An Aeroméxico plane set to take off from Culiacán was hit by a bullet before the airport closed. (Daniel Augusto / Cuartoscuro.com)
Aeroméxico announced Thursday morning that the day’s flights to the municipalities of Culiacán, Los Mochis and Mazatlán in the northern state of Sinaloa were canceled after the arrest of a cartel leader, while the Culiacán and Mazatlán International Airports both announced closures for part of the day.
The decision came after shootings, car fires and blockades were reported across the state due to the arrest of Ovidio Guzmán, son of drug trafficker Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. The airline said that it will apply its protection policy to travelers.
Volaris and VivaAerobus also announced the cancellation of Thursday’s flights to Culiacán and Mazatlán owing to violence reported in the state. Volaris canceled the flight bound to Los Mochis.
The flight was canceled after the bullet pierced the fuselage of the airplane. (Courtesy)
The acts of violence were reported before dawn on Thursday, leading local authorities to ask all residents to stay home and avoid being out on the street. The local educational authority also ordered schools at all levels to close for the day.
At Culiacán International Airport, Reuters reported Thursday morning that the fuselage of a plane bound from Culiacán, Sinaloa to Mexico City was hit by gunfire. A video that went viral on social media showed images from inside the plane while the shooting was happening outside. No passengers or employees were injured.
Following the violent events, the Culiacán International Airport announced that for security reasons it would be closed from 8:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. The Mazatlán International Airport also announced that it would be closed from 9:20 a.m. until 8 p.m.
In October 2019, Ovidio Guzmán was captured and later released causing a violent upheaval in Culiacán. At the time, President López Obrador said he supported the cabinet’s security decision to release Ovidio.
Ernesto Alberto Piñon de la Cruz was captured after he was spotted in Ciudad Juárez by authorities and fled in a vehicle that he crashed into a gas station. He died in custody, state officials said. (Photo: FGE-Chihuahua)
Gang leader Ernesto Alberto Piñon de la Cruz, alias “El Neto,” was killed by security forces on Thursday morning, four days after he escaped from the Cereso No. 3 jail in Ciudad Juárez along with 29 other prisoners.
According toa statement by the Chihuahua Attorney General’s Office (FGE), the regional gang leader of the Mexicles gang died after clashing with tactical units who had tracked him down to a block of houses in the city’s Aztecas neighborhood.
“The capture of Ernesto Piñon was registered after an exchange of gunfire in one of the houses, from where he fled in a vehicle until crashing into a gas station,” the statement read.
“There, he fired at authorities, ending up seriously wounded and later dying when he was transferred to the facilities of the Northern District Prosecutor’s Office.”
Piñon de la Cruz was serving a 224-year sentence in Cereso No. 3 prison. (Photo: SSPE Chihuahua)
An armored BMW, eight long weapons and five bulletproof vests were also seized in the operation.
Authorities said that the operation was the result of a 48-hour investigation in which several fugitives were located. A few hours earlier, the FGE released a poster with the names and faces of the 30 prisoners who escaped, offering 300,00 to 5 million pesos (US $15,500 to $258,000) to anyone who could provide “truthful, effective, efficient and useful information” leading directly to the fugitives’ capture.
TheCereso jail break occurred on Sunday morning, after a highly coordinated attack in which gunmen raided the prison in a bid to free “El Neto” and one of his lieutenants. Nineteen people died in the subsequent riot, including 10 guards. Twenty-eight other prisoners seized the opportunity to escape.
In the following days, prison director Alejandro Alvarado Téllezwas fired and put under investigation for the security failures leading up to the raid, and 200 additional troops were deployed to the city to assist in the manhunt for the missing convicts.
Cereso No. 3’s prison guards bid a final farewell to their fallen comrades who died during the raid on Sunday by armed gunmen that allowed 30 prisoners to escape. (Photo: screen capture)
Despite being in jail since 2009, serving a 224-year sentence, “El Neto” was a key leader of the Mexicles gang, a splinter group of the Sinaloa Cartel that is one of the most powerful criminal cells in Ciudad Juárez. In the hours after his death, multiple acts of violence have been reported around the city, including an armed attack on the FGE offices and the setting on fire of two stores.
