Ozone levels in Mexico City's Benito Juárez borough have reached nearly 100 parts per billion over the safety limit.
High levels of ozone pollution prompted Mexico City authorities to reactivate a phase 1 environmental alert on Thursday, forcing a large number of cars off the road on Friday.
The Environmental Commission of the Megalopolis (CAMe) reactivated the alert at 4 p.m., just 20 hours after a previous alert was lifted.
It said in a statement that ozone levels had reached 168 parts per billion (ppb) at a monitoring station in the borough of Benito Juárez and 155 ppb at a station in Iztacalco. The city government considers concentrations of ground-level ozone over 70 ppb to be unhealthy.
CAMe said that a high-pressure system over the Valley of Mexico regained strength on Thursday, intensifying atmospheric stability with “variable wind of weak intensity.”
The climatic conditions, including “intense solar radiation,” caused an increase in ozone concentrations, which resulted in “extremely bad” air quality.
Air quality in the metropolis as of Friday morning at 10 a.m. Índice Aire y Salud ZMVM
Air quality had improved significantly by 8 a.m. Friday, but the environmental alert remained in place. Air quality was “good” or “acceptable” at all monitoring stations in the greater Mexico City area with the exception of that in Chalco, México state, where the classification was “bad.”
Due to the reactivation of the alert, many vehicles are prohibited from using roads in the metropolitan area between 5 a.m. and 10 p.m. Friday. Among the banned vehicles are a large number of those with license plates that end in 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and 0. Hybrid and electric vehicles are exempt from the restrictions.
Despite the improvement in air quality on Friday morning, authorities are still advising residents of the metropolitan area to avoid outdoor activities including exercise between 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. due to health risks associated with exposure to polluted air.
Hermelinda Bautista Bautista makes a colorful rug on a loom passed down through generations. Photos by Joseph Sorrentino
Graciela Contreras Mendoza is a picture of concentration as she leans over her loom, deftly weaving different colored threads into a rug she’s making. “I made my first rug when I was ten,” she said.
She, and about 150 families in Teotitlán del Valle, a pueblo about 20 miles from the city of Oaxaca, are well known for the quality of their textiles, especially their rugs. Weaving in the pueblo dates back hundreds of years. “It is a work that we carry in our blood,” she said.
Teotitlán del Valle is a Zapotecan pueblo, but its current name is actually from Nahuatl and means “land of the gods.” Its original name was Xaquija, Zapotecan for “celestial constellation.”
Children start learning to weave here typically as young as eight or 10 years old.
“First, we learn how to comb the wool,” said Contreras. “Then we learn how to wash the wool and make the string.” Most of the wool that’s used here comes from sheep raised in other states, usually Puebla, Michoacán and Guererro.
It takes about a year to learn how to weave, says Marcela Cruz Lazo.
After combing, the wool is gathered into a ball and then made into string, using a spinning wheel. It’s then dyed a wide variety of colors. The dyes are all natural and organic, said Hermelinda Bautista Bautista, who was working with her friend Marcela Cruz Lazo in their small workshop. “We use things like shells from nuts, pomegranates and cochinilla,” Bautista said.
Cochinilla, an insect that lives on nopal, an edible cactus, is collected and ground using a molcajete, a traditional kitchen implement. It yields a deep red color.
Once the various dyes are ground into a fine powder, they’re boiled. The wool is then soaked in the dyes for three days, and then it’s all boiled again, so the wool grabs the color, said Cruz. After those steps are mastered, she said, it takes about a year to learn how to weave. There’s no formal teaching.
“There are no classes,” said Contreras. “We learn by watching. It is informal, more or less. We live with our parents, and we learn from them.”
The first rugs made are simple, just straight lines.
“To make a more complicated piece takes up to two years [of training],” said Rigoberto Martínez, a weaver whose family has a store in Oaxaca, across the street from the Santo Domingo Cathedral. “The large pieces are made by experts with more ability. All one needs is ingenuity — or that is to say — one must be very intelligent to make the designs. Some designs come from books and others from imagination.”
Teotitlán del Valle was one of the first pueblos settled by the Zapotecs, probably around 1465. Ruins of a temple, whose walls are carved with intricate designs, can still be seen here. Those designs are often incorporated into the rugs.
