‘You’re not alone:’ pope sends a message to Aguililla, Michoacán

By

-

July 20, 2021

Pope Francis has sent a message of solidarity and compassion to the residents of the violence-stricken municipality of Aguililla, Michoacán.

“You are not alone,” the pope told residents in a letter to Apatzingán Bishop Cristóbal Ascencio García, whose diocese includes the Tierra Caliente municipality at the center of a turf war between the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the Cárteles Unidos.

The letter, read aloud by Ascencio at a Mass on Sunday, urged Aguililla residents to place their faith in God and asserted that “the Lord is strength and mercy that never abandons his children.”

“… The church is attentive and close to all those who suffer,” Francis said in the letter dated June 11.

The pope told the bishop he was aware of “great suffering” caused by violent confrontations between rival drug-trafficking groups in territory under his pastoral care.

“… The climate of fear and insecurity that afflicts the population is contrary to the will of God; He wants all his sons and daughters to live their life in a safe climate of serenity and harmony,” he wrote.

The pope said he wanted to make his presence felt “in these difficult times,” adding that he was praying to give the people of Aguililla strength to overcome their suffering with strength and patience.

“I can understand the feeling of despondency and the sensation of helplessness … but remember you are not alone…” he wrote.

The pope’s prayers and wishes were insufficient to prevent a breakdown of talks last week between federal authorities and Aguililla residents.

Discussions were suspended because a government offer to the residents – which included the provision of a range of social programs and the construction of infrastructure – failed to respond to their main demands: clear passage on local highways that have been frequently blocked by the feuding criminal groups and enforce security.

Local priest Gilberto Vergara told the newspaper Reforma that residents remained dissatisfied with the army’s efforts.

“What hindered [the talks] … is that residents have been protesting at the military barracks in Aguililla for 15 days; the demand of the people is for the soldiers to leave the barracks and patrol [the streets],” he said.

“They went [to the barracks] once to demand that they go out and clear the roads but they didn’t do it. There’s been discontent since then,” Vergara said.

While the soldiers remain in their barracks instead of patrolling the municipality, dialogue with the government “looks difficult,” the priest said.

Angry at the army for not doing the work they believe it should be doing, some residents recently prevented a military helicopter from landing at a heliport in Aguililla that has been used to fly in supplies to soldiers.

Residents, who have forced shortages of essential goods due to the highway blockades, subsequently dug up the heliport with backhoes.

The pope is not the first high-ranking Catholic Church figure to take an interest in Aguililla. The Vatican’s ambassador to Mexico, Archbishop Franco Coppola, visited the municipality in April and blamed the absence of the state for the situation of insecurity.

With reports from Milenio and Reforma

Hilton to open 3 new hotels; 30 more are under development

By

MND Staff

-

July 20, 2021

0

Hilton's Conrad Tulum is to open near the end of the year.

U.S. hotel chain Hilton will open three new hotels in coastal locations and has 30 more projects under development to add to its 70-strong offering in Mexico.

The new accommodations comprise two hotels in Tulum, Quintana Roo: the 735-room Hilton Tulum All-Inclusive Resort and the 349-room Conrad Tulum; and one hotel in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco: the 444-room Hilton Vallarta Riviera.

The all-inclusive hotel in Tulum features a secluded beach and a waterpark, and the smaller Conrad hotel gives guests a choice of seven restaurants. The hotel in Puerto Vallarta has a private beach, seven restaurants and six bars.

The smaller accommodation in Tulum and the hotel in Puerto Vallarta are anticipated to open in the fourth quarter of 2021, and the all-inclusive Tulum hotel in the first quarter 2022.

Hilton’s Americas president Danny Hughes said prospects were healthy for the Mexican tourism industry. “Mexico has always been an incredibly important destination for Hilton. These new additions are one more symbol that tourism in Mexico is rebounding and it is with great pride that we continue evolving our offerings in this burgeoning market, especially in the luxury and all-inclusive segments,” he said.

Charles Elmann Fasja, CEO of Parks Holdings, the company that will partner with Hilton in Tulum, explained why the country is attractive. “We believe Mexico’s unique combination of people, culture, gastronomy, and natural beauties make it the best global destination for tourism.”

The tourism industry has been recovering since the Covid-19 pandemic all but canceled international tourism for most of 2020.

A record number of U.S. citizens flew to Mexico in May; 9% more than during the same month in 2019 and 4,117% more than in pandemic restricted May of 2020.

