Flooding in Tabasco blamed on Pemex construction

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October 21, 2022

Workers wade through calf-high water outside the Dos Bocas refinery. — Prolonged heavy rain in Tabasco caused flooding at the Dos Bocas refinery, the nearby town of Paraíso, and in other areas of the state this week. Carlos Canabal Obrador / Cuartoscuro.com

Twelve of 17 municipalities in Tabasco have been flooded this week after a cold front brought heavy rain to the Gulf coast state.

Paraíso, where Pemex’s new refinery is located, and Teapa are the two worst affected municipalities, the news magazine Proceso reported.

The other 10 municipalities where flooding has been reported are Centro (Villahermosa), Cárdenas, Jalpa de Méndez, Huimanguillo, Comalcalco, Cunduacán, Jalapa, Nacajuca, Centla and Tacotalpa.

Civil Protection authorities reported Thursday that over 500 homes had been flooded and that some 300 residents in 87 communities had to evacuate.

👥 #BoletínInformativo II Con apoyo de las Fuerzas Armadas, atiende Gobierno de Tabasco municipios afectados por lluvias.https://t.co/qdWugP6rl4 pic.twitter.com/isz5WUxpcy

— Protección Civil Tab (@ProcivilTabasco) October 20, 2022

Tabasco Civil Protection forces worked with the army to aid help residents affected by flooding and set up temporary shelters.

In Teapa, a banana-growing municipality that borders Chiapas, hundreds of hectares of land have been flooded, Proceso said. The Teapa-Villahemosa highway was also flooded after the De La Sierra River overflowed. The army, navy and National Guard helped scores of people evacuate their homes.

In Paraíso, 80% of the territory is underwater, according to Mayor Ana Luis Castellanos, who said that deficiencies in the construction of the Olmeca Refinery were to blame. She said that many of the water channels in the area were filled in with earth and sand that had been removed from the refinery site during construction, and excess rainwater was unable to flow into them as a result.

The refinery, the municipal palace and the local market are all flooded, the mayor said, noting that her home was affected as well.

“The refinery is underwater, it’s confirmed,” Castellanos said. “… They filled the regulating reservoirs too much … and the problem we have now [is due to that],” she said.

“… The majority of people [in Paraíso] are [living] in water because they don’t want to leave so they don’t lose their belongings, their things,” the Democratic Revolution Party mayor said.

“[But] the truth is that people’s things have been damaged because they didn’t have time to raise things – their beds, their fridges,” she said. “… We’re going to try to open up the water channels, we’re already working [to receive people] in shelters, we have to look after people’s health,” Castellanos said.

Flooding has long been a problem in Paraíso (and other parts of Tabasco), but the mayor and many residents believe that the construction of the refinery – which was officially opened in July although its not yet refining oil – has made the area more vulnerable to the phenomenon.

But some other residents say that a substandard drainage system — rather than the filling in of the water channels — is the main cause of flooding in Paraíso.

Hay medios de comunicación que escandalizan sobre la inundación de Paraíso, Tabasco y de la refinería de Dos Bocas (se anega cuando llueve parte del centro y el mercado). Compartimos imágenes de esta mañana de Paraíso y la refinería donde no se ve las inundaciones como se dice. pic.twitter.com/k5rgInOh2I

— Jesús Ramírez Cuevas (@JesusRCuevas) October 21, 2022

A presidential spokesperson shared images he said were taken Friday morning in Paraíso, as evidence that reports of flooding earlier in the week were overblown.

“The mayor says that it’s due to the filling in [of the channels] … but … there isn’t a good drainage system,” José Aguilar told the Reforma newspaper.

Anny Mández, a resident of the neighboring municipality of Comalcalco, also blamed an inadequate drainage system for the flooding there. “It’s the rainy season, ladies and gentlemen, I’m from Comalcalco and we’re all underwater, the drains can’t keep up,” she wrote on social media.

An environmental impact statement prepared in 2019 said that the refinery site was susceptible to flooding from both sea and river water and susceptible to storm tides and erosion. But Energy Minister Rocío Nahle said on Twitter Thursday that the refinery — which was built by the government — was designed to resist “any situation.”

