Angry citizens demanded justice with a protest in the streets of Amatlán.
The deaths of two teenagers killed in crossfire in mountainous Amatlán, Veracruz, have created conflicting emotions.
Sorrow echoed around a humble house of metal sheets and wooden planks, where two white coffins lay adorned with candles and flowers, and dozens of people mourned their loss. Outside, fury reigned as protesters demanded justice.
Cousins Jonathan, 13, and Eduardo, 14, were caught in a shootout between state police officers and presumed members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) on July 2.
Residents occupied the Córdoba-Cuichapa highway, which was closed to traffic. On Saturday, the blockade was extended to a junction that connects the road with the Puebla-Veracruz highway.
Jonathan was shot three times and Eduardo was shot twice, their relatives confirmed. The teenagers had walked a few blocks from home to wash a pickup truck and earn some money.
Before leaving the house, their mothers had congratulated them on their high school grades. “They were the kind of kids that studied … we told them that they had done well and they were thrilled,” Jonathon’s mother said.
“They didn’t deserve to be killed like this … all for a few pesos, ” she added.
State Governor Cuitláhuac García Jiménez confirmed that the cousins were innocent bystanders.
“Unfortunately it was in a populated area, it was in the vicinity of the central square … there were vans with armed people, who faced state officials and an attack started. Unfortunately two young people died who had nothing to do with it,” he said.
Mexico is a country that offers such a dizzying array of native alcoholic beverages that for the astute researcher, a prolonged stay may require packing an extra liver.
As mezcal is becoming more popular in cocktails at high-end bars across the world and pulque is being canned in Chicago, it surprised me to discover another pre-Hispanic drink, pox.
Pronounced posh, this traditionally fermented corn-based spirit (although more modern variants are made with wheat or cane or both) has for centuries been sacred to the Tzotzil Maya of Chiapas, chiefly in San Cristóbal de las Casas, San Juan de Chamula, and Tenajapa. First and foremost, a medicine (poshil means means medicine in Tzotzil), this enchanted elixir is also believed to act as a mediator or doorway to the underworld, to ensure that both are in balance.
Pox is used in major ceremonies such as births, baptisms, weddings and funerals.
In the book Ancient Mayan Commoners, anthropologist Evon Z. Vogt writes that at most Tzotzil ceremonies, “a ritual meal is always served on a rectangular table oriented along the daily path of the sun … at the center of the rising sun end of the table are placed a bottle of sugarcane liquor, a shot glass and a bowl of salt.”
Posheria’s workers prepare the pox beverage over a roughly 28-day lunar cycle, in accordance with traditional methods.
“It is here at the head of the table that the tot’il-me’iletik [fathers-mothers], the ancestral gods of the patrilineage, are believed to be seated,” he writes. “These ancestors inhabit hills or mountains above the lands on which their descendants live, but they come to participate in the ceremony … the senior man signals the young man designated as the drink pourer to serve the first round of liquor from the bottle at the head of the table. (Here the participants are symbolically drinking with the ancestors, and the liquor is believed to open the circuits of communication with these supernaturals).”
There has been little chance to appreciate this nectar of the ancestors outside of several villages in Chiapas, which is why the rest of us are fortunate that in 2010, Julio de la Cruz opened Posheria, which has opened the palate of the world to this magical medicine.
In 2010, when he discovered the magic of pox for himself, Cruz was a jewelry maker who happened to go on a tour with a friend who was a prominent local guide in San Cristóbal and the surrounding areas. On this occasion, they visited the village of Tenejapa, and a family invited them into their house where a ceremony was being prepared.
Glasses were produced, and Cruz and his friend were offered the transparent liquid. Feeling as if he needed to drink it so as not to offend their hosts (among them the mayordomo, or host), he drank and marveled at the taste, filled with an immediate need to know more about this spirit.
“It was in the highlands, with the copal [a type of tree], with the traditional music of this community, in their traditional dress. At that moment, the magic started, the adventure,” Cruz said.
