Critics warn of militarization as governments name soldiers to head up security

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November 15, 2021

military patrolling in Chilpancingo — Military personnel patrol streets in Chilpancingo, Guerrero.Guerrero Ministry of Security

Army and navy personnel now head up security ministries in 10 of Mexico’s 32 states, triggering concern about the increasing militarization of the country.

The governors of seven of 11 states won by Mexico’s ruling Morena party at the June 6 elections have appointed military leaders as their security ministers.

State police forces in Baja California, Baja California Sur, Colima, Guerrero and Tlaxcala are now under the control of ministers who serve in the navy, while those in Michoacán and Sinaloa are led by army personnel.

San Luis Potosí Governor Ricardo Gallardo, who took office for the Ecological Green Party in September, also appointed a soldier as his security minister, while Morelos and Tamaulipas, led by Social Encounter Party and National Action Party governors, respectively, already had security ministers from the navy before the recent elections.

The new Morena governors’ appointment of military personnel to security minister roles is in line with President López Obrador’s desire to have soldiers and marines in positions of power.

Army General José Alfredo Ortega was named Michoacán’s security minister on October 1. government of Michoacán

On October 19, the president publicly advised new governors to speak to the ministers of national defense and the navy before making security minister appointments.

“… I recommend that you consult with both Admiral [Rafael] Ojeda, the navy minister, and [army chief] General [Cresencio] Sandoval so that you have honest, upright people,” López Obrador said.

He implied that the navy and defense ministers could recommend “incorruptible” people to take on the security roles so that “what was very common before — that [organized] crime was in control of police forces in the states and municipalities — is avoided.”

Carlos Mendoza, a public security expert and academic at the National Autonomous University, condemned the practice, asserting that it shouldn’t occur because security ministries are civilian bodies. The appointments are indicative of the creeping involvement of the military in public life, he said.

López Obrador has relied on the armed forces for a range of nontraditional tasks, including public security, infrastructure construction and vaccine distribution.

“There’s not even an argument now that [the appointments] are going to be temporary and that civilian control [of the security ministries] will return,” Mendoza told the newspaper Reforma.

Evelio Méndez Gómez, head of Guerrero's public security ministry — Evelio Méndez Gómez, head of Guerrero’s public security ministry and a navy captain, was named by Morena Governor Evelyn Salgado in October. Guerrero public security ministry

“… There is an explicit narrative of extending military control of police forces, and I think that’s something that is very worrying,” he said.

Mendoza charged that López Obrador’s October 19 remarks amounted to a clear directive to the new Morena governors rather than a presidential suggestion.

“It’s very concerning that the [federal] government sends these messages, because the army is occupying more positions of importance,” he said.

Mendoza claimed that governors have appointed military personnel as their security ministers because by doing so they can avoid direct responsibility for combatting insecurity. Alejandro Hope, a security analyst, contended in an opinion piece published Monday that something similar is occurring in Sonora, but the northern state’s governor — former federal security minister Alfonso Durazo — is outsourcing responsibility to the National Guard rather than the military.

“Given the problem of violence and insecurity in certain places, they [governors] prefer to allow the army to take responsibility for the failure or success [in combatting crime],” Mendoza said.

“I believe that [it creates] a space of comfort and convenience [for governors], and it’s obviously very conformist,” Mendoza said, referring to their compliance with the president’s wishes.

Javier López García, head of Baja California Sur's security ministry — Javier López García, the head of Baja California Sur’s security ministry, is also a navy captain. BCS Security Ministry

Mexico United Against Crime (MUCD), a civil society organization, also raised concerns about growing militarization in two recent reports.

“It’s a fact that public security in Mexico has been gradually militarized until reaching what appears to be a point of no return,” MUCD director Lisa Sánchez wrote in one report.

“Over four decades, and more precisely in [the most recent] two, the country went from entrusting the manual eradication of illicit crops to the military to placing the management of anti-drugs operations; the fight against organized crime; the re-establishment of order in municipalities, states and territories; and crime prevention into their hands,” she wrote.

MUCD said in another report that “the growing militarization of public security has been presented by civilian governments … as a necessary evil to return security to our country.”

But “this strategy has not been capable of improving security conditions and peace in Mexico,” the organization said.

Former president Felipe Calderón significantly ramped up the use of the military to fight organized crime, deploying the armed forces to combat Mexico’s notoriously violent cartels shortly after he took office in late 2006. Mexico’s homicide rate has steadily increased since then, reaching its highest ever level in 2019 before falling slightly in 2020. The military has been accused of a range of crimes, including arbitrary detentions, torture and extrajudicial killings.

AMLO at National Day of the Military ceremonies — On October 19, President López Obrador publicly advised new governors to consult the national defense and navy ministers in making security minister appointments. lopezobrador.org.mx

The practice of putting military leaders in charge of civilian security ministries intensified during the Calderón years and continued during the 2012–2018 administration led by former president Enrique Peña Nieto, who also used the armed forces to combat violent crime.

