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.
Armored sicario transport.
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.
Ana Elizabeth García hosts the first weekly episode of Who's Who in This Week's Lies last Wednesday.
It takes chutzpah to disregard facts and then lecture the media about telling the truth.
President López Obrador has long harangued journalists — the Financial Times included — for publishing “unprofessional” and “unethical” stories that criticize him.
But now he has gone a step further, devoting a weekly segment of his morning news conferences, or mañaneras, to naming and shaming columnists and media outlets for publishing news he deems untrue.
The new exercise, “Who’s Who in This Week’s Lies?”, is rich in irony, coming from a president who has been less than truthful 56,181 times at the “mañanera” conferences since December 2018, according to the consultancy Spin. By its tally, López Obrador utters an average of 88 untruths per news conference.
In this he is similar to former U.S. president Donald Trump, who has been accused of making more than 30,000 false claims — not least that he, rather than Joe Biden, won the presidential election.
López Obrador: attempting to monopolize the truth.
López Obrador’s mañanera — held Monday to Friday in an imposing salon in the National Palace after the president’s 6 a.m. security cabinet meeting — is both a remarkable democratic exercise and a daily display of stamina from the 67-year-old, who never sits down, even when it drags into a third hour.
Listening can be tedious, with endless repetition and regular digressions — sometimes inaccurate, according to academics — that reflect the president’s passion for 19th-century history. His delivery is slow and yet he is a highly effective communicator who can be mesmerizing.
The inaugural Who’s Who segment last week was littered with inaccuracies — including an erroneous claim about a Forbes report into government spying on journalists and activists dating back to 2017, before the president took office.
López Obrador maintains that his media critics deliberately distort or overlook his achievements because they oppose his plans to “transform” Mexico and hark back to a past in which they received political favours. For him, the mañanera, and “Who’s Who in This Week’s Lies” in particular, is a way to redress the balance.
“I’m really sorry a journalist like you is so ill-informed,” the president this week told Jorge Ramos, as the Mexican reporter and anchor at U.S. network Univision hauled him over the coals about his handling of crime and Covid-19.
Quoting the government’s own figures, Ramos pressed the president on his failure to reduce homicide levels and about Mexico having racked up the world’s fourth highest pandemic death toll.
Looking irritated, López Obrador called the criticism “slander” and anti-government “bias.” He claimed that Ramos had been misinformed and that he had “other data” — an excuse he regularly falls back on.
The government’s message has also clashed with reality over shortages of cancer drugs for children. Hugo López-Gatell, deputy health minister, caused a storm last month when he said protests by desperate parents were being whipped up by international rightwing groups with a “quasi coup-like vision.”
The government has also been accused of making the facts fit the narrative in this year’s commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the fall of the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlán, and the 200th anniversary of Mexico’s independence from Spain.
Although scholars often cite 1325 as the year Tenochtitlán was founded, López Obrador insists it was 1321 and has thus added the 700th anniversary of the founding of the ancient city to this year’s commemorations as a way of reclaiming Mexico’s indigenous heritage.
López Obrador’s attempt to monopolize the truth is worrying even for some of his supporters.
“It’s a serious problem, and it’s dangerous,” says Germán Anonio Hernández, a López Obrador voter from the working-class suburb of Ecatepec. Hernández praises the president for delivering more money to the poor but says he had hoped to see more results by now, halfway through the president’s term.
“He needs to listen to and accept criticism,” he says.
Deputy Health Minister López-Gatell speaks to reporters Tuesday morning.
Mexico has entered a third wave of the pandemic, the federal government’s coronavirus point man acknowledged on Tuesday.
“We have a situation where there is a spike [in case numbers], the third of the pandemic and second of the year,” Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell told reporters at President López Obador’s morning press conference.
“But fortunately, and for a known reason, which is vaccination, deaths are not increasing at the same speed,” he said.
However, Covid-19 fatalities did increase significantly in June compared to May. The Health Ministry reported 9,479 deaths last month, a 42% spike compared to 6,661 in May. Confirmed case numbers increased 53% in June to 105,527 from 68,987 in May.
An additional 642 deaths and 22,604 cases were reported in the first five days of July for daily averages of 128 fatalities and 4,521 new infections. The accumulated case tally currently stands at 2.54 million, while the official Covid-19 death toll is 233,689.
