Ayotzinapa: text messages indicate police handed over students to crime gang

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October 4, 2021

At least 38 of 43 students who disappeared in Iguala, Guerrero, seven years ago were handed over to a crime gang by municipal police, intercepted text messages indicate.

The federal Interior Ministry (SEGOB) released a document Friday that includes a transcript of a text conversation between Gildardo López Astudillo, who was allegedly the Guerreros Unidos plaza chief in Iguala at the time of the Ayotzinapa students’ disappearance, and Francisco Salgado Valladares, who was the deputy chief of the Iguala municipal police.

On September 26, 2014 – the day the young men disappeared – the latter tells the former that police have arrested two groups of armed and masked students.

López – identified by his nickname “Gil” in the transcript of the conversation intercepted by the army – tells Salgado to give him some of the students on the road to Pueblo Viejo, a community near Iguala.

He also says he has “some beds to terrorize them,” apparently revealing an intention to torture the students if not kill them.

Salgado tells López he will hand over a group of 21 students being held in a bus so that the Guerreros Unidos can “beat the living daylights out of them.”

The police commander then reveals that a second group of 17 students is being held in a “cave.”

“Give me all the detainees,” responds López. “Send enough people to the Brecha de Lobos [Wolf’s Gap], 17 are going there,” says Salgado.

Later in the conversation, Salgado advises López to tell “Gordo” (Fatty) to stop other students traveling in “more buses.”

He also says that “all the packages were delivered” – an apparent reference to shipments of drugs.

The text conversation supports part of the previous government’s official version of events about what happened to the 43 Ayotzinapa students on September 26, 2014.

An Ayotzinapa protest in Mexico City two years ago.

According to its so-called “historical truth,” the students, traveling on a bus they commandeered to go to a protest in Mexico City, were intercepted by corrupt municipal police who handed them over to members of the Guerreros Unidos crime gang who subsequently killed them, burned their bodies in a dump in the municipality of Cocula and disposed of their remains in a nearby river.

The federal government has rejected the “historical truth,” but despite launching a new investigation shortly after it took office in late 2018 has not divulged its own definitive version of events.

One theory is that heroin was hidden on the commandeered buses and the students were mistaken for members of a rival gang.

The army has long been suspected of involvement in the abduction and presumed murder of the students, and leaked testimony from a protected witness that was obtained by the newspaper Reforma earlier this year supported that theory.

The federal Attorney General’s office (FGR) has taken statements from at least 30 soldiers since the current government took office but their testimony was heavily redacted in a document recently released by the FGR.

In another text conversation intercepted by the army in October 2014, presumed Guerreros Unidos member Alejandro “El Cholo” Palacios asks a person believed to be a municipal police officer in Tepecoacuilco – which borders Iguala – whether he was aware that all of López’s “graves” had been found.

“Yes, I’m seeing that,” responds the presumed police officer, identified only as Ramón N. in the SEGOB document.

“But don’t you think there is some kind of agreement?” the man asks Palacios, suggesting that López and local authorities might have colluded to hide bodies that were uncovered.

Iñaki Blanco, attorney general of Guerrero at the time of the students’ disappearance, said in a recent interview that the FGR and the Ayotzinapa truth commission should once again conduct a search in Pueblo Viejo and the surrounding area. He also said it’s very likely there are more intercepted text conversations that could shed light on what happened on September 26 and 27, 2014.

“If that is the case they will be useful to establish whether there were links between authorities and members of organized crime or not,” Blanco said.

Meanwhile, parents of the missing 43 – the remains of whom just three have been found – said that authorities’ dissemination of sensitive information about the case is risky because it could compromise the government’s ongoing investigation.

In addition, the parents complained that they neither they nor their lawyers were given access to official documents prior to their release. A committee to which they belong also said the army has withheld real time information it gathered during the abduction of the 43 students.

Not sharing that information violates a presidential decree that obliges the army to tell the Ayotzinapa truth commission what it knows about the case, they parents said.

“These circumstances strengthen our demand for an exhaustive investigation against members of the Mexican army to be opened in order to define their direct or indirect responsibility in the disappearance of our sons,” the committee said.

The parents also called on the federal government to publicly divulge all the information it has about their sons’ disappearance, asserting that drip-feeding the details only exacerbates their pain.

With reports from Milenio

AMLO’s new book offers some insight and plenty of repetition

By

MND Staff

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October 2, 2021

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President López Obrador presents his new book, *A la mitad del camino*, at a presidential press conference.

After appearing at lengthy press conferences every weekday morning for almost three years, one could rightly think that Andrés Manuel López Obrador has had ample opportunity to outline his vision for Mexico and express his opinions and ideas on a wide range of issues and people.

But that didn’t dissuade the president from penning a new book – his 18th – to set out his thoughts and praise his government’s achievements in the first half of its six-year term.

But does A la mitad del camino (Halfway There) contain any new insights into AMLO, the man and omnipresent leader, or offer any new, hitherto unknown information about his political achievements, ideals and objectives? For the most part, the answer is no.

Reading much like one of the president’s early morning monologues (or one his more formal addresses to the nation), López Obrador’s 320-page book goes over well-trodden ground, outlining his thoughts on subjects such as the need to combat corruption, the depravity of the neoliberal period (defined by AMLO as the 32 years before he took office), media bias, the quest for energy self sufficiency and the crusade to transform Mexico.

In his opening chapter, called “The Present,” which mainly outlines government achievements, the president’s trademark optimism – even when there is not much to celebrate – and indefatigable capacity for self-praise shine through.

With regard to the pandemic, for example, which has claimed more than 277,000 lives in Mexico, AMLO declares that there is nothing more his government could have done to prevent deaths, even though it never enforced a strict lockdown, didn’t test widely as a means to control the spread of the virus and advocated only reluctantly for the use of face masks.

The economy was in recession even before the pandemic but the nation’s poor are receiving more government benefits, López Obrador writes, ignoring evidence that shows that poverty worsened in 2020.

AMLO moves on to foreign relations in the book’s second chapter, whose title – “Respect for the Rights of Others is Peace” – is a famous quote by former president Benito Juárez, one of the president’s political heroes.

