Volunteers in Manzanillo, Colima, are gearing up for a busy season collecting turtles eggs on the beaches in the area. The yearly nesting season runs from July to December and during that period in 2021 the Tortugario Manzanillo (Manzanillo Turtle Sanctuary) collected 108,000 eggs from 1,660 nests. This year they expect similar collection numbers.
The center has about 30 volunteers, according its director, Sonia Quijano, who will begin night watches along the beach starting this weekend. In 2021 they expanded the extension of beach that they are watching and protecting, which has led to even greater number of eggs retrieved and turtles hatched at their facilities.
Scientists have shown that sea turtles are important in many ways for healthy oceans, performing roles as varied as maintaining delicate coral reefs to transporting nutrients from the oceans to beaches. Every year thousands of sea turtles come to the shores of Mexico to lay their eggs and then head back into the water to continue their global migration.
Of the world’s seven species of sea turtles, the most common species on the Manzanillo beaches are the Olive Ridley sea turtles as well as leatherbacks and green sea turtles.
Long threatened by poachers, many organizations along Mexico’s Pacific coast work to protect turtles and their eggs. Even with the assistance of their human partners, there is only a 1 in 1,000 chance that sea turtles released back into the ocean will survival the perils of their adolescence in the ocean (but if they make it they can live up to 150 years).
It appears someone has already begun to dismantle the small, overgrown pyramid, which could be more than 1,000 years old.
The only remaining pre-Hispanic pyramid in a community near the city of Zacatlán, Puebla, is at risk of being demolished by a private citizen who reportedly plans to appropriate the land on which it stands.
The approximately 6-meter-high structure is located on a piece of cultivated land in San Pedro Atmatla, a community about 2 kilometers from Zacatlán in northern Puebla. The pyramid, which looks more like a hillock as it is covered with dirt, grass and other vegetation, was likely built between the 10th and 16th centuries, according to a report by El Solde Puebla.
The newspaper reported that a local plans to appropriate the land where the pre-Hispanic ceremonial temple stands. Residents who spoke with El Sol de Puebla said a man is planning to demolish the pyramid.
There is already evidence that the structure has been recently damaged, apparently “by the hand of man,” the newspaper said. Some of the stones used to built it have been removed and now lie beside the structure’s side. It was unclear whether local authorities planned to intervene to stop the destruction of the pyramid.
The land where Zacatlán is located was inhabited by the Chichimeca people early in the second millennium of the Common Era, but local historian Sergio Ramos González believes the pyramid may have been part of an Olmec settlement.
There are three other pyramids in the broader local area but they are not in San Pedro Atmatla. Five others have been lost over the years.
The famous British clock of Pachuca, built by miners from Cornwall. Diego Delso
If you have ever seen promotional materials about the city of Pachuca, Hidalgo, you have seen an image of its bright, white monumental clock dominating the main square. The clock tower is the pride of the city and the main symbol of its British heritage. So, where did it come from?
In the 19th century, British companies took over the area’s silver and other mines as Mexican companies had tapped them out with the technology previously available. Along with new techniques and machinery, the British companies brought over Cornish miners, who settled in Pachuca and the surrounding communities.
They also brought soccer, but that is another story.
Integrating themselves into their new town and country, the British community decided to build the clock in 1904 for Mexico’s upcoming 1910 independence centennial. Francis Rule, a mining magnate, provided the initial funding, and other area companies pitched in.
The now eye-catching monumental clock of Jacala, thanks to recent mural work. OrgullosamenteHidalguense
The resulting edifice was a 40-meter tall Neoclassical building in white stone. On the third level, there are marble statues related to the history of Mexico, but the clockworks were made in Europe to be an exact replica of those of London’s Big Ben.
Pachuca is not the only place in Hidalgo to boast of a monumental clock. As is common in Mexico, smaller communities follow the lead of those with economic, political and or social power. At least 10 exist in the state.
But the Pachuca clock was part of a first “wave” of clock towers in the state, which was prompted by a federal decree requiring cities and ports to construct some kind of monument for the independence centennial.
These clocks are made from tuff, an extremely common volcanic stone that has been used in monumental construction in central Mexico for centuries. The colors of this stone vary, depending on where it is mined.
