Farmers in Morelos begin marijuana cultivation with their first 100 plants

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August 24, 2022

Farmers in Cuautla, Morelos — Farmers on communal lands in Cuautla, Morelos, planted 100 marijuana plants. They plan to eventually grow a total of 500 plants.

Communal landowners in Cuautla, Morelos, have become the first group of farmers in the state to openly grow marijuana as a legitimate agricultural crop.

One hundred marijuana plants have been planted in the Cuautlixco ejido (communal land area), and the group plans to cultivate a total of 500 plants, according to farmer and activist Isidrio Cisneros. More are planned in two other Morelos towns — Anenecuilco and Xalostoc, both in the municipality of Ayala, he said.

Cisneros says the plants in Cuautlixco will be used to produce medicinal products such as CBD oil.

The activist and the Cuautlixco ejido members are part of a statewide campaign to promote the legal planting of marijuana for sale in Morelos.

signing of the Tetecala Plan — In November 2021, Morelos farmers and activists gathered to sign the Tetecala Plan, which calls for several steps to be taken to make it easier for farmers to grow cannabis in Mexico.

In August 2021, farmers from Tetecala, along with various marijuana legalization organizations, marched in front of the offices of the state health regulatory agency in Cuernavaca with marijuana plants in tow and joints in hand. The farmers requested a license to grow the crop, viewing it as a more lucrative alternative to sugar cane farming, their main crop.

Farmers from around the state and civil society organizations from Morelos and various states signed a document last fall called the Tetecala Plan that calls for liberalizing the production, sale and export of marijuana throughout the country.

The document was sent to President López Obrador but there has yet to be an official response to the group’s demands. However, the Morelos Human Rights Commission recently released a statement granting protection to farmers who grow marijuana in the state.

“There was a lot of misinformation about the openness to [marijuana] that has slowed its cultivation,” it said. “But bit by bit, [farmers] are realizing that the situation has changed and that there is more acceptance on the part of the government now.”

With reports from El Sol de Cuernavaca, El Sol de Cuernavaca and Aristegui Noticias

Municipal councilor proposes controlled hunt of crocodiles to cull population

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MND Staff

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August 24, 2022

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Officials capture a crocodile for relocation in Tamaulipas.

A councilor in Ciudad Madero, Tamaulipas, has proposed the elimination of a federal norm that protects crocodiles so that the reptiles can be culled and commercialized.

Mauro Reyes, who is also president of the municipal Ecology and Environment Commission, advocated the controlled hunting of Morelet’s crocodiles to reduce the large population of the species in the southern region of the state. The councilor believes that the commercialization of crocodile skin and meat could boost the local economy.

Reyes’ proposal to cull the species comes after a man was killed last week by a crocodile in Tampico, which neighbors Ciudad Madero in southern Tamaulipas.

The councilor said that crocodiles pose a risk to Ciudad Madero families, especially in the rainy season when flooding can take the semiaquatic reptiles away from their normal habitat. He acknowledged that modification of the Environment Ministry (Semarnat) norm has to occur at the federal level but suggested that the Tamaulipas Congress could contribute to the process.

“It’s a situation that must be analyzed due to the risk crocodiles pose in the southern area of Tamaulipas,” Reyes said. “We could create a public policy so that crocodile meat and skin is commercialized.”

Reyes said that the Semarnat norm was conceived because crocodiles were considered to be endangered. However, that’s not the case in southern Tamaulipas, he said, asserting that crocs in the area are reproducing rapidly. The councilor also said that municipal governments have a responsibility to do what they can to prevent crocodile attacks.

The newspaper Milenio reported that crocodile attacks have increased in the region in recent years and that at least four people have been killed. Last week’s attack occurred in Laguna del Carpintero, a Tampico lake just north of the border with Veracruz.

Tampico Mayor Jesús Nader Nastallah said Monday that local authorities want to relocate crocs that call the lake home, but the plan hasn’t gone ahead due to opposition from federal environmental authorities.

