A seismic alert loudspeaker in Mexico City on Reforma Avenue. (Moises Pablo Nava/Cuartoscuro.
Residents of areas at risk of earthquakes will receive seismic activity alerts by text message in 2023, authorities announced on Thursday.
Laura Velázquez Alzúa, head of the National Coordination of Civil Protection (CNPC), explained during President López Obrador’s morning press conference that the CNPC has been working on the technology for the new alert system since 2019.
It builds on an existing system that alerts residents of Mexico City and other central regions about earthquakes occurring on the west coast, Mexico’s region of greatest seismic activity. Given that radio waves travel faster than seismic waves, this can give residents of Mexico City around 40 seconds to prepare before an earthquake hits, potentially saving lives.
“Warnings are received through radio receivers here in Mexico City with C5 loudspeakers, which is also the most useful because it alerts the largest number of people,” Velázquez said. “Since 1993, alerts are also made via commercial AM and FM radio and television, and by 2023 it will be through cell phones.”
Head of the federal Civil Protection agency Laura Velázquez said the new alert system has been in the works since 2019.(Photo: Andrea Murcia Monsivais/Cuartoscuro)
Velázquez also announced that the alert system will be extended to the state of Colima during 2023 and 2024.
Colima is one of seven states that the CNPC considers to be at high seismic risk, along with Baja California, Jalisco, Guerrero, Michoacán, Oaxaca and Chiapas. Veracruz, Sonora, Baja California Sur, Nayarit, Mexico City, Puebla, Mexico State, Tlaxcala, Tabasco and Morelos are considered at medium risk.
However, Velázquez emphasized that there were no immediate plans to extend the system to other regions of the country, especially where earthquakes are rare.
“It is completely out of technical consideration to have an alert throughout the country, especially because of the seismic risk in the northwest of the country, which is very low,” she said. “We have to focus on the high-risk areas.”
Map showing where SASMEX has seismic activity sensors placed. Between 1991 and 2022, the national seismic alert system detected more than 10,500 earthquakes. (Photo: SASMEX)
TheMexican Seismic Alert System (SASMEX) was one of several risk-reduction measures undertaken by the Mexican government after the catastrophic earthquake of September 1985.Between 1991 and 2022, it detected more than 10,500 earthquakes, of which 171 were severe enough to generate seismic alert warnings.
Cars being legalized in Tijuana. The forgiveness program began as a pilot last year in Baja California, which requested permission from the federal government for the initiative as a crime prevention measure. (Photos: Omar Martínez Noyola/Cuartoscuro)
A forgiveness program that allows car owners in Mexico to turn their illegally imported cars into legally registered vehicles has been extended until March 2023, President López Obrador announced at his Thursday press conference.
Despite outrage from the automotive industry, the door to registering what is colloquially known in Mexico as an auto chocolate (chocolate car) will not close on Dec. 31, as originally scheduled. The cost to register such a vehicle is 2,500 pesos (about US $128).
Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez Velázquez reported Thursday that approximately 1.1 million older vehicles of foreign origin have already been legalized in 14 states this year.
The program launched in six northern border states and Baja California Sur, a region where illegal importations are highest, in March. The program has since expanded to 141 modules in 14 states, with plans to extend it to all 31 states and the federal entity of Mexico City.
Mexican officials looking for illegal importation of automobiles and other items at the Mexico-U.S. border.
The program this year has brought in approximately 2.6 billion pesos (US $134 million), resources that will allow for road improvements in states where the program has been implemented, López Obrador said.
So far, the federal government has allocated 676.1 million pesos (US $35 million) in revenue from the program to seven states, which have already begun using the funds to pave and resurface highways and streets.
The states where the program currently exists include:
Baja California
Baja California Sur
Chihuahua
Coahuila
Durango
Jalisco
Michoacán
Nayarit
Nuevo León
Puebla
Sinaloa
Sonora
Tamaulipas
Zacatecas.
Baja California has registered the most vehicles of any state at 221,805. Chihuahua (177,383) came in second and Tamaulipas (157,923) third.
A government lot in Tijuana in 2018 for storing cars confiscated at the border, many of them so-called “chocolate cars.” (File photo)
The vast majority of cars came from the United States; most were properly registered in the U.S. but brought into Mexico without undergoing the proper import procedure. Some cars entered from Central America.
At first, the plan was to regularize only cars that were at least 8 years old, but now, any model from 2017 or earlier is eligible.