In the north of the state, the small city of Huejutla constructed a clock at the same time as Pachuca. Inaugurated in 1908, it is technically the first monumental clock, but it is only half the height of Pachuca’s. Some sources say that the clock was inaugurated on the date of the centennial, September 15, 1910, but the municipality insists on the 1908 date.
Given their original patriotic purpose, both the Pachuca and Huejutla clocks play the Mexican national anthem at 6 p.m.
The clock tower in Tecozautla began construction around the same time, but because of the Revolution, the project was not completed until 1921. Interestingly enough, the Porfirian eagle, a symbol of the pre-Revolution regime, survived the turmoil and is still prominently displayed.
Similarly, the towns of Cuautepec de Hinojosa and Metzquititlán finished their clock towers in the 1920s. The Metzquititlán one is distinguished by a large bronze eagle cast in Mexico City.
Pachuca’s newly built clock tower circa 1915.
These clocks became popular and symbolic of the towns in which they were constructed. The design and materials of these clocks also reflect the decades in which they were built.
The clock in Acaxochitlán is Art Deco in design with a mixed construction of brick, steel and cement. Locally mined tuff was used for the facade.
Due to a lack of records, it is not known when construction started or finished nor where or when the clockworks were purchased. The style and what little information exists point to a completion date of the early 1930s.
Most of the rest are of more recent construction. For Mexico’s independence bicentennial, the town of Atlapexco decided to build its own clock tower, finishing it in 2012. It is a very modern structure of block and cement, listing the names of all the communities in the municipality.
The clock towers of Tecozautla and Pachuquilla, Hidalgo. Limo 5 & Rube HM
More recent additions include the clock built in 2017 in La Lagunilla, a small community outside the city of Tulancingo. Yet another was constructed in Pachuquilla, the municipal seal of Mineral de la Reforma, located just outside of Pachuca.
And then there’s the monumental clock of Jacala, a tiny town in Hidalgo’s portion of the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve. It didn’t turn that many heads. It is of a simple, square design with a tile roof. Until recently it was painted in a drab two-tone color.
In 2020, the municipality decided to liven up the structure by doing something very Mexican: painting murals on the large, flat surfaces. Today, it is the first thing by far that draws the eye in the main square, presenting images of the town’s founder, its agriculture, its food and the local huapango dance. At 6 p.m., instead of the national anthem, a huapango song is played.
All these clocks were constructed in the main squares of their towns, with the express purpose of becoming community focal points; they are often the scene of civic and cultural events. For example, one of the highlights of Huejutla’s Xantolo festival is the lighting of hundreds of candles in front of the clock tower in the main plaza.
In most cases, these clock towers have also become symbols of their communities, regions and even the entire state of Hidalgo.
That said, the clocks do sometimes have problems with maintenance and the need for restoration. Just about all the older clocks have recently had work done — or are in need of it — on the facades, the clockworks or both.
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.
Margaret Domínguez: 'We aren't geniuses, we are just people who like to research.'
Margaret Domínguez didn’t know it but her life was about to change when Jonathan P. Gardner from the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) came to a physics conference she organized at the Universidad de las Américas Puebla (UDLAP) in 2008.
Gardner encouraged the young physics student to apply for a summer internship at NASA and her acceptance took her career down a new path that has led to forming a part of a team of scientists and engineers building some of the world’s largest and most advanced telescopes at NASA.
Now an optical engineer, Domínguez grew up in rural Puebla state in the municipality of Tecamachalco, in a country where only 12% of engineers nationwide are women. She went on to obtain a Masters at the University of Arizona, but even in the United States she was a minority in her field: only 13% of engineers are women in the U.S.
At this week’s Woman + Science Week 2.0 at the Monterrey Tec university, Domínguez encouraged other women with a passion for science and math to follow in her footsteps.
“’Life is not easy for any of us. We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves.’ That’s a quote by Marie Curie, the first person to win Nobel prizes in both physics and chemistry. If she could do it, we all can,” said Domínguez addressing the conference.
Domínguez seems to have been blessed with those qualities. She was part of the team that launched the James Webb Space Telescope in 2018 and is now helping to design what was the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), renamed the Nancy Grace Roman Telescope after the American astronomer and first female executive of NASA.
