A wave sloshes between rock walls at the Death Valley National Park in Nevada, caused by a 7.7 magnitude earthquake on Sept. 19 in Michoacán. Ambre Chaudoin/NPS
The powerful earthquake that rocked central Mexico on September 19 caused a phenomenon dubbed a “desert tsunami” almost 3,000 kilometers north of the epicenter in the U.S. state of Nevada.
The 7.7 magnitude quake triggered a seiche – a standing wave in an enclosed or partially enclosed body of water – in a pool of water in a Death Valley National Park cave.
Water in an Amargosa Valley pool of water known as Devils Hole started sloshing around the cave about five minutes after the temblor occurred.
“In a surprising quirk of geology, Monday’s … earthquake in Mexico triggered four-foot-tall waves in Devils Hole,” the United States National Park Service (NPS) said in a statement.
“… Monday’s waves, technically known as a seiche, stirred the sediment and rocks on the shallow shelf, also removing much of the algae growth. In the short term, this reduces food available to the pupfish.”
Ambre Chaudoin, a biological science technician, was at Devils Hole when the “desert tsunami” occurred and filmed the phenomenon, which lasted about 30 minutes. “This is a big earthquake, wherever it is,” she said as she filmed.
The NPS says on its website that Devils Holes is “an unusual indicator of seismic activity around the world.”
“Large earthquakes as far away as Japan, Indonesia and Chile have caused the water to ‘slosh’ in Devils Hole like water in a bathtub. Waves may splash as high as two meters up the walls,” it adds.
Apart from the September 19 seiche, the most recent Devils Hole “desert tsunami” occurred in July 2019 when a 7.1. magnitude earthquake struck near Ridgecrest, California.
From one of the opening shots of the music video for "Hold Me Closer," by Britney Spears and Elton John, featuring the colorful buildings of Ecatepec, México state, as a backdrop. Photos: UnderWonder Content
Pop music icons Elton John and Britney Spears may be the famous names behind a new musical collaboration, but for Mexicans, the star of the song’s newly released music video is Mexico City.
The colorful urbanscape of the nation’s capital — as well as that of México state — is on full display in the newly released video for “Hold me Closer,” a musical collaboration between the U.S. pop star and the British musical veteran that features dancers in flowing, vibrantly colored outfits undulating throughout, with various recognizable locations from the two federal entities in the background.
Mexico City residents were thrilled to see their city represented in the video, and none more so than the city’s mayor, Claudia Sheinbaum, who tweeted, “Without a doubt, we are the #CityThatHasEverything. Thanks to Britney Spears and Elton John for choosing us.”
Among the images included in the 3-minute, 25-second video are that of Mexico City’s Cablebus, passing by a swatch of colorful house facades; the house and studio of influential architect Luis Barragán; and another Barragán project — Los Clubes, an upscale horse ranch in México state whose massive pink walls are featured in some scenes.
Mexico City’s Cablebus, a relatively new addition to the capital, features in the opening shot of the video.
Also featured is architect Agustín Hernández’s Praxis House, a hypermodern structure that floats out above a precipitous drop in Bosques de Las Lomas, and El Nido de Quetzalcóatl, a complex full of organic lines and fantastical colors in México state designed in 2000 by Javier Senosiain. (Visitors to the city can rent it on Airbnb).
The video was directed by Tanu Muino, a Ukrainian who has worked with other pop musicians such as Harry Styles and Cardi B. Muino said that the video was meant to represent intimacy within reigning chaos.
“From the beginning of this video, I knew there was a lot of excited expectation from the audience and the fans. With that responsibility in mind, I had to do something different and unexpected. The dancing had to be innovative and attention-getting and make Elton and Britney proud,” Muino said.
The Elton-Britney collaboration isn’t the only music video that offers a taste of Mexico’s massive, beautiful metropolis: other famous music videos filmed with the city as a backdrop include two by Coldplay, “A Head Full of Dreams” and the more recent “Humankind,” as well as “Heavy Seas of Love” by Damon Albarn and Feist’s “The Bad in Each Other.”
