Avocados, limes and peaches: cartel violence kills harvests

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May 11, 2022

Mexico’s produce industry has taken another hit from cartel violence, as tens of millions of dollars worth of peaches are set to be lost after farmers abandoned their fields.

An estimated 3 million trees across 6,000 hectares have been abandoned by farmers in the municipality of Jerez, in the central state of Zacatecas, one of the top peach-producing regions of Mexico, where up to 8,000 tonnes are harvested annually. Losses could reach some US $45 million, reported El Sol de Zacatecas.

Cartel violence in Zacatecas has surged in recent years. In March, a group of displaced Jerez residents traveled to Mexico City to protest a lack of government action to safeguard their communities. Some 2,000 people from 17 communities have fled, Radio Formula reported. Miguel Ángel Torres Rosales, the congressional representative for Zacatecas, said residents who demanded protection had been provided only a National Guard escort to pack their belongings and leave their homes, according to a report by the news magazine Buzon.

Mauro Talamantes, state coordinator for the National Farmer’s Confederation in Zacatecas, claimed that more communities had been displaced than were reported. “Now we are talking about 30 displaced communities and all the productivity that this implies,” he told reporters.

Ranchers and apple growers in the state have also suffered losses after fleeing their farms. NTR Zacatecas reported that data from the Zacatecas Farmer’s Parliament, a collection of civil society organizations, shows that over 10,000 head of cattle have been lost and 2,000 hectares of apples have been left to perish.

As InSight Crime reported in March 2021, Jerez has become a hotbed for synthetic drug production and sits along drug trafficking routes to the United States. A battle for control of Zacatecas is currently being waged between two of Mexico’s most powerful cartels, the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).

InSight Crime analysis

Peaches are the latest loss in Mexico’s agricultural heartland, where other valuable crops, such as avocados and limes, have been left to rot in recent years after growers faced violent cartel threats and extortion.

The avocado business – dubbed “green gold” for its profitability – has long been a target of extortion by criminal groups. Cartels charge monthly protection payments from farmers. Gunmen rob trucks transporting the fruit. Fears of violence aimed at U.S. safety inspectors led the U.S. government to temporarily suspend avocado imports earlier this year.

Lime farmers also have been in the crossfire of cartel violence. Plantations of limes were left unharvested in Michoacán in 2021 after farmers and workers fled for their safety. Farmers have reported criminal groups dictating prices to them to squeeze higher fees.

Fruit prices in Mexico have risen drastically, with peaches, apples, papaya and others increasing between 10 and 45% recently. While many factors have contributed to the inflation of fruit prices, supply reductions have been blamed on farmers being forced to flee.

Farmers are also likely to have difficulties resuming cultivation after abandoning crops. Residents have reported that criminal groups have looted houses and stolen tractors in their absence. In February, El Sol de México reported that over 30,000 people living in Zacatecas had left, leaving behind ghost towns of abandoned homes and fields.

Reprinted from InSight Crime. Henry Shuldiner is a writer with InSight Crime, a foundation dedicated to the study of organized crime.

Alebrijes to form exhibition in Chicago park

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MND Staff

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May 11, 2022

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Eighteen giant Mexican folk art sculptures and 30 medium-sized ones will be on display in a Chicago park between June and October.

The Alebrijes: Creatures of a Dream World exhibition will open to the public June 12 at Cantigny Park, located about 50 kilometers west of downtown Chicago in DuPage County.

Six Mexico City artists were recruited by the Mexican Cultural Center DuPage to make the alebrijes, fantastical creatures first made by the artist Pedro Linares in the late 1930s after he had a vivid dream that was apparently triggered by a high fever.

The artists, which belong to a collective based in the southern borough of Xochimilco, began making the colorful sculptures last September.

Alejandro Camacho, a member of the collective, told the newspaper El Heraldo de México that the Cantigny Park exhibition – which will feature 18 four-meter-high alebrijes – has the “great responsibility to show off the culture … of Mexico City in one of the most important cities of the United States.”

