The bus that was carrying pilgrims from a visit to Tila.
Nine people were killed and 28 others were injured in a bus accident early Friday in northeastern Chiapas.
The victims were pilgrims from Tabasco who on Thursday visited a church in the municipality of Tila, Chiapas, where El Señor de Tila – a revered representation of Jesus Christ – is housed.
Chiapas Civil Protection authorities said that a bus overturned at about 5:30 a.m. Friday near Belisario Domínguez, a community in Tila, which borders Tabasco. The driver lost control of the vehicle as he rounded a curve on a wet road. The passengers were on their way home.
Three of the 28 people injured were said to be in critical condition and were receiving treatment in a Tila hospital. Locals and motorists offered initial assistance to the bus passengers before emergency services arrived.
Groups of pilgrims commonly travel to important religious sites by bus. Seven people, including three children, were killed in a bus accident while on a pilgrimage in Oaxaca in April, while 19 pilgrims were killed in a crash in southern México state last November.
Bireki at Zacango Ecological Park in México state. Twitter / @FillatNapo
Thirty-year-old Bireki, the first Asian elephant to be born and raised in captivity in Mexico, left the Zacango Ecological Park for her new, permanent home in the Ostok Animal Protection & Sanctuary on Thursday.
Rescued from a Veracruz circus in 2014, Bireki has spent the last nine years at the Zacango Park being looked after by staff as part of their Bienestar Animal (Animal Wellbeing) program. There, her health, weight, and diet were managed to ensure she fully recovered from her years as a circus elephant in captivity.
“She arrived at the Parque Ecológico Zacango nine years ago, from that moment on I just want to say thank you to all of the staff at the park for all their love and care for this elephant,” said the director of México state’s Commission for Natural Parks and Wildlife (Cepanaf), Napoleón Fillat Ordóñez.
Bireki’s new home, the Ostok Sanctuary in Culiacán, Sinaloa, is a 21-hectare reserve where resident animals live in an environment as close to their natural one as possible, with minimal human contact, except in cases where they need special care. The sanctuary has taken in 400 animals endangered because of loss of natural habitat or rescued from illegal trafficking or other abusive situations. Some of these animals have been rehabilitated and released back into the wild, while others have been able to live out their days in safety at the sanctuary.
El nuevo hogar de Bireki 🏠🐘
🐘La elefanta asiática de nombre Bireki nació en un circo hace 31 años. Fue la primera de sus especie en nacer en territorio mexicano. pic.twitter.com/7PBp2H3UtG
Bireki, the first Mexican-born Asian elephant, as a baby.
Last July, Ostok received “Big Boy” at their facilities, now one of their most famous residents. Another Asian elephant, Big Boy was owned by a circus for 30 years and found chained in Jalisco in 2021, following a law that was passed in 2015 outlawing the use of animals in the circus. Asian elephants are considered endangered across the globe, due to loss of habitat and the continued threat of poaching.
When Bireki arrives in Culiacán, she will be quarantined for 45 days in the same temporarily shelter that housed Big Boy upon his arrival. There she will be monitored to see how she adapts to the climate. Once given the OK, she will meet her new neighbor Big Boy on the grounds of the sanctuary.
Mauricio Merino Huerta, director of the University of Guadalajara's anti-corruption research institute. YouTube screenshot / IIRCCC
Mexico has the tools needed to combat corruption but isn’t using them, according to a University of Guadalajara (UDG) academic.
Mauricio Merino Huerta, director of the UDG’s Accountability and Corruption Fighting Research Institute (IIRCCC), compared the National Anti-Corruption System (SNA) and anti-corruption laws to a plane that isn’t used, a topical comparison given that President López Obrador – who styles himself as Mexico’s chief corruption fighter – refuses to use the presidential plane but has been unable to sell it.
“We have a very good institutional design, a good instrument to combat the phenomenon of corruption but it isn’t used. We have a parked plane that isn’t being used,” Merino told the newspaper El Universal.
Established by the 2012-18 government led by former president Enrique Peña Nieto, the SNA consists of a range of a range of different institutions, among which are the Ministry of Public Administration, the National Institute of Transparency, the Federal Auditor’s Office and the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office. The system is coordinated by an executive secretariat, which López Obrador hopes to abolish.
