Alma Sánchez Barragán takes office in Moreléon, Guanajuato. Her mother, a Citizens Movement candidate for the post, was killed by gunmen in May.
The mayor of Moroleón, Guanajuato, took office this week, when she spoke earnestly about replacing her mother, a Citizens’ Movement candidate killed during the campaign for the June 6 elections.
Alma Rosa Barragán Santiago was murdered on May 25 during a campaign event in that municipality, located in the south of the state on the border with Michoacán.
According to witnesses, armed men arrived at the event and opened fire at the candidate. Two other people were wounded, the newspaper Milenio reported.
Alma Denisse Sánchez Barragán, her daughter, assumed the candidacy and won the contest. She said she felt conflicting emotions at her swearing-in ceremony.
“For me, being here today is something beautiful but at the same time it is very painful … Today I tell you with all my heart, today this is no longer just a town … today we are all Moroleón, a family,” she said.
“We can address pain in a good way, in a strong way, by uniting to keep moving forward,” she added.
The electoral season leading up to municipal, state and federal elections on June 6 was the most violent on record, according to a report by risk analysis firm Etellekt, which tracks election campaign violence. It showed that politicians and candidates were murdered in more than 20 states in the lead-up to the elections.
Guanajuato is never far from the discussion of violence. It tops the list as the worst state for homicides in terms of raw numbers.
President López Obrador has previously placed the blame squarely on state authorities, particularly state Attorney General Carlos Zamarripa.
“I urge the governor to do something … we don’t have support,” he said on August 30. “The attorney general has been there a long time, and there are no results.”
The Zapotillo dam in Jalisco, halted by injunctions.
The federal government has reached an agreement with residents of two Jalisco municipalities that will allow the activation of a dam that has long been opposed by locals.
President López Obrador met on Sunday with residents of Temacapulín, Palmarejo and Acasico to discuss the possibility of putting the El Zapotillo dam into operation.
The first two communities are located in the northeastern municipality of Cañadas de Obregón, while Acasico is in the neighboring municipality of Mexticacán.
Residents have opposed the dam since former president Vicente Fox announced the project in 2005 because its operation would likely cause frequent flooding in the three towns, making them uninhabitable. Construction began in 2011 but the project was never completed due to community opposition and the legal action they took.
To mitigate the flooding risk, López Obrador in August proposed the operation of the dam at a reduced capacity. The president returned to Temacapulín on Sunday, where he also proposed the construction of a tunnel that will funnel water away from the towns to ensure they are not flooded in the case of heavy rain.
The residents consequently agreed to the activation of the dam – which will mainly supply water to the metropolitan area of Guadalajara – as long as its capacity doesn’t exceed the 42-meter mark, and as long as a range of other conditions, including the repair of homes damaged by construction of the dam, are met.
The National Water Commission (Conagua) had proposed the operation of El Zapotillo at a capacity of up to 80 meters. But Conagua chief Germán Martínez accepted the new limit and said the commission would review the technical details of the project with a view to putting the dam into operation.
“There is now a decision that the three towns won’t be flooded,” said López Obrador, who was accompanied at the meeting by Jalisco Governor Enrique Alfaro. “I believe that is progress … If [additional] budget is needed I can guarantee it,” he said
López Obrador said he would return to the region in a month to inaugurate the complementary projects required to complete the dam and ensure it can operate without flooding the three communities.
Cancham México says the proposed reform's cancellation of electricity permits would hinder the ability of private electricity companies to generate power. VG Foto/Shutterstock
A business group that represents Canadian companies in Mexico has warned that President López Obrador’s proposed electricity reform will have “dire consequences” if approved by Congress.
The president sent a bill to Congress on October 1 that seeks to change the constitution to guarantee 54% electricity market participation for the state-owned Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) – an increase of 16% compared to the share it says it currently holds – and get rid of two independent regulators: the National Hydrocarbons Commission (CNH) and the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE).
The Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Mexico — Cancham México — rejected the president’s proposal, asserting that if approved it would have “very dire direct consequences for the country and destroy investments of Canadian companies in the electricity sector and other areas of the economy.”
It also said that the bill’s approval would violate international free trade agreements, in particular the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which replaced NAFTA last year.
