The tabby, well-known to workers and reporters at the National Palace, increased in fame when he gatecrashed one of President López Obrador's daily press conferences last year. (@carlosmartinh/X)
A beloved cat that called the National Palace in Mexico City home died on Wednesday, prompting reporters on the presidential beat to share fond memories on social media.
Zeus, an 11-year-old gray tabby, was among the many cats who live in the gardens and courtyards at the Palace, the home and office of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. He died from an unspecified illness that had lasted three weeks before his passing, according to officials.
Many reporters paid tribute to Zeus on social media following the news of his demise. Isabella González, a journalist for Latinus, posted a video of Zeus she’d taken at the National Palace. (Isabella González/X)
The sociable feline was well-known to the journalists who attended the president’s daily briefings. It even strolled out onto the dais during one such mañanera.
On July 13, 2023, Zeus walked in front of the cameras as Diego Prieto, the director of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), was describing archaeological finds uncovered during the construction of the Maya Train in the state of Yucatán. Reporters snickered and Prieto smiled before continuing with his talk. A journalist scooped up the kitty, who offered no resistance, and handed him over to National Palace staff.
Reporters paid tribute to Zeus on Thursday, describing him as friendly, approachable and always open to attention.
On the social media platform X, Shaila Rosagel of El Imparcial lamented not giving Zeus one last squeeze and thanked the cat for all the love and affection he showed. Latinus reporter Isabella González shared a video she had taken while caressing Zeus as he sat in her lap.
All the cats who reside in the National Palace are cared for by veterinarians from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). The vets have inserted microchips in each of the resident cats to monitor their health and their vaccination status.
President López Obrador quipped in January that it is the cats who “run things” at the National Palace. “When there are ceremonies, they stand in front of me and nobody touches them.”
The new stores will provide nearly 1,000 full-time jobs, bringing the total of Walmart employees in the state to more than 5,000, says Walmart México. (Walmart México)
Anticipating an influx of tourists when the Maya Train is completed, Walmart plans to invest more than 1 billion pesos (US $59.3 million) to open 28 stores in the state of Quintana Roo.
“I am pleased to announce that during 2024 and 2025, we will continue to expand in this great state, in this region,” Walmart México Senior Vice President Javier Treviño said.
The retail giant, which opened its first Quintana Roo store in 1995 — a Sam’s Club in Cancún — will build 25 more stores next year, bringing to 77 the number of Walmarts, Bodega Aurreras and Sam’s Clubs in the Caribbean state.
“Our primary goal is to help people save money and live better,” Treviño added, “We are proud of what we have accomplished in Quintana Roo, and we are excited about the potential for growth here.”
Beyond increasing its presence in Quintana Roo, Walmart also intends to strengthen links with local suppliers and small businesses in the area.
Treviño told Expansión magazine that the Maya Train, the interoceanic trans-isthmus train, and the growth of nearshoring were all reasons to be bullish on the regional economy. Treviño also told the publication that Quintana Roo’s proximity to the train networks and its ports make it an ideal hub for exports.
Quintana Roo Governor Mara Lezama at an event announcing the Walmart investments in her state. (Mara Lezama/X)
Treviño also pointed to ongoing housing development projects in the state and new investment in tourism infrastructure as additional reasons for the company’s optimism. The state boasts four international airports: in state capital Chetumal, Tulum, Cozumel and Cancún.
The new stores will provide nearly 1,000 full-time jobs, bringing the total of Walmart employees in the state to more than 5,000. Treviño said 23 of the new stores will be located in the Benito Juárez municipality — home to Cancún — four in the municipality of Solidaridad — which includes the resort town Playa del Carmen — and one in the Tulum municipality.
The company invested nearly US $1.5 billion to remodel existing stores and build more than 160 others in Mexico and Central America last year. Executives at Walmart México told Reuters in February that 160 was the highest number of stores it has added to the region in a single year over the past decade. Upwards of 5 million people shop each day at its more than 3,000 stores across Mexico, the company says.
The company is also planning new investment in México state, funneling 1.2 billion pesos (US $71.1 million) through the end of next year to build 43 stores and two distribution centers.
The price of green tomatoes and other fruits and vegetables dropped in February compared to January, some as much as 42%. (Cuartoscuro)
Inflation in Mexico declined in February for the first time in four months, increasing the probability that the Bank of Mexico (Banxico) will make an initial cut to its record high interest rate later in March.