The capital is known for papier-mâché alebrijes, while wood carvings known by the same name are primarily made in Oaxaca.

The artists received few instructions from the Mexican Cultural Center DuPage as to what kind of alebrijes to make but were asked to not create overly aggressive-looking creatures, Camacho said.

The sculptures will be exhibited in other United States cities after the five-month-long exhibition in Illinois.

The exhibition, admission to which is included in the US $5-$10 cost of parking at Cantigny Park, comes after two large alebrijes were installed in New York City last year as part of a 12-day celebration of Day of the Dead.

With reports from El Heraldo de México

Funeral held for juice vendor who refused to pay extortion

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MND Staff

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May 11, 2022

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funeral of Genaro Lozano, murdered juice vendor Mexico state — Funeral of Genaro Lozano, who'd sold juices at his stand in México state for 31 years.

A México state fruit and juice vendor was laid to rest Tuesday after he was shot dead Saturday for refusing to make an extortion payment.

Genaro Lozano Morales was one of three people killed after he refused to hand over another payment to a gang of criminals that arrived at his street stand in Tlalnepantla, a municipality that is part of the greater Mexico City metropolitan area.

One of the other victims was Lozano’s niece. His three sons were wounded in the attack and are in serious condition in a Mexico City hospital.

Lozano’s daughter condemned the murder of her 51-year-old father, who had been selling fruit and juice at the same location in the Tlalnepantla town of Ixhuatepec for 31 years.

“It’s not fair. We get up every day at one in the morning to start working, to go to the Central de Abastos [wholesale market] only for the extortioners to take the little we earn,” María Evelin Lozano told the newspaper El Universal before her father was buried in the San Juan Ixhuatepec cemetery.

murder of Mexico state juice vendor — Three of the six people arrested for involvement in the attack that killed México state juice vendor Genaro Lozano and his niece and seriously wounded his three sons.

She also said that the Mexican Social Security Institute hospital where her three brothers are receiving treatment is charging 8,000 pesos (US $395) per day per patient. She has asked state and federal authorities to help cover the costs and to provide protection due to the risk of another attack on her family.

Municipal police arrested six people in connection with the attack on Saturday, during which more than 20 shots were fired. Three of those detained are minors aged 14, 16 and 17. The two younger boys are brothers.

All six suspects, taken into custody Saturday afternoon near the scene of their alleged crime after a police chase, face charges of homicide, battery and extortion.

The presumed leader of the gang is Rosalío N., aka “El Ratón” (The Mouse). After Lozano refused to hand over money to him, he threatened to “bring his people” to force him to pay, according to a report by the news website La Silla Rota.

A short while later, gang members arrived at the juice stand on motorcycles and opened fire at Lozano and his employees.

protest by families of arrested men in Mexico state — Families of the arrested suspects claimed they were innocent and protested their detainment by blocking two major roads on Sunday and Monday, including the Mexico City-Pachuca highway.

Family members of the alleged criminals protested their arrest on Sunday by blocking a major road in Ixhuatepec as well as the Mexico City-Pachuca highway. The National Guard cleared the highway early Monday but another blockade was set up on another Tlalnepantla road later the same day.

The grandmother of the detained brothers called for their release in a video message, claiming they were out shopping for food when they were taken into custody.

México state is one of Mexico’s most violent states, with over 2,600 homicides in 2021.

With reports from El Universal and La Silla Rota

AMLO’s stance on Americas summit doesn’t benefit Mexico: analysts

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MND Staff

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May 11, 2022

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AMLO said Tuesday that he would send the Mexico delegation to the Summit of the Americas but wouldn't attend himself if not every country is invited. Presidencia

President López Obrador has come under fire after declaring that he won’t attend the Summit of the Americas (SOA) in the United States next month unless all countries of the region are invited.

The U.S. government has suggested that the presidents of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua won’t be invited to the regional meeting, which will be held in Los Angeles between June 6 and 10.