President Lopez Obrador wants to change the constitution to guarantee the Federal Electricity Commission 54% electricity market participation.
Cancham México said that a return to the “monopoly model” that existed before the previous government opened up the energy sector would “affect electricity service and eliminate supply options for consumers.”
It also said that the cancellation of electricity permits would hinder the capacity of private electricity companies, including Canadian ones, to generate power. Their investments would be destroyed as a result, it added.
“The lack of electricity delivery to the system by private companies will leave a large percentage of the industrial sector without electricity service, seriously affecting their activities,” Cancham México said.
“The disappearance of the CRE and the CNH, and the reincorporation of CENACE [the National Energy Control Center] into the CFE, will result in unfair regulation that will affect free competition … [and thus] increase inefficiencies in the electricity market and the supply of fuels. Free competition between different public sector and private sector companies is necessary for energy security and the country’s competitiveness.”
Cancham said the nations of North America have made great efforts over many years to integrate the region, but López Obrador’s proposal “represents a setback in the face of said efforts.”
“… Amid a process of economic reactivation, in which Canadian companies with investments in Mexico are making efforts to continue contributing to the development of the country, it is with surprise and concern that we see the consequences that this constitutional reform proposal would have,” the business group said, warning that it could undermine “the climate of confidence and certainty needed for economic recovery.”
CFE director Manuel Bartlett says that private companies use abusive business practices and are only interested in profits.
“If the initiative is approved in the terms in which it has been presented, it will have dire, deeply regrettable and certainly irreversible consequences” over many years, Cancham México said, citing damage to the environment as one.
“The best way to strengthen the energy sector in Mexico is through growing collaboration between the public and private sectors. The investment of private companies – today and in the future – will be vital to supply electricity to Mexicans and the businesses that stimulate the economy of this country,” it said, adding that such companies spur social development, offer lower rates and generate electricity in more environmentally friendly and sustainable ways.
But CFE director Manuel Bartlett has a very different opinion of private companies that operate in Mexico’s electricity market.
In a meeting with CFE executives, Bartlett said private companies engage in abusive business practices and are only interested in profits. He compared their operation in the market to a robbery.
“What the CFE, the Mexican electricity sector, is going through is a heist. There is not an honest system of competition, … the Federal Economic Competition Commission … only goes after us; it says we’re a monopoly, but it doesn’t pursue the private monopolies,” he said, according to a CFE press release issued Monday.
Bartlett railed against the previous government’s energy reform – which opened up the sector to private and foreign companies – and directed the CFE executives to defend López Obrador’s proposal to partially reverse it.
“Go out and disseminate the electricity reform, defend the CFE from the campaign that has been launched against it. … It’s our responsibility to defend [the company],” he said.
“It’s a lie that [electricity produced] by the CFE is expensive and contaminating, … that we’re going to become a monopoly. We’re simply going to change the rules of the market and rescue the company,” Bartlett said.
For its part, the Business Coordinating Council (CCE) charged that the CFE chief and Energy Minister Rocío Nahle have misrepresented private energy companies that operate in the Mexican market.
“They have every right to present ideas and arguments, but not to describe the legal activities of investors as theft of the nation,” said the CCE, which represents 12 business groups.
The Morena party coordinator of the lower house of Congress confidently predicted this week that the reform could be approved between mid-November and mid-December.
Indigenous Tzotziles in Chenalhó announce their new self-defense force.
At least five new self-defense forces have sprung up in Chiapas since July 7 in areas east of Tuxtla Gutiérrez.
The most recent group announced its presence in a video uploaded to social media featuring camouflaged indigenous Tzotziles from Santa Martha Chenalhó wearing balaclavas.
The group said it formed to curb the violence over a land dispute with the nearby communty of Aldama which has run for 60 years and has left nearly 20 people dead.
Other forces are more explicitly political in their goals. A group formed in October in Altamirano aims to remove former mayor Roberto Pinto Kanter and his wife, mayor-elect Gabriela Roque Tiapcamú, from power.
In a video similar in design to the first, they stated their accusations: “… we have seen how the rich protect themselves among the rich, how politicians protect themselves among politicians, whatever political stripe they are, they want to deceive us into believing that they have changed their political stripes and are new. What never changes is their indifference towards us, the Tzetal and Tojolabal Indians,” a spokesperson said.