López-Gatell said that vaccination is preventing severe Covid-19 disease but also acknowledged that hospitalization rates have recently increased. He noted that some states have seen “very significant” increases in case numbers and hospitalizations.
Baja California Sur, one of just five high risk orange light states, recorded the biggest jump in case numbers in June, with new infections surging 366% to 1,721 from 369 in May.
Many of the new cases recently detected in Mexico were among young people, most of whom have not yet been vaccinated against Covid-19. The highly infectious Delta strain of the virus is now circulating in at least a third of Mexico’s states, but it has not yet become the dominant variant here, as has occurred in some countries.
Some studies have indicated that some vaccines don’t offer robust protection against the Delta strain but López-Gatell said recently that such a finding was “still controversial.”
Laurie Ximénez-Fyvie, a professor of molecular genetics at the National Autonomous University, told Reuters that if the Delta variant does spread widely in Mexico – where less effective Chinese vaccines have been widely used – the nation’s coronavirus situation could deteriorate further.
Coronavirus cases and deaths in Mexico as reported by day. milenio
She said that a new rebound in case numbers was “definitely” underway and warned that the current vaccination rate in Mexico – where about a quarter of the entire population and approximately 40% of adults have received at least one shot – may be insufficient to blunt the third wave.
“If Uruguay and Chile, which have vaccinated around 60% of their population, cannot stop the rebound, why could we with 20%?” Ximénez-Fyvie said.
Both South American countries have relied heavily on Chinese-made vaccines to inoculate their populations.
The SinoVac and CanSino vaccines, which Mexico has used to vaccinate millions of people including large numbers of seniors and teachers, are only 51% and 65% effective, respectively, in preventing the symptomatic disease, whereas studies show the Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Sputnik shots – which have also been used here – have significantly higher efficacy rates. It was recently reported that at least four people in Oaxaca vaccinated with CanSino were seriously ill with Covid-19. The protection the Chinese vaccines offer against the Delta strain is unclear.
More than 47 million vaccine doses have been administered since the national vaccination rollout began on December 24 but tens of millions of Mexicans, mainly young adults, have not yet been inoculated.
However, the government has opened up the vaccination registration process to people aged 18 and above across Mexico – even as some people in their 40s are yet to receive their first shot.
A protesting cyclist took a direct route when she found a car parked in a bike path in the historic center of Querétaro: she decided to walk straight over it.
In a video that has been viewed more than 12,300 times the female cyclist wearing a food delivery backpack carries her bike over the vehicle and stomps on the back window before jumping off the trunk. Fellow protesters can be heard shouting to drivers: “It’s a bike path, don’t you understand?”
The Union of Cyclists in Querétaro (UCIQ) organized the march on June 30 to demand safer conditions for bicycle riders, primarily to prevent further deaths on the road. During the march a UCIQ member was hit by a public bus.
The bold act of the female cyclist sparked debate on social media. “If the vehicle was obstructing the bike lane, which is only for cyclists … I support the cyclist,” wrote one user.
“These streets do not have enough space for a bike lane … [they] are not big enough to have cars, bikes, spaces to park and wide sidewalks,” argued another.
Una ciclista repartidora de DIDI pasó por encima de un vehículo, debido a que el automovilista no respetó la ciclovía en el centro histórico de #Querétaro; el auto resulto dañado. pic.twitter.com/sM9EMUzttL
UCIQ member José Antonio Morán said a change in thinking was essential. “When there is a lack of road culture … and authorities stay silent and speeding, recklessness and non-compliance with traffic rules are not adequately sanctioned we fall into the chaos,” he said.
The city’s transportation director, Saúl Obregón, argued that authorities had worked to create a safe environment for cyclists. He said the municipality had invested more than 43 million pesos (US $2.15 million) to build 80,000 square meters of bike lanes and had spent 10 million pesos on over 8,000 street signs.
According to the news portal Infobae, Querétaro has seen 43 accidents so far this year involving drivers and cyclists, resulting in three deaths.
Cárdenas is charged with torturing kidnapping suspects.
A former Federal Police commander considered the right-hand man of imprisoned ex-security minister Genaro García Luna was arrested in México state on Monday on charges of torturing kidnapping suspects in 2012, federal authorities said.
The federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) said Luis Cárdenas Palominio was arrested early Monday at a property in Naucalpan, a México state municipality that borders Mexico City. The navy supported an FGR operation to execute an arrest warrant against the suspect.
Cárdenas, who served as a high-ranking law enforcement official during several federal governments, is linked to “probable acts of torture that occurred in 2012 against alleged kidnappers,” the FGR said.
He was transferred to México state’s Altiplano maximum security prison on Monday afternoon.
Cárdenas has also been accused by United States prosecutors of accepting multi-million-dollar bribes from the Sinaloa Cartel.
García Luna was detained in Texas in December 2019 on charges he allowed the Sinaloa Cartel to operate in exchange for large bribes. Former president Felipe Calderón’s security minister has denied the allegations and is awaiting trial in New York.
It was unclear whether federal authorities would consider extraditing Cárdenas – a regional security chief for the Federal Police during the 2006-2012 Calderón administration – to the United States.
President López Obrador said Monday that he didn’t know whether extradition would occur. He said the former official’s arrest was evidence that corruption and impunity is no longer tolerated in Mexico.
“He was detained because there is no longer impunity, and that helps a lot,” López Obrador said.
The president, who pointed to widespread corruption and abuses in the Federal Police as a significant factor in his decision to disband the force in 2019, has said previously that evidence against García Luna revealed by U.S. authorities showed that Mexico was a narco-state during Calderón’s 2006-12 administration.
Cárdenas was perhaps best known by many Mexicans for his involvement in a staged, televised arrest in 2005 of two kidnapping suspects who had actually been detained the day before.
Prior to his arrest, he was apparently living a comfortable life in Paseo del Bosque, an upper middle class residential estate in Naucalpan. He grew a beard in an apparent attempt to conceal his identity but had not gone into hiding, as federal authorities had suspected.
“He liked cars, I saw him in a Porsche; a car like that doesn’t attract attention here in the estate because there are several. … He said hello when we saw each other and was friendly. … We didn’t know who he was until we saw his photo [in the media] this morning,” one resident told the newspaper Reforma.
“It seemed that his life was normal. He used to go out in a SUV with a woman I believe was his wife and a few kids. He had a very big dog, almost the size of a St. Bernard. Sometimes they arrived with supermarket bags and once we saw him and his family leave with suitcases, I think they were going on vacation. He didn’t bother anyone and no one bothered him.”
Jorge Ramos and President López Obrador engaged in an exchange that could have been mistaken for a Monty Python skit.
President López Obrador and United States-based Mexican journalist Jorge Ramos engaged in a robust verbal duel on Monday morning as the latter challenged the former on his record in reducing violent crime and managing the coronavirus pandemic.
Ramos, a reporter for the U.S.-based Spanish language television network Univision, appeared at López Obrador’s morning press conference — the mañanera — at the National Palace in Mexico City, and didn’t hold back when given the opportunity to probe the president.
“I was here at the mañanera in January of 2020 to ask you about the terrible wave of violence here in the country and you told me the following, and I’m quoting: ‘There will be results this year,’” Ramos said.
“Well, more than a year later, there are results but very negative ones, Mr. President. Your government is on track to become the most violent in the modern history of Mexico – more than 86,000 [violent] deaths up to now since you were sworn in, according to official figures. If things stay the same, there will be more deaths than … [during the governments of former presidents] Peña Nieto and Calderón,” he said.
“Femicides continue to increase with respect to last year – you know it, you said it last week – and outside the bubble of the National Palace, the country is not in peace and tranquility, [as you claimed] Mr. President. They’re killing almost 100 Mexicans a day, in Aguililla, in Zacatecas, in Reynosa. … You’re almost halfway through your government and you’re still blaming ex-presidents for what you haven’t been able to do. So, my question is, do you believe that your [security] strategy of ‘hugs, not bullets’ has been a complete failure … and are you going to ask for help, because up to now you haven’t been able [to stem the violence].”
With a wry smile creeping across his face, López Obrador told Ramos that he didn’t agree with him, asserting that his administration has in fact made progress in improving the country’s security situation.
“… I have other information,” said AMLO, as the president is commonly, known, reverting to his favorite catchphrase when confronted with information which portrays him and his government in a negative light.
“… We’re having difficulty in reducing the crime of homicide as we would like but, this is important, we’ve managed to contain the growth in homicides that was occurring; there is even a reduction since we arrived, … of 3%,” he said.
