Mexican producer and screenwriter Julio Chavezmontes missed the post-award celebrations after he tested positive for COVID-19 Courtesy photo
The prize for best film at the Cannes Film Festival was presented on Saturday, but the one Mexican who contributed to its triumph was unable to join the celebrations.
Julio Chavezmontes coproduced the winner of the Palme d’Or, Triangle of Sadness, which gained an eight-minute standing ovation by the invitation-only crowd. However, he was unable to rejoice with cast and crew after contracting COVID-19 while in France to promote the film.
“I have not been able to celebrate because on Thursday I gave positive [in a COVID-19 test] and I’ve been locked away since then,” Chavezmontes said in a telephone interview.
“Receiving the news [of the victory] has helped me and I’m well … but yes, unfortunately I’m isolated and recovering,” he added.
Triangle of Sadness new clip official from Cannes Film Festival 2022 - 1/3
A clip from the Palme d’Or winner, Triangle of Sadness.
The dark, satirical comedy was written and directed by Swede Ruben Östlund and stars Harris Dickinson, Charlbi Dean and Woody Harrelson.
The film centers on a fashion model celebrity couple who are invited on a luxury cruise for the super rich. It critiques superficiality in beauty culture: the title comes from a term used by plastic surgeons to describe a face wrinkle.
Östlund previously won the Palme d’Or for his film The Square in 2017. His 2014 work Force Majeure won the jury prize at Cannes in the Un Certain Regard (From Another Angle) category where films are nominated for their originality.
Triangle of Sadness has an approval rating of 71% on ratings website Rotten Tomatoes, based on reviews by critics.
A roadblock manned by armed civilians surprised a group of reporters as they followed the president through northern Sinaloa in May. Video screenshot
President López Obrador has denied that organized crime controls territory in Sinaloa and other parts of the country after armed men set up a roadblock on a highway over which he flew last Friday.
From the vantage point of a helicopter during a tour of northern Mexico, López Obrador inspected the new highway that connects the Sinaloa municipality of Badiraguato – the birthplace of notorious drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán – to Guadalupe y Calvo, Chihuahua.
Reporters and officials that traveled overland to an event the president held in the latter municipality encountered a checkpoint manned by approximately 10 heavily armed men. The presumed cartel henchmen questioned the journalists and officials before allowing them to pass the blockade, which was set up half an hour from the community of La Tuna, where El Chapo was born and his mother still lives.
Asked on Saturday about the presence of armed men on the highway, López Obrador said that fortunately nothing sinister occurred. He conceded that the encounter was a frightening experience for the reporters and officials but reiterated that they ultimately had no problem.
Speaking to journalists after a visit to the Picachos dam in southern Sinaloa, López Obrador said there are people in some parts of the country – “not just Sinaloa” – who think that they must “take care of a region” by stopping vehicles and ensuring that weapons aren’t brought in.
“Sometimes there is confusion but in general everything is OK,” he said, although he conceded that the presence of armed men with military-style equipment in states such as Sinaloa and Jalisco wasn’t a good thing.
Asked whether criminal groups have taken control of some regions of Sinaloa, the president responded that that was the view of the “conservatives,” a term he frequently uses to describe both his current political opponents and members of past “neoliberal” governments.
“That’s what the conservatives say … but don’t believe them,” he said before rejecting the suggestion that criminal groups control other parts of the country.
"No pasa nada”: AMLO minimiza retén con hombres armados en Badiraguato
In footage from the press van, armed men can be seen walking around the vehicle and eventually, unblocking the road to let the reporters pass.
“No, no, no, no, that’s what the conservatives think. I’m not Felipe Calderón,” López Obrador said, referring to the former president.
He subsequently asserted that his government is free of people of the ilk of Genaro García Luna, Calderón’s security minister who was arrested in the United States in 2019 on charges of taking bribes from the Sinaloa Cartel.
In 2020, López Obrador used the charges faced by García Luna – who remains imprisoned awaiting trial in the U.S. – to support a claim that Mexico was a narco-state under Calderón, who was president between 2006 and 2012.
Early last year, the president rejected a United States government claim that criminal organizations control “ungoverned areas” that account for about one-third of Mexico’s territory.
