For the love of dogs: how Caravana Canina helps Mexico’s strays

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July 19, 2023

Woman with dogs — Mexico has 18 million stray dogs — twice the population of New York City. (Photos by Caitlin Ahern)

Founding a successful business in a foreign country is challenging. Combining it with an all-consuming philanthropic pursuit is even harder. Caitlin Ahern, an ambitious creative entrepreneur with a passion for protecting dogs, tells her story

There are 18 million street dogs in Mexico, more than double the amount of people living in New York City today. If these 18 million dogs were to come together to form one canine community, it would be one of the most populous cities in the world.

Stray dogs — Dogs at Caravana Canina get treated with a kind of love and respect that some of Ahern’s canine guests may never have experienced in their entire lives.

Cruel treatment, neglect and abuse of street dogs is an endemic issue in Mexico. Though kindhearted people help some of these animals find homes, Mexico has one of the highest — if not the highest — rate of stray dogs in all Latin America.

Entrepreneur Caitlin Ahern moved from the United States to Mexico in 2014. Combining her experience as a teacher and working for fair-trade craft companies stateside, she came to Mexico and founded Thread Caravan, an experience-led business that organizes art and textile workshops nationwide in collaboration with local craft communities.

Working with local communities, Ahern increased her offerings rapidly, introducing more and more people to the unique world of Mexican crafts. Her research trips to remote areas also revealed a challenging, darker side of everyday life here.

“In many towns, there are large open spaces where unvaccinated, maltreated dogs come and go,” Ahern says. “Living on the streets provides dogs with certain liberties that some genuinely seem to enjoy. However, it also brings many inherent risks.”

A stray dog — Because homeless dogs must roam the streets, they are in constant danger of injury, sometimes by accident, sometimes by the cruelty of humans who attack them.

“I encountered dogs that have been hit by cars, dogs that have machete wounds, dogs that are paralyzed from acute spinal impact injuries,” she said.

Although there were animal rescue organizations where Caitlin lived, they were few and far between in smaller towns.

Ahern refused to turn a blind eye and quickly set about meeting with local veterinarians. She became part of different communities, learning from people which dogs had homes or were injured. She quickly saw the benefits of information-sharing and of discussions about how the problem of a growing stray dog population could be solved.

Shortly afterward, Ahern, two vets and several neighbors spayed and neutered 10 dogs in San Jerónimo Tlacochahuaya. The campaign attracted attention from other towns, planting the seed for what would become Aherns’s dog shelter and protection charity, Caravana Canina.

Providing medical care for dogs is an everyday part of the work carried out by Caravana Canina.

Eight years on, she runs her charity as a vehicle for education and canine protection. Caravana Canina has spayed and neutered over 400 dogs, found homes for 150 and provided food and medical care for countless dogs across Mexico.

Ahern tells me she can’t remember the last day she didn’t receive a message asking her to rescue an injured or abandoned dog. One recent case still resonates in her mind.

A woman who lived in Santa María del Tule, a town famous for being home to Mexico’s oldest tree, called Ahern in panic. She had seen a dog unable to walk that was crawling on the hot pavement just outside the town’s center.

X-rays showed an acute spinal fracture, likely from being struck hard by a blunt object. A trusted vet told Ahern and the woman who had alerted her to the situation that the 1-year-old dog, named Ficus, would remain permanently paralyzed. Euthanizing Ficus would be the most practical option the vet told Ahern.

At Ahern’s shelter, even dogs that some vets might suggest to euthanize get a second chance.

“We listened to the vet in silence together. I recall how enthusiastic the dog was about life, despite not being able to walk, and couldn’t shake the thought from my head.”

That day, Ahern decided to foster the dog.

“Ficus, [now renamed Ferris] was with us for almost one year,” Ahern told me. “We organized a wheelchair for him, reusable diapers and reusable pee pads for his bed. We spent time researching pain relief and found that giving him CBD and restricting him to a specialist diet would ease his pain and gradually boost his strength.”

“Eventually, we found a wonderful family for him — a woman in Phoenix, Arizona, who has three other dogs with special mobility needs. Ferris is incredibly happy there.”

