During the week that a woman was being sought in Nuevo León, 80 others disappeared

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April 25, 2022

Protesters march in Monterrey after investigators found the body of Debanhi Escobar, in a case of suspected femicide. Twitter @jeeveswilliams

At least 80 women and girls disappeared during the 13 days that authorities were searching for Debanhi Escobar, an 18-year-old Nuevo León woman whose body was found late last week.

Escobar was last seen in the early hours of April 9 after getting out of a taxi near Monterrey. Her body was found in a cistern at a motel near the state capital last Thursday.

Between April 9 and 21, at least 80 women and girls disappeared in 19 states across Mexico, according to the national missing persons registry. Morelos, a small state that borders Mexico City, recorded the highest number of disappearances with 14, followed by México state with 10.

Jalisco and Mexico City each recorded nine disappearances of women and girls in the 13-day period, Sinaloa registered eight and Nuevo León – where a protocol to expedite searches for missing women and girls was recently implemented due to the high number of recent disappearances – reported seven.

More than half of the 80 females who disappeared were aged between 10 and 19, including 18 girls aged 14 or younger. Three foreigners – women from Honduras, the United States and Germany – were among those who disappeared.

Two weeks after she disappeared, today #Debhani was laid to rest. pic.twitter.com/1Afz8bIC32

— Oscar Lopez (@oscarlopezNYT) April 24, 2022

New York Times journalist Oscar Lopez shared an image from Debanhi’s funeral on Twitter.

Women and girls accounted for 45% of all disappearances between April 9 and 21, whereas only about one-quarter of all missing persons in Mexico are female.

Disappearances of women and girls – which in many cases end in murder – are part of the broader gender violence problem in Mexico, where approximately 10 females are killed every day and countless more are attacked, raped and abused. The federal government has been accused of not doing enough to address the problem, but President López Obrador has rejected the claim.

Despite his assurances that the government is committed to combating violence against women, only a minuscule fraction of the federal budget is spent on programs that are designed to do just that. Less than 0.02% of the approximately 7-trillion-peso 2022 budget, or under 1.2 billion pesos (US $59.2 million), was allocated to four such programs, the newspaper El Universal reported.

Guadalupe Ramos Ponce, deputy coordinator of the Latin American and Caribbean Committee for the Defense of Women’s Rights, described the resources allocated to the programs – among which are ones designed to prevent violence and provide refuge to victims – as “an insult.”

“They’re crumbs. There’s no recognition of [women’s] rights, of the problem, of anything. They’re not even crumbs – I think that … [the level of funding] is an insult given the seriousness of the problem in the country,” she told El Universal.

The director of the National Network of Shelters (RNR), which supports female victims of violence and their children, said that the 79 shelters that make up the network have not yet received the 2022 funding that was pledged to them.

“The shelter program doesn’t only have a significantly lower percentage of the budget [compared to previous years], but to date the resources haven’t been released,” Wendy Figueroa said.

“In other words the resources are limited and their delivery is inadmissibly late because we’re talking about human rights, the lives of women and children,” the RNR chief said.

The coordinator of Aquí Estamos (Here We Are) – a collective of female journalists dedicated to exposing the killing of girls of Mexico and pressuring the government to do more to combat the problem – said that the fact that there are so few anti-violence and victim-support programs, and the scant funding for them, are together “a reflection of the disinterest” of the government to address the gender violence scourge.

“Assigning this minute budget in the face of the seriousness of the problem is a mockery,” Perla Blas said.

With reports from Reforma and El Universal

Fast internet, a good bed, a clean room: what digital nomads want in Mexico

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MND Staff

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April 25, 2022

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Since the pandemic started, more workers than ever have been able, or been required, to work remotely. — Free high-speed internet on the beach? Quintana Roo's government and provider GigNet have signed an agreement to implement this in parts of Cancún, Tulum, Puerto Morelos and Playa del Carmen. (Tulum Circle)

The vacation rental market will increase 20% in 2022 due to demand for accommodation from digital nomads, according to the CEO of a vacation rentals chain.

Javier Cárdenas Ibarra, founder and CEO of Rotamundos, told the newspaper El Universal that many foreigners are staying in Mexico for extended periods due to their ability to work remotely.

Mexico City neighborhoods such as Roma and Condesa as well as coastal destinations including Puerto Vallarta, Los Cabos and Tulum have seen an influx of mainly younger digital nomads during the pandemic as employees of foreign companies continue to enjoy the opportunity to work from wherever there is a reliable internet connection.

Their presence in the country has driven up rental prices in some areas as entrepreneurs with properties listed on sites such as Airbnb take advantage of higher demand for short term accommodation.

Digital nomads “look for properties with certain standards,” Cárdenas said, citing “a good connection to the internet, a good bed, housekeeping service and dwellings that are also sustainable and ecological.”

Many short-term rentals now cater to digital nomads, like this Sayulita Airbnb, which advertises its high-speed fiber optic internet as "ideal for working." — Many short-term rentals now cater to digital nomads, like this Sayulita Airbnb, which advertises its high-speed fiber optic internet as “ideal for working.” Mi Espacio Sayulita

Mexico is especially popular with digital nomads from the United States due to its proximity to that country and affordability for people earning good salaries in US dollars.

The Riviera Maya – an area of coastal Quintana Roo that includes Cancún, Playa del Carmen and Tulum – began attracting such people early in the pandemic.

“Tourists stopped coming because there were no planes but as soon as the lockdown was lifted they started to return,” said David Padrón, director of Click & Home, a company that offers short term accommodation in Tulum and Playa del Carmen.

“Before they stayed for 14 days but now they come to work remotely for three months,” he said, adding that digital nomads will change their accommodation arrangements if they’re not happy with amenities such as the internet or laundry service.

