Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, left, welcomes Venezuelan President Maduro.
The federal government came under fire in both Mexico and the United States for welcoming the leaders of Cuba and Venezuela for a regional summit on Saturday.
The head of the National Action Party (PAN) and two Republican lawmakers were critical of Mexico’s reception of Miguel Díaz-Canel and Nicolás Maduro for the 2021 Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) summit, held at the National Palace in Mexico City.
“López Obrador has turned Mexico into a dictators’ meeting place,” PAN national president Marko Cortés wrote on Twitter 0n Saturday.
“He’s using his pro tempore leadership of CELAC to degrade our country,” he said. “As a free and democratic country we should be condemning the methods of torture used in Cuba and Venezuela.”
Cortés was also critical of López Obrador’s complimentary remarks about Cuba while hosting Díaz-Canel for Independence Day celebrations last week.
“It’s an aberration that our current president says that Cuba is a [great] example of a nation,” he said. “Could it be because it’s a totalitarian state that persecutes he who thinks differently [and] where freedoms and rights are not respected? A disgrace!”
Ex-president Vicente Fox, who held office for the PAN between 2000 and 2006, and former first lady Margarita Zavala, whose husband Felipe Calderón also represented the PAN, expressed support for Paraguayan President Mario Abdo Benítez, who rejected the legitimacy of Maduro’s presidency at Saturday’s summit.
In the United States, Congressman Michael McCaul, a Republican party representative for Texas, released a statement to decry the attendance of the Cuban and Venezuelan leaders at the CELAC summit.
“As a strong supporter of the U.S.-Mexico relationship, I am disappointed the government of Mexico is hosting Cuba and Venezuela’s dictators, and seeking to weaken the Organization of American States [OAS],” the head of the House Foreign Affairs Committee wrote.
“The Venezuelan and Cuban regimes have Americans unlawfully imprisoned and commit serious human rights violations. Nicolás Maduro also has an open indictment in the U.S. for narco-terrorism. Our Western Hemisphere is stronger with the OAS as the preeminent forum, and member states must remain committed to democratic governance and upholding human rights.”
McCaul previously rejected Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard’s call for the Washington-headquartered OAS, which was established in 1948, to be replaced with a new organization for the 21st century.
Representative María Elvira Salazar of Florida, the daughter of Cuban exiles, posted a video message to social media to denounce López Obrador’s invitation to Díaz-Canel.
She expressed sympathy to “my poor Mexican brothers and sisters” because they have a president “of such little stature – not just intellectually but also morally” who invited and showed reverence to a leader who keeps the Cuban people in misery.
The United States government hasn’t formally responded to López Obrador’s calls for it to lift the trade embargo on Cuba, but new U.S. Ambassador Ken Salazar urged Mexico not to get distracted from its bilateral relationship with its neighbor.
“We respect the sovereignty of Mexico [but] our position, that of the United States, in Cuba is that we’re going to continue fighting for democracy. … My perspective is that the United States and Mexico [should be] focused more on the things we can do [together] and not get distracted from what we have to do,” the ambassador said during a weekend trip to Tabasco.
Cable cars were out of commission for an hour on Sunday.
A power failure on a cable car line in the east side of Mexico City left passengers stranded in mid-air for almost an hour on Sunday evening.
Line 2 of the Cablebús in Iztapalapa, the most populous municipality in the country, was suspended for 40-50 minutes from around 7:00 p.m. The transit service reported on Twitter shortly after 8:00 p.m. that passengers were being helped to descend from cabins. Service resumed at around 9:00 p.m.
It was the second electricity failure on Line 2 this month, after power was lost due to the 7.2-magnitude earthquake on September 7. The line went into operation on August 8.
“The company that manages the line is carrying out the necessary inspections to determine the reason for the delay,” Cablebús reported.
Line 2 was constructed and is operated by the Italian company Leitner. The company serviced a cable car line in northern Italy between 2014 and 2016 which collapsed in May, leaving 14 people dead. It has offices in Italy, Austria, France, Slovakia and the United States.
Passengers took to Twitter to criticize the faulty service. “… In a hurry you come enthusiastically to try the ‘fast and efficient’ option of the @MICablebusCDMX line 2 and you get trapped for more than 40 minutes in mid-air … due to ‘system failures,'” wrote one user.
Another described the “desperation” felt by her family while trapped in the cable car.
Line 2 has improved connectivity in working class Iztapalapa through seven stops linking Metro stations Constitución de 1917 and Santa Marta by a 36-minute journey end-to-end. The 10.8-kilometer line has 305 cabins, and cuts the journey by almost 50 minutes. It cost 3.18 billion pesos (almost US $159 million) to build.
