Interior Minister Adán Augusto López, in foreground, is leading President López Obrador’s daily press conferences until AMLO returns. (Moisés Pablo Nava/Cuartoscuro)
López Obrador, who has received at least three doses of COVID-19 vaccine, announced his latest infection on social media, saying that he was forced to suspend his tour of the Yucatán Peninsula, where he was inspecting progress on the construction of the Maya Train.
The 69-year-old president, who suffered a heart attack in 2013 and has a range of medical conditions, including high blood pressure and thyroid issues, said that his heart was “100%” fine and that he returned to Mexico City, where he would celebrate his son’s 16th birthday “from afar.”
“I’ll isolate for a few days. Interior Minister Adán Augusto López Hernández will lead the morning press conferences. See you soon,” he added.
López Hernández on Monday rejected a report by the newspaper Diario de Yucatán that said that the president fainted in Mérida due to an apparent heart attack and was transferred to a military hospital in Mexico City after taking an emergency flight to the capital on a Mexican Air Force jet.
The president had to cut short his tour of the Yucatán Peninsula, but Interior Minister Adan Augusto Lopez denied that Lopez Obrador had fainted during an event there, as was reported by some media outlets on Sunday. (File photo/lopezobrador.org.mx)
“There was no fainting episode,” the interior minister told reporters at the morning press conference at the National Palace, the seat of executive power and López Obrador’s residence.
“The president is isolating and recovering here at the National Palace,” López Hernández said.
He said it was expected that López Obrador would return to his weekday press conferences in two or three days.
López Hernández, who is aiming to become the ruling Morena party’s candidate at the 2024 presidential election, said he would provide an update on the president’s health at Tuesday’s press conference.
The two leading contenders to secure the Morena nomination, Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard and Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, both wished López Obrador a speedy recovery in posts to their social media accounts, as did other supporters of the president and some of his critics, including ex-president Felipe Calderón.
In his daily morning press conferences this week, President López Obrador covered the DEA in Mexico, government transparency, building National Guard barracks and much more. (Gob MX)
The DEA’s self-professed infiltration of the Sinaloa Cartel, the alleged inefficacy of Mexico’s transparency agency, the Supreme Court’s ruling on the National Guard and the sale of the presidential plane to Tajikistan were just some of the issues discussed at President López Obrador’s morning press conferences this week.
As is his norm, AMLO spent over 10 hours speaking and listening at his five weekday mañaneras.
AMLO hosted Julian Assange’s father and brother, John and Gabriel Shipton on Thursday. (López Obrador/Twitter)
“Today, April 17, in middle and high schools, we’re beginning the campaign against the use of drugs, against addictions,” Public Education Minister Leticia Ramírez announced early in the press conference.
“It’s a national preventative campaign, … a strategy [implemented in] classrooms,” she said, adding that the government was aiming to reach 11 million students across 62,000 schools.
Teachers will speak with students about the dangers of drugs for 10-15 minutes at least three times a week, Ramírez said, noting that the campaign is called “Si te drogas, te dañas,” or “If you take drugs you harm yourself.”
Javier May Rodríguez, head of the National Tourism Promotion Fund, subsequently made his regular mañanera appearance to provide an update on the construction of the Maya Train railroad.
Four viaducts being built along the 226-kilometer Section 1 of the railroad between Palenque, Chiapas, and Escárcega, Campeche are 83% complete and 12 bridges are 65% complete, he said.
May also said that work is being carried out to “improve” the Moral Reforma, El Tigre and Palenque archaeological sites, located in Tabasco, Campeche and Chiapas, respectively. He noted that another attraction in the area that will be accessible to Maya Train passengers is the Cañon del Usumacinta, a protected natural area in the Tabasco municipality of Tenosique.
Over an hour after his presser began, AMLO returned to center stage to respond to reporters’ questions, but not before praising deceased Canadian-American economist John Kenneth Galbraith for his views about how to combat the trafficking and use of drugs.
“He speaks about attending to the causes,” López Obrador said in a purported reference to Galbraith’s 1996 book The Good Society.
“That if you attend to the neediest, to the poor, that’s a more humane solution to the problem of violence,” the president continued, outlining a belief he espouses himself.
In response to his first question of the day, AMLO confirmed that the government would maintain its summer electricity subsidy in locations where high temperatures are the norm, including two northern states known for oppressive climatic conditions.
“We’re going to maintain the subsidy for Sonora and Baja California this summer [and] for the states where this subsidy applies due to high temperatures,” he said. “That can already be taken as a given.”
AMLO later accused the United States government of “arrogant” and “abusive interference” in Mexico when asked to offer an opinion on the Drug Enforcement Administration’s announcement that it had infiltrated the Sinaloa Cartel.
He said that DEA agents must have entered the country without authorization and pledged to raise the issue with the United States government.
“There can’t be foreign agents in our country, no. … How can they be spying! … Acts of espionage cannot be used,” López Obrador said.
A reporter asked whether he agreed with the assessment that the Sinaloa Cartel is the world’s largest distributor of illicit fentanyl.
A DEA chart depicting members of the Chapitos faction of the Sinaloa Cartel. (DEA)
“Yes, the Sinaloa Cartel and other cartels, and probably also cartels in the United States. And we’re doing what corresponds to us [to combat them],” López Obrador responded.
“But it’s not just the Sinaloa Cartel [and] the Jalisco [New Generation] Cartel. Are they the only ones that supply [fentanyl] to the United States? There is a lot of [fentanyl] use in the United States. Are there not cartels there?”
Tuesday
In his regular “Zero Impunity” report, Deputy Security Minister Luis Rodríguez Bucio offered brief details on some of the arrests made over the past two weeks.
Among those detained, he said, were members of the Cenobios fuel theft gang in Hidalgo, a former education official in the same state who is accused of embezzlement and a man who allegedly started a fire in Mexico City’s main wholesale market on April 6.
Rodríguez also reported that a former director of the Altiplano maximum security federal prison was arrested on charges of torture. María Guadalupe “N” was head of the México state prison – from which notorious drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán escaped via a tunnel in 2015 – between 2011 and 2013, he said.
Deputy Security Minister Luis Rodríguez Bucio at the morning press conference on Tuesday. (Gob MX)
Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez later presented data that showed there were 2,603 homicides in March, a 14% increase compared to February. There was an average of 83 homicides per day across Mexico in the first three months of the year, Rodríguez said, highlighting that the figure was 7% lower than the 2022 average and 17% lower than the average in 2019, the current government’s first full year in office.
During his engagement with reporters, AMLO asserted that the National Institute of Transparency (INAI) “has not helped in any way to combat corruption” since it was created during the 2000-2006 presidency of Vicente Fox.
