Indigenous community calls for protective measures as pork industry grows

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July 7, 2021

Featuring vast landscapes of untouched jungle and one of the most extensive karst aquifer systems on the planet, the state of Yucatán is among the most biodiverse in the country. It is also a state where deforestation has claimed over one third of the jungle, mainly due to rapid agricultural development.

The state has recently become an epicenter for growth for the pork industry, and intensive pig farms have begun to appear amid the jungle landscape in areas inhabited by indigenous beekeepers and small farmers. With plans to establish more farms in the region come questions about the local impacts of intensive pig farming in Mexico.

Those questions triggered an official complaint by citizens in partnership with several NGOs and resulted in the closure of four Yucatán pig farms due to environmental concerns in May.

The environmental protection agency, Profepa, announced the closures after carrying out inspections of farms in the municipalities of Maxcanú, Kinchil, Opichén and Mérida. It found a lack of environmental impact assessment results and inadequate management and reporting of hazardous waste and wastewater.

Profepa said it plans to address environmental concerns and come up with strategies to evaluate environmental impact in lowland forest areas before issuing authorizations.

According to Juan Carlos Anaya Castellanos, director of the Mexican Agricultural Markets Consulting Group, the pork sector contributes significantly to the Mexican economy, accounting for 76 billion pesos in 2020. Production is on the rise: there was a 3.1% increase in 2020 over 2019 and a 3-4% increase is projected for this year.

Industrial pig farms on the Yucatán Peninsula represent 14% of all Mexican pig farms and are among those authorized to export pork to China, Japan, Korea, and the United States. The region has been marked as an advantageous area for the farms due to its water resources, its extensive territory, and its access to the United States and Asia through the port of Progreso.

Pork production on the peninsula increased by 36% between 2006 and 2018 and continues to grow.

According to Greenpeace México, there are 257 pork farms in the country, of which 122 (47%)“are in regions considered a priority for biodiversity conservation. Some of the farms in the western part of the state of Yucatán are near the Ria Celestún Biosphere Reserve, a protected area which forms part of a large wetland corridor.

A biologist and member of the beekeeping collective Maya Alliance for the Bees says that millions of liters of water are used to carry out intensive pig farming practices, and the wastewater is eventually deposited into the forest, polluting many hectares of land.

He was one of several citizens, most of them beekeepers, who spoke with Mexico News Daily on condition of anonymity.

A Maya beekeeper from the town of Kinchil said pools of wastewater from pig farms were discovered in the jungle nearby. “The farms have a treatment plant, but it doesn’t work perfectly. The water flows into the forest after that. In the area where we saw the water, we noticed that there were dead trees.”

Water pollution also affects the bee population that the local indigenous community relies upon to carry out their traditional livelihood. The majority of the inhabitants of the western part of the state, where intensive pig farming takes place, are indigenous Maya beekeepers and small scale cattle farmers.

Another member of the Maya Alliance for the Bees said traditional beekeeping relies on pure water and an intact ecosystem where the bees can collect pollen across their foraging area. “In beekeeping we have seen a decrease in the harvest. These problems didn’t exist before, and the harvest was very good … We have seen dead bees, but we don’t know why. That’s something we can’t know without laboratory tests.”

The beekeeper from Kinchil explained that local producers can no longer label their honey as organic since the bees are exposed to chemicals in the wastewater from the pig farms. “We can’t get organic certification because we are almost within two kilometers of the farm. Some beehives are within one kilometer of the farm. Two years ago an organic honey company approached us but we couldn’t get certified.”

In addition to the risk to their bees, locals worry that their own drinking water might be contaminated, especially indigenous farmers who drink water from shallow traditional Maya wells that typically measure less than six meters deep. The water table is very high in some areas in this region, increasing the likelihood of contaminated water reaching the shallow wells. In one area there is concern that the farms’ wastewater could reach a large reservoir that supplies water to the nearby city of Celestún.

Greenpeace took samples from wells in the area in 2020 and detected the presence of coliform bacteria in the water, concluding that the National Water Commission should monitor the water quality in the area frequently, and that local communities should have access to the information.

The anonymous beekeeper from the town of Kinchil says he hopes that the local indigenous community will be integrated into ongoing monitoring and decision making around the pig farms in the future.

“We would like to be part of a team of local caretakers of the region, and participate in water sampling. We aren’t against the company, we are against what could happen if people begin to get sick and native species are damaged. We aren’t going to stop the company if it is doing things correctly.”

