After downloading the hoozie app, users can earn hoozies through activities like running, using public transporation and signing up new users. Twitter @ANTADMx
A new digital currency can now be used to pay for goods and services in participating businesses in the Guadalajara metropolitan area.
Pegged 1:1 to the Mexican peso, the hoozie, as the currency is called, was officially launched on Thursday.
Citizens can obtain hoozies, a blockchain-based currency, by downloading the hoozie app on their cell phones and carrying out certain activities that benefit their communities or the environment.
Hoozies can also be earned through the use of public transport, running and cycling. Riding a bike for 30 minutes, for example, earns a hoozie app user 10 hoozies. People get 50 hoozies if they sign up a friend to the app and 100 if they sign up a business.
When people use the digital currency to make purchases in participating businesses, 4% of the value of the transaction is returned to them in hoozies.
The currency is an initiative of the University of Guadalajara and the Irish company Domila Limited.
The Jalisco Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology contributed 1.2 million pesos (US $59,500) to aid its development via a funding scheme designed to support initiatives that will help reactive the state economy amid the coronavirus pandemic.
A pilot program to test the functionality of the new digital currency was run at the 2021 expo of the National Association of Supermarkets and Department Stores (ANTAD), which was held in Guadalajara this week. About 1,800 attendees downloaded the app during the event.
Many of the Jalisco-based ANTAD members are expected to allow the use of hoozies in their supermarkets and stores. To date, more than 100 businesses, including restaurants, hotels, beauty salons and clothing stores, have signed up on the platform.
Participating businesses have the option of running exclusive promotions for hoozie users. They receive 500 hoozies just for signing up. More information about the new digital currency is available on the hoozie website.
At his regular press conference on Thursday, the president accused UNAM of individualism and 'promoting neoliberal projects.'
President López Obrador launched an attack on Mexico’s most prestigious university on Thursday, asserting that it became “individualistic” during what he describes as the nation’s neoliberal period.
He told reporters at his regular news conference that the neoliberal period – 1982 to 2018 – was an era of “backwardness, looting … [and] manipulation.”
Two generations were adversely affected by the period, López Obrador said, adding that the National Autonomous University (UNAM) – which he attended in the mid-1970s – became “individualistic” and a “defender of neoliberal projects.”
“It lost its essence of training … professionals to serve the people,” he said.
“There are no longer the economists, sociologists, political scientists and lawyers of before. There are no longer constitutional law [courses], agrarian law is now history,” López Obrador said, lamenting the focus on commercial, civil and criminal law.
“It was a process of decadence,” he added. “Fortunately, we have the opportunity to lay the groundwork for the transformation [of Mexico] and completing the fourth transformation is possible, but it’s a process.”
The president’s remarks about UNAM triggered outpourings of support for the university.
Former rector José Narro said the university, recently ranked as the 105th best in the world, has always been committed to the wellbeing of the country.
“It has shown that time and again, with one president and the next,” he said in a radio interview.
Narro also said that Mexico wouldn’t be the country it is today without the contributions of professionals who were educated at UNAM.
Diego Valadés, a former director of UNAM’s Institute of Legal Research, rejected López Obrador’s claim that the university lost its people-oriented “essence,” asserting that it continues to educate in accordance with its “social commitment.”
Opposition politicians also defended the university while condemning the president for his remarks.
“I think it’s very regrettable that the federal executive is harming, damaging and assaulting our highest institute of learning,” said National Action Party (PAN) Senator Kenia López Rabadán.
“… This president will go like all [before him] have gone but our highest institute of learning will prevail; enough already of attacks on UNAM,” she said.
Institutional Revolutionary Party national president Alejandro Moreno offered his “full support” to UNAM Rector Enrique Graue and other members of the university community, while PAN Deputy Santiago Creel described López Obrador’s remarks against his alma mater as “reprehensible.”
A new criminal organization calling itself the “Cartel del H” is threatening businesses in the Mexico City borough of Iztapalapa, demanding exorbitant extortion payments and threatening to burn down the premises of those that don’t comply.
