US announces US $30 million in aid for southeast

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May 20, 2022

The United States government has announced a new US $30 million employment and sustainability program for seven states in Mexico’s south and southeast.

Mileydi Guilarte, an official with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), announced the initiative Thursday at a meeting of the governors of southern and southeastern states in Mexico City.

The program is called Surges, a Spanish-language acronym for “Generating Employment and Sustainability in the South of Mexico.”

It will be implemented in Campeche, Chiapas, Oaxaca, Quintana Roo, Tabasco, Veracruz and Yucatán.

US Ambassador Ken Salazar told southern governors that US President Joe Biden is committed to southeast Mexico’s economic success.

“With Surges, USAID will seek to invest $30 million in the development of markets that are friendly with the environment,” Guilarte said, adding that it will operate as a public-private partnership.

“Surges will support sustainable economic development, helping to have a positive impact on communities’ way of life,” she said.

The United States Embassy said in a statement that the program will generate sales and investment of over $250 million. It is slated to start at the end of summer.

United States Ambassador Ken Salazar told the governors’ meeting that United States President Joe Biden is committed to the economic success of North America, including Mexico’s southeast. “The success of Mexico is the success of North America,” he said.

President López Obrador has called for the United States to support development in southern Mexico and Central America, and in March criticized the U.S. for taking so long to approve aid for the region when it promptly authorized resources to help Ukraine in its war against Russia.

The U.S. Senate on Thursday approved a $40 billion package of military, economic and food aid for Ukraine. The outlay for the new program in Mexico’s south and southeast is just 0.07% of that amount.

However, the U.S. government is investing more broadly in the region via a program called Promosur.

Salazar on Twitter thanked his U.S. Embassy and USAID colleagues for launching that program. “This initiative encompasses all the United States assistance programs to promote development and sustainable investment in Mexico’s south-southeast region,” he wrote.

Details of the initiative are not yet clear, but USAID could launch programs similar to its tech training program in places like El Salvador, which partners with local forces to train Hondurans in tech-related job skills.

In addition, the United States agreed last September to collaborate with Mexico on employment programs in the southern region of the country and in Central America, while López Obrador and Biden discussed development cooperation in a call in late April.

They are due to meet in early June at the Summit of the Americas, but López Obrador has threatened to boycott the regional meeting if Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua aren’t invited.

Federal officials and governors from southern and southeastern states met with Salazar last October to discuss investment and development, and the federal government subsequently said that the “productive dialogue” set a goal of $25 billion in investment between 2022 and 2024 “to trigger economic growth” in Mexico’s southeast with a view to stemming migration.

The $250 million Surges-related investment figure cited by the U.S. embassy represents just 1% of that amount. Nevertheless, any additional funding and investment is welcome.

Mexico and the United States have sought to reset their relationship since Biden took office early last year, with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris declaring last June that the two countries are “embarking on a new era” in bilateral relations. The neighbors entered into a new security agreement last December.

However, there have been differences between the two countries, including on Mexico’s energy sector policies and the United States’ funding – via USAID – of civil society organizations that López Obrador has branded as opponents of his administration.

In what the president describes as Mexico’s long-neglected southern and southeastern region, the two countries appear to have a common goal, although Mexican authorities would undoubtedly like an even bigger financial commitment from their superpower neighbor.

The Mexican government is investing billions of dollars in the region to spur economic development, mainly via large infrastructure projects such as the Maya Train railroad, the Dos Bocas refinery and the Isthmus of Tehuantepc trade corridor.

President López Obrador has long called for the US to support development in southern Mexico and Central America as a bulwark against migration northward.

The refinery, located on the Tabasco coast, is scheduled to begin operations in July while the Maya Train, which will run through Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatán, Quintana Roo and Chiapas, is slated to begin services next year.

The latter is opposed by many Mayan communities and environmentalists, who say the construction and operation of the train will harm the environment. Experts have questioned the wisdom of building a new refinery as the project diverts resources from Pemex’s more profitable exploration business.

With reports from Milenio and El País

UK hopes to conclude deal with Pacific trade bloc, including Mexico, this year

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Michael Stott

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May 20, 2022

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U.K. International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan, left, poses with Economy Minister Tatiana Clouthier, right. — U.K. International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan, left, poses with Economy Minister Tatiana Clouthier. Twitter @annietrev

The U.K. is hoping to conclude talks on joining a major Pacific trade bloc by the end of this year as London pursues new commercial opportunities around the world post-Brexit.

Anne-Marie Trevelyan, international trade secretary, told the Financial Times that the U.K. had already completed the first part of the accession to the 11-nation Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a process she likened to “sitting exams”.

Trevelyan added that she was working through the rest of the negotiation. “It’s not unrealistic that we might get there by the end of the year,” she said.

“They’re very enthusiastic about our application and everyone’s working really hard to try and . . . plow through the complexity that is trade language and detail to get there. So I’m hopeful that by the end of the year we should see that crystallize.”

The CPTPP includes fast-growing Asian economies such as Malaysia and Vietnam along with established Pacific players such as Japan, Australia, Mexico and Canada. The U.K. opened talks last June and would be the first nation to accede since the bloc was launched in 2018.

Trevelyan was speaking as the U.K. started negotiations with Mexico on an enhanced trade agreement to replace the one carried over from its EU membership days, which is more than 20 years old.

