Ukrainians marched in Mexico City against Russia’s invasion of their homeland on Sunday, joined by Russian and Mexican supporters.
About 400 people marched with a 30-meter Ukrainian flag from the Monument to the Revolution to the Angel of Independence along Reforma Avenue.
The protesters held signs bearing messages such as “Ukraine is invincible,” and “Putin, crazy murderer. Get out of Ukraine!” in reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Images were shown comparing Putin to the German Nazi leader from the Second World War, Adolf Hitler.
Ukraine has asked the NATO military alliance to install a no-fly zone above its skies to limit Russia’s aerial advantage. March organizer Nataliia Bondarchuk repeated the demand. “Support us to create the no fly zone, so that our allies in the world help us protect our sky so that [Russia] is not harming civilians,” she said.
“The Ukrainians want peace. The cause of all this horror that our families and friends suffer is the crazy man,” one of the protesters said of Putin.
A Russian called María, who requested anonymity, said that nationalities were irrelevant when faced with violence. “It’s a crime against Ukrainians, against Russians, against humanity. I don’t know what happened to this person,” she said of Putin.
María added that propaganda in Russia claims that Putin is saving the world through the invasion.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian ambassador to Mexico, Oksana Dramarétska, demanded a stronger position from the Mexican government on the Russian invasion.
Dramarétska said Ukraine was facing attacks not seen since the Second World War and demanded Russia be internationally isolated.
Mexico has condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but has not imposed any sanctions. President López Obrador said on Friday that the country will not send arms to Ukraine as lawmakers from the eastern European nation requested.
López Obrador added that Mexico would offer refuge to both Ukrainians and Russians, and that Mexicans in Ukraine and Russia are being assisted by the government.
Over 100 surveillance cameras were used by narcos to spy on authorities and rival gangs in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, until security forces disconnected them on Sunday.
The cameras were mounted on utility poles and other electrical and telephone facilities.
The notoriously violent city, located across the border from McAllen, Texas, is a battleground between factions of the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas cartel.
The Tamaulipas Security Ministry (SSP) said in a statement that the state police’s special operations group (GOPES) had disconnected the camera network, which used stolen Wi-Fi signals to transmit the videos.
“More than 100 remote video cameras, connected illegally through the theft of home Wi-Fi or from businesses, were dismantled in recent hours,” the statement said.
The SSP said it would continue to investigate where the videos were being watched from.
“The criminal groups operate illegal video surveillance networks to observe the movements of federal and state security agencies or to cover their illegal activities,” it said.
It added that citizens should report any theft of their Wi-Fi signal.
The fire burned about six hectares of forest, damaging dozens of properties. Twitter @GN_MEXICO_
A fire in a palm tree forest in Baja California Sur damaged or destroyed at least 40 homes on Friday night.
At least 50 hectares of forest burned in the small town of Santiago, 55 kilometers north of San José del Cabo.
Wind fanned the flames, making it difficult for firefighters to tame the blaze. Citizens from the area were evacuated from their homes. There were 10 cases of smoke inhalation documented, but no deaths or other injuries.
Videos show a massive fire illuminating the palm trees only some hundred meters from houses and emergency vehicles.
The governor, Víctor Castro Cosío, attested to the ferocity of the blaze.
“We did have material damage that is being quantified. It is one of the most complicated fires we have had in Santiago and Baja California Sur, but we are helping all the authorities to support the public,” he said.
Van 40 casas afectadas en el incendio ocurrido en Santiago #BCS Familias que lo perdieron todo. pic.twitter.com/KSiL97Sb5u
A citizen from Santiago said she wasn’t able to help those affected.
“We came to help … but we weren’t able to pass through. Hopefully the people are sympathetic and put themselves in their place … because it’s a very ugly situation,” she said.
Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero. File photo
Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero is embroiled in controversy after recordings were leaked of conversations he allegedly had with a colleague about a case involving the death of his brother that will be considered by the Supreme Court (SCJN) next week.
In recordings of an apparent telephone conversation uploaded to YouTube late last week, a man believed to be Gertz speaks to a man believed to be Juan Ramos López, head of the federal crimes unit of the federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR).
