Calleros holds the stray bullet that fell through the roof.
It’s no secret that violence in Mexico is widespread but for a surprised man in Sonora, not only did danger arrive at his home, it dropped right in.
Leobardo Calleros Juárez had just finished cleaning his kitchen when he stepped into his living room, sat down, and heard a sudden bang.
“It all happened in fractions of a second. Since I’d just washed the dishes, it was such a loud noise, that I thought the dishes had fallen and were destroyed …” he said.
He entered the kitchen and found a cloud of dust and natural light coming in from outside. He looked up, and saw a hole.
When Calleros realized the hole had been created by a bullet, he tried to stay safe by lodging himself in the door frame for nearly an hour. He later concluded that the bullet had hit the floor and ricocheted into a door.
The resident of San Luis Río Colorado was already familiar with the dangers of stray bullets: a friend of his father lost his pregnant wife some years ago in a similar incident.
“Thank God [the shooter] was not someone who wanted to put my life at risk … he was an unaware person who shot in the air, for whatever reason,” he said.
Calleros published an account of the incident on social media to raise awareness about the dangers of stray bullets, and urged caution over the festive season.
“It was something that I didn’t expect, no one expects it. Death can arrive just like that. I shared it to be able to generate awareness so that people don’t shoot in the air,” he added, before offering an appropriate adage: “Everything that goes up tends to come back down,” he said.
Injuries and even deaths from stray bullets are not uncommon in Mexico, particularly at Christmas and on other festive occasions. A 5-year-old boy died in Michoacán in the early hours of January 1 when a bullet passed through the roof of his home and killed him.
The incident, one of several last January, was attributed to someone firing a weapon into the air during a New Year’s celebration.
A National Guardsman with confiscated bags of fentanyl.
Authorities have seized a record 1,852 kilograms of fentanyl this year, National Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval said Monday.
The army general told a press conference that seizures of the powerful synthetic opioid totaled 3,497 kilograms in the first three years of the current federal government – December 2018 to November 2021, a whopping 525% increase compared to the three previous years.
In part, seizures of the drug have increased because drug consumption and production patterns have changed, Sandoval said.
“There was a change in consumption, there was a change in drug markets due to the ease of producing synthetic drugs,” he said.
Criminal organizations are moving away from naturally grown drugs such as marijuana and opium and putting more resources into the manufacture and distribution of more powerful synthetic drugs, Sandoval said. The production and distribution of fentanyl – which is also mixed with other illicit drugs – yields higher profits for cartels, the army chief added.
Most fentanyl made in Mexico is illegally exported to the United States, where there is a drug overdose crisis that has caused more than 100,000 deaths in the 12-month period to April 2021, according to provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Cartels import fentanyl and precursor chemicals from Asia, especially China, to make the drug. The illicit products enter the country via Pacific coast ports such as Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán, and Manzanillo, Colima.
Sandoval also said that almost 125,000 kilograms of methamphetamine have been seized in the last three years, a 128% increase compared to the final three years of the previous government. The record seizures have occurred despite a lower number of narco-labs being dismantled over the past three years than in both the first and second halves of Enrique Peña Nieto’s 2012-18 presidency.
Cartels’ use of bigger, more productive labs is the main reason for the discrepancy.
“The laboratories that have been discovered or seized in this administration have had larger capacities, which has allowed us to seize a larger quantity of methamphetamine products,” Sandoval said.
Sandoval said that strategies used by security forces have been successful in both locating labs and identifying routes used to get drugs to market.
Powerful criminal groups such as the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel are involved in the production and distribution of such narcotics.
A trucker from Mexico was arrested last week after attempting to smuggle almost 8,000 kilograms of meth and 176 kilograms of fentanyl into the United States via the Otay Mesa border crossing between Tijuana and San Diego.
The seizures were the largest of either drug in the United States for both this year and last, U.S. authorities said.
While Sandoval touted the increase in narcotics seizures, security analyst Alejandro Hope opined that it might in fact be “a very bad sign.”
“It could be because of a greater effort, or it could be because there is a greater volume” of illegal drugs being produced, he told the Associated Press, adding that external indicators – such as overdose deaths in the U.S. and last week’s record bust – suggest that Mexican authorities “haven’t affected the flow in the least.”
Humberto Saiz calls a player safe but the umpire himself struck out on Sunday.
An apparently drunk baseball umpire was escorted from the field by police during a Mexican Pacific League (LMP) game in Sinaloa on Sunday night.
Humberto “Lobito” Saiz was taken off midway through the game between the Mazatlán Deer and the Navojoa Mayos at the Teodoro Mariscal Stadium in Mazatlán.
