Dozens of tortilla shops shut down early on Thursday amid threats of violence.
Violence and threats from organized crime have forced tortilla shops, schools and public transport to shut down in Zihuatanejo, Guerrero, this week.
Almost all of the approximately 50 tortillerías in the Pacific coast resort town closed early Thursday, the newspaper El Universal reported. Long lines formed at the few that remained open.
Some other businesses both in the city center and working class neighborhoods closed Thursday afternoon due to the climate of insecurity that prevailed in Zihuatanejo, the newspaper El Sur said.
In addition, some schools shut their doors and won’t reopen until Monday, while some public transport services have been suspended since Wednesday.
A Zihuatanejo businessman told El Universal that tortilla shop owners had received calls and messages demanding payments in exchange for not setting their businesses on fire.
Armed men started a fire at a Modelorama beer store in Zihuatanejo Friday in what appeared to be retaliation for a failure to make cobro de piso, or extortion, payments. Firefighters extinguished the blaze and security forces attended the scene but no arrests were reported.
The El Universal source, who asked not to be identified, said the current wave of violence began Monday when a taxi was set ablaze. A public transit van was set on fire the next day, leading some transportation operators to suspend services starting Wednesday.
There were long lines of motorists at Zihuatanejo gas stations Thursday after rumors swirled on social media that they too would close. Panic buying was also reported at the Soriana supermarket, the busiest in Zihuatanejo.
A Guerrero news group on Twitter shared a photo of the long lines that formed at one Zihuatanejo gas station on Friday.
Zihuatanejo Mayor Jorge Sánchez Allec acknowledged that “very unfortunate incidents” have occurred in the city, located 250 kilometers north of Acapulco.
He said in an interview that rumors that gas stations were going to close are false and ruled out implementing a curfew. The mayor called on citizens to remain calm and noted that municipal authorities are collaborating with their state and federal counterparts on security issues.
“We’re going to contribute with whatever is necessary so that security conditions improve in the coming days,” he said.
A mountain biker on the Espinazo del Diablo (Devil’s Backbone) trail.Yamil Karim
Immediately west of the city of Guadalajara lie 30,500 hectares (75,367 acres) of rolling hills covered with pine and oak trees — home to hot springs, deep canyons and over 300 species of woodsy creatures. This is Bosque la Primavera, the Primavera Forest, which was declared, in 1980, a protected refuge for flora and fauna and a beautiful, quiet place where tapatíos (citizens of Guadalajara) can escape the noise and stress of the city.
Bicycle riders in particular have discovered just how easy it is to disappear deep into the woods, soaking up the good vibrations. Every weekend, around 2,000 of them head for the west end of town where the forest begins, just six kilometers beyond the city’s Periférico, or Ring Road.
Driving along Avenida Mariano Otero, they first come to a caseta (entrance gate) where forest rangers remind them not to bring pets or alcohol into the protected area.
After another 2.6 kilometers, they come to Estación Estéfano, a secure parking area that can hold 700 vehicles. Here, owner Ramón Estéfano told me that for a fee of 60 pesos, you can leave your car all day and use the toilets and the showers and even a free bicycle wash.
Breakfast in the woods at the Check Point restaurant.
You also have access to several businesses, each housed in a modified shipping container. These include a restaurant, a coffee shop and a bicycle mechanic. My friends and I found the restaurant’s breakfasts excellent and the toilets spotlessly clean.
Estación Estéfano is open every day of the year, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. The restaurant, however, is only open Saturdays and Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Most people leave their cars here and pedal up the road for 3.4 kilometers to a delightful place called Check Point.
Here they find a tastefully decorated rustic cabin, a cultural center, a cafeteria, good fellowship and, believe it or not, a gourmet restaurant. Here I also found Yamil Karim, one of three brothers who own and operate Check Point. I asked him what attracts 2,000 people to this neck of the woods every weekend.
Yamil Karim, right, with Check Point staff members Kevin, left, and Christopher, middle.
“The Primavera Forest is right next to the city,” he told me, “and for a cyclist, the biggest attractions are la naturaleza y los recorridos (nature and the mountain bike trails). Our trails are great fun. Their level of difficulty is intermediate, and there is lots of variety. These trails offer a little of everything.
“If you want long distances, you can cover 60 or 70 kilometers. In fact, we have one route called The Three Towers, which is 100 kilometers long and entirely inside the Primavera Forest. Passing right alongside Check Point, we have really nice trails with very good bajadas (down slopes), and they are well signposted and well-maintained. Some have wooden bridges, and many curves have special ecologically friendly supports.”