Following some delays due to COVID, the Roman Telescope is set to launch some time before 2027 and will study dark matter, exoplanets, and the formation of the universe. The telescope will have 100 times the visual field of the Hubble, which will allow it to study up to 10,000 galaxies at the same time.
At 31, Domínguez has become an example for young women interested in the sciences and is often asked to speak at events dedicated to women in science as well as at a Ted Talk in 2018. But despite her growing celebrity she insists that her feet are on the ground even if her eyes are in the heavens.
“Normal people work at NASA, we aren’t geniuses, we are just people who like to research and work hard.”
Festival organizers and guests serve up ant-centric local specialties.
The nucú flying ant, a beloved Chiapas delicacy, was the star attraction at the Feria Gastronómica del Nucú (Edible Ant Culinary Festival) in the capital city of Tuxtla Gutiérrez last weekend.
Hosted by the city government and the Tuxtla Institute of Art and Culture (ITAC), the gastronomy fair presented 50 unique dishes developed by 40 traditional cooks and chefs, all including nucú edible ants (also known as chicatana ants).
More than just good eating, the fair included presentations about edible ants as a gourmet delicacy, as well as workshops on how to prepare them, and even a book dedicated to the topic. An important part of the regional Zoque cuisine, the edible ant is only one of six insect species that are consumed in Chiapas and 35 nationwide, said Omar Velázquez Toledo, a chef and the director ITAC.
“This is a custom of ancient cultures,” said Velázquez about the use of edible insects. Historical information dates their use back at least as far as the 1920s as a primary ingredient in regional cooking. Though the most traditional way to consume ants has long been boiled or toasted with salt, nowadays you will find them incorporated into flour for baked goods, as an ingredient in mole, in tamales, salads, sweets, and ice cream.
A nucú ant
A seasonal delicacy, the nucú, or flying ants of the area, fly from their nests at the beginning of the rainy season when they are “hunted” by local families, many who have spent generations collecting insects in the area. The nucú, also called zompopo, nacasmá, tzim tzim and cocosh by the native peoples of Chiapas, are known most commonly as chicatana ants in the rest of the country. The labor required to collect just a few grams of ants or their eggs (another gourmet delicacy), means your next ant omelet won’t be cheap: they can sell for almost 1,500 pesos (US $75) a kilo in markets across Mexico.
The last decade has seen many international organizations, including the United Nations, calling on countries to incorporate more bugs into their national diets to fight world hunger. The slightly crunchy, peanut-flavored chicatanas are certainly high in protein and nutrients, and can provide many benefits for humans, including improving the digestive system. But while chefs and diners ooh and ahh over ants as a gourmet ingredient, scientists warn that ant populations are decreasing, partly due to over-collection by humans and partly to loss of habitat.
Héctor Cabrera led a double life with two different families.
A scientist from Oaxaca who pleaded guilty to spying for Russia in the United States was sentenced last week to four years and one day in U.S. federal prison.
Héctor Cabrera Fuentes, a microbiologist from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec region who led a double life with two different families, was sentenced June 21 in Miami federal court. After maintaining his innocence for two years, the 37-year-old pleaded guilty in February to acting on behalf of the Russian government in the United States without notifying the U.S. attorney general.
Cabrera was arrested in February 2020 at Miami International Airport, where he and his Mexican wife – he also has a Russian wife – were waiting to board a flight to Mexico City.
According to an Associated Press report, the commencement of the scientist’s “botched intelligence mission” can be traced back to a 2019 trip his Russian wife and their two daughters took from Germany to Russia to take care of a bureaucratic matter. An FBI agent said in an affidavit that accompanied the original indictment against Cabrera that the woman was prevented from leaving Russia when she attempted to return to Germany. Cabrera subsequently traveled to Russia to see his Russian family and while in the country was allegedly contacted by a Russian official he had met years earlier in a work-related meeting.
The Russian official, who isn’t identified in U.S. court documents, told Cabrera that his family shouldn’t go to Europe or apply for a United States visa. According to the FBI, AP reported, it was around that time that the scientist began to suspect that the official worked for the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, or FSB.
At a later meeting in Moscow, the official showed Cabrera emails he had written when he was apparently looking for real estate in Miami. According to the original indictment, the Russian subsequently told the Mexican, “we can help each other.”
