Judge halts work on controversial Cancún-Tulum section of Maya Train

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April 19, 2022

Maya Train protest Quintana Roo — The Mérida judge issued the injuction based on environmental concerns raised by speleologists in a lawsuit last month. File photo

A judge in Mérida, Yucatán, has issued a provisional suspension order against the construction of the Maya Train railroad between the Quintana Roo resort towns of Playa del Carmen and Tulum due to environmental concerns.

In response to a lawsuit filed by a civil society organization on behalf of three speleologists from Playa del Carmen, the judge ruled that all work on the southern portion of section 5 of the railroad must stop due to the “imminent risk” of “irreversible damage” to the Mayan jungle, caves, subterranean rivers and cenotes (natural sinkholes) and the absence of environmental studies and permits.

According to the newspaper El Universal, which obtained a copy of the ruling, Adrián Fernando Novelo Pérez ruled that work on the Quintana Roo section, which began in February, isn’t being carried out in accordance with standards that afford “the highest protection to the environment and water of the affected communities.”

The federal government modified the route for section 5 of the 1,500-kilometer railroad earlier this year, moving the Cancún-Tulum stretch inland after the business community in Playa del Carmen complained about its construction through the center of the coastal resort city.

Jungle has already been cleared for the construction of tracks along the modified route, triggering protests both at the site of the deforestation and online.

Avispa Enojada entrance — Earlier this month, work uncovered the nearly two-mile-long main entrance to the Angry Wasp cavern system, prompting renewed environmental concerns. Twitter

The ruling handed down by the Mérida-based judge, which prohibits developers from clearing any additional swathes of jungle, will remain in effect until a decision on a definitive suspension order is made.

Filed late last month by the Cancún based organization Defendiendo el Derecho al Medio Ambiente (Defending the Right to the Environment), the lawsuit questioned why environmental protection agency Profepa hasn’t intervened to stop work on the Quintana Roo section given that environmental studies haven’t been completed and permits haven’t been issued.

The judge acknowledged that there is no evidence that an environmental impact study has been carried out and cited a Supreme Court precedent that establishes that the execution of a project without environmental authorization is “sufficient to consider that the ecosystem in which it will be developed has been placed at risk.”

Novelo’s ruling was thus based on the precautionary principle – enshrined in the General Law of Ecological Balance and Environmental Protection, which assumes there is potential for harm when there is a lack of information to the contrary.

Other court orders have temporarily stopped work on the Maya Train railroad – which will run through Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatán, Quintana Roo and Chiapas and is scheduled to begin operations next year – but they haven’t managed to definitively halt the project, one of the federal government’s signature infrastructure projects.

President López Obrador has said that environmental studies for section 5 of the railroad are underway and has not expressed concern about the commencement of work before their completion. He has repeatedly defended the US $8 billion railroad from an environmental standpoint and described those opposed to the project as “pseudo-environmentalists.”

Maya Train map — The train will run through the states of Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatán, Quintana Roo and Chiapas.

On Tuesday, López Obrador claimed that “international organizations” are partially funding the campaign against the Maya Train.

“There is a campaign against the Maya Train with political, not environmental, aims, financed by international organizations and Mexican businesspeople and they’re using pseudo-environmentalists,” he said.

“There may be people concerned about the environment but in general it’s people without convictions, without moral scruples of any kind,” López Obrador said.

“… There are more and more environmentalists who didn’t [previously] exist, who weren’t present,” he told reporters at his regular news conference.

López Obrador repeated his objection to the United States government funding “groups that act in Mexico” that are “against us, like Claudio X. González’s group and [those of] other people who oppose us,” including environmental associations.

González is the founder of Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity (MCCI), which López Obrador has previously accused of receiving money from United States-based foundations to fight the Maya Train, an accusation it denied.

AMLO at opening in Palenque, Chiapas — President López Obrador claims “international organizations” are funding a campaign against the Maya Train and dismisses environmental concerns. File photo

The federal government last year sent a diplomatic note to its counterpart asking it to explain why it had provided funding to MCCI, which has exposed alleged corruption within the López Obrador administration.

In 2021, the president repeatedly railed against the U.S. government’s funding of Mexican civil society organizations that he regards as opponents of his administration.

But despite López Obrador calling on it to stop funding what he described as political groups that disguise themselves as NGOs, the U.S. government announced last June that it would in fact increase support to international partners committed to the elimination of corruption.

On Tuesday, AMLO also repeated his defense of the Maya Train project from an environmental point of view.

Section 5 of the railroad “respects subterranean rivers and doesn’t affect cenotes,” he said. “So much so that the farmers, community landowners and small landholders all gave their consent.”

López Obrador said that the government will review the ruling handed down by the Mérida-based judge before questioning where he, and people who purport to be environmentalists, were when projects that caused damage to the environment of the Yucatán Peninsula were previously carried out.

With reports from El Universal and Reforma

Russian Embassy laments exclusion of Tchaikovsky by Zacatecas orchestra

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MND Staff

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April 19, 2022

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Salvador García and the Zacatecas Concert Band.

“Stop hating Russians” was the message from the Russian Embassy after an orchestra in Zacatecas excluded an overture by composer Piotr Ilich Tchaikovsky last Thursday.