These routes are looked after by an association called MTB Pro Bosque, a nonprofit organization of volunteers who work with the support and approval of the forest’s landowners to maintain and improve the Primavera’s bicycle trails. The group depends entirely on donations.
Check Point is located right in the middle of the most important and popular routes, so people can eat breakfast there and then start their tour. I asked Karim what these routes were like.
Environmentally friendly paving stones restore an eroded trail.
“Well, for example, right here we have trails called Mosca, Garrison, Toboganes and Espinazo,” he said. “Typically, these are named after the people who created the route or who did a lot of work on it.”
“For example,” he continued, “Mosca, which means ‘fly’ in Spanish, is not named after a fly but after the dermatologist Dr. Mosca. This is an uphill track that is 2.3 kilometers long and takes you to Garrison Trail, which has been around since the 1980s and is named after a guy who had a bicycle shop in Guadalajara. It runs downhill and is about two and a half kilometers long. Other trails with curious names are La Preciosísima and La Vaca Muerta. Each one, of course, has a story to tell.”
Check Point is housed in the same buildings that were once known as Estación Bicicleta, an enterprise that provided food and refreshment to mountain bikers.
“For years, my brothers and I were happy customers of Estación Bicicleta,” Karim told me. “After cycling, we would arrive here dirty, sweaty and half dead. For us, Estación Bicicleta was a true oasis.
Paintings by artist and brother Ramadam Karim appear everywhere at Check Point.
“Every weekend, we would eat here, and one day, relaxing here in the shade, my brother said: “I really like it here; I would definitely love running a place like this, in the middle of the woods. Thinking about it, I would make the kitchen bigger, and I’d add tables over there and over there …”
Several years later, Estación Bicicleta went out of business, and the Karim brothers decided that the time had come to turn their dream into reality.
“After great difficulty just to find the owner of the land,” said Karim,” we bought the place, renovated the cabin and installed a cafeteria and a fireplace. It’s really cozy now, and people love to come taste the fine coffees we offer, which we rotate every week. We even bring in experts and hold coffee catas (tastings) here.”
Another Check Point specialty is its exotic fruit juices, including its house version of hydrating drinks.
A wooden bridge allows soil below to regenerate: a trail repair by MTB Pro Bosque.
“Ours is natural and delicious,” Karim told me.
Clients of Check Point enjoy all this surrounded by the paintings and artistic photos of another brother, award-winning artist Ramadam Karim.
“Shouldn’t it be Ramadan?” I asked.
“Yes, it should. We are of Palestinian descent, but here in Mexico, they spelled it wrong on my brother’s birth certificate… and it stuck.”
The coffee bar offers a variety of exotic brews, with two new ones every weekend.
“It’s been a real challenge to set this place up,” Yamil Karim told me. “People like the result but would never imagine the logistics involved, for example, just to have tanks of gas here. Only to bring our personnel here every day, we had to get a vehicle dedicated to the task. This is because we’re in a nature reserve and there are all kinds of restrictions on what you can do.”
I found the food at Check Point delicious. “Who’s responsible for that?” I asked.
“My novia, Fernanda.” he replied. “She studied to be a chef, and now she invents dishes and drinks and desserts. Today, the dessert of the week is a croissant garnished with chocolate and sprinkled with almonds. Fernanda delights in choosing just the right ingredients for these desserts: le da mil vueltas sobre cada detalle (she mulls over every detail) so that it turns out just right.”
The public response to all this has been muy padre, Karim says, or “very good.”
Estación Estéfano has parking spaces for 700 cars and handy shops housed in modified shipping containers.
“People really like this place!” he said.
“Let me mention one other thing,” he added. “We are not surprised to have plenty of mountain bike riders as customers, but we never expected to see so many non-cyclists here. It seems as if word has spread, and now lots of families are showing up — with grandmas and grandpas in tow.
“They come by car, eat here and go for a walk along one of the trails. We’ve had to expand our parking area to accommodate all of them.
“It’s like the general public in Guadalajara is just now waking up to the fact that there are woods here, that we have a kind of treasure right here next to the city.”
The huge Primavera Forest, filled with hills, mesas and canyons is a perfect setting for mountain bike trails.
Check Point is open from 9 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. on weekends and 9 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. on Thursdays.
Where’s your favorite place in Mexico for walking or mountain biking trails? Add your recommendations to John Pint’s in the comments.
The writer has lived near Guadalajara, Jalisco, since 1985. His most recent book is Outdoors in Western Mexico, Volume Three. More of his writing can be found on his blog.
The toilets at the Check Point restaurant are clean … and well decorated.