“Here the person that wins an election is the one with the most money,” he added.
Another group called The Machete, which announced its aims on July 7, formed in opposition to Pantelhó Mayor Raquel Trujillo, who it accuses of having links to organized crime. Another group called People of the Forest popped up on September 29 to support The Machete.
A fifth group is called the Armed Force of Simojovel. It demands that mayor-elect Humberto Martínez respect indigenous communities, and end crime and the theft of public resources.
The sparsely populated, rural state is politically fragmented and complex. Aside from self-defense forces the largely indigenous militant Zapatistas (EZLN) control substantial swaths of land, making the authority of the state’s elected politicians questionable.
The EZLN rose in opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994 and demanded that the autonomy of indigenous communities be recognized in the constitution.
The catrinas are preparing for the Day of the Dead in Mexico City.
Mexico City’s International Day of the Dead parade will return this year in all its splendor and color after being forced online in 2020.
The festival is one of Mexico’s most important, and is almost universally celebrated by indigenous communities. It is marked by smells of copal, an abundance of marigolds, elaborate altars and cemeteries lit up with candles. Mexico City first hosted a parade to coincide with the holiday in 2016, which was well received by the public.
The parade will start at midday on October 31 and travel 8.7 kilometers from the city’s main zócalo to Campo Marte, a military complex near the Auditorio Metro station. More than 1,000 volunteers will participate, including 150 musicians and 350 dancers and acrobats. The parade will be divided into four themes: Tenochtitlán, Mexico City today, Magic and Tradition, and Celebrating Life.
Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said the parade would be dedicated to victims of the pandemic. “The city is going to celebrate its Day of the Dead festival with sanitary protections. The festivities have two characteristics: one is very sad — what we have lived through recently in our country … which is that thousands of people have died from COVID-19, so the event is dedicated to all those people … so we can pay tribute,” she said.
She explained that 98% of the city’s adult population had received at least a single dose of COVID-19 vaccine, allowing the event to resume, and that the festivities would provide an important economic boost.
Mexico City Tourism Minister Paola Félix said the participants have rehearsed in groups of no more than 40 people as a health measure. There will be sanitary checkpoints and random COVID tests for participants during the event, which attracted some 2.6 million people in 2019.
Meanwhile, the Alfeñique festival in Toluca, México state, has also been given the go-ahead. Eighty-one artisans will convene in the city center from October 15-November 2 to sell chocolate and traditional sugar skulls for Day of the Dead altars.
A Mexican team plays a team from Belize at a competition staged at Teotihuacán in 2017.
On Saturday, the first Southeast Mexican Cup of the ancient Mesoamerican game of pelota maya will take place in the Yucatán community of Umán, 18 kilometers southeast of Mérida. It is a celebration of one of the world’s oldest sports.
This tournament will host teams from Yucatán, Campeche, Chiapas and Quintana Roo. As well as being a tournament in its own right, this event will also act as a precursor to the World Cup championship on December 2–5 in Mérida, determining which players will progress to that final competition.
That December contest will see teams from Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama and the host, Mexico, compete. Three World Cups have already been held for the ancestral sport: in Chichén Itzá in 2015, in Guatemala in 2017 and in El Salvador in 2019.
Qualifying rounds for the international tournament have already been held in San Juan La Laguna, Guatemala, which saw the winning team, Ajpopab Tzutujil, earn their ticket to the final in Mexico.
Ancient Maya civilizations in countries all over what is now Latin America, and all over Mexico, played a version of this ballgame — as did the Mexica. Perhaps the best-known surviving game court is located at the Mayan ruins of Chichén Itzá in Yucatán. In recent years, the game has been revived as a modern sport in Mexico and several Latin American countries.
Players in Mérida doing a demonstration of the sport for primary school students.
Pelota maya — which is just one term for the game among the different groups in different countries that play it — has become an increasingly important part of sporting culture for the indigenous people of the Mesoamerican region. Although the idea of watching a modern ballgame rarely draws to mind implications of power and politics, there are social and cultural implications inherent in the playing of many sports, none more so than the oft-forgotten Mesoamerican ballgame.
