Official blames eclipse for dead fish in Nayarit

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July 8, 2022

There are conflicting reasons as to why large numbers of dead fish have recently washed up on the Nayarit coast: a biologist says that toxic algae is to blame, but a Civil Protection official believes that a lunar eclipse is the culprit.

Dead fish have appeared this week on beaches in municipalities such as Santiago Ixcuintla and San Blas.

Mario Alberto Ortiz Jiménez, an academic at the Technological Institute of Tepic, said on social media that the decomposition of toxic microalgae is causing the fish to die.

“The [U.S.] National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has reported high levels of chlorophyll … off the northern coast of Nayarit since June 28. The high concentration of chlorophyll corresponds to a high proliferation of microalgae. Microalgae are often toxic and upon dying they decrease the concentration of oxygen in the water, causing fish to die, as occurred … on Playa El Colorado,” he wrote, referring to a beach on the Santiago Ixcuintla coast.

Peces muertos tapizan playa #ElColorado en Santiago Ixcuintla, en Nayarit; ninguna autoridad ha informado a qué se deba este fenómeno. Desde enero se han visto peces muertos en playas de Compostela, Bahía de Banderas y Puerto Vallarta, situación que achacan a la #MareaRoja pic.twitter.com/qz5p35cEJe

— Puerto Vallarta (@VivirVallarta) July 6, 2022

Ortiz said that rain is causing excess fertilizer from agricultural fields to flow into the ocean, “where it fertilizes the microalgae.”

“If that wasn’t enough, discharges of wastewater from Tepic … provide more nutrients for the microalgae, aggravating the problem. Earth is a system that is very sensitive to human activity. Anything we do will end up affecting our Earth’s ecosystem,” he added.

But Santiago Ixcuintla Civil Protection director David Estrada Mariscal reached a different conclusion, saying that the appearance of dead fish on beaches was due to a recent lunar eclipse. He indicated that the eclipse caused the fish to die and to wash up on the beach, an opinion that he formed after discussions with local fishermen.

“Due to the effect of the eclipse … dead fish began to wash up on the beach,” Estrada said.

According to a report by NTV Noticias, he was unable to say exactly when the eclipse occurred. The most recent total lunar eclipse occurred in mid-May.

Estrada conceded that a red tide, or harmful algal bloom, could have caused the fish to die, but said there was no record of such a phenomenon having occurred, indicating that he was oblivious to Ortiz’s explanation.

With reports from NTV Noticias

Primary school’s renovation plans in limbo after funds from its lottery win disappear

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MND Staff

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July 8, 2022

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The president's plane raffle took place two years ago and a Puebla school was one of the winners.

A primary school in the state of Puebla that won 20 million pesos (US $950,000 at the time) in the much-castigated “raffle” of Mexico’s presidential airplane two years ago is now experiencing some major turbulence.

Approximately 40% of the prize money is in danger of going down the drain, having been spent on an ill-fated construction and rehabilitation project, and there has been no public accounting of spending, the newspaper El Sol de Puebla reported this week.

The actions have left many staff and parents affiliated with the Manuel Pozos Primary School in Xochiapulco wondering what has been paid for so far and what’s the status of the rest of the prize money.

Many will remember back in 2020 when President López Obrador, then in the early stages of his term, wanted to raffle off the country’s presidential jet — a luxuriously outfitted Boeing 787 Dreamliner estimated to be worth US $130 million — because it was an “insult to the people” and an “example of the excesses” of the two previous administrations.

But when the raffle of a plane that he said was worth US $200 million turned into more of a joke than a feasible undertaking, AMLO switched gears and turned it into a lottery for the people. Then the lottery turned into something of a joke as well, with a lack of interest prompting the government to step in and buy 1 million cachitos (lottery tickets) for about US $23.7 million.

In the end, there would be 100 prizes of 20 million pesos each, and no one would “win” the airplane.

Three schools in Puebla ended up holding winning tickets, including Manuel Pozos. Everything seemed great. The school began an expansion and improvement project valued at 8 million pesos; classrooms, bathrooms and the cafeteria were to be renovated, and another room was going to be turned into an auditorium.

But now, charges of fraud are flying left and right. The construction company hired to carry out improvements abandoned the project last month, without a reason, and the school committee responsible for the deal is apparently washing its hands of everything. Reportedly, 96% of the cost of the project has already been paid, although parents who are members of the committee haven’t explained in detail what the money was spent on or why the work has stopped.

