Local leaders celebrate the re-certification of Río Lagartos beach in Yucatán as a Playa Platino. Facebook / Playa Platino Río Lagartos
The Mexican Institute of Standardization and Certification (IMNC) has re-certified seven Yucatán beaches for the excellence of their environmental and social standards.
The Río Lagartos, Celestún, Telchac, Sisal, Cancunito, San Felipe and El Cuyo beaches, which have all been part of the IMNC’s beach improvement program since 2019, will maintain their “platinum beach” (Playas Platino) certifications. Four of the beaches are located in the state’s biosphere reserve and another two in state reserves.
Certifying beaches is a part of the state and Governor Mauricio Vila’s efforts to attract more tourism, care for the state’s coastal areas, to increase jobs in local communities and improve the region’s economy.
Yucatán hosts over 3 million tourists a year, most of whom come to enjoy the beautiful white sand beaches and warm Caribbean waters. Programs like IMNC’s draw international attention to the region as a destination and state authorities believe that this along with other infrastructure projects, such as the new cruise ship port in Puerto Progreso as well as the Tren Maya, will bring an even greater number of tourists to Yucatán state in 2023.
The Playas Platino program judges beaches on their trash reduction efforts, tourism facilities, security, accessibility and signage. In order to maintain the standard needed to gain re-certification, groups on each beach, made up mostly of local women, have organized beach clean-ups, local spay and neuter campaigns, and tourism training.
To be considered clean the beaches must be free from solid waste, dangerous waste, oil or derivatives of petroleum, and feces. Celestún and Telchac beaches both reduced contamination on their beaches by 88%, Sisal beach by 74%, Cancuncito by 93%, San Felipe beach by 87%, and El Cuyo by 71%.
Travelers have reported long wait times at baggage claim, immigration and other services at AICM.
Passengers at Mexico City International Airport (AICM) are facing long wait times to collect their luggage, get through immigration and board taxis at both terminals.
The newspaper Reforma published a report on the delays Thursday, saying there was chaos at the airport and that passengers have been most annoyed by long waits at barrage carousels.
Juan Luis, who flew into AICM from Miami, told Reforma he waited for almost two hours for his luggage to appear “without any explanation” as to the reason for the delay. “The security guards get annoyed if you complain,” he said.
Martha, who traveled to Mexico City from Atlanta, said she waited for over an hour for her luggage. “We believe it’s an excessive amount of time and … [the airport staff] are rude,” she said.
Some travelers have taken to social media to complain, like Twitter user @SaupartS who shared photos of long lines and said he waited more than 90 minutes for a taxi at the end of June. Twitter @SaupartS
Passengers who flew in from San Antonio recounted similarly long waits at the baggage carousel.
Reforma reported that travelers are also facing long waits in immigration and taxi queues. Demand for taxis has recently increased as drivers for ride-hailing apps such as Uber are now prohibited from collecting passengers at AICM, although the ban has generally not been enforced.
Authorities and airlines have blamed each other for the delays passengers have faced to collect their luggage, Reforma said. An official with the Federal Civil Aviation Agency said the long wait times were perhaps the product of a lack of airline staff on the ground at the airport.
But airline sources said that AICM operates the baggage carousels and has caused delays by directing luggage from as many as four flights to the same one at the same time. One airline source directed blame at customs. “Almost everything is customs’ fault. They don’t have enough personnel or [X-ray] machines,” the source said.
Airport employees said that inspections of luggage immediately after it has been taken off a plane by navy personnel – who are responsible for security at the airport – and sniffer dogs have also contributed to delays in getting baggage into terminals.
An airport security employee told Reforma that delays at immigration have been caused by slow computers and lengthy questioning of some incoming passengers. “That causes long lines,” the employee said.
The high number of passengers that use AICM is also a factor in the long wait times people experience as they move through different parts of the airport. The federal government declared in March that both terminals had reached saturation point, and the opening of the Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA) north of the capital has so far done little to alleviate the pressure.