The Zacatecas Concert Band traditionally closes its Holy Thursday concert with Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, accompanied by the firing of cannons and the ringing of church bells. But the band’s director, Salvador García y Ortega, decided the work would be dropped in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

García said the concert stood for peace and that playing the famous composition would be inappropriate. “The 1812 Overture is a war anthem of the Russians … we cannot play [it] now that they are the conquerors of the world. Everyone can see that they are massacring the Ukrainians,” he said.

“In many countries the overture was banned. The director of the Chicago Orchestra has just been fired for playing the overture. It would be like celebrating what’s happening” in Ukraine, García added.

The Russian Embassy responded on Twitter on Monday morning accusing García of xenophobia. “Concerning news: the director of the Concert Band of the state of Zacatecas, Mr. Salvador García y Ortega, decided to exclude the piece by Tchaikovsky … Such a decision helps feed a campaign that seeks to dehumanize women, children, the elderly, athletes, musicians, artists, absolutely everyone, based on a single criterion: being Russian. Undoubtedly, it is another regrettable example of Russophobia that apparently is gaining more and more ground on Mexican soil,” the post read.

The hashtag #DejaDeOdiaralosRusos (Stop hating Russians) was attached to the post.

The overture’s omission proved controversial within Mexico. Cultural commentator Víctor Ramos Colliere said it was a divisive decision. “The Concert Band of the state of Zacatecas fell into the terrible error of an international policy of dividing, isolating and vetoing … we must understand that Tchaikovsky’s work is no longer just from Russia, it belongs to the whole of humanity. In dark times of humanity the only thing … which dissipates borders and becomes a universal language is art. The contributions that a country has given to humanity cannot be vetoed due to phobias,” he said.

Ramos added that Ukraine and Russia should be dealt an even hand. “If the intention was a concert for peace, the ideal thing would be to interpret Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, and … a work representing Ukraine, giving the message that ideological differences can be left for a moment through the universality of art,” he said.

With reports from El Universal

Rosario Ibarra de Piedra was a pioneer in search for the missing

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MND Staff

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April 18, 2022

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Mexican activist Rosa Ibarra de Piedra — Rosario Ibarra de Piedra was arguably Mexico's most well-known activist for justice for the disappeared.

Rosario Ibarra de Piedra — a political and social activist who fought for justice for Mexico’s thousands of missing persons, led the search for them and became the country’s first female presidential candidate — died in Monterrey, Nuevo León, on Saturday at the age of 95.

The National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) announced her death on Twitter, describing her as a “tireless activist” and a “pioneer in the defense of human rights, peace and democracy in Mexico.”

No cause of death was given, but her health had been deteriorating for several years.

The CNDH — whose president is Ibarra’s daughter, Rosario Piedra Ibarra — also noted that her mother was the founder of the Eureka Committee, which the CNDH described as “one of the first organizations of mothers, fathers and relatives of missing persons.”

Born in Saltillo, Coahuila, in 1927, Ibarra reached the defining point of her life in 1974, when her son Jesús – a member of a communist guerrilla group – disappeared. His abduction allegedly occurred at the hands of authorities after he was accused of murdering a police officer.

Rosario Ibarra — At public events, Ibarra de Piedra frequently wore a photo of her missing son, Jesús, who was the impetus for her to become an activist for the disappeared in Mexico.

Jesús’ disappearance came amid Mexico’s Dirty War, an internal conflict from the 1960s to the 1980s in which successive Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) governments violently repressed left-wing student and guerrilla groups.

Ibarra, who never definitively found out what happened to her son, subsequently embarked on what would become a decades-long fight against enforced disappearances and for justice for victims. Her impassioned struggle turned her into Mexico’s most prominent social activist.

In 1977, she formed Comité ¡Eureka! due to the lack of progress on her son’s case and as its leader fronted countless protests that denounced the involvement of the government in enforced disappearances and called for the release of political prisoners. One of the best-remembered was a 1978 hunger strike outside Mexico City’s main cathedral, where demonstrations were officially banned.

The Eureka committee, largely made up of other mothers searching for their missing children, documented more than 500 disappearances during the 1970s that were allegedly perpetrated by the state. It has succeeded in locating over 100 people who disappeared but were not killed by their abductors.

In 1982, as she continued to fight for justice for her son and other missing persons, Ibarra represented the now-defunct Workers Revolutionary Party (PRT) in the presidential election, becoming the first woman to run for the country’s top job. She attracted less than 2% of the vote but nevertheless represented the same party at the 1988 election, at which she fared even worse.

Although she garnered few votes, her participation in the elections, as the first female presidential candidate in Mexico’s history, was still significant. Only five other women have appeared on a presidential ballot in Mexico, including former first lady Margarita Zavala, who pulled out of the 2018 race before election day.

Ibarra de Piedra was awarded the Belisario Domínguez medal in 2019, the Mexican Senate’s highest award, but due to health problems, her daughter, left, accepted the award. Senate

Ibarra served as a deputy for the Trotskyist PRT between the 1982 and 1988 elections before later joining the leftist Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), which she represented in the lower house of Congress between 1994 and 1997 and in the Senate between 2006 and 2012.

For her unflagging activism in favor of missing persons and their families, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize on four occasions but never won the award.

However, in 2019, Ibarra was awarded the Mexican Senate’s highest award, the Belisario Domínguez medal, although she didn’t attend the conferral ceremony due to her health problems and asked President López Obrador to hold it for her while the country’s missing persons problem — there are today more than 95,000 such people — remained unresolved.

