The president presented the new locomotive, part of the railway that will haul cargo and passengers across the 303-kilometer line. (Luisa Alcalde/Twitter)
Several sections of the interoceanic railway project, which will include tracks connecting the Gulf of Mexico in Veracruz to the Pacific Ocean in Oaxaca, were visited as part of a three-day tour by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
In a tweet on Sunday, AMLO reported he was verifying the progress of the Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec (CIIT), a massive infrastructure project that includes the interoceanic train, which will carry passengers and cargo over a seaport-to-seaport route of 303 kilometers (188 miles).
AMLO inspected lines in Oaxaca, Veracruz and Chiapas. The new project is being touted as a faster and cheaper alternative to the Panama Canal. (Luisa Alcalde/Twitter)
The president also presented the project’s first locomotive, which provided a preview of the train’s logo: smiling women dressed in the traditional clothing of Oaxaca, Veracruz, Chiapas and Tabasco.
Largely using rehabilitated tracks from previous rail lines, the main line of the railway will run between the port cities of Salina Cruz, Oaxaca and Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz. Additionally, the project also includes passenger and cargo railway lines to other areas, roadways, industrial parks, a gas pipeline and a fiber optic network.
Mexican officials have compared the main line across the isthmus to a “cheaper and faster” Panama Canal, noting that it will have the capacity to transport 1.4 million containers annually from port to port on journeys of less than 6 hours. Last month, Economy Minister Raquel Buenrostro said the project, once operational, could account for as much as 5% of Mexico’s GDP.
AMLO visited the line that goes from Tapachula, Chiapas to Ixtepec, Oaxaca on Friday, before inspecting the main line on Saturday. He finished on Sunday with a look at the section that goes to Palenque, Chiapas, where it will connect with the Maya Train. Accompanied by some of his top cabinet ministers and other government officials, he also got to see the progress on some of the project’s 10 industrial parks.
A cargo ship docks in the port of Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz. (Wikimedia Commons)
“Another of the great projects that the government of Mexico is building,” remarked Energy Minister Rocío Nahle, in tacit reference to the Maya Train, Felipe Ángeles International Airport and the Olmeca Refinery in Dos Bocas, Tabasco.
Asked when the interoceanic train line will be operational, AMLO said it will occur before his administration ends on Sept. 30, 2024, although he did not set a date. On Twitter, he said a supervised test run will be carried out next month, on Sept. 17.
“That’s why I’m in a hurry,” he said. “I have very little [time] left. Before I go, I must leave the train operating.”
Protesters demanded justice for the victims of the fire, which killed 40 and injured 27 others, outside of the Interior Ministry in March. (GRACIELA LÓPEZ /CUARTOSCURO.COM)
The families of 40 migrants who died in a fire in a Ciudad Juárez detention center will receive 3.5 million pesos (US $204,785) each in compensation, the National Immigration Institute (INM) said Sunday
Two Venezuelan men allegedly lit the fire that on March 27 ripped through a locked section of the INM facility where close to 70 male migrants were being held.
The fire at the detention center in Ciudad Juarez left 40 migrants dead. (Juan Ortega/Cuartoscuro)
Video footage showed that the migrants were left behind bars despite the outbreak of the fire. Twenty-seven migrants were also injured in the blaze.
A Venezuelan migrant who allegedly set mattresses alight after he and other migrants learned they were going to be deported or moved to another INM facility was arrested in late March. Another Venezuelan man was arrested in June.
In a statement published Sunday, the INM said that the keys to the accommodation area of the facility were lost at the time of the fire. It noted that INM director Francisco Garduño and seven other officials are awaiting trial in connection with the deadly blaze in the Chihuahua border city, located opposite El Paso, Texas.
The INM said that on May 18 it asked the Ministry of Finance (SHCP) to put aside a “special” budgetary allotment to pay compensation to the victims’ families once the federal government’s Executive Commission for Attention to Victims (CEAV) had determined the amount.
INM director Francisco Garduño at a hearing in April. (JUAN ORTEGA/CUARTOSCURO.COM)
“On July 10, the CEAV authorized 3.5 million pesos for each of the deceased victims,” the INM said, adding that the SHCP had approved the transfer of 140 million pesos (US $8.2 million) so that it is able to make the respective payments.
In its statement, the INM also noted that in collaboration with other government agencies and consular officials, it repatriated the bodies of the deceased migrants to their countries of origin. The deceased men came from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Colombia, and Venezuela.
The INM said it has covered costs and provided assistance to the families of the deceased and injured, some of whom accompanied their loved ones to Mexico City, where they received medical treatment.
Protesters hung posters outside the Ciudad Juárez detention center where 40 migrants died in a fire on March 27. (Photo by Graciela Lopez Herrera/Cuartoscuro.com)
“The process of accompaniment of the injured victims receiving medical treatment continues,” the institute said.
In addition to claiming 40 lives and injuring 27 other men, the March 27 fire caused material damage to the INM facility to the tune of just under 1.9 million pesos (US $11,400), according to the Federal Attorney General’s Office.
A total of 33 provisional detention centers were temporarily shut down after the blaze so that the conditions in each could be assessed and their future determined.
Smoke detectors, respirators and additional fire extinguishers were subsequently put in all INM facilities where migrants are held, the INM said. Emergency exit doors were installed and “bars and locks in all areas of transit and internal flow of people housed” at migrant detention centers were removed, the institute said.
The fire is among the deadliest tragedies involving migrants in Mexico in recent decades. Two incidents in which more migrants died include a 2021 tractor-trailer crash in Chiapas that claimed the lives of 55 clandestine passengers and the massacre of 72 migrants by cartel gunmen in Tamaulipas in 2010.
President López Obrador said in late March that the death of the migrants in the Ciudad Juárez fire took a heavy emotional toll on him.
“This case has been very painful for a lot of people. And I confess it has pained me a lot, it has hurt me. I’ve had difficult moments [as president], the most difficult was the explosion in Tlahuelilpan,” he said, referring to the 2019 petroleum pipeline blast in Hidalgo that claimed well over 100 lives.
“That was the hardest event, the one that affected me the most emotionally. And then this, this moved me, it broke my soul,” López Obrador said.
From the latest data on poverty reduction to corruption in the judiciary to "voluntary disarmament", it was another packed week at President López Obrador's daily press conferences. (MOISÉS PABLO/CUARTOSCURO.COM)
Twenty-nine years after Institutional Revolutionary Party presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta was assassinated in Tijuana, Baja California, history repeated in Quito, Ecuador, this week with the slaying of Fernando Villavicencio, who was one of eight aspirants to the top job in the South American nation.
The latest political assassination and its similarity with the murder of Colosio was among the numerous events and issues President López Obrador addressed at his morning press conferences, or mañaneras, this week.
The president ended the week with encouraging data on poverty reduction from 2020-2022. (Gob MX)
A range of other “bad news” items were discussed at the pressers, but on a positive note, López Obrador noted that data showed that inflation declined in July and poverty decreased considerably between 2020 and 2022.
