Mexico’s ‘doctor shortage’ masks other public health shortages

By

-

November 5, 2022

Medical personnel in Mexico's public health system — The few Mexican doctors who get past the opaque bureaucratic hurdles to work in the public health system often face low pay, uncertain employment and a lack of medical equipment and medicines. Cuartoscuro

Two weeks ago, I wrote about the government’s claim that there were not enough medical specialists in the country, resulting in Mexico inviting doctors from other Spanish-speaking countries, many from Cuba. The conclusion? Essentially, the government only opens a small number of spots each year for doctors to actually enter specialization programs in the first place, meaning that they actually decide in a very direct way how many specialists there are in Mexico.

After extensive conversations with various doctors around the country, I decided there was too much information for just one article; hence, this second one. This time, I’ll look at doctors through a labor-related lens, i.e., doctors as workers.

In every culture, we have extremely high expectations of doctors. Like we do with teachers, we expect them to be firmly dedicated to their vocation above all else…including their need to draw a dignified salary and enjoy a positive work environment. We look to them to save us when we’re at our worst. We want them to use the magic of science to do everything in their power to make us better. We want to be their number-one priority when we need them, no matter what they may be required to sacrifice in order to make that happen.

In other words, we expect them to be Jesus.

But doctors aren’t Jesus. They’re workers, with lives, families and a stack of bills to be paid each month, just like the rest of us, and if we want them to effectively do the job they signed up for, then their working environments must be adequate.

Now, a brief pause for a bit of recent history: we all know that AMLO flew into an easy victory on the platform of breaking up the “mafia of power.” That resonated with people all over the world – including me – but ultimately AMLO’s actions seem to have translated into the placement of simply different mafias of power, even as leaders claim that corruption in Mexico is no more.

Which is worse: open corruption that even the powers-that-be acknowledge or corruption that unofficially is all around us, but officially doesn’t exist?

Anyway, back to the topic at hand.

As a result of these kinds of changes, what used to be the Seguro Popular, for example, became the Bienestar (well-being) system, with changes from on-high in both structure and personnel. The result has been rather chaotic, especially in places that didn’t have a fantastic infrastructure in the first place.

According to one doctor, the cost to the government of hospitalizing a patient for one night is higher than for any private hospital in the country. Even so, 70% of the budgets for public hospitals pay for employee salaries, while equipment and medicine are constantly in short supply. In poorer, less populous places, these things are simply absent.

“If you’re poor and seriously ill in Mexico — especially if you’re not in a major city — you’re probably going to die,” one disheartened doctor told me.

Most frustrating is the fact that, while many doctors do all they can to heal and save their patients, there’s only so much that’s possible to do in the absence of the tools, equipment and medicines they need to do their jobs.

The cardiologist might have her stethoscope, but no instruments for bypass surgery. The neurologist might be among the best of the best, but without an MRI machine, how is he to help sick patients?

The difference in survival rates between public and private hospitals is overwhelmingly due to a lack of necessities; the doctors are the exact same people from private to public, and most doctors, even those with coveted plazas (permanent positions), also work privately to supplement their income.

For decades, a plaza with a public hospital like IMSS was the holy grail of medical labor. Salaries were high, benefits were many, and, hey: job security in a country where most people have none is a big plus.

Salaries are decidedly not high anymore — a peek at the IMSS job board revealed an average base salary of merely 14,000 pesos, or about 700 dollars a month— though the myriad of benefits; job security; and, yes, a sincere desire to help the less fortunate ensure that there are always interested applicants regardless.

These plazas for specialists are the jobs that the Mexican government claims it’s unable to fill because of a lack of specialists in the country. The extent to which this is true is, at best, debatable.

One specialist I spoke with who works privately has been looking for a plaza in his state. He was told by the hospital administrators that there could be a plaza that might open up for him — if he paid for it. Much to their shock, he refused.

The lesson? With the right contacts and plenty of money, plazas can appear, seemingly by magic.

So how do these hospitals have any doctors at all in the first place? Simple: low-paid contractors with no benefits. Many doctors do indeed accept these jobs as hospitals routinely dangle the remote possibility of a future plaza in front of them to keep them around. And of the doctors who do have plazas, acceptable absenteeism is built into the system.

As many as 20% to 30% of doctors in public hospitals might be absent because they’re allowed pases de salida (excused absences). And every single doctor I spoke to said they had colleagues who routinely went to the hospital twice a day just to punch their time cards in and out while attending to their private patients.

I certainly don’t condone this – and feel incredibly sorry for the patients who can’t pay for their care – but I also understand that workers respond to how valued they feel.

When salaries stay low, the tools to do their jobs are absent and hospitals cannot reasonably guarantee their safety, it’s easy to see how some doctors might become outright cynics.

Hence, the arrival of foreign doctors, who, incidentally, are being paid 50,000–70,000 pesos for their work, according to another doctor familiar with several of the new arrivals.

Well, AMLO does seem to be a fan of throwing things out and starting over again. And the part of my brain that is willing to entertain conspiracy theories (we all have one) makes me wonder if there’s something about Cuban doctors specifically he loves: they have a reputation for being some of the best-trained doctors in the Americas, it’s true, but I also wonder if he’s specifically fond of people accustomed to falling in line or else.

