Cecilia Flores, founder of the search collective Searching Mothers of Sonora, displays a picture of her missing son.
The leader of a group of mothers searching for their missing children in Sonora has issued a plea to cartels that operate in the northern border state: “Let us continue looking for our kids.”
In a video message posted to the group’s Twitter account on Sunday, the leader and founder of Madres Buscadoras de Sonora (Searching Mothers of Sonora) appealed to the leaders of Los Salazar – a criminal group affiliated with the Sinaloa Cartel, Rafael Caro Quintero – a notorious drug lord who founded the Guadalajara Cartel and now allegedly leads the Caborca Cartel, and other gang leaders.
“Don’t kill us, don’t abduct us, don’t threaten us and let us continue looking for our kids,” said Cecilia Patricia Flores Armenta, who is searching for her two missing sons.
She said the mothers who belong to her group are not looking for those responsible for the disappearance of their children or justice.
“The only thing we want is to bring them home,” said Flores, who revealed that she has been threatened, displaced from Sonora and is currently receiving government protection through a program designed to keep journalists and human rights defenders out of harm’s way.
“We need to bring them home because whether they’re good or bad people, guilty or innocent, for us [our missing children] are our whole life,” she said.
“… Please, in the name of all the mothers, I ask you and I beg you … not to take from us the possibility of finding our missing loved ones, to help us find them by letting us search for them. … We’re only looking for peace [of mind] – peace that … left with them,” Flores said.
Another woman searching for her son and partner was kidnapped in Hermosillo last October and beaten before she was released. The aggressors told her to give up the search for them, but she ignored them.
The bulk of the responsibility for looking for the nation’s desaparecidos falls with family members, search groups and non-governmental organizations.
After a 12-day visit to Mexico in November, the United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances said that an inadequate security strategy, poor investigations into missing person cases and impunity were key factors in the persistence of abductions.
Coahuila was one of the states that decided to delay the reopening of schools.
The 2021-22 school year resumes Monday, but students in some states won’t return to the classroom due to the recent rise in coronavirus cases.
The Ministry of Public Education (SEP) published a statement Sunday announcing that it was ready for the return to in-person classes after the winter vacation period. It called on school communities across the country to “be part of this return.”
Schools will reopen safely in accordance with the health guidelines outlined in the Guide for the Responsible and Orderly Return to School, the SEP said.
However, authorities in several states announced that neither in-person nor virtual classes would resume on Monday due to the heightened risk of coronavirus infection.
In Nuevo León, Tamaulipas, Querétaro and Guanajuato, students won’t return to the classroom until next Monday, while in San Luis Potosí, Baja California and Baja California Sur – currently the country’s coronavirus epicenter – schools won’t reopen until January 17.
In five other states – Chihuahua, Coahuila, Jalisco, Yucatán and Quintana Roo – authorities announced that only virtual classes would be offered this week. Authorities in some other states said that students could choose between in-person and virtual classes.
Classes were slated to resume in Hidalgo on Monday but the SNTE teachers union said Saturday that its members won’t return to work until the middle of the month. Teachers and other school employees have not yet been offered booster shots but the SEP said they will receive them in the first weeks of 2022.
The resumption of the 2021-22 school year comes as Mexico enters what appears to be an omicron-fueled fourth wave of coronavirus infections.
The Health Ministry reported 10,037 new cases on Friday and 10,864 on Sunday. It didn’t publish any coronavirus data on New Year’s Day.
Mexico’s accumulated case tally rose to 3.99 million on Sunday while the official COVID-19 death toll increased to 299,544. Estimated active cases number 48,801, a figure that has more than doubled in less than a week.
In other COVID-19 news:
• The State Workers Social Security Institute (ISSTE) has asked its health care facilities to prepare for an increase in hospitalizations of COVID patients.
Alejandro Macías warned against holding large gatherings.
“The number of cases expected [in the fourth wave] is very high and due to this increase … it’s expected that the number of hospitalizations will increase exponentially,” it said in an internal memorandum.
Signed by ISSSTE health regulations director Ramiro López Elizalde, the memo directs health care facilities to be ready to reconfigure their wards and add beds for COVID patients if they are required. It also warns that omicron spreads more rapidly than other variants.
“It will lead to an increase in walk-in consultations … and therefore attention in triage areas will need to be strengthened,” the memo said. It predicted that a lot of cases will be mild, with patients suffering bronchial rather than pulmonary symptoms.
• In an interview before Christmas, infectious disease specialist Alejandro Macías said events that attract large numbers of people should be canceled due to the emergence of omicron, as the World Health Organization recommended. However, many large events, such as a Christmas fair in Mexico City’s central square, went ahead in the final days of 2021.
Experts have warned that large gatherings over the Christmas-New Year period will inevitably lead to an increase in case numbers this month.
Macías warned that hospitals could be overwhelmed by admissions of COVID patients, even though evidence suggests omicron tends to cause milder disease.