Sheinbaum said she discussed steel, aluminum and auto tariffs in her call with Trump last week. (Carlos Aranda/Unsplash)
With 120,862 units sold in December, new car sales grew 24% compared to the 97,420 cars sold in the same period of the previous year, Mexico’s statistics agency INEGI reported. December’s peak even exceeds November sales by 26.5% percent.
According to newspaper El Financiero, sales in the automotive industry have shown a recovery amid complications that persist in the global supply chain caused by the pandemic, particularly the lack of inventory due to the global shortage of chips in international and national assemblers.
However, Mexico’s recovery registered an increase of 7% compared to 2021 with an overall sale of 1.08 million new units throughout 2022.
This data marks the second annual growth rate since Covid-19 but falls 17.6% behind pre-pandemic numbers, which in 2019 registered sales of 1.3 million new cars sold.
Still, sales during 2022 exceeded expectations of the Mexican Association of Car Dealers (AMDA) by 11.3%, who early in December had estimated year-end sales of 1.07 million units.
“The results for December reflect an improvement in the inventory level, which, although differentiated between brands, has resulted in an improvement over the previous lag,” AMDA President Guillermo Rosales said.
These cars have frequently been brought to Mexico for sale in poor, rural communities or by farmers as an affordable alternative to an economically inaccessible new or even a used car from a dealer. Also, many foreign residents in Mexico have ended up with “chocolate cars” due to Mexico’s regulations for importing a car on a permanent basis.
Federal and state officials say they are pursuing the amnesty program in part to document more cars on the road to prevent them being used in crimes, where they would be virtually untraceable.
AMDA has continually denounced the program (which extended its deadline to March 2023) claiming that it creates unfair competition with legally sold cars in the country. In December, they blamed the amnesty program for reducing new car sales in Mexico by 200,000 units in 2022.
But despite the difficulties in the industry’s production and logistics, the newspaper El Financiero reported that experts anticipate that the increase in rates due to inflation and consumption would stimulate greater vehicle financing, which would help to recover sales levels of new cars in the coming years.
A traditional "rosca de reyes" bread made to celebrate the feast of Epiphany on Jan. 6. (Depositphotos)
Roscatitlán returns for Día de Reyes in Mexico City
The finish line of the “Guadalupe-Reyes marathon” – the popular way Mexicans refer to the holiday period from Dec. 12 (Day of the Virgin of Guadalupe) to Jan. 6 (Three Kings Day) – is almost here.
On this holiday, Mexican families and friends give gifts to children, hold gatherings and partake in the traditional sweet bread, Rosca de Reyes. The lucky ones who get the baby Jesus figurine hidden inside the bread (a Biblical reference to when Mary and Joseph had to hide baby Jesus from King Herod) must invite the guests to a meal of tamales on Día de la Calendaria, which is celebrated on Feb. 2.
But as much as the tradition is rooted in Mexican culture, it wasn’t born here – it originated in France in the 17th century. The tradition traveled to Spain and then Mexico after the Spanish conquest.
To celebrate the occasion, Mexico City’s “Roscatitlán” will come back after a two year hiatus, with over 100 food exhibitors and 20 master bakers creating Rosca de Reyes, from traditional to vegan and gluten free. The event will take place from Jan. 5-8 at Colegio México Roma. Besides tasting the king’s bread, you can also sample the traditional Mexican winter beverage atole and tamales.
Oaxaca cheese included on food tasting “bucket list”
On Monday, the TasteAtlas “Bucket List” came out with a ranking of the 40 things to taste in 2023 – and beloved Mexican Oaxaca cheese is on the list.
Owing to its “savory, creamy, mild and buttery flavor,” the cheese made it onto a list dominated by Italian cheeses. After the Parmigiano Reggiano, Gorgonzola picante, Burrata and Grana Padano, Queso Oaxaca is suggested as the fifth best cheese to try in 2023.
The cheese, named after the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, is characterized by its stringy texture and its “great melting properties,” which make it perfect for quesadillas, empanadas and tlayudas, the ranking explains.
TasteAtlas, described as an “experiential travel guide for traditional food”, ranks everything from breads, salamis, snacks, wines, cakes and liquors, reminding readers that “life is too short not to try all the best the world has to offer.”