The Cablebús system began operating on June 11 through Line 1, connecting the Gustavo A. Madero borough to the Indios Verdes Metro and bus station. The first cable car to open in the Valley of México was the Mexicable in Ecatepec in October 2016. A new 8.2-kilometer line is under construction in the same municipality, and there have been discussions about a new service in the west side of Mexico City in Naucalpan, and another in the southwest of the city to connect the neighborhoods of Magdalena Contreras and Tlalpan.
Soldiers clean up after last week's flooding in Zacatecas.
A 24-hour flood alert was issued in Hidalgo on Sunday evening for municipalities in the Tula region that have already experienced severe flooding this month.
The National Water Commission (Conagua) warned that the Tula River, dams and other bodies of water could overflow again Monday due to the persistent heavy rain in the Valley of México, with risk particularly high at around 3:00 p.m.
Conagua said the risk had increased due to the high level of water in sewage tunnels which run toward Hidalgo from Mexico City and the state of México. “Due to the flow from the [sewage tunnels] TEC and the TEO, it is expected that from 3:00 p.m. the level of the Tula River will rise, until it reaches its critical capacity, and it may overflow,” the commission said.
Two temporary shelters have been set up in Tula in case of flooding.
Meanwhile, Zacatecas has requested that flooding in the state be declared an emergency by federal authorities, which would facilitate access to emergency funds. The San Aparicio dam overflowed after heavy rains on Thursday and Friday, affecting 1,270 people.
Water levels reached up to one and a half meters in some homes. Electricity and telephone services were suspended on Saturday evening.
Governor David Monreal sent a letter to Civil Protection chief Laura Velázquez Alzúa which declared that “the operational and financial capacity of the state has been overwhelmed” by the flooding.
The petition was accompanied by photographic and geotagged evidence to demonstrate the severity of the damage and the number of people affected.
Two temporary shelters have been serving affected residents.
Migrants cross a shallow area of the Rio Grande to reach a camp that now houses over 14,000 people.
Haitian migrants in Mexico will soon be deported on repatriation flights from two cities, according to the Associated Press (AP).
AP said it was informed by a federal agency that flights to Haiti from Monterrey, Nuevo León, and Tapachula, Chiapas, will commence in the coming days. The agency wasn’t identified because the officials who spoke to AP weren’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly. Mexico’s decision to fly Haitians home in large numbers represents a divergence from current practice as just 85 were repatriated between January and July, AP reported.
The speed at which Mexico can send the migrants back to their homeland will depend on how quickly Haitian authorities can confirm their nationality, the unidentified agency told AP. The airports chosen for the flights are relatively close to areas where large numbers of Haitians are concentrated.
Monterrey is about 500 kilometers south of Ciudad Acuña, a city in Coahuila where thousands of Haitian migrants have recently crossed the Rio Grande to enter the United States. It is just over 200 kilometers southeast of Reynosa, Tamaulipas, where hundreds more Haitians arrived over the weekend and many migrants are living in camps and shelters.
Located just north of the border with Guatemala, Tapachula is a hub for migrants who have recently entered Mexico. Many Haitians were returned there in recent weeks after being detained by authorities while walking northward in Chiapas in four migrant caravans.
The members of the caravan left the southern city after growing tired of waiting for their asylum claims to be processed. Some had been stranded in Tapachula for months.
About 19,000 Haitians have entered Mexico this year, more than triple the number who arrived in 2020. Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, remains mired in political turmoil in the wake of the assassination of its president in early July, and was struck by a devastating earthquake on August 14.
Thousands of Haitians who managed to reach Mexico’s northern border – with or without humanitarian visas that allowed them to transit the country legally – gathered last week in a makeshift camp below the Del Rio International Bridge in Texas.
There were 13,700 migrants in the camp on Friday, according to an estimate by Frank Joe Martínez, police chief in Val Verde County, located across the border from Ciudad Acuña. By Monday, the figure had climbed to 14,500.
The United States has already begun sending Haitians in the camp back to Haiti; three flights to Port-au-Prince departed Sunday. Six repatriation flights are expected to leave the United States on Tuesday, while seven are scheduled for Wednesday, according to a U.S. official who spoke with AP.
Acuña Civil Protection chief Carlos Flores said that neither his municipality nor Val Verde county have the capacity to attend to the large numbers of migrants who have descended on their shared border.
The migrants’ camp below the Del Rio International Bridge in Texas.
He said between 2,000 and 3,000 additional Haitian migrants are expected to arrive in Acuña this week. If the United States prevents them from crossing the Rio Grande, they would be left stranded in Acuña, a city of about 200,000 people.
“[Now] they get off buses and go directly to the crossing point. They don’t sit down in the [central] square or look for a shelter, … they go directly to the crossing point,” Flores said, referring to an area on the Rio Grande known as La Cuchilla.