Mexico News Daily

4 México state municipalities clean up after severe flooding

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MND Staff

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July 7, 2021

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Many patients were evacuated from this hospital in Atizapán.

Destructive heavy flooding in the northwest outskirts of Mexico City left residents counting their possessions Tuesday in four municipalities of México state.

In Atizapán de Zaragoza, floodwaters rose to 1 1/2 meters in depth and morphed into what locals described as a river. Tlalnepantla, Naucalpan and Zumpango were also hit by flooding.

Four thousand inhabitants from 24 neighborhoods were severely affected in Atizapán, as well as 227 houses, the general hospital and dozens of fences and trees, according to data from the government of Atizapán. Mayor Ruth Olvera Nieto said her office had requested the deluge be categorized as a natural disaster.

More than 60 mm of rain and hail fell during a two-hour deluge and caused five rivers to overflow their banks.

Dozens of patients were evacuated from the General Salvador González Herrejón hospital in Atizapán and transferred to other nearby facilities after severe flooding.

One man died of hypothermia in Tlalnepantla when he was trapped in his car for three hours after it was covered in hail. Three other trapped motorists were rescued and admitted to hospitals with symptoms of hypothermia.

On the block where grandmother Juana Díaz lives, six families — 60 people — lost everything in the flood.

For 30 minutes, Juana floated on a mattress with her three grandchildren which she said saved their lives. “When the rain fell the fence broke and the river came: it was a river. I was with my three grandchildren and my daughter, the only thing that saved us was the mattress,” she said.

“I’m calm. Everything was lost but my children are safe and sound. That is what I care about,” she added.

Resident Milton Mendoza described the material damage, and called for assistance. “In all the houses the water rose up to a meter and a half [affecting] washing machines, refrigerators, boilers,” he said.

“We need [authorities] to come and sanitize the entire area. We are fighting against Covid-19 and now with a flood of sewage-contaminated water,” he added.

The aftermath of a hailstorm in Tlalnepantla.

Daniela Reséndiz said the flood had stripped her family of valuable possessions. “We barely had time to rescue a few things, the water didn’t stop. The drains were not deep enough … In my house we lost two cars, the living room and dining room,” she said.

Cecilia Torres feared the worst amid the chaos. “We thought we were going to die. I swear,” she revealed.

With reports from El Siglo de Torreón, Infobae and Reforma

Presidential indifference leaves anti-corruption system in ‘vegetative state’

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MND Staff

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July 7, 2021

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Jorge Alberto Alatorre is the only person who has been named to the five-member citizens' committee.

A citizens’ committee that is supposed to lead the federal government’s National Anti-Corruption System (SNA) only has one of its five required members, while the system itself is in a “vegetative state,” according to the director of a think tank.

The role of the Citizen Participation Committee (CPC) in the SNA – created by the previous federal government – is to contribute to the formation of anti-corruption policy and oversee from a citizen’s perspective the activities of the six corruption-fighting institutions that make up the system: the Federal Auditor’s Office, the Federal Judiciary Council, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, the Ministry of Public Administration (SFP), the National Institute for Transparency and Access to Information and the Federal Administrative Justice Tribunal.

The committee should have five members who are experts on anti-corruption policy and not involved in party politics, but it has only one – Jorge Alberto Alatorre Torres, a professor at the University of Guadalajara.

Alatorre, the newspaper Milenio reported, has been left on his own after previous CPC members quit or concluded their terms and were not replaced.

No replacements were named initially because the authority tasked with appointing CPC members, the Selection Commission, had no members of its own. The federal Senate should have named replacements for outgoing Selection Commission members in October 2019 but failed to do so and continued to neglect its duty for more than a year.

The upper house of Congress did finally appoint new Selection Commission members in March this year but only after a federal court ordered it to do so. The directive came after three CPC members filed an injunction request in August 2020 that sought to compel senators to comply with their responsibility.

But four months after nine new members of the Selection Commission were appointed, the vacant CPC positions have still not been filled. If Alatorre were to resign from the CPC, the body that heads up the SNA would effectively disappear.

If that were to occur, the entire anti-corruption system – already out of favor with President López Obrador, who has relied heavily on two non-SNA institutions, the federal Attorney General’s Office and the government’s Financial Intelligence Unit, to combat corruption – would run the risk of losing legitimacy, Alatorre himself told Milenio.