The SNA was founded in 2016, during the Peña Nieto administration. Network for Integrity
Merino said that an IIRCCC study found that the SNA institutions have shirked their corruption-fighting roles since the system was established in 2015. López Obrador – who has been criticized for showing little interest in the SNA – is not to blame, the academic said, asserting that procrastination is an entrenched problem in Mexico’s political system.
“The SNA was promulgated in the six-year term of Enrique Peña Nieto, but it wasn’t completed and to put it bluntly there was an open boycott of the system from the Peña Nieto government, while the López Obrador government has spurned it,” Merino said. “… The combined result is that [the SNA institutions] have not fulfilled their mandates,” he said.
Merino said the government’s claim that it has put an end to impunity for corruption isn’t backed up by data. In 2020, the IIRCCC found that only nine of over 30,000 probes into presumed acts of corruption had progressed to the next stage of investigation.
Merino also raised concerns about transfers of over 30 billion pesos (US $1.46 billion) to military trusts. “They should give a clear account [about the money] given that they’ve criticized [public] trusts so much,” he said.
Former Pemex CEO Emilio Lozoya and ex-cabinet minister Rosario Robles are two high-profile functionaries accused of corruption. Both are currently in pre-trial detention.
“That’s something else. We think that it’s necessary and correct to punish those who commit acts of corruption, without a doubt, but the problem is systemic, it’s the system as a whole that’s … [corrupted]. An antidote was designed for that, which is the SNA. The plane is on the runway but it doesn’t have a pilot,” he said.
Merino, a political scientist and sociologist who has worked at universities in Mexico and abroad, told El Universal that the IIRCCC study determined that many of the officials employed at SNA institutions were not appointed on merit. Rather, people were given positions because of their political views, their links to political parties or their personal friendships, he said. Resources assigned to the institutions are used discretionally for political purposes, Merino added.
The 2021-22 edition of the Latin America Anti-Corruption Assessment, completed by the New York City Bar Association’s Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice, also stated that the fight against corruption is being used for political purposes. However, Mexico’s overall anti-corruption score did improve slightly, rising to 5.64 out of 10 compared to 5.51 a year earlier.
López Obrador has a much higher opinion of his administration’s anti-corruption efforts, and even declared less than a year after taking office that there is “zero corruption” in the federal government as a result of his dedication to “sweeping away” what had developed over the past 30 years.
He gave a more sober assessment this week, telling reporters at his regular news conference on Wednesday that his government continues to combat corruption “poco a poco,” or bit by bit. The president made an embarrassing slip of the tongue at the same conference, asserting that “a government without corruption is completely useless,” before correcting himself when a reporter questioned him about his remark.
Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard at the Mexican Olympic Committee offices in Mexico City on Thursday. Facebook / Marcelo Ebrard
Mexico’s Olympic Committee and its Ministry of Foreign Affairs have signed an agreement to promote Mexican athletics that they hope will lead to Mexico hosting the 2036 Summer Olympics, Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard announced Thursday.
“Let’s make a plan so that we can take it to the president of the republic, and if he authorizes it, then we will start working with all Mexican authorities so that we have the Olympic Games in Mexico in 2036,” he said in a ceremony held in Plaza Olímpica outside the Olympic Committee’s offices in Mexico City.
The last time Mexico hosted the Olympics was in 1968 when, after failed bids to land the 1956 and 1960 games, Mexico City played host to the XIX Olympiad from October 12 to 27.
Those games were notable for a number of reasons— from the Mexican army’s October 2 massacre of 200 to 400 unarmed students who were protesting the upcoming Olympics to U.S. medal-winners Tommie Smith and John Carlos raising their fists on the victory stand in a salute to Black power to American Bob Beamon leaping 8.9 meters in the long jump for an Olympic record that still stands 54 years later.
The Mexican military detains protesters at what came to be known as the Tlatelolco massacre of 1968.
Beamon’s jump, which broke the previous record by a whopping 55 centimeters, and other track and field events were affected by Mexico City being situated 2,240 meters above sea level; no other Summer Olympics before or since has been held at such a high elevation.