At a recent assembly, teachers and community members announced they would file a lawsuit against the company in addition to requesting an audit. There will also be an inquiry into a “series of irregularities” among committee members at the school, which is located in the Northeastern Sierra of Puebla.

“Unfortunately, there have been countless inconsistencies with the committee that was formed,” said teacher Erasto Pérez Bedolla. “Pertinent information has not been released.” The construction company, he added, “has left the work thrown away, but it has taken almost 8 million pesos.”

Some at the assembly also charged that the safety of the students is at stake: There are exposed wires, open pits, piles of discarded odds and ends, and other waste and materials on the campus. Also, Pérez Bedolla charged, the first rains of the season exposed leaks, runoff and the pooling of water around campus.

Apparently, administrators and parents did receive a general description of expenses, but it’s an unworthy document, Pérez Bedolla contended, because it didn’t break down the costs or convey what works have been accomplished.

With reports from El Sol de Puebla

Sedated bear falls 15 meters after ‘rescue’ goes awry

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Lydia Carey

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July 8, 2022

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After the bear's big fall on Tuesday, the Coahuila Environment Ministry released video of the animal resting and eating. — After the bear's big fall on Tuesday, the Coahuila Environment Ministry released video of the young animal resting and eating. SMA / Screenshot

A 2-year-old bear is resting and awaiting medical treatment after it fell over 15 meters from a tree when members of the Coahuila Environment Ministry (SMA) tried to capture it on Tuesday.

The same bear had been seen twice previously near the Lomas de Lourdes neighborhood in southern Saltillo before being captured on June 10 and set free in the Sierra of Zapalinamé, a protected mountain range to the south of the city.

Around midday Tuesday, a local couple living, ironically, on Calle Retorno de los Osos (Street of the Bears), saw a young bear come into their yard and start climbing trees. So they called the SMA to come and rescue it.

Upon arriving at the scene, the state workers discussed letting the animal come down in its own time at night, but one ministry employee instead shot the bear with a sedative dart. The SMA team had not set up a net to catch the animal and within only about three minutes the sedative took effect and the animal fell to the ground, narrowly missing a concrete wall. Team members said they were not expecting the sedative to act so fast in the young bear’s system.

Critican rescate de osezno en Coahuila; cayó más de 15 metros tras ser sedado #Video
⚠️ Imágenes fuertes ⚠️https://t.co/KwSPJg8LTH pic.twitter.com/9occG6kKyv

— Milenio Laguna (@MilenioLaguna) July 6, 2022

“It fell on the ground, no problem, it’s doing well. In the wild they fall like that, but we’ll check it anyway,” Environment Minister Jorge Guerrero said.

The couple who reported the bear commented that they called the SMA thinking that they had experience in this type of rescue and were dismayed that the government workers allowed the bear to fall from such a height with no safety net below it.

After its fall, the bear was transferred to a state facility where a veterinarian recommended that it rest and that its caregivers keep it hydrated. The SMA released a video Friday morning of the bear moving around on its own and eating inside a cage. The bear is scheduled to receive further medical attention Friday afternoon as well as X-rays to see if it has suffered any internal injuries.

With reports from Vanguardia and Milenio

Schooled by El Chapo, drug cartels continue tunneling under northern border

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MND Staff

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July 8, 2022

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tunnel1 — A deluxe tunnel in the Chapo style.

Mexico’s narco-tunnels pioneer has been behind bars since he was captured for a third time in 2016, but his clandestine cross-border construction legacy lives on.

The army has discovered 14 tunnels on Mexico’s northern border since former Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán was taken into custody in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, in January 2016. The National Defense Ministry told the newspaper Milenio that six of the tunnels were found in Tijuana, Baja California, including one that measured a lengthy 1.3 kilometers.

The two most recently discovered tunnels, both of which are in Tijuana, were built in the “Chapo style,” according to a report by Milenio. One was located on a supposedly abandoned parcel of land in the Nueva Tijuana neighborhood in May, while the other was found just 50 meters away on another property in June.

Both measure about 300 meters and were built at a depth of approximately 25 meters. They were made with steel beams to avoid any possibility of a collapse and have tracks along which carts can run. They also have electrical lighting and ventilation, and authorities believe they were used to move drugs, weapons and people.

The end of the line: packages of drugs are stacked up at the terminus of a narco-tunnel.

