A U.S. man has admitted to killing his two young children in Rosarito, Baja California, on Monday, claiming he was was saving the world from monsters.
Matthew Taylor Coleman, 40, was arrested Monday while crossing the border at San Diego and faces charges of the foreign murder of U.S. citizens.
According to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday in a California court, Coleman told the Federal Bureau of Investigation that he drove his children from their home in Santa Barbara to Rosarito, where he shot them in the chest with a speargun.
The bodies of the children, a 10-month-old girl and a 2-year-old boy, were found Monday morning with multiple stab wounds at Rancho del Descanso in Playas de Rosarito.
An FBI agent said in an affidavit that Coleman confessed to the murders, stating he believed his children were going to grow into monsters and he had to kill them. He explained that “he was enlightened by QAnon and Illuminati conspiracy theories and was receiving visions and signs revealing that his wife possessed serpent DNA and had passed it on to his children.”
Coleman believed he was saving the world from monsters, the affidavit said, and admitted he knew it was wrong but it was “the only course of action that would save the world.”
QAnon and the Illuminati are conspiracy theorists who claim there are people secretly controlling world affairs.
In Mexico, officials have recovered the murder weapon, bloody clothes and a baby’s blanket, the FBI said.
On Sunday, Coleman’s wife reported him and the children as missing. She earlier told Santa Barbara police that she didn’t think her husband would hurt their children or that they were in danger.
Coleman, owner of a surfing school in Santa Barbara, appeared in court Wednesday where he was ordered held in custody. He will be arraigned August 31 in Los Angeles.
The tallest ever replica of the Aztecs’ Templo Mayor is being erected in Mexico City’s central square, the zócalo, to coincide with the 500-year anniversary of the fall of Tenochtitlán, the capital of the Aztec empire and forbear to Mexico City.
The Templo Mayor was the heart of the Aztec world where two deities were venerated with elaborate pageantry and sacrificial offerings. It was destroyed by Spanish invaders during the Conquest and fall of Tenochtitlán on August 13, 1521, and a Roman Catholic cathedral was built with many of the same stones next to where it once stood.
The 16-meter mostly white, square mock temple, adorned with small red and blue towers, attempts to capture the grandeur of the original, which was as high as a 15-story building, according to archaeologists.
President López Obrador will attend a ceremony in the zócalo on Friday to commemorate five centuries since the fall of the ancient city. The structure will stand in the zócalo until September 1, and a 15-minute film about the foundation of Tenochtitlán will be projected onto each of its four sides every evening.
Mexico City Culture Minister Vannesa Bohórquez López explained the symbolism of the temple’s four platforms and towers. Three of the platforms, she said, represented skulls, snakes and water and the towers on top were chapels dedicated to the rain god Tlaloc and Huitzilopochtli, the patron deity of Tenochtitlán.
Federal Culture Ministry festival director Argel Gómez Concheiro described the significance of the original temple. “For the [Aztecs] it was the center of the universe. It was the point at which one could enter the underworld and the different celestial levels,” he said.
As well as the fall of Tenochtitlán, this year also marks 200 years since independence. However, the government’s decision to plan 15 events this year to celebrate “Seven Centuries of History” have caused controversy. Archaeologists and other academics accused the government of manipulating history for political ends by claiming the foundation of Tenochtitlán was in 1321, 700 years ago, when the academic consensus points to 1325.
Yet in another area, the president has sought to set the historical record straight: he requested an apology from the Spanish monarchy and the Vatican for human rights abuses committed during the Conquest; a request which the government of Spain “vigorously rejected.”
The short film called Memoria Luminosa will be projected three times each evening from August 13 to September 1 at 8:30 p.m., 9:00 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.
San Pablo Guelatao recently registered its first confirmed coronavirus case.
A municipality in Oaxaca in the northern sierra has recorded its first case of Covid-19, while at least 64 other municipalities in the state have still had zero cases, according to newspaper Milenio.
A young boy is the first Covid-19 patient in 570-inhabitant San Pablo Guelatao, 60 kilometers northeast of the state capital, which was identified by the government in May last year as one of its “Municipalities of Hope”.
The boy has been isolated and authorities have banned anyone from arriving or leaving the municipality. Investigations as to how the boy contracted the disease are ongoing.
Mayor Consuelo Santiago García confirmed that the patient had received medical attention, that municipal authorities had taken care of medical expenses and that the family was being supported with food supplies.