As Ebrard spoke glowingly about the prospect of Mexico hosting its second Olympics, he was flanked by several elite Mexican athletes, including past Olympic medalists. He pointed to their “spirit” and “conviction” as a driving force behind his efforts.
Toward the end of his remarks, Ebrard proclaimed, “If we could bring another Olympics to Mexico, why not?”
Later on Twitter, he added: “If President López Obrador authorizes it, we will begin.”
En el Comité Olímpico Mexicano me preguntan ¿ Y si hacemos otra Olimpiada en nuestro país ? Les respondo ¿porqué no? Sí podemos. Si autoriza el Presidente López Obrador,empezamos. pic.twitter.com/CSzVKlo20y
On Facebook, he wrote: “Thanks to the effort of teams, athletes, coaches, trainers, all the people who dedicate their lives to their disciplines, Mexico has an outstanding role in international sport. Let’s go for more!”
The agreement was signed by Ebrard and Mexican Olympic Committee president Mary José Alcalá, a former world-class diver who had top-10 finishes in the Summer Games of 1988 in Seoul and 1992 in Barcelona. “We are your allies,” Alcalá, 50, stated.
The agreement is not a game plan for Mexico to pursue hosting the Olympics. Rather, it’s a pact that will promote and develop athletic endeavors within Mexico as well as provide support to athletes, coaches, directors and staff of Mexico’s sports federations and delegations when they compete throughout the world.
“This agreement is sports diplomacy, which means facilitating and supporting Mexican athletes” at home and on the international stage, Ebrard said. “Make life easier for them and promote the presence of Mexican sports in all spaces, in all sports competitions that we can.”
He also took a few seconds to address skeptics who said his talk of the Olympics is a political stunt, as Ebrard, who was appointed foreign minister by López Obrador in 2018, might be a candidate for president in 2024. His goal is one that transcends politics, he said, adding, “It’s going to take us 20 years. There’s going to be a lot of elections” in that time span.
The last Summer Olympics were held in 2021 in Tokyo, one year after their original dates because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2024 Summer Games will be in Paris, followed by 2028 in Los Angeles and 2032 in Brisbane, Australia. Ebrard said he was open to Mexico hosting in either 2036 or 2040.
“Time is not that important. We are not thinking about it for a short-term benefit, but for Mexico to be on the international scene,” he said. “It would be an honor for Mexico to be the venue again.”
Modern day pirates have carried out another heist in the Gulf of Mexico.
On Tuesday night, a group of 10 armed thieves stole equipment, tools, materials and other items from a Campeche Bay oil platform owned by the state oil company Pemex.
According to a Milenio newspaper report that cited platform workers, hooded thieves dressed in military-style attire arrived at the offshore pumping complex in three vessels at approximately 7 p.m.
They boarded the platform and subdued workers from Pemex and oil services company Grupo Evya. The thieves subsequently forced the workers to load valuables onto their boats. The plunder was completed in approximately three hours.
The crime was reported to the navy’s maritime traffic control center at 10:20 p.m. – about 20 minutes after the heist had ended. There were no reports of injuries.
The robbery came a month after a group of five pirates attacked a vessel in the Gulf of Mexico owned by the company Protexa. The thieves got away with equipment, tools and personal items worth more than 1.5 million pesos (US $73,000).
In January, thieves stole self-contained breathing apparatuses, radios and tools from a Campeche Bay oil rig in a 1.25-million-peso heist.
Pirate attacks on oil platforms and vessels in the Gulf of Mexico are relatively common. Some Pemex oil rig workers have said they’re afraid they could be killed while working and living offshore.
A 2020 study detailed the modus operandi of pirates who operate in the Gulf of Mexico. It said that pirates armed with guns, machetes and knives operate in groups of up to 15 to carry out attacks, usually at night. They use small boats with powerful motors to reach oil and gas platforms before stealing equipment and money from crew members. Pirates often carry radios tuned to navy bands to avoid detection.
The study also found that the response by the Mexican navy is usually slow, with vessels taking up to seven hours to reach the crime scene, giving pirates plenty of time to escape.
Firefighters put out a car fire caused by an armed gang sowing terror in San Cristobal de las Casas on Tuesday over control of extortion territory.