The bulk of the chapter deals with what López Obrador calls his “surprising relationship” with former United States president Donald Trump and Mexico’s decision to grant political asylum to former Bolivian president Evo Morales.

It is perhaps here that even the most diligent students of Mexican politics will encounter some new insights as AMLO gives readers a painstaking call-by-call account of the 10 telephone conversations he had with Trump, and takes them inside his visit to the White House last year and trade negotiations with the United States prior to the signing of the new North American free trade agreement, the USMCA.

Official correspondence the two leaders sent each other, and a transcript of AMLO’s address at the White House in July 2020, augment the Trump subsection of chapter 2.

AMLO covers his "surprising relationship" with former US president Donald Trump in the book's second chapter. — AMLO covers his surprising relationship with former US president Donald Trump in the book’s second chapter.

The second half of the chapter is dominated by an army account of the mission to pick up Morales in Bolivia and bring him to Mexico.

“Evo said we saved his life; I thought the expression was just a gesture of gratitude for our solidarity but when the defense minister gave me the report about the details of the operation I realized the great risk they ran. I invite you to read the report [which unfolds across 29 pages of A la mitad del camino] about the Bolivia mission and judge for yourself,” AMLO writes.

After presenting the federal government’s Ethical Guide for the Transformation of Mexico in his third chapter – “The opposition” – the president goes on the attack, taking aim at business leaders, “the conservative press,” unscrupulous journalists, opposition politicians and “intellectuals of the old regime,” among others.

It’s in this section that the book is most reminiscent of AMLO’s mañaneras, as his morning pressers are known, with the president showing he can be just as pugnacious with the written word as he is with the spoken one.

“Like all the oligarchs of the world, Mexico’s business leaders like money. … With [some] exceptions they are usually swindlers and hypocrites,” he writes.

“… In addition to being the most tenacious defender of neoliberal policy … and the corruption of white-collar criminals, [the newspaper Reforma is] the most conservative and doctrinal newspaper in current times.”

In the fourth and final chapter AMLO looks to the future, lingering on his plans for the energy sector, the potential of the country’s south and southeast and the opportunities created by the USMCA.

He evens finds the opportunity to insert some lines of poetry by Cuban Revolution hero Ernesto “Che” Guevara in which he extols the virtues of Palenque, an ancient Mayan city in Chiapas.

“The Mayan cities of Comalcalco, Pomoná, Reforma, Santa Elena, El Tigre, Edzná, Uxmal, Chichén Itzá, Ek Balam,Cobá,Tulum, Tikal, Copán, Piedras Negras, Yaxchilán, Bonampak, Kohunlich and Calakmul, among many others of great cultural, historic and artistic value, are also beautiful,” López Obrador subsequently writes, showing off his encyclopedic knowledge of Mayan archaeological sites in Mexico and Central America.

In a similar fashion, AMLO enumerates achievement after achievement throughout A la mitad del camino (Editorial Planeta, 2021) while taking great pains to leave readers in no doubt that the contemptible governance of yesteryear has been left behind and a transformation of Mexico is in progress.

A selection of notable quotes from the book (published in Spanish), the president’s second since he took office in December 2018, appears below.

On Mexico’s potential:

“[Before the current government took office] we reached the conclusion that the possibilities for change were greater than those of stagnation and decadence.”

On the government’s investment in infrastructure:

“In our government, after a long period of neoliberal policy, we restarted the execution of infrastructure projects with public investment. With the federal budget, without taking on debt and without delivering concessions [to private companies], we’re building highways, dams, hospitals, universities, schools, aqueducts, drainage systems, wastewater treatment plants, bridges, refineries, railways, power plants, airports …”

On the pandemic:

“We’ve done everything humanly possible to confront the pandemic and save lives.”

On transforming Mexico:

“… The most important thing is that the bases of transformation have already been set. Just two years and eight months after taking the presidency I can affirm that we’ve already achieved that objective.”

On combating corruption and governing with austerity:

“With this formula of combating corruption and governing without luxuries or frivolities we’ve been able to meet the commitment to not put the country into debt, not raise taxes, not increase fuel prices and most importantly … fund social programs for the wellbeing of our people, especially the poorest and most marginalized.”

On the “conservative press:”

“The conventional media – the newspapers, the radio and television, in other words – has attacked us in a way that hadn’t been done since the times of [revolutionary leader and former president] Francisco I. Madero.”

“… The vast majority of media outlets, with their commentators, columnists, contributors and news presenters, have completely given themselves over to defamation and lies.”

On his relationship with Donald Trump:

“Although a lot voices predicted that ex-president Donald Trump and I were going to clash, our relationship was in fact respectful and constructive for our people and nations.”

On granting political asylum to former Bolivian president Evo Morales:

“On this matter … we were inspired by the example of solidarity … and the teachings of president Lázaro Cárdenas del Río and other revolutionary leaders to protect the lives of those who are persecuted.”

On energy self sufficiency:

“In the energy sector I hope to achieve the objective of ceasing to buy gasoline and diesel abroad and to produce and sell these fuels in the domestic market.”

On Mexico’s south:

“Something strategic that will change the profile of development in our country is the special attention to the south-southeast of Mexico. For decades growth was promoted in the the country’s center, Bajío [region] and north. The great paradox is that this development model rested on income obtained from the extraction of oil in Veracruz, Chiapas, Campeche and Tabasco.”

On the “conservatism” of the middle class:

“The degradation of the middle class worsened in our country throughout the neoliberal period. … Individualism became a way of life and while it couldn’t eclipse everything, it did damage the great reserve of cultural, moral and spiritual values that have been passed on by our ancestral civilizations and conserved by our families and peoples through centuries.”

On tackling violence:

“It may take time to pacify the country but the most certain formula to do so is to attend to the root [of the problem]; not forget young people, for example, don’t leave them without options to study and work in order to avoid them being roped in by organized crime.”

On life after politics:

“I want to conclude my mandate at the end of September 2024 to retire … and live in Palenque with health and happiness for the rest of my life, keeping with me the memories and the sublime satisfaction of having served the extraordinary people of Mexico and our great nation.”

