomy has developed from deep ancestral knowledge with a blend of Indigenous, Spanish, and other international influences. Visitors to this great city all have one question though: Where is the best street food in Oaxaca, and how do they find it?
A great place to start exploring Oaxacan street food is in the city’s markets. Most are open every day from dawn ‘till dusk, although I recommend going in the mornings. Dive in and you can find a rainbow of fresh produce and beautiful artisan goods.
Memelas Doña Vale has become something of an international sensation thanks to her appearance on the Netflix show “Street Food Latin America.” (Anna Bruce)
Which Oaxaca street food markets are best to visit?
My favorite market spot is the food court at the Mercado Merced, off Calle Murguía. The first tables you come to are catered by Fonda Rosita. The family makes amazing chilaquiles that come still bubbling in a casserole dish: layers of tortilla chips, herbs and cheese in spicy red or green sauce. I usually get my chilaquiles with a couple of fried eggs on top.
The largest market in Oaxaca is the Central de Abastos. It’s home to a huge expanse of stalls, more or less organized into different sections such as fruit, flowers, clothes and carpentry. There are also some great spots to get classic street food. The sprawling market can be a little difficult to navigate at times, so it’s helpful to explore with a guide who can help you start out picking from the wealth of different options available.
Recently Netflix shows such Street Food Latin America have highlighted the food of Doña Vale. She makes delicious memelas, a perfect morning snack. Memelas are a small, soft corn base spread with refried beans topped with crumbled queso fresco or stringy quesillo. One from Doña Vale will run you between 20 and 30 pesos each.
Tlayudas
Tlayudas are an iconic Oaxacan street food. My favorite tlayuda spot, Dos Cielos, makes an awesome one with ribs, folded and grilled over a flame. You can also pick up tlayudas in the markets, but these are usually open faced and can be a little dry or chewy to my taste.
A mouth watering Oaxacan tlayuda with cecina, tasajo and chorizo.
A famous place to be immersed in the smell of barbecue is the Pasillo de Humo, or Smoke Corridor, on Calle 20 de Noviembre. Walking through this area, you can immediately see where the name comes from. The air is full of smoke and the smell of cooking meat is all around as each vendor tries to entice you to their spot.
A treat to have after a big plate from the Pasillo de Humo is a cup of cold tejate from La Flor de Huayapam. Tejate is a pre-Columbian drink made from maize, cacao, mamey pits and cacao flower, served in a beautifully painted jicara gourd for 20 pesos.
Tamales
Tamales are made from masa, a dough of nixtamalized corn, usually with some kind of filling such as mole. A great way to try Oaxacan mole on the move!
One of the best places to get tamales is the Sanchez Pascuas market. Nestled close to the entrance, steam pours from a big cooking pot. You can grab a stool and squeeze up alongside the pot to eat them there and then, piping hot, or have them bundled up in paper to take away. The chicken amarillo tamales served inside a corn husk are delicious, as are the rich black mole ones served inside a fresh banana leaf.
The Mercado 20 de Noviembre in Oaxaca city is THE destination for street food adventurers. (Facebook)
Other popular tamale fillings include Rajas which are roasted poblano peppers, beans and a Oaxacan herb called chipil.
Tacos
The street tacos you typically find in Oaxaca are rolled in soft tortillas sometimes referred to as blandas. Find the best in front of Carmen Alta church on the corner of García Vigil and Jesús Carranza.
Tacos del Carmen is a Oaxaca institution. They have been serving tacos and quesadillas of chicken tinga, chorizo with potato, squash blossom and mushroom since 1977. You can get a glass of agua de jamaica to go with your tacos, or grab a mezcal margarita from La Popular next door. These tacos run out, so don’t go too late.
If you’re looking for a fix later in the day, Tacos Roy or La Flamita Mixe offer great al pastor tacos. Carving the meat straight off the ‘doner’ like trompo, this style stemming from Lebanese roots.
In business for almost 50 years, Tacos del Carmen sells out fast. Get there early to guarantee a chance to try them. (Tacos del Carmen/Instagram)
Late night tacos at Lechoncito del Oro are essential. These are tacos filled with succulent slow-roasted suckling pig. The loaded tostadas are also amazing, if a little difficult to eat after a few drinks.
Desserts
Once you have filled up, you might be looking for dessert. The streets of Oaxaca, of course, have plenty to offer.
During the day it’s well worth visiting the Plaza de las Nieves in front of the Basilica de la Soledad. Nieves are ice cream and can be either water or milk based. The flavor options are endless: some are to be expected, such as fruit, cacao or even mezcal. Others require a bit more thought, such as quesillo, tuna or the mysterious “Beso de Oaxaca.”