Later, he asked his friend, “What was that drink they gave us?”
Julio de la Cruz, founder of Posheria.
After he was told it was pox and that it was a traditional drink among the Tzotzil Maya, Cruz decided then and there to explore more about this sacred beverage.
He was introduced to a man named Don Lorenzo, who would become his teacher and mentor as he learned the subtleties of making pox in the traditional way. Going back to Don Lorenzo’s grandfather, the family had only produced pox made of corn.
This is the more traditional way to make it, and on one particularly meaningful occasion, Don Lorenzo gave Cruz his family’s recipe.
At first, Cruz needed to convince people that pox was not dangerous, that it would not make them blind, that it was a liquor to be esteemed alongside tequila and mezcal. Now, fortunately, that is not part of Cruz’s job, and the popularity of Posheria is growing every year, so much so that they are looking at opening an office in New York to allow for greater export to the very thirsty United States market.
It took years of work and patience to legitimatize Posheria by all local and national standards. In 2012, the Mexican government created the Marca Chiapas distinction, whose stamp verifies products made in Chiapas. Posheria was the first producer of the spirit to receive this auspice.
As more people became aware of Posheria and more media told Cruz’s story, the brand grew to open another location on the popular Paseo do Montejo in Mérida, Yucatán.
Posheria in San Cristóbal de las Casas.
In accordance with the sacred, cosmic import of pox in Tzotzil Maya culture, all batches made by Posheria follow a 28-day period, starting with the new moon and culminating in a finished product at the end of the lunar cycle.
Spring water and ingredients are added to a large wooden barrel, whose contents must then be stirred with a wooden paddle from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Stirring is done in shifts among a group of people to ensure consistency.
After this, the barrel is covered for roughly seven to nine days, when the lid is taken off and, as Cruz explains the fermentation process, “You see the soul, the life of the posh. You can see the way that it moves, that it’s alive.”
After this, the liquid is put into barrels on top of a wood fire and distilled. The pox is then bottled and labeled by hand roughly a full lunar cycle after the process started.
Currently, Posheria offers various poxes — Pox Tradicional, Pox Ancestral, Pox Ceremonial, and Pox Sabores (with over 20 flavors, from coffee to mango), which can be purchased in bottles or in a cocktail in their two locations, as well as in shops and bars from Mexico City to Tulum.
Pox has made its way since the 2010s into high-end bars in places like Mexico City and Tulum, but interest in the beverage is also gaining outside Mexico, with several establishments in the U.S. pouring the beverage for their customers. In fact, the international market is growing to the extent that Cruz is planning to open an office in New York, and he recently received a call from a restaurant in Ireland interested in making an order.
Cruz emphasized how honored and grateful he felt to introduce pox to people from around the world, showcasing a previously little-known facet of Mexico’s history and culture. By focusing so acutely on preserving the traditional way of doing things, as well as bringing pox to people who have never experienced or heard of it, Posheria is maintaining and enlarging the reach of traditional Mayan medicine for generations to come.
• To find out more about Posheria visit their website at www.posheria.mx.
Andy Hill is a traveler and writer living in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas.
Tomás Rojo diappeared May 27; his body was found three weeks later.
The man accused of murdering a Yaqui leader in Sonora has been named as 26-year-old Francisco “N,” also known as “El Morocho,” and money is the suspected motive.
Tomás Rojo Valencia, a spokesman for his community, disappeared May 27 amid tensions over months of periodic blockades over gas ducts, water pipelines and railway lines that run across Yaqui territory.
Rojo’s body was found half buried in a rural area near the Yaqui town of Vícam on June 17, according to prosecutors, who said his head had been bashed in, probably with a hammer found near the scene.
State Attorney General Claudia Conteras said criminal gangs wanting money could be at the root of the murder.
“Criminal groups were interested in illegal benefits from charging tolls on the highway,” she said. “Tomás Rojo was pushing for the installation of a toll booth to bring order to the process of charging tolls, to benefit the Yaqui people,” she added.