“I don’t want my fight to be left unfinished. That’s why I leave such a precious recognition in the custody of your hands and ask you to return it to me together with the truth about the whereabouts of our beloved and missed children and relatives,” she said in a letter to the president, to whom she presented a presidential sash in a mock ceremony after he claimed fraud cost him the 2006 election won by Felipe Calderón.

López Obrador, a member of the PRI and the PRD before founding what is now the ruling Morena party, acknowledged Ibarra’s passing in a Twitter post on Saturday, writing that she will “always remind us of the most profound love for children and solidarity with those suffering due to the disappearance of their loved ones.”

“She supported us at all times and I will never forget that my mother voted for her for president of the republic,” he added in a second post. “A hug to her children and to her many followers and friends.”

Among the many other public figures who lamented the death of Ibarra was Economy Minister Tatiana Clouthier, whose father ran against her in the 1988 election. Manuel Clouthier, who represented the National Action Party at the election; Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, who stood for the National Democratic Front; and Ibarra joined forces to denounce fraud at the 1988 vote, which was won by PRI candidate Carlos Salinas de Gortari.

“I deeply lament the death of Rosario Ibarra de Piedra,” Tatiana Clouthier wrote on Twitter in a post that included a photo of her father with Cárdenas and Ibarra during a protest following the 1988 election, which is widely accepted to have indeed been fraudulent.

“[She was a] tireless woman who paved the way for mothers looking for their disappeared children and who, like few others, transitioned to a clean political career. In my family, we will remember with affection her sensitive words when my father died,” Clouthier said.

With reports from EFE and El Universal

Pre-Hispanic city of Calixtlahuaca’s story didn’t end with the conquest

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Rich Tenorio

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April 18, 2022

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Calixtlahuaca archaeological site — The urban zone of Calixtlahuaca, which from the Mesoamerican Pre-Classic period onward was occupied at different times by Otomis, Toltecs, Mazahuas, Nahuas and others. Except where credited, photos courtesy of Michael Smith

When Arizona State University (ASU) archaeologist Michael Smith learned that the ancient Mexica (Aztec) terraces he was studying at a pre-Hispanic site in the Valley of Toluca had actually been built or significantly altered in the modern era, he recalled feeling dismayed.

“I was quite upset,” Smith said. “How do we figure out what the whole site looked like in the Aztec period? It required a detailed sort of geoarchaeological analysis to figure out.”

Smith, who is ASU’s Teotihuacán Research Laboratory director as well as a professor at the university’s School of Human Evolution and Social Change, was lucky enough to work with a research team to do just that. Together, they solved some historical mysteries in the process.

They explain their findings in a new book, The Geoarchaeology of a Terraced Landscape: From Aztec Matlatzinco to Modern Calixtlahuaca.

The indigenous settlement of Calixtlahuaca was occupied by several different pre-Hispanic groups at different times, according to the National Institute of Archaeology and History, but the period Smith and his colleagues were interested in was from A.D. 1100 onward, during which the Matlatzinca inhabitants were eventually subdued by the Mexicas in the late 1400s and then again by the Spanish in the 16th century.

Calixtlahuaca researcher Mike Smith — Smith was originally drawn to the archaeological site to study pre-Hispanic houses.

The methods Smith and his team used are part of the multidisciplinary field of geoarchaeology, which applies techniques and knowledge from the Earth sciences to answer archaeological questions. The field draws from geography, geology, geophysics and more.

The team — and Smith’s coauthors — included University of San Luis Potosi archaeologist Aleksander Borejsza; archaeologist Isabel Rodríguez López; and Charles Frederick, a University of Texas at Austin consulting geoarchaeologist and research fellow.

“A lot of work on terraces in central Mexico and Mesoamerica is based on mapping terraces on the surface … not excavating them,” Smith said. “You can only say so much if you’re not actually digging them.”

He admits that their book is a “pretty dense technical volume, not for the fainthearted.” “There are a lot of gory details in it,” he quipped, “how terraces are built, created, maintained.”

It’s based on two seasons of fieldwork at the site, in 2006 and 2007, and nearly a decade of work of analysis of materials after that. The team’s archaeology work even included examining ancient maize kernels from the site.

“Maize and beans, that’s what we were expecting, the standard crops in central Mexican societies,” Smith said. “In a few places, homes had burned down, and there were some corn and beans that we’d see carbonized, thrown in charcoal and not consumed by fire, that we could recover archaeologically.”

terraces at Calixtlahuaca site — The manmade terraces built at Calixtlahuaca allowed opportunities for farming, habitation and even channeling excess water during a storm.

Smith’s initial dismay upon encountering transformed terraces changed to fascination as he and his colleagues uncovered what had happened in the 19th century.

“That history is important,” he said. “It explained to us the nature of the houses and features we found.”

Searching for Aztec houses had originally drawn Smith to the area in order to investigate daily life, agriculture, social patterns, economic processes and urban organization at Calixtlahuaca

“We found a number of houses that we were able to excavate,” he said, with these homes showing “heavy use of wattle-and-daub construction.”

The site was continuously occupied from 1100 to almost A.D. 1600 — a time period that predated the rise of the Mexica empire and ended after the Spanish conquest. “We do know the region of Calixtlahuaca was really engaged in various kinds of production of tools and metals, traded with many parts of central Mexico and was conquered by the Aztec Empire,” Smith said.