In a video filmed by a fan, Saiz is seen being ejected from the diamond by three men, at least one of whom was a police officer, by the scruff of his neck with his arms behind his back, to cheers from fans.
Before his ejection, some social media users spotted Saiz’s erratic behavior and commented that he was having a party at third base, where he was umpiring.
Saiz gave a middle finger salute several times, looked unsteady on his feet and had altercations with his fellow officials, managers, players and fans during the game, the television channel TV Pacífico reported.
Saiz later said in a statement that he was ashamed of his actions and apologized to his wife, children, fans, umpires, journalists and directors. “Not only did I commit an undignified act for myself, but that also undeservedly transmits to my colleagues in the profession and the Mexican Pacific League which has always put its trust in me,” he said.
The LMP confirmed Saiz had been suspended.
The match was the third in the series between the teams. The Mayos beat the Deer 10-8, bringing them closer to the playoffs: the Mayos are in first place in the league, while the Deer are second last in the 10-team division.
Economy Minister Tatiana Clouthier tweeted on Monday her pleasure over the apparent failure of President Biden's Build Back Better legislation. File photo
The apparent demise of the Build Back Better (BBB) Act in the United States is a “Christmas present” for Mexico, according to Economy Minister Tatiana Clouthier.
Democratic Party Senator Joe Manchin announced Sunday that he wouldn’t support BBB, effectively killing off the proposed legislation, which has already been approved by the United States House of Representatives.
If passed, BBB would increase credits available to United States consumers buying U.S.-made electric vehicles (EVs) from US $7,500 to as much as US $12,500. The act also has a range of other provisions related to infrastructure construction, childhood education, climate change and social policy.
The Mexican Employers Federation (Coparmex) warned earlier this month that the bill poses a threat to the Mexican automotive industry, while the federal government indicated that it would retaliate commercially if the proposed legislation passed the U.S. Congress in its current form.
Coparmex and the government said that the proposed legislation violates the provisions of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), the free-trade pact that took effect last year.
Clouthier on Monday celebrated Manchin’s rejection of BBB in a Twitter post in which she wrote, “It seems that our Christmas present came early.” At the top of the post was a link to a report by the newspaper El Financiero with the headline “Mexico and Canada breathe: U.S. senators will reject electric car subsidies.”
“We’re very happy because our efforts are finding an echo, strengthening Mexico’s position against the incentives initiative for EVs made in the United States,” Clouthier said.
While the future of BBB is uncertain — Senate Democrats were to meet on Tuesday to try to chart a path forward for the US $1.75 trillion package — experts who spoke with the newspaper Milenio warned that the United States’ plan to offer additional incentives to consumers buying U.S.-made EVs and Mexico’s plan to overhaul the electricity market to favor the state-owned Federal Electricity Commission could trigger a trade dispute between the two countries.
United States companies have denounced the proposed electricity reform, arguing that it violates the USMCA.
“Although they’re independent paths, each of the actions unfortunately intersects with each other,” said former economy minister Ildefonso Guajardo, now a federal deputy.
He said that if the electricity reform passes Congress — a vote is expected in April — private companies will sue Mexico in the investment court system. There is also the possibility of a state-to-state dispute. If the United States wins, it could impose tariffs on Mexican exports, Guajardo said.
A woman working at a Ford plant in Cuautitlán Izcali, México state, on the electric Mustang Mach-E. Ford
For its part, Mexico should take actions to dissuade an increase to incentives that apply exclusively to U.S.-made EVs, he said, citing tariffs on some U.S. products as an option.
The former economy minister, the previous government’s chief USMCA negotiator, said the proposals of both the Mexican and United States governments send a message that it’s OK to violate the new trade pact.
“And that’s to the detriment of the future and growth in the region,” Guajardo said.
The Biden administration’s EV plan is “aberrant … a very bad strategy … and sends the wrong signals,” he said.
“I would expect the United States Congress to correct the course, but we have to see the final determination. The position of … Tatiana Clouthier was correct,” Guajardo said, referring to the economy minister’s warning earlier this month that the government would retaliate commercially if BBB passed the Senate in its current form.
Juan Carlos Baker, CEO of Ansley Consultores and a trade negotiator for the previous federal government, also advocated the imposition of tariffs if the United States violates the USMCA with its EV incentives.
“… It doesn’t involve more than selecting a range of products, determining tariffs and publishing them in the official federal gazette,” he said.
With regard to the proposed electricity reform, Baker remarked: “I have no doubt that the United States and other countries will use [retaliation] mechanisms. That’s what they’re for – to guarantee compliance with trade rights.”