Milenio said the construction method used is very similar to that employed to build the tunnel through which Guzmán escaped from the El Altiplano maximum security prison in México state in 2015. As a result, it is believed that the Sinaloa Cartel built the twin cross-border tunnels, and at least some of the others found by the army since 2016.

In the past six years, the army has also discovered three narco-tunnels in Mexicali, two in Nogales and one in each of Tecate, San Luis Río Colorado and Matamoros. That in San Luis Río Colorado is also among those that have similar engineering to Chapo-style tunnels. When it was discovered in 2018, a military source described it as being “perfectly built,” equipped with ventilation and lighting systems, and its walls and ceiling covered with wood. It also had tracks along which small carts could run.

Mexican and United States authorities have identified José Sánchez Villlalobos – known as “the lord of the tunnels” – as the mastermind behind their design, but Guzmán is considered the pioneer of their use to move contraband into the U.S.

Sánchez, who was recently released from prison in the U.S. after serving a 10-year term, admitted to planning, financing and supervising the construction of “multiple” cross-border tunnels from 2010 to 2012, as well as overseeing their operation as smuggling conduits, according to a report by The San Diego Union-Tribune. Milenio said the former Sinaloa Cartel member – who was once considered a close confidante of El Chapo – had admitted to involvement in the construction of over 100 tunnels.

United States Ambassador Ken Salazar said in May that there are over 200 smuggling tunnels in the Tijuana-San Diego area alone. He said U.S. authorities are working with the Mexican government to “eradicate these tunnels that shouldn’t be there.”

The first Mexico-United States narco-tunnel was discovered in 1990. The brainchild of El Chapo – who is serving a life sentence in prison in the United States after being tried on drug trafficking charges in early 2019 – the 60-meter-long tunnel linked Agua Prieta, Sonora, to Douglas, Arizona.

With reports from Milenio and Zeta Tijuana

17 of 24 basic products have risen in price despite efforts to control inflation

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MND Staff

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July 8, 2022

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food basket — Inflation reached a 21-year high of 8% in June.

The prices of 17 basic products increased over the past three months despite the federal government’s announcement of a six-month anti-inflation plan in early May.

President López Obrador announced May 4 that the government had reached an agreement with the private sector to ensure fair prices for 24 products in the canasta básica, a selection of basic foodstuffs including beans, rice, eggs and sugar.

The plan, formally called the Packet against Inflation and High Prices (PACIC), and successive interest rate hikes have been unable to curb inflation, which reached a 21-year high of 7.99% in June – more than double the central bank’s 3% target. Food prices were up by an even higher 13.4%, according to data from the national statistics agency INEGI.

Of the 17 basic products whose prices increased between April and June, oranges recorded the biggest hike. Their price rose 49.7% in the space of just three months, while potatoes were 44.2% more expensive at the end of June.

The other 15 products whose prices rose were:

Tomatoes +7%
Bread +5.1%
Vegetable oil +4.9%
Eggs +4.3%
Chicken +4.3%
Pork chops +3.6%
Pasta for soup +2.8%
Toilet paper +2.5%
Canned tuna and sardines +2.4%
Soap +2.3%
Milk +2.2%
Corn tortillas +1.7%
Beans +1.2%
Rice +1%
Beefsteak +0.6%

In contrast, prices for limes, onions, fresh chiles, sugar, carrots and apples all decreased over the past three months, although the reductions were minimal in the cases of the last three. Limes, whose price was up more than 150% in annual terms in January, easily recorded the biggest reduction, with their cost dropping 48% between April and June. The price of onions declined 24% while chiles were 2% cheaper at the end of last month.

Luis Adrián Muñiz, deputy director of economic analysis at the brokerage firm Vector, said that PACIC has had almost no impact on prices. One of its key tenets is the promotion of increased production of staple foods, but boosting output will take time.

The only way to reduce prices in the short term is to introduce price controls, Muñiz said, but caps are not desirable due to the distortions they would likely generate in the market.

After the government floated the possibility of placing price controls on basic food items earlier this year, analysts warned that such a measure could create shortages because production is discouraged.

James Salazar, an economist with CI Banco, agreed that “in terms of curbing inflationary pressures, the reach of PACIC is very limited.”

The only effective inflation-fighting measure has been the gasoline subsidy, “but its cost is very high,” he said. Reducing inflation by boosting supply of consumer products will take a considerable amount of time, Salazar added.