To live and work on the hilly landscape, its indigenous inhabitants built terraces, an ancient way of adapting a hilly landscape for human existence; manmade level surfaces on a slope allow opportunities for farming, habitation and even channeling excess water off the slope during a storm – a necessity in places with a rainy season.

Mexica Palace at Calixtlahuaca — Much of Calixtlahuaca’s structural remains were originally excavated in the early 20th century by Mexican archaeologist José García Payón.

Following the Spanish conquest of the Mexica, the colonizers compelled Calixtlahuaca’s inhabitants to leave the community and help build a new city nearby — Toluca. The terraces were abandoned. “There was severe erosion,” Smith said.

Indeed, a Mexica royal palace at the bottom of a hill had been buried due to what Smith calls a “massive erosion episode in the whole landscape.” The palace was only rediscovered in the 1930s by Mexican archaeologist José Garcia Payón.

Smith and his team also discovered another dramatic and mysterious change: on the slopes, seemingly every other terrace had been systematically destroyed. On those that remained, the team found well-preserved evidence of Aztec houses, but they sought an explanation for the vanished terraces.

According to Smith, large landowners in the 19th century began expanding their haciendas, forcing smaller farmers to look elsewhere to graze cattle, including in Calixtlahuaca. Yet, problems emerged as they turned to these terraced lands.

“In 19th-century rural areas, you had farming by a plow pulled by oxen,” Smith said. “Aztec terraces were too narrow. Oxen couldn’t turn around. [The farmers] destroyed many of the terraces to make [the others] wider. Every other terrace was destroyed, altered. They built up the remaining [ones] to make them larger. We see double-wide terraces … that allowed people to farm with 19th-century technology.”

Before this development, he said, “People would graze cattle, grow some crops” on the landscape but “not actively farm the site itself.”

Matlatzinca indigenous people in Toluca Valley — A small community of indigenous Matlatzinca still lives in México state today in the town of San Francisco Oxtotilpan, about 50 kilometers from Calixtlahuaca. INPI

At the site, Smith served as director of the overall project. Borejsza and Rodríguez worked with him on excavations, focusing on the water channels there. Frederick contributed his knowledge of ancient terraces in other parts of the world to address another mystery: the reason for the recorded erosion.

Frederick attributed this to the abandonment of the terraces for hundreds of years following the Spanish conquest.

“[Frederick] worked in Greece and the Mediterranean area on ancient terraces,” Smith said. “He recognized the situation [in Calixtlahuaca] and sort of the likelihood that it was the cause of the erosion.”

As Smith said, “You’ve got to keep the terraces up. After a rainstorm … you’ve got to build them back up again. During the rainy season [in central Mexico], it usually rains five to six days a week. It rains really hard, very hard … During that season … if you don’t actively work your terrace, prepare for this, fix a break when it occurs, it can really destroy a whole system.”

After their centuries-long disuse, the terraces of Calixtlahuaca have gotten a second life in the modern era.

“People still farm the terraces,” Smith said. “Originally built by Aztec people, they were modified in the 19th century, and they continue to be modified — people still do this today.”

Book cover — The team’s book discusses not only their findings but their process as they went from dismay at the modern changes to the landscape to hunting for the site’s full story.

Rich Tenorio is a frequent contributor to Mexico News Daily.

‘Economic disaster:’ Texas border inspections cost Tamaulipas 1 billion pesos in a week

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MND Staff

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April 18, 2022

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Long lines of trucks waited to cross the border into the U.S. last week, near Reynosa, Tamaulipas. — Long lines of trucks waited to cross the border into the U.S. last week near Reynosa, Tamaulipas.

The more stringent vehicle inspection program introduced by Texas at its border with Mexico earlier this month generated losses in Tamaulipas of at least 1 billion pesos (US $50.1 million) in the space of a single week, according to an umbrella group of business organizations.

“It was an economic disaster for the border area and for both Mexican and United States businesspeople,” said Julio César Almanza Armas, president of the Tamaulipas State Federation of Chambers of Commerce (Fecanaco).

The stricter inspection program, under which all commercial vehicles crossing into Texas were inspected, began on April 7 after Governor Greg Abbott directed authorities to conduct more thorough checks to detect drugs and migrants trying to enter the U.S. illegally.

Its implementation triggered protests by Mexican truckers, who faced waits of up to 30 hours to cross the border. Nuevo León Governor Samuel García negotiated an end to the program at that state’s sole border crossing with Texas six days after it took effect, while his counterparts in Chihuahua, Coahuila and Tamaulipas subsequently reached similar agreements with Abbott, who claims that the U.S. government isn’t doing enough to secure the country’s border with Mexico.

As a result, the program came to a complete end on Friday – eight days after it began – and random checks of vehicles resumed.

Mexican truckers briefly protested the onerous Texas border policy by blocking the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge. Via El Informador

Almanza said that over 25,000 export shipments per day were held up by the tougher checks in Tamaulipas and asserted that it will take a long time for companies to recover from the losses they incurred due to the delays.

He said that over 45% of exports to the United States cross that country’s border with Tamaulipas. The crossing between Reynosa and McAllen is the most important entry point for agricultural products, while Nuevo Laredo, across the Rio Grande from Laredo, is the chief hub for Mexican exports of all kinds heading overland to the U.S.