The annual headline rate was 4.40% last month, down from 4.88% in January, according to data from the national statistics agency INEGI. The rate is slightly below the 4.44% consensus forecast of analysts surveyed by Citibanamex. The month-over-month increase in consumer prices was 0.09%, the lowest January-to-February spike since 2019.
Meanwhile, the closely-watched core inflation rate, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, fell for a 13th consecutive month in February to reach 4.64%, down from 4.76% in January.
With the decline in headline inflation last month, the downward trend that lasted for nine months between February and October last year has resumed.
While the headline rate remains well above the central bank’s target, the decline in February increases the probability that Banxico will reduce its record high 11.25% benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points on March 21, said Gabriela Siller, director of economic analysis at Banco Base, a Mexican bank.
The Banxico board will hold its next monetary policy meeting on that date.
The Bank of México (Banxico) headquarters in Mexico City. (Shutterstock)
Jason Tuvey, deputy chief emerging markets economist at the London-based research company Capital Economics, said that the latest consumer price figures “leave the path open for Banxico to cut interest rates by 25 basis points later this month.”
Siller is not anticipating an aggressive rate-easing cycle this year, predicting that the central bank will cut its key rate by 100 basis points at the most over the course of 2024. That would leave Banxico’s reference rate at a still-high 10.25% at the end of the year.
The latest inflation data and increased likelihood that Banxico will reduce rates by 25 basis points later this month didn’t have a major impact on the Mexican peso, which has been supported for the past 12-18 months by the wide differential between interest rates in Mexico and those in the United States. The currency was trading at 16.88 to the US dollar at 10 a.m. Mexico City time, on par with its closing position on Wednesday.
What caused inflation to fall in February?
A significant decline in the inflation rate for agricultural products (fruit, vegetables and meat) was a major factor in the drop in headline inflation. The annual inflation rate for those products was 4.77% in February, down from 9.75% in January. Meat was in fact 3.23% cheaper last month than a year earlier, while fruit and vegetables inflation was 15%, down from almost 22% in January.
The month-over-month decrease in prices for agricultural products was 4.60%. That decline was fueled by an 8.43% reduction in fruit and vegetable prices.
Andrés Abadia, chief Latin America economist at the U.K.-based firm Pantheon Macroeconomics, noted that the month-over-month decline in agricultural product prices came after sharp increases in previous months due to difficult climate conditions — namely drought — in “key states” around Mexico.
Meat prices were actually lower last month than in February of 2023. (Cuartoscuro)
Supply of such products “finally improved” in February, he said.
The price of tomatoes, for example, declined almost 42% compared to January, while green tomatoes, nopales, poblano chilis and squash were also significantly cheaper in February.
The annual inflation rate for processed food, beverages and tobacco moderated to 5.25% from 5.54% in January, while prices for goods in general were up 4.11% in annual terms, down slightly from a 4.37% reading in January.
Meanwhile, the annual inflation rate for services rose slightly to reach 5.30%, while energy prices, including those for gasoline and electricity, were 2.75% higher than a year earlier, well above the 1.41% rate in January.
Tuvey, the Capital Economics economist, said that “the continued strength of services inflation” means that Banxico’s easing-cycle “will be more gradual than most currently anticipate.”
Portrait of Nahui Olín, painted by Gerardo Murillo ― known as Dr. Atl in 1922.
Frida Kahlo is Mexico’s most acclaimed female artist and one of the most recognized in the world. Born in Mexico City in 1907, she produced 143 paintings exploring gender, class, race, and Mexican society. She married muralist Diego Rivera, and together, they became a reference for art in Mexico.
But beyond Frida, Mexico has many other female artists are also worth exploring and recognizing. Whether it is for their poems, films, books, paintings, or extravagant lifestyles, these Mexican women have left a mark on their field while re-shaping the role of women in Mexican society.
Nahui Olín (1893-1978)
Nahui Olín, 1923. This striking image was part of Weston’s “Heroic Heads” series, a collection of photographs featuring intellectual friends in Mexico. It was recently exhibited in a MET exhibition. (John Moran)
Poet, painter, feminist pioneer, muse, and model of 20th-century Mexican art, Nahui Olín is one of the most prominent and controversial female figures in Mexico’s art scene. The artist’s paintings depicted romantic scenes and country landscapes, delving into sensuality and eroticism in the Naif style.