2 Mexicans make Rolling Stone’s list of 200 best singers of all time
Ranking in the 95th position is “Mexico’s idol”, Vicente Fernández, known for classic songs like “El Rey”, “Hermoso Cariño” and “Por tu Maldito Amor.” The magazine called him “the greatest ranchera singer of all time” while recognizing his “unmistakable tenor, intense vibrato and his hard to miss charro outfits.”
Juan Gabriel has been recognized for breaking barriers in Latin American entertainment. (Juan Gabriel Facebook)
In position 172 is Juan Gabriel, whose “flamboyant persona, colorful capes, and pompadour immediately made a splash,” said the magazine. Mixing pop with banda and ranchera music, he created “emotionally wrenching ballads” like “Adiós Amor Te Vas” and “Querida.”
The magazine remembered Juan Gabriel’s response to questions about his sexuality, which inspired the LGBTQ community of the time: “You don’t need to ask about what you can already see.”
Intermoda fashion trade fair coming to Guadalajara
Intermoda, a fashion industry trade fair, is scheduled for its 78th edition from Jan. 17-20 at Expo Guadalajara. Sustainability and the promotion of new talent will be two of the focal points of this year’s fair, which seeks to attract more than 21,000 buyers and will showcase more than 1,000 exhibiting brands.
The fair is advertised as the first sustainable fashion fair in in Latin America. Among its sustainability goals, Intermoda aims to reduce the carbon footprint in the fashion industry, as well as to establish a textile collection center for recycling.
The participating countries include Brazil, Belgium, Canada, China, Colombia, the United States, France, Spain, Italy and Turkey.
Most Googled Mexican public figures
Xavier López “Chabelo,” widely known among Mexicans as the host of the morning kid’s TV show “En Familia con Chabelo” (Family time with Chabelo), was the most searched Mexican during 2022 in Mexico, according to “The Year in Search” by Google Trends.
The 87-year-old TV personality started trending on social media with the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September, as memes circulated about Chabelo’s longevity versus the monarch’s. His television career spanned 60 years.
A meme about the longevity of Mexican TV personality “Chabelo”.(Twitter)
Other names in the Top 10 ranking include the “princess of Mexican music”, Ángela Aguilar, former teachers union leader Elba Esther Gordillo, and Mexican leading man, Andrés García.
Want a way to symbolically cleanse yourself and your home for a new year? Take a page from the traditional practice of curanderismo. (Diego Simón Sánchez/Cuartoscuro)
Another year has flown by.
Another list of resolutions has been halfway accomplished.
Even when I don’t want to do it, by December 31, I inevitably (and sometimes, begrudgingly) find myself succumbing to the societal pressure that influences me to write another new year’s resolutions list.
While I do manage to check off a handful of promises (take a painting class, move to Mexico, immerse myself more often in nature), I leave many more unfinished (eat less refined sugar, organize my finances, finish Tolstoy’s “War and Peace”). Being a human who is naturally hard-wired to focus on the negative, all of those unticked boxes have an uncanny tendency to outweigh that which I’ve accomplished, regardless of how grandiose those triumphs may be.
Instead of writing a lengthy list of nearly-impossible-to-achieve-in-a-year tasks, the writer decided to focus on symbolically “cleaning house.” (Photo: Rozhnovskaya Tanya/Shutterstock)
So this year, I’m taking a different approach. Instead of writing a lengthy list of nearly-impossible-to-achieve-in-a-year tasks, I am going to focus on “cleaning house.” And I don’t mean my literal house, though that is certainly an important aspect of the cleansing process. I am referring to the holistic system as a whole: mind, body and soul.
In Mexico, there is a traditional practice known as curanderismo. This refers to a healing method that blends religious beliefs, faith and prayer with the use of herbs, massage and other traditional procedures. Curanderismo in Mexico is thought to be influenced by Aztec, Mayan, Spanish, African and Catholic elements.
Using it as the groundwork, I’ve compiled a list of five Mexican-inspired rituals that may help to usher in a clean, bright and prosperous 2023!
1. Bury your problems
What you’ll need: a red ribbon about 1.5 ft or half a meter in length and a small empty jar.
