Travis Bembenek discovered Los Cabos and the surrounding area had much more to offer than he initially thought. (Shutterstock)
OK, I admit it. My first impression of Los Cabos was not very positive.
Los Cabos struck me as not very authentically Mexican — US $25 million homes; ultra-luxury hotels; an Ashley Furniture Store with prices listed only in US dollars; Costco Home Depot, Walmart, and multiple Mexican grocery store chains all within a mile or two. At first, I really didn’t understand the place.
But after several years and nearly a dozen trips there, I have absolutely learned to love the area. Here are the top five things that helped me learn to love Los Cabos.
It’s important to remember that Los Cabos is not one specific place, but rather a series of towns very different from one another: San José del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas, with Todos Santos and La Paz located nearby. All of these are accessible on a vacation to the area, with La Paz a bit of a drive north. San José del Cabo is the most colonial of the towns, with great architecture, a wonderful evening vibe of great bars and restaurants, and a walkable town center. Cabo San Lucas is the epicenter of the boating culture of the area, with hundreds (if not thousands) of boats to rent in the marina and cruise ships continually docking in the bay. Todos Santos is the hip, chill, up and coming beach town on the Pacific Ocean. La Paz is a larger city with great day trips to incredible beaches and world-class sea life viewing in the Gulf of California.
It’s a place to become a foodie. Los Cabos has a mind-blowing variety of food experiences, from stunning desert oasis farm to fork restaurants like La Huerta, Flora Farms, Acre, and Torote, to ocean cliffside restaurants throughout the tourist corridor. From “feet in the sand” places to get tacos in Todos Santos like The Green Room, to rooftop restaurants with live music in San José del Cabo, you have access to a huge variety of foods like in few other places.
The golf is world class. Even if you are a very mediocre golfer like me, you will want to experience the golf courses in the area. The course conditions are perfect. The views of the ocean and surrounding mountains are gorgeous. The weather is perfect. The contrast of the desert, the sea, and the green fairways are beautiful. Take my advice and don’t keep score — just enjoy the amazing experience!
The water has something for everyone. The beaches are a bit different here than most places in Mexico and you need to do your homework in advance. Many are not ideal for walking, but there are some great options for swimming, like Playa Chileno, Playa El Medano, and Playa Santa Maria near San José del Cabo. At certain times of the year, it is very common to spot whales from the beaches. Near La Paz further north, you can find one of the most stunning beaches in the world at Playa Balandra. Los Cabos is a great place to rent a boat and the options for tours are endless. From whale watching, to snorkeling, to world-class fishing, to sunset cruises, or just to do some beach hopping – you can easily find your perfect boat day here.
Embrace driving a car here. Things are spread out, but it’s easy and safe to drive. Having a car will allow you to see and do much more and greatly enhance your experience. However, renting a car in Cabo — as is the case almost anywhere in Mexico — requires a bit of patience.
Although the cities of Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo have grown from a combined 29,000 people in 1990 to over 350,000 today, I think that the area is still in its early stages of growth.
There is so much to offer and the area is easily accessible from the West Coast of the U.S. and the booming Southwest as well. New domestic and international flights are frequently being added, new hotels opening, and new homes and condominium construction are visible nearly everywhere throughout the area.
Some places on the peninsula are just starting to grow on the East Cape, like Cabo Pulmo and Los Barilles. Parts of Los Cabos feel well-developed, while others are just getting started. It makes for an interesting mix.
Come see for yourself this uniquely beautiful and fast-developing part of Mexico, and be blown away by the variety of sights and experiences it offers. You’ll find it hard not to fall in love with it!
Travis Bembenek is the CEO of Mexico News Daily and has been living, working or playing in Mexico for over 27 years.
The Mexican economy, bolstered by investment, remittances, and low unemployment, significantly exceeded expert forecasts made in early 2023. (Cuartoscuro)
Preliminary data published on Friday indicates that Mexico’s economy grew by just under 3.3% in annual terms in 2023, a figure well above most forecasts made at the start of last year.
The national statistics agency INEGI published estimates of annual economic growth in November and December. It anticipates that final data will show GDP increased 3.1% in November and 2.6% in December.
The Mexican peso appreciated significantly against the US dollar during 2023, but is expected by experts to weaken this year. (Shutterstock)
Based on those figures, annual economic growth was 2.81% in the final quarter of last year and 3.26% across 2023, according to Gabriela Siller, director of economic analysis at Mexican bank Banco Base.