Jesús Ramírez Cuevas, President López Obrador’s communications coordinator, asserted that claims about flooding at the refinery were false or exaggerated.

“There are media outlets that are making a scene about the flooding of Paraíso, Tabasco, and the … refinery,” he wrote on Twitter Friday. “… [Here are] images from this morning in Paraíso and the refinery, where the flooding they’re talking about is not seen,” Ramírez Cuevas added above four photos of the town and refinery.

With reports from Reforma and Proceso

Citizens’ perception of their city’s safety is at best level in a decade

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MND Staff

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October 21, 2022

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San Pedro Garza Garcia, Nuevo Leon, Mexico — Just 14% of survey respondents in San Pedro Garza García, Nuevo León, said they felt unsafe in their city, the lowest result of all the cities surveyed. (Creative Commons)

The majority of Mexicans believe the city where they live is unsafe, a new survey found, but the percentage of citizens concerned about security in their local area is nevertheless at its lowest level of the past 10 years.

Conducted by national statistics agency INEGI in late August and the first half of September, the latest National Survey of Urban Public Safety (ENSU) found that 64.4% of Mexicans feel unsafe in their home city.

While still high, the figure fell 3 points compared to June and is now at its lowest level of the past decade. The current percentage is almost nine points lower than when President López Obrador took office in December 2018.

INEGI surveyed residents of 75 cities for the latest ENSU, which is conducted every quarter. All 16 Mexico City boroughs were considered separately, lifting the total number of cities to 90.

While still high, the current percentage of 64.4% of respondents feeling unsafe is almost nine points lower than when AMLO took office in 2018.

Perceptions of insecurity are higher among women than men, the survey found. About seven in 10 women – 70.5% – consider their city to be unsafe, while 57.2% of men said the same.

Fresnillo, Zacatecas, has the unenviable distinction of being the city considered unsafe by the highest percentage of surveyed citizens, with 94.7% of respondents expressing concerns.

The cities of Irapuato in Guanajuato, Naucalpan in México state, Zacatecas city and Ciudad Obregón in Sonora were also deemed unsafe by more than 90% of their residents.

Numerous other cities including Guadalajara, Colima, San Luis Potosí, Uruapan, Toluca, León and Ciudad Juárez were considered dangerous by over 80% of their residents.

Parroquia de la Purificacion in Fresnillo, Zacatecas — The city of Fresnillo, Zacatecas, had the worst results, with 94.7% of respondents expressing concerns about safety.

Security perception levels among citizens were only below 50% in 24 of the 90 cities considered by INEGI. Among those, San Pedro Garza García – an affluent municipality in the metropolitan area of Monterrey – can be considered the safest city as just 14.5% of residents said that insecurity was a problem in their local area.

Four other cities had insecurity perception rates of 25% or lower – the Mexico City borough of Benito Juárez (20.6%), Piedras Negras (23.8%), Tampico (25%) and Los Mochis (25%).

Other cities with relatively low rates – below 40% – included Los Cabos, Saltillo, Puerto Vallarta, Mérida, Tepic, Durango and La Paz.

Withdrawing money from automatic teller machines on city streets is a major concern for Mexico’s urban dwellers, the survey found. Almost three-quarters of respondents – 73.6% – told INEGI they feel unsafe when using ATMs, while 67.4% said that using public transport was risky.

people in a bank in Cozumel — Banks didn’t rate high with respondents as safe places. ATMs were the No. 1 place people said they feel unsafe.

The other places where a majority of those polled said they felt unsafe were banks, the streets they regularly use, highways and markets. Some respondents said they also felt unsafe at parks, in their cars, at shopping centers, at work, at home and while studying at educational institutes.

INEGI also asked citizens to offer an outlook for the security situation in their cities over the next 12 months. Just over 35% of respondents expect the situation to remain “just as bad” while 25.7% anticipate it will deteriorate. Only 21.9% of those polled believe that the public security situation will improve in their cities in the coming year, while 16% predicted it will stay “just as good” as it is now.