The initiative is just one part of a comprehensive campaign by Nuevo León activists to get the state's laws in line with a 2021 Supreme Court ruling that criminalizing abortion is illegal. File photo
Within the context of International Safe Abortion Day, Nuevo León activists presented an initiative calling on state congressional leaders to decriminalize abortion.
Activist groups, including the Group for Information on Reproduction Choice (GIRE), are also filing a lawsuit in the local courts demanding the reform of state law to align with a 2021 Supreme Court ruling that criminalizing abortion was unconstitutional.
Their action comes after a November decision by local courts, which provided pro-choice activists with a win in the case of a Nuevo León woman. The ruling stated that her rights to a future abortion would be protected.
Activists say that such individual cases are important but that the momentum around this issue has meant that they are bringing collective suits for all women of the state and not solely on a case-by-case basis.
“We are filing legal action as organizations, collectives, and associations with the objective that if we win — which we hope we will — that abortion as a crime will be declared invalid in the entire state … that we might achieve [the lawś] application to everyone in the state,” said Melissa Ayala, a lawyer for GIRE.
The class-action suits are also fighting for access to abortion through federal health services like IMSS and ISSTE, who activists say, even in states that protect abortion, often will not provide them for their clients.
A group of 11 senators from across the political spectrum are currently working on proposed changes to the country’s General Health Law that would guarantee access to all reproductive services in federal entities.
Legal actions such as these are also being brought by groups in Aguascalientes, Puebla, Chihuahua, Chiapas, San Luis Potosí, Morelos, Jalisco, Sonora, and Querétaro. If they succeed, they will join Mexico City, Oaxaca, Hidalgo, Veracruz, Baja California, Colima, Sinaloa, Guerrero and Baja California Sur in legalizing abortion, meaning two-thirds of Mexico’s states will have at least some protections of women’s right to choose.
Today, on International Safe Abortion Day, citizens will march across the country in favor of legal and safe abortions for Mexico’s residents. Protests are planned in Mexico City, Toluca, Pachuca, and Guanajuato among many other locations.
Mexican millionaire Martín Mobarak burned this untitled drawing by Frida Kahlo in July in Miami in order to digitize it and sell 10,0000 digitized copies. Frida.nft
A Mexican-American businessman’s decision to burn a valuable Frida Kahlo artwork to promote 10,000 non-fungible tokens (NFTs) he created from it has sparked controversy and caught the eye of Mexican authorities.
Martin Mobarak, CEO and founder of Frida.NFT, destroyed Kahlo’s untitled work, known as Fantasmones siniestros, by setting it on fire at an extravagant event in Miami in July.
The piece – which was taken from the Mexican artist’s diary and had been valued at more than US $10 million, according to the Frida.NFT website – had already been digitalized in the form of 10,000 NFTs – records on a blockchain that are associated with digital or physical assets, according to Wikipedia.
The Frida.NFT website says “the painting was permanently transitioned into the metaverse on July 30th, 2022.”
Video footage of the controversial burning of the Kahlo drawing in Miami in July.
Each Fantasmones siniestros NFT costs three Ethereum – a cryptocurrency worth about US $1,300 at midday Wednesday.
“Display a piece of history in your home. A limited 10,000 NFTs will circulate as the only authentic connection to the masterpiece Fantasmones siniestros by Frida Kahlo,” says a message on the Frida.NFT website, which also has a video of the artwork being burned and a link to a certificate of authenticity.
“… The holders will all receive the highest-resolution, PNG format of the front and back of the art piece. They will also receive a write-up explaining the story around the piece, and a copy of the certificate of authenticity.”
The website also says that a portion of the proceeds of NFT sales will go to a range of organizations including the Autism Society and Mexico City’s Palacio de Bellas Artes (Palace of Fine Arts), an asset of the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature (INBAL).
Mobarak bought the original drawing, seen here, from a New York art gallery. It was ripped from one of Kahlo’s diaries. Frida.nft
However, the institute rejected that claim in a statement published Tuesday and noted that Kahlo’s entire oeuvre is considered an “artistic monument” in accordance with the Federal Law on Archaeological, Artistic and Historic Monuments and Areas.
“In Mexico the deliberate destruction of an artistic monument constitutes a crime in terms of” that law, INBAL said.