Two-way trade between Mexico and Texas was worth US $177.8 billion in 2020, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with both sides benefiting almost equally from the cross-border exchange.

Almanza called on the federal government to take steps to avoid any possible resumption of the stricter inspection program.

The Fecanaco president suggested that the Texas government could introduce even stricter vehicle inspections if the Mexican government doesn’t clamp down on illegal migration and bolster security at the country’s southern border, where most migrants headed for the U.S. first enter Mexico. Abbott warned Thursday that the program could be reinstated, although he celebrated the pacts he reached with his Mexican counterparts.

At a press conference with Tamaulipas Governor Francisco García Cabeza de Vaca on Friday, the 64-year-old Texas Republican said that García had committed to providing “enhanced border security measures on the Mexico side of the border both at ports of entry and along the Rio Grande river to prevent illegal immigration from Mexico into Texas.”

Tamaulipas Governor Francisco García Cabeza de Vaca and Texas Governor Greg Abbott hold up their new border security agreement at a Friday press conference. Twitter @fgcabezadevaca

“… Texas has now entered into border security enhancement agreements with the Mexican governors of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, Chihuahua and Nuevo León,” he added.

In a video message posted to social media on Saturday, Abbott – who is particularly irked about the U.S. government’s decision to end Title 42 expulsions of migrants to slow the spread of the coronavirus – said the previous two days had been “historic” for the state of Texas.

“I’ve met with governors from border states in Mexico to reach agreements where those governors in Mexico will be securing the border to reduce cross-border immigration into the state of Texas. If you think about it, in the past two days alone, I’ve done more than what the Biden administration has done in the past 15 months to address border security,” said the governor, who is vying to win a third term at the gubernatorial election to be held in November.

The federal government stayed out of border states’ negotiations with Texas, but denounced the stricter vehicle inspection program via a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that said that it would “significantly harm the commercial flow between our two countries.”

President López Obrador entered the fray on Monday by accusing the Texas government of acting against the principles of free trade. The measures introduced were “completely contrary to free trade” and amounted to “chicanery” on the part of Texas, he told reporters at his morning news conference.

“Legally they can do it but it’s really despicable,” López Obrador charged. “… Why do they do it? I believe that the governor of Texas aspires to be the Republican Party candidate,” he said, apparently referring to the U.S. 2024 presidential election.

“They think they will win affection with … [the strict vehicle inspections], even though they’re damaging,” López Obrador said.

“… There is a lot of irrationality, don’t think that irrationality is exclusive to conservative politicians in Mexico, no, it’s found all over the world,” he said.

“… It will continue happening because elections are coming. Instead of thinking … about how to resolve the problem of inflation, they’re already involved in politicking. … The aim is also to create conflicts … [but] we’re not going to fall into provocation,” López Obrador said, adding that “it’s a good thing” that the stricter inspection program has come to an end.

With reports from Reforma and Expansión Política

Iguanas as pets: 35,000 to be raised in Chiapas this year

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MND Staff

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April 18, 2022

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Iguanas raised at El Iguanero, a wildlife management unit in Mazatán, Chiapas. — Iguanas raised at El Iguanero, a Wildlife Management Unit in Mazatán, Chiapas. Facebook UMA El Iguanero

The once threatened green iguana is now in high demand — as a pet.

Wildlife Management Units (UMA) in Chiapas expect to raise 35,000 green iguanas this year, a welcome turnaround for the reptile, which was endangered in Chiapas a decade ago due to the culinary popularity of its eggs and meat.

Every year in March, female iguanas make their nests in sandy caves and lay 50-70 eggs. The UMAs focused on raising the species near the Pacific coast in the municipalities of Mazatán, Tuzantán, Mapastepec and Arriaga, replicating those conditions to maximize the reproduction of the reptiles.

Many of the iguanas eventually find homes in Chiapas.

One of the experts who raises iguanas, Fernando Tort, said the coldblooded lizards are very docile, manageable and suitable as pets for people with little space looking for the company of a calm animal.

Personnel at UMA La Cabaña, a wildlife management unit in Arriaga, display a few of their iguanas. — Personnel at UMA La Cabaña, a Wildlife Management Unit in Arriaga, Chiapas, display a few of their iguanas. umalacabana.com

As well as being raised in Chiapas, iguanas are being exported for sale from El Salvador to Mexico and the United States, Tort added.

The short-legged, bright green creatures have sharp claws and long, thin tails and can measure more than two meters in length. They have thick scales that cover their skin to provide protection against water and loose skin hanging from their necks. Despite their peculiarities, iguanas are not demanding as pets: They spend more time sunbathing than eating.

However, iguanas need to live under certain conditions, with a terrarium offering the correct light, humidity and temperature. The climate in Chiapas meets the right tropical conditions, which is part of the reason that pet ownership has boomed in the region.

Ten-year-old Carlitos Lizárraga said he has enjoyed the company of such a calm pet. “It isn’t like a dog or cat that runs around the house destroying things. It’s quiet and very friendly. I’ve already had it a year and there are no problems because my grandfather made it a terrarium … it has a trunk and a cave. It eats fruits and vegetables that my mother uses in the kitchen … It’s really good for children,” he said.

