The Coyolxauhqui stone was discovered in 1978 at the Templo Mayor site. It dates to the 15th century.(Wikipedia Commons)
In 1978, the monumental Mexica (also known as Aztec) sculpture called the Coyolxauhqui stone was discovered at the site of the Templo Mayor in Mexico City.
An exhibit commemorating the 45th anniversary of the monolith’s discovery and exploring Mexica mythology opens today at the site’s museum.
Archaeologists work on the stone where it was discovered in 1978. (Wikipedia Commons)
The giant stone disc depicts the Mexica myth of Coyolxauhqui, the goddess of the moon, who was slaughtered by her brother Huitzilopochtli, the god of war.
The stone was found at the foot of the main temple of the Templo Mayor site in the ancient capital of Tenochtitlán, now Mexico City. It dates from around 1473, during the reign of Axayacatl.
The exhibit (running Feb. 22 to Jun. 4) includes a large format model of the sacred enclosure of Tenochtitlán to better understand the birthing myth of Huitzilopochtli, patron god of the Mexica, and the defeat of his sister Coyolxauhqui.
An artistic illumination will be projected onto the model based on the myth’s translations by Alfredo López Austin and narrated by the renowned archaeologist who headed up the Templo Mayor excavation, Eduardo Matos Moctezuma.
The exhibit explores the Mexica myth of the moon goddess and her defeat by the god of war, Huitzilopochtli. (Rogelio Morales Ponce / Cuartoscuro.com)
Among the 158 objects on exhibit are gold ornaments related to the lunar cult of Coyolxauhqui and the skeletal remains of a child dressed in the insignia of Huitzilopochtli unearthed in 2005.
According to archaeologist Patricia Ledesma Bouchan “this is an important finding, since the representations of [Huitzilopochtli] that have appeared to date can be counted on the fingers of one hand.”
The exhibit is included in the access ticket to the museum and the archaeological zone.
SICT Minister Jorge Nuño Lara presented a map of roadway connectivity projects to the airport, including the now-opened connecting 14-km road connecting AIFA to (Photo: Moisés Pablo Nava/Cuartoscuro)
Commuters to and from Felipe Angeles International Airport (AIFA) have more roadway options with the opening of a main access road to the Mexico City metropolitan area’s newest airport.
The Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation (SICT) reported that the 14.1-km road, which connects the area known as the “Iron Bridge” in Ecatepec, México state, with AIFA, opened Saturday.
The roadway was actually inaugurated Thursday, with President Lopez Obrador in attendance, but closed immediately after the dignitaries left the area in order to clear out heavy machinery and clean the roadway, allowing for free transit, according to a SICT social media post.
The highway can handle 40,000 cars per day, a number that will be reached when and if the airport reaches its maximum demand levels.
The project caused the displacement of 262 houses in the way of the road.
The main road into AIFA. (Government of Mexico)
One of the main criticisms of AIFA is the time it takes to get there. Owing to its location in Santa Lucía, between the municipalities of Tecamac and Zumpango in México state, access to the airport has proven to be complicated since it opened in March.
According to users, an average trip from Mexico City to AIFA can take around 1.5 hours.
To ease access, López Obrador’s government built a main road in addition to renovating other freeways and expanding public transport service.
“The Tonanitla road is the access that goes directly to the Felipe Ángeles Airport. It is a toll-free highway with a length of 14 kilometers. In 9 minutes, you will go from the iron bridge to the airport,” the SICT explained.
The road also has two intermediary additions located at the Jaltenco-Héroes de Tecámac junction at Kilometer 5, and at the Tonanitla-Ojo de Agua junction at Km 9.6.
The under-construction Circuito-Gran Canal Vehicular Bridge, another project that’s supposed reduce travel time to AIFA by connecting two main arteries toward the airport, is also nearly finished. It starts on the Circuito Interior Mexiquense roadway at Calle Cerámica and will divert motorists to Avenida Gran Canal. From there, traffic will divert to the Siervo de la Nación Urban Highway to reach the new AIFA access road in Ecatepec.
According to Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, the bridge will be ready before the end of the month and will save travelers 25 minutes in heading to AIFA.
As for public transport, the Mexibús Line 1 is currently the only way to get to AIFA. The transportation system built an extension in March 2022 to serve airport users, and two more stations will be built along Line 1 to connect passengers with AIFA: the Quetzalcóatl and Rancho La Luz stations.
