Still from video footage of the shooting at the Andares Shopping Mall in Zapopan on Oct. 2. Social media
An arrest has been made in connection to a shooting outside an upscale shopping mall in Zapopan, Jalisco, on Oct. 2 that left one dead and six injured, Deputy Security Minister Ricardo Mejía reported on Thursday.
The man captured and arrested by the Mexican army was named as César Augusto “N,” an alleged higher-up in the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) who goes by the nickname “El Gafe.”
Mejia said “El Gafe” has been a regional leader for CJNG in the Jalisco municipalities of Tlajomulco de Zúñiga and El Salto, and as someone who coordinates ”drug dealing cells, hitmen and informants,” he is one of the main generators of violence in the Guadalajara metro area. He recruited people in Jalisco, México state Quintana Roo and Querétaro for criminal activities, Mejía added.
Mejía said that the seizure of “El Gafe” on Tuesday was carried out in three locations, during which 1,000 fentanyl pills, an assortment of rifles and guns, grenades, cartridges and vehicles were seized. An additional CJNG operative, said to be Juan Carlos “N.” (aka “Carlitos”) was arrested during the operation, Mejía added.
The detainees were transferred to the Special Prosecutor for Organized Crime and are awaiting trial for the crimes of homicide and kidnapping.
Mejía said “Carlitos” participated in the series of violent outbreaks in Jalisco in August, when criminals blocked roads and burned vehicles and convenience stores, leaving at least three dead. Mejía said “Carlitos” was part of the uprising in Ixtlahuacán del Río, Jalisco.
The wave of violence in Jalisco has put the government of President López Obrador under the gun and set off alarms in the United States. On August 10, the U.S. Embassy issued a travel alert, stating, “Following numerous confirmed acts of violence on August 9, including arson of buildings and vehicles, U.S. citizens are reminded to reconsider travel to Guanajuato state.”
At the Oct. 2 shooting at the Andares Shopping Mall in Zapopan, a city of 1.5 million next to Guadalajara, several black vans stopped in front of the high-end center, at which point the shooting began, according to videos seen by Mejía and others. Hooded men dressed in black can be seen with assault rifles firing in different directions.
The man who died was a bodyguard in an escort car with Mexico City license plates, authorities said. The next day, López Obrador said the CJNG commandos intended to kidnap a businessman who deals in the purchase and sale of vehicles, though he didn’t reveal his identity.
The name of water boatmen eggs, ahuautle, means “water amaranth” in Nahuatl.
Mexico is famous for its edible bugs, from lime and chile roasted crickets sprinkled across guacamole to chicatana ants in a comal-toasted quesadilla. But one of Central Mexico’s most ancient bug proteins is now in danger of disappearing forever — ahuautle, the eggs of the aquatic insects in the Corixidae family. Those bugs, often called water boatmen in English and known as axayácatl or mosco para pajaro in Mexico, are found in the last remaining wetlands of the once-expansive Lake Texcoco, near Mexico City.
Lake Texcoco, part of the lake system that once covered the majority of the Valley of Mexico, has from the time of the Mexica (also known as Aztecs) been slowly drained and developed as Mexico’s capital expanded beyond every limit society has tried to place on it. Only a few traditional ahuautle “farmers” still collect in the remnants of Lake Texcoco at the edges of Mexico City. Juan Hernández, who in his 50s has been collecting since he was a young man, is only one of the half dozen or so collectors still harvesting and selling ahuautle, which he says is difficult and dirty work.
“Now we are just keeping ahuautle alive,” Hernández said according to the Associated Press, “I hope it doesn’t disappear, because it is a source of income for those of us who live off the land.”
The work starts with placing pine boughs on the muddy bottom of the lake’s shallow edges during the ahuautle laying season, from June to September. Hernández then goes back to collect the boughs about a week later, slinging them onto a Styrofoam raft that he drags behind him. The boughs are dried and eggs shook onto a cloth on the shore where they dry and then pass through a cleaning process back at the Hernandez household — put through a sieve to remove any final bits of mud or pine.
A kilo of the ahuautle can cost US $50 or about $23 a pound. The price has converted these tiny eggs into a kind of culinary delicacy not accessible to just any diner. But despite their exclusivity, the ahuautle have also fallen out of vogue among younger diners, a fact lamented by those trying to preserve it.
The dish “is associated with the countryside, perhaps with poverty, as if it were an undesirable protein,” says Edday Farfán, an entomologist at UNAM that has been studying water boatmensince 2016 and has the image of one tattooed on his arm.