Edson Martínez sells small iguanas for 250-300 pesos (US $12.50-$15) from a pet shop in Tapachula. He said that people looking to take home an iguana should provide it with an adequate space. “We try to raise awareness because these animals grow and at some point they react by instinct,” he warned.

Martínez added that the reptiles can easily live alongside dogs and cats and are happy strolling around the house.

With reports from Milenio

90,000 tourists hit Tamaulipas beach on Good Friday

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MND Staff

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April 18, 2022

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Tens of thousands of people flocked to Playa Miramar in southern Tamaulipas for the holiday weekend. — Tens of thousands of visitors flocked to Miramar beach in southern Tamaulipas for the holiday weekend. Twitter @fgcabezadevaca

More than 90,000 tourists flocked to a popular beach in Tamaulipas on Good Friday while 1.3 million visitors arrived in the state over Easter week, municipal and state authorities said.

Miramar beach in Ciudad Madero hosted 90,325 visitors on Friday. The 10-kilometer beach sits on the outskirts of the city of Tampico, which had restricted tourism for two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last week, 1.3 million people visited Tamaulipas with hotel occupancy averaging 60%. The influx provided an economic boost for the region of 859 million pesos (US $43 million).

The busiest destinations in the state were its beaches: Miramar, Bagdad beach in Matamoros, Barra del Tordo in Aldama, La Pesca in Soto la Marina, Tesoro in Altamira and Carbonera beach in San Fernando. Tampico’s traditional fair was also a draw for tourists.

Most visitors to Miramar beach were from nearby states such as Nuevo León, San Luis Potosí, Chihuahua, Veracruz, Hidalgo, Zacatecas and Mexico City. From April 8-16 more than 191,000 vehicles entered the state, according to the state Tourism Ministry.

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Ciudad Madero official Juan Antonio Ortega Juárez said order was maintained on Miramar beach despite the deluge of visitors. “From an early hour tourists arrived at the main promenade, packing the natural area. The busiest hours were recorded from 12-6 p.m. However, vehicles quickly dispersed, avoiding congestion,” he said.

Ortega added that the influx was managed successfully due to the work of local authorities and security forces. “Thanks to the good coordination between various authorities, everything has been positive in Miramar. The surveillance of the beach area is 24 hours a day, without the city being neglected,” he said.

One visitor, Julisa Martínez, said traveling to a beach in Tamaulipas had been a stress-free experience. “The highway is in very good condition and it’s very safe. Above all, that’s what you want: safety and tranquility,” she said.

However, another tourist heading to Ciudad Mante, 160 kilometers west of Tampico, said that while highways were safe and in good condition, there was a lot of traffic.

With reports from Milenio and Reforma

AMLO cries treason as opposition parties vote down electricity reform

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MND Staff

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April 18, 2022

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Chamber of Deputies legislators met on Sunday to vote on the proposed reform. Cámara de Diputados / EFE

A proposed electricity reform that would have guaranteed the state owned Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) over half the market failed to pass the lower house of Congress on Sunday, prompting President López Obrador to describe opposition lawmakers as traitors.

The ruling Morena party and its allies fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to approve the constitutional bill, which would have given the CFE 54% of the power market and nationalized future lithium exploration, among other measures.

A total of 275 deputies voted in favor of the proposed reform while 223 voted against it. Only two of 500 deputies were absent.

Marked by acrimony between the opposing parties, the Easter Sunday debate and vote on the constitutional bill was closely watched in Mexico and beyond given that its approval would have drastically altered rules governing participation in the country’s energy sector. Opposition parties and other critics argued that the reform would adversely affect current and future investment, damage the economy and harm the environment given that the CFE is heavily dependent on fossil fuels.

It was the first time that a constitutional reform put forward by a Mexican president had been rejected.

President López Obrador reflected on the constitutional reform's defeat at his Monday morning press conference. — President López Obrador reflected on the constitutional reform’s defeat at his Monday morning press conference. Presidencia de la República

López Obrador – a staunch energy nationalist determined to “rescue” the CFE and state oil company Pemex and roll back the 2013 reform that opened up the energy sector to private and foreign companies – said Monday that opposition lawmakers committed “an act of treason” in not supporting the bill. They defended the interests of unscrupulous foreign companies rather than those of the Mexican people and nation, he asserted.

In the Chamber of Deputies on Sunday, Morena’s leader in the lower house called on opposition lawmakers to support the proposed reform, which López Obrador sent to Congress in October.

“Think about whether you want to subordinate yourself to money and foreign companies as the bad lawmakers, bad officials and bad Mexicans did in 2013,” Ignacio Mier said, referring to approval of the previous government’s energy reform, one of numerous structural reforms spearheaded by former president Enrique Peña Nieto and passed by Congress.

“Don’t mortgage your honor because there won’t be money to recover it. Honor is a matter of dignity and moral quality,” he said.

His plea fell on deaf ears, with the National Action Party (PAN), Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) and Citizens Movement (MC) party all rejecting the constitutional bill.

“In the context of this reform, many people bet that the ‘Va por México’ coalition was going to dissolve, but today we tell you that the women and men of the PAN, PRI and PRD are more united than ever,” said Jorge Romero, leader of the PAN in the lower house.