Toll roads are tied to the politically sensitive topic of roadblocks, in which protest groups take over existing booths or set up an improvised blockade to charge motorists to pass. Officials say protesters raised about US $150 million by occupying toll plazas in 2020.
Businessmen and truckers have said that roadblocks in Yaqui territory inhibit the movement of raw materials and exports, and have complained protesters were sometimes abusive or demanded money to allow them to pass. In February, a trucker plowed through a Yaqui roadblock, hitting and killing a member of the group.
The president is expected to apologize to the Yaqui people for crimes committed against them by the state between 1870 and 1880 in what is known as the Yaqui War.
CJNG sicarios posed with their faces uncovered in a series of 2021 photos. cuartoscuro
Some members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) have no qualms about showing their faces, a sign they’re confident that official security forces are powerless to stop them and they will be able to continue their criminal activities with impunity.
The photo agency Cuartoscuro has published a series of images taken in Aguililla, Michoacán, that show heavily armed CJNG members without the face coverings they are typically seen wearing in photographs and videos posted to social media.
Gunmen sporting bulletproof vests emblazoned with the CJNG initials stare directly and menacingly at the camera in some of the photos, which were taken by a photographer who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of reprisals.
The images show off the immense firepower of the cartel, generally considered Mexico’s most powerful and violent criminal organization.
The photos were taken during a military-style march held last week in Aguililla, the Tierra Caliente municipality from which CJNG leader Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes hails.
Armored sicario transport.
The municipality has become a battleground for the CJNG, which has been fighting the Cárteles Unidos for control. According to some media reports, the Jalisco cartel seized control of Aguililla earlier this year but violence has continued to plague the municipality, causing many residents to flee. The region of which Aguililla is part is coveted by criminal groups due to its proximity to Pacific coast ports, through which illegal drugs are smuggled into the country, as well as its iron mines and forests, according to a report by the newspaper El País.
That some CJNG members have now chosen to reveal their faces to a photographer in broad daylight is perhaps unsurprising given that the cartel has become increasingly brazen. It paraded a homemade tank it apparently seized from the Viagras crime gang in the municipality in March, and attacked police with explosive-laden drones in April.
The cartel has also set up roadblocks preventing access to Aguililla, where organized crime is flourishing due to the absence of the state, according to the Vatican’s ambassador to Mexico.
Authorities have faced a constant battle to keep roads into the municipality open because roadblocks and trenches are often reestablished and dug again shortly after they are dismantled and filled in.
Residents have faced shortages of essential goods because delivery trucks have frequently been unable to get into Aguililla and citizens been unable to get out to shop and access services in neighboring municipalities. Some residents last week prevented an army helicopter from landing in the town because they were fed up with soldiers getting supplies while they are forced to go without.
At a meeting between residents, authorities and soldiers in Aguililla on Tuesday, the army committed to ensuring that the Aguililla-Apatzingan highway remains open during daylight hours, reported the newspaper Milenio, which was granted access to the gathering.
Sicarios unmasked in Michoacán. cuartoscuro
Aguililla residents also called for social programs to be restarted, for a government well-being bank to be opened in the town and for electricity, telephone and internet services to be guaranteed. Community activists said that federal and state authorities committed to meeting the demands.
Ana Elizabeth García hosts the first weekly episode of Who's Who in This Week's Lies last Wednesday.
It takes chutzpah to disregard facts and then lecture the media about telling the truth.
President López Obrador has long harangued journalists — the Financial Times included — for publishing “unprofessional” and “unethical” stories that criticize him.
But now he has gone a step further, devoting a weekly segment of his morning news conferences, or mañaneras, to naming and shaming columnists and media outlets for publishing news he deems untrue.
The new exercise, “Who’s Who in This Week’s Lies?”, is rich in irony, coming from a president who has been less than truthful 56,181 times at the “mañanera” conferences since December 2018, according to the consultancy Spin. By its tally, López Obrador utters an average of 88 untruths per news conference.