They discuss a case in which the wife of Federico Gertz Manero and her daughter are accused of “homicide by omission” for failing to provide adequate medical care to the attorney general’s brother, who died in 2015 at the age of 82.
The 69-year-old daughter, Alejandra Cuevas Morán, has been in prison for over a year awaiting trial. Laura Morán, 95, has avoided prison due to her age. The two women deny any wrongdoing and their appeals have now reached the nation’s highest court.
In the audio recording, the person believed to be the attorney general (hereafter referred to simply as Gertz) claimed that Supreme Court Justice Alberto Pérez Dayán intends to free Cuevas. Both men agreed that the SCJN has not complied with an agreement it apparently had with the FGR vis-à-vis its consideration of the case, suggesting that Gertz sought to interfere in the work of the Supreme Court.
Alejandra Cuevas, seen here with her son Alonso Castillo, has been in prison for over a year awaiting trial.
Gertz reveals that he has a copy of the proposed SCJN ruling, which would apparently pave the way for Cuevas to be released provided it is approved at a court sitting on March 14. The court also appears set to uphold a favorable injunction Morán was granted by a lower court.
In one recording, Gertz calls Cuevas an “asshole” and asks an assistant how appeals can be used to avoid her release, revealing an apparent lack of legal knowledge from the country’s top law enforcement official.
Cuevas’ son told the Associated Press that the recordings were indicative of systematic violations by the FGR.
“There is no end of crimes here. One of the most serious is that the court appears to have sent the opinion to the Attorney General’s Office. That is a crime because they are confidential” documents, Alonso Castillo said.
“There is influence peddling, abuse of power. In other words, the implications of these recordings are tremendous.”
Castillo said on Twitter that his family had never received a copy of a proposed court ruling in advance, writing, “It would be improper, our conduct has always been in accordance with the law.”
Family of Alejandra Cuevas, the jailed daughter of Gertz’ sister-in-law, protest outside the Supreme Court in 2021.
The FGR hasn’t confirmed the authenticity of the recordings, but did say it would investigate the leak, suggesting it believed they are genuine. It is unclear who leaked them or how they were obtained.
Writing in the newspaper El Financiero, columnist Raymundo Riva Palacios said the clarity of the recordings suggested that the conversations were intercepted using sophisticated equipment, and raised the possibility that they were obtained and leaked by members of the government.
“The armed forces, the Attorney General’s Office and National Intelligence Center have the best technology, and therefore the relationship Gertz has with the security cabinet is relevant. Federal officials say it’s very bad. An in-person security cabinet [meeting] was going to be held recently, but the majority of the members sabotaged it because they didn’t want to be with him,” he wrote.
Pérez Dayán is not the only Supreme Court justice implicated, Riva wrote, noting that Gertz claimed that Chief Justice Arturo Zaldívar is in cahoots with him.
“The probable crime of malfeasance hangs over their heads,” he wrote.
Some opposition lawmakers and party leaders have called on Gertz to resign, while President López Obrador on Monday said he retained confidence in the attorney general.
“I didn’t listen to [the recordings], but I have the basic information,” the president told reporters at his regular news conference.
“The court has to resolve this case. I understand the personal, moral human situation of the attorney general because it’s about an issue linked to his brother, he wants justice to be served. The other party is defending its version of events. In any case, it will be resolved by the judicial power,” he said.
López Obrador said the aim of leaking the audio was to “take the attorney general down.”
“That’s not in the best interest of Mexicans. Something that businesspeople are grateful for is that there is governability and political stability so let’s not bet on instability,” he said.
“We have to be careful because there are a lot of conflicting interests. … I understand that the SCJN will rule on this case next week. … We don’t intervene, the president no longer intervenes in these issues, no one is harassed, crimes aren’t fabricated like before. The autonomy of the Attorney General’s Office and the SCJN is guaranteed,” López Obrador said.
By the time the boat reached shore, it was too late for medics to help the divers.
Two foreign tourists died near Cancún Friday when a boat ran over them while they were diving.