A Mexico Business News report noted that “chocolate cars” are generally between 10 and 20 years old and that a recent count determined that there were at least 18 million of them in Mexico, some 25% of the country’s total vehicle fleet, according to the Federal Income Law of 2020.
The Mexican Association of Automotive Distributors (AMDA) has continued to denounce the program as creating unfair competition with cars being legally sold in the country. The group claims the forgiveness program has reduced new car sales in Mexico by 200,000 units this year.
The group also claims that many of the so-called chocolate cars — registered in Mexico or not — no longer meet environmental regulations in the neighboring country and would be considered scrap there.
Rodríguez Velázquez said the registration of such vehicles “has a general benefit of greater security” because a registered car is less likely to be used in the commission of a crime.
First known as “crooked” cars, such illegally imported cars — which over time acquired the name “chocolate” (a Mexican term for a strikeout in baseball) — are vehicles that lack the proper permits and papers and could not be sold or marketed through agencies or dealers.
Owners of chocolate cars can start the regularization process at the Public Vehicular Registry (Repuve) website. Among the many documents required to complete the process is a national identity number, or CURP, to request their initial appointment.
You may have fewer hangovers if you pick additive-free alcoholic beverages. (Depositphotos)
‘Tis the season to imbibe everything handed your way. I’m going to make an educated guess and assume that most things you’re offered between December 12 and January 6 are delightfully filled with fats, sugar, empty carbs and even emptier calories.
If you’re anything like me, you’ve eaten, drunk and justified all of it. Including the treats that would never, on any other day of the year, interest you in the least. Like the candies stuffed in the belly of a bright and colorful piñata, those thick and creamy eggnog martinis, that sweet, dense-as-a-Memory-foam-mattress fruitcake.
My job is not to tell you not to indulge. Just writing this article has me salivating for a rosca de reyes. Let your palate luxuriate in the treats that are actually worthwhile. The bites that bring you back to your childhood, abuela’s special dish you’ve been waiting to savor all year.
I’m simply writing this article to state the following: If you don’t want to come out of the holidays feeling like a sloth, make an effort to cut the bad stuff where you can.
One of the easiest ways to control your caloric intake is through the beverages you choose. Alcoholic beverages are notoriously sneaky, often full of sugar and empty calories. They can slow down your fat metabolism and encourage terrible food choices.
But a glass of wine tastes so good with that bacalao. And a sip of tequila pairs nicely with family gossip.
I couldn’t agree more.
So have your wine! Sip your tequila! Just drink smart and choose additive-free drinks.
Additives are added to nearly everything we eat and drink nowadays. They’re frequently utilized to enhance the flavor of an otherwise watery beverage whose ingredients haven’t been properly cultivated in the name of mass production. Nutritive sweeteners, preservatives, sugars and other extracts are infused into a spirit’s development process. While perfectly legal, the inclusion of colorants and extra sugars isn’t necessarily natural. What’s more, some of these additives may not be synonymous with health.
Below are four of the most common beverages you will encounter this holiday season in Mexico and some additive-free alternatives.
Tequila
There are two basic reasons that tequila contains additives.
Agave plants are being used before they’ve fully matured.
Distillers are moving away from the traditional development process for a more modern and much easier one.
The upside is more tequila can be produced at a faster pace. The downside is the taste can be noticeably altered. To make up for lack of flavor and density, some producers turn to sugars, colorants, extracts and glycerin. By law, tequila brands are permitted 1% unlisted additional ingredients. It might not sound drastic, but 1% is a significant level of unknown content. This shift is conceivably undetectable to the untrained palette. A true tequila connoisseur, however, may notice the difference.
To avoid this, BYOT to your next party and choose from this list of 70 brands that have been arduously tested and deemed additive-free by TasteTequila.
Mezcal
Mezcal is, or should be, additive-free by law. While tequila does not have to be 100% agave-based, mezcal does. The coveted spirit is still produced using only traditional methods, meaning its flavor remains intact and needs no meddling.
Mezcal is still prepared using artisanal methods. (Foto de Mary West en Unsplash)
As any long-time expat in Mexico knows, mezcal is meant to be enjoyed as is. So while that mezcal mule might sound titillating in the moment, it may not be worth it tomorrow.
You may already have a preferred mezcal brand, but if you’re looking for something new or you’re in the mood to experiment, check out Insider’s latest list of the 8 Best Mezcals on the market right now.
