Give classic recipes a grand entrance with warm, tangy ginger

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July 5, 2021

Fresh ginger is one of those key ingredients I try to always have in the fridge. I will admit, though, the little gnarled knobs do sometimes get buried in my crisper and forgotten, only to be discovered dried up, shriveled and sometimes (ack!) moldy.

Recently, I read about two ways to freeze fresh ginger so that you always have it on hand. While I’ve yet to try it out myself, it sounded good, and I’ve included instructions below.

I’ve always used a small, sharp knife to peel ginger, but some people swear by a vegetable peeler. Always look for ginger that’s plump and fresh-looking, with no dry or shriveled parts and a taut skin.

The fresher it is, the more juice there is — and the more flavor. Stringy fibers run lengthwise through each “finger” of ginger, so you want to cut across the grain like you would with a steak.

My experience in Mazatlán is that certain vendors in the mercado will always have great-looking fresh ginger, as opposed to the chain grocery stores, where perhaps it doesn’t sell so fast. One stand here that sells dried chiles, beans and grains, piloncillo and honeys also has turmeric root and fresh ginger.

ginger barbecue sauce — Basting with a ginger-infused barbecue sauce is a great way to add flavor excitement to just about anything you might grill.

In fact, turmeric and ginger are all in the same family — and also quite easy to grow. Like potatoes, fresh, plump pieces of ginger can be planted. Bright-green sprouts grow out of each eye (again, like a potato); the plant looks like bamboo.

The rhizomes form clumps underground and take seven to nine months until they’re ready for harvest. Pull up the whole plant, shake off the dirt, keep what you want, then separate the eyes and replant the rest.

In Mexico, fresh ginger is used mostly for medicinal teas and in some molés, birrias and enchilada sauces. Cochinitos, those cute pig cookies, have powdered ginger to give them their distinctive taste. The warm, spicy flavor of fresh ginger is essential in things like Asian stirfries and sauces, a host of desserts and pastries and a veritable smorgasbord of hot and cold drinks.

To freeze fresh ginger: Choose the freshest, plumpest ginger root you can find with no shriveled ends.

Method #1: Purée

No need to peel! Thinly slice it against the grain. In a blender, process with just enough water that it can blend into a thick, smooth-ish paste. Scoop into a zip-top bag and freeze it in a thin, flat square. To use, simply break off a piece.

Method #2: Whole

Keep ginger in as big a knob as possible but peel it well. Wrap tightly in plastic and keep in freezer. Use a grater or microplane to grate flakes for using in your recipe.

Ginger Simple Syrup

1 cup sugar (any kind)
¾ cup water
1 cup sliced fresh ginger root, peeled

In a saucepan on medium heat, combine sugar and water. Stir constantly until sugar dissolves, add ginger and bring syrup to a light boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for about 15 minutes. Remove from heat. Steep in the covered pan for 1 hour or until it reaches your preferred taste. Strain out ginger; store in a tightly sealed bottle.

Options: Add 1 tsp. vanilla extract or a whole vanilla bean. Or add a jalapeño or serrano pepper to the simmering syrup for a few minutes, being careful to remove it before it gets too spicy.

Pineapple Ginger Margarita

¾ oz. fresh lime juice
½ oz. Ginger Simple Syrup (see above)
1 ½ oz. tequila
1 oz. pineapple juice
Garnish: Lime wedge

In a cocktail shaker, muddle lime juice and simple syrup. Add tequila and pineapple juice; fill shaker with ice. Shake well. Pour into glass filled with ice. Garnish with lime wedge.

Beer, Lemongrass and Ginger Marinade for Steak

1 (12-oz.) bottle lager beer
3 Tbsp. olive oil
1 (6-inch) length fresh lemongrass, lightly bruised with the blunt side of a knife
2-inch strip fresh lime zest
1-inch knob peeled fresh ginger, sliced
1 tsp. toasted coriander seed
4 sprigs fresh thyme, if available
1 tsp. salt
2-3 pounds steak of your choice

In a large zip-top bag, combine beer, oil, lemongrass, zest, ginger, coriander, thyme and salt. Swish until salt dissolves. Add steak, press out air and seal. Refrigerate at least 1 hour and up to 12 hours. When ready to cook, remove steak from marinade, blot dry with paper towels and grill as desired.

Sesame Ginger Vinaigrette

1/3 cup rice wine vinegar
¼ cup soy sauce
3½ Tbsp. honey
¼ cup sesame oil
1/3 cup peanut or mild vegetable oil
1 Tbsp. minced garlic
1½-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled, minced
2 tsp. sesame seeds

Mix everything together, shake well.