We might not ever find out, but one thing is certain: the problem of “shortages” was created by a combination of corruption and the structural system itself. To find a real and fair solution, the government need not look anywhere besides the mirror.

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

Encacahuatado! Peanut sauce an international favorite, including in Mexico

By

Janet Blaser

-

November 5, 2022

0

I’ve decided I kind of love peanut sauce; it’s the latest food trend in my house.

Peanuts have made the list of heart-healthy foods to add to my diet; research shows they can help lower LDL, or “bad” cholesterol levels. While peanuts, or ground nuts, are classified as legumes, they have many of the same beneficial health qualities as other more expensive actual nuts and are easy to find here in Mexico.

Historians say peanuts originated in South America or Mexico but that it was African immigrants (i.e., slaves) who incorporated them into the local cuisine, especially in the Yucatán, Oaxaca and Puebla. In dishes like encacahuatas — tortillas folded over in a spicy peanut sauce — pollo encacahuate and complex special-occasion sauces called encacahuatados, the humble peanut’s legacy shines in Mexico.

While I knew peanuts were grown and used in many countries, it was a surprise to discover how universally beloved peanut sauce in particular is. Cuisines the world over — including African, Indonesian, Japanese, Thai, Mexican, Chinese, Indian, Vietnamese, Filipino — all have some version of it.

Pineapple shrimp with peanut dipping sauce — Pineapple and shrimp skewers? Dip ’em in a smooth ‘n’ creamy peanut sauce for added flavor.

I’ve tried a good number of recipes and have settled on the first one, below, as my basic go-to. You want it to be salty, sweet, spicy and hot all at the same time, with flavors slipping from one to the next on your tongue. And if it’s an easy, no-cook recipe, all the better; while there are a good number of ingredients in this one, all are fairly common and only need to be stirred in.

In Indonesian cooking, peanut sauce is most often used on satay, or skewers; so much so that its name has become synonymous with the dish. In reality, you can use peanut sauce on any number of dishes: drizzled on grilled shrimp and pineapple, as a glaze on roast or grilled salmon, spooned over a grain bowl, mixed in cold soba or pasta salads, and, of course, on chicken, beef, veggie, tofu or pork skewers.

And there are lots of delicious modifications to try! Coconut milk, fish sauce (just a little), fresh or adobo chiles, honey and/or sugar, fresh grated ginger, a teaspoon of miso, sautéed onions or a bit of tamarind paste can all be added to the basic recipes below. Can’t find or don’t have natural unsweetened peanut butter? Just leave out the sugar. And, yes, other nut/seed butters (like almond, cashew or even tahini) can be used instead of peanut butter.

The trickiest part of this first recipe is mixing the peanut butter with the hot water — you want it to be smooth. Whisking by hand is the way to go.

I love this drizzled on a broccoli tofu stir-fry, to jazz up simple chicken and rice or even as a dipping sauce with veggie spring rolls.

Spicy Peanut Sauce

½ cup creamy peanut butter
¼–⅓ cup hot water
2 Tbsp. Thai red curry paste
2 Tbsp. light brown sugar
2 Tbsp. Sriracha
1 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 Tbsp. rice vinegar
1 Tbsp. fresh lime juice
1 tsp. finely minced garlic
½ tsp. red pepper flakes
2 scallions, thinly sliced
Salt
Garnish: crushed peanuts, chopped cilantro
Variation: Substitute coconut milk for half or all the water

In medium bowl, whisk together peanut butter and hot water till smooth. Stir in curry paste, sugar, Sriracha, soy sauce, vinegar, lime juice, garlic, red pepper flakes and scallions. Season with salt to taste. Use immediately or store in an airtight container in refrigerator up to two weeks. The sauce will thickens as it sits; stir in a tablespoon or two of water to thin to desired consistency if necessary.

Salmon with peanut sauce — Grilled or pan-fried salmon can be glazed with a spicy peanut sauce for a delicious change of pace.

Zesty Basil Peanut Sauce

20–30 fresh basil leaves
½ cup peanut butter, smooth or chunky
¾ cup coconut milk
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 clove garlic, minced
1-inch-long piece of ginger, grated
½ tsp. red chile flakes
Juice of 2 limes
¼ tsp. salt

In food processor or blender, process all ingredients to a smooth paste. Adjust seasoning as needed.

Spicy Peanut Sauce #2

½ cup smooth peanut butter (not natural)
¼ cup soy sauce
2 Tbsp. maple syrup
2 Tbsp. fresh lime juice
1 Tbsp. sesame oil
2 tsp. chile oil or hot sauce, to taste
1 garlic clove, grated

In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients. Add ¼ to ½ cup water, 1 tablespoon at a time; whisk until sauce is a pourable consistency. Taste and add more chile oil or hot sauce as desired.

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 Facebook.

U.S. citizens moving to Mexico in record numbers, govt. data shows

By

MND Staff

-

November 4, 2022

0

digital nomad in Playa del Carmen — Part of the increase in U.S. citizens living in Mexico appears to come from an increase in digital nomads fueled by effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Jordan Carroll/Unsplash

More Americans than ever are choosing to live in Mexico – and many have decided to settle in the capital rather than coastal resort cities that are popular with tourists on short breaks.