“What could help is a reduction in inflation in the United States or a decrease in the international prices of some supplies, which is seen now in the case of some metals and agricultural products without it yet being a trend. This would bring a greater benefit than [that brought by] any government measure that seeks to suppress inflation,” he said.

The central bank predicted in late June that headline inflation, which doesn’t strip out volatile food and energy prices, will increase to 8.1% in the third quarter before falling to 7.5% in Q4. It forecasts further declines in all four quarters of next year, with an anticipated headline rate of 3.2% at the end of next year and 3.1% in Q1 and Q2 of 2024.

In addition to inflationary shocks stemming from the pandemic, the Bank of México said there were inflationary pressures associated with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and strict lockdown measures imposed by China to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Widespread drought in Mexico has also affected the availability – and prices – of some fresh food items.

The Vector brokerage house similarly predicts that inflation will peak at 8.2% this quarter before it begins to slowly fall. Citibanamex chief economist Adrián de la Garza also anticipates a peak in the July-September quarter, as well as stubbornly high inflation in the last three months of the year.

“We think that inflation will peak in around August or September and it should remain at levels of about 7.5-8% for the rest of the year,” he said.

Following are products that have recorded the biggest price increases in the 12 months ending June 30.

Avocado +79%
Onions +57%
Potatoes +49%
Poblano chiles +37%
Cooking oil +33%
Wheat flour +28%
Zucchini +26%
Oranges +25%
White bread +25%
Cucumber +24%
Eggs +24%
Watermelon +23%
Chicken +18%
Pineapple +16%
Beef +15%
Fish +14%

With reports from El Universal

2 arrests made in Guaymas, Sonora, following outbreak of violence

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MND Staff

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July 7, 2022

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The vehicle in which the two suspects were traveling when they were arrested.

Two people have been arrested in connection with three murders and two arson attacks in San Carlos, a town in the municipality of Guaymas, Sonora.

Irma Janeth Castro, owner of the restaurant/bar La Catrina, was shot dead in her car Tuesday, while César Octavio Enríquez Cota, a 31-year-old recently-married man with a doctorate, was murdered in his car in the car park of Hammerhead’s restaurant last Friday. Those homicides came after a security guard at the La Bartina bar was murdered on June 19 in an armed attack that wounded one other person. The 17-year-old son of Castro, 45, was wounded in Tuesday’s attack and taken to hospital for treatment.

The same two people accused of the murders are also allegedly responsible for setting fire to La Bartina and a restaurant and beach club called Maukaa, according to the Sonora Attorney General’s Office (FGJE).

The FGJE said in a statement Wednesday that it deployed a special team of investigators to respond to the events, detaining two people in possession of firearms and drugs. The FGJE said the unnamed people possibly participated in the criminal acts.

According to the Tribuna newspaper, San Carlos – a beach town 20 kilometers northwest of the city of Guaymas – is currently amidst a crisis of insecurity. It said that rival criminal groups are fighting for control of the town and that – despite the recent arrests – authorities haven’t acted to solve the crisis.

The recent wave of violence appears related to extortion demands made by criminals in San Carlos. A local businessman told Tribuna that criminal groups are asking many businesses to make regular payments. Other business owners have taken to social media to denounce the crime and highlight authorities’ failure to combat it. One business owner pleaded for people to “pray for San Carlos,” Tribuna said.

Andrés Sumano, an academic who researches violence, said that extortion usually occurs because organized “crime acts as a franchise business.”

“So local groups tend to look for sources of financing by resorting to these actions,” he said.

“The … victims selected by these criminals are usually Mexican business people,” said Rafael López, a risk consultant with the company Kroll.

Criminals target them because “it’s known their families are here” and they have “vulnerable points,” he said. Foreign-owned businesses – of which there are some in San Carlos – are “the least affected by this kind of crime because they don’t have these vulnerable points,” López said.

Following the murder of Enríquez, local businessman Luis Zaragoza questioned the inaction of authorities.

“There was an attack that resulted in the death of a person, … it’s a very serious situation because families with children and tourists were walking around,” he said in a radio interview. “[It happened] at a relatively early hour; it’s an increasingly delicate situation … [but] there’s no reaction [from authorities], there’s no solution. I don’t understand what authorities are thinking and what they’re waiting for to act.”

Tribuna reported that Guaymas Mayor Karla Córdova hasn’t made a public appearance since the latest outbreak of violence began, but noted that isn’t surprising because she has kept a low profile since witnessing an armed attack on the municipal police chief, which claimed the lives of three other people last November.