For Juan Hernández, who is only one of six collectors still known to be doing this work, the ahuautle are not only a source of income but a way of life.
“For me, more than anything, it means tradition,” he says.
The Federal No. 1 school in Tapachula, Chiapas, has seen two incidents of apparent mass poisonings of students in the last month, the most recent on Tuesday. Parents gathered outside the school on Wednesday for answers. DAMIÁN SÁNCHEZ/CUARTOSCURO
For the third time in less than a week, a mass poisoning case affecting students has been reported in the southern state of Chiapas.
On Tuesday, October 11, 14 students who attend the Federal No. 1 Constitución secondary school in Tapachula became sick and were taken to a Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) hospital, the newspaper El Financiero reported.
Students said that some of their classmates felt dizzy and vomited before they were hospitalized.
IMSS said the 14 students had symptoms of “probable poisoning,” but what substance they had ingested was unclear. They were reported in stable condition.
Parents wait as authorities gathered evidence at the Tapachula school with the aid of police dogs. DAMIÁN SÁNCHEZ/CUARTOSCURO
In a separate incident on Friday, October 7, a large number of students mysteriously fell ill in the municipality of Bochil, only a day after a dozen students in Tapachula became sick due to suspected poisoning.
The events were all preceded by an incident in late September, where some 30 students fell ill in Tapachula.
The October 7 incident in Bochil, located about 80 kilometers northeast of state capital Tuxtla Gutiérrez, saw over 100 students in their early teens poisoned by an unidentified substance. Fifty-seven of the students were initially hospitalized, according to IMSS, but all but two – one of whom is reportedly in serious condition – were later released.
However, at least 20 Bochil students were readmitted to hospital on October 11 because they were suffering anxiety, nausea, vomiting and hallucinations, according to the newspaper El Heraldo de Chiapas, which spoke with family members.
Reports said that the Bochil students had ingested cocaine, but the Chiapas Attorney General’s Office (FGE) said Monday that 35 toxicology tests had been conducted by state authorities and the results were all negative for that drug as well as opioids, cannabis and amphetamines.
However, the state Attorney General’s Office noted in a statement that three adolescents had tested positive for cocaine in tests conducted by private laboratories. In a press conference on Thursday, Chiapas Attorney General Olaf López Hernández announced that due to this discrepancy, his office had asked the federal attorney general’s office to provide additional experts to evaluate the case.
The FGE said it had received 29 complaints from parents of students who study at Bochil’s Juana de Asbaja secondary school and that five students reported drinking water after recess that tasted bitter. They subsequently began to feel ill.
The FGE said that it collected evidence from the school, among which were 33 plastic bottles of varying sizes and nylon bags.
José Eduardo Morales, a prosecutor in Chiapas who focuses on cases involving adolescents, said in a radio interview Tuesday that a blue substance was found in the nylon bags. That substance, which is being analyzed, was presumably mixed with water the students drank.
Morales said that a total of 110 students were in fact taken to hospital and another 20 or so were treated by private practice doctors.
He said the case remains under investigation and that authorities were waiting to speak with more affected students.
President López Obrador had lots to say about who might represent opposition parties in 2024. Presidencia de la República
With Mexico’s 2024 presidential election less than two years away, speculation is growing about who the major political parties will nominate as their candidates for the nation’s top job.
Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebard and Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum are the leading contenders to secure the ruling Morena party’s nomination, but there is far less clarity about who will represent the main opposition parties, which could choose to field a common candidate.
In that context, President López Obrador offered his own (very) long-list of possible opposition candidates on Thursday, saying that a total of 43 people have either expressed interest in vying for the presidency or have been mentioned as potential contenders.
At his regular press conference, the president initially presented a list of 42 names, but later said that former Tamaulipas governor Francisco García Cabeza de Vaca – wanted by federal authorities on organized crime charges – was another possible “pre-candidate.”
Nuevo León Governor Samuel García, Federal Deputy Margarita Zavala and journalist Carlos Loret de Mola are a few of the names the president mentioned as possible opposition candidates for the next presidential election.
Among the 42 names on AMLO’s alphabetized long-list were:
Former Bank of México governor Agustín Carstens, currently serving as general manager of the Bank for International Settlements.
Institutional Revolutionary Party national president and federal Deputy Alejandro Moreno, a former Campeche governor who is accused of corruption in his home state.
Prominent journalist Carlos Loret de Mola, an outspoken critic of López Obrador and the federal government.