For his part, Ciudad Madero Mayor Adrián Oseguera said that his government also wants to relocate crocodiles in that municipality to a single plot of land that would be fenced off to stop the reptiles from coming into contact with the public.

With reports from Milenio and El Mañana

Google Maps offers crime zone warnings for drivers in Puebla

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Lydia Carey

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August 24, 2022

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Highway danger areas according to Google Maps.

Google Maps is warning drivers about danger spots in the state of Puebla on the Mexico City-Puebla highway by indicating them as zona de asaltos (robbery zones) or asaltos expréss (express robberies).

The one labeled “robbery zone (danger)” is located in Santa María Moyotzingo, San Martín Texmelucan, Puebla, notorious for its high level of criminal activity. Robberies against motorists have occurred on the highway but in addition a location near the highway has become famous for robberies, killings and assaults. The crimes committed here are often against buyers or sellers of various products contacted through social media networks and asked to meet at this point for the exchange of goods for money.

The second, bearing the designation “express robberies,” is in the municipality of San Salvador El Verde, where drivers have reported flat tires caused by traffic spikes placed by thieves to force vehicles to stop.

Google Maps has added several safety features to its platform over the years, including alerting users to natural disasters, car accidents, and even the risk of gunfire. The communities of Santa María Moyozingo have witnessed an excessive rise in violence over the past years, with local authorities seemingly unable to control it. Most of the cases have involved members of organized crime gangs.

With reports from Puebla en Línea

A pothole in Chihuahua proves perfect for grilling some meat

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Lydia Carey

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August 24, 2022

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people in Cuauhtemoc, Chihuahua grilling over a pothole — The young men with a butcher shop in Cuauhtémoc grilled meat over a pothole on the Manitoba Commercial Corridor highway and then offered commuters tacos. Carnes Hildebrandt/Instagram

In an attempt to shame local authorities about the state of the Manitoba Commercial Corridor in Cuauhtémoc, Chihuahua, two butchers whose business sits along the stretch of road decided to host a barbecue.

Two young men with Carnes Hildebrand, part of the local Mennonite business community, filled one of the highway’s giant potholes with charcoal, placed a grill on top to cook meat and warm tortillas and proceeded to give away tacos to passersby.

After they uploaded a video of the stunt to their Instagram account, it went viral on the internet.

While not explicitly stated as such in the video’s description on Instagram, the video appears to have been a sarcastic attempt to get the attention of local authorities about the road’s condition. The local Mennonite community that makes up the majority of people in the area says the government has not done its part to maintain the corridor, which is the most visited place in Cuauhtémoc.

The strip of highway is lined on either side with hundreds of warehouse-like stores selling farm equipment, industrial materials, clothing, even local Mennonite cheese, famous in this part of Mexico. There is also a Mennonite museum and several Mennonite suburbs and farms along the roadway.

Despite the road’s popularity, this particular stretch of paved highway is currently little more than a dirt road, as is apparent in the video, where one can see cars passing at highway speed near the young men as they prepare their barbecue.

In May, local officials announced a mobility plan with participation from Mennonite community leaders to rehabilitate and renovate the Manitoba Commercial Corridor after several fatal accidents took the lives of community members. That plan includes creating new crossings, more roundabouts and repaving various kilometers of the highway at a cost of almost 2 billion pesos (US $1.5 million).

With reports from El Sol de Parral and El Heraldo de Chihuahua

Senior officials in Tabasco ousted after declaring support for Sheinbaum in 2024

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MND Staff

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August 24, 2022

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Event in Tabasco supporting Claudia Sheinbaum for President — Federal Deputy Lorena Méndez Denis tweeted about the event in support of Sheinbaum. The fired Tabasco officials were among those posing for this photo in her post. Twitter

Six government officials in Tabasco have been fired after they declared their support for Claudia Sheinbaum, the Mexico City mayor who hopes to be the ruling Morena party’s candidate in the 2024 presidential election.