Mexico News Daily

Stock your pantry with these Mexican essentials

By

Janet Blaser

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October 2, 2021

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Mexican oregano, different from what you might be used to elsewhere, has a slight citrus undertone.

Eating in Mexico can be an unexpected adventure; cooking at home, though, is another story. Most of us stick to the familiar, perhaps longing to branch out but unsure exactly how to do it. Having your pantry stocked with some basics of Mexican cooking can help broaden your culinary horizons.

Tortillas go without saying, as do certain cheeses: stringy, melty Oaxaca; rounds of sweet queso fresco; a bit of sharp cotija. I didn’t include fresh ingredients like avocados, mangos, chorizo, etc. That said, certain fresh ingredients are so widely used and their flavors such essential elements to most Mexican dishes that you will find them in this list.

I encourage you to adopt the mindset of a gastronomically adventurous friend, who when asked how she knows what to do with, say, different kinds of chiles, replied without hesitation.

“Who knows what they are?” she said. “When I’m wandering the markets and see things I don’t recognize, I have to have them.”

Mexican cinnamon

Turns out “Mexican cinnamon” really is a “thing” — it’s actually a different variety than the cassia bark commonly used in the United States. How to tell what you’re buying? The formal name is Ceylon cinnamon (in Mexico, it will be labeled as Mexican cinnamon or simply canela), and it’s grown almost exclusively in Sri Lanka.

The flavor is the real giveaway: it’s warmer and smoother than what you’re used to. The color is a little lighter, and whole rolled sticks of bark are very thin and crumbly.

Find it in bulk at your local mercado (market) or packaged at most Mexican grocery stores. Use in a plethora of sweet (rice pudding, horchata) and savory (moles, tomato sauces) recipes.

Mexican chocolate

Even if it’s just once a year for hot chocolate, or because you like seeing the cute package of the Abuelita brand in your cupboard, you should keep some of these sweet, crumbly cakes of Mexican chocolate on hand.

Flavored with Mexican cinnamon (see above) and sweetened, these are not meant to replace that 72% dark chocolate bar you have stashed. Use in moles, champurrado (a traditional hot corn-based drink) or add to your latte or cappuccino.

This chocolate, beloved by Mexicans, is used in everything from hot cocoa to moles.

Clever bakers will substitute this for plain cocoa in dessert recipes for a more complex and subtle flavor.

Masa harina

This is such an easy, fun ingredient to use, and you’ll be so happy you’ve added it to your cupboard. Soft, flavorful tortillas are just the beginning; there’s a host of other traditional Mexican foods based on corn flour that are easier than you’d think to make at home.

Find bags of masa harina — which is not the same as cornmeal — in any grocery store.

Dried chiles

Another of Mexico’s trio of basic foods that were present long before the Spanish arrived, chiles, in all their forms, deserve a place in your kitchen. Dried guajillo, serrano, poblano, arbol, jalapeño, habanero and other varieties add not just heat but complex flavor, acidity and balance to a million traditional Mexican dishes.

types of Mexican chiles — Chiles, in all their forms and varieties, deserve a place in your kitchen.

Piloncillo

You’ve seen these little brown cones in mercados and tienditas (small neighborhood stores) everywhere. Piloncillo (pea-loan-SEE-yo) is evaporated sugar cane juice and has an earthier, richer flavor than brown sugar, which is cane sugar with molasses added. And while it can be substituted for brown sugar, it’s a very different sweetener. Buy a few cones and keep them on hand to grate into stews and marinades, fill empanadas or make syrup.

Achiote

This simple seed (annatto in English) is what lends the deep red color and earthy flavor to a host of traditional Mexican dishes, from the Yucatán’s famous cochinita pibil to tacos al pastor. Home cooks can buy achiote in unadulterated paste form or in recados — small, packaged blocks of achiote paste seasoned with vinegar and other spices. Add it to meat marinades (traditional recipes include oregano and Seville orange juice), or use as a rub for meat, poultry, pork and fish.

Limes

I consider these little limes an absolute essential now and feel blessed that here in Mexico they’re so easily and affordably available. Use the fresh juice in every kind of marinade, to make limonada, squeezed over grilled fresh fish, as the base for ceviche and aguachile … the list goes on and on.

achiote — Achiote lends the deep red color and earthy flavor to a host of traditional Mexican dishes.

Use fresh lime juice instead of vinegar in pasta, potato and green salads, to keep avocados from turning brown and to brighten up beans just before serving.

Cilantro

If you hate cilantro, there’s no use in reading further. But for everyone else: keep a big bunch of fresh cilantro in your fridge at all times, even better if it’s cleaned and disinfected as soon as you get it home so it’s ready at a moment’s notice.

Cilantro’s clean, fresh taste brightens up everything: salads, guacamole, salsas, every kind of taco, most vegetable dishes, chicken, beef, pork or fish, soups and stews. When in doubt, throw some in!

Beans

Whenever I travel in Mexico, I make a point to go to a local mercado and buy some locally grown dried beans. Often, I don’t know or remember what they’re called by the time I get home. Beans are one of Mexico’s three culinary staples, along with corn and chiles. Forget about pintos and black beans; move on to mayacobas, peruana beans and who-knows-what-else that you’ll find in your neck of the woods.

Chipotles in adobo sauce

These are what’s added to turn regular ol’ mayonnaise into an addictive condiment you want to put on everything. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg of ways canned chipotles (dried, smoked jalapeños) transform regular food into something extraordinary. Smoky, spicy, hot but not too hot, they’re an essential ingredient in regional Mexican dishes like chicken tinga and fideo seco. Try them in omelets, quesadillas, potato dishes, marinades, stews and soups.

Mexican oregano

Here’s another ingredient that’s quite different than what we’re used to. Mexican oregano is more fragrant and flavorful and has more essential oils than the Mediterranean variety. Indigenous to Mexico, it’s from the Verbenaceae plant family and has a bit of a citrusy undertone (think lemon verbena). The other oregano is in the mint family.