Cabrera agreed to the official’s request to travel to Miami, and – using the name of an associate – rented an apartment in the same complex where a U.S. government informant lived. The Russian official asked the scientist to keep tabs on the informant and take note of the location of his vehicle. Cabrera told U.S. authorities that he agreed to act as a spy in exchange for Russia allowing him to remove his two daughters from that country.
AP noted that the individual Cabrera was tasked with monitoring is not identified in court documents and is described only as a United States government “confidential human source” who had provided information about Russian intelligence activities that affect U.S. national security interests.
The day before he was arrested, the scientist and his Mexican wife “attracted the attention of a security guard as they were caught on surveillance tape tailgating another vehicle onto the premises of a Miami-area condominium and snapping a photo of the U.S. source’s car and license plate,” AP said. By taking a photo, Cabrera ignored Russia’s instructions not to take pictures but to just jot down the location of the informant’s vehicle, the news agency said.
Before he was arrested, Cabrera worked at the Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore, which is jointly run by North Carolina’s Duke University and the National University of Singapore. It was unclear how he maintained that job while apparently carrying out surveillance for Russia in Florida during a period of approximately one year.
In 2018, the FEMSA Biotechnology Center at the Monterrey Institute of Technology in Nuevo León appointed him director. When appointing him, the center noted that Cabrera had a doctorate in molecular biology from a Russian university and a doctorate in molecular cardiology from a German university.
According to AP, the now-imprisoned scientist is “something of a local hero” in his hometown of El Espinal – located about six kilometers from the Isthmus hub of Juchitán – where he is “remembered for his work to promote scientific research, heal those suffering from diabetes and assist in the rebuilding of homes after devastating earthquakes.”
The mayor of El Espinal told AP shortly after Cabrera’s arrest that “it is very strange for this to happen because he is a very altruistic person with a lot of social conscience.”
“He helped people and all this seems strange. We don’t know what happened, but I bet it is a confusion or an attack for scientific reasons. He may have discovered something that upset some people or some business interests,” Hazael Matus said.
A sign warns travelers that digital ride-hailing platforms are not permitted.
Drivers for ride-hailing apps such as Uber are defying a ban on pick-ups and drop-offs at the Mexico City International Airport (AICM), a rule authorities are currently doing little to enforce.
A ban on dropping passengers off at the airport took effect last week, while a prohibition on collecting passengers was already in place. The latter ban has long been ignored by drivers for companies such as Uber and Didi, and they are now also disregarding the former.
Signs warning passengers and drivers about the bans appeared at the AICM last week, but they are doing little to deter users of ride-hailing apps. Despite the erection of the signs – a move praised by taxi drivers – it’s business as usual with regard to the arrival and departure of private ride-hailing vehicles, the newspaper El País reported Tuesday.
“The app drivers continue dropping off and collecting passengers without interference from the police,” reported a journalist who visited the airport. “… A police officer … says he hasn’t received instructions to fine anyone. Another airport employee confirms the lack of instructions.”
Ride-hailing app driver Luis Alberto Pérez told El País he thought twice about accepting a trip to the airport because he heard about a crackdown last week. Drivers flouting the ban face fines of up to 43,000 pesos (US $2,130) and a person Pérez knows was threatened with that penalty while at the AICM last week.
“It’s excessive. We don’t even earn that much in a month,” the 52-year-old driver said as he took the El País journalist to the airport. “I don’t know if the application provides support for those kinds of situations. I’ll investigate,” Pérez said.
Any lingering doubts drivers had about going to the airport appear to have been largely alleviated by the lack of enforcement this week. Pérez predicted that people will continue to use apps to book trips to and from the AICM and drivers will meet the demand they generate. “The airport taxis are really expensive, almost double what we charge,” he added.
Mayra Moya, a 33-year-old soccer referee, flew into the AICM for a holiday in the capital and used her phone to book a trip shortly after leaving the terminal building. When alerted to the new signs by El País, Moya remarked that “the prohibition is on the signs only.”
She described the ban as stupid, asserting that it doesn’t consider the needs of airport users, especially women who feel safer traveling in private ride-hailing vehicles because they can digitally share the details of their trips with family or friends.
“We have the right to choose the means of transport [we use] because we pay for it,” Moya said.