Over eight years, Ahern’s charity has expanded from not just caring for individual dogs in crisis but also promoting education and providing resources to help people neuter their dogs and treat all canines with more compassion. (Caitlin Ahern)

Throughout Mexico, admirable work is already being done to raise awareness of the benefits of spaying and neutering dogs.

According to Ahern, “Caravana Canina is just reinforcing that effort to help amplify, connect people and provide extra resources.”

Despite this, it’s clear that more needs to be done.

Many people also feel threatened by packs of street dogs roaming the streets. One dog owner from Oaxaca revealed to me that she won’t leave the house without pepper spray, which she is ready to use against street dogs who could threaten her and her own dog. Another dog walker tells me they prefer to arm themselves with a “large wooden stick for self defense,” a common solution in Mexico.

Caravana Canina and other similar charities operating in Mexico are actively demonstrating that tackling the root of the problem through education about population control allows humans and dogs to coexist in the most healthy and humane way.

“We can all do our bit to help humans feel safer and dogs live a better life here,” Ahern said. “Teach children how to care for animals, share information with your friends about different illnesses that affect animals and talk about useful tips and tricks to help pet owners provide the best care to their animals.”

Though the scale of the problem may seem too great to solve, rooting for this woman and her (literal) underdog story is hard to resist.

Gordon Cole-Schmidt is a public relations specialist and freelance journalist, advising and writing on companies and issues across multi-national communication programs.

When life in Mexico gets tough, ‘home’ can seem a tempting option

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Debbie Slobe

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July 19, 2023

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Chacala, Nayarit, Mexico — Chacala, Nayarit, is a small-town paradise by the ocean, but with Mexico's small towns often come challenges you might find frustrating if you're originally from a more urban or even suburban area. (Debbie Slobe)

Last night, we had our first real rain of the season in Chacala, here in Nayarit. Nary a drop had fallen in 8 ½ months — not since hurricane Roslyn in October. And this is supposed to be the tropics.

I stood outside on my terraza and let the raindrops hit my face, mixing with my tears of relief. Relief from the fires that had been burning around our community for months. Relief from the drought and heat that had withered many of our plants to dry, lifeless nubs — and our streets to dust. Relief from the feelings of far-away-ness and stress I’d been holding onto lately as our community and family faced challenges beyond our control.

Services cannot always be relied upon to work all of the time, as this photo of the author by candlelight illustrates. It was taken during a prolonged power outage. (Debbie Slobe)

Contrary to what most “move to Mexico” social media feeds would have you believe, life in Mexico isn’t always sunsets and margaritas. Life continues to “life” no matter where you live. And sometimes life in Mexico as a foreigner can feel, well, quite foreign.

Never have these feelings been more acute for me than during the last few months when our community was plagued at the same time by fires, smoke, heat and drought, as well as water, internet and cell service outages.

We are used to having one or two or even three of these things occur at once, but having them happen all at the same time for weeks on end brought me to a near-breaking point.

You have to understand: I’m a girl from the suburbs and used to things working relatively smoothly; when they don’t, a service provider comes and fixes it.

Although more fires, heat and drought are being felt by nearly everyone, everywhere, due to global climate change, in the U.S. suburbs, you can usually count on a reasonably well-equipped fire department to come and assist, count on water to still flow and count on people having access to air-conditioned spaces — if not in their own homes, then in stores, restaurants, schools, offices and other buildings.

I know this is a generalization, and there are also many communities in the U.S. without reliable services, but not at the same level as in Mexico. This is certainly the case in Chacala — and I suspect for many other small towns here.

During all this, I received the news that my father in the U.S. had had a cycling accident and needed emergency surgery. Never had I felt so far away from “home.”

For seven years now, Mexico has been my home. More accurately, the small coastal town of Chacala has been my home. I love it here for so many reasons: the beautiful beaches, the close-knit community, the colorful birdlife, the access to fresh fish and fruit, the incredible school my daughter attends, the wonderful friends I’ve made here, the cultural practices and traditions I’ve come to respect and enjoy and the intergenerational, family-centric way of life.

I could go on. I have traveled all over Mexico, and the more I see of the country, the deeper I fall in love with it. But it’s a love that comes with lumps that, as a foreigner, I have a hard time swallowing sometimes.