She noted on the X social media platform that data on growth in the final months of last year could be modified later this month and thus the 3.26% estimate is not definitive. Still, it is likely to be pretty close to the mark.
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) predicted in November that the Mexican economy would grow 3.4% in 2023, while the International Monetary Fund (IMF) made a 3.2% forecast in October.
Forecasts made in early 2023 were much lower. The OECD predicted last March that GDP would expand 1.8% in 2023, while the World Bank made a forecast of just 0.9% growth last January.
The consensus forecast of 30 banks, brokerages and other financial organizations surveyed by Citibanamex early last year expected only 0.9% growth for the Mexican economy in 2023.
The levels of GDP growth recorded last year allowed Mexico to pass South Korea and Australia to become the 12th largest economy in the world, according to the IMF.
The Washington, D.C.-based financial agency is forecasting that Mexico will pass Russia to become the 11th largest economy this year and remain in that position in 2025, 2026, 2027 and 2028.
"La Kena" was arrested in a department store in an upscale neighborhood of the Monterrey metropolitan area. (X)
An alleged cartel leader linked to the kidnapping of four U.S. citizens in Tamaulipas last year was arrested Thursday in the metropolitan area of Monterrey, Nuevo León.
José Alberto García Vilano, presumed leader of the Los Ciclones faction of the Gulf Cartel, was detained by navy personnel and state police in San Pedro Garza García, described by the El País newspaper as “the richest municipality in Latin America.”
García, also known as “La Kena” and “Ciclón 19,” was arrested while shopping at a mall in the affluent municipality.
The navy said in a statement that the suspect, who it didn’t name, “served as one of the key leaders” of a criminal organization with a strong presence in Tamaulipas, and noted that the Attorney General’s Office of that state had offered a large reward — 2.5 million pesos (US $146,000) — for information that led to his capture.
The navy also noted that the alleged criminal leader was a “main target” of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration. His arrest was possible due to “timely information” provided by the Ministry of the Navy, the statement said.
Capturan “La Kena” o “Ciclón 19″ líder del Grupo Escorpión del Cártel del Golfo (CDG) en Nuevo León pic.twitter.com/Huqrkfo4EB
— El Nuevo Gráfico de Hidalgo (@ElNvoGraficoHgo) January 19, 2024
Witnesses of the arrest shared their videos on social media. (El Nuevo Gráfico de Hidalgo/X)
The U.S. citizens came under fire shortly after they crossed the border into Matamoros, where one of them had an appointment for a tummy tuck procedure. They were subsequently abducted. A Mexican woman was killed in the initial attack.
The newspaper El Universal reported that García directed the abduction of the four Americans.
The Los Escorpiones faction of the Gulf Cartel, rather than Los Ciclones, was previously linked to the kidnapping and murder.
The Associated Press obtained a letter from a Tamaulipas law enforcement official last March in which Los Escorpiones apologized to residents of Matamoros as well as the Mexican woman who was killed and the four U.S. citizens and their families.
The group of four American friends were driving in this van with U.S. plates when, according to victim Latavia McGee’s family, criminals struck them from behind and kidnapped them. (Juan Alberto Cedillo/Cuartoscuro)
“We have decided to turn over those who were directly involved and responsible in the events, who at all times acted under their own decision-making and lack of discipline,” said the letter, whose contents were published after the Tamaulipas Attorney General’s Office announced the arrest of five men in connection with the kidnapping.
One theory regarding the motive for the crime was that cartel henchmen mistook the U.S. citizens, African Americans, for Haitian drug smugglers.
Harsh new restrictions on asylum seekers are currently under consideration by the United States Congress. (Omar Martínez Noyola/Cuartoscuro)
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged the Mexican government to reject harsh new restrictions on asylum seekers, currently under consideration by the United States Congress and President Joe Biden.
In aletter addressed to Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena Ibarra on Jan. 18, the international human rights NGO said that Mexico should publicly declare that it will not agree to any measures that would lead to an increase in summary expulsions of migrants to Mexico.
The restrictions proposed by Republican lawmakers would undermine the right to seek asylum and expose thousands of people to serious danger in Mexico, according to HRW. (Cuartoscuro)
“The proposals being considered in the United States could have devastating consequences for the rights of migrants and asylum seekers if implemented, undermining the right to seek asylum and exposing thousands of people to serious danger,” the letter said.
The proposed measures include allowing U.S. immigration officials to expel asylum seekers without hearing their claims; restricting the humanitarian programs that allow Cuban, Haitian, Venezuelan and Nicaraguan migrants to apply to travel legally to the U.S.; and instating a permanent “transit ban,” requiring refugees to seek asylum in any transit country they pass through before being eligible to apply in the U.S.