What you’ll do: Think of seven problems you’d like to release from your life. Starting in the middle of the ribbon, tie a knot for your first problem. Move a few inches to the right and tie a knot for your second problem. Now move to the left for your third. Alternate directions, tying a knot for each problem, until you’ve made a complete circle. Put the ribbon in an empty jar and bury it.
What’s the result: a lightened mental load and no more problems!
2. Clear out deep emotional trauma
What you’ll need: a raw egg and a bundle of rosemary, rue, basil and/or sage.
The egg limpia (cleansing) is a simple ritual: you’ll need a raw egg and ritual herbs.
What you’ll do: In an ancient practice known to eliminate susto — a concept that can be loosely translated as post-traumatic stress disorder — rub an egg in its shell around your body to extract negative energy from your aura. Using the bundle of herbs, sweep all the way around the body three times, from head to toe. This can be done three times a week for a month.
What’s the result: good health and a positive mental attitude.
3. Optimize your house for wealth
What you’ll need: cinnamon, 12 coins, an aloe vera plant
What you’ll do: Start with a deep cleaning. Add cinnamon to the water used to clean the floors, and burn some cinnamon sticks for protection against bad omens. For an added security boost, place an aloe vera plant at the entrance to your home.
Ancient Mexican culture believed this could block evil energies from entering. On New Year’s Eve, just before midnight, sweep one final time in the direction of your front door. As the clock strikes midnight, place 12 coins outside the threshold and sweep them into your house for good fortune.
What’s the result: security and wealth.
Ancient Mexicans believed that cinnamon could block evil. You can use it in your cleaning water to symbolically purify your home of negative energy. (Photo: June Andrei George/Unsplash)
4. Get Rid of Old Habits
What you’ll need: buñuelos and plates. (Do not whip out your best china for this one. I recommend buying cheap plates that you’ll have no qualms about shattering into hundreds of pieces.)
What you’ll do: Are you already stuffing your face with sweet, fried buñuelos this holiday season? If so, you’re one step ahead as the sugary treats are already a good luck charm when eaten during the fiestas in Mexico. But you can take it a step further.
What’s the result: releasing old patterns that no longer serve you.
La tradición de los Buñuelos y Romper Tepalcates en Oaxaca.
This video demonstrates the old Oaxaca tradition of eating a buñuelo and then smashing your plate afterward.
It’s a common tradition on New Year’s Eve, especially in Oaxaca, to smash the plate used to eat your buñuelos in order to finally break those recurring bad habits that you’re ready to leave behind.
5. Declutter your body, mind and spirit
What you’ll need: a bathing suit, a temazcal hut and a shaman
What you’ll do: The beauty of a temazcal is that there’s not much to do other than follow the lead of your shaman. This ancient healing practice takes place in a sweat lodge, where you will remove mental, physical and emotional impurities. Your guide will use a combination of herbs, chanting and breath work to purge nagging blockages, resulting in a sensation of rebirth and renewal.
What’s the result:a powerful detoxification with many physical health benefits including lowered blood pressure, clearer skin, a stronger respiratory system.
Want to know more? Check out a recent article about my first temazcal experience: my first temazcal made me feel like I’d been reborn.
Or, you can take a long, hot bath.
Happy New Year!
Bethany Platanella is a travel and lifestyle writer based in Mexico City. With her company, Active Escapes International, she plans and leads private and small-group active retreats. She loves Mexico’s local markets, Mexican slang, practicing yoga and fresh tortillas. Sign up for her (almost) weekly love letters or follow her Instagram account, @a.e.i.wellness.
The head of Cereso No. 3 prison in Ciudad Juárez, Alejandro Alvarado Téllez, center, is now under investigation for allegedly allowing multiple prohibited items into the prison under his charge. (Photo: State of Chihuahua)
The director of the Cereso No. 3 prison in Ciudad Juárez was fired on Tuesday, following a prison raid that left 19 people dead and allowed at least 27 prisoners to escape.
According toa statement by the Chihuahua Attorney General’s Office, former director Alejandro Alvarado Téllez and several other prison staff members are under investigation for the events leading up to the jailbreak.
Authorities are investigating whether they failed in their duties to maintain security or even allowed prohibited objects to enter the prison.