Padrón said that remote workers from Mexico are among the long-term tourists in Quintana Roo, “but right now we’re full of people from New York, California and Texas.”

“A lot of Russians are arriving as well,” he said.

Softec, a real estate research and consultancy firm, estimates that approximately 2,700 vacation dwellings will be added to the market this year alone in Tulum, where there are already some 6,000 holiday rental properties. It also estimates that the construction of some 9,000 properties that are destined to become short term holiday accommodation will commence in 2022.

Claudia Velázquez, Softec operations director, told El Universal that 2022 is shaping up to be a good year for Mexico’s vacation rental sector.

“Inflation in Mexico is lower in comparison with the United States and people with greater purchasing power can live better here,” she said.

“There is also more professional administration of rental dwellings,” Velázquez added.

“There are companies that manage the whole service for you. They promote [the rentals] on [internet] platforms, pay the maintenance [fees], do the reservations. They take care of everything and give you your return as an investor,” she said.

AirDNA, a provider of data and analytics for the short-term rental industry, reported earlier this year that there were over 31,000 Airbnb lodgings in Quintana Roo alone.

Airbnb co-founder and chief strategy officer Nate Blecharczyk said late last year that “traveling to Mexico has become a real trend for travelers from the United States,” including digital nomads.

He also said there are Airbnb hosts in almost all of Mexico’s 132 Pueblos Mágicos, or Magical Towns, among which are Valladolid, Yucatán; Tepoztlán, Morelos; and Tequila, Jalisco.

With reports from El Universal

How Asia came to influence the design of Mexico’s iconic rebozo

By

Leigh Thelmadatter

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April 23, 2022

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Mexican rebozo on loom — A rebozo still on the loom. The dyeing technique used is influenced by a centuries-old one developed in Asia. Photos by Alejandro Linares García

Few traditional garments have the nationwide iconic status of the long, rectangular shawl called the rebozo. Not an everyday garment by any means, it comes out of most Mexican women’s closets for patriotic occasions.

Many places in Mexico have traditional regional textile designs, but some of the finest are made not in the former Mesoamerica but just northeast in a small town called Santa María del Río in San Luis Potosí.

The great Mesoamerican empires had little respect for the nomadic people to the north. But after they were conquered, they did accompany their Spanish overlords to help “civilize” them as the Europeans expanded their hold on the continent. This means that Santa María (established in 1589) has Baroque-style churches and traditional dress based on those from farther south.

The town was established with two main neighborhoods, one for the Mesoamericans (primarily Otomi) and one for the local native Guachichils who, pre-contact, occupied the most extensive territory of all the indigenous Chichimeca nations tribes in pre-Columbian central Mexico. Various handcrafts were introduced, including the weaving of the rebozo.

The Otomis brought with them the ikat technique — where threads are bunched, tied off and dyed before weaving — which the Spanish originally brought to Mexico from Asia.

Mexican rebozos — Displays of fine silk rebozos for sale in Santa María del Río, San Luis Potosí.

Otomi garments were made with cotton, but Santa María’s twist on the garment would be the use of silk. The Spanish had introduced silkworms to Mexico as the silk trade was still quite lucrative at the time.

Silk threads are harder to work with since they are thinner and break easily, but the resulting garment is extremely fine. The best examples of these rebozos can literally be pulled through a wedding ring, a method used to prove that the garment was truly made of 100% silk. These items were favored by wealthy women of San Luis Potosi city and some other areas during the colonial period.

Today, such silk rebozos are still made here, but they are pricey, starting at 2,500 pesos for a small, simple one. After that, the sky’s almost the limit.

As most customers can’t or won’t pay that much, most weavers are also adept at using acrylics and other “false silks.” They are what you see all over town in Santa María hanging in doorways. But they can be works of art as well.

Artisans in the town make both solid color and patterned rebozos. The former are often called chalinas and come in a wide variety of colors. Those with patterns are still made with the ikat method. The pattern is not seen until the dyed threads are woven.

There are seven traditional designs, and all are still available today, generally referred to by the numbers one to seven. The distinctions between the numbers relate to the designs’ pattern and color combination. For example, No. 1, known as the bolita, consists of small black dots and lines on a white background and is the most representative of the area.

Santa María’s rebozos are similar to, and may have their origins from, ones in Tenancingo, Mexico state, which happens to be an Otomi area.

The production of silk in San Luis Potosí died out long ago. True silk threads are now imported from China. Natural dyes, with only a few exceptions, are also gone, mostly because they are impossible to use with synthetic threads, which won’t pick up the dye.

Tying off the edges is an art form in itself. It is usually done by specialized artisans who work the edges with their fingers. They are not knotted simply to keep the piece from unraveling. Complicated patterns have been established with names such as “the duck’s tail,” “the pine arch” and the daring “make me if you can.”

The best and most traditional rebozos are still made on Mesoamerican backstrap looms. But cheaper versions now use foot pedal looms, and a few are made with more modern devices. However, most consider those made on the backstrap loom to be of superior quality because the ikat technique requires very precise thread placement to get the pattern exact. Each rebozo takes one or two months to make, but time is of the essence. A piece left on the loom too long stretches and becomes distorted.

*Bolita rebozos*. The one on the right was woven on Mesoamerican backstrap looms, making them superior to those woven on a European floor loom, left.

The best way to see and buy fine silk or acrylic rebozos is to visit Santa María. Those displayed outside are entirely of acrylic and also tend to be the cheapest. Some are even knockoffs from other places.

There are two reliable places to buy good and great quality rebozos. The first is the Escuela de Rebozo (Rebozo School), established in 1953 by the state to revive the craft. Just off the main plaza, it has a store with a small selection.

The Taller Escuela de Rebocería (The Teaching Workshop of Rebozo Making) on Ocampo street — often referred to as the Cooperativa — dates back to the 1980s and represents a number of artisans in the area. It has a larger selection.