“We have been in office less than 20 days and … we have received reports of this kind of extortion … and of the appearance of a new cartel that we had not heard of here in Iztapalapa,” council member Olivia Garza told the newspaper Milenio.
She said that in the most extreme case reported, various armed men demanded that an owner pay 150,000 pesos (US $7,400) or they would burn down his business. The owner made a deal to pay in installments of 10,000 pesos. He made six payments but after being unable to come up with the seventh, his business was burned to the ground.
Garza said that while making rounds of the borough she has heard other reports of excessive demands by the new gang, which is going after business owners and market vendors.
She requested the immediate intervention of the Citizen Security Ministry (SSC) and the investigative police.
“The borough needs a great deal of support on this issue, that’s a responsibility of the city government,” Garza said. “The appearance of this cartel needs to be investigated with the intention of preventing the creation of more criminal cells, rather than as a reaction to the presence of new cartels.”
According to Mexico City authorities, at least 14 criminal groups operate in the capital, including La Familia Michoacana, La Unión Tepito, the Beltrán Leyva cartel and others. Their activities include narco-trafficking, kidnapping and extortion.
Two women dining at La Malquerida restaurant and bar in Tulum were killed on Wednesday. FGE Quintana Roo Twitter
Two foreign tourists were killed and three were wounded in a shooting in Tulum, Quintana Roo, on Wednesday, state authorities said Thursday.
A German woman and an Indian woman died after being shot while dining at La Malquerida, a restaurant/bar in the center of the Caribbean coast resort town.
Two other Germans and a Dutch national were wounded and taken to hospital for treatment. All three remain hospitalized, the Quintana Roo Attorney General’s Office (FGE) said in a statement.
The FGE said that one of the women who was fatally shot died at the scene while the other passed away in the hospital. It said preliminary investigations indicated the tourists were caught in the crossfire of a shootout between drug gangs.
One of the aggressors was also wounded and detained, the FGE said, adding that state police are investigating and seeking to identify, locate and capture the other assailants.
The incident is the latest in a string of violent attacks in public places in Tulum, a once sleepy beach town that has become an international party destination. A Spanish tourist died after being shot in a taco restaurant in March, two men were shot and killed on a beach in June, a man was gunned down in the street in August, a taxi driver and security guard were executed at a restaurant in September and a man was murdered in the parking lot of the Tulum archaeological site earlier this month.
Last November, two people were killed and three others — including a police officer — were injured during a gunfight at a beach club Halloween party in Tulum.
According to the state Security Ministry, at least six criminal groups operate in the Riviera Maya, a coastal region of Quintana Roo that also includes Cancún and Playa del Carmen. They include the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, the Sinaloa Cartel and the Old School Zetas.
Tulum recorded 65 homicides in the first nine months of this year, 16 more than in all of 2020, while Cancún and Playa del Carmen registered 234 and 70, respectively.
The German Federal Foreign Office is currently advising German citizens not to leave their hotel complexes if they are in the Riviera Maya. It noted in a travel advisory that there have been violent attacks at restaurants and nightclubs in recent weeks that have affected German travelers and claimed the life of one.
An electron microscope photograph of SARS-Cov-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
After President López Obrador criticized the World Health Organization (WHO) for taking too long to approve two COVID-19 vaccines, the head of the United Nations agency suggested he leave it up to the experts.
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus advised López Obrador to send medical experts to learn more about the process used to approve vaccines.
The president chastised the WHO on Tuesday for its tardiness in approving the Sputnik V and CanSino vaccines, both of which have been used in Mexico. He said he would send a letter to the organization asking it to expedite its process.
Asked about the president’s remarks at a press conference on Thursday, Tedros said he was unaware of them.
“We haven’t heard from Mexico. … If they have any concerns they can ask us, they can send us a message and we can give them any answer. This is the first time I’m getting information that they have concerns,” the director-general said.