Monday
Responding to his first mañanera question of the new workweek, AMLO once again denied that remarks he made about Senator Xóchitl Gálvez – a leading aspirant to the 2024 presidential election candidacy of the Broad Front for Mexico (FAM) opposition alliance – could be considered gender-based political violence, as the Federal Electoral Tribunal (TEPJF) ruled last week.
“This ruling … exposes the members of the Electoral Tribunal, the judges. … It exposes them because they lie, slander, act in a false manner. They’re even capable of changing my statements, my words,” he said.
“… They accuse me of gender-based political violence. Gender-based political violence! And what they do is attribute statements to me that I didn’t make in this press conference. It really is serious,” said López Obrador, who was directed by the National Electoral Institute (INE) on Aug. 4 to abstain from speaking about Gálvez.
“I’m not going to say her name, I think that is [what the INE order says]. … I won’t mention the name of the woman again,” pledged the president, who has defied an earlier INE directive to abstain from speaking about electoral issues in the lead-up to the 2024 elections.
In response to another question, López Obrador acknowledged that the husband of a cousin of Guerrero Governor Evelyn Salgado was murdered in Iguala.
“Regrettably there was this murder and the wife of the person who lost his life is wounded, fortunately not seriously,” he said, adding that an investigation is underway to determine who committed the crime and what the motive was.
AMLO also acknowledged that María Fernanda Sánchez, a 24-year-old Mexican student, was found dead in Berlin, Germany.
“The German government helped a lot, we thank them,” he said, adding that an investigation into the woman’s disappearance and death continues.
The Morelos Attorney General will now remain in custody until his case is heard in September. (Especial/Cuartoscuro)
Carmona has immunity from prosecution for federal crimes, but he is accused of a “common jurisdiction crime,” he said.
The case against him is about “the concealment of the truth” in “the murder of a young woman in Mexico City,” AMLO said, referring to Ariadna López, who was killed at the age of 27.
“That’s why the Mexico City Attorney General’s Office is involved. Of course we want there to be justice,” he said, adding that it was “very clear” that some politicians and “members of the judicial power,” among others, had sought to protect the attorney general.
After a reporter told him there were “great expectations” for the Maya Train railroad in Europe partly because “some European companies are participating in the construction of the project,” López Obrador declared that the mega obra is in fact being eagerly awaited around the world.
“It’s a great project – not just the most important rail project in the world today; I would say that it’s the most important public project in the world,” he said.
Workers on the Maya Train project. (Gob MX)
“It’s important for the development of engineering. On the Maya Train [project] they’re applying all the fields of engineering: mechanical, electrical, hydraulic, civil engineering, railway engineering, of course. It’s a great project,” he said.
Among other remarks, AMLO said that he will leave office a happy man when his six-year term ends in late 2024, even though his administration is already the most violent on record in terms of homicides and the COVID-19 pandemic – poorly managed by the federal government, according to some experts – has claimed the lives of well over 300,000 Mexicans.
“I’m going to feel content, happy, when I finish and I can say: We didn’t repress anyone, we didn’t order massacres [by federal security forces], we didn’t order or allow anyone to be tortured, we didn’t allow or tolerate the disappearance of people, human rights were respected and no media outlet was censored even though I maintain that they manipulate [information],” he said.
Tuesday
Three people have been arrested in connection with a bomb attack in Jalisco that claimed the lives of six people including four police officers on July 11, Deputy Security Minister Luis Rodríguez reported during the regular “Zero Impunity” segment.
The third man detained has been identified as the person who placed the explosive devices on the road in Tlajomulco where the explosion occurred and who lured the police to the site by reporting that the bodies of missing people had been located there, Rodríguez said.
Continuing a broader security update, Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez told reporters that the government has destroyed 992 firearms that were handed in to authorities in exchange for cash during a “voluntary disarmament” program.
In 38 municipalities across 13 states, the government paid 3.8 million pesos (US $222,600) to people who handed in the guns and other firearm paraphernalia including ammunition, she said.
“One of the strategies to reduce violence linked to firearms is voluntary disarmament,” Rodríguez said.
Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez at the Tuesday morning press conference. (Rosa Icela Rodríguez/Twitter)
“This is a peace-building tool that is carried out in the states with the highest rates of violence. It’s done in coordination with the Ministry of National Defense, the National Guard and state and municipal governments,” she said.
The security minister also said that “warlike toys” could be exchanged for “educational and recreational toys to raise awareness among boys and girls about the danger that firearms represent.”
Interior Minister Luisa María Alcalde later took aim at a federal judge who – in response to an injunction request filed by Xóchitl Gálvez – ordered López Obrador to abstain from engaging in hate speech against the complainant.
She said that the same judge has made numerous other rulings against the government, including one that suspended a ban on the sale of electronic cigarettes and another that suspended a prohibition on the use of mascots that appeal to children on food and beverage products.
Now the judge is going too far by “seeking, through this injunction, to silence the president of Mexico,” Alcalde said.
“We have to wait for the distribution and delivery of the books to start [to see what happens],” he said.
Opposition to the textbooks is nothing more than a “defamatory campaign of conservatism, without basis,” AMLO added.
“They’re saying that with the books the virus of communism is going to be injected [into students]. The truth is that’s grotesque, it’s absurd. It doesn’t just have no basis but is also an extremist, irrational, bad faith statement,” he said.
Interior Minister Alcalde at the morning press conference. (Gob MX)
Any effort to block the distribution of textbooks would go against the constitution, López Obrador said, reiterating that the federal government has the right to develop textbooks and deliver them to students.
Later in his presser, AMLO once again expressed his admiration for United States President Joe Biden because he’s “the only U.S. president in decades that hasn’t built even a meter of wall” on the border between the North America neighbors.
Previous presidents from both the Republican and Democratic parties all built “their sections of wall,” he said, adding that their motivation was “publicity” and “politicking.”
“And now this man from Texas, the governor, also … [for] publicity and in a very inhumane way places these buoys with barbed wire in the … [Rio Grande], affecting agreements, treaties, threatening our sovereignty,” said López Obrador, who told reporters that Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena would raise the issue with U.S. officials during meetings in Washington later in the week.
Questioned about a claim that Mexico was interested in joining BRICS, an economic grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, AMLO said that wasn’t the case.
“For economic reasons, … geopolitical reasons, we’re going to continue strengthening the North American alliance,” he said, adding that Mexico would also seek to bolster economic ties with other countries of the Americas.
Wednesday
Before opening the floor to questions, AMLO once again defended the government’s new school textbooks, which have been criticized as being ideological, riddled with errors and lacking in content in key subject areas.
“The … [press conferences] about the textbooks will continue because it’s very interesting to become familiar with each book, to get to know the content, to expose how deceptive and cretinous the conservatives are, how they’re capable of slandering and lying to serve their own interests,” he said.
López Obrador said that mathematicians and scientists who contributed to the textbooks will attend press conferences next week and “refute” claims that “there is no mathematics” in them.
Education Minister Leticia Ramírez (center) at the first evening press conference about the textbooks held on Monday. (Leticia Ramírez Amaya/Twitter)
AMLO subsequently noted that the national statistics agency INEGI had reported that annual headline inflation in July was 4.79%, down from 5.06% in June.