Check Point’s answer to Gatorade: an isotonic drink based on orange juice.
Fernanda Aguilar creates gourmet meals and drinks at Check Point.
With a fireplace and a cafeteria, the Check Point cabin is a cozy place to warm up on a cold winter’s day.
John Pint on tasting Check Point’s dessert of the week, a croissant garnished with chocolate and sprinkled with almonds: “It’s a 10!” he says.
Severo Flores Mendoza, now the former police chief of Ameca, Jalisco. OFAC / USDT
The police chief of Ameca, Jalisco, has been dismissed after the United States government declared that he takes bribes from the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).
The U.S. Department of the Treasury (USDT) announced Thursday that its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) had designated Severo Flores Mendoza under an executive order – Imposing Sanctions on Foreign Persons Involved in the Global Illicit Drug Trade – issued by U.S. President Joe Biden.
Flores “is a corrupt municipal police official and national of Mexico who provides law enforcement information to CJNG in exchange for bribes,” the USDT said in a press release.
“Currently, Flores Mendoza is the police chief of Ameca, Jalisco, Mexico. He is also the coordinator of police chiefs for the Valles region of Jalisco, which is composed of 14 municipalities including Ameca. This region lies in the area between Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta,” it said.
The USDT noted that Flores has held other law enforcement positions in Jalisco over the past decade and that he failed a trust exam in 2014 but nevertheless continued his police career.
Jalisco Governor Enrique Alfaro acknowledged Friday that Ameca Mayor Valente Serrano had taken the decision to dismiss his police chief.
“I know that the mayor already took the decision last night to remove him from his post so that an investigation can be carried out, which I think is the right decision,” he told reporters.
“… It’s a municipal issue but I believe that a clear message has to be sent. … When there are accusations of this kind there can’t be doubts about what to do so it’s good that the mayor already took the decision and we’re supporting him so that the municipality is taken care of in these [coming] days” before a new police chief is appointed, Alfaro said.
Ameca Mayor Valente Serrano quickly dismissed Flores Mendoza after the allegations of corruption were made public.
The governor also said that he asked his security cabinet coordinator to carry out a thorough analysis of the United States’ accusation against Flores.
“… We have to be attentive to any information that allows us to continue cleaning up our [police] forces,” Alfaro added.
The Ameca mayor said the accusation against his police chief took him and his government by surprise because the incidence of crime in the municipality is below the national average.
The USDT also announced that the OFAC had designated five other Mexican individuals because of their support for, or actions on behalf of, the CJNG, “a violent Mexico-based organization that traffics a significant proportion of the fentanyl and other deadly drugs that enter the United States.”
Among them is Julio César Montero Pinzón, who the USDT said is “part of a violent CJNG enforcement group based in Puerto Vallarta that orchestrates assassinations of rivals and politicians using high-powered weaponry.”
The four others are family members of Saúl Alejandro Rincón Godoy, “a senior member of CJNG who recently died in Puerto Vallarta following a confrontation with Mexican authorities.”
The USDT said that the designations were the result of collaboration with the Mexican government and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
“As a result of today’s action, all property and interests in property of these designated individuals that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons must be blocked and reported to OFAC,” it said.
An OFAC chart shows information related to the newly designated CJNG associates. OFAC / USDT
Brian E. Nelson, the USDT’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said “Treasury will continue working with U.S. partners and the Mexican government to target the violence, corruption, and facilitation that undergird CJNG’s power.”
A woman jogs on the malecón of Lake Chapala in Ajijic, Jalisco. DepositPhotos
Can it be that 70% of people answering a recent Mexico News Daily poll think migration to Mexico is not beneficial? This simple poll got me thinking about how lifestyle migration from the U.S. to Mexico is having impacts.
Learning more about the website’s audience (where they are living currently and basic demographics) gave me some simplified insight: 58% of readers are responding from the US and 52% fall in the 18-44 age group. Combining these two bits of info, I assume the “against” expat migration group has a bunch of younger people who don’t live here.
So starting from this assumption, the naysayers are a bunch of younger Americans for whom Mexico is a big all-inclusive resort party. How else could you validate the poll’s findings?
Of course, there are negative impacts caused by those fleeing the U.S. and Canada — something I experienced, having moved to Mexico in 2015 and worked in Mexico tourism for over 40 years. American and Canadian migrants can sometimes be painted as “invaders,” especially when we set our sights on smaller villages and towns.
The results of a recent Mexico News Daily poll.
