Whether you call ‘em prickly pears or tunas, ‘tis the season to enjoy them

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October 9, 2021

prickly pear cactus fruit — Tunas in markets usually have most of the spines removed, but wear gloves when handling them. Some may have been missed!

The prickly pear cactus is an integral part of Mexico’s long history; it’s part of the Mexican flag, complete with tunas, the red fruit of said cactus.

The design comes from an Aztec legend about the founding of their capital city. Directed by the god Huitzilopochtli, the ancient Aztecs searched for a site where an eagle sitting on a prickly pear cactus growing on a rock in a lake was eating a snake.

It took 200 years of wandering, so goes the story, but they finally came upon that exact scenario, and the city of Tenochtitlán — what became Mexico City — was founded.

The paddles (nopales) of the cactus are a part of traditional Mexican cuisine, used in stews, tacos and many other foods; the fruit is the tuna, known in English as prickly pear.

The cactus plants grow to be quite large and formidable and are used for fencing to this day.

It makes sense that tunas are also called prickly pears, as the skin is covered with two kinds of spines: small clusters of hard, whitish spines grow all over the small fruits and are visible to the eye, but there are also soft, hairy filaments on the fruits.

Extreme caution — and gloves — are advised when handling tunas.

Tunas have a sweet, melon-like flavor, which some compare to bubblegum or watermelon. They don’t taste anything like they look, and inside the rough, spine-covered skin is a delectable and very edible fruit.

They come in a wide range of colors — from yellowish to light and dark green, to bright red to deep ruby red — with different sweetness levels. They’re just coming into season now and will continue to be harvested until December; look for piles of them in mercados and stores everywhere.

To prepare tunas — wearing gloves! — first cut off both ends of the fruit. Slit from end to end lengthwise and then peel back the thick skin. It should come off easily.

Peeled, they can be stored for about a week in the fridge in a sealed container or Ziploc bag. The strained juice can be added to margaritas, cooked into a syrup, made into a glaze for poultry or fish or used in smoothies or agua frescas, ice pops or sorbet. Because they’re so sweet, a bit of citrus juice is often added for balance.

Agua de Tuna

One of Mexico’s many fruit-filled aguas frescas, this beverage is quick and refreshing.

3 prickly pears
1 cup water
½ cup fresh-squeezed orange juice
1 tsp. agave syrup, honey or simple syrup

Wearing gloves, prepare prickly pears by cutting off both ends of fruit. Then slit from end to end lengthwise, and peel back the skin.

Place peeled fruits in a blender with water. Blend on low for 1 minute. Strain and discard seeds and pulp. (You may need to use a rubber spatula to smoosh the seeds around the wire-mesh strainer and release the juice.)

Pour juice back in blender, add orange juice and sweetener and blend until smooth. Serve over ice.

Prickly Pear Syrup

3 lbs. ripe prickly pears
Water to cover
3 cups sugar (approximately)
1 Tbsp. citric acid OR 2 Tbsp. fresh lemon or lime juice

Prepare fruits as described above. Put peeled fruits in a pot; add enough water to almost cover them. Cover and bring to a boil. Turn off heat; let steep 30 minutes.

Mash fruit with a potato masher or fork. Using a wire-mesh strainer and rubber spatula, push pulp through and discard seeds. Line strainer with cheesecloth or paper towels and strain juice again.

Measure the strained juice and pour into a pot. Add an equal amount of sugar, and bring to a simmer over medium heat for 5 minutes. Turn off heat, let cool 15 minutes.

Add lemon juice or citric acid. While still hot, pour into clean jars. This will keep for months in the refrigerator. Use for glazes, salad dressings, over desserts, etc.

prickly pear cactus fruit smoothie — Not only is this prickly pear smoothie delicious, it’s high in antioxidants. Ms. Li/Shutterstock

Tuna-Coco Smoothie

2 prickly pears
About 2 cups fresh or packaged coconut water (not canned coconut milk)
1 tsp. fresh lime juice
Ice

Prepare tunas as described above. Add tuna, coconut water and lime juice, to blender; process until smooth. Strain and serve over ice.