She added that the town’s success in preventing infections was down to its strict protocols. “Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, we decided to lock ourselves in, to not allow any tourism, and to put a sanitary checkpoint in place. We created an organic municipal market, with products made in the region to avoid trips to the city of Oaxaca and to take care of our elderly, and now children and young people, from any infections,” she said.
Santiago detailed that 70% of the population had been administered a first dose of Covid-19 vaccine, but children and young people between the ages of 12 and 17 were yet to be immunized.
In San Pablo Guelatao, 45% of the population are seniors, a group which has already been vaccinated with at least one dose, while 40% of the population are under 18 years old.
Oaxaca is currently orange on the the coronavirus stoplight map.
The only other states in the country with municipalities that have had zero Covid-19 cases are Puebla — with one — and Chiapas, which has had four, and is the only green state on the coronavirus stoplight map.
Josefa Méndez, right, approaches a display with a sahumerio, an elaborate incense burner made by an artisan especially for the event. Photos by Joseph Sorrentino
On June 29, the streets between the Santa Catarina and the San Juan Coahuixtla neighborhoods in Izúcar de Matamoros, Puebla, were covered with rose petals.
The reason? Every year on that day, the Cofradía de Santísimo Sacramento (Brotherhood of the Blessed Sacrament) installs a new mayordomo or mayordoma (lay religious leader) in a day-long ceremony that begins, as do virtually all such celebrations in Mexico, with a procession.
The Cofradía is one of the most important ceremonies in Izúcar, one that has been held for over 300 years.
“There are many cofradías all over Mexico,” said Raúl Martínez Vázquez, an archaeologist in Izúcar, “but the Cofradía de Santísimo Sacramento is the only one that has lasted since viceregal times. [The Spanish] created it when evangelization arrived.”
Leading this particular procession were two lines of women (dibutadas), each carrying a large tray filled with rose petals. Behind them, a young man laid down a carpet of those petals in front of four men.
For the Cofradía’s opening procession, the way is paved with rose petals.
Three of the men carried small painted boxes, called alcancías (money boxes).
“These are used to collect money all year to pay for the cost of the fiestas and for the maintenance of the church,” said Jorge Casbal, who has participated in many of these ceremonies.
The fourth man carried the platito, the most important symbol of the event.
“The platito symbolizes the Holy Sacrament, which we venerate with love,” said Josefa Méndez Flores, who was finishing her year as the mayordoma in Santa Catarina.
The platito, a small silver plate, rested on two ornate cushions. Atop it is a small silver circle that represents the host used in Catholic ceremonies related to the Holy Communion.
Although the procession was a solemn one, it was still accompanied by a band belting out popular music.
Izúcar is divided into 14 neighborhoods, with seven in its western part and seven in the eastern, separated by the Nexapa River. The mayordomo in charge of the Cofradía alternates yearly between a western and an eastern neighborhood.
This year, the office passed from Méndez in the western neighborhood of Santa Catarina to Lilia Romero in the eastern one of San Juan Coahuixtla.
Mayordomos and mayordomas across Mexico play an important role in supporting the Catholic Church.
In some neighborhoods in Izúcar, the oldest person, like Méndez, serves as mayordomo, and in others, candidates are asked to serve. In Romero’s neighborhood, “it is not required to be a mayordoma,” she said. “It is voluntary.”
“We agree to serve God. It is a communion between all the neighborhoods and our church. I always dreamed of becoming part of the Cofradía,” Romero explained.
The procession’s first stop was the Santo Domingo Church, completed in 1612, where a Mass was held. Afterward, the procession continued to the entrance to the San Juan Coahuixtla neighborhood, where it was met by the 12 new dibutados, men who will assist Romero during the year, and 12 dibutadas, most of them the wives of the dibutados.
“There are 12 dibutados,” said Méndez, “the same as there were 12 Apostles.”
The dibutados and dibutadas wore white tops and black pants or skirts, and the women had white veils on their heads. “These colors are to show respect for the Cofradía,” said Romero.
The women held trays of rose petals while the men held sahumerios, elaborate incense burners made especially for the event.
María Luisa Balbuena Palacios, a master artisan in Izúcar, has been making the sahumerios for the Cofradía for over 50 years.
“It is an inheritance from my father’s family,” said Casbal, who is Balbuena’s son. “They have made sahumerios for 150 years or more.”
“It is a beautiful tradition because it joins the neighborhoods and it is a commitment to God,” Balbuena said. “It is our belief.”