It said that “all the necessary information is currently being gathered” in order to “establish with certainty” that the artwork destroyed by Mobarak was in fact an original work and not a copy he “used for commercial purposes.”
INBAL also said that it “hasn’t issued authorization for reproduction” of Fantasmones siniestros. The Associated Press reported that INBAL’s authorization “would be necessary” for the creation of NFTs from the artwork.
Hilda Trujillo, a Frida Kahlo art expert, proposed a chemical analysis of the ashes of the artwork “to see if it’s an original work.” Frida.nft
Numerous social media users condemned the burning of the piece, whose reverse side features the words Cromóforo (chromophore) and Auxocromo (Auxochrome), which Kahlo used as nicknames for herself and husband Diego Rivera.
“Just watched some rich asshole burn a Frida Kahlo painting in order to ‘convert’ it to an NFT and I think I may be a communist now,” wrote one Twitter user the day after Fantasmones siniestros was destroyed.
“A man (a multimillionaire as a relevant fact) has decided to burn a Frida Kahlo work to make NFTs from it and sell them. His excuse? All the benefits will be for children in need. I’m very tired of [Mexican] heritage being played with in this way,” said another Twitter user.
Hilda Trujillo, a Frida Kahlo art expert, told the newspaper Excélsior that the artwork is not as valuable as Mobarak claims because it’s just “a page torn out of [Frida’s] diary.”
The Mexican Institute of Fine Arts says that Kahlo’s entire oeuvre is considered a national monument and that deliberate destruction of such a monument is a crime in Mexico. UNAM
She proposed a chemical analysis of the ashes of the artwork “to see if it’s an original work.”
“The ashes can be compared with the paper of Frida’s diary, which is in the Casa Azul,” Trujillo said, referring to the Frida Kahlo Museum in the Mexico City neighborhood of Coyoacán. “It would be interesting.”
Issued by Andrés Siegel, the authentication certificate says the artwork was completed circa 1945 and “would have been located between page 42 and 43 of the diary according to [art historian] Luis Martin Lozano’s study of this work.”
“It is to my best opinion and knowledge after having reviewed the piece to the best of my ability through ocular means that this work corresponds to the characteristics in style and materials used by Frida Kahlo in her diary housed in La Casa Azul in Coyoacán, Mexico,” wrote Siegel, described by Frida NFT as a “top Frida Kahlo curator.”
Mobarak – who said in an interview that he grew up near the Casa Azul (formerly the home of Kahlo and Rivera) – reportedly purchased the artwork in 2015 from Mary-Anne Martin Fine Art in New York. Domiciled in The Bahamas, Frida.NFT purports to create “the bridge between the traditional art world and the expanding potential of Web 3.0.”
“This community-driven initiative has a vision to introduce Frida’s work into the metaverse and leverage her powerful likeness to bring together a community of collectors, creators and art lovers on a mission to merge the traditional art world with the digital art world’s expanding potential and immortalize humanity’s story,” the website says.
It also says that Mobarak is committed to charitable causes, including the provision of support for “parents of children with debilitating diseases.”
The NFT creator, the website asserts, is an “art alchemist transforming physical art into digital gold” and a “wearer of many hats, … a public speaker, an accomplished businessman, and a passionate advocate for charities that improve children’s health.”
The Sheinbaum administration has been quietly increasing Mexico's natural gas storage capacity. (Depositphotos/Archive)
The federal government is planning to build a US $4–$5 billion natural gas processing plant in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz, from where the fuel will be shipped to Europe, President López Obrador said Tuesday.
“We’re thinking about creating a liquefaction plant in Coatzacoalcos,” he told reporters at his regular news conference.
“It’s a plant that processes gas, freezes it in order to be able to transport it in ships to Europe. The gas arrives there frozen, and it’s regasified at another plant. Now that there is a lack of gas in Europe, we have this possibility,” López Obrador said.
He said that the government already has land for the project and will seek private sector involvement.
President López Obrador’s announcement comes a week after he reportedly discussed Mexico stepping up cooperation on liquid gas with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Germany is facing shortages due to a squeeze on supplies from Russia. Presidencia
Mexico doesn’t currently export LNG commercially, but López Obrador said that the supply for the proposed plant would be “guaranteed” as the country has “sufficient reserves of oil and gas.”