Violent crime is a significant problem in various parts of Mexico, but homicides declined 8.4% in the first eight months of 2022 compared to the same period of last year, official data shows. Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez declared last month that “today we live in better conditions of peace and it’s clear that the national security strategy is working.”

However, Mexico remains on track to record over 30,000 homicides once again this year, with almost 21,000 victims between January and August.

With reports from Milenio

Peso set to depreciate against U.S. dollar: Moody’s Analytics

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MND Staff

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October 21, 2022

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U.S. dollar bills with Mexican peso bills and coins. — A U.S. recession would be bad news for the peso.Depositphotos

The Mexican peso could depreciate 20% against the U.S. dollar in the coming months due to tightening monetary policy in the United States, according to Moody’s Analytics.

Citing a model that replicates the monetary and financial conditions of the global economic crises of 2009 and 2020, the financial intelligence company predicted a “significant” correction for the peso, which currently trades at about 20 to the U.S. dollar.

The tightening of monetary policy that is already underway in the United States — the Federal Reserve raised rates by 75 basis points for a third consecutive time in September as it seeks to tame high inflation — could trigger an exchange rate correction, Moody’s said in a report.

The company used the word “imminent” to describe the proximity of the commencement of its predicted correction, but also said that the anticipated depreciation might not come until 2024, “depending on the speed of the Federal Reserve’s monetary tightening cycle and Mexico’s monetary policy reaction.”

The central bank's headquarters in Mexico City. — The central bank’s headquarters in Mexico City. Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 3.0

The Bank of México (Banxico) holds its monetary policy meetings a week after the Fed’s interest rate announcements, and has recently followed its lead in lifting rates by 0.75% in an attempt to bring stubbornly high inflation down. Banxico’s sharp hikes are seen as one factor that has helped the peso maintain — and even increase — its value against the greenback. Other factors include strong inflows of remittances, foreign investment in Mexico and strong export earnings.

However, a recession in the United States could “reverse” those positives, Reuters said. The news agency also said that “an imminent return of capital to the United States caused by the Fed ramping up rates could weigh on the peso.”

At 9.25%, Mexico’s benchmark interest rate is currently much higher than that in the United States, while inflation here was 8.7% in September.

Carlos González, chief analyst at the Monex financial group, suggested that Banxico might not keep up with the Fed’s interest rate increases in 2023.

“It seems to me that next year, as the Fed continues to increase rates, the Bank of México could even say ‘We are staying here’ and I think that factor may affect [the peso],” he said.

Many currencies have depreciated significantly against the dollar in 2022, but the Mexican peso isn’t one of them. In fact, the peso has strengthened against the greenback, adding over 2% in value since the start of the year.

Moody’s acknowledged that the peso has been relatively stable since the initial pandemic shock in the first half of 2020, when it fell to a low of about 25 to the U.S. dollar.

Alfredo Coutiño, the financial intelligence company’s head of Latin America economic research, also warned of a “currency correction” for the peso in an analysis for Moody’s Analytics subscribers. “By the beginning of 2023 at the latest, the depreciation of the Mexican peso will have to come,” he said.

With reports from EFE, Reforma and Reuters

Mexico could follow US into recession in 2023: Bloomberg

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MND Staff

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October 21, 2022

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Mexico's stock exchange building, the Bolsa Mexicana de Valores — Mexico’s stock exchange building, the Bolsa Mexicana de Valores. Moisés Pablo Nava/Cuartoscuro

The old adage, “When the United States sneezes, the world catches a cold,” appears to still have currency today – and Mexico’s proximity to and interconnectedness with the world’s largest economy could make its own economy especially vulnerable to contagion.

Bloomberg reported Monday that “a near-certain U.S. recession” in 2023 “will likely pull Mexico’s economy into a contraction.”

The news agency said that Bloomberg Economics models show a 100% probability that the U.S. economy will go into recession during the next year due to the Federal Reserve’s sharp interest rate hikes as it attempts to tame inflation.