The measures are being pushed by Republican lawmakers in the U.S. Congress, some of whom are conditioning their support for US $100 billion in aid for Ukraine and Israel on inclusion of the immigration restrictions in the 2024 U.S. federal budget.
HRW argues that the proposals contravene international human rights standards and effectively reinstate the controversial Title 42 border expulsions policy, whichended last May. They would also establish a de facto “safe third country” agreement between the U.S. and Mexico —something Mexico has repeatedly said it will not accept.
The NGO stressed that the erosion of U.S. asylum provisions that started with the 2019 “Remain in Mexico” policy has left thousands of expelled migrants vulnerable to “kidnapping, extortion, assault, and other serious abuses at the hands of criminal groups and corrupt officials” in Mexico.
The letter was published on the same day that members of Mexico’s security cabinet traveled to Washington to discuss bilateral cooperation on various issues, including migration. The meeting follows up on the agenda set during the visit of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Mexico last December, when the two countries agreed to establish a bilateral group to tackle mutual security concerns such as migration and drug trafficking.
“Mexico’s president should make it clear that he does not intend to be complicit in this attempt by U.S. congressmen to tear apart the U.S. asylum system,” saidHRW Americas Director Juanita Goebertus. “These proposals would violate basic rights and further empower the criminal groups in Mexico that profit from kidnapping and extorting vulnerable migrants.”
For mezcal, whose market pressures will only exacerbate current issues as the demand for it grows, SACRED provides a way for the average drinker to help out. (SACRED Agave/Instagram)
Drinking responsibly doesn’t just mean drinking and not driving anymore — in 2024, it also means supporting sustainability. We don’t have the time (or often, the desire) to meticulously research the spirits companies that we buy from, and we aren’t experts and have to trust the word of the companies themselves — which isn’t always as honest as we’d like.
There are now non-profits on the ground in Mexico who are working to change this. Agave expert Lou Bank discusses SACRED, and how they have worked to transform lives and promote sustainability in Mexico’s rural mezcal industry.
Meet Lou Bank, mezcal expert extraordinaire
The past few years my writing (and my palate) have led me to the rural Mexico, and its fields of agave. I have learned about the effects of climate change, over-consumption, capitalism, and loss of biodiversity that threaten mezcalerías and its traditional distilleries.
Bank started to hear similar stories in the 2010s when he was visiting small, family-run operations.
“It doesn’t take long for you to start recognizing that really, all the resources they need to make mezcal are at risk as the market grows. And as the bigger players get into it, you’ve got agave, and land that is starting to become more scarce. And then you add trees on top of that, because they use the wood to cook with, and then you add to that water,” he explained.
“And local workers are being poached by the larger multinational companies trying to scale up their productions. So increased mezcal consumption puts so much pressure on local families and their ability to continue doing what they’re doing, the way they’ve been doing it for multiple generations.”
Helping communities who need support most
SACRED is underwriting the program by purchasing 10,000 of the plants each year, and gifting those plants to mezcaleros and agave farmers in need of plants. (sacredagave.org)
As a fan of mezcal and an experienced non-profit fundraiser, Bank wanted to do something to help. During his travels in 2011, a mezcal maker he befriended approached him about raising funds for a local library, and Bank was struck with the idea that there were needs to be met in every community he visited. So he started to ask what they were.
“These families who continue carrying on these traditions in the face of all of these changes, they’re the ones who are going to be able to figure out how to solve the problem. What I can do is access resources for them, primarily monetary resources, but not exclusively, as they’re looking for resources to implement solutions to their problems. I want to be able to help them when they ask for it,” Bank said.
Thus began SACRED, an organization working with mezcaleros and their communities to raise funds for community-led solutions in rural Mexico. The nonprofit has so far helped to fund a library, six agave nurseries, four water catchment systems, and a community plaza/basketball court. They have also distributed more than 60,000 agave seedlings to local families that needed them for their mezcal production.
The sustainable agave of the future
The roads of the Sierra Madre mountains of Puebla, are bordered by cactus and dusty fields. It is here that the settlement of San Luis Atolotitlán proudly stands. The tiny town – less than 1,000 inhabitants – is a collection of squat, mostly adobe buildings, and still holds an old-world charm of the sort rapidly disappearing from Mexico today.
