People help themselves to cargo after one of the accidents.
Some Veracruz residents might not have to buy Christmas dinner and presents this year after two semi-trailers overturned and were looted. Their cargo included food, electronics and more than 2,000 live chickens.
The first accident occurred Wednesday afternoon on the Coatzacoalcos-Villahermosa highway in the south of the state. A tractor-trailer carrying poultry to be processed hit a pothole, went out of control and flipped on its side.
It was not long until the word spread and residents of nearby communities, as well as passing motorists, began arriving and making off with the birds. Whether the chickens will survive the holidays remains unknown.
“I yelled at the people not to take the chickens but they didn’t pay attention, and well, it was me against a number of people. Then the police arrived and I asked them for help, but they couldn’t do anything either,” said the truck driver, who escaped unhurt.
The 2,000-plus chickens were gone within the hour to the horror of the driver, who could be held responsible for the loss to poultry producer Bachoco.
On Thursday morning, another semi-trailer crashed just a few kilometers down the road from the chicken incident. The second truck was loaded with a variety of Walmart products, including food and electronics. Like the first trailer, the driver lost control and it rolled over.
Again, the driver was uninjured but in less than 15 minutes the looting began. Police were unable to deter the swarm of drivers and nearby residents from taking the merchandise, but did manage to direct the flow of traffic and call a tow truck.
Forensic service personnel carry out a mass burial of unclaimed and/or unidentified bodies in Ciudad Juárez in 2018.
The federal government has acknowledged that Mexico is facing a “forensic crisis,” with an estimated 52,000 unidentified bodies in common graves and the nation’s morgues.
Speaking at President López Obrador’s morning press conference on Thursday, Deputy Interior Minister Alejandro Encinas conceded that the government doesn’t have the capacity to guarantee the identification of bodies and ensure they are returned to their families.
“… According to estimations of both public institutes and non-governmental organizations we have about 52,000 unidentified bodies in common graves and morgues,” he said.
Encinas also acknowledged that there are more than 95,000 missing people in Mexico, most of whom disappeared in the last 15 years.
He said that authorities are discussing the possibility of establishing a national human identification center to attend to the vast backlog of unidentified bodies. Three regional identification centers are already in operation, including one in Saltillo, Coahuila, where hundreds of bodies have recently been exhumed from common graves.
Encinas’ remarks came a month after the United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED) finished a 12-day visit to Mexico to assess the country’s capacity to respond to the missing persons crisis.
Deputy Interior Minister Alejandro Encinas spoke about the forensic crisis at Thursday morning’s presidential press conference.
CED president Carmen Rosa Villa Quintana declared that 52,000 unidentified bodies constituted a “forensic crisis,” while the committee she leads concluded that an inadequate security strategy, poor investigations into missing person cases and impunity were key factors in the persistence of abductions in Mexico.
Data for 2006 to 2019 shows that the number of bodies that entered morgues and remained unidentified increased sharply in the second half of the 2006-12 presidency of Felipe Calderón, who launched a war on cartels shortly after he took office. The numbers remained high – over 2,000 – during the first four years of 2012-18 government led by Enrique Peña Nieto before spiking in 2017 and increasing again in 2018.
The forensic crisis has only worsened since López Obrador took office just over three years ago, with the total number of unidentified bodies increasing from about 34,000 to 52,000, a 53% jump. The majority of unidentified corpses are male but thousands of female bodies also lie anonymous in morgues. They are among more than 350,000 people who have been murdered in Mexico in the past 15 years.
Data for 2006 to 2019 also shows that 56% of unidentified bodies were located in just five states: México state, Mexico City, Baja California, Jalisco and Chihuahua. There were more than 5,000 unidentified corpses in the first two states at the end of 2019.
The high number of unidentified bodies has overwhelmed morgues in numerous states. Meanwhile, members of thousands of families – frustrated and angry with the authorities for their failure to locate or identify thousands of missing persons – continue to search for their missing loved ones, digging up land where hidden graves might be located and seeking access to morgues.
The government has promised to allocate more resources to the search and identification of missing persons, and there is a National Search Commission and local search commissions in every state.
But “most of the burden continues to fall on family members, search groups and other non-governmental organizations, which face bureaucratic barriers, corruption and government negligence,” InSight Crime, a foundation dedicated to the study of organized crime, said in August.
Because coronavirus testing rates in Mexico are much lower than in other countries, many cases, especially mild ones, have likely gone undetected.
The emergence of the omicron variant of the coronavirus hasn’t caused a spike in reported case numbers in Mexico, as has occurred in numerous other countries.