Businessman Carlos X. González, founder of a non-governmental anti-corruption organization and a leader of the Sí por México political movement.
Jalisco Governor Enrique Alfaro, who declared late last year that he is “more than prepared” to be a presidential candidate.
Former federal tourism minister Enrique de la Madrid, son of ex-president Miguel de la Madrid.
Former Mexican Employers Federation chief Gustavo de Hoyos, another Sí por México leader.
Former federal economy minister and current federal Deputy Ildefonso Guajardo, a key negotiator of the USMCA free trade pact.
Federal Deputy Margarita Zavala, wife of former president Felipe Calderón and a 2018 presidential candidate until she dropped out of the race 1 1/2 months before polling day.
National Action Party national president Marko Cortés, a former federal deputy.
Yucatán Governor Mauricio Vila, a former mayor of Mérida who frequently meets with AMLO during his visits to inspect progress on the Maya Train railroad.
Former Mexico City Mayor and current federal Senator Miguel Ángel Mancera.
Former federal Interior Minister and current federal Senator Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong.
Former lawmaker and 2018 presidential candidate Ricardo Anaya, a prominent antagonist of the president.
Nuevo León Governor Samuel García, a young Citizens Movement party politician who is perhaps not as well known as his social media influencer wife.
López Obrador said that the head honchos of the conservative side of politics – “those right at the top” – will ultimately decide who represents the opposition at the 2024 presidential election.
Some of those he mentioned would appear to have little or no chance of becoming a presidential candidate, and the president asserted he didn’t know a couple of the people on his list.
His presentation of possible opposition candidates came two days after he said that a total of five people could compete for Morena’s nomination.
The president cited Ebrard, Sheinbaum and Interior Minister Adán Agusto López as aspirants to the Morena candidacy, but acknowledged that Senator Ricardo Monreal, the ruling party’s leader in the upper house, and Gerardo Fernández Noroña, a Labor Party deputy, could also enter the fray. Morena intends to give its members a say in who will be the party’s presidential candidate at the July 2024 election.
López Obrador’s speculation about who the opposition might nominate as its representative came two days after six civil society organizations joined forces to create a new opposition alliance. Representatives of the Unid@s alliance urged the National Action Party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, the Democratic Revolution Party and the Citizens Movement party to back a common candidate at the 2024 election.
The scene at the Juárez Theater was bright and lively Tuesday night, the day before the festival opened. Facebook / Festival Internacional Cervantino
After a fully virtual program in 2020 and a hybrid edition last year, it is back — and if you’re in the city of Guanajuato this week, there’s no need to ask what “it” is.
Running from Oct. 12 to 30, the International Cervantino Festival will draw hundreds of thousands of people to the city for what is not only its first full presentation since the pandemic struck, but also its 50th annual.
The last time the festival was held in full, in 2019, the massive music, arts and culture event drew 415,000 visitors to Guanajuato city, and this year organizers are hoping for 500,000, according to an Associated Press report that quoted Mariana Aymerich Ordóñez, the Cervantino’s general director.
While the festival can trace its roots back to the middle of the 20th century, when short plays written by Spaniard Miguel de Cervantes, the author of the novel “Don Quixote,” were performed in the city’s plaza and streets, it began in its current form in 1972.
A statue of Cervantes’ most famous characters, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, in Guanajuato city. Depositphotos
But even back then, the festival was nowhere near what it is today. At the inaugural event 50 years ago, there were 39 musical shows, 22 artists, 40 theater performances, 14 dance activities, three poetry recitals and four visual arts exhibitions.
This year, there will be 85 musical performances, 2,941 artists from 34 countries, 20 dance performances, three operas, 57 theater performances and 45 visual arts exhibitions. Sponsors range from Megacable to Yamaha to Oxxo.
Tickets are required for many events, but many others are available for free in public spaces and plazas.
“I am very excited,” said pianist María Hanneman, a 16-year-old prodigy who has already performed at Carnegie Hall in New York City and the Mozarteum in Salzburg, and is scheduled for four performances in this year’s Cervantino. “The truth is, I am a little nervous because it is a very important festival — the most important in the country — and there are many artists.”
The Cervantino is now considered perhaps the most important international artistic and cultural experience in Latin America, and one of the biggest events of its type in the world.
According to one media report, the city is expecting an influx of 120 million pesos (US $5.98 million). But that might seem a bit low based on another media report, which stated that the 2019 version saw an economic windfall of more than 615 million pesos (US $30.72 million).