Prickly Pear Paletas

Watch this video to see the whole process for making these refreshing popsicles.

8 ripe prickly pears
½ cup fresh lime juice
½ cup water
1/3 cup agave syrup or other sweetener
¾ tsp. salt

prickly pear cactus fruit popsicles — These prickly pear popsicles make a sweet treat anytime!

Using a paring knife, working away from your body, carefully scrape off any cactus thorns. Cut off the ends of the fruit. Using the tip of the knife, score the fruit lengthwise. Slip your thumb under the skin and peel the fruit. Discard the peel and thorns, then dice the fruit.

Prepare prickly pears as described above. In a blender, combine prickly pear, lime juice, water, sweetener and salt; purée until smooth. Pour through a fine wire-mesh strainer; discard seeds.

Pour the resulting liquid into popsicle molds. Freeze until firm, at least 4 hours.

Janet Blaser is the author of the best-selling book, Why We Left: An Anthology of American Women Expats, featured on CNBC and MarketWatch. She has lived in Mexico since 2006. You can find her on Instagram at @thejanetblaser.

Adversity leads to a better way up Guadalajara’s beautiful Cerro del Colli

By

John Pint

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October 8, 2021

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Verbesina flowers — Just some of the pristine beauty you'll find hiking Jalisco's El Cerro del Colli: verbesina flowers, a plant of the daisy family with medicinal properties.

Every year near the end of the rainy season, I do my best to urge people who live in Guadalajara to head for El Cerro del Colli — their nearest portal to the Primavera Forest — to spend a day tiptoeing through the “colliflowers” that grow in profusion all up and down this steep hill at the west end of town.

According to geologists, it is actually a volcanic plug, created after the Primavera Caldera’s last explosion about 25,000 years ago.

How long does it take to get from the city to the Primavera Forest?

I could say “a tenth of a second,” but I’d be exaggerating the voyage’s length, because it is literally only one step from city to woods.

For many years, ordinary families, hard-core hikers or someone simply out for a stroll needed only to get themselves to the far end of Calle San Gregorio at the western edge of the city. Then taking that one step, they would find themselves in another world.

Cerro del Colli, Jalisco — Colli offers dramatic views of the city of Guadalajara. The highest point on the hill is over one mile above sea level.

The contrast was staggering: there you were, one minute, in the middle of Zeta gas trucks, barking dogs, screaming babies, blaring radios and racing car engines. Then you began walking up a steeply inclined path.

A few minutes later, you found yourself in the middle of a shady oak forest so quiet that you could actually hear the chirping of birds and the rustle of leaves blown by the wind: nature’s own symphony!

All of this I described in my Outdoors in Western Mexico books, as well as in frequent articles. Recently, however, I was disappointed to discover that locals had decided to fence off the trailhead and forbid access to the forest from this convenient point.

Why was that? A local homeowner told my friends and me that unsavory characters had begun to use the trail for unsavory deeds.

Shutting down access to the forest was a simple way to get rid of a problem, but other solutions might have been possible.

Imagine someone who lives at the edge of Yellowstone or Banff Park putting up a fence and saying, “Sorry, we won’t let anyone through because we’ve seen some unsavory characters using this entrance.” While this is unlikely to happen to a park owned by the public, it’s more than possible if the government doesn’t bother to purchase the land that it has declared a “protected area.”

“This papelillo may be known as the tourist tree, but I am not a tourist,” says tarantula expert Rodrigo Orozco.

In point of fact, according to the newspaper El Diario, more than 80% of Jalisco’s famed Bosque La Primavera is privately owned.

In 1980, the government declared all 30,500 hectares a wildlife refuge, imposing a long list of restrictions on what the owners of the land would be allowed to do.

This has resulted in a sort of war between the general public, which greatly loves the forest, and the people who live there, many of whom want or need to make either a living or a profit off the land — or both.