Pumpkin Spice Blend

Who needs Starbucks when you can make your own?!

2 Tbsp. ground cinnamon
1 Tbsp. ground ginger
1½ tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
½ tsp. ground allspice
¼ tsp. ground cloves

Mix all ingredients together and store in a well-sealed jar for up to 2 weeks.

Ginger Banana Smoothie

1 frozen banana
8 oz plain yogurt
2 pitted dates
1-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled
¼ cup milk, coconut water or plain water
¼ tsp. ground cardamom
Pinch salt

In blender, process everything until completely smooth.

Asian BBQ Sauce

Great on grilled chicken, steak or veggies.

2 cups ketchup
½ cup Dijon mustard
½ cup brown sugar or grated piloncillo
½ cup rice vinegar
2 Tbsp. fresh, minced ginger
½ cup minced green onions
½ tsp. cayenne pepper
1 tsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. sesame oil

Whisk together all ingredients in a medium saucepan. Bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally; remove from heat. Let cool.

Use as a basting sauce towards the end of cooking or brush on after barbecuing.

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.

Suburban passenger train considered in Coahuila

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MND Staff

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July 5, 2021

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An industrial park in Derramadero, which would be linked by train with Ramos Arizpe.

The federal government is considering establishing a passenger train service in the metropolitan area of Saltillo, Coahuila.

The Ministry of Communications and Transportation (SCT) has requested funding of 36.1 million pesos (US $1.8 million) from the Finance Ministry (SHCP) to carry out six pre-investment studies related to the development of a suburban train line that would run 54 kilometers between the Derramadero industrial area south of Saltillo and Ramos Arzipe, a municipality that adjoins the capital to the north.

The passenger service would make use of existing tracks on which freight trains currently run. It would mainly serve workers employed in factories in the Derramadero industrial zone and have an initial capacity to transport almost 144,000 passengers per day, according to the SCT.

The ministry said that establishment of a suburban train line would generate a range of benefits, including reduced travel times for people and goods, less congestion on roads and fewer car accidents.

The SCT cited heavy traffic as one of the “greatest deficiencies” in Derramadero, explaining that vehicles traveling to and from manufacturing plants in the area are reduced to speeds as slow as 10 kilometers per hour in peak times, which “last for approximately six hours a day.”

The congestion slows down traffic on “the main trade arteries between the United States and Mexico (highways 40 and 54),” the ministry added.

The SCT said the pre-investment studies would be carried out in 2022 but it intends to prepare tendering processes to find companies to do them as soon as it receives funding from the SHCP.

The six studies would cover the areas of basic engineering and the project blueprint; demand and technical evaluation; legal analysis; environmental analysis; financing and contracting; and cost-benefit analysis.

The federal government is aiming to significantly increase Mexico’s rail infrastructure before President López Obrador leaves office in 2024.

It has already started building the 1,500-kilometer Maya Train in Mexico’s southeast, which is expected to begin operations in 2023, and is working to complete the Mexico City-Toluca passenger railway, which its predecessor began but failed to finish.

With reports from El Economista

Natural causes, not overexploitation of groundwater, behind Puebla sinkhole

By

MND Staff

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July 5, 2021

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Puebla's sinkhole measures 126 meters across.

The massive Puebla sinkhole, which measures over 126 meters across, is the result of natural phenomena rather than the overexploitation of groundwater, the National Water Commission (Conagua) said.

The commission decided that the most likely cause was the dissolution of calcareous rocks, such as limestone or dolostone, rather than overexploitation as had been suggested by ecological activists.

The giant pit emerged in Santa María Zacatepec, a community about 20 kilometers northwest of Puebla city, in late May. It was initially about 10 meters wide and has steadily grown to swallow a nearby property and become a tourist attraction in the process.

Conagua said that caves may have formed below ground in a natural process. “There are elements that suggest the formation of caves or sinkholes, which occurs due to a natural process of dissolution of calcareous rocks and can eventually collapse.”

The commission also discarded the theory of overexploitation, stating that water pressure levels in the Puebla Valley spring remained stable. “The Puebla Valley aquifer still has availability, so it has been concluded that the aquifer is not in a condition of overexploitation, and that overexploitation obviously could not be the cause of the geological accident, the sinkhole.”

shrek in the sinkhole — The sinkhole has produced a type of bread, a Cumbia song — and memes.