On the contrary, the institute has “legitimized thefts and hidden information,” he said, adding that it has cost the Mexican people 1 billion pesos a year since its creation.
“Hopefully the Congress does something so that the [transparency] function can be carried out by another institution … and the 1 billion pesos per year [can be] used to support the people who need it,” López Obrador said.
He also took aim at a prominent journalist who obtained audio in which Interior Minister Adán Augusto López is heard informing senators that López Obrador had told him that he was trying to push INAI toward a “period of impasse.”
Carlos Loret de Mola – an outspoken critic of the president – “hasn’t told us how he managed to get six apartments, super luxurious ones – among the most expensive in … [Mexico City],” AMLO said.
“How did he do it? And how did he manage to get a house, a mansion, in Valle de Bravo?”
The president later accused the United States Department of Defense of spying on his government.
“We’re going to safeguard the information of the Navy Ministry and Defense Ministry because we’re a target of espionage of the Pentagon,” he said. “And a lot of media outlets in Mexico are leaking information that the DEA gives them,” AMLO added.
Asked whether it wasn’t the Guacamaya hacking collective that stole information from the IT system of the Ministry of National Defense last year, the president responded, “Yes, that’s part of the same thing.”
He also accused U.S. government agencies of wanting to “interfere” in Mexico like they did during previous governments.
“They want to be in charge, violate our sovereignty, so they start leaking [information] supposedly to weaken us politically,” he said. “… It’s an interventionist plan, using the sold or rented press in our country as a tool,” López Obrador said.
Wednesday
“Good morning, cheer up. How’s life treating you?” AMLO asked reporters at the beginning of his third mañanera of the week.
In his press conference preamble, he congratulated Elena Reygadas of the Mexico City restaurant Rosetta on being named the world’s best female chef of 2023. “Born in Mexico City, Mexican pride,” López Obrador remarked.
Rogelio Ramírez de la O, Finance Minister, discussed the Iberdrola power plant purchase at the morning press conference. (Gob MX)
Finance Minister Rogelio Ramírez de la O replaced the president at the mañanera lectern and reported that the Finance Ministry will provide 45 billion pesos (about US $2.5 billion) to the National Infrastructure Fund to buy 13 power plants from Spanish company Iberdrola. The rest of the money for the government’s approximately US $6 billion purchase will come from loans that will be repaid over 10 years with the plants’ revenue, he said.
In her “Who’s Who in the Lies of the Week” segment, Ana García Vilchis asserted that a campaign against the health sector based on lies was launched after AMLO said last weekend that Mexico’s public health system would be better than that of Denmark.
“A legion of [opposition] politicians and journalists pounced on the president,” she said, explaining that they made claims such as “‘there’s no supply of medicines’ and ‘we’re worse off than before.'”
“… This is false, the supply of medicines and [medical] consumables is guaranteed for the health sector this year,” García said before presenting data that showed that over 98% of prescriptions had been filled in public hospitals so far in 2023.
“… What is the objective of the federal government led by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador? … To guarantee medical care and free medicine for people who don’t have social security. The campaigns of lies are opposed by data and facts,” she said.
AMLO later launched an attack on Supreme Court justices in light of their ruling that the transfer of control over the National Guard from the civilian Security Ministry to the Defense Ministry was unconstitutional.
“Eight [of 11] justices of the Supreme Court … acted in a partisan way yesterday, not with legal criteria but political [bias],” he said.
They defended “the old practices of the authoritarian and corrupt regime, characterized by injustice, collusion and the subordination of authorities to organized crime and white collar crime, ” López Obrador charged.
“In other words … the justices … with the exception of three … acted in the style of the government of Felipe Calderón and his security minister, Genaro García Luna, who was convicted in the United States for drug trafficking and criminal association. That’s what they defended yesterday, that model,” he said.
Eight of the Supreme Court’s 11 justices voted to rule the transfer of the National Guard to the Defense Ministry as unconstitutional, saying that the security force was inherently civilian in nature. (SCJN)
López Obrador said he intended to send a constitutional bill to put the National Guard back under military control on September 1, 2024, because the makeup of Congress will change on that date following elections on June 2.
“I’ll send the bill that day because I think there will be the majority required to carry out the constitutional reform,” AMLO said, indicating that he believes the Morena party and its allies will have a two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress.
Turning to another issue, the president said he didn’t expect the extradition of Ovidio Guzmán – one of El Chapo’s sons – to the United States to happen quickly despite the U.S. Department of Justice’s unsealing of charges against 28 high-ranking Sinaloa Cartel members last week.
Such processes “take time,” he said. “I don’t know if you remember that … he resorted to the argument or the excuse … that he who was detained wasn’t him, that he wasn’t … Ovidio,” López Obrador said, referring to a bizarre claim made at an extradition hearing in March.
“… It has to be proven that it’s Ovidio, so it takes time,” he said.
Before wrapping up his presser, AMLO complained that there was no information about what happened to the DEA’s former top official in Mexico, Nicholas Palmeri, who was withdrawn last year due to improper contact with lawyers for drug traffickers.
“I’d like to ask, what happened to the man? Did they open a [legal] process [against him]? López Obrador said before bemoaning that investigations in the United States related to the “Fast and Furious” gun-running scandal had been shelved.
Thursday
“We’re a little late because we participated in a forum about climate change,” AMLO said at the top of his presser.
AMLO participated in a Major Economies’ Forum meeting on energy and climate on Thursday. (Screenshot/Twitter)
“President Biden convened us, and other leaders – presidents, prime ministers – participated. … We just finished our presentation,” López Obrador said before opening up his mañanera to reporters’ questions.
In response to a question about the security situation in Guerrero, the president acknowledged that violence and crime is a particular problem in the state’s Tierra Caliente region.
“The National Guard and the Defense Ministry are working there. … The strategy of the National Guard has a lot to do with territorial occupation of regions of the country where there is no presence of authorities – only municipal police and state police in some cases,” he said.
“That’s why it’s important to continue building National Guard barracks. We’ve already finished 280 … but we’re going to get to 500,” López Obrador said.
He later expressed his opposition to self-defense forces known as autodefensas, which have formed in some parts of the country to tackle crime.
They haven’t achieved any positive results, AMLO said. “A lot of them were encouraged by [organized] crime itself. … The state has the obligation to guarantee security to all citizens and that obligation is being met.”
One reporter asked López Obrador about the presidential plane, which he has been trying to sell for years.
“There is a possibility it will be sold, I can’t say more,” he said of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner purchased in 2012 and delivered in 2016.
If it is sold, AMLO added, the money will used to build two hospitals: one in the Montaña region of Guerrero – “the poorest area of the country” – and another in Tuxtepec, Oaxaca.