This is the home of Ildenfonso Macedas Ginez, a local mezcal master who met Bank in 2020. The town sits on part of the UNESCO-recognized Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Biospehere Reserve, and in the past several years, federal restrictions have started to intensify, preventing locals from collecting agaves growing wild on the land.
When Macedas first approached Bank it was to see if he could help them get funding to paint a local grade school. Once that project was in motion they started to talk about land restrictions and Macedas suggested that the town could use a greenhouse for growing agave seedlings, and at some point in the future, other crops.
“Ildenfonso makes this really beautiful spirit and I love it,” says Bank. “So I figured, okay, I’m gonna sell one-and-a-half liter bottles as a fundraiser, people will pay $1,000 a bottle and that’s how we’ll raise the money for the greenhouse, but it took so long to get the booze bottled and into the US legally, and during all that time I had told the story of the community so frequently, that one of our supporters heard it and just gave us the money.”
The greenhouse, which was finished at the beginning of 2023 is now growing over 5,000 seedlings, supplying enough agave for 5 local families. Macedas says that as the project grows he believes more and more people will get involved. Local farmers are given agave seedlings to grow on their land with the only requirement that they sell the mature plants back to local mezcal makers.
Macedas and others involved in the project also plan to grow mezquite and pirul (American pepper) trees, used for cooking the agave, to help reforest the surrounding area.
International brand involvement
Projects like this can provide consumers a counterbalance to the effects of their consumption in a positive, direct way. For mezcal, whose market pressures will only exacerbate current issues as the demand for it grows, SACRED provides a way for the average drinker to help out.
“I would argue that there is not a single brand of tequila or mezcal with sustainable practices. Once you put something in a glass bottle and you ship it, it’s no longer sustainable. And when these brands go to a buyer at a liquor store or at a bar, and tell them they have a new tequila they want to sell, the first thing they ask is ‘ok, what are you doing to support the community that you’re sourcing from?” Bank explained. These companies realized they needed an answer for that.”
A lot of big names now support the work of SACRED, including major international brands such as France’s Pernod Ricard. When asked whether brands might use the work of SACRED for greenwashing Bank, took a pragmatic stance:
“I was a little nervous taking money from any brands because I felt like maybe that would be looked at as us being deferential to brands, as opposed to being deferential to mezcaleros, and that’s certainly not how I ever wanted to operate and wouldn’t even want people to think that.”
“If what we want is the world to continue to be a place where we can eat, breathe and have drinking water, we need to completely turn the ship around 180 degrees and how do you do that? You don’t do it by telling a company that’s trying to do some good to get lost, because it’s those companies that are going to be able to turn it three degrees instead of one degree.”
Over US $600,000 later, SACRED has supported 12 communities and improved the lives of hundreds of rural mezcaleros.
For folks who love mezcal, that’s a small glimmer of hope for its future and while supporting SACRED doesn’t completely balance the sustainability scales, it is one step towards a more sustainable and just future in the industry.
Lydia Carey is a freelance writer and translator based out of Mexico City. She has been published widely both online and in print, writing about Mexico for over a decade. She lives a double life as a local tour guide and is the author of Mexico City Streets: La Roma. Follow her urban adventures on Instagram and see more of her work at www.mexicocitystreets.com.
The president has said he will send 10 or even 20 proposals for constitutional reforms to Congress next month. (Galo Cañas/Cuartoscuro.com)
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador will send at least 10 constitutional reform proposals to Congress next month as he seeks to embed major policy initiatives before he leaves office on Oct. 1, and aims — according to opposition parties — to have a bearing on the outcome of the upcoming elections.
Speaking at his morning press conference on Tuesday, López Obrador said he will submit “around 10,” but possibly as many as 20 proposals to the Congress on Feb. 5.
Via changes to the Constitution, he is aiming to increase the pensions workers receive in retirement, ensure increases to the minimum wage outpace inflation, give citizens the power to elect Supreme Court justices and other judges, reduce the number of federal lawmakers, put the National Guard under the control of the army and eliminate a range of autonomous government agencies, among other initiatives.
The ruling Morena party and its allies currently don’t have the two-thirds majority in Congress that would allow the government to push through constitutional reforms without the support of opposition lawmakers. However, that could change in September as citizens will vote to renew both houses of Congress at elections on June 2.
“Who is going to decide [whether the proposals are approved or not]? The people, because there are going to be elections,” López Obrador said Tuesday.
However, given that he intends to submit his proposals to Congress next month, lawmakers will consider them during the current congressional period, not the upcoming one that will commence Sept. 1 when deputies and senators elected on June 2 will commence their terms.
