Tuliman Falls is the second-highest waterfall in Mexico. Photos by Joseph Sorrentino
Many people who visit Zacatlán de las Manzanas, Puebla, are attracted by its status as a Magical Town, its murals and its apple harvest season events. But probably not many who visit know that just 20 minutes away is a beautiful ecotourism park, Cascadas Tulimán, or Tulimán Falls.
The site boasts waterfalls, beautiful scenery, easy paths and a variety of activities, including archery and zip-lining.
As you make your way there from the center of Zacatlán, be aware that once you’re off the main highway (Route 119), the road is hard-packed dirt and there are stretches that are steep, rutted and with hairpin curves. Much of the road is narrow, and if another car is approaching someone has to yield. There’s a sign that reads “This is not a high-speed road,” which seemed self-evident but maybe not.
Despite the bumpy ride, if you take it nice and easy, you’ll soon see it was worth the trip.
Tulimán has two suspension bridges. One isn’t too intimidating for most, but the other is only for the more adventurous.
The park has three zones: Zone 1 leads to the Tulimán falls, which at 300 meters is the second highest waterfall in Mexico. It’s an easy five-minute walk, but expect to get a little wet at the end of it as mist rises off the waterfall.
The trail in Zone 2 is a little more challenging. There’s a sign warning people not to attempt it with heart problems, diabetes or other ailments, but although the trail’s a little steep in places, it’s short. Anyone in halfway decent shape should be able to easily manage it, and there are a couple of benches along the way if you need to take a break.
There’s a particularly enchanting stretch of the trail that’s shaded by trees filled with Spanish moss. It takes about 10 minutes to reach a small pool filled with mineral water where you can soak for a bit (if you’ve brought a bathing suit), and then it’s on to the arbol hueco (the hollow tree).
To get there means crossing the puente colgante (suspension bridge). It’s sturdy, but like all such bridges, it does bounce a bit as you cross. If, like me, you’re not fond of heights, my advice is just don’t look down. It’s worth a bit of terror for the great view of the interesting rock formation below.
Getting a moment’s rest while hiking past the Hollow Tree.
Shortly after crossing, at the end of the trail, is the Hollow Tree, which is very tall and, as its name suggests, hollow — well, partly hollow.
Zone 3 has an archery site. For the more adventurous there’s also a zip-line and what’s advertised as a puente extremo (extreme bridge), which is way more challenging to cross than the suspension bridge. There are safety precautions in place — people are attached by rope to the bridge and wear helmets, and there are guide wires to hold onto — but I was relieved that it and the zip-line were closed the day we visited.
The leisurely stroll to La Cascada del Cajón (drawer waterfall) ends at the Unión de Dos Rios (union of two rivers). It’s possible to walk along one of the rivers for a bit.
It takes about two hours to complete a tour of the park. There are places to eat in each zone, and a couple of quesadillas and a cold beer are a perfect way to end the day.
Tulimán Falls is billed as an ecotourism site that’s been designed to promote sustainable development via recreation that minimally impacts the natural environment and protects biodiversity for future generations. There are campsites and cabins in the park for those who want to stay overnight. Admission is 100 pesos (US $5) and, as we were informed at the entrance, includes unlimited use of the bathrooms.
A heads-up about a couple of things: although Zacatlán’s only about 80 miles from Puebla city, it’s about a 2.5-hour drive to get there because of the winding roads. Also, there’s always the possibility of fog. On one of the days we were there, a thick fog settled in, and it became very clear why there are warning signs about it on the highways.
More information about Tulimán and phone numbers may be found at the official Tulimán Falls website on Facebook.
MG's model ZS SUV starts at 342,900 pesos (US $17,300).
Just 1 1/2 years after reentering the Mexican market, Chinese-owned, British-founded automaker MG has reached No. 10 in the rankings for new car sales.
MG sold 12,070 vehicles in Mexico in the first four months of the year, according to the national statistics agency INEGI, a whopping 387.5% increase compared to the same period of 2021.
MG’s growth far exceeds that of the other automakers in the top 10, among which Toyota was the second best performer, lifting sales by 15.3% to 33,181 vehicles.
Nissan ranked first with sales of 59,522 vehicles between January and April followed by General Motors, Toyota, Volkswagen, Kia, Chrysler, Hyundai, Ford and Suzuki.
MG, which relaunched in Mexico in October 2020, is within striking distance of overtaking Ford and Suzuki, trailing both those automakers by fewer than 250 sales in the first four months of the year.
The automotive news website Motor Pasión reported that other car brands have taken decades to reach the top 10 for sales.
Owned by Chinese state-owned automaker SAIC, MG is currently selling five different vehicles in Mexico: three SUVs and two sedans. It initially reentered the Mexican market with just two SUVs, the ZS and the HS, and one sedan, the MG5.
Seeking to explain the success behind MG’s rapid growth, Motor Pasión said those three models are well equipped, have eye-catching designs and are competitively priced.
The company plans to have dealerships in every state by the end of the year. Pictured: an MG dealership in Puebla city.
The automaker, founded in the United Kingdom in the 1920s, later introduced the RX8, its top-of-the-line SUV, and the GT sedan. The starting price for the former is 799,900 pesos (US $40,500) according to the MG México website, while the latter starts at 399,900 pesos (US $20,200).