Despite pledging to gradually withdraw the military from the nation’s streets before he took office, López Obrador published a decree in May last year that ordered the armed forces to continue carrying out public security tasks for another four years, an about-face that appeared to acknowledge that the National Guard had failed in its mission to reduce violence.

His use of the military, however, comes with a significant caveat: don’t use force against criminals unless it’s absolutely necessary.

The president’s instruction — part of his so-called abrazos, no balazos (hugs, not bullets) security strategy — has been criticized for giving cartels free rein to carry out their criminal activities. Hope, the security analyst, told the Associated Press last week that the federal government’s strategy in Michoacán is clearly “some sort of pact of non-aggression.”

“… [The soldiers] are not there to disarm the two sides [the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the Cárteles Unidos] but rather to prevent the conflict from spreading,” he said.

With reports from Reforma

National soccer team up against -7 C and snow in chilly Edmonton

By

MND Staff

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November 15, 2021

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Mexico’s men’s soccer team will battle two opponents when it steps onto the field in Edmonton, Alberta, for its next World Cup qualifying match on Tuesday night: a Canadian team fresh off a 1-0 victory over Costa Rica and freezing conditions.

The forecast is for a temperature of -7 C when the two teams take to the open-air Commonwealth Stadium pitch at 7:05 p.m. local time for their eighth regional qualifier. As if the temperature alone won’t be foreign enough for the Mexican players, they also face a 90% probability of snow falling onto their bootlaces.

El Tri, as Mexico’s national team is known, is currently tied for first place with the United States with 14 points among the eight CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football) nations vying for qualification for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, while Canada is one point behind with 13.

The first three teams will automatically qualify for next year’s World Cup, while the fourth-placed team will need to win an inter-confederation playoff to book its ticket to Doha. In addition to Mexico, the United States and Canada, Panama, Costa Rica, Jamaica, El Salvador and Honduras are contesting the final round of CONCACAF qualifying.

El Tri has recorded four wins, two ties and one loss during the final round, while Canada has three wins, four ties and no losses.

Mexico’s loss came against its arch regional rival, the United States, which scored a 2-0 victory over El Tri in Cincinnati, Ohio, last Friday. It was El Tri’s third consecutive loss against the U.S. selection.

Mexico made the round of 16 at the 2018 World Cup in Russia but was defeated 2-0 by Brazil. It lost at the same stage of the previous six World Cups. El Tri made the quarter finals in 1970 and 1986 – both those World Cups were held in Mexico – but failed to progress on both occasions.

Along with the United States and Canada, Mexico will host the 2026 World Cup, but the lion’s share of the matches are to be played in the U.S.

With reports from Milenio and The Athletic

Citizens vow to fight order that transfers 160,000 hectares from Chiapas to Oaxaca

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MND Staff

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November 15, 2021

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Armed and ready in Chiapas to fight court ruling.

Residents of a Chiapas municipality located on the border with Oaxaca have vowed to defend their right to continue living in Mexico’s southernmost state after the Supreme Court (SCJN) ruled that their communities are actually part of Oaxaca.

Communal landowners from Rafael Cal y Mayor, a community in the municipality of Cintalapa, sent photographs to the media in which they appear holding assault weapons and rifles. They indicated they are willing to fight a recent SCJN decision that transferred 160,000 hectares of land in Cintalapa to Oaxaca.

Ownership of the land has been disputed for more than 50 years, and there have been numerous armed clashes over it between chiapanecos and the neighboring oaxaqueños.

The newspaper El Universal reported that residents of other affected communities in Cintalapa announced that they would use the Indigenous and Tribal People’s Convention of the International Labour Organization to support their case to remain part of Chiapas.

Cintalapa official Mario Hernández Hernández called on the SCJN to reconsider its ruling and and base a new one on justice, respect for human rights and respect for indigenous peoples in accordance with article 2 of the constitution.

He said residents of Rafael Cal y Mayor don’t want to live in Oaxaca because in Los Chimalapas – the collective name for the Oaxaca municipalities of San Miguel Chimalapa and Santa María Chimalapa – inhabitants are subject to the traditional form of government known as usos y costumbres.

“What I’m afraid of is that from one moment to the next we’ll become part of Oaxaca and Los Chimalapas,” said Heriberto Cruz Aguilar, a farmer in Rafael Cal y Mayor. Put simply, he added, being an ejidatario, or communal landowner, in Chiapas is not the same as being a comunero, or communal landowner, in Oaxaca.

Cruz also said he feared he would be dispossessed of his land.

Territorial disputes are common in parts of Mexico, especially in the southern states with large indigenous populations such as Chiapas, Oaxaca and Guerrero.