Mexico News Daily

Sonora’s traditional toad medicine ‘removes the madness from your mind’

By

MND Staff

-

July 20, 2021

0

The Colorado River toad, the focus of attention every July in Punta Chueca, Sonora.

Dozens of people from Mexico and abroad traveled to a small coastal town in Sonora earlier this month to celebrate the new year for the indigenous Seri culture and learn about and take a very unique “medicine” – psychoactive toxins emitted by the Colorado River toad.

Held in Punta Chueca, a Seri town on the Gulf of California 140 kilometers west of Hermosillo, the event attracted citizens from the United States, Europe and several Mexican states.

The key attraction was the opportunity to try 5-MeO-DMT, a psychedelic of the tryptamine class found in the glands of the toad, also known as the Sonoran Desert toad or bufo alvarius.

The substance is considered an ancestral medicine with the capacity to treat a range of physical, emotional and spiritual ailments. It is commonly dried, mixed with tobacco and smoked to trigger “a powerful religious-like trip that lasts about an hour,” according to the web site Addiction Center.

Octavio Rettig Hinojosa, a shaman known as El Profeta del Sapo (the prophet of the toad), told the newspaper Milenio that the “venom” is extracted from toads without harming them and is therefore a sustainable substance.

Shaman Octavio Rettig, right, and a candidate for treatment.

“It’s an anti-hallucinogen, it’s something that will remove the madness from your mind, everything that removes you from the here and now, everything that is not real,” he said.

“The bufo alvarius lives buried [beneath the ground] 10 months a year and in the rainy season it comes to the surface to reproduce, eat and share this ancestral medicine with us,” Rettig said.

Another proponent of toad-extracted 5-MeO-DMT is former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson, who has traveled to Sonora to smoke the substance and is apparently a regular user. He has said that using the psychoactive enabled him to give up alcohol and other drugs and even motivated him to make a boxing comeback last year.

“I took the medicine and the medicine told me to get into shape. It really blew my mind …” Tyson said before an exhibition bout against Roy Jones Jr. last November.

In early July, foreign tourists mingled with Mexican artists and even politicians on Seri, or Com Cáac land, in Punta Chueca. The common denominator was interest in 5-MeO-DMT.

“They came from the United States, Germany, France, Italy, everywhere to try the medicine. I’m very thankful to see so many people because we thought they wouldn’t come because of the pandemic and fear of the disease,” said Seri community leader Enrique Robles Barnett.

“In Mexico we have this blessed medicine that … has surprising results … in very specific cases like addictions,” Roco Pachukote, vocalist of the legendary Mexican rock band Maldita Vecindad, told Milenio.

He has been in Punta Chueca in recent months and says he is engaged in “spiritual activism” and community work in the town.

Rettig, who is originally from Jalisco, said 5-MeO-DMT can be used to treat depression, anxiety and addiction to substances such as methamphetamine.

One person who arrived in Punta Chueca to seek treatment for drug addiction, as well as to leave behind dark memories from time spent in prison, was Oscar Vázquez of Houston, Texas.

“I come [to Punta Chueca] to seek answers that have been forbidden to me since childhood. … I had addiction problems with cocaine, crystal meth, marijuana, codeine pills but with the medicine I was born again, a happiness from the depths of my being [emerged]. I smile, I laugh, things I hadn’t done for a long time,” he said.

Pepe of Monterrey arrived on the Sonoran coast to seek healing from a divorce, Gustavo of Mazatlán sought liberation from guilt associated with the death of his mother and a woman named Norma was able to put an end to her internal suffering, Milenio reported.

[wpgmza id=”337″]

“… Today in pandemic times, in which emotional and psychiatric illnesses have increased the suicide rate and domestic violence, this medicine is a real alternative to treat these kinds of illnesses and suffering,” Vázquez said.

“It’s a viable and sustainable solution and I believe that it’s going to put Sonora and Mexico on the map …”

One sign of the growing popularity of 5-MeO-DMT extracted from the Colorado River toad is that it is even available on e-commerce website Mercado Libre for 1,200 pesos (US $60) a gram.

With reports from Milenio

No closures of public spaces despite Covid wave. ‘People are tired of it,’ says minister

By

MND Staff

-

July 20, 2021

0

The deputy health minister speaks to reporters Tuesday in the National Palace.

There will be no “total closures” of public spaces despite the recent increase in coronavirus cases in many parts of Mexico, Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said Tuesday.

Mexico is currently amid a third wave of the pandemic as the highly infectious Delta strain takes hold in many states.