López Obrador, who was in Cuba last weekend and has a friendly relationship with the island nation’s president, Miguel Díaz Canel, said Tuesday that he won’t attend if any nation is excluded, declaring that “even with our differences, we have to have dialogue” and that nations must treat each other in a “brotherly” way.

“If all [countries] aren’t invited, a delegation of the Mexican government will go, but I wouldn’t,” he told reporters at his morning news conference.

The president clarified that Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard would represent him at the ninth SOA, whose theme is “Building a Sustainable, Resilient, and Equitable Future.”

Arturo Sarakhan — “At the end of the day, if the president doesn’t attend, it’s Mexico that loses,” former Mexican ambassador to the US Arturo Sarukhán said.

Arturo Sarukhán, Mexico’s ambassador to the United States between 2006 and 2013, was among the critics of López Obrador’s plan to boycott the event if all leaders don’t have a seat at the table. “The president’s decision to condition his participation in the summit on Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua being invited is an own goal and a silly thing to do,” he told the newspaper El Universal.

Sarukhán said López Obrador’s declaration and potential nonattendance would harm Mexico’s relationship with the United States, “which the president himself has acknowledged … is fundamental to the well-being and prosperity of Mexicans,” including the millions who live in the U.S.

“… At the end of the day, if the president doesn’t attend, it’s Mexico that loses,” the former ambassador said.

“It is important to remember that for a country like ours, if you’re not seated at the table, you’re on the menu,” Sarukhán added.

He also criticized López Obrador’s stance on the basis that if he was hosting an international event in Mexico, he wouldn’t allow another leader to tell him who to invite.

“… The fundamental question is, “why is he … [threatening not to go]? There are clearly ideological reasons and an outdated and stale vision of international relations. But could there be additional motives, such as the suspicions of a growing role for Cuba … in Mexican internal intelligence matters?” Sarukhán asked.

Miguel Ruis Cabanas — “The president has now chosen a route that won’t give him results,” Mexico’s former ambassador to Japan and Italy Miguel Ruiz Cabañas told the newspaper *El Universal*. UN

International relations academic Iliana Rodríguez said López Obrador’s threat is contrary to the spirit of international diplomacy and people’s right to self-determination. Every country has the right to decide who it does and doesn’t want to establish relations with, she said.

The Tec de Monterrey professor and researcher said that needless tension in the bilateral relationship with the United States will arise if the president follows through on his threat and doesn’t attend the summit.

Nonattendance would annoy United States President Joe Biden, but he would have to respect López Obrador’s decision “as we respect the United States giving support to the people of Israel against the rights of Palestine,” Rodríguez said.

On Twitter, prominent United States-based Mexican journalist Jorge Ramos said that López Obrador – with whom he went toe to toe at one of the president’s press conferences last July – “has every right not to go to the Summit of the Americas if he doesn’t want to.”

“But what he’s asking,” Ramos added, “is that thugs, torturers, censors and oppressors, as the dictators of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua are, be invited to the party.”

The journalist charged that the Mexican president has already chosen to side with the leaders of those countries.

AMLO receiving Order of Jose Marti in Havana — AMLO was in Cuba on Sunday to receive its highest state–bestowed honor, the Order of José Martí from Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel.

Miguel Ruíz Cabañas, an academic, former foreign affairs official and ex-ambassador to Japan and Italy, said López Obrador should have communicated his intention not to attend the summit directly to Biden rather than announcing it publicly. “It was an unexpected announcement and a little premature because there’s still a month until the summit starts,” he told El Universal.

Ruíz said López Obrador’s declaration will complicate the relationship with the United States because the U.S. government is unlikely to accept “public pressure” with regard to who it should and shouldn’t invite to the summit.

“The president has now chosen a route that won’t give him results. I would be very surprised if the United States government changes its position,” he said. “… Asking President Biden to invite these three dictatorships is to put him in a very complex situation” given that midterm elections will be held in the United States in November, Ruíz added.

The academic questioned López Obrador’s motives given that Mexico’s relationship with the United States is more important than those it has with Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, and he defended the U.S. government’s right to invite whom it sees fit.