The candidate on the campaign trail for last June's election.
The mayor-elect of a municipality in Méxicostate will be tried for kidnapping a rival politician, judicial authorities announced on Monday.
Emilio Arriaga Villa of the Social Encounter Party (PES) was arrested on December 14 in Cuernavaca, Morelos, for his alleged role in the kidnapping of Iván Israel on June 4, just two days before the election.
Arriaga won election in Ocuilan on June 6, but will be unable to assume the post on January 1 due to the charges.
He is being held in preventative custody in Tenancingo penitentiary.
Israel was driving a pickup truck on the Santiago-Chalma highway, about 55 kilometers southeast of Toluca, on June 4 with Valeria “N” and Gloria Vanessa — the candidate for the Va Por México (Go for Mexico) coalition in Ocuilan — when they were intercepted by a car and a pickup truck without license plates.
Arriaga was supposed to take office January 1.
Armed men got out of the pickup truck and forced Israel out of his vehicle. The attackers attacked him physically and took him by car to a house in Santa Ana, which is thought to be Arriaga’s property.
The latter is accused of carrying a weapon and ordering Israel to be taken to the nearby countryside, which is considered tantamount to a death threat.
But the kidnapping victim managed to escape to the community of San Sebastián Ocuilan where he found police officers and received assistance.
The electoral season for the June 6 vote was the most violent on record. Risk analysis firm Etellekt, which tracks election campaign violence, reported that there were 1,066 acts of aggression against politicians and candidates between September 7, 2020 and June 6, a 38% increase compared to the 2017–2018 electoral season, when a total of 774 such incidents were recorded.
Many of the incidents involved kidnapping. 102 of the incidents were homicides and 36 of those victims were candidates running for election.
Several videos and photos of the Christmas party thrown by Los Chapitos featured signs and even gifts for children emblazoned with their father's initials.
Two days after the United States announced US $5 million rewards for information leading to their arrest, the sons of jailed drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera allegedly threw an ostentatious Christmas party in Culiacán, Sinaloa.
The posada started last Friday night on a property on the outskirts of the municipality of Culiacán and continued until Saturday afternoon, according to the news magazine Proceso.
Videos of the event posted to social media showed bands playing on a stage. Among their repertoire were ballads that mentioned El Chapo, the newspaper El Universal reported.
Videos and photographs also show hundreds of children’s gifts, all adorned with stickers featuring the letters JGL — Joaquín Guzmán Loera’s initials.
Raffle prizes — including several cars, widescreen televisions and refrigerators — were also embellished with the stickers.
Jailed ex-Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán’s four sons, wanted by US authorities, are collectively nicknamed ‘Los Chapitos.’
None of the guests appear in the videos and photographs shared on social media, presumably to protect their identity.
Sinaloa government sources cited by Proceso said the posada organized by Los Chapitos was intended to maintain the social base built by their father, the former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel. The newspaper Milenio in early December cited federal sources as saying Los Chapitos have started to lose the sympathy of Sinaloa residents due to acts of violence they have committed against cartel members and ordinary people.
The Guzmán brothers allegedly organized a large Christmas party in 2020 as well. That event, which also took place in Culiacán, was shut down by state and federal security forces.
This year’s event came after the U.S. Department of State announced rewards of up to US $5 million each for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar, Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, Joaquín Guzmán López and Ovidio Guzmán López.
“All four are high-ranking members of the Sinaloa Cartel, and are each subject to a federal indictment for their involvement in the illicit drug trade,” the State Department said.
REALIZAN “CHAPO POSADA”
Los Chapitos”, hijos de Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán realizan posada 2021 en #Sinaloa. Grupos norteños, rifas de autos y regalos con las iniciales de su padre GJL fueron entregados a los asistentes. pic.twitter.com/9Ghank6EvG
There were celebrations in Guanajuato yesterday as same-sex marriage became legal.
Guanajuato lawmakers approved same-sex marriage on Monday, just days after neighboring Zacatecas made the practice legal.
The conservative state in the El Bajío industrial region is the 26th where two people of the same gender can legally marry.
The legal change was ordered by decree in a letter sent to the state’s civil registry.
“From this date … the right of all people, without discrimination due to their sexual preference, to contract marriage in our civil registry offices is recognized and made effective,” it read.
The letter added that couples can marry “without the need for any legal remedy.” Previously, same-sex couples were only able to marry after filing for a court injunction, which cost as much as 20,000 pesos (almost US $1,000).