He said Saturday that he felt safe in Sinaloa, a sensation perhaps generated, at least in part, by his use of a helicopter rather than a car to traverse the Golden Triangle, a notoriously lawless region of northern Mexico where opium poppies and marijuana are grown.
The president said at his Guadalupe y Calvo event – at which he primarily spoke about the benefits of the government’s tree-planting employment scheme Sowing Life – that he didn’t like the name Golden Triangle and that the region should be renamed the “Triangle of Good and Hard Working People” or “the region of good neighbors, or something like that.”
“We have to change … [the name] because there’s a lot of goodness here … and we shouldn’t stigmatize any area,” López Obrador said.
Checo Pérez celebrates with the Red Bull team after winning the Monaco Grand Prix in May. Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool
Formula 1 race car driver Sergio “Checo” Pérez became the most successful Mexican in the history of the competition by gliding to victory in the Monaco Grand Prix on Sunday.
The Guadalajara native now has three first place finishes in Formula 1, having previously triumphed in the Sakhir Grand Prix in Bahrain in 2020 and the Azerbaijan Grand Prix last year. The Red Bull driver counted on the strategic assistance of his Belgian-Dutch teammate Max Verstappen to finish fastest.
The race was delayed by more than an hour due to wet conditions and the pace of the first two laps was dictated by the arbitrating safety car, which is introduced in dangerous conditions and obliges drivers to maintain their positions and not overtake.
Checo changed his tires for dryer conditions on a pit stop on lap 17, took the lead on lap 21 and held on for victory. On lap 26, Mick Schumacher, son of retired joint-record holding racer Michael Schumacher, crashed into the race wall destroying his vehicle, but escaped without injury.
At first, Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz Jr. of Spain (right) led the race, closely followed by Red Bull teammates Max Verstappen and Checo Pérez. Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool
Given the stoppages, the race was limited by time and ended inside 63 laps rather than the planned 78.
Spanish driver Carlos Sainz Jr. finished in second place, followed by Verstappen in third. Monaco native Charles Leclerc started in pole position, but failed to make the podium in front of his home crowd.
With the win in Monaco, Checo surpassed the Mexican joint-record of two victories which he shared with his countryman Pedro Rodríguez. Rodríguez’s wins came in South Africa in 1967 and Belgium in 1970, the year before he died racing.
Checo is now third in the 2022 driver standings.
“An amazing day for Checo, he’s been on it all weekend. His pace … the teamwork, the double stop, both drivers picking off a Ferrari was fantastic. He’s doing a great job, look at his performances so far,” said Red Bull’s team principal, Christian Horner.
There was further success for Mexico in the Indianapolis 500 race in Indiana on Sunday, where Monterrey’s Pato O’Ward finished second to Swede Marcus Ericsson.
The site was discovered during infrastructure work on Avenida del Delfín, on the north side of the city. INAH
A pre-Hispanic archaeological site with graves containing human bones and high-quality ceramics has been discovered in Mazatlán, Sinaloa.
Inhabited by members of the Aztatlán culture some 1,000 years ago, the site was discovered on a hillock earlier this month during paving and infrastructure construction work in the Pacific coast city.
“The site was found by workers when a pipe broke, exposing human remains,” the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) said in a statement Saturday.
Víctor Joel Santos Ramírez, an archaeologist with INAH Sinaloa, said that a human settlement was established on the hillock, which is located near an estuary. Its elevated location allowed it to avoid flooding, he said.
The urban sprawl likely hides many more such sites. INAH
Human remains were interred in graves on the hillock, whose surface was covered with crushed shells. Temporary structures were built above the graves.
Santos said that an Aztatlán-style ceramic urn of excellent quality was found in one of the graves. Archaeologists have also uncovered two other ceramic vessels, an Aztatlán-style pipe and human bones. The bones are in poor condition due to the natural characteristics of the soil in Mazatlán, INAH said.
Santos said that “a grave with these characteristics – beneath a shell floor and accompanied by high-quality ceramics – hadn’t [previously] been found in Mazatlán.”