The heavy traffic isn’t limited to passengers in the terminal buildings: runways and the airspace surrounding the airport are also congested, leading to an increase in aborted landings, or go-arounds, this year, including two very close calls – one on May 7 and another four days later.
The president called the Reforma report exaggerated, but acknowledged that AICM is overcrowded.
Asked about the airport chaos at his regular news conference on Thursday, President López Obrador claimed that the problems were exaggerated by Reforma and suggested that the focus on them is aimed at damaging his government.
“The Mexico City airport has been saturated at other times and … there wasn’t the same dissemination [of information] as now,” he said.
The president did, however, acknowledge that some passengers have faced delays. He said that changes carried out at the airport, including putting the navy in charge of security, have caused longer wait times, but defended marines’ presence at the facility, considered the most important airport in Latin America.
“There was contraband, the arrival of drugs [before the navy took charge],” López Obrador said. “… The airlines don’t help [with the delays] and [there are] other issues,” he said.
AMLO also acknowledged that too many planes are using the airport, but getting airlines to use AIFA instead is proving to be a challenge. “There is some resistance from airlines to move to the Felipe Ángeles airport,” he said.
“The Felipe Ángeles airport is a great airport. It’s already a functional airport and it will be the best airport in Mexico soon, with a lot of flights, but we’re in a process of transition. So, that’s what’s happening. And [the issue] is very politicized … [but] we’re already taking steps [to alleviate pressure at AICM] and we’re going to finish putting things in order.”
A reforestation project is underway at the El Rosario monarch butterfly sanctuary in Michoacan that will see the planting of 1 million trees, as authorities try to reverse the damage done to the sanctuary and surrounding area by illegal logging.
El Rosario is just one of the smaller sanctuaries that are part of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve which hosts 14 major butterfly colonies (although each year the number of colonies varies) that fly in each winter from the United States and Canada. The butterflies that winter here — more than 1 billion — are key pollinators, important for every ecosystem they pass through on long their migration route. The biggest threat to their 4,000-kilometer yearly trek is loss of habitat, which this kind of project attempts to mitigate.
The reforestation and other activities will take place from July 1-14 and involve all the municipalities in the vicinity, said mayor of one of them, Amado Gómez González of Ocampo. The campaign will also celebrate Mexico’s national tree day (July 8) in hopes of teaching those in attendance about the importance of reforestation and the loss of habitat for the monarch butterflies — one of the area’s greatest tourism attractions and a vital element of the area’s ecosystem.
Gómez said that increased police presence has meant a 70% drop in illegal logging in the last five years, adding that three illegal loggers were caught by police just last week. Some of the logging is carried out by local citizens for firewood and farming as much of the land is not owned directly by the government but still in the hands of ejidos and small communities.
Other areas of the forest, where once communities had a presence and certain control, have become a no man’s land that is witness to crime, extortion, and illegal avocado farming by organized crime groups.
Gómez reported that in the more central areas of the sanctuary they have seen a loss of up to 40% of trees to illegal logging and in areas distant from human contact and surveillance that number can rise to 80%. Beside being an important green lung in this part of the country, the sanctuary and surrounding forest is also responsible for 30% of the region’s water, which includes water sent to Mexico City.
Gómez called on state officials to take a portion of the money that it charges the capital for that water and spend it on the maintenance of the sanctuary.
Huy Fong foods has temporarily shuttered production of their Sriracha sauce due to a chile shortage. Steven Depolo CC BY 2.0
Mexicans know and love their salsas. For a foreign-made chile sauce to impress a Mexican, it has to be quite extraordinary.
“In my opinion,” says Guadalajara genetics researcher Bertha Ibarra, “Sriracha sauce is exactly that: a salsa picante with a special taste all its own. I love it!”