MG’s cheapest SUV is the ZS, which starts at 342,900 pesos (US $17,300) while the MG5 costs 264,900 pesos (US $13,400).
In addition to competitive prices, Motor Pasión cited a seven-year warranty as well as seven years roadside assistance and maintenance – all of which are included in a vehicle’s price – as reasons for MG’s success in Mexico.
It also noted that the automaker now has 63 dealerships spread across the vast majority of the 32 federal entities, after starting in 2020 with just 17.
Campeche, Baja California Sur and Guerrero are the only states without a dealership, but the company has pledged to operate in all entities by the end of 2022.
MG’s success is also emphasized by its rapid climb up the car sales rankings this year, rising five places after finishing 2021 at No. 15. The company sold 16,358 units last year, giving it a 1.6% share of the new car market. That share is on track to increase significantly in 2022.
Tourists play the game molkky on the beach at Playa La Madera.
When you mention Mexico’s beaches, many think of the Caribbean — Cancún, Playa del Carmen, Tulum. But one option you may not have heard of is in the Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo area in the state of Guerrero.
Ixtapa, a planned tourist community created in 1968 by Mexico’s Ministry of Tourism, offers all the glitz and glamor you’d expect from a place like Cancún: luxury hotels and villas, international chains and, of course, beaches.
Only five kilometers away is Zihuatanejo, a much quieter fishing village that’s oriented toward tourists but perfect for those wanting sleepier beach getaways. So close to each other, they’re often referred to as one place: Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo.
Interested? Here’s a quick guide to fun in the sun in Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo.
Playa El Palmar in Ixtapa has beautiful coral reefs that make it a great opportunity for snorkeling.
La Ropa Beach, Zihuatanejo
Think silky, spotless sands — not a crushed cup or can in sight. The gentle murmur of waves lapping on the shore and the green tropical hills surrounding Zihuatanejo Bay’s crystalline waters, announce that you are at La Ropa.
La Ropa’s 1.5 kilometers of swim-friendly beach are so pristine, it recently received the international Blue Flag designation for being clean and environmentally friendly.
It’s surrounded by a selection of beachside restaurants serving seafood and local dishes, including a wealth of fresh fish taco offerings. These restaurants also offer chaise lounges and beach umbrellas for relaxing or tanning in the refreshing ocean breezes.
My personal favorite among these eateries, El Manglar, sits nestled a few yards back from the beach in a mangrove lagoon. To get to El Manglar, you cross a small suspension bridge from the beach that takes you over the lagoon.
The mangroves here are worth a visit themselves, as they play host to a tribe of iguanas, turtles, birds and at least one colossal crocodile. Often the crocodile is sunning with his mouth open on a small island just inside the fence that separates his domain from the beach.
El Manglar is open on three sides giving diners a full view of the mangrove lagoon and its wildlife. Iguanas, large and small scamper over the branches of the mangrove trees. Turtles pop their head up for air as they swim along or laze on the small lagoon beach. Herons perch majestically on branches of the mangroves.
Walk the beach enjoying the sun, have an ocean-side massage, hop on a jet ski, paddleboard, or enjoy another of the watersport activities. At one end of the beach, a large outcropping of rock provides an excellent spot for snorkelers.
La Madera beach, Zihuatanejo
While La Ropa is my favorite and arguably one of Mexico’s best beaches — Condé Nast Traveler magazine once picked it as Mexico’s best — there are others in this area that deserve mention, like Zihuatanejo’s La Madera.
With darker sand and slightly rougher waters — it sits directly opposite the bay’s opening to the ocean — the beach is generally wider, ideal for Frisbee, molkky, or bocce ball games. Several inexpensive palapas line the beach.
A highlight: during the tourist season, the beachside restaurant Maderas serves an excellent, formal-style sunset dinner on linen tablecloths. The view here as the sun sets and the waves roll in makes for a perfect romantic dinner.
La Ropa beach in Zihuatanejo has an ecofriendly designation and it shows with its pristine sands.
Playa Principal, Zihuatanejo
Follow Zihuatanejo’s boardwalk, known as the malecón, toward town from La Madera beach to arrive at Playa Principal. Before you hit the sand, you might check out the several shops and restaurants bordering this tree-lined path on the way. Stop at the artists’ plaza to view paintings by local creatives. The Costa Grande Archeological Museum also features artifacts from local digs.
Though pollution from fishing boats and a drainage canal that empties nearby makes this beach not recommended for swimming, it’s got a great view of Zihuatanejo bay. I love to sit and sip a mango margarita as I people-watch or watch the fishing boats going and coming.
Las Gatas beach
Across the bay, accessible by foot along a rocky path from La Ropa or by sea taxi, is Las Gatas, a favorite with families with small children or non-swimmers for its shallow waters protected from the waves by a rock-and-coral enclosure said to have been made by a king in pre-Hispanic times to protect his wives from the cat sharks that used to inhabit the area.
The waters in the enclosure, while shallow and clear, are scattered with rocks, some with sea urchins, so be careful not to step on them.
Playa El Palmar, Ixtapa
This is Ixatapa’s main beach, lined with resort hotels and condominiums. It’s a great beach to walk and experience the sand on your toes but generally dangerous for all except the most experienced swimmers due to its rough waters and strong undertow.