The ceramic artifacts are believed to have been made between A.D. 900 and 1,200. The development of the Aztatlán culture began in the area now occupied by northern Nayarit and southern Sinaloa in the 10th century, according to Alfonso Grave Tirado, another archaeologist with INAH Sinaloa.
Archaeologists have found ceramic artifacts crafted in the characteristic style of the Aztatlán civilization. INAH
Grave said that it’s highly likely that more evidence of an important ancient settlement will be found in the same area where the graves and ceramic relics were found. There’s no doubt that there are other archaeological sites in the area, he said.
INAH is seeking an agreement with the Mazatlán municipal government to preserve the recently-discovered site as an archaeological reserve where additional excavation work can take place.
No more than 10 archaeological sites have been discovered in Mazatlán, Santos said, explaining that the urban sprawl of the city has hidden many others. Authorities are rarely advised when such sites are uncovered, he added.
Agatha's forecast track as of Saturday afternoon. nhc
Tropical Storm Agatha was heading for the coast of Oaxaca on Saturday where forecasters predict it will become a hurricane by Sunday.
The first named storm of the Eastern Pacific this year has triggered a hurricane warning between Salina Cruz and Chacahua Lagoon, an area that takes in the tourist destinations of Huatulco and Puerto Escondido. A hurricane watch is in effect from Salina Cruz eastward to Barra de Tonalá.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said at 4:00 p.m. CT Saturday that the storm was located 270 kilometers southwest of Puerto Ángel, a town that is 65 kilometers east of Puerto Escondido. It is expected to strengthen quickly and become a hurricane Sunday morning and make landfall on Monday afternoon within the hurricane warning area.
The Weather Channel predicts the storm will make landfall close to Puerto Ángel.
Mexico’s National Meteorological Service forecast heavy rain in parts of Chiapas, Oaxaca and Guerrero starting Saturday afternoon, accompanied by a storm surge.
Forecasters at AccuWeather said Agatha would reach Category 1 hurricane strength by Sunday night. A factor contributing to continued strengthening is high water temperatures of 30 C.
AccuWeather predicts Agatha will make landfall as Category 2 (maximum sustained winds between 154 and 177 kph) on Monday evening.
Meteorologist Dan Pydnyowski said the hurricane’s biggest impact would be from rainfall. “The heaviest rain will fall across … Oaxaca and Chiapas, causing flash flooding mudslides and road closures.”
Coastal areas of Oaxaca and Chiapas can expected 200 to 300 mm of rain and mountainous areas as much as 710 mm.
The last hurricane to strike the Oaxaca coast was Carlotta, which made landfall near Puerto Escondido as Category 2 in June 2012. Seven people were killed and at least 29,000 homes and 2,500 businesses were damaged, mostly in Oaxaca.
The Living Room in Puerto Vallarta encourages local groups to use its bookshop for events, such as the Third Annual Women’s Meeting, seen here. The Living Room
Living as a foreigner in Mexico often means that we look for little nooks of familiarity. For some of us, having a cozy bookstore filled with titles in English fits the bill.
Granted, you can get books in English from Amazon and even at Mexican chains like Gandhi, but it is not the same as being surrounded by walls full of titles in your language. Many (physical) book lovers want and need that store experience, with both chains and indie bookstores in North America and other countries providing that.
Entrepreneurs in Mexico are providing that experience too. They take their cue from bookstores back home, then adapt to the communities they serve, whether they are in Mérida, Mexico City, Puerto Vallarta or La Paz. They provide a welcoming physical space, often with comfy sofas, chairs and more, so that customers hang around for a while.
Coffee is another important part of the equation, with bookstores selling it themselves or partnering with a cafe.
Each bookstore adapts to its community’s needs, such as Allende Books in La Paz, Baja California Sur, which sells field and travel guides. Allende Books
Lindsey of Puerto Vallarta’s A Page in the Sun bookstore says, “Everybody meets, you know, you’re sitting at the table having your coffee, and everybody’s suddenly talking to each other at the next table.”
The bookstore features coffee grown in Jalisco, selected and roasted by the two sisters that own the place.