In an interview in the newspaper El Universal, Guanajuato-based taxi driver José Manuel Cardona was eagerly anticipating a busy three weeks. The last two years during the pandemic “went very badly,” he said, but “this time the expectation of the influx is very good, for the benefit of service providers. One always waits for these times to get out of some debt.”
Average occupancy in the city’s 3,900 hotel rooms is expected to be 60% on weekdays and 90% on weekends.
South Korean soprano Hera Hyesang Park at Wednesday’s opening concert. Mario Jasso / Cuartoscuro.com
In her interview, Aymerich also touted the economic benefits, but highlighted a number of the “highly prestigious artists” participating this year. The lineup includes the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra conducted by Winton Marsalis, Spaniard Joan Manuel Serrat, Slavic star Goran Bregovic, the classic Mexican band Café Tacvba, current Mexican recording star Lila Downs and Venezuelan Gustavo Dudamel conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
In the opening concert on Wednesday, soprano Hera Hyesang Park of South Korea and Mexico City’s María Katzarava, accompanied by the Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra, sung a selection of arias on the esplanade of the Alhóndiga, a famous site in the Mexican War of Independence and now a museum. Others will perform there, too, and in plazas outside of the historic center, and at a handful of venues in other cities, as well.
South Korea is the guest country (and has brought nearly 100 artists) and Mexico City the guest “state” in this year’s festival; in the 47th edition three years ago, those honors went to Canada and Guerrero, respectively.
Other highlights include an interactive display celebrating 50 years of the festival, an exhibit of artistic works from nearby areas and the play “Kosa: Between Two Mirrors,” composed by Japanese choreographer Ushio Amagatsu and performed by the Butoh dance group Sankai Juku that he founded in 1975.
“This year’s programming was built with the nostalgic memory of the 50th anniversary, but also as a pause for reflection on the future of the festival,” Aymerich said. “Peace, sustainability, inclusion, collective rights, recognition of diversity, decentralization, as well as the defense of cultural heritage, are the issues and values that motivate us.”
Aymerich said the past two years have been “extremely difficult,” especially 2020, when organizers opted against canceling the event in part because they didn’t want to halt the unbroken progression to the 50th anniversary this year.
“Learning how to produce a festival virtually was very complex,” she said. “Yes there were tears, I’m not going to tell you no … because we were figuring out how to do it … However, I think we had a very important niche that we shouldn’t let go of [and] there was a big audience that followed us.”
In 2020, more than 6 million people around the globe reportedly tuned in to at least part of the festival through social networks and festival broadcast channels. Last year’s hybrid festival reportedly drew 369,000 in-person attendees and 290,000 virtual ones.
As for face masks this year, any obligation to wear them indoors is up to organizers of events in those spaces, because wearing masks in Guanajuato state hasn’t been mandatory since January. The state’s minister of health, Daniel Díaz Martínez, said people can do what they want, though he did advise visitors to wear masks in closed spaces, to wash their hands frequently, to use antibacterial gel and to avoid crowds.
Chris Lloyd in his sit-on-top kayak. Ramón Espinasa
Sierra Rios is a nonprofit river conservation organization founded by Rocky Contos, a paddler who made the first descent down 104 of Latin America’s rivers. Realizing that many of Mexico’s rivers may soon be “chopped up” by dams, Contos decided to call attention to the beauty of this country’s rivers by organizing rafting trips for both experienced paddlers and the general public.
Canadian Chris Lloyd recently returned from a 12-day Sierra Rios trip down the Tutuaca-Aros-Yaqui River, located in Chihuahua, a river that runs through what he describes as “Mexico’s answer to the Grand Canyon.”
“First, let me explain the strange name of this big, beautiful river,” said Lloyd. “Mexicans seem to name their rivers the same way they name their streets. A street goes for five blocks, and it’s called Juárez, and the next five blocks it’s Hidalgo and after that, it’s something else. In many parts of Mexico, the rivers get the same treatment. So we started out on the Tutuaca. Eventually, it became the Aros. And 280 kilometers downstream, at the end of our trip, the same river is known as the Yaqui.”
Participants in this river adventure included Lloyd and four friends, all experienced whitewater kayakers, plus two guides and three guide helpers. They had three large rafts as well as numerous kayaks.
Thanks to its high red cliffs and navigable river, the Tutuaca-Aros-Yaqui River route has been called the Grand Canyon of Mexico. SierraRios.
“We put in [our watercraft] right below the Dolores Mine in Chihuahua,” Lloyd told me. “It’s a big gold and silver mine just east of the Sierra Madre Occidental that has been operating for 10 years.
