Leo Burnett's campaign was for portable infrared thermography breast cancer detection booths, where a woman can be examined without being seen or touched.
Two Mexican advertising agencies have won a combined total of nine awards at the Cannes Lion International Festival of Creativity, a global creative communications event.
Leo Burnett México won two Lion awards, or Lions, for its Untouchables advertising campaign, while Publicis México won seven for its #SeguimosHablando (Let’s Keep Talking) campaign.
The former’s campaign was produced for Eva Center, a Mexican startup that developed a method to detect breast cancer through infrared thermography. Leo Burnett won a silver Lion for its campaign in the health and wellness category and a bronze Lion in the outdoor category on the first day of the five-day online event.
Eva Center’s breast cancer detection technology is primarily aimed at women in rural communities, where some men prohibit their wives from attending breast cancer screenings because they don’t want them to be touched or seen topless.
The infrared thermography process avoids both. Eva Center has taken its technology to 80 rural communities across 14 states and detected some 1,500 cases of breast cancer before it was too late.
#SeguimosHablando
One of the award-winning campaigns features this video calling for justice in the cases of murdered journalists.
Publicis México won two gold, two silver and three bronze Lions across four different categories for its #SeguimosHablando campaign, which it made in conjunction with Propuesta Cívica, a civil society organization dedicated to the defense of human rights defenders and journalists.
The multi-platform campaign calls for justice in the cases of murdered journalists in Mexico, one of the most dangerous countries in the world for media professionals. It features spoken and written messages from four slain journalists, including Javier Valdez Cárdenas and Miroslava Breach.
“The campaign seeks to demand justice for all the members of the press who have been murdered and to make this tragedy visible as a first step … [toward] concrete actions to put an end to this problem,” said Publicis Worldwide chief creative officer Diego Wallach, who worked on the campaign.
The #SeguimosHablando campaign, which began in 2019, has also won several other international advertising prizes, including the prestigious Yellow Pencil award.
With nine Lions going to the two Mexican companies on the first two days of the festival, Mexico bettered the result it achieved at the 2019 version of the event, at which five Lions were won by Mexican firms. The festival concludes on Friday.
Tania, left, and Nancy Lezama, two Mexico City sisters who were riding Line 12 when it crashed on May 3. Nancy, 22, died while Tania remains hospitalized.
Lawyers for victims of the May 3 Metro disaster in Mexico City that left 26 people dead will seek significantly larger compensation payments for their clients than what’s being offered.
Cristopher Estupiñán, a lawyer with the Nuevo León law firm Carbino Legal, said he and The Webster Law Firm of Houston, Texas, will seek much larger payouts for their clients. Estupiñán told the newspaper El País that the compensation on offer was a “joke.”
“It’s time for the richest business people to assume their responsibility for the first time in the history of the country,” he said.
From left: Bernarda Salgado, left, mother of victims Tania and Nancy Lezama with Juan Antonio Medina and Cristopher Estupiñán of Carbino Legal and Jason Webster of The Webster Law Firm, which will file a claim against the Metro’s builders in the US.
Carso Infrastructure and Construction, owned by billionaire businessman Carlos Slim, was involved in the construction of Line 12, which opened in 2012.
“We will seek a payment of tens if not hundreds of millions of pesos for each victim of the Line 12 [disaster],” Estupiñán said.
“It’s a joke for the families; don’t come and tell us that 650,000 pesos is comprehensive compensation.”
The lawyer also said that victims’ families have been pressured to sign a document accepting a payment of that size and agreeing not to seek additional compensation. In addition, according to a report by the newspaper El Financiero, the Metro operator told families that if they reveal the conditions of the agreement they could face legal action and penalties themselves.
“… They’re taking advantage of the vulnerability of the victims,” Estupiñán said, adding that the aim of the STC is to ensure that it doesn’t have to make any future compensation payments.
“… What we’re demanding of the construction consortium [which also included French company Alstom and Mexican firm ICA] is for it to assume the civil responsibility of its negligence and to deliver compensation that is fair and consistent with the profits it obtained from this project,” he said.
Carso Infrastructure and Construction, owned by billionaire businessman Carlos Slim, was involved in the construction of Line 12, which opened in 2012.