Federal data shows there are currently 2,196 hospitalized COVID patients, with general care wards for such patients at 100% capacity in 66 hospitals.
• The risk of coronavirus infection has increased in Colima, authorities said. The small Pacific coast state remains low risk green on the federal stoplight map but the Colima Health Ministry announced Sunday that, based on its own calculations, it would switch to medium risk yellow. The state will remain yellow until at least January 16.
There are 167 active cases in Colima, authorities said Monday, with the highest number – 73– in Colima city. Most of the other active cases are in Villa de Álvarez (48) and Manzanillo (29).
Occupancy rates for both general care hospital beds and beds with ventilators have recently risen in Colima. Just over one-third of the former are in use while 22% of the latter are occupied.
• Baja California Sur remains Mexico’s coronavirus epicenter with about 500 active cases per 100,000 people. As of Sunday, it had just under 4,200 active cases, the second highest among Mexico’s 32 states after Mexico City, where there are over 13,000 people who currently have symptoms.
Mexico City and Quintana Roo are the only other states with more than 100 active cases per 100,000 residents. The capital has about 140 current infections per 100,000 people, official data shows, while Quintana Roo has approximately 130.
The Sierra Cartel published a video in October threatening the mayor of Iguala.
Facing little resistance from authorities, the Sierra Cartel consolidated and expanded its sphere of influence in Guerrero in 2021.
Based in Tlacotepec, the municipal seat of Heliodoro Castillo, the cartel forcibly took control of dozens of communities in Guerrero’s Sierra region in 2018, displacing thousands of people who are still too afraid to return home.
Since then, the Sierra Cartel – involved in the drug trade and a range of other illicit activities – has operated with impunity in the region, the newspaper El Universal reported, noting that authorities have not attempted to wrest back control of the communities they seized.
Last year, the crime group waged a war against rivals in Iguala, Guerrero’s third largest city, and moved into Huitzuico, a municipality in the state’s northern region that borders both Morelos and Puebla.
In Iguala, where there were 176 homicides in the first 11 months of last year, the Sierra Cartel’s main rival is a criminal organization called La Bandera (The Flag), according to the Guerrero Attorney General’s Office. That group is an offshoot of the Guerreros Unidos, a gang implicated in the disappearance and presumed murder of 43 students who were abducted in Iguala in 2014.
A Sierra Cartel poster blames the Familia Michoacana for crime in Iguala and declares its members are narcos, not terrorists.
While other criminal groups operate in Iguala, the Sierra Cartel is now the dominant one. Its sway is such that it controls tortilla, meat and soft drink prices in the city, El Universal said. The cartel has also attacked newspaper offices in Iguala and threatened local journalists, forcing at least nine to flee.
The group has boasted of its increased influence in the city known as the birthplace of the Mexican flag, and recently issued a threat to new Mayor David Gama Pérez, warning him there would be consequences if he didn’t collaborate with its members.
Although the Sierra Cartel is considered the principal instigator of violence in Iguala, “almost nothing has been done to stop it,” El Universal said.
In late 2021, the cartel also made its presence felt in Huitzuico. El Universal reported that the group moved into that city in October and imposed their rule with murders and abductions. In November, the cartel established a 6:00 p.m. curfew and warned that anyone who failed to abide by it would be killed.
The organization kept its word: the day after the curfew took effect three men were shot and killed as they looked for somewhere to buy dinner at 9:00 p.m. Huitzuico residents subsequently complied with the curfew to the letter, going home before sundown and staying there until morning. All businesses closed by 6:00 p.m. and public transit services ended at the same time, El Universal said.
The newspaper reported that the Sierra Cartel also controls the prices of tortillas, meat, beer and soft drinks in Huitzuico, a city of approximately 20,000 people. Guerrero Governor Evelyn Salgado, who took office last October, visited the municipality late last year to announce a joint police/military operation against crime, but residents’ fear of the cartel remains and most continue to abide by the curfew.
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The Sierra Cartel is also considering moving into Juan R. Escudero, a municipality about 60 kilometers inland from Acapulco.
After the recent murder of the founder of a self defense umbrella group called the United Front for the Security and Development of Guerrero, the cartel said it could dispatch 1,000 of its men to “pacify” the municipality. The cartel’s presence in that municipality could facilitate its movement of drugs between Guerrero’s Sierra region and the state’s Pacific coast.
The Sierra Cartel’s successes in 2021 appears to have emboldened it. On December 22, about 100 of its members confronted state police on the Chichihualco-Chilpancingo highway and forced them to release two Sierra Cartel gangsters they had arrested. The state government has “remained silent” on the incident, El Universal said.
The Sierra Cartel is one of numerous criminal groups that operate in Guerrero. Among the others are Los Rojos and Los Ardillos, which have been engaged in a turf war for years.