Born in Mexico City as Carmen Mondragón, she was raised in a wealthy and religious family but spent her formative years in Paris.
Upon her return to Mexico and a failed marriage with artist Manuel Rodríguez Lozano, she changed her name to Nahui Olín (“the fourth movement of the sun” in Náhuatl) influenced by her affair with Mexican artist Dr. Alt. During their relationship, Nahui’s poems and paintings gained notoriety for their transgressive and unconventional content.
After turbulent romances that led to depressive and self-destructive behaviors, Nahui Olín died a pauper in Mexico City. She spent her last years teaching painting at an elementary school, reportedly living with her cats and dogs in her family mansion.
Antonieta Rivas Mercado (1900-1931)
Diego Rivera’s mural in Mexico City: “If you want to eat, you must work,” which depicts Antonieta. (Wikimedia Commons)
Daughter of renowned architect Antonio Rivas Mercado — creator of Mexico City’s iconic Angel of Independence monument – she is remembered as one of the most influential figures in Mexico’s cultural landscape.
Friends with Nahui Olín, Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Manuel Rodríguez, and many other artists and intellectuals of the time, she became a member and patron of Los Contemporáneos (The Modernists), a group of young Mexican intellectuals, writers and artists who disseminated the ideas of Europe’s avant garde.
With Los Contemporáneos, she financed and helped create the first experimental theater in Mexico City, Teatro Ulises. She also financed and founded the Mexican Symphony Orchestra and was editor and English translator of notable books by Latin American authors such as Xavier Villaurrutia, Gilberto Owen, Federico García Lorca, and Andrés Henestrosa.
She also founded the first Department of Indigenous Affairs at the Mexican Education Ministry and later became actively involved in politics by financially supporting the presidential campaign of former Education Minister José Vasconcelos.
Her cultural patronage helped shape modern Mexico until her death, when she took her own life inside Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.
Aurora Reyes (1908-1986)
“Attack on rural female teachers,” 1936. Aurora’s art depicted the women’s rights movement of the time. (Wikimedia Commons)
Born in Hidalgo del Parral, Chihuahua, Aurora Reyes was Mexico’s first woman muralist. She was also a renowned intellectual, poet, writer, social activist, and feminist. Her work depicted the moment’s historical, political, and social events addressing issues like education, social struggle, and gender.
Unlike her male counterparts (José Clemente Orozco or Diego Rivera) she was never commissioned by the government to create public art due to her activism for women’s rights and her support for the doomed student protest movement of 1968.
According to her grandson Héctor Godoy, her activism had a negative impact on the preservation of her cultural legacy. The artist painted seven murals of which only six survive. Although there have been attempts to recover her work and modern governments have recognized her as Mexico’s first women muralist, most of her work is yet to be restored.
Elena Garro (1916-1998)
Garro’s work criticized Marx and other leftist intellectuals in contrast to her husband, Octavio Paz, who favored their ideas. (Universidad de Guadalajara)
Playwright, novelist, poet, dancer, and choreographer Elena Garro was a prolific artist born in Puebla but grew up in Iguala, Guerrero. She is often dubbed “The Mother of Magical Realism.”
Her writing stands out as fantastical and original due to its ability to challenge established traditions and taboos. She addressed femicide and sexual violence and introduced the worldview of provincial towns, peasants, and indigenous people during a time when these groups were often overlooked in literature.
Famous works include Los Recuerdos del Porvenir, Andamos huyendo Lola and Testimonios sobre Mariana (winner of the Grijalbo literature prize in 1981)
Many remember her for her marriage to poet and Nobel Prize winner Octavio Paz. In her book Memorias de España. 1937, she said her marriage was full of prohibition, resentment, professional jealousy, and violence.
Garro lived in exile with her daughter, Helena, for 22 years due to accusations – which she denied – of having been involved in the orchestration of the Tlatelolco Massacre of 1968 (the same event that spelled the end of Aurora Reyes’ influence). She died aged 77 in Cuernavaca, Morelos.
Pola Weiss (1947-1990)
Pola Weiss was a pioneer of video art not only in Mexico but also in all of Latin America. (TV UNAM)
Born in Mexico City, Pola Weiss was the first student to graduate with a video art production from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).