Yes, we create competition for rentals and real estate price inflation. We often don’t integrate into our host communities. Many of us live in “bubbles” of like-minded, monolingual, better weather seekers. We can also flaunt our relative and real wealth in ways that are culturally insensitive. We “dollarize” a local economy. We stick out with our Anglo appearance and white legs, wearing short pants and hats. We skirt certain Mexican laws, when it’s convenient. This is all true.
But there are also expats and institutions that are active agents for change. In 2015 the United Nations passed the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, a program signed onto by 176 nations (including the U.S., Canada and Mexico). The agenda proposes 17 goals, including no poverty, zero hunger, good health and more.
For each of these 17 goals, I want to believe there are foreigners moving to Mexico with global views compatible with addressing these tragic shortfalls in the human condition. Mexico’s uphill climb is daunting. A recent study published in Mexico News Daily cites how poverty abatement (post-COVID and midway through the current AMLO administration) is stalled. There are as many Mexicans living in dire poverty today as there were four years ago. Chew on that. Mexico’s current “Fourth Transformation” has been stillborn.
But the good work continues, supported by foreigners and returning Mexicans working in close concert with local partners. These efforts touch the human condition in ways big and small. Jalisco state has an initiative to put Mexicans returning from life overseas on municipal councils. The head of our local transit police spent 20-plus years in the Dallas police department. Mexicans coming home often bring “expat” views about change and getting things done.
The goals of the U.N. 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
In my community of Ajijic, expat impacts go beyond pet shelters and child education. This is partly because we’ve been here so long, part of a migration fuse that was lit in the 1940s.
If you have a cause or bring a skill, the ways to connect with time and donations are vast. A charity list published by the Lake Chapala Society is a 12-page compendium of ways to get involved in local initiatives to improve the human condition.
Are these social and environmental outreach programs universally in action across Mexico? No. Can foreign-born residents of Mexico do more to improve their home country or local communities? Let’s hope so. Settling here is about more than good weather and cheap living. Look around and open some doors to personal and community transformation. All-inclusive resorts don’t define our migration wave, and they never should.
Greg Custer is a full-time resident and publishes content about Mexico for living at www.mexicoforliving.com.
Mexican politician Porfirio Muñoz Ledo accused President López Obrador of having ties to narco-traffickers.Cámara de Diputados
A veteran leftist politician has accused President López Obrador of colluding with narcos and wanting to entrust that collusion to his successor.
Porfirio Muñoz Ledo, an 88-year-old former deputy, senator, federal cabinet minister and ambassador to the European Union, asserted Thursday that López Obrador possesses “a package of power and that package … is an alliance between narcos and the government.”
“… He thinks that he can pass on his association with criminals to the next government and that [the collusion] gives him greater power,” he told a meeting of the Permanent Conference of Political Parties of Latin America and the Caribbean, a multilateral organization headed as of Thursday by Institutional Revolutionary Party national president Alejandro Moreno.
However, the president’s “conspiracy or alliance with narcos is not inheritable,” claimed Muñoz, who represented the ruling Morena party in the lower house of Congress until last year.
AMLO can’t pass on his collusion when he leaves office in 2024 because criminal organizations will negotiate and make new deals with whoever succeeds him, he said.
“They will no longer need the president. That’s the issue, a moral issue, an issue of political analysis,” Muñoz said.
“… And there will be a danger that [organized crime] will demand more from the new [political] actors,” he added.
The octogenarian asserted that López Obrador has drawn authority and resources not just from the federal government but also from drug cartels. He also claimed that an “authoritarian reversion” began in Mexico two or three years ago and that organized crime is “the new king of the jungle.”
“All this is really very … vulgar. I regret it because Mr. Muñoz Ledo knows me very well and he [still] dares to contend that the government has links with narcos. It’s an opinion without basis, it’s reckless,” he said.
Hurricane Agatha flooded homes and destroyed roofs in San Isidro del Palmar, a riverside community near the popular beach town Mazunte. The municipality was not initially included in the federal emergency declaration. Twitter
The neighboring coastal municipalities of San Pedro Pochutla and Santa María Tonameca face a long road to recovery after they bore the brunt of Hurricane Agatha, a Category 2 storm that made landfall in Oaxaca on Monday.
After assessing the situation in the former municipality, local authorities reported that approximately 38,000 people suffered damage to their homes or other property.
San Pedro Pochutla, which includes the coastal towns of Puerto Ángel and Zipolite, is one of six municipalities where federal authorities have declared an extraordinary emergency situation.
In an emergency declaration application sent to President López Obrador and Oaxaca Governor Alejandro Murat, Pochutla Mayor Saymi Adriana Pineda Velasco said the full extent of the damage Agatha caused to homes, schools and churches had not yet been established.