Criminal groups are largely responsible for the high levels of violence in Guerrero, where there were 1,130 homicides in the first 11 months of last year. That made the state Mexico’s ninth most violent after Guanajuato, Baja California, Michoacán, México state, Jalisco, Chihuahua, Sonora and Zacatecas.
Ellen Sharp's JM Butterfly B&B is the main promoter of the Cerro Pelón Butterfly Sanctuary, located in Macheros, México state. photos courtesy of JM Butterfly B&B
About a decade ago, American Ellen Sharp tagged along with a writer friend to central Mexico. Little did she know that this would change her life.
When she could not accompany her friend on an interview, she decided to take one of the tours available in eastern Michoacán during the monarch butterfly season. As she says, she “hit it off” with the guide, who today is her husband, Joel Moreno Rojas.
Now, she didn’t decide to stay in Mexico right then and there. She returned to her PhD classes in Los Angeles, but she and Moreno kept in touch.
When it came time to do her dissertation, she took advantage of 21st-century technology and decided to move in with Moreno in town of Macheros, México state, during the butterfly season of 2013–2014.
But finishing her dissertation became a chore. She was studying violence, which contrasted deeply with the peaceful mountains surrounding a village that had far more farm animals than people. She found herself relieved when job opportunities in the States did not pan out.
One of the 14 rooms that the B&B now has, decorated in a rustic style of central Mexico.
She wondered why she could not simply find a way to stay here in the high mountains of the México state-Michoacán border, until she simply decided she had to.
Although Moreno spoke English well, his work with a regional hotel had long hours and little pay. He and his family owned land just outside the entrance to the Cerro Pelón Butterfly Sanctuary in Macheros.
Sharp wondered if they could somehow take advantage of this unknown reserve that still does not still appear on Google Maps. She imagined building a viable business.
The couple combined their complementary abilities — his construction skills and her ability to promote on the internet — and began by building a couple of rooms onto their house that they could rent, and even a cell phone tower to get more reliable internet access.
Sharp calls Moreno’s handyman skills “artistry.” Meanwhile, she built a bilingual website to promote the new business and take reservations.
They quickly found that their idea appealed mostly to a certain kind of tourist. They had exactly one Mexican guest. The rest were from the United States and Canada — with more than a passing interest in butterflies.
Ellen Sharp and Joel Moreno Rojas.
Sharp found that starting and running a business had an ease to it that academic work did not.
“People started coming, and people came happy and left happier. It’s just a really nice vibe to take people to see this incredibly beautiful thing in our sanctuary, which is super remote.”
Today, JM Butterfly B&B is the main promoter of the Cerro Pelón Butterfly Sanctuary and the main employer in Macheros. With a quieter and more intimate environment, it contrasts with larger sanctuaries. About 85% of Cerro Pelón’s visitors stay at the B&B. This differs from the more typical reserves, where most visitors are day-trippers or prefer to stay in more luxurious accommodations.
The bed-and-breakfast now has 14 rooms and even a pool and a yoga studio, but it has kept its classic rural Mexican home construction appeal. Cerro Pelón is an undiscovered gem, high enough to be above the tree line (hence the name “Bald Mountain”) with thick forests below. The butterflies winter at the lowest levels.
Other activities to be enjoyed here year-round include guided hikes, bird-watching, horseback riding and more. The couple receives guests from all over the world, but the base still remains those working with butterflies from publicly and privately funded researchers along with teachers in related fields.
It is a very loyal clientele. Last year, when the reserve closed because of the pandemic, so did the B&B. To survive, the business started an online magazine, selling subscriptions to former guests. Butterfly season returns this year, but the magazine remains active and is on their website.
JM Butterfly B&B’s exterior.
The business has a social side as well. The Cerro Pelón Sanctuary was established in the 1970s. Locals knew of the butterflies but tried to keep them secret, fearing the loss of access to resources on the mountains. Their fears were justified, and that is exactly what happened when the land was expropriated.
This kind of conservation results in local opposition as well as activities such as illegal logging, a major problem in the México state-Michoacán border area. It is not that people here want to destroy the butterflies or the forest, Sharp says, but rather poverty drives them to do it.
The creation of jobs related to tourism helps this, although it is not enough. The couple began their own nonprofit organization, Butterflies and Their People in part because they became frustrated discovering every butterfly season seeing how many trees had been cut down during the rest of the year.
The organization pays for six full-time “forest guardians” whose salaries are covered by individual donations, mostly from former guests. With tourism down due to the pandemic, they have also organized webinars and meetings with conservation groups to share “what is happening on the ground,” something important because there is little accurate information of this kind.
Both the business and the nonprofit have made this spot an “international hub” for the butterflies of Cerro Pelón. But they are not content to sit on their laurels. They still want to reach out to more Mexicans and more foreigners who live in Mexico who care about butterflies and forests.
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.
Cinnamon-vanilla atole makes for a warm and inviting start to the day.