“Mexico has a really strong and growing market . . . young population and with a high growth curve overall so we want to be making sure we can . . . harness those relationships and grow them.”

Total bilateral trade is currently tiny at about US $5.2 billion and Mexico is the U.K.’s 44th largest trading partner. Commerce between the nations is less than 1% of Mexico’s $661 billion annual goods trade with the neighboring U.S.

Mexico's young population and high growth curve are part of the driving force behind the U.K.'s desire to build a stronger trade relationship with the country, the British trade minister said. — Mexico’s young population and high growth curve are part of the driving force behind the U.K.’s desire to build a stronger trade relationship with the country, the British trade minister said.

London hopes a new agreement focused on services and the digital economy will grow trade with Mexico by 30%-40% in the next few years, Trevelyan added. It is the third set of trade talks launched by the U.K. this year, after those with India and Canada.

Latin American nations complain that Britain has paid them little attention in recent years, despite the region’s wealth of natural resources and human talent. Total trade between the U.K. and Latin America was $22.6 billion in 2021, down 4.5% from a decade earlier, according to official data.

Trevelyan said the U.K. viewed Latin America, which together with the Caribbean has a gross domestic product of $4.7 trillion, as “integral and important” for trade. She is pursuing talks with Brazil on extending an existing trade partnership and her team is also speaking to Colombia.

Mexico was chosen as a priority along with Canada for a new agreement because both nations are CPTPP members. “We want to . . . get those extra layers of potential trade opportunities beyond the CPTPP,” Trevelyan explained. Clean energy and fintech were among the exports that the U.K. could offer.

As foreign secretary, William Hague tried in 2010 to boost trade and investment with Latin America by opening new embassies, appointing a regional trade commissioner and boosting trade visits.

A report from the Canning House think tank concluded 10 years later that “in terms of U.K. exports to the region, the results have been poor.” The U.K. accounted for less than 1% of Latin America’s trade by 2018, well behind its main European competitors.

Nayarit’s Ceboruco volcano’s seven craters offer endless hiking options

By

John Pint

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May 20, 2022

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Ceboruco Volcano’s lower crater — Hiking this volcano gives you a variety of stunning views of the Nayarit landscape. Chris Lloyd

“Let’s go camp on top of Ceboruco Volcano to see the Lyrid meteor shower,” suggested my friend, geologist Chris Lloyd. “The next morning, we can go take a look at a fumarole with beautiful sulfur crystals. It’s in the upper crater.”

Now, a fumarole is a hole that emits hot gases and vapors, and Ceboruco is a big volcano in the state of Nayarit, a two-hour drive northwest of Guadalajara.

Ceboruco was one of the first places I described in my Outdoors in Western Mexico books. I had been lured there by the man guarding the archaeological ruins outside the nearby town of Ixtlan, Nayarít.

“If you’re looking for a place to camp around here,” he told me, “all I can say is that the most beautiful sight I have ever seen is the view from the top of Ceboruco volcano.”

Ceboruco Volcano, Nayarit — Geologist Chris Lloyd looks down into the High Crater.

Like him, I too had been enchanted by the massive mountain and its most impressive crater and had returned countless times to camp and hike there.

For this reason, I found it a bit embarrassing to ask Chris my next question: “The upper crater? You mean Ceboruco has more than one crater?”

“Oh, John, you have no idea. There are nested craters on Ceboruco: at least seven! You have to go see this for yourself.”

Once again, I was hooked.

We left for Nayarit late in the afternoon of April 22, the day numerous internet sites said we had the best chance to see shooting stars — “perhaps 100 per hour,” some sources claimed.

We exited the Puerto Vallarta toll road, crossed the little town of Jala and started up the steep, well-maintained road to the antennas at the top of the volcano.

“This time of day, we’ve always spotted roadrunners,” I told Chris.” I guarantee we will see one.”

And we saw two — which is two more than the number of shooting stars I saw not many hours later when we were lying flat on our backs near our tents gazing up at a perfectly clear sky unaffected by the glow of any nearby cities.

map of Ceboruco Volcano, Nayarit — Even a layman can see several nested craters (black lines) in this geological map of the volcano. K. Sieron & C. Siebe

At 10 p.m., I gave up and crawled into my tent. Chris persevered and finally saw two. The following day, I saw enough craters to make me forget the Lyrids completely.

We started along the trail that I traditionally followed to reach the only crater I knew. This takes you past picturesque green meadows overshadowed by great, high walls of jet-black lava rubble, a stunning contrast that never fails to astonish me.

“Why are these walls so nicely vertical?” I asked Chris. “Did the lava come up against some obstacle that is now gone?”

“You see a wall because this lava wasn’t flowing horizontally. It was actually pushed up from below through a fissure which we call a dike — and it solidified right there, cracking and crumbling as it cooled.”

Looming over the town of Ahuacatlán, Nayarit, Ceboruco is considered one of Mexico’s highest-risk volcanoes. Iswy via Mapio.

After a walk of two kilometers along a well-worn path sign-posted “Crater,” we turned onto a side trail heading steeply upward (at N21.13176 W104.51429, if you have a GPS).

This trail takes you right up the spine of a great, narrow, curving wall. From the top of the ridge, even non-geologists could see that they are standing on the rim of a very big crater — definitely not the crater I’ve been visiting for years.

This I will call the High Crater, to distinguish it from the others.