Carbino Legal and The Webster Law Firm are preparing a civil case against the companies in the United States that is likely to be presented in August after Norwegian company DNV — contracted by the Mexico City government to conduct an independent inquiry into the causes of the crash — has published its final results.
Estupiñán said that legal action is being pursued in the United States because the three companies have offices there. He also said that the U.S. legal system is not susceptible to influence and outside pressure.
“[The United States] has historically handed down punishments without fear and without caring who is responsible,” he said.
Legal action in the United States and Mexico could last years, Estupiñán said, asserting that “a David and Goliath battle” looms. Carbino Legal is set to initiate criminal and administrative action against those responsible for the collapse of the overpass. Miguel Alcalde, a partner with the firm, said he is convinced that the Mexico City government is partially to blame.
“We’re convinced that there was irregular activity on the part of the government because it had the obligation to guarantee that the construction complied with regulations, to carry out certifications, to verify maintenance and to review [the line] continuously,” he told the newspaper Reforma.
“The imperative thing is for the government to be condemned administratively, for officials to be sanctioned,” Alcalde said, adding that those directly responsible for the negligence that caused the overpass to collapse must face criminal penalties.
Victims’ relatives Edgar and Alejandro Lezama listen at a press conference to their lawyers announce their intention to file for greater compensation.
President López Obrador on Wednesday accused lawyers for the victims of seeking to profit from “human pain.”
“…They’re [only] interested in money, they’re trying to extract more,” he told reporters at his regular news conference.
Alcalde countered that his law firm is only seeking justice for the victims and to avoid any similar tragedy in the future.
The president’s discourse is an attempt to intimidate the victims, he said, “because the government is saying that they are establishing how much [compensation] should be given when it’s up to the courts to decide.”
Carbino Legal said in a statement that López Obrador’s remarks were seeking to discredit its work “without any proof.”
“Our intervention in this case is not a question of ‘profit.’ … Rather it’s a campaign for justice and truth that transcends any personal interest. … We have a historical opportunity to achieve true compensation for damage caused by negligent and generalized collusion that exists in public projects in our country.”
For some of the smaller towns in Sinaloa, the coronavirus had a perk: touring the plazas and restaurants of remote hamlets proved an attractive getaway for city dwellers feeling trapped by the pandemic.
But although those towns are making it through the economic challenges, getting to this point was not easy. Just a few years ago, Sinaloa experienced a spike in violence that left small towns reeling.
La Noria is one such town. Located an hour’s drive inland from the port city of Mazatlán, La Noria is now a thriving local tourism destination. Children play as riders trot by on horseback. The houses are brightly painted and the streets are clean. The first impression gives no hint that a few years ago, this was almost a ghost town.
“Ten years ago, the town looked empty. People were moving to the city because there was no more work. Many businesses closed,” said Marisol Lizárraga, president of the nonprofit Ciudadanos de la Noria (Citizens of Noria). “We realized we needed to create confidence among the people who visited us here.”
That confidence would take time to cultivate. There had been various shootings reported in local papers, and unconfirmed reports of a massacre that killed 40 people. It was not considered a safe area.
El Quelite enjoys robust tourism year round.
Sinaloa investigative journalist Sibely Cañedo said the violence was not new. Cartel activity in rural areas had always been accompanied by some violence, but in 2008 a conflict within the Sinaloa Cartel sparked a new, higher level of violence. The Beltrán Leyva Organization split off from the Sinaloa Cartel and the two groups battled for control of the countryside.
“Starting in 2008, the patterns of violence changed. They were spreading terror in the communities and many towns emptied. Many people had to flee from those towns, sometimes due to threats or being directly affected by the violence,” Cañedo said. “People were forced to choose sides … if they did not want problems or be in danger, it was better to leave. So many people lost everything they had.”
Over time, the situation stabilized as the leaders of the Beltrán Leyva gang were captured or killed. The last leader of the cartel, Héctor Beltrán Leyva, was arrested in 2014. At the same time, the perception of public safety among Sinaloa residents was improving. And between 2010 and 2019 crime fell 32% even as it increased in Mexico as a whole, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography.
Cañedo said that although violence is down, that could change at any time.
“There are periods in which things calm down, but then another conflict erupts,” she said.