Wine
Conventional wines undergo a heavy production process. Commercial yeasts are often used in fermentation while other additives are incorporated to darken the color or sweeten the taste. If you’re vegan, note that animal products such as egg whites, fish bladder or milk proteins might be used during the clarification step. Moreover, vines are known to be sprayed with pesticides even when no pests are present. Many of these extras, in some form or another, could make it to your glass.
Today’s movement toward organic, biodynamic production has eliminated such additives, giving rise to a well-received natural wine industry. This is excellent news for those of us looking for an almost-hangover-free alternative in a country where wine consumption is growing rapidly every year.
Ponche
Ponche is a foundational element to anything Navidad-related. It’s delicious, sweet, fruity and chock full of piloncillo or other refined sugars. And guess what? It doesn’t need to be.
Ponche can be made healthier without added sugars.
Ponche can be just as delightful with all of the expected ingredients – fruit, jamaica (hibiscus), herbs, pure sugarcane (which, by the way, may have a variety of positive benefits on your metabolism, pH levels, magnesium levels, antibacterial levels…the list goes on). This Christmas, make your ponche but skip the added sugar. If it still doesn’t feel sweet enough, consider adding pure honey instead of sugar. If you like ponche with a kick, opt for an additive-free spirit or natural wine over brandy.
¡Salud! Wishing you a magical holiday season.
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) weeklylove letters or follow her Instagram account, @a.e.i.wellness.
This Phillipines-influenced drink sold in Colima called tuba is the result of the arrival of Filipino migrants during the colonial period who may have also brought with them distillation techniques that allowed mezcal's invention. (Photo: Yaomautzin Ohtokani Olvera Lara/Creative Commons)
With all the coconuts along Mexico’s coast, you might think the tree is a native, but not so.
Their existence here is a testament to Mexico’s colonial connection to Asia, which links two very different beverages in Mexico: Pacific coast tuba and the iconic mezcal/tequila.
Spain’s conquest of Mexico and the Philippines led to a lucrative sea trade route called the Manila Galleon. It existed to move Asian luxury goods and silver, but it also brought a wave of new foodstuffs to Mexico and about 5,000 mostly Filipino immigrants.
With them, they brought the coconut tree, an important source of building materials, as well as food and alcohol. The new flora did so well that coconut plantations quickly sprung up in the state of Colima and elsewhere, crowding out most of Mexico’s native palms.
The Manila Galleon was a lucrative trade route connecting Spain to its colonies in the Americas and Asia. In the colonial period, native Filipinos came to work in Mexico brought coconuts to Mexico, as well as tuba. (Photo: Philippines Dept. of Foreign Affairs)
To protect certain agroindustries in the motherland, the Spanish crown prohibited the production of alcohol and cooking oil. As part of those prohibitions, Spain ordered Mexico to fell all coconut trees in 1612.
In the end, Madrid neither eliminated the coconut tree nor the making of alcoholic beverages, but the laws did have long-term consequences.
One consequence is that records on this history are spotty and inaccurate. Vino is translated as “wine” in English, but by extension, the Spanish used it to refer to alcohol in general, no matter how or from what it was made. So, many records referred to both fermented and distilled coconut alcohol as “vino de coco.”
Filipino-derived words are better for distinguishing what is being discussed. The Tagalog word ubâ refers to the fermented sap of the coconut tree, which eventually changed in Mexico to tuba. The drink lambanóg is ubâ distilled — a process Mexico’s pre-Hispanic people have traditionally been thought not to know how to do until the Spanish taught them.
But many pre-Hispanic groups had known about the sugars in cooked agave hearts, and at some point, the Mongolian still, an Asian still, was adapted to this process of turning agave hearts into an alcoholic beverage — nowadays, mezcal.
Today the Mongolian still can be found in use as far away from Colima as Oaxaca and Durango and San Luis Potosí.
Variations on the Mongolian still as it’s found in Mexico. From Oaxaca on the left and from San Luis Potosí on the right. Both have a metal pan to hold the cooling water, which distinguishes it from traditional Arab/European stills.
Most in Mexico have forgotten the Asian origin of the still and associate it with Mexico’s indigenous groups. But its existence in Mexico carries a potential implication that intrigues some historians: did indigenous Mexicans learn how to distill agave hearts into mezcal not from the Spanish but from Filipino migrants?