Private bus companies ADO and ETN also offer limited service to AIFA a few times a day from the city’s Central Norte and Central Sur stations. ADO also offers a route to AIFA from Mexico City’s TAPO terminal and from Benito Juárez International Airport (AICM)’s Terminal 1, and ETN offers a route from Querétaro city’s main bus terminal.
A commuter train that will run a 43-kilometer route between Buenavista Station and AIFA is also in progress. SICT recently reported the project to be 39% complete.
When it is finished, SICT officials say, AIFA will be the first airport in Latin America to have a train terminal located inside. It is slated to open by December.
AIFA, one of López Obrador’s flagship projects, started operations in March 2022. His government has carried out 20 road projects meant to reduce the transit time from Mexico City to the new airport.
The president says he will file a suit for "moral damage" against the U.S. defense attorney. (Mario Jasso / Cuartoscuro.com)
President López Obrador confirmed Tuesday that he would file a lawsuit against a United States-based lawyer for allegedly slandering him at the New York trial of former federal security minister Genaro García Luna.
Defense lawyer César de Castro last week asked prosecution witness and former Sinaloa Cartel member Jesús “El Rey” Zambada whether he recalled telling U.S. authorities in 2013 that he delivered US $7 million to a Mexico City official to fund the 2006 presidential campaign of López Obrador, who was mayor of the capital between 2000 and 2005.
César de Castro, the defense attorney who represented Genaro García Luna in his U.S. trial. (LinkedIn)
Zambada, brother of Sinaloa Cartel leader Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, denied ever saying such a thing.
López Obrador said last Thursday that he was considering filing a lawsuit against de Castro for “moral damage” and that he could seek $7 million in compensation and give any payout to families of victims of the militarized war on drug cartels launched by Felipe Calderón shortly after he was sworn in as president in 2006.
On Tuesday he said he had decided to file the suit but was still “doing some research on how the procedure works.”
López Obrador added that he was waiting for advisers to inform him where to initiate the legal action. “In a few days we’ll know, I’ll tell you here,” he said.
His remarks came just hours before a jury found García Luna guilty of collaborating with the Sinaloa Cartel in its drug trafficking activities.
López Obrador said Wednesday that the conviction was proof of the “decadence” of previous governments. However, the verdict against García Luna “isn’t a judgement against Mexico, let’s make that clear,” the president said.
“I would even say that it helps to continue cleaning up corruption in Mexico. … Of course more needs to be done, it’s the beginning, but it’s a good contribution,” he added.
The graphic novel tells the true story of psilocybin pioneers R. Gordon and Valentina Wasson, using imagery evocative of the 1970s underground comix movement. (All images from BRIAN BLOMERTH'S MYCELIUM WASSONII, Published by ANTHOLOGY EDITIONS)
Talking mushrooms – part of a psilocybin trip? Not quite. In a recent graphic novel about a real-life couple’s groundbreaking research into magic mushrooms in Mexico, writer and artist Brian Blomerth frequently depicted the mushrooms in the background, and even invented a language for them.
These mushrooms are the star supporting characters of “Brian Blomerth’s Mycelium Wassonii.” Published in late 2021, the book reintroduces readers to Robert Gordon Wasson (better known as R. Gordon Wasson) and his wife Valentina Wasson, amateur scientists whose research in the 1950s included multiple visits to Oaxaca, where they explored mushroom use among the indigenous Mazatec people.
Regarding the mushroom language he created, Blomerth said, “It is translatable into English.” But he says of anyone who can manage the feat, “You’re going to be wildly disappointed.”
His book does not disappoint in chronicling the Wassons, who are credited as the founders of a new scientific field – ethnomycology. Their research piqued the interest of the era’s prominent magazines – as well as the CIA.
Acclaimed mycologist Paul Stamets, who wrote the foreword to Blomerth’s book, singled out two women for particular praise in the narrative: Valentina “Tina” Wasson, and a Mazatec shaman and curandera named María Sabina.
“History must give Tina proper credit,” Stamets wrote. “She was the mycologist in [the Wassons’] relationship, not to mention an early pioneer in noting that psilocybin could be helpful in treating psychiatric health challenges.”
The text tells the story of the Wassons’ curiosity about magic mushrooms and their eventually journey to find the Mazatec people of Oaxaca and learn about the natural psychotropic.
Sabina “so graciously shared indigenous traditions with the Wassons and many others,” he added.
Although the United States banned research into psychedelics in the 1970s, recent science has put them back on the map.
Asked about present-day research, Blomerth said, “I’m not entirely qualified and definitely not a source for this kind of stuff.”
