Just under 24.5 million students begin the new school year in preschools, primary schools and middle schools across Mexico Monday. SEP
After 2 1/2 years of interruptions due to the COVID pandemic, more than 24 million students return to the classroom Monday to begin the 2022–23 academic year.
Just under 24.5 million students will begin the new school year in preschools, primary schools and middle schools across Mexico, according to the Ministry of Public Education (SEP). Over 5.2 million high school students returned to the classroom after summer vacation on August 15.
Basic education students — those from preschool to middle school — will take classes given by some 1.2 million teachers in almost 233,000 schools, according to SEP.
In a statement published Sunday, the Education Ministry urged students to return to in-person classes, stressing that “the necessary conditions” to do so are in place.
Leticia Ramírez becomes Mexico’s new education minister Thursday. She inherits a plan for implementing major curriculum changes from her predecessor, Delfina Gómez. Presidencia
It noted that health authorities are recommending a range of measures to ensure that in-person learning can resume safely amid the ongoing COVID pandemic. Among the recommendations are the use of face masks in enclosed spaces, the frequent washing of hands, and the carrying out of activities in the open air where possible.
Health authorities also advocated vaccination against COVID for both teachers and students. Teachers were among the first people in Mexico offered shots, but the federal government only extended its vaccination program to younger children this year.
Also notable is the fact that Mexico’s schools will have a new Education Minister this week: Delfina Gómez, who shepherded the new curriculum into being, is leaving the position Thursday to become a candidate for the governor of México state in 2023. Her successor, Leticia Ramírez Amaya, who has a degree in education and worked as a primary school teacher, most recently served as the director of citizen attention for the federal government.
The return to school comes as Mexicans face an inflation rate that reached 8.62% in the first half of August, the highest level in over two decades. Prices for school supplies such as pens, pencils and notebooks have increased even more, according to a vendor in the historic center of Mexico City.
“Products here have been affected by [a] 25–30% [price rise], but we try to give [customers] a good price so that they can buy everything they need,” Diego Tejada told CNN.
The ruling Morena party offered students and their families one way to save on school supplies: in a Twitter post on Sunday, it included six printable — and propagandistic — notebook labels with lines for students to write in their name, grade, subject and teacher. Each features an image of President López Obrador, Morena’s founder.
The still-impressive entrance to the eccentric Edward James sculpture gardens in Xilitla, San Luis Potosí.
Salvador Dali reputedly remarked to Sigmund Freud, “Edward James is crazier than all the surrealists put together. They pretend, but he is the real thing.”
Perhaps the best proof of James’s insanity is his sculpture gardens tucked away in a rainforest in San Luis Potosí. Officially called Las Pozas, the compound consists of acres of structures with various levels of utility, creativity, termination, and dilapidation, but it’s why people come to the Pueblo Mágico of Xilitla.
The gardens reflect a life looking for purpose.
James was born in 1907 with multiple silver spoons in his mouth, having American industrialists on his father’s side and royalty on his British mother’s. He never had to worry about earning a living or what he spent, but he did worry about being part of Europe’s artistic and intellectual circles.
James, right, with Surrealist artist Salvador Dali. James was Dali’s patron and a champion of surrealist art, but he was not an artist himself but a poet.
He began as a patron of ballet, wedding a ballerina. When that marriage ended in a scandalous divorce, James left England for the continent. Here, he became involved with surrealist artists such as René Magritte and Pablo Picasso: James commissioned from Dali — for whom he was a patron from 1936–1939 — wild objects such as a lobster-shaped telephone and a sofa based on the lips of Mae West.
World War II pushed him to the United States, but soon afterward, he went to the then-vibrant expat community in Cuernavaca, Morelos. There he met Plutarco Gastelum, who would be his right-hand man for the rest of his life.
Looking for a place for James’s prized orchid collection, the two came to Xilitla in 1947, finding the pristine Las Pozas, named after its natural pools fed by waterfalls.
James’s orchid sanctuary came to a sudden end when frost killed the entire collection of 29,000 in 1956. But he did not abandon Las Pozas, which he called an Eden. Instead, he turned to building his home and other structures there based on surrealist principles. James sketched out what he wanted built; Gasteum and local craftsmen would make it happen.
There are some places in the gardens where the structures do blend in harmoniously with nature.
Over the next decades, 36 buildings, sculptures and other structures would arise in the rainforest, most near the main waterfall. James gave them poetic names such as the House With a Roof Like a Whale and The House with Three Storeys that Could Be Five.
Artists and celebrities came to enjoy the developing complex’s bathing pools, exotic animals and more. British-Mexican surrealist artist Leonora Carrington painted a mural here, and Mexican artist Pedro Friedeberg designed the pair of hands found at the compound’s entrance. Many of the structures were painted in dreamlike colors, hard to imagine today as almost all of the paint is gone.
By the time he died in 1984 while traveling in Europe, he had spent an estimated US $5 million (roughly $18 million today) on the never-completed project.
Despite Gastelum’s family’s efforts, the compound would be abandoned until the 2000s, as James did not provide for its maintenance after his death. Only a few hardy souls would make the trek to see the ruins, which were quickly succumbing to the climate and vegetation growth.
As James’ estate began to take shape, celebrities and artists began to visit, including British surrealist artist Leonora Carrington, second from left.