Ramos pounced, acknowledging that homicide rates have stabilized but pointing out that the government has contained them at near record high levels.
“… [Violence levels] have stabilized at a high level – at the worst time of the war, in other words. … What I’m saying is that you can’t say there are 100 murders a day and that’s a success,” he said.
“Of course it’s not an easy issue,” the president responded. “I already explained – we inherited a rotten fruit. I’m not blaming former presidents without reason, you know well, and it’s in the public domain that [organized crime] was practically in charge of the management of security …” AMLO said.
The president presents ‘other information’ regarding homicide figures.
“I understand but there are no results. … There is no change,” countered Ramos before an exchange ensued that could almost be mistaken for a Monty Python skit, were the subject matter not so critical for the well-being of the country.
AMLO: “There is a change. I’m going to give you another piece of information.
Ramos: “But that’s the problem; you’re presenting [the information] as something positive and it’s not positive.
AMLO: “I’m going to give you the information from 2018 …”
Ramos: “There are massacres, there are murders.”
AMLO: “Yes, but it’s not the same.”
Ramos: “Three thousand a month.”
AMLO: “There are no longer massacres in the country.”
Ramos: “But what about Zacatecas, Aguililla and Reynosa?”
AMLO: Those are confrontations between [criminal] groups but it’s not the state, which was previously the main violator of human rights.”
Ramos: “… One of the main problems of the country is violence and that’s your responsibility now, Mr. President.”
AMLO: “Yes, yes, and I work [on the problem] every day.”
Ramos: “But there are no results.”
AMLO: “Of course there are. I respect your point of view but I don’t share it.”
Ramos: “They’re statistics from your own government, I got the figures from your own government.
AMLO: “I believe they gave you the wrong figures, I have other information.”
Ramos: “But there can’t be other information because it came from your government’s website, from the … National Public Security System.”
AMLO: “We’ll give you the information. … There has been a minimal reduction, I repeat, of 3% in the case of homicides. But in the case of vehicle theft … we have a reduction of 40%.”
Ramos: “But not in femicides, for example.”
AMLO: “Allow me, allow me [to continue], we’re going by parts. Kidnappings, down 40%, robberies in general, down, 26%. You say ‘femicide’ to me. Do you know when homicides of women were first classified as femicides? When we got into government.”
Ramos: “There were figures before, as well.”
AMLO: “Before, yes, [but] very few, [femicides] were recorded. Now there are more complaints and we’re acknowledging that there has been an increase but it must be taken into account that the murders of women during previous governments weren’t considered femicides. So we’re going to continue working to guarantee peace and tranquility, we have no doubt, Jorge.”
Ramos: “That’s why I’m talking about the bubble, because you speak of peace and tranquility, [but] leave the National Palace and there is no peace and tranquility.”
AMLO: “… There were elections [on June 6]. Of 160,000 voting booths, only 30 couldn’t be installed. There is governability in this country …”
Ante ola de violencia en México, el periodista Jorge Ramos increpa a AMLO
Journalist Jorge Ramos questions the president at Monday’s press conference.
Ramos: “And how many candidates were killed, Mr. President?”
AMLO: “Yes, unfortunately.”
Ramos: “It’s a tragedy.”
AMLO: “But in all cases, in the majority of cases, the culprits have been punished.”
Ramos: “The impunity in this country is more than 90%.”
AMLO: “No, in what corresponds to us, it’s zero impunity, there are no longer privileged people.”
Ramos: “I’m referring to the murders in this country, the majority of these murder cases are not resolved.”
The journalist and the president also clashed over Mexico’s Covid-19 death toll. Ramos asked López Obrador whether he accepted responsibility for the “the poor management of the pandemic” and received a perhaps predictable response:
“I don’t agree with you,” AMLO responded. Ramos noted that there is a discrepancy between the official Covid-19 death toll – currently more than 233,000 – and fatalities that the Health Ministry has acknowledged are associated with the disease. The discordant figures appear on the same government website, he said.
“I don’t understand why there are two figures, Mr. President,” Ramos said, citing a death toll of 351,00, although the Health Ministry said last week that 447,000 fatalities were attributable to Covid-19.
“Why not tell the truth, that there have been many more pandemic deaths in Mexico?”