In this he is similar to former U.S. president Donald Trump, who has been accused of making more than 30,000 false claims — not least that he, rather than Joe Biden, won the presidential election.
López Obrador: attempting to monopolize the truth.
López Obrador’s mañanera — held Monday to Friday in an imposing salon in the National Palace after the president’s 6 a.m. security cabinet meeting — is both a remarkable democratic exercise and a daily display of stamina from the 67-year-old, who never sits down, even when it drags into a third hour.
Listening can be tedious, with endless repetition and regular digressions — sometimes inaccurate, according to academics — that reflect the president’s passion for 19th-century history. His delivery is slow and yet he is a highly effective communicator who can be mesmerizing.
The inaugural Who’s Who segment last week was littered with inaccuracies — including an erroneous claim about a Forbes report into government spying on journalists and activists dating back to 2017, before the president took office.
López Obrador maintains that his media critics deliberately distort or overlook his achievements because they oppose his plans to “transform” Mexico and hark back to a past in which they received political favours. For him, the mañanera, and “Who’s Who in This Week’s Lies” in particular, is a way to redress the balance.
“I’m really sorry a journalist like you is so ill-informed,” the president this week told Jorge Ramos, as the Mexican reporter and anchor at U.S. network Univision hauled him over the coals about his handling of crime and Covid-19.
Quoting the government’s own figures, Ramos pressed the president on his failure to reduce homicide levels and about Mexico having racked up the world’s fourth highest pandemic death toll.
Looking irritated, López Obrador called the criticism “slander” and anti-government “bias.” He claimed that Ramos had been misinformed and that he had “other data” — an excuse he regularly falls back on.
The government’s message has also clashed with reality over shortages of cancer drugs for children. Hugo López-Gatell, deputy health minister, caused a storm last month when he said protests by desperate parents were being whipped up by international rightwing groups with a “quasi coup-like vision.”
The government has also been accused of making the facts fit the narrative in this year’s commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the fall of the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlán, and the 200th anniversary of Mexico’s independence from Spain.
Although scholars often cite 1325 as the year Tenochtitlán was founded, López Obrador insists it was 1321 and has thus added the 700th anniversary of the founding of the ancient city to this year’s commemorations as a way of reclaiming Mexico’s indigenous heritage.
López Obrador’s attempt to monopolize the truth is worrying even for some of his supporters.
“It’s a serious problem, and it’s dangerous,” says Germán Anonio Hernández, a López Obrador voter from the working-class suburb of Ecatepec. Hernández praises the president for delivering more money to the poor but says he had hoped to see more results by now, halfway through the president’s term.
“He needs to listen to and accept criticism,” he says.
Deputy Health Minister López-Gatell speaks to reporters Tuesday morning.
Mexico has entered a third wave of the pandemic, the federal government’s coronavirus point man acknowledged on Tuesday.
“We have a situation where there is a spike [in case numbers], the third of the pandemic and second of the year,” Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell told reporters at President López Obador’s morning press conference.
“But fortunately, and for a known reason, which is vaccination, deaths are not increasing at the same speed,” he said.
However, Covid-19 fatalities did increase significantly in June compared to May. The Health Ministry reported 9,479 deaths last month, a 42% spike compared to 6,661 in May. Confirmed case numbers increased 53% in June to 105,527 from 68,987 in May.
An additional 642 deaths and 22,604 cases were reported in the first five days of July for daily averages of 128 fatalities and 4,521 new infections. The accumulated case tally currently stands at 2.54 million, while the official Covid-19 death toll is 233,689.
López-Gatell said that vaccination is preventing severe Covid-19 disease but also acknowledged that hospitalization rates have recently increased. He noted that some states have seen “very significant” increases in case numbers and hospitalizations.
Baja California Sur, one of just five high risk orange light states, recorded the biggest jump in case numbers in June, with new infections surging 366% to 1,721 from 369 in May.