In 2007, several businessmen and the state government took over the property, investing 600 million pesos to rehabilitate it and make it a protected area. The foundation in charge has done a phenomenal job of promoting it for tourism: thousands have since come to marvel at its structures. Visits are only through tours, which try to keep some control over the crowds constantly stopping to take selfies.
But the compound’s artistic value has been strongly debated.
There was no such thing as surrealist architecture before James came along; the movement was about focusing on what can only be in our minds. James’ devotion to surrealism earns him the moniker of “eccentric” in much literature, but locals in Xilitla bluntly called him a “crazy gringo.”
The structures themselves have invited photography and poetic descriptions, but James himself admitted that the project was “pure megalomania.” His desire was to be seen as something more than a fat checkbook for creatives, but I wonder if he thought he ever really succeeded.
Building the Xilitla compound cost James about US $18 million in today’s dollars, but it was never finished. Bernardo Bolaños/Creative Commons
The rainforest itself has assaulted whatever artistic value the structures have. Almost all of the structures are now so dilapidated that tourists are forbidden to enter everything except a small carpenter’s shop. The site was never meant to host large numbers of people, and it is likely that its popularity is making its deterioration happen faster.
Despite my overall reservations, I found a number of interesting photographs to take. Some are due to the curious shapes among the vegetation and waterfalls, others speak more to the idea of imposing human aesthetics on nature.
Efforts to get the site listed with the federal National Institute for Fine Arts (INBA) as an artistic monument have succeeded, but not to make it a World Heritage Site. Xilitla’s economy is now almost entirely dependent on the gardens. The town is filled with small hotels, and a museum dedicated to Leonora Carrington has opened.
Las Pozas is a conflictive curiosity. It is one man’s effort to see himself as an artist — or at least as something more than some crazy rich guy trying to beat boredom. Its decay and envelopment, despite all the work put into patching it up, just may be Mother Nature’s artistic statement about the futility of dominating her in the long run.
Repair efforts can be seen all over the compound, but it is likely a losing battle due to vegetation growth and the climate.
Leigh Thelmadatter arrived in Mexico 18 years ago and fell in love with the land and the culture in particular its handcrafts and art. She is the author of Mexican Cartonería: Paper, Paste and Fiesta (Schiffer 2019). Her culture column appears regularly on Mexico News Daily.
When it's too hot to cook, a Tortilla Española in the fridge is a quick, easy alternative.
Canicula, Spanish for “the dog days of summer,” may be over, but that doesn’t mean the hot weather is.
Turn on the oven? No way. Stand at the stove with multiple burners blasting? Ugh! Yes, there’s takeout, but sooner or later, you’re going to have to feed yourself. Let’s look at some ways to do that easily, quickly and deliciously.
I’ve actually written quite a bit about the challenge of summertime cooking, most recently this gazpacho story. One of my favorite go-tos is pasta full of fresh veggies, and, of course, full-meal salads. I also find myself getting creative with leftovers, whether it’s using shredded chicken from Sunday night’s roast chicken, turning Basmati rice into an Asian stir-fry or marinating leftover veggies and making them into a salad.
Don’t even get me started on dessert! I definitely have a sweet tooth, and just because it’s hot outside doesn’t mean that goes away.
Ahhhh. mojito. So refreshing.
There’s no reason not to make yourself a mojito first thing; this classic Cuban cocktail is refreshing and easy to make — if you have fresh mint. Bartenders know not to muddle the mint too much or it will get bitter.
Another tip from the pros is to never use tonic water — the quinine will affect the taste. Seltzer or club soda is preferred.
I love eating Tortilla Española but have to admit I’ve never used a recipe; I just sort of wing it (and then wonder what went wrong). That stops now with the recipe below.
Among the several things I did wrong: the potatoes and onions should be slow-fried first; I didn’t beat the eggs enough or mix them with the potatoes/onions before putting them in the pan; and I only flipped the whole kit ‘n’ kaboodle once — if even. All of these things are important parts of what makes an authentic Tortilla Española. Live and learn!
What we have here are recipes for a complete meal, with minimal cooking time and possibly leftovers as well. I’ve included an “adult beverage,” a classic dressing for a simple green salad, an easy hot entrée and a super-simple lime pudding that’s rather fabulous. Provecho!
Mojito
2 oz. white rum
1 oz. lime juice
½ oz. simple syrup or agave syrup
5 fresh mint leaves
Club soda
Mint leaf or sprig for garnish
Gently muddle lime juice, syrup and mint leaves. Shake all ingredients except club soda in a shaker tin with ice. Double strain (so no pieces of mint remain) into a Collins glass. Fill with ice and top with club soda
Classic Vinaigrette
2 Tbsp. finely minced shallot/white onion
½ – 1 tsp. minced garlic
2 tsp. Dijon mustard
3 Tbsp. white wine vinegar
1 Tbsp. water
¾ cup extra-virgin olive oil
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Combine shallot/onion, garlic, mustard, vinegar and water in large bowl. Whisk to combine. Slowly drizzle in olive oil, whisking constantly, then add salt, pepper. Add your salad greens to the ingredients. Toss well.
Alternatively, shake all ingredients vigorously in a jar or shaker until emulsified. Add salt and pepper. Store in refrigerator up to 2 weeks.
A sweet treat to beat the summer heat: fresh lime pudding!