If Mexico’s indigenous people learned distillation from the Spanish, it seems likely that the traditional still here would be closely related to Arab and European stills, which favor the use of an exposed coil rather than a pan of water. Furthermore, more recent historical research seems to indicate that mezcal is the “godchild” of lambanóg. In 2007, researchers from the Yucatán Center for Scientific Research in Mérida presented a study that asserted to show from botanical, archaeological, and ethnohistoric data that agave distillation began in Colima in the 16th century through adaption of Philippine coconut spirits distillation techniques.
Oddly, current coconut-based drinks and other preparations to be found today on Mexico’s coasts are new inventions mostly inspired by tourism. Coconut palm sap seems to still be collected in Mexico, and there is a drink called tuba in coastal Jalisco and Colima — but it is not ubâ.
The drink is a sweet cocktail that almost certainly has coconut milk, ice and sugar, often topped with nuts and/or dried fruit. It may or may not contain the sap of the coconut tree, fermented or not. If Mexico’s tuba has alcohol in it, it’s very low, much like ubâ.
Statue in Colima city dedicated to its heritage of tuba and tuba street vendors.
Authentic or not, tuba is an extremely important part of Colima culture, available on just about every corner. The drink has been so nativized in Colima that most believe that it has pre-Hispanic origins. One vendor in Colima city told researcher Paulina Machuca, writing in the academic publication Encartes, that even King Colimán — the pre-Hispanic leader of the indigenous Colimas — drank it.
Lambanóg seems to have completely disappeared in Mexico. All that is certain is that no one produces or even experiments with a distilled coconut liquor today, according to Mechuca in her 2018 book “El vino de cocos en la Nueva España. Historia de una transculturación en el siglo XVII. (Coconut wine in New Spain: History of a 17th-Century Transculturation).”
It is relatively certain, she says, that lambanóg went into decline by the end of the 17th century, but the lack of records means that it could have disappeared anytime from the 18th century to early 20th. Why is not known either. It may have been the combination of multiple factors.
For one thing, agave grows over most of Mexico and, until recently, was easily harvested wild. The ban on coconut palms meant that other crops took their place for much of Mexico’s modern history. Another is that early Filipino migration ended by the late 17th century. Since then, their descendants have assimilated into the general population.
The coconut and its commercial cultivation has not experienced the comeback that the wine grape has in recent decades. Mexico is the seventh largest producer of coconuts in the world, exporting to the United States and elsewhere. However, it contributes less than 1% of Mexico’s total agricultural GDP.
Hugo Fierro “el indio tubero,” selling the tuba drink in Colima city in 2013. (Photo: Paulina Menchuca/Encartes)
The lack of academic interest in the coconut and its alcoholic derivatives is notable, especially compared to the documentation on mezcal or the pre-Hispanic fermented alcoholic beverage pulque or even beer. But this is changing in places such as the University of Guadalajara and the Colegio de Michoacán.
Mechuca feels that a renewed interest in coconuts historically and commercially is important, but “we need to make sure that new economic projects, [including a revival of lambanóg] does not damage the environment and benefits [local] communities…”
Leigh Thelmadatter arrived in Mexico 18 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.
Sea turtle hatchlings on the sands of a Quintana Roo beach. (Photo: Government of Quintana Roo)
More than 2 million sea turtle hatchlings got supervised crawls into the warm Caribbean waters of the Quintana Roo coast in 2022, according to a new report by a statewide committee for conservation of the marine animals.
The state’s 2022 sea turtle birthing season finished in the late fall, with Quintana Roo having played host to the nests of approximately 37,000 green turtles, 3,000 loggerheads, 1,500 hawksbills and three leatherbacks, said Itzel Trujano, president of the State Committee for the Protection, Conservation and Management of Marine Turtles.
Hatchlings of several different species were released on more than 45 beaches in the state this year, according to the committee’s report, entitled “Protection of Sea Turtles 2022.”
The report said that numbers of hatchlings in 2022 were up from 2021 — perhaps because word about fewer tourists on the beaches due to the pandemic (and fewer nests being disturbed) had gotten around in the turtle world.
A green turtle can lay around 450 eggs per nesting season, but the odds are against the hatchlings surviving to adulthood. (Photo: Turtle Conservation Society.org>
The conservation committee is made up of 21 institutions — hotels, civil associations, private companies, academic institutions, researchers, environmental consultants and municipal, state and federal entities that share information on the beaches they protect.
“It is important to remember that [only] one out of every 1,000 hatchlings reaches adulthood” in the wild, Trujano said. “That is why this season we worked with more than 10,000 people with different environmental awareness and education strategies.”
The strategies range from talks, workshops, guided visits to the turtle preservation refuges, talks in schools, putting on puppet shows, exhibitions and beach cleanup events.