Most rebozos today are shorter than those made in the past, primarily because they now are almost exclusively used as fashion accessories rather than as a modesty garment or for carrying babies and goods.

Although the craft is in a far better position than before, its survival is not assured. Even when made of silk, it is hard to convince many buyers that the thousands of pesos they charge is worth paying for what is basically a very beautiful rectangular piece of cloth. But the cost comes from the time needed to make that rectangle and fringe by hand.

And when all is said and done, that price translates only to a subsistence income for artisans. So it’s understandable that the temptation to make more money more easily in the capital draws the younger generation away.

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.

‘The lithium is ours,’ but can Mexico actually do anything with it?

By

Sarah DeVries

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April 23, 2022

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Mexican Senator Gustavo Madero — National Action Party Senator Gustavo Madero argues against the lithium nationalization amendment in the Senate on Tuesday. Mexican Senate

“The lithium is ours.”

After heavy criticism of the president in last week’s column, on this point, I at least partially agree with him.

That asterisk of mine is admittedly a gigantic one, but I like to start with the positive.

The slogan refers to a reform to Mexico’s Mining Law approved in Congress on Tuesday that nationalizes lithium. The change in the law explicitly prohibits the offering of lithium concessions of any kind to any private companies — foreign or Mexican — putting the government in charge of all aspects of managing Mexico’s lithium via a to-be-created public entity. The law goes into effect immediately, and according to its text, the government must create that managing entity within 90 days of the law’s passage.

If a natural resource that can be extracted has originated on Mexican soil, then it rightfully belongs to Mexico — at least more so than to China, Russia, Canada or the United States. If this lithium is eventually exploited — and the state’s ability to do so on its own is very much in question — then Mexico should reap the rewards from that extraction (as well as the responsibility for the inevitable environmental damage it causes).

But as National Action Party Senator Gustavo Madero pointed out earlier this week, however, the Mexican Constitution already established de facto state ownership of lithium in 1917: Article 27 of the document says, “… in the Nation is vested the direct ownership of all natural resources …”

So why the reform if there’s nothing to actually reform?

Many critics have speculated that this nationalization move was simply a balm to soothe the pain of failing to pass the reform that would have guaranteed the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) 54% of the energy market.

Predictably, the president has designated those who voted against that reform as “traitors to the nation,” an unsurprising response given his habit of lashing out at anyone that criticizes or prevents him from pushing through something he wants.

But back to the lithium. It’s ours. Well, “ours.”

To what extent will the Mexican people benefit if the state does actually manage to both start and run its own lithium mining company?

Before Pemex was privatized, I remember one particular slogan repeated against privatization: “The petroleum is ours.” Sounds familiar, right?

It’s a phrase I didn’t quite understand, though: could Mexicans simply go to the gas station and fill up their cars free of charge because it was “theirs?” Were average citizens getting monthly checks in the mail representing their designated portion of petroleum? Certainly not.

Still, even if it’s mostly symbolic, I think it’s fair to say, “No, you cannot come into our country and mine our lithium resources.”

Of course, several foreign companies are already doing so. (When asked about it, the president responded, “These contracts have to be reviewed.”)

If mining experts are to be believed, there is absolutely no way that Mexico will establish a state lithium mining company while AMLO is still in office; in addition to lacking the funds, it simply wouldn’t be possible in that short amount of time. And given the inefficient track records of our other national companies, I’ve personally got my doubts about the viability.

This is probably for the best as, ironically, lithium – used to make batteries for “green” technology like electronic vehicles as well as batteries for everyday electronics like our cell phones — is extremely dangerous and environmentally hazardous to extract. It also uses tons (literally) of water per minute, and Mexico’s got enough trouble with a lack of water.

In addition to this, Mexico’s supply of lithium seems to be held within clay deposits, which experts tell us is extremely expensive and difficult to extract.

The president will surely say that he “has other information.” Or perhaps he’s banking simply on not being in office anymore by the time a state company could actually be formed.

In the meantime, I highly suspect that the private companies already exploring Mexico’s lithium will be allowed to quietly go about their business. After all, not quite a year ago, Economy Minister Tatiana Clouthier said in a radio interview that Mexico was interested in a public-private partnership with lithium mining companies, suggesting that the state might seek to secure a 51% stake in the sector. And around the same time, a Morena lawmaker and close AMLO ally told the news agency Reuters, “We’re convinced that we need private investment, and we’re allies of domestic investors and also foreign investors who respect us,” hinting at plans for a regulated but market-friendly lithium sector.

But stating that “the lithium is ours” (uh … yeah, we know) is good politics and also serves to give the illusion that we’re marching happily toward the president’s goal of complete energy independence by the end of 2023.

I’m concerned about the environment, though, a concern that the president does not seem to share in the least. The goal is energy (and economic) independence above all else, despite the cost to the environment and despite commitments that Mexico made under previous administrations to cut emissions.

Sembrando Vida and a handful of hydroelectric dams are just not going to cut it.

That said, I know that demand for energy will not go away. We need electricity. We need batteries for our phones and computers. We need at least some vehicles. And as the story of lithium shows, even when we want to be “green,” it’s a nearly impossible task.

You might buy an electric car to avoid pumping pollution into the air, but the battery used for that car requires lithium, the extraction of which is very dirty and very dangerous (a caveat, though: most experts agree that the overall damage to the environment is still less with an electric car).

We also depend on lithium to store energy from green technology like solar and wind energy. After all, the sun doesn’t always shine, and the wind doesn’t always blow. So far, lithium is one of the only ways we have of stocking up on it.

Is there any way to win?

I pray that we can find a “clean” way to get what we need (though mining is never clean) or find another way to store our energy. But until we do, this is what we’ve got.