For a better Ixtapa beach experience, take a short water taxi ride to Ixtapa Island. There you’ll find clear, calm waters. A two-minute walk to the other side of the island has a coral reef teeming with fish — great for snorkeling!
Barra de Potosí, Petatlán
About a half-hour drive from Zihautanejo, you’ll find the small village of Barra de Potosí, home of a famous lagoon ringed with mangrove trees and a great place for a day trip. It hosts a variety of tropical aquatic birds, crabs, fish and some crocodiles. The diverse ecosystem of this shallow lagoon beckons bird watchers, kayakers and others who just want to relax near one of the many peaceful sand islands.
Horseback riding on Playa Larga beach, kayak rentals or just taking a long leisurely stroll to watch the pelicans and hawks swoop down to the water for a snack are activities you’ll find in this tourist-oriented but quiet village. During the whales’ winter migration season, you can charter a small boat to go in search of these magnificent animals.
After a long walk on the beach, head back toward the lagoon and one of the many nearby palapas for a cold beer or guacamole. All the palapas serve a variety of tasty seafood or Mexican dishes.
My personal favorite is fish served a la talla — a whole fish, often red snapper, that is barbecued with a special sauce. Usually served with salad, rice, beans, tortillas and more sauce, one order with beers will generally serve two people and cost about US $20.
Getting to Barra de Potosi can be half the fun. From Zihuatanejo, you can get there by picking up a bus to Petatlán at the depot in the center of town and ask to be let off at Los Achotes. The cost of this leg of the trip is pretty cheap and takes about 40 minutes.
Once in Los Achotes, pickup trucks converted to carry passengers to the beach on benches in the pickup section will jostle you through jungle-like roads bordering mango and avocado orchards as you careen towards Barra de Potosi. Hold on to your hat, or it’ll fly off!
From where the truck stops take only a short walk to the beach for a day of fun in the sun!
Robert Knight arrived in Mexico 25 years ago to teach English at the ITESM campus in Irapuato, Guanajuato. He has since owned a language school and is now retired, living as a freelance travel writer in Zihuatanejo, Guerrero.
The armed forces have assumed responsibility for customs offices that were managed by a recently created federal agency.
The military now has full control of customs after the federal government’s publication of a new decree.
President López Obrador had already given control of most of the nation’s land and maritime customs offices to the army and navy but a presidential decree expands their powers.
The military now has exclusive responsibility for inspecting goods entering the country via land borders, ports and airports.
The National Customs Agency, which the current government created, had been responsible for customs offices at the airports in Guadalajara, Monterrey, Querétaro, Toluca, Torreón, Chihuahua, Aguascalientes, Puebla and Guanajuato but as of Wednesday they are under the control of the Ministry of National Defense (Sedena).
Navy Minister José Rafael Ojeda Durán shares details about the navy’s customs responsibilities at a March press conference.
The Ministry of the Navy (SEMAR) controls 17 maritime customs offices and the one at the Mexico City International Airport, while Sedena controls offices at land borders with the United States, Guatemala and Belize and those at many airports including the new Felipe Ángeles International Airport.
The decree, published in the government’s official gazette on Tuesday, also gives the two branches of the military financial responsibility for the operation of customs. Sedena and SEMAR will jointly manage over 81 billion pesos (US $4.1 billion) held in a customs trust.
López Obrador on Thursday defended his decision to assign responsibility for customs to the military, on which he has relied for a wide range of non-traditional tasks since taking office in late 2018.
“It’s more than proven that [customs officials] made a killing,” he told reporters at his regular news conference.
“Corruption dominated, it reigned. I’m not saying that all public servants are corrupt, there are honest people,” López Obrador added.
He said that customs generates 1 trillion pesos (US $50.5 billion) in revenue annually for the government and for that reason he couldn’t leave things as they were. The president said that his administration has cleaned up corruption in customs and more income has ended up in public coffers as a result.
“Corruption has to be combated because that’s what allows us [to have] a source of funding for the development of our country and for the benefit of the people,” López Obrador said.
A festival day in Santa Cruz de Bravo, Oaxaca, in 2019. The municipality would go on to be one of few without reported cases of COVID-19.
Mexico has recorded over 5.7 million confirmed coronavirus cases but none has been reported in 30 of Mexico’s almost 2,500 municipalities.
The national social development agency Coneval found that 98.8% of the country’s 2,469 municipalities had recorded at least one COVID case by May 14. That leaves 30 COVID-free municipalities, which Coneval didn’t identify.
Among those identified by Mexico News Daily are San Miguel Piedras, Santa Ana Tavela, San Juan Yatzona, San Bartolomé Yucuañe, San Juan Diuxi and Santa Cruz de Bravo, all of which are in Oaxaca.
Coneval said in a report that the COVID-free municipalities “are located in mountainous regions with low population density” and few paved roads.
Coneval also said that 230 municipalities haven’t recorded a single COVID-19 death. Over 70% of those – 167 – are in Oaxaca while 30 are in Chiapas and nine in Puebla.
That means that 9.3% of the nation’s municipalities haven’t recorded a COVID fatality. Almost 325,000 have been officially recorded in the rest of the country, although that figure is widely accepted to be a significant undercount.
Coneval said the territorial distribution of COVID has been heterogenous due to factors such as the concentration of the population in urban centers, the connectivity of the highway network, people’s mobility and socioeconomic characteristics.