“Whether the plane is sold or not we’re going to build these hospitals, but I’d like the money to go to those two hospitals,” he said.
Late in his press conference, López Obrador offered one of his familiar didactic discourses.
“There is an enormous debt with the people of Mexico because they’ve been excluded, marginalized, mistreated, impoverished and humiliated by a minority. Our people, our nation, has been looted since long ago and the biggest looting in all of history was that carried out in the neoliberal or neo-Porfirian period from 1983 to 2018 – 36 years. That’s when social inequality deepened like never before,” he said.
“[Alexander von] Humboldt, who arrived to Mexico at the beginning of the 19th century, … writes that there were few countries on earth, at that time, with as much inequality as Mexico. That’s why [priest and independence hero José María] Morelos said that indigence and opulence had to moderated, … that’s why the priest [Miguel] Hidalgo dared to abolish slavery and paid for it with his life. So [there has been] a lot of inequality in the country and it worsened, deepened, in the neoliberal period, especially in the six-year period [1988-94] of [former president Carlos] Salinas,” López Obrador said.
“… The formula that has had success in [my] resolution to take our beloved Mexico and its people forward has been to not allow corruption, looting,” the president said, returning to what he claims to be his administration’s raison d’être.
“We’re very happy to be here in the port of Veracruz. … A lot of progress has been made in the state of Veracruz, both in programs for the wellbeing of the people and in public works,” he said.
“All this is reflected in the fact that there is economic growth, employment and wellbeing in the state of Veracruz.
A commemorative military event was held on Friday in remembrance of the U.S. invasion of Veracruz in 1914. (Gob MX)
Governor Cuitláhuac García said that foreign investment has increased in Veracruz and cited the construction of Constellation Brands’ new brewery as one of the major projects in the state. Veracruz’s improved economic situation and “police action” have both contributed to an improved security situation in the Gulf coast state, he said.
Responding to his first question of the day, López Obrador said he was happy to have sold the “ostentatious” presidential plane to the government of Tajikistan, a US $92 million deal he announced in a social media post on Thursday night.
“[Former president Felipe] Calderón bought this plane but he didn’t use it. He left it to [Enrique] Peña Nieto. … It cost a lot of money because it’s very luxurious,” said AMLO, who refused to use the aircraft.
AMLO and members of his cabinet inside the plane used by former president Enrique Peña Nieto, which was sold to the government of Tajikistan this week. (López Obrador/Twitter)
“Just look at its interior,” he said as images were displayed on a screen behind him.
“… [The plane] is for 240 passengers but they adapted it for 80 so that the seats are wider. … It has an apartment inside – look,” López Obrador said. “… They dared to give it the name José María Morelos y Pavón … when Morelos fought for equality.”
The president later claimed that the Supreme Court justices “regretted” their decision to invalidate the military’s control over the National Guard because they gave the government more than eight months to return responsibility for the security force to the civilian Security Ministry (SSPC).
The government can’t comply with the ruling this year because it doesn’t take effect until Jan 1. 2024, López Obrador said after reiterating his intent to send a constitutional bill to Congress in September next year to return the National Guard to military control.
He also said that Chief Justice Norma Piña and other justices approached the government to negotiate the date by which control over the National Guard must be returned to the SSPC.
“No, I said to the interior minister and the security minister! No negotiation! This has to do with dignity, we don’t make deals in the dark,” said a visibly angry AMLO.
“… I said don’t even answer the telephone,” he added before revealing that Security Minister Rosa Rodríguez in fact had breakfast with Piña on Thursday.
“… It cannot be that a corrupt elite makes decisions on an issue as delicate as people’s safety,” López Obrador said, referring to the justices that voted to invalidate the military’s control of the National Guard.
“Top-down politics is over, the people are in charge now, and we’re here to rule by obeying the people, always. So, there are no negotiations like those … [of] before,” he said.
AMLO ended his presser on a lighter note, smiling as he declared it was time for unlechero con canilla (milk coffee and a typical Veracruz bread) as well as a few picadas, a local tortilla-based speciality similar to sopes or memelas.
“Are you going to let me have breakfast or not?” he inquired as reporters clamored for the mañanera to continue.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies ([email protected])
Mexico's artisinal textile industry is at risk of being undercut by Chinese competition(Miho Hagino)
A chance viewing of Mexican artwork in New York changed Japanese artist Miho Hagino’s life — and Oaxaca’s Isthmus of Tehuantepec gained a fan and advocate.
Born in Hokkaido, Hagino’s childhood contact with Japan’s ethnic Ainu people sparked a lifelong interest in minority cultures.
In the 1990s, she traveled to the United States and Canada, and in New York went to an exhibition on Latin American art.
“I had never seen so much of Frida Kahlo’s work in one place and time, interconnected…” she remembers.
Her first visit to Mexico followed in 1996, and by the end of the decade, she was a graduate of the San Carlos [art] Academy and a resident of Mexico.
By the early 2000s, Hagino was a working artist, with shows both here and abroad in various media, especially photography and video. But she “felt empty.”
Miho Hagino emigrated from Japan to Mexico after falling in love with Mexican art. (Miho Hagino Oficial/Facebook)
She felt isolated as an Asian in Mexico. Mexican culture, she says, is “… very Occidental, very competitive and very individualistic… I never felt I really “landed” in Mexico.”
Other foreign artists have dealt with this, and Hagino’s solution was similar: she began researching the experiences of Japanese immigrants to Mexico.
“[This] involved me in social issues, confronting many of the social realities of vulnerable groups,” she says.
Works like Kahlo’s “Self-Portrait as Tehuana” put the Isthmus in Hagino’s consciousness, reinforced by the photography of Graciela Iturbide. But it was meeting Felina Santiago, a noted advocate for the Muxe (Oaxaca’s nonbinary “third gender”), that Hagino became intimately involved with the Isthmus.
Singer-songwriter Nancy Zamher shows one of her Xunca garments
Soon afterward, she established her Paisaje Social (Social Landscape) Foundation, which looks to support marginalized groups through artistic projects.
A recent program under this umbrella is Xunca para Tecas, a Zapotec/Spanish mix of a name that translates to “endearing youngest daughter.” Its purpose is to buy and resell traditional huipil garments from the Isthmus, specifically in the Oaxaca municipality of Juchitán. But it does so with a twist.
The huipils themselves are cut and embroidered the traditional way, by both Muxe and women artisans living in Juchitán, plus those who have migrated to Mexico City. But the project experiments with the final sewing to create artistic garments.
These have had appeal to urban buyers, especially in Mexico City, particularly those who wear them in public appearances, such as the El Palomar Chorus that supports women’s issues.