The view was utterly magnificent. Eventually, you reach a point where you see the High Crater simply by turning your head to the left and the old “Traditional Crater” far, far below, when you look to the right.

Once we rounded the High Crater and reached the opposite wall, we found ourselves standing at the very pinnacle of Ceboruco, my GPS indicating an altitude of 2,281 meters.

From this point, looking southeast, what did I see but yet another crater, so huge that I had never recognized it as such even though I had driven right through it on the way up.

This one I’ll call the Puma Crater In honor of the nocturnal visitor I had while camping there a year or so ago.

From the very highest point on Ceboruco, we descended into the High Crater to visit several fumaroles and, of course, to gaze in awe at the enchanting yellow-green, featherlike sulfur crystals.

Ceboruco volcano in 1870 — Drawing showing what Ceboruco looked like during its 1870 eruption. Iglesias et all, 1877

Finally, we completed our loop of the High Crater and returned to the main trail. I asked Chris for a geological resume of how Ceboruco volcano was formed — in layman’s terms, naturally.

“Volcanic activity around here started in the year A.D. 1000,” began my friend, “but Ceboruco’s big explosion took place in 1005. Around 3.5 cubic kilometers of material were ejected into the air. This was a very volatile pyroclastic event three times the size of the Mount Saint Helens explosion.”

I learned that the column of ash rose as high as 30 kilometers and only recently have researchers discovered proof that tephra particles from what is now called The Great Jala Plinian Eruption of Ceboruco reached as far as Europe.

After that, things were quiet for one hundred years, Chris told me, and then, in 1100, there was another big explosion which sent two cubic kilometers of volcanic rubble and ash (called jal in Mexico) into the air.

Trail on Ceboruco Volcano, Nayarit — The wide, ashy, well-trod trail to the Traditional Crater.

Curiously, more events took place in 1200, 1300 and 1400, nicely spaced one century apart… and then there was a long period of quiet until 1870.

Commented Chris: “This is when the Dos Equis Eruption, as they call it, occurred. It was the volcano’s last gasp, and you can see it today at the very top of Ceboruco, just above those fumaroles with the sulfur crystals.”

“Last gasp,” by the way, is a very relative expression. Ceboruco is, today, considered among the five volcanoes with the highest risk in Mexico, and the second most active in the western Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt after the Colima Fire Volcano.

Although Ceboruco gets relatively few visitors — and the upper area, hardly any at all — there is a very well delineated trail all along the narrow rim of the highest crater. My suspicion is that this trail was blazed long ago by explorers who, like some of us today, were curious to see all of Ceboruco from its highest point and felt a sense of awe upon discovering its many nested craters.

Ceboruco Volcano is about two hours from Guadalajara and three hours from Lake Chapala. An ordinary car can make it, but a high-clearance vehicle would be better.

You’ll find the hiking trail to the High Crater on Wikiloc.

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.

sulfur crystals at Ceboruco Volcano — Another vent featuring feather-like sulfur crystals.

sky above Ceboruco volcano — Stars above a wall of lava rubble. Ceboruco is a favorite place for observing astronomical events.

AMLO’s Morena party gets top marks; approval rating well above other parties

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MND Staff

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May 20, 2022

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López Obrador celebrates after registering as a pre-candidate for president, in 2017. lopezobrador.org.mx

The ruling Morena party – with which President López Obrador swept to power in 2018 – is easily Mexico’s most popular political party, a new poll found.

In a survey conducted earlier this week, the polling company Poligrama asked 1,000 people to offer an opinion on seven political parties.

The National Regeneration Movement, or Morena – founded by López Obrador as a civil society organization in 2011 before becoming a political party in 2014 – was the only party that was seen in a positive light by a majority of respondents.

Just under 42% of those polled said they had an excellent opinion of Morena while just over 19% said they had a good opinion of the party. A combined 61% of respondents assessed Morena positively, well above the rate for the other six parties.

Nearly 42% of poll respondents reported having an excellent opinion of Morena. Poligrama

Poligrama said the high rating was related to López Obrador’s high personal approval rating, which was almost 67% in its latest poll.

The poll comes almost a year after a midterm federal election at which Morena lost its majority in the lower house of Congress and the two-thirds supermajority it shared with its allies. However, the ruling party attracted more support than any other party, garnering about 35% of the total vote.

The National Action Party (PAN), the main opposition party in terms of representation in Congress, was assessed as excellent by just over 12% of poll respondents and good by 11%. Almost 51% of those polled said they had a terrible opinion of the conservative party, compared to just 24% who said the same about Morena.

Just over 14% of respondents said they had a bad opinion of the PAN – which ruled Mexico between 2000 and 2012 under presidents Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderón – while the figure for Morena was just over 9%.

Morena’s net rating (positive opinions minus negative opinions) was + 27.4% while the PAN’s was – 41.47%.

About one in 20 respondents didn’t offer an opinion about Morena while more than one in 10 didn’t say what they thought about the PAN.

The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which ruled Mexico for most of the 20th century and the six years before López Obrador took office, had a net rating that was even worse than the PAN at -42.2%.

The poor result suggests that the once omnipotent PRI is still damaged by the six scandal-filled years that former president Enrique Peña Nieto was in office.