However, he added, “You can read multiple articles about the [2022] Johns Hopkins study of near-death experiences and pre-death experiences with psilocybin.”
“I think it’s good,” he said of such initiatives. “I’m all for it … It’s not a bad thing to research and investigate.”
Blomerth has a longstanding interest in the subject. A previous graphic novel, “Brian Blomerth’s Bicycle Day,” chronicled the story of Albert Hofmann and LSD.
Hofmann allegedly discovered LSD on a memorable bike ride in 1943. In both “Bicycle Day”and “Mycelium Wassonii,” Blomerth focused on protagonist couples – Albert and Anita Hofmann, and the Wassons.
Blomerth noted that the two couples actually went on a research trip to Mexico together, a fact not shown in the book. And Albert Hofmann has a further Mexico connection.
“Wasson sent samples of mushrooms he got from Mexico to Hofmann,” Blomerth said. “Hofmann isolated psilocybin from them. That’s a connection to the story as well.”
The memorable artwork in Blomerth’s book often seems evocative of a psychedelic experience. During a trance scene at the home of Mazatec curandera Sabina, the upper right-hand corner of the page seems to peel off and a whimsical, globe-like creature steps through. The concrete darkness of the room dissolves into bright, dreamlike images.
“I see the words fall like little luminous objects from heaven,” María says as lines of text float through space, then get replaced by watercolor images of a jaguar, a bird and a mushroom.
The story begins on the Wassons’ 1927 honeymoon in Ulster County, New York. Valentina finds wild chanterelles, which bring back memories of meals in her native Russia. She collects and cooks the Catskills variety. Initially repulsed, her husband adopts her viewpoint, thanks to an intensely tasty breakfast.
The book depicts two of the couple’s trips to Huautla de Jiménez, Oaxaca, in 1953 and 1955.
By day, Robert works on Wall Street for J.P. Morgan. Off the clock, he heads to the New York Public Library to research his new interest and corresponds with fellow enthusiast Robert Graves, the creator of I, Claudius, which explored the historical mystery of whether or not the Roman emperor Claudius was poisoned by mushrooms.
Graves mentions to Robert the ethnobotanist Richard Evans Schultes, who researched the Mazatecs and their use of mushrooms.
The book depicts two of the couple’s trips to Huautla de Jiménez, Oaxaca, in 1953 and 1955. Blomerth depicts Mazatec characters communicating in their tonal language that incorporates whistling.
“I watched a linguist who lived with them for a while and did a couple of interviews,” Blomerth said. “The whistle language is really, really fascinating…”
One challenge he had in writing the book was deciding how to show the Mazatecs’ environs in the cloud forests of the Sierra Mazateca.
“Basically, it’s a dense jungle. I wanted to showcase certain plants. I figured out a general idea of the plants that grow there and kind of combined all the areas.”
He expressed admiration for the cloud forests. “[It’s] tons of green vegetation on top of a hill, vegetation-rich, so high up.”
Back home, the CIA is intrigued by the power of psychedelics and offers to assist Robert with his research. When he rebuffs them, they surreptitiously tap into his work — using a front organization that gives him a grant.
“They did send him a check, a small amount of money, from a fake company,” Blomerth said. “I did sense he wasn’t into what they were thinking, from everything I read. It’s a little shrouded, as these things are.”
In 1957, the Wassons share perspectives on their research in the media — Robert for Life magazine, Valentina for the now-defunct nationally syndicated Sunday newspaper supplement, This Week.
Yet this is all overshadowed by the devastating news that Valentina has cancer. She dies the next year, in 1958. Blomerth poignantly notes the impact of her passing on her husband.
The book also shows the fallout from mushrooms’ sudden popularity: a hippie trail heading to Huautla de Jiménez. A crowd of Mazatecs lament the disrespect shown by the newcomers. María’s house burns down in mysterious circumstances.
One of Blomerth’s previous books chronicled the story of Albert Hofmann and LSD.
As for the mushrooms, they have their own final say in the narrative — and the conversation is ongoing.
“Maybe they will speak again — as medicine,” María says in a final panel, standing over some talking mushrooms.
Rich Tenorio is a frequent contributor to Mexico News Daily.
Although January homicide numbers were up somewhat from the previous month, Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez emphasized the positive: "The trend remains downward," she said. (Photo: Presidencia)
Mexico’s homicide numbers increased slightly in January, but overall crime rates remain on a downward trend, according to the Security Ministry’smonthly analysis.