“The dispersion of the disease has followed a pattern from urban areas to peripheral areas [before] finally spreading to rural localities,” the social development agency said.
Mexico City has maintained the unenviable title of Mexico’s coronavirus epicenter throughout the pandemic, with about 1.4 million of the country’s 5.76 million confirmed cases, or 24% of the total, detected there. México state, which includes many municipalities that are part of the greater Mexico City metropolitan area, ranks second for total cases with more than 570,000.
Alejandro Moreno, PRI national president and former Campeche governor.
A callous remark about journalists has earned the national president of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) a rebuke from the press freedom advocacy organization Article 19.
Campeche Governor Layda Sansores on Tuesday released audio of Alejandro Moreno saying that journalists should be allowed to die of hunger.
“Journalists shouldn’t be shot to death, they should be killed of hunger,” Moreno said in expletive-laden audio broadcast by Sansores during her weekly social media program Martes del Jaguar.
The PRI chief, who is also a federal deputy, apparently made the remark to a colleague while he was governor of Campeche between 2015 and 2019. It was unclear how Sansores obtained the audio, but Moreno has pointed his finger at the Campeche attorney general.
The politician’s disparaging comment is considered especially insensitive because Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists. Eleven Mexican journalists have been murdered so far this year.
In the audio released by Sansores, Moreno didn’t elaborate on his proposal to allow journalists to die of hunger, but many media outlets depend on government advertising revenue to survive and would fold if that income dried up.
Article 19 categorically rejected Moreno’s remark, saying in a statement that it “denotes the relation of violence and subjugation between political authorities and the press as well as intolerance of criticism and public scrutiny.”
The organization said it wasn’t Moreno’s first attack on the press, citing other cases when he was a candidate for governor in Campeche and after he took office in the Yucatán Peninsula state.
Qué terrible y doloroso, esta frase no se olvida: “A los periodistas no hay que matarlos a balazos (…); hay que matarlos de hambre”.
Grábenselo, compañeros periodistas, para que se den cuenta del verdadero valor que tienen para él. pic.twitter.com/Vc4wuTMp6L
Campeche Governor Layda Sansores shared the recording on Twitter, in addition to airing it on her weekly online program, Martes del Jaguar.
“The political leader is also linked to the imprisonment and torture of the journalist Miguel Ángel Villarino Arnábar. In 2018, Villarino Arnábar, one of the journalists that the government of Moreno Cárdenas pursued and labeled as ‘enemies of Campeche’ was imprisoned for 58 days,” Article 19 said.
“… The ‘kill them of hunger’ [comment] emphasizes a problem of structural violence against the press: job insecurity,” it added.
The organization demanded an “exhaustive, impartial, objective, professional and serious investigation” into “acts of censorship perpetrated” in Campeche while Moreno was governor and urged the PRI leader to offer a public apology to the press and acknowledge the fundamental work it does in a democratic society.
“Finally, we make a vigorous call to all political parties to commit to respect of freedom of speech and the free exercise of journalism,” Article 19 said.
Moreno claimed Tuesday that recordings broadcast by Sansores – the governor has also transmitted other damning remarks – were edited and constitute a smear campaign orchestrated by the federal government and the ruling Morena party, which the Campeche governor represents.
“It’s time to clear up some points amid the attempts of the Morena government to create division and confrontation between the opposition, the media and civil society,” he wrote on Twitter.
“The federal government and Morena, through the governor Layda Sansores, have launched a campaign to discredit me, publishing audio that is clearly illegally obtained recordings that have been vilely edited for the purpose of making up phrases and conversations that didn’t exist,” Moreno said.
He claimed that some of the audio disseminated by the governor featured remarks made by “fake voices” that were presented as if they were made by him.
The current governor of Campeche, Layda Sansores.
The PRI chief charged that Morena had used a tactic employed by dictatorships. “We can’t succumb to their smokescreens and lies,” he wrote.
“If the audio presented by the governor of Campeche … had a shred of truth, … [the government] would have gone to the authorities to file a complaint. As this isn’t the case, they prefer to publish them on an insipid program based on gossip and lies,” Moreno said.
“We knew that these attacks would occur, it’s their way of operating. They’re not familiar with dialogue … [nor] freedom of speech and thought. With me this authoritarian government will run into a wall. I will confront them with truth and justice. We will not allow them to establish a dictatorship,” Moreno wrote.
He also said he would file a complaint with the federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) against those “disseminating false information and lying to citizens.”
On Wednesday, Moreno said that an independent expert analysis of the incriminating audio will be carried out to expose the “manipulation and fabrication of events.”
“All the audio is obtained and manipulated with an espionage system, which was never delivered to the Federal Police and was ‘stolen’ by the current attorney general of Campeche [Renato Sales],” he wrote on Twitter.
“The supplier is an Israeli company and a ‘little bird’ just said the attorney general (formerly the national security commissioner) has it. The ‘robbery’ of this equipment worth more than 800 million pesos has already been reported to the FGR by the ASF [Federal Auditor’s Office],” Moreno said.
He published the ASF complaint and accused the federal government of “inventing conspiracies, … crimes and now audio.”
With the espionage system, Moreno said in another tweet, “they say that they’re spying on the entire opposition, journalists and businesspeople.”