The officials lost their jobs after they attended an event on Sunday in support of Sheinbaum’s campaign to become the Morena candidate. Tabasco Governor Carlos Manuel Merino was responsible for most if not all of the dismissals.

Those removed from their posts were Energy Development Minister Sheila Cadena; Francisco Sánchez, the head of the Tabasco land regulation department (CERTT); Roberto Mendoza Flores, social development director at the Tabasco Housing Institute; Dulce Zentella, a senior sports official; Carlos Benito Lara, legal affairs coordinator in the state Congress; and Iván Peña, transit director in the municipality of Cárdenas.

Merino, who took over as governor a year ago when his predecessor, Adán Augusto López, became federal interior minister, swore in a new energy development minister and CERTT chief on Tuesday. He asserted that the new appointments weren’t due to the officials’ support of Sheinbaum, a close ally of President López Obrador and one of several possible Morena presidential candidates.

Tabasco's Interim Governor Carlos Manuel Merino — Tabasco Interim Governor Carlos Manuel Merino was responsible for most if not all the dismissals. Twitter

Merino – whose predecessor is one of the other possible candidates – said there was no telenovela, or soap opera, playing out in his government.

“The time for changes came and there will probably be more. We mustn’t editorialize or distort [the truth], they’re simply changes that occur in all municipal, state and federal administrations,” he said.

However, former CERTT chief Sánchez made it clear he believed his dismissal was related to his support for Sheinbaum.

“I deeply regret that my departure is motivated by a legitimate political preference in use of my civil liberties,” he wrote on Facebook.

Mexico Interior Minister Adan Augusto Lopez Hernandez, right — Merino replaced Adán Augusto López Hernández, right, as Tabasco’s governor when López Hernández was named interior minister in 2021. He also became a federal senator after López Hernández left the position in 2015.

The dismissals “reflect the face of intolerance unbecoming of an administration that emerged from a democratic movement that we’ve been strengthening for years, and don’t agree with the ideals of our President Andrés Manuel López Obrador,” Sánchez said.

Some other morenistas, as Morena party members and supporters are known, also asserted that the officials were fired for showing support for the Mexico City mayor, who – if successful in becoming the ruling party’s candidate and winning the July 2024 election – would become Mexico’s first female president.

Among the other attendees at Sunday’s pro-Sheinbaum gathering were federal Deputy Lorena Méndez Denis, state lawmakers and José Ramiro López Obrador, the president’s brother.

Sheinbaum’s main rival for the Morena party nomination is Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard, who served as Mexico City mayor between 2006 and 2012. Both presidential hopefuls have ramped up their campaigning efforts in recent months.

With reports from Reforma, El Universal and Proceso

Flooded and abandoned mines nearby complicate rescue of Coahuila miners

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MND Staff

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August 24, 2022

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rescuers at Coahuila mine collapse — Over 700,000 cubic meters of water have been extracted from the mine in Sabinas, Coahuila, over the past three weeks, but water inflow continues to be a problem.

Ten miners remain trapped three weeks after the Coahuila coal mine where they were working was flooded when excavation work caused a tunnel wall to collapse.

Civil Protection chief Laura Velázquez said Tuesday that water flowing into the El Pinabete mine from adjacent mines was complicating rescue efforts.

“They’re mines that are abandoned, which have accumulated thousands of cubic meters of rainwater, wastewater or groundwater,” she said. “We presume that [the abandoned mines and the El Pinabete mine] are connected, allowing the flow of water between them.”

Authorities have been pumping water out of the El Pinabete mine, but that work has been counteracted by incoming flows. Water levels in the mine where the miners are trapped remain well above those required for a safe rescue attempt to proceed.

Mexico's National Civil Protection chief Laura Velazquez on Coahuila mine rescue efforts — National Civil Protection chief Laura Velázquez told President López Obrador Tuesday that rescuers were considering constructing a new tunnel into the mine’s passages.