“There are ancient designs that are part of our history,” said Contreras. “We work with Zapotecan designs that are based on the ruins in the pueblo. But we also innovate, using something modern, and these are unique. I like to innovate and create new pieces because it bores me to make always make the same thing. I always prefer change.”
While some weavers will first draw their designs on paper, Contreras doesn’t. “My drawings are in my head,” she explained.
Each family has its unique set of designs and, according to the women interviewed, men make the most complex ones.
“The men make the most complicated designs because they’re dedicated to this work,” said Cruz. “The women do not have the time because they have to take care of their homes. They must clean, cook and care for their children.”
Weaving knowledge and the designs used aren’t the only things handed down through time. “The looms that we use have been passed down from generation to generation,” said Contreras. “We only do maintenance on the ones that require it.”
Children in Teotitlán del Valle learn to weave by watching their parents. Here, Graciela Contreras Mendoza shows her 8-year-old daughter Gracy Esmeralda the ropes.
Although Cruz believes that most of the pueblo’s youth have learned how to weave, she said that some have less interest in it. “The girls now make only a few [rugs] because they go to school,” she said. “Before, the women would weave from when they were little [and] they did not talk about going to school.”
Still, given that there are dozens of stores where rugs can be bought, it doesn’t appear that the craft is in danger of dying out.
The road leading into town from the main highway is lined with a number of stores, but Martínez said they’re not the best place to buy anything.
“At the entrance to Teotitlán, they sell their rugs at a very high price since they work with tourist guides.” He suggested continuing on into the pueblo, where he said rugs are sold for less.
But beautiful textiles aren’t the only attractions here. There’s a community museum, called Balaa Xtee Guech Gulal, Zapotecan for “Shadow of the Old Pueblo” or “House of the Old Pueblo.”
In addition to rooms with the expected exhibits about weaving and photographs of daily life in the pueblo, there’s an impressive collection of pre-Hispanic figures, bowls and intricately carved stones. Some of the pieces on display have Olmec designs and are thought to date to 500 B.C.
A short distance from the museum is the Preciosa Sangre de Cristo church, which was started in 1581 but wasn’t completed until 1758. The church was built on top of a Zapotecan temple, which was destroyed by the Spanish.
Several large stones with Zapotecan designs were incorporated into the exterior walls of the church. Directly behind it, there’s an archeological site where the remains of the indigenous temple can still be seen. The church’s interior contains a large number of lovely polychrome statues of saints.
The majority of residents earn their income from weaving, said Martínez. “It is better to make the textiles because sometimes in the field there is no harvest,” he said. “Textiles are more secure and we can also trade for what we need.” But most people still farm and that’s what helped them get through the pandemic. Like every city and pueblo in Mexico, Teotitlán del Valle was adversely affected by the pandemic. “There was no tourism, and we could not sell our carpets,” said Contreras. “The pueblo survived because we have agriculture.”
Teotitlán del Valle is a very traditional pueblo, one where, said Bautista, “everyone speaks Zapotecan.” In fact, she said, “We did not speak Spanish until we went to school, and we were afraid to learn it.”
Martínez is proud of his pueblo and his heritage.
“The valley of Oaxaca was Zapotecan, and they originated this type of work,” he said. “It is like a gift that our ancestors gave to us. We are lucky to be Zapotecans.”
The navy found the bodies of the victims — 58 men and 14 women — on a farm in August 2010.
Eighteen people convicted of the abduction of 72 migrants who were killed by the Zetas drug cartel in Tamaulipas in 2010 have been sentenced to lengthy jail terms.
The federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) announced Tuesday that a federal judge had sentenced 15 men and three women involved in the crime committed in San Fernando, a municipality south of Matamoros in the northern border state.
In August 2010, the navy found the bodies of 58 men and 14 women – mainly Central American and South Americans – on a farm after engaging in a gunfight with members of the Zetas.
Authorities were alerted to the massacre by a survivor, a migrant from Ecuador. The undocumented migrants were offered work with the Zetas but were killed when they didn’t accept, according to the Ecuadorian, who escaped after pretending he was dead.
The FGR said that the 18 people involved in the abduction of the migrants prior to their murder were all arrested in 2011. They were found guilty on charges including kidnapping, organized crime, possession of firearms and drug trafficking.