According to Bloomberg Latin America economist Felipe Hernández, Mexico’s economy is likely to “steadily lose momentum before falling” into recession in the second half of next year.

Bloomberg Latin America economist Felipe Hernandez — Bloomberg Latin America economist Felipe Hernández. Bloomberg

However, Hernández doesn’t anticipate Mexico being in the doldrums for too long. “After a short, shallow recession, growth would quickly rebound in 2024,” he wrote in an article for Bloomberg Professional Service subscribers.

That said, a recession in the United States would be a “meaningful shock” for Mexico, the economist said. “The U.S. recovery from the pandemic has been one of the few growth drivers for Mexico since the outbreak,” Hernández wrote.

Bloomberg noted that the Mexican economy became more dependent on the U.S. economy during the pandemic as President López Obrador – in contrast with many leaders around the world – didn’t increase spending to support the economy during the downturn.

GDP plummeted by more than 8% in 2020 as Mexico endured one of the world’s worst coronavirus outbreaks, even though economic restrictions here were looser than those in many other countries.

Hernández said that Mexico’s recovery has depended heavily on demand from consumers north of the border and foreign companies that operate here due to the ease of tapping into the U.S. market. That demand would suffer from a downturn in the U.S., and Mexican workers in that country would send less money home, he wrote.

Remittances are a major source of income for many Mexican families, and López Obrador often describes migrants who support their loved ones at home as “heroes.”

While Bloomberg’s models are predicting a recession in the U.S., three Bloomberg economists including Hernández acknowledged they could be wrong.

For his part, President Joe Biden said last week that he wasn’t anticipating a recession, but if there is one it will be “very slight.”

In Mexico, López Obrador remains upbeat about the state of the economy, saying Tuesday that the country has “economic stability” and that GDP is equivalent to that of Spain.

Mexico has the world’s 15th biggest economy with GDP reaching almost US $1.3 trillion last year, according to data compiled by Investopedia.

The World Bank is more optimistic than Bloomberg about the prospects of the Mexican economy in 2023, forecasting growth of 1.5%, even though the Bank of México has responded to high inflation here – 8.7% in September – with three successive interest rate hikes of 0.75%.

With reports from Bloomberg

Guadalajara has the world’s coolest neighborhood, says Time Out

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MND Staff

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October 21, 2022

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Las Ramblas Cataluna plaza in Colonia Americana — The Las Ramblas Cataluña plaza in Colonia Americana. Román López/Unsplash

Mexico doesn’t just have the world’s best small city — San Miguel de Allende, according to readers of Condé Nast Traveler magazine — but now also the world’s coolest neighborhood.

The Colonia Americana neighborhood in Guadalajara ranked No. 1 in Time Out magazine’s 2022 list of the 51 coolest neighborhoods in the world.

Time Out, which surveyed readers and sought “expert input” from its “global network of local writers and editors” to compile its fifth annual coolest neighborhoods list, said that Colonia Americana – located just west of Guadalajara’s downtown area – is the epicenter of the Jalisco capital’s underground scene.

“Located right next to 500-year-old El Centro, it’s an edgy blend of art deco and neoclassical mansions with artists’ squats and warehouses containing some of the city’s best music venues,” the publication said, mentioning Segundo Piso Music and Bar Americas, which it described as Latin America’s answer to legendary Berlin club Berghain.

DJ Jimi Jules performing at Bar Americas in Guadalajara — DJ Jimi Jules spins the tunes at the Bar Americas nightclub in the world’s coolest neighborhood. BarAmericas

Time Out also said that the plaza around the neo-gothic church Templo Expiatorio del Santísmo is “prime for people-watching at any time of the day thanks to its many food carts and street performers.”

Adding to Colonia Americana’s coolness are the “sleek cafes” and “dive bars” where “creative locals” work and sip tequila, the liquor whose birthplace is the town of Santiago de Tequila – located about 70 kilometers northwest of central Guadalajara.