In the case of beach cleanups, more than four tonnes of waste were collected, Trujano said. The ministry said that 1,600 people benefited from environmental and awareness-raising workshops, and that there were 145 assorted courses held for a range of people from teachers to lifeguards.
The Akumal Ecological Center, one of several conservation organizations working with the statewide marine turtle preservation program, reported 940 nests during the 2022 breeding season on Akumal beaches and 76,440 hatchlings. (Photo: Centro Ecológico Akumal)
The committee’s report broke down turtle releases by area:
In Cancún, where about 12 kilometers of coastline in the hotel zone are permanently monitored by various organizations during nesting seasons, 978,000 hatchlings were released into the sea. They came from 1,033,000 eggs produced in 9,100 nests, though no leatherbacks were observed in Cancún this year. The hotel and condominium sector protected 46 primary nesting areas, while the state’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment attended to eight, according to the committee’s data.
Tulum, meanwhile, recorded 17,096 green turtle nests and 2,216 loggerhead nests — approximately 46% and 73% of the state’s totals, respectively.
Officials are predicting that the upward trend will continue next year because, despite problems in the area such as sargassum and erosion, the natural behavior of the turtles is being bolstered by organized care and protective actions. They are predicting a longer 2023 hatchling season, starting around May 1.
The report was revealed in an event held at the recently opened, adults-only Riu Palace Kukulkan in Cancún.
Migrants waiting outside the Mexican Commission on Refugee Assistance (Comar) office in Chiapas. ( Damián Sánchez Jesús / Cuartoscuro.com)
Mexico received 111,257 asylum applications in 2022,according to data released by the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (Comar), purportedly the third highest number worldwide.
Although claims have fallen slightly from the nearly 130,000 registered in 2021, they are still higher than any pre-pandemic year on record. Asylum applications in Mexico rose steadily through the 2010s to over 70,000 in 2019, then dropped by almost a half during 2020, before surging again when coronavirus travel restrictions were lifted.
Comar said that the increase shows Mexico is now seen as a destination country by refugees around the world. Mexico has received asylum requests from 136 different nationalities, with the main countries of origin in 2022 being Honduras, Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela and Nicaragua.
Federal data through November 2022 shows Mexico had 111,257 applicants, the majority of whom sought asylum at the Tapachula, Chiapas, office.
“Year after year, there has been an increase in the number of people fleeing their country due to fears of persecution,” said Comar spokesperson Andrés Ramírez Silva. “Mexico ranks as the third country to receive people in need of international protection, after the United States and Germany.”
This claim appears to refer to the number of formal asylum applications received, rather than the number of refugees hosted. On the latter metric, these three countries are surpassed by countries such as Turkey, Colombia, Uganda and Pakistan, according toUnited Nations figures.
According to Comar, 86% of applications in Mexico over the last 10 years have been made during the current administration of President López Obrador, of which the vast majority have been granted.
“More than 83% of people in need of international protection have been recognized as refugees, and complementary protection has been given to those who have arrived at Comar in the last 10 years,” Ramírez said.
He emphasized that Mexico has been building up its asylum processing capacity in order to meet this demand. Whereas Comar only had four regional offices at the beginning of 2019 — in Mexico City; Tapachula; Tenosique, Tabasco; and Acayucan — it now has six more in Palenque, Chiapas; Monterrey, Nuevo León; Guadalajara, Saltillo, Coahuila; Tijuana and Ciudad Juárez. Plans are underway to add two more and to create new working groups to coordinate Mexico’s response.
Members of the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (Comar) in a Dec. 20 interinstitutional meeting with other government representatives. (Comar/Twitter)
Mexico’s growing role as a destination country for refugees comes despite its own severe problems with criminal violence. Its status as a “safe” country has also eased asylum pressure on the U.S., which has increasingly looked to traditional transit countries such as Mexico to absorb U.S.-bound migration.
Mexico abides by the Cartagena Declaration, which promises protection to anyone threatened by “generalized violence, foreign aggression, internal conflicts, massive violation of human rights or other circumstances which have seriously disturbed public order.” The U.S. uses narrower criteria that require a person to have been individually targeted for specific reasons.
Under pandemic-era immigration restrictions known as Title 42, the U.S. can also expel would-be asylum seekers to Mexico without recourse to legal hearings. While this has created a huge backlog of migrants in camps along the U.S. border, it has likely also boosted asylum claims in Mexico. A U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Tuesday allowed Title 42 to remain in place, despitelegal challenges.