A composite image of some of the victims of the massacre. InSight Crime
However, none was convicted of the murder of the migrants. The guilty parties received prison sentences ranging from 13 years to 58 years.
Documents made public by the Attorney General’s office in 2014 revealed that local police collaborated with organized crime in the murder of the migrants.
The presumed mastermind of the massacre, Martiniano de Jesús Jaramillo Silva, was arrested in Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas, in 2017. However, the regional leader of the Los Zetas Vieja Escuela (Old School Zetas) criminal cell in Tamaulipas spent only two days behind bars before he died of kidney failure in a Mexico City hospital.
An additional 193 bodies were found in 47 clandestine graves in San Fernando in 2011. The victims – both men and women – were also killed by the Zetas.
The unprovoked attack was caught by a restaurant security camera.
A man is facing a charge of attempted murder after he attacked a teenager with a large stone in a Mexico City restaurant on Sunday.
A 39-year-old man identified as Sidartha N. hit 19-year-old Andro Nava in the back of the head with a stone slab in a taco restaurant in the trendy neighborhood of Roma. The restaurant’s security cameras captured footage of the brutal, unprovoked attack.
Nava, who was dining with his father when he was attacked, sustained head injuries and was transported to a nearby hospital for treatment. He was discharged after a short stay but subsequently admitted to the National Institute of Neurology, where he was reported in stable condition on Wednesday.
Sidartha, who reportedly lived on the street in the Roma area, was arrested Monday on drug possession charges and remanded in preventative custody. The Mexico City Attorney General’s Office (FGJ) announced Thursday that he had been ordered to stand trial on a charge of attempted murder.
“A period of two months was set for the completion of the complementary investigation,” the FGJ said.
Andro Nava and his father at the taco restaurant, before the attack.
Nava’s father, Manuel Nava, said in an interview that his son could permanently lose his sense of smell and taste as a result of the attack.
He said that he was discharged from the San Ángel Inn Chapultepec hospital after 30 minutes but on the way home his son realized that he couldn’t taste or smell anything when he was given something to eat. It is unclear whether he will recover those senses.
Manuel Nava said he was convinced that the intention of the aggressor was to kill his son.
“He told police that he did it because he was drugged. He’d been taking drugs for five days straight or something like that but he … [attacked my son] without remorse or anything,” he said.
Nava also said that at least two other people have reported attacks by the same man. One of the victims was a woman who suffered a broken leg.
Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, seen in a video she posted on Twitter Tuesday on the 1-year anniversary of the Line 12 crash.
The Mexico City government has rejected the final independent report about the causes of the subway accident that claimed the lives of 26 people last year and filed a civil complaint against the company that conducted the investigation.
Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum described the report prepared by Norwegian company DNV as “deficient” and “poorly executed.”
It has “technical problems” and is “biased and false,” she told a press conference Wednesday.
According to government sources cited by the newspaper Reforma, DNV’s final report, which hasn’t been made public, says that oversights, anomalies and irregularities in the maintenance of Line 12 of the Mexico City subway system during the governments led by Sheinbaum and former mayor Miguel Ángel Mancera – in addition to design flaws and shoddy construction work – contributed to the collapse of an overpass on the line on May 3, 2021.
Two cars of a train plunged toward a busy road in the southeastern borough of Tláhuac due to the collapse. In addition to 26 fatalities, over 100 people were injured in the disaster, the worst ever on Mexico City’s subway system. Line 12, the newest line, was built during the 2006–2012 Mexico City government led by Marcelo Ebrard, who is now foreign minister.
Its reputation as a world leader in investigating construction defects gave Sheinbaum confidence, she said when the city hired Norwegian company DNV.
Sheinbaum, who had touted DNV as a world leader in the investigation of construction defects, turned against the company earlier this year because it employs a lawyer who prosecuted a 2012 case against President López Obrador, her political mentor.
She claimed that DNV – a risk management and quality assurance company that operates in over 100 countries – was guilty of a conflict of interest as a result of his employment, an accusation the firm has rejected.
The mayor, a leading contender to become the ruling Morena party’s candidate at the 2024 presidential election, said Wednesday that DNV completed an analysis that “doesn’t correspond to what was originally proposed” and has political purposes.