Alejandra Xacur of Libros Libros Libros in Mexico City has a cafe that entices mothers to sit and sip while their children enjoy an area designed just for them. Kelly Casey of The Living Room in Puerto Vallarta also finds specialty baked goods important, like Nanaimo bars, a favorite sweet treat among Canadian snowbirds.
Coffee creates a community atmosphere, and for brick-and-mortar bookstores, creating and maintaining that for their customers is equally or even more important than the books. Physical bookstores are a niche market, and much of their advertising is via word-of-mouth.
Mérida’s Between the Lines offers high-end collectibles such as Spanish fans. Like many bookstores, offering products besides books is a financial must. Between the Lines
These businesses must understand their local communities, meaning the English speakers living here. Such a business obviously attracts foreigners looking to meet other like-minded foreigners, but not all of Mexico’s foreign communities are the same.
In beach towns like Puerto Vallarta, most customers are snowbirds and tourists, making sales highly cyclical. In Mexico City, foreigners are often younger and in the capital year-round because of their careers. There are two English-language bookstores here.
But even in the capital, customer bases vary: Under the Volcano caters to used book lovers in a more bohemian neighborhood and is very much like the chaotic used bookstores I remember in my college days. Libros Libros Libros caters very strongly to families with school-aged children that live in its location in and near some of Mexico City’s most affluent areas.
For all the bookstores, the community is not just foreign residents; they have connections to the local Mexican population as well. In Puerto Vallarta and La Paz, Baja California Sur, there are many Mexicans who have achieved a high level of English, as it is essential in the tourism industry. Half of Libros Libros Libros’ clientele is Mexican — the families whose children attend one of the many prestigious bilingual schools in the area.
Most of the bookshops offer coffee and/or food, like A Page in the Sun in Puerto Vallarta’s Romantic Zone. A Page in the Sun/Facebook
Most of the bookstores have relationships with bookstores catering to Spanish speakers. Each refers customers to the other.
All the bookstores, (with the notable exception of Under the Volcano), see events as an important part of their business plan. Almost all have author presentations, academic talks, book clubs and even support for local writers. Between the Lines in Mérida sponsors special sales to benefit local charities. Libros Libros Libros and Allende Books have storytimes for children to cater to younger families.
What kinds of books these stores offer is guided by the nature of the local community: for areas near the beach, light reading, especially novels, are highly popular, as are used books. Page Under the Sun and The Living Room take advantage of books brought by snowbirds during high season, buying them in spring to have inventory for when customers return in the fall. Between the Lines, Libros Libros Libros and Allende Books, however, focus more on new books, despite the significantly higher cost. Allende Books, given its location in the Gulf of California, sells a lot of field and travel guides as well.
Almost all the bookstores do sell some merchandise other than books, saying that it’s necessary in order to survive. Some keep this to a minimum, but others have gotten creative: Between the Lines offers high-end collectibles such as Spanish fans and Venetian masks. Page Under the Sun has coordinated with a local art group to display paintings and sculptures on commission.
The ability of these bookstores to cater to their local clientele has much to do with the owners themselves. Nearly all are foreigners with many years of living in their community. Even the exceptions show strong ties: Page Under the Sun’s owners are Mexican, but their mother was Canadian. Alejandra Xacur, who is Mexican, grew up with Libros Libros Libros and bought it from its American founder in 2021.
Bookselling isn’t an easy business even in the best of times. Most of these shops were founded only in the past few years, often in areas where similar businesses had disappeared. Allende Books and Libros Libros Libros were recently bought by new owners who had to completely revamp the businesses to make them viable. Interestingly, most were started or bought just before or during COVID, which added strains such as government-ordered closures and other restrictions that are only now being eased.
This forced owners to find ways to survive, even “stooping” to using online resources, primarily to maintain contact with their customer base. In the case of Between the Lines, they even did book deliveries.
Many of these entrepreneurs are acting out of a lifelong love of books and the desire to share that affinity with others. Or as Juanita Stein of Between the Lines puts it, part of her work is to “… take people back to the pleasure of holding a physical book in their hands …”
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.
Living in Mexico indefinitely doesn't mean you've necessarily escaped accountability with the Internal Revenue Service. deposit photos
Since the article about the taxpayer registration requirements was published, there have been a lot of questions regarding the tax obligations of foreign residents in Mexico.