One of the main topics for discussion at the summit is expected to be migration to the United States via Mexico, which has recently increased.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that no invitations by the US have yet been issued. Creative Commons

“Our goal is … to sign a regional declaration on migration and protection in June in Los Angeles when the United States hosts the Summit of the Americas,” Biden said in March during a visit to the White House by Colombian President Iván Duque.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Brian Nichols has said that the Cuban, Venezuelan and Nicaraguan governments have demonstrated that they don’t respect democracy and would be unlikely to be invited to the regional summit, the first since the 2018 event in Lima, Peru.

However, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday that a final decision on summit invitations had not been made.

“We haven’t made a decision yet about who will be invited and no invitations have been issued yet,” she told reporters.

Some other countries, including Argentina and Caribbean nations, have also called for all leaders to be invited to the Summit of the Americas, whose purpose is to bring together members of the Organization of American States for discussion and negotiation on issues of regional importance.

With reports from El Universal, El Economista and Associated Press

New Baja wine brand is making the Mexican industry take notice

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Diana Serratos

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May 11, 2022

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oak barrels — Ruber Cardinal's wines are aged exclusively in either French or American casks. Sanjay Acharya/Creative Commons

Ruber Cardinal, a Mexican wine brand that began producing vintages only five years ago yet has already been awarded gold and silver medals in 2021, is producing some notable merlots. Its vintages are aged in American and French oak, making them elegant and aromatic with a soft mouthfeel.

Its Merlot Roble Francés, produced in 2017, won a gold medal at the Mexico International Wine Competition in Ensenada. Its Merlot Roble Americano and its Merlot Blend each picked up a silver medal at the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles México Selection last year.

Owners Leticia Parra and Gustavo Spindola’s commercial dream started at The Escuelita (The Little School) in Ensenada, Baja California, a winemaking school that has developed over the last few decades as a local training ground for many of Mexico’s most well-known and respected professionals. They work with Thomas Egli, a Swiss enologist, or wine scientist, who is partial to merlot grapes.

The pair has shepherded a production process that is small and thoughtful, with numbered bottles and a unique, clear concept that’s put them on the radar of boutique wine lovers.

Their two wines currently on the market, now after five years in the bottle, present a soft red, with a slightly more transparent edge. Their wine comes in 375-milliliter bottles, making it easy to try their two available varieties in a single setting.

Ruber Cardinal wines — Ruber Cardinal of Baja California is a new wine brand, but it’s already getting noticed by major contests in Mexico.

Their first vintage was produced in 2017 when they created two different kinds of merlot – some aged in American oak and the rest in French oak, in order to determine if the organoleptic properties of the wood reflected the final product.

In 2018, the brand produced another merlot with a small percentage of cabernet franc, this time aged in French oak.

The experience of tasting the same wine from different kinds of barrels is very interesting and allows you to distinguish between the contributions of the different types of wood more clearly. It means you can observe each wine’s evolution more closely.

Ideally, you would taste both at the same time — and even better, try different years, creating a vertical tasting.

Personally, I found their wine aged in American oak more complete, with hints of pepper, clove, cinnamon, dark fruit and tobacco. The mouthfeel was silky, but the wine’s structure made me think it would be good with grilled meats, pasta with red sauce, semi-aged cheese and subtle spiced pork. Even tacos al pastor would be good with this wine!

The vintage aged in French oak was more ephemeral, delicate in the nose and mouth, with subtle aromas of red fruit, wood, soft caramel and toffee. Soft cheeses, spiced goat cheese, prosciutto and red fruit, mole de olla or Tampico-style beef would all go well with this wine.

This first vintage still has a couple more years of good expression in it, so we’ll save some of the 2017 bottles for a few years to come. We’ll also await the next vintage. Tasting and recording is ideal, and that’s what makes a good wine taster.

To buy Ruber Cardinal wines, visit their online store or other Mexican online wine sites such as Top Vinium and Vid Mexicana. You can also buy it in person in Mexico City at La Contra Vinos wine shop, and it’s served at the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles Wine Bar and the SI MON wine bar.