In the case of Cerro del Colli, the easternmost extension of the Bosque, the landowner happens to be an ejido (a cooperative of farmers and ranchers) whose members were perhaps quite happy to see the trailhead blocked.

The problem might have been resolved by setting up an official entrance to el Cerro del Colli and manning it with a couple of park rangers. Their presence might discourage unsavory characters from making an appearance.

Or the ejido might have begun charging an entrance fee, as is done in other parts of this same forest, and managing the area in a responsible way.

The dayflower or widow’s tears blooms only for one day.

None of these things happened, so I began searching for an alternative route to the top. My first attempt was via what was once a decent footpath up the south side of Colli, leading to a huge white cross.

I am sure that on a certain feast day, year after year, this path was crowded with pious families — everyone from abuelitas (grandmas) to toddlers barely able to walk: a long line slowly heading for a wide clearing at the foot of the cross for some sort of ceremony.

These days, however, I doubt if that ceremony is taking place at all, and if it does, I doubt that few parishioners will be present because the path has been devastated by the short and violent rainstorms that have become the new normal in Western Mexico.

Getting up the hill is now a struggle and a pain, and getting back down is like trying to dance on ball bearings.

So, I am happy to describe here a new and pleasant route up the northern side of Cerro del Colli, quite close to Guadalajara’s Akron Stadium, home of the ever-popular Chivas soccer team.

You’ll find this trail on Wikiloc.com under the name “Stadium to Colli Volcano.”

From your parking spot at the end of the aptly named Avenida del Bosque, walk only 3.3 kilometers to reach the top of the volcano, but as soon as you begin to gain a bit of altitude, you will begin to reap the benefits of your endeavor.

Along the way, you may come upon the Mexican national flower waving in the breeze. This is the dahlia, which is actually the flower of an edible tuber that the Aztecs used to grow.

Yes, if you’re ever lost in the woods and starving, look for dahlias!

If you see the dahlia on Colli, you will almost surely also spot the beautiful blue dayflower, so called because its bloom never lasts more than a day.

Along with the dahlias and dayflowers, you are likely to find bright red Pitcairnias. These are the flowers of a curious, ground-dwelling bromeliad.

Colli is also home to a wide variety of trees such as pochotes (silk-cotton trees), whose trunks are covered with spikes, and the curious papelillo, a Bursera with paper-thin bark forever peeling off the trunk and branches.

Mexican dahlia — Mexico’s national flower, the dahlia, grows from an edible tuber that tastes much like a potato.

The bark could be of several colors. If it happens to be red, it’s popularly called a tourist tree in honor of all those foreigners who get sunburned at Mexico’s wonderful beaches!

Higher up the hill, you will come to madroños (strawberry trees), egg-cone pines, clethras, mesquites and several species of oak whose height and size may surprise you.

Wander about and you will find gorgeous meadows, rolling hills, chunky deposits of lava rubble and, topping it all off, the peak of Cerro del Colli, 1,976 meters above sea level.

This spot is just a bit over a mile high, and from here you can see the city of Guadalajara stretching off into the distance. Enjoy the view!

The writer has lived near Guadalajara, Jalisco, for 31 years and is the author of A Guide to West Mexico’s Guachimontones and Surrounding Area and co-author of Outdoors in Western Mexico. More of his writing can be found on his website.

Pitcairnias are the flowers of a ground-dwelling bromeliad.

Cabezona flower — Cabezona or toad’s herb (Eryngium carlinae) is said to be good for treating kidney diseases and diabetes mellitus.

butterfly mist flowers — This flower is called cielitos in Spanish and butterfly mist in English. And, yes, it is attractive to butterflies and bees.

montanoa flowers — Montanoa is a member of the sunflower family.

Mexico, US agree to launch joint initiatives on health, crime and security

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MND Staff

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October 8, 2021

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U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard participated in Friday's bilateral talks. — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard participated in Friday's bilateral talks.