“If they’re interested they can send experts to see how we do it here. … Instead of a president raising this issue without any contact with our experts, its better to leave it up to the experts to discuss. … If he wants to know [about the vaccine approval process] I think he can send experts” and they can discuss it, Tedros said.
“One thing I would like to assure his excellency the president is that we use data and evidence and principles, nothing else, and the final recommendations come from experts with the right skills and experience,” he said.
López Obrador’s concern about the Sputnik and CanSino shots not being certified by the WHO stems from the United States’ announcement that all travelers seeking to enter the U.S. will have to be fully vaccinated with a WHO-approved vaccine starting November 8.
In other COVID-19 news:
• Mexico’s accumulated case tally rose to 3.76 million on Wednesday with 5,069 new infections reported. The Health Ministry reported 424 additional fatalities, lifting the official COVID-19 death toll to 285,347. There are 33,414 estimated active cases.
Tabasco has the highest number of active cases on a per capita basis with just over 70 per 100,000 residents. Baja California, Mexico City and Guanajuato are the only other states where there are more than 50 active cases per 100,000 people.
• Almost 113.5 million vaccine doses have been administered in Mexico, according to the latest Health Ministry data, after just over 450,000 shots were given Wednesday. Almost 69.5 million adults have received at least one shot, and three-quarters of that number are fully vaccinated.
In percentage terms, 78% of adults have received at least one shot. The real vaccination rate among adults is likely at least a few points higher as many Mexicans have traveled to the United States to get their shots.
• The federal government reiterated this week that companies cannot legally require employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
“In Mexican laws there’s no justification for that. If someone is asking you for your vaccination certificate in order to report to work, he or she is committing an offense. Putting conditions on access to work is not legal,” Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said Tuesday.
One of the police vehicles damaged during a standoff over a drone.
Residents of Soledad Atzompa, Veracruz, were alarmed to see a drone passing over their area, so alarmed that they brought down the unmanned aircraft, destroyed it, took some state employees hostage and set fire to five government vehicles.
It appears that the residents were moved to aggression by the belief that the drone was spreading COVID-19.
In reality, the aircraft belonged to the state Public Security Ministry (SSP) and was brought in by the state search commission to look for hidden graves in Soledad Atzompa, a municipality in the mountainous central region of the state.
But to the furious locals, drones were not a familiar sight and the assurances of government personnel failed to inspire confidence. After destroying the drone, residents took state search commission employees hostage and when more state officials arrived to control the situation, their vehicles were set on fire.
“Authorities of this ministry initiated dialogue with the dissenting residents, which concluded at 9 p.m. when police withdrew from the area,” the SSP said.
The state search commission employees were then released and taken for medical attention.
Community and municipal leaders are to meet with Governor Cuitláhuac García next week, to ask that any government officials with business in the area make their presence known beforehand to avoid future “miscommunications.” The leaders said the state search commission gave no indication that they would be in the area, nor that they would be flying drones.
According to Sixto Cabrera González, a Náhuatl poet and translator from the area, the local residents are peaceful but no longer willing to tolerate having their rights violated. He said the unfortunate events could have been avoided if the government had been open about its activities.
Once again, a popular Morelos gastronomic festival promises to delight the palates of Mexican wine, cheese and mezcal fans.
The first edition of the Beso Divino (Divine Kiss) Tepoztlán Festival attracted more than 3,000 curious foodies. Now, after a wait of a year and a half, the second festival is set for November 13 and 14 in the Pueblo Mágico (Magical Town) of Tepoztlán, just south of Mexico City.
The festival will host more than 50 exhibitors of products including fine mezcal, Mexican cheese, national and international wines, artisanal beer, handcrafts and chocolate, as well as Mexican and world cuisine. For entertainment, visitors can enjoy live music, wine and mezcal tastings, a picnic area and a children’s area.
The festival takes place at the Jardín Vista Hermosa on Saturday, November 13 and Sunday, November 14, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tickets cost 150 pesos per person.