In La Noria, Lizárraga and others took advantage of a period of calm to create their nonprofit, whose goal is to develop the tourist economy by capitalizing on cultural assets. They decided to organize a Sunday market where local artisans could sell crafts and food.
[wpgmza id=”332″]
There were two challenges to the success of the market, Lizárraga said. First, skepticism of residents as to whether La Noria could attract tourism and second, the area’s bad reputation. They needed “the people of Mazatlán to have confidence in visiting with family, that nothing would happen, that [La Noria] is a calm place,” Lizárraga said.
The market was a success. The tourists came and spent money. Before the pandemic, the town received 400 to 800 visitors on an average Sunday, Lizárraga said. Now, they still receive 300 to 500 visitors on average.
Though international tourism is down, there is still plenty of local tourism, according to leather worker and La Noria town administrator Mario Salas.
“The pandemic has brought us fruit: look at how the people come!” Salas said. “We have had lots of work during this situation with the coronavirus. People wanted to come to small towns to rest, to enjoy fresh air.”
With luck, the stability will last. According to Cañedo, tourism can bring more than economic benefits to small towns. More tourism means less isolation and increased presence of government authorities.
“If we look at the history of violent events, it is not common that they occur in very populated areas and tourist areas. So that is also a strategy of some citizens. They want to increase tourism in their towns because that brings more security,” said Cañedo.
For Copala, the coronavirus has been more devastating than the violence, says one citizen.
The town of El Quelite is perhaps proof of that strategy. Located less than an hour outside Mazatlán, El Quelite enjoys robust year-round local tourism. Visitors flock to its artisan street market and restaurants. It began to establish itself as a tourist destination in the late 1990s, before the cartel violence intensified. It now has the designation of “Majestic Town” (Pueblo Señorial), a step on the way to being a Magical Town, or Pueblo Mágico.
In the 90s, El Quelite was a different place. The roads were unpaved and there were no health services. But as the tourist money began to flow in, the town was able to attract more government interest. The roads were paved, the schools began to receive more resources and the town got a health clinic.
Town administrator David Osuna said that even in the worst years of violence, El Quelite had relatively little conflict.
“It’s logical to think that [criminals] look for something away from development. For example, we are a developed town because we have communications, we have a highway, we have internet. We have certain services that don’t exist up in the mountains. There, it is more isolated,” said Osuna.
With the pandemic, El Quelite has seen a decrease in international tourism, but the economy “hasn’t suffered too much,” said Osuna.
Dr. Marcos Osuna is the owner of El Mesón de los Laureanos, a popular El Quelite restaurant. Along with all other nonessential businesses in Sinaloa, it was closed from the end of March to July 2020. But after that period there was a boom, he said, as visitors sick of being cooped up came from around Sinaloa to visit El Quelite.
However, not every town has benefited from the pandemic boom of local tourism. Before the pandemic, visitors to Copala — many of them international — admired the centuries-old church and sampled the banana pie at Restaurante Alejandro. But since the pandemic began, times have been hard.
“The pandemic completely stopped us,” said Alejandro Rodríguez, owner of Restaurante Alejandro. “Between 2010 and 2013 there was a wave of violence. It affected us to some degree but not entirely because we kept receiving people from cruise ships [in Mazatlán] the whole time. It didn’t affect us as much as the coronavirus. It was even more devastating than the violence.”
But now, the cruises have stopped and so has the international tourism they brought.
Mazatlán tour guide Eduardo Sánchez frequently took groups of international tourists to Copala. He said it began to be a popular destination in the 1990s, due to its deep history and culture. But now, he said, many longstanding businesses have closed and he does not know if they will come back.
“What will happen with the places that have closed? With people who have been in one place for more than 100 years? Nobody can replace them. The stories they tell, how they make their products, people who know how to attend to tourists … I don’t know what the impact will be with these changes,” Sánchez said.
For now, the town is making do. Some residents have found employment with a nearby mining operation. Others continue to work in tourism. On one recent Sunday, there were nearly 100 weekend visitors, Rodríguez said.
“The plaza looked beautiful, full of cars and families enjoying a moment of peace here in the town.” Rodríguez said.