In addition to broadcasting Moreno’s remark against journalists, Sansores has disseminated audio in which the PRI chief (or at least a person presented as him) is heard discussing 25 million pesos in questionable campaign funding the PRI apparently received from cinema chain Cinépolis.
Among yet more compromising recordings released by the Campeche governor is one tape in which Moreno discusses a facial botox procedure with a plastic surgeon. The former governor offers to fly the surgeon to Campeche on his private plane for a three or four-day all-expenses-paid trip. “I’ll provide my plane, … I have an apartment [you can use],” Moreno said.
The collaborators sought to paint a balanced portrait of Rivera's life.SelfMadeHero
How would you depict Diego Rivera’s renowned and complex mural The History of Mexico in a space as small as a graphic novel?
This question challenged the Mexican duo of writer Francisco de la Mora and artist José Luis Pescador as they worked on their biography Diego Rivera, recently published by SelfMadeHero in comic book format.
“[Pescador] recreated the whole thing,” de la Mora marveled in a joint Zoom interview. “You can see the whole mural. He recreated every single element of [it] … It’s [Rivera’s] most important work, in many ways.”
The book is part of a series on art masters, from Rembrandt to Picasso. The latter artist had an important but stormy relationship with Rivera in the early 20th century, reflected in the rainstorm the duo walk through in Paris in one panel.
“Rivera was creating murals before he met Frida, but I think Frida gave him connections to a different universe, like a shaman,” de la Mora said. SelfMadeHero
The biggest important but conflicted relationship the Mexican muralist had, however, was, of course, with fellow artist Frida Kahlo, his third and most famous wife. “He fell in love with her,” de la Mora said. “No doubt, the relationship was one of the most amazing relationships in the history of art. Frida was part of Rivera’s life forever.”
To underscore this in the graphic novel, Rivera gives a poignant reflection on their relationship after her death.
“Rivera was creating murals before he met Frida, but I think Frida gave him connections to a different universe, like a shaman — a shaman connecting with forces we don’t understand,” de la Mora said. “I think it’s what she provided for Rivera. In my opinion, it was mutual. Rivera was very important for Frida as well.”
But the book also depicts the playful side of the relationship: he called her the playfully mocking endearment “Friducha,” and she nicknamed him the equally playfully mocking “Panzón” (big belly). The graphic novel also shows the controversial side of Rivera’s life – including his affair with his wife’s sister Cristina Kahlo and, before that, his abandonment of his first wife, Angelina Beloff, after the loss of their baby son in Paris during World War I.
Rivera, a genius but also an inveterate womanizer, “[wouldn’t] have lasted three days in the #MeToo movement,” de la Mora said. SelfMadeHeroIt also portrays the divorce from his second wife, Guadalupe Marín, with whom he had two daughters.
“I don’t think he would have lasted three days in the #MeToo movement,” de la Mora said.
The book does not devote much space to his final marriage to Emma Hurtado.
The collaborators sought to paint a balanced portrait of Rivera’s life on a canvas that stretched from Guanajuato to Paris to Mexico City. Throughout, Rivera painted multiple masterpieces while interacting with a collage of great artists and personages of the period – as well as notorious political figures such as Leon Trotsky.
From left to right: Leon Trotsky, Diego Rivera and Andre Breton in 1938.
“Trotsky came [to Mexico] as a refugee,” de la Mora said. “[Rivera] embraced him in many ways, helped him come, at a time [when] nobody really offered him a hand.” However, he added, “Rivera always had an agenda. The agenda did not really help him the way he was expecting it to work. He stopped supporting him, abandoned him.”
Whether it was with Trotsky or Trotsky’s nemesis Joseph Stalin or the power couple of Rivera and Kahlo, Pescador said he filled the pages of the graphic novel with “many personalities and characters” over “a big, long period,” spanning a half-century.
In depicting Rivera himself, Pescador focused on a central feature of the artist’s face.
“The key is the eyes,” he explained. “Like Frida Kahlo said, Diego Rivera has flat eyes. I think this is very important to represent [him]. His eyes are the key.”
One of Pescador’s biggest challenges was recreating the entirety of Rivera’s mural The History of Mexico onto the page in miniature. Courtesy of José Luis Pescador
Pescador also said, “My goal was to … get inside the mind of Diego Rivera, try to recreate his mind. This is my intent for the color palette.”
He used watercolors throughout. “It reflected, tried to copy, to recreate Diego Rivera’s style of painting,” Pescador said. “This is very important about creating the style to remember the paintings, the murals of Diego Rivera.”
The image of the mural that hangs in the National Palace in Mexico City spans two pages in the book. “It was so difficult because I had to do the correct placement of all the figures of Diego Rivera,” he said. “It took him six years to do this [from 1929 to 1935]. I did this in around 20 days.”
A creatively designed panel in the book depicts the Mexican intelligentsia reflecting on Riviera’s debut mural in 1923 with a diversity of opinions. “[Rivera] was so confident; he was so aware of his own genius,” de la Mora said. “At the same time, he made a lot of enemies in his life.”
“[Rivera] was so confident; he was so aware of his own genius. At the same time, he made a lot of enemies in his life,” de la Mora said. Francisco de la MoraIn Mexico, he noted, “he suffered from time to time because he always had enemies. Sometimes commissions were canceled. He needed a lot of support to be able to put these kinds of huge paintings on the walls of some of the most important buildings in a city, in a country.”
