Members of the military confronted civilian gunmen this morning in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas. (Valor por Tamaulipas Twitter)
An early morning shootout on a highway in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas on Wednesday resulted in the military killing seven gunmen presumed to be members of the Northeast Cartel, news sources were reporting.
Mayor Carmen Lilia Canturosas informed her Facebook followers at 5:44 a.m. that she had received reports of the shootout and warnings about potential outbreaks of retaliatory violence throughout the city.
“Attention family,” the 2021 electee wrote. “A few minutes ago, I was informed about SDR [an alert system] in different parts of the city. The situation is now under control [according to] security authorities. However, take precautions and stay alert to avoid incidents.”
The shootout occurred nine days after the Nov. 28 arrest of Heriberto Rodríguez Hernández, alias “El Negrolo,” a leader of the Cártel del Noreste (CDN) accused of being responsible for violence in the city. His apprehension unleashed gunfire and panic in the city of 460,000 that’s directly across the border from Laredo, Texas (population 256,153).
The wave of violence included confrontations, blockades and the burning of vehicles.
The United States has a consulate in the Mexican Nuevo Laredo, and shortly after El Negrolo’s arrest, it “received reports of multiple gunfights throughout the city,” according to a security alert issued by the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City on Nov. 28. “Seek secure shelter. Notify friends and family of your safety. Monitor local media for updates,” the alert advised.
After more than a week of violence, a battalion of 300 sent by the Ministry of National Defense (Sedena) arrived in Nuevo Laredo on Monday, Dec. 5, to reinforce security efforts. But according to one report, they were simply replacing some 350 soldiers who had just left Nuevo Laredo for a military base in Apodaca, Nuevo León.
Over the weekend, the violence subsided a bit, but on the night of Tuesday, Dec. 6, social media users began reporting blasts and gunfire in various parts of the city, prompting authorities to suspend classes for Wednesday.
Early Wednesday, state Secretary of Security Sergio Chávez García reported an attack on the military, with preliminary reports stating that seven civilian gunmen were killed and four vehicles and weapons were seized.
Reports said the incident occurred south of downtown on the Nuevo Laredo-Monterrey highway, which terminates in the north at the Gateway to the Americas International Bridge into the United States.
Local schools released a statement through the Regional Centers for Educational Development (CREDE) that classes for Wednesday had been suspended, “in order to preserve the safety of students, teachers and staff of the educational community,” as stated by César Bolaños Hernández, head of CREDE Nuevo Laredo.
Public transportation, which had been suspended during last week’s violent outbreaks, was suspended again for a few hours Wednesday morning, but then restored with “precautionary measures.”
The Delegation of Public Transport posted on Facebook at 9:43 a.m. that 100% of routes are operational; however some “are experiencing delays and adjustments to their route due to road closures” resulting from security actions.
Additionally, Chávez, the security secretary, advised citizens to “take precautions and stay vigilant” even though it had been reported that the situation was under control.
The world-famous Mexico City shrine to the Virgin Mary could see more than 8 million visitors this year, many of them pilgrims who've traveled thousands of miles. (Photo: Mike Peel/Creative Commons)
After two years of restrictions due to the pandemic, pilgrimages to reach the feet of the Virgin of Guadalupe on Tepeyac Hill might hit an all-time record this year, officials with the Catholic Church noted this week.
Every year from Dec. 9 to 12 — except in 2020 and 2021 — millions of faithful from all over Mexico travel to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which stands on Tepeyac Hill (Cerro Tepeyac) north of Mexico City.
Some pilgrims travel hundreds if not more than 1,000 miles to make it there. As many as 8 million visitors have participated in the tradition in a single year, according to the Catholic weekly Desde la Fe. And this year, on the 491st anniversary of Saint Juan Diego’s vision of the Virgin Mary (known in Mexico as Guadalupe) in 1531, the total could soar even higher.
“The celebrations for the ‘Morenita of Tepeyac’this year will finally take place with the normality with which they had been done for generations until the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced the ecclesiastical and civil authorities to take restrictive measures in favor of the citizenry,” said an editorial in Desde la Fe headlined “Bienvenidos, peregrinos” (Welcome, pilgrims).