The formal accepting of the platito. A new dibutada holds a sahumerio.
It takes her almost three months to make the dozen sahumerios used in the ceremony and another two days to paint each one.
The procession continued on, led by the new dibutados and dibutadas, eventually reaching the San Juan Bautista Church, where the platito would be formally received by Romero, the new mayordoma.
The men carrying the alcancías and the platito entered the churchyard and knelt on the concrete floor in front of the church. While people sang an albananza — a song of praise — a dibutada from the San Juan Coahuixtla neighborhood approached, carrying a sahumerio, and knelt in front of them.
“This ceremony is the formal receiving of the platito in the neighborhood,” Romero said. “It is when we commit to serve and work during the year.” The dibutada moved the sahumerio from side to side in front of the men. “The incense is used to purify and sanctify the items,” she added.
Each of the 12 new dibutadas performed this ceremony.
The men then carried the alcancías and the platito to the front and placed them on a small table covered with a white cloth. The dibutados and dibutadas from the Santa Catarina neighborhood approached them individually, each with a sahumerio, repeating the cleansing ceremony.
After this, Méndez placed a garland of cacaloxúchitl flowers on the new dibutados. These beautiful, deep-pink flowers were used by many indigenous groups to decorate their elite members. The plant also has medicinal properties.
The ceremony, which up until that point had been a solemn one, soon took on a much more festive air. The Santa Catarina dibutados hoisted baskets on their shoulders and danced in a small circle.
“The baskets are presents for the new dibutados,” Romero said. “The dance is called the Huincle, or the Dance of the Guajolote (a turkey) — a dance of happiness, of joy. They bring fruit and bread.”
The baskets are given to Romero and the new dibutados, who then also perform the dance. Later, Santa Catarina’s dibutados were given baskets. “I give them a basket with chicken, mole and chocolate,” said Romero.
With presents exchanged, everyone retired under a tent to feast on bean tamales, tortillas and chicken smothered with mole, all paid for and prepared by Romero and her family and neighbors.
“We began the preparation at 4 a.m. this morning,” she said.
She estimated that she had served over 300 people that day, about half the number that typically attended the event pre-pandemic.
Mayordomos in Izúcar serve for a year, and as the mayordoma this year, Romero is making a huge commitment.
During her term, she’ll organize and, in some cases, pay for events during Holy Week next year. In addition to regular Sunday masses, she’ll attend a Mass held every Thursday morning, after which she’ll provide lunch for parishioners. Every Monday and Thursday, she’ll organize the 30 or so people who collect the donations that are used to support the church and then serve them lunch. Family, neighbors and friends will also pitch in.
When asked why she’d take on such a responsibility, she said simply, “It is my faith that moves me.”
Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard welcomes US officials on Tuesday.
Mexican and United States officials agreed in a meeting on Tuesday to expand bilateral cooperation on migration, border security and the economy.
Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard hosted U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, both accompanied by a delegation, the day after President López Obrador spoke with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris by telephone.
“The U.S. delegation expressed its interest in working with Mexico to advance in the management of migration from a regional perspective, as well as to implement policies for cooperation for Mexico and the countries of Central America,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Later in the day, Mayorkas and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan met with President López Obrador and senior Mexican officials at the National Palace.
In both the president’s telephone call and the Tuesday meeting the reopening of the border was discussed, but no firm announcement was made. Ebrard told reporters on Tuesday that the reopening of the U.S. border on August 21 appeared unlikely. “August 21, I would see it as very soon, I don’t think it’s feasible,” he said.
On Twitter, Ebrard said the Tuesday event was a “really great meeting with the U.S. delegation.”
In another Tweet, he struck a cordial tone: “I’m very grateful to Jake Sullivan … Secretary Mayorkas and to all of the U.S. delegation that visited our country today, your commitment and willingness to strengthen the bilateral relationship. A great result!! It was a success.”
But few details were released, beyond the fact that President Joe Biden will be invited to visit Mexico in September.
Torok’s family working farmland outside Moroleón, Guanajuato. Life in rural Mexico can be a huge culture shock for expat newcomers.
There’s a stereotype of expats in Mexico — that they try to stretch their income and that they isolate themselves from their Mexican neighbors. Granted, such people exist, but several Facebook groups show that this is not always the case. One is Women Surviving Rural Mexico.
Camille E. Torok de Flores started the group about three years ago, building on a series of books based on her experience living near Moroleón, Guanajuato, on the border with Michoacán. It is only two hours from the Guanajuato expat enclave of San Miguel de Allende, but it is a completely different world.