It also revealed that underground water in the area had a higher temperature than in others, which suggested that water had risen. Further study should focus “on the deeper geological and tectonic analysis of the area of interest,” it concluded.

Meanwhile, the sinkhole has become a cultural phenomena in its own right. The two dogs, Spay and Spike, that were rescued from the pit, inspired a local bakery to produce a commemorative cake.

The chasm has also attracted tourism: onlookers can pay 5 pesos to access the roof of a house close to the security barrier to exploit the photo opportunity.

It was the theme of a cumbia song and now a horticulturist has created a plant pot depicting the sinkhole, including a miniature house and two miniature dogs.

With reports from Milenio, Proceso and Reforma

Compensation to families of Metro accident victims upped to nearly 2mn pesos

By

MND Staff

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July 5, 2021

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Debris has been removed from the collapsed section of the Metro's Line 12.

The families of 26 people who died in a May 3 accident on Line 12 of the Mexico City Metro system will receive compensation of almost 2 million pesos, more than double the amount previously announced.

The Mexico City government announced Saturday that the families will receive a total of 1.92 million pesos (US $96,800) and outstanding money will be paid this week.

Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum previously announced that families of people who died in the accident – caused by the collapse of an overpass on the elevated section of Line 12 – would receive a total of 700,000 pesos (US $35,300): 650,000 pesos from Metro operator STC and 50,000 pesos from the Mexico City government.

The payout from the STC was raised to 870,000 pesos per family and the Mexico City government’s Executive Commission for Attention to Victims (CEAVI) will contribute an additional 1 million pesos.

“We will send the notification and in the course of this week we will begin to deliver the amount of this additional 1 million pesos,” CEAVI chief Armando Ocampo told a press conference.

He said that 23 of the 26 families have already received 870,000-peso payments from the STC. The city is also providing educational scholarships and jobs to family members of people who were killed or injured in the Metro disaster.

Lawyers for victims’ families said last month they would seek compensation payments of tens if not hundreds of millions of pesos. Cristopher Estupiñán, a lawyer with the Nuevo León law firm Carbino Legal, said he and The Webster Law Firm of Houston, Texas, would seek large payments for their clients via legal action in the United States.

The firms intend to sue the three companies that built Line 12: Grupo Carso, owned by billionaire businessman Carlos Slim, Grupo ICA of Mexico and Alstom of France, all of which have offices in the U.S.

Preliminary investigation results indicate the accident was caused by construction flaws in the structure supporting the elevated section of the line. Slim rejected that finding last week but nevertheless committed to covering the costs of repairing the line.

“I’m convinced that it didn’t have defects from the start,” he said.

The final results of an independent inquiry conducted by Norwegian firm DNV are expected later this year.

With reports from Reuters and Milenio

With kidnappings, torture and intimidation, narcos decided election results in Guerrero

By

MND Staff

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July 5, 2021

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The Tierra Caliente region of Guerrero is indicated in orange.

Organized crime achieved their electoral objective in the Tierra Caliente region of Guerrero: the candidates they backed – most of whom represented Mexico’s once omnipotent Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) – won the June 6 elections.

In the region located in northern Guerrero on the border with both Michoacán and México state, criminal organizations only allowed certain candidates to campaign in the lead-up to the elections, according to a report published Monday by the newspaper El Universal.

“And they were the ones who won the June 6 elections,” the report said. “Some people were not even allowed to register, others couldn’t start their campaigns and a few more quit halfway [through the campaign period] due to pressure. There were no murders but there were kidnappings, torture and intimidation as well as threats against aspirants and candidates.”

Criminal groups also told the region’s businesspeople whom they should support in the elections, El Universal said.

According to Guerrero and federal authorities, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), the Familia Michoacana and a cell of the Caballeros Templarios, or Knight’s Templar cartel, are among the crime groups that operate in Tierra Caliente. The two latter groups are allied and dominate Guerrero’s “hot lands,” El Universal said.

The newspaper reported that halfway through the campaign, a Tierra Caliente politician – who spoke to El Universal on the condition of anonymity due to security concerns – predicted that the PRI would sweep the elections in the region.

“He didn’t make the prediction according to electoral preferences at the time, his reasoning was more primitive: survival,” the report said.

“They [the criminal groups] have already given the indication that only the PRI candidates will be allowed to campaign, and in [the municipality of] Tlalchapa, Morena [is the preferred party],” the politician said, adding that other candidates were warned they would face “problems” if they didn’t follow the order to stay off the campaign trail.