The spark for the project was the September 7, 2017, Chiapas earthquake that hit Juchitán hard. Not only was there physical destruction, information about it got bumped out of the news cycle when another major quake hit central Mexico only 12 days later, causing major damage in Mexico City.
Xunca’s goal is to provide new markets for Tehuantepec’s traditional huipils by balancing innovation with tradition.
Mariela Espinoza is one of the hardworking women who makes the huipils on which Xunca para Tecas designed are based.
All huipils are initially cut and embroidered in the traditional way; no further cutting or decoration is allowed. All of the innovation comes from the final sewing of the seams.
Hagino is not comfortable telling artisans what to make, but economic considerations mean that special orders are negotiated, and accepted, if they are not “disrespectful” to tradition. This can be tricky because even certain color combinations can have cultural significance.
But some rather significant changes are being experimented with, most recently that of working with linen — rather than the synthetics that have taken over much of the making of huipils in the past century. The switch is being accepted in part because synthetics are not comfortable in Tehuantepec’s hot and humid climate; linen is durable and breathable.
However, almost all sales of Xunca’s garments are outside of the Isthmus region and, for now, concentrated in and through Mexico City. There has been some export, but this is still difficult for such a small project.
Although it has been five years since the 2017 earthquake, the project continues because Juchitán’s artisans still have great difficulty in making a living. Traditional communities are still struggling to rebuild, but more important to Hagino is the fact that the overall economy of Tehuantepec is changing.
With easy access to both the Pacific and the Gulf, abundant oil and wind power and cheap labor, industrialization is starting to take hold in the Isthmus, enticing the local populations to a more modern lifestyle.
The Coro El Palomar choir wearing Xunca para Tecas garments.
This is a personal issue for Hagino, who blames mass industrialization for making the Japanese people unhappy. They have lost touch with their traditional culture, she says, with a hectic lifestyle that makes them forget even how to cook their own food.
She wants Oaxaca to avoid this fate.
But that isn’t easy. Traditional huipil making has already been greatly modified. Natural fibers were replaced long ago by cheaper and brighter synthetics. Hand-embroidery disappears in favor of home sewing machines, which in turn are threatened by programmable ones.
The artisan participants are happy with the project, Hagino says, but avoiding economic, legal and social issues is not easy. The project allows the artisans to guide pricing for their huipils, working to keep other costs as low as possible so that the final product has a marketable price.
“Cultural appropriation has become something of a bomb, in large part because of Mexican authorities’ complaints about foreign designers making money with traditional indigenous garments [and] excluding the indigenous groups,” Hagino said.
Xunca Para Tecas used a Mexican fashion designer for the initial reworking, but that decision has not avoided issues over the use of the designs outside of the Tehuantepec community. Given recent controversies involving foreigners, innovation and traditional Mexican clothing, this situation is delicate, to say the least.
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.
Leafy lettuce is one of the biggest culprits when it comes to bacterial contamination.
What’s the one thing no “tropical table” should be without? (No, it’s not mangos.) Disinfectant. Bactericida.
Whether it’s that very big or really tiny blue bottle, a vinegar- or bleach-and-water solution or one of the new citrus seed extract formulas, disinfecting fruits and veggies before you eat them should be a regular part of your kitchen routine.
Why? Because as millions of people find out every year, there are a host of water-borne bacteria found on fruits and vegetables, the most common being salmonella, E. coli and listeria.
Washing with clean water or dish soap won’t remove or affect these bacteria, and even the tiniest trace of any of them can wreak havoc on one’s system and cause a week or more of very uncomfortable symptoms. (Some studies have shown that soaking in clean water for at least two minutes removes “some” Listeria bacteria.)
I never disinfected produce before I moved to Mexico (unless it was to try to remove pesticides, but that’s another topic), and I don’t know anyone in the United States who does. What I remember is being “told” (by whom I can’t say) that disinfecting produce in Mexico before eating it was a nonnegotiable.
Why? Because a) the water used in the fields for irrigation is not clean, and b) even if something has been washed, chances are the water wasn’t purified, taking you back to square one. It’s the same reason that we don’t drink tap water (unless you have a water purification system installed in your house).
No matter how ripe and beautiful fruits in the mercado or supermarket may look, they should be disinfected before eating. (Emilia Igartua/Unsplash)
I know some of you will say you never disinfect your produce and have had no adverse effects — good for you! That hasn’t been my experience, and recently, a very unpleasant three-week case of typhoid (a form of salmonella) reiterated the importance of disinfecting produce.
But the reality is I don’t really know what I’m doing. How much microbicide should I be using, and in how much water? How long should I be soaking the tomatoes or lettuce, grapes or blueberries in it? If I’m going to peel (carrots) or cook (broccoli) or do both (potatoes), do they still need to be disinfected?
Some folks say colloidal silver — the active ingredient in most microbicides — is harmful; is it? I have no idea about any of this. I just squirt “some” into a big bowl of water, swish it around a bit and then let it soak for a while, like 10 minutes. Or maybe 20? Quién sabe?
So let’s take a look.
Remove any bruised or broken berries before soaking for 15 minutes in a disinfectant solution.
The instructions on the big blue bottle of Member’s Mark bactericida say to use 1 Tbsp. of disinfectant for two liters of water and soak for 15 minutes.
That tiny (also blue) bottle of Microdyn recommends a drop to 1 liter of water and a 15-minute soak; the difference is the strength of the active ingredient — ionized or colloidal silver.
A long-proven antibacterial, colloidal silver solutions have been used for wound care in hospitals around the world for decades. While not safe to consume as a dietary supplement, numerous studies say the amounts and size of the microscopic silver particles in disinfectant solutions are excreted by the body in six hours or so with no lasting effects.
Fairly new on the market here in Mexico are “natural disinfectants” made from citrus seed extracts, which have been used for decades by commercial greenhouses and growers. The clear, lightly scented desinfectante natural liquid is found at Sam’s Club or Walmart in a 500 ml. spray bottle.
The label claims it “acts as a powerful antiseptic and broad-spectrum disinfectant, is very effective against a range of bacterial and fungal diseases and eliminates 99% of bacteria.” Directions say to “thoroughly spray” produce and let sit for 15 minutes.
Another option is to make your own produce wash with a simple solution of vinegar and water. The vinegar’s acetic acid level, say some biologists, is enough to kill “most” bacteria and inhibit their reproduction. Other studies say it’s not. You’ll have to decide for yourself.
A few drops of regular chlorine bleach can be used in the same way to make a mild solution if you’re comfortable with that.
Certain essential oils contain antibacterial properties too, but be sure to dilute them significantly before using!