Tortilla Española
This uses lots of olive oil, but it adds unbeatable flavor.
8 large eggs
Salt to taste
2 cups good quality olive oil
1½ lbs. Yukon Gold or white potatoes, peeled, halved and thinly sliced crosswise
In large bowl, beat eggs vigorously with generous pinch of salt until frothy. Set aside.
In 10-inch nonstick or cast-iron skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add potatoes and onions; they should gently bubble in the oil. Regulate heat to maintain a gentle bubbling and cook, stirring occasionally, until potatoes/onions are meltingly tender, about 25 minutes.
Using a fine-mesh metal strainer over a heatproof bowl, drain potatoes/onions of excess oil. Reserve oil; set skillet aside to use again.
Transfer potatoes and onions to a bowl, season with salt and stir well. Beat set-aside eggs vigorously to refroth, then scrape potatoes/onions into eggs and stir to mix. Set aside 5 minutes.
Wipe out skillet. Add 3 Tbsp. of reserved frying oil. Set over medium-high heat until shimmering. Scrape egg mixture into skillet and cook, swirling and shaking pan rapidly, until bottom and sides begin to set, about 3 minutes. Using a heatproof spatula, press the edges in to begin forming the tortilla’s puck shape.
Continue cooking, adjusting heat to prevent bottom of tortilla from burning, until edges begin to set, about 3 minutes longer.
Working over a sink or counter, place a large overturned flat plate or lid on top of skillet, set hand on top (use a dish towel if it’s too hot), and, in one quick motion, invert tortilla onto it.
Add 1 more Tbsp. reserved oil to skillet and return to heat. Carefully slide tortilla back into skillet and continue to cook until second side begins to firm up, about 2 minutes. Use a rubber spatula to again press the sides in all around to form a rounded shape.
Continue cooking until lightly browned on second side but still tender in the center when pressed with a finger, about 2 minutes longer. If desired, flip tortilla 2–3 more times during these last minutes of cooking, which helps cook the center more evenly and reinforce the shape.
Carefully slide tortilla out of skillet onto a clean plate. Let stand at least 5 minutes before serving with aioli. Cut into wedges or into cubes for an hors d’oeuvre.
Leftovers can be refrigerated up to 3 days; serve at room temperature.
Lime Pudding
7 eggs
1 cup + 2 Tbsp. sugar
¾ cup fresh lime juice (about 13-15 limes)
1 (250 ml) box media crema
¼ tsp. salt
½-1 tsp. lime zest
Optional: lime zest or wheels
In a heavy-bottomed 3 qt. pot, whisk all ingredients. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until mixture comes to a boil. Pour into shallow glass bowl or individual custard cups; chill at least 3 hours. Garnish with lime zest/wheels if desired.
It seems like I know at least 10 people whose dogs have been poisoned by now.
The reasons behind the poisoning are usually unknown. Maybe they needed the dog out of the way so they could break in. Maybe the dog was annoying and barked all the time and someone just got sick of it because the owners refused to do anything about it. Or maybe they just enjoy the power of showing merciless cruelty.
I’d always assumed that this last possibility was the least likely, but after reading about the bear cub that was tortured before being killed by what amounted to a mob — while smiling local police officers looked on — I’m afraid to admit that it might be more common than we think.
Humans have always had a contentious relationship with their fellow animals, and Mexico today is no exception. Gandhi made waves when he said, “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”
If that’s true, we’ve got a long way to go, although the fact that the perpetrator who killed two dogs who basically amounted to national heroes will face actual punishment is at least a step in the right direction.
On one end of the spectrum, we’ve got people who love animals dearly. Sometimes this love is only extended to their pets, and sometimes it extends to, at least in theory, all animals: while I’m not sure if the vegan and vegetarian population is growing here, the offerings for them seem to be, which I think is a pretty good indicator of how many are out there.
And on the other, there are people who seem to have as much contempt for animals as they do for their fellow humans.
Slightly more toward the middle are those who seem to value human life just as much as other people but see animals as beings put here for our pleasure, entertainment and food. Perhaps some animals’ feelings matter (like their pets, for example), but certainly not all of them do; or maybe, animals simply don’t have feelings like we do, which is why it’s fine to condemn one’s dog to a lifetime alone on the roof.
While most people agree that cruelty like torturing and killing animals for fun is pretty straightforwardly wrong, there are plenty of other gray areas when it comes to what we do and do not have the right to do to animals under our control.
Most of us, including myself, fall uncomfortably in the middle of those grey areas. Abject cruelty toward animals? No way. Killing them myself? Certainly not. Teasing them? Perhaps only good-naturedly, but nothing to make them upset. Eating them? Well…
My grandmother was a strict vegetarian most of her life. She tried to get my sister and me on board plenty of times when we were little, but our parents ate and served meat, plus she wasn’t that great of a cook. Her vegetarian concoctions tasted like cardboard to us, which was not a great selling point for a couple of kids. But she was faithful to the end and lived a long and healthy life.
It wasn’t until I was in college that I decided to stop eating meat for the first time. I’d taken an ethics class and read a story about aliens who had come here and were cooking and eating us using our own recipes for cooking animals.
One man had almost convinced an alien not to boil him alive (like lobsters), but hunger eventually overcame the alien. It made its version of a shrug and dropped him into the pot.