How to tell the difference? Chances are what you buy here will be Mexican oregano.

Jamaica

Nothing says Mexico like a big, ice-filled glass of bright red agua de jamaica. (hah-MY-ka). The plant is in the hibiscus family (like those big colorful flowers) but a different variety. Rich in Vitamin C, inexpensive and available everywhere, reconstituted dried jamaica flowers can also be used as a vegetarian taco filling.

Find them in bulk at your local mercado or grocery store, boil in water, let sit, strain and add sweetener and lime juice; no need to buy a powdered package with sugar already added.

Janet Blaser is the author of the best-selling book, Why We Left: An Anthology of American Women Expats, featured on CNBC and MarketWatch. She has lived in Mexico since 2006. You can find her on Instagram at @thejanetblaser.

Porfirio put right, the pope contrite, feminist spite: this week at AMLO’s press conferences

By

MND Staff

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October 2, 2021

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A messenger from Pope Francis relayed an apology at Monday's presidential press conference.

Political tributes, President López Obrador has said, are not his cup of tea. “I don’t want my name to be used to name any street, I don’t want statues, I don’t want my name to be used to name a school, a hospital. Absolutely nothing,” he stated at a recent conference.

However, the newspaper El Universal has since published a list of places that already pay homage to AMLO: López Obrador Street in Xochimilco, Mexico City; Avenida López Obrador, México state; a neighborhood in Guerrero, an alley in Acapulco, and streets in both Oaxaca and Veracruz.

Cursed by his own fame, the man from Tepetitán, Tabasco, returned with a spring in his step for another week of conferences.

Monday

“Today we commemorate 200 years of our independence,” announced the president. On September 27, 1821, the Mexican rebel army marched into Mexico City’s main square, symbolizing victory over colonial Spain.

President López Obrador presents Italian policeman Roberto Riccardi with an Aztec Eagle, the highest award possible for a foreigner to receive. — President López Obrador presents Italian police officer Roberto Riccardi with an Aztec Eagle, the highest award possible for a foreigner to receive.

Before details were given for the day’s ceremonies, Culture Minister Alejandra Frausto Guerrero stepped forward to deride looters who had taken “illegally extracted” artifacts from Mexico, and taken them overseas: “From December 2018 to today 5,746 artifacts have been repatriated,” she said, and praised the leadership of AMLO’s wife, Beatriz Gutiérrez Müller, in the process.

One thousand five hundred works would be put on show for the Grandeur of Mexico exhibition, it was announced, in Mexico City’s Museum of Anthropology and the Iberoamericano Room of the Education Ministry (SEP).

An Aztec Eagle arrived, the title of the highest award that can be bestowed on a foreigner. Italian police officer Roberto Riccardi was in attendance to receive it for his work recovering Mexican artifacts in his native land. An “immense privilege,” he said, before charming his hosts: “I wish Mexico a brighter future, if possible, than its glorious past.”

The historic occasion gained even more gravitas with a message from Pope Francis. “Both my predecessors and myself have asked for forgiveness for personal and social sins, for all actions or omissions that did not contribute to evangelization,” related a messenger. The pontiff’s contrite tone may be enough to placate AMLO, who previously demanded an apology from Spain and the Vatican for crimes of the conquest. The Spanish royal family appears to be in little hurry.

Tuesday

AMLO was on his travels on Tuesday, meaning no morning conference. He undertook a long-planned trip to Sonora to offer an apology, and reparations, to the historically persecuted indigenous Yaqui community. Violence has plagued inYaqui territory in recent months.

At the ceremony in Vícam, a traditional stronghold, indigenous leaders, an anthropologist and the governor all spoke of the plight of the Yaquis and the necessity of political reconciliation, many in their native tongue. “Love is paid with love,” offered Yaqui leader Jesús Patricio Varela.

“From 1876 to 1911, indigenous communities suffered the most brutal repression recorded in the history of Mexico … For the elites of the time during the Porfirio Díaz dictatorship, indigenous peoples were simply an obstacle to the country’s modernization,” AMLO said.

Thousands of Yaquis were killed, deported or sold into slavery during a decades long battle with the dictatorship. “We wish to offer you an apology for state crimes,” the president said.

However, there was more than rhetoric on the table: 2,900 hectares of land were granted to the community with the aim of restoring a total of 20,000 hectares, and 6 billion pesos’ worth of water infrastructure was en route. Drainage and streets would be improved in towns, a new hospital would be built and housing and education would receive fresh funding.

Wednesday

The president revealed more travel plans: Thursday he would go to Morelos to remember revolutionary hero José María Morelos; on the weekend, a tour of Morelos, Puebla, Veracruz and Hidalgo to see hurricane damage and celebrate the military. On Wednesday AMLO would be back home to the capital.

On Tuesday, the president traveled to Sonora to offer an official apology for state crimes to the Yaqui people.

Lie detector Ana García Vilchis readied herself. A “hate campaign” directed against Beatriz Gutiérrez Müller — whom García left unnamed — was tantamount to a “digital lynching,” she said. As for disinformation, the price of LP gas had not increased 94% in Iztapalapa, Mexico City, she confirmed.

What, posed a journalist, did AMLO make of the pro-abortion protests that had injured 37 people in the capital, 27 police officers among them?

The president detected conspiratorial forces behind the trouble: “I would say that it is a new phenomenon that has to do with the beginning of our government, so I even distrust its authenticity … I see these movements as very conservative, very conservative,” he said.

He pointed to Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King as heroes of protest movements, and to Mexican revolutionaries Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez, Leona Vicario, Carmen Serdán and Rosario Ibarra de Piedra as feminist heroines to follow.

Thursday

The editor of the left-wing newspaper La Jornada, Josetxo Zaldua, had passed away, and AMLO extended his condolences. He later added Tlaxcala to his weekend destinations.

Why was information being withheld about the Ayotzinapa investigations, in which 43 students disappeared in 2014? A journalist claimed soldiers’ testimonies had been blacked out on investigation documents.

AMLO dove into a tangent about the investigation. “But they’re blacked out. They can’t be read,” the journalist interjected.