So, how did she end up there? Well, love had something to do with it.
Torok, who grew up in Pennsylvania and got her teaching degree at the University of Nebraska, took part-time work at a Mexican restaurant in order to improve her Spanish; that’s where she met her husband. He had immigration issues before and after they were married, and the couple finally decided to “deport themselves” in 2006.
They initially moved to the “city” of Moroleón, which has a noted rebozo (traditional Mexican shawls) industry. The couple bought a plot of land on the outskirts of town in the developing neighborhood called La Yacata but found that their purchase “wasn’t the best decision,” she explains.
Installing solar panels on Camille Torok’s house in the La Yacata community near Moroleón, Guanajuato.
Although their land is only two kilometers outside the city, “I can see the last electric post from my house,” she says. “I just don’t have access to it.”
She began a campaign to get La Yacata electric, water and sewer service, to no avail. “But I learned a lot,” Torok says.
Solely due to economics, they moved into the partially-built house. With no electricity, they had to go into Moroleón to do everything, including charging cell phones and laptops. At home, Torok learned new skills like washing clothes by hand.
Finally, she got an online teaching gig, which paid enough to buy a solar panel setup. It provided basic electrical needs, but internet service would have to come later, she realized.
Her family teased her that if she had wanted such a lifestyle, she could have married an Amish man in Pennsylvania.
Fifteen years after arriving, “I finally got to the point where I am comfortable,” Torok says. Not having electricity for 10 years was “exhausting,” but now she can enjoy living in the house her husband built. It is better than anything they could have afforded in the United States, she says.
Teacher, author and rural Mexico conqueror Camille E. Torok de Flores.
Before she came to Mexico, Torok had looked for books with practical information about living here but found none. Unprepared for rural living, she learned by trial-and-error, taking notes and sharing her experiences with her family through a blog.
Over time, these notes and blog posts turned into online books published through Amazon, starting with A Woman’s Guide to Living in Mexico. Torok focuses on practical advice, much of which is applicable even to those of us not living in the middle of nowhere. They are at their best when Torok speaks directly from personal experience.
The books are particularly important to women who come to Mexico because of marriage or family, often without any idea of what to expect.
The biggest challenge, by far, is the sense of isolation. Although Torok grew up in a pretty rural area, “I was never an outsider in my town,” she says, “and here, I am.” Even after 15 years, her interactions with the local community are more superficial than the relationships she has with old high school friends online.
One reason, she says, is that many rural Mexicans, especially women, are not comfortable with outsiders, preferring to keep their circles of friends as they have always been. In addition, these women are suspicious of outsider women who chat with their men — who can be easier to talk to because they have lived and worked in the United States.
Foreigners’ isolation can even be an issue with the Mexican spouse’s family members, who often expect that the outsider in their circle will not adapt to Mexico and eventually return home — which does happen.
Torok’s six self-published digital books to date, all available on Amazon.
Although most in La Yacata know her, most do not know her name. “I am la gringa de La Yacata,” Torok says.
Some in the community have at least tried to change this sobriquet to la maestra (the teacher), but Torok laughs and says that people just look puzzled by this until it clicks and they say, “¡Ah sí, la gringa!”
She emphasizes that it is not out of disrespect; she simply stands out that much.
Her books have been a kind of release for Torok, and three years ago she added the Facebook group since she can provide and receive emotional support through it (and maybe sell a few books).
Most participants in the Facebook community are from central Mexico, with some scattered in other places.
She has quite a few fans, including Ashlee Brooks-Diego of Venustiano Carranza, Puebla, who says Torok is “dedicated to helping women through a very emotional time in their lives.”
“[The Facebook] group has given me reassurance on many things and fears I have had along the way,” says Samantha, a member living in Chiapas.
Overall, Torok has no regrets for leaving the first-world lifestyle of the U.S. behind.
“There is a kind of lawlessness [in Mexico], but it also brings a type of freedom. You can create a different sort of life without the pressures from … family, friends or society in general,” she says.
In the United States, things are so busy and so expensive that she could not have the lifestyle she has now, Torok says. “I wouldn’t have such flexibility. Here, I have been able to create a life that I like, where I can do things like write these books.”
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.
Cacao harvest at Hacienda Jesús María in Comalcalco, Tabasco.