“The area we went through — which cuts across the entire Sierra Madre Occidental [mountain range] — is considered the Grand Canyon of Mexico. Yes, the Barranca de Cobre [Copper Canyon] is deeper, but it doesn’t have a navigable river at the bottom of it,” he said.
“This canyon is paddle-able and, if you catch it in major flood stage, as we did, it actually has the same volume of water as the Grand Canyon,” he said.
Lloyd went down the Tutuaca in August and saw rain every day and every night, which meant that the river was continuously rising. “Every day,” he said, “the challenge was to make camp before the skies opened up.”
La Morita class IV rapid: largest rapid on the Río Aros between Natora and the Rio Bavispe confluence in Sonora. SierraRios
On this trip, the kayaks of the three guide helpers functioned as safety boats.
“If anything were to happen to any of us in our boats,” said Lloyd, “the helpers’ job was to come pull us out — which they had to do more than once.”
On the first day, things went smoothly because the water was a meter higher than normal, meaning that many of the rocks which cause rapids were a meter underwater. On the other hand, Lloyd explained to me, the eddy lines on the river’s two sides were getting bigger.
The eddies are created by irregularities on the shorelines which cause the water to recirculate back upstream.
Beautiful rock formations in the Lone Palm Gorge. Ramón Espinasa
“There is a sort of line on each side of the river where the water is going downhill on one side and on the other side it’s coming uphill,” he explained. “So you have to be on your game to cross over these eddy lines and not tip over. When the water level is higher, those get stronger in both directions. So on one curve, over I went.”
In his younger days, Lloyd said he could flip his kayak back upright and jump back into it while still bouncing down the river.
“But I seem to have lost that capability, so I needed the young helpers to come and grab hold of the kayak on the other side so I could pile back in.”
At the end of the day, the rafts were beached and the crew made camp. Because this was a catered trip, a deluxe event compared to the guests’ previous whitewater experiences, they relaxed while guide Germán Arroyo prepared them dinner.
Sofi Espinasa contemplates the early morning mist on the day the expedition would encounter the two hardest rapids of the trip (Class IV). Ramón Espinasa
“Germán is a great cook,” commented Lloyd, “so we never went hungry. A typical meal was salmon and rice and vegetables. Because he brought along not one but two Dutch ovens, we enjoyed dishes like baked lasagna and pizza, and we had fresh brownies for dessert two or three nights.”
On the second day of their voyage, the crew came to an intense and powerful class IV rapid, for advanced kayakers only. Lloyd had planned to portage around it (carry the kayak by land) but suddenly he found himself in the middle of it.
“I was going through waves that are as high as my kayak is long, and down I went and then up again and on the other side of this giant wave I found, what is known in whitewater parlance as a hole,” he said. “There’s no water there and you have to decide: ‘Am I going left, right or am I going down into the hole?’
He described going into a hole as “like going into a washing machine.”
Thanks to its high red cliffs and navigable river, the Tutuaca-Aros-Yaqui River route has been called the Grand Canyon of Mexico. Photo: Chris Lloyd.
“You go around and around and around. Fortunately, I had my navigator in front of me, and he would either show me the best way to avoid the hole, or he would go down into the damn thing and I would say, ‘Okay, I’m going around that one.’”
After surviving the class IV and the biggest waves he had ever seen, Lloyd could at last see all his companions off in the distance, safely out of the water.
“But there was a house-size boulder between me and them, and they were all frantically waving at me to go left. But left of the huge rock, there was a little chute, and water was pouring into it from three different directions.
“I was looking at this scene and thinking, ‘What? I don’t want to go through there!’ I looked up, and they were all [still] pointing left. So I said, ‘Okay, okay, I’m going left,’ and I barreled straight into the jaws of the beast.
Walls of water towered above him. “I said, ‘Okay, you’ve got to aim for the center, buddy!’ And I went right through it and popped out the other side, just perfect.”
On the fourth day, the river rose considerably. By the sixth, it was in peak flood stage, almost five meters above its normal flow levels.
“The guides had never seen anything like this,” said Lloyd. “It was certainly the highest it’s ever been in the last 15 years, so when we reached a town called Natora — our one and only possibility of escape — our guides asked the people [there], ‘Can we exit the river here? Can you find transportation to get us out of here?’
“And they said, ‘No, the road’s washed out.’”
Sunset on the Tutuaca-Aros-Yaqui River. SierraRios
Back in the crew went. What awaited them downriver were narrow canyons 50 meters high, where the water was moving faster than ever, creating literally a string of whirlpools, one after the other.