“I don’t know those documents, I know others,” AMLO replied, before warning the journalist not to trust everything she reads in the newspaper El Universal.

The journalist showed her mettle as a battle ensued. “As a journalist, I would like to have access to those documents,” she insisted.

On behalf of Deputy Human Rights Minister Alejandro Encinas, AMLO promised the documents.

Do insults like “the false Messiah” or “the madman from Macuspana” get to the president?

No, the man replied, before reading the insults that had once been leveled at independence hero Miguel Hidalgo: “monster, deviant, false hearted, spiteful … villain, hypocrite … firstborn of Satan, cursed thief … poisonous insect.”

The insults now aimed at the president, he said, were a sign of his success: “This always happens when there is a transformation.”

Friday

“We’re really happy to be here in the state of Morelos,” AMLO opened, speaking from the capital Cuernavaca.

A new piece of legislation to protect the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) had been sent to the Chamber of Deputies. As is his custom, the president took aim at neoliberal politics: “They deliberately wanted [CFE plants] to be ruined, to become scrap so that the entire electric power market would be managed by private companies, especially foreign ones,” he said.

The new law proposes that 54% of the country’s electricity would be produced by the CFE, and 46% by private companies. In addition, lithium mining would be a state monopoly.

The president speaks from Morelos during his Friday morning press conference.

“We will no longer be subject, as we have been until now, to private companies being the ones that set the prices,” appended Interior Minister Adán Augusto López Hernández.

Ayotzinapa returned to the conference, but this time by AMLO’s volition. Alejandro Encinas read a letter sent to the president of Israel to demand the extradition of the former head of the now defunct Criminal Investigation Agency (AIC), who fled there in 2019: Tomás Zerón de de Lucio. He is accused of sabotaging the original state investigation. Interpol issued a red notice for the former civil servant, but Mexico doesn’t share an extradition treaty with Israel.

The president signed off from another week of conferences with a tribute to the state he was visiting. “It is very pleasant to be in Morelos and I thank the people of Morelos for all their support … love is paid with love,” he said, briefly before striding away to attend to the nation.

Mexico News Daily

Where we run out of empathy, compassionate policy must take over

By

Sarah DeVries

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October 2, 2021

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A group of migrants makes their way through Chiapas on a hot day in August of this year.

Though it’s been published for several days now, I can’t stop thinking about the article I wrote last week about migrants trying to make their way, at any cost, to the United States.

Migrants are suffering, a lot, from violence, hunger and illness. They’re suffering on their journeys. They’re suffering in detention. And even with all that, there are those who say they’d prefer to risk dying where they are rather than going back to their home countries and almost certainly being killed.

I received several emails about the article, mostly of the “if you hate America so much, then you don’t understand anything, plus you suck” variety (sigh). That’s not really what’s been bothering me about it, though, as those types of messages are par for the course in this profession.

What’s had me frowning and mulling these past few days is the difficulty for humans in general to sustain compassion for lots of people at the same time, which I believe is at the root of some pretty heartless immigration policies and practices. Large groups of people are obviously overwhelming, yes. But the homeless guy passed out drunk on the sidewalk that I walked past the other day was also overwhelming, and there was just one of him.

If we can’t achieve empathy for one another – not even for someone right in front of us – what’s to become of us as a species? Are we simply doomed?

Trying to find the answer to that question led me down a rabbit hole of anthropological theories and studies on our psychological limits of empathy.

My first stop: Dunbar’s number. This is a theory that states that humans can only maintain around 150 relationships at a time; it also happens to be the number of most stable and sustainable human groups throughout history. The number correlates to brain size in primates, and though our societies and communities have become exponentially larger than this through the relatively recent events of urbanization and industrialization, our physical and mental ability to open our hearts to others in a meaningful way has not.

What this means is that our minds are essentially still those of cavemen. And once we get beyond another significant number, about 1,500 (according to Dunbar, the number of people’s faces and perhaps names one could recognize), all the rest simply become a mostly indistinguishable sea of humanity.

This is why journalists — and, really, all storytellers — zoom in on individual experiences of individual people if they want to elicit any kind of sympathy. If they write in such a way that makes us feel that we know the subjects — in a way that makes us see part of ourselves in them or that makes us imagine ourselves in their situation — then it helps to bring their plight into personal focus. It reminds us that they, like us, are also human.

If we only write about gigantic groups of traveling people without including individual stories, then we might as well be writing about swarms of bees or locusts. Add in language like “gathering,” “pouring into” and “releasing,” and it’s easy to see how some already jumpy people would be in favor of simply slamming the door on the needy masses once and for all.

More bad news was found on my second stop: the real, measurable limits of human empathy. Apparently, it’s not a renewable resource (at least not at the rate that it would need to be to achieve universal warm feelings for all). The same part of our brains that makes us feel close to some makes us feel markedly separate from others.

As social psychologist Adam Wayt puts it, “… in principle, if we eliminate out-group hate completely, we may also undermine in-group love. Empathy is a zero-sum game.”

We can care about a few things at a time. We can’t care about everything all at the same time. And, of course, we get tired. We get frustrated. I sometimes lose patience with my little human child, and I love her more than life itself. Now imagine a bunch of strangers!

So here we are with a multitude of humanitarian crises going on all the time, which is the norm in our modern world of over seven billion miracles of human life.

People are constantly being asked to do impossible things without the resources with which to do them — I’m thinking specifically of those tasked with enforcing immigration rules on the ground — so of course they’re getting frustrated and expressing that frustration, which is a very human thing to do. (I’m not excusing the behavior; I’m simply recognizing it as a normal human reaction.)

The safeguard we have against these limits on our empathy are laws, policies and procedures. Where our empathy ends, humane rules and procedures must take over. When those rules and procedures aren’t humane or they are dysfunctional or they are overwhelmed with unexpected problems, we get into trouble and people suffer.

But I’m an optimist. I believe in our collective ability to come up with humane and compassionate laws and policies, which is the only thing that I believe can collectively save us. It’s the only way to protect ourselves from each other and our caveman brains.