A pioneer of video art and dance in Mexico, Pola Weiss’s life was marked by a constant struggle against patriarchy, artistic norms, and the stigma of mental illness that ended with Pola taking her own life.
Her work focused on revealing the female body differently from what was imposed by the beauty stereotypes of the time. However, she faced discrimination in Mexico over her art – it was not understood, exhibited, or valued as much as in Europe and the United States, where they considered her the most important video artist in Latin America.
To preserve Pola Weiss’s contributions to the visual arts, the artist’s sister, Kitzia Weiss, and husband, Fernando Mangino, donated 3,000 items to the MUAC’s Arkheia Documentation Center, including documents, photographs, slides, and negative stripes.
Weiss’s life inspired a documentary film by Alejandra Arrieta called Pola Weiss.
Gabriela Solís is a Mexican lawyer based in Dubai turned full-time writer. She covers business, culture, lifestyle and travel for Mexico News Daily. You can follow her life in Dubai in her blog Dunas y Palmeras.
Salsa Valentina is arguably the most popular sauce in Mexico. This thick liquid is spicy, affordable and found throughout Mexico in households, at restaurants and street stalls to add freely to your snacks. (All photos by Salsa Valentina/Instagram)
If you’ve ever purchased street snacks in Mexico, chances are you’ve been asked if you would like to add a dash of Salsa Valentina. The masochistic burn it ignites on the tastebuds makes it the reigning champion of the hot sauce of choice for snacks in Mexico.
This thick, bright sauce is available in its classic yellow label boasting 900 Scoville Heat Units, with the spicier black label version packing a punch at 2,200. Salsa Valentina has recently expanded its widely loved repertoire with powdered and seafood versions.
From chips and popcorn to shrimp tacos, pizza, tostadas and flautas, Salsa Valentina is an essential part of every Mexican table.
From humble origins to massive success
Its story began in the 1960s in the city of Tamazula de Gordiano, Jalisco, where Gilberto Reyna was selling a sauce named El Torito, widely popular in the region and distributed in barrels through local stores. An ice block vendor named Manuel Maciel Méndez sensed the business opportunity to rival that success with his own family recipe. Méndez created his hot sauce and named it Tamazula in homage to his beloved hometown.
As the Tamazula factory flourished, it relocated its operations to Guadalajara and launched the Salsa Tamazula Show, a local radio broadcast aimed at promoting its product.From 08:00 to 12:00 it played only ranchera music and a voice frequently came on saying “Salsa Tamazula at breakfast, lunch and dinner.”
Following the success of their inaugural product, they created the Valentina and Costa Brava brands. Today, Grupo Tamazula’s manufacturing facility in Guadalajara sprawls over 323,000 square feet and remains under the ownership and operation of the Méndez family.
Revolutionary inspiration
Valentina Ramirez, for whom the sauce is named, was known as the “Mexican Mulan” or the “Lioness of Norotal.” She joined the ranks of General Ramón F. Iturbide’s troops in 1910 and fought during the Mexican Revolution. (Archivo Histórico General del Estado de Sinaloa)
The founder was inspired by a heroine of the Mexican Revolution, Valentina Ramírez. Born in 1894 in the town of San Antonio, Durango. Valentina was a fierce believer in the ideals of the Revolution and decided to join the army of General Ramón F. Iturbide at the age of 17 in November 1910. Knowing that women were not admitted to the ranks, Valentina kept her gender identity hidden under the pseudonym Juan Ramírez, and used her brother’s carbine, cartridge belts, boots, clothes and horse.
Her confidence in her skills and courage beyond social stereotypes proved true, as she quickly became promoted to the rank of lieutenant. Her military career ended in June 1911 when one of her colleagues removed her hat and discovered her braids. The general congratulated her for her bravery and service but immediately discharged her from his army. In the words of Grupo Tamazula, she was a woman as fierce as the salsa that now bears her name.
Crafting spice, the ingredients behind the burn
This hot sauce — which is as light on your waistline as it is on your wallet — is crafted with a blend of dried puya peppers (plus chile de árbol in the spicier black label version), water, acetic acid, iodized salt, condiments, spices and a pinch of sodium benzoate as a preservative. The label states that one tablespoon (5g) contains zero calories, fats, carbs or sugar and 95 milligrams of sodium.