However, the academic said he is committed to his position on the CPC and is not thinking about leaving.

Edna Jaime, general director of public policy think tank México Evalúa and president of the Selection Commission until October 2019, asserted that López Obrador – who has faced criticism for neglecting the SNA – has passed his indifference toward the anti-corruption system birthed by his predecessor onto the Senate, in which the ruling Morena party and its allies have a majority.

“… The president of the republic has never given any support to the SNA, he doesn’t consider it a suitable instrument [to combat corruption],” she told Milenio.

“… The president’s scant enthusiasm toward the SNA infected his party, Morena, … and other legislators who believed they could postpone the formation of [a new] Selection Commission,” Jaime said. She was also critical of the commission for not fulfilling its central task.

“The CPC only has one of its five members and is doing what it can, but everything related to the SNA is completely stalled and that has led it to a vegetative state, which hopefully can be overcome,” Jaime said.

There is at least some cause for optimism. In a report published Wednesday, Milenio said the Selection Commission is on the verge of starting the process to appoint four new members to the CPC.

However, there is some concern that the commission members – appointed by a Senate dominated by Morena – could make politically motivated appointments. In that context, several civil society organizations banded together to form a collective that launched a social media campaign based around the hashtag #PerfilesIdóneosYa (Suitable Profiles Now) in order to pressure Selection Commission members to promptly appoint properly qualified and independent CPC members.

The sole current member told Milenio that driving forward efforts to combat corruption – which López Obrador characterizes as the raison d’etre of his administration – is very difficult when he has no colleagues with whom he can share CPC work.

“… Dividing work between five [members] is not the same as dividing it between one. This effectively represents a challenge to moving the [anti-corruption] agenda forward,” Alatorre said.

However, he stressed that, on his own, he has taken on the responsibility of promoting the full implementation of the national anti-corruption policy.

Luis Ángel Martínez Ramírez, a corruption and transparency expert at the Ethos Public Policy Laboratory, said last year that the López Obrador administration was not making use of the policy.

With regard to the designation of new CPC members to join Alatorre, members of the #PerfilesIdóneosYa collective say that a meticulous selection process that ensures the appointment of suitable people must be carried out.

People who are qualified and completely free of political influence must be named, said Marco Antonio Zamarripa, a member of a Coahuila-based citizens’ group that is part of the collective.

Many people without relevant experience and with links to political parties have been involved in state-based anti-corruption systems, he said. The participation of such people in an anti-corruption system “puts its credibility and operation at risk,” Zamarripa said.

Amparo Menchaca of the Nuevo León-based Civic Council of Institutions said that it is “super important” that the process to appoint new CPC members be carried out “so transparently that there is no room for doubt that the best people are being chosen.”

Those people, she added, must meet “all the requirements established by the law, one of which is precisely that [CPC members must] come from civil society.”

With reports from Milenio

Pemex says lightning strike set gas on fire in Gulf of Mexico

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MND Staff

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July 6, 2021

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State-owned oil company Pemex said a combination of a gas pipeline leak and a lightning storm caused the oceanic fireball which lit up the water in the Gulf of Mexico on Friday.

The fire started around 5:15 a.m. 150 meters from the Ku-C drilling platform in the Ku-Maloob-Zaap extraction complex, located on the Bank of Campeche. The Ku-C platform was unoccupied at the time and there were no injuries reported.

Pemex sent out fire control boats to tackle the blaze, which took five hours to extinguish.

A leak in an underwater pipeline allowed natural gas to build up on the ocean floor and once it rose to the surface it was most likely ignited by a lightning bolt, the company said.

The storm was so intense that operators had already shut off pumping stations serving the offshore rig before the accident.

“There was no oil spill and the immediate action taken to control the surface fire avoided environmental damage,” the company added.

Gusatvo Alanis, a board member with Mexico’s environmental law center CEMDA, told Reuters he thinks it is much too soon to conclude that the fire caused no environmental damage.

Pemex should commit to preparing a “detailed study of the (environmental) impact caused by the fire” as well as a plan to repair the damage, according to a statement signed by more than two dozen environmental groups, including Greenpeace as well as CEMDA.

Climate activist Greta Thunberg reposted a video clip of the fireball on her Twitter account. “The people in power call themselves ‘climate leaders’ as they open up new oilfields, pipelines and coal power plants — granting new oil licenses exploring future oil drilling sites … This is the world they are leaving for us,” she wrote.