With reports from El Universal

Puebla man arrested with bag containing heads of his parents-in-law

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MND Staff

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November 15, 2021

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Police made a gruesome arrest in Puebla city on Friday: a man was found in possession of a bag containing two human heads.

Juan Carlos “N,” 28, was intending to dispose of the remains, which he said belonged to his parents-in-law, by throwing them in a nearby river.

He admitted to killing his in-laws, claiming they had thrown him, his wife and their daughter — as well as the couple’s other children — out of their home.

On Saturday, two corpses presumed to be the parents-in-law were located in a house in the north of the city. Juan Carlos’ wife and parents were also found there, and are suspected of participating in the crime.

The suspect initially told officers that he had been paid to dispose of the heads but changed his story.

With reports from Reforma and El Sol de México

6 dead after gunmen attack children’s party in Guanajuato

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MND Staff

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November 15, 2021

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Gunmen attacked a children’s party in Silao, Guanajuato, on Saturday and killed six people in one of two shooting incidents in the state that took the lives of 11 people.

The attackers arrived on motorcycles at about 6 p.m., entered the property and opened fire. Two children and their mother were among the dead; six people were wounded.

When the shooters made their escape, they carried on shooting, targeting a group of people who were at another party and others who were drinking alcoholic beverages on a street corner, the newspaper El Sol de México reported.

Hours later, 113 kilometers southeast in Apaseo el Grande, near Querétaro, gunmen killed three women, one man and a 3-year-old girl.

Guanajuato generally tops the rankings as the state with the highest number of homicides. President López Obrador has previously accused Attorney General Carlos Zamarripa, who has held his post for 12 years, of being responsible for the violence.

With reports from Reforma, El Sol de México and El Universal

COVID roundup: only one state—Baja California—is not green on the new stoplight map

By

MND Staff

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November 15, 2021

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Baja California is the lone outlier on the new map.

All but one of Mexico’s 32 states are now low risk green on the federal government’s coronavirus stoplight map as the third wave of the pandemic continues to decline.

Baja California is the outlier, remaining high risk orange on the new map that takes effect Monday.

Twenty-nine states were green on the previous map, while Guanajuato and Aguascalientes were medium risk yellow. Both those states switched green on the new map, which will remain in force through November 28.

Baja California easily has the highest number of active cases on a per capita basis, just over 80 per 100,000 people, more than double Sonora, which ranks second for current infections with just under 40 per 100,000 inhabitants.

The only other states with more than 30 active cases per 100,000 people are Coahuila, Mexico City, Querétaro and Guanajuato.

Chihuahua, Aguascalientes, Baja California Sur, Yucatán and San Luis Potosí have more than 20 active cases per 100,000 people, while Tabasco, Durango, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas have between 10 and 20. Each of the 17 other states has fewer than 10.

Nationally, reported cases are down 40% this month compared to October. An average of 2,751 new cases per day was reported during the first 14 days of November compared to a daily average of 4,612 in October.

This month’s daily average is 83% lower than the average in August, which was the worst month of the pandemic with more than 500,000 reported cases. The last time average daily case numbers were lower than they currently are was in May when an average of 2,225 per day were reported.

Reported deaths linked to COVID-19 have averaged 199 per day this month, a 43% decline compared to the daily average of 350 in October. The last time the average daily COVID-19 death toll was below 200 was in April 2020 when Mexico was amid the first wave of the pandemic.

The country’s accumulated case tally currently stands at 3.84 million, while the official COVID-19 death toll is 291,147. Both totals are considered vast undercounts, mainly due to Mexico’s low testing rate.

Nevertheless, Mexico ranks 15th in the world for total cases and fourth for fatalities behind only the United States, Brazil and India.

On a per capita basis, Mexico has the 22nd highest death rate in the world with 228 fatalities per 100,000 people, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Mexico’s fatality rate of 7.6 deaths per 100 confirmed cases is the third highest in the world after those of Yemen and Peru.

For vaccination, Mexico ranks 73rd in the world with 59% of the total population having had at least one shot, according to The New York Times vaccinations tracker. Among adults – the only sector of the population to which vaccines have been widely available – the rate is about 83%, according to the Health Ministry.

Just over 129.8 million shots have been administered to 75.4 million people. More than 63.3 million of those are fully vaccinated. That means approximately 12.1 million people have had one dose of a two-shot vaccine but chose not to get a second one or are still waiting for it.

Authorities in Mexico City – the country’s coronavirus epicenter – have offered first and second shots to all age groups but are currently administering vaccines to people who previously chose not to get vaccinated or were unable to get to vaccination centers.

One such person is Victoria Reyes, a 29-year-old woman with kidney problems who got her first shot late last week.

“What worried me is that I would get some kind of reaction,” she told the newspaper El País when explaining why she didn’t get vaccinated earlier despite losing two family members to COVID.