Velázquez announced last week that the federal government would ask a German company and a United States company for advice about how to go about rescuing the 10 miners. President López Obrador said last Thursday that Germany’s DMT and the United States’ Phoenix First Response had concluded that Mexican authorities’ approach to the rescue was “the right one.”

However, no significant progress has been made in the 21 days since the miners became trapped. Family members have maintained hope that their loved ones could be found alive, but the chances of that appear to be extremely minimal if not nonexistent. Relatives have been camping out at the mine, but their numbers have dwindled in recent days, according to an El Financiero newspaper report.

Velázquez told President López Obrador’s Wednesday news conference that authorities remain committed to getting the miners out but stressed that rescuers’ safety is a priority. Speaking via video link, she said that one possibility is the construction of a slanted tunnel into the galerías, or passages, of the mine. The extraction of water using pumps would accompany that strategy, the Civil Protection chief said.

She highlighted that over 700,000 cubic meters of water have been extracted from the mine over the past three weeks, yet the water levels in three wells remain at 25 meters or higher. Authorities have previously said that levels of just 1.5 meters are needed for a safe rescue attempt.

López Obrador responded to Velázquez’s update by telling her that “we have to keep working” and not stop until the miners have been recovered.

With reports from Expansión, Reforma, El Financiero and El Universal

Citizens, police investigated for cruelty in brutal killing of bear cub in Coahuila

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MND Staff

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August 24, 2022

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torture of bear cub in town of Castanos, Coahuila — The federal environmental protection agency Profepa said it would file a criminal complaint for a "crime against biodiversity" against those responsible. Arturo Islas Allende/Facebook

Environmental authorities are investigating the brutal slaying of a black bear cub in a Coahuila town where residents tortured the protected animal before killing it as police officers looked on.

Believed to be looking for water, the approximately four-month-old cub entered the town of Castaños, located in the Castaños municipality near Monclova, where locals beat it, tied its legs together, dragged it along the ground and choked it to death with a rope. Photos posted to social media show police observing the cruelty and even smiling as it occurred.

Federal environmental protection agency Profepa said Tuesday that it was preparing a criminal complaint against those responsible for the killing of the bear, which could be classified as a “crime against biodiversity.”

It said that the perpetrators could face jail time and fines and stressed that it is committed to the protection of wildlife.

The hog-tied bear in Castaños, Coahuila.

High-profile environmental activist Arturo Islas Allende tweeted about the attack a day earlier, urging Coahuila Governor Miguel Riquelme and Profepa to act quickly to sanction police and the “misfits” that “tied up, beat, dragged and choked” the cub, which “came down [to the town] to drink water.”

In a subsequent Facebook post, Islas asserted that the bear was treated “worse than the cruelest criminal in Castaños.”

“What they did to this animal is a federal crime. … It’s infuriating to see … that police were present and they did nothing more than smile and enjoy themselves as if it was a circus event,” he wrote. “… What a thought – there’s a bear looking for water, let’s kill it as a team. What a disgrace Coahuila!”

A few hours after Profepa acknowledged the barbaric torture and killing of the bear, Governor Riquelme said that his government “vigorously rejected the outrageous actions” of those involved.

“Profepa and the Coahuila environmental protection agency are in charge of the investigations into the death of an endangered specimen and the mistreatment to which it was subjected,” he wrote on Twitter.

The governor said the state Attorney General’s Office was also investigating and would seek to punish those responsible for abusing the animal.

“The black bear is a living symbol of conservation in Coahuila. We must all respect its life and environment,” Riquelme added.

With reports from El Universal and Milenio

Puebla town goes after record for world’s biggest chile en nogada

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Lydia Carey

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August 23, 2022

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The giant chile en nogada required 2,500 poblano peppers.

The Independence Day holiday in Mexico brings many delights, but none quite so famous as the iconic dish chile en nogada.