Murders rose from 2,529 in December to 2,582 in January, Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodrígez announced at President López Obrador’s Tuesday morning press conference — an increase of 2%.
However, she emphasized that this slight uptick follows a period of gradual improvement, meaning there were still 16% fewer homicide victims in January than during Mexico’s peak of violence in 2018.
“The trend remains downward,” she said. “Homicides presented a significant decrease with respect to previous years.”
Murders decreased by7% in 2022, making last year the least violent of AMLO’s administration. However, homicide rates have remained historically high since AMLO took office, with a steady level of over 30,000 each year since 2018.
Icela Rodríguez explained that 46% of homicides in Mexico are concentrated in six states: México state, Guanajuato, Baja California, Chihuahua, Jalisco and Guerrero.
However, Icela Rodríguez said an improvement had been seen in all but 11 of 50 highly violent “priority municipalities.” Homicide rates in these municipalities were 10.8% lower on average over the last year than in the previous 12 months, the security minister said.
She acknowledged that extortion is up 13.5% this year compared to the same period in 2022, but emphasized improvements in other crimes such as kidnapping and vehicle theft.
She said that 44 kidnappings were registered in January, representing a 76.2% decrease from the 185 recorded in January 2019. During this period, she said that authorities had arrested nearly 5,000 kidnappers, dismantled 557 gangs and rescued 2,208 victims.
Other positive results included a 38% drop in vehicle theft and a 28.7% drop in femicides from December 2018.
“The strategy is working, because we are generating a reduction in the crime rate,” she said.
Mexico's former security minister was convicted on charges he accepted bribes from the Sinaloa Cartel. (TERCERO DÍAZ /CUARTOSCURO.COM)
A jury in the United States has found former federal security minister Genaro García Luna guilty of colluding with the Sinaloa Cartel.
The top law enforcement official in the 2006-12 government led by former president Felipe Calderón faces a minimum of 10 years in jail and a maximum sentence of life imprisonment with no opportunity for parole.
García Luna in 2004, when he was head of the Federal Investigation Agency (AFI). (Moises Pablo Nava/Cuartoscuro)
A sentencing hearing is expected to be scheduled for later this year, although the former cabinet minister – who was arrested in Texas in 2019 – could appeal his conviction.
On their third day of deliberations on Tuesday, the jurors at a U.S. federal court in Brooklyn voted unanimously to convict García Luna on charges he took multimillion-dollar bribes from the Sinaloa Cartel, which was previously led by imprisoned drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
Their decision came after an almost month-long trial that included damning testimony from cartel figures such as Jesús “El Rey” Zambada, brother of current Sinaloa Cartel leader Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.
García Luna, who was head of the now-defunct Federal Investigation Agency (AFI) before becoming security minister, was found guilty on a total of five charges.
Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán in U.S. custody in 2017 after he was extradited to the United States. (Photo: Department of Homeland Security)
He was convicted of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise; international cocaine distribution conspiracy; cocaine distribution and possession conspiracy; cocaine importation conspiracy; and making a false statement on an application for U.S. citizenship.
According to a Vice News report, the 54-year-old “reacted stoically as the jury’s foreperson read out the verdict, betraying no emotion.”
“His wife and adult son and daughter were in the courtroom, holding hands with their heads bowed,” the report said.
Linda Cristina Pereyra testified last week, and rejected the prosecution’s claim that she and her husband purchased properties and businesses with bribe money.
Defense lawyers repeatedly argued that prosecutors lacked hard evidence to show that their client took bribes from the Sinaloa Cartel, one of Mexico’s most powerful criminal organizations.
“Prosecutors were unable to show the jury any recordings, text messages, emails or other records to prove the bribe payments ever actually occurred, and there was little evidence to show that García Luna was living beyond his means as a high-ranking public servant in Mexico,” Vice News reported.
Cesár de Castro, who led the defense, asserted in his closing statement that “the government’s lack of evidence is shocking.”
“They’re asking you to condemn a man solely on the words of some of the most notorious and ruthless criminals this world has ever seen,” he told the 12-person jury.
Defense lawyers argued unsuccessfully that the statute of limitations on the charges García faced had expired by the time he was arrested and formerly accused of collusion with the Sinaloa Cartel.
They also presented photos of their client meeting with former United States president Barrack Obama, his secretary of state Hillary Clinton and Drug Enforcement Administration personnel, among other U.S. officials, in an attempt to persuade the jury of his innocence by demonstrating that he was a trusted ally of the U.S. government.