This extended abroad: Rivera worked on an ambitious project for Henry Ford’s son Edsel Ford in Detroit, known as the Detroit Industry murals, which raised public outcry, while in the Soviet Union his ideas never even got off the ground.
“He ended up fighting with the people who paid for the murals [in the U.S.]. He was not always very politically intelligent,” de la Mora said. “He ended up being the enemy of all the rich people in the U.S. who commissioned projects … Every genius in the arts has to deal with this kind of thing.”
Asked which Rivera works are their favorites, the collaborators had differing responses: Pescador mentioned the National Palace mural, while de la Mora is fascinated by the Detroit Industry murals, as well as some of his conventional paintings.
The novel uses Rivera and Frida Kahlo’s pet names for each other to show the playful side of their relationship. SelfMadeHero
The collaborators also explore the extent to which José Guadalupe Posada might have made an impact when Rivera was an up-and-coming artist yet to embark on a decade-long sojourn in Europe. The book envisions a meeting between Posada and Rivera that may or may not have happened, with Pescador emulating Posada’s catrinas.
“He learned from Posada,” de la Mora said. “He visited his studio many, many times. It’s probably true, the influence that Posada had.”
De la Mora asked Pescador to “come up with a couple of pictures of Diego in Posada’s studio, to take Posada’s style, borrow from the period, the idea of Diego to Posada’s eye. Many things in the graphic novel never happened the way Diego put them.”
And yet, the scenes with Posada reflect a larger truth, he said – “how we Mexicans interpret not just art but life and death. It was really important for us to transmit that in the book.”
Rich Tenorio is a frequent contributor to Mexico News Daily.
Juanita Alonso: 'It is easy to go to prison, but it is difficult to get out.'
An indigenous Guatemalan migrant who was imprisoned in Mexico for more than seven years without a trial was freed last weekend.
Juana Alonzo Santizo, a Mayan Chuj woman, was jailed in 2014 after she was arrested in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, on kidnapping charges.
A court ordered her immediate release last Saturday and she returned to Guatemala on Sunday.
Netzaí Sandoval, head of Mexico’s federal public defenders office, said the court found that there was no consistent evidence against Alonzo, who left the Guatemalan town of San Mateo Ixtatán in 2014 to migrate to the United States to find work.
Sandoval, whose office defended Alonzo, said the charges she faced were not translated into her native language of Chuj until this year. The 35-year-old didn’t speak Spanish when she was detained, but learned the language during her lengthy stay in pre-trial detention.
Sandoval also said that Alonzo was tortured and forced to sign a confession she didn’t understand.
Her release comes after a campaign for her freedom that was supported by her family, her community in Guatemala, Mexican and international groups and President López Obrador. The Tamaulipas Attorney General’s Office eventually dropped the charges against her.
The Centro Prodh human rights organization, one of the groups that supported the “Freedom for Juanita” campaign, said the work of the media in documenting the case and in doing so “putting a face to this story of injustice” played an important role in obtaining justice for Alonzo.
It also said the United Nations played an important role by confirming “the abuses committed against this honorable indigenous woman and migrant.”
Sandoval described Alonzo’s case as “totally aberrant,” asserting that her rights were violated because she is a woman, an indigenous person, a migrant, poor and didn’t know Spanish.
The Associated Press reported that an emotional Alonzo was met at the Guatemala City airport by her family last Sunday. After collapsing into her father’s and uncle’s arms, she changed into traditional Mayan Chuj clothes, AP said.
“It is easy to go to prison, but it is difficult to get out of it,” Alonzo said in hesitant Spanish.
“Her crime was being unable to speaking Spanish,” said her uncle, Pedro Alonzo. “Who is going to pay for that scar?”
There are thousands of people in Mexico’s prisons who have never been convicted of a crime. Official statistics show that over 40% of the prison population is made up of people who have not been convicted or sentenced.
One person determined to put an end to the common practice of incarcerating people for months or years before they face trial is Supreme Court Chief Justice Arturo Zaldívar, who said earlier this month that there has been an “abuse” of preventative prison in Mexico.
El Vani was allegedly a lynchpin of a cattle trafficking operation, but was arrested last year on drug-related charges in Mexico City. insight crime
Ranchers from Mexico’s eastern state of Veracruz know a way to buy cheap cattle: Drive to a remote part of the Chiapas-Guatemala border and purchase cows being brought illegally across. But behind the smugglers and the brokers, those who allow this thriving business to exist hide in the shadows.
Benemérito de las Américas may be one of the most isolated towns in Mexico. Sitting on a remote part of the Mexico-Guatemala border along the Usumacinta River, hundreds of kilometers away from the nearest city, the town has no customs presence and no formal border crossing. It has one gas station, one supermarket, one hotel and a few restaurants.
Yet it is a thriving hub for a growing transnational economy: cattle smuggling.
The river near Benemérito is crowded with a large number of boats carrying cattle and other types of contraband from Guatemala to collection points dotted along the Mexican side, usually at ranches. Dozens of tractor-trailers, loaded with cattle, wait to fuel up at the gas station or are parked outside the offices of the local cattle ranchers’ union.
One rancher, Eduardo, heard of the brisk cattle business in Benemérito and decided to travel there from his home in the south of Veracruz state. He wanted to see first-hand the level of competition he was up against.