For now, I’m reminded of the Netflix satirical film Don’t Look Up. In the movie, a huge meteorite is headed straight for Earth, guaranteed to destroy it if it hits. A plan is quickly made to pulverize it, avoiding disaster…until some eccentric Elon Musk-type character tells the president about the lucrative potential for mining it. So a new plan is formed to simply break it up so that “jobs can be created and money made.”

Unsurprisingly, it doesn’t work, and the Earth and everything on it is destroyed.

The moral? If we continue thinking we can trick the gods, there is no way around paying for that. Nature will do what it does despite our human, fallible will. Hopefully, AMLO and all the other world leaders will realize how seriously at stake our future is before it’s too late. It’s the hope.

But in the meantime, I’ll be staring at the sky, not holding my breath.

Sarah DeVries is a writer and translator based in Xalapa, Veracruz. She can be reached through her website, sdevrieswritingandtranslating.com and her Patreon page.

Got milk?

By

Janet Blaser

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April 23, 2022

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Irish coffees — Creamy cold drinks like this are where you really notice the difference in what your milk is made of.

A popular 1960s advertisement featured a smiling, aproned Mom pouring 7-Up soda into a glass of milk with the slogan, “For children who won’t drink milk … for adults who want the nourishment of milk with a decidedly different appeal … Mothers know that this is a wholesome combination.”

Hmmm.

Suffice to say that’s not the case, although I don’t go so far as thinking cow’s milk is as evil as some make it out to be. Local friends call packaged milk agua blanca (white water). It’s easy to understand why. Pasteurized, homogenized and pumped full of vitamins and extra proteins, commercial brands like Lala are a far cry from the natural goodness of real, actual milk.

What exactly is lactose-free milk? Why is milk always homogenized and pasteurized? Is raw milk OK to drink? Let’s explore some of these questions.

Lactose is a naturally occurring sugar found in milk and milk products; for some folks, it’s difficult to digest. Lactose-free milk is usually made by adding the enzyme lactase to the milk, which breaks down the lactose so the body can digest it better. Some brands completely filter lactose out of the milk. There’s no noticeable taste difference between lactose-free and pasteurized, homogenized milk.

7-Up ad from 1950s — Did you ever drink this concoction? What was it like?

Pasteurization is the simple process, used all over the world, of heating and cooling milk to specific temperatures to kill harmful bacteria. While some say it changes the nutritional content or flavor of milk, scientific evidence says the contrary.

Homogenization is another story; it breaks down natural (and delicious) fat molecules to disperse them more evenly throughout the milk. Some say these microparticles are absorbed directly into the bloodstream, leading to an increased risk of heart disease; tests remain inconclusive. In terms of taste and mouthfeel, though, homogenization practically destroys both. If you’ve had raw or pasteurized-not-homogenized milk or cheeses, you know what I mean.

Most commercial milk has all the milkfat skimmed off right away. It’s then added back in varying percentages, depending on whether the end result will be “whole” (entera), “reduced-fat” (leche lite), etc. Skim milk has no milkfat at all and can seem sweet because of this. Commercial whole milk contains between 3.25% and 4%. Cream categories are all about milkfat: half-and-half (12%), light cream (20%) or heavy cream (34% to 38%).

The whipping cream found in Mexican supermarkets has about 34% milkfat but is also full of additives to make it whip better and preservatives to prolong its shelf life. Serious cooks, check out this dried heavy cream powder with 72% butterfat. I’m fortunate to have a local dairy here where I can buy pasteurized-not-homogenized milk and dairy products. Each liter has about two inches of thick, buttery cream on top. My cats — who won’t touch packaged milk — happily lap it up.

One of my favorite recipes for using milk is Japanese Milk Bread — tender, fluffy, flavorful loaves that make beautiful sandwiches or toast. The base is tangzhong, a warm flour and water paste. (This is what panko breadcrumbs are made from.)

Drop Biscuits

1½ cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 stick cold unsalted butter (4 oz.), cut into ¼ -inch cubes and refrigerated
¾ cup whole milk

Preheat oven to 400 F (200 C). Line baking sheet with parchment or grease with butter. Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Working quickly, cut butter into flour until it resembles coarse meal. Add milk. Stir with a fork until the mixture just comes together into slightly sticky, shaggy dough.

For small biscuits, use a teaspoon to mound walnut-sized balls of dough onto a prepared baking sheet. For large biscuits, mound ¼-cup balls of dough. Bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes for small biscuits and 20 minutes for large ones. Cool slightly; transfer to wire rack and serve.

Mashed Cauliflower

Milk’s the secret to making this dish taste like what you have in restaurants.

1 large (2-pound) cauliflower, cut into small florets
2 cups whole milk
2 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
4 sprigs fresh thyme, plus more for garnish
Salt and pepper
3 Tbsp. Mexican crema or sour cream

Chicken in milk recipe — Chicken in milk — comfort food at its purest!

In medium saucepan over medium-high heat, combine cauliflower, milk, garlic, thyme and 1 tsp. salt. When mixture begins to bubble around the edges, reduce heat to low. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until cauliflower is very tender, 10–15 minutes.

Drain cauliflower, reserving milk. Discard thyme sprigs. Return cauliflower and garlic to pot and mash with a potato masher or purée with an immersion blender until smooth.

Add reserved milk 1 Tbsp. at a time, mashing or blending in between, until cauliflower reaches desired consistency. (About ¼ cup milk total.)

Stir in sour cream/crema; season with salt and pepper.

Jamie Oliver’s Chicken in Milk

1 (3-4 lb.) whole chicken
Salt and pepper
¼ cup unsalted butter
¼ cup olive oil
1 small cinnamon stick
10 whole cloves garlic, skins on
2½ cups whole milk
15-20 fresh or dried sage leaves
2 lemons

Heat oven to 375 F (190 C). Season chicken generously with salt and pepper. Using an oven-safe pot that the chicken will fit snugly inside of, melt butter and olive oil. When butter melts and starts to foam, place chicken in the pot and sauté, turning every few minutes, until browned all over.