I faithfully abstained from meat for a couple years after reading that, and I didn’t miss it. However, when it was time to travel to Mexico for my year abroad, I made a conscious decision to start eating meat again; after all, I didn’t want to be that kind of difficult guest who shows up at a new place and expects everyone to accommodate them. I wanted my host family to like me, and I wanted to fit in.
Once I got here, I realized that I could have easily stayed a vegetarian, at least if I had pretended not to know that there was likely lard and/or chicken stock in most dishes.
It wasn’t until a few years later while teaching an ethics class (these damned ethics classes just don’t let me have any fun!) that I decided to stop eating meat and most other animal products again. This time, it lasted for several more years until after my daughter was born. Once again, I didn’t really miss meat.
But a few years later, with an infant and very little energy, I thought that maybe I needed meat in my diet to get my strength back. It turned out not to make the slightest difference, but I was used to it again and have yet to go back.
Why do I talk about all this? Because I don’t feel great about myself and my secondary treatment of animals.
I don’t torture animals, and I don’t think it’s fun to watch them suffer. But I do eat animals, which I have a moral problem with. Because if I’m going to eat them, I feel I should be willing to kill them, to look my food in the eye, even; and that is definitely not something I’m willing to do.
And while one could make the argument that lots of animals kill and eat other animals, which is true — some animals have even killed and eaten us! – what they don’t do is breed their prey in inhumane conditions and then send them to slaughter factories so that they can have the pleasure of eating hamburgers whenever they feel like it.
Abject cruelty and torture of animals is wrong, and those who participate in it should be punished. But I think it’s time for all of us to admit that our love for animals is selective and that none of us are innocent when it comes to the treatment of and consideration for animals as a whole.
President López Obrador at his Monday press conference. Presidencia de la República
President López Obrador talked security in Baja California and Sonora last weekend. Bullets fly with some regularity in the border states, where homicide rates are high. It’s unclear whether hugs have increased under the government’s security strategy.
Monday
Hope had all but disappeared for the miners in Coahuila, trapped since a collapse on August 3, after the president confirmed more bad luck in the rescue effort.
López Obrador rebutted accusations of nepotism in internal elections for Morena, the party he founded. “I think they are scourges of the politics of the old regime that you have to erase. Cronyism, influence, nepotism … it may be legal, but it’s immoral,” he said, adding that his wife Beatriz Gutiérrez Müller turned down the post of first lady.
Another indisputable scourge was raised later in the conference. A journalist asked if former President Peña Nieto would face arrest for charges related to the Ayotzinapa massacre in 2014, after the former attorney general, Jesús Murillo Karam, was put behind bars. Offering no names, the president insisted there was a cover up in the original investigation. “In one way or another they made an agreement to hide the facts, which is known as the fabrication of the so-called ‘historical truth’ … they were compiling together all this falsehood, torturing people and fabricating statements,” he asserted, before adding that Peña Nieto’s fate would rest with the judiciary.
In fact, the president’s sights were set on even more powerful adversaries. “They owe us $75 million,” he said of a United Nations (UN) vaccine initiative, COVAX, that had failed to deliver 10 million shots. “A renovation of those international bodies is overdue,” he added.
Tuesday
Despite the vaccine deficit, López Obrador was feeling sprightly about the country’s finances on Tuesday. “There is good news: the preliminary results have been announced on foreign investment in Mexico and they are historic … in recent times never has so much foreign investment been received as in the first quarter,” he said. However, not all money was welcome: the president reiterated his ire at Mexican political groups being funded by the U.S. government and confirmed there was still no reply from a letter to U.S. President Joe Biden on the matter.
Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell lamented the difficulties getting promised vaccines delivered from COVAX. Presidencia de la República
After noting the benefits of global investment, government officials were still irked by global governance and the UN’s failure to fulfill its obligations. The president noted that after Monday’s conference, the World Health Organization (a specialized agency of the UN) had reached out offering to ship a portion of the promised vaccines.
Nonetheless, Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said his patience had worn thin. “So far a little more than 24 million doses have been delivered and we have $76 million outstanding. We have been requesting, requesting and requesting for almost a year to be given the doses that correspond to us … there’s been frustration and great dissatisfaction,” he declared.
“The government of Mexico reserves the right to undertake any action, including legal, if this commitment is not fulfilled,” López-Gatell added.
Wednesday
Speaking on behalf of the presidency, Elizabeth García Vilchis refuted several government-related news stories. Presidencia de la República
The government’s media monitor Elizabeth García Vilchis sorted fact from fiction on Wednesday. She said the tax authority, SAT, wasn’t conducting random investigations and “the efficiency of Cofepris is a fact,” assuring that the health regulator isn’t mired in backlog. García added that the new school curriculum wouldn’t force students to memorize the government’s infrastructure projects and insisted that the arrest of the former attorney general for historic foul play around the Ayotzinapa investigation was not politically motivated.
The president extended his field of vision to foreign shores. “There was a whole political lynching … It’s so important to dance. Why shouldn’t she go dancing?” the president posed in support of Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin, whose party antics recently landed her in controversy. Crossing the Atlantic, López Obrador condemned the raid of former U.S. President Donald Trump’s Florida home and expressed concern about corruption charges against Argentine political titan and Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
Later in the conference, the tabasqueño lamented the failures of global political bodies. “International bodies, such as the UN, have not wanted to confront the grave problem of inequality and corruption in the world. So that’s why there is migration, that’s why there is violence … governments and the European Parliament, instead of looking for ways to achieve peace between Russia and Ukraine, they are proposing more confrontation,” he said.