However, Sonora Security Minister María Dolores del Río has asserted that authorities are concerned about what’s happening in San Carlos and working to combat crime in the town. The recent arrests lend some credence to those words.

Sumano, the academic, said the absence of the mayor creates the impression that the problems in San Carlos are not being addressed by local authorities.

“Mayors are the visible faces of municipal governments, they’re the first responders [to local problems] and if that face isn’t there, if citizens don’t see an interest in resolving problems, … [they believe] they’ve been abandoned by an indolent authority,” he said.

With reports from El Imparcial, Tribuna , Opinión Sonora, El Universal and Radar Sonora

Oaxaca police accused of assaulting indigenous trans woman

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MND Staff

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July 7, 2022

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A 24-year-old indigenous trans woman in the coastal region of Oaxaca was teased, harassed and humiliated by members of a local police force, who cut her hair and dressed her as a man while making her do community work filling potholes, outraged activists are contending.

Lizeth, who is of Mixtec origin, was arrested in San Juan Colorado, Jamiltepec, on June 27 and held behind bars for six days, supposedly for a robbery, although media reports are now calling it administrative error because no complaint was ever filed and she was released.

While in custody, “They put me to work, they insulted me, they yelled at me, they made me cry,” Lizeth said.

San Juan Colorado police commander Agustín López and another top municipal official, Agustina Lorenzo, were the ones who ordered the police to cut Lizeth’s hair and dress her in pants and a T-shirt, according to trans activist Humberta Marcelo Vásquez.

Lizeth works as a housekeeper among other jobs.

The news of all this hit social media on Wednesday, sending LGBTQ and trans activists into a fury. “These acts of transphobia and discrimination that they did to Lizeth deserve severe punishment,” said Marcelo, who added that if it was not for her intervention and social pressure, Lizeth would still be imprisoned.

Lizeth is from the municipality of San Pedro Siniyuvi, which is just 155 kilometers from San Juan Colorado though it takes 4½ hours to drive there through the mountains. She works as a housekeeper, a waitress and a cashier to make ends meet. “Her sin is recognizing herself as a trans woman, and this is really unfortunate, because it is our own authorities who discriminate against us when they should be the ones to protect us,” Marcelo said. But enacting sexual diversity policies “does not happen here, in these communities on the Oaxaca coast.”

In a Facebook post, the LGBTQ and trans activist group Colectivo Juntxs X Oaxaca demanded that those responsible are punished, writing that San Juan Colorado officials “behaved in an inhumane and irresponsible way. … In a country where violence against the [LGBTQ] community is on the rise, we can not allow or tolerate justice and elected officials to act in such a way.”

The post also included a letter to President López Obrador, Oaxaca Governor Alejandro Murat Hinojosa and other public officials. It said the police “completely undressed [Lizeth] and forced her to wear men’s clothing, repeatedly alluding that she was a man, and had to dress as such and behave as such.” It added that the police used obscene words to her face, and that the police chief López “cut her nails and hair in front of the police so that they would make fun of her.”

The National Council to Prevent Discrimination (Conapred) condemned the incident and demanded an investigation, as well as compensation for damages.

Oaxaca’s Ombudsman for Human Rights (DDHPO) said an investigation into the incidents had begun and assured that Lizeth was being looked after and interviewed. DDHPO also stressed that between 2015 and April 2022, it initiated 34 inquiries for various acts of discrimination against people from the LGBTQ community.

With reports from El Imparcial, Istmo Press and Vanguardia

Boy overcomes fear of the needle, dresses up as wrestler Psycho Clown

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MND Staff

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July 7, 2022

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Dressed as Psycho Clown Miguelito gets his COVID shot. — Dressed as Psycho Clown, Miguelito gets his COVID shot.

Wearing the mask and suit of his favorite lucha libre wrestler helped an eight-year-old Oaxaca boy overcome the fear of getting a COVID-19 shot.

Dressed as Psycho Clown, Miguel Ángel Carrasco Echeverría was vaccinated Wednesday in Tuxtepec, Oaxaca’s second largest city.

He closed his eyes when a nurse administered the vaccine but didn’t shed a single tear, according to a report by the Milenio newspaper, which described the inoculation as the longest four seconds of Miguel’s short life.

Géminis Echeverría posted a video to social media of her brave son getting his shot and holding cotton wool against the injection site on his upper arm.