The first time I encountered atole was in the days between Christmas and New Year’s, at a stand outside a busy department store in Mazatlán where I’d gone with a local friend to exchange a gift. She was in a hurry; I lingered by the door, watching the vendor ladle the steaming hot something into cups and hand them to appreciative customers. “What is that? I want some!” I wailed as she bundled me into the store and onto the elevator.
Good friend that she is, on the way out, we stopped and she explained about the delicious beverage we were about to try. I’ve never forgotten that first, wonderful taste of atole and what a satisfying drink it is for a chilly winter’s evening.
Since then, I’ve learned much about this ancient pre-Hispanic beverage. The simplest description is that it’s a thick, hot, corn-based drink, sweetened and flavored with everything from cinnamon or vanilla to guava, almonds or citrus zest. (Chocolate atole has its own name: champurrado.) “Corn” as in masa harina, nixtamalized ground dried field corn that’s the basis of tortillas, gorditas, etc.
Popular in many Central American countries, in Mexico you’ll find atole in different flavors specific to different regions, running the gamut from sweet to savory. For example, in Oaxaca, Veracruz and Michoacán, chileatole, a spicy-savory version made with chile and epazote, is common. In northern Mexico, the famed Tarahumara — known all over the world for amazing long-distance runners — have used masa-based, energy-filled pinole as a staple in their diet for thousands of years.
We’re lucky that nowadays we don’t have to grind dried corn; using masa harinapara tortillas will yield a fine atole. Do avoid recipes with cornstarch; the result, while admittedly delicious, will not have the same thick consistency that’s part of atole’s charm. (That said, there’s nothing wrong with keeping a few packets of Maizena corn starch in your cupboard for a quick atole-like fix!)
A molinillo can be found in most local mercados.
Another fun part of atole is using a traditional wooden molinillo to froth the drink just before serving. My guess is you’ve seen these in your local mercado and didn’t quite know what they were for; or if you did, I bet you’ve never used one.
They come in all sorts of interesting sizes and designs, and while a wire whisk works just as well, a molinillo is a lot more fun!
Champurrado (Chocolate Atole)
Usually a breakfast drink, but equally inviting in late afternoon with a shot of mezcal.
½ cup masa harina
3 cups water, plus more as needed (see note)
1 cup milk
3½ oz. dark chocolate, broken into pieces, or chocolate chips
3 Tbsp. dark brown sugar/grated piloncillo
1 cinnamon stick or ¼ tsp. ground cinnamon
Salt
Place masa into large saucepan; set over medium heat. Immediately add water in a slow, thin stream, whisking constantly to avoid lumps. Bring to simmer. Whisk in milk, chocolate, sugar and a generous pinch of salt until chocolate is melted, about 1 minute. Add cinnamon.
Return to simmer; lower heat to low. Continue simmering, whisking constantly, about 5 minutes. Discard cinnamon stick. Thin with additional water, as needed, to create a thick yet drinkable beverage.
Add more sugar or salt if desired. Froth with whisk or molinillo.
Atole de Cacahuate (Peanut Atole)
½ cup natural smooth peanut butter
1 cup milk
½ cup masa harina
3¼ cups water, plus more as needed
3 Tbsp. brown sugar/grated piloncillo
Salt
Using a blender, combine peanut butter and milk; blend until thoroughly combined. In large saucepan, add masa; set over medium heat. Immediately add water in a slow, thin stream while whisking constantly to avoid lumps. Bring to a simmer; whisk in peanut-milk, brown sugar and generous pinch of salt.
Return to simmer; lower heat to low, then simmer for 3 minutes, whisking constantly. Thin with additional water as needed to create a thick yet drinkable beverage. Add more sugar or salt if desired. Froth with a whisk or molinillo. Serve hot.
Thick, creamy champurrado is also nice with a shot of mezcal.
Orange Atole
Feel free to use lemon or lime instead of orange.
½ cup masa harina
3 cups water, plus more as needed, divided (see note)
1 cup milk
3 (1-inch) strips orange zest from 1 large orange
3 Tbsp. grated piloncillo/brown sugar
Salt
Finely grated orange zest, for garnish
Optional: 2 star anise pods
Pour masa in large saucepan; set over medium heat. Immediately add water in a slow, thin stream, whisking constantly to avoid lumps. Bring to a simmer.
Whisk in milk, zest strips, star anise (if using), sugar and generous pinch of salt. Return to a simmer; lower heat to low. Continue simmering about 5 minutes, whisking constantly, until drink is infused with orange aroma.
Discard zest and star anise. Thin with additional water as needed to create a thick yet drinkable beverage. Add more sugar or salt if desired. Froth with whisk or molinillo. Garnish with grated orange zest.
Cinnamon-Vanilla Atole
This is a simpler recipe; use the method above if it feels more comfortable.
½ cup masa harina
3 cups milk
¼ cup water
1/3 cup grated piloncillo/brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon + more for garnish
1 tsp. vanilla
Combine masa, water, milk, sugar and cinnamon, whisking constantly over low heat to prevent lumps. After 5–10 minutes, remove from heat; whisk in vanilla. Garnish each cup with cinnamon.