Mexico and the United States have proposed “a new vision of regional security and collaboration” after top officials held bilateral talks in Mexico City on Friday.

In a joint statement, the two countries – which will celebrate 200 years of bilateral relations in 2022 – announced “a bicentennial framework for security, public health, and safe communities.”

“This new framework establishes a comprehensive and long-term approach to guide bilateral actions going forward. Together, we can build a system of peace, justice, and respect for the rule of law,” the statement said.

Mexico and the United States pledged to take concrete actions to “protect our people,” prevent transborder crime, and pursue criminal networks.

“To protect our people, we intend to pursue a memorandum of understanding to reduce substance abuse disorder and associated harms, with the intent to develop plans to prevent drug consumption, provide evidence-based treatment, and strengthen early warning systems and ability to track demand,” the statement said.

In pursuit of the “protect our people” objective, the two countries also pledged to create a network for homicide prevention.

The network will “provide a platform for the exchange of best practices in crime and violence prevention, homicide reduction, work with at-risk youth, and work toward safe and peaceful communities,” the statement said.

It also said the network would consider creating multidisciplinary homicide task forces focused on high-impact crimes linked to transnational criminal organizations, with a focus on forensic laboratories and support for investigation and prosecution.

To prevent transborder crime, Mexico intends to work with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to strengthen control and management of incoming shipments for precursor chemicals, the statement said. Such chemicals commonly arrive at Pacific coast ports on ships from Asia.

Mexico and the United States also affirmed their commitment to work together to combat arms trafficking. The joint statement said the two countries will work together on the detection and interdiction of firearms and consider new strategies to combat the flow of weapons across their shared border.

“… We affirm our support for current initiatives and the need to continue current efforts to stop firearms sold in the United States from reaching Mexico, and actions to identify, target, and investigate financing, transportation, and communication methods employed by smuggling networks in order to disrupt and dismantle their operations,” the statement said.

The Mexican government is currently pursuing legal action against U.S.-based gun manufacturers, accusing them of negligent business practices that have led to illegal arms trafficking and deaths in Mexico, where U.S.-sourced firearms are used in a majority of high-impact crimes. Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said last month that reducing violence in Mexico will be very difficult if the United States doesn’t do more to stop the illegal flow of weapons into the country.

Mexico and the United States also committed to expanding bilateral cooperation to counter human smuggling and human trafficking by transnational criminal organizations.

“… To pursue criminal networks, the United States and Mexico commit to increasing bilateral and parallel actions to disrupt illicit actors and their financial networks,” the statement said.

The two countries said they would target importers of chemical precursors and their their financial networks, “with special focus on import companies suspected of diverting precursor chemicals for the production of synthetic drugs, such as fentanyl and methamphetamine, to transnational criminal organizations.”

They also said they would target underground drug laboratories. “We intend to create a bilateral working group on precursor chemical regulation to standardize protocols and regulation for dual-use substances to prevent their use in the production of synthetic drugs,” the statement added.

It also said that both countries were committed to human rights and to advancing equity, civil rights, racial justice, and equal opportunity. In addition, the two countries pledged to “work with our youth to provide them with options other than joining organized crime” and share information to detect money laundering, among other initiatives.

President López Obrador says that his government employment programs such as the “Youths Building the Future” apprenticeship scheme can help steer young people away from a life of crime.

The governments of both countries also committed to forensic cooperation to help solve the thousands of cases of disappearances and forced disappearances in Mexico.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas were among the U.S. officials that met with López Obrador, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard and other Mexican functionaries in the National Palace.

Mexico News Daily

In unprecedented move, Mexico denies permission for new variety of GM corn

By

MND Staff

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October 8, 2021

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Mexico has never allowed the commercial cultivation of GM corn but it has permitted their importation for years, mainly for livestock feed. — Mexico has never allowed the commercial cultivation of GM corn but it has permitted its importation for years, mainly for livestock feed.