Miguel was one of hundreds of children aged five to 11 who got COVID shots Wednesday in Tuxtepec. Accompanied by their parents or grandparents, many lined up for hours in sweltering heat to get a dose of Pfizer’s vaccine, the only shot authorized for use on children in Mexico.

After long maintaining that vaccinating young children against COVID-19 wasn’t necessary, the federal government announced last month that it would offer shots to minors aged five to 11.

A fifth wave of coronavirus infections is currently spreading across Mexico, where there are more than 185,000 active cases, according to federal Health Ministry estimates. An additional 31,116 new cases were reported Wednesday, the first time since February that the daily count exceeded 30,000.

The Health Ministry also reported 60 COVID fatalities, which lifted the official death toll to 325,928. Accumulated case numbers total 6.15 million.

An official with the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) said Wednesday the end of the fifth wave is near, predicting it would be peak during the week of July 17.

With reports from Milenio and El Financiero

Search for stolen religious sculpture goes international

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MND Staff

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July 7, 2022

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The archdiocese said the statue is historically and culturally priceless.

Authorities have notified Interpol of the theft of a much-loved and valuable religious sculpture from a San Luis Potosí church due to fears it may have been taken out of the country to be sold on the black market.

A Guatemalan-made wooden sculpture of Joseph and the baby Jesus was stolen from a church in the municipality of Villa de Reyes in the early hours of last Saturday. Revered by parishioners, the 18th century piece could sell for as much as 150,000 pesos (US $7,300), according to state authorities.

The San Luis Potosí Attorney General’s Office said in a statement that it was the responsibility of its federal counterpart to investigate the crime, but added that it was collaborating on efforts to recover the sculpture, which was stolen from the central niche in the Bledos parish church.

The church was built in the 18th century by Bledos hacienda owner Juan Manuel de la Sierra, who commissioned the Joseph sculpture.

State Attorney General José Luis Ruiz Contreras said Tuesday that an Interpol notice was in the process of being generated. He said it was unclear whether the sculpture was stolen by thieves dedicated to the commercialization of religious relics.

San Luis Potosí Archbishop Jorge Alberto Cavazos Arizpe noted Wednesday that authorities had notified Interpol about the theft and said he remained hopeful that the sculpture hadn’t been taken out of the country and could be recovered. He also said that the Catholic Church was maintaining ongoing communication with investigators.

Thieves also got away with the church’s most valuable chalice, according to church authorities in Villa de Reyes.

The theft of religious art has increased significantly in Mexico during the past decade, according to the Catholic Multimedia Center. San Luis Potosí is one of the states most affected by the crime.

With reports from Pulso and El Universal

Puebla woman to compete in World Championship of Beer Sommeliers

By

Lydia Carey

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July 7, 2022

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Beer sommelier Katia Niño will be part of the first group of experts to represent Mexico at the World Championship in Munich. Instagram @kattnino

Katia Niño’s hard work in the beer industry is finally paying off as she heads to Munich this September to join close to 100 beer sommeliers from around the world at the the World Championship of Beer Sommeliers.

This will be the first year that Mexico will be represented at the competition and Niño is excited not only to be representing her country but all women in beer throughout Mexico. While 2019’s winning beer sommelier was Elisa Raus, a woman from Germany, every other competition since the World Cup began in 2009 has been won by a man.

“I’m so proud to be chosen for this first selection, representing Puebla and women [in beer],” she said in an interview with El Sol de Puebla. Niño has her own craft beer brewery in Puebla city — Cervecería Ángeles de Zaragoza — and is a certified beer sommelier, meaning she has had to learn all there is to know about the process, production, and tasting of the beverage.

The World Cup championship participants have been chosen from over 5,000 beer sommeliers worldwide, and compete among a group that is narrowed down to about 100, from different countries. The final eight will compete publicly in front of a group of expert judges and have to prove their knowledge of theoretical basics about beer and the sharpness of their sensory skills in beer tasting. The final stage of the competition will also require a little showmanship on stage and the winners will have “best presented the message of beer culture and its diversity,” according to organizers.

Niño hopes that she can put a spotlight on Mexican beers during her time in Munich, in particular their use of endemic ingredients that give them unique flavor profiles. While Mexico is not where beer originated, the country is one of the top three exporters of beer in the world and one of the top five consumers.

“Beer is a thousand-year-old beverage,” says Niño, “and a lot of the time we drink it without understanding the weight of its history.”

With reports from El Sol de Puebla