This article will not address expats’ tax obligations to Mexico specifically but rather the tax obligations of United States citizens to their home country.
We spoke with Michael Lindstrom, U.S. expat tax specialist and enrolled agent at Living Abroad Tax Services.
What’s the most important thing that people should know?
“U.S. taxes are based on citizenship; you have the privilege of reporting and paying on worldwide income,” Lindstrom says.
Essentially, there are few ways around filing U.S. taxes if you’re a U.S. citizen. But for those who might think, “I already pay taxes to Mexico; I shouldn’t have to pay taxes to the U.S. as well,” be aware: although you may already pay taxes in Mexico, there is no guarantee that you won’t also owe taxes to the United States government.
However, there are a few exceptions: if you are an employee in Mexico but make less than US $12,000 a year, then you do not have filing requirements; if you have no income (in either wages or investments on either side of the border) and are simply living off savings, then you do not need to file.
And finally, if you are living solely off Social Security checks, then there is no need to file (though you’ll want to make sure that they have an accurate address for you, as they may send “proof of life” forms for you to fill out periodically).
All that said, be sure to check with a U.S. tax specialist like Lindstrom to make absolutely sure what your obligations are.
Beyond those aforementioned scenarios, everything else is fair game.
This includes U.S. citizens living in Mexico who are employees of a U.S. company as well as freelancers, who must pay a 15.3% self-employment tax to cover their own Social Security and Medicare payments.
If you’re an employee (not an independent contractor) at a U.S. company, then your company will have already taken out Social Security and Medicare payments before sending you your paycheck, so it’s possible you’ll find out when you file that you owe nothing, or even that you are getting a tax refund.
If you earn less than US $112,000 per year, then you can take the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion. (As the name suggests, this is only for earned income in wages or salaries, not on passive income from investments). Keep in mind, however, that this amount is for federal income taxes and excludes you from being able to take certain other credits.
And freelancers or independent contractors earning well below this amount will still be responsible for paying self-employment tax if their freelance income amounts to more than US $433 a year.
Finally, if you have more than a total of US $10,000 in foreign accounts at any point during the year, then you must report it to the U.S. Treasury.
What about property owned in Mexico?
“If you hold your property here in Mexico as your primary residence, you do not owe additional U.S. taxes on it,” Lindstrom says.
If it’s a rental property, however, then you may indeed need to pay taxes on the income generated by it, and if you sell it, then you would also likely pay taxes on the profit.
Many people have heard that the U.S. has treaties with other countries to avoid “double taxation.” This, however, is not as simple (or as accurate) as it sounds, and in the case of Mexico, one cannot simply decide to pay in one country or the other.
“Tax treaties generally reduce the U.S. taxes of residents of foreign countries as determined under the applicable treaties,” Lindstrom says. “With certain exceptions, they do not reduce the U.S. taxes of U.S. citizens or U.S. treaty residents.”
What if you haven’t filed taxes in the U.S. simply out of ignorance or misinformation?
“One program you might qualify for is the Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedure.” This provides a way to regularize one’s standing with the IRS without incurring fines.
If you’re simply feeling defiant and refusing to report to the IRS on principle, be aware that there’s no guarantee your money will be safe in Mexico: you could face heavy penalties and fines, and Mexico can collect taxes from you on behalf of the IRS.
The bottom line?
“Taxes are more complicated than most people think,” Lindstrom says, especially when one is outside one’s own country.
To be on the safe side, consult a tax professional to ensure that you’re meeting all legal requirements regarding your money.
Baked, mashed, fried, candied: sweet potatoes' possibilities are endless.
I’m an unabashed lover of sweet potatoes — camotes in Spanish — in just about every way, shape or form.
Baked, mashed, fried, chips: you name it, I love it. And one of the wonderful surprises about living in Mexico has been the camoteros, street vendors selling oven-roasted sweet potatoes. On my street, Luis comes every Monday evening like clockwork around 6 p.m. with his little rolling stainless steel oven, its steam whistle announcing his arrival.