“You can see that they have money. They’re families, you see a lot of parents with small children in their arms. They come back to Acuña to buy water, toilet paper, food. … There’s not a major problem now but if things get more difficult, what are we going to do? Acuña and Del Rio are not prepared to cope with this number of people,” he said.
The likelihood that things will become more difficult appears high as U.S. authorities began blocking the entry of migrants on Sunday. Border Patrol agents on horseback and Texas law enforcement officials prevented some migrants from re-entering the Del Rio International Bridge camp after they had crossed to Acuña to buy essentials, which the migrants say are not available in the camp.
A video published by Reuters showed one agent using what appeared to be a lariat against migrants as they reached the United States after wading across the Rio Grande. U.S. authorities had allowed migrants to cross back and forth at a shallow point of the river to buy food and water, but told them on Sunday they would no longer be permitted back into the country if they went to Mexico.
“We’re trapped,” 37-year-old Haitian Joncito Jean told Reuters. The migrant, who has been sleeping on a sheet on the ground with his wife and two small children for the past three days, said he regretted the decision to come to the border.
“There are no human conditions. … We have to break out to buy water,” he said.
However, United States Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz said that food and assistance were available to migrants in Del Rio.
“We are providing food, water, portable toilets, towels, emergency medical technicians are available for first aid,” he told a news conference Sunday.
“Over the next six to seven days our goal is to process the 12,662 migrants that we have underneath that bridge as quickly as we possibly can,” Ortiz said. “What we want to make sure is that we deter the migrants from coming into the region so we can manage the folks that are under the bridge at this point.”
Most of the Haitians are likely to end up on planes bound for home. According to the U.S. Border Patrol, some 3,300 migrants have already been removed from the Del Rio camp and and sent to detention centers or back to Haiti, despite protests from Haitian authorities who say they don’t have the resources to handle thousands of homeless deportees. Those deported were presumably deemed not to be genuine refugees and their claims for asylum in the U.S. were therefore rejected.
Meanwhile, a group of more than 400 Haitian migrants spent Friday night at a convention center in San Fernando, Tamaulipas, before traveling to Reynosa on Saturday, the newspaper El Universal reported. The members of the caravan, who traveled on foot and hitched rides where they could, reached a National Guard checkpoint early on Saturday afternoon but were not prevented from continuing their journey.
“Hallelujah!” they shouted after passing the checkpoint, where they thought they would be detained. Once in Reynosa, the migrants underwent health checks and were tested for COVID-19, El Universal said.
Ricardo Calderón, head of the Tamaulipas Institute for Migrants, said the Haitians attempted to cross the international bridge between Reynosa and Hidalgo, Texas, but were stopped by U.S. authorities. They were expected to head to Ciudad Acuña, although they will likely be blocked from entering the U.S. there as well.
Apples ready to harvest in Canatlán, Durango. Alfonso García Soto
You probably don’t associate apple farming with Mexico, but it is regionally important, especially in areas where few other commercial crops grow.
The main reason is that apples grow well in the high, cold and very rugged areas of Mexico, as they need the cold that would kill many other fruits.
Apple cultivation started only 20 years after the conquest, but it was prohibited to the indigenous, most likely because its primary purpose was to make hard cider. This kept the fruit from becoming a widespread part of the colonial diet, but missionaries later did bring the tree north as they introduced agriculture to nomadic peoples.
Today, apple trees can be found everywhere that they can grow in Mexico, but they account for only 3% of Mexico’s commercial fruit production. Most are grown in small orchards or in backyards, so they have not reached their full potential as a commercial crop.
Most of Mexico’s 15 federally defined apple-growing regions are in the Sierra Madre Occidental, stretching from Chihuahua to parts of Oaxaca and Chiapas. The top producers are Chihuahua, Puebla, Durango and Coahuila, but Chihuahua is far in the lead, producing anywhere from 70% to over 90% of Mexico’s apples (depending on which source you believe).
Mennonite girl with apples in Cuauhtémoc, Chihuahua. Arely Flo/Wikimedia Commons
Chihuahua also leads in the production of table-ready fruit, which commands a higher price. This is due in part to low precipitation, which mars the apples’ skins, but also due to a history that includes American and Canadian immigrants such as the Mennonites, who were used to growing apples in their colder homelands and developed markets and introduced new technologies.
Most of Chihuahua’s apples are grown in and around the municipality of Cuauhtémoc. This area not only has over 2,500 growers, but also many greenhouses, packing plants and apple processing plants.
Puebla has the oldest apple industry in Mexico, focused mostly on the municipalities of Huejotzingo and Zacatlán. Most fruit is for processing into juice, vinegar, tea and, very traditionally, a sweet, bubbly alcoholic cider.
History plays a role here, but so does Puebla’s far rainier climate, which eliminates much of the need for irrigation, but does also potentially contribute to damage to the apples’ skins and pest infestations that can ruin whole crops.