Activist and founder of León Libre (Free León), Juan Pablo Delgado, celebrated the news on social media: “It’s a huge step being taken to build a society that offers equal conditions for all people. Long live diversity,” he said.
However, rights activists from the Bajío said the state Congress still needs to reform its Civil Code, where marital union is defined as that between a husband and wife, the newspaper Reforma reported.
The Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that civil codes defining marriage as between a man and a woman or for the sole purpose of procreation were unconstitutional, but some states have still not changed their laws, meaning that in order to get married within their borders same-sex couples must apply for a marriage license with their local civil registry, be rejected and then file for an injunction and wait for their case to move through the system.
Mexico City was the first entity to recognize gay marriage, doing so in 2010. The states where same-sex marriage has not been fully legalized are Durango, México state, Guerrero, Tabasco, Tamaulipas and Veracruz.
More than 4,000 migrants have crossed the southern border every day this year on average, a 44.5% increase over 2020.
An average of 4,026 migrants — largely from Haiti, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador — entered each day in 2021, primarily into Chiapas. The border state saw 1.2 million crossings in the first 10 months of the year, which is more than the 893,000 total it recorded in 2020.
The NationalImmigration Institute (INM) has reacted to the surge in Chiapas by containing migrants in the city of Tapachula, and in many cases imprisoning them in detention centers. Such detentions increased nearly threefold in Chiapas in annual terms this year: in 2020 there were 25,000 detentions, compared to 67,376 in 2021.
However, that policy of containment has put unsustainable pressure on the refugee agency COMAR which has been unable to process the flood of asylum applications, leaving migrants stranded without the right to work or travel. Some have waited more than a year for their applications to be resolved.
Chiapas is the point of greatest friction: the border states of Tabasco, Campeche and Quintana Roo have only reported 30,151 land entries this year. However the 27,000 detentions recorded in Tabasco in 2021 is still four times higher than the state’s figure for 2020.
Faced with little prospect of migration slowing, COMAR and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) have agreed to increase the federal agency’s workforce with an extra 230 staff, the newspaper Milenio reported.
Meanwhile, migrants from the caravan that left Tapachula on October 25 protested in Mexico City on Saturday for International Migrants Day, just days after completing their mammoth trek to the capital.
The convoy congregated outside the U.S. Embassy with signs saying “Migration is not a crime, the crime is the government that represses;” “migration is not for pleasure, it’s a necessity,” and “Mexico, do not stop us.”
One migrant expressed distrust in the government of President López Obrador: “He has repressed us with the National Guard, with the police, we believe in him very little. But first [we hope] God touches his heart and does the right thing. May he will have a little humanity.”
Honduran migrant Christian Gutierrez who traveled with his wife and two-year-old son said the journey was colored by fear and fatigue, and called on the president to allow the migrants to pass through the country, given that their destination is ultimately the United States.
The president urged U.S. President Joe Biden to change his country’s immigration policy at a meeting in November. He also pointed some responsibility to Biden after the highway disaster that killed 55 migrants in Chiapas on December 9.
It might have been fake, but that doesn't stop people from enjoying "snow" in Mexico City's zócalo. Photos by Joseph Sorrentino
There’s a magic in Christmas lights that can somehow make a city as large and chaotic as Mexico City feel like a small pueblo.
If you go downtown right now to the city’s Plaza de la Constitución (the zócalo), the buildings have been decked out with lights and huge decorations. Inside, there’s a celebration of the Christmas season called Verbena Navideña.
The ongoing Verbena Navideña event opened on December 12 — coinciding with the first night that the posadas people hold all over Mexico begin. Posadas commemorate the birth of Jesus and go on all over the country for nine days, commemorating the nine months the Virgin Mary was pregnant.
But while the posadas will continue only until December 24, the Verbena Navideña in Mexico City will go until December 31.
A verbena is a traditional Spanish celebration that may be anything from an agricultural show to a dance party to a fiesta held in honor of a pueblo’s patron saint. In Mexico City, the Verbena Navideña features eight different attractions including music, performances and rides.
Performers in a pastorela, a sometimes solemn, but sometimes comic play about the birth of Jesus Christ.
In the afternoons and early evening, the Escenario de Coros (Choir Stage) hosts groups singing villancicos, songs that were popular in Spain and Portugal in the 15th to 18th centuries. Now, a villancico may refer to any Christmas carol.
Later at night, there are performances of La Noche Más Venturosa (The Most Fortunate Night), which is a pastorela, a play about the birth of Jesus. Although often depicted in a more solemn manner, this performance was funny and full of antics.