The men, aged 64 and 67, were part of a group of four divers on excursion with the company Squalo Adventures, a well-established Isla Mujeres dive company. Both were experienced divers and marine biologists, a company employee confirmed.
Initial reports disagreed on whether the men were Canadian or American, but authorities were working to get access to their travel documentation so as to confirm their nationalities.
The Quintana Roo Attorney General’s Office said the group was diving at a popular shipwreck site about 12 kilometers south of the island of Isla Mujeres. The divers were using a buoy to indicate their presence to water traffic in accordance with a diving safety convention. The buoys are generally attached to ropes which divers use to ascend to the water’s surface.
Near the end of the dive, the group was returning to their boat when another craft entered the area. The Mr. Tom, a boat belonging to the mainland dive company Scuba Cancún, failed to notice the buoy and passed over them despite the shouts of the leader of the Squalo Adventures excursion.
The boat’s propellers struck two members of the group, killing one at the scene. The other died before reaching land.The captain of the Mr. Tom was arrested and the boat was seized, authorities said.
Mr. Tom, a boat belonging to the company Scuba Cancún, was seized after the fatal accident. Fiscalía General de Quintana Roo
The accident occurred near the wreck of the Cañonero C-55, a U.S. minesweeper built for the U.S. Navy during World War II, decommissioned in May 1946 and sold to the Mexican navy in 1962. The navy converted it into an oceanographic research vessel and sank it in 2000 to create an artificial reef.
Diving can be a precarious activity near Cancún: on February 8 a yacht hit a boat leaving a swimming instructor injured and two women have been wounded by boat propellers in the last three years, the news site Por Esto reported.
The tigers around the time of the arrest on February 15. Photos by FGE Guerrero
Three Bengal tigers under the responsibility of federal and state authorities have died of starvation in a cage in Guerrero.
The tigers went for days without food or water after the authorities failed to collect them from a house in Quechultenango, 40 kilometers east of the state capital Chilpancingo.
The felines were seized in an anti-drug-trafficking security operation that started on February 15 in Chilapa de Álvarez, 45 kilometers north of Quechultenango. Soldiers, agents from the state Attorney General’s Office and National Guardsmen arrested an alleged member of the Los Ardillos cartel, seized the tigers, 28 kilograms of marijuana, 11 vehicles, a stolen motorcycle and a gun.
According to some authorities, tigers are used by cartels to devour the corpses of their victims.
However, the security forces were prevented from leaving the area with the tigers and the seized items when they were detained by citizens for six hours. They were freed after signing an agreement saying that they would have to be accompanied by municipal police and the community police force in future security operations.
At the time of the arrest, authorities also confiscated 28 kilograms of marijuana, stolen cars and auto parts.
Twenty-four hours after the forces were freed, the Guerrero Attorney General’s Office said “the three tigers were under the responsibility of the competent authority,” which would mean the Environment Ministry or the federal environmental protection agency Profepa, the newspaper Milenio reported.
However, “they never came to pick them up. They locked everything … no one fed the animals, and in the end they died of hunger,” one citizen from Quechultenango told Milenio.
Ángel Almazán Juárez of the Guerrero Environment Ministry (Semaren) pointed the finger at the state Attorney General’s Office (FGE).
“I would like to give more information, but the reality is that Semaren does not know the whereabouts of those three felines. The FGE didn’t inform us of anything,” he said.
Meanwhile, in Guanajuato, a tiger on the loose appears to be thriving. It has been at large in Apaseo el Grande since December, although the mayor waited until February 19 to issue a warning after 16 cattle had already been attacked.
A spectator in a red Atlas jersey fights another man wearing the blue and white of the Querétaro team. Twitter
Twenty-six people were injured during a massive brawl at a professional soccer match in Querétaro city on Saturday.
Fighting between spectators broke out at the La Corregidora stadium during a Liga MX match between Querétaro and Atlas, a Guadalajara-based club that is the league’s defending champion.
The brawl – during which spectators were brutally kicked, punched and attacked with chairs and other objects – began in the stands before spilling onto the playing surface.
State and municipal police did nothing to stop the violence, which forced the abandonment of the match that Atlas was leading 1-0.
Querétaro Governor Mauricio Kuri acknowledged at a press conference that the security response was too little, too late.