Milenio confirmed that roughly 4 million pesos worth of medications expired before they were delivered to hospitals, but workers claim the figure is much higher.
Medications worth millions of pesos were left to expire in a filthy makeshift storage facility used by the Mexico City Health Ministry (Sedesa), according to workers.
Three large tents were set up on the grounds of Sedesa’s central storage facility early last year to store a range of medications and medical supplies while the site’s permanent warehouse underwent repairs.
The storage facility is supposed to keep medications and medical supplies in optimal conditions prior to distribution to Mexico City hospitals, but one tent was filled with stagnant water and trash and smelled of cat urine, according to a report by the newspaper Milenio.
A storage center worker told Milenio that medications – including pediatric cancer drugs – and medical supplies were removed from the permanent facility without proper precautions being taken.
“All the medications and materials should have been [kept] in a cool, uncontaminated place,” he said, conditions that clearly weren’t met.
Methotrexate, a cancer drug which has been in short supply, was one of many medications that expired before it was delivered to hospitals.
“A lot of medications expired, an estimated 40 million pesos [almost US $2 million] worth of medications expired because they weren’t delivered [to hospitals],” the worker added.
Milenio said it had access to the central storage facility’s database and was able to confirm that approximately 4 million pesos worth of medications, including the cancer drug methotrexate, which has been in short supply in Mexico, expired before they were delivered to hospitals.
The worker said that a consignment of another cancer drug was destroyed because it got wet. Workers at the storage facility also claim that medications and medical supplies that were contaminated due to inadequate storage were distributed to Mexico City hospitals during the pandemic. Among them was a 424-bed coronavirus field hospital that has been described as world class.
“Amid the pandemic, from 2020 to 2021, mistreated and contaminated essential personal protective equipment and medications were distributed,” the unidentified worker said.
“… We said, how is it possible that surgical gowns they’re using in the pandemic can be [stored] in the humidity, in the middle of trash?”
Sedesa denied the claim that medications and supplies were improperly stored, telling Milenio they are subject to “strict supervision processes.”
Two of the three makeshift storage tents have now been taken down as the permanent facility is once again in operation.
Workers have blamed two high-ranking Sedesa officials for the expiry of medications and distribution of contaminated drugs and supplies, and claim that their objective is not to unduly discredit the Mexico City government led by Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum.
“… I’m not interested in taking her down, I just want justice,” Milenio‘s informant said.
By following a few prudent rules of conduct, the writer has managed to live in peace in Mazatlán for several years.
I moved to Mexico the same year as ex-president Felipe Calderón began his disastrous war on drugs, in 2006.
That year, the murder rate for the state of Sinaloa was 22 people per 100,000. Just the year before, it was only eight per 100,000. (The United States has five per 100,000.) By 2011, it had jumped to 50.
Mr. Calderón’s actions fragmented the cartels from three major criminal organizations, which had been somewhat organized and stable, into a full-blown free-for-all.
For several years afterward, full-color pictures of men and boys with ventilated craniums and with thumbs wired behind their backs were plastered across the pages of the local rags every single day. Just standing in front of a local newsstand and perusing the front pages was not for the faint of heart.
The Zetas — a spinoff of the Gulf Cartel that happen to be the most vicious of the cartels, offering murder for hire, extortion and kidnapping in addition to their drug business — were challenging the Sinaloa Cartel throughout western Mexico.
President Calderón’s war on drugs deployed the military to fight organized crime.
Here in Mazatlán, there were shoot-outs in the colonias (residential neighborhoods), executions in several cantinas and shootings in nightclubs, along with the daylight murder of a Mexican man directly in front of gringo tourists at a popular hotel. At this point, even the expat community was nervous, and many did not venture out at night.
In 2011, when Calderón came to town to assure the general population that he was doing his best to kill or capture the bad guys, he was greeted with a large banner erected in the plaza where he was due to speak. It simply said: “Mr. Calderón, leave the Zetas to us.”
By the following year, the Sinaloa Cartel had eliminated the threat of the Zetas in western Mexico. Of course, at the end of that year, the body count was approaching that of a central African nation after an election, but things felt safer.