The president has bet heavily on drilling more wells and buying or building oil refineries and touts oil as “the best business in the world.”

With reports from Reuters and AP

US organization urges Mexico to reconsider decision on Zama oil field

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MND Staff

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July 6, 2021

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Pemex doesn't have the funds, capacity or infrastructure required to operate the field, says Larry Rubin.

A business and community organization that represents United States interests in Mexico has urged President López Obrador to reverse a federal government decision to award control of a huge oil discovery to state oil company Pemex.

The Energy Ministry awarded Pemex the rights to operate the nearly 700-million-barrel Zama field in the Gulf of México, which was discovered in 2017 by a consortium comprising Texas-based Talos Energy, Premier Oil of the United Kingdom and Germany’s Wintershall DEA.

The three companies have already invested US $325 million in the development of the field but in a move described as being close to an expropriation by former hydrocarbons deputy minister Lourdes Melgar, the federal government has seized control of Zama, claiming that just over half of it is on acreage owned by Pemex.

Speaking at a virtual press conference, the president of the American Society of Mexico asserted that the state-owned company doesn’t have the funds, capacity or infrastructure required to operate the field. Larry Rubin warned that the field could be abandoned in the medium term if Pemex takes control of it.

“…[That] would be a loss for the competitiveness of Mexico, not just for Talos, which decided to bet on the country,” he said.

“… It would be a big loss for the country,” Rubin said, adding that the organization he heads believed that the private companies’ right to control the field would be respected.

He called on López Obrador to return the operation rights to Talos and asserted that the government’s decision would send an unequivocal message to investors that there is a lack of legal certainty in Mexico.

“We believe that American investors are here to create jobs and opportunities for small and medium businesses. That’s why we want a stable legal framework and for free enterprise and the creation of opportunities in Mexico to be respected,” the American Society chief said.

Giving Pemex control of the field could even delay Mexico’s economic recovery from the pandemic, said Rubin, who is also a trade ambassador for the Confederation of Industrial Chambers and the Mexico representative of the United States Republican Party.

“… We believe that the best way is to work together on projects that can’t be developed [by one company] alone,” he said.

The likelihood of López Obrador overturning the Energy Ministry’s decision would appear to be extremely slim given that he is a staunch energy nationalist who is aiming to boost Pemex’s participation in an oil sector that was opened up to foreign and private companies by his predecessor. The president previously denied that Pemex was planning to take over Zama after a 2019 report by news agency Reuters asserted as much.

Pemex has more than US $100 billion in debt but claimed last month that it has the financial capacity to operate the field. The state oil company has also said that it has infrastructure near Zama – located off the coast of Tabasco – to receive, store and export crude. However, the depth of the field, at 168 meters, is deeper than most of Pemex’s shallow-water projects in the southern portion of the Gulf of Mexico.

Houston-based energy expert Miriam Grunstein described the decision to give control of the field to Pemex as a political move.

“They wanted to give Pemex the medal, but it will come at a high cost,” she told Reuters, explaining that Zama’s other stakeholders could take legal action if the field fails to operate successfully under the state oil company’s management.

Talos – which won the exploration and production rights for the area where Zama is located at a 2015 oil field auction and commissioned an independent study that found that 60% of the deposit was on its acreage – said Monday it was “very disappointed with [the energy ministry’s] sudden decision …”

The company, which has significant experience developing fields at similar depths to Zama, also said it would explore all its legal and strategic options to maximize value for its shareholders.

With reports from El Economista and Reuters

Bishop steps in to seek whereabouts of 5 missing in Guerrero

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MND Staff

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July 6, 2021

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Bishop Salvador Rangel Mendoza — Salvador Rangel Mendoza, bishop of the Chilapa-Chilpancingo diocese in Guerrero.

A bishop in Guerrero — known for his willingness to engage with criminal organizations — is attempting to secure the release of five kidnapping victims.

Salvador Rangel Mendoza, bishop of the Chilapa-Chilpancingo diocese, said in an interview that he is trying to identify and make contact with a crime gang that kidnapped three men and a woman in Chilapa several weeks ago.

“… We’re trying to intervene for these four people from Chilapa and another person from Chilpancingo so that they are freed,” he said.

Rangel, who has met with criminal leaders and three years ago sought a Christmas truce between feuding cartels, said he was acting on the request of the victims’ families in the case of the missing Chilapa residents.