Víctor Acevedo, who flew in from Zacatecas with his family, told El País he understood taxi drivers’ concerns about ride-hailing apps “because they pay the airport” for the right to use its taxi stands. However, his family chooses to travel by Uber rather than traditional taxis. “Uber’s service is better,” said Marcela Reyes, Acevedo’s wife, shortly before they loaded their suitcases into their driver’s car.
While drivers for companies such as Uber and Didi are still providing service to and from the AICM, taxi drivers do appear to have benefited from the broadening of the ban and the efforts to make passengers aware of it. A taxi ticket saleswoman told El País that demand for trips departing the airport has increased 30% since the new signs appeared. However, demand is still down compared to five years ago when Zaira Morales sold some 100 trips per day. Now she’s lucky to sell 50.
The lower demand means taxi drivers – who have staged protests against ride-hailing companies – have to wait longer for a fare. Wait times have recently been almost an hour, up from 30 minutes in busier times, El País said.
Arturo Arellano, a taxi driver, told the newspaper that the ride-hailing apps are “in fashion, but noted that they are not authorized to provide services to and from the airport. Unsurprisingly, he is happy about the implementation of the broader ban and the installation of the signs.
“There you go,” Arellano quipped after loading a tourist’s luggage into his vehicle. “When there are fewer app vehicles, we have work.”
The trailer was found in an industrial area on the outskirts of San Antonio, with the rear door ajar.
Two Mexican men have been charged in connection with the death of at least 51 mainly Mexican migrants who perished after being trapped in stifling conditions in a tractor-trailer found abandoned in San Antonio, Texas, on Monday.
Juan Francisco D’Luna-Bilbao and Juan Claudio D’Luna-Méndez were charged in United States federal court on Tuesday. According to court documents and U.S. authorities, the Mexican nationals were charged with possession of firearms while living in the U.S. illegally.
Their arrest came after investigators traced the tractor-trailer’s registration to an address in San Antonio, located about 230 kilometers northeast of the northern border city of Piedras Negras, Coahuila. The residence was placed under surveillance and D’Luna-Bilbao and D’Luna-Méndez were detained separately when seen leaving.
A U.S. citizen identified as the person who drove the truck is also expected to face charges but he remained in hospital on Tuesday night, according to a Mexican official cited by the Reuters news agency.
Though it’s common for authorities to find trailers smuggling migrants in Mexico, many likely evade detection and reach the U.S. border.
The truck and the deceased migrants – 39 men and 12 women – were found next to railroad tracks in an industrial area on the outskirts of San Antonio. Among the dead were at least 27 people believed to be Mexican as well as four Hondurans and three Guatemalans. The nationality of the other victims hasn’t been established.
Craig Larrabee, a high-ranking official with the investigative branch of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said the death toll was the largest ever from a human trafficking attempt in the United States.
According to Texas authorities, the rear door of the trailer was open when the vehicle was found and “stacks of bodies” were inside. The bodies of other victims were found on the ground near the truck. The temperature rose to almost 40 C in San Antonio on Monday, heat that apparently created intolerable conditions in the trailer. Authorities said the victims were hot to the touch and that there were no signs of water in the truck, which didn’t appear to have air-conditioning.
Over a dozen survivors, including four children, were transferred to local hospitals for treatment for heat stroke and exhaustion. Other people in the trailer – which may have been transporting some 100 migrants – apparently fled.
Footage of the aftermath of the trailer’s discovery, from AFP via Infobae.
Anonymous United States and Mexican officials who spoke with Reuters said it appeared that the migrants had recently crossed into the U.S. and were picked up by the truck to be taken to an undisclosed location to work. Officials said the migrants had been sprinkled with a pungent substance, a tactic known to be used by some smugglers to conceal the scent of human cargo and thus evade detection by sniffer dogs.
The tragedy comes six months after at least 55 people were killed when a tractor-trailer transporting more than 150 mainly Central American migrants overturned on a highway in Chiapas. Ten migrants died in 2017 after being transported by a trailer found abandoned in a San Antonio Walmart parking lot. The driver of that vehicle was sentenced to life in prison.
President López Obrador on Tuesday described the most recent deaths as a “terrible tragedy,” while U.S. President Joe Biden said the loss of life was “horrifying and heartbreaking.”