The Health Ministry reported 52,528 confirmed cases in the first 22 days of December for a daily average of 2,387. That’s an 11% decline compared to the daily average in November.
Mexico’s first case of the highly contagious omicron strain was detected in early December, but only 22 other cases have since been identified. The low number is likely due to scant genomic sequencing of the virus in Mexico.
In addition, COVID-19 testing rates in Mexico are much lower than in many other countries, meaning that many coronavirus cases, especially mild ones, have gone undetected during the pandemic. Teams of scientists in South Africa, England and Scotland have concluded that omicron infections tend to cause more mild disease than earlier variants.
Meanwhile, Mexico’s official COVID-19 death toll is approaching 300,000. The Health Ministry reported 198 additional fatalities on Wednesday, lifting the accumulated total to 298,359. There are currently just under 2,300 patients in hospital COVID wards across the country, federal data shows.
The current federal coronavirus risk map.
The accumulated case tally stands at 3.94 million after 3,319 cases were reported Thursday. Mexico’s seven-day case average is currently about 2,200 whereas it’s above 168,000 in the United States, where omicron is now the dominant strain.
There are just under 18,000 active cases in Mexico, according to Health Ministry estimates, with the highest numbers in Mexico City, Baja California, Guanajuato and Chihuahua.
All but five of Mexico’s 32 states are currently low risk green on the federal government’s coronavirus stoplight map, while Durango, Aguascalientes, Baja California, Sonora and Chihuahua are medium risk yellow. The current map will remain in effect through Sunday.
More than 7,500 marginalized, mainly rural communities that currently lack internet service are set to be connected thanks to a federal government program.
The Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation (SICT) will deliver internet services to some 4.8 million people in 7,537 communities via the 2021-22 Social Coverage Program (PCS).
The communities are among more than 77,000 locations across Mexico where there is no internet coverage, according to the SICT, affecting 8.3 million people.
Of the communities that will benefit from the PCS, 99.3% are in rural areas and almost 60% have large indigenous or Afro-Mexican populations. More than 1,300 of the communities have high or very high rates of marginalization and 376 are the administrative centers of the municipalities in which they are located.
According to the SICT, the installation of internet services in the communities will reduce inequality and help people stay connected to each other.
In Mexico, 77,219 communities lack internet access (shown in red) while 112,269 communities have internet access (in green), according to the Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation. SICT
“The health emergency in Mexico generated by [COVID-19] underlined the essential role of telecommunications, in particular internet service,” the ministry said.
“As a tool of public policy, the 2021-22 PCS will contribute to the reduction of the digital divide in Mexico … [and] reduce the negative effects of the pandemic on the most unprotected social and economic sectors.”
Lowest rate for a three-night stay in Cancún was US $228.
Cancún is the most expensive New Year’s destination outside the United States, according to a new survey by the booking website CheapHotels.org.
The survey analyzed hotel rates in 50 cities around the world, comparing the lowest rate available for a three-night stay in a double room. Only centrally located hotels with three or more stars and generally positive reviews were included.
Of all the cities in the survey Cancún was the sixth most expensive, with the cheapest room available costing US $228. Cancún was the only Mexican city to appear on the list.
The five most expensive cities were all in the United States, led by Miami Beach where the cheapest hotel stay went for $365.
The results highlight how the pandemic has reshaped international travel, with some of 2019’s most expensive New Year’s destinations going for much cheaper in 2021. Dubai and Sydney, for example, two of the priciest places to stay in 2019, cost 40 to 50% less this year, the survey reported.
While some countries require visitors to provide negative COVID tests, proof of vaccination and/or complete a mandatory quarantine, Mexico has no such requirements, making it an attractive option for some tourists. Cancún in particular has made a strong economic comeback and its airport neared record numbers of flights last weekend.
Long lines of migrants wait outside the Mexican refugee agency office in Tapachula, Chiapas.
Migration to and through Mexico will continue to increase in 2022, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
Josep Herreros, a Mexico City-based UNHCR official, told the newspaper La Razón that social conflict, violence, poverty and pandemic-related factors will continue to spur migration from Central American and South American countries next year.
Migrants from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Haiti have arrived in Mexico in large numbers this year, but people from farther afield, even African countries, have also entered the country to seek asylum here, or more commonly, to travel north to the United States.
Herreros predicted that the number of migrants from Venezuela will increase next year due to the ongoing difficult situation in the once-prosperous South American country.
“The situation in Central and South American will continue to impact Mexico. Due to the growing violence, we will certainly see more exoduses next year,” he said.
Adding to the pressure on migrant services at the northern border are asylum seekers who arrive there after traveling through Mexico from the southern border.