However, the prosecution ultimately presented a more compelling case, Tuesday’s decision indicated.
Jesús Zambada, the final prosecution witness, told jurors that he delivered US $5 million in cash to García Luna to buy his support for the cartel.
Former member of the Sinaloa cartel, brother of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada. (Archive)
“You could work a lot” with the protection and information provided by García Luna and other law enforcement officials, said Zambada, who told jurors he was the Sinaloa Cartel’s chief at the Mexico City airport from 2000 until his capture in 2008.
According to trial testimony, Vice News reported, “cartel members received police credentials, uniforms, and equipment, and cartel bosses were allowed to choose which police commanders would supervise areas they controlled.”
Witnesses, the report continued, “said federal police officers sometimes served as bodyguards for cartel leaders and even helped unload shipments of cocaine that transited through Mexico City’s airport.”
Calderón, who launched a militarized war against cartels shortly after he took office, and current President López Obrador were mentioned during the trial, but both men denied the accusations leveled against them.
In a Twitter post on Feb. 7, Calderón rejected an accusation by former Nayarit attorney general Édgar Veytia that he ordered former Nayarit governor Ney González to support “El Chapo.”
He had previously denied any involvement in or knowledge of the alleged criminal activity of his security minister, a key architect of his bloody “war on drugs.”
López Obrador said Tuesday that he intended to file a lawsuit against de Castro after the lawyer questioned Jesús Zambada about an alleged statement he gave to U.S. authorities in which he claimed that he had delivered $7 million to a Mexico City official to fund AMLO’s 2006 presidential campaign. Zambada testified that he never said such a thing.
García Luna, who was also accused of receiving millions in bribes when AFI chief under president Vicente Fox (2000-2006), is one of the highest-ranking Mexican officials to be accused of – and convicted of – colluding with a drug trafficking organization.
Salvador Cienfuegos, Mexico’s former defense minister who was arrested in the US in 2020 on drug and money laundering charges, then released a month later after a diplomatic controversy. (Photo: Mario Jasso)
But under pressure from Mexico, which implicitly threatened to restrict the activities of U.S. agents working here and expressed “profound discontent” over not being informed of the plan to arrest him, the United States dropped the charges against the retired general and granted Mexico its wish to conduct its own investigation. The federal Attorney General’s Office exonerated Cienfuegos in early 2021.
García Luna also faces criminal charges in Mexico, but given his conviction in the U.S. and probable lengthy imprisonment it would appear unlikely that he will appear in a Mexican court any time soon, if ever.
However, with his conviction in the U.S. “justice has arrived” for the former official, tweeted Jesús Ramírez Cuevas, spokesman and communications chief for López Obrador.
“The crimes against our people will never be forgotten,” he added in a post on Tuesday afternoon.
Given the accusations García Luna faced, López Obrador claimed in 2020 that Mexico was a narco state during Calderón’s presidency. He didn’t immediately comment on the guilty verdict, but will no doubt field questions on the jury’s decision at his press conference on Wednesday morning.
According to mining industry representatives, the nationalization of lithium should not retroactively affect concessions. (Alfonso Durazo Twitter)
The federal government nationalized lithium last year, and has now established a large lithium mining reserve in Sonora, the Mexican state with the largest deposits of the sought-after metal.
During a visit to the northern border state on Saturday, President López Obrador endorsed a decree that establishes the reserve across 234,855 hectares in the municipalities of Arivechi, Divisaderos, Granados, Huásabas, Nácori Chico, Sahuaripa and Bacadéhuachi.
The president with Energy Minister Rocío Nahle (left), Sonora governor, Alfonso Durazo, Economy Minister Raquel Buenrostro and Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval in Sonora on Saturday. (Gob MX)
The decree notes that the “rights and obligations of the holders of current mining concessions within the Li-MX 1 lithium mining reserve area” are not affected.
Foreign companies, including China’s Ganfeng Lithium, were awarded contracts to exploit Mexico’s potential lithium reserves before nationalization of the metal. Close to a dozen foreign firms have active mining concessions that aim to exploit such deposits, according to the news agency Reuters.
The government published a separate “agreement” on Saturday that instructs the Energy Ministry (SENER) to “monitor the execution” of the decree establishing the lithium reserve.
It also directs SENER to “carry out the necessary actions” to comply with lithium provisions in the federal Mining Law – which was modified last April to establish the metal as “an asset of the nation” – and a decree published last August that ordered the creation of a state-owned lithium company.