Grabbing a box of fruit with lime and chili, or a roasted banana slathered in condensed milk from roving vendors are also great ways to get a sugar fix. You’ll hear them coming by the sound of the steam whistle.
Chefs and foodies have long been making the pilgrimage to Oaxaca City to experience the profound flavors. Michelin has awarded stars to Oaxacan restaurants and chefs. However, there is more than just fine dining to enjoy in Oaxaca. Quite simply, the street and market food here is some of the best in the world!
Anna Bruce is an award-winning British photojournalist based in Oaxaca, Mexico. Just some of the media outlets she has worked with include Vice, The Financial Times, Time Out, Huffington Post, The Times of London, the BBC and Sony TV. Find out more about her work at her website or visit her on social media on Instagram or on Facebook.
It's surprisngly easy to turn into this grumpy cat when you're having a bad day. Take a second, breathe and embrace the chaos of life in Mexico. (Niranjan/Unsplash)
Life in Mexico can be pretty great, but sometimes little, nagging, annoying things can get on top of you. A couple of weeks ago, I went to eat with a friend of mine, a fellow foreigner. It had been a while, and we were looking forward to catching up.
But the circumstances were bumpy, Mexico-style.
First, there was the question of parking: all tiny, hard-to-get-to spaces. The valet was available, but, my friend explained he was very against someone else driving his car. Successfully parked at last, we finally went in.
Mexico: The land of minorly annoying things
Parking in Mexico — especially in Guanajuato city — can be a challenge at times. (ISSEG)
In the cafe at last, the the chairs we were led to wound up being too small for comfort. No matter — we moved to a booth. Then the lunch special was not valid that day. After that, it turned out we needed silverware. By the time the waiter brought out my friend’s soup with his main dish, he’d had it.
“Don’t you think it’s silly to bring out both of these dishes at the same time when the soup should clearly come first?” he snapped.
The waiter didn’t know how to respond, and was almost certainly not paid enough to mount a defense, anyway.
When the grouchy bug bites
Here’s one thing the lifestyle guides don’t always tell you: it’s easy to get grouchy in Mexico.
Oh, let me count the ways!
Sometimes, your water will go out. Sometimes it might be your power. Learn to roll with the punches and life will go so much smoother. (Crisanta Espinosa Aguilar/Cuartoscuro))
The electricity, and/or water, and/or internet go out (or all three at once, if you’re particularly unlucky). That happens, of course, but here they keep charging you as if there’d been no break in service at all.
You get excited about trying something on the menu, but the restaurant doesn’t actually have it right then (this happens a lot). Then they don’t have the next thing you want to try, either.
Nobody has change, even for relatively small bills, pretty much ever. Good luck breaking that 500, my friend.
The bathrooms are super tiny and the toilets don’t always flush.
And when you’re grouchy, it’s extra easy to be…not the nicest person. Where does that get us? Grouchy and scowled at, that’s where. “What’s that guy’s problem?” people might think.
Learning to take it easy (for real)
A few weeks ago, Travis Bembenek (Mexico News Daily’s co-owner) wrote about the “Mexican stress test.” In it, he detailed some of the many ways that, if you’re already having a kind of frustrating day, can get you even more frustrated. This particular case had to do with the loss of power. But it can be anything, really.
Most of these opportunities for exasperation result from unmet expectations. Why won’t things or people simply work the way they’re supposed to? We could get mad every hour of every day if we wanted to.
Anyone can be an asshole. But boy, does it stick out when you’re in a country where most people fall over themselves to be polite and accommodating.
So the most urgent question for us is this: how can we adjust our expectations instead of freaking out like we love to do?
Most people tend to describe themselves as easygoing, go-with-the-flow kinds of people. “Walking the walk,” of course, is a different story.
Even though they’re pay-to-use, public toilets sometimes leave something (a lot) to be desired. (Mario Nulo/Cuartoscuro)
The first step, I believe, is to prepare yourself. People are not going to do things the way you think they should be done. They’re just not.
So keep that in mind, and see how others respond to the same types of setbacks; you might pick up some good tips.
Remember, too, that getting all worked up doesn’t usually accomplish anything, especially here. Mexicans will often say, “He who angers, loses.” In a lot of ways that’s true. You not only “lose” your own cool, but people who could help you are much less likely to help you if you’re rude and huffy about it.
Expressing your anger to strangers is like trying to ram into someone with your parking break on. It’s not going to happen, and it will frustrate you even more.