Turn heat to low, remove chicken from pot onto a plate. Drain off all but a few tablespoons of fat from pot. Add cinnamon stick and garlic to pot; cook 2 minutes. Return chicken to pot along with milk and sage.

Using a vegetable peeler, cut wide strips of skin off the lemons; add them to pot. Place pot in oven; bake approximately 1½ hours, basting occasionally, until chicken is tender and cooked through and sauce has reduced to be thick and curdled. (If sauce is reducing too quickly, cover pot halfway with foil.) Serve over rice, pasta or potatoes.

Frozen Irish Coffee

½ cup vanilla ice cream
1¼ cups whole milk, frozen in an ice cube tray
4 oz. chilled strong coffee
2 oz. brandy
2 oz. coffee liqueur
¼ tsp. fresh coffee grounds, for garnish

Mix ice cream, frozen milk cubes, chilled coffee, brandy and coffee liqueur in a blender on high until ice is crushed and drink is smooth.

Divide between highball glasses and swirl a pinch of coffee grounds on top of each.

Janet Blaser is the author of the best-selling book, Why We Left: An Anthology of American Women Expats, featured on CNBC and MarketWatch. She has lived in Mexico since 2006. You can find her on Facebook.

Betrayal and battery power: the week at the morning press conferences

By

MND Staff

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April 23, 2022

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President López Obrador at his Monday press conference. Presidencia de la República

Lawmakers voted last Sunday on the electricity reform. The proposed constitutional change riled energy company leaders in the United States by promising to give 54% of the power market to the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) and to nationalize future lithium exploration.

However, the president faced an uphill battle to gain the required two-thirds majority, after opposition parties pledged to vote the reform down.

Monday

The elephant in the room roamed freely through the report on consumer prices and videos of the government’s projects until, eventually, the president addressed it.

“Yesterday was an act of betrayal to Mexico, committed by a group of legislators who, … instead of defending the public, became outspoken defenders of foreign companies,” he said, after the electricity reform failed to pass in the Chamber of Deputies.

“This isn’t over because we were prepared for betrayal. We knew of the interests that were in question. Very powerful interests,” he added.

The president said that the vote showed the deficits of representative democracy. “If we did a survey, I believe that 80% of Mexicans would be in favor of the electricity industry being in the hands of the nation,” he said.

The tabasqueño quoted French feminist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir to accuse his opponents of complicity with powerful forces. “The oppressor would not be so strong if he didn’t have accomplices among the oppressed themselves,” he cited.

Later in the conference, the president extended his condolences to one woman who spent much of her life battling authority. Missing persons activist Rosario Ibarra de Piedra, the first woman to run for the presidency, died on Saturday at 95.

Amor y Control (Love and Control), a song by Panamanian salsa artist Rubén Blades closed the conference in tribute to Ibarra.

Tuesday

After the weekly COVID-19 update, the president claimed that all told, the pandemic had gone well in Mexico. In international terms, “our country was one of the least affected in the American continent and
in the world. This was everyone’s achievement,” he assured.

Mexico’s death rate was the 33rd worst in the world out of more than 200 countries, according to the statistics website Worldometer.

The tabasqueño said the battle over the Maya Train, which had its construction suspended by a judge on environmental grounds, was a class battle. “They feel like they own Mexico … they know the truth … they have the right to privileges, not the people,” he said of the project’s opponents, before recounting a woman’s public snub: “Andrés Manuel, you’re a peasant,” she’d shouted out her car window.

Still nursing his wounds after Sunday’s vote, the president celebrated the Senate’s speedy approval of a law to nationalize lithium. He said the precious metal was powerful enough to topple governments and change the course of history.

“I’m not sure, but there are those who argue that the coup d’état in Bolivia [in 2019] had to do with lithium,” he mentioned as an example. “I can’t say for sure.”

Wednesday

The president highlighted the importance of security on Wednesday. “Security is fundamental so that we can live in peace … without that, nothing is possible. You can advance economically, even socially, but if there is no peace or tranquility, there is no meaning to life,” he said.

Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez said federal crimes in March were at their lowest in seven years and that murders were down 13.5% compared to their historic peak.

Later in the conference, the president referred back to peace and tranquility. “Yesterday was not such a bad day in terms of homicide, there were 56 in the country, but the day before there were 90,” he said.

In the section on media lies, Elizabeth García Vilchis said it was untrue that a National Guard airplane was making trips to Houston, where AMLO’s son lives, and that a photo of timber trading was taken near the Amazon, not near the Maya Train. The 1,525 kilometers of track being laid “protects and strengthens the environment,” she assured.

López Obrador was confident in the harmlessness of the project, and invited two of its opponents, actors Eugenio Derbez and Laisha Wilkins, for a chat at the National Palace. “I’m going to invite them, to see what their doubts are and clarify them. Let’s see if they accept it,” he said.

Thursday

The president confirmed that people could sleep easier. The Colombian drug trafficker known as El Boliqueso (The Cheeseball) had been caught by security forces in Mexico City.

However, AMLO was less impressed with U.S. security forces, confirming that a collaboration with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) had ended more than a year ago, and criticizing its arrest of General Salvador Cienfuegos in 2020. “They made that decision without informing us and they fabricated the crimes,” he said.

The president also addressed criticism he received for calling senators who voted against the electricity reform “traitors,” and defended the label as a fair description. “Things have to be called by their name. Enough of the hypocrisy and agreements in the dark between elites that people don’t know about,” he said.

On appropriate names, the president assured that a new public lithium company wouldn’t be called AMLITIO, a combination of his nickname and the Spanish word for lithium, as some had suggested.