“This incident underscores the need to go after the multi-billion dollar criminal smuggling industry preying on migrants and leading to far too many innocent deaths,” Biden said in a statement.
“… Exploiting vulnerable individuals for profit is shameful, as is political grandstanding around tragedy, and my administration will continue to do everything possible to stop human smugglers and traffickers from taking advantage of people who are seeking to enter the United States between ports of entry.”
Texas Governor Greg Abbott blamed Biden for the deaths, writing on Twitter that “they are a result of his deadly open border policies” and “show the deadly consequences of his refusal to enforce the law.”
Earlier this year, Abbott implemented a stringent inspection process for commercial vehicles crossing the border into Texas but it was later lifted when he struck agreements with the Mexican governors of border states.
López Obrador and Biden – who has had to contend with a record number of illegal migrant crossings since he took office in January 2021 – are scheduled to meet in Washington D.C. on July 12. Migration cooperation will be one of the items on the agenda, according to a White House statement.
A disturbing video of a presumed burglar impaled on a spiked metal gate has appeared on social media.
A young man was apparently on the roof of a Campeche city home he planned to rob Sunday night when neighbors caught him in the act. According to an El Universal newspaper report, residents of the San José neighborhood shouted at the man and told him they had called police.
In his haste to escape, the alleged criminal lost his balance and fell onto a spiked gate separating the street from a carport. A video filmed by neighbors shows the man sprawled over the gate with his chest and/or abdomen apparently impaled on the spikes. The man can be heard screaming in pain, and what appears to be blood is visible in front of the gate.
A man who apparently filmed the grisly video suggested that firefighters would have to cut the burglar free from his painful predicament. Paramedics and firefighters arrived at the scene but couldn’t save the man’s life. El Universal cited an unconfirmed report that the man’s intestines were perforated.
In a video filmed by neighbors as they waited for paramedics, the alleged thief can be seen impaled on the garage gate. Some viewers may find this video disturbing.
Campeche authorities haven’t commented on the case and the victim hasn’t been publicly identified.
Marine biologist Cui Corrales recently went viral on TikTok for a video exposing a litter problem on one of Mazatlán's islands. TikTok
A young marine biologist has taken to social media to draw attention to the trash problem on Isla Venados (Deer Island), a natural protected area located off the coast of Mazatlán, Sinaloa.
Cui Corrales, known as @labiologolife on TikTok, posted a video to his social media accounts that shows litter strewn on the ground of the small island, also known as la isla del medio (the middle island).
“Paper with shit on it, … as the island doesn’t have a bathroom visitors go to the toilet in the jungle,” he said. “… Meters and meters of plastic bottles, diapers, even condoms and invasive animals living among the rubbish,” Corrales continued.
He railed against tourists for not following advice not to take shells from the beach while leaving trash scattered all over the sand. Deceased French oceanographer Jacques Cousteau wouldn’t approve, Corrales suggested.
“During one of his visits to Mazatlán he asked mazatlecos to preserve these three islands,” he said, referring to the Isla de Venados, Isla de Chivos and Isla de Pájaros.
“… They’re extremely important for marine ecosystems and a lot of migratory birds depend on them. I ask you: do you think we’re preserving them like … [Cousteau] would have wanted?”
Corrales concluded his video by advising the environmental protection agency Profepa and the federal Environment Ministry that complaints about the rubbish problem have already been filed. “Excessive tourism, health risks due to the tourists who leave their shit and paper in the jungle, illegal provision of services, exotic species and more. Please take action on the matter,” he said.
The video has been viewed almost 130,000 times on TikTok and over 25,000 times on Instagram.
According to the newspaper El Sol de Mazatlán, local officials have indicated they are aware of the trash problem on Isla Venados. “It has a lot of contamination, a lot of garbage. A lot of tourists are going there and it concerns us. We’re working on it,” said councilor Bernardo Alcaraz Conde, head of a municipal committee responsible for beaches and other natural areas frequented by tourists.
“… We’re very committed to taking actions that help us to eliminate, eradicate or minimize these kinds of situations,” he said. “It’s something that is complex because it doesn’t depend on local authorities, but I think we can get federal authorities to help us,” Alcaraz added.
Among the measures that could help solve the trash problem are imposing fines on litterers and limiting the number of people allowed to visit Isla de Venados on a daily basis.