It’s a nearly daily struggle, no — opportunity for personal growth — to flex and flow with how things work here versus how I think they should work. I’ve had to peel back so many layers of my US- and white-centric conditioning in order to navigate life here.

My sense of urgency, time, responsiveness, the-customer-is-always-right are layers of myself that, quite honestly, I’m happy to shed because they represent a type of entitlement I find ugly in foreigners like me. Except, of course, when I want the damn internet, power, water and cell service to work at the same time.

Living here vale la pena (is worth it), for sure, but there are times when I want to run screaming back to the ‘burbs.

When I reach those points, I take a look around me and see how others — my Mexican friends and neighbors and fellow foreigners who have lived here long enough — are responding, and that’s what brings me back.

I see so many acts of generosity, volunteerism, organizing and can-do-ism — responses from a community that has long had to fend for itself amid the growing pressures of development and corruption (which often go hand in hand), not to mention failing infrastructure and the lack of meaningful government support.

This is what true resilience looks like. And it’s these qualities that this foreigner is trying to develop within herself. She’s also trying to shed some layers of entitlement and escapism when life gets hard in Mexico.

It’s also at these moments when I remind myself that every place has its lumps. Like those idealized social feeds about life in Mexico, I sometimes have an idealized feed in my head about life in the ‘burbs. But no place is perfect, and neither am I.

I may never feel totally at home in Mexico, but I still love it, lumps and all.

Debbie Slobe is a writer and communications strategist based in Chacala, Nayarit. She blogs at Mexpatmama.com and is a senior program director at Resource Media. Find her on Instagram and Facebook.

AMLO defies INE order with new mañanera segment

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MND Staff

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July 19, 2023

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Mexico's President Lopez Obrador — Despite an order from the INE last week, President López Obrador has established a new line of attack against his political adversaries that follows the letter, if not the spirit, of the electoral body's ruling. (lopezobrador.org.mx)

After the National Electoral Institute (INE) last week ordered him to abstain from speaking about electoral issues, President López Obrador has turned to others to help him get his desired messages across anyway.

On Wednesday, López Obrador launched a new segment for his morning press conferences, or mañaneras, in which he will present the remarks of selected people on issues related to the 2024 elections.

Mexico Senator Xóchitl Gálvez — The president has targeted opposition presidential hopeful Senator Xóchitl Gálvez with a number of questionable public remarks about her character and personal history, which finally prompted the National Electoral Institute to ban him from speaking about electoral issues altogether. (Santiago Alba Ibarra/Wikimedia Commons)

“As I can no longer say much … I’m going to have a new section,” he said, adding that his proposal was to call it “No lo digo yo” (It’s Not Me Saying It).

The views of others will be presented “so that the people have information,” López Obrador said.

He inaugurated the new segment with an interview broadcast earlier this week in which former president Vicente Fox made a potentially damaging remark about Senator Xóchitl Gálvez, an aspirant to the Broad Front for Mexico’s candidacy for the 2024 presidential election.

Disparaging comments made by López Obrador about Gálvez — such as that she is the “candidate of the mafia of power” and a “puppet of the oligarchy” — prompted the senator to file a complaint with INE, which led the elections oversight agency to impose an electoral issues gag order on the president.

Gálvez is known for camera-friendly antics. She’s been known to bring her trademark bicycle into the Senate chambers, and in December, when controversial electoral reform was voted on in the Senate, Gálvez called it a “Jurassic Plan” and attended the session in a dinosaur costume. (Cuartoscuro)

In the video presented by AMLO on Wednesday, Fox said that “lazy people” don’t have a place in government or “the country,” and asserted that citizens should find a job rather than depend on welfare payments.

“As Xóchitl says, get to work cabrones [assholes],” Fox said.

López Obrador called for the remark to be played again, saying that it went to “the heart of the matter.”

“INE, … I have been notified, I’m not going to say [anything],” added the president, who has claimed that Gálvez is opposed to government welfare and social programs.

The INE has been a foil to President López Obrador’s attempts to implement major electoral reforms in Mexico, as well as his attacks on opposition politicians. (Graciela López/Cuartoscuro)

However, the National Action Party (PAN) senator — currently considered the leading aspirant to the nomination of the PAN-PRI-PRD-backed Broad Front for Mexico — affirmed her commitment to welfare and social programs in a video posted to Twitter late last month in which she declared she would become the next president of Mexico.