The PRI party president, Alejandro Moreno, celebrated the defeat of the constitutional electricity reform. — The PRI party president, Deputy Alejandro Moreno, celebrated the defeat of the constitutional electricity reform. Twitter @AlitoMorenoC

Deputy Alejandro Moreno, the PRI’s national president, declared that the rejection of the bill would be Morena’s “largest and most monumental defeat” in the Congress, and warned that the opposition would band together to vote down other constitutional initiatives if the ruling party maintained its “arrogant attitude.”

Ildefonso Guajardo, a PRI deputy and former economy minister, warned that the proposed reform would violate the North American free trade pact – the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) – an argument already made by many other critics, including the U.S. government.

As debate was taking place in the Chamber of Deputies, López Obrador took to social media to declare that “whatever happens we’re already shielded against treason.”

The government’s already approved Electricity Industry Law, which gives power generated by CFE priority on the national grid over that produced by private and renewable energy companies, was ruled constitutional by the Supreme Court earlier this month, while a reform to the mining law – which requires only a simple majority to pass Congress – gives the president the ability to nationalize lithium resources. The proposed mining law reform could face a vote as soon as Monday.

Speaking at his regular news conference on Monday morning, López Obrador said that opposition lawmakers who blocked his bill had become “clear defenders of foreign companies that are dedicated to getting rich and stealing.”

“To say it clearly, these deputies supported the looters,” he said. “… That’s the mentality that prevailed yesterday,” López Obrador said.

“… We’ve been defending [Mexico’s] oil and the electricity industry for decades because that’s what the foreigners covet the most – not just companies [but] those behind [them]; it’s a chain of command, it’s the investment funds that dominate in the world. It’s the investment funds, the companies and then the corrupt oligarchic interests of each country,” he said.

López Obrador claimed that the “traitors” didn’t present any valid arguments against his proposed reform, singling out Guajardo’s claim that the USMCA would be violated as “completely false.”

The president had harbored hopes that the PRI would support his bill, but the once omnipotent party – whose early president Lázaro Cárdenas nationalized Mexico’s oil industry – ultimately sided with the PAN, which is currently the main opposition party in Congress.

“It was shameful to see the PRI as the co-conspirator of the PAN. … [It’s] regrettable, just imagine – the [PRI is the] party that emerged with the revolution,” López Obrador said.

“ … We saw this coming. Of course it could have been avoided if we acted like they did in 2013 [when] they bought votes, but we’re not the same. In 2013, … [the PRI] obtained an absolute majority, there wasn’t opposition because they handed out money, that’s why the so-called energy reform [was approved], the reform we’re confronting,” he said before signaling his undiminished determination to overhaul the energy sector to favor the state.

“… This isn’t over yet,” the president insisted. “This is just starting.”

With reports from Reforma, Milenio and El Financiero

Lawmakers gear up for Sunday’s showdown vote on energy future

By

Christine Murray

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April 17, 2022

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National Action Party Deputy Mariana Gómez was one of a couple of hundred legislators who camped in their offices Saturday night to avoid any chance of being locked out of Congress for Sunday's vote.

Mexico’s opposition politicians plan to reject a radical energy reform pushed by the country’s nationalist president in an Easter Sunday vote that will be closely watched by investors.

The constitutional reform, which would guarantee state electricity group CFE 54% of the market, has spooked the private sector, opposition and U.S. government. Critics argue that it would be bad for investment, the economy and the environment.

The reform would transform the regulatory landscape for electricity, including by canceling existing power generation permits and prioritizing CFE power over private renewables on the grid.

The ruling Morena party has tweaked its proposal slightly and won at least one vote from the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). But a constitutional change requires approval by two-thirds of lawmakers, which is highly unlikely barring last-minute surprises, say analysts.

“A constitutional reform cannot pass without our consent and votes . . . and they don’t have it,” said Santiago Creel, vice-president of the lower house and a deputy for the opposition conservative National Action Party (PAN).

Since the reform was put forward in October, business leaders, the government and lawmakers have negotiated behind the scenes and debated in public. But the gap between the visions of energy nationalist President López Obrador and the opposition that opened the markets to private investment in 2013 has been too wide to bridge.

Instead, Sunday’s vote is more for López Obrador to make a political point, say analysts. The government wants to paint the opposition as representing the interests of foreign energy companies while it is working for the Mexican people.

“Citizens will pay attention to who votes for national sovereignty and who defends the interests of the transnational companies. The homeland comes first!” the president’s spokesperson, Jesús Ramírez Cuevas, said on Friday, citing a leader of Mexico’s movement for independence from Spain.

López Obrador, who grew up in an oil-producing state and is a firm believer in state control of oil and electricity, thinks the liberalization of the sector was plagued by corruption and too favourable to private companies.

“It’s not just another topic, one more item on the agenda but rather it’s something at the heart of [his] . . . agenda, because it’s at the heart of the history of Mexico,” said Lorenzo Meyer, a historian who is broadly supportive of López Obrador’s administration. “The opposition can vote down the bill but not the idea.”

Energy experts agree, and doubt the sector will see much new investment even if the constitutional reform is rejected. The government has other tools at its disposal, such as blocking permits through regulators and trying to implement a secondary bill that the Supreme Court did not throw out in a ruling earlier this month.

“The energy sector isn’t going to change, it’ll stay as it’s been until now without investment or with very focused investment,” said Carlos Ochoa, a lawyer in Holland & Knight’s Mexico City office who has worked in state companies CFE and Pemex.