Querétaro vs Atlas termina en violencia; reportan heridos en Estadio Corregidora
“It’s evident that the public security force was insufficient and did not act as quickly as the situation merited. We are investigating accordingly,” he said.
The governor also said in a video message Sunday that three people were in serious condition in hospital. There has been speculation that people were killed during the melee, but Kuri asserted that wasn’t the case.
“My greatest commitment is to the truth. Official data indicates that up to this time we don’t have deaths due to the deplorable events yesterday,” he said.
“The images from yesterday are disturbing. Irrational violence saddens us and angers us. Unfortunately, names and images of people have been disseminated on social media, asserting that they died. Today we confirm that they are fortunately alive and receiving medical care,” the governor said. “… I have no motive to lie or hide anything.”
The Querétaro Attorney General’s Office (FGQ) said in a statement Sunday that an investigation had been opened into a range of crimes committed at the stadium, including attempted murder. It said it would initially focus on taking statements from those injured, provided they are in a condition to speak.
The FGQ also affirmed that no one had died in the brawl, and said that the prognosis for those injured was favorable.
Initial accounts reported multiple deaths, but the governor and state Attorney General’s Office confirmed that there were three serious injuries but no deaths. Twitter
“The Attorney General’s Office is gathering the videos circulating on social networks, in the media and those provided by citizens in order to identify criminal conduct,” it said.
Oscar Balmen, a crime reporter, said on Twitter Sunday that he had received information suggesting that the brawl between Querétaro and Atlas fans was related to organized crime.
“My sources confirm a line of investigation related to organized crime in #Querétaro,” he tweeted, adding that a Querétaro supporter known as “El Beto” may have taken a group of huachicoleros, or fuel thieves, to the stadium to “ambush and attack” Jalisco New Generation Cartel rivals who are “active members” of an organized group of Atlas supporters.
“It’s only a line of investigation that would explain the attack, … the institutional collaboration they received from Corregidora stadium personnel and the cruelty” with which they attacked their victims, Balmen said.
One video posted to social media showed stadium staff opening a gate that allowed Querétaro supporters to reach Atlas fans.
Liga MX said Sunday that upcoming matches scheduled to be played at La Corregidora stadium would be suspended.
“We are not going to have any soccer activity here until the case is resolved,” said Mikel Arriola, the league’s president.
López Obrador is sworn in on December 1, 2018. He won election after identifying Mexico's ills, but they have only worsened. shutterstock
President López Obrador was famous for defying political gravity. Mediocre economic growth failed to dent his popularity. One of the world’s worst excess death tolls from coronavirus did not damage the rude health of his poll ratings. Voters seemed not to blame him for shocking levels of drug-related murders, or for funnelling scarce public investment into vanity projects such as a US $12.5-billion oil refinery that lacks any economic logic.
The explanation lies in the strength of López Obrador’s political brand. His beliefs may be rooted in the nationalist, big-state Mexico of the 1960s but the president’s folksy, down-to-earth charm and frugal lifestyle convinced ordinary Mexicans he was one of them. Astute control of the political agenda via a marathon daily news conference broadcast live also helped. Above all, López Obrador promised a clean break with the corruption that he said flourished under his predecessors.
So when news broke that López Obrador’s eldest son, José Ramón, had been living in a luxury house in Texas with a private cinema and a large swimming pool, the news jarred with the president’s austere public image. The owner was a former executive with Baker Hughes, an oil services group that is one of the biggest contractors to Mexico’s state oil company Pemex. (Baker Hughes said an external audit found no irregularities.)
The president at first tried to brush off the affair. Then he lashed out at Carlos Loret de Mola, one of the journalists who broke the story, as a “mercenary coup-monger.” He showed a slide at his daily news conference detailing what he claimed was Loret de Mola’s annual income from various employers (the journalist said the numbers were inflated).
The disclosure of a private individual’s financial information would be reprehensible anywhere. In one of the world’s most deadly countries for journalists, with five reporters murdered this year, it was indefensible.