Reyes said she finally decided to get a shot because she’s now seeing fewer people wearing face masks and following other measures designed to stop the spread of the virus.

“People are not looking after themselves like before and I think that now [that I’m vaccinated] I’ll be more protected,” she said.

El País, which spoke to several people getting shots at the Vasconcelos Library in Mexico City last week, said there were a range of reasons why people had not previously been vaccinated, including fear, distrust of authorities, inability to get to a vaccination center and inadvertently missing their designated vaccination day.

“In my family getting vaccinated was not looked upon well,” said Diana, an 18-year-old student. “They’re anti-vaxxers and they have their theories about what’s being put into you,” she said.

“I was in Veracruz for about three months and I couldn’t come to get my second dose,” said Jesús Ramírez, a 36-year-old security guard.

Some other people showed up at the Vasconcelos Library to try to get an AstraZeneca shot after previously being vaccinated with the CanSino or Sputnik vaccines, which are not certified by the World Health Organization or recognized by United States authorities. Such people cannot currently enter the United States and many other countries, prompting them to seek inoculation with an approved vaccine.

But Yomaya Bezares, a 27-year-old teacher vaccinated with CanSino, told El País that her “mission” to get an AstraZeneca shot had failed, explaining that she was turned away because only second doses of that vaccine were on offer.

With reports from El País

Mexican Revolution 101: why is November 20 such an important date?

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Leigh Thelmadatter

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November 13, 2021

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The Ten Tragic Days in Mexico — Soldiers firing from a garrison during the Ten Tragic Days, a coup that removed and killed President Francisco I. Madero, who himself ousted a president. Casasola Archives

Like that of the Mexican War of Independence, the history of the Mexican Revolution can look like a confusing series of armed struggles — few major battles but lots of fighting. However, it is important to understand the basics of what happened in this period of history to understand the Mexico of today.

The Revolution’s official start is marked by an open letter written by Francisco I. Madero urging Mexicans to revolt on November 20, 1910 — hence the upcoming federally-recognized holiday, Revolution Day.

Like all revolutions, this armed conflict was against a political and social system, and the “sins” of that society would shape what would replace it.

That system was the more than 30-year dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz, who came to power in 1880 during a century when Mexico’s history was marked by coups, civil wars and foreign invasions.

Díaz’s rule started with a coup, but he managed to stay in power and even bring economic expansion and political stability to the country through foreign investment, political acumen, as well as ruthlessness.

Mexican revolutionaries — Perhaps the most iconic photograph of the Mexican Revolution, underpinning the importance of the railroads to both sides. Casasola Archives

This period of time, called the Porfiriato, was marked by the best and worst of the Industrial Revolution: there were trains, factories and revived mining but also atrocious working conditions, company stores and the dispossession of communal lands into haciendas.

Díaz’s motto was “order and progress,” with the aim of relegating indigenous and agricultural communities to the past and justifying these actions through the academic concept of “scientific politics.”

But the economic progress benefited few and dispossessed many. During the Porfiriato, there were strikes, rebellions and other unrest, but Díaz managed to keep a lid on all that. However, some in the upper classes soured on him as presidential elections under Mexico’s 1857 constitution became a farce, with Díaz “re-elected” again and again.

Then 80 years old, Díaz promised in 1910 not to run again, which set off a flurry of political activity. Díaz reneged on the promise, but not before significant opposition had coalesced around Francisco I. Madero, a businessman and writer with reform in mind.

Shortly before the election, Díaz had Madero arrested and eventually proclaimed himself the winner in a “landslide.”

Madero escaped prison and wrote that open letter calling for armed rebellion against Díaz, later called by others “The Plan of San Luis Potosí.”

Leaders of Mexican Revolution — The generals and other revolutionary leaders after the Battle of Ciudad Juárez. DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University

This document did not drive Díaz from power, but Madero’s allies — northern strongmen Pascual Orozco and Francisco “Pancho” Villa — mobilized in Chihuahua and began raiding government garrisons. They eventually took Ciudad Juárez, a strategically important city garrisoned by federal troops. This act forced Díaz to resign, and Madero was declared president.

If Madero had been an effective leader, that might have been the end of the story. Unfortunately, he was too idealistic and alienated key allies such as Orozco, as well as Emiliano Zapata, who was angered after Madero became president that he did not make Zapata governor of Morelos and the relationship soured between them.

Counterrevolutionaries pulled off the Ten Tragic Days, a 10-day violent coup in February 1913 that eventually resulted in Victoriano Huerta, the general of the Federal Army, becoming president and Madero being killed.

Villa and Orozco, along with fellow northerners Venustiano Carranza and Álvaro Obregón, went back to war, leading a coalition of separate armies that succeeded in ousting Huerta a year later.