Many of the new cases recently detected in Mexico were among young people, most of whom have not yet been vaccinated against Covid-19. The highly infectious Delta strain of the virus is now circulating in at least a third of Mexico’s states, but it has not yet become the dominant variant here, as has occurred in some countries.
Some studies have indicated that some vaccines don’t offer robust protection against the Delta strain but López-Gatell said recently that such a finding was “still controversial.”
Laurie Ximénez-Fyvie, a professor of molecular genetics at the National Autonomous University, told Reuters that if the Delta variant does spread widely in Mexico – where less effective Chinese vaccines have been widely used – the nation’s coronavirus situation could deteriorate further.
Coronavirus cases and deaths in Mexico as reported by day. milenio
She said that a new rebound in case numbers was “definitely” underway and warned that the current vaccination rate in Mexico – where about a quarter of the entire population and approximately 40% of adults have received at least one shot – may be insufficient to blunt the third wave.
“If Uruguay and Chile, which have vaccinated around 60% of their population, cannot stop the rebound, why could we with 20%?” Ximénez-Fyvie said.
Both South American countries have relied heavily on Chinese-made vaccines to inoculate their populations.
The SinoVac and CanSino vaccines, which Mexico has used to vaccinate millions of people including large numbers of seniors and teachers, are only 51% and 65% effective, respectively, in preventing the symptomatic disease, whereas studies show the Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Sputnik shots – which have also been used here – have significantly higher efficacy rates. It was recently reported that at least four people in Oaxaca vaccinated with CanSino were seriously ill with Covid-19. The protection the Chinese vaccines offer against the Delta strain is unclear.
More than 47 million vaccine doses have been administered since the national vaccination rollout began on December 24 but tens of millions of Mexicans, mainly young adults, have not yet been inoculated.
However, the government has opened up the vaccination registration process to people aged 18 and above across Mexico – even as some people in their 40s are yet to receive their first shot.
A protesting cyclist took a direct route when she found a car parked in a bike path in the historic center of Querétaro: she decided to walk straight over it.
In a video that has been viewed more than 12,300 times the female cyclist wearing a food delivery backpack carries her bike over the vehicle and stomps on the back window before jumping off the trunk. Fellow protesters can be heard shouting to drivers: “It’s a bike path, don’t you understand?”
The Union of Cyclists in Querétaro (UCIQ) organized the march on June 30 to demand safer conditions for bicycle riders, primarily to prevent further deaths on the road. During the march a UCIQ member was hit by a public bus.
The bold act of the female cyclist sparked debate on social media. “If the vehicle was obstructing the bike lane, which is only for cyclists … I support the cyclist,” wrote one user.
“These streets do not have enough space for a bike lane … [they] are not big enough to have cars, bikes, spaces to park and wide sidewalks,” argued another.
Una ciclista repartidora de DIDI pasó por encima de un vehículo, debido a que el automovilista no respetó la ciclovía en el centro histórico de #Querétaro; el auto resulto dañado. pic.twitter.com/sM9EMUzttL
UCIQ member José Antonio Morán said a change in thinking was essential. “When there is a lack of road culture … and authorities stay silent and speeding, recklessness and non-compliance with traffic rules are not adequately sanctioned we fall into the chaos,” he said.
The city’s transportation director, Saúl Obregón, argued that authorities had worked to create a safe environment for cyclists. He said the municipality had invested more than 43 million pesos (US $2.15 million) to build 80,000 square meters of bike lanes and had spent 10 million pesos on over 8,000 street signs.
According to the news portal Infobae, Querétaro has seen 43 accidents so far this year involving drivers and cyclists, resulting in three deaths.
Cárdenas is charged with torturing kidnapping suspects.
A former Federal Police commander considered the right-hand man of imprisoned ex-security minister Genaro García Luna was arrested in México state on Monday on charges of torturing kidnapping suspects in 2012, federal authorities said.
The federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) said Luis Cárdenas Palominio was arrested early Monday at a property in Naucalpan, a México state municipality that borders Mexico City. The navy supported an FGR operation to execute an arrest warrant against the suspect.
Cárdenas, who served as a high-ranking law enforcement official during several federal governments, is linked to “probable acts of torture that occurred in 2012 against alleged kidnappers,” the FGR said.
He was transferred to México state’s Altiplano maximum security prison on Monday afternoon.
Cárdenas has also been accused by United States prosecutors of accepting multi-million-dollar bribes from the Sinaloa Cartel.
García Luna was detained in Texas in December 2019 on charges he allowed the Sinaloa Cartel to operate in exchange for large bribes. Former president Felipe Calderón’s security minister has denied the allegations and is awaiting trial in New York.
It was unclear whether federal authorities would consider extraditing Cárdenas – a regional security chief for the Federal Police during the 2006-2012 Calderón administration – to the United States.
President López Obrador said Monday that he didn’t know whether extradition would occur. He said the former official’s arrest was evidence that corruption and impunity is no longer tolerated in Mexico.
“He was detained because there is no longer impunity, and that helps a lot,” López Obrador said.
The president, who pointed to widespread corruption and abuses in the Federal Police as a significant factor in his decision to disband the force in 2019, has said previously that evidence against García Luna revealed by U.S. authorities showed that Mexico was a narco-state during Calderón’s 2006-12 administration.
Cárdenas was perhaps best known by many Mexicans for his involvement in a staged, televised arrest in 2005 of two kidnapping suspects who had actually been detained the day before.
Prior to his arrest, he was apparently living a comfortable life in Paseo del Bosque, an upper middle class residential estate in Naucalpan. He grew a beard in an apparent attempt to conceal his identity but had not gone into hiding, as federal authorities had suspected.
“He liked cars, I saw him in a Porsche; a car like that doesn’t attract attention here in the estate because there are several. … He said hello when we saw each other and was friendly. … We didn’t know who he was until we saw his photo [in the media] this morning,” one resident told the newspaper Reforma.
“It seemed that his life was normal. He used to go out in a SUV with a woman I believe was his wife and a few kids. He had a very big dog, almost the size of a St. Bernard. Sometimes they arrived with supermarket bags and once we saw him and his family leave with suitcases, I think they were going on vacation. He didn’t bother anyone and no one bothered him.”
Jorge Ramos and President López Obrador engaged in an exchange that could have been mistaken for a Monty Python skit.
President López Obrador and United States-based Mexican journalist Jorge Ramos engaged in a robust verbal duel on Monday morning as the latter challenged the former on his record in reducing violent crime and managing the coronavirus pandemic.
Ramos, a reporter for the U.S.-based Spanish language television network Univision, appeared at López Obrador’s morning press conference — the mañanera — at the National Palace in Mexico City, and didn’t hold back when given the opportunity to probe the president.
“I was here at the mañanera in January of 2020 to ask you about the terrible wave of violence here in the country and you told me the following, and I’m quoting: ‘There will be results this year,’” Ramos said.
“Well, more than a year later, there are results but very negative ones, Mr. President. Your government is on track to become the most violent in the modern history of Mexico – more than 86,000 [violent] deaths up to now since you were sworn in, according to official figures. If things stay the same, there will be more deaths than … [during the governments of former presidents] Peña Nieto and Calderón,” he said.
“Femicides continue to increase with respect to last year – you know it, you said it last week – and outside the bubble of the National Palace, the country is not in peace and tranquility, [as you claimed] Mr. President. They’re killing almost 100 Mexicans a day, in Aguililla, in Zacatecas, in Reynosa. … You’re almost halfway through your government and you’re still blaming ex-presidents for what you haven’t been able to do. So, my question is, do you believe that your [security] strategy of ‘hugs, not bullets’ has been a complete failure … and are you going to ask for help, because up to now you haven’t been able [to stem the violence].”