“I’m convinced that the social programs are absolutely essential,” she said.

López Obrador on Wednesday morning didn’t say how frequently he intended to present his new mañanera segment or reveal who else would appear in it. He has repeatedly railed against the INE’s ruling, characterizing it as an attack on his right to free speech.

With reports from Reforma, Expansión and El País

Exhibit celebrates 70 years of Amalia Hernández’s folkloric ballet

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MND Staff

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July 19, 2023

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Amalia Hernandez Ballet Folklorico — Take a waltz down memory lane on your next visit to Chapultepec Park, where a photographic retrospective of Mexico City's folkloric ballet company is on display. (Andrea Murcia/Cuartoscuro)

To celebrate the 70th anniversary of Amalia Hernández’s Folkloric Ballet, an outdoor exhibition has opened featuring 62 photographs from different moments of the dance company’s history. The exhibition is displayed on the perimeter of Mexico City’s Chapultepec Park, along Reforma Avenue.

Running through Aug. 11, the exhibition recounts the history of the dance company from its beginnings up through an 18-month halt due to COVID-19, after which dancers continued to perform while wearing face masks. The exhibition was curated by Viviana Basanta, the ballet company’s artistic director, and Salvador López López, the company’s general director and grandson of its founder.

The exhibit, which is on display through August 11, features photos of performers, vintage posters, costume designs, as well as celebrities who saw the award-winning show in Mexico City. (Andrea Murcia/Cuartoscuro)

Several photographs show founder Amalia Hernández posing with personalities like John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy, the Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros, the filmmaker Gabriel Figueroa and the Argentine singer-songwriter Facundo Cabral.

Other pictures include posters from Amalia Hernández’s career, costume designs, the first front page features that the international press devoted to the ballet, and the Fine Arts Medal awarded by the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature for the ballet’s 50th anniversary in 2002.

“Amalia Hernández was a Mexican woman who managed to immerse herself in the customs of a region and translate its emotions,” López said in his inaugural speech. “She turned legends into stories and dances into emotions of infinite colors […] and transcended the whole world by managing to show the essence of our cultural wealth,” López added.

As a choreographer and dancer, Hernández drew inspiration by studying and recovering the history, legends, religions and typical costumes of Mexico’s different cultures.

With the exception of the COVID-19 pandemic, the folkloric ballet company has performed every Sunday at the Palacio de Bellas Artes since 1959. (Photo dated 1970/Wikimedia Commons)

The cultural wealth of the dances earned the company international recognition as the world’s best dance group in 1961 at the Festival of Nations in Paris, France, and the Tiffany for Lifetime Achievement Award in New York in 1992.

Starting in 1959, the company has performed without interruption (except during the COVID-19 pandemic) every Sunday, and later every Wednesday, at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City.

With reports from Cultura Cdmx and Chilango

Heavy rains forecast for Mexico City and Guadalajara

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MND Staff

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July 19, 2023

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A man in the rain — Guadalajara and the surrounding areas should brace themselves for rain, say forecasters. (Graciela López/Cuartoscuro)

Residents of Mexico City and Guadalajara better get their raincoats out this Wednesday.

According to the National Weather Service (SMN), heavy-to-intense rains and a chance of scattered showers and thunderstorms are expected in both cities. Regions of Jalisco, Colima and Michoacán also will see heavy rains.

Jalisco is forecast to see intense rains due to a nearby cyclone forming over the Pacific. (Cuartoscuro)

Mexico City will see cloudy skies during the day, with a maximum temperature of 27 C (80 F) before showers and thunderstorms approach the area in the afternoon or evening.

At nightfall, the temperature will drop to 19 C (66 F) and continue to drop until it reaches 14 C (57 F), by dawn Thursday morning.

Guadalajara and the rest of Jalisco, Colima and Michoacán can expect a maximum temperature of 30–32 C (86–89 F) and a minimum of 18 C (64-68 F), with cloudy skies.

Heavy rains are forecast in central Jalisco while scattered showers are forecast for the rest of the state and neighboring Nayarit.