Beyond the kitchen, Salsa Valentina’s unexpected talents
In its powdered version, Valentina is used to flavor fruits, popsicles and cocktails.
Salsa Valentina has found other unexpected uses. In 2013, maintenance staff in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, accidentally spilled some Salsa Valentina on a bronze sculpture and were surprised by its efficacy as a metal polish. The news spread like wildfire, and soon Salsa Valentina became a household hack for cleaning metals, pots, and even bathrooms. However, while its acetic acid content makes it effective for cleaning, it can exacerbate gastric issues such as gastritis, colitis and esophagitis, in addition to ailments that require a low-sodium diet.
In a world where tradition meets affordability, Salsa Valentina stands as a champion of bold flavor and humble creativity. Whether you’re enjoying snacks or experimenting with buffalo wings in your kitchen, its price tag ensures that everyone can savor the spicy goodness of this Mexican staple.
Sandra is a Mexican writer and translator based in San Miguel de Allende who specializes in mental health and humanitarian aid. She believes in the power of language to foster compassion and understanding across cultures. She can be reached at: sandragancz@gmail.com
Government sources said the eight Mexican navy personnel who crashed in Michoacán shortly after takeoff were on an Airbus AS565 Panther helicopter like this one owned by the US Navy. (Chad R. Erdmann/Creative Commons)
Three members of the Mexican Navy are dead and two others are missing after a military helicopter crashed off Mexico’s southern Pacific coast on Wednesday morning.
The Ministry of the Navy (SEMAR) reported the accident in a statement early Wednesday afternoon, saying that it occurred shortly after a Panther helicopter took off from a naval vessel located 200 nautical miles, or 370 kilometers, southwest of Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán.
It said that eight navy officers were on the helicopter, and that three of them — two women and one man — were killed.
SEMAR said that two officers are missing and that three others were rescued and were on their way to port to receive “specialized medical care.”
Those rescued were reported in “stable” condition. A search for the two missing navy personnel was continuing.
SEMAR said that “the causes” of the accident were not yet known. At the time of the accident, the navy was carrying out “operations for the maintenance of the rule of law,” the ministry said.
At its weakest point on Monday, the peso was trading at 20.05 to the dollar. (Shutterstock)
The Mexican peso appreciated against the US dollar for a fifth consecutive day on Wednesday to reach its strongest position since January.
After closing at 16.95 to the greenback on Tuesday, the peso strengthened to 16.85 on Wednesday morning before weakening slightly. The USD:MXN exchange rate was 16.88 pesos to the US dollar at 3:30 p.m. Mexico City time, according to Bloomberg.
The 16.85 rate was the peso’s strongest position since Jan. 8 when the currency closed at 16.84 to the dollar.
The El Financiero newspaper reported that the expectation that the United States Federal Reserve will cut interest rates “later this year” as well as a weakening of the dollar “allowed the Mexican peso” to appreciate for a fifth consecutive day on Wednesday.
The USD:MXN exchange rate was 17.09 pesos to the US dollar at the close of markets last Wednesday, meaning that the peso has appreciated about 1.2% since then.
The Mexican peso benefited in 2023 from the significant difference between the Bank of Mexico’s benchmark interest rate — currently set at 11.25% — and that of the Fed (5.25-5.5%).
Mexico’s central bank is expected to make an initial cut to its record-high rate in the first half of 2024, but most analysts believe it will not undertake an aggressive rate-easing cycle this year, and thus monetary policy could continue to benefit the peso for some time yet.
Inflation declined steadily throughout most of last year but at 4.45% in the first half of February is still above the Bank of Mexico’s 3% target.
Buoyed also by strong incoming flows of remittances and foreign investment, the peso appreciated around 13% last year after trading at 19.5 to the dollar at the beginning of 2023.
The impressive performance resulted in the currency being dubbed the “super peso,” a nickname that has reappeared in more than a few headlines this week.
The median forecast of 20 foreign exchange strategists polled by Reuters between March 1 and 4 is that the peso will weaken to 18.24 to the greenback by this time next year. “Forecasts ranged from 15.50 to 19.00 per dollar,” the news agency reported.