Time Out recommended a range of other Colonia Americana places to visit in a “perfect day” itinerary, including the art gallery Tiro Al Blanco, the restaurant Veneno and “vibey Chapultepec Avenue” for its weekend handicrafts market.

One thing that the magazine didn’t talk about was safety. However, the Mexican author Antonio Ortuño – a resident of Colonia Americana – said that almost 900 crimes were reported in the neighborhood in the first nine months of 2022.

“Let’s say it without subterfuge: la Americana is not a safe area,” he wrote in an article published Monday in the Spanish newspaper El País.

Only one other Mexican neighborhood appeared in this year’s 51 coolest neighborhoods list, and it just scraped into the rankings at No. 51. Versalles, in the Jalisco resort city of Puerto Vallarta, is “an inconspicuous part of town” but home to “a clutch of Vallarta’s coolest shops and restaurants,” Time Out said.

“This charming area feels like a small town in itself, with its cobbled roads, bougainvillea and traditional single-story homes, and its calm is a refreshing contrast to the nearby tourist neighborhoods of Centro, Cinco de Diciembre and Zona Romantica,” the magazine said.

However, Versalles is “not all peace and quiet,” Time Out said, noting that “when you are ready to paint the town red, Calle España has the city’s best dining and nightlife, with street-style tacos waiting at La Mucca and smoky mezcal cocktails at La Tatema Mezcalería.”

It also said that the proximity of the neighborhood to Puerto Vallarta’s beaches adds to its appeal.

Joining Colonia Americana and Versalles on the coolest neighborhoods list are areas in cities such as Tokyo, Toronto, São Paulo, Barcelona, Melbourne and Lagos.

Ranking second to fifth behind Guadalajara’s epitome of cool are Cais do Sodré in Lisbon, Portugal; Wat Bo Village in Siem Reap, Cambodia; Ridgewood in New York City in the U.S.; and Mile End in Montreal, Canada.

Mexico News Daily

State-owned Chinese telecom gets 30-year-permit to operate in Mexico

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MND Staff

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October 21, 2022

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China Unicom international partners' meeting — The Hong Kong-based company initially will provide tech services – including dedicated links and data transmission capacity. Photos: China Unicom Global

A Chinese state-owned telecommunications company has obtained permission to operate in Mexico for 30 years.

The Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT) has granted China United Network Communications Group, known as China Unicom, a license to operate here, the newspaper El Economista reported Wednesday.

It said that the license allows the Hong Kong-based business – one of China’s largest telecommunications companies – to enter the fixed and mobile telephone markets in Mexico.

However, China Unicom initially intends to provide technological services – including dedicated links and data transmission capacity – to customers including corporate businesses, El Economista said, adding that its competitors will be firms such as Alestra, Axtel, Telmex, MCM, Bestel and Totalplay.

Chen Zhongyue, Exec Director and President China Unicom — Chen Zhongyue, China Unicom’s executive director and president, runs one of China’s biggest telecommunications companies.

Citing IFT documents, El Economista also said that the Chinese company is interested in developing its own fiber-optic networks. In that area, it would be a competitor of companies such as Century Link, Estevez.Jor and Neutral Networks.

China Unicom, which has some 155 million mobile customers in China, submitted an application for a permit to operate in Mexico in March, and IFT approved it in July. However, the regulator has only just made its decision public, the newspaper said.

China Unicom’s authority to operate in the United States was revoked by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in January due to national security concerns. The FCC last month named China Unicom and two other Chinese telecommunications companies as threats to U.S. national security as they are subject to Chinese government influence and control.

With reports from El Economista

Health regulator finds 30 undisclosed substances in ESD aerosols

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MND Staff

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October 21, 2022

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Mexican woman vaping on the street — “This is an enormous deception of consumers, who trust that the product is less harmful than a conventional cigarette,” Cofepris chief Alejandro Svarch said, Román López/Unsplash

An analysis by health regulator Cofepris has detected 30 undisclosed substances in aerosols inhaled via electronic smoking devices (ESDs) commonly known as vapes and e-cigarettes.