He said the Guerrero Attorney General’s Office is looking for the missing people but has failed to find them. The bishop said he was previously able to secure the release of one kidnapping victim thanks to contacts he has within one criminal group, which he didn’t name.

Four missing youths from Chilapa, Guerrero. — The four missing youths from Chilapa, Guerrero.

The four people from Chilapa were abducted by a different group, Rangel said.

“… We’re sending little messages to find out which group kidnapped them, and we’re looking for any clues,” he said, adding that whether they are still alive is unknown.

Chilapa, located about 60 kilometers east of the state capital Chilpancingo, has been plagued by violent crime in recent years. Rival gangs Los Ardillos and Los Rojos engaged in a turf war in the opium-poppy growing municipality for years. The former group currently controls Chilapa, but a cell of its rival recently returned to the municipality, Rangel said.

The bishop said that violence has increased in some Guerrero municipalities since the June 6 elections because crime groups are seeking to pressure incoming municipal officials. They want the officials to commit to giving them part of the municipal budget, he said.

New mayors will take office in all 81 Guerrero municipalities on October 1.

Rangel said that Iguala — where 43 teaching students were abducted in 2014 in one of Mexico’s most shocking recent cases of violence — is one municipality where violence has recently increased. There was a shootout between state police and criminals last Saturday, he said, adding that three or four crime groups are vying for control of the municipality.

The bishop said the National Guard should act with greater force against organized crime, which operates with virtual impunity in large parts of the country.

“I don’t understand why there is so much complacency, so much gentleness,” Rangel said.

With reports from Reforma

Two teens caught in crossfire mourned in Veracruz

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MND Staff

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July 6, 2021

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Angry citizens demanded justice with a protest in the streets of Amatlán.

The deaths of two teenagers killed in crossfire in mountainous Amatlán, Veracruz, have created conflicting emotions.

Sorrow echoed around a humble house of metal sheets and wooden planks, where two white coffins lay adorned with candles and flowers, and dozens of people mourned their loss. Outside, fury reigned as protesters demanded justice.

Cousins Jonathan, 13, and Eduardo, 14, were caught in a shootout between state police officers and presumed members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) on July 2.

Residents occupied the Córdoba-Cuichapa highway, which was closed to traffic. On Saturday, the blockade was extended to a junction that connects the road with the Puebla-Veracruz highway.

Jonathan was shot three times and Eduardo was shot twice, their relatives confirmed. The teenagers had walked a few blocks from home to wash a pickup truck and earn some money.

Before leaving the house, their mothers had congratulated them on their high school grades. “They were the kind of kids that studied … we told them that they had done well and they were thrilled,” Jonathon’s mother said.

“They didn’t deserve to be killed like this … all for a few pesos, ” she added.

State Governor Cuitláhuac García Jiménez confirmed that the cousins were innocent bystanders.
“Unfortunately it was in a populated area, it was in the vicinity of the central square … there were vans with armed people, who faced state officials and an attack started. Unfortunately two young people died who had nothing to do with it,” he said.

With reports from El Universal and e-Veracruz

Traditional Maya liquor makes inroads as Mexico’s latest hip export

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Andy Hill

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July 6, 2021

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Four of the 20 flavors of pox made by Posheria.

Mexico is a country that offers such a dizzying array of native alcoholic beverages that for the astute researcher, a prolonged stay may require packing an extra liver.

As mezcal is becoming more popular in cocktails at high-end bars across the world and pulque is being canned in Chicago, it surprised me to discover another pre-Hispanic drink, pox.

Pronounced posh, this traditionally fermented corn-based spirit (although more modern variants are made with wheat or cane or both) has for centuries been sacred to the Tzotzil Maya of Chiapas, chiefly in San Cristóbal de las Casas, San Juan de Chamula, and Tenajapa. First and foremost, a medicine (poshil means means medicine in Tzotzil), this enchanted elixir is also believed to act as a mediator or doorway to the underworld, to ensure that both are in balance.

Pox is used in major ceremonies such as births, baptisms, weddings and funerals.

In the book Ancient Mayan Commoners, anthropologist Evon Z. Vogt writes that at most Tzotzil ceremonies, “a ritual meal is always served on a rectangular table oriented along the daily path of the sun … at the center of the rising sun end of the table are placed a bottle of sugarcane liquor, a shot glass and a bowl of salt.”

Posheria distillery workers preparing the beverage pox — Posheria’s workers prepare the pox beverage over a roughly 28-day lunar cycle, in accordance with traditional methods.