“We’re not going to accept the distortion of reality. … Why choose this lawyer? Why do they completely change their view from the second to the third report?” Sheinbaum said.
She claimed that “there are a lot of interests behind” the report, asserting that DNV has links to the National Action Party (PAN) and Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity, a nongovernmental organization that has exposed alleged corruption in the federal government.
Sheinbaum previously pledged to disseminate all of DNV’s findings about the Metro disaster but has not yet released the company’s third and final report. However, she said it would be made public in order to show “how it failed to comply with its own methodology.”
The subway overpass collapse in the capital’s Tláhuac borough killed 26 and injured more than 100.
The mayor also said that the firm’s contract with the government was being rescinded and threatened to file a criminal complaint against it.
Some opposition party politicians noted that Sheinbaum’s rejection of DNV was incongruent with her previous praise of it.
“Up to a few days ago, @Claudiashein was praising the Norwegian company DNV, which she contracted for the #Line12 technical studies. Now with the report in hand she changed her opinion and even wants to criminalize them because she didn’t like the results. What is the mayor hiding?” PAN national president Marko Cortés wrote on Twitter.
PAN Deputy Jorge Triana described the mayor’s about-face as “grotesque,” while Democratic Revolution Party national president Jesús Zambrano used the colloquial term “ah caray” to express his surprise about Sheinbaum’s new view about a company she hired due to its “international prestige. ”
One year and two days after it occurred, no one has been held accountable for the accident on the so-called Golden Line, although 10 former Mexico City officials face charges.
The line, which runs between Mixcoac in Mexico City’s southwest and Tláhuac in the southeast and has underground and elevated sections, was built by a consortium of companies that included Carlos Slim’s Carso Infrastructure and Construction, French company Alstom and Mexican firm Ingenieros Civiles Asociados.
The anti-inflation plan aims to stabilize prices for 24 common food items.
The federal government’s anti-inflation plan will only have a limited effect on reducing consumer prices, according to three financial institutions.
The government announced Wednesday that it had reached an agreement with the private sector to ensure fair prices for 24 basic food items over the next six months without resorting to price controls. The anti-inflation plan also seeks to spur greater production of staples such as corn, beans and rice in order to increase supply.
According to JP Morgan, price stability for 24 basic food items – among which are chicken, beans, milk and potatoes – will only shave 0.4% or 0.5% off Mexico’s end-of-year inflation figure, which is predicted to be 7%. The bank described such an impact as “modest.”
It noted that the prices of some key food products have increased in recent months and are not expected to rise further. The stabilization of the prices of such products at the current high level would therefore help stop inflation increasing further but wouldn’t apply much downward pressure.
BBVA México’s chief economist, Carlos Serrano, agreed that the anti-inflation plan will have a limited impact given that powerful supply shocks are affecting the whole world.
Numerous food industry representatives attended the president’s announcement of the anti-inflation measures on Wednesday.
“Despite the efforts of the government, reducing inflation will be very complicated,” he said.
“The government’s job is extraordinarily complicated because it’s very difficult if not impossible to detach an open economy from global inflationary processes,” Serrano said.
“We believe that the effect [of the plan will be] limited, not because we consider the measures to be bad but because reducing global inflation is very difficult. It’s not as if the United States, Europe, Canada and Latin America aren’t doing anything to reduce inflation. They’re all trying, but it hasn’t been achieved.”
The BBVA economist contended that providing additional financial support to low-income Mexicans would be a better idea than trying to put a lid on the prices of basic food items, an endeavor he described as very difficult. Serrano also suggested that the government should stop subsidizing gasoline because that measure mainly benefits people with higher incomes.
The financial services company Monex said in a note that the implementation of the anti-inflation plan will be a “significant challenge” because the participation of food producers, distributors and retailers will be voluntary.
That said, representatives of numerous food-related businesses indicated their support for the plan by attending President López Obrador’s Wednesday press conference, at which the would-be inflation-busting measures were announced.
Even if the plan is implemented successfully, there will be no immediate or drastic impact on inflation levels, Monex said.
The most recent official data showed that inflation was 7.72% in the first half of April, a figure well above the central bank’s 3% target: the Bank of México predicted in late April that inflation will drop to near 3% by mid-2023.
Ozone pollution is high this time of year in the capital, as the weather warms but the rains have yet to arrive.