“You will all have to ride on the big raft,” announced Germán. And off they went to run the maelstrom gauntlet.
“We were on a raft that measures 5 meters by 2.2 meters,” said Lloyd. “It was big, but it would get thrown this way and then that way, and then it would spin around. The small boats, because they’re so light, would easily ride over the whirlpools.”
“In one case, however, I saw a whirlpool open up right underneath one of the kayakers, and I couldn’t believe my eyes; he looked absolutely delighted and was having the time of his life, paddling around in a circle like Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean. And then the whirlpool closed up again… and off he went.”
SierraRios guide Germán Arroyo takes Chris Lloyd as a temporary passenger on his raft after Lloyd hurt his wrist during a flip. SierraRios
Exhausted but at the same time exhilarated by their experience, the members of the excursion arrived safe and sound at their take-out point near Saruaripa, Sonora, on August 25.
Sierra Rios offers river trips on three continents, always in an effort to raise awareness about beautiful watersheds threatened by dam development. These are all gorgeous, impressive rivers, such as the Zambezi in Africa, the Amazon in the Andes and the Río Usumacinta, which marks the border between Mexico and Guatemala.
You don’t have to be a top athlete to enjoy most of them. Most excursions are family-friendly and require no previous rafting experience.
The writer has lived near Guadalajara, Jalisco, since 1985. His most recent book is Outdoors in Western Mexico, Volume Three. More of his writing can be found on his blog.
The Unid@s alliance officially launched in Mexico City on Tuesday. It includes members of six civil society organizations, including Sí por México and the National Civil Front, members of which are shown here by their respective banners. Unid@s/Twitter
Six civil society organizations have joined forces to create a new alliance opposed to the government of President López Obrador.
Made up of groups including Sí por México (Yes for Mexico) and Frente Cívico Nacional (National Civic Front), the Unid@s alliance was officially launched in Mexico City on Tuesday.
The @ symbol in Mexican Spanish has been used in recent years in place of the gendered “a” or “o” at the end of words to indicate gender neutrality.
Leaders of the six groups are calling on the main opposition political parties – the National Action Party (PAN), the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) and the Citizens Movement party (MC) – to back a common candidate at the 2024 presidential election.
Sí por México, which is a member of Unid@s, was founded in 2020 by Gustavo de Hoyos, left, and Claudio X. González, right. Sí por México
The first three political parties have already been allied in a coalition called Va por México (Go for Mexico) since December 2020, but cracks in the pact began to appear last month after PRI deputies supported a bill proposing authorization of the use of the military for public security tasks until 2028. A modified version of the bill passed the Senate last week.
The Unid@s backers, among whom are businessman Claudio X. González and former Mexican Employers Federation chief Gustavo de Hoyos, want the Va por México parties to put their differences aside and refocus on their electoral opposition to the ruling Morena party and its allies.
They believe that the MC should join forces with the PAN, PRI and PRD to form one cohesive political bloc that nominates a single candidate in 2024 because the presence of two or more opposition hopefuls will only split the anti-Morena vote.
The Unid@s representatives said that dialogue between the opposition parties to decide on a mutually agreeable candidate selection process is urgent, according to a Reforma newspaper report on Tuesday’s launch event.
Members of the Unid@s alliance also believe that the opposition parties should field common candidates in future congressional, gubernatorial and municipal elections.
“There is an opportunity to turn the page and build unity,” said de Hoyos, a leader of Sí por México, which was founded in 2020 shortly before Va Por México by de Hoyos, Claudio X González and others.
“The alliance is alive, the opposition is standing up to fight,” de Hoyos said. “…There are grievances that have to be repaired, trust that has to be earned again, but the call from citizens is to build a united opposition.”
González, an outspoken government critic and founder of the nongovernmental organization Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity, said on Twitter before Tuesday’s launch event that all “defenders of freedom, democracy and institutions are welcome” to join Unid@s.
Promoting the new alliance on Twitter, de Hoyos wrote that “regardless of your origin, occupation, religion, gender, interests or preferences, … we have something in common: we’re Mexicans.”
“And that’s enough to be #Unidos [united]. We’re going to build a new arrangement between citizens and politics. This October 11, a new era begins,” he added.
At his regular news conference on Tuesday morning, López Obrador was dismissive of the new alliance, which also includes Poder Ciudadano, Sociedad Civil México, UNE México and Unidos por México.