Much of Durango shares the same climate advantages that Chihuahua has, but a lack of private and public investment hinders the state’s farmers. Here, apple production is concentrated in and around Canatlán, near the city of Durango proper.
Although increasing in other places, Durango’s production has dropped, says Alfonso García Soto of the Sistema Productor de Manzana, which represents about 100 Durango farmers. The main issue is the abandonment of lands suitable for apple production because of the state’s inefficient irrigation system, along with lack of access to needed technology.
Tile mural featuring apples in Zacatlán de las Manzanas, Puebla. Alejandro Linares García
That does not mean that those states that don’t have the production levels of the “Big 4” aren’t looking to compete better. Institutions such as the Autonomous University of Querétaro have done genetic and other research to improve quantity and quality. It is important to these states because apples often grow in some of their poorest municipalities.
Mexico meets 77% of the domestic demand for apples, most of which is consumed fresh. The average Mexican consumes only just over eight kilos per year, compared to Poland (67.5 kilos), Turkey (35.4 kilos), Iran (34.7 kilos) and China (31.4 kilos).
One probable reason Mexico’s consumption is so relatively low is that it does not have a tradition of cooking the fruit that these countries do. Apples are also consumed as juices or other beverages, which utilize about 30% of annual production. After juice boxes, the most important apple drink is a mildly alcoholic carbonated cider, traditional nationwide for Christmas and New Year’s.
Mexico ranks between 20th and 22nd in apple production globally, but it is not a major apple exporter. Its production overall has grown only marginally since 2000. To date, its commercial production and consumption is only regional, but it is still on the federal government’s radar.
According to the National Agricultural Plan 2017–2030, authorities hope to increase production by 40% by 2030. The reason for the optimism is that there is much room to grow, if (like in Durango) the right resources and management are available.
One relatively simple technology to implement is the use of special nets that cover trees during certain seasons to protect them, their flowers and young fruit from hail. In the deserts, they also provide shade during the hottest months.
Six-pack of apple cider for sale in Huejotzingo, Puebla. Alejandro Linares García
But these nets are extremely expensive, costing hundreds of thousands of pesos per hectare, out of the reach of most small farmers. And so these farmers have “damaged” fruit, which only industrial processors are interested in and for which they pay a very small amount.
Another area with room to grow is in agricultural tourism. There are few apple farms that offer tours, even those near population centers. Harvest time is between late July and mid-October, with its peak in September.
Although the “pick-your-own” concept is known, especially in northern Mexico, which is closer to the border with the United States, where it is an institution in some states, it has not been implemented as far as I can tell.
Apple towns worth visiting include Cuauhtémoc, Chihuahua; Canatlán, Durango; and Zacatlán, Puebla. Apples mainly attract visitors to the towns proper, rather than to the farms, where restaurants and specialty shops offer apples and apple preparations, especially during harvest season. They generally appeal to local and regional tourists and make for great alternative weekend trips.
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.
The federal government introduced its coronavirus stoplight map in June 2020, but left the responsibility for implementing COVID strategies with the states.
The declining third wave of COVID-19 is reflected in the new coronavirus stoplight risk map, issued Friday by the federal Ministry of Health.
More low-risk green and a lot more medium-risk yellow color the new map that takes effect on Monday.
Baja California Sur and Sinaloa will be painted green, joining Chihuahua and Chiapas, while 24 states will be yellow, nine more than on the map issued two weeks ago.
At high risk and colored orange are four states, down from 13. No states are at maximum risk red.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it: create a convincing, healthy version of crispy, smoky bacon.
It sounded like a good idea: making “imitation” bacon from marinated roasted mushrooms. But what that led to was, well, another experience altogether.
I’m going to tell you right off the bat that I prepared, cooked and ate banana peels — yes, banana peels — in my search for The Perfect Non-Meat Bacon.
I’m also going to tell you that it was pretty terrible and I will not be doing that again. Ever.
Maybe some of you are strict vegans or have health or dietary restrictions that prohibit you from eating real bacon. If that’s the case, perhaps these recipes will be helpful. But if those considerations don’t apply to you, I’d say stick with the real thing in moderation. Learn from my experience. Without having to eat banana peels yourself.
Of the three versions I tried, the “bacon” made with rice paper was the most successful. The process was fairly easy, the flavor was tasty and the finished strips were crispy and a little — just a little — irresistible.
Mushrooms as bacon weren’t bad but lacked the proper mouthfeel.
The mushroom version tasted good too, but were I to make it again, I’d play around with the flavorings. It didn’t taste like or have the mouthfeel of bacon but would work in or with an omelet, in a sandwich or as a side dish.