Formal immigration to Mexico from the United States is at a record high, federal government data shows, while many more Americans are living and working here while on tourist visas.

Data published in an Interior Ministry migration report shows that 8,412 U.S. citizens were issued temporary resident visas in the first nine months of the year, an 85% increase compared to the same period of 2019 – when the coronavirus pandemic hadn’t yet had an impact on people’s life and work choices and options. The figure is the highest since comparable data became available in 2010, the news agency Bloomberg reported.

Data shows that 1,619 of the Americans granted temporary residency this year – 19% of the total – live in Mexico City, while 1,515 live in Jalisco, mainly in Puerto Vallarta, Guadalajara and Chapala.

Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum — Mexico City saw the largest percentage of such migrants. Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum recently announced a partnership to attract more foreigners to live and work in the nation’s capital. Cuartoscuro

The next most popular states for new temporary residents from the U.S. are Quintana Roo, which includes Cancún, Playa del Carmen and Tulum; Baja California Sur, which includes Los Cabos and La Paz; Yucatán, which includes Mérida and the port city of Progreso; and Guanajuato, which includes expat hotspot San Miguel de Allende and Guanajuato city.

The number of U.S. citizens who were granted permanent residency in the first nine months of 2022 also increased significantly, rising 48% from 2019 levels to 5,418. There are a range of ways foreigners can qualify for residency in Mexico, including by meeting income requirements, having an employer who sponsors their visa and having family ties.

The aforementioned residency figures don’t take into account the large number of Americans who entered the country as tourists but are living here for all intents and purposes. Such people include a growing number of digital nomads – many of whom were able to settle here due to new remote work policies introduced by their employers during the pandemic – as well as older, retired Americans, some of whom have been spending part of their time in Mexico for years.

Mexico has typically allowed tourists to stay for six months, although that period of time isn’t guaranteed. Many Americans return briefly to their home country before re-entering Mexico on a new tourist visa and resuming their lives here.

For many digital nomads, the location of choice is Mexico City, especially trendy inner city neighborhoods such as Roma and Condesa, while Oaxaca city is another destination that is popular with Americans and foreigners in general.

Some Mexicans have expressed concerns about the influx of digital nomads to certain parts of the capital during the pandemic, asserting that their presence has pushed up rents – a claim backed up by data compiled by the real estate website propiedades.com – and driven locals out of desirable neighborhoods.

But those concerns didn’t stop the city government from entering into a partnership with Airbnb that aims to attract even more nómadas digitales to the capital. One response to that move was a social media post that advised digital nomads that “Mexico is not cheap when you make pesos.”

“Your Instagram-worthy lifestyle is ruining your home,” added the IG post, which attracted over 3,500 likes. “Stop colonizing Mexico City.”

US children in Mexico schools. — Another source of the increasing numbers may be families. Data from Mexico’s 2020 census shows there are over 470,000 U.S.-born kids in Mexico, aged five to 19.

In defiance of such opinions, Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said her government wants to increase promotion of the capital to digital nomads. At a press conference last week to announce the agreement struck with Airbnb, the mayor asserted that the ongoing arrival of the mainly young remote workers – perhaps in even greater numbers in the near future – will benefit parts of the city beyond tourism hubs, one of which is described by some people as the “Roma-Condesa bubble.”

Her remarks did little to mollify tenants’ rights groups, which said that the partnership with Airbnb was part of the “aggressive touristification” of Mexico City. In a statement, they demanded greater regulation of the accommodation booking platform.

Opposition from locals appears unlikely to deter foreigners from coming to the nation’s capital – which became something of an international “it city” in the last five years or so – and to other parts of the country.

In addition to Americans, foreigners from many other countries have flocked to Mexico in recent years, attracted by the country’s openness and lack of restrictions during the first year of the pandemic, as well as traditional draws, including beaches, archaeological sites, tasty food and beverages and the wide range of cultural experiences on offer.

So it’s not surprising that an increasing number of Americans – and other foreigners – don’t want to go home. Government data also shows that the number of Canadians granted temporary residency in the first nine months of the year went up to 2,042, an increase of 137% compared to 2019.

More than 1,000 citizens of many other countries received temporary residency permits between January and September. Those counties include Spain, France, Germany, China, India, Japan and numerous Latin American nations, among which are Colombia, Argentina, Brazil and Cuba.

But none of those countries can compete with the United States in terms of the total number of citizens residing in Mexico. The U.S. Department of State said last month that “an estimated 1.6 million U.S. citizens live in Mexico,” while data from Mexico’s 2020 census put the figure at a more modest total of just under 800,000.

Among the U.S. citizens living here are a growing number of families with children, attracted in part by Mexico’s family oriented-culture. Data from Mexico’s 2020 census shows there are over 470,000 U.S.-born kids aged five to 19, although many of those likely belong to Mexican families.