“It is here at the head of the table that the tot’il-me’iletik [fathers-mothers], the ancestral gods of the patrilineage, are believed to be seated,” he writes. “These ancestors inhabit hills or mountains above the lands on which their descendants live, but they come to participate in the ceremony … the senior man signals the young man designated as the drink pourer to serve the first round of liquor from the bottle at the head of the table. (Here the participants are symbolically drinking with the ancestors, and the liquor is believed to open the circuits of communication with these supernaturals).”

There has been little chance to appreciate this nectar of the ancestors outside of several villages in Chiapas, which is why the rest of us are fortunate that in 2010, Julio de la Cruz opened Posheria, which has opened the palate of the world to this magical medicine.

In 2010, when he discovered the magic of pox for himself, Cruz was a jewelry maker who happened to go on a tour with a friend who was a prominent local guide in San Cristóbal and the surrounding areas. On this occasion, they visited the village of Tenejapa, and a family invited them into their house where a ceremony was being prepared.

Glasses were produced, and Cruz and his friend were offered the transparent liquid. Feeling as if he needed to drink it so as not to offend their hosts (among them the mayordomo, or host), he drank and marveled at the taste, filled with an immediate need to know more about this spirit.

“It was in the highlands, with the copal [a type of tree], with the traditional music of this community, in their traditional dress. At that moment, the magic started, the adventure,” Cruz said.

Later, he asked his friend, “What was that drink they gave us?”

After he was told it was pox and that it was a traditional drink among the Tzotzil Maya, Cruz decided then and there to explore more about this sacred beverage.

He was introduced to a man named Don Lorenzo, who would become his teacher and mentor as he learned the subtleties of making pox in the traditional way. Going back to Don Lorenzo’s grandfather, the family had only produced pox made of corn.

This is the more traditional way to make it, and on one particularly meaningful occasion, Don Lorenzo gave Cruz his family’s recipe.

At first, Cruz needed to convince people that pox was not dangerous, that it would not make them blind, that it was a liquor to be esteemed alongside tequila and mezcal. Now, fortunately, that is not part of Cruz’s job, and the popularity of Posheria is growing every year, so much so that they are looking at opening an office in New York to allow for greater export to the very thirsty United States market.

It took years of work and patience to legitimatize Posheria by all local and national standards. In 2012, the Mexican government created the Marca Chiapas distinction, whose stamp verifies products made in Chiapas. Posheria was the first producer of the spirit to receive this auspice.

As more people became aware of Posheria and more media told Cruz’s story, the brand grew to open another location on the popular Paseo do Montejo in Mérida, Yucatán.

In accordance with the sacred, cosmic import of pox in Tzotzil Maya culture, all batches made by Posheria follow a 28-day period, starting with the new moon and culminating in a finished product at the end of the lunar cycle.

Spring water and ingredients are added to a large wooden barrel, whose contents must then be stirred with a wooden paddle from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Stirring is done in shifts among a group of people to ensure consistency.

After this, the barrel is covered for roughly seven to nine days, when the lid is taken off and, as Cruz explains the fermentation process, “You see the soul, the life of the posh. You can see the way that it moves, that it’s alive.”

After this, the liquid is put into barrels on top of a wood fire and distilled. The pox is then bottled and labeled by hand roughly a full lunar cycle after the process started.

Currently, Posheria offers various poxes — Pox Tradicional, Pox Ancestral, Pox Ceremonial, and Pox Sabores (with over 20 flavors, from coffee to mango), which can be purchased in bottles or in a cocktail in their two locations, as well as in shops and bars from Mexico City to Tulum.

Pox has made its way since the 2010s into high-end bars in places like Mexico City and Tulum, but interest in the beverage is also gaining outside Mexico, with several establishments in the U.S. pouring the beverage for their customers. In fact, the international market is growing to the extent that Cruz is planning to open an office in New York, and he recently received a call from a restaurant in Ireland interested in making an order.

Cruz emphasized how honored and grateful he felt to introduce pox to people from around the world, showcasing a previously little-known facet of Mexico’s history and culture. By focusing so acutely on preserving the traditional way of doing things, as well as bringing pox to people who have never experienced or heard of it, Posheria is maintaining and enlarging the reach of traditional Mayan medicine for generations to come.

• To find out more about Posheria visit their website at www.posheria.mx.

Andy Hill is a traveler and writer living in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas.