The president at his Monday morning conference. Presidencia de la República
There was no extended break for President López Obrador at the end of the year, who has made the morning news conferences a demonstration of his personal resolve. The 68-year-old rarely sits during the long morning meetings and is famed for his expansive responses, which often include history lessons and personal anecdotes.
Monday
The president reported a tranquil Christmas over the weekend. “There was peace, there were no serious regrettable events … Christmas Eve and Christmas passed well,” he said.
Later in the conference, he reached for a fishy idiom when criticizing elites for their undemocratic attitudes: “I know you cod, even if you come in disguise,” he said, which means that he can see straight through them.
On the omicron coronavirus variant, the president offered clear assurances. “The information is that infections have not increased and, most importantly, there has been no increase in deaths … If we notice anything strange … we will inform. We have never hidden anything, ever,” he said.
“I’ve got to go,” the president declared, and with reason. He had esteemed company joining him for breakfast: Latin America’s richest man, Mexican telecoms magnate Carlos Slim.
Tuesday
Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell confirmed COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations were still going down.
The head of Pemex, Octavio Romero Oropeza, dropped in to detail the state company’s 10-point plan for energy self-sufficiency, and revealed that gas prices were finally falling. “It’s a real support for the poorest families in the country,” he said.
On elections for the Pemex union, the president stuck to moral guidance, rather than legal. “First, freedom is not requested, it is conquered. Second, fiefdoms only last as long as the people want. Third, what [Miguel] Hidalgo said and [Benito] Juárez repeated a lot: the people who want to be free will be,” he said.
The journalist Joaquín López-Dóriga had criticized the president’s choice of opulent tableware for his breakfast with Carlos Slim. AMLO assured viewers he didn’t choose the tableware and said the Carlos Slim had offered to pay tax on the recent sale of a company. “My respects for the attitude of Carlos Slim and other businessmen, many of whom have behaved very well,” he said.
Speakers wait their turn at Tuesday’s press conference. Presidencia de la República
However, the Tabascan wasn’t getting soft on the rich. “How can I not celebrate the fact that it’s different now? The gentleman at [convenience store] Oxxo paid 10 billion pesos [in tax]. The gentlemen at [supermarket] Walmart 12 billion, and now 28 billion … all this is to strengthen public finances.”
Wednesday
Elizabeth García Vilchis was in festive mood for an end of year “Who’s who in the lies of the week” feature. “We have seen the discontent of the opposition to the fourth transformation, generating disinformation campaigns due to the loss of privileges. Every day they invent something new, but they are such absurd and hilarious things,” she said.
García Vilchis offered some of her highlights: the allegedly wonky control tower at the new Felipe Ángeles airport, the president’s supposedly simulated train journey and the purported price rises linked to the energy reform. She added the most repulsive piece of misreporting was on the death of a worker at a protest in the Dos Bocas refinery in Tabasco.
A journalist had tweeted he was under threat, and named a surprising culprit: “‘If they kill me, you all already know who is responsible. I request that [Jalisco Governor Enrique] Alfaro face proceedings. We’ll meet in international courts, not in those controlled by the mafia,” Ricardo Ravelo wrote.
“This doesn’t mean the governor is guilty … we can’t make summary judgements,” the president responded.
However, when it came to the energy form, he was quicker to pass judgement, and expected high levels of political literacy from young scholars. “The legislators who vote against the electricity reform will have to explain it to their children, because at school they will be singled out. [The other children will say:] ‘Your dad voted for the owner of Oxxo to pay less for electricity than a household.'”
Thursday
Three wishes for the new year commenced the conference. “One wish is that the pandemic ends. That there is no longer any suffering … and that people don’t keep getting sick … My second wish is that the cultural strength of Mexico keeps getting stronger. It’s what has always saved us from disasters. We can’t forget where we come from and that we are the heirs of great civilizations and that is what gives us strength and identity … And for the third, I hope that there will be fewer poor people,” the president said.
The incoming governor of the Bank of México, Victoria Rodríguez Ceja, was in attendance, in her last days as deputy minister at the Finance Ministry. “I’m honored that Mr. President has considered, nominated and appointed me to this very high office,” she said.
The president said Rodríguez’s first task would be to tackle high inflation. He made a speedy exit shortly after, destined for his residence in Palenque, Chiapas, for the New Year’s celebrations. “A hug for everyone,” he said, before leaving his fellow Tabascan friend, Interior Minister Adán Augusto López, in charge during his absence.
Friday
There was no conference on Friday as the president had broken off to usher in the New Year. Perhaps like much of the world, he’ll do so to the eternal lines of Scottish poet, Robert Burns.
Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And never brought to mind? Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And auld lang syne!
In July, Jalisco New Generation Cartel members made headlines when their uncovered faces in Aguililla, Michoacán, made plain their sense of impunity.