In addition to being a popular place to settle, Mexico is also the top foreign destination for U.S. travelers, according to the State Department, while data from the Center of Research and Tourism Competitiveness at Anáhuac University in Mexico City shows that more than 10 million Americans flew into Mexico in the nine months to the end of September, injecting billions of dollars into the Mexican economy.

An increasing number of them didn’t just come for a short break on the beach in Cancún, Puerto Vallarta, Los Cabos or Zihuatanejo. For better or worse, many foreigners – including large numbers of Americans – are here to stay.

With reports from Bloomberg

U.S. pushes for quick resolution of energy policy dispute

By

MND Staff

-

November 4, 2022

0

US Trade Representative Katherine Tai, left, and Mexico Economy Minister Raquel Buenrostro — U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, left, and Economy Minister Raquel Buenrostro met on Thursday via videoconference. US Trade Office/Twitter & Edgar Negrete Lira/Cuartoscuro

The United States government has urged its Mexican counterpart to promptly address the concerns it has raised about Mexico’s nationalistic energy policies.

The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) in July requested dispute settlement consultations with Mexico under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

“We have repeatedly expressed serious concerns about a series of changes in Mexico’s energy policies and their consistency with Mexico’s commitments under the USMCA,” Ambassador Katherine Tai said at the time. “These policy changes impact U.S. economic interests in multiple sectors and disincentivize investment by clean-energy suppliers and by companies that seek to purchase clean, reliable energy.”

During a virtual meeting with new Economy Minister Raquel Buenrostro on Thursday, Tai “underlined the importance of making expeditious progress in addressing the issues in Mexico’s energy sector that the United States identified in its July 20, 2022, consultations request under the USMCA,” the office of the USTR said in a statement.

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai — U.S. Trade Representative Tia has said that Mexico’s nationalistic energy policies disincentivize investment by U.S. clean-energy suppliers and companies seeking to buy clean energy. Mexican Economy Ministry/Twitter

Tai also stressed “the importance of avoiding a disruption in U.S. corn exports and returning to a science- and risk-based regulatory approval process for all agricultural biotechnology products in Mexico,” the statement said.

A ban on genetically modified corn imports and use of the controversial herbicide glyphosate is set to take effect in 2024, and Mexico is already reducing its reliance on non-genetically modified yellow corn imports from the United States, most of which is used as livestock feed.

The USTR and the Mexican Economy Ministry said that Tai and Buenrostro agreed to stay in regular communication on the issues they discussed at Thursday’s meeting.

The United States could have requested the establishment of a dispute panel to make a ruling on the energy policy dispute as the initial deadline for resolution of the concerns was Oct. 3. However, Mexican and U.S. officials said they agreed to extend talks as progress was being made.

Ken Salazar, the United States’ ambassador to Mexico, said later in October that talks were ongoing and didn’t rule out the possibility of a dispute panel being requested.

If such a panel ruled in favor of the U.S. and Canada – which has also challenged Mexico’s energy policies – punitive tariffs could be imposed on Mexican exports.

Both the United States and Canada are unhappy about delays faced by private energy sector companies to receive permits. They also disagree with other energy sector policies and laws that favor Mexico’s state-owned energy firms, including the Electricity Industry Law, which gives power generated by the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) priority on the national grid over that produced by private and renewable energy companies.

Mexico News Daily

Ancient Purépecha sport represents Mexico at World Nomad Games in Turkey

By

MND Staff

-

November 4, 2022

0

Pelota players compete at the World Nomad Games in October. Facebook / Pelota P'urhépecha (Uárhukua Chanakua)

You won’t find the ancient Purépecha sport of pelota in the Olympics or Pan American Games, but it was a big hit recently at the fourth World Nomad Games in Turkey.

The biennial competition aims to showcase non-mainstream ethnic sports that have been handed down through the generations.

Most of the sports are from Central Asia, but this year a team from Mexico put on a display of pelota, a Purépecha sport using balls and long sticks — sort of like field hockey or the Scottish sport of shinty — that has roots in what is now the state of Michoacán dating back some 3,500 years.

“Everyone was very amazed by the performance that we carried out,” said Ana Claudia Collado García, president of the Mexican Federation of Indigenous and Traditional Sports and Games.

Let’s get acquainted with Pelota Purépecha, one of world’s most interesting and inveterate games. 🔥

This game is from Mexico and enlivened the World Nomad Games. 🍀 pic.twitter.com/KLWfGRGdBB

— World Ethnosport Confederation (@worldethnosport) October 19, 2022

The players from Mexico explained the origins of the game, showed the two types of balls used (one of them soaked in fuel and ignited), and covered the rules and the meaning of the game. They also played some exhibitions, a few of them in a 15,000-capacity stadium used for the opening ceremonies. Fans and others were invited to give the sport a try if they wanted to.

“People were very interested,” said Collado, whose agency is part of Mexico’s Multilingual and Community Cultural Actions Program (PACMYC). She said it was the first time that Mexico had participated in an event of this nature.

The first three World Nomad Games were held in 2014, 2016 and 2018 in Kyrgyzstan; after a hiatus for COVID, the games returned this year from Sept. 29 through Oct. 2 in Iznik, Turkey. More than 3,000 athletes from 102 countries were said to have participated.