Really, the recipe is just mushrooms sautéed slowly until they’re dry and almost-but-not-quite crispy, and the marinade imparts a bacon-like flavor. It’s easy to burn them, though, so do be careful.
And the banana peel “bacon?” Well … it tasted like bananas. I don’t care what all those vegan food bloggers say — it tastes like bananas. And it was difficult (read: impossible) for me to get over the fact that I was eating banana peels. BANANA PEELS!
Some of those bloggers touted the fact that “people in other countries have been eating banana peels for years.” What countries, I wondered? Japan has developed a banana with a thin, edible peel; supposedly India includes unpeeled bananas in some recipes (none that I’ve heard of or found).
Scientists say they’re full of nutrients, and that may be so, but I’ve been doing fine these many years without incorporating banana peels into my diet, thank you very much. On another note, watering houseplants with water that you’ve soaked a banana peel in does give plants an added nutrient boost.
Liquid smoke is available through Amazon México and at some large chain grocery stores. A good barbecue sauce can be substituted, but it won’t be quite the same. (Note: Sriracha doesn’t work; it has a decidedly non-smoky flavor.)
Rice Paper “Bacon”
By far the best! Crispy, flavorful and the most like real bacon. The marinade flavorings can be adjusted easily to suit your tastes.
2 Tbsp. sesame oil
2 Tbsp. reduced-sodium soy sauce
2 tsp. maple syrup
1½ tsp. miso paste, if available
1 tsp. liquid smoke, if available OR substitute 1 Tbsp. BBQ sauce
½ tsp. ground paprika
½ tsp. black pepper
2 sheets rice paper
Preheat oven to 400 F. Cover a baking sheet with parchment.
In a shallow bowl, whisk sesame oil, soy sauce, maple syrup, miso, liquid smoke or BBQ sauce, paprika and pepper.
Stack two pieces of rice paper and using scissors, carefully cut into bacon-sized strips. Dip each two-strip slice into the soy mixture for a few seconds; they will soften immediately and stick together. Place on the parchment-covered baking sheet.
Rice paper yielded the most convincing version — a nice smoky flavor and an irresistible crispiness.
Bake, turning once, until strips are dry, 5–8 minutes. Watch carefully that they don’t burn.
Remove from oven and serve. They will be crispy, crunchy and kind of irresistible.
Mushroom Bacon
Any kind of mushroom will work; each will have a slightly different flavor. These do not get crisp but have a bacon-y flavor.
1½ Tbsp. olive oil
1½ Tbsp. soy sauce
½ Tbsp. maple or agave syrup
½ tsp. liquid smoke, if available, OR substitute 1 Tbsp. BBQ sauce
8 oz. mushrooms, sliced
In a bowl, mix olive oil, soy sauce, maple syrup and liquid smoke/BBQ sauce. Add sliced mushrooms; gently toss to evenly coat mushrooms.
Fried Method: Heat a large nonstick frying pan over medium-high heat. When the pan is hot, add mushrooms and any leftover marinade. You want mushrooms to be in a single layer on bottom of the pan.
Sauté 5–10 minutes without stirring, flipping once when they’re golden on the bottom. Transfer to a paper towel-covered plate for a minute; serve warm.
Baked Method: Preheat oven to 375 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment. Spread mushroom slices in a single layer on prepared baking sheet, adding any leftover marinade. Bake 18–25 minutes until dark golden and reduced in size. Cool for a minute; serve warm.
Banana Peel Bacon
Numerous vegan cooking blogs touted this as “quite delicious” with a “subtle hint of banana taste.” I beg to differ.
2 very ripe banana peels
3 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 Tbsp. maple syrup
½ tsp. smoked paprika
½ tsp. garlic powder
1 Tbsp. light oil (or more if needed)
These may look like the real deal, but don’t be fooled!
Note: Be sure bananas are very ripe but not bruised; spotted all over are the best. “The riper the banana the better the flavor.”
Remove peels from bananas; tear into 4 strips per banana. Using a spoon, scrape off the soft white pulp from the peel pieces using a spoon. Cut off stem ends.
Mix soy sauce, maple syrup, paprika and garlic powder together in a flat bowl big enough for peels to lay in. Add peels and turn to cover. Marinate for at least 15 minutes or up to two hours. (They will look like bacon, but don’t be fooled!)
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add peels. Fry 2–3 minutes per side until they bubble up a little and turn golden brown. Don’t overcook!
Remove from pan, drain on paper towels a few minutes and serve ASAP — they lose their crispness quickly.
Processions were planned for a reflective week. The El Grito celebration on Wednesday would mark the 200th anniversary of Mexican independence.
El Grito, meaning the cry or the shout, had sparked the independence movement on September 15, 1810 when Miguel Hidalgo, a priest from Dolores, Guanajuato, ordered the church bells to ring and urged the people to rise up against their oppressors and take back their land with the cry “Long live Mexico!” On August 24 1821 Spain finally called time on so-called “New Spain,”and recognized independence with the Treaty of Córdoba.