During these troubled years, all the Anglo news services were slamming Mexico like a screen door in a hurricane. Month after month, for almost four years, the Canadian and the United States state departments were issuing dire travel warnings about Mexico: don’t go — you’ll die.
Ten years ago, the excessive carnage in Mexico was due almost exclusively to bad guys whacking bad guys. When I wrap what’s left of my mind around this concept, I ultimately think I’m OK with it; let them kill each other.
I know that a few people who are not targeted will die, but for the most part the narcos were fairly selective with their exterminations, very much unlike Detroit or south central Los Angeles, where a kid could get shot for his tennis shoes. (I have often wondered why they don’t issue travel warnings for certain U.S. cities where random violence is not uncommon.)
The writer lived through some of Mazatlán’s worst periods of violence but found that it mostly consisted of criminals targeting other criminals.
However, as capture nets were flung far and wide by law enforcement, cartel members scattered into splinter groups and began forming their own criminal cartels. Soon, besides drug cartels, there were avocado-stealing cartels, gasoline- and diesel-stealing cartels, extortion cartels and human trafficking cartels. Carjacking has also increased, but unlike carjacking in the U.S., here in Mexico the passengers are rarely harmed.
Lately, several of the newer and more vicious cartels have begun to kill entire families, as well as reporters who have written unflattering anecdotes about their activities. The violence is also more widespread but is still always connected to some type of criminal enterprise.
The unfortunate consequence of this ill-conceived war on drugs has been to violently stir a seething cauldron of greed and corruption. When you have an activity that generates US $35 billion to $50 billion each year, there is no hope to control it, and the idea of stopping it is pure fantasy.
One school of experts tells us that the only way to make it disappear is to eliminate its lucrative nature; take the money out. But all views concede that while the legalization of all drugs would likely end the drug wars, it would also unleash a horde of newly unemployed criminals upon society. The displaced narcos would have an extremely limited set of skills, most of which fail to contribute to the common good.
So, what does all this mean for those of us who live here? I have always felt safe living in Mexico, even during the worst years of the violence. But how do you convey your sense of safety to friends and families who think El Chapo is your next-door neighbor? Do we need to run out and get Kevlar vests and armored vehicles? “Barricade the condo, Mabel, the narcos are storming the gates!”
The simple answer is that those of us who live here cannot adequately express our feeling of personal safety to someone who has never been in the country. Most people north of the border equate the violence in Mexico as similar to that of the worst of the urban areas in the U.S. but with a higher body count. But the difference between the two is the random nature of the bloodshed in the United States. Here in Mexico, post offices are not free-fire zones and school shootings are nearly nonexistent.
It’s tough to convince loved ones in the US that you’re safe living in Mexico when they think you live next door to “El Chapo” Guzmán.
This does not mean that as an expat you are safe from any type of criminal encounter; it’s just that you stand a far better chance of surviving one in Mexico.
However, I still have a few friends in the States who think I am going to be gunned down any day now. I don’t mean to downplay the violence and corruption, but criminal cartels are now a part of life in Mexico — and will be for the foreseeable future.
I believe that all the expats who live in Mexico have their own set of guidelines for steering clear of the criminal elements; I know I do.
For example, gone are my days of handling large amounts of cocaine or bales of pot. I have also given up my opium smoking and no longer make rude hand gestures to SUVs with blacked-out windows.
So, always be aware of your surroundings and act accordingly. We are still better off here than in urban areas of the U.S.
(Note: Bodie Kellogg was kidnapped two weeks ago. Last week, his captors raised their offer to 10 cases of Pacífico to anyone who will come and take him off their hands.)
The writer describes himself as a very middle-aged man who lives full-time in Mazatlán with a captured tourist woman and the ghost of a half-wild dog. He can be reached at [email protected].
Sí por México leaders Gustavo de Hoyos, Argelia Núñez, Beatriz Páges and Claudio X. González hold a banner advertising their goal: 'Unity to build a winning Mexico for all and throw Morena out of the National Palace.'