In turn, the president accused the journalists of being “misinformed” and proceeded to present Covid-19 mortality data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
“I’m giving you statistics from your government,” said Ramos, who questioned why Mexico had the fourth highest death toll in the world when it ranks 10th in terms of population.
“No, my government’s figures are these, look,” AMLO responded before accusing Ramos of “slander” and presenting a table that showed that Mexico ranked sixth in Latin America for per capita Covid deaths – behind Peru, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina and Paraguay – and 19th in the world.
“This doesn’t change the enormous number of deaths here in Mexico, Mr. President,” Ramos argued.
“Ah, no? Because we have 126 million residents,” López Obrador said.
“… But there are countries that have a higher population and they have fewer people who died from Covid,” Ramos retorted.
“This is the updated [Covid deaths/population] relation, Jorge …,” AMLO replied dismissively.
“What you want to tell me is that you’ve managed the pandemic well?” Ramos asked.
“… You’re saying we’re doing well when in reality there are so many deaths. How can you say this to the families of the victims? You can’t, Mr. President, you can’t,” Ramos said.
“I don’t agree with you,” López Obrador declared once again. “With respect to what you say, I don’t agree and I feel that there’s an interest [behind] your questioning of our government, a bias. There is no problem because we have a calm conscience,” the president said before Ramos denied that he had any bias against him or his administration and was just doing his job.
The Univision journalist, who also works for the president’s least favorite newspaper, Reforma, has been asking tough questions of the president since early in his six-year term. AMLO was clearly annoyed at times as he was grilled today, providing more evidence for government critics who say that he is intolerant of press scrutiny and critical coverage – an accusation he denies.
The fire at the dump in Rincón de Guayabitos has been burning for more than three weeks.
A 24-day fire at a garbage dump at the Jaltemba Bay, Nayarit, is posing health risks to locals and firefighters and damaging crops in the area.
Authorities have been unable to extinguish the blaze at the La Colmena disposal site in Rincón de Guayabitos despite resident protests, official complaints and partial closures on the coastal highway.
The fire is emitting gases and rotten odors that are reaching the beach and hotel zone two kilometers away, which receive up to 90,000 tourists on long weekends, according to the newspaper Reforma.
Raúl Millán, a consultant at private security company CRS, warned locals not to consume pineapples grown in the surrounding areas and said that firefighters are tackling the blaze without adequate protection.
He added that even when the present situation is resolved, the site would require a biogas pipeline, a retaining wall and fencing to avoid longer term health effects.
State lawmaker Rosa Mirna Mora also voiced her concern for firefighters, who she said had reported symptoms of respiratory illness, shaking and physical weakness, and added that corruption and public mishandling were at the root of the problem.
Another state legislator Jorge Ortiz, said that when he went to examine the site there were only two firefighters fighting the almost two-hectare fire, armed with two firehoses, a shovel and a pickaxe.
The use of local resources is also part of the problem. Cristóbal Fernández, spokesman for a Jaltemba Bay environmental group, said there was another dump in the municipality which had not been put into operation, despite being completed in 2015 for a cost of 26 million pesos (about US $1.3 million).
The Mexican government has awarded control of one of the country’s biggest oil discoveries to state-owned Pemex after months of deliberation, dealing a blow to private investment and raising the prospect of international litigation.
A consortium made up of the U.S.’s Talos Energy, the U.K.’s Premier Oil and Germany’s Wintershall DEA discovered the nearly 700-million-barrel Zama field in 2017 and have invested US $325 million in the project to date.
But some of the project spills over on to acreage owned by Pemex, which prompted a battle over who should be in charge. The energy ministry has now ruled in favor of the state company, which President López Obrador sees as a national champion.
In the letter posted on Twitter by energy consultant Gonzalo Monroy, Energy Minister Rocío Nahle named Pemex operator of the discovery and said the companies should present a development plan within 30 days.
Talos said in a statement: “After six years of significant investments in Zama and the Mexican economy, as well as the delivery of a Zama development plan that is credible and in line with the objectives of Mexico, Talos is very disappointed with [the energy ministry’s] sudden decision to award operatorship to Pemex.”
Neither the government nor Pemex had any immediate reaction to the news, which was made public on Monday. The announcement came days after a Pemex pipeline in the Gulf of Mexico caught fire, prompting a blaze in the sea.