The altarpiece of the Virgin of Guadalupe at her basilica in Mexico City. (Photo: Google Art Project)
Many pilgrimages are already underway, and others are preparing.
“What is a fact is that the pilgrims have been waiting impatiently for this moment,” the editorial continued, “and they will not miss the opportunity to get going again to bring their prayers, supplications and thanks to the Virgin of Guadalupe to her sacred house.”
If the number of pilgrims at the basilica near Mexico City mirrors the record-breaking numbers in October in Jalisco — for the annual, 9-kilometer procession from the Guadalajara Cathedral to the Basilica of Our Lady of Zapopan — “we could have a historical record of visitors to Tepeyac,” the editorial concluded.
That being the case, the Archdiocese of Mexico is calling on motorists to drive responsibly and asking pilgrims to take necessary precautions in order to reach their destination safely. The Church also wants citizens to be respectful of the pilgrims, for example, when they are crossing the street in large groups.
The faithful receiving communion outside the basilica in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo: Creative Commons)
Desde la Fe published a “Pilgrim’s Kit,” which included tips such as consult your doctor before any major physical undertaking, bring a sleeping bag if you plan to sleep in the church and wear a reflective vest so you can be spotted easily on roadways.
Dec. 12 is Día de la Virgen de Guadalupe, the day on which Juan Diego’s final vision of the Virgin Mary was recorded. Though schools and most businesses will be closed, the day of honor for Mexico’s patron saint is not a federal holiday.
But it is a religious feast day with many associated activities. Many children dress in traditional costumes (many as Saint Juan Diego) and are blessed when they attend Mass, which the Church holds as obligatory for all Catholics on that day.
There are 132 temples in Mexico City alone dedicated to Guadalupe, as well as 74 in Guadalajara and 32 in Morelia, Michoacán — and 81 dedicated to Guadalupe (as well as three to Saint Juan Diego) in the municipality of Tlalnepantla de Baz (population 672,000) in México state. And Guadalupe is only one of many invocations of the Virgin Mary throughout Mexico with temples of their own.
This short video gives you some glimpses inside the basilica and also what the plaza looks like packed with the faithful.
The Basilica of Guadalupe’s rector, Monsignor Salvador Martínez, is asking those who enter, especially on the busiest days of Dec. 11 and 12, to use face masks to avoid a resurgence in COVID-19 infections.
“As Pope Francis points out,” Martínez said, “the time has come to infect us — not with some virus, but with love, empathy, respect and enthusiasm.”
On Dec. 17-18, a festival of "light and wind" in Teotihuacán is one of several upcoming cultural events worth a visit. (Shutterstock)
The history of Mexico City in maps
If you’re interested in a glimpse of Mexico City during pre-Hispanic times, or at other moments in its centuries of history, the Usted está aquí (You are here) exhibit at the Museo de la Ciudad de México is for you.
The exhibit will run until March 2023, and showcases 12 historical maps of what is now Mexico City, dating as far back as the 16th century.
The main attraction is the Map of Nuremberg – a map of Tenochtitlan made in 1524, based on the letters of Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés.
A 1524 map of Tenochtitlan, known as the Map of Nuremberg. (Wikimedia Commons)
This is considered the oldest map of Mexico City, and shows some of the roadways built by the Mexica that still exist today, including the México-Tacuba, Tepeyac and the Iztapalapa causeway.
The exhibition seeks to recover the territorial memory of the city, starting from its origins.
Hot air balloon festival in Teotihuacán
On Dec. 17-18, the Club Campestre Teotihuacán, a country club, will host the Festival de Luz y Viento (Light and Wind Festival), an event that includes hot air balloons, giant kites and stargazing.
Starting at 6 am, the hot air balloons will be inflated, with take-off happening at 8 am. A food truck area will open at 7 am. During the day, workshops will be held, and there will be live jazz and blues music followed by the display of giant kites at 5 pm.