He didn’t say when construction of the plant might begin or when it would start exporting gas to Europe, which faces a supply squeeze as Russia has progressively cut off access to the fuel via pipeline. López Obrador did, however, say that construction of the plant and other proposed infrastructure projects would create a lot of jobs.
While LNG isn’t yet exported from Mexico, some private companies are preparing to do so. According to experts cited by the El Economista newspaper, Energía Costa Azul, a subsidiary of U.S. energy company Sempra, is the closest to commencing exports.
The Veracruz port city’s dominant economic sector is petrochemicals. deposit photos
It operates an LNG storage and regasification terminal in Ensenada, Baja California, and supplies gas to power plants and other industries in that state.
A masked dancer from Tlacoyalco, Puebla, gets ready to proceed through the streets of Atlixco. Photos by Joseph Sorrentino
Dancers from the eleven ethnographic regions and 17 Puebla towns performed in the 57th Atlixcáyotl traditional dance festival on Sunday in Atlixco, Puebla. The 57-year-old festival, the brainchild of American expat Raymond Harvey Estage Noel, was founded in 1965. Estage was inspired by seeing Oaxaca’s Guelaguetza festival.
In 1996, the state declared the Alixcáyotl festival part of the cultural patrimony of the state of Puebla.
While the main event takes place on the last Sunday in September, the opening on Saturday saw people in elaborate costumes gathering a couple of blocks from Atlixco’s zócalo to dance their way through the streets to Saint Michael’s Chapel, which sits atop a hill of the same name. In addition to the dancers, two men carried a table ladened with flowers and a statue of the saint.
On Sunday, several thousand people gathered in the Plaza de la Danza (Plaza of the Dance) to watch the performances. Before the dances began, there were a slew of introductions, including of Puebla Governor Miguel Barbosa Huerta. They were all acknowledged with polite applause. But when Estage — known to most as Cayuqui — was introduced, the crowd broke into loud applause and chanted his name. Although 89 years old and somewhat frail, he made it once again to the festival he helped create and once again proved to be a crowd favorite.
Cayuqui Estage Noel, an expat from Buffalo, New York, who's lived in Mexico since 1954, is a beloved figure in Atlixco, Puebla, where he created the Huei Atlixcáyotl festival in 1965 to showcase Puebla's traditions. Photos by Joseph Sorrentino
The Huei Atlixcáyotl festival, Puebla’s huge event of traditional dance that takes place every September in Atlixco, has roots in the pre-Hispanic Nahuatl peoples of the area, but it wouldn’t exist today if not for a New Yorker.
To say Cayuqui Estage Noel has had an interesting and peripatetic life would be a gross understatement. Born Raymond Harvey Estage Noel in Buffalo, he has lived in Mexico since 1954, and except for a couple of trips to New York to earn money and a few others to Guatemala, he’s never left, bouncing between Atlixco and Oaxaca, Campeche and other parts of Puebla.
He’s studied dance, music, acting and anthropology — the latter subject with Margaret Mead — taught any number of topics, directed plays, researched regional dances. Recently, he was named a “Tesoro Humano Vivo” (Living Human Treasure) by the municipal government in Atlixco for his role in bringing the festival into existence in 1965.
After seeing the traditional Guelaguetza festival in Oaxaca, he was inspired to create a venue for Puebla’s traditional dance. He worked with representatives of Atlixco to arrange the city’s first Atlixcáyotl by visiting surrounding villages and convincing locals to perform in the event he was helping arrange.
Dancers from Ixtepec, Puebla, participating this past Sunday at the Atlixcáyotl festival in Atlixco, Puebla.
The festival, which the state government named in 1996 as part of Puebla’s cultural patrimony, is a popular Atlixco event that was just celebrated again this past Sunday for another year. While the state government spells the event as the Huey Atlixacáyotl, and still others the Hue Hue, as a founder of the event, Estage insists that it should be spelled Huei Atlixcáyotl.
Estage, who’s studied dance, music, acting and anthropology — the latter subject with Margaret Mead — taught any number of topics, directed plays, and researched regional dances, was recently named a tesoro humano vivo (living human treasure) by Atlixco’s municipal government.