“Claudio X. González is calling for a new alliance that is called … Unid@s. It’s the UFC, in other words – unidos fuerzas conservadoras [united conservative forces],” he said, using a label – “conservative” – with which he frequently disparages previous governments and his current political opponents.
Former president of Mexico Vicente Fox at the first annual Medical Symposium for Medicinal Cannabis in 2019
It’s funny to think about how improbable some things are: the popularity of shows like Duck Dynasty, the return of “mom jeans” worn unironically by 18-year-olds, the cult-like following of a crass reality-TV star with a long string of bankruptcies behind him and his subsequent election to the U.S. presidency.
It’s a crazy world, and literally anything can happen. That includes Vicente Fox, former president of Mexico (2000–2006) becoming the corporate face and principal advocate for legalized marijuana in Mexico.
Fox has always been a little goofy and prone to antics that have made his fellow citizens all over the world close their eyes and shake their heads slowly.
But if you ask me, he’s found his true post-presidential calling in comedy; did y’all see those videos he made addressing then-President Trump about the border wall?
His own vision for his current career, however, is in marijuana.
Already the owner of a multitude of stores in Mexico that cater to a public demanding cannabis products, he seems to be feeling a bit impatient with Mexico’s tardiness in formally legalizing marijuana so that the industry can actually be regulated. So far, the Supreme Court has simply said that a ban on marijuana is unconstitutional, but we’re still lacking any laws telling us who can produce it, sell it, how it can be taxed, etc.
To be fair, the guy’s 80 years old. I’d be pretty impatient too.
Fox is obviously interested in the business side of it. Imagine the profit he stands to make once all his stores start selling actual, smokable weed and edibles! Though there are plenty of drugs to choose from out there, marijuana is always a popular choice, and a relatively benign one for most people. It’s a great business.
And by selling franchises of his store, others can then make handsome profits and create (hopefully well-paying) jobs up and down the production line. It’s a very proper goal for a member of Mexico’s party of free enterprise.
He also argues forcefully that formally legalizing marijuana will loosen the grip of power currently held by narcos in the country. Their income — and by extension their power — will presumably be reduced as a result.
On this point, I have my doubts.
While I would love to believe that that’s exactly what would happen, I think the cartels have shown us that they’ve got a lot more irons in the fire than the one that deals in marijuana.
Taking that industry away (if we can even do so peacefully) would be like telling all the OXXO stores they can’t sell packages of popcorn anymore: it might hurt their bottom line a bit, but it would by no means put them out of business. And since the cartels have been known to take over perfectly legal industries as well, it’s hard to imagine that we’d really succeed in taking away that portion of their business unless they expressly decided to let us.
Maybe they will? Maybe kind of, halfway? Maybe it will depend on the region and the presence, or lack of presence, of the protection of “good guys with guns” (ha) in uniform who may or may not be working with them? Time will tell.
But I’m with him on several points, including a perplexity about why legalization laws have yet to be passed. What are we waiting for? Is it just not a legislative priority?
I’m personally about as excited about the prospect of being able to buy weed openly as I would be if a new kind of paper towel came onto the market. The few times I’ve tried it I’ve 100% hated the way it made me feel. But most people seem to really enjoy it, and its beneficial medicinal use alone is enough to turn me into a full-fledged legalization advocate.
In the meantime, I think a good use of resources around here would be ensuring the rule of law in all of Mexico’s territories in a way that would protect citizens and legitimate businesses, no matter how small or lacking in influence.
For this economy to grow, people need to actually feel safe enough to start something … especially if the last people to run that kind of something were members of organized crime groups.
Hopefully a strengthening of our justice system will go hand in hand with new opportunities for Mexicans to start and grow profitable, legitimate businesses in any area they wish.
Besides, there are a lot of stressful things going on in this world right now, and I think we could all use a little easy relaxation. The least we could do for people is to let them find the strain of their choice and toke up.
I’ll sit with y’all, but I’ll just be having a beer.
Sarah DeVries is a writer and translator based in Xalapa, Veracruz. She can be reached through her website, sdevrieswritingandtranslating.com
Amid many shows of support, México state legislators voted Tuesday to make same-sex marriage legal in the state.
The Congress of México state legalized gay marriage Tuesday, leaving only three states without laws permitting matrimony between same-sex couples.
Fifty of 75 lawmakers in the unicameral Congress voted in favor of legalization, seven National Action deputies abstained and 16 Institutional Revolutionary Party representatives opposed the bill. Two other deputies were absent.
Same-sex couples will be able to marry in Mexico’s most populous state once Governor Alfredo del Mazo Maza promulgates the law via publication of a decree in the state government’s official gazette.