After sunset, a Christmas forest will be lit with sparkling lights, followed by a performance of ballet folklórico at 6:45 pm. At dusk, floating lamps will be released to fly above the lake, and then telescopes will be set up to see the stars. Participants can also camp at the site.
The ticket price ranges from $195 pesos (US $10) to $2,500 pesos (US $126) and more information can be found here.
Surrealist artist Remedios Varo at the Museum of Modern Art CDMX
“Disruptions of the Real”, an exhibit showcasing 39 works of art by surrealist Spanish painter Remedios Varo, is on display at the Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City from now until March 2023.
The work of Spanish surrealist artist Remedios Varo on display at the Museum of Modern Art in CDMX. (Museo de Arte Moderno Twitter)
Remedios Varo (1908-1963), a Spanish refugee who had been imprisoned by the Nazis while living in Paris, painted most of her work in Mexico between the years of 1940 and 1950.
Some of the artist’s exhibitions have broken attendance records, and since 1964, many have been held in Mexico.
Noche de rábanos (night of the radishes) in Oaxaca
If you’re looking for an unusual Christmas tradition, you may want to try this one from Oaxaca city. Every Dec. 23 since 1897, gardeners have competed there to fashion the best Christmas scenes using carved radishes.
Yes, those are dancing radishes. (Gobierno de Oaxaca)
In recent years, judges have started accepting figures made with totomoxtle (husks of Mexican corn)
The event, which starts at 5 pm at the Plaza de la Constitución, lasts only a few hours and ends with an award ceremony amidst music and fireworks.
The president visiting the under-construction Olmeca Refinery in January. At a press conference Tuesday, he said it would process 340,000 barrels a day of crude oil. (Photo: Presidencia)
The Dos Bocas refinery on the Tabasco coast will be operating at full capacity by the middle of next year, President López Obrador predicted Tuesday.
López Obrador opened the new Pemex facility – officially called the Olmeca Refinery – in July, even though it was unfinished.
He told reporters at his regular news conference on Tuesday that the refinery is currently in an “integration phase.”
“It’s a magnificent project. There’s not another project, another refinery, like it in the world,” López Obrador said, adding that it will process 340,000 barrels of crude per day once fully operational.
The distillation plant at the new Dos Bocas refinery in Tabasco. (Photo: Refinería Olmeca-Dos Bocas/Facebook)
“… It’s now finished, it’s in an integration phase, … but I expect it will be producing at full capacity next year, … the middle of next year at the latest,” he said.
In 2019, the government scrapped a bidding process to build the new refinery on the grounds that the bids submitted by private companies were too high and they would take too long to complete it. Pemex and the Energy Ministry were subsequently given responsibility for the project.
“When the project was put out to tender, the large refinery construction companies wanted us to accept its completion in 2025, but we said: ‘No, we have to finish it by 2023 at the latest,’ and that’s what’s happening,” López Obrador said Tuesday.
He said that the refinery would cost about US $11 billion in total – significantly less than some estimates – and help Mexico become self-sufficient for gasoline and diesel by the end of next year.
The president’s plan to restore Mexico’s oil self-sufficiency not only includes the new Olmeca refinery but also upgrading existing refineries and buying the former Shell Deer Park Refinery in Texas. (Photo: Pemex Deer Park/Facebook)
López Obrador emphasized that his government has invested in the oil sector, and asserted that its predecessors neglected it.
“The corrupt neoliberals bet on selling crude oil and buying gasoline. They didn’t build a new refinery in 40 years, something incredible,” López Obrador said.
“I always said it was like producing oranges, selling oranges and buying orange juice. The oil was taken [out of the country], processed in foreign refineries and then they sold us gasoline,” he said.
President López Obrador asserts that he is “rescuing” Pemex from decades of neglect. He notes that Mexico was self-sufficient for gasoline from the time the country’s oil industry was nationalized in 1938 until the early 1980s. (Photo: INAH)
López Obrador, a staunch energy nationalist who was born and raised in oil-rich Tabasco, added that Mexico was self-sufficient for gasoline from the time the country’s oil industry was nationalized in 1938 until the early 1980s.