As the unnamed politician predicted, the PRI – along with its ally, the Democratic Revolution Party – did indeed sweep elections in the region, prevailing in all municipalities except Tlalchapa and Zirándaro, where Morena won.

PRI candidates also won the state and federal electoral districts that are located in the area and the party’s candidate for governor, Mario Moreno Arcos, was more popular among Tierra Caliente voters than Morena’s Evelyn Salgado, who triumphed in the gubernatorial race.

Asked before the elections what would happen if a candidate not endorsed by organized crime won, the unidentified politician responded: “Nothing, they’ll sit him [or her] down and tell him [or her] what to do.”

Zirándaro's Mayor Portillo — Zirándaro’s Mayor Portillo: ‘The majority of the councils are controlled by crime.’

If elected officials such as mayors are going to be controlled by crime groups even if they weren’t their preferred candidates, why intimidate them in the first place, the politician was pressed by El Universal.

“Surely they owe favors to those from the PRI,” he responded. “What favors?” the newspaper probed. “Protection,” the politician replied.

In Zirándaro, Morena party Mayor Gregorio Portillo was kidnapped in March, allegedly by the Familia Michocana, and told not to stand for reelection.

“They abducted me, they tortured me to oblige me not to seek the candidacy for reelection for one reason: they’re annoyed because we didn’t give them money,” he said.

“Installing someone who will follow their orders, who will yield to their rules is necessary for them. In my case, as there was no way to do that through dialogue, there was the necessity to show me they have the capacity to kill me,” said the mayor, who was released but hasn’t set foot in Zirándaro for two months out of fear for his life.

Portillo told El Universal that he was caught in the middle of a dispute between the CJNG – a cartel to which he reportedly has links – and the Familia Michoacana.

“What they asked me was to use the government to move the army from one place to another. At that time, they didn’t ask me for money, they asked me to intervene, to negotiate with the army, to ask for security in certain areas that benefited them. As I didn’t do it, they got annoyed,” the outgoing mayor said.

“… Tierra Caliente … is the only region where there is such extreme [criminal] control that other candidates [not endorsed by organized crime] are not allowed to participate [in the elections]. It’s understandable – the municipalities are a source of funding [for narcos]. The majority of the councils are controlled by crime,” he said.

While Portillo was ordered not to stand for reelection, Morena remained the favored party of at least one organized crime group in Zirándaro. The PRI-PRD candidate, Jaime Torres García, had to flee the municipality halfway through the campaign due to threats, El Universal said.

In the neighboring municipality of Coyuca de Catalán, Morena mayoral candidate Rey Hilario Serrano was also threatened by organized crime and ultimately forced out of the election. The same thing happened to Morena candidate Francisca Baltazar Bravo in Pungarabato.

In Cutzamala, Citizens Movement (MC) party candidate Marilú Martínez Núñez was kidnapped along with her two children, her mother and two members of her team just days before the election. She was released but only after her captors forced her to withdraw from the election.

Rosa Jaimes López, the PRI candidate and wife of current Mayor Timoteo Arce Solís, won the mayoral election in Cutzamala. The head of the MC in Guerrero, Adrián Wences Carrasco, claimed that Arce could have been behind the abduction.

Four MC candidates were forced to withdraw their candidacies in the Tierra Caliente region due to threats by organized crime, according to Wences.

Criminal groups also interfered in the elections in other parts of Guerrero, El Universal reported, noting that 55 candidates had to be accompanied by police as they campaigned due to fears they could be the target of attacks. Two mayoral pre-candidates, one who aspired to the PRD candidacy in Chiapa and a Morena party hopeful in Pilcaya, were murdered in Guerrero late last year.

Despite the well-documented political violence in the southern state, President López Obrador claimed last Thursday that “no candidate suffered an attack” in Guerrero during the election season.

The day after the elections, the president asserted that organized crime groups “behaved very well” as citizens cast their ballots, while just days before voters went to the polls, he claimed there was “peace and tranquility” in the entire country.

However, the campaign period leading up to the elections was the most violent on record in Mexico, according to risk analysis firm Etellekt, which tracks electoral violence, with more than 1,000 acts of aggression against politicians and candidates, including more than 100 murders.

With reports from El Universal

Yucatán woman, 70, graduates from primary school

By

MND Staff

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July 5, 2021

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Primary school grad María Luisa Paredes and Governor Vila.

A woman who went back to school in her 60s has graduated from primary school at the age of 70.