Separation ponds at a lithium mine in Chile’s Atacama Desert. (Open Commons)
“What we’re doing … is nationalizing lithium so that foreigners can’t exploit it, not even those from Russia, China or the United States,” López Obrador said during an address Saturday in Bacadéhuachi, located in the northeast of Sonora.
“Oil and lithium belong to the nation, to the people of Mexico, to you – everyone who lives in this region of Sonora and all Mexicans,” he said.
“So we’re signing this agreement. There is already a law that was approved in Congress. There are, of course, injunctions – you know what the conservatives are like. They would like Mexico to become a colony of foreigners, not an independent, free, sovereign country,” the president said.
“But they won’t be able [to stop the nationalization of lithium] with their injunctions. … The decision was taken, the law is approved by the legislative power and lithium belongs to the nation.”
López Obrador said it has been established that there are significant quantities of lithium in Sonora, but noted that it is within clay deposits and thus difficult to mine.
“It requires a special treatment, but our researchers and experts are already doing studies to find the way to extract it and process it – separate it from the clay in order to have this raw material,” he said.
Robotic manufacturing at a California Tesla factory (Wikimedia Commons)
“… It’s essential for the production of [lithium-ion] batteries, electric cars can’t be made … without lithium,” López Obrador added, noting also that the United States and Canadian governments, as well as his own administration, are committed to increasing the manufacture of electric vehicles (EVs).
“So a process of exploration, of technological development to get the raw material is beginning,” he said, adding that the government would seek to attract lithium-ion battery plants to Mexico.
Jaime Gutiérrez Núñez, president of the Mexican Chamber of Mines, said in late 2021 that the government’s capacity to extract lithium was non-existent.
However, López Obrador said late last year that United States and Canadian companies would be invited to participate in Mexico’s nascent lithium mining sector. But any foreign and private companies that enter the sector will be required to be minority partners in joint ventures with the state-owned lithium company, he said Nov. 15.
The decree ordering the establishment of LitioMx says that the state-owned lithium company “may partner with other public and private institutions” in order to take advantage of Mexico’s lithium reserves.
Similarly, the CEO of LitioMx, Pablo Taddei, recently told Reuters that the company was open to partnerships, although he stressed that the government would have the majority stake in any joint ventures.
Sonora governor Alfonso Durazo (left) and director of state-owned Litio MX, Pablo Taddei (@AlfonsoDurazo Twitter)
Sonora Governor Alfonso Durazo said Saturday that the sector was open to “national and foreign capital” but asserted that “the rights of the nation” would be protected. He also noted that the production of EVs requires graphite and copper and that Sonora has reserves of those resources as well.
In their speeches on Saturday, López Obrador and Economy Minister Raquel Buenrostro chose to focus on the nationalization of lithium rather than the proposed involvement of foreign companies in the sector. Both compared the nationalization of the metal to the oil expropriation carried out by former president Lázaro Cárdenas in 1938.
“This Feb. 18 will be united in history with … March 18 of 1938 when the nationalization of oil signified an epilogue to the revolutionary struggle and the beginning of the industrialization of modern Mexico. With the nationalization of lithium, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador deepens the project of transformation for 21st century Mexico,” Buenrostro said.
“… The nationalization of Mexican lithium, accompanied by the labor professionalism of Mexicans, will mark a new era in the automotive industry,” she said.
Meanwhile, an academic at the Metropolitan Autonomous University (UAM) in Mexico City warned that the extraction of lithium posed a threat to water supply in the areas where it is mined.
“To extract lithum in some mines in Chile, 600 liters of water per minute are needed,” said Aleida Azamar Alonso, coordinator of the sustainable societies masters degree program at the UAM campus in Xochimilco.
“That’s equivalent to the daily consumption of two people in Mexico City. The extraction of lithium in … [Mexico] will require even greater quantities of water,” she said.
Leticia Merino Pérez, head of an environment-focused “academic observatory” at the National Autonomous University, said that assessments of the impacts of lithium extraction on the environment and nearby communities must be carried out by independent experts prior to the commencement of mining.
“The exploration and exploitation of lithium must be established within a framework of transparency, regardless of whether it’s the state [doing the mining] or not,” she said.
If that doesn’t occur, the government could “violate the constitution as well as the rights of communities adjoining the exploitation areas,” Merino said.
Studies indicate there may be around 1.7 million tonnes of lithium in Mexico, with the largest deposits in Sonora. There are smaller deposits in other states including Baja California, San Luis Potosí and Zacatecas.