Linalool, which can be used as an insecticide, was one of the substances detected. Cofepris chief Alejandro Svarch appeared at President López Obrador’s morning press conference on Tuesday to present the preliminary results of the analysis. He said that Cofepris scientists developed their own methodology to analyze the aerosols in ESDs – whose sale was banned in Mexico in June – because no one else has come up with one.

Final results of the analysis will be published in scientific journals in the coming months, Svarch said, adding that the pioneering methodology developed in Mexico will be of interest to health authorities in other countries.

He said that the Cofepris analysis detected a total of 33 substances in the vapors of ESDs but only three (in addition to nicotine) appear on the labeling of the devices – glycerol, propylene glycol and natural or artificial flavorings.

Mexico's health regulator chief Alejandro Svarch — Svarch told President Lopez Obrador’s daily press conference that the agency had to invent its own method of testing the aerosols of e-cigarettes because tests don’t exist. Daniel Augusto Sánchez Moreno/Cuartoscuro

“This in itself is an enormous deception of consumers, who trust that the product is less harmful than a conventional cigarette, because it [supposedly] only has flavorings and nicotine, when in fact, it has other kinds of substances or ingredients that are highly dangerous for humans,” Svarch said.

Among the “hidden” ingredients that “producers of vaping devices don’t want us to know about,” he said, are dimethyl ether, benzyl alcohol, ethyl propionate, isoamyl acetate, butyl acetate and methyl cinnamate.

“We found linalool, for example, which is used to kill flies and cockroaches,” Svarch said. “With this work and other scientific research about the risks associated with vaping, we can now say there is nothing that the vaping industry can hide with respect to these products — which are not only deceitful but also [pose] an enormous risk to human health.” Linalool is a naturally-occuring compound that is also commonly used as a food additive and in products such as soaps and cosmetics.

Svarch also presented a song commissioned by Cofepris that warns of the risks of vaping and advises ESD users to “give up now.”

#ElVapeTeAcortaLaVida#DéjaloYa

Watch this video on YouTube

A video commissioned by Cofepris to publicize the dangers of vaping. Click to hear the anti-vaping song written for the video, which starts at 1:40.

Among the cautionary tales offered via the song’s lyrics are the cases of a woman who lost three teeth due to vaping and a handsome man who became known as “burnt face” because his beloved vape exploded while he was using it.

Mexico News Daily

Mexico in Numbers: The season of cempasúchil

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Rose Egelhoff

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October 21, 2022

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It's almost harvest time for cempasúchil farmers. Depositphotos

Throughout central Mexico, thousands of hectares of cempasúchil (marigold) flowers are blooming, nearly ready for harvest.

The vividly orange blossom is a staple of the upcoming Day of the Dead festivities in November. Their pungent fragrance is said to guide the spirits of the deceased to the altars built by family and friends in their honor. Since pre-Hispanic times, the flowers have been used in food, as a source of dye and for their medicinal properties.

The name comes from the náhuatl word cempōhualxōchitl, meaning “20 flowers.” It’s an appropriate name; though a single marigold looks like one large flower, it is actually many small flowers on a single base. Thirty of the 55 known species of cempasúchil are native to Mexico. The rest are from other areas of the Americas.

Thousands of farmers count cempasúchil among the crops that they cultivate. Puebla leads the pack, producing more than 3/4 of the national harvest by weight in 2021 according to the Ministry of Agriculture. Together, Mexican farmers produced nearly half a million flower bunches in 2021, worth 93.5 million pesos (US $4.7 million).

According to Agriculture Minister Víctor Villalobos Arámbula, the flower has made an impression far beyond Mexico.

“Our cempasúchil has become the protagonist of various festivities in India, North Korea, Japan and other countries,” he said. “In the Hindu lights festival, the floral adornments are mainly composed of cempasúchil; in Bali, Indonesia, the religious adornments made of cempasúchil are so important that the flower has become a true icon of the region.”