Weeks after the initial disclosures, the president has failed to quash the “Grey House” affair and his ratings have slipped to their lowest level since he was elected, though a still-respectable 54%. The promise of an official investigation does not reassure: the attorney-general helped advise the president’s election campaign.
When running for office, López Obrador correctly diagnosed many of Mexico’s ills: rampant corruption, mediocre economic growth and gaping inequalities. His landslide victory in 2018 gave him the strongest of mandates to tackle them.
Yet, in the first half of his term, these problems only worsened: poverty increased and drug violence is out of control. Mexico is the only major Latin American economy yet to recover pre-pandemic levels of output, thanks to a misguided government refusal to support the economy during coronavirus. Foreign investors have been scared off and the country’s institutions are under attack from an increasingly intolerant and quixotic leader.
Nearshoring should represent a golden opportunity for a large manufacturing economy located on the U.S. border, yet López Obrador’s government has signally failed to capitalize on it. The same is true of renewable energy.
The “Grey House” affair offers Mexico’s president an opportunity to rethink his policies and deliver on his election promises. If he fails to do so, his “fourth transformation” project risks being remembered as one that dragged Mexico back to the 1960s rather than propelled it forward into the 21st century.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2022. All rights reserved.
Only Querétaro remains medium risk yellow on the most recent pandemic risk map. Semáforo COVID-19
All but one of the 32 federal entities are low risk green on the federal government’s new coronavirus stoplight map as the fourth wave of the pandemic continues to recede.
Querétaro is the outlier, remaining medium risk yellow on the updated map, which takes effect Monday and will remain in force through March 20.
There were 16 yellow states on the previous map, but the risk level was downgraded in all but Querétaro, where there are just over 30 active cases per 100,000 people, according to the Health Ministry’s latest coronavirus report.
The Bajío region state ranks sixth in the country for per capita active cases behind Baja California Sur, Mexico City, Aguascalientes, Colima and Tlaxcala.
It has the fourth highest occupancy rate for general care beds in COVID wards, with 28% taken, and the second highest rate for beds with ventilators, of which 22% are in use.
Active COVID cases are trending down as the fourth wave recedes.
The federal Health Ministry uses 10 indicators to determine the stoplight color in each state, including hospital occupancy levels, the effective reproduction rate of the virus, the weekly positivity rate and case numbers per 100,000 inhabitants.
Each stoplight color is accompanied by recommended restrictions to slow the spread of the virus but it is ultimately up to state governments to decide on their own rules. Authorities have lifted most restrictions on business and social activities as the omicron-fueled fourth wave wanes, but the use of face masks is still required in most indoor settings.
The last time Mexico had so many low risk states was the two-week period between November 15 and 28, when 31 were green and Baja California was high risk orange.
The entry into force of the latest almost exclusively green stoplight map comes as reported case numbers continue to decline.
An average of 9,393 cases per day were reported during the first six days of March, a 54% reduction compared to the daily average in February.
There are currently 30,652 estimated active cases across the country, whereas the number exceeded 300,000 at the peak of the fourth wave in January.
Mexico’s accumulated case tally increased to 5.56 million on Sunday with 1,905 new infections reported.
COVID-19 deaths increased sharply in February, with 12,058 reported, compared to 6,663 in January. An additional 1,710 fatalities were reported during the first six days of March for a daily average of 285. That’s a 34% decline compared to the average of 431 deaths per day in February.
Mexico’s official death toll rose to 319,859 on Sunday with 35 additional fatalities reported. The country ranks fifth in the world for total deaths, and 28th on a per capita basis with 250.5 per 100,000 people, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
More than 85.3 million Mexican adults have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, the Health Ministry reported Sunday, while 4.7 million adolescents have also received shots.
Traditional torito being set off and danced in the crowd at the Festival of Music and Lights in Santiago Zapotitlán, Mexico City. Alejandro Linares García
Centuries ago, in the Old World, a kind of a cult focusing on bulls emerged, taking on various forms with the passage of time. By the time of the Spanish conquest of Mexico, bulls were no longer regarded as gods, but they still held an important role in the imagination and in local celebrations, the most famous in Spain being the running of the bulls in Pamplona.