Thursday
The president addressed a variety of economic issues on Thursday. Presidencia de la República
“Bad air,” the president said, was to blame for his hoarse voice on Thursday.
However, López Obrador found his voice on the USMCA amid claims by the U.S. and Canada that the government’s favoring of public energy companies had violated the agreement, and provided his own complaint. “With what right can you decide how laws should be in another country? It’s as if I demanded that the U.S. Congress meets an obligation … they have been offering for about 20 years to carry out a reform to regularize our migrant countrymen and they have not done it …. But … [we can’t] demand that they amend their laws,” he said.
On the USMCA, the president assured “no possibility exists” that Mexico would leave the treaty as it would be “very difficult for the U.S. economy to function without Mexico,” before adding that he didn’t plan to meet U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken during his upcoming visit to Mexico.
Later, the president compared another facet of Mexico’s economy, revealing a chart of international public debt. According to the graphic, Mexico owed 46% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to creditors, while Latin American countries on average owed 72%. Canada, the UK and the U.S. owed more than their respective GDPs, while Japan’s debt was 263% of its GDP.
Friday
“We didn’t torture anyone,” Deputy Interior Minister Alejandro Encinas said of the government’s investigation into the Ayotzinapa massacre, before denying that the 43 students were handed over to narcos and their corpses left in a waste dump, as the previous government’s ‘historic truth’ had concluded.
Encinas added that the students were monitored before their disappearance and that state authorities were involved. “With the ‘historic truth’ they tried to close the Ayotzinapa case, but we continued investigating,” he said.
Still sounding hoarse, López Obrador renewed his criticism of the UN. “The UN is becoming a flower holder,” the president said, using a Mexican expression to highlight the organization’s lack of utility. “It has agencies for everything. They earn a lot of money and don’t change anything,” the president added.
“I don’t have COVID, it’s pharyngitis,” the tabasqueño said of his faltering voice, assuaging the fears of Mexicans, shortly before striding away to attend to the nation.
Speedtest results Friday at Mexico News Daily's office in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca.
Starlink, the satellite internet company owned by the world’s richest person, Elon Musk, has slashed its monthly service fee by over 50%.
As of Wednesday, Starlink’s customers in Mexico pay 1,100 pesos per month (US $55), a 52% decrease compared to the former fee of 2,299 pesos. Starlink has also reduced the price of its hardware kit, which includes an antenna, to 8,300 pesos (US $414) from 9,896 pesos, a 16% drop.
The hardware kit is now shipped free of charge whereas the previous cost was 1,420 pesos (about US $70). In addition to Mexico, the company lowered its prices in many other countries where it offers satellite internet service.
“The price reduction factors in your local market conditions and is meant to reflect parity in purchasing power across our customers,” Starlink said in an email to customers.
On its website, Starlink says it offers “high-speed, low-latency broadband internet in remote and rural locations across the globe.”
Its service is “made possible via the world’s largest constellation of highly advanced satellites operating in a low orbit around the earth.”
Among the satellite internet services that compete with Starlink in Mexico are Viasat and HughesNet. An analysis conducted late last year – before Starlink was offering its service here – found that Viasat provided Mexico’s fastest satellite internet service for downloads, but speeds were well below the fixed broadband median.
Some Starlink customers in Mexico have reported speeds of 200 Mbps or more with latency between 70 and 100 milliseconds. The latter is far lower than that of other satellite internet service providers.
Pre-trial detention is currently mandatory in cases involving acusations of homicide, femicide, rape, kidnapping, home burglaries, firearm offenses and other crimes. DepositPhotos
A Supreme Court (SCJN) proposal to review and possibly abrogate a constitutional provision requiring that mandatory preventative prison must apply to accused perpetrators of certain crimes has been rejected by the federal government, which argues that the measure is essential to ensure that suspects don’t evade justice and continue committing offenses.
Two justices have put forward proposals to invalidate the stipulation for pre-trial detention, arguing that the article violates the principle of presumption of innocence and that preventative prison is a disproportionate measure. The SCJN will consider their proposals next month.
In a statement directed to “the people of Mexico” and the Supreme Court, the government said the existence of preventative prison is fundamental for certain crimes “to ensure that the alleged criminals detained for organized crime, serious crimes [such as homicide and rape] … or white-collar crimes don’t avoid … justice during the criminal process.”
The government said that its support for the constitutional provision allowing pre-trial detention takes into account the fact that detaining suspects often involves a “great effort of the state” in terms of “resources, intelligence and the deployment of forces.”
Preventative custody, the government added, prevents suspects from threatening and attacking victims and witnesses, continuing to commit crimes and “leading criminal activities that affect society.”
Signed by Interior Minister Adán Augusto López and presidential legal adviser María Estela Ríos González, the statement enumerated a long list of crimes to which mandatory preventative prison applies, including homicide, femicide, rape, sexual abuse of minors, organized crime offenses, kidnapping, human trafficking, home burglaries, illicit enrichment, fuel theft, firearm offenses and drug trafficking.