“Buyers prefer to go there [to Benemérito] because it is cheaper. The cattle that come from Central America are not subject to the controls that we are forced to have,” he told InSight Crime.
Eduardo was in an ideal position to profit. As a member of Mexico’s National Confederation of Livestock Organizations he believed he had the contacts needed to get access to ranches in Guatemala where the cattle are collected before being moved to Mexico. The reality was a letdown. According to Eduardo, just before entering the center of Benemérito, a small road leads down to the Usumacinta River. Long, wooden canoes, carrying dozens of cows and calves, arrive there and unload their cargo. Eduardo appraised the cows as “old and rough.”
Crossing into Guatemala to inspect the cattle proved impossible. “The cattle come from Nicaragua and are gathered in Guatemala to bring them to Mexico,” he said, having learned this during his trip. “Armed people guard the transfer of cattle. They told us not to go any farther. Criminal groups are taking care of this business,” Eduardo added.
The routes through Central America used by cattle smugglers. insight crime
Another source from Veracruz, Gilberto, had been buying cattle in Benemérito for eight years. He was tasked with procuring cattle from Guatemala for a number of farms up the coast of Veracruz in eastern Mexico and delivering them to their buyer.
Gilbert told InSight Crime that ranchers seek to increase their production levels with cattle from Central America, since production in Mexico is low while demand is always increasing. “That area [Benemérito] is very tricky. You deal with bad, bad people. Many heads have fallen in this business. But if you show up and respect the deals, you won’t have a problem,” he told InSight Crime.
In all that time, Gilberto never met those who actually owned the cattle being sold. He only dealt with brokers. “It is very difficult to reach [the people who sell the cattle]. You will never talk to them, you will never know who they are,” said the rancher.
Gilberto never asked any questions. He bought the cattle and left.
The entire cattle trafficking industry is shrouded in secrecy. During field work in Benemérito, InSight Crime learned that the identities of those who own the ranches near the town are also hidden. “The town has no formal customs or tax office. But it has a different sort of ‘customs’ presence,” said one source in the town, who is connected to cattle trafficking but requested anonymity.
Several large properties along the river through which the cattle pass in both Mexico and Guatemala are owned by one person, referred to as La Aduana (Customs). “They call him Customs because his lands are half in Guatemala and half in Chiapas,” explained the source, who added that ranchers frequently quip that “they brought animals through Customs.”
The well-worn path
It is no coincidence that the ranchers InSight Crime spoke to were from Veracruz. This state, which takes up much of the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, is a cattle powerhouse. One of the main beef-producing areas in the country, it is also a major corridor for the transport of cargo from southern Mexico to the United States.
Truck parked outside the local ranchers’ union in Benemérito de las Américas. insight crime
And in August 2021, cattle ranchers and smugglers alike in southern Veracruz took notice when they heard about a specific arrest. On August 15, authorities in Mexico City announced the capture of a man identified only as Jovanni “N,” alias “El Vani.” His arrest document listed him as a member of the Familia Michoacana, an important if dwindling criminal group from the western state of Michoacán. He faced a raft of charges, including kidnapping, extortion, drug trafficking, criminal association and possession of firearms exclusively for use by the army. When police went to arrest him, he allegedly tried to bribe them with $2 million Mexican pesos (around US $100,000) to let him go.
There was no mention anywhere of El Vani being involved in cattle trafficking. Yet, according to multiple interviews carried out by InSight Crime, El Vani was the lynchpin of the entire cattle trafficking operation between Benemérito and Veracruz.
“If you want to know about cattle from Central America being trafficked to Mexico, he is the key,” one source from Coatzacoalcos, in southern Veracruz, told InSight Crime shortly after El Vani was arrested.
One rancher, respected as a leader in his community, only agreed to speak about El Vani if no details were given about where the interview took place. “He was not famous among the population, only among certain circles of ranchers. He dealt with the most powerful ranchers, those at a very high level. He didn’t give the little ones any attention,” he told InSight Crime.
Controlling the local cattle trafficking trade had made El Vani a wealthy and influential man. Hailing from the town of Carranza, right on the Veracruz-Chiapas border, his house is the most famous building around, so ostentatious it is known locally as “Disneyland.” Residents of Carranza also said that the nickname El Vani may have been invented by authorities because locally he is known as “El Gallo” (The Rooster), a nickname given to brave or aggressive people.
In addition to the Disneyland mansion, Carranza has many cattle ranches, where thousands of animals are fattened up and sold each year.
One rancher, who is also a member of one of the 19 vigilante groups in the region, recalled an instance where one of their colleagues was kidnapped by a local criminal group and El Vani, not the authorities, helped to free him. Like all those who dared to speak about El Vani, he requested complete anonymity.
When El Vani’s brother was similarly kidnapped, the community rallied to help. “We brought a group to help him, and they quickly released the brother. El Vani thanked us personally,” said the rancher.
Another source in Veracruz, who described El Vani as a good friend, said “you could deal with him when he was good and healthy [meaning sober]. The problem was that when he got drunk, the devil got in him. He would start shooting and doing ugly things.”
But beyond these glimpses and personal stories, it proved very difficult to gain a clear picture of exactly how El Vani’s business worked. The scale of this criminal economy though was evident.