A tropical storm — Rains may also lead to potential flooding and lighting storms in the Jalisco, Colima and Michoacán areas. (Daniil Silantev/Unsplash)

The SNM has also warned of potential flooding. Heavy rains may be accompanied by lightning and hail and could cause landslides and flooding in low-lying areas. Dust storms may also occur in Jalisco.

Fog banks are expected in the north and center of Michoacán, leading to reduced visibility on highways.

Weather conditions in Guadalajara may be caused by a cyclone formation in the Pacific Ocean, 1,250 km southwest of Playa Pérula. This is caused by a low-pressure zone south of Baja California Sur and could lead to the formation of Cyclone Dora — the fourth named storm of the 2023 season in the Mexican Pacific.

The cyclone poses no danger to the rest of Mexico, according to the SMN.

With reports from El Informador and Quadrantin

Number of Mexicans who say their city’s unsafe increased slightly

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MND Staff

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July 19, 2023

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National Guard officers in patrol cars — The survey interviewed occupants of almost 28,000 homes across 75 cities (including all 16 boroughs of Mexico City). (National Guard/Twitter)

The percentage of Mexicans who believe the city in which they live is unsafe increased slightly in the second quarter of 2023 compared to the previous three-month period, according to the results of a recent survey.

Conducted by the national statistics agency INEGI in June, the National Survey of Urban Public Security (ENSU) found that 62.3% of adults consider their city unsafe, up from 62.1% in March.

INEGI graphic about citizen perception of safety in their city — This graph shows results for every quarter since September 2013. The red line shows total percentages of people who considered their current city of residence unsafe, while the blue line represents the number of men who said the same and the yellow line the number of women who said the same. (INEGI)

Occupants of almost 28,000 homes across 75 cities (including all 16 boroughs of Mexico City) responded to the quarterly survey.

The percentage of women who consider their city unsafe was 68.6%, while the figure for men was 54.8%.

Although there was a slight quarter-over-quarter increase in perceptions of insecurity among survey respondents, the 62.3% figure recorded in June represents a decrease of 5.1 percentage points from a year earlier.

The publication of the ENSU results comes a week after the federal government reported that homicide numbers decreased 1.68% annually in the first half of 2023 to 15,122.

Skyline of city of San Pedro Garza Garcia, Nuevo Leon, Mexico — The city of San Pedro Garza García, Nuevo León, had the lowest number of residents saying that they felt unsafe in their city. (Mexico en Fotos/Wikimedia Commons)

Fresnillo and Zacatecas city, both in Zacatecas state, retained their unenviable status as Mexico’s most unsafe cities, as perceived by their residents.

Over nine in 10 residents of both cities — 92.8% in Fresnillo and 91.7% in Zacatecas city — expressed concerns for their own safety. Although those figures are very high, both declined slightly compared to March.

Ciudad Obregón, Sonora, ranked as the third most insecure city with 90.3% of residents considering it unsafe, followed by Ecatepec, México state (87.6%); Irapuato, Guanajuato (87.3%); and Naucalpan, México state (87.2%).

The cities with the fewest residents who felt unsafe in June were San Pedro Garza García, an affluent Nuevo León municipality in the metropolitan area of Monterrey (13.8%); Benito Juárez, a borough of Mexico City (19.8%); the Coahuila border city of Piedras Negras (20%); the Mexico City borough of Cuajimalpa (20.4%); Coahuila capital Saltillo (22.2%); and Tampico, Tamaulipas (23%).

An INEGI infographic explaining the methodology of the National Survey of Urban Public Safety, conducted in each quarter on an annual basis on a sampling of the Mexican public living in cities. (INEGI)

Among the other cities included in the survey were Tijuana, which was considered unsafe by 71.8% of residents; Los Cabos (25.2%); Guanajuato city (66.4%); Acapulco (76.2%); Guadalajara (77.1%); Puerto Vallarta (30.7%); Morelia (64.8%); Monterrey (70.8%); Oaxaca city (66.3%); Cancún (83.3%); and Mérida (25.6%).

The most common places where respondents reported feeling unsafe were at ATMs on the street; on public transport; at the bank; on the streets they regularly use; on the highway; and at the market.