María Luisa Paredes Durán from Muna, Yucatán, was motivated to join the program for older learners so that she could learn to read and study the Bible without help from others.

State Governor Mauricio Vila Dosal surprised Paredes by being present to award her certificate at the offices of the state’s adult education institute, which runs the program.

Paredes joined 29 other older learners on the three-year program in 2018 in which they studied reading, writing and basic mathematics. She found out about the opportunity thanks to a local teacher, who was a loyal customer where she sold tamales and other dishes.

The great-grandmother of 10 said she was born into a culture where education wasn’t seen as a priority. “I never believed that I could finish primary school, because when I was a child my mother and grandmother taught me to dedicate myself to housework. I was inspired to enter school because I wanted to be able to read the Bible alone,” she said.

She added that she appreciated being able to help younger family members with their homework, and was delighted to meet the governor. “I feel very proud of this achievement that brings joy to my family. Before, my grandchildren or my son helped me to read the Bible, but now I can engage with their homework and I understand it. It is a great opportunity that they offer to old people like me. In my 70 years I have never had the fortune of meeting a governor in person and I’m really grateful for his support,” she said.

Governor Vila offered his congratulations to the new graduate. “It is a great achievement, and that is why I came to give you your certificate and tell you that we are very proud of you, because we know that it is not easy,” he told her.

Paredes also offered words of motivation for other people her age. “It is never too late to learn and going to this school has changed my life. Now, activities like reading, running errands and other things have become much easier,” she said.

With reports from Televisa and Milenio

After disastrous year, Oaxaca’s budding wedding industry starts to rebound

By

Leigh Thelmadatter

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July 3, 2021

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small Zapotec wedding ceremony in Oaxaca — This small wedding in March, including Zapotec nuptials, was for a couple who, due to the pandemic, couldn't have a traditional wedding. Oaxaca Ancestral

Slowly, ever so slowly, people are thinking about returning to the business of living after over 1 1/2 years of the pandemic — and that includes weddings.

All of Mexico’s tourism sectors were hit hard by the pandemic. But destination weddings were devastated, with over 80% of nuptials canceled or postponed since the health emergency began, according to Mexico’s Tourism Ministry in February.

Mexico suffered a double whammy since not only did people not want to travel great distances, harsh restrictions on group gatherings made putting on weddings difficult to impossible.

Before the pandemic, Oaxaca ranked fourth in Mexico for destination weddings, providing couples from out of state and internationally a romantic backdrop to their vows. In Mexico, where federal tourism authorities have been promoting such weddings since 2014, such events were a relatively recent but fast-growing phenomenon. They increased by 50% between 2011, when the government started tracking such weddings, and 2016.

In 2019, the website Destination Weddings listed Mexico as topping the list of foreign wedding locations for “many happy couples who are headed for the altar.”

wedding at Catedral de Oaxaca restaurant, Oaxaca city — Large wedding reception before the pandemic held at the Catedral de Oaxaca restaurant in Oaxaca city. Catedral de Oaxaca

The majority of couples who typically choose Oaxaca as their nuptials staging ground are from Mexico, but the state is seeing an increasing share of the Americans, Canadians and even Europeans who come to Mexico for the wedding of a lifetime. Oaxaca and the rest of Mexico have been particularly popular with couples looking to elope (the type of wedding that suffered the least during the pandemic), but large weddings and even renewals of vows ceremonies had been steadily increasing.

The paralysis of this industry in 2020 left about 200 businesses in dire straits statewide that are only now starting to recover. Wedding licenses are still being issued in Oaxaca but with strict restrictions related to crowds.

The uptick in bookings for the future gives some hope that these restrictions will soon ease.

Mexico is famous for two types of destination weddings: those by the ocean and those among the majestic buildings of colonial cities. Oaxaca is one of few states that offers both. And despite being a conservative state, some areas of Oaxaca have also been open to gay weddings since 2014 — and more so after the state Congress approved legal weddings of this type in 2019.

Huatulco is the most popular Oaxaca destination for those looking for an oceanside wedding. One reason is its abundance of all-inclusive resorts such as Dreams Huatulco and Secrets Huatulco, which allow for everything to be provided in one place.

One of Huatulco’s unique advantages is its ecotourism, with nine beautiful bays, 36 beaches and lush tropical vegetation. The smaller coastal resort town of Zipolite (famous for its clothing-optional beach) is popular with couples looking for alternative ceremonies and, increasingly, gay weddings.