Mexico’s National Agricultural Health and Safety Service (SENASICA) estimates that around 800,000 head of cattle annually are smuggled into the country from Guatemala, though no data has yet been published. These cattle are sent to states across the country, where they both complement national meat production for consumption in Mexico and exports to the United States.
Ranchers interviewed in Veracruz and Chiapas told InSight Crime that each animal introduced from Guatemala is sold for approximately $400. This means that cattle being smuggled in could potentially be worth around $320 million a year.
El Vani’s arrest temporarily slowed this business down. A leading rancher from Veracruz told InSight Crime that after he was detained, those rounding up the cattle in Guatemala and bringing them into Mexico were forced to adjust. “Today, [the business] has slowed down, not so many cages [vehicles with cattle] are entering. It’s complicated,” he said.
“Does the slowdown have to do with El Vani’s arrest?”
“Yes, yes. But they are regrouping. While they are reorganizing and reaching new deals, it’s slowed down. But [this pause] won’t last long because there are a lot of interests here.”
Those other interests soon became clear. The entry of cattle from Central America to Mexico also serves as a shield to bring in cocaine. “The entry of livestock is a very, very sensitive and dangerous issue because it is in the hands of organizations who do not generally deal with livestock. It is a façade, behind which other things can be brought in,” he explained.
Ranchers and local officials in southeastern Mexico confirmed to InSight Crime that cocaine is often smuggled in alongside the cattle. The way in which the smuggled cattle are then “laundered” in Mexico and enter the legitimate supply chain also offers drug trafficking operations a chance to launder money. “It is a double business [livestock and drug trafficking]. It’s very, very big,” said the rancher, who is a member of the vigilante groups.
The arrest
And suddenly, the circumstances of El Vani’s arrest may begin to make more sense. Statements from authorities made zero mention of any involvement in cattle smuggling, claiming that he was engaged in “drug trafficking inside and outside the country.”
Some more light was shed on El Vani’s possible connections to La Familia Michoacana. One rancher from Carranza told InSight Crime that El Vani had many friends from Michoacán and that many ranchers in Veracruz hailed from the western state.
In fact, InSight Crime learned from interviews in the region that one of the most prominent ranchers in southern Veracruz, who is close to El Vani, is the brother of one of the foremost gang bosses and drug traffickers in Michoacán. This rancher did not respond to several interview requests and there is no evidence to date that he is involved in any illegal activity.
Yet authorities have remained quiet about any connections between El Vani and cattle. At the time of his arrest, Veracruz state Governor Cuitláhuac García publicly stated that local prosecutors were investigating the case, but never once referred to livestock.
InSight Crime tried to dig deeper. Requests for information from prosecutors in Veracruz, Chiapas and Tabasco, all key states for cattle smuggling, came up empty. The local Attorney General’s Office in Mexico City, where El Vani was arrested, said it was not looking into his case and that the federal Attorney General’s Office was handling the investigation. They did not respond either.
Finally, InSight Crime turned to Mexico’s National Transparency Platform to request any documentary evidence about El Vani. The request was denied, and the information deemed confidential.
This is the second article in a three-part investigative series by InSight Crime, a foundation dedicated to the study of organized crime. The series looks at how cattle produced in Central America are smuggled into Mexico and laundered in a variety of ways to enter the legal food supply chain before beef products are consumed in both Mexico and the United States. Read the full investigation here.
María Herrera meets Pope Francis on Wednesday. Centro Prodh
Pope Francis met Wednesday with a Michoacán woman whose four sons are among Mexico’s more than 100,000 missing people.
María Herrera Magdaleno traveled to Vatican City to meet the pontiff on behalf of the large number of Mexicans whose loved ones have disappeared.
Jesuitas México and the Centro Prodh human rights organization said in a statement that the pope greeted and blessed Herrera, who hails from Pajacuarán, a municipality near Michoacán’s border with Jalisco.
Representatives of those two groups traveled to Rome with the mother of eight, whose sons Raúl, Salvador, Luis Armando and Gustavo have been missing for over a decade.
“The meeting occurred in the context of Mexico reaching more than 100,000 missing people, according to official statistics,” the statement said.
“In representation of thousands of Mexican families, María Herrera delivered information about this painful reality as well as the forensic backlog of more than 50,000 unidentified bodies and remains. On the person of Mrs. Herrera, the Holy Father blessed all the mothers and families who are looking for their disappeared loved ones.”
Jesuitas México and Centro Prodh said the meeting constituted “a call to governments to look for all missing people, identify people who still haven’t received a dignified burial due to the forensic crisis and adopt effective public policies to reduce violence.”
“It is also an invitation to churches, communities of faith and society to develop greater empathy with the victims of violence,” they said.
Herrera’s meeting with the pope came after she wrote to him earlier this month and after the United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances said in a report that abductions of children, adolescents and women are on the rise and that impunity in missing person cases is “almost absolute.”
In her letter, Herrera noted that Mexico’s missing persons count had passed 100,000 and that her four sons were among those whose whereabouts are unknown.
“In the face of the indifference of our governments mothers have to go out and look [for our children with] our own hands, picks and shovels,” she wrote.
“Don’t forget us,” Herrera implored. “Pray for us and call on our governments to look for the missing and stop the violence, on our pastors to accompany us more and on society to be more empathetic with our pain,” she wrote.