Here in Mazatlán, locals like to eat them bathed in sweetened condensed milk, which is way too sweet for me. Sometimes I just get them “natural” and add my own butter and salt. Other nights, I might get a mixed plate of sweet potatoes and plantains, to either eat plain or to cut up and add to a Thai curry made earlier and sitting at the ready on my stove. Especially in the summer, when one is loath to turn on the oven, it’s just so convenient! Also common are candied sweet potatoes, dripping in piloncillo (whole cane sugar) syrup, available in the mercados and in almost every neighborhood store.
Sweet potatoes, it turns out, are not really potatoes at all (and not the same as yams, either). Regular potatoes are tubers in the nightshade family; sweet potatoes are considered a root vegetable and from the morning glory genus. Kind of obviously, sweet potatoes have much more natural sugar than a regular potato — more than 10 times as much — and more carbs, fat and calories too. Whatever; they’re delicious.
Crispy with just a touch of sweetness!
The word camote comes from the Náhuatl camohtli; in some parts of Mexico and other South American countries, sweet potatoes are known as papa dulce, batata or patata dulce. Interestingly, in the Phillipines they’re called kamote.
They’re eaten all over the world, and the combination of their high nutritional value, ease of cultivation and storage and basic yumminess makes them popular from China to Africa, Japan to Spain, Italy to Peru, India to Mexico. You kind of can’t escape them!
Just a note about baking sweet potatoes at home: yes, you can use the microwave, and that’s fast and easy. But you’ll get a much better texture and decidedly better flavor if you slowly roast them, preferably wrapped in foil to trap steam, which allows the natural sugars to caramelize and the starch to convert to sugar.
The website Serious Eats, one of my go-to sources for reliable food and recipe information, suggests freezing sweet potatoes before baking them for the best flavor. Is it worth the effort? You be the judge; here’s the link.
Baked Sweet Potato Fries
2 lbs. sweet potatoes, peeled
2 Tbsp. olive or coconut oil
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. black pepper
Cut sweet potatoes into sticks ¼- to ½-inch wide and 3 inches long. Rinse and soak in cold water for 1–3 hours to remove starch. Heat oven to 400 F (200 C).
Drain potato sticks and pat dry. In a bowl, toss with the oil, spices, salt and pepper. Spread potato sticks on two rimmed baking sheets. Bake until brown and crisp on the bottom, about 15 minutes, then flip and cook other side until crisp, about 10 minutes. Serve immediately. — nytimes.com
Shrimp & Sweet Potato Hash
3 lbs. sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into ¾-inch chunks
3-4 Tbsp. olive/coconut oil
2 tsp. salt
½ tsp. black pepper
1 medium onion, diced
1 bell pepper, diced
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1 jalapeño, seeded and minced
1 tsp. chili powder
1 lb. jumbo shrimp, peeled, deveined, cut in half
2 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lime juice
¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro
Preheat oven to 425 F (220 C). In large bowl, toss potatoes with 2 Tbsp. oil, 2 tsp. salt and ½ tsp. black pepper. Spread potatoes on two baking sheets. Bake, tossing occasionally, until potatoes are golden, crisp around edges and tender, about 35 minutes. In large skillet, heat remaining 2 Tbsp. oil over medium-high heat. Add onions and bell peppers. Cook, stirring, until softened, about 10 minutes. Add garlic, jalapeños and chili powder; cook 2 minutes more.
Add shrimp. Cook, tossing occasionally, until shrimp is just opaque, about 3 minutes. Add lime juice, stirring to scrape up any browned bits from bottom of pan. Mix shrimp mixture with sweet potatoes in a large bowl; add salt to taste. Stir in cilantro and serve.
Sweet potato chili with a Mexican twist.
Black Bean Sweet Potato Slow-Cooker Chili
1 large sweet potato, peeled and cubed
1 can whole black beans
1 (14 oz.) can crushed tomatoes
1/3 cup orange juice
2 Tbsp. coconut oil
1-2 canned chipotles in adobo, plus 1-2 Tbsp. of the sauce
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
Juice of ½ lime
3 garlic cloves
1 tsp. EACH cumin, garlic and onion powder
Salt and pepper
Put everything in crockpot; cook on high for 8 hours. Alternatively, cook in saucepan over medium heat for 1 hour or longer, stirring occasionally, until sweet potato is tender and flavors meld. Serve garnished with avocado, cilantro, crema, etc.