“We have very good news, inflation continues to fall, this has a great effect on people’s finances, families’ finances, because income goes further,” he said.
During his engagement with reporters, López Obrador revealed that he had sent a letter to President Biden to thank him for opening up new legal pathways to the United States for certain migrants and for not building any additional sections of wall on the Mexico-U.S. border.
“He’s the only United States president to carry out this measure [in favor of migrants] in recent times and I acknowledge that in the letter,” he said. “And the other thing, which is very important, is that he’s the only United States president in decades that hasn’t build [sections of border] wall.”
While he praised Biden for offering new legal pathways to the U.S. for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans, AMLO said that “a plan to combat poverty” in “very poor countries” in the Americas is needed to reduce the need to migrate in the first place.
“Migration is not for pleasure, it’s a matter of necessity,” he said.
“So, countries that have more economic possibilities have the moral obligation to help poor countries and this … allows order to be brought to the migration flow. … We have to address the causes [of migration] so that people can work and be happy where they were born, where their families and customs are, and this can be achieved if there is investment, if there are work opportunities,” López Obrador said.
AMLO later acknowledged that remittances sent home by Mexican workers in the United States have taken a hit due to the appreciation of the peso this year. However, the current strength of the currency is good for the country, he asserted.
While the currency depreciated during the terms of previous governments, “with us the peso has strengthened like never before,” AMLO said.
“… What does this mean for us? Firstly, that Mexico is a country with economic and financial stability. There haven’t been tax increases in real terms,” López Obrador said.
A recent El Financiero newspaper poll found Gálvez to be the frontrunner among respondents questioned about who they’d like to see represent the Frente Amplio por México coalition in the 2024 presidential election. (Yerania Rolón/Cuartoscuro)
Among other remarks, the president said he would write to the Federal Judiciary Council to question the conduct of the judge who ruled that he must abstain from speaking about Xóchitl Gálvez. He also said that he would send a letter directly to the judge.
“He has a history of protecting white-collar criminals and tycoons,” AMLO said.
“… He permitted the distribution of vaping devices. What’s at stake? People’s health, young people’s health,” he said.
Thursday
“I already sent him the letter. I’m going to read it to you,” López Obrador said, referring to the missive he dispatched to the judge he spoke about on Wednesday.
“You, Mr. Judge, order me … to keep quiet, to censor information that should be public. … You accuse me … of hate speech for exposing the existence of contracts signed in the past nine years by the the company of the woman [Xóchitl Gálvez] and her family for more than 400 million pesos, of which 70% were signed in the [Mexico City] borough of Miguel Hidalgo, a district where she, coincidentally, served as mayor between 20215 and 2018,” AMLO said.
“You warn of … effective malice on my part, but the one guilty of effective malice is you. … It was you that granted a suspension to Joaquín [“El Chapo”] Guzmán Loera to prevent his extradition to the United States,” continued López Obrador as he read from his letter to Martín Adolfo Santos Pérez, a judge at a Mexico City-based administrative court.
The Mexicana airline will begin operations with an initial fleet of 10 Boeing aircraft. (Andrea Murcia/Cuartoscuro)
Alcalde said that the money will go to former employees of Mexicana, which is set to be revived as a military-run commercial airline.
“Today is a historic day, a day that will be worth remembering” because the “thousands of women and men that were left helpless [when they lost their jobs] now see light on the road,” she said.
National Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval said that tickets for flights on the new state-owned airline will likely go on sale in September. The airline, which is slated to start operations before the end of the year, already has 209 employees and will have 745 by the time the first flight takes off, he said.
The government has made an “initial investment” in the airline of 4 billion pesos (about US $235 million), Sandoval said.
“Profitability will depend on flight activity,” the defense minister said of the soon-to-be launched airline, which is set to initially operate with ten Boeing 737-800s.
Asked about the assassination on Wednesday of Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, AMLO said he very much regretted the event.
“These are very difficult and regrettable times,” he said before describing the murder as “reprehensible” and “very painful.”
Luis Donaldo Colosio at the Tijuana rally where he was murdered on March 23, 1994. (Archive)
“Many people remember those sad times, times of distress and fear. That’s why we very much regret that this has happened in Ecuador,” he said.
AMLO said “there is no evidence” that the Sinaloa Cartel is responsible for the assassination and remarked that it mustn’t be forgotten that “things are always made up, and even more so in electoral times.”
“So we have to act very responsibly, very seriously, not blame anyone lightly … and wait for the result of the investigation to be announced,” he said.
Toward the end of his presser, López Obrador said that five government helicopters will patrol the route of the Maya Train railroad once it’s operational “to guarantee security.”
He said that the railroad and all other infrastructure projects undertaken by his government belong to “the people” of Mexico and asserted that that’s the way it should stay.
“They mustn’t be privatized, the same thing [that happened during previous governments] mustn’t happen again,” AMLO said.
Friday
At the top of his final press conference of the week, López Obrador noted that data published by the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy on Thursday showed that poverty has declined during his government.
“They won’t be able to take this away from us, this happiness we get from the fact that there are fewer poor people in the country. It fills me with pride,” he said.
During his Q and A session with the press, a reporter asked AMLO what he made of Enrique de la Madrid’s assertion that Mexico has suffered from two viruses during his presidency: the coronavirus and “the virus of the 4T” (Fourth Transformation), the government’s self-anointed nickname.
Enrique de la Madrid’s father was president of Mexico and he served as tourism minister during the administration of Vicente Fox. (Enrique de la Madrid/Twitter)
The same reporter sought the president’s opinion on why Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele – who has taken a hardline approach to combating crime – is so popular.
“There are different realities [in Mexico and El Salvador] and also different ideas. I think the causes [of crime] have to be addressed, it’s not just about applying coercive measures. Lasting peace is achieved with justice and that’s what we’re putting into practice. I don’t want to argue with the president of El Salvador,” López Obrador responded.
“We’re doing well despite inheriting a very difficult situation because there was a president who declared war on drug trafficking,” AMLO said, referring to Felipe Calderón.
Later in his mañanera, López Obrador weighed in on the curious case of Israel Vallarta, who was arrested on kidnapping charges in 2005 – including for a second time in a televised setup – but hasn’t been sentenced. He said there was evidence that Vallarta has been tortured and noted the long period that has passed without the suspect being sentenced.
“Where is the fast and expeditious justice?” AMLO asked before acknowledging that a court had once again ruled that Vallarta couldn’t be released from prison as he continues to await trial.
López Obrador said that his cabinet looked at Vallarta’s case and decided that he “deserved” to be released from jail. He indicated he was in favor of pardoning him, but said an amnesty “can’t be applied” if the suspect hasn’t been sentenced. There are many other people who have been in prison for a long time without being sentenced and who should also be released, AMLO said.
Israel Vallarta and then-partner Florence Cassez were arrested for kidnapping in 2005, but only Cassez was formally convicted. Her conviction was overturned in 2013 and she was released. Later investigations revealed that Vallarta confessed to committing the crime under torture. (Pedro Marrufo/Cuartoscuro.com)
“This is another one of the deficiencies of the judicial power,” he said.