So do thousands of others all around the world, but hardship is now on the horizon for Sriracha lovers: the Thai-Vietnamese hot sauce — made in California, by the way — is now in short supply and could soon vanish altogether due to northern Mexico’s serious drought problem.
According to a report on National Public Radio, Huy Fong Foods, the company that produces Sriracha chile sauce, sent a letter to its wholesale customers in April that regretfully stated that they will have to stop making Sriracha sauce for a few months.
Much of northern Mexico is currently experiencing drought. Conagua
“Currently, due to weather conditions affecting the quality of chile peppers, we now face a more severe shortage of chile,” the letter says. “Unfortunately, this is out of our control, and without this essential ingredient, we are unable to produce any of our products.”
The problem? Red jalapeño peppers, which Huy Fong requires for making Sriracha sauce, can only grow in the southwestern United States or in northern Mexico. And right now, the whole area is suffering from drought.
“These red jalapeños,” says Dr. Guillermo Murray-Tortarolo, who researches climate extremes at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), “are only grown during the first four months of the year, and they need very controlled conditions, particularly constant irrigation.”
“The already difficult conditions were pushed over the limit by two consecutive La Niña events. And the dry season has not only been intense but also remarkably long,” he added.
Chiles galore are no more.
According to the international news organization Quartz, Huy Fong was once among the 10 fastest-growing U.S. businesses, making over US $1 billion a year in global sales. But, says Quartz’s Roberto A. Ferdman, when founder David Tran, who was born in Vietnam, arrived in Los Angeles back in 1980, he was both jobless and hot-sauce-less.
“Tran found it near impossible to find a spicy additive worthy of his palate. The Southeast Asian community in Los Angeles, he soon realized, was suffering from the same hot sauce withdrawal.”
Within months, Tran arrived at his personal rendition of the Thai sauce, Sriracha, reportedly first produced by Thanom Chakkapak in the town of Si Racha, Thailand. Her original version is called Sriraja Panich and is still made in Thailand today.
David Tran’s recipe employs fresh (not dried) hybrid jalapeño peppers, vinegar, sugar, salt and garlic and is packaged in clear bottles with a rooster logo and a green cap.
David Tran holds a bottle of his iconic hot sauce.
Is David Tran’s Sriracha about to become extinct? Weather experts reply that northern Mexico and the southwestern U.S. are now suffering the driest climate they have seen for 1,200 years.
A new report in the journal Nature Climate Change says that the last such drought took place in the 1500s and lasted for decades.
“We have a society that’s relying on there being the amount of water there was in the 1900s,” said the chief author of the report, Park Williams, a bioclimatologist at the University of California, Los Angeles.
“But now, with the number of water molecules available to us declining, it really is time for us to get real about how much water there is for us to use.”
The red jalepeño peppers used in Huy Fong Foods’ Sriracha sauce need constant irrigation, says Guillermo Murray-Tortarolo, a climate researcher at UNAM.
The conclusions reached by Williams and the report’s coauthors are based on tree rings.
Data was sampled from dead trees, live trees and even from wooden beams at archaeological sites on Native American land. The researchers were able to study periods of drought going all the way back to A.D. 800, when the Toltecs were just beginning to create an empire in Mexico.
Williams was able to identify several megadroughts over this long period of time. The most important was a drought that took place in the study area in the late 1500s and lasted for 23 years.
These discoveries open up the possibility that this new drought may last decades.
Israel gets most of its irrigation water and 25% of its drinking water from recycled wastewater. Shutterstock
“What should we be doing?” I asked Murray-Tortarolo.
“Fortunately, we have great examples provided by several countries that are pioneers in the field of water conservation,” he said. “Australia, Singapore, Namibia, South Africa and Kuwait have all successfully learned to treat their wastewater and reuse it. Other countries, such as Brazil and India, have initiated mega projects to alleviate these sorts of problems.”
“But I would say the champion in recycling water is Israel,” Murray-Tortarolo explained. “The country only receives 500 millimeters of rain every year (in comparison, the state of Sinaloa gets 800), and 60% of Israel is desert.”