This year San Nicolás de los Ranchos, in the state of Puebla, set out to break a record by creating the biggest chile en nogada in the world. The record-breaking dish was served last weekend during the 21st International Chile En Nogada Festival held each year in August when the dish’s ingredients are most available.

The most common legend associated with chile en nogada was that its creation was the inspiration of Catholic nuns from the Santa Monica convent, who made it for Agustín de Iturbide as he marched through Puebla with his army after signing the Córdoba accords, the official agreement of Mexico’s independence between the Spanish and the revolutionary generals in 1821. There are other versions of the story, but the Poblano nuns are a likely guess for the creation of this dish as many local specialties reportedly came out of their kitchens (mole poblano and many local candies to name a few).

The dish starts with a large poblano pepper stuffed with a mixture of ground beef and pork, dried fruits and nuts, then is sometimes breaded and cooked, covered with a slightly sweet walnut sauce and sprinkled with pomegranate seeds and parsley sprigs. The colors of the dish — red, white and green — are the colors of the Mexican flag and also the uniforms of Iturbide’s soldiers.

The record-breaking dish in San Nicolás was crafted from 2,500 poblano peppers stuffed with 40 kilos of apples, 40 kilos of peaches and 81 kilos of ground meat, covered in a walnut sauce that took 31 kilos of walnuts to make and sprinkled with 12 kilos of pomegranate seeds. The proceeds from the event went to help the families of two children with cancer.

With reports from E-Consulta

After threat of legal action, WHO comes through with 10 million vaccine doses

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MND Staff

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August 23, 2022

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The COVAX program is expected to ship the vaccine in September.

After the federal government threatened on Monday to take legal action against the COVAX vaccine initiative for failing to supply all the COVID-19 shots it promised, the World Health Organization-backed program promptly indicated it would ship an additional 10 million doses to Mexico.

President López Obrador told his morning press conference on Tuesday that COVAX – which aims to ensure equitable vaccine distribution across the world – contacted the government on Monday and offered to send 10 million Pfizer shots to inoculate Mexican children. The offer came after López Obrador on Monday threatened to initiate legal action against the WHO initiative for not keeping its end of a US $160 million agreement.

Deputy Health Minster Hugo López-Gatell – the federal government’s coronavirus czar – said Tuesday that just over 10 million shots should arrive by September. He said the government could still take legal action if COVAX reneges on what he described as a “formal offer.”

“We don’t yet have a delivery guarantee [but] the news is positive,” López-Gatell said before stressing that “we can’t relax” until the vaccines have been “correctly delivered.”

He said that Mexico paid $160 million to COVAX to have access to up to 52 million vaccines. However, the country has only received 24 million so far. López Obrador said Monday that Mexico is owed $75 million worth of vaccines.

López-Gatell told reporters that “the access to vaccines through the COVAX mechanism has been very turbulent for Mexico,” explaining that there have been “late deliveries” and “scant clarity” about the criteria followed to allocate shots to different countries around the world.

In addition to entering into an agreement with COVAX, the federal government has purchased COVID-19 vaccines on the open market and received millions of donated doses from the United States and Canada. The Canadian government late last month sent over 3 million Pfizer shots to Mexico to inoculate children.

About three-quarters of all Mexicans (adults and children) are vaccinated with at least one shot, according to The New York Times vaccinations tracker, but López-Gatell put the figure at 81%. The government long maintained that vaccination wasn’t necessary for minors, but eventually offered shots to adolescents before extending its vaccination program to younger kids more recently.

Mexico is still amid a fifth wave of COVID infections, but López-Gatell said Tuesday that case numbers have been on the wane for six consecutive weeks. He said the country is now heading toward a “point of recess” in the pandemic, but warned that case numbers could spike as the weather becomes cooler.

Future waves of COVID could “synchronize with the cold season,” López-Gatell said, although he acknowledged that outbreaks haven’t yet become seasonal in Mexico, where the fifth wave began in the spring and extended into the summer.