Letting bulls loose in the streets of Mexico does happen in a few places, but in most communities, bull figures and dances replace the highly dangerous and unpredictable animals. However, one of the draws of Pamplona and the like is the rush of adrenaline of putting your life on the line and beating the odds, so one bull-themed tradition here does seek to reproduce that rush.
The Mexican tradition of toritos, (little bulls) is not generally about realistic depictions but rather bulls made of papier-mache and/or wood, cane or wire that are painted in bright colors and with intricate designs. They are small enough and light enough to be mounted on a dancer’s head and shoulders or simply held in the air.
So where does the adrenaline come in? One word: fireworks.
The toritos are laden with as many firecrackers and rockets as the maker/dancer can afford. While in most towns, they are paraded in the daytime, their real purpose is to be set off at night as the bearer runs around the crowds, showering people with sparks and flying rockets.
Young man dancing with traditional torito in celebration of the Virgin of Candelaria. Rishytx/Creative Commons
These toritos can be found in many communities large and small all over central and southern Mexico, down into Guatemala. They are particularly popular on patron saint feast days.
But for some communities in and around Mexico City, these little bulls aren’t dangerous enough. They have grown in size to monumental proportions, along with the number and types of fireworks.
In towns like Teyahualco, Zapotitlan and others, these monumental beasts can reach up to three meters in height. They dominate festivities not because of their numbers but because of their sheer size. These torotes (large bulls) are often paraded around during the daytime so that the public can see the work and care that went into making and decorating each one.
In these towns, the smaller version still dominates, mainly because of cost: most are not willing or able to put together up to 20,000 pesos to create one of these beasts.
With one exception.
Tultepec is an edge city, part of Mexico City’s metropolitan area. It has produced fireworks (and gunpowder) since the colonial period, but its current fortunes came about when the making and storage of fireworks were banned in Mexico City proper in the mid-20th century.
Colorful torote being paraded with its crew on the streets of Tultepec, México state. Leigh Thelmadatter
Today, Tultepec is Mexico’s primary maker of handcrafted fireworks. By extension, it is also an important maker of traditional fireworks arrangements such as toritos and castillos — the latter a wooden frame with mobile parts powered by fireworks.
Early March is important to this city not only because its patron, St. John of God, is celebrated on March 8 but also because since 1989 it has hosted Mexico’s International Pyrotechnics Fair. This year the fair is taking place in Tultepec from March 4 to March 14.
The “running” of toritos in Tultepec has a history going back to the middle of the 19th century. It is even called the Pamplona.
The growth of the toritos into torotes likely began here starting in the early 2000s. They are now so large that they need to be wheeled around by a group of people rather than danced on the head and shoulder of one person.
The group heaving the monstrosity around is also the one that spent months and thousands of pesos to create it — one of over 300 bulls paraded around the town during the day. At night, almost one by one, the fireworks on the bull’s back are set off. Each bull is usually spent in less than 20 minutes, rendering the work ruined, but the sheer number of bulls means that there are fireworks going off in Tultepec almost all night.
My first experience with this “Pamplona” was in 2016, and I was fortunate because very soon afterward, local authorities decided to make changes.
Gigantic torito at the Festival of Music and Lights. Alejandro Linares García
The bulls are still paraded around the town, a spectacle to enjoy itself, but the nighttime “burning” of these bulls was moved to a field outside of town. The main reason was practical: there simply isn’t enough room to maneuver figures over three meters tall into the small-town plaza where they had been set off for over a century.
The field they use nowadays has been set aside specifically for fireworks-related events, including the castillo-making contest that is the heart of the National Fair and is now called the torodromo (bulldrome).
Fortunately, the change does not mean that you can no longer risk your skin. You can still dance and run around the moving bulls and flying rockets, or you can hang back (an option that I admit was difficult to exercise before).
The only thing missing is what’s left of Tultepec’s small-town feel, which you can only experience in its historic center.
Leigh Thelmadatter arrived in Mexico 18 years ago and fell in love with the land and the culture in particular its handcrafts and art. She is the author of Mexican Cartonería: Paper, Paste and Fiesta (Schiffer 2019). Her culture column appears regularly on Mexico News Daily.