In Umán, for example, the municipal government established a free school in 2019 for Maya youth to learn the game of their culture. “We are betting on the new generations practicing this sport that our ancestors left as a legacy,” municipal official José Manuel Ruiz Garrido told the newspaper El Financiero soon after the school’s opening.
The revival of this most ancient of ballgames represents the rescuing of a silenced tradition and a link between the Maya of today and the world of the past.
This is not a game for the fainthearted. Though the losers are no longer killed as sacrifices to the gods, bruises are ubiquitous — as can only be expected after continually flinging your body onto the ground in pursuit of a three-kilogram rubber ball.
The specifics of the game as it was played in ancient Mesoamerican societies remain largely unknown, and the precise mechanics are likely to have varied across cultures and eras. The game as it is played today, therefore, is based on passed-down culture and the suppositions of researchers who have attempted to divine the rules and symbolism of the game from architectural remains.
In the modern-day version, the heavy rubber ball is pushed with the hip in an attempt to displace the other team from their court, until the ball crosses the end line. It is played by both men and women, as it would have been by the ancient Maya.
Pelota maya players in Umán, Yucatán, where the Southeast Mexican Cup will be held on Saturday.
Ultimately, though, the details of how the game is played are at best only equal to the cultural importance of the sheer fact of its revival. As a game, pelotamaya is a demonstration of dexterity, strength and strategic mastery, but more than this it is a sport that speaks to the history of an entire society.
The game was undoubtedly played for a variety of reasons and had a multitude of meanings to different Maya peoples; it is believed to have stood in for acts of warfare, to have functioned as a ritualistic religious ceremony and to simply be a good way to pass the time.
The elements of the game, too, are laden with overlapping symbolism. The game is central to the epic Popol Vuh, the Maya story of creation, in which two pairs of brothers enter the underworld and play the ballgame against the gods there.
The first pair of twins, the First Fathers, lose the game and are sacrificed. The second pair, the Hero Twins, overcome the underworld gods and outwit them at every turn. The story ends with the apotheosis of the First Fathers to the heavens, where they become the sun and the moon and bring about the beginning of the cycle of fertility and harvest that nourishes the rest of civilization.
The ballcourt thus becomes emblematic of the transition between the cycles of life and death, a liminal space between the underworld and the earth.
To this day, the motivations behind the playing of the game remain complex: it is a legacy to leave to the future, and it is an honoring of a culture that has historically been quashed by Western Christian society. During the Spanish invasion of the region, conquistadors systematically erased the game by destroying the ball courts, only some of which now remain.
Escuela enseña gratuitamente juego de pelota tradicional maya "Pok Ta Pok" en México
A school in Umán, Yucatán, offers free training in pelota maya.
In recent years, groups from across Mesoamerica have been salvaging this essential piece of Mayan society from the annals and breathing life into it once more; many hope that it will spread across the region and gain in popularity to rival sports such as soccer and baseball.
Pulling the first team sport ever played into the modern Mesoamerican consciousness, this month’s tournament, as well as the international cup in December, are an opportunity for the indigenous people of Mexico to become living witnesses to the past. Through them, it is hoped that the vein of shared sportsmanship that once ran through the Mesoamerican civilizations can be reinvigorated and given new lifeblood.
Shannon Collins is an environment correspondent at Ninth Wave Global, an environmental organization and think tank. She writes from Campeche.
Angélica, her grandmother and her three sisters at the police facility in Guerrero where they were detained.
A 15-year-old girl sold into marriage at the age of 11 was jailed for 10 days in the Montaña region of Guerrero after she fled the home of her father-in-law, who allegedly attempted to rape her.
Angélica, who was sold for 120,000 pesos (US $5,800) in accordance with traditional customs in the municipality of Cochoapa el Grande, went to live with her in-laws after her husband emigrated to the United States in search of work.
Her father-in-law, who claimed to be the girl’s “owner” because he bought her for his son, allegedly tried to rape Angélica on four separate occasions, prompting her to flee his home late last month.
The teenager took shelter with her grandmother, according to the newspaper Reforma, but after her father-in-law demanded her arrest, community police officers from the village of Dos Ríos arrived at the house and detained her.