The raid occurred on the morning of Jan. 1 after gunmen attacked the penal institution, seeking to free a leader of the local Mexicles gang, Ernesto Alfredo Pinon de la Cruz, alias “El Neto.”Nineteen people were killed in the gun battle, including 10 guards. At least 27 prisoners escaped, including the gang leader and his lieutenant.
In the aftermath of the raid, hundreds of prisoners are being transferred out of Cereso No. 3 to other prisons around the country. (Photo: Cuartoscuro)
When federal authorities regained control of the prison, they found that El Neto had been staying in a “VIP zone” within the center, with access to drugs and money.
On Tuesday,the Defense Ministry (Sedena) announced that it had deployed 200 military personnel to Ciudad Juárez to reinforce security. The additional troops will join the hunt for the fugitive prisoners, alongside over 900 members of the army and National Guard already in the city.
At leastfive criminals who escaped in the breakout have been captured, along with weapons, drugs and cash. Meanwhile,seven people have died in clashes during the manhunt, including two police officers. Five criminals armed with tactical weaponry were killed in a police chase after firing on search units.
In addition, one fugitive wascaught on security cameras attempting to cross the United States border into El Paso, Texas.
Chihuahua Governor Maru Campos, center, listening to updates on authorities’ attempts to track down fugitive prisoners. (Photo: Gov. of Chihuahua)
“After the sighting, the authorities of El Paso, Texas, were informed with the relevant information, and immediately a joint search operation was implemented on both sides of the border,” the state government said.
191 prisoners from the Cereso have been transferred to other federal prisons around the country. They had been charged with crimes including murder, kidnapping, rape and organized crime activity.
“This operation concluded safely and successfully; with these movements, the state government was supported in guaranteeing the governability of the center after the events of Jan. 1,” reada statement by the Defense Ministry (Sedena).
According to the Chihuahua Attorney General’s Office, the transfer of “El Neto” and 179 other prisoners from the Cereso has beenunder consideration since a previous escape attempt on Aug. 11. The request was on hold pending an analysis of capacity in other centers.
Ernesto Alfredo Piñon de la Cruz, alias “El Neto” lived like a king in Cereso No. 3, authorities say, with access to drugs and money. He’s been involved in organized crime since starting his own gang while still a teen and becoming a regional leader in the Juárez Cartel at age 18. (Photo: social media)
They added that “El Neto,” who has been jailed since 2009, was initially held in another prison but has fought a long legal battle to be transferred and then kept in the Cereso. From the prison, he allegedly coordinated numerous violent attacks by the Mexicles gang, one of the most powerful criminal cells in Ciudad Juárez.
Bones of a woolly mammoth found in México state in the 1950s were recently re-examined by a Mexican research team using new technology. (Photo: INAH)
This story begins anywhere from 4,000 to 17,000 years ago, when woolly mammoths roamed the Earth. It picks up in Mexico in the mid-1950s, when the remains of a couple of those mammoths — and stone tools with traces of human use — were found in the central part of the country.
Now flash forward to the present day, when a recent study of those artifacts, using modern science and technology, is giving new glimpses into what researchers now believe was an Ice Age camp of humans in what is today México state.
“The study indicates that it was a seasonal hunter-gatherer camp,” archaeologist Patricia Pérez Martínez, author and coordinator of the project, said Tuesday during a presentation of the study’s findings.
The animal remains and artifacts, found nearly seven decades ago during a public works project in the small community of Santa Isabel Ixtapan, represent “the first material evidence of the existence of this type of site on the shores of Lake Texcoco, around 9,000 years ago,” Pérez said.
Lead researcher on the study Patricia Pérez Martínez heads the Hunter-Gatherer Technology Laboratory at the National School of Anthropology and History in Mexico City.
The findings are significant because small villages of humans in that time period usually existed in caves and rock shelters, often in mountainous regions, usually in the northern region of Mexico.
“Finding a seasonal hunter-gatherer camp in the open air is very [rare],” Pérez said.
Indeed, the Santa Isabel Ixtapan site is the only one in the Valley of México with direct evidence of stone tools and mammoth bones, she added.
The first set of bones was found here in 1954, and then two years later, another mammoth’s remains, along with stone tools, were found about 250 meters away. Then, between 2019 and 2021, more bones and “possible mammoth traps” were discovered.