México state, which almost completely surrounds Mexico City, is the 29th federal entity to legalize gay marriage, and one of the last: Tamaulipas, Tabasco and Guerrero are now the only states where such laws don’t exist.
Exuberant members of the LGBT community gathered outside the state’s congress building to celebrate the affirmative vote. Crisanta Espinosa Aguilar/Cuartoscuro
Morena party Deputy Anais Burgos, a leading proponent of the reform to state marriage laws, said that the Congress was legislating in favor of “a sector of the population that has been humiliated for years.”
The rights of gay people in México state have been ignored, their dignity has been insulted, their identity has been denied and their freedom has been repressed, she said.
“With the approval of this bill the opportunities and rights of mexiquenses will increase,” asserted Burgos, using the Spanish language demonym for residents of México state.
“This victory doesn’t belong to us as deputies, it belongs to hundreds of collectives; it’s your victory,” she added.
Even mariachis turned out to celebrate the vote. Crisanta Espinosa Aguilar/Cuartoscuro
Daniel Sibaja González, another Morena deputy, apologized to the LGBT community for the discrimination, aggression, ill-treatment and hate crimes they have long suffered.
Members of that community gathered outside the state Congress in Toluca on Tuesday and celebrated the approval of the marriage equality bill.
The reform also formally recognizes relationships between unmarried same-sex couples who live together and gives them the same rights as those enjoyed by married couples.
México state is the fifth state to legalize gay marriage this year after Durango, Jalisco,Yucatán and Veracruz. Several other states, including Guanajuato, Querétaro and Zacatecas, approved marriage equality in 2021.
Zacatecas Governor David Monreal and U.S. Ambassador Ken Salazar shake on the new security deal. Twitter @USAmbMex
A new security agreement between the state of Zacatecas and the United States government is illegal and invalid, President López Obrador said Monday.
Citing a provision in the Mexican constitution, López Obrador said it’s “expressly prohibited” for state governments to enter into agreements with foreign governments.
However, he told reporters at his regular news conference that the federal government wouldn’t “make a fuss” because the pact announced by Zacatecas Governor David Monreal and United States Ambassador Ken Salazar last Thursday is only a verbal agreement. Monreal also clarified later on Monday that “there is no signed accord or agreement between the government of Zacatecas and the U.S. government.”
The announcement of the agreement came after what Salazar described as a “historic meeting on security in Zacatecas” involving personnel from various U.S. agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs and the United States Agency for International Development.
Reunión histórica en Zacatecas con INL, FBI, DEA, USAID, Departamento de Estado y el Cónsul General de Monterrey–todo con respeto a la soberanía de México y Zacatecas. https://t.co/yvI4iXM1hQpic.twitter.com/WwMV0tSETb
Salazar shared a graphic on Twitter highlighting how the U.S. government is collaborating with the state of Zacatecas on security issues.
“We reinforced our whole-of-government commitment to collaborating with Mexican local, state, and federal authorities, with full respect for sovereignty, to support efforts to improve security in Zacatecas,” the ambassador wrote on Twitter.
Under the agreement that he and Monreal announced, the U.S. agencies are slated to donate equipment and software to aid operations and investigations against criminal organizations that operate in Zacatecas, one of Mexico’s most violent states. They also committed to assisting the training of police and other law enforcement officials.
In a statement, Salazar stressed that “with security there is prosperity, investment arrives and trust in institutions grows.”
“We’re optimistic that we’ll achieve … [security] but maintaining coordinated, continuous and permanent work is necessary,” he said, adding that “the people of Zacatecas can count on the United States in this challenge.”
“… Our governments have the Bicentennial Framework and the High Level Security Dialogue, which will allow us to continue deepening our cooperation in Zacatecas and the entire country,” Salazar said.
In response to reporters’ questions, López Obrador said Monday that the agreement between Zacatecas and the U.S. government is both illegal and invalid, but added that his government “has confidence in Ken Salazar.”
“He’s visiting the states and there’s a good relationship,” he said, adding that “there’s no need to do anything big” in response to the announcement of the agreement because it’s just a “statement” and “there’s nothing written down.”
The president also said he had no interest in arguing with the U.S. government. “We have to act judiciously and not fight each other [but rather] seek good relations,” López Obrador said.
“So much so that members of Mexico’s security cabinet are going to participate [in a meeting] in Washington on Thursday with their counterparts from the United States government to deal with matters of cooperation in security,” he said.