Certain essential oils — tea tree, oregano, thyme and cinnamon — contain some antibacterial qualities too. If you’re going this route, be sure to dilute the oils significantly before soaking or spraying your produce.
Since we’re on the topic of food safety, I’ll mention a few other hotspots for food contamination and bacteria growth you may not have realized.
Having a party? Remember that cooked foods should be refrigerated within two hours of cooking. (Less if you’re in the tropics.) Going out to eat at a restaurant with a buffet? The same thing applies. Chances are those little sternos aren’t keeping the food hot enough to prevent bacteria from growing. Be aware.
No matter what your frugal mother told you, leftovers should be eaten within four days. Yes, they may still taste good, but the chances of bacterial growth rise exponentially after 96 hours or so.
And finally a topic that’s been the subject of numerous social media battles: should you rinse chicken before you cook it?
While poultry is known to contain significant amounts of “bad” bacteria (most notably salmonella), cooking it to an internal temperature of 165 F will kill it all. The danger of rinsing chicken (or any other raw meat) before cooking is that those pathogens are spread onto your sink in the water, and also onto faucets from your hands. There they wait patiently for you to wash some dishes or rinse your coffee cup.
One final note: Always remove broken or bruised leaves, stems, berries etc. before disinfecting produce. Those structural breaks allow pathogens to enter the cells, where they’re protected from the effect of whatever microbicide you’re using.
It’s easy to make your own microbicide solution with vinegar and water.
Homemade Produce Wash
1 cup distilled white vinegar or apple cider vinegar
4 cups water
1 lb. produce
Mix water (cool or room temp, not hot) and vinegar in a large bowl.
Sort produce, discarding any broken or bruised leaves, stems, etc. Add produce; let soak 10 minutes, stirring or agitating once or twice. Drain produce and rinse well with clean purified water to get rid of any lingering vinegar flavor or aroma. If not using right away, dry thoroughly after soaking to prevent spoilage.
In the most important aspects of daily life, the writer says she feels safe in Mexico — otherwise she wouldn't live here. (Illustration: Angy Márquz)
I just got back from another trip to the United States!
We arrived in Texas on Easter Sunday, excited to enjoy some nice spring weather, as opposed to the usual oppressive summer heat or the winter cold (which, truthfully, is not that cold; I’m just very hard to please temperature-wise).
Much to my daughter’s disappointment, outside pools are still closed at this time of year. But we did have a very nice time being outside in general. We even went hiking at a state park!
And as always happens on these trips back home, friends and acquaintances asked me the question I’ve come to expect each time: how safe do I really feel in Mexico?
I wrote about safety precautions a few weeks ago already, but today I’d like to do a more nuanced dive into the particulars regarding the ways in which I feel safe (and sometimes not safe) in Mexico.
The easy answer is: yes, of course I feel safe in Mexico. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be here.
Safety, however, depends on the particular topic at hand. So, with that in mind, I’d like to break down some of the particular circumstances that have me feeling confident and comfortable, or frozen and panicked.
First, the safe list: number one for me is the fact that most civilians in Mexico do not own guns. There are no “stand your ground” rules here, and assuming the perpetrator were caught, “I felt threatened and was defending my property” is not generally seen as a valid reason for shooting someone in the face.
While it’s possible to obtain hunting rifles, it’s certainly not as simple as walking into a gun store, and while many weapons are smuggled into Mexico from the U.S. by criminal groups, civilians are outright unable to get their hands on rapid-fire, military-grade weaponry legally. We have plenty of problems in Mexico, but mass shootings by mentally disturbed, disgruntled men isn’t one of them.
Curious children unwittingly shooting themselves or others while playing at home is also not an issue, thank goodness. While in Texas, I found myself the other evening suddenly in a state of panic, imagining just that scenario: I’d let my daughter go play at my sister’s neighbor’s house with her grandchildren, and it suddenly occurred to me that I should have asked beforehand if they kept guns in the home.
I ended up asking them to play in our backyard instead.
In addition to firearms not being available to the general law-abiding public, mentally ill loners seem to less easily fall through society’s cracks and into full-on psychosis here. Family is often close by, making it more unlikely that unhinged behavior will go unnoticed.
Secondly, the very fact that so many people are usually around — family and strangers alike — makes me feel generally safe.
Perhaps I’m being too optimistic, but having lots of people around me, even if I don’t know them, makes me feel like I’m part of a community, however small. The likelihood that all these people would let something bad happen to me or refuse to come to my rescue is low, though hopefully I’ll never have to test that theory.
I’ve also been happy to see that the behavior of strange men seems to have calmed down a bit since I first got here. Catcalls, getting grabbed, being creepily stared at in an obvious way — these seem (mostly) like things of the past. This could partially be because I’m spacey, not all that observant while in motion, and often have my earbuds in. It could be that everyone’s attention is on their cell phones instead of their surroundings these days.
It’s also possible, of course, that this is a result of me simply being older and looking less and less like the wild college students of Cancún on spring break. The fact that I’m now a señora is obvious, especially when I’ve got my kid in tow.
But I’m going to be optimistic, both about the prospect of men having become more respectful to strange women in public as well as my own aging looks.
Before moving on to the ways I don’t feel safe here, let’s talk about a midpoint that I can’t decide where to put: cars.
On the one hand, most people in Mexico are okay, if not daring, drivers. They have to be, because so many of the roads, signs, traffic signals and rules are so incredibly unstructured.
Drivers in my own city, desperate and grouchy from the traffic, routinely jump lights — “It’s about to turn green!” — and motorcycle riders seem to have bought motorcycles because it allows them to weave in and out of the traffic, not realizing they’re supposed to follow the same rules as larger vehicles.
Driving, riding in, and walking around cars is an adventure! And though I’ve had some close calls (knocking on wood and begging the gods not to punish me for my insolence in saying this), so far, I’ve been okay.
In what ways do I feel unsafe here? The common thread of all the things I’ve listed has to do with an absence of the rule of law, or at least imposable policies.
Let’s start with the most simple: in Mexico, “the customer is always right” holds little bearing; many places, in fact, seem to take the opposite view.
If your food or drink at a restaurant is terrible, it won’t be taken back because “you’ve already had some of it.” Getting your deposit back on a rental constitutes a miracle, and if you’re “accidentally” charged more for something when using your card, good luck getting it back.
Customers can make as loud a fuss as they can about something not being fair, but the burden of being fairly treated is entirely on them. In general, the absence of the rule of law in many areas in life makes it easy to get swindled, and hard to find any recourse.
Writing, especially about Mexican politics, sometimes has me worried. For the most part, I assume that no one with much power here follows my little column in English. That said, I’ve received emails from readers before reminding me what an unsafe place this is for journalists, so when an idea for one of these controversial topics comes up, I do indeed think twice.