The research project, “Interaction of First Settlers and Megafauna in the Basin of México,” is a joint effort between INAH and the National School of Anthropology and History (ENAH), where Pérez heads the Hunter-Gatherer Technology Laboratory.
Employees hard at work at the Hunter-Gatherer Technology Laboratory. (Photo: INAH)
The effort to reevaluate the site was carried out with advanced technology tools and testing methods that Pérez said can lead to fresh findings about the landscape, megafauna (large animals) and human interactions with the surroundings.
Her hypothesis is that the ancient human inhabitants used and subsisted on the lake’s resources, which she said is supported by the discovery of small fragments of fish bone (seemingly cooked in some sort of charcoal) and obsidian microflakes (indicating residue from a stone that was possibly carved into a tool).
“Since the flakes are very small fragments, we hope that in the next [field research] session, scheduled for this year, we will be able to do extensive excavation that will give us a better context,” said Pérez.
“Likewise, in 2023, the soil samples will be studied in our laboratories, and the traces of use of the three tools found with the second mammoth — which are exhibited in the National Museum of Anthropology — will be analyzed,” she said.
“Initially, they were thought to be hunting projectile points, but recently, more detailed observations place them as knives, possibly used for butchering.”
Urban art in Tepito neighborhood in Mexico City (Twitter)
What’s it like to film an epic scene in Chapultepec Castle?
The battle of 1847 between Mexico and the United States at Chapultepec Castle (which killed six Mexican military cadets who became known in Mexico as Los Niños Héroes) comes to life in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s latest film “Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths.”
The film’s production designer Eugenio Caballero shared in an interview with Condé Nast how difficult it was to shoot a prolonged scene of the battle in a historical landmark.
A scene at Chapultepec Castle from “Bardo” (Bardo Twitter)
“It’s a very complex location,” he said. “We covered a lot of things with lookalike materials that actually protected the existing carpets and pieces of furniture.”
In addition, the filmmakers were careful to choreograph the scenes so that they didn’t touch any wall or floor, and built a full-scale model of the castle’s tower to shoot at a parking lot near Mexico City’s airport.
Besides shooting in the capital, they also filmed in the desert of San Luis Potosí, on Playa Balandra in Baja California, in Baja’s desert and in the city of Los Angeles.
“Bardo” tells the story of a Mexican journalist who comes back to his home in Mexico City during a midlife crisis. It was released on Netflix on Dec. 16 and to selected theaters in the United States.
Get your own personalized passport to visit Mexico’s museums
In 2022, the Alliance of Mixed and Autonomous Museums (AMAM) launched the initiative Pasaporte de Museos 101 – AMAM (101 Museums’ Passport 101 – AMAM) to encourage people to visit museums after the setbacks brought by the pandemic. Returning for a second edition, the 2023 passport is ready for all cultural enthusiasts.
Holders of the passport get entry discounts to over 60 museums in cities including Mexico City, Guadalajara, Guanajuato, León, and Oaxaca city, as well as discounts at museum cafeterias and gift shops.
The passport also has a rewards program. After collecting eight stamps, the passport holder gets access to exclusive events, prices and special promotions.
It’s available to both foreigners and nationals at the Pasaporte 101 website. There’s also a special edition for kids ages six and over in partnership with Crayola called My First Passport 101, which gives access to exclusive workshops and events by sponsors like candymakers Dulces de la Rosa, shoe brand Vans and fashion accessories brand Kliping.
Culture’s temporary workers might get social security benefits in 2023
The federal Senate has approved a set of amendments to the General Law on Culture and Cultural Rights to guarantee independent artists and cultural workers access to social security benefits.
The bill proposes that the Ministry of Culture, jointly with the Mexican Social and Security Institute (IMSS), promote actions to ensure “that cultural service providers […] can opt for the simplified format for voluntary incorporation into the mandatory social security regime for self-employed people or family health insurance.”
The Chamber of Deputies’ Committee on Culture and Cinematography will now review the terms of the bill and submit amendments.
According to the organization México Creativo, 54.3% of people in the cultural and artistic industry (including writers, visual and performing artists, artisans and musicians) work independently while 21% are formally employed. The remaining 24% work in both sectors.