Late in his press conference, López Obrador advised people who want or need plastic surgery to be careful and do their research given that some doctors are practicing despite not having relevant qualifications. He then recounted a long story about severe back pain he experienced before becoming president.
“They did everything to me [to try to treat the problem], even something that has to do with electric shocks that seems like torture…,” he said during his dire yet diverting tale.
Changing subjects, AMLO said he had been reviewing the new school textbooks and informed reporters that “the word communism practically doesn’t appear.”
“It appears in one book, a fourth grade or fifth grade one I think, but what appears is a poem of Bertolt Brecht,” he said before his communications coordinator, Jesús Ramírez, corrected him by saying that the poem was in fact by Martin Niemöller, a Lutheran pastor who opposed the Nazi regime in 1930s Germany.
“Put the poem up,” AMLO directed Ramírez. “It has to do with the way in which we must unite against fascism, against repression, against the violation of human rights. That’s what appears in the book,” he said.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies ([email protected])
First they came by Martin Niemöller
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me
Some who denigrate Mexico's new textbooks say they're a government tool of communist indoctrination. (Illustration by Angy Márquez)
Though it’s been a while since I’ve taught a class, the memories I have of being a high school social sciences teacher from 2006–2011 in Querétaro remain sharp — it was truly a unique experience.
Most of my students were the sons and daughters of the city’s elite. At the time I was there, we had several state politicians’ kids and many children from the region’s prominent business owners. Monthly tuition for each child was just over half of my monthly salary, and a peek outside the parking lot during the school day would reveal a cadre of bodyguards waiting to escort the ones from especially wealthy families to their homes.
I taught high school kids. High school kids are kind of high school kids everywhere: some are lovely, some are entitled and/or defiant jerks, some are just plain weird. Most, honestly, were pretty nice and well-mannered, especially if you consider what a self-centered period of life teenagerhood is.
I told myself that my work mattered greatly, as I was getting a small and unique chance to educate, quite literally, many of the future leaders of the city, state and possibly even the country.
And, boy, did I try hard.
Though I haven’t had a front-row seat to the culture wars in my own country, I’m pretty sure I’m exactly the kind of liberal teacher that conservative parents and local politicians would have wanted immediately fired and possibly burned at the stake.
Because look: if I’d been able to turn those kids into vegan socialists, you’d better believe I would have. I was not successful, but it certainly wasn’t for lack of trying!
Alas, most of them today (many are my Facebook friends!) are now simply 30-something rich people, the status-quo capitalism of Mexico having given them very little personal reason to “fight the system.” For the majority of them, “the system” is going just swimmingly.
They may sympathize with the masses, but I don’t see any of them fighting to cut their own privileges in order to even things out.
For most schoolchildren in Mexico, things are, and will likely remain, quite different.
This is true particularly for those younger students who attend public school and will be the recipients of the SEP’s new and (apparently) controversial textbooks.
I’ve been following this upset online, if you can count reading a couple of articles and looking at related memes as “following.” I’ve also virtually paged through some of the books that my daughter will receive this coming year, since we’re not in one of the states where the governor has declared they’d refuse to distribute them.
To me, the books seem just fine (you can look at the PDF versions here). I keep hearing about myriad errors in them, but in my own browsing, I haven’t yet come across any. Another complaint (possibly — just maybe — slightly exaggerated) is that the books are teaching “communist” values: have a look on Facebook, and you’ll find meme after meme joking and implying that after reading them, kids will be walking around in red sweaters with their own scythes and Che Guevara berets, fist-pumping solidarity gestures at each other in the hallways.
Ha! I wish.
Really, though, that’s not how it works.
For those not in the business of trying to “indoctrinate” (i.e., teach) kids, let me tell you: it’s harder than it looks. Again, I myself went all out, but there’s nary an anti-capitalism meme to be found among my former students’ social media pages. Nope. They’re filled with pictures of luxury world travel and evening gowns.
Conclusion? People vastly overestimate the degree to which students actually pay attention to their textbooks, let alone their teachers.
People who want to sound serious in their critiques have mostly stuck to talking about the books’ typos. But I don’t think the outrage is really about a few punctuation errors.
If there are schools that don’t even have toilet paper or soap in the bathroom, and others that are frequently left without water and electricity, outrage about a misplaced comma seems, well, misplaced.
So, what are they afraid of?
Here’s my radical take: they’re not worried about students like the ones I had. They’re worried about the future low-wage workers of Mexico developing a real life Marxian “class consciousness.” Because if that happened, they might stop accepting the social and economic status quo. They want to avoid class warfare, in which they’re not guaranteed to be on the winning side.
Sending one’s children to school is a compromise: you have to relinquish some of your own control in exchange for getting some time to yourself (usually just to work, not necessarily for fun stuff).
If you’re afraid of what they’re learning in school and you prefer that economically disadvantaged students have no textbooks of any kind — rather than allowing them to read what’s inside ones you consider flawed — then it’s time to examine what your real fears are.
Sarah DeVries is a writer and translator based in Xalapa, Veracruz. She can be reached through her website, sarahedevries.substack.com.
From the beginning, Stone, who came to Mexico's capital from New York City, had a plan to center her business on women, especially women from marginalized groups who have less access to opportunities to start a business. (Photos courtesy of Chany Ventures)
Although she admits it “sounds corny,” Chandell Stone considers herself a global citizen, “not just because I traveled to a lot of places but because I’ve done a lot of community work — building community…” she says.
That global citizenship comes through as a “…dynamic educator and serial social entrepreneur,” as she describes herself on LinkedIn. She has a particular interest in working with women and those of the African diaspora.
Chany Ventures’ 2023 EntrepreneuHers cohort.
Stone’s career began in her hometown of New York City, working with low-income students. Soon after, she established a number of for-profit and nonprofit organizations to work with people in Africa and Latin America. Her imaginative ideas led to becoming an Investment Fellow with the Kapor Center.
Stone’s first experience of Mexico came in 2018.
“And for me, Mexico City, I don’t know. I just really connected with it in a lot of ways,” she recalls.
She decided that if she had the chance to come back, she would, which happened in 2021, working with a program called 3-Day Startup, an entrepreneurial program out of the University of Texas-Austin that was expanding their reach into Latin America and Africa.
Announcement for the 2023 Demo Day and Pitch competition. All of the judges were women from Mexico with extensive experience in entrepreneurship.
That got her living in Mexico, but she didn’t yet have a real reason to be here. Stone has one of those personalities that is never satisfied working for someone else. Already experienced in securing venture capital, it seemed natural to start a business to help others do the same — hence Chany Ventures.
Her first clients came mostly from her own contacts. But she quickly attracted both Mexican and foreign women, noting that they were “…Black women from the U.S. or from Africa and Mexican women, and just seeing how many misconceptions both groups had about one another and yet how many similarities there were in terms of their hopes, their dreams, their struggles when it came to business…”
In essence, Stone is importing to Mexico the concept of an accelerator program for entrepreneurs, which offers expert help in developing business ideas.