“P’urhepecha Ball” — according to the website for the 2022 Games — “continues to be practiced by [I]ndigenous communities” and is played on courts that are 120 meters long and 6-to-8 meters wide, with six to eight players on each team.

“The ball is hit with a wooden cane with a curve on the lower side (similar to a hockey stick). It has two main modalities: One is practiced during the night with a lit wooden ball, the other one is played during the day with a cloth ball. To score a point, the ball has to cross” the end line of the other team, the website says.

The game begins with a “faceoff” in which two opposing players hit their sticks three times against one another before the ball is put into play.

“The antecedents of the [game] go back to the first settlers of what is now Michoacán,” the website continues. “A legend in Michoacán tells that when the planet Mars was reborn and unleashed natural catastrophes against the Earth, the P’urhépecha people invented the ballgame as a remedy to level the cosmos.”

The Purépecha are an Indigenous people whose population is mainly concentrated in 22 municipalities in central Michoacán, including Pátzcuaro, Quiroga, Tzintzuntzan, Paracho and Uruapan, and other smaller towns and villages that are more remote. Speakers of the P’urhé language are in 95 of the 113 municipalities of the state.

Some of the other sports contested at the World Nomad Games — at which medals are handed out — include alysh (a type of belt wrestling), salburun (which combines falconry, archery and hunting) and kok-boru (a sport similar to buzkashi, in which horseback riders attempt to move a goat or calf carcass into a goal). Don’t expect to see that one on ESPN.

With reports from Excelsior

Operetta about a 19th-century Guadalajara friar a surprise hit with tapatios

By

John Pint

-

November 4, 2022

0

Vladimir Gomez conducts "Réquiem for Fray Antonio Alcalde" in Guadalajara — Thanks to the show's main musical writer and conductor Vladimir Gómez, his Zapopan Chamber Orchestra was one of two orchestras that performed in the show.

“I didn’t expect to learn the history of my city in a context like this, through song and dance and fantasy. I didn’t know Guadalajara had nearly ceased to exist because of a plague of locusts and then again barely survived an epidemic of smallpox that wiped out 50,000 people in New Spain. And I had no idea Fray Antonio was such a fierce defender of women’s rights. Operettas are usually kind of silly, but this was profound and educational and at the same time very simpático.”

This was the enthusiastically surprised opinion of a woman who attended the premiere of “Réquiem for Fray Antonio Alcalde,” a two-hour spectacle presented at the Guadalajara campus of the Tec de Monterrey university on October 28, in memory of the Dominican priest who served as Guadalajara’s bishop from 1771 to his death in 1792. During this period, Alcalde built the San Miguel Hospital and founded the Universidad de Guadalajara. At least, that’s what he’s known for, but his accomplishments hardly stop there.

To demonstrate that Alcalde did much more than that, the two-hour event, directed by Beto Ruiz, with music by Vladirmir Gómez, Pedro Martínez del Pasó and Carlos Lay, employed two orchestras, two dance troops, two mariachi musicians, a theater group, lots of Tec University students and a giant background screen, not to mention the contribution of Mexican opera baritone Jesús Suaste.

A total of over 80 people onstage contributed to a show that somehow managed to combine elements of opera, operetta and the modern musical.

Theater production of "Réquiem for Fray Antonio Alcalde" in Guadalajara — A few of the 80 performers who were onstage say goodbye to the enthusiastic audience.

“This project,” said Vladimir Gómez, director of the Zapopan Chamber Orchestra — as well as the Tec de Monterrey Orchestra — “was proposed by an organization called The Fray Antonio Alcalde Foundation, which contacted the Tec de Monterrey with the idea of producing a “requiem” about Alcalde. You see, the Tec already has a tradition of doing what they call requiems for famous people, to recall their lives.

“Usually these requiems are simply readings, but we decided to do this for Alcalde on a big scale, with acting and dancing and live music. So I wrote music especially for this purpose.”

Gómez, who wrote most of the music for this show, told me that this spectacle narrates how Alcalde ended up in Mexico, first in Yucatán and then in Guadalajara. It also includes a bit about his outlook on life and his philosophy.

“Into all this,” he says, “we mixed a bit of fiction, a story about a couple in love in Spain, but the boy has to go to Mexico to study and he ends up in Guadalajara because Alcalde founded a university here. This is a period piece, set in the 1700s, so we added a bit of conflict to make a good show.

“I don’t know if this is an operetta or a musical, but it’s definitely not an opera. It’s a Frankenstein! There’s even a Broadway-style song in it.”

I asked Gómez how he became interested in music. He told me that, as a child, he happened to live very close to Guadalajara’s most prestigious theatre, the Degollado.

“As a boy,” he confessed, “I thought about nothing but fútbol (soccer), but my home was just two blocks from the Degollado, so that was my favorite place to hang out. It was all fun. Instead of watching TV, I would watch the rehearsal of a ballet or an opera or a folk dance.”

On one special day, Gómez told me, he was in the Degollado and heard a Stabat Mater [a Christian hymn to the Virgin Mary] by Rossini.