But the federal government’s coronavirus point man said the implementation of lockdown measures such as those mandated at the start of the pandemic are no longer viable.

“We have a tired society, fatigued from having these long months of the epidemic. What one can ask of society in terms of the reduction of mobility is not the same today as it was in February 2020,” López-Gatell told reporters at the president’s regular news conference.

He stressed that the government can’t force people to stay at home and noted that strict restrictions have an economic impact at both the individual level and in general terms for the entire country.

“… There are public places that remain open. The [recommended] confinement is no longer going to imply total closures like those … at the beginning of the [the voluntary lockdown from March-May 2020],” López-Gatell said.

Sinaloa has already espoused that philosophy, announcing an increase in the state’s official risk level to red light maximum but declining to impose any new restrictions.

“… It shouldn’t surprise you that there are public spaces that remain open even when there is growth in the epidemic, like in Quintana Roo. But what is very, very important is that the different health security measures are complied with completely in those public spaces,” the deputy minister said.

He emphasized that the third wave of the pandemic is a very different proposition to the first and second waves because the majority of people who are most vulnerable to serious illness are vaccinated against Covid-19. López-Gatell said 43% of the population is vaccinated with at least one dose and most recent cases were detected among young people, many of whom have not yet had the opportunity to get a shot.

The majority of Covid patients currently in hospital are younger than 52 and 97% have not been vaccinated, he said, stressing that vaccination protects people against serious disease and death.

López-Gatell urged young people to get vaccinated when the opportunity arises. The government’s online vaccination registration platform is now open to all people aged 18 and above.

Meanwhile, Mexico’s accumulated case tally increased to 2.66 million on Monday with 5,307 new infections reported, while the official Covid-19 death toll rose by 138 to 236,469.

Mexico News Daily

López Obrador decries alleged spying, says it’s no longer happening

By

reuters

-

July 20, 2021

0

President López Obrador said on Tuesday that alleged government-ordered spying several years ago that may have targeted him and his close allies was “shameful” and added that his government did not spy on anyone.

British newspaper The Guardian reported on Monday that at least 50 people close to López Obrador, among many others, were potentially targeted by the previous administration of president Enrique Peña Nieto after it purchased Pegasus spying software from Israel-based NSO Group.

Pegasus was exclusively sold to government clients around the world by the Israeli company, and it is also believed to have been used to target journalists and human rights activists.

López Obrador has long railed against his predecessor’s record, saying it was rife with corruption and abuses. He said on Tuesday that if the Pegasus contract was still active it must be canceled.

Mexico‘s Ministry of Defence and Attorney General’s Office were clients of NSO Group.

The Guardian report was based on what the newspaper and other media outlets have said was a leak of some 50,000 phone numbers that were selected for possible surveillance by NSO Group’s government clients.

The list, first accessed by the French nonprofit journalist outlet Forbidden Stories and advocacy group Amnesty International, was shared with The Guardian and more than a dozen other news outlets.

Reuters has not been able to independently confirm the existence of the data leak or whether the contract was still active.

Reuters

Mexico’s agrifood exports highest in 29 years between January and May

By

MND Staff

-

July 20, 2021

0

Avocados were the No. 2 export; beer was No. 1.

The value of Mexico’s agrifood exports in the first five months of the year was the highest in 29 years, the Agriculture Ministry said.

Agrifood products destined for foreign shores brought in US $18.7 billion from January through May, and imports were just under $14.5 billion for a surplus of $4.23 billion, the fourth highest in 27 years.

Of the $33.2 billion agrifood trade with foreign countries, 56.4% was money entering the economy: more than earnings from petroleum exports or foreign tourism.

The biggest exports were beer at nearly $2.2 billion, avocados at $1.3 billion; tequila and mezcal, $1.1 billion; tomatoes, $1.1 billion; and peppers, $817 million.

More than 55% of imports were concentrated in four groups: cereals, at 21%; oil seeds and oleaginous fruits at 15%; meat at 14%, and dairy and other products of animal origin at 6%.

Primary agricultural and fish products alone, discounting agroindustrial produce, registered a surplus of $1.8 billion, with exports of more than $9 billion. For the month of May, those exports grew 17.5% in annual terms.

Vegetables, fruits and beverages were the biggest sellers from January to May. Export of the latter grew 30.8% in annual terms.

In terms of specific products, flower exports rocketed 94% annually, natural honey 83.2%, tobacco 60.7% and citrus 57.5%.

Agroindustrial trade alone left a surplus of $2.4 billion. Among those products, the largest annual increases were in meat and poultry offal at 156.4%, soybean oil 75.4%, and soups, stews or broths 55%.