With the coronavirus on the decline and the violence in check, perhaps more visitors will follow.
Traffic halted by thieves on the Arco Norte Wednesday.
Around 40 drivers were assaulted and robbed on the Arco Norte highway near Mexico City on Wednesday morning after thieves brought traffic to a standstill by placing rocks on the road.
At least 15 people with high-caliber weapons passed from one stationary vehicle to the next, taking the belongings from those inside.
An earlier collision had slowed traffic, enabling the criminals to block the road. The mass robbery took place at kilometer 215 of the highway between Texmelucan, Puebla, and Sanctórum, Tlaxcala, close to the Puebla state border.
Some drivers saw the assailants coming, but were trapped in the traffic and had to accept their fate. The thieves smashed the windows of other drivers who locked their vehicles or raised their windows.
Vehicles transporting goods were ransacked and the loot was loaded onto pickup trucks.
After the robbery, drivers arrived at a nearby toll plaza with no money to pay and reported the incident. National Guard officers arrived at the scene, but the criminals fled on foot and none was caught.
Puebla Governor Luis Miguel Barbosa said he would look to set up a commission with federal authorities and the government of neighboring Tlaxcala to avoid theft on the highway.
Robberies on the Arco Norte have occurred before. On March 15, at kilometer 205, in a strikingly similar incident, around 15 armed and hooded men robbed motorists after traffic was halted by a crash.
'What sense would it have [to spy on them] ... if we already know they're against us,' AMLO said in response to the accusations at his Thursday press conference.
The federal government is spying on journalists who are critical of it as a means to intimidate them, say some media professionals, but President López Obrador denies the accusation.
A report published Thursday by the newspaper El Universal cites journalists, columnists and human rights defenders who say the government is targeting journalists who maintain critical positions against “the fourth transformation,” the self-anointed nickname of López Obrador’s administration.
“In interviews, they regarded espionage against communicators as regrettable, serious and worrying and charged that just as the fourth transformation has used government institutions against politicians, it is now doing so against journalists,” the newspaper said.
Those interviewed by El Universal also condemned the president’s discourse, in which he denies any government espionage and says that he is different. “However, in practice, he’s the complete opposite, and he does the same thing against journalists who are uncomfortable for his administration that previous governments and presidents did,” the paper said.
Deputy Secretary Minister Ricardo Mejía Berdeja is suspected by journalists of having spied on them. “He operates at the limits of what’s legal and what’s illegal,” said Francisco Rivas, director of the National Citizens Observatory.
Writing in the newspaper El Financiero, political columnist Raymundo Riva Palacio asserted that the National Intelligence Center (CNI) has been asked to investigate El Universal journalists, including Carlos Loret, Héctor de Mauleón, Mario Maldonado and Salvador García Soto because their columns and articles criticized the federal government.
“More than diminishing journalistic work, [the government] is seeking to intimidate; they’re trying to frighten [journalists], intimidate [them],” García Soto told El Universal.
In the article, De Mauleón said espionage against journalists is unacceptable, especially given that government officials have publicly rejected authoritarian practices, censorship and violations of freedom of speech. He charged that the head of the CNI, Audomaro Martínez, and Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval have both ordered spying on journalists.
In April, the newspaper El País reported that during the past two years, the federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) has spent millions of dollars on software to conduct cell phone and internet espionage on a massive scale. The previous government also purchased spyware that it used to attempt to spy on journalists, human rights defenders and other government critics.
“What the [current] federal government is doing, spying on journalists, is a crime; it’s an issue related to freedom of speech and democracy because if there is no freedom of speech, there is no democracy. I think it’s terrible, worrying,” Maldonado told El Universal.
“The worst thing about all this is that a government that starts to harass journalists ends up turning into a dictatorial government,” said El Universal columnist Luis Cárdenas.
Luis Cárdenas, another El Universal columnist and radio presenter on the station MVS Noticias, said government espionage against journalists amounts to a campaign of harassment.
“The worst thing about all this is that a government that starts to harass journalists ends up turning into a dictatorial government,” he said. “We have an example very close by, and it’s the example of Nicaragua. I don’t know if the ideal of President López Obrador is to become an imitation of [Nicaraguan President] Daniel Ortega or [Venezuelan President] Nicolás Maduro and for everyone to become a mere clapping seal of his fourth transformation,” he said.