He said the vote was also important for the broader economy and investment climate. “If the reform doesn’t pass . . . it is a good message for other industrial sectors to know that at least there are checks and balances,” he said. López Obrador has said if the reform is voted down, he will send a new initiative to congress to nationalize the country’s lithium resources.

His coalition has the simple majority to pass secondary legislation. The issue is less immediately material to the private sector as the value of Mexico’s lithium, which is mostly in clay deposits that are difficult to mine, is unclear.

Fiery Holy Week ‘Burning Judas’ tradition was almost killed by the PRI

By

Leigh Thelmadatter

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April 16, 2022

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Judas effigy being blown up on Holy Saturday CDMX — Before and after: Judas figure being exploded on Holy Saturday in the Santa María la Ribera neighborhood in Mexico City. Alejandro Linares García

Some years ago, there was a fad of making and smashing piñatas in the shape of Donald Trump. More recently, something similar happened with those made like coronaviruses.

This was primarily a phenomenon in the United States. Piñatas haven’t really had a history of being used for political and social statements in Mexico.

But one of the piñata’s papier-mache cousins, the Judas, was used for that purpose — and it almost led to its demise.

Today is Holy Saturday, the day between the commemoration of the death of Christ and the celebration of his resurrection. It is also the day, according to tradition, when the apostle Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus to Roman authorities for money, committed suicide.

For the unspeakable sin of betraying the son of God, Judas has long been an icon of evil second only to the Devil himself in the eyes of Catholics.

Burning of the Judases tradition — Traditional devil Judas effigies border more modern ones of presidents Enrique Peña Nieto, AMLO and Donald Trump.

In southern Europe, a tradition arose of making effigies to represent Judas, then burning them on Holy Saturday as a way to repudiate evil and purify the community for the upcoming celebrations. The Spanish took this tradition with them to the New World.

Of course, Mexico made changes. One of these was to forego the crude human figure made of whatever was on hand to something that required more artistic talent — often in a hard papier-mache craft style called cartonería.

Eventually, a figure of the Devil became the most popular, with the idea that it represented Judas after the betrayal, rather than trying to depict what he might have looked like in life. The second adaption made in Mexico was to “burn” the figure not by setting it alight but by setting off a bunch of fireworks attached or embedded into the figure, essentially blowing it to pieces and destroying a finely crafted artwork that took hours to make.

Until the mid-20th century, Holy Saturday was the biggest day on the calendar for cartoneros, those who use papier-mache to create festival paraphernalia and more. Artisans like Pedro Linares of Mexico City would make hundreds of them, knowing that when they all sold, he could buy his children necessities affordable only once a year.

But a third tradition with the Judases nearly wiped out the entire Holy Saturday ritual in the 1950s: that of making Judases in the form of living public figures who for one reason or another had prompted the ire of the community — in particular, authorities.

During Mexico’s decades-long one-party rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), such mockery of political leaders became intolerable. Artisans’ workshops were checked in the run-up to Holy Week to see if any Judases representing the president or others were being made.

Leonardo Linares Mexican cartoneria craftsman — Leonardo Linares, grandson of the famous Pedro Linares, ties one of a series of rockets onto a Judas. Alejandro Linares Garcia

Then, in 1957, a warehouse storing fireworks (some say it had military munitions) caught fire and exploded, causing deaths and devastation around the La Merced Market in Mexico City. Authorities took the opportunity to outright ban fireworks almost entirely in the capital.

Without the fireworks, a Judas is not a Judas, and so the business of making them all but died.

One notable exception was Pedro Linares’ family, who managed to get exemptions from the ban and set Judases off in front of their home in the capital’s Merced Balbuena neighborhood, a tradition the family continues each year on Holy Saturday.

But for most others, the tradition was prohibited, and as goes Mexico City, generally goes Mexico. Soon, other cities followed suit, instituting bans “for safety reasons.”

Many cartoneros believe the real reason was political, and I tend to agree with them. For example, there have never been such restrictions on toritos — cartonería bulls laden with fireworks that are run through crowds as part of annual celebrations. The toritos are at least as dangerous as Judases, probably more so, but they have never been politically charged and they were never prohibited, although in recent years the enactments have often been moved to more remote locations outside the downtown.

Judases have made something of a comeback since the PRI’s hold on Mexico was more or less broken in 2000. But the setting off of Judases, even today, generally requires special permits, and there are often restrictions, such as keeping crowds at a distance.

It seems ridiculous given how people dance in showers of sparks and rockets when toritos are running around, but the government is apparently not yet ready to drop the “public safety” pretense just yet. In most communities where Judases are “burned,” the brightly painted figures are hoisted into a tree or suspended in a way that allows them to dangle, much like a piñata. Some words might be spoken, but usually, the fireworks are simply set off unceremoniously. Often there is more than one Judas.

Some communities have interesting variations on the burning: in the state of Guanajuato, some set the effigy on fire, with or without accelerant, as a way to get around the ban on fireworks. In Jerez, Zacatecas, charros (cowboys) compete to lasso one of the effigies as they are set off so that they can drag it through the streets. In some places, it’s a treat for children to go home with an arm or leg or head from the remnants of an exploded Judas — not unlike baseball fans taking home a trophy ball that flew into the stands.

Judas burnings are still found mostly in central Mexico, but their comeback is a welcome sign of the population’s freedom of expression.

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.