He has asserted that his government is “rescuing” Pemex from years of neglect and is determined to reinvigorate the economy of Mexico’s southeast with large-scale infrastructure projects, including the refinery, the Maya Train railroad project and the Isthmus of Tehuantepec trade corridor.
Many analysts have been critical of the government’s decision to build the Dos Bocas refinery, arguing that the project diverts resources from Pemex’s more profitable exploration business.
Institutional Revolutionary Party federal deputies protested AMLO's proposed electoral reform during the Lower House of Congress' regular session on Tuesday. (Photo: Mario Jasso/Cuartoscuro)
Human Rights Watch has called on Mexican lawmakers to vote against President López Obrador’s proposed reforms to the electoral system, warning that the changes “would put free, fair elections at risk.”
In a strongly worded statement, Human Rights Watch argued that AMLO’s plan to overhaul and centralize the National Electoral Institute (INE) would eliminate crucial safeguards and seriously undermine electoral authorities’ independence.
“President López Obrador’s proposed changes to the electoral system would make it much easier for whichever party holds power to co-opt the country’s electoral institutions to stay in power,” said Tyler Mattiace, a Mexico researcher at Human Rights Watch.
AMLO’s reform bill proposes a range of measures, including eliminating all state electoral institutes and transferring their powers of dispute resolution to a centralized INE and Federal Electoral Tribunal.
México: La reforma electoral propuesta por el presidente @lopezobrador_ pondría en riesgo las elecciones libres e imparciales.
Los @Mx_Diputados deberían rechazar las modificaciones propuestas a la Constitución.
Mattiace tweeted a call to Mexico’s Congress not to support the proposed constitutional reform, scheduled for a vote by Dec. 15.
INE members, who currently serve staggered, nine-year terms, would instead be appointed every six years, in a single process that would include a citizens’ vote.
While AMLO insists that the reforms will reduce bias and inefficiency in the INE, Human Rights Watch warned that they would expose the authority to politicization and roll back advances that helped bring an end to Mexico’s 71 years of single-party rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in 2000.
“Given Mexico’s long history of one-party rule maintained through questionable elections, it is extremely problematic that legislators would consider a highly regressive proposal that would weaken the independence of the elections authority,” Mattiace said.
Human Rights Watch also criticized the bill’s proposal to end the INE’s mandate to administer the electoral rolls.
“The possibility that the electoral registry could be transferred to the control of the government could contravene Mexican law and international standards for protecting personal data,” the statement warned.
Congress is expected to vote on AMLO’s proposal before the current legislative session ends on December 15.
The president originally attempted to implement the reforms through a constitutional amendment that would require a two-thirds majority, before switching to a “Plan B” that would allow his party to push through elements of the bill as secondary legislation with only a simple majority.
Opposition parties, including the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), have stated that they will oppose the move.
The National Electoral Institute is an autonomous body not only overseeing elections in Mexico, it also has many related duties, such as maintaining voter rolls and drawing up electoral districts nationwide, a job it’s currently scheduled to complete again this month. (Photo: INE)
The reforms have sparked fierce debate in Mexico, with thousands taking to the streets both for and against the bill. Public polls have had very mixed results, with some suggesting approval of the current INE and others showing support for key elements of the reforms.
Human Rights Watch is not the first international observer to express concerns. On November 28, the Washington Post newspaper published an editorial describing the reforms as an “antidemocratic maneuver” and claiming that AMLO was motivated by bitterness over his narrow defeat by Felipe Calderón in Mexico’s 2006 presidential election, in which the INE rejected his claims of fraud.
García announced his interest in a presidential run at the Citizens Movement national convention in Mexico City Monday. (Photo: Victoria Valtierra Ruvalcaba/Cuartoscuro)
Just 14 months after becoming governor of Nuevo León, Samuel García is looking for a new challenge and a new job.
The 34-year-old Citizens Movement (MC) party governor said Monday that he’s interested in contesting the 2024 presidential election.
“Citizens Movement has a lot of very good candidates, and I’m one of them,” García said during MC’s national convention in Mexico City.