The Finance Ministry has estimated that lithium reserves in Sonora alone could be worth as much as US $600 billion.
With reserves of the alkali metal totaling 21 million tonnes, Bolivia is the world’s most lithium-rich nation, followed by Argentina, Chile, the United States and Australia, according to NS Energy.
El Camaleón Golf Course in Mayakoba (@LIVGolfUpdates Twitter)
LIV Golf will host its first-ever tournament in Latin America at Mayakoba’s El Camaleón Golf course – ranked as one of the top courses in Mexico – from Feb. 24 to 26.
Twelve franchises of world-class golfers including Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Cameron Smith and Phil Mickelson, will be competing for the first-place prize.
Fronted by two-time major winner and former world number one Greg Norman, LIV Golf launched in 2022 with the slogan: “Golf, but louder.”
With 14 tournaments scheduled for the year, LIV Golf’s total purse goes up to US $405 million, making it the most lucrative golf tournament in the world – but also the most controversial.
Rivaling the PGA tour, the world’s leading organizer of pro golf tours, LIV Golf is bankrolled by the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund (PIF) chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has been accused of complicity in the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. Bin Salman has denied any involvement.
When asked about Saudi Arabia’s regime and the killing of Khashoggi, Norman said “we all make mistakes” while adding they are “changing their culture within their country.”
Critics of the tournament say the series is part of a political effort by Saudi Arabia to buy legitimacy and polish its global image. This practice, known as “sports washing,” has also been used to describe sporting events like the 2018 World Cup in Russia, the 2019 heavyweight boxing match in Saudi Arabia and the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
The PIF also invests in other sporting events and leagues, including Formula 1, boxing and football.
Although the tournament now boasts many big names in golf, others have stayed away. For instance,15-time major winner Tiger Woods said no despite a whopping offer of nearly US $1 billion according to Forbes. Irish golfer Rory McIlroy has also rejected the idea and criticized the entire concept over “moral” issues, the BBC reported.
Mexican pro golfer Abraham Ancer has joined the Saudi-backed tournament. (@Abraham_Ancer Twitter)
Mexican golfer Abraham Ancer, a regular fixture in the world’s top-50 golfers, told Milenio newspaper that leaving the PGA to join LIV Golf wasn’t an easy decision, but that when he contrasted the pros and cons, “there was no way to say no.” He added he is “pretty happy” and that joining LIV Golf has allowed him to do things that he couldn’t do before.
Unlike the PGA Tour, LIV Golf pays golfers just for taking part in the tournament. According to the New York Times, Phil Mickelson is being paid US $200 million as an appearance fee.
The inaugural LIV Golf invitational event took place at Centurion Club, about 30 miles north of London, in October 2022. As for this year’s season, LIV has said that none of the 2023 tournaments will conflict with golf’s four major championships so that the “best players in the game will always be able to make their own choices about where to play.”
When the Spanish missionaries came to Oaxaca in the 1500s, the ancient Zapotecs used this way of dressing and dancing to try and deter them. (Photos by Anna Bruce)
San Martín Tilcajete, a vibrant town about an hour’s drive from Oaxaca City, is perhaps best known for its alebrijes — wooden artisan carvings of highly decorated creatures, both real and fantastical, meticulously painted in electric colors.
However, in the lead-up to Shrove Tuesday (also known as Fat Tuesday), the town is also known for its Carnaval celebrations, and a tradition known as the “Dance of the Devils,” in which revelers run through town in costume — their bodies covered in body paint to look macabre or otherworldly. Some wear grotesque-looking hand-made masks.
The idea is to scare and thrill one’s neighbors and sometimes to evoke personal protector animals believed to ward off evil spirits.
The dancers typically just wear shorts and cover the rest of their bodies in oil or paint. They paint their faces or wear masks with horns. If they don’t wear a mask, they will often use cow horns to allude to the devil aspect. They can paint themselves any color they choose, as long as it is striking.
There are three main colors used, however: black, representing the underworld; yellow, representing the earthly world; or red, representing infinity.
Everything about this local tradition is attached to Zapotec, pre-Hispanic beliefs.
The colors are prepared with different materials: those in black make their body paint using a mixture of carbon and oil; the yellow dye is made with yellow corn, earthen clay and cooking oil; the red color is prepared with brick dust mixed with oil.
This longstanding Zapotec tradition has linked the community since before the Spanish conquest.
In earlier years, dancers would wear shells to shake and summon the community from their houses as they passed by. Nowadays, bells are more typical, making a distinctive rattle that can be heard all over town. Often the dancers will try and rub paint onto spectators, bringing them into the procession.