Nineteen-year-olds in uniforms with guns don’t necessarily make me feel safe, either, especially when reading about the abuses that are sometimes carried out at their hands. As much as AMLO likes to crow that “corruption is over,” in Mexico, that’s obviously not the case. Can a problem be solved if it’s not officially recognized by the authorities? Certainly not.
All in all, though, I feel as safe here as I do in my home country, and have accepted the tradeoffs. In the end, it’s all about the tradeoffs anyway, and I’ll take arguments at the bank over a crowd full of gun-carriers any day.
Sarah DeVries is a writer and translator based in Xalapa, Veracruz. She can be reached through her website, sarahedevries.substack.com.
Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca was second-in-command of Spain's ill-fated Narváez expedition of 1527 to colonize Florida. After his odyssey he became a life-long advocate of Native American rights.
Between 1534 and 1536, Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, a conquistador who never conquered anyone, walked nearly 4,000 km across the American continent and lived to tell the tale.
And he told it well. His story, “Naufragios y Comentarios” (Shipwrecks and Commentaries), makes for fascinating reading. Even more fascinating is the retelling of Cabeza de Vaca’s story by Andrés Reséndez, a Mexican-American history professor at the University of California, Davis.
“A Land so Strange” by Mexican American academic Andrés Reséndez is available in English in all formats. Half the book consists of very interesting footnotes.
His book, “A Land so Strange, the Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca,” was published in 2009 and adds much needed clarification, annotations and insights to this bizarre story, resulting in a narrative so curious, compelling and fluid that one of his readers declared that this was “one book I would take to a desert island.”
Cabeza de Vaca was the royally appointed treasurer of an expedition meant to establish a colony of Spaniards in Florida. In 1527, 300 of them set sail from Spain, only to suffer a most amazing series of mishaps.
Hurricanes, shipwrecks, near starvation and the bungling of an incompetent navigator landed the survivors on what is now Galveston Island, Texas, where their chain of catastrophes culminated in the desperate construction of a huge raft, upon which they piled absolutely everything they had (including their clothes and shoes).
When they pushed the raft into the sea, it broke up and sank, leaving 80 survivors who were very literally naked and barefoot and freezing to death.
In this scene from Nicolás Echevarría’s 1991 Mexican film, “Cabeza de Vaca,” the survivors attempt to make moccasins from strips of cloth.
“It was in November (of 1532), bitterly cold,” wrote Cabeza de Vaca, “and we in such a state that every bone could easily be counted, and we looked like death itself. At sunset, the Indians came… Upon seeing the disaster we had suffered, our misery and distress, the Indians sat down with us and all began to weep out of compassion for our misfortune.”
An extraordinarily cold and harsh winter, coupled with a lack of food, reduced the number of would-be colonizers to 15 souls.
“What had begun as a guest-host relationship between the natives and the Spaniards,” writes Reséndez, “eventually degenerated into a relationship between masters and slaves.”
Without their guns, armor and horses, the conquistadors posed no threat to the local people. On the contrary, the Spaniards proved incapable of hunting with bows, fishing or trapping, so they were given women’s work to do: digging for roots, carrying firewood and fetching water.
Map showing the approximate route taken by the four survivors, from Galviston Island, Texas to Mexico City.
The situation of the castaways degenerated even further when it was discovered that five of them — who had not taken up residence with the Indians — had avoided starvation by resorting to cannibalism. By the end, quips Cabeza de Vaca, “Only one remained because he was alone and had no one to eat him.”
Their Indigenous captors were greatly shocked and wanted to kill the Spaniards, but Cabeza de Vaca’s owner calmed them down. From then on, the castaways were forced to do brutally hard work and to suffer ignominy and derision on the part of all the tribe members, including the children.
These Indigenous people, the Capoques and Hans, says Reséndez, were not what we are accustomed to call slavers:
“They did not actively procure and exploit slave labor. They certainly possessed slaves, which were a byproduct of their continuous warfare with neighboring groups… However, this system was a far cry from that employed by more centralized and hierarchical societies like Portugal and Spain.”
Eventually, the group of Spaniards dwindled to four and they were taken to the mainland by their owners to help pick pecans and prickly pears in season.
In 1534, not only were they able to slip away from their captors, they also discovered a modus operandi that would assure them safe passage through whatever strange lands lay before them: they became medicine men.
Artist Paul Gillon’s conception of the four survivors on the move.
Surprisingly, it was not the castaways who first suggested that they possessed the power to cure the sick but the Indigenous inhabitants. This began back on Galveston Island. Says Cabeza de Vaca, half joking: “On that island, they tried to make us physicians without examining us or asking us for our titles.”
The Indigenous people had demanded that the castaways cure the sick by blowing on the afflicted. The Spaniards took things lightly at first.
“We laughed at this and said that it was a mockery and that we did not know how to cure.”
But, says Reséndez, their hosts were serious. They stopped feeding the outsiders until they did as they were told, and one of them patiently explained to the uncomprehending foreigners that, in the words of Cabeza de Vaca, “even the stones and other things that exist in the wild possess power, and that he used a hot stone rubbed on the abdomen to heal and remove pain, and that we (the survivors), who were humans, had even more virtue and power.”
It was fortunate indeed that in October 1534, the four escapees fell in with a small nomadic band of Indigenous people known as the Avavares, who had heard of the castaways’ reputation as shamans and treated them with respect. They gave them lodging with their own medicine men.
Their new careers began on their first night among, when several Avavares suffering from head pains showed up looking for a cure from the foreigners.
Stamp issued by Spain to mark the 400th anniversary of the Discovery of Florida.
One of Cabeza de Vaca’s group, Alonso de Castillo, made the sign of the cross over these men and begged God to give them health. According to Cabeza de Vaca, “The Indians said that all the sickness had left them. And they went to their houses and brought many prickly pears and a piece of venison, which at the time we didn’t recognize.”
The four men’s newfound position was a far cry from their past lives as captives. Avavares who were treated by a medicine man were accustomed to giving everything that they owned to him and even sought additional gifts from their relatives. Over the course of a few days with the Avavares, the four outsiders received so many pieces of venison that they didn’t know what to do with all the meat.
After that, the reputation of the foreign medicine men preceded them across the continent and south to Sinaloa, where in 1536 the unexpected appearance of “bearded Indians speaking perfect Spanish” dumbfounded their countrymen.
By the time Cabeza de Vaca’s group reached Mexico City, the four remaining castaways had walked over 3,800 km.
Their story is well worth a read. And then pack the book away for that future trip to a desert island.
Andres Resendez’s book, “A Land So Strange,” published by Hachette Press, can be found on in print and e-book on Amazon. Prefer to watch the movie? It’s harder to find but it’s available for free to watch online if you’re in Mexico on the FilmInLatino website.