While most of Mexico has abandoned Daylight Saving Time, some regions have chosen to keep it to stay in harmony with the U.S. (Renel Wackett/Unsplash)
In October 2022, most of Mexico ended Daylight Saving Time (DST) after the Senate passed a bill to eliminate biannual clock changes. However, according to the current Time Zone Law, 33 municipalities that share a border with the United States still observe DST.
On Sunday, March 10, the following municipalities will set their clocks forward one hour at 2 a.m:
Chihuahua: Ciudad Juárez, Ojinaga, Ascensión, Coyame del Sotol, Guadalupe, Janos.
Tamaulipas: Nuevo Laredo, Guerrero, Mier, Miguel Alemán, Camargo.
Nuevo León: Anáhuac.
Baja California: Tijuana, Mexicali, Ensenada, Playas de Rosarito, Tecate and San Quintín.
Daylight saving time was adopted nationwide in 1996 with the idea of using more natural light and less electricity for lighting buildings, as well as facilitating commerce with the U.S.. However, the arguments in Mexico to keep it nationwide were not strong enough for those who wanted it repealed. Northern border cities, however, were allowed to keep DST in order to continue encouraging U.S.-Mexico trade.
During the discussion to approve the new law, the head of the Senate Energy Commission Rocío Abreu Artiñano, noted that energy savings from using DST had been less than 1% of the total energy consumed each year.
However, a study conducted by the National Institute of Electricity and Clean Energy (INEEL), reported that the implementation of DST in 2006 resulted in the prevention of 1,427 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere and a reduction of 2,754 million barrels of oil in fuel consumption for the generation of electrical energy.
The use of DST is a controversial topic worldwide. Over 140 countries have implemented it at some point but approximately half have since abolished it.
As day length variations are minimal around the equator, most tropical regions do not change their clocks. Currently, less than 40% of countries in the world observe DST.
Protesters used a Federal Electricity Commission truck to ram through the wooden doors of Mexico's historic National Palace Wednesday. (Cuartoscuro)
Students protesting the abduction and presumed murder of 43 students in Guerrero in 2014 used a pickup truck to break open wooden doors at the National Palace while President Andrés Manuel López Obrador spoke at a press conference inside the historic building on Wednesday morning.
Video footage shows young men — reportedly students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College in Guerrero — pushing a Federal Electricity Commission vehicle into doors at an entrance to the National Palace on Moneda Street in Mexico City’s historic center.
While protesters streamed into the presidential residence following the breach, they were stopped by military police before reaching the Treasury Hall, where President López Obrador was holding a press conference. (Cuartoscuro)
The National Palace is both the official residence and working office of Mexico’s President Andres Manuel López Obrador.
The protesters broke two wooden doors, and while some of the men reportedly entered the National Palace, none made it into the Treasury Hall, where López Obrador was speaking to journalists at his morning press conference, or mañanera.
Government personnel barricaded that room. Outside the National Palace, authorities used tear gas to disperse protesters.
Asked about the incident, López Obrador said that the government wouldn’t “repress” the protest.
At his press conference on Wednesday, President López Obrador said that advances have been made in the contentious Ayotzinapa 43 case. But the president is running out of time to fulfill a pledge to solve the case before he leaves office this year. (Presidencia)
“We’re going to achieve it, and we’re going to find the young men,” López Obrador said.
He didn’t express any great concern for the damaged doors, saying that they will be fixed and that there will be “no problem.”
The president claimed that the protesters aimed to “provoke” the government. He asserted that they were “being manipulated” by groups opposed to his administration.
“We don’t want confrontation, we’re making progress in the investigation,” said López Obrador, whose government published a new report on the almost decade-old Ayotzinapa case last September.
The Centro Prodh human rights organization, which has provided lawyers for the missing students’ families, said on social media that “fathers and mothers are not being ‘manipulated’ by @CentroProdh” or the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
“They have agency over their process,” the NGO said on the X social media platform. It said that it “regretted” that “the protest of some young men escalated” to the breaking down of the National Palace doors.
Before that post, Centro Prodh provided some “context” to the events that unfolded on Wednesday morning. It said that the military — which has long been suspected of involvement in the students’ disappearance — is refusing to hand over relevant documents and that there has been an “absence of meetings” with the president for months.
The NGO also said that there is a “governmental attempt to divide the families” of the students.
“… We urge the reestablishment of respectful dialogue supervised by international human rights authorities,” Centro Prodh said.