Punta Cometa beach wedding, Oaxaca — Many who come to get married in Oaxaca want to get married by the ocean: a wedding at Punta Cometa on the Oaxaca coast. Mazunte Pueblo Mágico

The inland city of Oaxaca, the state capital, is the main attraction for those looking for backdrops of pre-Hispanic and colonial buildings made of centuries-old massive stone blocks. The city offers sophisticated accommodations and cuisine such as what is found at the Catedral de Oaxaca restaurant, located in a former 19th-century mansion next to the main cathedral.

Coastal weddings in Oaxaca are still more popular among foreigners than those in the state capital, but Adriana Aguilar Escobar of Catedral de Oaxaca says this is changing, with more foreigners returning to the city after being enchanted by it from an earlier visit.

Some hardy souls who have decided not to wait have opted for alternatives such as “pop-up” weddings, initially made popular in Lisbon, Portugal. These are very small affairs of about 15 people lasting only a few hours at most, with the idea that the larger celebration would be held later after the pandemic is over. They have been more common in the Caribbean and San Miguel de Allende, but this type of wedding has been celebrated in Oaxaca as well.

One interesting accommodation of the pandemic was an event sponsored by Oaxaca wedding planner Nancy Romero and the BADABUN video company. Romero is very active in an organization called Oaxaca Ancestral, a non-profit organization seeking to protect and preserve native cultures. They put out a call to couples unable to have a traditional wedding due to the pandemic and offered them a traditional Zapotec ceremony presided by someone accredited by his community to perform it.

Various couples applied. One was chosen based on their reasons for wanting the ceremony.

Such ceremonies are not legal in Mexico (only the civil registry can perform legal weddings), but they are an option for those who feel the need for something spiritual.

A traditional Zapotec ceremony that was offered to a couple unable to have a traditional wedding.

Getting married in Oaxaca is legal and recognized worldwide, but there are certain requirements, both by Mexico and the state of Oaxaca. These requirements vary depending on whether one or both persons are foreigners. Wedding planners are recommended as the process can seem daunting despite the federal requirements being available online in English.

There is no reason to believe that the destination wedding industry in Oaxaca won’t eventually rebound. Mexico continues to be an attractive destination because it has the ability to accommodate large parties traveling to the same place, and Oaxaca offers most of what is available just about anywhere else in Mexico, including pristine beaches, extreme sports, majestic architecture and even Pueblos Mágicos (Magical Towns), which are growing in popularity as wedding backdrops.

In addition, the state offers some of the best-preserved indigenous and other traditional cultures that few other areas in Mexico can match.

Leigh Thelmadatter arrived in Mexico 18 years ago and fell in love with the land and the culture in particular its handcrafts and art. She is the author of Mexican Cartonería: Paper, Paste and Fiesta (Schiffer 2019). Her culture column appears regularly on Mexico News Daily.

Megadrought at the border strains Mexico-US water relations

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The Conversation

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July 3, 2021

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Lake Mead, which serves seven U.S. states and three in Mexico, is drying up. Ethan Miller/Getty Images

The United States and Mexico are tussling over their dwindling shared water supplies after years of unprecedented heat and insufficient rainfall.

Sustained drought on the middle-lower Rio Grande since the mid-1990s means less Mexican water flows to the U.S. The Colorado River Basin, which supplies seven U.S. states and two Mexican states, is also at record low levels.

A 1944 treaty between the U.S. and Mexico governs water relations between the two neighbors. The International Boundary and Water Commission it established to manage the 450,000-square-mile Colorado and Rio Grande basins has done so adroitly, according to our research.

That able management kept U.S.-Mexico water relations mostly conflict-free. But it masked some well-known underlying stresses: a population boom on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, climate change and aging waterworks.

The mostly semiarid U.S.-Mexico border region receives less than 18 inches of annual rainfall, with large areas getting under 12 inches. That’s less than half the average annual rainfall in the U.S., which is mainly temperate.

Lake Mead circa 1950, left, and Lake Mead in June 2021. The surrounding cliffs show the substantial drop in water level. William M. Graham/Archive Photos/Getty Images and Ethan Miller/Getty Images

The 1940s, however, were a time of unusual water abundance on the treaty rivers. When American and Mexican engineers drafted the 1944 water treaty, they did not foresee today’s prolonged megadrought.

Nor did they anticipate the region’s rapid growth. Since 1940 the population of the 10 largest pairs of cities that straddle the U.S.-Mexico border has mushroomed nearly twentyfold, from 560,000 people to some 10 million today.