Mural by Jorge Monroy in Guadalajara's Hospital Civil — This mural featuring the 18th-century Catholic bishop of Guadalajara, Antonio Alcalde, a local hero of the city, is by artist Jorge Monroy. You can see it in Guadalajara’s Hospital Civil.

“I fell in love with the tenor’s aria and the a cappella chorus,” he explained. “I was mesmerized, and I said, ‘This is what I want to do. I want to make music like this.’ So I started singing in the chorus, and I learned to read music.”

At the age of 16, curious circumstances brought Gómez and opera together.

“I was in the Degollado watching a rehearsal,” he said, “and suddenly, for some reason, the chorus had to leave. So, there was the orchestra with no chorus, and the director looked out at the seats and saw me sitting there, and he said, ‘How about you, joven (young man)? Can you sing this?’

“’Yes,’ I said.

“‘Okay,’ he said. ‘Come over here!’ So I came and I sang for the orchestra, and that’s how my career began.”

The requiem presented at the Tec de Monterrey is just one of several projects bringing back the memory of Fray Alcalde in Guadalajara. New interest in the friar’s achievements was probably sparked in 2017 with the completion of a huge mural painted by local artist Jorge Monroy inside the city’s new public hospital.

Both the mural and the requiem remind the public of the curious manner in which an unknown friar in a lonely monastery in Spain ended up becoming the Bishop of Guadalajara.

It seems that when Alcalde was in his 60s, he was the abbot of the Valverde monastery in Spain. One evening, a group of hunters knocked at the gate, among them the king.

“We were lost in the woods,” said the king, “and we want to spend the night here.” Since the king’s visit was unexpected, he ended up sleeping in a very austere room adorned by nothing but a grinning human skull. During this visit, the King was impressed by Alcade’s keen mind and humility, as well as the fact that the abbot had succeeded so well at staying out of politics that he was totally unknown at court.

The following day, the king was back in his palace, and the order of the day was to designate a bishop for Mexico. Immediately, the king said, “We will send the friar of the skull.” Although he didn’t remember the abbot’s name, he did remember that skull. From then on, Alcalde was known as “The Friar of the Skull.”

This anecdote, of course, is just the beginning of the story of Fray Antonio Alcalde. If you’d like to hear more—in an entertaining way—you need to catch the next performance of this operetta-musical, but “I have no idea when that will be,” says Vladimir Gómez. “My ultimate aim is to turn this into a real opera.”

We are standing by. Viva the Friar of the Skull!

The writer has lived near Guadalajara, Jalisco, since 1985. His most recent book is Outdoors in Western Mexico, Volume Three. More of his writing can be found on his blog.

Record numbers of migrants are dying at Mexico-U.S. border

By

MND Staff

-

November 4, 2022

0

The International Search Brigade for Disappeared Persons searches for signs of their loved ones along the Mexico-US border wall outside of Mexicali, in an area where migrants frequently cross. Adolfo Vladimir / Cuartoscuro.com

A record high of over 850 migrants died while attempting to enter the United States unlawfully from Mexico in the 12 months to the end of September, according to internal U.S. government data obtained by CBS News.

United States fiscal year 2022 was the deadliest year for migrants recorded by the U.S. government, CBS reported, citing internal Border Patrol statistics that showed that at least 853 migrants perished in the Rio Grande or on U.S. soil after entering that country illegally.

The figure is 56% higher than the previous record of 546 deaths, recorded by Border Patrol in fiscal year 2021, and underscores just how dangerous crossing into the U.S. between official ports of entry can be.

“Many migrants have drowned in the Rio Grande. Others have perished due to the extreme heat in the inhospitable desert terrain along some parts of the U.S. southern border,” CBS reported.

Migrants wade across the Rio Grande between the U.S. and Mexico. File photo

“U.S. officials have also reported deadly falls from border barriers that migrants sometimes climb. But even when migrants successfully enter the U.S., the trek can still be deadly, as illustrated by the deaths of 53 migrants abandoned inside a tractor-trailer in June, the deadliest human smuggling case in U.S. history.”

The aunt of a Peruvian migrant who drowned in the Rio Grande along with eight others in September told CBS that her nephew traveled to the Mexico-U.S. border in pursuit of the “American dream.”

“My nephew’s death has left us devastated,” said Rose Lee, who lives in southern California. “It’s a very tragic death, to travel so far and die in an unknown place.”

A spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which oversees Border Patrol, told CBP that human smugglers — known in Mexico as coyotes or polleros — place migrants lives at risk.

“Smuggling organizations are abandoning migrants in remote and dangerous areas, leading to a rise in the number of rescues but also tragically a rise in the number of deaths,” Cecilia Barreda said in a statement.

“The terrain along the border is extreme, the summer heat is severe, and the miles of desert migrants must hike after crossing the border in many areas are unforgiving.”

Migrant policy analysts told CBS that the data showing there were 853 migrant deaths in fiscal year 2022 was likely an undercount due to data collection limits, while a report published in April by the United States Government Accountability Office said that Border Patrol was not collecting and reporting “complete data on migrant deaths.”