A phase 1 environmental alert activated in Mexico City Monday due to high levels of ozone pollution was lifted at 8 p.m. Wednesday.
The Environmental Commission of the Megalopolis (CAMe) said that concentrations of ozone had declined due to a reduction in the intensity of a high-pressure system over the Valley of Mexico.
That development allowed for greater ventilation and assisted in the dispersion of ozone, a contaminant that can cause and exacerbate a range of respiratory conditions.
CAMe warned that in “ozone season” – the period of warm and dry weather before the annual rainy season – “the intensity and movement of high-pressure meteorological systems continually change, which could cause new increases in the concentration of ozone.”
The commission also said that other weather conditions can encourage the accumulation of ozone, which develops as a result of nitrogen oxide and hydrocarbon emissions. It consequently called on residents of the greater Mexico City metropolitan area to avoid using their cars as much as possible.
A reduction in the number of vehicles on the road will minimize the risk of air quality deteriorating to bad or very bad on Thursday, CAMe said, noting that “adverse conditions for the dispersion of contaminants” will prevail.
It noted that a maximum temperature of 29 C was forecast for the capital on Thursday as well as “high solar radiation,” which aids the formation of ozone.
In addition to calling on Mexico City residents to reduce vehicle use, CAMe advised capitalinos to avoid the use of products that contain solvents such as aerosols and paint, to repair any gas leaks in their home and to reduce the use of gas by taking short showers and using pots with lids for cooking.
Bodies of migrants smuggled into Chiapas by traffickers killed when their transport vehicle crashed.
Mexico has the fourth highest levels of criminality in the world, according to a new organized crime index.
Only the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Colombia and Myanmar have higher criminality scores than Mexico on the Global Organized Crime Index 2021, described as the first tool of its kind designed to assess levels of organized crime and resilience to organized criminal activity.
Developed over the past two years by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, a Switzerland-based nongovernmental organization, the index measures organized crime in all 193 United Nations member states.
“The results, which draw from a comprehensive dataset informed by experts worldwide, paint a worrying picture of the reach, scale and impact of organized crime. It is a sobering thought, for instance, that nearly 80% of the world’s population today live in countries with high levels of criminality,” the index report said.
Mexico’s score on the index – made up of criminal markets and criminal actor components – was 7.56.
The report said Mexico’s drug-trafficking organizations are among the most sophisticated mafia-style groups worldwide, with military grade weapons and wide networks.
For criminal markets – which considers human trafficking, human smuggling, arms trafficking, flora crimes, fauna crimes, nonrenewable resource crimes and the trade of heroin, cocaine, marijuana and synthetic drugs – Mexico ranked first, or worst in the world, with an average score of 8.
In the criminal actor category – which looks at mafia-style groups, criminal networks, state-embedded actors and foreign actors – Mexico ranked 22nd with an average score of 7.13.
The index’s Mexico summary elaborated on a wide range of organized problems in the country, where large, powerful criminal organizations such as the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel operate.
It noted that Mexico is a transit country for human trafficking and that sex trafficking within Mexico and to the United States is “substantial.”
“The pandemic exacerbated collusion between corrupt officials and traffickers preying on migrants through forced engagement in criminal economies or extortion, with officials relying less on bribery and more on organized-crime links for profits,” the summary said.
It also said that Mexico has a well-established arms-trafficking market and that flora and fauna crimes are a significant problem.
“Drug traffickers control timber trafficking in Jalisco, forcing communities to pay quotas for protection,” the summary said.
“… Rosewood trafficking, controlled by Chinese mafias and other groups operating locally and regionally, is significant, and dozens of shipments, primarily destined for the Chinese furniture market, are seized annually across Pacific ports and the Yucatán Peninsula,” it said.
With regard to fauna crimes, the summary said that demand for Mexican wildlife has risen and sought-after species include jaguars, golden eagles, parrots, macaws and reptiles. It also mentioned the illegal trade for totoaba, a fish species whose swim bladder is considered a delicacy in China.
“The trade generates hundreds of millions of dollars annually, with one pound of totoaba swim bladder more valuable than cocaine. Mexico’s illicit sea cucumber trade is also significant, causing violence in Yucatán and Campeche,” the summary said.