José Antonio Crespo, a political scientist and columnist for El Universal, said he was unsurprised by the claims of spying because López Obrador regularly rails against journalists critical of him at his morning press conferences. The president can’t bear criticism, he added.
Jan-Albert Hootsen, Mexico representative of the Committee to Protect Journalists, told El Universal that if it is proven that “there are effectively espionage operations directed toward columnists and other journalists, it would be quite a serious issue and something that must be investigated transparently and exhaustively.”
“President López Obrador promised that this wouldn’t occur in his government; he must keep that promise,” he added.
El Financiero columnist Raymundo Riva Palacio said the National Intelligence Center has been asked to investigate El Universal journalists.
María Elena Morera, president of Causa en Común, a government watchdog, said it was “absurd and immoral” that the government is spying on journalists at a time when the country is plagued by high levels of violent crime.
Francisco Rivas, director of the National Citizens Observatory, a crime watch group, called on the FGR to investigate.
He described Mejía, the deputy security minister, as someone to be feared because “he operates at the limits of what’s legal and what’s illegal.”
López Obrador on Thursday categorically rejected the espionage claims published in El Universal.
“It makes no sense to think that we’re going to be spying [on journalists], it’s false,” he told reporters, adding that investigating the claims is pointless.
“… This newspaper [El Universal] is dedicated to defaming; it’s the underworld of journalism,” López Obrador said.
Former president Enrique Peña Nieto’s government purchased spyware to spy on journalists, human rights defenders and other government critics.
“… Why would we spy on them if they [journalists] are predictable? … We have principles, we have ideals; we’re not like them or their bosses. … We’re not going to spy on anyone; we’ve never done it. What sense would it have [to spy on them] … if we already know they’re against us,” he said.
The president’s communications coordinator also rejected the espionage claims.
“The federal government doesn’t spy on anyone from the press or the opposition. There is no political espionage in this government,” Jesús Ramírez said. “Not military intelligence nor the Public Security Ministry or the CNI; nobody spies in this government.”
One of two bodies left hanging beneath an overpass Wednesday morning.
Two police officers were killed and their bodies hung from an overpass and seven more people were massacred by gunfire in Zacatecas Wednesday.
The police officers, who were from the neighboring state of San Luis Potosí, had been reported missing but were later found hanging from a highway overpass alongside a narco banner in Zacatecas city.
In Fresnillo, about 60 kilometers north of the state capital, an armed group entered a home and killed four women and three men. Another male and female were wounded and taken to hospital, and five children were found unharmed in a separate room.
San Luis Potosí Interior Minister Jorge Daniel Hernández Delgadillo explained the context of violence in the area. “In this area, particularly near the border with Zacatecas, there is a struggle for the control of the narcotics trade. The most prominent criminal groups do their most deplorable acts in this area,” he said.
The Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CNJG) and the Sinaloa Cartel are engaged in a territorial battle over the state.
Senator Ricardo Monreal, who is from Fresnillo, has urged Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez to strengthen law enforcement. “For years insecurity has been on the rise in Zacatecas, as recent events have proven. Today I contacted the federal Minister of Security to request support in the state … I will discuss it with president @lopezobrador_,” he wrote on Twitter.
The killings are not an isolated case: on Saturday three bodies were found hanging from a bridge in Fresnillo.
In February, Zacatecas Governor Alejandro Tello asked the federal government for support, arguing that the cartels overpowered security forces in terms of manpower and weapons.
Ninety-five percent of residents in Fresnillo consider the municipality to be unsafe — the highest proportion in the country — according to a survey published by the statistics agency Inegi in April.
The president has come up with another strategy to alter energy regulations to favour state-run companies.
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. President López Obrador has taken that old adage to heart. His government spent most of last year trying to alter energy regulations to favour his cherished state-run oil and energy national champions and undo a landmark 2013 reform.
When those efforts were suspended in the courts, he attempted legislative changes this year. Predictably, those, too, ran into legal challenges.
His latest attempt has come via the modification of foreign trade and customs rules. Experts say the maneuver will limit the import and export of hydrocarbons in defiance of Mexico’s constitution, U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement and WTO rules, undermine Mexico’s competitiveness and hurt major players like Chevron, Shell and ExxonMobil.