This growth is powered by a booming, water-dependent manufacturing industry in Mexico that exports products to U.S. markets. Irrigated agriculture, ranching and mining compete with growing cities and expanding industry for scarce water.

Today, there’s simply not enough of it to meet demand in the border areas governed by the 1944 treaty.

Three times since 1992 Mexico has fallen short of its five-year commitment to send 1.75 million acre-feet of water across the border to the U.S. Each acre-foot can supply a U.S. family of four for one year.

In the fall of 2020, crisis erupted in the Rio Grande Valley after years of rising tensions and sustained drought that endanger crops and livestock in both the U.S. and Mexico.

In September 2020, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declared that “Mexico owes Texas a year’s worth of Rio Grande water.” The next month, workers in Mexico released water from a dammed portion of Mexico’s Río Conchos destined to flow across the border to partially repay Mexico’s 345,600-acre-foot water debt to the U.S.

Frustrated farmers and protesters in the Mexican state of Chihuahua clashed with Mexican soldiers sent to protect the workers. A 35-year-old farmer’s wife and mother of three was killed.

Mexico also agreed to transfer its stored water at the Amistad Dam to the U.S., fulfilling its obligation just three days before its October 25, 2020, deadline. That decision satisfied its water debt to the U.S. under the 1944 treaty but jeopardized the supply of more than a million Mexicans living downstream of Amistad Dam in the Mexican states of Coahuila and Tamaulipas.

The U.S. and Mexico pledged to revisit the treaty’s Rio Grande water rules in 2023.

The drought dilemma on the Colorado River is similarly dire. The water level at Lake Mead, a major reservoir for communities in the lower Colorado River Basin, has dropped nearly 70% over 20 years, threatening the water supply of Arizona, California and Nevada.

In 2017, the U.S. and Mexico signed a temporary “shortage-sharing solution.” That agreement, forged under the authority of the 1944 treaty, allowed Mexico to store part of its treaty water in U.S. reservoirs upstream.

The Colorado River Basin. U.S. Geological Survey

Water shortages along the U.S.-Mexico border also threaten the natural environment. As water is channeled to farms and cities, rivers are deprived of the flow necessary to support habitats, fish populations and overall river health.

The 1944 water treaty was silent on conservation. For all its strengths, it simply allocates the water of the Rio Grande and Colorado rivers. It does not contemplate the environmental side of water use.

But the treaty is reasonably elastic, so its members can update it as conditions change. In recent years, conservation organizations and scientists have promoted the environmental and human benefits of restoration. New Colorado River agreements now recognize ecological restoration as part of treaty-based water management.

Environmental projects are underway in the lower Colorado River to help restore the river’s delta, emphasizing native vegetation like willows and cottonwoods. These trees provide habitat for such at-risk birds as the yellow-billed cuckoo and the Yuma clapper rail, and for numerous species that migrate along this desolate stretch of the Pacific Flyway.

Currently, no such environmental improvements are planned for the Rio Grande.

But other lessons learned on the Colorado are now being applied to the Rio Grande. Recently, Mexico and the U.S. created a permanent binational advisory body for the Rio Grande similar to the one established in 2010 to oversee the health and ecology of the Colorado.

Another recent agreement permits each country to monitor the other’s use of Rio Grande water using common diagnostics like Riverware, a dynamic modeling tool for monitoring water storage and flows. Mexico also has agreed to try to use water more efficiently, allowing more of it to flow to the U.S.

Newly created joint teams of experts will study treaty compliance and recommend further changes needed to manage climate-threatened waters along the U.S.-Mexico border sustainably and cooperatively.

Incremental treaty modifications like these could palpably reduce the past year’s tensions and revitalize a landmark U.S.-Mexico treaty that’s buckling under the enormous strain of climate change.

The foregoing was written by Robert Gabriel Varady, research professor of environmental policy at the University of Arizona; Andrea K. Gerlak, professor, School of Geography, Development and Environment, University of Arizona; and Stephen Paul Mumme, professor of political science, Colorado State University.This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.

French family returns 4 pre-Hispanic artifacts to Mexico

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MND Staff

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July 3, 2021

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Foreign Minister Ebrard and the four pieces on display at a ceremony Friday in Paris.

A French family returned four pre-Hispanic clay artifacts to Mexico in a ceremony held Friday in the Mexican Embassy in Paris.

Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, who attended the ceremony, said the figurines, vessel and pipe – which are possibly more than 2,000 years old – will be placed in the care of the National Anthropology Museum in Mexico City.