Lourdes Melgar, a former hydrocarbons deputy minister, said Pemex had not wanted the field when the sector was opened to private investment under Mexico’s 2013 energy reform. “It’s not exactly an expropriation, but it’s close,” she said.
Nahle said her decision was based on a study by the National Hydrocarbons Commission, which concluded that Pemex has “favourable technical and operational conditions and characteristics” to develop the field.
She cited Pemex chief executive Octavio Romero as saying the company had “sufficient financial capacity.” Pemex posted a first-quarter loss of nearly $2 billion.
Pemex said it owns 50.43% of the field, located 60 kilometers off the Gulf coast of the state of Tabasco, while the consortium claims to own 60%.
However, the consortium said such percentages typically change as wells are drilled. Pemex has not drilled any wells on its acreage whereas the consortium has drilled one exploratory and three appraisal wells.
“This is a direct signal to the market in terms of how this government views private sector investment in the Mexican energy industry,” said Emily Medina, a fellow at the Energy Policy Research Foundation. “It seems that the government is definitely favouring Pemex over Talos.”
“We can’t let them be at the helm, given the state of their operations and their business,” said one senior official in the consortium, who was not authorized to be named. He said a review of possible litigation under the USMCA free-trade treaty was likely.
The official cited concerns over Pemex’s finances and its technical expertise given the field’s depth and geological conditions, as well as safety concerns, including a lack of provision to prevent wells collapsing.
Analysts say Zama’s oil is located at a depth of some 168 meters. The deepest Pemex has drilled to date is some 110 meters.
Since taking office in 2018, López Obrador has halted oil auctions and joint ventures with the private sector. On Monday, he cited Nahle, an ardent energy nationalist, as one of a group of a potential successors for the presidency when his term ends in 2024.
Authorities in a municipality that is part of the Mixe district in Oaxaca’s Sierra Norte region have demanded for a second time that a United States fashion brand stop selling shorts they claim are plagiarized from an indigenous design.
“The community of Santa María Tlahuitoltepec is once again raising its voice against the company Anthropologie, which for purposes of profit is appropriating elements of our culture, identity and worldview,” the municipal government said in a statement.
“The authorities of Santa María Tlahuitoltepec demand that Anthropologie immediately suspend the sale of its Marka embroidered shorts,” it added.
They also called for the company to acknowledge that its shorts were inspired by a Santa María Tlahuitoltepec design and issue “a public apology to our community.”
The design of the shorts incorporates patterns that were “undeniably” copied from the Xaam nïxuy blouse, the government said, adding that the garment was plagiarized five times between 2009 and 2019 “by fashion brands within Mexico and internationally.”
“In all of Mexico, 39 cases of plagiarism were recorded between 2012 and 2019 by 23 fashion brands such as Zara and Carolina Herrera, who appropriated designs from indigenous communities of Oaxaca, Chiapas and Hidalgo,” the statement said.
The federal Culture Ministry announced in late May that it had sent letters to Anthropologie as well as Zara and Patowl in which it laid out its opposition to “improper cultural appropriation” and called on each company to provide a public explanation detailing “on what basis it could privatize collective property, making use of cultural elements whose origin is identified in several communities of Oaxaca.”
Despite Santa María Tlahuitoltepec’s repeated demands that Anthropologie cease selling its Marka shorts, the item remains available on the company’s website. A pair sells for 1,676 pesos, or US $84.
Drones are the latest tool being employed by authorities to enforce Covid-19 measures in Mazatlán, Sinaloa.
In tourist areas of the city such as the beaches and the boardwalk the remote control aircraft circle overhead from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. playing prerecorded messages to remind visitors to keep a safe distance from one another and to wear face masks.
The deployment was driven by a rise in Covid-19 cases over the past three weeks, which has seen a number of municipalities including Mazatlán go red on the coronavirus stoplight risk map just before the holiday season comes into full swing.
Eloy Ruíz Gastelum, head of Civil Protection in Mazatlán, said the drones are a great help, since in the summer holiday season a large influx of local, regional, national and foreign visitors is expected.
He added that the new technology would be used to watch over swimmers and provide a faster response to emergencies in the water. Sanitary checkpoints to conduct temperature checks are being installed on weekends in the busiest tourist areas.