He said he didn’t know whether MC would put forward its own candidate for the 2024 election or join a coalition of opposition parties, but he expressed confidence that his party can win the presidency on its own.
Political observers attribute García’s successful run for Nuevo León governor in 2021 as being largely due to his media-savvy campaign run by his wife, online influencer Mariana Rodríguez. (Photo: Mariana Rodríguez Instagram)
The MC leadership subsequently confirmed that the party wouldn’t join the Va por México coalition, made up of the National Action Party (PAN), the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD).
Senator Dante Delgado, MC’s national leader, noted that the party won the governorships of Jalisco and Nuevo León, and the mayoralties of Monterrey and Guadalajara, on its own and asserted that it can also triumph at the national level without “help from parties of the past.”
“We can win the presidency because we govern two of the three most important states in the country. Nuevo León and Jalisco aren’t just among the most populous states, they’re also among the most productive, among those that generate the most [income] for the country,” he said.
“We can win the presidency because we govern two of the three cities that set the country’s agenda – Guadalajara and Monterrey, which together with Mexico City are the epicenters of … [Mexico],” Delgado said.
“… The PAN is the past, the PRI is the past, … [the ruling] Morena [party] and its satellite parties are also the past and only we represent the future. Believe it – Mexico has a better option, and it’s Citizens Movement,” he said.
Citizens Movement (MC) party leader Sen. Dante Delgado believes Garcia is one of three potential MC candidates who could win the presidency. (Photo: MC website)
The senator, a former governor of Veracruz and ambassador to Italy, said that García, Jalisco Governor Enrique Alfaro, or Monterrey Mayor Luis Donaldo Colosio Riojas could represent MC at the 2024 election.
Alfaro said a year ago that he was “more than prepared” to be a candidate, although he stressed he doesn’t have “delusions of grandeur.”
García’s announcement that he will seek the MC candidacy is somewhat surprising because he was critical of his predecessor, Jaime Rodríguez, for taking leave as governor to contest the 2018 presidential election.
In October last year – the month he took office – he said it would be “doubly incongruent” for him to go on a “political adventure” while still governor of Nuevo León.
When running for governor of Nuevo León in 2021, García criticized his predecessor, Jaime Rodríguez, center, for having taking a sabbatical to run for president in 2018. (Photo: Gabriela Pérez Montiel/Cuartoscuro)
Fourteen months later, the soon-to-be father has apparently decided to forget that remark.
García, a former federal senator who is expecting a baby with his social media influencer wife Mariana Rodríguez, said he thinks every day about the state and country in which his daughter will be born. The Mexico he wants his daughter to live in is one free of violence and with opportunities for everyone, indicated the governor, who has faced a range of challenges in his first year in office, including responding to a water crisis and a high-profile femicide case.
In his short time as governor, García asserted that he has shown that a “new” Nuevo León is possible, and predicted that “a new orange Mexico is now coming.”
Orange is the political color of MC, which is also known as Movimiento Naranja, or Orange Movement.
García also said that he doesn’t believe in the political left or right but rather “the future” and “social democracy.”
If he succeeds in becoming MC’s presidential candidate, his most likely ruling party opponent will be either Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum or Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard. One of those two appears most likely to secure the Morena nomination, and both are openly campaigning for the candidacy in 2024.
There is far less clarity about who will represent the PAN, PRI and PRD, which are likely to choose a common presidential candidate. In that context, President López Obrador offered his own (very) long-list of possible opposition candidates in October, saying that a total of 43 people have either expressed interest in vying for the presidency or have been mentioned as potential contenders.
At the Mexico-U.S. border wall in Tijuana, Baja California. (Photo: Max Bohme/Unsplash)
Driving along a road 15 to 20 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border, American journalist Todd Miller stopped to offer water to an undocumented Guatemalan migrant named Juan Carlos. When the man asked for a ride to the next town, Miller hesitated. U.S. law forbids furthering the presence of an undocumented migrant in the country.
Miller was so consumed by this moral dilemma involved in his decision, and the broader issues it represented, that he wrote a book about it: “Build Bridges, Not Walls: A Journey to a World Without Borders,” published earlier this year by City Lights Open Media.