Monday
The week of patriotism had arrived, the president announced. Monday would commemorate the defense of Chapultepec Castle by the “Heroic Children” who fought off U.S. aggressors in 1847. Wednesday was “El Grito,” and the presidential raffle; Thursday promised an air parade; Friday a meeting of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac); and on Sunday flags would fly at half mast for victims of the 1985 earthquake.
A journalist had first dibs from Friday. Why, she posed, were Mexicans living abroad not being afforded the opportunity to exercise their vote? The National Electoral Institute, she said, appeared an “enemy of democracy.”
“If you analyze how much has been spent to achieve that [facilitating voting abroad] and what the results have been, we see that there hasn’t been any progress, very few people [living abroad] are participating,” said the president, before assigning the task to Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard.
Later in the conference, the president claimed that today’s corruption could be traced to the conquest. “The treasure of Moctezuma [the fallen, last Aztec ruler] kept diminishing because it was being robbed since the so-called conquest … when it was divided up there was almost nothing left … those at the top had kept the grand part of the treasure.”
AMLO offered journalists’ his Oaxaca plans: on Sunday he would go to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and give the morning news conference from the southern state on Monday. However, he lamented that time wouldn’t permit him to drop in on the Mixes, an indigenous group.
Tuesday
AMLO the hustler arrived on Tuesday: Lottery tickets “are 250 pesos, but it’s a stadium box, apartments, houses … and you have to trust your luck.”
COVID supremo Hugo López-Gatell declared that case numbers were falling in all states, and for the sixth consecutive week hospital numbers were down. Despite schools reopening, there hadn’t been an increase in cases among young people, he said. Education Minister Delfina Gómez Álvarez announced modestly improved school attendance with just over half of students having returned to classes.
Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez cracks a smile on Tuesday.
Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard spelled out the results of the high-level conference in Washington, D.C.: there would be bilateral coordination on supply chains and convergence on health regulations, but there was no big announcement on migration.
Interior Minister Adán Augusto López gave an update on the release of prisoners due to torture, old age and a few other circumstances, which did not include those accused or sentenced for more severe crimes. On Wednesday 682 prisoners would be released and 4,233 cases were under review. However, the decree only covered the 7.4% of prisoners who are in federal lockups.
The president was up. He said he wanted to appoint the governor of Sinaloa, Quirino Ordaz, as the Mexican ambassador to Spain. Ordaz belongs to the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
“They [PRI] got very annoyed,” AMLO said of the party’s reaction to one of their number aligning himself with the rival Morena party.
Later he announced that border municipalities would complete their second doses of COVID vaccine on Tuesday, and that he would soon meet with the newly arrived U.S. Ambassador Ken Salazar.
Wednesday
The Mexican public had to show their patience, for which they are famed, to hear from the president, as there was no morning news conference. But, as goes the tradition, he appeared from his balcony late in the evening to recite the Grito in honor of the heroes of the independence movement. Due to sanitary restrictions, Mexico City’s central zócalo square beneath him was largely empty.
“Mexicans!”
“Long live independence!”
“Long live Miguel Hidalgo and Costilla!”
“Long live José María Morelos and Pavón!”
“Long live Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez!”
A happy moment with reporters.
“Long live Ignacio Allende!”
“Long live Leona Vicario!”
“Long live Vicente Guerrero!”
“Long live the unnamed heroes!”
“Long live justice!”
“Long live equality!”
“Long live democracy!”
“Long live honesty!”
“Long live our autonomy!”
“Long live universal fraternity!”
“Long live love for your neighbor!”
Long live the pre-Hispanic cultures!”
“Long live Mexico!”
“Long live Mexico!”
“Long live Mexico!”
Thursday
Once again, the morning press conference was off. The president waited for the military air parade later in the day to speak publicly.
He began by introducing his guest “His excellency Mr. Miguel-Díaz-Canel, president of the Republic of Cuba,” and then explained why El Grito is more symbolically important than when Spain eventually ceded power. “We Mexicans care more about the initiator, the priest [Miguel] Hidalgo, than [Agustín de] Iturbide, the consummator, because the priest was a defender of the common people and the royalist general represented the elite, those at the top, and just sought to wear the imperial crown.”
The priest, Hidalgo, didn’t mince his words: AMLO read a letter he had sent to a Spanish general. “’The current [independence] movement is great and much more because it deals with recovering holy rights granted by God to Mexicans, usurped by cruel, bastard and unjust conquerors,” he said.
As the president related, Hidalgo’s head ended up on a spike for 10 years looking over Guanajuato’s main square, kept company by the revolutionary heroes Ignacio Allende, Juan Aldama and Dolores Jiménez y Muro, whose heads adorned the other three corners of the Alhóndiga de Granaditas.