López Obrador said that lawyers and advisers for the students’ families were “not allowing” him to speak with the parents, but stressed that his government was willing to meet with them.
Although nearly a decade old, the unsolved case still sparks protests, like this one last month at Mexico’s senate by parents of the victims. (Galo Cañas/Cuartoscuro)
Millions of Mexicans have participated in hundreds of protests since the 43 students disappeared in Iguala, Guerrero, on the night of Sept. 26, 2014. Protests involving current Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College students have on occasion turned violent.
In recent times, some have maintained a sit-in protest at the Zócalo, Mexico City’s main square opposite the National Palace, as relatives, friends, Ayotzinapa students and others continue to seek justice and some sense of closure in the mystery-shrouded case.
On the night they disappeared, the 43 students were allegedly handed over to a local crime gang by corrupt municipal police. There have been well over 100 arrests in connection with the students’ disappearance, but no one has faced trial or been convicted of the crime.
The previous government’s official version of events — the so-called “historical truth” — was widely rejected, and the current government initiated a new investigation and pledged to definitively determine what happened to the young men. López Obrador now has less than seven months left in office and thus risks finishing his six-year term without the case having been resolved.
The case is a major blight on the record of former president Enrique Peña Nieto, who had been in office 22 months when the students disappeared. Mass protests held in the weeks and months after the crime occurred called for Peña to resign, but the president weathered the storm — at least by his own reckoning — and fully completed his term in 2018.
The Vaso de Cristo area is abnormally dry this year and a fire started in the basin on Sunday. (ROGELIO MORALES/CUARTOSCURO.COM)
A grassy, shrubby basin that serves to catch runoff rainwater from Mexico City is so dried out by central Mexico’s drought and water shortage that it caught fire on Sunday and burned for three days.
Thought to be under control on Tuesday morning, the blaze in the El Cristo basin in México state later reignited and consumed even more dried-up vegetation, bringing the total area scorched to between 30 and 45 hectares — a significant portion of the 118-hectare area.
In a social media post later Tuesday afternoon, state Civil Protection officials declared, “With the support of authorities at all levels, we managed to contain the grassland fire in the El Cristo regulatory basin.” However, a popular Mexico City-area X account noted Wednesday morning that the smell of burning grass continued to linger.
The smell of burnt vegetation wasn’t the only worry. Because El Cristo was a receptacle for sewage for decades, nearby residents have been affected by “intense clouds of smoke,” according to newspaper El Universal. “Pollution by PM2.5 particles composed of highly toxic chemical substances [were] reported by Azcapotzalco authorities,” the newspaper wrote. Azcapotzalco is Mexico City’s northwesternmost borough, adjacent to El Cristo.
El Universal added that classes and activities were suspended at nearby schools, sports complexes and cultural centers, and that firefighters had to shift to another area at one point due to a toxic cloud. The area remained on environmental alert Wednesday for smoke clouds.
The fire occurred at the Vaso Regulador El Cristo, on the border of Mexico City and Naucalpan, México state. “Vasos reguladores,”common sites in Mexico, are regulating ponds or retention basins that help stop flooding by holding excess water from man-made storm drains that are overwhelmed during heavy rains.They can also be used to store water for irrigation, improve water quality by filtering out pollutants and sediments, and provide a habitat for plants and animals.
Debido a la cantidad de humo que emana del Vaso Regulador el Cristo en Naucalpan por incendio de pastizales, incendio que ya fue sofocado, fueron suspendidas las clases en planteles educativos de la zona, incluyendo el CCH Azcapotzalco. pic.twitter.com/URwPmbsdtD
Videos posted to social media show the smoke that covered the surrounding areas
El Cristo captures runoff water from Mexico City and its neighbors, which are situated in high mountain valleys with no natural outlet.
Under normal conditions, El Cristo is lush with greenery and has enough standing water to be called a lake. In past years, people would come to the site to go kayaking, take a stroll or enjoy a family picnic.
But with below-average rainfall in 2023, and drought conditions that have been intensifying over the past four years, Mexico is experiencing a water crisis. Three reservoirs that provide the Mexico City metropolitan area with 25% of the water for over 23.5 million residents are at about one-third of capacity. In October, Mexican officials began restricting water from those reservoirs by roughly 8%, and enacted an additional 25% cut in November.