A couple of weeks ago, the front page of Mexico News Daily was filled with a splattering of stories about organized crime and their offenses against the public, ranging from the inconvenient to the horrifying.
For example, there was the article about the return of those whom President López-Obrador calls “heroes” — Mexicans living in the United States returning for visits home — and their subsequent extortion by customs, immigration, federal and state police forces, the National Guard and organized crime, that last category possibly describing all of the aforementioned.
Who’s who among those demanding money on the side of the road? Who knows?
The same week, there was a story on the front page for several days about entire communities displaced by organized crime, forced to leave behind their homes and flee because terrorists that the state has not been able to control or subdue demanded their land.
In a completely different part of Mexico, two lost bird-watching tourists were stopped and questioned by armed men when they apparently went down a road they didn’t know they shouldn’t have, a mistake that could have very well meant their demise.
There was also the boy in Acapulco who had his index fingers chopped off for refusing to sell drugs.
According to the story, he and his family fled north, where they’re no doubt still waiting in a Tijuana shelter to cross into the U.S., a place where they have more hope of avoiding further punishments at the hands of criminals that the government cannot control or punish.
Things are not looking promising around here when it comes to the rule of law.
I often think back to the time of Felipe Calderón’s presidency (2006–2012) and wonder where we’d be today if President López Obrador had won that 2006 election after all. If no one had decided to “shake things up” and tried to rid the country of organized crime, at least in the particular way Calderón did, what would this country look like today?
Calderón’s plan for tackling organized crime taught us that the “kingpin strategy,” i.e., going after the heads of criminal groups — a strategy seemingly being embarked upon anew under a different name, the Bicentennial Framework — did not have the intended effect of reducing the power of criminal groups. Cutting off the heads of the monsters didn’t kill the monsters; it ensured that five more heads would grow back on each bleeding neck.
It was equivalent to trying to get rid of hornets in one’s backyard by whacking the nest with a baseball bat, something that doesn’t kill the hornets but does make them really, really mad.
I was living in the city of Querétaro at the time, a place that felt like it was in the eye of the hurricane. Violence was spreading at an alarming rate all over the country during those years while Querétaro was eerily calm.
Quite a few people whispered to me that the reason was because “the big guns” (no pun intended) of organized crime kept their families there. I have no way of knowing if that was actually true, but it seems as plausible an explanation as any.
We’re still living with the effects of Calderón’s experiment: the hornets are still mad and stinging away, and they have figured out that they can pretty much make the whole house their nest since we just don’t know how to fight them.
Since Calderón left office, there have been plenty of ideas about how to get the problem of organized crime under control, none of which seem to have made any dents.
AMLO’s “hugs, not bullets” strategy has been (deservingly) ridiculed, and plenty of his actions during this presidency have raised some good questions about how serious he really is about trying to eradicate organized crime from the country. Any criticism regarding his willingness to simply ignore the problem becomes, in his eyes, a problem of opposition media persecution against him instead. You just can’t talk to the guy.
I do applaud AMLO’s expansion of social services (for the people who were poor pre-pandemic anyway; everyone else is apparently part of the egotistical and Karen-esque middle class). But it obviously hasn’t been enough to affect any of the actions of criminal groups, including recruitment from among the ranks of the poor.
After all, it’s not like the criminals are willing to take “no thanks, I just don’t feel like it” for an answer. You could tell the most honest, educated kid in the world, “Do this or I’ll torture you,” and the reason she’d give in wouldn’t be because of a lack of good moral values, as the president seems to imply.
For a while, I thought the “hugs, not bullets” strategy was laughably naïve, but now I suspect and fear that it’s horrifyingly practical: AMLO is very purposefully ceasing the beating of the hornet’s nest in the hopes that they’ll eventually calm down.
It’s like we’re stuck in that part of a horror movie where the main characters are hiding and trembling in the dark as the bad guys slash everyone they come across, trying not to do anything that would call their attention to us.
Unfortunately for all of us, the entire country is the new hornet’s nest, and the options seem to be to play by their rules, if we’re unlucky enough to occupy space or services that they also want to occupy, or else cease to exist.
The well has been poisoned; they’re baked in; the cancer has spread all over. (I know, I’m getting out of control with these metaphors; I’ll stop).
What this “just don’t move; let’s see if they settle down” strategy looks like on the surface is complete acceptance of the fact that organized crime is essentially in charge of vast swaths of the country — not only physical land but politicians, businesses and government agencies.
Do I have a better plan in mind? Well, no, I don’t. All I can do is hope and pray with the rest of the country that the miracle of dawn comes after this seemingly never-ending dark.
The I’m Not Jelly video game made by the Guadalajara studio 1 Simple Game was one of 10 winners of the Global Top Round competition in Singapore in October.
Mexico is once again making news in the international video game business.