According to him, the Israelis recycle 90% of their water, giving it a second and third use. The country’s water use is so efficient, he said, it’s succeeded in growing roses in the desert. “In fact, around 25% of Israel’s drinking water comes from recycled water, an excellent example of what can be achieved,” he said.
Is the Sriracha sauce shortage a climate change canary in the coal mine?
“The Israelis have actually increased the amount of water in their rivers, and they’re even exporting water to nearby countries,” Murray-Tortarolo said.
Climate change is affecting us, he said, and with it comes an increase in the intensity, duration and recurrence of drought in Mexico. The effects are going to get worse and worse and more and more expensive for Mexican farmers and ranchers, as well as city dwellers.
“This is a key moment to start redesigning our national water distribution systems and thus avoid worse scenarios,” Murray-Tortarolo said. “Naturally, this will require important investment both in raw material and human capital, but the cost of adaptation now will be much less than the losses we could suffer if the water shortage catches us unawares. Right now is the time to start recycling water!”
If we don’t, we may end up losing a lot more than Sriracha sauce.
The writer has lived near Guadalajara, Jalisco, since 1985. His most recent book is Outdoors in Western Mexico, Volume Three. More of his writing can be found on his blog.
While some areas of Jalisco are relatively safe, others are known for violent crime and gang activity.
If you want to know which stretches of highway to avoid in Jalisco, you’d be better served checking social media than looking at the United States government’s Mexico travel advisory, although doing the former might put you off travel altogether.
The U.S. Department of State’s current advisory says that violent crime and gang activity are common in parts of Jalisco and advises U.S. government employees that they must not travel within 12 miles (19 kilometers) of the Jalisco-Michoacán border, on Federal Highway 80 south of Cocula and on State Highway 544 between Mascota and San Sebastián del Oeste.
According to a report by the newspaper Informador, social media users have identified 14 other dangerous stretches of highway in Jalisco. A map published by Informador shows all 17 high risk stretches of highway. They are:
State Highway 307 between San Cristóbal de la Barranca and Zacatecas.
Federal Highway 23 between Guadalajara and Colotlán.
Federal Highway 15 near La Barca, Tizapán and Tuxcueca.
State Highway 215 between Jalostotitlán and Teocaltiche.
Federal Highway 23 near Bolaños and the border with Zacatecas.
State Highway 414 near Quitupan.
Federal Highway 205 between Yahualica, Teocaltiche and Zacatecas.
Federal Highway 54 near the Jalisco-Colima border.
State Highway 429 between El Grullo and Ciudad Guzmán.
The Guadalajara-Tepic highway (15D) in the stretch approaching Santa María del Oro, Nayarit.
State Highway 205 near the border with Zacatecas.
Federal Highway 80 between Cañadas de Obregón and San Juan de los Lagos.
State Highway 405 near Mazamitla.
The road between Chiquilistlán and Tapalpa.
State Highway 604 between El Refugio and Ahualulco.
State Highway 544 between Mascota and San Sebastián del Oeste. (The same highway continues to Puerto Vallarta.)
Federal Highway 80 between Acatlán and Cocila.
Las carreteras en los límites entre #Jalisco y #Michoacán son señaladas como riesgosas por la presencia de grupos delictivos, y nosotros en una investigación especial que hoy publicamos en web y en la versión impresa hablamos y detectamos esto. https://t.co/WOBGhudbYypic.twitter.com/rCrE5YV6ZX
Informador also published the accounts of several motorists who have had frightening experiences on Jalisco highways. Josue’s pickup truck was stolen by armed men who cut him off with two vehicles when he was traveling to Michoacán from La Barca, a municipality near Lake Chapala.
“Eight men got out with AK-47s and handguns,” he said, adding that he was forced into one of their vehicles and taken to La Barca, where he was dropped off. “We saw two police vehicles [on the way to La Barca] and I thought there would be a shootout but … [the police] just let us pass.”