Despite Mexico City’s notable population of career-aged foreigners from North America and Europe, from the start, Stone has focused her attention on women from marginalized groups — those that do not fit the “white male profile” either in looks or outlooks on life.
Although she sponsors other activities, Stone’s flagship program is EntrepreneuHers, which assembles cohorts of budding female entrepreneurs she calls FoundHers and takes them through the steps of developing an idea into a business, generally with the aim of attracting investment.
FoundHers not only learn from experienced businesspeople but also from each other as they progress. The interactions in a women-only space are exceedingly important because the FoundHers feel far more confident sharing stories, feelings, doubts and questions.
2023’s pitch competition winner, Mariana Miranda, owner of Metéca, a skincare company. She got the prize, but many other of the cohorts also connected with funding and other opportunities that day.
In addition, Stone insists on racial and socioeconomic diversity in the cohorts, although most participants are young. The multicultural aspects, Stone says, helps people “get out of their own bubbles [comfort zones],” which is also necessary for successful entrepreneurship, she says.
But perhaps the most important service that Chany Ventures provides is to support the kind of women who themselves would doubt their own ability to start a business. Often she finds it best not even to push the goal of attracting venture capital, rather use the term “medium-sized business.” At least until such women get more confident, she says.
“…once they are started and see more possibilities, support is already there for them.”
Nor does Chany Ventures look for “the next big thing” the way many similar businesses do.
“[FoundHers] need an opportunity to have experience with business first. It is a bit of a cop-out to exclude women who are building smaller things because the process to start a small business is exactly the same as those who start out new tech from scratch.”
Stone’s program provides support to the kind of women who would doubt their own ability to start a business, providing them with training and also a safe space where women share information and help each other tackle the challenges of starting a business or taking it to the next level.
At a recent showcase for the 2023 cohort, there was an impressive range of business ideas — from products made from pineapple waste to an AirBnB alternative, as well as waist jewelry and technology to process pap smears faster in Mexico.
Although based in Mexico City, Stone believes Chany Ventures and the businesses it incubates add to the entire Mexican economy. One reason is that the cohorts and many of their businesses are international.
The 2023 cohort was … 90% Latina, indigenous and Black — women from all over the Americas,” she said. Many of the businesses have an international outlook in the markets they serve.
Next, there are precious few accelerator programs in Mexico at all, and almost nothing specifically geared towards women.
“When most people talk about diversity initiatives, whether it be for a venture capital firm or an accelerator or something of that nature, what they mean is that they want to pull in the top 10% of people who [fit the] profile that they are normally pattern-matching with.”
In other words, they might look for people who look different, but want people who can most easily assimilate with existing hierarchies.
Stone’s program has been to date based in Mexico City, but in 2024, there will also be cohorts in Guadalajara and Monterrey.
Stone emphasizes that Mexico presents opportunities simply not available in other countries. Despite Mexico’s well-known economic and bureaucratic problems, “There is still so much innovation that can take place in Mexico. There are still so many gaps in the markets here that can be filled by people not in the 1%. It would be very challenging, especially in more developed countries, to go about making headway.”
That includes Chany Ventures itself, as the accelerator market in the U.S. is “saturated,” she says.
The cohort cycle culminates in Demo Day, when FoundHers all demonstrate what they have achieved and pitch their companies to 20 accredited venture capitalists and angel investors, in an informal, almost party-like atmosphere.
Despite only a couple of years operating in the country, all of the potential investors this year were Mexican, and 90% were female, including the three judges. The winner was Mariana Miranda of Metéca with her Mexico-made organic skincare line because she has already successfully partnered with major cosmetics company Sephora. However, one winner does not mean only one person secured financing and other opportunities that day.
The response to EntrepreneuHer has been phenomenal, both in terms of startups and investment support, in no small part because there is interest in Mexico in supporting women entrepreneurs. The first two cohorts concluded in Mexico City, but 2024 cohorts planned for not only the capital but also Guadalajara, Monterrey and online.
Although she maintains her international outlook, Stone is committed to developing Chany Ventures from Mexico.
Meet Chany Ventures
Meet the women of the 2023 cohort in this video.
“There are a lot of women’s rights issues in Mexico, which makes folks really galvanize around the idea of supporting women in a way that’s really powerful,” she says.
Given Stone’s energy and commitment, her team and her FoundHers, we could be seeing the start here of something big.
Leigh Thelmadatter arrived in Mexico over 20 years ago and fell in love with the land and the culture in particular its handcrafts and art. She is the author of Mexican Cartonería: Paper, Paste and Fiesta (Schiffer 2019). Her culture column appears regularly on Mexico News Daily.
Eggplant Parmesan Pasta is a taste of traditional Italy, featuring tomato, olive oil and a satisfying crunch. (Sunkissed Kitchen)
My childhood was imbued with my father’s Italian heritage and my Nonna’s insistence on teaching my mother how to cook the classic Napolitano dishes he grew up with. That in turn led to my lifelong love affair with cucina Italiana: fresh, ripe tomatoes, fragrant basil, the spicy bite of oregano and olive oil and some good parmesano.
This has been a mixed blessing throughout my life: on the one hand, I love Italian food, but on the other hand, it means something very specific to me that’s hard for others to replicate or equal. That pizza/pasta/Bolognese sauce you think is “great?” Hmmm. I may beg to differ.
There’s nothing quite like Italian food — when it’s done properly. (Sunkissed Kitchen)
At least once a week, I have to have something Italian, whether it’s a margherita pizza, a leftover spaghetti omelet (yes, that’s a thing) or just plain capellini with marinara sauce. It’s my comfort food, my foundation, a meal that makes me feel like, well, me. A day at home with sauce simmering on the stove makes me feel like everything’s OK. It’s like a big hug that touches my soul.
Comfort food, of course, means different things to different people. And don’t get me wrong: I love Mexican food too. And Greek food, and Japanese and Thai and Vietnamese and many other kinds of comida. But Italian food is “it” for me.
This recipe, adapted from the New York Times Cooking section, piqued my interest as soon as I saw it. It has all the flavors and textures of classic Eggplant Parmesan without the time-consuming, multistep process usually involved with this dish. I read it through carefully, and as I imagined each step and the finished product, the little Italian core inside of me started buzzing. It sounded like the “real thing.”
What makes it so wonderful is that you get eggplant the way you want it — with contrasting crunchy and melt-in-your-mouth textures — without all the fuss of breading and frying or baking.
Panko — or Japanese breadcrumbs — add a crunch deliciousness to any dish. (Christine Ma/The Spruce Eats)
This is achieved with a simple but brilliant trick: panko bread crumbs sautéed in a bit of olive oil. Just before serving, the crispy panko is mixed with freshly grated Parmesan and sprinkled on top of the saucy eggplant and pasta. Voila!
My mind is full of other uses for these decadently delicious crispy breadcrumbs: to replace croutons on a Caesar salad, on top of macaroni and cheese, scattered over beet carpaccio or maple-glazed salmon.