Mexico also has a long history of granting asylum to political activists and deposed leaders, although it has also been known to deport foreign activists who involve themselves in Mexican politics using a longstanding law against foreign interference in Mexico’s affairs.
Notable political figures who found refuge in Mexico in the 20th century include Leon Trotsky, former Argentine president Héctor José Cámpora, the former Shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi and Guatemalan activist Rigoberta Menchú.
More recently, Mexico has granted asylum to deposed Bolivian president Evo Morales and the family of ousted Peruvian presidentPedro Castillo.
This tiger cub was rescued from the trunk of a car. Police also recovered weapons and ammunition from the vehicle. (SSP El Marqués Facebook)
A couple driving in the state of Querétaro was pulled over and arrested even before a surprising discovery — a tiger cub in the trunk of their vehicle.
The incident unfolded on Tuesday when a man later identified as Manuel N. was pulled over on a highway just outside the city of Querétaro for committing a minor traffic violation, according to the region’s Department of Public Safety (SSP).
Upon being stopped and questioned, the man and his female passenger acted “aggressively” toward the officers and tried to flee the scene, SSP said, which led to their immediate arrests.
Then, when searching the vehicle, police officers found the baby feline as well as four guns and 98 rounds of ammunition in the trunk of the car. The cub was wedged in between suitcases and bags.
🔴#VIDEO| Derivado de las estrategias de operatividad y prevención de la Policía de El Marqués, se logró la detención de dos personas que trasladaban un tigre cachorro, cuatro armas de fuego y 98 cartuchos útiles. Los detenidos ya fueron puestos a disposición de la FGR. pic.twitter.com/g1TXYdBPQJ
The suspects and the weaponry were handed over to the Attorney General’s Office (FGR), which is investigating. Officials said the cub is being cared for by experts who would aim to return it to “its natural habitat,” though the meaning of that statement was not clear.
Though it is not illegal to own an exotic animal in Mexico, the owner must be able to prove it came from a certified dealer and was born in captivity. However, trafficking of wildlife is illegal and almost always constitutes a crime.
Drug traffickers often keep exotic animals as pets and the smuggling of big cats is a lucrative business. Shelters and reserves in Mexico often provide homes for seized animals, although sometimes those places get into hot water, too.
The incident in question occurred near the municipality of El Marqués, a few miles outside of central Querétaro de Santiago on the highway that goes to the capital city’s international airport.
This isn’t the first time a tiger has been captured by police in Mexico. In 2020, an adult Bengal tiger was captured on the streets of Tlaquepaque, Jalisco. Its owner, who was chasing it with a lasso, had the correct paperwork, but police argued he had failed to comply with safety regulations.
This latest tiger-in-the-trunk incident might lead some to recall Esso’s ad campaign in the 1960s and ’70s: “Put a tiger in your tank.”
Mexicans and even newspapers like Reforma annually play pranks on Holy Innocents Day. Reforma's Dec. 28 issue this year claimed billionaire Elon Musk wants to buy the Dos Bocas oil refinery and that the military would take over the national soccer team. (Photo: La Reforma)
To many Mexicans, Dec. 28 might seem like a fun day — where it’s traditional to play jokes or pranks on friends and family — but the origin of this day, known in Mexico as Día de los Inocentes (Feast of the Holy Innocents), is far from fun. In fact, the religious holiday has its origins in a tragedy.
The story goes back over 2,000 years, to the time when Herod was king of Judea, a city under the Roman empire. According to history, he was considered a client king of the empire, subservient to Rome.
According to St. Mathew’s gospel in the New Testament, the Three Wise Men — known as the Reyes Magos in the Spanish-Catholic tradition — announced that the messiah would be born soon and that he would become the King of Israel and of all Jewish people.
When Herod heard the news, he asked for the Wise Men to inform him when the baby was born so he could worship him. But Herod actually wanted to kill the baby because he saw him as a threat to his reign.
Catholics worldwide mark Dec. 28 as the Feast of the Holy Innocents, a day honoring the babies of Bethlehem that the Bible says were killed by King Herod. But it’s also become a day of pranks in Mexico. (Photo: painting by Peter Paul Rubens/Creative Commons)
But a revelation warned the Wise Men of Herod’s plan, and when the king found out he’d been tricked by the Wise Men, who didn’t inform him of Jesus’ birth, the Bible says that he ordered the slaughter of all male infants under two years old in and around Bethlehem. Joseph, Mary and their son escaped by fleeing to Egypt.