Crime groups control or are seeking to control public markets, commercial districts and the distribution of basic foodstuffs across much of Mexico — and in many cases, they’re willing to use violence to achieve their goals.
The tactics used by organized crime have come into sharp focus this week due to events in Guerrero and Chiapas, but the happenings there are preceded by similarly distressing occurrences in other states.
In Chilpancingo, a string of murders of people who worked in the poultry industry – including distributors of fresh chicken to markets – shut down most chicken stalls at the city’s markets this week. Meanwhile, a dispute over control of the largest market in San Cristóbal de las Casas triggered a frightening show of force from one crime group on Tuesday.
Organized crime’s desire to make money via extortion and broader criminal control of markets, commercial districts and food supply chains is far from unique to those cities. Extortion is a problem in most states, and business owners who don’t comply with criminals’ demands run the risk of paying for their decisions with their lives.
María del Carmen Ruiz Hernández, small business leader in Xalapa, Veracruz, was shot and killed in 2019, a crime attributed to organized crime groups operating protection rackets.
Cuauhtémoc Rivera, president of the national small business association ANPEC, told the newspaper Milenio that the only states where crime is not a significant problem in markets and other shopping areas are Yucatán, Aguascalientes and Querétaro. In much of the country, an increase in extortion demands and general insecurity has put businesses “against the wall,” he said.
Official data shows that México state has the worst extortion problem in the country, with almost 1,400 reported cases in the first four months of the year. The other states in the top five for extortion between January and April were Nuevo León, Guanajuato, Jalisco and Zacatecas. However, many such cases – if not the majority – go unreported.
In Guanajuato, 32 people have been killed in the businesses where they worked so far this year, according to Milenio. All but three of the attacks occurred in Celaya, a city where extortion has long been a problem. Among the businesses where the murders have occurred are auto repair shops, butchers, florists and market stalls. Most recently, the organizer of a tianguis, or outdoor market, was shot dead. Milenio also reported that decapitated human heads have been left outside public markets in Celaya on at least two occasions this year.
In Veracruz, four vendors of food products have been murdered this year. Two of the victims were butchers in Coatzacoalcos who were apparently killed for refusing to make extortion payments. Two female fruit and vegetable vendors were murdered in Cosoleacaque for the same reason last November. Milenio reported that the failure to make extortion payments has also led to businesses being set on fire and homes being shot at in the Gulf coast state. Violence related to the refusal to pay extortion has been a problem in Veracruz for years.
In southern México state, criminal groups have controlled the distribution and sale of products such as chicken, eggs, tortillas, cigarettes and construction materials for years, according to residents who spoke with Milenio. Residents of Sultepec, a municipality on the border with Guerrero, say that the prices for many products are high because criminals monopolize the market.
Extortion is also a major problem in the metropolitan area of Toluca, the México state capital, where fresh chicken shops have been one of the main targets. Four chicken and egg vendors at the city’s main wholesale market were murdered in 2020 for failing to make extortion payments.
In neighboring Guerrero, former bishop Salvador Rangel Mendoza said late last year that the distribution of beer and soft drinks was among the activities of crime groups. Earlier this month, violence and threats from organized crime forced tortilla shops, schools and public transport to shut down in Zihuatanejo, a Guerrero resort town.
Rivera said that crime groups control markets for certain products in the cities of Acapulco, Chilpancingo and Taxco – all located in Guerrero – as well as in Ixtapan de la Sal, a México state municipality close to the border with Guerrero. In some cases, they steal goods from distributors and sell them themselves, but crime groups’ main way of controlling a market is by collecting extortion payments from business owners and/or forcing them to buy products at inflated prices from certain suppliers under their influence.
While crime groups start out extorting stable small businesses, in some places, even more informal businesses are targeted.
“They fix the final prices,” Rivera said, referring to crime group’s influence over retailers. The ANPEC chief also said that the size of typical extortion payments – usually paid monthly or weekly – has increased from 200 pesos to 500 pesos (about US $25) in some places.
“The geography of crime in the country is marking life in at least two-thirds of the national territory. The symptoms are noted in the southeast, in places like Oaxaca, Michoacán, Guerrero, … in Mexico City in boroughs like Cuauhtémoc and Miguel Hidalgo [and] in Coahuila, Nuevo León, Zacatecas,” Rivera said.