The measure was quietly published in the official gazette, the record of legal government notices, earlier this month. It means firms other than so-called state productive enterprises — namely oil company Pemex and electricity utility CFE — will lose the flexibility to import and export hydrocarbons in different parts of the country.
Previously, companies such as Chevron that operate fuel-storage terminals or other infrastructure could import the hydrocarbons and clear customs at their facilities rather than having to use official customs posts.
However, now only state enterprises will be allowed to import or export hydrocarbons through such alternative locations.
AMEXHI, the Mexican hydrocarbons association, had no immediate comment. The move will restrict companies to ports, border crossings and other official customs posts, said Christopher Ávila, vice-president of the hydrocarbons commission at Coparmex, the employers’ confederation.
“This affects storage capacity and competitiveness, especially for oil products,” he said, and gives Pemex an “excessive and undue” competitive advantage.
Eduardo Pérez Motta, a former head of Mexico’s antitrust authority, went even further:
“This is a totally discriminatory decision, it’s uncompetitive,” he said.
López Obrador has made strengthening Pemex and the CFE the cornerstone of his energy policy and wants to halt oil exports in order to focus on domestic refining to achieve his goal of fuel self-sufficiency. He has promised he will not increase fuel prices, which are widely watched by consumers.
But the move — which will probably face legal challenges — creates uncertainty as to the operation of fuel storage terminals and other infrastructure, noted Campa & Mendoza, a law firm.
“Given that only Pemex may be granted these authorizations, are we facing a ‘forced sale’ of assets in favor of the state productive enterprise? With respect to new authorizations, the new rules may affect exploration and production projects that require the LDA [a special export permit] to export crude oil or natural gas directly from its offshore facilities,” it said.
One source in the hydrocarbons industry who asked not to be named said:
“It looks like a duck, it walks like a duck and sounds the same as other measures designed to use decrees to restore to Pemex what for decades it has failed to achieve … the ability to continue to compete under norms and industry rules … There are companies who are considering challenging this disposition through injunctions.”
As well as injunctions, firms could consider investor-state or state-to-state dispute proceedings under the USMCA. The move could be challenged under WTO rules on the grounds that the new measures constitute a barrier to trade, Ávila said.
We shall see whether the rule survives — or if the courts send López Obrador back to the drawing board once again.
Jorge Gutiérrez helps a rider navigate a creek. All photos by Joseph Sorrentino
I swore I was done with horses after riding one for 16 long, exhausting hours during the pilgrimage to Amatlán in 2019.
I went on that pilgrimage as part of my project to document a year’s worth of pilgrimages, ceremonies and other events in San Gregorio Atlapulco, a neighborhood in the borough of Xochimilco in Mexico City. It was supposed to take a group of eight of us around seven hours to reach Amatlán — a significant enough trek — but we got lost four times in the mountains and lost again in a couple of small pueblos as thunderclouds threatened. The unenjoyable ride took 24 hours, and when I finally dismounted, every part of my body ached.
I know the cliché about getting back on the horse, but the thought of actually doing it brought back some rather unpleasant memories.
Then I met Ignacio Aguilar Gómez, who owns Haras Atlixco, which advertises “Ecotourism by Horse.” Despite my misgivings, I decided to, well, get back on the horse when he invited me to take a ride. I’m glad I did.
Haras Atlixco is located in Valle de Atlixco, about a 20-minute drive from the center of Atlixco. José Ignacio Aguilar Fernández, Aguilar’s son and the site’s manager, served as my tour guide.
José Ignacio Aguilar gives instructions to a guest.
The property is a 150-acre hacienda, built by the family in the 1800s. Part of the original construction, which originally had cattle and a dairy, has been kept, including the main house, the dairy, horse sheds and a small chapel.
“My father started the ecotourism site about 10 years ago,” said Aguilar. Three or four acres on the property are set aside specifically for ecotourism. “Ecotourism is where there are no large cities. It is in the rural areas, to be in contact with nature … It is something different from what people are used to.”
They offer three ecotourism packets. The shortest, at 500 pesos , lasts an hour. The two-hour ride costs 600 and the longest, 2 1/4 hours, is 700 pesos (about US $35).