Tomás was traveling on State Highway 604 with his family when he was cut off by armed men. “Pointing their weapons at us they approached and asked us to identify ourselves. One of them recognized us and shouted that we were acquaintances. They got in their cars and left,” he said.
Julián, a motorcyclist, was traveling toward Yahualica when he was cut off by two pickup trucks on a bridge. “Armed men asked me where I was going. Then they said, ‘We suggest that you go back, for your own safety,’” he said.
The archbishop of Guadalajara and the bishop of Zacatecas also recently found themselves in scary situations while traveling in Jalisco. Both men were stopped at organized crime roadblocks in the north of the state.
“They demand you say where you’re coming from, where you’re going, what your job is, what you’re doing,” said Cardinal José Francisco Robles Ortega, the archbishop.
Zacatecas Bishop Sigifredo Noriega Barceló said it was the first time he had encountered an organized crime checkpoint.
“We were going from Huejuquilla to Tenzompa. … What struck me was that it wasn’t the National Guard or the army [who stopped us]. They were people from one of the crime groups. … “Of course fear is present. We take the [safety] measures that everyone takes [but] there’s no special protection [for bishops],” he said.
Jalisco Governor Enrique Alfaro denied the existence of organized crime roadblocks in his state.
Despite evidence to the contrary, Jalisco Governor Enrique Alfaro asserted Tuesday that there are no organized crime checkpoints on the state’s highways. “Freedom of passage is guaranteed in this state,” he said. “There is no … roadblock on any highway in Jalisco, it’s as clear and blunt as that.”
Alfaro said he was surprised that Cardinal Robles chose to recount his experience to reporters rather than file a complaint with authorities. “We have profound respect [for the archbishop but] we’re very surprised he made a media statement and not a formal complaint,” the governor said.
Arturo Villarreal Palos, a University of Guadalajara security researcher, described Alfaro’s remarks as “unfortunate,” saying that he demonstrated a lack of empathy with Robles and other victims of highway violence, who often don’t report their experiences due to fear of repercussions.
The academic said the governor needs to acknowledge that a problem exists and work with federal authorities to stop it. Villarreal noted that criminal groups set up roadblocks both to demonstrate they have control of a particular area and to stop undesirables from entering.
Unofficial checkpoints can be found in many other states including Sinaloa, where reporters and officials were stopped by armed men while traveling to one of President López Obrador’s events during his tour of the northern state in May.
López Obrador subsequently said there are people in some parts of the country – “not just Sinaloa” – who think that they must “take care of a region” by stopping vehicles and ensuring that weapons aren’t brought in. He has rejected a United States government claim that criminal organizations control “ungoverned areas” that account for about one-third of Mexico’s territory.
Yucatán Governor Mauricio Vila pets dogs at an event to announce the state's first public veterinary hospital. Twitter @MauVila
The pets of Mérida, Yucatán, will soon have first-class facilities for both health emergencies and regular check-ups. The city government, in conjunction with state officials, is planning a 15-million-peso (US $750,000) public veterinarian hospital, the first of its kind in southeastern Mexico.
The new hospital will include doctors offices, a surgical area, overnight housing for pets, recovery and quarantine areas, and offer adoption services to the local community.
The new hospital comes as a part of Declaración Mérida 2050, an agreement signed in February of 2019 between Governor Mauricio Vila and Mérida Mayor Renán Barrera to improve the state capital. Also part of the agreement’s long-term vision is the planting of hundreds of trees within the city limits, improving mobility and transportation, lowering the cost of public transportation, and repairing the city’s failing water distribution system.
Governor Vila has frequently made the well-being of animals part of his political tenure, proposing and passing a mistreatment of animals bill when he was in Congress, creating an Animal Protection Unit and the city’s first public veterinarian services when he was mayor of Mérida and now, as governor, working with Yucatán’s Attorney General’s Office to create a special animal protection unit.