The cultural collective Tepito El Barrio Se Expresa (The Tepito Neighborhood Expresses Itself) aims for the younger generation to move away from drug dealing, addiction and crime toward art.
“If they work for it, they will have a better future,” the collective’s director Ramón Ubaldo told newspaper La Jornada Maya.
He explained that they’ve managed to rescue areas that were used as garbage dumps to instead exhibit murals that attract visitors.
So far, they’ve accomplished two of 15 planned mural projects. One mural tells the story of Tepito and the other one is dedicated to Cronos (time).
However, their projects are threatened by vandalism, lack of government resources (which has made residents chip in with their own money to accomplish projects) and lack of support from some community members. Still, Ubaldo says they will not give up and will continue to work towards their 15-murals goal.
A new Indigenous retail center to open in Mexico City’s Garibaldi Plaza
With an investment of close to 17 million pesos (US $876,000), Mexico City’s government has built the Indigenous Cultural Center in the city’s Plaza Garibaldi.
Photo: Gob CDMX Twitter
The project is part of the cultural movement Original pushed by the Ministry of Culture to create awareness in the national and international fashion industry of the value of artisanal work and the collective copyrights of Indigenous communities
Mexico City’s mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said that members of different Indigenous communities residing in Mexico City will be able to sell their artisanal products in the center.
The center is set to open by mid-January and will have 110 retail outlets.
Lawyers for Emilio Lozoya, the ex-Pemex director who has been in preventative custody since November 2021, asked for more time to reach a compensation settlement with authorities. (File photo)
The trial of former Pemex director Emilio Lozoya Austin in the Agronitrogenados corruption case has been postponed for a third time, as the former oil executive attempts to negotiate a compensation settlement with Mexican authorities.
A hearing scheduled to take place Tuesday to determine whether Lozoya should face trial for defrauding the state oil company was delayed until Feb. 16, after Lozoya’s legal team argued that their client was in negotiations with Mexican authorities to reach an agreed-upon amount in a compensation settlement.
In granting the postponement, Judge Gerardo Alarcón López warned Lozoya’s legal team that they would not be granted another delay.
“I want you to be aware because there is not going to be another postponement of this hearing,” Alarcón said.
Miguel Ontiveros, the head of Lozoya’s legal team, is a human rights and prisoners’ rights attorney who headed the Attorney General’s Office’s defense of human rights office before and during Enrique Peña Nieto’s presidency. (File photo: Government of Michoacán)
Lozoya is accused of organizing Pemex’s 2014 purchase of the dilapidated Agronitrogenados fertilizer plant at an inflated price. The deal allegedly earned Lozoya more than $3 million in kickbacks from Agronitrogenados’ former owner, steelmaker Altos Hornos de México (AHMSA).
Later investigations revealed that the purchase was part of a plot to transfer resources to offshore companies used in bribery schemes by the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht to win contracts in Mexico and several other Latin American countries.
Lozoya is also accused of accepting multimillion-dollar kickbacks from Odebrecht in exchange for a lucrative refinery contract.
Lozoya’s lead attorney Miguel Ontiveros insists that he believes authorities will accept the deal proposed by the former oil executive before Feb. 16.
Ontiveros said that Lozoya is willing to pay the full reparations set by the Pemex Board of Directors for the damages in the Agronitrogenados case.
“I take advantage of this moment to respectfully send a message to the President of the Republic, Andrés Manuel López Obrador — first to confirm that we absolutely agree with the anti-corruption policy implemented by his government; second, to say that we agree that Mr. Lozoya Austin must make full reparation, as [he] has stated before the judge and before the Prosecutor’s Office and before Pemex,” Ontiveros said.
Former president Enrique Peña Nieto has not been charged with a crime, but the federal Attorney General’s Office let it be known in August that they are investigating him, and since Lozoya’s arrest in 2020, two other officials have faced corruption charges in a scheme prosecutors say was to benefit Peña Nieto’s legislative goals. (File photo: Cuartoscuro)
At a previous hearingin April 2022, Pemex rejected Lozoya’s offer of over US $3 million, declaring it inadequate to cover the damages caused.