One proposed constitutional reform would choose Supreme Court justices and other judges by election rather than by nomination. (Suprema Corte de la Nación/Cuartoscuro.com)
The main opposition parties — the National Action Party (PAN), the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) — have all indicated they will reject López Obrador’s proposals.
In that context, the El País newspaper reported that the president’s constitutional initiatives are “injected with the poison dart of defeat,” but have the potential to be the “electoral flag” of the ruling party as Morena presidential hopeful Claudia Sheinbaum and other Morena-backed political aspirants campaign across Mexico.
If the proposed reforms are rejected by Congress during the campaign period, López Obrador will effectively demonstrate that his initiatives can only be approved if voters support Morena party congressional candidates en masse on June 2. He could resubmit his constitutional reform proposals in September — his final month in office — if Morena and its allies succeed in winning a two-thirds congressional majority in the upcoming elections.
Lawmakers with the PAN, PRI and PRD — which together form a political alliance that is backing Xóchitl Gálvez in the presidential election — have asserted that the president’s aim in presenting his package of constitutional reforms is to influence the outcome of the upcoming elections.
PAN Deputy María Elena Pérez-Jaén, PRI Deputy Rubén Moreira and PRD Deputy Luis Espinoza are among the lawmakers who have made such claims.
Espinoza said that López Obrador is throwing an “electoral fireball” and declared that his proposed reforms won’t pass Congress. “Don’t bother sending them,” he added.
Plan to eliminate autonomous bodies meets significant opposition
The reform proposal that is generating the most controversy this week is López Obrador’s plan to disband autonomous agencies, an objective he has long spoken about, but not achieved.
“In the package of reform initiatives, I’m going to propose that all these organizations that were created to protect individuals and [negatively] affect the public interest disappear,” the president said Thursday.
Previous governments “needed to protect themselves and that’s why they established all these supposedly autonomous institutions,” he said.
On Friday, López Obrador said that his goal was to disband around 10 autonomous agencies “that were created to legalize corruption.”
Among those he would like to see disbanded are the National Institute for Transparency, Access to Information and the Protection of Personal Data (INAI), the Federal Telecommunications Institute, the Federal Economic Competition Commission (Cofece) and the Energy Regulatory Commission.
López Obrador on Thursday touted the savings that would come from getting rid of “factious, burdensome [and] unpopular” autonomous agencies, although he said Friday that “we’re not going to fire anyone” because employees will be absorbed into other government departments.
Current presidential candidate and former senator Xóchitl Gálvez joined opposition figures who spoke out when stalled commissioner appointments hobbled INAI last year. Now, the president hopes to dissolve the transparency institute. (Cuartoscuro)
The president has previously faced widespread opposition to his plan to eliminate autonomous government bodies, and it was no different this week.
“López Obrador will hit a wall because Mexico has the National Action Party and we will not permit his golden dream of ‘sending the institutions to hell,'” PAN national president Marko Cortés wrote on the X social media platform.
“Our country is not a dictatorship. The autonomous bodies are a fundamental counterbalance for our democracy. … President, stop trying to destroy everything that makes you uncomfortable, criticizes you or gets in the way of you gaining more power,” he said.
Miguel Flores Bernés, president of the economic competition commission at the Mexico branch of the International Chamber of Commerce, said that Cofece, Mexico’s antitrust agency, is in fact an “ally” of the president as it is “fighting every day to dismantle all the agreements … between businesspeople to raise prices.”
Jorge Bravo, president of the Mexican Association for the Right to Information, was also critical of López Obrador’s plan, arguing that autonomous agencies protect a range of “fundamental rights” of citizens.
Instead of getting rid of such bodies, “we need to strengthen them,” said José Abugaber, president of the the Confederation of Industrial Chambers, adding that doing so would benefit “transparency and democratic life” in Mexico.
AMLO’s other reform proposals
López Obrador frequently claims that Mexico’s judiciary is “at the service of a greedy and corrupt minority” of Mexican society as well as the country’s “conservative” political parties.
He asserts that the nation’s judicial system needs to be overhauled, and believes that allowing citizens to elect Supreme Court justices and other judges is a key part of that process.
One reform would attempt to once again place the National Guard under the control of the military. The security force was placed under army control in 2022, but then the Supreme Court ruled this unconstitutional. (Carlos Carbajal/Cuartoscuro.com)
Ordinary citizens must contribute to the “renewal” of the judicial branch, López Obrador said when speaking about his proposal last May. “The people are the ones who can purify public life,” he added.