In 2015, Guadalajara’s 1 Simple Game (1SG) studio surprised fans when its funny little game, Mucho Taco, was chosen by Apple’s App Store out of many worldwide competitors. Then in 2020, the team’s Lullaby of Life game entered the Apple Arcade.
Now in 2021, the Mexican video game company has done it again with another innovative game called I’m Not Jelly.
To get the full story, I spoke to Ovidio Escobedo, cofounder of 1SG.
“The story of I’m Not Jelly began in August of 2020 when we decided to begin to work on games for computers,” Escobedo said. “Previously, we were only producing games for smartphones. So I’m Not Jelly was our first attempt at doing this. People will be able to play this new game on a desktop computer using an ordinary keyboard and mouse.”
The 1 Simple Game staff, taken pre-COVID: “We make video games. Instead of exporting natural products, we enrich Mexico by exporting creativity,” said Escobedo.
In January of 2021, Ovidio Escobedo and his partner Francisco Lara created a team dedicated to this new project. They soon came up with a prototype that they decided to make public.
“People could download I’m Not Jelly free of charge so we could get feedback and opinions: did they like it? What could be changed?” Escobedo said. “We then contacted various YouTubers, streamers and influencers who specialize in playing video games and introducing them to members of their community.”
From there, said Escobedo, things snowballed.
“Suddenly lots of people were playing I’m Not Jelly even though it was just in its infancy. But we had planned to keep developing the game throughout 2022 and then launch the final version in the first trimester of 2023,” he said.
“At this juncture, along came an invitation to participate in something called Global Top Round,” he said. “It’s a program organized by video game investors, inviting studios all over the world to present their very best projects. So we submitted I’m Not Jelly as a prototype.”
This year, 375 studios participated in the Global Top Round — including first-time applications from studios in China and Russia — and in the end, 22 were chosen as finalists. From there, the 10 best would be picked, each of them a winner, with no ranking among them.
Left to right: 1SG directors Francisco Lara and Ovidio Escobedo with producer Karina Lomelí.
“The judging,” Escobedo continued, “took place in Singapore, October 15–17. Because of COVID-19, we weren’t able to attend in person, but we were there virtually. This meant that the awards would be presented at 4 a.m. Guadalajara time.
“This, of course, was pretty heavy, but we stayed up for it, and at 5 a.m., they announced the winners. Well, we were really sleepy by that time, and suddenly all of us found ourselves saying, ‘Did I hear right? Am I dreaming?’ You see, all the finalists were real pros, the best in the business, and just to get into that group of 22 was more than what we had been hoping for.
“The truth is, we had been quite happy just to be participating in this thing, and it hadn’t really occurred to us that we might actually win! So we were really floored when they started announcing the 10 winning games, which were from Brazil, Ireland, the U.S., Canada, Sweden, the U.K. and Spain, with a double win for Russia … and then we heard them say ‘Mexico!’ I’m Not Jelly was a winner!”
The game centers around gelatin-like people living on a far-off world. These little creatures come in different colors and fruit flavors, and their conflict is with other inhabitants of that universe who would like to eat them.
“No! No!” is their reaction. “Don’t eat me — I’m not jelly!”
“So begins the narrative,” Escobedo said, “always a bit tongue-in-cheek, something to make you smile. And there is a lot of action in this game, lots of energy. And the colors are strong and striking.”
A teenager tests out the Mucho Taco video game, concluding, “It’s cute and it’s addictive.”
“The art style and the gameplay are quick and snappy,” added 1SG technical artist Ricky Ibarra. “It’s vibrant, it’s chaotic and it’s pretty … and the streamers who have played it so far have all liked it a lot.”
I asked Escobedo how the team’s earlier video games are doing.
“Muy bién!” he said. “Lullaby of Life has been out there for a full year, and we are delighted with the results. Lots of people have downloaded it, and earlier this year the game won the Developers’ Choice Award at the IndieCade Festival. Getting picked by your peers is really an honor!”
“By the way,” he continued, “I should mention that it was exactly Lullaby that inspired us to work on new kinds of games, games that offer bigger, more robust experiences that other sorts of players would appreciate. So you could say that I’m Not Jelly is the child of Lullaby of Life. As for Mucho Taco, it’s just as popular as ever. Its downloads are way over 4,000 per week — always — and after all these years! On top of that, we’re not doing any marketing whatsoever! Who knows how people hear about it.”
The 1 Simple Game studio came into being when Escobedo met Francisco Lara of One Simple Idea, a design studio offering visual strategies for consumer brands and known for its creativity.
“The studio was interested in producing video games,” Escobedo said, “but they didn’t know how to do it. Since I had some years of experience working with other studios, Francisco Lara and I decided to put together a small team and start making video games poco a poco, learning by doing.”
The studio’s Mucho Taco is a “clicker” game: the more you click, the more rewards you get. It won Apple’s Best of App Store award in 2015.
Apparently, the award-winning studio has learned a lot.