“… These groups focus on stable businesses like taco restaurants, [small inexpensive eateries called] fondas [and] shops. That’s where they start, and people don’t report them because in a lot of areas, the line between police and criminals isn’t clear. The crime economy is very active,” he said.
“There is evidence that these gangs are, little by little, taking control of … the distribution and commercialization of products. This is [a] very delicate [situation],” Rivera said before adding that decisive action could stop the problem from getting worse.
Another place where criminal activity has affected the availability of chicken is Ciudad Hidalgo, Michoacán, located about 100 kilometers east of the state capital of Morelia. Residents were left without chicken and red meat earlier this year due to a dispute between the Los Correa Cartel and a cell of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel called Grupo X, Milenio reported.
“We closed due to insecurity,” said Óscar Mañón, a chicken vendor in the Emiliano Zapata market. “… They’re letting us work now, but I don’t know whether [the same thing] could happen again.”
According to Ciudad Hidalgo Mayor José Luis Téllez, butcher shops and chicken shops closed after receiving threats from both crime groups involved in the dispute. Prior to the monthlong meat dearth, which began in late January, a group of armed men attacked the municipal slaughterhouse and killed five workers.
In Oaxaca, extortion complaints have increased in the coastal municipalities of Santiago Pinotepa Nacional and Santiago Jamiltepec over the past three months, according to local authorities. Business owners say they have received phone calls and messages from criminals demanding payments and threatening consequences if they don’t comply. The extortionists have acted on those threats in Pinotepa Nacional, where a butcher and two other people were recently killed.
In Baja California, fishermen are regularly extorted by organized crime who demand a percentage of sales and control prices, Tijuana newspaper Seminario Zeta reported in February.
Extortion is also a problem thousands of kilometers to the north in Tijuana, Baja California, especially in Sánchez Taboada, which has been described as the most dangerous neighborhood in the country’s most dangerous city. According to Baja California Attorney General Ricardo Iván Carpio, criminals collect extortion payments from a range of businesses in the area, including auto repair shops and butchers.
However, authorities are making progress in their fight against the crime, Carpio said, noting that 50 priority targets, including extortionists, have been arrested in the past 13 days.
Though daylight savings time was established by presidential decree, López Obrador said it would be better if it was ended by the legislature.
President López Obrador announced Wednesday that he will send a bill to Congress to eliminate daylight saving time.
The bill will go to either the Chamber of Deputies or the Senate next week, he told reporters at his regular news conference.
“I’m going to send it because I have the studies and I have a survey,” López Obrador said, explaining that the government asked people whether they want daylight saving time or not.
The president said earlier this month that government studies showed that the savings generated by daylight saving time are “minimal and the harm to health is considerable.”
López Obrador said Wednesday that the Interior Ministry conducted a telephone survey last week and found 71% support for elimination. He didn’t reveal how many people were polled but pledged to present the survey results next week.
AMLO indicated that he was unconcerned by the possibility that opposition lawmakers will stop his bill from becoming law, asserting that he was doing his bit by getting the initiative to Congress. Asked whether he would eliminate summer time by decree if lawmakers don’t approve his bill, he responded:
“It’s better that it’s done in Congress. … It’s better off being a reform to some of the secondary laws than a constitutional reform.”
Former president Ernesto Zedillo established the nationwide observance of daylight saving time by decree in early 1996.
AMLO said June 1 that there was a good chance that the practice of changing clocks twice a year at the start and end of daylight saving time would be terminated this year. On Monday he responded to concerns that the elimination of summer time would have an adverse effect on the economy, rejecting claims that the stock market will fall and there will be higher inflation.
“No, no, nothing will happen. … It’s very probable that there won’t be summer time [in the future] because people don’t want the time change,” López Obrador said.
These are just the flowers decorating inside the church.
In a back room of a former monastery in San Pedro Cholula, Puebla, a couple of dozen people were working intently on flower arrangements that would soon fill the church for the Fiesta de Floricultores (Floriculturist Festival), an event that’s taken place in Cholula for over 100 years.