Three Christmas trees made from more than 3,500 poinsettias dominate one part of the zócalo, and while the traditional ice skating rink wasn’t there this year, there were toboggan rides. At the end of the ride, you run into the Bosque Nevada, the Snowy Forest, where a machine periodically dusts people with a bit of man-made snow.
There are several workshops for children (and for adults who want to feel young again), where they can color Christmas scenes or make Christmas trees out of paper. Yenifer Karina Rojos Flores said that watching her son make a tree was one of her favorite parts of the event. “That and the toboggan,” she said.
For the more cerebral-minded, there’s chess, with a large board for children and a regular-sized one for adults. Marisol De Paz Martínez and her six-year-old daughter, Italivi Salazar De Paz, competed on the large board in the early afternoon. Several games were being played on the regular-sized boards, one featuring a young man dressed as a traditional Mexica (Aztec) dancer.
There are also rides, including a Ferris wheel, a Merry-go-round, a roller coaster and a couple of rides that drop children from various heights, something that they apparently love. If you plan on taking your kids (or yourself) on the rides, be aware that on the first day, people began lining up for two hours before the rides opened.
A young woman gets some Christmas thrills riding a toboggan.
Because of the ongoing pandemic, gel is offered at the entrances and masks are required. On the first day, at least, there was no limit on the number of people allowed in, so social distancing wasn’t possible.
Dozens of young people dressed in green vests patrol the grounds, answering questions and helping out where needed.
They’re members of Los Jovenes Unen al Barrio (Youth Unite The Neighborhood), a program that’s part of Instituto de la Juventude de la CDMX (Youth Institute of Mexico City).
There’s also a substantial police presence inside and outside the zócalo.
Verbena Navideña is sponsored by the government of Mexico City, and despite its 25 million peso (about USD $1.25 million) price tag, it’s a free event. Most days, it will be open from noon to 9 p.m., but on December 24 and 31, it will be open from noon to 5 p.m.
On December 25 and January 1, it will be open 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. It ends on December 31.
A gentleman gets a furry fist bump.
Performances vary daily but, unfortunately, there’s no information online about them. It’s best to just go and have a good time.
The ownership of expensive real estate has thrust yet another federal official into the spotlight.
Former public administration minister Irma Sandoval faced accusations of corruption last year after it came to light that she and her husband owned properties worth some 60 million pesos (US $2.9 million). Earlier this month President López Obrador called for the ex-chief of the government’s Financial Intelligence Unit, Santiago Nieto, to be investigated after the newspaper Reforma reported that he had bought or acquired four properties and an Audi car worth a combined 40 million pesos (US $1.9 million).
Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero has an even more valuable real estate portfolio, the news outlet Univision has revealed.
It reported that Gertz, a former lawmaker and federal security minister, owns two expensive properties in the United States. He purchased an apartment in a New York art deco building that overlooks Central Park for US $2.4 million and an apartment in Santa Monica, California, for $1.1 million in 2007.
He bought the New York property just after his three-year term as a federal deputy ended, while he was president of the Mexican Federation of Private Higher Education Institutes when he purchased the Santa Monica apartment.
Gertz told Univision that he has declared the New York property to tax authorities and the Ministry of Public Administration (SFP), the government’s internal corruption watchdog. The California property “is perfectly registered,” he said without specifying if he has declared it to tax authorities and whether it is included in his declaration of assets to the SFP.
The attorney general told Univision that the purchases were made with resources from a long-established family fortune. “I have nothing to hide,” Gertz said.
However, the details of his fortune are a mystery, Univision said, noting that the attorney general has not agreed to the disclosure of his declaration of assets.
He told Univision that he prefers to keep the details under wraps to avoid possible extortion attempts. Asked why other officials allow the publication of their financial situations when they too could be extorted, Gertz responded that it was “possibly because they don’t have a significant fortune.”
Some clues to the attorney general’s wealth are contained in the Paradise Papers – 13.4 million documents obtained by German newspaper Südeutsche Zeitung and shared by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists in 2017. He was identified as the vice president of a personal investment company incorporated in the Cayman Islands, generally considered a tax haven.
However, Gertz has denied any knowledge of the company, whose principal beneficiary was his brother Federico, who died in 2015.
The Univision report comes less than two weeks after the newspaper El Universal reported that the 81-year-old bought 122 cars between 2014 and 2015, including several Mercedes-Benzes and a Rolls Royce. Reports have also said that Gertz owns houses in Paris and Las Lomas, an upscale district of Mexico City.
The attorney general told Univision that the reports are part of a campaign of “media harassment” against him. López Obrador has indicated that he considers Gertz to be an honest man.