For the first time ever, health regulator Cofepris has refused to issue a permit for a new variety of genetically modified (GM) corn, according to Mexico’s top farm lobby.

Juan Cortina, president of the National Farm Council (CNA), told the news agency Reuters that Cofepris rejected a permit for a new GM corn variety in late August. The permit was sought by German pharmaceutical and crop science company Bayer.

CNA data showed that Cofepris determined that the new seed variety was designed to withstand glyphosate, a herbicide that is the active ingredient in Roundup, which is made by Bayer. Cofepris, which considers the herbicide dangerous, said its rejection was based on a “precautionary principle.”

Mexico has never allowed the cultivation of GM corn on a commercial scale but has permitted the importation of such varieties for decades. Most imports come from the United States and are mainly used as livestock feed. Before a new variety of GM corn can be imported, Cofepris must authorize it.

Reuters reported that Cofepris’s rejection of Bayer’s application was not disclosed publicly, and that its press office didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Bayer also initially refused to comment on the rejection, the news agency said, but later came out strongly against the decision.

“We are disappointed with the unscientific reasons that Cofepris used to deny the authorization,” a Bayer press release said of the rejection, which involved a corn variety with the company’s proprietary HT3 x SmartStax Pro technology. Bayer will evaluate its legal options for moving forward, it said in a statement to Reuters.

Bayer also criticized regulatory delays and said further permit denials could have a “devastating impact” on the Mexican supply chain.

Cortina said that Mexican corn importers will start feeling the impact of the rejection as early as next year.

“This is the first obstacle, which isn’t immediate, but it’s coming,” he told Reuters. The CNA chief said he believed the decision violated the new North American free trade agreement, the USMCA, which took effect last year.

Cortina also said that seven other applications for permits to import GM have been awaiting resolution for periods between 14 and 34 months. He complained about the delays in an interview with Reuters in June, asserting that Cofepris had effectively brought forward an import ban that is not scheduled to take effect until January 2024.

Reuters reported that previous Mexican governments approved some 90 GM corn varieties for import and granted approximately 80 other permits for the import of GM seeds for crops such as cotton and soybeans. However, since President López Obrador took office in late 2018, Cofepris hasn’t approved any new GM seeds.

The federal government published a decree on December 31 that stated that biosecurity authorities would “revoke and refrain from granting permits for the release of genetically modified corn seeds into the environment.”

The objective of the decision is to “contribute to food security and sovereignty” and protect “native corn, cornfields, bio-cultural wealth, farming communities, gastronomic heritage and the health of Mexicans,” the decree said.

The government has not clarified whether the importation of GM corn for use as fodder and to make products such as cereals and sauces in the industrial sector will also be banned.

Cortina has warned that grain buyers, especially those within Mexico’s large livestock sector, won’t be able to substitute current GM corn import levels with domestically grown corn by 2024, as the government believes can occur.

With reports from Expansión and Reuters

Security forces capture Santa Rosa cartel leader in Guanajuato

By

Rose Egelhoff

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October 8, 2021

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Authorities have captured Fernando Emmanuel “N,” also known as “El Panther,” leader of the powerful Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel (CSRL), according to the Guanajuato Attorney General’s Office.

The suspect, who is wanted for a number of crimes, was captured in an operation led by the state criminal investigation agency with the assistance of other state and federal authorities. The authorities did not share where the operation took place.

“El Panther” had taken great pains to avoid capture, even undergoing cosmetic surgery to change his appearance with face and hair grafts. He was apprehended with a “large, very peculiar” firearm, authorities reported.

“El Panther” was designated leader by José Antonio “El Marro” Yépez, who was captured in August of last year. “El Marro” was followed by Adán “El Azul” Ochoa as cartel leader, but Ochoa was captured in October.

The CSRL operates in the center of the country, where it is fighting a territorial war with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). The repeated loss of leaders diminished the power of the cartel, but it remains firmly rooted in Guanajuato where it operates in municipalities including Celaya, Villagrán and Cortazar.