After so much talk of colonial struggle, AMLO returned his attention to Cuba. “The people of Cuba deserve the dignity prize … the government I represent respectfully calls on the U.S. government to lift the blockade against Cuba, because no state has the right to subdue another people, another country. It is necessary to remember what George Washington said: ‘Nations must not take advantage of the misfortune of other peoples.’”
“It is a time of brotherhood and not confrontation … Long live the independence of Mexico! Long live the independence of Cuba!”
Friday
AMLO cut short his morning press conference in order to participate in a virtual climate conference hosted by U.S. President Joe Biden.
Later in the day he was busy with the Celac (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) conference, a political bloc and regional forum seen as an alternative to the often derided Organization of American States, headquartered in Washington, D.C.
Leaders and dignitaries joined him in Mexico to discuss issues mainly affecting Spanish speaking America. The only other large country with a different language, Brazil, left the organization in 2020.
Among likely topics of discussion were the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba, how to promote Celac over the OAS and a pan Latin American space program.
A woman at a protest in favor of legal abortion in Querétaro in 2020.
In the Museum of Anthropology in Xalapa, Veracruz, there are figures of cihuateotl, representations of women who died in childbirth.
Eyes closed and mouths open, they were thought to have passed on to their next lives as warriors and were specifically charged with accompanying the sun each night as it made its way through the darkness.
Those statues have always sent a chill up my spine. For most of human history, childbirth has been the leading cause of death for fertile women; even today, it’s not as low on the list as one might think.
As you can probably guess, maternal death rates are higher in low- and middle-income countries. They increase with rates of individual poverty and with a decrease in the age of the mother under 20 years.
And as privileged as I am personally, my daughter and I would have joined the ranks of the dead had it not been for a quick-thinking, experienced and handsomely paid private doctor who got us through a near stroke from preeclampsia and a placenta that had become detached mere seconds before getting my daughter out at barely eight months of gestation.
And let me tell you something, people: that has been the easiest part of motherhood!
Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been reading in horror about the goings-on in my home state of Texas, now the home of the most restrictive anti-abortion laws in the United States. It essentially allows literally anyone – anyone – to punish women for seeking out abortions and to get paid for it (US $10,000 if they win the case, plus their legal fees; if the other side “wins,” however, they get nothing).
I don’t know what you all think, but I’m pretty sure that it will give birth (ha! I can’t help myself) to the creepiest kind of bounty hunter-slash-entrepreneur I’ve ever heard of: “So, she thinks she’s going to get away with being an irresponsible slut, does she? Not on my watch!”
If the law holds, people will be able to make a living off forcing women to carry out their pregnancies, whatever the reasons they may have for possibly choosing not to be damned. (“If I can prevent just one abortion a month, I’ll break 120k a year!”)
At the same time, they get to sanctimoniously pretend that they’re not hurting the women themselves. The women can’t be sued, only every other person in their lives who might help them obtain an abortion; it’s indirect punishment through having a target on the heads of everyone else in their lives.
Who’d have thought that shifting our gazes south of the border would paint a sunnier picture for women’s reproductive rights? I know I was surprised.
Not long ago (in fact, mere weeks ago), women in Mexican states where abortion was illegal could be — and were — punished for seeking out abortions. In fact, just this year, 432 investigations were opened across Mexico into cases of illegal abortion, according to the New York Times.
By law, medical personnel are required to report to the authorities when they suspect a patient of theirs has committed a crime. Since abortion until very recently was a crime in the majority of Mexican states, many women desperate enough to not carry out a pregnancy that they were willing to risk their own lives have faced the decision after a risky DIY abortion gone wrong to either die as a result or go to the hospital to be arrested as soon as they’ve recovered enough to go to jail.
It’s been hard to get a completely accurate account of the exact numbers state by state, but there are currently thousands of women in jail in Mexico (who should hopefully be coming out any day now with clean records) for the crime of having an abortion or attempting to abort. Needless to say, women who had no intention to do so but had miscarriages are also in jail if someone suspected the miscarriage to have been induced and then went to the authorities with their accusations.
There is, of course, resistance, and I think a sizable portion of the population in Mexico would be perfectly happy to see a Texas-style across-the-board prohibition of the medical procedure. And in a country where the rule of law is far from strong, ensuring that women’s reproductive rights are respected will be a long and hard road.
The original version of this article, the part in my Word document that won’t be published, was angry.
Angry because an embryo or fetus’ life is always presumed by those against legalizing abortion to be more important than the life of the mother.
Angry because the anti-abortion movement is, at its core, about controlling women; if it were truly about preventing abortions, we’d be doing the many things proven to reduce its necessity to practically zero.