“It is a ride with a guide who takes care of the people for the entire time,” Aguilar said. “The maximum number is 10 people, the minimum is two, but if one person shows up, we will take them but charge a little extra.” It’s best to make a reservation at least a day in advance.
Anyone not familiar with riding horses is given basic instructions that last around 20 minutes. If a person wants to ride but is still wary, “We can use a rope to guide the horse,” he said.
Before getting on our horses, he gave me a tour of the hacienda.
The dairy still is a working one, and the sheds house 50 or 60 horses (they also board them). They also have some huge greenhouses.
“We grow tomatoes that we sell to the United States,” he explained. “We also have campgrounds that people can rent and a place that if someone wants to have a large fiesta, we can do that. If it is just a couple who want to come and enjoy the hacienda, we can do that. People can come and just have a picnic.”
Our final stop was the chapel. Given my previous experience with riding a horse, I thought about saying a quick little prayer there, but the door was locked; I wasn’t sure if that was a bad sign.
I must have looked a little concerned because he assured me I’d be all right. “We make sure the horses are ready to ride safely and without any problems,” he said.
We headed out on the two-hour ride with four other people, including Jorge Gutiérrez, a friend of Aguilar’s who sometimes works as a guide.
We rode through rows of greenhouses, the plants inside heavy with tomatoes, and when we left the property, we crossed a two-lane road — with Aguilar and Gutiérrez making sure everyone got across safely — and through a collection of small houses. Then the land opened up.
Employees enjoy a break at the Atlixco, Puebla, ecotourism ranch.
Hills rose in the distance and, initially, everything was brown. But then we entered a lush, green meadow where a stream ran swiftly on one side. Butterflies flitted among the flowers and small plots of corn. We passed two small waterfalls and trees with huge, beautiful, exposed roots. Along the way, Aguilar and Gutiérrez often burst into song, clearly happy to be on the trail again. They had surprisingly good voices.
Gutiérrez stuck close to me as I (mostly) brought up the rear. I must have still looked a little apprehensive because he told me, “We have never had a problem, no injuries.” I silently vowed to make sure I wasn’t the first and am happy to say that I wasn’t.
On the return trip, we could see in the distance what most people believe is an unexcavated pyramid with a small chapel on top. It’s located at the edge of Atlixco.
We made it back to the hacienda after almost 2 1/2 hours in the saddle. I admit to feeling a little sore, but a delicious meal — Aguilar said it’s the best barbacoa around — and a cold beer took care of that.
Currently, there’s no restaurant on site, and if a group wants food it’s ordered from nearby restaurants. There are plans to build a restaurant and some cabañas.
Like virtually everything else, Haras Atlixco has been affected by Covid.
“At the beginning of the pandemic, we had strict restrictions,” Aguilar said. “People had to wear masks. Now, things have loosened a little, and when we are outside riding, it is not necessary to use a mask. With things closed [due to the pandemic], people looked for something different. They looked for alternatives, and many of them looked for this.”
I took a taxi to the site, and the driver used GPS, which is usually accurate, but we ended up on a narrow dirt road, at the end of which was a locked gate. The GPS indicated a seven-minute walk to the hacienda, so I got out and started walking until a young man told me it was private property. He vaguely pointed in the direction where he said Haras Atlixco was located, saying it was a 15-minute walk.
I returned to the main road. and when I saw two workers, I asked them if they knew where Haras Atlixco was.
“Señor,” I was told, ”I know this area well. There is no such place. There is nothing here.”
There always seems to be an adventure within an adventure for me. Fortunately, I was able to call Aguilar, who showed up on an ATV.
If you’re considering a visit, it’s probably best to call for clear directions.
Haras Atlixco is located in Prados el León, 74360 Atlixco, Puebla. The phone number is 222-199-4328. Or you can contact them via their Facebook page.
The state attorney general confirmed that Claudia Uruchurtu would not be found alive.
The British-Mexican activist who disappeared in Oaxaca on March 26 was murdered, state officials said.
Claudia Uruchurtu, 48, went missing after a protest outside government headquarters in the Mixteca municipality of Asunción Nochixtlán, where people had gathered after a local resident was beaten. According to Uruchurtu’s relatives, witnesses saw her being grabbed and pushed into a car.