The PRI party, which rulled Mexico from 1929 to 2000, was negatively rated by most respondents. — The PRI, which ruled Mexico from 1929 to 2000, was negatively rated by most respondents. Poligrama

Fewer than 11% of respondents assessed the party as excellent, about 9% said it was good, almost 14% rated it as bad and nearly 49% said it was terrible. The PRI, which has a loose alliance with the PAN and the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), has the third highest number of lawmakers in federal Congress.

The net ratings for the other four parties were -45.2% for the leftist PRD, López Obrador’s former party; -25.88% for the Labor Party, a Morena ally; -42.19% for the Ecological Green Party of Mexico, which also supports Morena in Congress; and -18.09% for the Citizens Movement (MC) party, which has two state governors in Enrique Alfaro of Jalisco and Samuel García of Nuevo León.

That means that MC was the second most popular party among the Poligrama poll respondents while simultaneously being very unpopular.

The publication of the survey comes ahead of gubernatorial elections in six states early next month. Voters in Aguascalientes, Durango, Hidalgo, Oaxaca, Quintana Roo and Tamaulipas will go to the polls on June 5.

Morena currently governs 16 federal entities including Mexico City, and will be looking to add to that total next month. The PAN rules seven states while the PRI governs three.

The next presidential election will be held in 2024. López Obrador, who sets the political agenda at his marathon weekday press conferences, cannot be reelected. He received about 90% support at last month’s “revocation of mandate” recall referendum, but voter turnout was low.

With reports from EFE

My biggest regret in moving to Mexico

By

Chuck Bolotin

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May 20, 2022

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The malecón in Chapala, one of Mexico's popular destinations for retirees. File photo

You can hear profound statements in the most unlikely places.

A few years ago, when I was 61 or so, I was in a water aerobics class here in Mexico. One of my classmates was a woman a good bit older than me who told me that after building her dream home with her husband just two years ago they were selling it because, now that they were older, they realized that the house was “too much” for them. She then paused a beat, and with a tone that could best be described as equal parts intensity mixed with regret, she looked at me straight in my eyes, and said:

“We waited too long.”

This was so sad, so simple, and so meaningful that I had nothing to say.

After a few seconds, she looked at me again and repeated her unforgiving reality:

“We waited too long.”

A few years earlier, when I was in my mid-50s, I was interviewing Mike Cobb, who is an expert in living abroad. I asked him, “What is the thing people most often say to you about moving abroad?”

Mike’s answer was unequivocal, and it was immediate.

“The thing they most often say is, ‘I wish I had done it sooner.’”

Of course, this isn’t true for everyone, but it is true for lots of people, most likely the majority.

Jump forward to the present. As I’ve written before, Mexico has been very good for my wife and me. Our lifestyle here in Mexico is much better here than it would be if we had stayed in the United States. As part of that lifestyle upgrade, we were looking for real estate.

“We should look for a one-story home,” my wife told me.

I had absolutely no idea why she would say such a thing, so I asked her.

“Because we’re getting older and in a few years, we may not want to or be able to go up and down stairs.”

What in the world was she talking about?

We are fortunate to both be in extremely good health, so nothing like being worried about something so pedestrian and easy as going up stairs had ever occurred to me. She explained, “We are now in our mid-60s so in 20 years (not an incredibly long time to consider living in a home) we will be in our mid-80s.”

How many couples do you know in their mid-80s where both of them would be happy going up and down stairs?

A phrase from a poem by John Greenleaf Whittier came to mind: “For all the sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: It might have been.” I thought again of that woman I met in the pool.

One day too late is indeed one day too late.

As we get older, every day is more of a gift, because as each day passes, we are closer to the day that we can’t get up the stairs.

Maybe that’s why many older people are more impatient: they just don’t have as much time left for things that don’t really matter.

And they know it.

They know it because things they used to be able to do, they can’t do any longer.

About eight years ago, I was playing basketball when my Achilles tendon ripped. The moment before it ripped, I could play basketball. The moment after, I could not, and would not be able to any longer. No more basketball. It was over in an instant, and without warning. Did I play enough basketball in my life to be satisfied with the amount I had played? My Achilles tendon did not know, and my Achilles tendon did not care. I had played my final minute, whether I had sufficiently enjoyed my previously intact Achilles tendon or not. For me, basketball was over.

The same is true for every aspect of life, including the older woman’s ability to enjoy the dream home she and her husband had waited to build: at some point, it’s over. We just don’t know when. But we do know this: that point is sooner today than it was yesterday.

Among the many gifts that dogs give us, if we’re paying attention, is the gift of seeing the expanse of their lives within a little more than a decade. On average, dogs live about one-seventh as long as we do, so we can be playing with a little puppy one year and then, when we have barely perceived a change in our own lives, 12 years later, we can be witnessing the decline of an older dog.

The other day, I took our dogs to the beach to play with some tennis balls, something I hadn’t done for a few years. One of our dogs has been with me for about 13 years. In her younger days she was a great athlete, able to catch the ball at almost any angle, in the air, over her shoulder, etc. Back then, I delighted in her exploits, hour after hour, and she clearly was delighted to play. One of the other dogs with me that day was one we just rescued, who is about 2 years old. As I threw the ball to the younger one, she was fantastic and joyful, just like the older one used to be.

But the older one was like that no more.

As I threw the ball to the older one, she tried and she wanted to play and she did OK for her age, but many times, she wasn’t able to see the ball well or got confused, and a few times she just let the ball bounce in front of her, where the younger one would scoop it up.