With a wry smile creeping across his face, López Obrador told Ramos that he didn’t agree with him, asserting that his administration has in fact made progress in improving the country’s security situation.
“… I have other information,” said AMLO, as the president is commonly, known, reverting to his favorite catchphrase when confronted with information which portrays him and his government in a negative light.
“… We’re having difficulty in reducing the crime of homicide as we would like but, this is important, we’ve managed to contain the growth in homicides that was occurring; there is even a reduction since we arrived, … of 3%,” he said.
Ramos pounced, acknowledging that homicide rates have stabilized but pointing out that the government has contained them at near record high levels.
“… [Violence levels] have stabilized at a high level – at the worst time of the war, in other words. … What I’m saying is that you can’t say there are 100 murders a day and that’s a success,” he said.
“Of course it’s not an easy issue,” the president responded. “I already explained – we inherited a rotten fruit. I’m not blaming former presidents without reason, you know well, and it’s in the public domain that [organized crime] was practically in charge of the management of security …” AMLO said.
The president presents ‘other information’ regarding homicide figures.
“I understand but there are no results. … There is no change,” countered Ramos before an exchange ensued that could almost be mistaken for a Monty Python skit, were the subject matter not so critical for the well-being of the country.
AMLO: “There is a change. I’m going to give you another piece of information.
Ramos: “But that’s the problem; you’re presenting [the information] as something positive and it’s not positive.
AMLO: “I’m going to give you the information from 2018 …”
Ramos: “There are massacres, there are murders.”
AMLO: “Yes, but it’s not the same.”
Ramos: “Three thousand a month.”
AMLO: “There are no longer massacres in the country.”
Ramos: “But what about Zacatecas, Aguililla and Reynosa?”
AMLO: Those are confrontations between [criminal] groups but it’s not the state, which was previously the main violator of human rights.”
Ramos: “… One of the main problems of the country is violence and that’s your responsibility now, Mr. President.”
AMLO: “Yes, yes, and I work [on the problem] every day.”
Ramos: “But there are no results.”
AMLO: “Of course there are. I respect your point of view but I don’t share it.”
Ramos: “They’re statistics from your own government, I got the figures from your own government.
AMLO: “I believe they gave you the wrong figures, I have other information.”
Ramos: “But there can’t be other information because it came from your government’s website, from the … National Public Security System.”
AMLO: “We’ll give you the information. … There has been a minimal reduction, I repeat, of 3% in the case of homicides. But in the case of vehicle theft … we have a reduction of 40%.”
Ramos: “But not in femicides, for example.”
AMLO: “Allow me, allow me [to continue], we’re going by parts. Kidnappings, down 40%, robberies in general, down, 26%. You say ‘femicide’ to me. Do you know when homicides of women were first classified as femicides? When we got into government.”
Ramos: “There were figures before, as well.”
AMLO: “Before, yes, [but] very few, [femicides] were recorded. Now there are more complaints and we’re acknowledging that there has been an increase but it must be taken into account that the murders of women during previous governments weren’t considered femicides. So we’re going to continue working to guarantee peace and tranquility, we have no doubt, Jorge.”
Ramos: “That’s why I’m talking about the bubble, because you speak of peace and tranquility, [but] leave the National Palace and there is no peace and tranquility.”
AMLO: “… There were elections [on June 6]. Of 160,000 voting booths, only 30 couldn’t be installed. There is governability in this country …”
Ante ola de violencia en México, el periodista Jorge Ramos increpa a AMLO
Journalist Jorge Ramos questions the president at Monday’s press conference.
Ramos: “And how many candidates were killed, Mr. President?”
AMLO: “Yes, unfortunately.”
Ramos: “It’s a tragedy.”
AMLO: “But in all cases, in the majority of cases, the culprits have been punished.”
Ramos: “The impunity in this country is more than 90%.”
AMLO: “No, in what corresponds to us, it’s zero impunity, there are no longer privileged people.”