But he’s probably best known in Mexico for organizing the festival.
Ironically, Estage originally had no intention of staying in Atlixco the first time he saw it.
“I was there for 20 minutes,” he said. “I had no interest in coming to Mexico. Guatemala was my goal. The information about Mexico was that it was [filled with] vaqueros (cowboys) and that wasn’t very interesting. But Guatemala, with Indians in their costumes, cities lost in the jungles — that interested me. I wanted to go to the jungle.”
In fact, Guatemala was where he got the name Cayuqui: he was trying to sell a boat to some locals, and his Spanish was pretty much nonexistent at the time, so they thought he’d said, “Yo soy Cayuqui,” (I’m Cayuqui). Later, when he became a Mexican citizen, he dropped his first two given names and replaced them with Cayuqui.
During his time in Guatemala, on a trip to Guatemala city, he met a young man from Atlixco who invited him to visit. That second trip changed his mind, and he made Atlixco his home.
“I rented a house up on the hill,” he said. “Ten pesos a month. No running water, no electricity, no bathroom, but I didn’t care. I was enthralled with living in Mexico. I bought an oil lamp; I thought it was very romantic, exciting. I bought my water from an old man who brought two oil cans of water, 50 centavos each one, on the back of his donkey. I had the corn field for my bathroom.”
A woman from Cosamaloapan, Puebla takes a quiet moment at Sunday’s festivities.
On a trip back to New York to earn money, Estage’s house in Atlixco was ransacked, and so he moved to another house, a decision that would be fateful.
“I rented a room. An old woman who had been in the [Mexican] Revolution — she cooked for [Álvaro] Obregón, knew [revolutionary] Pancho Villa — she told me about the customs of old Atlixco, the dress, which I used later for the Atlixcáyotl.”
Then he visited Oaxaca, another fateful decision.
“I saw the Guelaguetza. I said, ‘Wow. this is incredible that these people exist. We have nothing this fabulous in Puebla.’”
In the Guelaguetza, dancers from all over the state of Oaxaca converge on the city of Oaxaca in July. When he started visiting villages around the state, he saw something very different. “The dances in the villages were much more interesting than what was in the Guelaguetza. I became dissatisfied with the Guelaguetza, but it inspired me to start the Atlixcáyotl.”
He returned to Atlixco and started talking with people in the nearby villages.
“No one in Atlixco was interested in going [there],” he said. “You have to sleep on straw mats, get bitten by fleas. No one would go to the villages. To this day, there are people who have gone to Disneyland, they go to east L.A., New York, but they don’t know the villages around here.”
But Estage felt right at home. And on December 20, 1965, he brought the dancers he’d met in the villages to Atlixco for the first iteration of the festival.
Estage says moving to Mexico was the best decision of his life.
Depending on the source, Atlixcáyotl is Nahuatl for either “the Great Fiesta of Atlixco,” or “the Tradition of Atlixco.” “We have about 17 or 18 groups that perform,” Estage said, “and each group has at least 20 people — between 20 and 40.”
The dances aren’t truly pre-Hispanic, he is careful to point out. “There’s nothing pre-Hispanic today except in the museums. Many [dances] have pre-Hispanic roots, but they are influenced by European music and dance.”
These days, he lives part of the time in Campeche, in a Mayan village, in a little house made of sticks and mud and with a dirt floor and a palm roof — a place in which he’s perfectly content. He was a little vague on his role in the Atlixco festival this year, saying, “I sneak in when they let me.”
But he is adamant about what the Atlixcáyotl should be. “Atlixcáyotl must remain a family fiesta, never an event.” In Oaxaca, he said, “They built a roof over the Guelaguetza. That ruined it.”
And after all these years, he revels in the informality the event still has. “If a dog goes on stage, they shoo it off,” he said. “Dogs are part of our culture. To see a dog on stage to me is something very good.”
He’s lived in Mexico now for almost 70 years, and he didn’t hesitate when asked what it was that attracted him to — and keeps him in — Mexico. “The people,” he said. “They’re marvelous. So warm and friendly and interesting. And so funny. Great sense of humor. I think they’re the happiest people in the world. The best decision of my life was to leave the United States and live here.”