The contrast was so stark, it set me back. I had been witness to the entire athletic career and almost the entire life of another being and now, her decline was obvious. In her youth, she and I had many, many wonderful experiences together playing with the ball, going on long hikes in the mountains, etc. But now, like me and basketball, for her, this part of her life was essentially over. It goes exactly the same for us humans as with dogs; just slower. My dog went from puppy to senior in about 13 years. For me, it took around 50.

I have a daughter in her late 20s who has a dog she loves dearly that has been with her for 12 years. In a phone conversation last night, my daughter told me that her dog was experiencing the typical symptoms of old age that any of us who have had a dog towards their later years understands. When my 20-something daughter sees her dog’s more advanced state, does my daughter understand that, one day many years in the future, she will be in essentially the same situation as her dog? And if she does realize this, how will it order her life for the better, now, when it’s not too late? What decisions will she make differently as a result of this object lesson provided by her dog?

Will she act to find a better life or will she be like the woman in the pool, and wait too long?

Will she have regrets?

What will you do?

Will you have regrets?

As the owner of Best Mexico Movers, I get to know a lot of people who move to Mexico. And most of our clients are older than me. Like the woman in my aerobics class, did they wait too long? Did they put things off for just the right moment and then find out that that moment did not come coupled with their ability to fully enjoy it? The answer is, for many of them unfortunately, that they have.

It was Mark Twain who said: “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

Mark Twain was brilliant. Like those people Mike Cobb referred to, my biggest regret about moving to Mexico was that we did not do it sooner.

As many people have said, “Tomorrow is promised to no one.” Neither is your good health, or the ability to go up and down stairs in the home of your dreams.

Let’s all be like Frank Sinatra, in Paul Anka’s song My Way: “Regrets, I’ve had a few, but then again, too few to mention.”

The woman in the pool, my grandfather, Mike Cobb’s expats, Paul Anka/Frank Sinatra and, by example, my dog, all had it right, but at different times in their lives. I implore you to get it right early on.

Regrets, just have a few.

If you’re thinking about moving abroad or for that matter, building your dream home or playing with your dog, don’t wait. There is no time like the present.

Chuck Bolotin is a Mexico-based expat and the owner of Best Mexico Movers. He can be reached on LinkedIn or through his website.

Family that lost their home to massive Puebla sinkhole gets a new house

By

MND Staff

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May 20, 2022

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The Sánchez Xalamihua family outside their new house. Instagram @Bienestar_Pue

A family whose home was swallowed by a sinkhole that appeared on their Puebla property last year now has a new house.

The Puebla government spent just under 870,000 pesos (US $43,750) to build a new house for the Sánchez Xalamihua family in Juan C. Bonilla, the same municipality where the sinkhole appeared and grew to almost 130 meters in diameter.

The family received the keys to their new 120-square-meter home on Monday, which was coincidentally the eldest daughter’s 14th birthday.

The Puebla Welfare Ministry announced on Twitter that it handed the house over to the family on the instructions of Governor Miguel Barbosa. The family now has an asset for their children, it said.

Esta mañana, por instrucción del gobernador @MBarbosaMX, entregamos el nuevo hogar de la familia Sánchez Xalamihua, quienes fueron afectados por el #socavón y hoy, cuentan con un patrimonio para sus hijos. pic.twitter.com/TDQjoCIGzj

— Secretaría de Bienestar (@Bienestar_Pue) May 16, 2022

The municipality covered the family’s rent while they were waiting for the new home to be built.

The residence is just over half the size of the family’s previous house, which they built themselves. It is not yet connected to the sewage system and lacks access to other public services, but the family nevertheless said that were happy with their new abode.

“The truth is I’m very happy [to be here] with my children,” Magdalena Xalamihua told Imagen Televisión.

“Now we have to work to furnish it,” said Heriberto Sanchez, her husband.

Jonathan Sánchez, the couple’s son, recalled feeling sad when his family lost its home to the sinkhole, which appeared almost a year ago. He said his father had no money at the time and the family didn’t know where they would live.

The sinkhole devoured most of the family’s home about two weeks after it appeared. Two dogs fell into it before that but were subsequently rescued.

One study blamed a massive exploitation of water for the appearance of the sinkhole, but an earlier study by the National Water Commission decided that the most likely cause was the dissolution of calcareous rocks, such as limestone or dolostone.

With reports from El Universal and Excélsior

López Obrador renews his attacks on National Autonomous University

By

MND Staff

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May 20, 2022

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The National Autonomous University's main campus in Mexico City. UNAM

President López Obrador renewed his attack on the National Autonomous University (UNAM) on Thursday, accusing the prestigious institution of becoming a bastion of right-wing views and asserting that some of its professors supported previous corrupt governments.

Asked at his morning press conference about UNAM’s dealings with United States medical technology company Arrayit Corporation, which is accused of fraud, López Obrador launched into a broadside against his alma mater.

“I’m very interested in this extremely important institution … continuing to be a great institution,” he began.

“… It reached an extreme in which the majority of professors were applauders of the regime of corruption, I’m talking about social sciences,” López Obrador said. “[The university] was inundated by rightism,” the president charged.

López Obrador also accused UNAM of using its budget to “reward people,” asserting that “special institutes were created for them” and “a kind of golden bureaucracy” was created. “And the subject teachers earned very little,” he added.