Most of these people come from San Pedro Mexicaltzingo and San Pablo Tecamac, two of Cholula’s neighborhoods.
“This is one of the most important events for the barrios,” said Diego Percino Mancilla. “The two barrios are in charge and organize the event, but other barrios come to help.”
“The two barrios are dedicated to selling flowers,” explained John O’Leary, a local photographer who has documented fiestas and daily life in Cholula for 52 years. “One hundred years ago, most of the people in the two barrios grew flowers. Now, few do.”
Cholula residents carry part of a large floral arrangement to hang over the church door during the Fiesta de Floricultores.
But many people still make floral arrangements.
The Fiesta de Floricultores was first celebrated in 1900. “This [fiesta] is to give thanks to God and to the Virgin of the Remedios,” said Rolando Percino Toxqui, one of the event’s organizers who has been participating since 1980.
Work on the floral arrangements started on Saturday, June 11. “People worked 15 hours on Saturday,” said Percino Mancilla, “and 18 on Sunday. We worked partway through the night.”
As a band played “The Man on the Flying Trapeze,” workmen struggled to place the top part of the arrangement that adorned the door.
A cargador transports the Virgin of Los Remedios statue. The responsibility is an honor to residents, says University of the Americas in Puebla anthropologist Tim Knab.
According to Felix Mones, a member of the Hermandad de Cargadores (The Brotherhood of the Carriers) — the group responsible for carrying figures of the Virgin and other various saints — the piece weighs 400 kilos (880 pounds).
The Virgen de los Remedios is one of the most revered images in Mexico. In Cholula, a figure of the Virgin is usually kept inside the Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de los Remedios, the church that sits atop Tlachihualtepetl, the Great Pyramid. On Monday, June 13, the figure was carried in procession to the monastery where a mass was first held in the Capilla de Naturales (one of the chapels) before it was installed in the monastery.
On Monday, the brotherhood carried the figure in procession from the church to the monastery, the Convento de San Gabriel. A mass was held in one of the capillas (chapels) there before the figure was installed.
A second, longer mass was held in the monastery itself. Then the figure was once again displayed in procession around the atrium, trailed by several hundred people.
Another large floral display is installed over the church’s entrance.
Stops were made at each of the four capillas, where people crowded around the figure, some reaching out to touch it. After each stop, a different cargador helped carry the figure.
“To be chosen to carry the statue from one capilla to the next, a person has to be a member of the cargadores and be chosen by the mayordomo in charge of the event,” said Tim Knab, an anthropologist at the University of the Americas in Puebla (UDLAP). “It’s an honor to be chosen.”
After the procession, the figure was returned to the monastery, where it will stay for several days before returning to the Santuario de La Virgen de los Remedios.
The fiesta is a major undertaking.
A small but varied group of residents put everything together for the fiesta in marathon sessions over a few days.
“There are very few who commit to this,” said Percino Toxqui. “It is much time and money. We do it because of our faith and our beliefs. It makes us happy to do this.”
Escuela Telesecundaria Josefa Vergara, a public school in the El Salitre neighborhood of Querétaro city.
A junior high school in Querétaro city has switched to online learning after news broke about two teenagers setting fire to a fellow student last week in a classroom in which no teacher was present.
According to relatives of a 14-year-old named Juanito, the two other students sprayed alcohol on Juanito’s chair, and after he sat down, he stood up because he was feeling wet. At that point, they approached him with a lighter.
“One of the children set him on fire with a lighter, and it would not go out until he managed to take off his pants,” said Eugenia Eduardo Marcelino, the anguished mother.
As of Wednesday, the victim had undergone two surgeries at the Hospital del Niño y la Mujer, and Eduardo said her son will need skin grafts due to the depth of the burns, according to news reports.
The incident occurred June 6 at Escuela Telesecundaria Josefa Vergara, a public school in the city’s El Salitre neighborhood, where officials this week decided to cancel in-person classes from June 15 through the end of the school year in late July. The school, which had been holding on-site classes in the mornings, will return entirely to virtual learning.