Within Mexico, the cempasúchil harvest has generally declined over the years since the government began keeping records in 1980 (though the reported harvest has varied wildly over the years). This could be related to many factors: the small farmers who grew cempasúchil in that decade may have been highly vulnerable to climate variations, causing the harvest to drop in drier years, for example. It is also possible that variation had to do with the challenges the government faced in quantifying a small-scale, artisanal crop that was often grown in remote rural areas.

The biggest spike in production came the same year as Mexico's most deadly earthquake, which occurred on Sept. 19, 1985 and killed thousands. The following year, as the country faced political instability and recovered from the devastating quake, the cempasúchil harvest fell by more than 80%.

But since hitting a low point in 2010 (just over 5800 tonnes were produced that year), the harvest has been trending larger, with a projected haul of 20,245 tonnes for 2022.

Another factor affecting Mexico's cempasúchil harvest is the use of Marvel African Marigold seeds, National Geographic en Español has reported. Despite their name, the seeds are not African but a genetically modified version of a species native to Mexico.

The Marvel African Marigold's small, uniform plant size and the large number of flowers they produce make them convenient for farmers, but they variety is also modified so that its seeds are not fertile. As a result, farmers have to buy relatively expensive imported seeds every year rather than collecting or breeding their own varieties, according Dr. Miguel Ángel Serrato Cruz, a horticultural specialist at the Autonomous University of Chapingo who researches cempasúchil.

The increasing popularity of Marvel African Marigold seeds among Mexican farmers threatens the preservation of the dozens of cempasúchil species native to Mexico, as well as deeply-rooted cultural tradtions, Serrato Cruz said.

A Day of the Dead altar featuring the traditional cempasúchil flowers. Depositphotos

He and other Mexican scientists hope to engineer fertile, home-grown alternatives to the imported seeds to preserve the diversity of Mexico's many cempasúchil species while also staying competitive with imported ornamental varieties.

Rose Egelhoff is an associate editor at Mexico News Daily and a freelance writer. You can follow her work on Twitter and the internet.

En Breve CDMX: FIFA fan fest, the Zoo turns 100 and more from the capital

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MND Staff

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October 21, 2022

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el tri fans — El Tri fans at a 2021 match. Twitter @miseleccionmx

FIFA fan fest comes to Mexico City

Mexico City will host one of six FIFA Fan Festival events for the 2022 soccer World Cup, which starts in Qatar on Nov. 20.

Sponsored by Corona beer, the CDMX event will be held at the square surrounding the Monument to the Revolution, located just west of the capital’s historic center.

A giant screen will be set up to show all the World Cup matches, including Mexico’s first round encounters with Poland, Argentina and Saudi Arabia.

El Tri’s first match against Poland on Nov. 22 starts at 10 a.m. Central Time while the big game against Argentina kicks off at 1 p.m. on Nov. 26.

The fan fest runs from Nov. 20 to Dec. 18. FIFA

Entry to the Fan Fest will be free but attendees are required to register for a free ticket at fifafanfestivalmx.com.

The other five cities that will hold FIFA Fan Festivals for the World Cup are London, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Seoul and Dubai.

Design competition commemorates 100 years of the Chapultepec Zoo

The Mexico City Environment Ministry (Sedema) has launched a competition in which participants are invited to design a logo to commemorate the upcoming 100th anniversary of the opening of the Chapultepec Zoo, located in the capital’s largest park — the Bosque de Chapultepec.

Bosque de Chapultepec entrance — The main entrance to the Bosque de Chapultepec. Depositphotos

The competition is open to school and university students, and participants can submit entries as individuals or teams. The winning designer (or designers) will receive a cash prize of 15,000 pesos (about US $750) and their logo will feature on a commemorative plaque to be displayed at the zoo.

More information about the competition is available in a Sedema statement (Spanish).

The Chapultepec zoo, open Tuesday to Sunday, is popular with tourists and Mexico City families. Entry to the zoo, which opened in July 1923, is free.

CDMX wins international environmental award

Mexico City has won a World Green City Award for its environmental and climate change program. The International Association of Horticultural Producers (AIPH) announced winners in a range of categories at an event in South Korea last Friday. The Grand Winner of the AIPH World Green City Awards was Hyderabad, India.