Arturo Zaldívar, a former Supreme Court justice who resigned from that position to join Sheinbaum’s campaign, expressed support for the proposal earlier this week, but said that only suitably qualified people should be permitted to stand as candidates for judicial positions.
López Obarador’s proposal to change the Constitution to allow the army to take control of the National Guard seeks to restore a previous state of affairs.
The president’s proposal to reduce the number of lawmakers by getting rid of plurinominal deputies and senators — positions that are assigned proportionally to parties that attract support from at least 2% of voters — was part of his ambitious electoral reform package that was rejected by Congress in late 2022.
López Obrador said last year that he intended to wait until September to submit constitutional reform proposals to Congress, but has evidently changed his mind — for electoral reasons, if opposition lawmakers are to be believed.
He has long made it clear that Morena and its allies need a congressional “supermajority” to fully execute the “transformation” of Mexico he claims he and his government have begun.
“You have to vote not just for the [Morena] candidate for president, you have to vote for the lawmakers, the candidates for deputies and senators, so that the transformation has a qualified majority,” López Obrador said last May.
The complaint focuses on RV Fresh Foods but extends to other companies in the Uruapan, Michoacán area. (Juan José Estrada Serafín/Cuartoscuro)
Avocado workers at a plant in Uruapan, Michoacán have taken their grievances to the United States government.
Claiming that RV Fresh Foods has violated their labor rights, a group representing local workers filed a petition this week under the Rapid Response Labor Mechanism — a tenet of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), the free trade pact that superseded NAFTA in 2020.
Other avocado companies are facing similar allegations, including WestPak, Del Monte and Global Frut. (westpakavocado.com)
The National Central Confederation (Cocena), a labor group representing approximately 400 workers, has accused Uruapan-based RV Fresh Foods of obstructing collective bargaining and freedom of association under Mexican law.
Cocena also said the Mexican government has been inactive on the issue.
Seeking resolution via the USMCA is a groundbreaking move for the avocado sector, but not unprecedented amongst Mexican workers. A few months ago, the USMCA got involved in a labor situation at a Mexican mine in Zacatecas, and in 2022, labor rights at Goodyear México came under USMCA review.
Cocena chief Víctor Mendoza Pantoja, said he filed the petition to ensure compliance with the commitments outlined in the USMCA labor rights agreement. He presented the complaint in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, which focuses on RV Fresh Foods but extends to other companies in the Uruapan region affiliated with the Association of Avocado Exporting Producers and Packers of Mexico (APEAM).
The main allegations include making threats against unionization efforts and not allowing free association.
“We have had a lot of resistance from APEAM to unionize, because they control the cutting of avocados and they do not want to provide social security to [the] 63,000 workers who are involved in cutting, packaging, transporting and processing,” Mendoza said. Processing includes the production of guacamole.
The union chief also presented evidence of “bad practices” in RV Fresh Foods’ payroll department, including alleged tax evasion. He also said that Michoacán avocado workers are unjustly controlled by APEAM, a self-labeled “nonprofit civil association” that has 84 affiliated packing plants.
He said he hopes the evidence, and the desire to comply with standards recognized by the United Nations’ International Labor Organization, will prompt action from the Mexican Economy and Labor ministries.
He also pointed out that other avocado companies are facing similar allegations, naming WestPak, Del Monte and Global Frut. Thus, he said, the complaint serves as a pivotal moment in addressing broader labor issues within the avocado sector.
According to APEAM, it represents more than 34,000 avocado growers and is the only Mexican association cleared to export avocados to the United States.
Approximately 82% of Mexican avocados come from Michoacán, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Avocados from Mexico said recently that if guacamole is served at a Super Bowl party in the U.S., chances are 96% that the “green gold” came from Mexico.
The latest cold front to arrive in Mexico will bring the familiar combination of low temperatures, heavy rains and rough seas in different regions. (Omar Martínez/Cuartoscuro)
Cold Front 28 is moving down Mexico’s eastern coast bringing more freezing temperatures to the high-elevation areas in the north of the country and heavy rains to the south.
TheNational Meteorological Service (SMN) predicts intense downpours (75-150mm) in Chiapas, Tabasco and Veracruz, very heavy rains (50-75mm) in parts of Oaxaca and Puebla, and heavy rains (25-50mm) in parts of Campeche, Quintana Roo, San Luis Potosí, Tamaulipas and Yucatán. Lighter rains and scattered showers are also forecast for much of central and northern Mexico.