My sister put it simply: “It’s because we’re too closely related to chimps.” She’s right, of course. In the end, we’ll always be animals that think we’re good enough to be gods. But the only effective gods are those just institutions that we create through collective effort.

So, time to rally, my fellow chimps. We can do this!

Sarah DeVries is a writer and translator based in Xalapa, Veracruz. She can be reached through her website, sdevrieswritingandtranslating.com and her Patreon page.

More than 50 years later, Mexicans refuse to forget the Tlatelolco Massacre

By

Leigh Thelmadatter

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October 2, 2021

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Commemoration of 50th anniversary of Tlatelolco Massacre — Commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Tlatelolco Massacre in Mexico City in 2018. Wotancito/Wikimedia Commons

They say that Mexicans have long memories. I am reminded of this idea at this time of year because that’s when the historic center, only a couple of kilometers from my apartment, becomes something of a fortress.

Today is October 2. For us foreigners, this is just another day, but for Mexicans, at least in Mexico City, it is emotional; this is the anniversary of the Tlatelolco Massacre.

In 1968, Mexico was getting ready to host the Olympics. It was the nation’s debutante ball, the first Olympic Games to be staged in Latin America and in a Spanish-speaking country. For the powers-that-be, it was their chance to show that Mexico was indeed a modern country, not just a land of poor farmers in big sombreros.

Millions upon millions of pesos were being spent on building state-of-the-art facilities and cleaning up Mexico City. To distract from what could not be fixed up, Mexico drew upon its impressive artistic talent, creating monumental sculptures, other artwork and one of the best public relations campaigns seen up until that time.

However, Mexico’s ruling PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) did not exactly succeed in its efforts.

Students and others gathered in the square in Tlatelolco on October 2, 1968.

Despite being democratic only at a very superficial level, the political party had enjoyed support from the popular, artistic and intellectual classes. This is because it was what emerged after the Mexican Revolution, and its dominance ended a century of war and chaos.

But with the memory of 19th-century chaos long-faded, Mexicans of the mid-20th century were focused on other challenges besides stability, such as promises from the 1917 Constitution (the current one) still unfulfilled.

The federal government of the time, however, had no interest in this, only the maintenance of its order.

There had been problems with unions and students since at least the 1950s, and the government was using increasingly authoritarian and even violent measures to contain the unrest.

It was particularly important to authorities to contain such forces while the eyes of the world would be on Mexico during the Olympics. There had been violence that summer in the city, with police attacking protests and even “invading” the public universities, which had a long tradition of autonomy from the federal government.

The Games channeled discontent not only because of all the money that had been spent but because it provided a tempting chance to be seen by the world. The government knew this as well.

1968 student protests Mexico City — In 1968, protesters took advantage of the fact that the upcoming Olympics had focused the world’s eyes on Mexico.

And so, on October 2, 1968, just days before the opening of the Games, thousands of university and high school students decided to take advantage and hold a massive rally in Mexico City’s Tlatelolco neighborhood, at a square that represents the Mexican nation’s “Three Cultures” — indigenous, colonial and modern — with the architecture that surrounds it.

It would take thousands of words to describe what happened that day, and there is still fierce debate as to what exactly came to pass. The few things not in debate: there was military in the area, whose presence increased as the event went on; there were thousands of students and other activists in the square that did not end the rally despite the growing military presence; shooting started.

Mexican news media of the time dutifully reported the government’s line that the violence was started by the students and that the military simply got caught up in it. Blame has never officially been put on the military, but even before the emergence of new evidence in 2000, most believed, and still believe, that it was a coordinated military operation.

Even the number of dead from that day is highly contested, but the National Commision of Human Rights (CNDH) estimates the dead at over 300 on its website.

It wasn’t exactly an incident in the sense of the Kent State Massacre in the United States, which lasted only 13 seconds. Military actions went on into the night.

Overt political repression afterward lasted months and even years. “Foreign agitators,” especially foreigners who were teachers or professors, were blamed, forcing people like Helen Bickham, then an English teacher at the National Polytechnic Institute, to flee back to the United States for almost a year before she felt safe enough to return.

Soldiers in Tlatelolco Massacre October 2, 1968 — Soldiers detaining citizens on that day.

The Games went on as scheduled, but a very dark cloud had settled onto the sociopolitical situation in Mexico. The event not only soured the general public’s opinion of the PRI’s dominance but also shattered the confidence of the cultural and political elite who had actively supported the party for decades.

The PRI managed to keep power for over 30 more years, but it was a watershed moment; Mexico could not go back. There were later events that would further erode the PRI’s position, but only say the word “Tlatelolco,” and the mind goes automatically to the massacre, not the pre-Hispanic civilization that created the name nor the major loss of life there during the 1985 earthquake.

Finally, after years of ever-more-blatant vote-rigging, the PRI’s total hold on power collapsed in 2000. The memory of the massacre is such that with the election of Vicente Fox that year, a new investigation was ordered into the killings and the government’s role. New details emerged, but the main political actors did manage to escape judicial consequences.

The end of absolute one-party rule has not relegated the memory of October 2 to the history books. The PRI still exists and even elected a president in 2012. The Tlatelolco Massacre serves as an important symbol. For some, it is a focus for denouncing continued government repression and neglect. For others, perhaps, it is just to remind the government that they are watching.

More than 50 years later, these commemorations are still highly emotional and highly sympathetic even though many of the participants had not even been born yet in 1968. The chance of violence is always there, hence the steel barricades around major landmarks and shuttered businesses.

I also should mention that unless you are a Mexican citizen, you absolutely must not participate in any kind of activity related to Mexican politics; there are few quicker ways to get yourself deported.

Tank in Mexico City on day of Tlatelolco Massacre — Soldier in a tank on the streets of Mexico City in October 1968. Hector Gallardo/Wikimedia Commons

I, personally, stay away from the historic center and Tlatelolco on this day, just to make sure I avoid any appearance of involvement.

Leigh Thelmadatter arrived in Mexico 18 years ago and fell in love with the land and the culture in particular its handcrafts and art. She is the author of Mexican Cartonería: Paper, Paste and Fiesta (Schiffer 2019). Her culture column appears regularly on Mexico News Daily.