A political movement opposed to the government of President López Obrador announced Wednesday it will seek to convince opposition parties to band together and put forward a common candidate to contest the 2024 presidential election.
The leaders of Sí por México (Yes for Mexico) said they will seek an alliance between the National Action Party (PAN), the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) and the Citizens Movement (MC) party.
“The goal is to have a large opposition coalition …” said Gustavo de Hoyos, former president of the Mexican Employers Federation.
Speaking at an event in Mexico City to mark the first anniversary of the formation of Sí por México, de Hoyos said that other opposition forces could also join the coalition, adding that the objective is to kick the ruling Morena party out of office in 2024.
“We want to have a unity presidential candidate of the entire opposition in order to win in 2024,” he said, without offering the names of any possible contenders.
Former PAN lawmaker and 2018 presidential candidate Ricardo Anaya appears to be a likely choice for the 2024 candidate of the opposition.
Claudio X. González, a businessman and another Sí por México leader, claimed that the opposition is well positioned to win government in 2024.
He noted that the PAN-PRI-PRD alliance that contested this year’s midterm elections under the Va por México (Go for Mexico) banner achieved its main objective of stripping Morena and its allies of its supermajority in the lower house of Congress.
That result, González added, will avoid the approval of constitutional reforms that are harmful for the country. The businessman, an outspoken critic of López Obrador and his government, also said the PAN, PRI, PRD and MC garnered approximately 2 million more votes than Morena at the midterm elections.
“The opposition defeated the ruling party at the June 6 election,” he said, although Morena retained control of the Chamber of Deputies and won 10 of 15 gubernatorial races.
“The main lesson we learned at the last election is that Morena is not invincible and that the opposition – Va por México and Citizens Movement, in other words – can win the presidential election together and the mayoralty of Mexico City in 2024,” González said.
If opposition parties do decide to support a common candidate – 2018 presidential candidate and former PAN lawmaker Ricardo Anaya currently appears to be the most likely choice – he or she will most likely come up against current Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum or Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, suggests a new national telephone poll conducted by the newspaper El Universal.
Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, a close ally of the president, is one possible pick for the Morena party presidential candidate in 2024.
Asked who they would like to be Morena’s candidate, 42.5% of respondents who identified themselves as supporters of the ruling party said Sheinbaum, while 31.3% said Ebrard.
The only other two possible candidates mentioned, Morena Senate leader Ricardo Monreal and Interior Minister Adán Augusto López, garnered minimal support among those polled.
Asked which party they would vote for if the presidential election was held today, 35.3% of 1,200 respondents said Morena compared to just 14.4% who nominated the PAN, 9% who cited the PRI and 2% who mentioned MC. The PRD garnered less than 1% support. Those results indicate that even a single candidate supported by all opposition parties will not attract enough support to defeat the Morena’s flag bearer in 2024.
Morena came out on top in five of six scenarios in which poll respondents were asked to select a candidate.
Sheinbaum, Ebrard and Monreal all prevailed in mock races against candidates including Anaya, México state Governor Alfredo del Mazo, Nuevo León Governor Samuel García, Jalisco Governor Enrique Alfaro and former first lady Margarita Zavala.
The only scenario in which the Morena candidate didn’t prevail was when Adán López was pitted against Monterrey Mayor Luis Donaldo Colosio Rojas, former Querétaro governor Francisco Domínguez and PRI national president and former Campeche governor Alejandro Moreno.
In that mock race, López – who recently left his position as governor of Tabasco to become interior minister – finished second to the proposed MC candidate – Luis Colosio, the 36-year-old son of Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta, a PRI presidential candidate who was assassinated in Tijuana in 1994.
Among the other poll findings was that 80.1% of respondents agreed that it’s time for a woman to become president of Mexico.
Among possible women candidates, Sheinbaum – a protégé and close ally of López Obrador – appears best placed to become the country’s first ever female president.