The school’s director told reporters that no teacher was present in Juanito’s classroom during the incident because one teacher was out recovering from cancer and another was in a parent-teacher meeting, leaving a good portion of the school under the care of a head teacher. The school has 272 students and 12 staff members, according to MejoraTuEscuela.org.
The burn victim’s mother said it was a teacher who had given the alcohol to the two students, the newspaper AM de Querétaro reported. She also accused the school of seriously dropping the ball after the incident: No ambulance was called, meaning her son was not examined by emergency medical technicians; a teacher took her son to a clinic rather than to a hospital; and no report was filed with law enforcement.
Moreover, she said, she didn’t find out what had happened until her daughter, who attends the same school, came home with Juanito’s backpack two hours later.
Earlier this week, parents demonstrated outside the school and demanded the dismissal of the school’s director, Gricelda Quiterio Mendoza. In addition, they called for the firing of the head teacher for not being aware of the situation, AM de Querétaro reported.
The paper also reported that Juanito had been subjected to previous harassment because he comes from an indigenous community and speaks an indigenous language. His mother said she had requested a change of school because of the harassment, but the school had not given the go-ahead.
Reqronexión reported this week that the two aggressors have been suspended but will be able to continue their online learning, and an internal investigation has been launched by the state.
State Attorney General Alejandro Echeverría said the case is under investigation from both a criminal standpoint and to ascertain whether school officials saw to it that the minor received proper care and treatment, the newspaper Reforma reported. “I am taking special interest in this,” he said.
A day after the incident, relatives of the victim and the parents of the aggressors were brought together to talk things over. The parents of the accused children reportedly agreed to pay for medical expenses, but only if the victim’s family did not sue them or pursue legal avenues, so any such deal appears to be off the table.
According to AM de Querétaro, social media has erupted with people demanding justice, imploring that the accused students and school officials do not go unpunished.
Pedestrians with and without face masks in Mexico City.
Health authorities in the United States have raised their risk assessment of the COVID-19 situation in Mexico from Level 2 “moderate” to Level 3 “high.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued new travel advice for Mexico on Monday, advising U.S. citizens to make sure they are up to date with their COVID-19 vaccines before traveling here.
“If you are not up to date with your COVID-19 vaccines, avoid travel to Mexico,” the CDC said. “… If you have a weakened immune system or are at increased risk for severe disease, even if you are up to date with your COVID-19 vaccines, talk with your clinician about your risk, and consider delaying travel to Mexico.”
A fifth wave of coronavirus infections began in Mexico in early May, according to health experts, but the increase in new case numbers has been more notable in June. There are currently 49,210 estimated active cases after the Health Ministry reported 9,452 new cases on Wednesday. The estimated active case tally has increased by over 200% this month after ending May at about 16,000.
San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, was the site of a drawn-out conflict between armed civilians Tuesday afternoon. The U.S. government advises visitors to proceed with caution when traveling in the southern state.
Earlier in the pandemic, tourists were blamed for high case numbers in destinations such as Quintana Roo and Baja California Sur, which are currently among the states with the highest number of active cases on a per capita basis. Mexico has never required incoming travelers to show a negative COVID test result or go into mandatory quarantine. The United States dropped its own testing requirement for incoming travelers last Sunday.
The U.S. Department of State acknowledged the CDC’s reassessment of the COVID risk in Mexico in an updated travel advisory issued Monday, but didn’t change its advice for individual states. It continues to advise U.S. citizens not to travel to Colima, Guerrero, Michoacán, Sinaloa and Tamaulipas due to crime and kidnapping.
Eleven states – Baja California, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Guanajuato, Jalisco, México state, Morelos, Nayarit, Sonora and Zacatecas – are on the “reconsider travel” list due to crime or crime and kidnapping.
Chiapas, where armed men sowed terror during a lengthy show of force in San Cristóbal de las Casas on Tuesday, is one of 14 federal entities where the State Department advises travelers to “exercise increased caution.” Campeche and Yucatán are the only states where “normal precautions” are advised.
Among the general advice the State Department offers to travelers in Mexico is to use toll roads when possible and avoid driving alone or at night; exercise increased caution when visiting local bars, nightclubs, and casinos; do not display signs of wealth, such as wearing expensive watches or jewelry; and be extra vigilant when visiting banks or ATMs.