Pochutla Mayor Saymi Adriana Pineda Velasco meets with an army disaster relief official. Twitter
She called for supplies including water, food, blankets, sleeping mats and medications to be sent to the municipality. Pochutla is one of several municipalities where the military is distributing aid, but as is common in Mexico in the aftermath of disasters some communities say they have been neglected.
In Santa María Tonameca, authorities reported that approximately 7,000 families in some 50 communities were affected by Agatha, the most powerful hurricane to have made landfall in the Eastern Pacific in May.
Mayor César Ruíz Gutiérrez also requested an emergency and disaster declaration for his municipality, which includes the beach town of Mazunte. It was not among the six municipalities for which the federal government made an emergency declaration.
The other five municipalities included in the declaration were Santa María Colotepec, Santo Domingo de Morelos, Santa María Huatulco, San Miguel del Puerto and San Pedro Huamelula. The Oaxaca government has called for 26 municipalities to be declared disaster and emergency zones.
One Pochutla community devastated by the strong winds and heavy rain brought by Agatha is Zapotengo, population 200. Roads into the community remain cut off and homes were rendered unlivable, the newspaper Milenio reported Thursday.
Powerful wind ripped sheet metal roofs off homes, many of which were inundated with mud. Electricity and water service was cut in the small community and residents say they haven’t received any assistance from authorities.
María de la Luz Cantera Cruz, an approximately 60-year-old woman who shared a three-room home with 13 family members, told Milenio that they lost all their belongings. “We’re left without clothes, without anything, we lost everything,” she said.
“I’m asking the federal government to help us because the truth is this is very painful. … I’m very hurt, very sad and the truth is sometimes I would prefer not to be here,” Cantera said.
#EnFotos Así se ven los daños que dejó el huracán Agatha tras impactar en territorio de San Pedro Pochutla, Costa de #Oaxaca. Se reporta al menos una niña fallecida, deslaves, derrumbes y casi 24 horas sin luz ni señal telefónica.
— El Universal Oaxaca (@ElUniversalOax) May 31, 2022
The newspaper El Universal shared photos of the damage in San Pedro Pochutla on Twitter.
“… [The hurricane] took the roof [of our home], the bed, everything, … the fridge, dishes, all the appliances that we’ve bought bit by bit thanks to God,” she said.
Cantera told Milenio that she and her family have been sleeping outside next to their damaged home since Agatha struck because they have no way to get to a shelter. “We’re suffering a lot, we don’t have anywhere to sleep,” she said.
Another Zapotengo resident said that practically all her furniture was washed away by a raging creek.
“The good thing is that my husband, my children and I managed to get out … in time because the creek was bearing down on us,” Zoila Velázquez said, adding that her chickens were also washed away.
Eliana Trinidad, whose home was also inundated with water and mud, said her family has no food or water.
Some Zapotengo residents claimed that Agatha was the most powerful hurricane of recent decades, even surpassing Pauline, a Category 4 hurricane that made landfall near Puerto Ángel in October 1997 and claimed hundreds of lives.
About 30 kilometers west of Zapotengo is San Isidro del Palmar, a community of about 1,000 people that was also ravaged by Hurricane Agatha.
“I think the eye of the hurricane arrived here because the wind and rain were very strong,” Óscar Ortiz, a resident, told the newspaper El Universal.
A damaged home in San Isidro del Palmar. Twitter
“Sheet metal roofs and homes were completely destroyed, a lot of homes were overwhelmed by water,” he said, adding that some houses were flooded by as much as three meters of water.
San Isidro, located in Santa María Tonameca, was also cut off due to flooding and the damage Agatha caused to roads.
Residents, many of whom lost their homes and possessions, told El Universal they weren’t told to evacuate before the hurricane arrived and complained that aid was taking too long to arrive. Locals also said the damage caused by Agatha is greater than that produced by Pauline. “Unfortunately we don’t have anywhere to live,” Ortiz said.
In Macahuite, another Santa María Tonameca community, a group of women told El Universal that no supplies have arrived.
“They’ve abandoned us, we don’t have food or water to drink. There are small children and seniors in need. Nothing has reached us,” one woman said.
Governor Murat, who visited hurricane-ravaged communities on Thursday, told El Universal that the army and the navy are the only authorities authorized to deliver aid and are doing so “in accordance with the protocols.”
He said that authorities will respond to the damage in a gradual way and noted that the total number of victims has not yet been established.
“The censuses are only just beginning. We’re still in an emergency stage, which is aimed at saving lives and at the same time supplying what is essential … [for survival], which is food and shelter,” Murat said.