Angry about the priest who said women who aborted might as well be killed because they were useless, and about the many people I know who completely agree with him.
Angry about the assumption that women must be both sexual gatekeepers and 100% in charge of birth control while men get to pretend they’re not part of the equation of pregnancy at all.
Angry about how many of these men both want to have sex with women and also shame them afterward when there’s an “accident” after the fact — for having been willing to have sex with them in whatever circumstances they insisted on.
I’m tired of women being told to “close their legs” when even the most sexually willing woman can only carry one pregnancy to term in a year while a man can impregnate hundreds of women a year if he really puts his mind to it. (Seriously, have people who say this to women never had sex before? Open legs are not necessary, yo.)
Can we try “zip your pants back up” instead? Or how about mandatory vasectomies for every male when they hit puberty with paperwork and permission from their partners necessary to get them reversed?
I didn’t think so.
But for now, I’ll take this small victory and feel grateful of it. Well done, Mexico.
Sinaloa will switch to low risk green on the coronavirus stoplight map on Monday, while the risk level in México state will be downgraded to medium risk yellow.
Mexico City, which switched from high risk orange to yellow two weeks ago, will remain at the medium risk level for another fortnight, authorities said.
Just 17% of general care hospital beds in COVID wards in Sinaloa, which is currently yellow, are in use, according to federal data, while the occupancy rate is the same for beds with ventilators. The northern state has 717 active cases, or fewer than 25 per 100,000 people.
The only states with a lower number of active cases on a per capita basis are Chiapas, Chihuahua and Baja California.
Sinaloa Health Minister Efrén Encinas Torres said that vaccination and observance of virus mitigation measures have helped drive down case numbers over the past five weeks.
As a result of México state’s switch to yellow on the stoplight map, all businesses will be allowed to increase their maximum capacity to 70% of normal levels on Monday, Governor Alfredo del Mazo said in a video message.
He said that the progress made in vaccinating residents allowed his government to take the decision.
“Until now, we’ve administered more than 12.4 million vaccines,” he said, adding that all people over 30 have had the opportunity to be fully vaccinated.
Del Mazo also said that more than 1.3 million México state residents aged 18-29 have had a first shot and that hospitalizations are declining.
In other COVID-19 news:
• Mexico recorded 3,754 new cases on Friday and 190 COVID-19 deaths, increasing the accumulated tallies to 3.55 million and 270,538, respectively.
There are 72,172 estimated active cases across the country, a 10% decrease compared to Thursday. Tabasco has the highest number of active cases on a per capita basis with just over 200 per 100,000 people. Colima ranks second followed by Mexico City, Yucatán and Quintana Roo.
• The average number of new cases reported in Mexico each day has fallen by more than 6,700 over the last three weeks, according to the Reuters COVID-19 tracker.
An average of 9,870 new infections have been reported during the past seven days. “That’s 53% of the peak — the highest daily average reported on August 17,” Reuters said.
• Nuevo León Governor Jaime Rodríguez said on Twitter Friday morning that the northern state recorded 805 new cases and 39 deaths in the previous 24 hours.
Nevertheless, the state is making progress in the fight against COVID-19 “little by little,” the governor commonly known as “El Bronco” wrote.
“Yesterday, thanks to the reduction of new cases, we announced the opening of establishments that couldn’t yet operate, but that doesn’t mean that the virus has gone,” he said.
Rodríguez also posted a Doctor Strange-themed meme encouraging the use of face masks. “I have seen 14 million possible futures and only in the one in which we all use face masks do we defeat COVID-19,” the meme says.
• Nuevo León governor-elect Samuel García, who will succeed Rodríguez next month, predicted Thursday that, starting Monday, about 500 children per day will be vaccinated in McAllen, Texas, under a cross-border vaccination scheme he organized.
He said in an interview that Nuevo León adolescents will be inoculated with the Pfizer vaccine, the only shot authorized for use in children aged 12 and over.
Minors haven’t been vaccinated in Mexico with the exception of a small number of youths who have obtained injunctions ordering they be given the shot.
García said about 21,000 doses have already been administered in the cross-border scheme, which began busing Nuevo León factory workers to Laredo, Texas, last month and expanded to Mission this week.
• A shipment of 400,000 Sputnik V vaccines will arrive in Puebla next week, said state Health Minister José Antonio Martínez García. He said the shots will be used to inoculate poblanos aged 18 to 29.
Puebla currently has the highest occupancy rate in the country for general care hospital beds in COVID wards with almost 61% in use, according to federal data.
• Authorities in San Luis Potosí reported 359 new cases and 17 COVID deaths on Friday. Eighty-eight of the cases were detected in people who are fully vaccinated and 79 were detected in people who have had one shot.
The new cases were spread across 38 municipalities with the highest numbers in San Luis Potosí city.
