Jorge Alcocer appears before the Chamber of Deputies on Monday.
Health Minister Jorge Alcocer has once again claimed that COVID-19 vaccines could inhibit the development of children’s immune systems.
“… Children have a wonderful immune system compared to the later phases … of their life,” he said during an appearance in the lower house of Congress.
In that context, “hindering” the “learning” of a child’s immune system – the “cells that defend us our whole lives” – with a “completely inorganic structure” such as a vaccine is not the right thing to do, the health minister said.
Health regulator Cofepris has approved the use of the Pfizer vaccine to inoculate youths aged 12 to 17 but the federal government hasn’t made the shot widely available to minors, and hasn’t indicated it will do so.
However, it has begun inoculating adolescents with underlying health conditions that place them at risk of serious COVID-19 illness, and vaccinated minors who obtained injunctions ordering they be given shots.
In other COVID-19 news:
• Amid criticism from opposition lawmakers for the government’s response to the pandemic, Alcocer said that Mexico is on the path back to normality. He said that case numbers have been on the wane for 11 weeks and noted that the majority of Mexico’s 32 states are low risk green on the federal government’s coronavirus stoplight map.
• The Health Ministry reported 4,538 new cases and 392 additional COVID-19 deaths on Tuesday. Mexico’s accumulated tallies are currently just under 3.79 million and 286,888, respectively. Estimated active cases number 27,618.
• More than 118 million vaccine doses have now been administered in Mexico after over 815,000 shots were given Tuesday. Almost 71 million Mexicans have had at least one shot, and 77% of that number are fully vaccinated.
One of Mexico's climate-friendly energy projects, the Villanueva solar power plant in Viesca, Coahuila.
Mexico will push for greater funding for developing countries at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 26), which begins in Glasgow, Scotland, on Sunday.
Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said Monday that Mexico and other Latin American and Caribbean nations will demand that rich countries provide additional money so that developing countries can meet their climate goals.
“… It was announced some years ago that there was going to be US $100 billion to help [developing] countries, but of that money, nothing has been spent that we know about,” he said.
Developed countries pledged in 2009 to mobilize $100 billion per year in climate finance by 2020. The goal was reiterated in the 2015 Paris Agreement, but OECD data released last month showed that developed countries made virtually no progress toward it.
Ebrard said that Latin American countries need to make an “enormous effort” to reduce their use of fossil fuels and transition to renewable energy sources but lamented that the region’s capacity to access resources is extremely limited compared to the United States and European nations.
“Access to financing is not proportional or equitable, nor does it correspond to the amount of emissions each country generates,” he said.
Mexico will be represented at COP 26 by a delegation of federal officials, including Environment Minister María Luisa Albores and Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Martha Delgado.
Mexico has pledged to reduce greenhouse emissions by 22% by 2030 and 50% by 2050, but there are doubts that those targets can be met under current policy. President López Obrador sent a constitutional bill to Congress earlier this month that seeks to guarantee 54% of the electricity market to the state-owned Federal Electricity Commission, which relies heavily on fossil fuels.
Jorge Villarreal, climate policy director at the Mexico Climate Initiative, described Mexico’s 2030 emissions reduction target as unambitious.
“We’re the 13th largest emitter in the world. Without adequate climate change policies, we’ll have emissions in 2030 that could be greater than those of the United Kingdom or Germany or similar to those of Japan,” he said.
“… The goal of reducing emissions by 22% is not ambitious, and in that sense, there is a wide window of opportunity for Mexico to reorient its policies,” Villareal said.
Biodiverse and rich in natural resources, Latin America seems an obvious climate champion. Its mighty rivers power some of the world’s biggest hydroelectric dams and the Amazon rainforest stores enormous amounts of carbon.
Yet the presidents of the region’s two biggest nations will be absent when world leaders gather for a crucial climate summit in Glasgow next week to try to limit global warming. Neither Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil nor Mexico’s Andrés Manuel López Obrador want to attend — and with good reason.
Deforestation in Brazil surged last year to its highest level in over a decade as Bolsonaro slashed environmental enforcement and encouraged development in the Amazon. In a country with one of the world’s cleanest energy sectors, thanks to abundant hydro power and the widespread use of bioethanol as fuel, deforestation is now its main source of carbon emissions.
In Mexico, López Obrador has spent billions of dollars building a giant oil refinery and boosting oil production. He now wants to change the constitution to favour state-run electricity generation powered by dirty fossil fuels and choke off a private sector-led renewable energy boom.
“For those two countries, I think definitely things are going in the wrong direction in terms of emissions,” said Lisa Viscidi, a climate expert at the Interamerican Dialogue in Washington. As for Latin America as a whole, “not nearly enough progress has been made” in cutting emissions targets ahead of the Glasgow conference.
‘Environmental villains’ Bolsonaro and López Obrador.
The backsliding by Brazil and Mexico is particularly concerning as both nations had previously followed greener paths. Brazil’s Forest Code remains one of the developing world’s tougher conservation laws (despite a weakening in 2012); Mexico had also promoted big investments in solar and wind power.