The constitution was modified in 2008 to allow mandatory preventative prison for certain crimes, but additional offenses have been added since then.
“Leaving the decision about whether to apply preventative prison in the hands of judges would generate additional pressure on those who impart justice, exposing them to corruption and violence due to the kinds of crimes to which this figure applies,” the government said.
Chief Justice Arturo Zaldívar presides over a session of the Supreme Court. SJCN
“We ask the country’s highest court … to consider the country’s public security, the victims of crimes, the fight against impunity and the enormous effort that criminal prosecution involves,” when considering whether to invalidate the pre-trial detention provision, it said.
Interior Minister López said Thursday that the court’s proposal to outlaw the provision posed a threat to the federal government’s security strategy, which somewhat paradoxically entails a commitment to end impunity while simultaneously avoiding confrontation with criminal groups.
“We believe that international conventions can’t be above our constitution,” he said. “If this proposal was declared viable, it would put an end to the country’s entire security strategy, and I don’t think that Mexicans deserve that.”
López expressed optimism that the SCJN would take the government’s view into account. “Surely, [the justices] will read our statement carefully and [then] take their decision,” he said.
For his part, Deputy Security Minister Ricardo Mejía highlighted the risk of corruption. Allowing judges to decide, on a case by case basis, whether pre-trial detention should apply could lead to multiple cases of corruption, he said, suggesting that wheeling and dealing between judges and lawyers would be common.
The absence of mandatory preventative prison “would also increase danger, … for judges, victims that dare to denounce crimes, [and] witnesses,” Mejía said. “Above all, it represents a threat to society because these individuals, on the loose, will continue carrying out their criminal activities.”
Olga Sánchez, a ruling party senator and President López Obrador’s former interior minister, was among several other people who weighed in on the preventative prison debate. She said the list of crimes for which pre-trial detention is mandatory is too broad.
“For example I think it’s absurd that home burglary and other minor crimes are subject to preventative prison,” she said. “I believe that there are some crimes that must be subject to preventative prison … but crimes were added indiscriminately to article 19: transport theft, burglaries, some other crimes.”
While administration officials like Interior Minister Adán Augusto López emphasized the risk of letting alleged criminals walk free, some activists warned against the opposite problem: that the accused may languish in prison for years without a trial. Presidencia de la República
One person in favor of pre-trial detention being scrapped is Saskia Niño de Rivera, president of Reinserta, a civil society organization that helps ex-prisoners reintegrate into society. In an online video message, she noted that some suspects remain in pre-trial detention for years without the opportunity to clear their name.
Niño de Rivera said she personally knew of people who have spent as long as 18 years in jail without facing trial. “In Mexico, [suspects] are guilty until the opposite is proven.”
She also said that people unable to afford legal defense are more likely to end up in preventative prison in cases in which judges have the discretion to decide whether to incarcerate suspects or not.
“Who are we putting in jail? … Those who have access to [legal] defense aren’t in jail. … The majority of people in [preventative detention] … are people who didn’t have access to justice,” she said.
“Forty-seven percent of people in prison have been waiting for years for their culpability to be determined,” she wrote on Twitter.
In another Twitter post, Niño de Rivera indicated that she was puzzled by the interior minister’s remark about the threat to the government’s non-confrontational security strategy. “I’m so confused. ‘Hugs, not bullets’ is an ideology that goes against preventative prison,” she wrote.
In an opinion piece published by the Reforma newspaper, two National Autonomous University (UNAM) legal researchers also argued against pre-trial detention, asserting that it’s overused.
“This precautionary measure to incarcerate people without a sentence has been used disproportionately and indiscriminately under the false promise of providing security and combating impunity,” Juan Jesús Garza Onofre and Javier Martín Reyes wrote. “Today the jails are full of alleged culprits, individuals that don’t have a sentence but are deprived of their freedom.”
A meeting of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. IACHR
The UNAM researchers noted that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights has made it clear that mandatory preventative custody is a violation of due process, the presumption of innocence and personal freedoms. If the SCJN invalidates the constitutional provision that allows it, thousands of prisoners could benefit, they wrote.
Garza and Reyes criticized López Obrador for “muddying” the debate about preventative prison through his “eagerness to defend the [growing] catalogue of ‘serious crimes.’”
“He misinforms citizens and allows simple rhetoric to substitute serious debate,” they wrote. “… Instead of promoting measures oriented toward the prevention of crime and the strengthening of police and prosecutor capacities, the López Obrador administration, refusing to accept its failed security strategy, resorts to the heavy-handed [approach] … and perpetuates the worst legacy of penal populism.”
The researchers criticized the government’s statement in support of pre-trial detention, asserting that it was a document “without a single legal argument, which crudely lies by saying that mandatory prison is ‘fundamental’ to avoid the flight of the accused and to protect victims, as if all this wasn’t possible with discretionary pre-trial detention.”
The latter is discretionally imposed by a judge in cases where the suspect is considered a flight risk and/or danger to the community, whereas mandatory pre-trial detention applies automatically to people accused of certain crimes.
In a Twitter post, Melissa Ayala, a lawyer, suggested the government has forgotten about the discretionary measure.
“Reminder that discretionary pre-trial detention exists,” she wrote. “Why don’t they want to let mandatory [pre-trial detention] go?”