Sweet Potato Hash Browns
Crisp, salty, buttery and addictive…
1 large sweet potato, scrubbed and dried
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
Salt
Using the large holes of a box grater, grate sweet potato onto a paper towel. Use the paper towel to gather the sweet potato shreds, then squeeze to wring out excess moisture (there won’t be much). Dump into a bowl, add cornstarch and mix to combine.
Set your largest nonstick skillet over medium-high heat; add ½ Tbsp. butter. Swirl pan to coat in butter. Once butter stops foaming, sprinkle in shredded sweet potato in a thin, single layer. (The thinner the layer, the crispier the hash browns.) Sprinkle all over with salt.
Use a spatula to press down so all shreds come in contact with the pan’s hot surface. Once potatoes begin to crisp and brown on the bottom, after 3–4 minutes, carefully flip small sections over. Cook until other side is deeply brown, 3–5 minutes more, flipping sections as needed.
President López Obrador at his Monday conference. Presidencia de la República
President López Obrador spent last weekend with indigenous groups in Sonora. He got reacquainted with the Guarijíos and Mayos on Friday, caught up with the Yaquis on Saturday and dropped in on the Seris on Sunday.
Monday
Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez addressed crime in her monthly report. She said federal crimes were at their lowest rate in four years and that homicides had fallen in 33 of the country’s 50 worst municipalities, but conceded that extortion had risen in the first four months of the year.
Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval said it was much safer to be in the armed forces than under previous governments and that 97% of the people in service felt “proud, or very proud,” to represent their institutions.
The president said there was still plenty of time for dialogue with U.S. organizers before the Summit of the Americas on June 6. “At least they’ve acted in a respectful manner. There hasn’t been a total, categorical rejection,” he said, referring to his demand that all Latin American leaders be invited.
López Obrador previously said he won’t attend the Los Angeles summit if any leader doesn’t make the list. On Monday he revealed he still hadn’t received an invitation.
Tuesday
A call for doctors featured early on Tuesday. The head of the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS), Zoé Robledo, invited medical specialists to apply to newly advertised positions. “Attractive salaries,” were available to “specialist doctors who decide to offer their skills … where it is most necessary, in remote areas, in areas of great marginalization and poverty,” Robledo said, adding there were 13,765 posts.
Health Minister Jorge Varela Alcocer on at the Tuesday press conference. Presidencia de la República
However, the president said not all unemployed doctors would be willing. “There’s a lot of people in the health sector … who wouldn’t mind going to a hospital in the Lacandon [Jungle, in Chiapas] or to the Tarahumara [Sierra, in Chihuahua] … but there are others that think that the world is the environment where they grew up and that the rest of the country doesn’t exist,” he said.
Health Minister Jorge Varela Alcocer informed that there are 0.7 specialists per 100,000 people in Mexico, which he said should be 1.2 per 100,000.
The president said his predecessors had failed to maintain the health service and were willfully blind to corruption. “They didn’t talk about [corruption] before … I was one of the forerunners that put that topic in debate … if you do an analysis of speeches from 50 years ago to today you won’t find the word corruption, as if it didn’t exist … it’s a plague that we have to end,” he affirmed.
Elizabeth García Vilchis said a photo of Mexican doctors protesting was a “fake.” Presidencia de la República
Wednesday
The president recalled the good old days of media before handing over to misinformation expert Elizabeth García Vilchis. “In [the newspaper] Reforma there is not one columnist who is not against us. I think it’s a precondition for writing there. Before, in [the newspaper] El Universal there were columnists of all leanings … the editorial section has really reduced in the participation of independent people, writers and intellectuals,” he said.
García informed that a photo of Mexican doctors complaining about the arrival of Cuban specialists was false and introduced a section called “SélvameDelFake” (“Save me from the fake”), a play on words from “#SélvameDelTren,” the name of a campaign against the Maya Train project. García had one of the campaign’s leaders in her sights: she rubbished a claim by actor Eugenio Derbez that a media company had canceled interviews due to his opposition to the Maya Train.