Migration to and through Mexico has surged this year, and while many migrants are intent on reaching the United States, an increasing number are seeking to stay here, at least in the short term. Asylum applications rose by almost 200% to over 123,000 this year, placing enormous pressure on immigration authorities and the Mexican refugee agency COMAR, which admitted in November that it was close to collapsing under the strain.
“What increased asylum requests this year were the constant arrivals from Central America and an unusual movement of the Haitian population from Brazil and Chile,” Herreros said.
He warned that an increase in migration next year will push COMAR, the National Immigration Institute, migrant shelters and organizations that assist migrants to the limit.
Herreros said that processing asylum applications in a timely manner is essential in order to improve migrants’ experience in Mexico.
Many have been forced to wait for months or even longer to regularize their status, which effectively traps them in the cities where they filed their claims – Tapachula is the prime example – and contributes to discontent and distrust in authorities.
Instead of being trapped in the south, migrants could fill industrial sector jobs in states such as Coahuila, Jalisco, Nuevo León, Puebla, San Luis Potosí and Guanajuato, Herreros said, estimating that at least 100,000 such positions were available.
Mexican wheat farming is emitting high levels of nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas.
The cultivation of wheat in Mexico is causing the release of large amounts of a dangerous greenhouse gas.
Durum wheat farmers in the Yaqui Valley of Sonora are causing the release of “huge surges of nitrous oxide gas,” The Washington Post reported.
Commonly known as laughing gas, nitrous oxide is released into the atmosphere in large quantities when farmers irrigate fields where nitrogen fertilizer has been laid but crops have not yet been planted. Without crops in the ground, much of the nitrogen fertilizer isn’t absorbed and when it mixes with water nitrous oxide is produced.
The Post said that emerging scientific evidence suggests that Mexico’s nitrous oxide emissions are significantly underestimated, and could be four times higher that what the country reports. It also said the gas is responsible for 6.5% of the world’s current warming and that it is 265 times more powerful than carbon dioxide in heating the atmosphere over a period of 100 years.
Wheat farmers in the valley are responsible for more emissions than they should be because they’re over-fertilizing their fields, the Post reported.
Due to overuse of nitrogen fertilizers like these urea pellets, Mexican wheat farming is emitting high levels of pollution.
“… [They] apply about 300 kilograms of nitrogen onto every hectare of land they cultivate — primarily by scattering urea pebbles onto the soil before planting and later pumping anhydrous ammonia gas into the irrigation water once the wheat starts growing,” it said.
“That rate of nitrogen use is 50% higher than what is allowed by law in parts of Germany. Britain prohibitsfertilizing before planting in vulnerable areas— a common practice in the valley.”
The federal government acknowledges that Mexico’s nitrous oxide emissions are problematic, but has no regulations that limit fertilizer use.
That’s partially because “these types of regulations are difficult to enforce, especially considering the size of our country compared to European countries,” said Juan Gabriel León Zaragoza, a spokesman for the Agriculture Ministry.
Iván Ortiz-Monasterio, an agronomist from Cuernavaca who has spent years trying to persuade farmers to use nitrogen fertilizer more efficiently, told the Post that wheat producers in the Yaqui Valley face financial and cultural pressures that encourage them to use too much fertilizer, even though they would save money and reduce pollution if they used less.
“For the farmer, the cost of fertilizing too much is less than the cost of fertilizing too little,” he said. “That’s because they are not taking into account the environmental cost.”
Excess nitrogen also seeps into drainage canals in the Yaqui Valley and eventually into the Gulf of California, where it has caused algae blooms. The contamination poses a threat to marine species such as fish, shrimp and crabs.
“The pesticides, the herbicides, the fertilizers, all of it flows into the sea. And all of it affects us,” said Manuel Díaz Lopez, a 68-year-old fisherman in Paredón Colorado, a coastal community about 50 kilometers south of Ciudad Obregón.
“Everything pours off the shore and the species die,” he told the Post. “I remember when I was 10 years old, the boats would come back with 200 kilos of shrimp. Now, they’re getting 10 or 20 kilos in a day.”
Playa Hermosa in Baja California is one of the five unsafe beaches.
Water quality testing of 270 beaches around the country found that five did not meet World Health Organization (WHO) safety guidelines, while the rest were safe for use according to the Federal Commission for Protection Against Sanitary Risks (Cofepris).
The study analyzed more than 2,000 water samples from popular tourist destinations in the country’s 17 coastal states. It found that Bahía de Banderas in Nayarit and Hornos, Tlacopanocha and Suave beaches in Acapulco were unsafe for recreational use based on high levels of enterococci bacteria, which indicates the presence of fecal matter in the water.