Armando Barrera shows off one of his kilns in his San Juan Evangelista workshop.
There must be something special in the waters of Little Lake Cajititlán because every community around this lake located 25 kilometers south of Guadalajara seems to be brimming with artists and artisans.
Here you can find furniture utilizing woven reeds, sculptures made of basalt, works of art created from horsehair, magnificent ropes handmade from agave fibers and beautiful items produced from locally sourced clay.
It’s the artisans who make them that I want to talk about today.
They all happen to live in the pueblito of San Juan Evangelista, on the south side of the lake. Next to the town’s church, you’ll find a small Plaza de Los Artesanos (Artisans’ Plaza) surrounded by workshops where lumps of clay are turned into works of art.
The late Martín Navarro showing the writer a burnished clay pot with an intricate fish motif.
In 2012, the first time I visited the Artisans’ Plaza, I walked into the workshop of one Martín Navarro, who was intently working on a beautiful figure of an owl. Several other unfinished pieces lay on his desk, each one demonstrating this master sculptor’s extraordinary imagination, skill and attention to detail.
When we asked him about the ceramics tradition in San Juan, Navarro told us that three generations had been developing their skills in this medium, all of them inspired by his great uncle, Don Sixto Ibarra (1928–2001), who became interested in ceramics when he found figurines in a shaft tomb nearby.
“My great uncle started out trying to duplicate the ancient pieces he had discovered but ended up founding a school of creative sculpting, especially in the medium of barro bruñido, burnished clay.”
Burnishing, Navarro explained, involves rubbing chosen parts of the pot’s outside with a hard (usually metal) tool that rearranges and compresses the surface particles of clay, resulting in a smooth, even texture that almost looks like a glaze. I was amazed to learn that one of the artisans’ favorite tools for doing this is a stainless steel valve taken from a car engine.
Sixto Ibarra is responsible, directly or indirectly, for the career of every ceramics artisan working today in San Juan Evangelista. Estudio Sixto/Facebook
Martín Navarro passed away a few years ago, but during his lifetime, he also inspired numerous neighbors to dedicate themselves to ceramics and pottery.
Two weeks ago, I revisited San Juan. This time, I walked into the workshop of Don Armando Barrera, who had learned pottery skills from his uncle — who had learned them at the knee of the celebrated Sixto Ibarra.
“I was 14 then,” Barrera told me, “but I was already producing my first pieces. Later I began to work independently. People would come along and ask me for something completely new. And me, I would never say no to them. ‘Claro que sí,’ I’d say. ‘Sure I can make that for you.’ I would say this even if I had no idea how to do it, and then I would have to put my mind to it, to actually make it happen. So I had to use my imagination.
For example, a local church asked him to make “clay paintings” showing Biblical scenes in circles one meter in diameter. “I had no idea you could paint with clay on a flat surface. But I learned to do it, and today my ceramic paintings are hanging right behind the altar of the church in [the town of] Cuexcomatitlán, at the west end of the lake.”
One of four “clay paintings” by Armando Barrera, each a meter in width, of Biblical scenes. Turismo Tlajomulco
Similarly, Barrera had learned how to fire big, flat circles after teaching himself how to fire tabletops and chairs for clients who wanted ceramic furniture.
Over the years, he has worked out new techniques to achieve the effect of burnishing a pot since he sometimes has clients that want 100–200 pieces at a time.
“I add the shine after firing by applying water-based high-gloss sealer, the kind used for stone surfaces,” he said. “To get the same effect by burnishing with stainless steel or pyrite would take a day and a half for just one pot. But with this new technique, we can do 10 pots in the same amount of time. And on top of everything else, the sealer protects the piece in case it gets wet.”
I asked Barrera if he gets his clay from a place south of town that Navarro had shown me 10 years earlier.
The effect of applying sealer (left pot) is very similar to the effect of burnishing, says Barrera.
“Yes, from the very same place,” he said. “I call this ‘virgin clay,’ and it’s what we use for really important things. It’s far better than anything I’ve ever seen anywhere else.”
What makes it so much better? “It’s not affected by humidity, and it’s not contaminated with lime, sand or volcanic rock like the clay they use in Guadalajara,” Barrera said. “It was Don Sixto Ibarra who found that deposit, but ‘mining’ it takes a lot of time and hard work.”
I can personally verify that last statement because when I visited the deposit in 2012, Navarro invited my wife and me to assist him in collecting a bit of that clay.
To get to the place, we walked for 2 kilometers along a dry mud track, our feet producing a loud crunching sound until we found ourselves in a silent wood. “There are still plenty of wild animals out here,” Navarro told us. “Right there, you can see coyote droppings, and we have mountain lions, deer, possum, badgers, rabbits … you name it.”
Potter Don Lino shows off his representations of pre-Hispanic dogs at Casa de Barro in San Juan Evangelista. México Desconocido
We soon arrived at a shady spot under the branches of a large tree. Just next to the shade tree was an embankment. Here, Navarro began to swing his pick, chipping away at the hard clay wall. I took my turn and soon we had produced a heap of thin, clay wedges.
“Now we have to break up the pieces,” he announced, “and the easiest way to do it is to dance on top of them.”
We enthusiastically took turns rhythmically stomping until no big clumps were left, at which point we began pulverizing the clay with a small sledgehammer. As we did this, Navarro told us about good and bad clay.