“In our case we still have epidemic waves outside the cold season,” the coronavirus point man said.

“… We don’t rule out that in October, November and December there could again be an increase [in COVID cases] that means the establishment of a more regular pattern in the cold season,” he added.

Across Mexico, there are currently just over 42,000 estimated active cases, according to federal data, while the country’s accumulated tally is approaching 7 million. The official COVID-19 death toll rose to 329,103 on Monday, but that figure – like the case count – is widely believed to be a vast undercount.

López-Gatell said that COVID fatalities are trending downwards and highlighted that just 6% of general care hospital beds set aside for coronavirus patients are occupied and that only 2% of those with ventilators are in use.

With reports from Reforma and Milenio

Court grants injunction to suspend bullfights at Zacatecas fair

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MND Staff

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August 23, 2022

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bullfighting event in Zacatecas city — Bullfighting event in Zacatecas city at the Plaza de Toros Monumental bullfighting ring in June.

Late last month, a cool, animated poster for the upcoming Zacatecas state fair in Zacatecas city was unveiled, featuring a colorful matador moving his cape and an angry-looking bull raking the ground with his hooves. An accompanying poster listed details about the 10 bullfights scheduled at the 12,000-capacity Plaza de Toros Monumental during the Sept. 3–18 fair.

Those posters will likely be coming down now after the Second District Court in Zacatecas granted an environmental organization an injunction on Monday to provisionally shelve the series.

The court decision ruled in favor of a coalition lawsuit that asserted that fighting bulls experience “pain and suffering” that includes “increased heart rate, hypertension, hyperventilation, sweating and stress and muscle stiffness,” among other discomforts. The lawsuit listed in detail how the bull is pummeled and penetrated with spears and swords, eventually suffering paralysis and death.

All of this is “incompatible or irreconcilable with [people’s] right to a healthy environment,” provided for in article 4 of the Mexican Constitution, “to the detriment of the people who inhabit the state of Zacatecas,” the court’s ruling noted.

Governor of Zacatecas visiting bullfighting ring in Zacatecas city — Despite Monday’s ruling, bullfighting clearly has support in the state: Governor David Monreal Ávila supervised remodeling at the Plaza de Toros Monumental in June. Government of Zacatecas

The Zacatecas decision follows several similar rulings across Mexico in recent months: in Mexico City in June, a judge turned a provisional suspension of bullfights at Plaza México into a definitive ban. And just last week, organizers of an apple fair in Zacatlán, Puebla, called off an August 20 bullfight following protests by citizens and a district court ruling against the event, the newspaper Urbano Pueblo reported.

That decision came despite Puebla’s governor Luis Miguel Barbosa Huerta speaking out against banning bullfights and cockfights in June, “considering them to be part of the national culture.” Also in June, the Mexican Supreme Court invalidated a Nayarit decree that gave bullfights and cockfights intangible cultural heritage status.

In the Zacatecas case, animal rights organizations and other activists, led by the Civil Association of the National Anticorruption Collective (Colecna), filed a lawsuit when it became known that the Feria de Zacatecas would resume this year after two years off due to the pandemic and would include bullfighting.

Bullfighting is popular in Zacatecas. In April, the state Congress voted to add bullfights and cockfights as “intangible cultural heritage” in its cultural heritage law, according to the newspaper El Sol de Zacatecas. “… and in the fields of Zacatecas, there is a presence of some of the best ranches in Mexico,” the paper added, alluding to the quality of bulls that would have been involved.

Last year, although there was no fair, there were two bullfights in the city’s Plaza Monumental in July, with a capacity of 1,500 people and COVID-19 protocols enforced.

A court-scheduled hearing on Aug. 29 will give organizers of the Zacatecas fair an opportunity to speak. But the newspaper La Jornada called it an “incidental hearing,” at which the suspension will be finalized.

With reports from La Jornada and El Sol de Zacatecas