But the alliance among the different generals almost immediately faltered. Soon after Huerta’s ouster, the Convention of Aguascalientes was held to try and unify the armies politically, but it resulted in Villa and Zapata forming one faction and Venustiano Carranza and Álvaro Obregón forming another. Mexico found itself back in active civil war.

The two sides fought battles until 1915. Villa was defeated at the Battle of Celaya, taking him out of the picture. Zapata’s forces, also defeated, turned to guerrilla tactics.

Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata in Mexico City — Center front from left to right: Francisco “Pancho” Villa and Emiliano Zapata in Mexico City. Casasola Archives

With the upper hand, but victory not assured, Carranza called for another convention in Querétaro in December 1916. It resulted in the 1917 (and current) constitution adopted in February.

Many of the grievances of the various generals are addressed in this document, having to do with working hours, land redistribution and other economic issues. It also was the beginning of a new identity for Mexico, one that combined the indigenous and the Spanish, supposedly with equal weight.

The ideal of this notion is best seen in the murals of Diego Rivera and other artists who worked in the 1920s and 1930s.

The constitution’s adoption was the beginning of the end, but the Mexican Revolution really petered out rather than conclude with a single battle or treaty. For this reason, there is disagreement as to an ending date.

Many put it at 1920, the year Álvaro Obregón was elected and served his term without getting ousted or killed. But since violence continued sporadically, some put the date as late as Lázaro Cárdenas’s presidency in the 1930s.

Perhaps the biggest change as the 20th century progressed was Mexico’s shift from political power centering on one person to power centering on institutions. The most important of these was the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which would essentially rule Mexico almost unopposed for 80 years.

Vicente Fox with AMLO and Arturo Montiel 2003 — Former president Vicente Fox, left, in 2003 with AMLO and México state governor Arturo Montiel. government of Mexico

By the time Vicente Fox of the National Action Party was elected president in 2000, the country had soured on the PRI but not the ideals of the Mexican Revolution.

Nowadays, we might be in a transitional post-PRI phase of Mexican politics, but we are definitely not in one where the Revolution ceases to matter.

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.

Thanksgiving leftovers? Make classic Mexican dishes with that extra turkey

By

Janet Blaser

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November 13, 2021

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turkey pozole — With leftover turkey and some hominy, create a fresh take on Mexican pozole.

It’s almost Thanksgiving, and in the food world (at least in the United States), that means turkey time.

And while in some parts of Mexico turkey isn’t regularly on the menu, in the Yucatán, wild turkeys are very much part of the local cuisine. They were domesticated and eaten by the Aztecs and Maya hundreds (maybe thousands) of years ago, and Spanish conquistadors shipped them back to Spain.

Those wild ocellated turkeys, found today in the Yucatán Peninsula forests in Mexico, Guatemala and Belize, are a far cry from the highly domesticated ones sold in modern-day grocery stores.

They’re a different species, smaller and brilliantly colored with distinctive iridescent patterned feathers and bright blue heads. And they don’t make the classic turkey “gobble.”

In Mazatlán, where I live, it’s difficult (if not impossible) to find whole turkeys, and if you do, they’ll be frozen. That said, there’s no shame in roasting the biggest chicken you can find for your Día de Acción de Gracias celebration.

Wild ocellated turkeys in the forest, Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, Yucatán.

Years of habit have accustomed many of us who celebrate to a week of leftover turkey, and the things we do with it are as much a part of our Thanksgiving traditions as the cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes. We all have our favorites: sandwiches, soup, the classic layered Thanksgiving-meal-in-a-goblet.

I thought to change it up a bit and share some Mexican-inspired recipes for leftover turkey or chicken. Enjoy!

Easy Turkey Enmoladas

These are so easy and delicious! Use whatever kind of store-bought or homemade mole you like.

4-8 corn tortillas, warmed till soft
Leftover roast turkey or chicken (¼ cup per tortilla)
3 Tbsp. vegetable oil
Salt
¼ cup mole sauce per tortilla
1 Tbsp. crema per tortilla
For serving: cotija cheese, sliced white onions, minced fresh cilantro, lime wedges

In each tortilla, place about ¼ cup of meat in a line, a bit off-center. Don’t fill them too much!

Roll tightly into a cigar shape and rest seam-side-down. Repeat with remaining tortillas and meat.

Heat oil in cast-iron or nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium.

Add enchiladas seam-side-down in a single row. Cook without moving until crisp on first side, 2–3 minutes.

Carefully turn with tongs; cook on second side until crisp. Remove from pan; drain on paper towels.

Season with salt immediately. To serve, spread half of sauce on a plate. Top with enchiladas, spoon remaining sauce on top. Drizzle with crema.

Sprinkle with cotija, onions and cilantro. Serve with lime wedges.

Find mole for *enmoladas* in cans or fresh in your market’s prepared foods section.

Turkey Tortilla Soup

For a milder flavor, omit one ancho and one pasilla chile and replace 1 cup stock with one (14.4-ounce) can of diced tomatoes with juice.