Over six in 10 respondents said they had seen people drinking in the street during the second quarter of 2023, 51.7% reported having witnessed a robbery or mugging, four in 10 told INEGI they had seen people buying or consuming drugs and 36.5% reported having heard frequent gunshots.

Just over one-third of respondents – 34.1% – said they expected the security situation in their city to remain “just as bad” during the next 12 months, while 23.6% predicted a deterioration. Just under a quarter of those polled – 23.5% – said they expected security to improve in their place of residence during the next 12 months, while 17.5% anticipated that the situation would remain “just as good” as it currently is.

With reports from EFE

Pemex denies claim that government is hiding huge oil spill

By

Cat Rainsford

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July 18, 2023

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Nohoch-A after the fire — An area near Pemex's Nohoch-A offshore platform in Campeche, which was involved in a fire earlier this month, appears to be the site of an enormous oil spill that Pemex has failed to report, nongovernmental organizations, citing satellite imagery. (Carlos Alvarez/Twitter)

Pemex has denied claims by civil society organizations that the government is concealing a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Campeche, in the same area where a deadly fire broke out on a Pemex oil platform on July 7.

In an open letter on Monday, more than 20 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) said that satellite images processed by geographer Guillermo Tamburini show a spill from another platform, which by July 12 had extended approximately 400 square kilometers — more than double the size of the city of Guadalajara. The images suggest that the spill started around July 4.

The alleged oil spill in the Gulf of Campeche, according to the Mexican Center for Environmental Law. (CEMDA)

Days after the alleged spill, a fire broke out on Pemex’s Nohoch-Alfa platform and spread to a nearby compression platform, leaving two workers dead, one missing and eight injured.

“The complete opacity with which this spill has been handled is worrying because of the possibility that it is a sample of other similar incidents that pass without being quantified and without a record of attention,” said the open letter, signed by organizations including the Mexican Center for Environmental Law (CEMDA) and Greenpeace México.

The next day, Pemex released a statement “clarifying” the incident. The state oil company said that a leak in the Ek Balam oil fields had been reported to the Security, Energy and Environment Agency (ASEA) on July 6 but that it is now fully repaired and that it had nothing to do with the fire on the Nohoch-A platform.

“The two leakage points in the duct were a small fissure 7 centimeters long by 1 millimeter wide and a hole of 1.2 centimeters in diameter. Given the small size of the cracks, the volume of hydrocarbons that escaped was minimal,” Pemex said.

Pemex oil platform fire in Campeche — A fire on the Nohoch-A platform on July 7 left 2 workers dead and one missing. NGOs now say there is an oil spill of up to 400 square kilometers in the area. (Lilly Téllez/Twitter)

The company said that the NGO’s claim of a 400-square-kilometer spill was a “bad faith estimate,” and that the spill’s true size was 0.06 square kilometers, or 365 barrels of oil.

It added that the Ek Balam pipeline network is coming to the end of its 30-year useful lifespan and is due to be changed, after which “the possibility of oil leaks will be definitively eliminated.”

In their open letter, the NGOs highlighted another spill in the same area in June, with an alleged extension of 270 square kilometers. They also claimed that Pemex accidents have increased by 152% over the last two years, while the budget for maintaining facilities has been reduced by 49%.

“This has caused a time bomb that constantly translates into fatalities, not from casual accidents but from precarious working conditions, without the will of the industry to solve it,” they argued.

Since taking office in 2018, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has implemented an austerity plan for Pemex, cutting the struggling company’s tax burden and capital investment.

A string of accidents has raised concerns about the impact of the cuts on Pemex’s safety record. Notable scandals include a ruptured underwater pipeline that killed five people in 2021 and three fires that broke out at three separate Pemex facilities on the same day in February.

The NGOs also argued that such events should not be seen as accidents but rather that “spills, leaks and fires are inherent to the extraction of fossil fuels.” They called for Mexico to move away from oil extraction and redirect resources towards renewable energy generation.

With reports from Debate and Infobae

Guanajuato International Film Festival to open Thursday

By

MND Staff

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July 18, 2023

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The 26th edition of the Guanajuato International Film Festival (GIFF) begins on Thursday, and will run until July 31 in the cities of León, San Miguel de Allende and Irapuato.