For the past four years, Guanajuato has been the state with the most murders in Mexico, with nine out of 10 incidents having some kind of link to fights between criminal organizations.

With reports from Expansión Política

652 migrants found aboard 3 tractor-trailers in Tamaulipas

By

MND Staff

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October 8, 2021

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The semi-trailers in which the migrants were traveling toward Monterrey.

Federal authorities found more than 600 Central American migrants hidden in the refrigerated containers of three tractor-trailers traveling in Tamaulipas on Thursday night.

Tamaulipas authorities said that the army and National Guard stopped the trucks at a military checkpoint on the Ciudad Victoria-Monterrey highway in the municipality of Hidalgo. A total of 652 migrants, including 197 unaccompanied minors, were found in the containers. Another 158 minors were traveling with adults.

Authorities said the group was made up of 564 Guatemalans, 39 Hondurans, 28 Nicaraguans, 20 Salvadorans and one person from Belize. Four people were arrested in connection with smuggling the migrants in the trucks, which authorities said had departed from Puebla and were headed for Monterrey.

The migrants were taken to state police facilities in Ciudad Victoria on Thursday night and some received medical assistance from the Red Cross. Some were taken to federal Attorney General’s Office facilities on Friday morning, the newspaper Reforma reported.

Tamaulipas health authorities said that nine of the migrants had tested positive for COVID-19, but most had only mild symptoms. State Health Minister Gloria Molina Gamboa said they had been placed in isolation and were under medical supervision.

Other migrants had ailments including dehydration and respiratory problems. At least two pregnant women were among those traveling in the refrigerated containers.

The discovery comes amid a record influx of migrants into Mexico. Some 147,000 migrants were counted in Mexico in the first eight months of the year, and almost 80,000, including large numbers of Haitians, applied for asylum here.

Many have entered the country via Mexico’s border with Guatemala in Chiapas before making their way to Tapachula, where there are currently more than 100,000 migrants, according to civil society organizations. Most migrants who have arrived this year are Central Americans, Cubans and Haitians. However, almost 1,700 Africans from 35 countries have also sought asylum in Mexico this year after crossing into Chiapas.

Among them are 329 people from Senegal, 247 from Ghana, 179 from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 151 from Angola and 111 from Guinea.

With reports from El Universal, Reforma and El Orbe

Transfers to inefficient state companies hurt health, education: economist

By

MND Staff

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October 8, 2021

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Restructuring could help address Pemex's inefficiency, according to one think tank expert. — Restructuring could help address Pemex's inefficiency, according to an expert.

Government transfers to two inefficient state-owned companies are an obstacle to the allocation of greater resources to sectors such as health and education, according to a think tank budget specialist.

Mariana Campos, coordinator of México Evalúa’s public expenditure and accountability program, told a business conference she was concerned about the government’s allocation of large sums of money to state oil company Pemex and the Federal Electricity Commission.

Money allocated to address their “inefficiency” diverts resources from other areas, she said.

“The cost … of investing in companies that are not efficient is extremely high,” Campos said, adding that the health and education sectors are left with “two measly pesos” each, despite the challenges they face.

“… Thirty per cent of schools have serious infrastructure problems,” she said.

According to a México Evalúa analysis, investment in Pemex – which has more than US $100 billion in debt – will total 381 billion pesos (US $18.4 billion) in 2022, a 20.8% increase compared to this year.

Campos said the government’s absorption of Pemex liabilities is not a bad idea because it could help the state oil company obtain lower interest rates for debt repayment. However, assisting the company without requiring it to undertake reforms and restructure is not the right thing to do, she said.

“It’s a company that perhaps needs to be less integrated,” Campos said, suggesting that its component parts should be broken up. “… The structure [of the company] is still very big …”

With reports from Reforma

Protest in Yucatán over bid to prohibit leaving food for street animals

By

Rose Egelhoff

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October 8, 2021

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Stray dogs on the streets of Merida — Stray dogs on the streets of Mérida.