2 pasilla chiles
2 ancho chiles
2 whole canned chipotle chiles in adobo plus 1 Tbsp. sauce
2 quarts chicken or turkey broth
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 large onion, finely diced
1 whole poblano pepper, seeds and stem removed, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
Salt
2 tsp. ground cumin
1 lb. leftover turkey or chicken, shredded
For serving: tortilla strips or chips, minced cilantro, diced avocado, jalapeño and scallions, lime wedges

Combine pasilla, ancho and chipotle chiles in a medium-sized saucepan. Add half the broth.

Simmer over medium heat until tender, about 15 minutes. Transfer to blender; process until completely smooth.

Heat oil in large saucepan over high heat. Add onions and poblano pepper and cook, stirring, until softened but not browned, about 2 minutes.

Add garlic and cumin and cook about 30 seconds. Add remaining broth and chile purée. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce to simmer, add meat and cook about 5 minutes.

Season to taste with salt. Serve hot, with tortilla strips, scallions, cilantro, avocado, jalapeños as garnishes at the table, plus lime wedges.

Turkey Carnitas

Substitute these for the pork carnitas in any recipe. Delicious in tacos, burritos or quesadillas or on top of nachos.

Any amount leftover cooked dark-meat turkey/chicken (thighs and drumsticks)
Salt
Per lb. of meat: 1 orange, 1 medium onion, 2 bay leaves, 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil, chicken/turkey fat

Combine meat (with bones if available), orange, onion and bay leaves in a pot that fits everything snugly. Add enough water to cover halfway. Cover, bring to boil, then reduce to a bare simmer and cook about 1 hour until turkey is fall-off-the-bone tender.

turkey carnitas — Make guilt-free carnitas with leaner turkey instead of the traditional pork.

Discard orange, onion and bay leaves; drain turkey well. Shred meat; discard bones.

Heat oil or fat in cast-iron or nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add meat, and spread into an even layer. Cook without moving about 5 minutes until meat is well browned and crisp on bottom. Then stir to incorporate the crisp bits and move new soft bits to the bottom. Continue this process until the meat is as crisp as you like it. Season to taste with salt.

Turkey Pozole

1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 large poblanos, cut into ¼-inch pieces
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp. ground cumin
3 Tbsp. tomato paste
6 cups chicken broth
1 (29-oz. can) hominy, rinsed
Salt
2 cups leftover shredded turkey/chicken
½ cup minced fresh cilantro, plus more for serving
For serving: corn tortilla strips, radishes, avocado, cotija cheese, lime wedges

Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add onion and poblanos. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until just tender, 5–6 minutes. Add garlic, cumin and tomato paste; cook, stirring, 2–3 minutes. Stir in broth, hominy and ½ tsp. salt; bring to boil.

Reduce heat, simmer 10 minutes. Add meat and cilantro; cook about 3 minutes until hot.

Serve topped with tortilla strips, radishes, avocado, cilantro, cotija and a squeeze of lime.

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. You can find her on Instagram at @thejanetblaser.

Ending corruption and poverty takes more than political theater

By

Sarah DeVries

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November 13, 2021

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Lopez Obrador at UN in New York City — President López Obrador salutes fellow Mexicans who gathered outside the UN building in New York City this week. lopezobrador.org.mx

Did y’all ever get around to seeing that movie New Order? It’s a fairly recent Mexican film and, I’ll warn you, not at all for the faint of heart.

It’s bleak and disturbing and left me sleepless for several nights after I watched it. If you’re someone who cares deeply about economic justice, it begins as darkly satisfying entertainment. But once the blood starts spraying, shit gets serious and eyes get wide.

The movie opens with a wedding reception for two of Mexico’s young and beautiful members of the elite. One guest has given them a newly-constructed mansion as a wedding present. Many others have given them envelopes stuffed with the kind of cash most of us could only dream of earning, let alone receiving as a gift.

It’s the kind of party where none of the guests’ shoes could possibly cost any less than 4,000 pesos and where the help wear uniforms — though there’s no need if it’s for the purpose of distinction: the workers are all about five shades darker than any of the attendants. The contrast made me squirm.

The short-version summary of this film is that the wedding happens to fall on the day that a sizable number of poor and working-class people have decided that they’ve had enough and revolt. Most of the wedding guests are shocked when their barked demands to those they consider their lessers are ineffective once the domestic help turns on them, along with the invaders who’ve scaled the property’s high walls.

Soon we learn that it’s at least a citywide movement and that many of the city’s elites are being either slaughtered or jailed (and then slaughtered) in a planned attack.

The military immediately takes advantage of the chaos by declaring martial law; their goal is not to rid the country of the corruption that plagues it or to restore citizens’ freedom (not even eventually) but to simply take advantage of the situation by making a gruesome business of keeping the spoils, mostly in the form of ransoms for people they wind up killing anyway.