“What we have here is called barro canelo (cinnamon-color clay), and it’s ideal for pottery with good elasticity. My great uncle looked all over the place before he found this spot. Other kinds of clay were too sandy or had no consistency or would break after being baked.”
Having been chopped, danced upon, pulverized and sifted, this fine clay is ready to be taken to the potter’s studio.
Having crushed the clay to the best of our ability, we sifted it through a fine mesh screen into a sturdy bag. The result was a very fine powder that Navarro said was perfect.
“At home, I will add water to a little of this powder to make a ball, and then I work it like dough, adding more and more powder until I get just the right consistency.”
That was in 2012. Today, Barrera told me, the artisans in the area have a serious problem: people want to build on that property.
“Once they do, we will never have access to our virgin clay again. And even if we did, the property could be resold over and over. Our local authorities are arguing that this is an archaeological site. Right now, we really need help to preserve this place!”
The ceramic background by Barrera resides at a church in Cuexcomatitlán, Jalisco. Turismo Tlajomulco
There are five families of potters in San Juan Evangelista, and they all seem to be named Ibarra, Navarro or Barrera, each of them with their own specialization. Some do pre-Hispanic-style dogs. Others make giant polychromatic jars. Of course, there are all kinds of vírgenes.
You’ll find most of these families around the Plaza de los Artesanos, but Don Armando’s place is at Calle Juárez 30. Since his workshop is also his home, you can visit just about any day of the week. Just give the family a call at 333 753 0104 or 331 066 4955 (WhatsApp).
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.
Jalisco Governor Enrique Alfaro attended a tribute to Sixto Ibarra’s work in 2011 when he was mayor of nearby Tlajomulco de Zúñiga. Here he greets Ibarra’s widow. Flickr
Artisan Martín Navarro about to mine ‘virgin clay’ deposits just outside of town.
Marcela Ortíz demonstrates the traditional approach to burnishing at Barrera’s workshop, using a stainless-steel darning needle.
Barrera’s ceramic works hanging at his workshop.
Ceramic table and chairs by Barrera.
One of several monuments by Barrera adorning the Plaza de los Artesanos.
Yeishi Moriya after her arrest at the border. Webb County Sheriff's Office
A 28-year-old woman whose father is the mayor of a municipality in Michoacán was detained in Texas Monday as she attempted to cross into Mexico with almost US $250,000 in cash and two firearms.
Yeishi Moriya Villaseñor, daughter of Tacámbaro Mayor Artemio Moriya Sánchez, was arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at a crossing between Laredo, Texas, and Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas.
The officers “intercepted over $248,000 in unreported currency and two weapons in one outbound enforcement action at the Juárez-Lincoln Bridge,” CBP said in a statement.
“… The seizure occurred … when a CBP officer referred a 2022 Volkswagen Jetta bound for Mexico for a secondary inspection. Upon further physical examination of the vehicle and a canine examination, CBP officers discovered a total of $248,531 in unreported currency, a Colt 1911 .45-caliber handgun and a Glock 9mm handgun within the vehicle,” the statement said.
“The currency and weapons were seized. A 28-year-old female Mexican citizen vehicle passenger was turned over to Webb County Sheriff’s Office deputies for arrest on state currency and weapons charges.”
Moriya told authorities that she had been instructed to pick up the cash in Dallas and take it back to Michoacán. While traveling to Dallas with her boyfriend and two children, she received further instructions to go to an address in Dallas, where she left the car to get something to eat.
She said she was given $3,000 for transporting the money.
Webb County Sheriff Martin Cuellar said on Facebook that the woman was transported to the Webb County Jail in lieu of a $5,000 bond.
People carrying currency in excess of US $10,000 into or out of the U.S. are required to report the money to CBP.
The newspaper Reforma reported that Moriya had received instructions to pick up some cash in Dallas and take it back to Michoacán, a notoriously violent state where several criminal organizations operate.
Mayor Moriya, who represents the Morena party, hasn’t commented publicly on his daughter’s predicament. Tacámbaro, the municipality he governs, is located about 85 kilometers southwest of Morelia.
Local residents make the most of a beer truck accident near Pochutla, Oaxaca.
There was free beer in Sonora and Oaxaca Thursday after two tractor-trailer rollovers left spilled cargo to the delight of local residents, who helped themselves.
The first accident took place on Highway 200 between Pochutla and Huatulco after a truck hauling beer collided with an El Sur bus. Locals soon arrived to carry away the beer. Local media reported that the truck was attempting to pass the bus but lost control. There were no casualties reported.
The second accident occurred near Guaymas, Sonora, after the driver reportedly dozed off at the wheel, losing control. There was extensive damage to the truck and its cargo, but area residents were still able to recover some undamaged bottles of beer that survived the incident as National Guardsmen looked on.
Photos and videos uploaded to social media drew reaction from hundreds of users, some criticizing residents for stealing the beer, others defending them, arguing that the cargo was insured and therefore there was no monetary loss to the beer company.
The driver was reported to have dozed off, causing this accident in Tamaulipas.
At yet another rollover the same day, residents of Padilla, Tamaulipas, were deterred from breaking into a trailer carrying a load of avocados and persuaded to help transfer the product — for a price — to another vehicle.
That truck rolled over on the Ciudad Victoria-Matamoros highway.