Among the other non-drug crimes it mentioned were oil theft and illegal gold and silver mining.
With regard to narcotics, the summary said that most heroin sold in the United States originates in Mexico, especially the northern Golden Triangle region of Chihuahua, Sinaloa and Durango.
Mexico was also cited for timber trafficking.
“Mexican cartels also partake in the production and transportation of methamphetamine and, increasingly, fentanyl. Both are increasingly popular in the U.S., where fentanyl claims tens of thousands of lives annually,” it said.
“… Mexico’s cocaine trade is less consolidated, due to internal fragmentation, but the market is large. Mexican actors serve as key brokers and transporters, and cartels have become more active in the Colombian and Central American cocaine industries. Much of the rival cartel violence relates to control of the northbound shipment routes.”
With regard to criminal actors, the summary said that Mexico’s drug-trafficking organizations are among the most sophisticated mafia-style groups in the world.
“Although cartel fragmentation reduced the number of groups with large international operations, those remaining have networks spanning most of the Americas, even stretching into Europe and Asia,” it said.
“… Drug-trafficking organizations focus on international drug trafficking, generating billions of dollars in revenue annually, but numerous revenue streams, including oil theft, illegal logging, human trafficking, kidnapping and extortion, are deeply entrenched,” the summary said.
It noted that cartels have firearms including military-grade weapons and that conflict is widespread between competing groups and state security forces, “with some groups marking their territory by displaying beheaded and mutilated corpses.”
“Drug cartels control territory in much of Mexico, co-opting the state through bribery and intimidation with the aim of facilitating illicit activity and influencing the democratic process. Politicians are frequently murdered or threatened by mafias attempting to ensure that cooperative politicians hold office,” the summary said.
The index also measured countries’ resilience to organized crime, which was defined as “the ability to withstand and disrupt organized criminal activities … through political, economic, legal and social measures.”
Mexico ranked 112th in that category, which gave each country a score based on 12 indicators including political leadership and governance, national policies and laws and law enforcement. Mexico’s score was 4.46, well below those of Finland and Liechtenstein, which ranked equal first on 8.42.
The Mexico summary said that the “militarized, strong-arm approach to tackling organized crime has produced mixed results.”
“Corruption is rife, causing collusion between law enforcement, judges and criminals. Organized-crime-related violence and criminal impunity are at a record high, with poor access to legal proceedings,” it said.
“… The government lacks a cohesive security strategy, with attempts to address corruption and organized crime seen as highly politicized or as efforts to embarrass past governments. The president is centralizing control across national institutions and has proposed new, technically illegal policies, such as having marines in charge of port customs activities.”
Mexico’s “militarized, strong-arm approach to tackling organized crime has produced mixed results,” the report said.
The resilience section of the summary also said that structural deficiencies in Mexico’s legal system hamper its ability to fight organized crime and that laws pertaining to organized crime are not well-enforced.
Mexico’s overall criminality score was well above those of its North American trade partners, the United States and Canada, which ranked 66th and 161st on the index, respectively. The country with the lowest criminality score was Tuvalu, a small island nation in the south Pacific.
An idyllic house on the beach like this home on the coast of Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo comes with some extra regulations that foreign buyers must be aware of.
Potential Mexico homebuyers Sherri and Neil write from New York State:
We have been looking to buy a home in Mexico and have been looking at the Puerto Vallarta area and Los Cabos. As we are big on due diligence, we have found so many varying factors in purchasing here in Mexico, from the notary process (very different than at home) to bank trusts and even just the ability to see a clean title.
How do we best navigate these very confusing waters? What is the difference between a notary in Mexico and the United States? How can we help ourselves gain a level of confidence to move forward on a purchase? Gracias!
Ángel Marin Díaz: first, congratulations on wanting to be educated buyers! Often, I see members of the guest community who have fallen in love with a property and a lifestyle — and apparently left their common sense at the border.
The largest obstacle to buying in Mexico is getting over the hump of not knowing what you don’t know. As your question is actually three questions in one, let me break the answers down for you.
Notarios taking the oath of their office in at the National College of Notarios. They have more responsibilities in Mexico than notaries in the US.