Friday

The president headed east to Veracruz city for Friday’s conference. He said he was in the coastal state to remember the U.S. invasion there in 1914 and that he’d join a meeting with U.S. Ambassador Ken Salazar and U.S. and Canadian businesspeople to promote trade.

The body of 18-year-old Debanhi Escobar had been discovered in a motel in Nuevo León 10 days after investigators had searched the property. “We send a hug and our condolences to the relatives of the young woman, to her friends … We believe that, in addition to corruption, what has most damaged Mexico, because they go hand in hand, is impunity,” the president said.

Later in the conference, López Obrador announced that Derbez, Wilkins and other artists who oppose the Maya Train would meet him on Monday. He mentioned that the same artists had posed no objections to the construction of the XCaret tourist park in Quintana Roo.

“Maybe they did not see it, like it just happened overnight … they drilled through cenotes and underwater rivers,” he said.

The president signed off from another week of conferences by attempting to charm his hosts. “It gives me great pleasure to be here in Veracruz, in my land … My mother was from Tabasco, but my father was from Veracruz … the children of people from Veracruz are from Veracruz,” he asserted.

Mexico News Daily

‘My daughter is dead because of incompetent people’

By

MND Staff

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April 22, 2022

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Debanhi Escobar disappeared from Escobedo, Nuevo León on April 9 after attending a party with friends. — Debanhi Escobar disappeared on April 9 after attending a party near Monterrey with friends. Instagram @debanhi.escobar

The father of an 18-year-old Nuevo León woman whose body was found in an underground water tank at a motel on Thursday asserted Friday that the state Attorney General’s Office (FGJ) is partially to blame for his daughter’s death.

The FGJ “didn’t do its job,” Mario Escobar told reporters, asserting that it should have done more to locate his daughter, Debanhi Escobar, while she was still alive.

“…My daughter is dead because of incompetent people, because of people who harass … young women, because of sexual harassers,” he said.

Debanhi Escobar disappeared on the night of April 8 after getting out of a taxi on the highway between Nuevo Laredo and Monterrey in General Escobedo, a municipality that is part of the Monterrey metropolitan area.

Mario Escobar said Friday that prosecutors told him that footage showed the taxi driver touching his daughter’s breasts.

Mario Escobar holds missing person flyers with his daughter, Debanhi's name and image. — Mario Escobar holds missing person flyers with his daughter, Debanhi’s name and image.

“I suppose that my daughter did not put up with the harassment,” he said, explaining her apparent reason for getting out of the taxi early. “It’s harassment where the attorney general says there is no harassment. I publicly accuse [the taxi driver] Juan David Cuéllar for all this.”

Escobar said that the taxi driver – who has been arrested – triggered his daughter’s death by putting her in a vulnerable situation. After getting out of the taxi, Debanhi asked for help at Alcosa, a transport company.

Escobar said that some of the company’s security footage had inexplicably disappeared. It is unclear what happened to Debanhi after she sought help at Alcosa.

A decomposing body that is believed to be hers was found Thursday in a subterranean water tank at a General Escobedo motel nor far from where Debanhi got out of the taxi.

Deputy Security Minister Ricardo Mejía said that the body had a crucifix necklace and clothing that Debanhi was wearing the night she disappeared. “The alert was sounded by hotel workers, because of the fetid odors coming from the area,” he said.

Escobedo rejected an FGJ theory that his daughter had fallen into the tank and drowned. “It’s a lie,” he said, adding that the authorities must do everything they can to apprehend those responsible so that “there is no danger” to other women.

Mario Escobar talks with reporters after a meeting with Nuevo León Governor Samuel García on Friday.

President López Obrador said Friday that the federal Attorney General’s Office could carry out an investigation into the case.

Nuevo León Security Minister Aldo Fasci questioned why the body wasn’t found until the FGJ’s fifth visit to the motel.

“It’s a massive human failure – they were there four times and found nothing,” he said.

Escobedo suggested his daughter’s body was planted there. “Why does it appear the fifth [time they looked]?” he asked. “Question. Did they plant it [there]?”

Nuevo León Governor Samuel García called on the FGJ to release all the evidence it has gathered about the case.

“I urge the Attorney General’s Office to … today make known … the videos, photos, evidence [as well as] searches and routines [carried out] because I firmly believe we have the right to know what is in the investigation so that the truth comes to light,” he said in a video message Friday.

“We have the right to be informed,” said García, who acknowledged that “everything seems to indicate” that the body is Debanhi’s but added that we “obviously we have to wait for an autopsy.”

Femicides – murders of women and girls on account of their gender – are common in Mexico, but impunity for such crimes is high. Nuevo León has recently seen a spate of disappearances of women, leading the governor to announce last week the implementation of a protocol to expedite searches for missing women and girls.

Debanhi’s case, the Associated Press reported, “made headlines because of a haunting photo taken by a driver who was supposed to take her home that night.”

“… The driver, who worked for a taxi application, took the photo to show Escobar got out of his car alive on April 8 on the outskirts of the city of Monterrey. There she was, a young woman standing alone at night on the side of a highway, wearing a skirt and high-top sneakers,” AP said.

With reports from Milenio, Reforma and Associated Press

Go for an ultralight flight and experience unbounded freedom!

By

John Pint

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April 22, 2022

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Kordich Air Sports Club, Los Pozos, Jalisco — A airborne "trike" skims above the Laguna de Sayula wetlands and salt flats near Lake Chapala as it comes in for a landing. Kordich Air

One day, I got a call inviting me to fly over Jalisco’s salt flats, located 17 kilometers northwest of Lake Chapala, in a tiny three-wheeled aircraft called an ultralight — also called a trike. I was told it’s a kind of delta wing or hang glider with a small engine and just enough room for two people.

Well, up to that moment, my policy about high and dangerous places was that I preferred to enjoy such views only when wearing a harness and attached to a rope. Nevertheless, I picked up the phone and called a friend with hang glider experience for an opinion.