The governor reported Friday morning that the hurricane death toll remained at nine – two fewer than previously reported – and that five people were missing.
Trash discarded in the streets that accumulates at drains is a major cause of the capital's annual problems with flooding. Borough of Miguel Hidalgo/Twitter
Garbage collectors have removed a huge quantity of trash from Mexico City dams, drains and streets over the past four months as authorities aim to mitigate flooding during the rainy season.
Guillermo Ayala, an official with the Mexico City Risk Management and Civil Protection Ministry, said that almost 182,000 cubic meters of trash have been removed from 121 key locations.
The newspaper Reforma reported that the quantity is sufficient to completely fill Estadio Azteca, the huge soccer stadium on the capital’s south side.
Ayala said that the accumulation of trash – which frequently clogs drains – is “the main and only reason” for flooding in the capital. The problem is particularly bad in Mexico City’s most densely populated areas, he said, apparently referring to boroughs such as Iztapalapa and Gustavo A. Madero.
Littering – including the disposal of refuse by businesses, especially those with street stalls – is the main cause of the problem, which appears to be getting worse. The quantity of garbage collected between February and June was 57% higher than in the same period of last year.
Ayala said that the amount of trash has increased this year because there are more people on the street due to the decline of the pandemic. He also said that there were fewer workers to collect trash in 2020 and 2021 due to high levels of absenteeism associated with the pandemic.
One of the locations where massive quantities of rubbish accumulate is on Zaragoza Road near the Santa Martha Acatitla women’s prison in Iztapalapa.
Ayala said that 25 tonnes of trash were collected there in one 36-hour period. He blamed heavy foot traffic and the presence of a tianguis, or open-air market, for the large amount of litter.
Flooding is common in parts of Mexico City during the rainy season, which usually starts in late May or early June and concludes in October.
A massive drainage tunnel was built to reduce flooding, but inundations in the capital will likely remain an annual occurrence as long as people continue to litter.
Federal consumer protection agency Profeco tested 17 milk brands on the market and found violations, including one that couldn't legally be called milk.
One of 17 brands of milk for sale in Mexico tested by the federal consumer protection agency Profeco was not actually milk due to the ingredients added to it, while some others had incorrect labels or packaging.
For the June edition of its magazine Revista del Consumidor, Profeco analyzed eight full-cream milks and nine others.
The agency declared that Los 19 Hermanos full-cream milk is not in fact milk because it contains vegetable fat.
“It turns out that a milk made in the highlands of Jalisco is not milk because they add vegetable fat, and that can’t be done,” said Profeco chief Ricardo Sheffield. “People feel that the milk is creamy but it’s not — because it contains soy,” he said.
The Los Hermanos 19 brand emphasizes its lower-than-average prices, but Profeco says its full-cream milk contains soy.
The producer, a family company called Los 19 Hermanos, will be fined.
Profeco also found that one of the company’s products didn’t have as much milk as its packaging says. Liter bags of Los 19 Hermanos milk sold in lots of three contained as little as 964 milliliters. Profeco detected a deficit of 107 ml across one lot of three-liter bags.
Another swindler was the Querétaro full cream milk brand. Profeco found that its 1.89 liter bottles contained up to 75 ml less than the amount printed on the label.
Two Lala milk products also fell foul of Profeco’s analysis. Neither the Lala 100 Fresca lactose-free, low carb, partially skimmed milk nor the Lala 100 Fresca lactose-free partially skimmed milk contains enough non-fat solids to be considered lactose-free milk. In addition, neither milk met density requirements for lactose-free milk.
“The process to which these products are subjected to eliminate lactose results in the density parameters and the quantity of non-fat solids being lower than required,” Profeco said.
The milk brands that passed Profeco’s analysis without a hitch are listed below:
A man in a Oaxaca community receives aid from a member of Mexico's navy. images from Civil Protection Mexico
Eight thousand food packages and over 33,000 liters of water are among the supplies that have been flown to Oaxaca for victims of Hurricane Agatha.
Five military planes have flown supplies from the Felipe Ángeles International Airport near Mexico City to the airport in Huatulco, located about 50 kilometers from where the Category 2 hurricane made landfall on Monday.
Ten thousand blankets and an equal number of sleeping mats have also reached the Oaxaca coast, as have five teams of emergency health personnel.
The military is using eight helicopters to distribute the supplies to Pochutla, Puerto Ángel, Zipolite, Mazunte, La Herradura, El Limón, Pluma Hidalgo, Derramadero, Bajos de Coyol, El Copilita, Xanica and Santa María Huatulco, the army said in a statement.