One of the things that fascinated me was the idea of sautéeing a little tomato paste in olive oil to caramelize and deepen the tomato flavor. Also, measuring the herbs — I usually just “throw in some” oregano and use a “handful” of fresh basil leaves, with no regard for, or memory of, the amounts.
Instead of winging it (ahem), follow the recipe below exactly and you can’t go wrong. As far as the eggplant (berenjena if you’re in a Mexican market) goes, pick ones that are shiny and firm to the touch.
Eggplant — or berejena, if you’re feeling local — is a versatile (and very Italian) ingredient. (The Noshery)
Whether you make this for guests or for yourself, you’ll enjoy the leftovers as much as if not more than the original eating. It freezes perfectly and can then be zapped in the microwave or thawed and reheated on the stovetop in a pan.
Should you already be making a run to the grocery store or mercado for eggplant? Umm, YES.
Eggplant Parmesan Pasta
If you must, you can halve this recipe, but you’ll wish you hadn’t.
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
¾ cup panko breadcrumbs
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
½ cup finely chopped yellow onion
3 medium garlic cloves, minced
1½ lbs. eggplant, peeled and cut into ½-inch cubes (about 8 cups)
2 Tbsp. tomato paste
1 (28-ounce) can whole tomatoes, crushed with your hands in a bowl
1 basil sprig, plus ⅓ cup coarsely chopped basil leaves
¼ tsp. dried oregano
¾ lb. short pasta, such as mezze rigatoni, fusilli or shells
2 Tbsp. freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
Optional: 8 oz. fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced and at room temperature
In a high-sided large (12-inch) skillet with a lid, heat 2 tablespoons of the oil on medium. Add panko, season with salt and pepper and cook, stirring constantly, until golden and crispy, about 2 minutes.
Transfer to a plate lined with a paper towel and set aside.
Wipe out the skillet, add 2 more tablespoons of the oil and heat on medium. Add the onion and cook, stirring until softened, about 2 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook for 30 seconds.
Add the eggplant and immediately drizzle in the remaining ¼ cup oil. Season with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the eggplant softens, about 8 minutes.
Panko breadcrumbs give the eggplant an enticing crunch. (The Noshery)
Add tomato paste and stir constantly for about 2 minutes until lightly brown and caramelized on the bottom of the skillet. Add the crushed tomatoes, basil, oregano and 1½ cups of water. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat.
Cover skillet and reduce the heat to medium. Cook, stirring occasionally, and gently smush some of the eggplant until it’s very tender and the sauce is thickened, about 15 minutes. Discard the basil sprig.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook pasta according to package instructions until al dente. Reserve ½ cup of pasta water and drain.
To the large pasta cooking pot, add the cooked pasta, reserved pasta water and the eggplant sauce. Cook over medium heat, stirring, until sauce thickens a bit, for 2–3 minutes. Stir in ¼ cup of the chopped basil.
Add Parmesan to the sauteed panko and mix well. Divide the pasta in bowls, top each with mozzarella slices (if desired) and cheesy breadcrumbs, and garnish with the remaining chopped basil.
Alicia Bárcena made her first visit as Mexico's foreign affairs minister to the U.S. this week, meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken (right), among other top officials. (Antony Blinken/Twitter)
Migration, the fight against fentanyl and border affairs were among the issues Mexican Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena has discussed with top United States officials in Washington D.C. during the past two days.
Bárcena, who assumed the foreign minister position in early July after the resignation of Marcelo Ebrard, met with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, among other United States officials, during her first trip to the U.S. capital as Mexico’s top diplomat.
Alicia Bárcena highlighted the “unprecedented relationship” between the two countries on her visit. (Antony Blinken/Twitter)
“I really believe we have an unprecedented relationship between Mexico and the United States,” she told a press conference on Thursday shorty after Blinken said he believed that the “partnership and collaboration” between the two countries was stronger now than at any other time in the past 30 years.
In her meetings with both Blinken and Mayorkas, Bárcena discussed the Texas government’s use of a floating barrier in the Rio Grande to deter migrants from crossing into the U.S.
“I reiterated that the removal of the buoys installed in Mexican territory in the Rio Grande is essential,” the foreign minister wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, after her meeting with Mayorkas on Wednesday.
“We are very much concerned about this topic and grateful that the Department of Justice of the United States has brought a suit against the government of Texas,” she said during her joint press conference with Blinken.
Bodies were recently found tangled in a buoy wall built by the Texas government to prevent migrants from crossing the Rio Grande as a way of illegally entering the U.S. via Eagle Pass, Texas. (Voice of Europe)
“This helps us tremendously because what we are talking about is a very delicate situation on the border, on the Rio Grande — Río Bravo, as we call it — but most of the buoys are on the Mexican side,” Bárcena said.
“… Let’s see what the federal court says and what can be done to address this and solve this matter in short order.”
With regard to the trafficking of synthetic drugs such as fentanyl, Bárcena said that Mexico is “thoroughly committed” to shutting down supply chains. Mexican cartels use precursor chemicals shipped to Mexico from China to press fentanyl pills, which are the leading cause of drug overdose deaths in the United States.
Bárcena said she outlined to Blinken Mexico’s intention to “digitally monitor” the entry of precursor chemicals to see where they go “because certainly some of those precursors go to the pharmaceutical and cosmetic companies, and some go to illicit drug production.”
Bárcena (left) also met with Hispanic organizations in the U.S. during her visit. (Alicia Bárcena/Twitter)
“… We’re fully aware of how this is a top priority for the United States and Canada because we’re losing our young people. This is a matter of public health. Without a doubt, this is an issue for which there needs to be global collaboration, not just collaboration between our countries,” she said.
On migration, Bárcena noted that the United States government has opened new legal channels for migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to enter the U.S.
She also noted that the Mexican government intends to establish in the southeast of the country “a place where, together with the UN,” it can assess migrants for eligibility to go to the United States.
“Once that review is done by the UN agencies, then they can be sent to [a U.S. consulate], or consular services can be sent to them to see which of them can come to the United States. And if they can’t come here, they can be integrated into Mexico,” Bárcena said, adding that they could find work on government infrastructure projects.
In her press conference remarks, the foreign minister also acknowledged the strength of the Mexico-United States trade relationship.
“Over the last six months, … trade between our two countries reached US $400 billion. So we’re talking about considerable growth and expansion, and Mexico has become the [top] trade partner of the United States. And for us, that’s, of course, important,” she said.
Blinken said that he and Bárcena spoke about “how we can strengthen and deepen even more the already significant collaboration that we have on narcotics in general and synthetic opioids in particular.”
The U.S and Mexico are working jointly to disrupt illicit supply chains that allow Mexican cartels to make illegal opioids, which then end up in the United States, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. (SEDENA/Cuartoscuro)
The United States and Mexico are “working together to disrupt illicit supply chains and curb the production and the distribution of … precursors, many of which are legal and then get diverted into illegal use,” he said.
Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) said in a statement that Bárcena also discussed “collaboration in the fight against synthetic drug trafficking and cross-border cooperation” with Mayorkas on Wednesday.
On her second day in Washington, the foreign minister discussed bilateral issues related to migration, security, geopolitics, international development cooperation and economic cooperation with Jake Sullivan, the SRE said.