The Mexico City Environment Ministry said in a statement that the capital was “recognized for actions based on the incorporation of more vegetation to improve ecological conditions and increase social and economic wellbeing and environmental resilience.”

It said that the revegetation of the city via the planting of millions of trees and plants “has allowed the capture of more than 4,635 tonnes of CO2 equivalent” between 2019 and 2022.

New public transport route to open next week in Iztapalapa

Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum announced that the elevated trolleybus line in the eastern borough of Iztapalapa will open on Oct. 24.

The line will connect neighborhoods in Iztapalapa — the capital’s most populous borough — to Mixcoac, a district in the Benito Juárez borough.

“You’ll be able to travel from the east to the west of the city in the new trolleybuses,” Sheinbaum said late last week.

Some 76,000 people are expected to use the new buses on a daily basis. The city government invested almost 3.2 billion pesos (about US $160 million) in the construction of the elevated route and spent 108 million pesos (US $5.4 million) on 26 new buses. A ticket will cost 7 pesos irrespective of the distance traveled.

Mexico News Daily

Drought conditions have meant more bears going viral in Nuevo León

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MND Staff

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October 21, 2022

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Viral video bear — This Nuevo León bear went viral after casually interrupting a marriage proposal, to the bemusement of the participants. Twitter screenshot

A marriage proposal in Monterrey, Nuevo León, was interrupted by a bear that calmly walked by between the couple and the recording camera. “What a good story!” the man recording the video said between laughs. The clip went viral on social media in the first days of October.

Yet this is certainly not the first time a bear has been caught on video in Monterrey. For about fifteen years, bear sightings have been common in the city. These omnivorous animals come down from the wooded area in Cumbres de Monterrey National Park with one purpose only: to look for food.

In an interview for Reporte Índigo, bear behavior specialist Rogelio Carrera explained that a bear’s diet is not available all year round, which makes the bears look beyond their natural habitat for food.

Moreover, Nuevo León suffered from extreme drought conditions this year, which meant less fruit production, forcing the bears to look further for the up to 20,000 daily calories they need to build up their fat stores for the winter months.

Having to move outside their natural habitat, the bears find it more energy-efficient to look for organic food in the trash rather than hunting down a deer, says Carrera.

Interrumpe 🐻 romántica propuesta de matrimonio 💍 de una pareja en un restaurante en zona de Chipinque en #SanPedro. Los novios 👰‍♀️ 🤵 se sorprendieron al ver al 🐻 que por fortuna solo iba de paso 😅😅… pic.twitter.com/ogo7m1WJwj

— Yadith Valdez (@yadithvaldez) October 6, 2022

“What we’ve seen through the years is that we have generations of bears that started to have contact with food from human origin, either because people gave them food or because they found food in the garbage […] there are even some bears that since they were cubs, were taken by their mothers to the trash to look for food,” he said, adding that there is now a problem with multiple generations of animals adapting to the city.

Over time, it has become more common for bears to move further from their homes in Cumbres de Monterrey National Park and deeper into the city. One of the most recent visits happened in Real de San Pedro, a neighborhood in the Zuazua borough far from the park.

These behaviors have made the bears more “humanized” in that they get more comfortable near people. There are reports of bears wandering on streets and footage that show bears looking for food on rooftops or outside people’s garages.

There is also the story of a woman who took a selfie with a bear on the mountain of Chipinque, and reports of a bear that was found asleep in the streets of the prestigious neighborhood of San Pedro.

To prevent the bears from continuing to come down to the city, Carrera suggests that those living close to Cumbres de Monterrey National Park must pay attention to proper management of their solid waste.

“We can’t leave solid waste out on the street all night because that’s when the bears are the most active. All waste should be taken out, preferably, when the garbage truck arrives,” said Carrera.

The expert also advised people to avoid feeding the bears, emphasizing that even if done out of compassion, “it is the worst thing we can do for them”.

With reports from Reporte Índigo, El Informador and Proceso