Later in the conference, the president lamented Tuesday’s mass shooting of 21 people at an elementary school in Texas. “I want to take this opportunity to send my condolences, my pain, to convey my solidarity with the families of the young people who lost their lives yesterday … most of them are of Mexican origin, there is no doubt … all that region of Texas belonged to Mexico. Just look at the surnames, they are children and grandchildren of Mexicans,” he said.
Thursday
The president reiterated his asylum offer to imprisoned investigative journalist Julian Assange on Thursday. The U.K. government is set to announce whether Assange will be extradited to the United States.
“We offer asylum and we are in favor of his release because he is being politically persecuted. It’s shameful that a person who discloses valuable information … everything that the elite carried out in secret … is punished for presenting that information … he should be given his freedom,” he said.
“If he wants, his family, lawyers and friends can have asylum in our country,” the president added.
They would likely be among many arriving to Mexico, López Obrador divulged: “There’s a lot of people who want to come back,” he said, referring to Mexican migrants in the United States, and promised that financial advice would be available to returning migrants. That reminded the president of a song about migration: La Jaula del Oro (the golden cage) by norteño band Los Tigres del Norte was played at the conference.
The president takes questions on Thursday. Presidencia de la República
Friday
The president was in Culiacán, Sinaloa, on Friday. He said he was delighted to be in the “progressive state, dedicated to food production with good people, working people … we celebrate that Sinaloa has a good governor, Dr. Rubén Rocha Moya … a professional who comes from the leftist struggle,” he said.
Rocha said Sinaloa was producing vast quantities of corn, mango, beans and chickpeas. On violence, he said the state － where the Sinaloa Cartel remains powerful － had seen 61 fewer homicides in annual terms in 2022.
“Is it going to be the Summit of the Americas, or the summit of the friends of America?” the president asked, after representatives from Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua were apparently not invited.
López Obrador added that he would wait for a formal response from the United States before making a final decision on whether or not to attend.
However, confrontation, the president reiterated, wasn’t his style. “We didn’t want to put a lot of peoples’ lives at risk … I gave the instruction to stop the operation,” he said, referring to a 2019 operation in Culiacán when the son of jailed cartel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán was caught by security forces, but then released due to the threat of retaliation.
Bullfighting has already been banned in five states. Depositphotos
A federal judge on Friday ordered a provisional suspension of bullfights at Mexico City’s Plaza México, the world’s largest bullring.
Administrative court judge Jonathan Bass Herrera made the ruling in response to a lawsuit filed by Justicia Justa (Fair Justice), a civil society organization. A ruling on a definitive suspension will be handed down next Thursday.
Justicia Justa argued that the staging of bullfights violates a law designed to ensure that women can live their lives free of violence. It also also contended that two laws that allow bullfighting in the capital are unconstitutional because they allow bulls to be treated in a degrading and stigmatizing way.
While the provisional suspension remains in effect no bullfights can take place at Plaza México and authorities are barred from issuing permits for any future bullfighting events at the cavernous 42,000-seat stadium.
Mexico City authorities and Plaza México itself could challenge the ban on bullfighting at the stadium, which has been hosting bullfights since 1946.
There were five at the venue in April and May, while the next event is scheduled to take place on July 2. Spectator numbers at such events are declining in the capital, the newspaper El País reported.
Other groups have filed lawsuits against bullfighting in Mexico City in recent weeks but no other suspension orders have been granted. The Mexico City Congress has been discussing proposals to outlaw bullfighting for years but majority support has remained elusive.
Bullfighting has already been prohibited in five states: Sonora, Guerrero, Sinaloa, Coahuila and Quintana Roo. In contrast, the states of Aguascalientes, Tlaxcala, Hidalgo, Querétaro, Zacatecas, Michoacán, Nayarit and Guanajuato consider bullfighting intangible cultural heritage.
At a session scheduled for next Wednesday, the Supreme Court is expected to invalidate a 2019 decree that declared bullfighting and cock fights intangible cultural heritage in Nayarit. Such a ruling wouldn’t prohibit the bloodsports but would represent a strong condemnation of them and indicate an unwillingness on the part of the nation’s highest court to overturn any state-based bans.