Part horror movie and part cautionary tale, it’s a scathing indictment of both Mexico’s elite class and the military, as well as anyone who thinks they’ll always have their hands on the reins of power. It paints corruption as an inevitable presence in the culture, automatically wielded by whoever is in charge.

Again, not for the faint of heart. It’s bleak, man. The movie made an impression on me, one I won’t quickly forget.

I immediately thought back to this movie when I read about the recent scandal of a lavish and expensive wedding between a high-ranking Morena official — the party that prides itself on “walking the walk” on austerity — and a National Electoral Institute councilor.

At least they made an effort to hide it?

The wedding of Santiago Nieto (the president’s so-called “anti-corruption czar”) and Carla Humphrey thankfully did not feature any revolts. What it did feature was the loss of US $35,000 in cash, which raised some justifiable questions at customs, and the job of the Mexico City tourism minister Paola Félix Díaz, who had flown to the wedding in a private jet. Nieto also ended up resigning.

There were some very good questions raised about where the money for such a lavish destination wedding came from considering that Nieto was an employee in a government that, again, proudly advertises itself on having brought about the end of corruption (ha!) and the dawn of government austerity. (I’m side-eying them on this one.)

Well. At least they care about the optics, which is more than I can say for past governments. Still, it’s just as disappointing as it is unsurprising.

This is why it’s so ironic to me that President López Obrador goes so far out of his way to criticize the middle class when the middle class is precisely where most of his government functionaries come from. What exactly does he think that “middle class” even means? Does he agree with INEGI’s assessment?

I truly do not get the message he’s going for. If a poor person whom he loves and admires precisely because of their poverty does well and moves into the middle class, does he think they automatically become evil? Is helping poor people not be poor anymore not his goal?

The fact that there has been zero COVID-related financial help given out to anyone during this never-ending pandemic that sent many Mexicans into poverty — rather than the other way around — more than answers that question.

At the start of his presidency, I was very hopeful. My own sympathy lies more heavily with those in need who have been kept down by systemic inequality and lack of opportunities. (For anyone who thinks I’m exaggerating, ask an Oxxo employee about their full-time wages and tell me what your own plan would be to “move up” in that situation.)

My only conclusion is that AMLO’s talking points are simply political theater. And while I’d love to still believe in the president’s convictions, I simply don’t anymore. He might have put on a good show for the United Nations, but we know that “ending poverty” starts at home. And we know that he knows that this is not what’s happening around here.

Again, I’m glad that they at least care about optics.

My heart also goes out to the newlyweds, whose memories of their wedding will forever be tainted — an unfortunate beginning to a marriage. While I don’t approve of their behavior, I also know that it doesn’t feel good to get caught, and I bet it especially doesn’t feel good to get caught for something that was supposed to be a happy, carefree event.

But being a public servant, and therefore in the public eye, is a trade-off. You get power (and apparently money that mysteriously appears in your bank account although it’s not part of your official salary), but you also get scrutinized.

The president made a show of being outraged, and he tries his best to carefully instruct the rest of us about what subjects should outrage us. For all of our sakes, I hope that this presidency is at least a genuine step in the direction of squeezing out corruption and the extreme inequality that results from it.

But I have my doubts, and I’m still squirming. So far, no New Order revolution seems to be afoot. But the scariest movies are frightening precisely because we could easily imagine them becoming reality.

Sarah DeVries is a writer and translator based in Xalapa, Veracruz. She can be reached through her website, sdevrieswritingandtranslating.com and her Patreon page.

AMLO on the road to Colima, Sonora and New York: the week at the morning press conferences

By

MND Staff

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November 13, 2021

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Colima Governor Vizcaíno welcomes AMLO to her state on Thursday.

President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador has a complicated relationship with petroleum. The energy nationalist has invested in oil refineries and touted petroleum as the best business in town. However, he has also said that Mexico will only extract what it needs for its own consumption, and claimed that lower extraction rates than previous administrations were a sign of a commitment to ecology.

While the United Nations climate change conference in Glasgow, Scotland, rattled on, AMLO would speak at another UN meeting on Tuesday, as chair of the Security Council’s meeting on exclusion, inequality and conflict.

Monday

A congratulations to “Canelo” Álvarez and “Checo” Pérez kicked off the week. The boxer and race car driver, both from Guadalajara, had done their country proud over the weekend.

The same couldn’t be said for anti-corruption czar Santiago Nieto, head of the federal government’s Financial Intelligence Unit, who got married in Guatemala in a lavish ceremony, colored by private jets and confiscated piles of cash. “It’s a scandalous issue … we must recommend that public servants act in moderation, with austerity,” AMLO said. Nieto later tendered resignation.

Some personal details about the president came to light. His favorite restaurant, he revealed, was El Cardenal, which has four sites in Mexico City. On Saturday, he reminded viewers, he would celebrate his 68th birthday.