Sommelier Diana Serratos writes from Mexico City.

Medical community slams AMLO for hiring Cuban doctors, says there is no shortage

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MND Staff

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May 11, 2022

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López Obrador and Díaz-Canel in Havana on Sunday.

Mexico’s medical community has rejected the federal government’s plan to hire some 500 Cuban doctors, asserting that it is disrespectful of Mexican doctors, of whom there are enough to meet the demand for health care services.

A day after meeting with Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel in Havana, President López Obrador announced Monday that more than 500 Cuban doctors would come to work in Mexico “because we do not have the doctors we need.”

The heads of 30 medical colleges, associations and federations disagreed, expressing their “profound disapproval” of the government’s plan, saying that it was justified by a supposed rather than real shortage of doctors.

The hiring of foreign doctors is a “serious offense” against Mexican health professionals, they said in a statement.

“In our country there are doctors with abilities endorsed by the universities of the Mexican republic” and they are equipped with “full knowledge of the needs and idiosyncrasies of our population.”

The medical professionals questioned why the government needs to hire foreign doctors when some Mexican doctors are unemployed or only have casual employment for which they earn low salaries or have to work in “areas of extreme insecurity.”

Mexican doctors have been “relegated” by the government in favor of foreign doctors, they suggested.

The government has turned its back on “the academic capacity of our universities,” added the medical community leaders, among whom were the presidents of the Mexican College of Internal Medicine, the Mexican Society of Dermatology and the Mexican College and Society of Pediatric Surgery.

The statement also noted that Mexican health care professionals have worked with the government to treat COVID-19 patients, “even risking our lives and those of our families” and “purchasing personal protective equipment ourselves in many cases.”

They called the hiring of foreign doctors an insult to the Mexican medical community.

They also raised concerns about the abilities of foreign doctors entering the country to work and said the government has not specified what roles the Cubans will fill.

“They don’t have the requirements established by the current laws and lack the endorsement of the professional colleges,” they added.

“Their intervention doesn’t represent a benefit for the care of our population and … [constitutes] a serious lack of equity for the doctors of our country.”

With reports from El Universal

Expat artist’s sketching lets her discover the Mexico around her

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Lydia Carey

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May 10, 2022

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Susan Dorf artist in Patzcuaro — Susan Dorf in Patzcuaro, Michaocán, where she currently lives and sketches. Timothy Scott

“Most people kind of get the basics of learning to draw and see it almost as an addiction,” says Susan Dorf, an urban sketcher and art teacher in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán. “When you’re sketching, you drop into that deeper place which is sort of meditative.”

Dorf has been meditating and sketching in Mexico for the last 10 years, and it has meant a whole new palate and landscape.

“I like to see what’s up close, what’s far away, how can I bring that all together,” she says describing Mexican markets, whose swirling movement and vibrancy inspire her work. “I like to be in the middle of life and what’s happening.”

Dorf has been teaching sketching, drawing and painting for 12 years, and she’s learned that the hardest thing to get over when you start to draw is, basically, yourself.

“The main thing to overcome is judgment and fear,” she says, “So, when I can get people into a place where they can be neutral, so that not only are they not feeling judged or criticized but I’m also not praising them either, there’s a sense of not having to live up to anything.”

cops in Patzcuaro eating ice cream — Dorf’s observations sometimes catch unexpected little moments, like these Mexican police officers taking an ice cream break on the street.

“If it’s perspective or scale, it’s all the same; it’s learning to see — you are basically exercising your eye and your mind and your hand to coordinate. And if you’ve not done that, it’s really awkward, but if you practice, you get more comfortable. You’re learning how to see things in a way that is different from just glancing at it or recording a symbol of it. You’re slowing down to really see it.”

Dorf is a believer in sketching the landscape around her and the people in it: when she lived in San Miguel de Allende, she was a constant fixture, recording life in a city that is both very traditional and yet also changing rapidly due to the near-constant demand for new construction.

She even got a gig doing urban sketching for the local weekly newspaper, Atención San Miguel, a job which continues today even though she no longer lives in the city.