Switzerland will be this year’s guest of honor, and the festival will showcase a number of Swiss films. A total of 201 films will be screened from 49 countries around the world.

a hot air baloon at a film festival — Running from July 20–31, the festival will debut movies from around the world, as well as discuss many of the challenges facing the industry — including artificial intelligence. (GIFF)

The festival will also host 37 world premieres, in addition to 53 Mexican, 21 Latin American and 32 U.S. premieres.

From vineyards in San Miguel de Allende to theaters in León and gardens in Irapuato, this year’s venues will bring back annual features of the festival such as Children in Action, Midnight Madness, Music + Cinema and Cinema Among the Dead.

“The festival will take on the host city’s identity,” GIFF Director Sarah Hoch told the publication Forbes Life in an interview. “Venues in León include large spaces, theaters and museums. In San Miguel de Allende, we will be in vineyards and ecological zones, while in Irapuato we will see gardens, a cinema picnic and a gastronomic space.”

Rather than running concurrently, the festival will move across the state, beginning first in León, where the festival will run from July 20 to 23 and open with the biographical film “Joan Baez: I am a Noise” by directors Karen O’Connor, Miri Navasky y Maeve O’Boyle. “Lost in the Night” by Mexican director Amat Escalante, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, will also be shown.

Outdoor cinema in San Miguel — Events will take place in the cities of León, San Miguel de Allende and Irapuato. (GIFF)

The festival will then move on to San Miguel de Allende, from July 24 to 27, before finishing in Irapuato on July 28, with the world premiere of “Martínez” by Lorena Padilla. GIFF will wrap up on July 31 with the screening of different children’s films in the Teatro de la Ciudad.

The festival will also pay homage to Mexican director Luis Estrada, Mexican actress Araceli Ramírez, Mexican film producer Tita Lombardo and U.S. musician Baez.

A panel of experts will also discuss the role of artificial intelligence in the creative industries “to anticipate what is coming,” Hoch said. “We believe that AI is a threat to Mexican cinema and to the industry worldwide. It is a very serious issue, and that’s why we must discuss it.”

Access to all movies shown during the festival is free of charge.

With reports from Forbes Online

Mexico’s three major airlines saw year-on-year growth in 2023

By

MND Staff

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July 18, 2023

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Man in plane cabin — Make sure to read this list before you jet off for Mexico. (Lutfi Gaos/Unsplash)

Mexico’s three largest airlines have seen a total 16.5% growth in passenger numbers between them so far this year, when compared to the same period in 2022.

Volaris, Viva Aerobus and Aeromexico dominate the airline industry in Mexico, and the three airlines have carried 39.6 million passengers between January and June of 2023 — about 6.5 million people more than in the first half of 2022.

Volaris General Director Enrique Beltranena believes that the impending restoration of Mexico’s Category 1 status, which was revoked in 2021 over safety concerns, will allow the airline to expand its international offerings aggressively. New flights between Mexico and the United States are currently prohibited as a result of the FAA downgrade to Category 2.

“We continue to anticipate Mexico’s return to Category 1 classification in the United States, and the team has begun to plan changes to our network that will allow us to concentrate on growth in strong international markets,” Beltranena said.

Volaris is currently Mexico’s largest airline and is responsible for 41.5% of the total number of passengers between the three airlines from January to June 2023.

Aeromexico, the only one of the three airlines to offer long-haul and trans-Atlantic options, has seen a 21.7% increase in passenger numbers this year. It carried almost 11.8 million people for a 29.8% share of total passengers.

An airbus A320 takes off into the evening — Viva Aerobus started flying out of AIFA in May 2022. Flights from the airport now offer around 80% capacity. (Viva Aerobus)

Volaris, which ferried 41.5% of the total passengers, moved some 16.4 million people, while Viva saw 11.3 million passengers for 20.2% of all passengers that traveled between January and June of 2023..

Demand for flights has been currently boosted by the high season for Mexico’s tourist industry, which is likely to ensure that the strong growth figures continue, said Viva Aerobus chief Juan Carlos Zuazua.

June proved a particularly strong month for the airline industry, with high domestic and international demand driving performances for all three carriers.