The authorities also arrested the girl’s grandmother because she refused to pay 210,000 pesos demanded by the father-in-law. In addition, they detained Angélica’s three little sisters — an eight-year-old and six-year-old twins.
Cochoapa, Guerrero, where young brides are sold according to traditional customs.
Angélica, her sisters and their grandmother were held for 10 days in a police lockup until they were released last weekend.
The newspaper El Universal reported that their arrest didn’t come to light until the girls’ mother reported it while receiving medical treatment last Saturday at a hospital in Ometepec, a municipality about 100 kilometers from Cochoapa el Grande.
Pregnant with triplets, Concepción Ventura got into an argument with police after arriving at the lockup with food for her four daughters. During the disagreement, one of the officers reportedly punched Ventura, causing her to have a miscarriage.
After officials with the Guerrero Human Rights Commission and the Ministry of Indigenous and Afro-Mexican Affairs heard about the girls’ arrest, they traveled to Dos Ríos to demand their release.
The former body announced Sunday that the girls had been freed. Human rights and women’s rights organizations have denounced what happened to Angélica, her sisters, her mother and her grandmother.
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It is unclear what consequences the police will face for their actions and whether the girl’s father-in-law will face charges related to his alleged sexual assault.
“It’s an old practice that we can’t eradicate even though the law says that the practice is a crime — human trafficking, specifically,” Serafín Nava Ortiz, a local lawyer and municipal official, said in 2017.
Zulma, a Type-1 diabetic 12-year-old, received a COVID vaccine last month, but she had to obtain a court order to get it. Now all minors over 12 will be eligible.
A judge has ordered the federal government to offer COVID-19 vaccines to all youths aged 12 to 17.
Health authorities have so far only inoculated minors who obtained injunctions ordering their vaccination while the government announced last month it would offer vaccines to more than 1 million children with health conditions that make them vulnerable to serious illness.
But there are no plans to vaccinate all youths in the 12-17 age bracket.
However, a México state-based federal judge ordered health authorities to modify the national vaccination policy (PNV) to include all minors between those ages. The judge ruled that the youths must be immunized with the Pfizer vaccine, the only shot that has been approved for the inoculation of children in Mexico, and that any attempt to justify not altering the PNV on the grounds that there was a shortage of Pfizer vaccines would not be valid.
The ruling came in response to an injunction request filed by the family of a girl seeking her vaccination. The judge determined there was no impediment to an order applying to all youths because access to health care is a universal human right.
The government has until Thursday to comply with the order, which would benefit some 10 million Mexican minors.
However, the federal Health Ministry could choose to challenge the injunction, a move that would prompt a review process that could take weeks.
President López Obrador has maintained that the government won’t vaccinate minors en masse until international health authorities recommend it.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “Children and adolescents tend to have milder disease compared to adults, so unless they are part of a group at higher risk of severe COVID-19, it is less urgent to vaccinate them than older people, those with chronic health conditions and health workers.”
“More evidence is needed on the use of the different COVID-19 vaccines in children to be able to make general recommendations on vaccinating children against COVID-19,” WHO says on its COVID-19 vaccine advice webpage. Its Strategic Advisory Group of Experts has concluded that the Pfizer vaccine is suitable for use by minors aged 12 years and above.
“Children aged between 12 and 15 who are at high risk may be offered this vaccine alongside other priority groups for vaccination. Vaccine trials for children are ongoing, and WHO will update its recommendations when the evidence or epidemiological situation warrants a change in policy.”
Speaking in Durango last Friday, López Obrador said that a census is currently underway to identify children who qualify for vaccination due to an underlying health condition.
“And when the world’s health organizations authorize vaccination for children who don’t have any illness, we’ll vaccinate them as well,” he said, adding that the government won’t do so beforehand due to the risk of “causing harm” to minors.
The president also opined that booster shots are not needed for fully vaccinated people.
“We have to be careful because what pharmaceutical companies want … is to sell more vaccines. So they issue propaganda saying there is a need for another vaccine [dose],” López Obrador said.
Almost three-quarters of Mexican adults have received at least one dose, and the government intends to have offered a shot to everyone aged 18 and over by the end of October.