Man charged in murder of Yaqui rights leader in Sonora

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MND Staff

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July 6, 2021

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The man accused of murdering a Yaqui leader in Sonora has been named as 26-year-old Francisco “N,” also known as “El Morocho,” and money is the suspected motive.

Tomás Rojo Valencia, a spokesman for his community, disappeared May 27 amid tensions over months of periodic blockades over gas ducts, water pipelines and railway lines that run across Yaqui territory.

Rojo’s body was found half buried in a rural area near the Yaqui town of Vícam on June 17, according to prosecutors, who said his head had been bashed in, probably with a hammer found near the scene.

State Attorney General Claudia Conteras said criminal gangs wanting money could be at the root of the murder.
“Criminal groups were interested in illegal benefits from charging tolls on the highway,” she said. “Tomás Rojo was pushing for the installation of a toll booth to bring order to the process of charging tolls, to benefit the Yaqui people,” she added.

Toll roads are tied to the politically sensitive topic of roadblocks, in which protest groups take over existing booths or set up an improvised blockade to charge motorists to pass. Officials say protesters raised about US $150 million by occupying toll plazas in 2020.

Businessmen and truckers have said that roadblocks in Yaqui territory inhibit the movement of raw materials and exports, and have complained protesters were sometimes abusive or demanded money to allow them to pass. In February, a trucker plowed through a Yaqui roadblock, hitting and killing a member of the group.

In late 2020, President López Obrador launched an offensive against the practice, sending the National Guard and police to clear many of them, though apparently not including Yaqui blockades.

The president is expected to apologize to the Yaqui people for crimes committed against them by the state between 1870 and 1880 in what is known as the Yaqui War.

With reports from AP News and Reforma

Jalisco sicarios remove face masks, show off their strength in Aguililla

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MND Staff

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July 6, 2021

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CJNG sicarios posed with their faces uncovered in a series of 2021 photos. cuartoscuro

Some members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) have no qualms about showing their faces, a sign they’re confident that official security forces are powerless to stop them and they will be able to continue their criminal activities with impunity.

The photo agency Cuartoscuro has published a series of images taken in Aguililla, Michoacán, that show heavily armed CJNG members without the face coverings they are typically seen wearing in photographs and videos posted to social media.

Gunmen sporting bulletproof vests emblazoned with the CJNG initials stare directly and menacingly at the camera in some of the photos, which were taken by a photographer who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of reprisals.

The images show off the immense firepower of the cartel, generally considered Mexico’s most powerful and violent criminal organization.

The photos were taken during a military-style march held last week in Aguililla, the Tierra Caliente municipality from which CJNG leader Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes hails.

The municipality has become a battleground for the CJNG, which has been fighting the Cárteles Unidos for control. According to some media reports, the Jalisco cartel seized control of Aguililla earlier this year but violence has continued to plague the municipality, causing many residents to flee. The region of which Aguililla is part is coveted by criminal groups due to its proximity to Pacific coast ports, through which illegal drugs are smuggled into the country, as well as its iron mines and forests, according to a report by the newspaper El País.

That some CJNG members have now chosen to reveal their faces to a photographer in broad daylight is perhaps unsurprising given that the cartel has become increasingly brazen. It paraded a homemade tank it apparently seized from the Viagras crime gang in the municipality in March, and attacked police with explosive-laden drones in April.

The cartel has also set up roadblocks preventing access to Aguililla, where organized crime is flourishing due to the absence of the state, according to the Vatican’s ambassador to Mexico.

Authorities have faced a constant battle to keep roads into the municipality open because roadblocks and trenches are often reestablished and dug again shortly after they are dismantled and filled in.

Residents have faced shortages of essential goods because delivery trucks have frequently been unable to get into Aguililla and citizens been unable to get out to shop and access services in neighboring municipalities. Some residents last week prevented an army helicopter from landing in the town because they were fed up with soldiers getting supplies while they are forced to go without.

At a meeting between residents, authorities and soldiers in Aguililla on Tuesday, the army committed to ensuring that the Aguililla-Apatzingan highway remains open during daylight hours, reported the newspaper Milenio, which was granted access to the gathering.

Sicarios unmasked in Michoacán. cuartoscuro

Aguililla residents also called for social programs to be restarted, for a government well-being bank to be opened in the town and for electricity, telephone and internet services to be guaranteed. Community activists said that federal and state authorities committed to meeting the demands.

With reports from El País and Milenio