People have always drawn, from cave walls to prestigious arts schools, but the current Urban Sketchers movement that Dorf is part of was started in 2007 by Spanish journalist Gabriel Campanario, who started sharing his drawings online.

In 2009, Campanario formed the Urban Sketchers International nonprofit, a group that unites sketchers all over the world and that offers “chapter” affiliation for groups like the one that exists in San Miguel de Allende.

Dorf’s teaching helped to form the chapter, and many current group members have taken her workshops.

In Dorf’s experience, urban sketching seems to have a particular draw for middle-aged people and retirees; her students are often recent empty nesters or older expats. Urban Sketcher group members meet up to sketch where they live or sometimes travel together and sketch on the road – it’s an easy hobby to take with you wherever you go.

Susan Dorf drawings — Artist Susan Dorf’s take on a mass vaccination day for COVID-19 in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato.

“It’s a phenomenon really, it just kind of became that, because it’s so portable. When I go out, I have this little bag and it fits in my purse or my day pack, and when people are traveling, it’s the perfect thing,”

For someone like Dorf, who loves movement and life (she often sketched parades and protests in San Miguel), COVID restrictions completely changed her drawing life.

Fewer people out and about, as well as ubiquitous face mask requirements, meant she turned to sketching architecture and nature and found herself taking long walks alone to sketch the city as it slumbered in quarantine.

These days, you can find Dorf in her new home, Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, and as COVID restrictions ease, she’s teaching sketching once again to visitors and locals there. Her sketches can still be found printed in Atención San Miguel, and she’s recently published a book of her work.

Her newest plans involve sketching local artisans.

“Every village kind of has its own craft, and I’m interested in going to visit them and doing little drawings of them — writing about them and doing these kind of graphic reportage pieces about the people who are here.”

Artist Susan Dorf sketches — Dorf’s latest project is documenting Michoacan’s small towns and the artisans there.

For Dorf, sketching is a way to both be part of the action of a scene and yet keep a kind of journalist’s distance, allowing sketchers to be both participant and archivist. And if you think that after years of teaching and creating, sketching would lose this transformative force, Dorf insists that the experience is always fresh, no matter what the scene.

“As soon as I feel that I’ve got [something] down, then I am going to throw a wrench in the works and make it more difficult,” she adds with a laugh.

To learn more about Susan Dorf and her art, visit her website or her Facebook page.

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.

Will train travel be a big part of Mexico’s future? Morena lawmaker thinks so

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MND Staff

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May 10, 2022

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There are currently only three passenger train services in Mexico, excluding commuter services such as those that run on the Suburban Train railroad in the greater Mexico City area.

But by 2050 there could be 11 interconnecting services if all the new routes proposed by a ruling party lawmaker are built.

Miguel Torruco Garza, a deputy with the Morena party and son of federal Tourism Minister Miguel Torruco Marqués, published a map to his Twitter account earlier this year that showed existing and possible routes for passenger trains.

“We’re close to making this a reality and returning passenger trains to our Mexico,” Torruco tweeted above his “map of passenger trains in Mexico 2050.”

The lawmaker said Monday that he had presented an initiative in the lower house of Congress that called for the recovery of Mexico’s passenger train system, which fell by the wayside after privatization in the 1990s. He also published a second, slightly different rail map to his Twitter account.

Among the 11 routes on Torruco’s latest map is an existing one and two others that encompass sections of track on which tourist trains currently run.

The three services that currently operate in Mexico are El Chepe, as the Chihuahua-Pacific service between Chihuahua city and Los Mochis, Sinaloa, via the Copper Canyon is known; The Tequila Express, which links Guadalajara to the town of Tequila, Jalisco, the birthplace of Mexico’s most famous tipple; and the Tijuana-Tecate service in Baja California.

According to the map published by Torruco, the Guadalajara-Tequila service would be encompassed within a longer passenger service from Poza Rica on the Gulf coast in Veracruz to Puerto Vallarta on the Pacific coast in Jalisco. The 1,500-kilometer Bajío Train line would run through cities such as Pachuca, Querétaro, León and Guadalajara.