Over time, the babies murdered by Herod became known as the Holy Innocents. They’re considered Christianity’s first martyrs. In English, this Biblical event is often referred to as the Massacre of the Innocents.
As happens with many traditions across the globe, Día de Los Inocentes evolved in different ways across Spain and Latin America. In Mexico, as in Spain, it evolved into a day of tricks and pranks, just as the Three Wise Men tricked Herod.
La Jornada Maya’s contribution to this year’s Día de Inocentes news items was a story about how AMLO had decided to move his presidency to Cancún in order to better supervise construction of the Mayan Train. (Photo: La Jornada Maya)
News outlets in Mexico (and Spain) also participate in this day, reporting ridiculous and funny fake-news, not unlike how some English-language news outlets run humorously fake articles on April Fool’s Day.
This year, Expansión shared several made-up news items on Wednesday that the publication said it felt readers would like to have seen this year, including one about President López Obrador deciding that he would stop holding daily press conferences after his 1,000th. Another said that the much-maligned new Felipe Ángeles International airport had won one of architecture’s biggest awards.
Expansión even poked fun at many Mexicans’ frustration this year with Argentina’s national soccer team (Mexico’s rival), which defeated France to win the World Cup in the nail-biting final on Dec. 18, with the headline: “FIFA will repeat the World Cup final due to referee errors.”
In its parodic front page this year, the newspaper Reforma announced that the Defense Ministry (Sedena) would be put in charge of the Mexican national team.
Although Expansión warned its readers of the jokes at the top of its articles, and Reforma makes a special front page with its name changed to “Reformado,” other news outlets play it straight until the very end, as the newspaper La Jornada Maya did Wednesday, with an article about AMLO supposedly moving his administration to Cancún in order to better supervise the construction of his signature project, the Mayan Train.
#Entérate El Presidente Andrés Manuel López Obrador culpó a Grupo REFORMA de dejar sin médicos a los servicios de salud públicos de todo el País https://t.co/6wUf9GgeRg
The newspaper Reforma poked fun at AMLO’s contentious relationship with journalists with a satirical article claiming that the president was now blaming the newspaper for the public health system’s real medicine shortages.
At the bottom of the article, editorial staff finally let readers in on the joke with a banner reading, “Inocente palomita que te has dejado engañar, esta edición no es del todo verdad.” (Innocent little dove, you’ve let yourself be fooled; this edition is not entirely true.)
Inocente palomita is the term used for anyone fooled on this day.
So when Dec. 28 comes each year, look out for pranksters — and don’t believe all that you read in the news.
The president was responding to questions from reporters about a viral video showing residents of a Guadalajara neighborhood receiving gifts from alleged Jalisco Cartel members. (Photo: Government of Mexico)
President López Obrador has warned Mexican citizens not to be “manipulated” into protecting drug cartels after footage emerged of cartel members distributing Christmas gifts in Guadalajara.
A video circulated on social media appears to show gang members associated with Ricardo Ruiz — a local leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) known as “RR” or “El Tripa” — delivering toys from a vehicle in the El Retiro neighborhood on Christmas Eve.
“They are using people,” AMLO said when asked about it at his morning conference. “I’ll take the opportunity to say it so that people don’t allow themselves to be manipulated… even if [the cartel members] give them groceries, that is not in good faith; it is to use the population as a shield.”
AMLO said that cartels use such tactics to build social support within their territories, which they hope will lead to early tip-offs by locals about police operations and will instigate protests against unfavorable policies.
Residents of Guadalajara’s El Retiro neighborhood wait in line on Christmas Eve for alleged cartel members to hand out gifts.
The phenomenon has along history in Mexico: the Sinaloa Cartel has invested in local social services; the Gulf Cartel has organized community parties; and the CJNG has given out food and toys on previous occasions. Various criminal groups also distributed handouts during the coronavirus pandemic, although AMLO argued that the phenomenon has lessened during his administration.
“At the beginning of my government, it was notorious, in the public domain, that the criminal gangs relied a lot on their social bases, on the people of the communities [to whom] they delivered groceries, merchandise, toys,” he said. “All this has been disappearing.”
Yet he also suggested that the phenomenon is now reactivating, as cartels are seeking to manipulate the population into protesting against the National Guard.
Throughout his presidency, AMLO has championed the National Guard as a necessary bulwark against cartels and sought to minimize critiques of the militarized force’s impact on local communities and human rights.