Cold Front 28 is forecast to create freezing conditions in the mountainous regions of Chihuahua, Coahuila and Durango. (SMN)
Residents in affected areas are advised to stay alert for warnings from Civil Protection, as heavy rains may be accompanied by storms and flooding in low-lying regions.
Meanwhile, the mass of Arctic air will trigger a “Norte” event affecting parts of central Mexico, with gusts of wind reaching 90-100 kilometers per hour in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and waves up to four meters high on its Pacific coastline.
Winds of 70-90 kilometers per hour and waves 2-3 meters high will also hit the coasts of Tamaulipas, and winds of 40-60 kilometers per hour are forecast for Tabasco, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Nuevo León, San Luis Potosí and Zacatecas. These could be accompanied by tornados inland.
The Tabasco coast may see waves 1-2 meters high.
Chihuahua has been buffeted by freezing conditions this winter, and Cold Front 28 promises to bring more. (Gabriel Hernández/X)
Conditions will again sendtemperatures plunging in the mountains of northern Mexico, reaching as low as -10 degrees Celsius in parts of Chihuahua, Coahuila and Durango, and between -5 degrees and 5 Celsius in the high-altitude regions of central and southern Mexico. The coldest temperatures may be accompanied by snow and ice.
“The population is advised to take preventive measures like wrapping up warm and hydrating well, avoiding sudden changes of temperature, and paying special attention to the chronically ill, children and older adults,” the SMN warned.
At the other end of the spectrum, Friday may see 40 degrees Celsius in parts of Campeche, Chiapas, Colima, Guerrero, Jalisco, Michoacán, Nayarit, Oaxaca, Quintana Roo and Yucatán, and 35 degrees Celsius in Morelos, Puebla and Sinaloa.
The weather in the Valley of Mexico will be cloudy and cool, with light winds and possible icy conditions in the surrounding mountains.
Adobe is the star of Casa del Soul, drawing on both pre-Columbian and colonial-era adobe structures. (Facebook)
It’s probably not a Western without at least one scene of a Mexican village with adobe structures. Perhaps cliché, but until the 20th century, Mexico really was built of the stuff.
Adobe technology emerged in the pre-Columbian period. After the conquest, Indigenous and European techniques and designs mixed to make houses and practical structures for over 400 years.
Casa de Nopal boutique hotel in Casas Grandes, Chihuahua. The complex was one of many saved by American benefactor Spencer MacCallum, best known for his work promoting Mata Ortiz pottery. (Credit: Leigh Thelmadatter)
But adobe fell very quickly out of favor in the mid-20th century in favor of the now-ubiquitous cinder block and cement. Since independence, there has been a strong current in Mexico that seeks to be part of the “modern Western world,” and that means imitating mostly Europe and the United States.
A fledgling construction industry took advantage of this bias, promoting their products as the modern alternative to “backward” and “unhygienic” adobe. This campaign was so successful that adobe is still associated with poverty. Almost all modern Mexican construction uses “modern” materials, and many historic adobe structures have been lost because of lack of maintenance.
Almost nothing survives of pre-Colombian adobe in Mexico, with one important exception: the Paquimé archeological sites in northern Chihuahua, also known as Casas Grandes. Colonial-era structures have fared somewhat better, including elements of 16th-century monasteries near the Popocatépetl volcano. But most surviving adobe buildings are churches and municipal buildings, especially in the north, where arid conditions give a natural helping hand.
Some adobe construction still goes on in Mexico. There are still very remote — and yes, poor — areas where logistics make it expensive or physically impossible to build with industrial materials, so small adobe houses are still built. But overall, adobe construction is a dying art, with Mexico losing more and more of its local masters in traditional techniques, except in some unique cases.
Sustainable architecture in Mexico?
Circular adobe house as part of the El Panal project in Amealco, Querétaro. (María Hernández)
Ecologically conscious building has a certain prestige in the West. Adobe construction has surged in places like New Mexico — where it has also been used since pre-colonial times — for its insulative qualities and lower negative impact on the environment.
These qualities have been noted in design publications, in particular as a way to reuse the millions of liters of wastewater and tons of agave fiber produced by the tequila and mezcal industries. They note that the fiber is particularly suited for adobe brick-making.
But a similar readaptation of adobe seems to be very difficult in Mexico. Sustainability does not have the same prestige with all sectors, and mass-produced cinder blocks are cheaper to make and buy than handcrafted earth-and-fiber adobe blocks, even when the materials are available for free.