Good spin was on show from the man from Tepetitán later in the conference: “The Financial Times put [me as] the second best president in the world: Andrés Manuel López Obrador,” he exulted, referring to a study on the leaders with the best poll ratings.

Media censorship came to the fore, and AMLO mentioned a name that’s still sure to make a splash. “I remember when they cancelled the [social media] account[s] of President Trump. I expressed my disagreement and I continue to express my disagreement. A private corporation, no matter how powerful, cannot silence the president of a country … it is an attack on freedom,” he said.

Tuesday

On Tuesday it was off to New York, where the president chaired the UN Security Council’s meeting on exclusion, inequality and conflict. If he can make it there — they say — he’ll make it anywhere.

In his speech, he cited President Franklin D. Roosevelt as an inspiration, and pointed to corruption as the world’s most pressing problem: “It would be hypocritical to ignore that the main problem on the planet is corruption in all its dimensions: political, moral, economic, legal, fiscal and financial. It would be foolish to omit that corruption is the main cause of inequality, poverty, frustration, violence, migration and serious social conflicts.

Ana Elizabeth García reveals the media’s lies of the week.

“We are in decline because never before in the history of the world has so much wealth been accumulated in so few hands through influence, and at the cost of the suffering of other people … distorting social values to make the abominable seem like acceptable business,” he said.

The president then revealed a US $1 trillion global poverty-alleviation plan for ‘fellowship and well-being.’

Wednesday

To lie “is to say or manifest the opposite of what one knows, believes or thinks, according to the Dictionary of Spanish Language,” fake news finder Ana Elizabeth García Vilchis announced before correcting “media lies.”

She confirmed that the Laguna Verde nuclear power plant in Veracruz did not suffer a red alert; the electricity plant in Petacalco, Guerrero, was working just fine, and the president’s energy reforms had not been stalled due to pressure from the United States.

Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard took the podium next. He said 47 countries had signed on to the president’s poverty-alleviation proposal at the UN Security Council on Tuesday, and summarized how the cash could be collected: 4% from the world’s richest people, 4% of the profits of the thousand highest earning companies, and 0.2% of the GDP of the G20 countries, which includes Mexico.

The energy reform, AMLO mused, was about making prices fair. Presumably he was also motivated by a traumatic experience in the past, scrambling around in the dark for an bag of potato chips: “The [chain convenience store] Oxxo pays less for electricity than a grocery store … the grocer has to have their shop lights turned off and has to unplug their freezers and their refrigerators so as not to pay so much for electricity. But you go to an Oxxo and even at night it is all lit up,” he said.

Thursday

Colima city was the venue for Thursday’s conference which — in this writer’s biased opinion — is one of the finest parts of the country.

As gems go it is a relatively undiscovered one: its violence figures may keep it so. Governor Indira Vizcaíno confirmed that the state became the country’s homicide capital during her predecessor’s term. However, it was going it the right direction, with homicides down 13% in 2021 compared to last year.

“Love is paid with love, and Colima has a lot of love for you,” Vizcaíno offered to the president.

AMLO spoke in kind: “Colima is a very beautiful state, it has the mountains, it has the Colima volcano and it has the coast … a unique fertility in this state,” he said, and confirmed that 2 billion pesos (about US $97 million) would be invested in the port of Manzanillo.

Interior Minister Adán Augusto López Hernández speaks at Friday’s conference in Hermosillo.

Quizzed on his pick for Santiago Nieto’s replacement at the Financial Intelligence Unit, the president assured viewers that Pablo Gómez was a man of morals and rectitude: “I know Pablo Gómez. For those who do not know his history, Pablo Gómez was a leader of the ’68 movement, a student leader, he was in jail in ’68 and he has always been on the left, and has resisted all temptations,” AMLO said.

Friday

Hermosillo, Sonora, played host for Friday’s conference: “Revolutionary people, dignified people, working people, noble people,” the president said of his hosts.

Governor Alfonso Durazo Montaño was full of optimism for investment in the port of Guaymas, but on security conceded that the state was second worst for femicides.

Later in the conference, AMLO assured that his government “will continue to protect women.”

Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez offered some detail on the government’s strategy: “Peace Construction” task forces were in place to combine federal and local wisdom; the National Guard was doing investigative work, and 16 days of national activism from November 25 were planned to “make the problem more visible.”

Durazo offered some context: “The fundamental problem we have is familial violence … In first place … in calls to 911 is familial violence,” he said.

The president confirmed it would be an understated 68th birthday celebration on Saturday. “On my return to Mexico City I’ll stay for a family celebration … I could not get on and face problems outside if inside I didn’t have family support …. So, they are my two great passions: the people and my family, and I’ll add one more, which has to do with Sonora: baseball.”

Mexico News Daily