According to a White House statement, the two officials “committed to continue addressing the root causes of migration and increase enforcement along our shared border.”
President López Obrador said Wednesday that “a plan to combat poverty” in “very poor countries” in the Americas is needed to reduce the need to migrate.
“Migration is not for pleasure, it’s a matter of necessity,” he said.
“So, countries that have more economic possibilities have the moral obligation to help poor countries and this … allows order to be be brought to the migration flow. … We have to address the causes [of migration] so that people can work and be happy where they were born, where there families and customs are, and this can be achieved if there is investment, if there are work opportunities,” López Obrador said.
The White House said that Bárcena and Sullivan also committed to “accelerate cooperation to prevent arms trafficking” from the United States to Mexico, where cartels commonly use U.S.-sourced weapons to commit violent crimes including homicides.
Alicia Bárcena (center) with other Mexican cabinet members at the trilateral fentanyl meeting in July. (Alicia Bárcena/Twitter)
Mexican and U.S. officials have met on numerous occasions in recent times to discuss issues of common interest such as fentanyl trafficking and migration. The two countries entered into a new, wide-ranging partnership – The Mexico-U.S. Bicentennial Framework for Security, Public Health and Safe Communities – in late 2021.
In January, López Obrador hosted U.S. President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Mexico City for the 10th North American Leaders’ Summit.
The day before the trilateral summit, López Obrador and Biden held bilateral talks during which the former called the latter “a humanistic and visionary leader,” but also called on the United States president to end U.S. “abandonment” and “disdain” toward other countries in the region.
Earlier this month, Vallarta was offered a suspension that would have allowed him to conclude any further court proceedings at home, but a Mexico state district court ruled against the suspension today. (Andrea Murcia/Cuartoscuro)
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has spoken in favor of releasing alleged kidnapper Israel Vallarta, as a court deliberates whether to review the preventive detention measure that has kept him in prison for 17 years without trial.
In his Friday morning press conference, AMLO said that the federal security cabinet had discussed the case and agreed that Vallarta should be allowed to conclude his court process outside prison.
Israel Vallarta and then-partner Florence Cassez were arrested by the AFI for kidnapping in 2005, but only Cassez was formally convicted. Her conviction was later overturned, and she was released in 2013. Later investigations revealed that Vallarta confessed to committing the crime under torture. (Pedro Marrufo/Cuartoscuro.com)
“That was our opinion, fundamentally because it is proven that he was tortured,” AMLO said. “Not only that, but he has gone many years without a sentence, where is the quick and expeditious justice?”
Vallarta was arrested in December 2005 by agents of the defunct Federal Investigation Agency (AFI). He was accused of carrying out kidnappings in the capital as a member of the so-called ‘Los Zodiacos’ gang, alongside his French partner Florence Cassez.
Although Vallarta initially confessed to the crimes, he later recanted and claimed that he had been forced to confess under torture. Subsequent investigations supported this claim.
Cassez was convicted of kidnapping and spent seven years in a Mexican prison, but was released andreturned to France in 2013 after an appeal found that she had been denied her basic human rights at the time of her arrest. The couple’s dramatic arrest was televised, but it was later revealed that it had been staged by the AFI (run at the time by convicted ex-security minister Genaro García Luna) after Vallarta and Cassez had already been detained and held by authorities the day before.
Vallarta has remained incarcerated in the Altiplano Prison west of Mexico City for over 17 years, despite never being formally convicted of a crime.
Supreme Court Justice Arturo Zaldívar has said that preventive detention has been abused in Mexico and that the practice should be the exception rather than the rule. He was instrumental in overturning Cassez’s conviction. (Galo Cañas Rodriguez/Cuartoscuro)
In his Friday press conference, AMLO explained that Vallarta cannot be amnestied as he was never sentenced, but that the federal government is monitoring the case and believes Vallarta should now be freed.
On Aug. 3, Vallarta filed a legal complaint regarding the authorities’ failure to periodically review his preventive detention. The complaint also highlighted Mexico’s lack of compliance with a ruling by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in April that ordered Mexico to eliminate the measure entirely.
Preventive, or pretrial, detention can be mandatory in cases of people accused of specific crimes in Mexico, including kidnapping, though the measure was recently eliminated in 18 states, leaving the decision up to judges in each case.
In response, Abigail Ocampo Álvarez, a district judge in México state, agreed to grant Vallarta a provisional suspension of his preventive detention if Vallarta pays a guarantee of 10,000 pesos (US $590). Ocampo gave Mexico state’s Third District Court of Criminal Proceedings 48 hours to review Vallarta’s detention.
On Friday afternoon, the Third District Court ruled against Ocampo’s provisional suspension.
The "Great Wall of Pipes" is a hidden geological phenomenon near Guadalajara's Parque Recreativo La Hiedra. (All photos by John Pint)
Many years ago, while hiking through the huge Primavera Forest immediately west of the city of Guadalajara, I stumbled upon a strange sight. I quickly found myself calling it “The Great Wall.”
The Great Wall of Pipes is about 70 meters long and 25 high and is located at the northwest corner of Jalisco’s Primavera Forest.
It was a cliff face about 70 meters (229.7 feet) long and 25 meters (82 feet) high. Protruding from this high wall I could see the tips of hundreds of cylinders of rock, piled one upon the other.
Many of these cylinders were perfectly round and about half a meter in diameter, but among them were others much fatter.
“What in the world is this?” I wondered.
The Great Wall was not easy to get to, and after a while, it faded from my memory. But very recently, I discovered an easier way to reach it — and something of an explanation as to what it is and how it came into existence.
The picturesque Salty River (El Río Salado) flowing into Parque la Hiedra.
That gigantic stack of stone cylinders turns out to be located only a 300-meter walk from a little park and campground hidden away deep inside the forest. The park is reachable via a better-than-average dirt road.
I couldn’t quite believe its name, but the place is seriously called Parque Recreativo La Hiedra, which means Poison Ivy Recreational Park. Believe it or not, I was told that I’d know I was going the right way to get there “if you pass a huge garbage dump along the way.”
Garbage and poison ivy? Those two things would keep people away from the Great Pyramid of Cheops!
Happily, I discovered that, despite the name, there is no poison ivy to be seen at Poison Ivy Park — and that the garbage dump is far enough away to cause no olfactory problems whatsoever.
A low dam across the Salty River creates a large swimming pool at Parque la Hiedra.
On the contrary, Parque la Hiedra is quite simpático.
On top of that, this little park’s owners have managed to build a low dam with a sluice gate, creating a pool deep enough for swimming.
To visit the Great Wall from here, just go to the west (downstream) end of the park, where you’ll find an iron gate. Climb over, under or through the gate and walk west 300 meters (about 985 feet), following an old path that parallels the river. You’ll reach another iron gate that you must also climb over or under.
In some cases, these formations resemble pipes much more than columns. Photo taken in Villa Felicidad near Tala, Jalisco.
Now cross the river (barefoot or using water shoes), and you’ll be standing directly in front of the wall of pipes.