Despite this, there have been efforts to revive the use of adobe. They include architect Óscar Hagerman’s middle school in Chihuahua for Rarámuri children; the El Rosario library in Oaxaca, whose construction was sponsored by mezcal company Real Minero; and a recreation of the Ciudad Juárez house where Francisco I. Madero had his provisional government at the start of the Mexican Revolution. The list of adobe projects also includes the in-development Casa Adobe in Los Cabos, a multi-unit complex with adobe and mixed material units looking to capitalize on the eco-friendly market.
Too often, the adobe structures you will come across in Mexico look like this abandoned house in Canatlán, Durango. (Credit: Leigh Thelmadatter)
Utopia Libertad
A very recent and ongoing project of this type is with Utopía Libertad, one of 12 parks and community centers run by the Iztapalapa borough of Mexico City. Abutting the borough’s men’s prison, the site is dedicated to sustainable development. Various buildings have been constructed with adobe and local stone, including its temazcales, classrooms, a small restaurant and buildings set aside for live collections of the area’s butterfly, turtle and axolotl species. The site also offers classes and workshops on adobe and other natural construction.
Casa del So(u)l
Interestingly enough, the popularity of adobe construction in places like New Mexico has not spread to Mexico. After many years in alternative construction in the U.S., Jack Anderson moved and built his home and hotel, Casa del Soul, in the town of Casas Grandes overlooking the Paquimé site.
Anderson’s specialty is “community minded” constructions, buildings that are developed with local culture and history in mind. So adobe is the star of Casa del Soul, drawing on both pre-Columbian and colonial-era adobe structures.
Casa Plúmula
Another important angle to appreciating Mexican adobe is in salvaging existing structures. Casa Plúmula, an older adobe structure profiled by Architectural Digest magazine after it was salvaged and updated, is located in the neighborhood of San Felipe del Agua on the northern edge of Oaxaca City.
The work was done by noted architectural firm Espacio 18. The exterior conserved as much of the original look as possible, including the tree that had grown in the yard, and the house looks like it has been there forever. However, the structure was reinforced with steel and the interior reshaped into a very modern layout.
Lecturer in Analytical Science for Sustainable Heritage at University College London Daniela Reggio notes that “in Spanish the narrative around sustainability in architecture is different.” Reggio says that she would recommend “a broader approach to fully understand certain technological and cultural choices,” adding that different cultures approach the subject in different ways and time frames.
In other words, Mexico needs to find its own path to sustainability based on Mexican culture as it is today and what the country needs for its future. Sustainability projects in other countries can certainly provide suggestions, but cannot provide guaranteed solutions for Mexico’s needs.
Leigh Thelmadatter arrived in Mexico over 20 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.
The Mexicana flight, operated by partner airline TAR, became the first commercial arrival at Palenque airport since 2020. (Jorge Ceballos/X)
Three years since receiving its last arriving flight, the Palenque International Airport has officially resumed commercial operations in a fitting fashion — by welcoming an arrival from the newly relaunched Mexicana de Aviación to its tarmac.
Nineteen passengers made the trip from Mexico City’s Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA) to Palenque, in the southern state of Chiapas. The arriving aircraft, a Brazilian-built Embraer ERJ-145, was welcomed by airport firefighters, who sprayed the plane with their water cannons. Disembarking passengers were then invited to join a traditional Maya ceremony and ribbon-cutting alongside local dignitaries.
The reopened airport is now under the control of the National Defense Ministry. (Sedena)
The reopened airport was recently given over to the National Defense Ministry (Sedena) — along with airports in Uruapan and Puebla — and will be administered by the military’s Olmeca-Maya-Mexica Airport, Railroad and Auxiliary Services Group. The group also operates the Mexicana de Aviación airline, as well as the Tulum airport inaugurated last month.
The airport now includes a station of the new Maya Train railroad, linking the city and its surrounding areas with Chiapas and the Yucatán peninsula.
It is hoped the return of scheduled flights and the arrival of the Maya Train will boost tourism to the city, famed for its extensive Maya ruins and miles of untouched jungle.
“We are a destination with great wealth in every sense, that is why we invite every citizen to visit us and enjoy our waterfalls, our rivers, to live the experience Palenque offers tourists,” airport administrator Julio Alberto Mendoza Espinosa announced at the reopening ceremony.
Palenque Airport first opened in 2014 during the presidency of Enrique Peña Nieto but saw regular flights suspended in 2020, after troubled carrier Interjet collapsed into bankruptcy.
Flights from AIFA to Palenque will operate four afternoons per week, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.The airport now also hopes to return to international service with flights to Guatemala, although no official date for the proposed TAG Airlines service has been announced.