“You have a chance to fly in an ultralight?” he said. “Go for it! My wife and son both loved the experience!”

Well, I assumed that his wife and son had not only enjoyed their trike flights but had also survived them, so I accepted the invitation.

So the following Sunday, I headed for Kordich Air Sports — a 40-minute drive from Guadalajara — where I had an appointment to soar into the sky at 9 a.m.

After driving through a pueblito called Los Pozos, I stopped and asked a local man if I was on the right track.

“Sí qué sí,” said David García with a big smile, but he said he prefers to call the place I was looking for “Los Pozos International Airport” because, as he explained, it now attracts hang gliding enthusiasts from all over Mexico and a few other countries. They gather here to float upon the extraordinary thermal updrafts created by the unique geography of Los Pozos.

Los Pozos is bounded by a towering cliff on one side and desert-like, treeless flats on the other, plus 80-kilometer-long Lake Chapala nearby.

A few minutes later, I was given a warm welcome by owner Pedro Kordich, who has been flying delta wings for some 35 years.

“Early in the morning, we have ideal conditions for flying ultralights,” Kordich told me, “but a few hours later, the thermals begin to rise, and then it’s perfect for hang gliders. At Los Pozos, you can have the experience of surfing, only you are riding waves of air instead of water.”

But now it was time for my ultralight flight.

First, I slid into my seat behind Pedro. Then he and an assistant snapped a seat belt on me and fitted a huge helmet on my head with a built-in communication system. I felt a bit like an astronaut about to head into space.

“Vámonos,” Pedro shouted with a big laugh as we sped along the runway.

Suddenly, we were in the air and Pedro was already turning the aircraft left and right, pointing things out to me even though we were only 20 meters off the ground. He was “steering” by weight-shifting: pushing, pulling and turning the bottom bar of a big tubular triangle. I was amazed at how maneuverable this trike was in comparison to a commercial plane.

Then we went up high and fast, and suddenly I could see, in one panoramic view, all of Lake Chapala and, beyond it, the Nevado de Colima volcano, at 4,260 meters, the highest point in Jalisco.

In addition, I hate to say, I could see countless forest fires blazing in the hills all around us. It was an overpowering view.

“If we fly over one of those incendios, you might feel some turbulence,” came the tinny voice of Pedro through my earphones.

I answered something, but I’m not sure what it was since I discovered that I couldn’t hear my own voice due to the engine’s roar. Without a doubt, I must have said, “Hey, sure, let’s fly right over a forest fire” because that’s just what we did.

Far below (maybe 400 meters?), I could see orange flames licking the sky. Our smooth ride suddenly got bumpy. Apparently, this is what you would experience if you flew in the afternoon around here, which is why they do the trike flights in the morning.

The next phase of my ultralight educational experience was discovering exactly what happens when the engine fails.

Pedro turned it off and: nothing! We didn’t fall. We stayed right where we were, only now, it was a whole lot quieter.

This truly amazed me. Our trike was behaving as if it were a kite tethered to an invisible rope, “as idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean.”

I recalled a comment a friend had made about his second hang glider flight in this very place.

“The thermals lifted me up, and there I stayed for over three hours. It was a wonderful experience, and I didn’t come down until the sun set.”

My experience was also marvelous, and I believed I was up there for at least half an hour. However, when I came back down to Earth, I was told my flight had lasted only 10 minutes.

Well, those 10 minutes were jam-packed with rich experiences I’ll never forget. I highly recommend you give it a try!

As I was preparing to leave, a lot of hang glider pilots were arriving.

Now, the hang glider (delta wing) differs from the trike in that there’s no motor. Takeoff and landing depend on the pilot’s legs. This means the hang glider flights all start at the top of the sheer cliff that was towering above us.

One of the hang glider pilots I talked to was Mexican photographer and cinematographer Lars Herrmann. I asked him what he found so attractive about this sport.

“Hang gliding is about nature,” said Herrmann. “It has a really strong spiritual side. It’s about being up there all by yourself, reading the weather conditions, reading the clouds.

“When you’re in a hang glider, everything is beautiful; there’s no war when you’re up there, no envy. You forget about everything, and you concentrate on the present. You don’t worry about your possessions; you only think about flying. Hang gliding is the very best antidote for a midlife crisis.”

A short flight in a trike costs 1,700 pesos and lasts 10 minutes. For 2,300 pesos, you can fly twice as high for 15 minutes.

If you just want to sit and watch the action in the sky above, it won’t cost a centavo.

Kordich Air Sports also has a new tandem option: you are in a delta wing with an expert pilot, but instead of jumping off the top of the cliff, a trike tows the two of you, pulling you up to the proper altitude, where — like Ana Paula Díaz, one of only three women who practice hang gliding in Mexico — you will have a chance to discover that this sport is pura libertad, or unbounded freedom.

In a future story, I hope to describe the tandem delta wing experience.

For more info, phone Pedro Kordich (who speaks excellent English) at mobile 331-270-3838 or visit the Kordich Air Facebook page. And if you’ve been in one of these marvelous machines yourself, by all means, let me (and our readers) know what it was like for you.

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.

Elite anti-narcotics unit was infiltrated by organized crime: AMLO

By

MND Staff

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April 22, 2022

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The president said critics of the decision to shut down Mexico’s special anti-drug trafficking unit, which worked with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, lacked information. — The president said critics of the decision to shut down Mexico’s special anti-drug trafficking unit, which worked with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, lacked relevant information.

An elite anti-narcotics unit that was disbanded last year was infiltrated by organized crime, President López Obrador said Thursday.

He confirmed a Reuters report that Mexico’s organized crime-fighting Sensitive Investigative Unit (SIU) – whose officers collaborated with and were trained by the United States Drug Enforcement Administration – was shut down.