Members of the military deliver food and water to residents of Oaxaca by helicopter.
Some communities have been cut off due to mudslides and flooding caused by heavy rain brought by Agatha.
A community kitchen and water purification plant have been set up in Huatulco for the benefit of hurricane victims.
The army also said that almost 3,000 members of the armed forces and National Guard have evacuated people at risk, removed trees and vehicles from roads, cleared mud, cleaned homes, distributed food, attended to people in shelters, offered medical assistance and set up shelters.
Some 120 military vehicles have been deployed to assist the search, rescue, damage repair and cleanup efforts, to which municipal and state authorities are also contributing.
The hurricane claimed at least nine lives — two fewer than previously reported — and four people remained missing as of early Thursday.
Cecilia Cahum Cahum and her niece Melany Ariana Cahum Chan hang out at the pond near their Maya community in the jungle, only a short drive and a hike away from bustling Tulum. Molly Ferrill
Cecilia Cahum Cahum and her family have lived in a traditional Maya community in the jungle since she was a small child. Located only an hour’s drive from Tulum, the community has made a living from tourism for years, but when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, things changed.
In a meeting between five Maya communities, Cecilia’s family and others decided to isolate themselves completely from the outside world. “Since we know how to farm and survive in the jungle, we decided to protect ourselves from the virus that way,” she explained.
Cecilia and her brothers gave up their jobs in the city and joined the community where, for six months, no one was allowed to come or go for any reason. They cultivated beans, squash, corn, sweet potatoes, and other vegetables, and raised chickens. None of the community members came down with COVID.
When they emerged from isolation, over 1,000 people had died of the virus in their state of Quintana Roo — and indigenous people who caught it had been hit the hardest.
Cecilia’s brother Victor Facundo Cahum Cahum farms the land every day in the jungle, often finding birds’ nests and other signs of wildlife surrounding the community. Molly Ferrill
Stretching from Cancún to Tulum, Mexico’s Riviera Maya depends heavily on tourism. Mexico remained open to air travel throughout the pandemic, with no testing, quarantine, or vaccine requirements, and over 35 million international tourists visited the country between January 2020 and August 2021. In the period from January to August in 2021, more international tourists flew into Cancún than any other Mexican city, according to Tourism Ministry data.
Alarming statistics began to surface early in the pandemic. Many people working in tourism in the Riviera Maya caught the virus, but the fatality rate for those who tested positive for coronavirus in Mexico was roughly 50% higher for indigenous people than it was for the rest of the population during the first year of the pandemic, according to analysis by the data journalism organization Data Crítica.
Health inequities and financial and social barriers were all found to be contributing factors; studies linked this disproportionate fatality rate to the presence of comorbidities like high blood pressure and diabetes in the indigenous population, likely due to a lower quality diet which put them at higher risk for COVID-related complications.
Risk of exposure was also especially high for many indigenous people in the Riviera Maya; the highest COVID death toll of indigenous people in Mexico was registered in the Cancún area, where many hold informal jobs in tourism. Some indigenous people like the members of Cecilia’s community, however, had the option and the necessary expertise to leave their jobs and return to a rural lifestyle, a choice that illuminated the community’s strengths and knowledge and may have saved lives.
Cecilia’s niece Dayami Xareni Cahum Dzul plays with a dog at home in their community. Molly Ferrill
According to Rommel Santiago Salazar Perera, a Maya nurse and farmer, isolation from the increased COVID risk presented by the tourism industry isn’t the only reason that indigenous people might be better off in rural areas than they are in the cities of the Riviera Maya. Returning to a traditional farming lifestyle is a health advantage in itself because farmers harvest and consume their own produce, which provides better nutrition than an average indigenous family might be able to afford in the city.
Salazar himself benefits from a government program called Sembrando Vida (Sowing Life), through which many indigenous and non-indigenous farmers are paid for their farming work and are provided with fruit, spice, and timber trees. Jesús Ariel Suaste Salazar, an indigenous regional leader of the Sembrando Vida program, said the project has allowed many indigenous people in the areas surrounding the Riviera Maya to live in the countryside during the COVID-19 pandemic and fully support themselves through farming.
Unlike Cecilia’s community, some of these indigenous farmers did not isolate completely during the pandemic, and some did catch COVID-19, but Suaste said that due to the overall superior health of the rural indigenous community, many of those who got sick were able to recover easily at home. The spread of the virus was also slower, since farmers in rural areas had more space to isolate themselves from family members than those living in cramped conditions in the city.