… y un trato digno a los animales de compañía y en situación de abandono con:
✅ Área de hospital con módulos de vacunación, consultorios y quirófano; así como estancia canina, áreas de adopción, cuarentena y de recuperación. (2/3) pic.twitter.com/LC3uQzoH3J
The governor shared renderings of the proposed veterinary hospital on Twitter.
“We hope to continue creating consciousness about the treatment [of animals] in order to make Yucatán a peaceful and harmonious place for all,” said the governor.
Mayor Barrera said the building of the new veterinarian hospital was just one more step in creating the kind of city Mérida’s residents want — a place that’s inclusive, sustainable and humane.
“For a long time our administration, in collaboration with residents, civil institutions, activists, and the general population, has been prioritizing the well-being and responsible ownership of animals,” Barrera said.
The new hospital will be located in the southern-central part of the city, according to Vila, so that even residents with few economic resources will be able to access and use the services that will be offered there.
The death of a soldier who was buried alive during a desert training session in 2020 has come to light after the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) announced it had raised the case with National Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval.
The CNDH said in a statement Tuesday that it had issued a recommendation to Sandoval “derived from serious violations of human rights” in the case of an unidentified soldier who died during a training course in Mexicali, Baja California, due to the “actions and oversights” of army personnel responsible for giving the course.
The commission said it conducted an investigation after receiving a complaint in December 2020.
“The investigation showed that on November 24, 2020, a special forces course was carried out in the desert. When the participants were covering bunkers they had previously dug, the … instructor ordered the victim to enter bunker number 8,” it said, adding that the soldier did as he was told.
Once the soldier was inside the bunker, the instructor ordered other troops to cover it, the CNDH said. “They threw dirt and buried him,” the statement said.
According to the CNDH, four more soldiers were ordered to enter the same bunker, after which it was covered again with dirt and sand. Other soldiers proceeded to take photos and laugh about what had happened, the commission said, citing testimonies it collected.
“Aided by colleagues who were outside the bunker, four of the buried [soldiers] managed to leave,” the CNDH said. But one of the soldiers – presumably the first to enter the bunker – didn’t exit and his fellow troops apparently didn’t immediately realize that he remained underground.
The CNDH said that one of the soldiers who had been underground noticed that he had lost his firearm’s magazine and returned to the bunker to retrieve it. In doing so he found his colleague unconscious. The soldier was taken to hospital but when he arrived he had no vital signs, the CNDH said. It was later determined that he had died from suffocation.
“The investigations of the CNDH demonstrate that the victim was deprived of his life due to the actions and oversights of those who were in charge of the training,” the statement said.
“… The public servants in charge didn’t attempt to comply with the duty of care [required] to guarantee the safety of the course participants. In addition, the lack of supervision with respect to irregular practices soldiers carry out as ‘punishment methods’ was demonstrated.”
The CNDH called on the National Defense Ministry (Sedena) to enroll people affected by the events in the National Registry of Victims and to compensate and offer ongoing medical and psychological care to the deceased soldier’s family members. The compensation should be a “fair and sufficient” amount that takes the seriousness of the incident into account, the statement said.
The CNDH also urged Sedena to collaborate with the military court tasked with hearing the case against the army personnel allegedly responsible for the soldier’s death. “It is also essential to contribute to the lines of investigation that have not yet been exhausted … in order to clarify the events related to the death of the victim,” the CNDH said.
In addition, the rights commission asked Sedena to collaborate with authorities on the execution of an arrest warrant against one of the accused, and requested that the ministry provide comprehensive human rights training to members of special training centers in Temamatla, México state, and Laguna Salada, Baja California, in order to avoid a repeat of any similar incident.
The 2022 Festival of Bacanora will take place in Puerto Peñasco this weekend.