The record number of deaths coincided with a record number of encounters between U.S. authorities and migrants. CBP data shows that almost 2.4 million migrants were intercepted after crossing into the U.S. in fiscal year 2022, with that figure accounting for people who entered the country illegally more than once. It was the first time that more than 2 million migrant arrests were made at the U.S.-Mexico border during a fiscal year.

A holding facility for detained migrants. U.S. Customs and Border Patrol

CBP statistics show that Border Patrol completed just over 22,000 migrant “rescues” in the same period, a reference to operations to assist illegal border crossers who were in distress and at risk of dying. That figure was 72% higher than in fiscal year 2021.

Theresa Cardinal Brown, managing director of immigration and cross-border policy at the Washington D.C.-based Bipartisan Policy Center, said that crossing the border into the U.S. has become more dangerous, but she also acknowledged that the record number of migrants deaths occurred at a time when a lot more people are trying to enter the country unlawfully.

For decades, U.S. policy has focused on making it more difficult — and consequently more dangerous — for migrants to enter the U.S. illegally, she told CBS. However, Cardinal Brown said that the high number of migrant deaths is also a product of the actions of smuggling networks and the willingness of people to undertake dangerous journeys to escape from poverty and violence in their countries of origin.

Large numbers of Venezuelans, Haitians, Cubans and Central Americans from the northern triangle countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador have entered Mexico in recent years to travel to the border with the United States to try and enter that country, either by seeking asylum or crossing illegally.

“… Desperate people do desperate things, and desperate things are often dangerous things,” said Cardinal Brown, a former immigration official with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

“Is there a role that U.S. policy plays? Well, yes. But there’s also the role of migrants in deciding to do this and the smugglers in encouraging it,” she said.

The Mexican government has appeased its United States counterpart by using the National Guard and immigration officers to stop migrants from reaching the northern border, but as the CBP data indicates, many have still made it to the U.S.

Those who have encountered Mexican authorities have been subjected to abuses such as arbitrary detentions, excessive use of force and sexual violence, according to a report published by six non-governmental organizations earlier this year.

“Mexico has opted for the implementation of a migration policy without a human rights focus, making use of the National Guard and other military forces as an apparatus of migration control even when this goes against migration regulations and international human rights law,” the Bajo La Bota (Under the Boot) report said.

“… The National Guard members [carrying out] migration tasks don’t act as guarantors of rights but as agents of containment and deportation or even as generators of risks for migrants and their families.”

With reports from CBS News

Mexico-US nuclear energy agreement comes into force

By

MND Staff

-

November 4, 2022

0

laguna verde gate — Laguna Verde in Veracruz is the only nuclear power plant operated by the state-owned Federal Electricity Commission (CFE). Gob. de México

A nuclear energy agreement between Mexico and the United States took effect on Wednesday, the U.S. government said.

The Department of State said in a statement that the Agreement for Cooperation in Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy — signed by the two countries in 2018 and approved by Mexico’s Senate in March — had entered into force.

“The agreement will enhance our cooperation on energy security and strengthen our diplomatic and economic relationship,” the statement said.

“This is the first bilateral agreement for peaceful nuclear cooperation between the United States and Mexico. The Agreement builds on the nearly 80 years of peaceful nuclear cooperation between our two countries and establishes the conditions for continued U.S. civil nuclear trade with Mexico.”

Inside the Laguna Verde nuclear power plant in Veracruz. Gob. de México

The State Department said that civil nuclear cooperation agreements “provide a legal framework for exports of nuclear material, equipment, and components from the United States to another country.”

The agreement with Mexico “provides a comprehensive framework for peaceful nuclear cooperation … based on a mutual commitment to nuclear nonproliferation,” the department said.

“It will permit the transfer of nuclear material, equipment (including reactors), components, and information for nuclear research and nuclear power production.”

Mexico’s state-owned Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) operates one nuclear power plant with two reactors — the Laguna Verde plant in the Veracruz municipality of Alto Lucero de Gutiérrez Barrios. A CFE official said in late 2019 that the company believed it was “advisable” to install two more reactors at that plant and two on the Pacific coast, but that hasn’t happened.

The United States has 54 nuclear power plants in 28 states, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Energy Minister Rocío Nahle has indicated she is open to the expansion of nuclear power in Mexico, and said in late 2020 that the CFE was considering building a small nuclear plant in Baja California. “Do we want more nuclear energy? Yes, I’m convinced,” she said at the time.

Nahle said on Twitter last year that nuclear energy is “clean, safe, constant and profitable,” adding that the two CFE reactors in Veracruz work “safely and efficiently in accordance with global safety standards, supervised by international organizations.”

Neither the energy minister nor the department she heads has commented on the entry into force of the agreement with the United States.

President López Obrador in a March meeting with U.S. climate envoy John Kerry and U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar. Presidencia de la República

John Kerry, the United States special presidential envoy for climate, was in Mexico last week and met with President López Obrador to discuss renewable energy. Kerry said Wednesday that López Obrador was set to make a major announcement with regard to Mexico’s climate commitments.

“I was just in Mexico a few days ago and we will have a major announcement, which President López Obrador has agreed to with respect to what Mexico is now going to undertake,” he told a press conference ahead of his trip to Egypt to attend COP27, the 27th annual United Nations meeting on climate.