“[The cartels] don’t want us to establish National Guard barracks, which we only have now in Jalisco, where there are apparently spontaneous demonstrations [by local people] saying they don’t want the National Guard,” he said.
“It happened to us in Chihuahua,” the president said. “We still have something like that in Michoacán.”
The defunct Federal Police (PF) force was replaced by the National Guard in 2019, only a decade after the PF was created. (Photo: Government of Mexico)
“The Federal Police didn’t have barracks; it was a complete mess,” he added. “Moreover, they ended up protecting the gangs, so now there is more presence of the National Guard.”
In the first half of the year, 85 billion cyberattacks were attempted in Mexico, according to the Mexican Cybersecurity Association. (Photo: Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock)
Mexico ranks among the countries hit hardest by cyberattacks in 2022, recently released data has revealed.
In the first half of 2022, 85 billion cyberattacks were attempted in Mexico, according to the Mexican Cybersecurity Association (AMECI), an increase of 40% over the same period in 2021.
The global cybersecurity company Fortinet said that from January to June, Mexico suffered more cyberattacks than some of the biggest targets in Latin America, including Brazil (at 31.5 billion) and Colombia (6.3 billion). Fortinet noted that many attacks used sophisticated and targeted strategies such as ransomware.
Mexico had the region’s highest ransomware distribution activity in the period, with more than 18,000 detections, according to Fortinet, followed by Colombia (17,000), Costa Rica (14,000), Peru, Argentina and Brazil.
Among the higher profile cyberattacks this year on private companies was a data breach at Mercado Libre, which affected customers in Mexico and throughout Latin America.
Hackers have targeted both companies and federal and state governments in Mexico. The online sales platform Mercado Libre, for example, announced in March that a hack had compromised data of 300,000 customers in Mexico and Latin America. A number of sites belonging to state agencies in Jalisco have been targeted for cyberattacks since December 5.
After a cyberattack on October 24, Mexico’s Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transport suspended a range of bureaucratic procedures and other work for the rest of 2022. And in September, President López Obrador acknowledged that tens of thousands of emails stored in the Defense Ministry (Sedena)’s servers, containing communications from 2016 to September 2022, had been hacked and released to journalists by the Guacamaya hacktivist group.
Michal Salát, director of threat intelligence at Avast, an international cybersecurity company that operates in Mexico, told Excelsior that cybercrime is on the rise due to several factors — the most crucial being that malicious, open-source code is easily available on public platforms.
This means, he noted, that even those with basic tech knowledge can acquire malware and be more inclined to “join the dark side.” He also said criminal groups have been recruiting and paying people to carry out denial-of-service attacks or install ransomware on their employers’ devices.
Salát stated that ransomware attacks have been “a nightmare” for companies and individuals in 2022, especially when cybercriminals threaten to make their targets’ data public if a ransom is not paid.
According to IBM, the average cost to a company suffering a cyberattack, one in which significant and wide-ranging disruption occurs, was US $2.1 million dollars in 2022 — an increase of 15% over 2021.
Moreover, 60% of the companies affected increased the price of their services after a data leak, IBM added in its Latin American Perspectives report, which also stated that phishing is the most common tactic used by cybercriminals.
The giant hack of Sedena’s computers in September outed many government secrets, including AMLO having a health scare in January that required emergency hospitalization by aerial ambulance. (Photo: screen capture)
Phishing is carried out by infiltrating networks by impersonating companies or people who are credible in order to convince individuals to voluntarily provide personal information such as passwords, bank information or other data. It is different from cyberattacks in that it uses spam emails, texts or social media platforms to attempt to steal passwords and/or data from individual users.
In regard to those types of attacks, a Mexican non-governmental agency this week issued recommendations on how to deal with cybertheft aimed at individuals.
The National Institute for Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data (INAI) said the best thing people can do is that, when receiving emails from well-known institutions such as banks, look at the email address and verify that it is valid (fraudsters often use emails similar to the originals, but there will usually be something amiss).
The institution also urged not to provide personal information when answering an email, text message or phone call, and to use official websites or social media channels when contacting an institution or company.
“You should avoid opening unverified email attachments, as they may contain viruses,” the INAI said, adding that it is important to change passwords from time to time, as that decreases the chances they can be obtained by outsiders.
Also, the agency noted, “practice ego surfing from time to time. This action consists of using social networks and search engines to locate information about ourselves on the internet, in order to verify that there are no false profiles or suspicious activities.”