Mexico City approaches low risk green on the COVID stoplight map

By

MND Staff

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October 1, 2021

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Masked crowds in the streets of the nation's capital.

Mexico City will remain medium risk yellow on the coronavirus stoplight map for the next two weeks but the capital is very close to switching to low risk green, a city official said Friday.

“According to the latest notification we received from the Mexican government, we’ll stay at the yellow light [level] for at least two more weeks. We’re on 11 points, one point away from green in other words,” said Eduardo Clark, head of the Digital Agency for Public Innovation and a COVID spokesman.

The federal Health Ministry uses 10 indicators to determine the stoplight color in each state, including hospital occupancy levels, the effective reproduction rate (how many people each infected person infects), the weekly positivity rate (the percentage of COVID-19 tests that come back positive) and estimated case numbers per 100,000 inhabitants.

Clark said that most of the indicators are continuing to show improvement in Mexico City, the country’s coronavirus epicenter since the beginning of the pandemic.

There are currently 2,066 COVID patients in hospitals in the greater Mexico City area, he said, a reduction of 279, or 12%, compared to last Friday. Within the capital’s 16 boroughs, 1,466 patients are hospitalized, 211 fewer than a week ago.

Mexico City will remain medium-risk yellow on the stoplight risk map for at least two weeks. — Mexico City will remain medium-risk yellow on the stoplight risk map for at least two more weeks.

Federal data shows there are 10,909 active cases in the capital, a figure equivalent to about 120 per 100,000 people.

Neighboring México state will also remain yellow for the next two weeks, Governor Alfredo del Mazo said Friday.

Nationally, the Health Ministry reported 7,388 new coronavirus cases and 469 additional COVID-19 deaths on Friday, lifting Mexico’s accumulated tallies to 3.67 million and 277,976, respectively.

There are 62,158 estimated active cases, a 2.4% decrease compared to Thursday.

With reports from Milenio and AS

The search for the Puddle of the Cow led to Jalisco’s deepest hot river

By

John Pint

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October 1, 2021

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Santillán River, Jalisco — These locals give unanimous rave reviews to Jalisco's Río Santillán as a swimming spot: “We love this river!”

The Primavera Forest’s Río Caliente (Hot River) is one of Jalisco’s most popular natural phenomena. The 16-kilometer-long river literally boils out of a canyon wall and eventually cools down to become the Río Salado (Salty River) famed for its numerous rapids, which give it a marvelous Jacuzzi effect — and it even has a few deep spots where you can almost swim.

For a long time, I believed Río Caliente was the only hot stream in the state that truly deserved to be called a “river.”

Then I ran into Roy, an electronics engineer who enjoys exploring the wilds of western Mexico, far off the beaten track.

“I know a hot river in Los Altos (the Jalisco Highlands) that can certainly give Río Caliente a run for the money,” he said. “You need to check it out.”

So off we went to find the hot river, aiming our GPS literally at one waypoint after another that Roy had supplied. After what seemed like endless hours bouncing over miserable, bumpy, rocky, dirt roads, we arrived at … a balneario!

Santillan River, Jalisco — A short section of rapids offers all the Jacuzzi effect you could ask for.

That is, a rather ordinary swimming pool filled with the usual crowd of screaming kids and surrounded with the usual battery of giant speakers blasting the usual sort of music preferred by water parks. I suppose the pool was filled with hot water, but I wasn’t really interested in finding out.

A man wearing a sombrero stepped up to us: “Thirty pesos per person, por favor.”

“We’re looking for the hot river,” we told him.

“Our fee includes access to the river you seek. Thirty pesos each, please.”

Grumbling, we paid the fee, gave the noisy pool a wide berth and eventually came to the shore of El Río Santillán.

The Santillán River, to our great joy, turned out to be quite beautiful. The water was indeed hot, and all along river’s length were stately Montezuma cypresses, which are the Mexican national tree, known as sabinos in Spanish and ahuehuetes (old men of the water) in Náhuatl.

There were only two problems:

One, all this was happening during the hottest part of May, the hottest month of the year, so we had no desire to throw ourselves into a hot river. And two, garbage and trash were strewn absolutely everywhere on both banks, both upstream and downstream — kilometers of unsightly litter.

So, hot and sticky from our long, long drive, we turned around, still hot and sticky, to start the long, long drive back to Guadalajara.

This visit to the Santillán River occurred in 2012, and I never bothered to write a word about what I considered one of those adventures best forgotten.

Recently, however, I came upon an enticing video clip on YouTube showing people happily splashing in what was billed “Mexico’s deepest hot river,” the Río Santillán. In this clip, the water was crystal clear and nary a dirty diaper or discarded tequila bottle could be seen littering the shore.

This particular watery paradise on the video was called El Charco de la Vaca, or the Puddle of the Cow. Here, it was claimed, the water bubbles forth at 34 C (93 F), is perfectly drinkable and is wonderful for curing rheumatism. Best of all, there were no concrete swimming pools anywhere to be seen.

Montezuma cypress on Santillan River in Jalisco — The Santillán River is lined with stately Montezuma cypresses.

Google Maps showed two routes to El Charco de la Vaca: the awful one I had taken previously, via Tepatitlán, and a new route via Cuquío, each of them about a three-hour drive from Guadalajara.

“How would you like to take a dip in the Puddle of the Cow?” I asked my friend Josh because he had told me he wanted to take some gringo and Russian visitors on a “John Pint adventure.”

“Let’s go for it,” he replied.

Well, right off the bat, the awe-inspiring, ever-winding road through the dramatic Barranca De Oblatos, richly decorated with wildflowers, truly impressed those foreign visitors. They were already hooked.

After that, Google Maps skirted the town of Cuquío and led us onto a very nicely and recently paved road that brought us to a bridge over the Río Verde (Green River), one of Jalisco’s most picturesque and perhaps cleanest rivers.