When we finished our meal, a trickster god had another surprise in store for us: there was a car blocking our exit. A Mexican driver would have pulled out front and made their escape. But my friend didn’t feel confident about avoiding a bump with another car in the tiny space.
So, after a derisive “of course” laugh, I got out and politely asked the valet to move it. After a few minutes, he did, and we dislodged ourselves.
No doubt you’ve experienced some annoying things in Mexico too — have I missed any?
Officials announced that if the project proceeds on schedule, construction will be completed within two months. (Román Meyer Falcón/Facebook)
Construction of the 2.5-billion-peso (US $140 million) Jaguar National Park in Tulum, Quintana Roo, should be complete within two months, government officials said, despite delayed environmental permits for a military-built luxury hotel in the park.
After a recent visit to the new park, Román Meyer Falcón, the head of the Agrarian, Territorial and Urban Development Ministry (Sedatu), said the development of the site located in northeastern Tulum is 92% complete, the newspaper La Jornada Maya reported on Sunday.
On June 16, however, the tourism website Reportur revealed that the failure to carry out an environmental impact report for a US $38 million hotel project in the park was drawing criticism.
The Defense Ministry (Sedena) began building the luxury hotel last year on a site adjacent to an old Navy aerodrome. Critics immediately expressed concern that construction was moving ahead rapidly before an environmental impact review had been released. The review, known as an MIA, is a federally mandated procedure.
As a result of rising criticism, Sedena recently formally petitioned the Environment Ministry (Semarnat) to conduct an MIA.
Over the weekend, Meyer said the park project is presently focused on the museum, which is being built on the grounds of the old aerodrome that was incorporated into the park grounds after a lengthy process of reforestation. The reconstruction of the old aerodrome will also include the park’s administrative buildings.
The majority of the park facilities have been built. (Sedatu)
The museum area will also feature six “windows to the sea,” access to footpaths and bicycle paths, and a nearby lighthouse will be restored.
Park infrastructure has largely been modernized to improve the experience for visitors to both the park and Maya archaeological sites in and around Tulum, as well as to facilitate connectivity to the Maya Train.
Jaguar Park comprises nearly 2,250 hectares encompassing numerous protected natural areas such as beaches, forests, the Tulum Archaeological Zone and the Tulum National Park. The area is home to at least 966 species of flora and fauna, including 60 endemic species that can’t be found elsewhere. Construction on the project began in 2022 and the park was originally scheduled to be operational by February.
In the first six months of the year, Mexico exported over US $9 billion worth of goods to Canada. (Shutterstock)
The government of Canada has opened three new visa application centers (VACs) in Mexico to help relieve the high volume of applications at the current facility in Mexico’s capital.
The new VACs will be in Monterrey, Nuevo León, and Guadalajara, Jalisco. Canada will also open a second visa center in Mexico City.
“With these new centres, Mexico will have four VACs located in the country’s three largest metropolitan areas,” the Canadian government said in a statement. “This will make it easier for Mexican nationals to provide biometrics to come to Canada if required, and support travel and people-to-people ties between the two countries, while also preserving the integrity of Canada’s immigration system.”
This decision comes four months after the Canadian government announced it would tighten its entry requirements for Mexican visitors. Before, Mexicans only needed an Electronic Travel Authorization (eTA) to enter the country.
With the updated guidelines, those who hold a valid visa for the United States or who have had a Canadian visa in the last 10 years can enter the country by air with an eTA.
At the time, the Canadian government said this move responds to the increasing number of asylum applications from Mexican citizens.
The recent rule change requires most Mexicans to obtain a visa before entering Canada. (Shutterstock)
Unlike the eTA, obtaining a visa involves a longer process. Reportedly, the current estimated processing time at the Canadian Embassy in Mexico is approximately 40 days.
In most cases, applicants in Mexico must now undergo biometric data collection — an additional step that contributes to the overall wait time. This data is collected at the VACs, which Canadian officials said are run by private companies that have contracts with the government of Canada.
The Canadian visa application fee is 100 Canadian dollars (US $73), with an additional 85 Canadian dollar (US $62) fee for biometric data collection.
The vase that Anna Lee Dozier bought for US $3.99 at a Maryland thrift store turned out to be worth far more than she ever suspected. (Estebán Moctezuma Barragán/X)
An ancient Maya vase, bought for US $3.99 at a thrift store in Maryland, is among 20 archaeological artifacts being repatriated to Mexico, thanks to a U.S. woman who discovered its true value years after purchasing it.