Estage says he has everything he needs in Mexico.
“We don’t have money, but you don’t need money. We have enough to get along on. And it’s changing. We’re [Mexico] becoming gringos. People are becoming interested in money, unfortunately. But when I came here, the rhythm of life was so easygoing. It was like a waltz. People worked as long as they wanted to. They liked what they were doing. They didn’t get paid very much money but you didn’t need very much money. I’m a Jack of all trades, master of none. I have enough to get by.”
A man at the festival this year in traditional dress from Tecolotepec, Puebla.
It seems like the man who renamed himself Cayuqui was born in the wrong era, that he’d be just as happy — or happier — in a small pre-Hispanic village, learning traditions and dances from the village elders and swapping stories with them.
Autos made in a Puebla Volkswagen plant waiting for shipping in the port of Veracruz.
Automotive exports hit a record high of over US $15 billion in August, the national statistics agency INEGI reported Tuesday.
Exports of Mexican-made vehicles and auto parts totaled $15.24 billion last month, a 42.5% increase compared to August 2021.
The annual growth in percentage terms was the highest since June 2021, when auto exports surged 859% a year after the pandemic forced the closure of many plants.
Auto exports accounted for just over 30% of all Mexican exports last month, which were worth a total of $50.67 billion – up 25.2% compared to a year earlier.
INEGI data shows that non-automotive manufacturing exports were worth just under $30 billion last month, oil exports totaled $3.21 billion, shipments of agricultural products earned $1.55 billion and mining sector export revenue was just under $688 million.
INEGI said that automotive exports to the United States increased 43.7% in annual terms last month while those to other markets rose 36.7%. Mexico was the leading exporter of vehicles to the U.S. in the first six months of 2022, taking the top spot for the first time ever.
U.S. Department of Commerce data shows that Mexican vehicle exports were worth just over $17 billion between January and June, an annual increase of 16.4%. Ranking second to fifth for vehicle exports to the U.S. were Japan, Canada, South Korea and Germany.
Mexico overtook Japan as the top vehicle exporter two years after the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the free trade pact that superseded NAFTA, took effect.
U.S. data also shows that Mexico was the United States’ second largest trade partner in the first seven months of the year with two-way trade worth almost US $450 billion. Canadian-American trade was worth a slightly higher $466.7 billion.
INEGI data shows that Mexico’s total exports earned $377.94 billion in the first eight months of the year, an annual increase of 18.9%. Imports rose 24.1% to $402.35 billion in the same period, leaving Mexico with a trade deficit of just over $24.4 billion.
The president officially announced the planned January 22 consultation at his Tuesday press conference.
The federal government will once again ask citizens to have their say about an issue of national importance — this time with a public-security-themed “participative exercise” to be held early next year.
The choice of language is meant to distinguish the upcoming exercise on January 22 from a consulta (essentially, a referendum), something which President López Obrador said at a press conference on Tuesday isn’t allowed by the constitution when dealing with matters of national security. “… we have to act within the framework of legality,” he said.
In the nationwide survey, citizens will have the opportunity to respond to three questions about the National Guard and the armed forces, Interior Minister Adán Augusto López Hernández said at the Tuesday news conference:
“Do you agree with the creation of the National Guard and [approve of] its performance to date?”
“Do you think the armed forces – the army and the navy – should continue doing public security work until 2028 or return to their barracks in March of 2024?”
Mexicans will be able to answer the survey at “public opinion reception points” in all 68,989 “electoral sections” across the country, Interior Minister Adán Augusto López said.
Government critics have questioned the legality and reliability of consultas and other such citizen surveys, and assert that the president only holds them to promote his own political interests. Opponents have similarly criticized this planned exercise, with federal deputy and president of the Chamber of Deputies’ directive board Santiago Creel recently calling the January 22 poll “undue interference” by President Lopez Obrador in the legislature’s role in deciding such a matter.