“I can’t even say what I did in that moment,” Miller said in a Zoom interview. “I can leave it to your suspicions what I did … But the whole moment just followed me throughout as I wrote the book.”
The Tucson-based author describes this volume as centered around “the question of the border, what it is, what it does, its effects, what you can and can’t do about it.”
“Build Bridges, Not Walls” is Tucson journalist Todd Miller’s fourth book about borderlands. (Photo: Todd Miller)
Asked about another current border crisis — the war between Russia and Ukraine — he said, “So many borders all across the world all kind of do the same thing; it’s tailored in different ways, in different contexts. But whether it be a war or a famine … they always trap the same people.”
Miller noted that Ukrainian refugees have been offered an exemption from the U.S.’ Title 42 policy, which allows Customs and Border Protection to immediately deport detained undocumented migrants to Mexico, no matter their country of origin.
“People coming from Central America have never been approved,” he said, including asylum seekers fleeing for their lives. “These sorts of sympathies are not given.”
It’s Miller’s fourth consecutive book about borders, although he said this wasn’t planned.
His first book, “Border Patrol Nation,” arose in the post-9/11 world of increased American immigration enforcement along the Rio Grande. “Storming the Wall” examined the role of climate change and displacement in borderlands, including between the United States and Mexico.
“Empire of Borders” follows the money, as Miller describes it, namely U.S. government funds for border operations abroad — from the Mexican-Guatemalan border to the one between Israel-Palestine to the so-called maritime border in the Philippines.
“My fourth book is almost a reflection on those three other books,” Miller said, calling it “more meditative, reflective, [with] even a philosophical piece to it.”
Borderlands have been a focus in Miller’s career as a journalist, with much of that time spent in Mexico; that includes four years in Oaxaca and one year in San Luis Potosí. Two decades ago, he also worked as a human rights observer in Chiapas, following the Zapatista rebellion led by Subcomandante Marcos.
Subcomandante Marcos, former leader of the Zapatista National Liberation Army, photographed in Monclova, Coahuila, in 2006. (Photo: Moysés Zuñiga/Cuartoscuro)
Miller sees connections between his encounter with Juan Carlos north of the Rio Grande and his experiences with the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN).
The Guatemalan migrant had traveled 1,500 miles from his homeland, he notes, and speculates in the book on what might have motivated the man to make such a journey: climate issues, economic marginalization, violence.
“As I was reflecting on this sort of thing, it led me to experiences I had two decades ago in Chiapas … what happened during that time … the kind of demands the Zapatistas had – liberty, justice, democracy …”
“Of course,” he says, “the Zapatistas did get more detailed.”
Overall, Miller said, “It should be quite apparent in the book how important Mexico is to me in my way of thinking. I really owe a lot to the country — the people and the country — in the way I look at the world.”
“Mexico, just in general,” he added, “has been a huge influence on me.”
In the book, Miller documented his visit to the San Juan Bosco shelter near the Nogales-Sonora border, where he had come with a group of students for a firsthand look at the migrant crisis.
It happened to be the night of then-president Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, where Trump would address the border and immigration. Yet the group’s attention was redirected when one of the migrants posed an impromptu question.
Miller’s new book, “Build Bridges, Not Walls,” was released earlier this year by City Lights Open Media. (Photo: City Lights Open Media)
“An older woman asked the group what benefit does it bring us that you are here?” Miller recalled. “I didn’t get the sense she meant it as a rude question. I got the sense she was talking really directly to the students … ‘I’m in this shelter … I just got deported [from the U.S.], you know, what are you going to do?’ It was really direct.”
Later, he said, “She asked again … Every time she asked the question, there followed this awkward pause … I didn’t know what to say … What could we do? What on earth could we do?”
“She answered for us,” he says. “‘You’re going to come down and tear down the Berlin Wall.’ We all looked at each other and were like, ‘Yeah!’ … We did not want to do anything else than go down to Mexico, to the international boundary, and tear down a 20-foot wall.”