A second hearing — to consider Lozoya’s offer to pay over $7 million in compensation for his involvement in the Odebrecht case — was postponed on Pemex’s request.
Lozoya was arrested in Spain in February 2020 and deported to Mexico in July of that year. He initially avoided jail due to cooperation agreements with the federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR), which saw him implicate numerous members of Mexico’s political elite in related corruption cases, most notably including Mexico’s former president Enrique Peña Nieto.
Lozoya has accused Pena Nieto of orchestrating a scheme to use Odebrecht money to buy legislators’ support for the liberalization of Mexico’s energy sector and other structural reforms.
Since Lozoya’s accusations, the FGR has been engaging in a widespread corruption investigation, in which it says that Peña Nieto benefited, although the former president has yet to be charged with any crime.
However, the FGR has jailed Lozoya and former National Action Party Senator Jorge Luis Lavalle Maury in pre-trial detention on charges of participating in the alleged money laundering and bribery schemes involving Odebrecht. Lavalle is accused of accepting bribes to vote for the electricity reform.
Treviño, right, in 2018 when he was handing over the reins of Pemex to his successor, Octavio Romero Oropeza, left, who is the current director of the state-owned oil company. (Pemex/Twitter)
Also ensnared in the FGR’s net is another former Pemex director, Carlos Treviño Medina, who is accused of receiving 4 million pesos in illicit enrichment in the Odebrecht case.
A warrant for his arrest was issued in September 2021, but Treviño has thus far avoided imprisonment by filing two requests for injunctions against the warrant, saying that the FGR’s case against him is without substance. His injunction hearing is scheduled for January 27.
Treviño was Pemex’s head from 2017 to 2018, during the last year of Peña Nieto’s administration.
Lozoya has been imprisoned in Mexico City’s Reclusorio Norte jail since November 2021, after photos of him dining in a luxury restaurant sparked criticism of his alleged preferential treatment. If he fails to reach a compensation agreement with Pemex, he will face trial on charges of bribery, money laundering and criminal association that could see him sentenced to almost four decades behind bars.
2024 was likely a record year for remittances to Mexico. (File photo)
A half-year streak of remittances to Mexico in excess of US $5 billion per month came to an end in November when the amount of money sent home by Mexicans abroad totaled “only” US $4.8 billion, a 10.4% decrease compared to October.
However, the November 2022 figure was still 3% higher than the total remittances sent in November 2021.
Though final figures for 2022 won’t be published until next month, the total amount of money received from abroad by Mexican families from January through November was US $53.14 billion.
That’s an increase of 13.5% over the US $46.83 billion received during the same period in 2021, according to the Bank of México (Banxico).
President López Obrador has described Mexican workers who send home money to their families as “heroes”. David A Litman / Shutterstock.com
However, November marked a bit of a cool-down period after sizzling totals in the six months of May through October. “After a series of record months,” Reuters reported, the November fall-off came “amid fears of a global economic slowdown.”
The streak of increases in remittances started in May 2020, and had continued for 31 straight months — at least based on comparing a month to the same month in the previous year.
The upward trend actually began two months earlier, at the start of the pandemic. In March 2020, Mexicans received in excess of US $4 billion of remittances in a single month for the first time ever, according to an EFE media report.
President López Obrador, who had predicted that remittances would reach US $60 billion by the end of 2022, has been a vocal supporter of money sent home from abroad “in the midst of weak domestic economic growth and high inflation,” Reuters wrote. “It remains to be seen if the November slowdown in remittances translates into stalling overseas support for Mexican families.”
For January through November, a total of 136 million remittances for an average of US $390 each was received. For the same period in 2021, the total was 124 million remittances for an average of US $378.
The total amount of remittances received in Mexico for all of 2019 was US $36.44 billion, then in 2020 rose to US $40.6 billion, and reached US $51.59 billion in 2021 — the US $53.14 billion received in the first 11 months of 2022 has already beaten those totals.
Nearly 4.9 million Mexican households and some 11.1 million adults receive remittances from relatives abroad, according to figures from the Center for Latin American Monetary Studies (CEMLA).
The money represents Mexico’s No. 2 source of income from outside the country, behind automotive exports and ahead of a Mexican agricultural sector that contributes 3% of GDP (gross domestic product).