“That happened more than a year ago,” López Obrador told reporters at his morning press conference conference.

“… We maintain cooperation with international security organizations but we make sure our sovereignty is respected. Before they entered and left the country and did … what they wanted, they even fabricated crimes. You already know that order was established and we have a relationship of cooperation [with foreign governments] but with respect for our sovereignty,” he said.

The president said that government adversaries complained about his administration’s decision to disband the SIU but asserted they lacked information about the matter.

After being extradited to the U.S., former federal police commander and SIU chief Iván Reyes Arzate was convicted of trafficking cocaine. — After being extradited to the U.S., former federal police commander and SIU chief Iván Reyes Arzate was convicted of drug trafficking.

“It was proven that that group was infiltrated by crime, one of its leaders is being tried in the United States,” López Obrador said.

Former SIU chief Iván Reyes Arzate was in fact sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in the United States in February for trafficking cocaine.

López Obrador said his government has a good – and respectful – relationship with its United States counterpart.

When Felipe Calderón was president and Arturo Sarukhán was Mexico’s ambassador to the United States, U.S. authorities “came in and even brought weapons in,” he said.

“It’s no longer the time of those operations, like ‘Fast and Furious,’” López Obrador said, referring to the 2009-2011 scheme under which the United States government allowed people to buy guns illegally in the U.S. and smuggle them into Mexico so that the weapons could be tracked and law enforcement officials could locate and arrest crime bosses.

“It really catches my attention that there is so much affection in certain media outlets, not all, for foreign agencies,” the president said. “… There is still cooperation but that group that was supposedly of a very high strategic level was infiltrated and its leaders are being investigated and there are prisoners from that group.”

President López Obrador spoke about the disbandment of the investigative unit at his Thursday morning press conference.

López Obrador said that the only foreign agents now in Mexico are those allowed “according to the new legislation.”

A law that restricts and regulates the activities of foreign agents in Mexico and strips them of diplomatic immunity was approved by Congress in late 2020.

“It emerged, as you know, after the arrest of General [Salvador] Cienfuegos,” López Obrador said, referring to the former defense minister’s arrest in the United States on drug-related charges in October 2020, which angered the federal government.

“… They took that decision without informing us; in addition, they fabricated crimes,” he said.

López Obrador said there are firm guidelines that now govern Mexico’s cooperation with other countries on domestic security issues.

“No to violations of our sovereignty, no to foreign groups operating in roles that correspond only to Mexican authorities, no to the violation of human rights, no to massacres, no to torture. All that is clear and it’s complied with every day,” he said.

With reports from Animal Político

Homicides crept up 6% in March – but last year’s number was worse

By

MND Staff

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April 22, 2022

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Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez and Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval confer during the Wednesday morning press conference. Presidencia de la República

March was the most violent month to date in 2022, even as homicides decreased almost 10% compared to the same month of last year.

There were 2,657 homicides reported last month, according to data presented by Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez at President López Obrador’s Wednesday press conference.

That’s a 9.8% decrease compared to March 2021 when there were 2,946 homicides. March’s total is 17.5% higher than that of February, during which 2,261 murders were recorded, but last month had three more days than the previous month.

The average daily murder count in March was 85.7 compared to 80.7 in February, an increase of only 6.2%.

Rodríguez also presented data that showed there were 7,354 homicides in the first three months of 2022 for a daily average of just under 82. It was the lowest total for the January-March period since López Obrador took office in December 2018 and a 12.6% decline compared to the first quarter of 2021.

Many victims of homicide have not been identified, while others are reported as missing until their bodies are found. File photo

Based on homicide data for the first quarter, Mexico is on track to record approximately 29,500 homicides this year. If murders don’t exceed 30,000, it would be the first time that has happened since López Obrador took office. His first full year as president – 2019 – was the most violent year on record, with over 34,000 homicides.

Rodríguez acknowledged that there were more homicides in March than each of the previous four months, but highlighted that the total was the lowest March tally in the past five years.

“We’re continuing to work with a lot of coordination, intelligence and strategy to deliver precision shots against organized crime,” she said.

About 50% of the homicides committed so far this year occurred in six states: Guanajuato, Michoacán, México state, Baja California, Jalisco and Sonora. Rodríguez reported that five of those six states recorded more homicides in March than in February. Jalisco was the exception, with murders declining to 155 from 163.

In addition to the more than 2,650 homicides last month, there were 73 femicides – murders of women and girls killed on account of their gender. The figure represents a reduction of 28.4% compared to the same month of 2021 and a 34.8% decline compared to last August, when there was a record 112 femicides.

The federal government has accused its predecessors of incorrectly classifying many murders of women as homicides rather than femicides.

The president joined the discussion about the security data at the Wednesday press conference. Presidencia de la República

Rodríguez presented data on a range of other crimes, including kidnappings, which decreased 28.4% to 48 in March compared to 67 in 2021. “It’s the lowest figure for 10 years,” the security minister said.

Rodríguez also reported that over 4,400 people were arrested for kidnapping between July 2019 and March 2022, 477 kidnapping rings were broken up and almost 1,900 victims were freed.

Drug trafficking, home burglaries and domestic violence were among other crimes that decreased in the first three months of the year compared to the same period of 2021. Extortion and federal firearms offenses were among those that increased.

National Guard commander Luis Rodríguez Bucio and Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval also addressed Wednesday’s press conference. The former said that almost 114,000 guardsmen are carrying out public security tasks, while the latter said that nearly 160,000 soldiers are deployed across the country, including more than 28,000 at the southern and northern borders to stem irregular migration into Mexico and the United States.

Before he took office, López Obrador pledged to gradually remove the military from the nation’s streets, but signed a decree in May 2020 that ordered the armed forces to continue carrying out public security tasks for another four years.

With reports from El Financiero and EFE