Anna Lee Dozier stumbled upon the ceramic vase on a clearance shelf by the checkout at a thrift store about 10 minutes from her Washington, D.C., home. “In my work, I travel a lot to Mexico, and this item caught my eye because it looked different than the things on the shelf, but it also was recognizably from Mexico,” Dozier recounted on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) radio show “As It Happens.”
Dozier poses with Mexican Ambassador to the U.S. Esteban Moctezuma Barragán (right) at a ceremony to return the vase. (Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores)
“Since it’s a country that I work [in] and it’s really important to me, I thought it would be just a nice little thing to take home and put on the shelf and to remind me of Mexico,” she added on the National Public Radio (NPR) show “All Things Considered.”
Believing it was a 20- or 30-year-old tourist souvenir, she displayed the piece in her home library.
Dozier works for the human rights organization Christian Solidarity Worldwide and is often in Mexico. On a visit earlier this year to Mexico City’s National Museum of Anthropology, Dozier began to suspect the vase’s true age and significance.
“As I was walking through, it just occurred to me that some of the things that I was looking at looked very similar to what I had at home,” she said.
Following advice from museum staff, she contacted the Mexican embassy upon her return to the United States.
Experts dated it between 200 and 800 A.D. — a period that historians widely regard as the height of the Maya civilization, which declined after drought, infighting and eventually European conquest, among other factors.
The archaeological relics returned to Mexico included more than a dozen pieces from a variety of pre-Colombian cultures. (Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores)
“Congratulations, it is real. And we would like it back,” read the email from the embassy.
The vessel was handed over to Esteban Moctezuma Barragán, Mexico’s ambassador to the U.S., at a ceremony last week at the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington, D.C.
Along with the vase, the other 19 archaeological pieces coming back to Mexico this time are from various anonymous sources. They span multiple periods and pre-Columbian cultures, such as the Mexica, Teotihuacán and Totonac.
For Dozier, returning the vase was never about monetary gain.
“Giving it back feels so much better than it would if I put it on eBay and got a bunch of money,” she said.
In Mexico, the vase will undergo further examination to determine its specific use and significance before potentially being displayed in a museum.
Mexico City pedestrians take shelter under umbrellas and ponchos during Sunday's rain, which is expected to continue through the week. (Andrea Murcia Monsivais/Cuartoscuro)
After Tropical Storm Alberto brought respite from the sweltering heat waves, the Mexican National Meteorological Service (SMN) has forecast a week of heavy rain across Mexico.
Torrential rainfall (150 to 250 millimeters) is expected on Monday in the western states of Nayarit, Jalisco, Colima and Michoacán, and the mountains of the Sierra Madre Occidental.
Chiapas, Durango, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Morelos, Nayarit, San Luis Potosí, Sinaloa, Oaxaca, Puebla and Veracruz will experience heavy rain (75 to 150 mm) along with Chihuahua, the state of Mexico, Hidalgo, Querétaro, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Sonora and Yucatán, according to the forecast.
The rest of the country may experience isolated showers and rain that will continue until the week’s end.
Towards the weekend, a highly active tropical wave is anticipated to approach the southeast, east, center and south of the country, possibly evolving into a tropical cyclone and causing substantial rainfall.
The National Meteorological Service (SMN) warns that the heaviest rains may be accompanied by lightning, strong winds and hail, and could cause flooding in low-lying areas. Residents should remain alert to instructions from Civil Protection.
A rainy Sunday in Cuernavaca. (Margarito Pérez Retana/Cuartoscuro)
Despite the rain, some states in the northwest, north, northeast and southeast of Mexico will continue to experience hot weather with temperatures ranging between 32 and 40 degrees Celsius. The SMN forecast scorching temperatures of 45 C for the border of Sonora and Baja California with Arizona.
On the other hand, strong to very strong winds are expected in the northwest, with potential whirlwinds forming in Chihuahua, Sonora, and Tamaulipas. Waterspouts may also form on the coast of Michoacán.
Factors influencing the weather conditions include low pressure systems over most of the country, upper-level divergence, moisture flow from both coasts, the monsoon trough near the Mexican South Pacific coasts and a new tropical wave south of the Yucatán Peninsula.
In Tamaulipas, the heavy rainfall has helped replenish its main reservoirs, with the Vicente Guerrero dam seeing the most significant recovery compared to the levels before the storm. On Sunday, the National Water Commission (Conagua) reported that Vicente Guerrero dam was 18.1% full, while Marte R. Gómez dam reported the highest water levels at 37.7%.
In Nuevo León, a state heavily affected by drought, Conagua reported on Monday that three of its dams were over 50% full: La Boca reservoir at 95.06%, Cerro Prieto at 51.55%, and El Cuchillo at 80.16%.