The writer has lived near Guadalajara, Jalisco, since 1985. His most recent book is Outdoors in Western Mexico, Volume Three. More of his writing can be found on his blog.
Technical artist Ricardo Ibarra plays I’m Not Jelly while checking memory management and CPU performance.A scene from I’m Not Jelly in which the Nojellians discover that eating fruit gives them stronger bodies.The Nojellian characters of I’m Not Jelly first sprang into virtual life in 2018 as Heal Billies, fighters against infection in a never-used game storyline.While 1 Simple Game’s previous videogames have been all smartphone games, this is their first made for computers.
I’m Not Jelly is still a prototype of the final game, but 1SG released it in beta, and it’s been played by people worldwide.
A scanning electron microscope image shows SARS-CoV-2 (round magenta objects) emerging from the surface of cells. SARS-CoV-2, also known as 2019-nCoV, is the virus that causes COVID-19. NIAID
Mexico recorded its highest daily total of new coronavirus cases since mid-October on Wednesday, suggesting that the country is entering an omicron-fueled fourth wave.
The Health Ministry reported 5,290 infections, lifting the accumulated case tally to just over 3.96 million. It was the highest daily total since October 14, when 5,825 cases were reported, and the second consecutive day that new confirmed infections exceeded 4,000.
The official COVID-19 death toll rose to 299,132 on Wednesday with 188 additional fatalities reported. The number of active cases jumped 22% in the space of a single day to 27,820.
UPDATE (6:10 p.m. CT): The Ministry of Health reported 8,024 new cases on Thursday afternoon, increasing the number of active cases to 34,761.
In other COVID-19 news:
• The number of confirmed omicron cases in Mexico remains low but has risen sharply in recent days. According to global science initiative GISAID, 254 omicron cases have been detected here as of Thursday, a 504% increase compared to last Saturday.
Just over 60% of those cases – 159 – were detected in Mexico City, while 35 more were identified in neighboring México state.
Omicron has been detected in at least 12 other states, including Quintana Roo, Puebla and Baja California.
• Baja California Sur continues to have the highest number of active cases on a per capita basis with almost 300 per 100,000 people. Health Ministry data published Wednesday shows that Mexico City ranks second for active cases followed by Quintana Roo and Baja California. Each of those three states has more than 50 active cases per 100,000 residents.
• Health regulator Cofepris has granted emergency use authorization to the Cuban-made COVID-19 vaccine Abdala. The three-dose vaccine, which hasn’t been approved by the World Health Organization, received a “favorable technical opinion” from experts, Cofepris said Wednesday.
However, the government hasn’t announced any plans to acquire the vaccine, which Cuba says has an efficacy rate of over 90%. Cofepris has now given emergency use approval to 10 vaccines, including the Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Sputnik V, CanSino and Johnson & Johnson shots.
• More than 81.9 million Mexicans have been vaccinated with at least one shot, the Health Ministry said Wednesday. About 90% of that number are fully vaccinated.
According to The New York Times vaccinations tracker, 64% of Mexicans have received at least one shot and 57% are fully vaccinated. The government has begun offering booster shots to seniors and intends to roll out additional shots to the rest of the adult population in 2022.
With the exception of youths aged 12 to 15 with underlying health conditions that make them vulnerable to serious COVID-19 disease, children younger than 15 have not been offered shots. Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said Tuesday that the government has no plans to vaccinate children below that age.
Bank of México officials have not yet published anything on the subject of the new digital currency, which was announced by the president's office.
Mexicans will be able to use a central bank-issued digital currency later this decade, the federal government said Wednesday.
President López Obrador’s office said in a Twitter post that the Bank of México (Banxico) had reported that it will put its own digital currency into circulation by 2024.
However, Banxico sources cited by the newspaper Milenio said the bank had not published any document on the subject.
The president’s office said the central bank considers “new technologies and state-of-the-art payment infrastructure” to be of “utmost importance” due to their capacity to “advance financial inclusion.”
According to the financial website Investopedia, a central bank digital currency, or CBDC, is a virtual form of a fiat currency – a government-issued currency that is not backed by a physical commodity such as gold or silver.
“A CBDC is an electronic record or digital token of a country’s official currency. As such, it is issued and regulated by the nation’s monetary authority or central bank,” Investopedia said.
“… CBDCs can simplify the implementation of monetary and fiscal policy and promote financial inclusion in an economy by bringing the unbanked into the financial system.”
The Bahamas and Nigeria are the only countries to have already launched CBDCs but more nations are expected to follow suit in the coming years.
The announcement of Banxico’s CBDC plans comes just two months after the launch of a blockchain-based currency – the hoozie – that can be used in the Guadalajara metropolitan area.
Earlier this month, Elektra became the first chain of retail stores in Mexico to accept bitcoin. Its billionaire owner, Ricardo Salinas, is a Bitcoin enthusiast. He indicated his support for the CBDC plan by responding to the government’s Twitter post with a smiley face emoji.