For all trade, Mexico’s top trading partner was the United States, which purchased 75% of exports at a value of $361 billion in 2019, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC).

Canada was second in 2019 with 4.4% at $21.3 billion, followed by China, Germany and Taiwan.

Mexico News Daily

Tijuana, Ciudad Juárez, León top list of 50 most violent municipalities so far this year

By

MND Staff

-

July 20, 2021

0

Crime scene last Friday in Tijuana, where 10 people were killed in a 24-hour period.

Tijuana was the most violent municipality in Mexico in the first five months of 2021 in terms of sheer homicide numbers, federal data shows.

Navy Minister Rafael Ojeda presented a graph at President López Obrador’s news conference on Monday that showed the 50 most violent municipalities between January and May this year.

Tijuana, Baja California, ranked first with 749 homicides for an average of 150 per month or five per day. Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, was second with 515 homicides between January and May followed by León, Guanajuato, 295; Cajeme (Ciudad Obregón), Sonora, 225; and Acapulco, Guerrero, 197.

In sixth to 10th place were Fresnillo, Zacatecas, 190; Guadalajara, Jalisco, 186; Chihuahua city, 158; Ensenada, Baja California, 158; and Celaya, Guanajuato, 151.

Among the other 40 municipalities on the list were three Mexico City boroughs – Iztapalapa, Gustavo A. Madero and Venustiano Carranza – and Ecatepec, Naucalpan, Tlalnepantla, Nezahualcóyotl and Cuautitlán Izcalli, which are in México state but part of the greater metropolitan area surrounding the capital.

Navy Minister Ojeda gives a crime report Tuesday morning at the National Palace.

In addition to Guadalajara and Chihuahua city, nine state capitals were among the 50 most violent municipalities in the first five months of the year. They were Culiacán, Sinaloa; Morelia, Michoacán; San Luis Potosí city; Hermosillo, Sonora; Mexicali, Baja California; Monterrey, Nuevo León; Cuernavaca, Morelos; Zacatecas city; and Puebla city.

Other notable cities that appeared on the list included Benito Juárez (Cancún), Quintana Roo; Tecate, Baja California; Irapuato, Guanajuato; Uruapan, Michoacán; Manzanillo, Colima; Nogales, Sonora; and Reynosa, Tamaulipas.

The 16 most violent municipalities all recorded more than 100 homicides between January and May, while those ranked 17th to 44th registered at least 50. The 45th to 50th most violent municipalities saw between 47 and 49 homicides in the first five months of 2021, a period in which Mexico recorded 14,243 murders – a 2.9% decline compared to the January-May period of 2020.

The presentation of the graph came just days after López Obrador told Morena party governors and governors-elect that the federal government will concentrate its anti-crime efforts on the 50 municipalities with the highest rates of insecurity.

Ojeda also presented a graph that ranked the 32 states according to the number of homicides recorded between December 2018 – the month the current federal government took office – and May 2021.

Guanajuato ranked first with 7,646 homicides in the 30-month period followed by Baja California, 6,622; México state, 6,169; Chihuahua, 5,462; and Jalisco, 4,791.

Eleven states – the five above plus Michoacán, Guerrero, Veracruz, Sonora, Mexico City and Puebla – were above the national average of 2,277 homicides, while the other 21 were below the average. The five states with the fewest homicides in the period were Yucatán, 106; Baja California Sur, 171; Aguascalientes, 193; Campeche, 194; and Tlaxcala, 320.

On a per capita basis, Colima was the most violent state in the first 2 1/2 years of the government’s six-year term with 199.9 homicides per 100,000 people, according to another graph presented by the navy chief. Baja California ranked second with a per capita rate of 175.7 followed by Chihuahua, 146; Guanajuato, 124; and Zacatecas, 111.6.

Yucatán maintained its status as the least violent state on a per capita basis with just 4.6 homicides per 100,000 people between December 2018 and May 2021. Aguascalientes was the second least violent followed by Coahuila, Querétaro and Durango.