First, you are looking to buy in a beach area as foreigners (I like to use the term “guests”), and beach areas are a restricted zone in Mexico, i.e., a zone within 100 kilometers of the international border and 50 km of the coast. When buying a home in Mexico’s interior — that is, not in the country’s restricted coastal zone — you can put the title (escritura) in your name.
With a beach property, however, you are not allowed, so you will need to hold ownership through a bank trust known as a fideicomiso.
Ownership through this sort of trust is like owning property through an LLC: imagine that you own a company and the company owns a vehicle or property. You are technically the owner of the vehicle or property through the ownership of the underlying corporation.
The fideicomiso gives you all the rights of ownership, such as the right to sell, rent, donate or bequeath.
Second, you ask about the difference between an American notary and a Mexican notario (notary). Mexico is a civil law jurisdiction based on Roman civil law, under which a notario plays a much larger role than a notary in the United States — and has greater responsibility. For example:
Requirements to practice. A Mexican notario must hold a law degree with a specialty in notarial law, have at least three years of experience at a notario’s office and pass a stringent final exam. Those who qualify and pass typically are appointed as a notario by the office of the state governor.
Especially when buying a home with a potentially long history, a title company can help you confirm its ownership and determine that it has no liens on it.
In the United States, on the other hand, a notary does not need a law degree, and becoming a notary is a much simpler process involving filing the necessary documents, paying the applicable fees and not having a criminal record.
Liability. As explained above, in the United States it is not mandatory to be a lawyer to be a notary. A U.S. notary is forbidden from providing any type of legal advice or drafting legal documents.
In Mexico, a notario can provide legal advice, issue judicial opinions, oversee the drafting of legal documents and certify their legal validity, intervene in judicial proceedings and act as an arbitrator or mediator. Thus, in Mexico, a notario can be held liable in both civil and criminal matters.
As you can see, there are great and numerous differences between the roles and the scope of legal powers of Mexican notarios and U.S. notaries.
As to your question about gaining the competency you are looking for, consider hiring, in addition to your notario, the services of a firm dedicated to researching the title of your property thoroughly.
A burgeoning type of business in Mexico, these firms, sometimes called “title companies,” do investigations into your property that a notario is supposed to do but sometimes doesn’t. The 2008 financial crisis unveiled in Mexico the inadequacies of many notarios in terms of doing their due diligence for a property purchase/sale.
Certainly, a notario can (and should) research the property’s title for you thoroughly, but for your peace of mind, a title company with experience in the buying and selling of property to guests in Mexico — and with experience in both the beach areas (restricted zones) as well as the interior — is a good idea.
A title company usually charges a small fee to provide all this due diligence for you, i.e., certify that there is no lien on the property; provide a verification of the title’s authenticity; and do a search for any back taxes or past-due HOA fees owed, probate status, etc. A good full-service title company will also have access to a legal staff to help you navigate your “buy/sell” agreements, deposits, penalty clauses, timeframes, escrow contracts, etc. Other services available might include acting as your power of attorney (facilitated through a notario) and processing your Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) permits.
Finally, a very good title service firm will also have experts on staff to help you plan and reduce future capital gains taxes and provide the immigration services needed to achieve residency in Mexico.
It should be said that under federal law, buyers have the exclusive right to choose their legal representation — their “closing team” — and the notario you work with will ensure that the deed title is recorded at the Public Registry.
Don’t let yourself be bullied into using the seller’s closing team. Having your own legal representation is a key piece of ensuring a proper sale occurs.
Ángel Marin Díaz is the CEO of Inmtec Legal Services; Inmtec Title Services; Inmtec Insurance, Estate Planning, Asset Protection; and AfterLife Medical Advisory by Inmtec. For more information, email [email protected] or phone +52 415-121-9005 or +52 415-121-8943.
This article originally appeared in Atención San Miguel.It is reprinted with permission and with minor adaptations.
Facade of the Tacoaleche, Zacatecas, hacienda nicknamed The House of 100 Doors. Alejandro Linares García/Creative Commons
There is a small community outside of Guadalupe, Zacatecas, with the odd name of Tacoaleche, and no, the name has nothing to do with tacos. The name refers to a unit of milk, as it was once common for hacienda owners to pay workers with food rather than money.