Ramos: “I’m referring to the murders in this country, the majority of these murder cases are not resolved.”
The journalist and the president also clashed over Mexico’s Covid-19 death toll. Ramos asked López Obrador whether he accepted responsibility for the “the poor management of the pandemic” and received a perhaps predictable response:
“I don’t agree with you,” AMLO responded. Ramos noted that there is a discrepancy between the official Covid-19 death toll – currently more than 233,000 – and fatalities that the Health Ministry has acknowledged are associated with the disease. The discordant figures appear on the same government website, he said.
“I don’t understand why there are two figures, Mr. President,” Ramos said, citing a death toll of 351,00, although the Health Ministry said last week that 447,000 fatalities were attributable to Covid-19.
“Why not tell the truth, that there have been many more pandemic deaths in Mexico?”
In turn, the president accused the journalists of being “misinformed” and proceeded to present Covid-19 mortality data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
“I’m giving you statistics from your government,” said Ramos, who questioned why Mexico had the fourth highest death toll in the world when it ranks 10th in terms of population.
“No, my government’s figures are these, look,” AMLO responded before accusing Ramos of “slander” and presenting a table that showed that Mexico ranked sixth in Latin America for per capita Covid deaths – behind Peru, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina and Paraguay – and 19th in the world.
“This doesn’t change the enormous number of deaths here in Mexico, Mr. President,” Ramos argued.
“Ah, no? Because we have 126 million residents,” López Obrador said.
“… But there are countries that have a higher population and they have fewer people who died from Covid,” Ramos retorted.
“This is the updated [Covid deaths/population] relation, Jorge …,” AMLO replied dismissively.
“What you want to tell me is that you’ve managed the pandemic well?” Ramos asked.
“… You’re saying we’re doing well when in reality there are so many deaths. How can you say this to the families of the victims? You can’t, Mr. President, you can’t,” Ramos said.
“I don’t agree with you,” López Obrador declared once again. “With respect to what you say, I don’t agree and I feel that there’s an interest [behind] your questioning of our government, a bias. There is no problem because we have a calm conscience,” the president said before Ramos denied that he had any bias against him or his administration and was just doing his job.
The Univision journalist, who also works for the president’s least favorite newspaper, Reforma, has been asking tough questions of the president since early in his six-year term. AMLO was clearly annoyed at times as he was grilled today, providing more evidence for government critics who say that he is intolerant of press scrutiny and critical coverage – an accusation he denies.
The fire at the dump in Rincón de Guayabitos has been burning for more than three weeks.
A 24-day fire at a garbage dump at the Jaltemba Bay, Nayarit, is posing health risks to locals and firefighters and damaging crops in the area.
Authorities have been unable to extinguish the blaze at the La Colmena disposal site in Rincón de Guayabitos despite resident protests, official complaints and partial closures on the coastal highway.
The fire is emitting gases and rotten odors that are reaching the beach and hotel zone two kilometers away, which receive up to 90,000 tourists on long weekends, according to the newspaper Reforma.
Raúl Millán, a consultant at private security company CRS, warned locals not to consume pineapples grown in the surrounding areas and said that firefighters are tackling the blaze without adequate protection.
He added that even when the present situation is resolved, the site would require a biogas pipeline, a retaining wall and fencing to avoid longer term health effects.
State lawmaker Rosa Mirna Mora also voiced her concern for firefighters, who she said had reported symptoms of respiratory illness, shaking and physical weakness, and added that corruption and public mishandling were at the root of the problem.
Another state legislator Jorge Ortiz, said that when he went to examine the site there were only two firefighters fighting the almost two-hectare fire, armed with two firehoses, a shovel and a pickaxe.
The use of local resources is also part of the problem. Cristóbal Fernández, spokesman for a Jaltemba Bay environmental group, said there was another dump in the municipality which had not been put into operation, despite being completed in 2015 for a cost of 26 million pesos (about US $1.3 million).