While the role of indigenous people in the typical tourism model of the Riviera Maya has historically placed them in low-income, high-COVID exposure roles that likely contributed to the high number of indigenous deaths in the area, indigenous-led ecotourism initiatives are now surfacing that capitalize on their own culture and knowledge of the natural world. The initiatives have allowed these communities to benefit more directly and control their own health risks and safety during the pandemic.
Jesús Ariel Suaste Salazar and his wife pick limes in their garden a few hours away from the Riviera Maya. They both got sick with COVID early in the pandemic, but they were able to recover at home. They attribute their quick recovery to their eating a healthy traditional Maya diet of fruits and vegetables from their farm, which is supported in part through the Mexican government’s Sembrando Vida program. Molly Ferrill
Although Cecilia’s family was able to survive on subsistence farming during their isolation, they now hope to increase their income and capitalize on the booming tourism industry nearby as pandemic risks subside. They are currently working to further develop an ecotourism program they had started before the pandemic; she and her family are welcoming tourists into their community to learn about their way of life in the jungle, spend time in nature, and taste the traditional food grown and prepared there.
The family also plans to expand their sustainable farm: “We haven’t forgotten how to live the traditional way, and we feel that it is important to keep the farm going,” explained Cecilia’s brother, Victor Facundo Cahum Cahum.
Cecilia’s family is part of a larger movement to establish successful indigenous-led ecotourism programs across the region. The indigenous cooperative “Community Tours Sian Ka’an” takes tourists out on boats to learn about the ecosystem and wildlife species in the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve, a UNESCO world heritage site near Tulum. Tourists can also learn about Maya culture through visits to archaeological sites within the reserve.
The cooperative was able to continue the tours for much of the pandemic with low risk of COVID since their activities are outdoors and workers can keep their distance from tourists. Roman Caamal Coh, general manager of the cooperative, said he hopes this type of ecotourism can continue to grow and empower indigenous people. With increasing interest from tourists in nature- and culture-based experiences, indigenous-run ecotourism programs are now meeting a growing demand.
A member of the Maya ecotourism group “Community Tours Sian Ka’an” operates a tourist boat in the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve. The reserve holds special meaning for the local Maya community; its name means “where the sky is born.” Tourism slowed early in the pandemic, but has now picked back up, providing an income for the indigenous tour guides. Molly Ferrill
It remains to be seen what will happen in the Riviera Maya as the pandemic continues to unfold. The spread of COVID-19 has revealed underlying inequities in communities across the world, and in the touristic Riviera Maya it has brought to light a need to address social and health justice for indigenous people, many of whom were heavily impacted by the virus before the option to vaccinate became available.
However, the pandemic has also revealed great strengths in the indigenous community in Mexico, such as the ability of many local indigenous people to protect themselves by returning to a traditional rural lifestyle as Cecilia’s community did, and it has helped spark the development of new indigenous-run projects in the region. Many leaders of indigenous-led ecotourism programs hope to carry their businesses into the post-pandemic world, empowering an indigenous population that has faced marginalization in the past.
They believe that the indigenous connection to nature and the land can contribute to the health, safety, and prosperity of local communities as well as that of the broader tourism industry as they begin to lead projects that capitalize on their own unique set of knowledge and experience.
During tours of the community, Cecilia’s mother Aurelia Cahum Balam shows visitors how she makes traditional Maya meals with fresh ingredients from the farm. Molly Ferrill
In line to receive the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine, Dulce María explained that a woman had stopped by her house on her way to Cancún to get vaccinated, and she decided to go too. Dulce María had been isolated in her house in a rural area during the entire pandemic, and was excited to be able to start leaving the house safely again. Molly Ferrill
Laysa Guadalupe Yam Un sits in the room where she quarantined from her family when she came down with COVID. She was able to recover quickly at home, and none of her family members caught the virus. Laysa is a Maya farmer and a beneficiary of the Sembrando Vida program, and lives a few hours outside the Riviera Maya. Molly Ferrill
Gustavo Cruz Mendez, María Montejo Días, and Isaias Altunar Hernandez all come from different indigenous communities in Chiapas, Mexico, and moved to the Riviera Maya for work. They all feel proud of their heritage, and speak different indigenous languages. They say that many indigenous people feel ashamed to speak with them in their indigenous languages due to the prejudice that is held by many against indigenous people in the country. Gustavo and María got sick with COVID early in the pandemic, and recovered with the help of traditional medicinal plants grown in their own yard combined with mainstream medicine. Molly Ferrill
Cecilia’s brother Efrain Cahum explains the rural lifestyle of the community to a group of tourists from France soon after the reopening of the community for ecotourism. Molly Ferrill
This project was funded by the National Geographic Society.