State Attorney General Arturo Peimbert Calvo confirmed that the woman would not be found alive. “She was killed. The victim of an extrajudicial execution, after being a victim of forced disappearance … we are only looking for the body,” he said.
The Attorney General’s Office has formally connected the former mayor of Asunción Nochixtlán, Lizbeth Victoria Huerta, to the crime along with three other members of her administration. Another six arrest warrants have been issued.
Oaxaca police detained Huerta and two other government officials on May 7 for their alleged connection to the kidnapping.
Much of Uruchurtu’s activism centered on denouncing acts of corruption and political repression of the Huerta administration, relating to nepotism and lavish personal spending. “She became a very inconvenient person for the mayor,” Uruchurtu’s family said.
The Attorney General added that officials were confident justice would be done. “A lot of progress has been made. We have practically identified all the intellectual and material participants in the crime, and we have detained those who are likely responsible, but it will be up to the judges to adjudicate responsibly on this issue that has hurt the community so badly,” he said.
Uruchurtu’s family had pressured authorities to investigate her disappearance, lobbying the British foreign ministry, the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights for justice. The family said Uruchurtu had denounced Huerta before state authorities for embezzlement of public resources before her disappearance.
The protest on March 26 from which Uruchurtu disappeared started after a businessman went to the mayor’s office to demand a bill owed to him by the local government, when he was beaten and suffered a skull fracture.
Three international organizations launched an online platform on Tuesday to aid the identification of human remains found in Mexico.
The Mexico Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the Mexico and Central America delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the German development agency GIZ launched the website identificaciónhumana.mx (Human Identification).
“In Mexico there is a forensic emergency recognized by the authorities themselves. One of the main difficulties in combatting it is the lack of a technical consensus in human identification practices,” the organizations said in a statement.
In that context, the organizations said they joined forces to create a digital platform that “seeks to promote a technical and multidisciplinary discussion … [aimed at] the mass identification of unidentified deceased people.
The Spanish language website includes detailed information about the process to recover and identify bodies, which are often found in mass graves in Mexico.
Written by academics and forensic activists, the information seeks to “document best practices in matters of forensic identification to reduce delays and provide certainty to families,” the organizations said.
Finding and identifying missing persons is “a daily challenge that requires effective and coordinated search mechanisms as well as high-quality forensic processes that make provision for the participation of families,” they said.
“… The serious challenge Mexico faces in forensic matters requires appropriate collaboration between institutions involved in the search for [missing] people as well as the participation of experts, academia, collectives and families,” the organizations said, adding that sufficient human, material and economic resources are also needed.
While the creation of a website that provides advice about the body identification process appears on the surface to be positive news, the fact that it is needed is evidence of just how dire the situation in Mexico is in terms of the accumulation of unidentified corpses. That such a site is required also amounts to a damning assessment of Mexican forensic authorities, who have failed to identify tens of thousands of bodies found in recent years.
“There are currently about 39,000 unidentified bodies in forensic medical services [morgues] or buried anonymously in public cemeteries in the 32 states,” the international organizations said.
“The figure of 39,000 unidentified deceased people should be sufficient reason to critically review the functioning of the forensic system,” said Maximilian Murck, director of a GIZ project aimed at strengthening the rule of law in Mexico.
“One of the main rule of law tasks in Mexico is to draw up and implement pragmatic solutions for mass human identification,” he said.
Missing people’s rights – including their right to an identity – must be guaranteed by the state, said OHCHR Mexico representative Guillermo Fernández-Maldonado.
However, authorities in a majority of Mexican states don’t have the capacity to identify all of the deceased bodies in their morgues, Spanish newspaper ABC said in a report. Homicide numbers increased significantly after former president Felipe Calderón launched a militarized war on drug cartels in late 2006 and continued to rise during the governments led by Enrique Peña Nieto and Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
The international organizations noted that there are more than 80,000 missing persons in Mexico, adding that it can be assumed that the bodies of many of those people are among the 39,000 unidentified corpses.
They said they were hopeful that the information contained on their new website “will be useful for the different actors that participate in the search and identification of people.”