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.
Adapted from legislation put forward by President López Obrador last month, the reforms reduce the length of mining concessions with the intention of avoiding overexploitation of natural resources. (Canal del Congreso)
Federal deputies approved modifications to mining, water and environmental laws in a lengthy legislative session that concluded early Friday.
A reduction in the initial length of mining concessions from 50 years to 30 years is the most notable proposed change in the reform package, which was adapted from more ambitious legislation put forward by President López Obrador last month.
Though Congress adapted the reform to allow mining concessions for up to 30 years, the president’s original proposal to reduce water concessions to five years still stands. (lopezobrador.com.mx)
With the support of lawmakers from the ruling Morena party and its allies, modifications to the Mining Law, National Waters Law, Ecological Equilibrium and Environmental Protection Law and the Law for the Prevention and Comprehensive Management of Waste passed the Chamber of Deputies at the end of a five-hour session that began Thursday night. The proposed reforms will now be considered by the Senate.
While no new mining concessions have been issued since President López Obrador took office in late 2018, those granted under current laws are valid for 50 years and can be extended for an additional 50 years.
Under the new proposal, mining concessions would be initially valid for 30 years and could be extended by another 25 years. A subsequent 25-year extension would be possible, but the concession holder would have to participate in a tendering process against other interested parties.
López Obrador, who has repeatedly criticized previous governments for issuing mining concessions across large tracts of land, had proposed limiting concessions to just 15 years with an extendable period of the same length.
Aerial view of the Cozamin mine in Zacatecas. Canadian company Capstone Gold has operated the mine for 20 years. (Adolfo Vladimir/Cuartoscuro)
A majority of deputies also voted in favor of making public tenders mandatory before the issuance of new mining concessions and obliging mining companies to give at least 10% of their profits to the communities in which they operate.
If the legislation passes the Senate — where Morena and its allies also have a majority — concessions won’t be able to be granted until local Indigenous people have been consulted, at the expense of the companies seeking permission to mine in Mexico, and cancellation of concessions due to environmental damage and breaches of laws will be easier.
The reform package also seeks to oblige mining companies to be more transparent. In addition, it aims to protect natural reserves and water sources from direct and indirect damage from mining.
Joaquín Zebadúa, a Morena deputy from Chiapas, said that previous governments granted over 1,600 mining concessions in natural protected areas. He also denounced mining companies for evading taxes.
Indigenous groups across Mexico have long defended their territory from mining projects. (Margarito Perez Retana / CUARTOSCURO.COM)
Raquel Bonilla, a Morena deputy from Veracruz, said that the aim of the reform package is to avoid the overexploitation of Mexico’s mineral and water resources.
The Mexican Chamber of Mines (Camimex) warned last week that the more ambitious overhaul that had been proposed by López Obrador would cost the sector some US $9 billion in investment in the coming years. The Association of Mines, Metallurgists and Geologists (Aimmgm) said late last month that the original proposal could cause an exodus of mining companies from Mexico and place over 400,000 jobs at risk.
Opposition lawmakers voiced similar concerns in the Chamber of Deputies prior to voting on the proposed laws.
The Aimmgm acknowledged in a statement on Friday that the original proposal was modified by lawmakers — “softened” in the words of the El Economista newspaper — but reiterated its concern for the mining industry, which generates 2.5% of Mexico’s GDP.
Mexico is the world’s fourth-largest recipient of foreign direct investment for mining. Among those concerned about the reforms are mining professionals employed by foreign companies. (AIMMGMN/Facebook)
“Before ratifying the reform approved by the Chamber of Deputies, the Senate of the republic must organize an open parliament and provide the time necessary to carry out a rigorous analysis and comprehensive, inclusive and informed legislative debate, with the participation of all actors involved, in order to agree on appropriate changes that encourage the development of mining and Mexico,” the association said.
“… Dialogue between the [mining] industry and the public sector is essential to finding the happy medium.”
Mexico is the world’s leading producer of silver and a major producer of copper and gold.
Canadian companies are major investors in Mexico’s mining sector. If the Canadian government believes Canadian miners are being treated unfairly in Mexico, it could potentially challenge Mexico’s laws under USMCA, the North American free trade pact that superseded NAFTA in 2020.
The Mexican government is talking up the potential of the nascent lithium industry, but mining the sought-after metal in Mexico will be challenging as most potential reserves are in clay deposits.
Lithium was nationalized last year, and the government has created a state-owned lithium company called Litio para México, or LitioMx.
President López Obrador remains broadly popular with Mexicans, especially those under 20 or over 60 years of age. (Galo Cañas Rodríguez/Cuartoscuro)
A survey from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) has revealed that almost 51% of Mexicans gave President Andrés Manuel López Obrador high confidence ratings.
The National Survey of Urban Public Security asked Mexicans about their perceptions of security and safety in the country, as well as their confidence in authorities. 50.9% of respondents scored the president at least an 8 out of 10 with regards to their confidence in him.
Confidence levels in the president were highest in Mexico in the municipality of Piedras Negras, Coahuila. Here he is seen touring the region in 2020. (Presidencia/Cuartoscuro)
A further 16.9% scored him between 6 and 7, for a total of 67.8% of Mexicans showing medium-to-high levels of confidence in López Obrador’s leadership, according to the survey data.
Confidence in the president scored highest in the municipality of Piedras Negras, Coahuila, with an overall rating of 8.4. Conversely, the Benito Juárez borough of Mexico City, one of the most prosperous in the country, scored him at only 4.2 out of 10.
With the exceptions of Benito Juárez and the city of San Pedro Garza García, Nuevo Leon, the president also outscored state governors, although some municipal mayors showed resilient popularity compared to López Obrador.
“The fact that is important is that 50% of the population considers that the President of the Republic can be trusted, with a very high level of confidence … ” said Jesús Ramirez, a spokesman for the president.
The deployment of the National Guard to perform civilian duties has also apparently proved popular with Mexicans: 73.6% of Mexicans said they felt the public security force was “effective” or “somewhat effective,” up 2% from December. (Daniel Augusto/Cuartoscuro)
López Obrador rated best with those aged under 20 years and those over 60. He also scored highest with those with “little” or “no” education, according to INEGI. His popularity was higher among men (54.5% in favor) than women (47.8% in favor).
The survey also showed that the majority of Mexicans surveyed have confidence in the National Guard, who have been widely deployed to civilian security tasks across the country. Nearly 74% of Mexicans said they felt the Guard to “effective” or “somewhat effective.”
Confidence in local police forces was significantly lower, however, with only 49.9% saying that local police force inspired their confidence.