Three of the pieces are believed to be from western Mexico and one likely originates in the country’s Gulf region, according to Íngrid Arriaga of the Cultural Institute of Mexico in France.

The two human-form figurines probably came from shaft tombs that were used in parts of the country where the modern day states of Jalisco and Nayarit are located.

Arriaga told the news agency AFP that the bulbous vessel returned by the family is typical of artifacts from western Mexico, while a pipe in the form of a zoomorphic figure is typical of the Gulf region, home to the Olmecs, widely regarded as creators of the first civilization in Mesoamerica.

Tres piezas período clásico occidente (Nayari) y otra, más antigua, proveniente del Golfo de México nos fueron restituidas hoy. Avanzamos cada día para dificultar el tráfico ilícito y recuperar nuestro patrimonio histórico y cultural. pic.twitter.com/Qb9CP5YVWO

— Marcelo Ebrard C. (@m_ebrard) July 2, 2021

“Being able to recover these goods is a great thing for us,” Ebrard told a press conference in the French capital.

“We’re making progress every day in making illegal trafficking more difficult and recovering our historical and cultural wealth,” said the foreign minister, who shared a video of the recovered pieces on his Twitter account.

The family who returned the artifacts requested anonymity. The day before they were given back, Mexican and French officials signed an agreement committing to strengthen bilateral cooperation against the illegal trafficking of cultural artifacts.

Mexico has increased efforts in recent years to recover pre-Hispanic artifacts that left Mexico – some of which were looted from archaeological sites – and found their way to private collections, as well as the auction block in some cases. But it has had difficulty recovering pieces from France due to the laws in that country.

The auction house Christies sold 36 of 39 Mesoamerican and Andean artifacts that went on the block in Paris in February, including 30 Mexican pieces. The auction, which raised more than US $3 million, went ahead despite protests by the Mexican government.

With reports from AFP

Coronavirus stoplight risk map remains unchanged

By

MND Staff

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July 3, 2021

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The new map is identical to the previous one.

The federal government announced Friday that the coronavirus stoplight map it published on June 18 would remain in effect for an additional two weeks.

Nineteen states will remain low risk green until at least July 18, eight will stay at the yellow light medium risk level and five will maintain their orange light high risk status.

In the green light category are Aguascalientes, Baja California, Chiapas, Coahuila, Durango, México state, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Hidalgo, Jalisco, Michoacán, Morelos, Nayarit, Oaxaca, Puebla, Querétaro, San Luis Potosí, Tlaxcala and Zacatecas.

The yellow light states are Campeche, Chihuahua, Colima, Mexico City, Nuevo León, Sinaloa, Sonora and Veracruz, while the orange light entities are Baja California Sur, Quintana Roo, Tabasco, Tamaulipas and Yucatán.

Although the lights didn’t change, two states recorded new records.

Two of the orange light states – Quintana Roo and Yucatán – recorded new daily records for coronavirus cases this week, with more than 400 confirmed in the former state on Thursday and over 300 in the latter on Friday. The highly infectious Delta strain of the virus is circulating in both Quintana Roo and Yucatán as well as many other Mexico states, according to health authorities.

Nationwide, the federal Health Ministry reported 5,879 new cases on Friday and 177 additional Covid-19 deaths, pushing the accumulated tally to 2.53 million infections and 233,425 fatalities. New case numbers have trended upwards recently, raising fears that Mexico is in or entering a third wave of the pandemic.

Meanwhile, updated Health Ministry excess mortality data shows that more than 447,000 fatalities are attributable to Covid-19, an increase of almost 130,000 compared to data published in March. The figure is almost double the official death toll.

An analysis published in May by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington School of Medicine showed that more than 617,000 people had likely died from Covid in Mexico.

Reported Covid-19 deaths had decreased every month since February after almost 33,000 were recorded in January – the worst month of the pandemic – but spiked 42.3% in June to 9,479 from 6,661 in May.

The increase occurred despite all seniors already having been given the chance to be vaccinated and the vaccine rollout extending to people in their 40s and 30s last Month.

Just under 32 million people have received at least one shot of a vaccine, of whom 19.7 million are fully vaccinated, according to the most recent Health Ministry data. The former figure represents 38% of the adult population but it doesn’t include Mexicans who have traveled to the United States to get vaccinated.

According to The New York Times vaccinations tracker, Mexico ranks 72nd out of 182 countries listed for doses administered per 100 people. Mexico has given 36 shots per 100, the tracker shows, and 25% of the entire population – adults and children – has received at least one dose.

With reports from Milenio