Pamela's location and forecast track as of 10 a.m. CDT. conagua
Hurricane Pamela is forecast to be near major hurricane strength before it makes landfall in Sinaloa on Wednesday morning.
A hurricane warning is in effect for Bahía Tempehuaya to Escuinapa, Sinaloa, and tropical storm warnings have been declared for Bahia Tempehuaya to Altata, Sinaloa, and Escuinapa to Cabo Corrientes, Jalisco, and the Islas Marías. In Baja California Sur, there is a tropical storm watch in effect from Los Barriles to Cabo San Lucas.
The center of the Category 1 hurricane was about 400 kilometers southwest of Mazatlán, Sinaloa, and 298 kilometers south-southeast off the southern tip of Baja California at 10:00 a.m. CDT according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center’s latest advisory. Its maximum sustained winds were 130 kph and it was moving northwards at 20 kph.
“This general motion should continue this morning, followed by a faster northeastward motion by this afternoon or tonight … the center of Pamela will pass well south of the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula through tonight, and make landfall in west-central Mexico within the hurricane warning area Wednesday morning,” the advisory said.
Winds with gusts of 80 to 100 kph and waves of three to five meters are expected off the coasts of Baja California Sur, Nayarit and Sinaloa Tuesday. Intense rainfall of 75 to 150 millimeters is predicted for Baja California Sur and Sinaloa.
Hurricane conditions are expected from Bahía Tempehuaya to Escuinapa late Tuesday or early Wednesday with tropical storm conditions arriving Tuesday evening. Tropical storm conditions could be seen in Baja California Sur Tuesday afternoon.
“Significant coastal flooding and large and destructive waves will affect areas near where the center of the hurricane makes landfall Wednesday. Sinaloa and western Durango will see about 100 to 200 mm of rainfall with isolated totals of 300 mm, which could trigger significant and life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides.
Swells generated by Pamela will begin to affect portions of Baja California Sur, southwestern and west-central mainland Mexico Tuesday. They are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions, the National Hurricane Center said.
Sinaloa Governor Quirino Ordaz Coppel met with Civil Protection officials Monday to prepare for Pamela’s arrival.
The state Civil Protection chief Juan Francisco Vega Meza confirmed there were 128 temporary shelters available with capacity for up to 64,000 people.
He added that the state government requested a declaration of emergency from federal Civil Protection authorities for the municipalities of Navolato, Culiacán, Elota, Cosalá, San Ignacio, Mazatlán, Concordia, Rosario and Escuinapa.
Hundreds of LP gas distributors blocked about 20 roads in the greater Mexico City area on Monday after the federal government refused their demand for gas prices to be raised by 1 peso per kilo.
The disgruntled distributors, whose earnings have fallen since the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) set maximum prices for LP gas just over two months ago, used their trucks to block major arteries including the Periférico ring road, the Viaducto crosstown freeway and highways that link the capital to municipalities in neighboring México state as well as Pachuca, Hidalgo.
The blockades caused traffic chaos in Mexico City, and some angry drivers hurled abuse at the protesting gaseros.
The protest came after distributors met with Energy Ministry (SENER) officials to demand that the CRE price ceiling – implemented to prevent price gouging – be raised by 1 peso per kilo. Distributors previously went on strike when the ceiling took effect in early August.
In a statement issued after the meeting, SENER said that current prices are based on international and domestic wholesale gas prices and already allow for “sufficient profit” for distributors.
Unhappy with the response, distributors said they would seek another meeting with authorities Tuesday and threatened to close gas retailers and intensify blockades if their demand for a higher price ceiling was not met.
Outside SENER’s Mexico City headquarters, where gas distributors were holding up cardboard signs with messages such as “You hug the narco and leave the gas man without anything to eat,” protesters clashed with police after the Energy Ministry made its position known.
Distributors also used their trucks to block Insurgentes Avenue, on which the SENER headquarters are located. Video footage posted to social media showed one distributor holding a hose and threatening to douse a police officer with gas. The man, who squirted gas onto the road near police, was subsequently arrested, the Mexico City government said.
Government secretary Martí Batres condemned the man’s actions, describing them as “irresponsible.” He said the Mexico City Attorney General’s Office will determine the charges the distributor will face.