Originally, only San Martín’s males participated in the celebration. However, in the mid ‘90s, a woman disguised as a man broke this tradition, and since then, women have been part of the celebration, and now everyone is welcome to take part, whether they are from the town or not.
Although dancers are of all ages, most are young men who flirt with the girls and try to mark them with their body paint.
San Martín local Elías José Ángeles Ojeda, who produces mezcal, told me about this tradition’s history.
The town is known mainly for its artisan expertise in carved wooden alebrijes. That expertise clearly finds it way into the more intricate, fantastical carved masks worn by some dancers.
“When the Spanish arrived in Oaxaca, Zapotec communities defended themselves so as not to be subjected to Catholicism. They did not fight but thought that by doing dances and rituals they could ward off the friars.”
The Spaniards considered these dances to be “of the devil,” which is how the celebration got its name.
Ojeda also described how people today in San Martín believe in spirit animals. At birth, each person is assigned their protector animal. During Carnaval, you can see this belief represented in costumes: the necklaces and masks symbolize their spirit animals that can ward off evil beings and “defend themselves from being subjugated by Catholicism,” he explained.
These days, the community is primarily Catholic; after Carnaval festivities end, these dancers, and most other residents, will receive a cross of cenizas on their forehead to mark Ash Wednesday.
Festivities take place every Sunday from January leading up to Shrove Tuesday.
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.
Participants can paint their bodies any color, although black, yellow and red are the most common. The main point is to look striking and otherworldly.
The dancers once wore strings of shells as noisemakers but these days more often wear bells. They can be heard throughout town.
A young participant.
Part of the Catholic influence is the use of horns on costumes, to evoke the devil.
Runner Citlali Moscote, 27, has qualified for the Summer Olympics to be held in Paris in 2024. (@Conade Twitter)
The 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris are still 18 months away, but Mexico already has its first qualifier: Citlali Moscote in the marathon.
A native of San Juan de los Lagos, Jalisco, Moscote finished fourth in the Seville Marathon on Sunday with a time of 2 hours, 24 minutes and 53 seconds — the third fastest marathon time ever recorded by a Mexican woman.
The 27 year-old native of Jalisco was the third fastest time ever recorded by Mexican woman in the Seville marathon. (@Conade Twitter)
Her lickety-split time on the streets of Seville, Spain was 2 minutes faster than the Olympic qualifying standard, thereby earning her a place in the Paris Olympics, which will begin on July 26, 2024.
The only Mexican women to ever record a faster marathon than Moscote are Madaí Pérez of Tlaxcala and Adriana Fernández of Mexico City. Pérez, a 2008 and 2016 Olympian, ran a 2:22:59 in the 2006 Chicago Marathon; Fernández, who went to the Olympics in 1996, 2000 and 2004, ran a 2:24:06 in the 1999 London Marathon.
Moscote, 27, has been on an Olympic trajectory for a few years now, first turning heads in 2019 when she finished sixth in the half marathon at the 2019 Summer University games in Naples, Italy.
In 2021, she won the BBVA Half Marathon of Mexico City, and in 2022, she placed 10th in the marathon at the World Athletic Championships in Eugene, Oregon.
Best times for the women’s race at the Seville Marathon on Sunday (@Conade Twitter)
After her performance in Seville, where she finished 4½ minutes behind winner Jackline Chelal of Kenya, and behind a pair of Ethiopian runners who took second and third, Moscote is ranked 117th in the world in women’s marathon.
Moscote attended the University of Guadalajara, where she studied marketing at the University Center of Administrative Economic Sciences (CUCEA). She was born on April 15, 1995.
The marathon, a race that covers 42.2 kilometers (26.2 miles), has been contested in Summer Olympics dating back to 1896, although the women’s event was added to the program only in 1984.
At the Paris Games, the marathon will follow the same route as the Women’s March on Versailles on Oct. 5-6, 1789 — an event that figures into the history of France and the French Revolution. The route will start from the square in front of City Hall, pass some of Paris’ most beautiful monuments, swing past the Palace of Versailles and finish at the Esplanade des Invalides.
Moreover, in a special feature presented by organizers, the marathon route will be open to the public in what is being called the Mass Participation Marathon. It won’t be run at the same time as the Olympic marathon, but it will be on the exact same course, and it will be open to 20,024 people who complete various challenges and whose entry forms are selected in a random draw in early 2024.