All three airlines now also operate from Mexico City’s new Felipe Angeles Airport, which has flights averaging around 80% capacity.

With reporting by Forbes

Poll: Xóchitl Gálvez most popular opposition candidate for president

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MND Staff

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July 18, 2023

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National Action Party (PAN) Senator Xóchitl Gálvez is the most popular opposition candidate with non-Morena voters for the presidential race coming in 2024, according to a new El Financiero poll.

With 22% of respondents saying they prefer her as the candidate to run against the Morena Party candidate for president, Gálvez jumped nine points from a previous poll earlier in July and now stands six points ahead of the second most popular choice, PAN deputy Santiago Creel, who was chosen by 16% of respondents in the latest poll results.

Deputy Santiago Creel and his wife — Federal deputy Santiago Creel (left) arrives with his wife to register as a candidate for the Broad Front for Mexico. He was the second most popular choice by poll respondents regarding who they want to see run against the ruling Morena Party candidate. (Daniel Augusto/Cuartoscuro)

Positive opinions of Gálvez also moved forward two points to 36%, compared to the previous poll.

In third place was former tourism minister Enrique de la Madrid of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) with 12% support. The top three were followed by Beatriz Paredes (PRI), who was chosen by 8% of respondents, and former Governor of Michoacán Silvano Aureoles of the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), who got 3% support.

The Frente Amplio por México (Broad Front for Mexico) is an opposition coalition that will represent the PAN, PRI and PRD in the run for president next year. Together, they will nominate a single candidate from among their parties to contest the June 2024 election. While there will not be a direct-voting process by rank-and-file party members to choose the coalition candidate, party leaders have said they will take the will of party members into account.

The two frontrunners to win the Morena candidacy are generally agreed to be former Mexico City mayor Claudia Sheinbaum and former foreign affairs minister Marcelo Ebrard.

Angry AMLO — Incumbent president López Obrador has repeatedly railed against Gálvez. The election authority INE has recetly ordered him to cease comment on his perceived electoral rival. (Moisés Pablo/Cuartoscuro)

Almost all the other opposition options considered in the poll also showed some forward movement in favorable opinions toward them compared to the previous poll: Santiago Creel jumped four points from 27% to 31%, while Beatriz Paredes moved forward two points from 25% to 27%.

Enrique de la Madrid, however, showed a decrease of 1%, going from 29% to 28%.

Approval ratings for the potential candidates went largely along party lines, with Gálvez proving the first choice amongst PAN voters, at 49%, and de la Madrid the top candidate for PRI supporters, at 50%.

While some of the opposition candidates considered in the poll, such as Creel, Aureoles and Parades had been courting the idea of running a campaign in the last few months, Senator Gálvez has only emerged as a candidate in the last two weeks, making her ride to the top of the polls somewhat unexpected. Her visibility as a presidential candidate has only been amplified by President López Obrador’s frequent disparagement of her recently during his morning press conferences, known as “the mañaneras.” The frequent verbal attacks led Gálvez to report López Obrador to the National Electoral Institute (INE), accusing him of conducting gender political violence with his remarks about her.

Mexico 2024 presidential candidates Claudia Sheinbaum and Marcelo Ebard — Some analysts theorize that the reason AMLO has been quick to label Gálvez as part of the “mafia of power” is because her working class Otomi roots could appeal to Morena’s large working-class base, posing a threat to Morena frontrunners Claudia Sheinbaum and Marcelo Ebrard. (Andrea Murcia Monsivais and Adolfo Vladimir/Cuartoscuro)

On July 13, the INE ordered López Obrador to stop making public comments and expressing opinions about electoral issues after he implied that Gálvez was unduly influenced by former president Vicente Fox and a so-called “mafia of power,” a supposed cabal consisting of additional former presidents and party leaders.

When asked if it was acceptable for López Obrador to give his opinion or make public statements about the presidential contenders, 45% of respondents said it was fine, while 35% said it was not.

Fifty-eight percent of respondents also considered the president’s recent criticism of Gálvez for having sold tamales on the street to support herself in her youth as “bad” or “very bad,” while 22% did not see a problem with AMLO’s statements.

With reports from El Financiero.