Similarly, the Tijuana-Tecate service would become a small section of the proposed 5,300-kilometer-long Pacific Train line, which would link Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, to Tapachula, Chiapas, via cities including La Paz, Tijuana, Mexicali, Hermosillo, Mazatlán, Tepic, Zihuatanejo, Acapulco and Puerto Escondido.

The other routes featured on Torruco’s map are the Central Train line from Guadalajara to Veracruz city; the Oaxaca Train line from Puebla to the Oaxaca coast via Oaxaca city; the Isthmus (of Tehuantepec) Train line between Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, and Salina Cruz, Oaxaca; the US $10 billion Maya Train railroad, which is currently under construction and will link cities and towns in five southeastern states; the Gulf Train line from Matamoros, Tamaulipas, to Palenque, Chiapas; the Transversal Train line from Mazatlán, Sinaloa, to Reynosa, Tamaulipas; the Eastern Train line between Piedras Negras, Coahuila, and Acapulco, Guerrero; and the Western Train line between Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua and Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán.

The federal government has outlined plans to run passenger services on sections of the routes proposed by Torruco but not along their entirety.

For example, the Mexico City-Toluca Train line, left incomplete by the previous government, is slated to finally open in 2023, while President López Obrador said earlier this month that 30 billion pesos (almost US $1.5 billion) would be invested in a passenger service between Coatzacoalcos and Palenque via the Dos Bocas refinery, which is currently under construction on the Tabasco coast.

Planning documents obtained by the newspaper El Universal last year indicated that the government was also planning to launch a passenger rail service between Coahuila and Tamaulipas, which would be a branch line of the Eastern railroad proposed by Torruco.

In addition, the government is upgrading existing tracks on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec as part of its trade corridor project, which is touted as a potential rival to the Panama Canal. That railroad could be used by the Isthmus passenger service Torruco advocated.

Another possible project is a high-speed train link between Mexico City and Querétaro city. The previous government suspended the project, but there has been some speculation it could be revived.

With reports from El Heraldo de Chihuahua, Expansión Política and El Financiero

Jalisco eases rules governing obligatory use of face masks

By

MND Staff

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May 10, 2022

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Governor Alfaro says the state is recording 59 new COVID cases per day.

The use of face masks is no longer mandatory in public places in Jalisco with the exception of public transit and health care facilities.

Governor Enrique Alfaro said Monday that the decision to lift the mask mandate was taken after consultation with health experts. He said it was possible because the spread of the coronavirus has been controlled in Jalisco, which includes Guadalajara and tourist destinations such as Puerto Vallarta and the Lake Chapala area.

“The reality is that the numbers tell us we’re doing well, that we’ve made progress and the pandemic in our state has been controlled,” Alfaro said.

The governor said the state is currently recording an average of 59 new cases per day whereas the average over the past two years was 819. He said that just 21 coronavirus patients were hospitalized and there were only 19 COVID-related deaths last month, the lowest monthly total since April 2020.

“These indicators make us think that we can take a step forward with care, with awareness that this hasn’t finished,” Alfaro said.

He advised people with coronavirus-like symptoms to use face masks and noted that there has been a “persistent demand“ in schools for the mask mandate to be lifted.

“Now with the … heat, using a face mask has been an enormous burden for girls and boys,” Alfaro said.

He said his government understands that people are tired of face masks after two years of continuous use but warned citizens not to drop their guard.

Alfaro said he was confident that the decision to end the mask mandate – which officially concluded Tuesday – was the right one and that coronavirus case numbers will remain low.

Several other states have dropped mask mandates – at least for open air spaces – including Baja California Sur, Baja California, Mexico City, Tamaulipas and Nuevo León.

Mexico went through a large omicron-fueled fourth wave of infections that peaked in January with almost 1 million new cases recorded.

The Health Ministry said Tuesday that the pandemic was continuing with “minimal activity,” noting that there was an average of 370 cases per day over the past week.