I suggest you walk over to the very base of the cliff, a distance of 100 meters (328 feet) from the river. Up close, you’ll see that some of the cylinders do look more like pipes than solid rods.
To understand what happened here, geologist Gail Mahood tells us we must go back 95,000 years to Jalisco’s version of the Big Bang: a huge explosion — one included in the list of the world’s large volcanic eruptions — which shot 40 cubic kilometers of volcanic ash and pumice straight up into the air while simultaneously spreading thick pyroclastic flows (a mass of very hot ash, lava fragments and gases) around the perimeter of a great hole called a caldera.
These flows of incandescent ash and pumice, known as the Tala Tuff, smothered the area.
Fumarolic pipes are formed vertically and most often look like tree stumps made of stone.
Beneath this pyroclastic flow, there had been water in places, but it was instantly turned to steam. Bubbles of this water vapor then attempted to reach the surface, rising straight up through the hot ash, transforming the material it was passing through.
Eventually, when things cooled down, each pathway where bubbles had been rising solidified as an individual column or cylinder of rock, considerably harder than the surrounding ash.
Many centuries later, as the ash eroded away, the tips of these columns — technically called fumarolic pipes — protruded from the ground and became visible, resembling a forest of tree stumps.
In the case of the Great Wall, geological forces turned a large number of these columns sideways, which today gives it the look of a gigantic stack of horizontal pipes.It’s an impressive sight.
Measuring the diameter of one of the pipes.
Geologist J. V. Wright is one of the world’s few researchers who has studied fumarolic pipes and in particular those of the Tala Tuff. I asked him how many other large walls of pipes have been reported elsewhere in the world.
Wright shared with me photos of two sites, one in the Bishop Tuff at Crowley Lake, California, and the other in the Bandelier Tuffs of New Mexico. Each is interesting in its own way, but, concluded Wright, the complexity of The Great Wall in the Tala Tuff is unique, “and nothing like it has ever been described.”
After hiking out to the Great Wall of Pipes, you can return to poison-ivy-free Parque la Hiedra for a swim in the deliciously warm, mineral-rich waters of the Salty River. The park is a safe and comfortable place to camp, should you be inclined.
La Hiedra has a large, flat, grassy meadow alongside the river, well shaded by rare, beautiful pinos tristes (Pinus Lumholtzii). The park also has changing rooms, clean toilets and running cold water. You can get there by asking for Parque Recreativo La Hiedra on Google Maps. The coordinates of the Great Wall, for those who may be interested, are N20.69432 W103.65953.
For fees and other information, call the park at 331 860 6791(WhatsApp).
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.
President López Obrador's government has expanded the social safety net in Mexico through initiatives like the Bienestar (Well-Being) Program, which gives a wide variety of financial supports to low-income individuals. This appears to have improved poverty rates during his administration. (Andrea Murcia/Cuartoscuro)
The number of Mexicans living in poverty declined by 8.9 million between 2020 and 2022, the federal government’s social development agency reported Thursday.
Data published by the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (Coneval) shows that 46.8 million Mexicans were living in a “situation of poverty” last year, down from 55.7 million in 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic and associated restrictions caused the Mexican economy to contract by 8.5%. The number of people living in poverty in 2020 was 3.8 million higher than in 2018, largely due to the pandemic.
The distribution (in percentages) of the population who were considered, from left to right: poor, extremely poor, vulnerable due to lack of social services, vulnerable due to lack of income and not considered poor or vulnerable in 2022. The different colors of the graph bars represent years — see top right corner. (Coneval)
The percentage of the population living in poverty in 2022 was 36.3%, down from 43.9% two years earlier.
“In 2022, 36 of every 100 people in Mexico had at least one deprivation of their social rights and had a [monthly] income … that was insufficient to purchase a [basic] food basket and necessary goods and services,” Coneval said in a press release.
The “social deprivation indicators” assessed by Coneval are educational deficiency (19.4% of the population in 2022); absence of access to health services (39.1%); absence of access to social security (50.2%); housing deficiencies (9.1%); lack of access to basic services at home (17.8%); and lack of access to high-quality, nutritious food (18.2%).
The most notable change on those indicators was that the percentage of people without access to health care services increased from 16.2% in 2018 — the year the current government took office — to 28.2% in 2020 before reaching 39.1% last year. Experts identified changes to Mexico’s public health system as the main reason why access to health services decreased, leaving over 50 million people without that supposedly inalienable right last year.
One disturbing trend Coneval found was that access to healthcare decreased significantly from 2018–2022, from 6.2% in 2018 to 39.1% by 2022. Experts blame changes the current government made to the public health system for the increase. (IMSS/Cuartoscuro.com)
Of the 46.8 million people living in poverty last year, 37.7 million were in a situation of “moderate poverty” and 9.1 million were experiencing “extreme poverty,” according to Coneval. The number of people living in extreme poverty declined from 10.8 million in 2020, but is higher than the 8.7 million figure recorded in 2018.
An additional 37.9 million people, or 29.4% of the population, were considered “vulnerable” because they experienced at least one “social deprivation” in 2022, while 9.3 million Mexicans, or 7.2% of the population, were deemed “vulnerable” as a result of their income.
Fewer than 3 in 10 Mexicans — 27% or 34.9 million — were assessed as being “not poor” and “not vulnerable.”
Another Coneval measure showed that the percentage of the population with a salary below the income-based poverty line was 43.5% in 2022, down from 52.8% in 2020.
An overview of the number and percentage of people in Mexico who were lacked access to what the government refers to their “social rights” due to poverty, including access to schooling, healthcare, social services, housing, water and basic utilities, and nutritious food. (Adapted from Coneval)
The agency said that monthly per-capita incomes less than 4,158 pesos (about US $245 at today’s exchange rate) in urban areas and 2,970 pesos in rural areas were considered below the poverty line.
José Nabor Cruz Marcelo, Coneval’s executive secretary, said that the increase to the minimum wage and the provision of social programs by all three levels of government were among the factors that allowed poverty rates to decline between 2020 and 2022. The recovery of the economy from the sharp coronavirus-induced downturn is likely another factor that aided the decline in poverty.
Coneval councilor John Scott said that the increase to the old-age pension helped poverty rates to decline among adults over the age of 65, while federal Welfare Minister Ariadna Montiel said that the increase in salaries, the transfer of remittances to Mexico from abroad — whose value has increased significantly in recent years — and the government’s welfare programs all contributed to the decline in poverty between 2020 and 2022.
President López Obrador on Friday expressed his satisfaction with the decline in poverty as shown in the Coneval data. The result is “extraordinary” considering that the effects of the pandemic are still being felt, he told reporters at his morning press conference.
President López Obrador expressed satisfaction with the decline in poverty numbers, saying it was evidence that his antipoverty strategies are effective. (Galo Cañas Rodríguez/Cuartoscuro)
“It shows that our strategy has worked,” López Obrador said, explaining that his administration’s approach to combating poverty can be summarized by his oft-repeated phrase: “for the good of all, the poor come first.”
“There is less poverty and less inequality in our country. That’s a great achievement, the main objective of any government, I believe,” he said.