But Miller also acknowledges the historical complexity of the border situation between Mexico and its northern neighbor, noting the roles of Mexican independence from Spain in 1821, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that ended the Mexican-American War in 1848, and the Gadsden Purchase of 1853.
He also said that the borders have been drawn up without consideration for the Tohono O’odham indigenous people, who have inhabited the region for thousands of years.
“You think of borders; now the border is almost presented as an innocuous thing,” Miller said. “[But] you think about how it was formed, how it was made, very violently… impositions, land-grabbing, threats, killing, blood.”
“The border itself still carries that violence,” he said. “You see a significant part of the border between the U.S. and Mexico — and many other borders around the world — it is a violent entity. It’s not innocuous. Anyone reporting on it, living on it, [who] sees it on a daily basis, knows this.”
On that day when he encountered Juan Carlos, Miller noted the militarization of the area by the Border Patrol — from security cameras to drone systems. The U.S. “Prevention Through Deterrence” policy established in the 1990s compels migrants to forgo crossing the border through the traditional route of cities and instead opt for the far more dangerous desert.
In 20 years of reporting on the US-Mexico border this is one of the most destructive, truly damaging and wasteful things I’ve ever seen, which is really saying something. This will cost $100 million, keep nobody out & forever harm endangered ocelots, jaguars and other species pic.twitter.com/WoPVwjAHbS
In Arizona, Governor Doug Ducey has been placing a wall of shipping containers along the Mexico-U.S. border in his state, which opponents say harms wildlife.
The author also notes the grim death toll among migrants: according to the CPB, at least 8,000 people have died crossing the border since 1998, based upon the number of human remains that have been found. Human rights and aid organizations estimate the true total is three to 10 times more.
“Running into Juan Carlos that day, it could have been another person the day before, or a group of people the day after,” Miller said. “This is happening every day in many places.”
Rich Tenorio is a frequent contributor to Mexico News Daily.
Alejandro Murat presents his book, "More Oaxaca in the World," on Saturday at the Guadalajara International Book Fair. (Twitter @alejandromurat)
Former Oaxaca Governor Alejandro Murat Hinojosa presented his book “More Oaxaca in the World: The Basis of the Interoceanic Corridor,” at the Guadalajara 2022 International Book Fair.
Published by Editorial Planeta, the politician’s first published book promotes the trans-isthmus corridor project that connects the Gulf of Mexico with the Pacific Ocean. At the book’s presentation, Murat said the corridor has the potential to transform Oaxaca — and the country — with a project of global reach.
In conversation with writer and journalist Julio Patán, Murat said that Oaxaca is the protagonist of the revival of the Interoceanic Corridor, an idea that’s been around for a century. The corridor seeks to unite the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through the Isthmus of Tehuantepec — the geographic region of Mexico with the shortest distance between the two oceans.
In the book, the author also explains the strategies he used as former governor of Oaxaca to project the cultural and natural greatness of the state to the rest of the world. “We are the most diverse state in the country in terms of tourism, but also at an economic and business level,” he said.
The trans-isthmus corridor project’s chief of development said the project has suffered setbacks but is now making good progress. Pictured: train tracks built in Sayula de Alemán, Veracruz as part of the corridor. (Via Reforma)
The corridor project includes a port as well as road and rail infrastructure to turn the region into one of the most important logistics and commercial centers in the world, Murat said.
“The Isthmus of Tehuantepec is destined to be the most important value-added logistics corridor in the world … [The project] is materializing at a time when globalization is shifting towards nearshoring by integrating regional production chains,” he said.
Government planners for the corridor estimate it will generate more than half a million jobs and an economic windfall of around US $50 billion in the next 15 years, while transporting around 1.4 million containers annually. According to experts cited in the newspaper El Economista, it would become a cheaper, faster alternative to the Panama Canal.
Eduardo Romero Fong, chief of industrial development for the Interoceanic Corridor, said the corridor is one of AMLO’s flagship projects, along with Felipe Ángeles International Airport, Dos Bocas Refinery and the Maya Train.