The navy scored high confidence ratings, with 87.5% of respondents expressing either “some confidence” or “great confidence” in the armed force’s effectiveness. The army came in second with a confidence score of 83.4%.
Volodymyr Zelensky, on screen, thanked Mexico for condemning Russian aggression at the U.N. in 2022, and asked that the nation endorse his peace plan. (@pmpojanheimo/Twitter)
During an address to a group of Mexican lawmakers on Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on Mexico to support his peace plan to end the war with Russia.
“Ladies and Gentlemen! People of Mexico! Aren’t we united by the dream of safety and peace on all the streets of all the cities of our countries? Don’t we equally condemn those who shoot civilians and burn houses?” Zelensky said in a virtual address to members of the Chamber of Deputies’ Mexico-Ukraine Friendship Group.
President Zelensky called on Mexico to take leadership and work to help Ukraine regain its territory. (@IEAmbMexico/Twitter)
“… More than five months ago, I presented the Ukrainian Peace Formula. It happened at the G20 Summit in Indonesia,” he said, according to an official English-language transcript of his speech.
Zelensky said that the formula – a 10-point plan calling for the restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity and the withdrawal of Russian troops, among other points — is “addressed primarily to the world, … to everyone who can participate in the implementation of specific points of the Formula and become a cocreator of the victory over evil, a cocreator of peace.”
He told the Mexico-Ukraine friendship group that “peace must become irreplaceable” and “evil must lose” and invited its members to “choose which clause of the Peace Formula allows Mexico to show leadership.”
“Ukraine has already proposed to the Latin American community to convene a special summit and speak unitedly in defense of the globally important principles of territorial integrity, peace and respect between peoples, and the sovereignty of nations. I believe [that] with the help of Mexico, it can happen much faster,” Zelensky said.
Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, seen here at the United Nations in 2022, condemned the Russian invasion when it first occurred. (SRE/Facebook)
The Ukrainian president thanked Mexico for voting to condemn Russia’s aggression in Ukraine at the United Nations (although it abstained in a vote that suspended Russia from the UN Human Rights Council) and expressed appreciation for its humanitarian support for Ukraine.
Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard expressed Mexico’s condemnation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on the day it occurred — Feb. 24, 2022. However, the federal government rejected a request from Ukrainian lawmakers to send arms to the eastern European nation and decided not to impose any sanctions on Russia.
“We don’t send weapons anywhere, we’re pacifists,” said President López Obrador at the time of the decision, on March 4, 2022.
López Obrador proposed a “committee for dialogue and peace in Ukraine” and said that the prime minister of India, Pope Francis and UN Secretary-General António Guterres should join the group and conduct “direct talks” with Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Ukraine promptly rejected his idea; an official close to Zelensky described it as a “Russian plan.”
Cross-party coordination board chairman Ignacio Mier said that any support for Ukraine was a personal decision, and not representative of the wider will of Congress. (Mario Jasso/Cuartoscuro)
While López Obrador has personally condemned Russia’s invasion, he has also said that Mexico’s “position is one of neutrality, which has to do with … [our noninterventionist] foreign policy.”
Asked last April whether he endorsed the friendship group, López Obrador didn’t give a direct response, emphasizing instead that people are “free” to do as they see fit.
There was an allusion on Thursday to this diversity of opinion within Morena — and other parties — with regard to the war in Ukraine.
In response to Zelensky’s address, National Action Party Deputy and president of the lower house of Congress Santiago Creel said, “in the name of the Mexican state, we express our strongest condemnation of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.”
However, the cross-party Political Coordination Board (Jucopo) of the Chamber of Deputies, over which Morena Deputy Ignacio Mier presides, said in a statement that the opinions expressed at Thursday’s event didn’t represent the Congress, let alone the Mexican state.
The expressions of Mexican lawmakers are “personal,” Jucopo said after noting that Zelensky’s address wasn’t to the Mexican Congress but rather a friendship group of legislators.
“The meeting of the Mexico-Ukraine Friendship Group doesn’t represent the consensual position of the Chamber of Deputies,” the statement said.
The Russian Embassy in Mexico thanked Jucopo for expressing its “clear position” on what it described as “interesting discourse” between Zelensky and the Mexican lawmakers.
Environmental campaigners are celebrating an injunction preventing cargo ships from docking near the protected reef at Puerto Morelos, Quintana Roo. (@MarthaluzCadena/Twitter)
A federal judge has provisionally blocked imports of Cuban ballast for the construction of the Maya Train after a transport ship damaged a coral reef near Puerto Morelos, Quintana Roo.
The judge granted the injunction to a group of environmental activists who claimed the ship had damaged the reef with its anchor while bringing 20,000 tons of porphyrite stone to near Puerto Morelos in March.
The “Melody” is alleged to have caused damage to a protected coral reef near Puerto Morelos. (@gchristy65/Twitter)
The stone was intended to be transported by barge from the anchored ship to the port of Puerto Morelos, and then crushed for use as ballast under the tracks of the Maya Train.
“This damage to the reef could have been avoided with an environmental impact statement,” said Aracely Domínguez, president of the Mayab Ecologist Group (GEMA), one of the groups that filed the injunction.
“They do not have a defined guide of what to do and how they are going to do it.”
The damage occurred while the ship was anchoring in a protected area near Puerto Morelos, home to many corals. It wasoriginally reported by diver and underwater videographer Alberto Friscione.
Progress on the flagship Maya Train has been impeded by a lack of ballast, and by legal protests from indigenous and environmental groups. (Martín Zetina/Cuartoscuro.com)
“When [the ship] dropped the anchor, it fell on top of many [corals],” Friscione told EFE at the time. “They pulled the whole chain for several meters, and as the ship drifted, the chain moved and began to break the few or many corals that were there.”
After Friscione’s complaint, the tanker was moved to an area near the island of Cozumel, where there is a larger sand bank and fewer coral species.
The First District Court, based in Mérida, Yucatán, later issued a ruling stopping the boat from anchoring within the Biosphere Reserve next to the Puerto Morelos Reef National Park.
The latest injunction not only suspends stone imports for the Maya Train ballast but also the expansion of the road used for transporting stone from Puerto Morelos to the Maya Train construction areas. The judge found that expanding the road would involve clearing mangroves protected by Mexico’s General Wildlife Law.
This is the latest in a series of setbacks for the Maya Train, President López Obrador’s promised railway loop on the Yucatán peninsula. The project is now seriously delayed, partly due to a lack of ballast and other materials, and has faced numerous protests and legal actions by local activists.
“The environmental struggle cannot be just a movement with marches and protests,” Domínguez said. “We have dedicated 40 years to having the necessary legal tools to have this defense.”