The local government in Mérida, Yucatán, has backtracked on a controversial new law prohibiting residents from leaving food in public places for animals.

The regulation, which included large fines for those who broke it, drew criticism from animal rights advocates and inspired protests, leading the government to reconsider.

The proposed fines ranged from 8,962 to 448,100 pesos (US $430 to $21,600) for “leaving food in public places.” But animal advocates said that given the number of stray animals in the city, denying them food amounted to animal cruelty.

“Rather than prohibit this activity, we should be inviting citizens to take in these animals, and give them a real home,” said María Vivas Sierra, local manager of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

In a Tuesday press conference, local officials explained that the rule did not prohibit feeding animals, but rather leaving food unattended in public places, which could contribute to populations of pests like rats, and animal-borne diseases. They said that giving food directly to a street animal was still allowed.

But opposition continued and on Wednesday it was announced on Facebook that Mérida Mayor Renán Barerra Concha had instructed the city not to officially publish the new law until it had been reviewed and possibly revised.

“Citizens of Mérida can rest well assured that their voice will always be heard and taken into account by the local government,” the city wrote on Facebook.

Despite the announcement, plans moved ahead for two animal rights protests on Saturday, the newspaper El Universal reported.

With reports from El Universal, PorEsto! and Diario de Yucatán

US delegation visits Mexico in push to reset bilateral security relationship

By

Christine Murray

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October 8, 2021

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López Obrador and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the National Palace Friday morning.

Top U.S. and Mexican officials are meeting Friday to try to revitalize a bilateral security relationship that has been blighted by the high-profile arrest of a former Mexican defence minister last year.

Having just sought to patch up relations with France after the fallout from the Aukus submarine deal, Antony Blinken, U.S. secretary of state, is leading the country’s delegation to meet President López Obrador and participate in talks on migration, drug trafficking and criminal justice.

“It’s time for a comprehensive new approach to our security co-operation,” Blinken said in Mexico City on Friday.

The two sides are working on a new, broader framework for security co-operation that will include public health and economic opportunities, though experts said concrete outcomes were unlikely in this first round of discussions.

Some see the mere existence of high-level talks as a step forward for the rocky relationship between the countries, which share a border that is nearly 2,000 miles long.

“The fact that we’re talking again is enormously important, the fact that not a lot will come out of it is secondary,” said Pamela Starr, a professor at the University of Southern California who has advised both the Mexican and U.S. governments on foreign affairs. “Talking and collaborating is the first step to getting stuff done.”

U.S.-Mexico relations grew more fractious under former president Donald Trump, and sustained significant damage last year when U.S. authorities detained Salvador Cienfuegos, a former Mexican defence minister, on drug trafficking charges without tipping off Mexico in advance.

In response, Mexico’s government launched a campaign to have him released, calling the allegations baseless and passed a law limiting the activities of foreign agents on Mexican soil.

The U.S. ultimately relented and dropped the charges, citing “sensitive and important foreign policy considerations.” But when Mexico later published hundreds of pages of evidence from the case, Washington threatened to end criminal co-operation.

Marcelo Ebrard, Mexico’s foreign minister, said this week that the basis for Friday’s dialogue was mutual respect, and that Mexico was now focused on reducing homicides, including stopping the flow of U.S. guns.

“It would be very unfortunate if we didn’t understand each other, if the relationship wasn’t strengthened” López Obrador said at a breakfast on Friday with the U.S. officials.

The Mexican delegation during Friday's breakfast with officials from the US. — The Mexican delegation during Friday’s breakfast with officials from the US.

Alejandro Mayorkas, U.S. homeland security chief, also attended the meeting. Immigration through Mexico has become a political problem for Joe Biden, U.S. president. U.S. authorities’ handling of the arrival of thousands of Haitians migrants who arrived at the border drew condemnation from left and right.