The timing of the book’s publication, in the run-up to the 2024 presidential elections, may not be a coincidence. When the former governor was asked about his intentions to run for the highest office, Murat said he is “ready to take that step” as he has demonstrated his capabilities with Oaxaca’s success story, saying that “if it can be done in Oaxaca, it can also be done in Mexico.”
The Grupo México conglomerate has been a top contender to purchase the bank for months. (Galo Cañas Rodríguez/Cuartoscuro)
Grupo México — a conglomerate owned by Mexico’s second richest person — is in advanced talks about a potential purchase of Citibanamex, Bloomberg News reported Monday.
Citing people with knowledge of the matter, Bloomberg said that mining magnate Germán Larrea is attempting to finalize a deal to buy Citigroup’s Mexican retail bank, commonly known as Banamex.
The unnamed sources said that no final agreements have been reached and noted that the talks could fall apart. They also said another buyer could emerge.
The only other known potential buyer is Banca Mifel, a Mexican bank. Bloomberg reported last week that a group of investors led by Mifel and backed by private equity firm Apollo Global Management were in talks with banks for about US $2 billion of financing for their bid to buy Banamex.
The Bloomberg sources said that Citgroup could also offload Banamex via an IPO, or initial public offering.
Citigroup, a U.S.-owned corporation, announced in January it would sell Banamex, and attracted interest from Carlos Slim’s Inbursa bank, Spain’s Santander and Mexico’s Banorte.
However, the number of bidders has “dwindled amid a set of conditions laid out by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, including that the new owners refrain from carrying out mass firings,” Bloomberg said.
According to Scotiabank analyst Alfonso Salazar, Banamex is not a good fit for Grupo México, which is primarily focused on mining but also has railroad and other infrastructure interests.
He said in a note that the conglomerate’s purchase of the bank could indicate that more disparate acquisitions will follow. The analyst said that the purchase, if it goes ahead, could have a negative impact on Grupo México’s share price as entering the banking sector increases regulatory risk for its mining and rail concessions.
After shuttering several private hospitals (including Hospital del Parque, pictured) in the wake of the outbreak, authorities are now searching for owners and administrators linked to the health care centers. (via Animal Político)
Authorities are seeking to arrest seven people in connection with a meningitis outbreak in Durango that has claimed 22 lives.
The Durango Attorney General’s Office (FGED) said Monday that it had obtained arrest warrants against administrators and owners of four private hospitals where patients contracted fungal meningitis during operations.
Federal and state health authorities said last week that the fungus Fusarium solani was to blame. An anesthetic medication used on the patients who became ill with meningitis may have been contaminated with the fungus, possibly because the drug was inadequately stored. Another possibility is that the patients were injected with contaminated needles.
Many of the people who contracted meningitis were women who underwent surgeries such as cesarean sections in recent months. The Durango Health Ministry said on Twitter Monday that 71 confirmed cases and 22 deaths had been recorded.
The warrants target owners and administrators of the private hospitals where the outbreak began. (FGED)
The patients contracted meningitis as a result of the spinal anesthesia (or spinal block) procedures they underwent, the FGED said in a statement. The infection “was caused by a fungus that entered their nervous system due to the procedures that were applied,” it said.
Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said last week that the errors that turned a safe procedure into an unsafe one hadn’t been established.
The FGED said that the arrest warrants were issued last Tuesday on charges of homicide and causing aggravated injuries. Officers raided 13 private homes last Wednesday, but didn’t find any of the suspects.
Durango has requested the assistance of federal and state authorities, and Interpol, to locate the hospital owners and administrators.
The FGED said it has seized 17 properties, including four private hospitals that were recently shut down. Proceeds from their sale would be used to compensate victims and their families.
The Durango Attorney General’s Office noted that the federal health regulator Cofepris seized samples of the anesthetic bupivacaine from the private hospitals, but “didn’t find any fungal growth.”
The labeling on the samples was determined to be authentic, the FGED said.
Alejandro Macías, an infectious disease specialist, last month raised the possibility that a contaminated counterfeit version of the anesthetic has been used in Durango.