Puerto Peñasco, the port city that hugs the coast of the Gulf of California in Sonora, will host the first annual Bacanora festival in Mexico this weekend.
Bacanora is a regional spirit made from agave hearts, a kind of mezcal with a transparent or sometimes pale yellow color that is sweet and strong, with a high alcohol content.
The spirit was banned by authorities until the 20th century, which meant hidden production and consumption much like moonshine in the United States — it’s said that even the Colonial-era Catholic monks partook of bacanora when they could. In 1992, new regulations were signed into law in terms of the liquor’s production and sale, and from there bacanora began its comeback story.
Producers are experimenting with new flavors and the spirit is showing up on some of the hippest cocktail menus across the country, including one of the recently named 50 Best Bars in North America, Café de Nadie in Mexico City. Now this regional liquor will be the star of its very own festival.
The festival will also showcase local products and cuisine, as well as host a contest in which local restaurants and bars will compete to make the best bacanora cocktail. The festival will take place along the Malecón Fundadores, the city’s seaside promenade.
Put on by the Sonora State Tourism Board, the Visitors and Conventions Office of Puerto Peñasco and the municipal government of Puerto Peñasco, the festival will feature legendary singer Lorenzo de Monteclaro, as well as country music from Smokes Revolver and Jesús Johnson, and regional tunes from the Mariachi de los Hermanos Durán. The Hermanos Durán will be receiving special recognition for their 42 years in the music business at the festival’s opening ceremony.
The festival will open with special ceremonial rituals preformed by the local Tohono O’odham indigenous peoples and a welcome from local authorities.
Puerto Vallarta Regional Hospital. Gobierno de Jalisco
Authorities in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, are looking for the family members or next of kin for a Canadian man who died in the Puerto Vallarta Regional Hospital on Wednesday, apparently of natural causes.
The deceased was identified as Bob Leonard Mondey, a 63-year-old Canadian national. Hospital workers informed local authorities on Wednesday morning that Mondey had arrived sick at the hospital. During his stay his sickness worsened and he died. There were no family members or friends who came to take responsibility for the body and so he is currently in the hospital’s morgue awaiting further information.
Local police determined that the responsibility to find next of kin would fall on the hospital’s social service staff, who were told to reach out to the Canadian Embassy for help in their search.
The attempted murder suspect who objected to the neighbor's loud music.
A Jalisco man will stand trial for attempted murder after allegedly attacking his neighbor with a machete because he was playing loud music in his apartment.
The Jalisco Attorney General’s Office (FE) said in a statement Wednesday that it had presented evidence to a court that showed that José Luis G. was the “probable culprit” in an attack motivated by “differences related to the high volume of music” in the neighbor’s apartment. A judge consequently ordered the accused to stand trial.
“The events that motivated the present investigation occurred June 9 in an apartment located in the Los Molinos neighborhood in the municipality of Zapopan,” the FE said.
It said that two men – presumably father and son – were drinking alcohol in the apartment and listening to music to celebrate Father’s Day. (It appears that the FE got the date wrong because Father’s Day was on June 19.)
The statement said their celebration was interrupted by the sudden appearance of an angry José Luis, who ordered them to turn the music off. One of the men tried to calm him down and discuss his demand but José Luis couldn’t be pacified, according to the FE. He subsequently produced a machete and proceeded to attack one of the men, the statement said, adding that he warned the other man not to intervene because he would attack him as well if he did.
After the attack, José Luis left the apartment and the victim was taken to hospital. The FE said he was in “delicate” condition. Police attended the crime scene and arrested José Luis a short time later.
The Attorney General’s Office said that a judge ruled there was sufficient evidence to commit José Luis to trial on the charge of attempted murder. The accused “will remain in pre-trial detention for a year as a preventative measure,” it added.
“The state Attorney General’s Office is continuing with the complementary investigations for the case and reaffirms its commitment to work in coordination with other authorities to investigate crimes … [and] avoid impunity.”