It was unclear whether Mexico might commit to increasing the generation of energy with nuclear reactors as part of a plan to cut emissions. The agreement with the U.S. could facilitate such an undertaking.

Nuclear reactors “do not produce direct carbon dioxide emissions” while operating, but “the processes for mining and refining uranium ore and making reactor fuel all require large amounts of energy”, according to the EIA.

López Obrador has championed the ongoing use of fossil fuels to generate power, but his government is also modernizing hydroelectric plants.

In a virtual address earlier this year to the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, hosted by U.S. President Joe Biden, the president presented 10 “actions” Mexico is “implementing in the fight against climate change.”

Among the climate change-fighting actions cited by López Obrador were the modernization of 16 hydroelectric plants; Pemex’s investment of US $2 billion to reduce its methane gas emissions by up to 98%; the construction of a 1,000-megawatt solar farm in Puerto Peñasco, Sonora; and the planting of fruit and timber-yielding trees on 1 million hectares of land by means of the Sembrando Vida (Sowing Life) employment/reforestation program.

With reports from Reuters

Senate unanimously passes bill to double paid vacation for Mexican workers

By

MND Staff

-

November 4, 2022

0

The Senate in session on Thursday. — The bill, first approved by the Senate in November, has now been finalized. Senado de México

On Thursday, the Senate unanimously approved a bill that modifies federal labor law to double annual leave for workers. For new employees, that would mean an increase from six to 12 days of annual paid leave after the first year of employment.

Entitled “Vacaciones Dignas Ya” (Decent Holidays Now), the bill also grants workers two days per subsequent year of service up to 20 days and, from the sixth year onward, paid leave would increase by two days for every five years of service until reaching the maximum statutory entitlement of 32 days.

The president of the Labor and Social Welfare Commission, Senator Napoleón Gómez Urrutia of the Morena party, explained that the bill seeks to guarantee more time off for rest and recreation. “Work is one of the many components of a full life. In the same way, we need free time for our personal development,” he said.

The current legislation has not been amended in 52 years, placing Mexico as one of the world economies with the shortest initial annual leave. According to data from the World Policy Analysis Center, this is only comparable with countries like Brunei, Malaysia, Uganda, the Philippines and Thailand. It is also way below the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) recommendation of at least 18 workdays based on a statutory six-day workweek.

Under the current scheme, it would take a worker in Mexico 45 years of service in the same company to equal the vacation period to which the labor force in Brazil or Panama is entitled from the first year of work.

At the same time, the World Health Organization has reported that Mexico ranks highest in the world for levels of work-related stress. These statistics go in hand with those from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which places Mexico as one of the member states with the highest working hours but one of the least productive.

The project was proposed in September by Citizens Movement party Senator Patricia Mercado and will next go to the lower house of Congress for a final vote. If approved, it will bring Mexico closer to meeting the ILO’s recommendation and could also increase productivity. “The issue at hand seeks to ensure that workers participate in productivity gains through better wages and more leisure time,” said Gómez Urrutia.

Assuming the bill goes on to become law, the new legal terms would affect all valid individual or collective work contracts at the time of the law’s entry into force, which is estimated for Jan. 1, 2023, or the day after its publication.

With reports from Forbes México, El Economista and El Canal del Congreso

Mexico was United States’ No. 1 trade partner in September, new data shows

By

MND Staff

-

November 3, 2022

0

The Ensenada International Terminal in Baja California. Sherry V. Smith / Depositphotos

Mexico was the United States’ largest trade partner for a second consecutive month in September with two-way trade increasing 23% to more than US $67 billion, new data shows.

United States Census Bureau data shows that two-way trade totaled $67.4 billion in September, with almost 60% of that amount coming from Mexican exports to its northern neighbor.

Mexican exports were worth just over $39.5 billion in September while imports from the U.S. were worth just over $27.9 billion.

That left Mexico with a monthly trade surplus of almost $11.6 billion, a 25.3% increase compared to the same month last year.

The value of its exports — which include cars, computers, oil and agricultural products — was up 23.3% annually in September, while Mexico’s outlay on U.S. imports increased 22.5%. It was the 19th consecutive month that the value of Mexican exports to the U.S. increased on an annual basis.

The value of trade between Mexico and the United States was slightly higher than that between the U.S. and Canada in both August and September.

Mexico and the U.S. shipped goods worth $587.5 billion to each other in the first nine months of the year, a new record for the period and a 21% increase compared to last year. Mexican exports accounted for almost $341.7 billion, or 58%, of the total, while imports from the U.S. were worth $245.8 billion. Mexico thus had a trade surplus of $95.8 billion with the U.S. in the first nine months of the year, a new record high.

While Mexico was the United States No. 1 trade partner in August and September, it is in second spot behind Canada for the January-September period, as U.S.-Canada trade was worth a slightly higher $604.1 billion to the end of the latter month.

U.S.-China trade totaled just under $526.8 billion in the period, making the Asian economic powerhouse the No. 3 trade partner of the world’s largest economy in the first nine months of the year.

With reports from El Financiero, Reforma and El Economista