If a majority of citizens vote in favor of continuing to use the military for public security until 2028, the government could use the result to pressure Congress to legislate accordingly. López Obrador is a devotee of direct democracy, having held numerous public consultations/referendums in recent years, including ones on the previous government’s Mexico City airport project, a Mexicali brewery project, the Maya Train, past presidents and even his own right to rule.
López Hernández said that the aim of the upcoming exercise is for citizens to have the opportunity to have their say on the National Guard and military at “public opinion reception points” in all 68,989 “electoral sections” across the country.
Deputy Santiago Creel has accused the president of putting “social pressure” on legislators to support the bill, which appears unlikely to pass in the Senate.
The Interior Ministry and a citizens’ committee will be responsible for the organization of the “participative exercise,” he said, also noting that people will also be able to participate via an online portal set up for the purpose between January 16 and 22. “This option could even be used by Mexicans who live abroad,” he said.
The “definitive results” of the exercise will be announced on January 24, he told reporters. He also said that a promotion campaign for the survey will begin on October 10 and run until January 16.
“As the president has said, it’s not a binding exercise,” López Hernández said.
“It won’t be binding,” Lopez Obrador said at the beginning of the press conference, “but what matters to us is that participatory democracy advances because democracy means people power.”
“Demos is people, kratos is power, power of the people. And in democracy, the people are in charge and cannot be ignored,” he said.
"Open your franchise," trumpet billboards for former president Vicente Fox's Paradise stores for marijuana-derived products. (Archive)
Former president and marijuana entrepreneur Vicente Fox has urged lawmakers and authorities to legalize and regulate the recreational use of cannabis, asserting that doing so will reduce cartels’ income and create economic opportunities for ordinary Mexicans.
Fox – part owner of a chain of stores that sells products such as CBD (cannabidiol) oil, hemp oil, bongs, pipes, marijuana grinders and papers – said in a recent interview with the El Economista newspaper that he doesn’t understand why legalization and regulation haven’t happened.
“Legalizing and regulating this industry will take a lot of revenue away from cartels” and put it in the hands of marijuana growers and businesspeople, he said.
“Nobody has died from consuming marijuana anywhere in the world,” Fox said in a recent interview. Vicente Fox/Instagram
“In that way we can convert an illegal industry into an authorized industry, an industry that generates opportunities for Mexicans,” said Fox, president from 2000 to 2006 and a seasoned marijuana advocate.
“I started in this 20 years ago,” he told El Economista, referring to his advocacy for marijuana legalization.
“Sometimes people ask why [former] president Fox is involved in this, if he is a druggie or pothead – a lot of people make jokes,” Fox said. “I’m involved in this because I’m totally convinced that legalizing marijuana is [the way] to pull the rug out from under the cartels.”
The 80-year-old ex-president called on authorities to put regulations in place for the production, processing and recreational use of marijuana, which has effectively been decriminalized by the SCJN and is smoked openly in some parts of the country, including Mexico City and Oaxaca city.
A Pardise franchise in Villahermosa, Tabasco.
Fox noted that marijuana has been legalized in many countries around the world and asserted that use of the plant “doesn’t cause harm to anyone.”
“Nobody has died from consuming marijuana anywhere in the world,” he said, adding that legalization of marijuana could open the door to Mexico becoming a significant producer and exporter of the plant.
“Many things can be done with this product in Mexico like those we’ve already done with vegetables, with berries, with so many products of which Mexico is an export champion,” Fox said.
The former president is involved in the staging of Canna México, a cannabis “world summit” that will be held at Centro Fox in the municipality of San Francisco del Rincón, Guanajuato, on October 19 and 20. Promoting the event last week, Fox reiterated the need to take the marijuana business out of the hands of criminals.
“We have to move from the shadows to the truth on this issue in order to take this beautiful plant from the hands of criminals who only cause harm, blackmail, rob and kill,” he said.
Putting marijuana in “the hands of businesspeople and doctors” would represent a “great transformation of this industry” – one that has already occurred in other parts of the world, Fox said.
Once recreational marijuana use is eventually approved – something that is considered inevitable given the SCJN’s directive – Mexico will become the world’s largest legal marijuana market. One municipality keen to take advantage of legalization is Tetecala, Morelos, where farmers believe that marijuana could be a more profitable crop than the sugar cane they have long grown.