With demand for Mexican cacao expected to increase over the next decade, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has set aside 50 million pesos (US $2.5 million) for small-scale cacao producers in Tabasco, Chiapas, Oaxaca and Guerrero. The money is going to more than 8,000 small growers cultivating 10,950 hectares of land.
Agriculture Minister Víctor Villalobos said the government will also drive the creation of new programs for sanitation, technological development, improving cultivation materials and technical assistance.
At the beginning of the year, cacao growers received 6,200 pesos (US $311) under the program, with the goal of supporting their production, Villalobos said, adding that cacao is a product deeply connected to Mexican history, culture and national identity.
The minister of agriculture in Tabasco said the state will work with federal authorities to make low-interest loans available to cacao producers.
According to the Agri-Food and Fishery Information Service (Siap), the country had 29,500 hectares of land in cacao production in 2020, the majority of it in Tabasco.
A requirement to show proof of vaccination in Mazatlán is facing resistance: 11 people have obtained injunctions that exempt them from the rule, which requires that people seeking to enter businesses and public places show proof of vaccination or be denied entry.
It went into effect on August 2.
José Guadalupe Morales, a member of Mazatlán Lawyers United, told the newspaper El Sol de Mazatlán that the rule is illegal as it violates the right to freedom of movement and the freedom to decide whether to get the vaccine. Morales said some people have medical reasons for not being vaccinated and the alternative offered by the government — showing a recent negative Covid test — is prohibitively expensive for many.
“They tell you that a negative certificate is enough, but you have to pay 900 pesos to get in and show the mayor that you’re virus-free. These are things they have not considered. We cannot permit an authority to walk all over our rights,” Morales said, adding that the mayor instituted the rule without legislative approval.
Citizens have 15 days, counting from August 2, to seek an injunction, Morales said.
In the face of the opposition, Mayor Luis Guillermo Benítez Torres stood his ground.
“I am asking for the vaccination certificate in order to enter a public place, and it’s for everyone’s health,” he said, adding that the rule was for both locals and the port city’s many tourists. Meanwhile, city officials have begun to fine businesses that do not comply with the requirement.
Proof of vaccination requirements have also been implemented in Quintana Roo as well as some areas of Sonora, and the state government of Hidalgo has announced that vaccination certificates will be required for entering tourism sites.
Coleman with his wife and two children, who were stabbed to death in Rosarito.
An American surfing school owner suspected of murdering his children in Baja California was arrested on Tuesday as he tried to re-enter the United States.
Matthew Taylor Coleman, 40, the owner of a surf school in Santa Barbara, California, was detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents as he was crossing from Tijuana to San Diego after the mother of the two children reported them missing.
Coleman traveled with his two children, a one-year-old girl and a three-year-old boy, to Rosarito on Sunday where he checked into the Hotel City Express. CCTV footage showed that he left the hotel with the children around 3 a.m. Monday. Around 6:30 a.m., he returned to the hotel alone.
An hour later, the children’s bodies were found in the undergrowth near El Descanso ranch, a little over 20 kilometers away from the hotel. The boy had been stabbed 17 times and the girl 12, Baja California Attorney General Hiram Sánchez Zamora told a press conference. The wounds were inflicted with a wooden stake and possibly a harpoon, Sánchez said.
Consulate authorities are processing the paperwork for the identification and return of the children’s bodies to the U.S. Coleman could be extradited and face murder charges in Mexico.
A kindergarten teacher in Oaxaca has been sentenced to 198 years for raping three girls and being in possession of child pornography involving five others, all between three and six years old.
José Emmanuel R.O. was caught red-handed and arrested in May 2016 after a victim’s grandmother couldn’t find her at the kindergarten in Santa María Tlalixtac in the La Cañada region of the state. She was informed by the girl’s classmates that their teacher had taken her to his house nearby.
She found the house locked but forced open the door and found her granddaughter naked while her teacher was taking photographs of her.
Police arrested the man, which may have saved his life: local residents were trying to break him free in order to lynch him.
Authorities later found photographs of naked children among his belongings as well as on his mobile phone and laptop.
According to a statement by the state Attorney General’s Office the crimes were committed starting in 2015.
The newspaper Diario Marca reported in 2016 that the convict received a hereditary position as a kindergarten teacher in 2013 “despite not having the corresponding qualifications.” It also alleged that he was protected by the local head of the CNTE teachers union, who ignored the complaints of parents.
The accused has also been ordered to pay a fine for more than 1 million pesos (about US $50,000).