López Obrador’s attack on UNAM, where he studied political science in the 1970s before submitting his thesis and graduating in 1987, came seven months after he accused the university of becoming “individualistic” during what he describes as the nation’s 36-year neoliberal period from 1982 to 2018.

He has also previously accused the university of lurching to the right and becoming a defender of neoliberalism, which he blames for all manner of problems in Mexico.

In a rare split with the president, the ruling Morena party’s leader in the Senate presented a different view, saying that the majority of academics he knows, including those in the UNAM Law Faculty where he studied, are leftists who didn’t support corrupt, neoliberal past governments.

The Morena party's leader in the Senate, Ricardo Monreal, broke with the president to defend UNAM, where he work as a professor. — The Morena party’s leader in the Senate, Ricardo Monreal, broke with the president to defend UNAM, where he worked as a professor.

“I have friends and colleagues who are professors … and the majority are progressive, they’re from the left and they voted for us,” Ricardo Monreal said. “… I spend time with them and speak to them. We exchange points of view.”

Monreal, who has presidential aspirations, said he wasn’t aware of the existence of a “golden bureaucracy” at UNAM.

“[The president] will have his evidence to support that but I defend the institution,” the senator said. “… The institution is one of the best in the world, … it has educated exceptional professionals, men and women in all branches of science and professional life.”

Arturo Erdély, a mathematician and UNAM academic for over 25 years, told the newspaper El Universal that AMLO’s aim in criticizing the university is to influence the process to elect a new rector, which is scheduled to take place in 2023.

“What he’s seeking is clear: to have an influence on the succession of the rector,” he said.

“[Just] as he wants to have a bearing on the National Electoral Institute [INE] and the Supreme Court justices, he … [also wants to] get involved in the renewal of the UNAM rectorship,” Erdély said.

He charged that all institutions that “still have a whiff of autonomy” annoy the president, who has sought to disband or overhaul some such bodies, including the INE. “That’s why [he makes] his attacks,” Erdély said.

The national president of the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), AMLO’s former party, has a similar view.

Arturo Erdély, Arturo Erdély, a prominent UNAM mathematics professor, came out in defense of the university. — Arturo Erdély, a prominent UNAM mathematics professor, came out in defense of the university.

“These criticisms against the university are links in his chain of attacks against everything that smacks of free thought and freedom of expression,” Jesús Zambrano said.

He also claimed that López Obrador has forgotten what UNAM meant to him. “Andrés Manuel … acts like an oaf and is ungrateful to his alma mater that put up with him as a terrible student for years,” Zambrano said.

Since the start of his presidency, the president has been critical of the university, the PRD chief said, adding that he wasn’t aware of the basis of his claim that it has lurched to the right.

Zambrano suggested that AMLO wants UNAM to be another “extension” of Morena, which he founded.

“What he’s seeking is to align it with a form of totalitarian thought and for it to stop being … a receptacle of universal thought,” he said.

Manuel Añorve Baños, an Institutional Revolutionary Party senator, said López Obrador’s attacks on UNAM are excessive and senseless and suggested that he was trying to divert attention.

“President López Obrador is very annoyed by the barrage of criticism from the health sector, doctors’ associations, due to the hiring of Cuban doctors,” he said.

Luis de la Barreda Solórzano, a UNAM academic and former head of the Mexico City Human Rights Commission, said the president’s accusations against the university are strange given that it’s his alma mater.

“These positions have a psychological explanation a lot of the time. I don’t know if … [his] bitterness has to do with him taking 14 years to get a degree that’s normally obtained in four or five years,” he said.

De la Barreda added that the president wouldn’t be such a harsh critic of UNAM if he took the time to read the work of its academics.

“He’s had little time to read, which is noticeable when you listen to him. Listening to him for a few minutes is enough to understand that he has little time to read. If he had read articles, essays, books by the UNAM professors he wouldn’t have made an accusation like that he made on Thursday,” he said.

With reports from El Universal

6-million-peso McLaren wrecked in highway crash

By

MND Staff

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May 20, 2022

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The limited-production 'supercar' was apparently on its way to a car show. — The luxury vehicle was apparently on its way to a car show. Instagram @supercar.fails

A McLaren sports car worth more than 6 million pesos sustained significant damage when it crashed into a barrier on the Mexico City-Toluca highway in México state earlier this month.

A video posted to the Supercar Fails Instagram account this week shows the aftermath of the accident in which no one was seriously injured.

Filmed by a passing motorist, the video shows a state police vehicle before it zooms in on a yellow McLaren 720S, which costs 6.2 million pesos (US $312,000), according to car website Kavak.

The badly-damaged rear of the car, which is missing one wheel, is up against the barrier. The video shows five men on the side of the highway as well as three other high-end cars, which were apparently on their way to a car show.

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Una publicación compartida por Supercar Fails (@supercar.fails)

It is unclear how fast the McLaren was traveling when the driver lost control and slammed into the barrier but the vehicle has a top speed of about 340 kph.

The Supercar Fails Instagram account asked its 720,000 followers whether the car was “totaled or fixable.”

One Instagram user commented that “everything’s fixable” if you’re willing to spend the money. Among the other comments were “drug money,” “cartel rally” and “can’t park there bro.”