Here are Mexico’s 50 most violent municipalities:

Tijuana, Baja California
Juárez, Chihuahua
León, Guanajuato
Cajeme, Sonora
Acapulco, Guerrero
Fresnillo, Zacatecas
Guadalajara, Jalisco
Chihuahua, Chihuahua
Ensenada, Baja California
Celaya, Guanajuato
Zamora, Michoacán
Culiacán, Sinaloa
Morelia, Michoacán
Benito Juárez, Quintana Roo
San Pedro Tlaquepaque, Jalisco
Tecate, Baja California
Tlajomulco de Zúñiga, Jalisco
Ecatepec de Morelos, México
San Luis Potosí, San Luis Potosí
Irapuato, Guanajuato
Iztapalapa, Mexico City
Hermosillo, Sonora
Mexicali, Baja California
Uruapan, Michoacán
Zapopan, Jalisco
Tonalá, Jalisco
Iguala de la Independencia, Guerrero
Manzanillo, Colima
Monterrey, Nuevo León
Apaseo el Grande, Guanajuato
Salamanca, Guanajuato
Guaymas, Sonora
Nogales, Sonora
Gustavo A. Madero, Mexico City
Cuernavaca, Morelos
Guadalupe, Zacatecas
Naucalpan de Juárez, México
Jacona, Michoacán
Zacatecas, Zacatecas
Lagos de Moreno, Jalisco
Caborca, Sonora
Reynosa, Tamaulipas
Tlalnepantla de Baz, México
Nezahualcóyotl, México
Puebla, Puebla
Cuautitlán Izcalli, México
San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora
Venustiano Carranza, Mexico City
Juárez, Nuevo León
Yuriria, Guanajuato

Mexico News Daily

Walking streets with sign pays off for unemployed English teacher

By

MND Staff

-

July 19, 2021

0

Samuel Olvera sits at his computer at his home in Naucalpan.

A language teacher who took to the streets in Mexico City carrying a sign advertising English classes has been rewarded with a cascade of new students after his message went viral on social media.

Samuel Olvera, 28, of Naucalpan, state of México, had lost his job as an English teacher due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but wanted to help support his family’s meager income. He was photographed near the Bellas Artes Palace with a sign advertising classes for 15 pesos, the first class free.

More than 2,300 people contacted him and he is now teaching 200 students a course in basic English over Zoom. Some students have offered to pay more than the exceptionally low price advertised.

Olvera was surprised by the response. “It was never my intention to go viral. I only took to the streets with my sign and all the faith in the world so that people would see that I was a teacher without a job … [then] a young man said to me ‘Can I take a picture of you?’ … And now look at me,” he said.

He added that his family’s financial situation inspired his initiative. “We are a large family, I have five sisters and I am the oldest … My mother cleans houses and my father is a bus driver, so they can’t manage on their earnings. The need has been there since I was in high school, when I paid for my studies, and today I continue to contribute at home so that we have something to eat,” he said.

However, when a better opportunity comes knocking, the young teacher said he will be more than happy to take it. “I am just starting out, but I hope with time I will get a better job to work with a little more dignity,” he said with a smile.

With reports from Milenio

Mexico sends 100 firefighters to help combat wildfires in Canada

By

MND Staff

-

July 19, 2021

0

Firefighters on parade before their departure for Canada.

One hundred and one firefighters have been sent to Canada to help combat forest fires on the request of its northern trading partner, where the situation has been classified as critical.

The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) set a Level 5 preparedness warning on July 12, the highest on the scale.

The Mexican contingent flew into Toronto on the weekend to join efforts in Ontario, where an emergency order was issued by the province, marking the fourth occasion that the National Forest Commission has sent personnel to Canada to assist with the suppression of wildfires. As of Sunday morning, there were more than 100 forest fires burning in northwestern Ontario. On Thursday, an unidentified firefighter died while tackling a blaze.

The Mexican contingent is formed of five brigades, including three women amid five brigade chiefs, 20 squad chiefs, over 60 ranking firefighters and a Covid-19 coordinator, among others, from 22 states. They convened in Zapopan, Jalisco, for Covid-19 and medical tests between June 15 and 17.

A historic heatwave last month has contributed to this year’s wildfire season in Canada, which has torched 270,000 hectares in British Columbia and over the weekend pumped thick smoke into the air across Alberta, obscuring the Edmonton and Calgary skylines.

CIFFC executive director Kim Connors said this is the most active fire season the agency has seen in years, and that there was no relief in sight. “This is far from over … There’s a lot of work to do. Some of these are big fires and they burn deep. They’re very hot fires and it takes a lot of work to put these fires out,” he said.

With reports from AM Querétaro, El Financiero CBC, The Globe and Mail

62% see politics behind AMLO’s commemoration of conquest: poll

By

MND Staff

-

July 19, 2021

0

A painting depicting the Spanish conquest of Mexico — The dispute stems back to President López Obrador's request that the Spanish king apologize for Spain's 16th century conquest of Mexico. (File image)

President López Obrador’s request for an apology from Spain for the conquest of Mexico 500 years ago was motivated by politics rather than a desire to seek justice, according to a strong majority of respondents to a new poll.