Mexico has recorded over 5.7 million confirmed cases since the beginning of the pandemic and more than 324,000 COVID-19 deaths. About two-thirds of the population is vaccinated, a figure that should soon increase as the government is now offering vaccines to all children aged 12 and over.

With reports from El Universal

Like anything in a pipeline, water is fair game—and lucrative—in Ecatepec

By

MND Staff

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May 10, 2022

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Water thieves fill their tanks from municipal water in Ecatepec. — Water thieves fill their tanks with municipal water in Ecatepec.

Any resource that runs through government-owned pipelines – petroleum, LP gas and even water – is fair game for Mexican thieves.

According to authorities in Ecatepec, México state, 1 million liters of water are being stolen every day in the municipality, which adjoins the northeastern Mexico City borough of Gustavo A. Madero.

The crime generates huge profits for criminal groups that prey on people who are desperate for water, a resource that has become increasingly scarce in Ecatepec and many other parts of the country.

Mario Luna Escanamé, director of the Ecatepec water and sewer utility Sapase, said that an estimated 365 million liters are stolen annually from the local water service.

He said the quantity stolen on a daily basis would fill 100 pipas, or water tankers, each with a capacity for 10,000 liters. “That’s the size of the problem we’re seeing,” Luna said.

The only municipality where more water is stolen is Tijuana, the newspaper El Universal reported.

Sapase has identified numerous points where water has been illegally extracted in recent months, a period in which the incidence of the crime has increased significantly.

Most of the illegal taps were found in a part of Ecatepec known as the Quinta Zona, a densely populated area where water shortages are common.

“The most complicated area is the east of the municipality, where there are neighborhoods adjacent to the México state Outer Loop Road,” Luna said.

“They’re the most critical points because they depend 100% on the Cutzamala [water] system and if there’s a problem there, that area suffers a lot,” he said.

Thieves use pumps and hoses to extract water, according to El Universal, which witnessed the crime being committed in broad daylight. The stolen water is diverted into large containers in vehicles such as pickup trucks or vans, or to tanks in nearby houses and businesses.

Lookouts warn thieves if the police or Sapase personnel are approaching. The huachicoleros de agua, as the thieves are colloquially known, later sell the water to families whose homes are not connected to the water system.

El Universal reported that 1,000 liters are sold for 1,000 pesos (US $49) and thieves can make up to 100,000 pesos (US $4,900) per day. Groups specifically dedicated to the crime use sophisticated equipment to steal the water, Luna said.

“It’s clear that it’s now something that is very organized,” he said, adding that the crime is driven by supply and demand for water.

“There is a great need due to the more than 15 billion liters we haven’t received in the past 37 months,” the water utility chief said, referring to a reduction in supply from the México state water commission that has been exacerbated by theft.

One Ecatepec resident told El Universal that many families have no option but to buy water from thieves.

“That happens in several neighborhoods. … As we need water we have to buy it from them. We call them and they come,” said Belén, who lives in the Novela Mexicana neighborhood.

“We’re living in a vicious circle,” said Ricardo Galindo, a resident of the México Prehispánico neighborhood.

“The thieves take advantage of our need because we really need water. … There’s none in the faucet so we have to buy it. … We’re part of the problem but … we’ve lived [without running water] for many years,” he said.

While illicit water entrepreneurs steal large quantities of water, some Ecatepec residents, including business owners, connect hoses to illegal taps just to get enough water to satisfy their own needs.

But those quantities are also very large in some cases: one of the businesses taking free water is a laundromat, El Universal said.

The deputy director of Sapase said water theft affects the utility’s finances because less water reaches the homes of people who pay for the liquid.

Ecatepec authorities have initiated at least 13 investigations in the municipality but there have been no arrests.

Mayor Fernando Vilchis recently reached an agreement with the state government to crack down on the crime, which also occurs in other México state municipalities albeit not to the same extent as in Ecatepec.

State lawmakers with the Morena party have proposed a law that would jail water thieves for three years, but it has not yet been put to a vote in Congress.

With reports from El Universal