With reports from El Heraldo de México and Milenio

Tax reform requires expats to obtain taxpayer registration by July 1

By

MND Staff

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May 19, 2022

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SAT building Mexico — New tax reform requires all legal residents aged 18 or over to have an RFC number whether they earn income in Mexico or not.

All foreign residents in Mexico will soon be required to have a tax number due to a recent tax reform.

Temporary and permanent residents aged 18 or over or anyone with a CURP identity number must have an RFC number by July 1 whether they earn income in Mexico or not.

RFC stands for Registro Federal de Contribuyentes, or Federal Taxpayers Registry. RFC numbers are used by the federal government for a range of purposes, among which are to track income and detect potential cases of money laundering.

An application for an RFC number must be lodged in person at an office of the federal tax agency SAT. The first step in the process is to make an appointment at your nearest SAT office via the agency’s online portal (Spanish only)

To make an appointment to get an RFC, after following the link in our story, click on “Registrar Cita” (Make an appointment).

If you don’t understand Spanish you can use Google Translate to convert the text to English.

After requesting an appointment (registrar cita) and choosing the option for an individual taxpayer (persona física) you will be required to enter your CURP number, which appears on residency cards, as well as your full name and email address.

You will then be directed to a new page, where you will need to select the service for which you’d like to make an appointment, the state in which you live and the office at which you would like to lodge your application.

After you have done that, you will either be able to schedule an appointment on the page’s virtual calendar or be told that no appointments are available and given the option to join a fila virtual or virtual line. By entering your email address you will be sent a “token” – an alphanumeric code – that can be used to join the virtual line.

You will then receive an email confirming you are in the virtual line and advising you to monitor your email for an appointment date and time. On the day of your appointment, you will need to take a variety of documents to the SAT office.

According to the SAT website, foreigners applying for a RFC number themselves need:

A valid migration document, i.e. a residency card.
Proof of address, such as a bank statement, electricity bill or rental contract.
A passport.

Paul Kurtzweil from the YouTube channel Two Expats in Mexico said in a video about the RFC application process that foreigners should also take a printout of their CURP – available here – and a thumb drive with them when applying for their tax number.

“They’re going to be putting some things on there for you, so don’t forget that item,” he said.

To begin generating your Proof of Fiscal/Tax Situation document after following the link in our story, scroll to the bottom and click on the gold button saying “EJECUTAR EN LINEA.”

Trisha Velarmino, who provides a detailed account of her experience applying for an RFC number on the Mexico Insider website, said that SAT places a taxpayer’s firma digital or digital signature on his or her USB stick.

During the application process, SAT will collect biometric data from applicants, including facial photographs and fingerprints. There is no cost involved in applying for an RFC number, and the application process in a SAT office shouldn’t take longer than 40 minutes.

Kurtzweil said in his RFC video that it’s increasingly difficult to get things done in Mexico due to recent legislative and rule changes. He said that people have been unable to open bank accounts and buy cars because they didn’t have a RFC number.

Lakeside News, an English-language news outlet that publishes on the Semanario Laguna website, said that without an RFC number on your electricity bill, you won’t be able to sell your house or buy a car. It also noted that in some places, an RFC number is needed to open a bank account or contract internet service.

Another bureaucratic requirement of foreigners once they have an RFC number is to obtain a document called Constancia de Situación Fiscal (Proof of Fiscal/Tax Situation). That document will be required by any foreigners doing business in Mexico, even if that business is simply being an electricity, water or internet customer.

According to Lakeside News, companies will soon be asking foreigners for their Constancia de Situación Fiscal if they are not doing so already.

The document can be obtained via the SAT website. Two Expats in Mexico has a video detailing how to get a Constancia de Situación Fiscal online.

With reports from Semanario Laguna/Lakeside News

Two migrants held hostage on US border: a case study in the perils of Title 42

By

MND Staff

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May 19, 2022

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Migrants sleep under a sign that says 'A Government for Everyone,' in Chiapas. — Migrants sleep under a sign that says 'A Government for Everyone' in Pijijiapan, Chiapas. Ben Wein

On a dark, deserted highway somewhere in northern Mexico, hostage to a couple of dirty cops — that’s where Nicaraguan brothers José, 44, and Carlos, 40, thought their time was up.

They were on the south side of the United States border at Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila, in early December, attempting to cross. After months of struggle, they’d hired a trafficker to take them over the last hurdle.

When they arrived in Ciudad Acuña, they met the trafficker outside the bus terminal, but almost immediately, two balaclava-clad officials in police uniforms appeared. Swiftly, the officials suspended their rights, seizing their documents and cellphones. They took them for a drive in pitch-black darkness to the side of the highway.

The brothers said they suspected the officers were members of the Zetas — one of the most powerful cartels in Mexico’s northeast — who wanted to shut down the trafficker’s business operation.

“Sing,” one of the officials demanded of the trafficker, ordering him to give up information. After receiving a muted response, the heavyset officials took the trafficker out of sight behind the vehicle and beat him.

Stilled by fear, transfixed in the back seats, José and Carlos sat listening to the trafficker’s groans of pain and dwelled on their unknown future. With no better options, they said they closed their eyes and prayed.

“When I prayed, I thought about everything that had happened since leaving Nicaragua. I was thinking about whether it would hurt to die. I thought it could all end there, so tragically, so empty. Just another statistic of someone trying to follow their dream,” José said.

Corrupt officials were one of many obstacles the brothers navigated during their journey through Mexico.