By far the most attractive thing in this dusty town is the so-called House of 100 Doors. Covering a quarter hectare, it is a two-story building of adobe with supports of volcanic tuff stone on the ground floor and metal pillars on the upper floor. A church on the plaza and grain storage facilities, simply called The Cones, were built around the same time.
The house is part of the Tacoaleche hacienda formed in the latter 19th century. In 1880, Antonio García inherited a small portion of a much larger estate that belonged to the Count of Jaral for centuries. Shortly after the inheritance, García not only set up his operations, he also fell in love with the daughter of another hacienda owner.
Here is where the legend begins. Like with most legends, there are variations.
The most common version states that the daughter accepted the proposal but only on the condition that the marriage would occur after he built his hacienda house with 100 doors. In all versions, the marriage never happens with various explanations as to why. The two most common have the girl renege on her promise.
The grain storage facilities of the old Tacoaleche hacienda, colloquially named The Cones. Vertice/Creative Commons
One states that she counted the doors to find that there were not 100. Indeed the house does have “only” 99 doors, with an assertion that the 100th is hidden somewhere on a nearby hill. The other states that she never meant to marry García, making the condition because she thought he would never be able to complete the task. A third, unfortunately, has García kidnapping the girl, then locking her in it, because she cheated on him while he built the house.
The house indeed took a long time to build. It was begun in 1891, but one claim states it was finished in four years, another claims not until 1915.
Some blame the Mexican Revolution for García’s failure to marry, which would make sense if indeed the house took 24 years to complete. Some say that Francisco “Pancho” Villa kidnapped García’s father and uncle for ransom and others say that Villa sacked the hacienda.
Either way, it caused the man to go bankrupt.
It is known that García eventually moved to Mexico City, where he died in 1921. His brothers inherited the property, but the federal government eventually expropriated it as part of land reform.
In 1938, it became the Tacoaleche ejido (land held in common), owned by the hacienda’s former workers. This is when stories about the property’s origin became popular regionally.
The church and square became the center of the community of Tacoaleche. Politically, it is part of the Guadalupe municipality, with its seat in the city of the same name just outside the capital of Zacatecas. But although it is only a 15-minute ride away, Tacoaleche is a world away from the municipal seat.
These days, a research center resides in the building. It’s dedicated to the preservation and evolution of Zacatecas handcrafts and folk art. Subsecretaria de Desarrollo Artesanal de Zacatecas
Like many old hacienda mansions, the House of 100 Doors fell into ruin after everything of value was taken out of it, including the original wooden doors that gave it its name.
While other buildings kept their original purpose, this one was not useful to the new communal owners as a residence. It was used as a jail, a hospital, a school, a movie theater and a party hall before being abandoned completely by the end of the 20th century.
Although García did not die there, there are some rumors that his ghost has been seen at the mansion.
However impractical it might be for local residents, the site is emblematic of southern Zacatecas. The ejido organization began working with arts groups to find a use for the building as well as the funds to restore it.
With over 10 million pesos of support from both the state and federal governments, restoration work was begun in 2007. In 2011, the state opened the Center for Research and Experimentation in Zacatecas Folk Art.
The institution is dedicated to the preservation and evolution of handcrafts and folk arts of the state. It works to research traditional forms and techniques as well as develop new materials, products and more for the state’s artisans. It was founded with a permanent collection of about 200 pieces donated by the federal government, a collection which has grown to over 1,000 works from Zacatecas and other parts of Mexico. The center hosts workshops, sales and academic events.
Although it has been operational for 10 years and is so close to Zacatecas’ only metro area, the folk art center’s location is somewhat odd, and its long-term success is far from assured.
Tacoaleche is considered to be the second-largest community in the Guadalupe municipality, but that is only because of its official population count. In reality, Tacoaleche feels something like a ghost town because so much of its population has migrated to the United States, many of whom never return. Many of the families still there depend on remittances.
Nor are there any nearby hotels or formal restaurants. You pretty much have to go to Guadalupe or Zacatecas city for those. So for those attending events at the center, it is a day trip into the town to participate.
The House of 100 Doors is a good example of the conflicting needs of preserving historical architecture and of the modern realities of the location where historic sites exist. As noble as finding a use for the building is, only the government would put so much money into a project with insufficient local logistics. And at any time, an administration can decide to pull the plug.
Leigh Thelmadatter arrived in Mexico 18 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.