Now, the real adventure began. Instead of crossing that bridge, we were told to take an anything-but-enticing dirt road heading off to the left, paralleling the Green River. After only 740 kilometers, we came to a smaller river, and now it seemed that the bodiless Google voice was asking us to drive right into it!

We got out of the car, immersed our hands in the water and discovered it was nice and warm. “This is our river!” we shouted. “We made it!”

Although there was no triumphal arch, no loudspeakers and no one asking for 30 pesos — no human being to be seen, in fact — there was a small, neat sign saying “Yahualica Thermal Waters: set a good example and keep them clean!”

Social media, I think, may have had a lot to do with this dramatic about-face in the locals’ attitude toward nature and littering. Bravo!

We had found the Santillán River, but instead of driving into it as Google wanted, we turned left onto a dirt road paralleling the small stream and drove a bit until we came to two cars and a handful of people happily bathing in the warm (I would not call it hot) river.

The Santillán — which empties into the Río Verde — seems to be no more than two kilometers long, its southern half accessed the way we had come, via Cuquío, and the northern half (with the noisy balneario) best reached via Tepatitlán.

Recent spurts of heavy rain had turned the river a milk-chocolate brown, but in the dry season, its waters are crystal clear. The river has a few rapids and a few picturesque narrow spots where you can get as much of a Jacuzzi effect as you could ever desire.

Although shade is a bit at a premium, we did find a good spot all to ourselves. Because the water temperature is “just right,” we could soak for hours to our hearts’ content.

What about the Puddle of the Cow? We found a local man who offered to guide a group of us to the spot, which sounded like a pool at the foot of a small waterfall, apparently the source of the hot river.

The guide described the hike to the Charco de la Vaca as feo (ugly), and those of our group who went with him ended up agreeing.

The Charco, by the way, turned out to be located on private land, and the owner has put up a concrete-and-barbed wire wall around it to keep people away. So much for the “all Mexicans have the right of access to all lakes and rivers in the nation” law.

As usual, I recommend that you visit this place on a weekday or Saturday when there will be few people.

If you are in Guadalajara and take the Cuquío route (OK for any sort of car), you may want to stop off at Restaurante la Magueyera. Apart from its excellent food, it offers a magnificent view of the Santiago River Canyon as well as of the picturesque Cola de Caballo Waterfall, a Guadalajara landmark.

The Horse’s Tail and the Cow’s Puddle: what more could you ask from a Saturday’s outing?

The writer has lived near Guadalajara, Jalisco, for 31 years and is the author of A Guide to West Mexico’s Guachimontones and Surrounding Area and co-author of Outdoors in Western Mexico. More of his writing can be found on his website.

road to Santillan River, Jalisco — Mexican, American and Russian visitors prepare to follow a local guide, right, on an “ugly” hike to the Charco de la Vaca.

field near Santillan River, Jalisco — September is the month when the Santiago Canyon’s road is filled with sulphur cosmos flowers.

Fire destroys iconic Acapulco nightclub Baby’O

By

MND Staff

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October 1, 2021

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Baby'O, one of Mexico's most famous nightclubs was torched on Wednesday night. — Baby'O, one of Mexico's most famous nightclubs, was torched on Wednesday night.

An iconic Acapulco nightclub popular with celebrities and politicians during the last 45 years was destroyed by fire on Wednesday night.

According to the owners, a group of armed men subdued a security guard, broke into the Baby’O nightclub, doused it with gasoline and set it alight.

Video footage posted to social media shows three men pouring a liquid onto the floor of the cave-like club before a fire is started with what appears to be a burning piece of paper.

There were no reports of injuries or loss of life at the club, which has been closed for the past 18 months due to the pandemic.

Baby’O has played host to a who’s who of Mexican and foreign celebrities. Among the international stars who partied at the club were Tony Curtis, Rod Stewart, Elizabeth Taylor, Donna Summer, Julio Iglesias, Luis Miguel, Geena Davis, Sylvester Stallone and Bono.

Así le prendieron fuego al BabyO, de Acapulco.

Con toda calma, al menos tres hombres rociaron gasolina. pic.twitter.com/GdqjiQUIck

— Claudio Ochoa Huerta (@ClaudioOchoaH) October 1, 2021

Politicians such as former president Enrique Peña Nieto and current México state Governor Alfredo del Mazo also let their hair down at the famous nightspot, as did sports stars, organized crime figures, prominent businesspeople and countless tourists.

The nightclub was destroyed the night before Acapulco Mayor Abelina López Rodríguez was sworn in, triggering speculation that a crime group is sending a message to the new mayor.

Asked about the blaze at his morning news conference on Friday, President López Obrador said it was not yet clear what had happened.

“It can’t be attributed to organized crime without proof, because even the owner said [the club] was never a victim of extortion. But that’s what the media wants to say, that it’s a matter of insecurity and not paying extortion, … but we have to wait,” he said.

“It’s also known that the nightclub was insured. … We’re in contact with the governor of the state, [the authorities in Guerrero] are doing their investigative work and once we have the result of the investigation we’ll make it known.”

The owners said in one report that their insurance didn’t cover damage caused by vandalism.

Acapulco's Baby'O nightclub. — Acapulco’s Baby’O nightclub.

With reports from El Universal and Reforma

Over 2,000 people forced from their homes by flooding in Querétaro

By

Tony Richards

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October 1, 2021

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National Guardsmen assist flood victims in San Juan del Río.

Heavy rains in Querétaro in the last 24 hours have forced 2,440 people from their homes after the San Juan River overflowed its banks. Residents of Santiago de Querétaro, San Juan del Río and Tequisquiapan have been affected and further flooding is predicted in the latter municipality.

Governor Mauricio Kuri warned that there was a 90% chance of more flooding as water is released from the Centenario dam, which has been filling quickly with water from the San Juan River.

Officials in Tequisquiapan, where heavy rainfall has triggered a red alert for the second time in 10 days, warned residents to stay away from the area of the dam due to the likelihood of flooding. A red alert signifies that residents should be prepared to evacuate their homes.

The National Guard has been working in affected areas, where floodwaters have entered people’s homes and businesses, the newspaper Reforma reported.

Mexico News Daily