AMLO, as the president is commonly known, wrote to the King of Spain in 2019 to seek an apology for the 1521 conquest and has maintained since that the nation should ask Mexico for forgiveness. The Spanish government “vigorously” rejected the original request.

A poll conducted by SIMO Consulting for the newspaper El País asked respondents a range of questions about the conquest, Mexico-Spain relations and López Obrador’s request for an apology.

Asked whether AMLO was making political use of Mexico’s history with Spain or seeking justice, 62% of respondents said the former while just 29% said the latter.

A slightly smaller majority – 55% – said that Spain had no reason to apologize for the events of 500 years ago, while 38% said the European nation should express remorse for the conquest led by Hernán Cortés.

Only 16% said an apology is “necessary and would help to settle a historic debt” while the same percentage of those polled said an apology is necessary but wouldn’t help at all.

Almost three in 10 respondents – 29% – said that an apology is unnecessary but welcome, while 36% said that an apology is unnecessary and irrelevant.

Interestingly, a much higher percentage of respondents who identified as white said an apology is necessary compared to mestizos – people of mixed Spanish and indigenous blood, a group that makes up the majority of Mexico’s population – and indigenous people.

More than half of white respondents – 53% – said that an apology is needed while the figures for mestizos and indigenous people were 28% and 21%, respectively.

A strong majority – 68% – said that Mexico-Spain relations would remain the same if Spain were to apologize, while only 24% said they would improve. Only 8% of those polled predicted that bilateral relations would deteriorate because Spain hasn’t apologized to Mexico, while more than three-quarters of respondents opined that that relationship would remain the same despite the lack of atonement.

Asked whether demanding an apology from the Spanish government would contribute to solving the problems of discrimination and inequality in modern-day Mexico, 72% of respondents said it would not while just 25% said the opposite.

lopez obrador and Beatriz Gutiérrez — The president revealed he had asked Spain for an apology when he appeared in a video with his wife, Beatriz Gutiérrez, in March 2019 in Centla, Tabasco.

López Obrador and other members of the federal government have argued that the origin of some of Mexico’s problems dates back to the conquest and colonization.

But 77% of poll respondents said the Mexican government should let bygones be bygones and focus on strengthening the current bilateral relationship. Only 18% disagreed with the proposition that the government should “leave previous conflicts behind and focus on strengthening the relationship with Spain.”

Just over half of those polled – 51% – said the Spanish conquest brought mainly positive things to Mexico, while 41% said the opposite. However, 60% of respondents who identified as indigenous said the impact of conquest and colonization was mainly negative compared to 35% of white people who said the same.

Among mestizo respondents, 39% said the conquest brought mainly negative things to the country while 53% said the opposite.

Asked to mention the first positive or negative thing that came to their minds with regard to what the Spanish conquest brought to Mexico, 29% cited diseases. (Smallpox decimated the indigenous population of Mexico during the conquest and colonial days.)

The next three most commonly cited responses were also negative: slavery, 11%; theft of resources, 8%; and deaths, 8%.

Religion was cited as a negative influence by 5% of respondents while 4% said that each of discrimination, war and oppression were bad things brought to Mexico by the Spanish.

Language was cited as a positive by 8% as was religion, 7%; agriculture, 6%; culture, 5%; new knowledge, 5%; modernization, 4%; new foods, 4%; and the introduction of new animals, 4%.

Asked to offer a general opinion about Spain, 37% of white respondents said “very good” but that view fell to 16% among mestizos and 12% among people who identified as indigenous. However, 71% of indigenous people said they had a good opinion about Spain, lifting that group’s very good/good total above those of the other ethnicity-based cohorts.

El País said that the differing views offered by indigenous and non-indigenous/mestizo Mexicans could perhaps be explained by the “more realistic” perspective of the former cohort. Mexico’s indigenous people are more concerned about current conflicts that require solutions that go beyond the symbolic than historical ones, the newspaper said.

“… community building in Mexico has other dimensions that don’t depend on a possible post-colonial apology. … In the opinion of many Mexicans, the apology appears to be more of an issue among white people.”

El País didn’t say how many people responded to the poll it commissioned – which was conducted with Mexican adults between July 7 and 10 – but noted that the margin of error was +/- 3.3%.

With reports from El País