The fifth beach, Playa Hermosa in Ensenada, Baja California, failed because state and municipal authorities said the beach was the site of constant wastewater discharges.
According to WHO guidelines, coastal bodies of water must have 200 or less enterococci bacteria per 100 milliliters to be considered safe for recreational use. In Acapulco, Playa Hornos and Playa Tlacopanocha had more than double the safe level of bacteria. At Playa Suave, bacteria levels were almost 10 times the limit.
It is not the first time Acapulco beaches have failed water quality testing. In 2019 three of the city’s beaches, including Playa Suave, tested positive for unsafe levels of bacteria. Ensenada’s Playa Hermosa has also been on the unsafe list before.
High levels of enterococci bacteria can cause urinary tract infections, meningitis and other health problems. And because enterococci mean that feces is present in the water, they are often accompanied by more disease-causing bacteria and viruses.
Lepidolite is a rare lithium-rich mineral that serves as an ore for the valuable metal.
President López Obrador has pledged to nationalize lithium deposits but Mexico’s capacity to extract the sought-after metal is currently non-existent, according to the Mexican Chamber of Mines (Camimex).
Camimex president Jaime Gutiérrez Núñez told the newspaper Reforma that putting the state in charge of lithium exploration and extraction would appear to be a bad idea.
“We have to recognize that as a government we’re not sufficiently capable of doing this. In addition, there is no certainty that there is lithium in sufficient quantities in the country to be exploited economically,” he said.
Gutiérrez asserted that Mexico doesn’t have the technology required to extract lithium from potential deposits. “We could get it but we don’t have it now,” he said.
That hasn’t stopped the Mexican Geological Service from looking for lithium, known colloquially as “white gold” and “the new oil.” It is investing 55.2 million pesos (US $2.7 million) in 2021 and 2022 to detect potential deposits.
But Gutiérrez charged that the government “doesn’t have the faintest idea” of the investment needed to “really explore lithium deposits.”
He noted that the government failed in its attempts some 40 years ago to exploit uranium via a state-owned company called Uramex.
Lithium, a key component of lithium-ion batteries used for green energy storage, is coveted for the role it can play in the transition to clean energy. Mexico has large potential reserves of the alkali metal in Sonora and smaller potential deposits in states such as Baja California, San Luis Potosí and Zacatecas.
However, most of Mexico’s potential reserves are in clay deposits that are technically difficult and expensive to mine.
But López Obrador sent a constitutional bill to Congress in October that would nationalize future lithium exploration. A vote on the bill, which would also overhaul the electricity market to favor the state-owned Federal Electricity Commission, is expected in April.
A western Australia lithium mine in which Ganfeng Lithium holds a stake. Ganfeng also has plans to mine lithium in Sonora.
López Obrador pledged this week that no additional concessions will be issued for the exploitation of lithium in Mexico.
However, firms with active lithium mining permits, such as China’s Ganfeng Lithium, will not be affected by the nationalization plans, the government has said. There is no certainty that the reform will pass Congress because Morena and its allies don’t have the supermajority required to pass constitutional bills.
López Obrador said Tuesday that his government has a “plan B” if the bill doesn’t pass Congress, and sought to dispel doubts that lithium reserves in Mexico would end up in foreign hands. He also said that a state lithium institute will be created.
“There is no doubt that [lithium] is a strategic mineral for the future development of the world, and we want to keep it in the hands of Mexicans, of the nation,” López Obrador said.
Mexico has much to offer: beautiful landscapes, rich culture and friendly people. But for a Finnish traveler who returned home recently after a visit to Mexico, what she misses most about the country is the joyful cacophony of street life.
Viivi Rytkönen (@unafinlandesa) recently went viral on the video sharing social network TikTok for a clip discussing her biggest cultural shock upon her return to Finland: the silence.
“I really don’t know what to think about this … the silence. All the time, it’s completely quiet, silent, calm, and in a way I like it, but there is also a limit. Like, it’s excessive,” Rytkönen shared in the video.
The TikToker said that Finland is especially quiet in the winter.
“Seriously, I’m starting to miss all the noise of Mexico. The sweet corn sellers, the tamal vendors, their shouts, the propane gas truck, the neighbors’ music. Something I really like is hearing life,” she said.
One commenter compared her description of Finland to the ideal weekend getaway, while another joked, “Someone should go sell tamales in Finland.” Yet another TikTok user advised Rytkönen to play loud cumbia music for her neighbor’s enjoyment.
The video has reached almost 36,000 likes and more than a quarter million views.