In recent years the U.S. has pushed Mexico to step up enforcement against migrants, including the use of the National Guard and deportation flights. That reliance has made Washington reluctant to criticize López Obrador publicly over other policies, experts said.

“There’s no question in my mind the Biden administration is trying to be as quiet and as diplomatic as they possibly can with López Obrador,” Starr said. “They just don’t have the political space in the United States to lose Mexico’s co-operation on migration.”

The U.S.-Mexico security relationship has long been focused on drug trafficking and related violence. Since 2007, Mexico has seen a surge in its homicide rate, with organized crime infiltrating government, almost 100,000 people missing, and hundreds of thousands displaced from their homes.

López Obrador has taken a less confrontational approach to the country’s drug cartels than his predecessors, in what he calls a “hugs not bullets” strategy. In a seminal moment in 2019, his government released the son of notorious drug trafficker Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán not long after capture to avoid civilian deaths.

“There is a strategy to avoid confrontation,” said Romain Le Cour, co-ordinator of the security and violence reduction program at the think tank México Evalúa. “In terms of figures it’s apparently not working, homicide rates are not dropping.”

A cornerstone of the bilateral security relationship has been the Mérida Initiative, a U.S. funding stream that became synonymous with military equipment for Mexico’s war on drugs. Mexico has asked for it to be replaced.

Blinken said Friday that after 13 years of Mérida, it was time for something new to tackle the root causes of the countries’ security problems.

The U.S. state department said on Thursday that it hopes to have a plan by the end of January 2022.

In addition to rising violence, the U.S. has become increasingly concerned over the booming trade for Mexican cartels in synthetic drugs like fentanyl, which kills tens of thousands of people a year in the U.S.

Le Cour is hoping that the dialogue will acknowledge the past failures and look for ways to build public institutions rather than just react to threats.

“There have been billions of dollars poured into the U.S.-Mexico security co-operation, and the situation is not improving in objective terms,” Le Cour said. “On the ground, it’s a total failure honestly.”

During 6 years, Michoacán spent 1.2 billion pesos to rent 7 aircraft

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MND Staff

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October 8, 2021

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José Alfredo Ortega Reyes, a senior official in the new government, denounced the spending of the previous administration. — Security Minister José Alfredo Ortega Reyes denounced the spending of the previous administration on Thursday.

The previous Michoacán government spent more than 1.2 billion pesos to rent six helicopters and a stealth aircraft, the state’s new security minister said Thursday.

José Alfredo Ortega Reyes, a senior member of the new Morena party government, told a press conference that the government led by former governor Silvano Aureoles signed a 1.23-billion-peso (US $59.2 million) contract with the company B3 Fly Services for the use of five Airbus helicopters, one AugustaWestland helicopter and a Stemme plane between January 2015 and August 2021.

The contract, signed by former security minister Antonio Bernal Bustamante, was plagued with irregularities, he said.

Ortega said that B3 Fly Services was registered as a company just two weeks before the contract was signed on December 17, 2015. In the 14 days between the registration of the company and the signing of the contract, the state government took the decision to award the contract directly to B3, he said.

The security minister said the contract required the company to forward a bond equivalent to 10% of its value to the state government in order to secure it. He questioned how a new company would be able to pay a bond in excess of 120 million pesos, asserting that it was implausible it would have access to that much money.

The minister also questioned the previous government’s commitment to cover the total cost of an aircraft in the event of theft, confiscation, expropriation, damage or total destruction.

Government Secretary Carlos Torres Piña told reporters that such a large outlay was unjustifiable, noting that the contract cost the previous government 18.24 million pesos (US $879,000) a month or almost 610,000 pesos (US $29,400) per day. The annual outlay was almost double the budget granted to small and medium-sized municipalities in Michoacán, he said.

Torres also said that some officials used the aircraft for personal and family matters.

“We want to tell you that we won’t repeat or allow this kind of excessive and unjustifiable spending. We’re not like them, we’re not here to throw money away or obtain luxuries and privileges,” he said.

With reports from El Universal