“Sincerely, I thought it was the last moment of my life. The officials looked at us with a thirst, a thirst to kill … I thought my life was only going to arrive at that point and that I’d end up with a bullet in the temple … But thank God it didn’t turn out how the devil wanted,” Carlos added.

Many prayers have gone unanswered in Mexico: missing migrants in the country spiked 292% in 2021 compared to the previous year, according to a report released in May by the human rights organization Jesuits’ Missing Migrant Search Program (SJM).

One contributor to the perils faced by Mexico’s vulnerable migrant population is U.S. legislation. Title 42 — a health decree introduced in March 2020 — allows the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol to immediately expel migrants under the pretext of containing the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, rather than allowing them to solicit asylum.

Amid more than 1.7 million expulsions under Title 42, almost 10,000 migrants in Mexico have been subjected to kidnapping, torture and rape, and other violent attacks, the U.S. rights group Human Rights First reported in March.

Undeterred by the risks, the Nicaraguan brothers had endured a wearying journey battling through Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico in search of work, dollars and the added perk of freedom. They had marched among thousands — many of them women and children — in a migrant caravan in southern Mexico.

While in the caravan, beating their way across sweltering tarmac in defiance of security forces, it became clear that there was no way back. The incumbent president of Nicaragua, Sandinista revolution hero Daniel Ortega, had regained office for a fourth consecutive term in a disputed election. U.S. President Joe Biden derided the vote in Nicaragua as “a pantomime” that he said was “certainly not democratic.”

The brothers were sick of keeping silent under Ortega’s grip but were also pulled north by the opportunity to earn a decent wage and achieve some stability. It wasn’t the promise of great riches that drove them but the absurdity of exchange rates: the U.S. dollar is worth 36 times the Nicaraguan córdoba.

“There were a lot of motives for leaving Nicaragua,” José explained. “The dream of having a house of my own, the basic things. To create a company in the United States to help create employment back in Nicaragua.

“In Nicaragua, we don’t have the conditions for economic advancement, and [the authorities] can throw your life out at any moment. I thought, ‘I’m not going to wait for the world to change.’”

Now, on a forgotten highway, subject to the desires of corrupt officials, the brothers’ futures looked bleak. When the officials drove them to an abandoned neighborhood, José and Carlos were certain they would be killed. Their fears peaked, but to their puzzlement, they were released. They believe the trafficker was spared too.

The pair wasted no time ruminating over their lucky escape and traveled 90 kilometers to Piedras Negras, Coahuila, to wade through the river on New Year’s Eve, arriving in Eagle Pass, Texas, on the dawn of 2022. In Texas, they were picked up by U.S. immigration authorities, split up, and taken to separate detention centers.

Until their release, the brothers feared they would be returned to Mexico. Why they were freed from detention remains unclear to them. Help from a “sponsor” — a U.S. citizen willing to act as a legal guarantor — strengthened their case, but their nationality may have ultimately saved them from expulsion. Nicaraguans and Cubans have been difficult to deport under Title 42 due to Washington’s lack of diplomatic channels with the governments of those countries, according to the Washington Post.

Where the Rio Grande flows past Piedras Negras, Coahuila, is a common crossing point for migrants seeking to enter the United States.

However, that exception has changed since their release: in April, U.S. officials struck a deal with Mexican authorities to hand back migrants from Nicaragua and Cuba.

Freed from detention, each brother was taken separately to the bus station to start their 2,000-kilometer journeys to the west coast, where their sponsor, a distant relative, would receive them.

On their ride, they relaxed for the first time in months. In his exhaustion, José said, that first opportunity for reflection brought him to tears.

Carlos, meanwhile, experienced a surge of joy. “When I left detention, I felt like I was breathing pure air. I felt great peace and freedom in my heart. I felt safer and more sure of myself. I felt like a bird when it’s released from its cage and allowed to fly into the sky … I still have economic problems, but those resolve themselves with time. This is a land of great opportunity, especially for the people who know how to make the most of them. I thank God for this opportunity,” he said.

The brothers’ asylum hearings are scheduled for October. Short on cash, they have been forced in the meantime to break the law and work in secret — paid US $15 an hour to clean an industrial warehouse. Their right to work legally in the U.S. will ultimately depend on the court’s decision in October.

Hope is carrying them for now: they’ve bought themselves cars and laptops. José plans to start a graphic design company, which was his profession in Nicaragua. Carlos plans to keep working for his salary in the warehouse.

“There’s a world of differences … here you’ve got to do things the right way, with discipline … They’re a good bunch, the gringos,” José said.

“We’re in the promised land,” Carlos added.

The brothers are safe for now, but most displaced migrants are less fortunate: still on the move, physically unsettled by a political decree that blocks them from entering U.S. territory. Those who make it to the border have fought their way through an obstacle course of security forces and detention centers, against the lingering threat of dangerous criminals. But despite their dedication, those migrants are unlikely to find refuge anytime soon: more than 20 U.S. states joined a lawsuit in April seeking to block Title 42 from being rescinded. That lawsuit’s validity rests on an impending court decision.

The U.S. government has promised to lift Title 42 by May 23, but a judge is set to rule on the lawsuit before that date. The fate of many thousands of migrants hangs precariously in the balance.

The names of the people interviewed for this story have been changed to protect their identities.

Mexico News Daily