Elsewhere in Latin America, many governments remain addicted to ever greater fossil fuel production to power economic development, despite the increasing reluctance of western oil majors to fund new oil and gas projects as their industry seeks a greener future.
Argentina is still touting its giant Vaca Muerta shale deposits, Brazil wants billions of dollars to exploit huge offshore oil reserves, Venezuela’s opposition plans a massive expansion of oil output to fund reconstruction if it ousts Nicolás Maduro, and Ecuador’s new president Guillermo Lasso wants to double oil output.
The news from Latin America is not all gloomy. Climate activism is growing, young people are far more environmentally aware than their parents, and mid-ranking economies such as Chile and Colombia are aggressively pursuing renewable investment and greener economies (although deforestation in Colombia remains worrying).
Chile stands out in particular. Its unusual geography gives it some of the world’s most intense solar heat and most reliably strong winds. It hopes to harness both to become a leading exporter of green hydrogen, if the technology to produce this profitably at scale can be mastered. The government is also moving to shut down coal power plants.
But elsewhere in the region, too many governments are trying to pretend that global warming is a problem to solve tomorrow, while pumping out ever more carbon today.
The evidence that this is a bad idea is multiplying. Fierce droughts are draining Brazil’s hydro dams and damaging its crops. Chile, Paraguay and Argentina are also suffering prolonged periods without rain. More frequent and more potent hurricanes are wreaking havoc in Central America and the Caribbean. Andean glaciers are disappearing.
The conference’s British hosts are putting a brave face on the climate backsliding in a continent that is home to the world’s biggest remaining rainforest. They point to helpful positions from countries like Costa Rica and Colombia, and enthusiasm for greener policies from some of the region’s megacities. Still, as one official said: “I’m not for a second saying that it’s all going in the right direction”.
Bolsonaro and López Obrador’s energy policies should be relics of a bygone era — but are instead proving alarming durable in the 21st century.
Day of the Dead visit to a graveyard in Mexico City's San Gregorio Atlapulco. Bringing food and music the deceased enjoyed is typical.
I was afraid of graveyards when I was a kid. OK, that’s not completely true. I was, in fact, terrified of them.
Once as a teenager driving around with some friends, I naively mentioned this. The next thing I knew, the driver was pulling into a graveyard. At night. What are friends for, right? I started freaking out and, when I couldn’t get the door open, started pounding on the side window. The driver took the hint and turned around.
I don’t know when I first heard about Day of the Dead, but I was still pretty young and I simply couldn’t fathom why people would willingly spend the night in a graveyard. But as strange as it seemed, there was something intriguing about the ceremony, and when I made my first trip to Mexico in 1997, it was to photograph the holiday.
I ended up in Metepec, México state, with Olivia, a friend of the friend with whom I was staying in Tepoztlán. We arrived at the graveyard at dusk, and it quickly became clear that photographing would be difficult. With no lights as it got dark, it became impossible. I couldn’t see anything. Olivia suggested taking a break and returning in the early morning.
When we drove back there in the pre-dawn darkness, a golden light hovered over the graveyard’s walls. I hurried out of the car, annoyed because I thought I’d missed people building a bonfire. But it wasn’t a bonfire. It was the light from hundreds of small fires and thousands of candles ringing the graves. There was so much light, I was able to see clearly enough to write in my notebook.
In San Agustín Etla, Oaxaca, the Day of the Dead tradition comparsa involves men dancing in the streets for hours wearing coats covered with sewn-on mirrors.
On the bus back to Tepoztlán, I struggled to write down my feelings. Although I’d thought I was only there to photograph, something had touched me deeply. I came away feeling as if I’d somehow participated in the ceremony.
I initially wrote, “It was like a religious experience.” As soon as I wrote that, I knew it was wrong. I crossed it out and wrote, “It wasn’t like a religious experience, it was a religious experience.”
My next Day of the Dead wasn’t until 2003, and it wasn’t what I expected. Not at all. I was working on a project documenting the lives of coffee growers in Mexico but made a side trip to San Agustín Etla, a pueblo outside Oaxaca city, to photograph the holiday. I stayed with Fernando, a local artist. Once I’d settled in, I asked, “What do you do for Day of the Dead?”
“Comparsa,” he answered.
“What’s comparsa?” I asked.
“Comparsa is … comparsa.”
I thought it might help if I were more specific, so I asked when we would go to the cemetery.
“We do not go to the cemetery,” was the reply.
“Oh. So what do you do?”
“Comparsa.”
“Comparsa” is the only answer I ever got when I asked about what happened on Day of the Dead in that pueblo, and it was like being in the middle of Abbot and Costello’s “Who’s on First” skit.
Comparsa began at dusk on November 1 with lots of food and drink and a 14-piece band blasting away in someone’s yard. There were many men — and it was only men — in costumes, dancing. Some wore long coats onto which small mirrors had been sewn. One person told me that the mirrors attracted the deceased. Someone else told me that they kept the devil away. I’m not sure which was correct — maybe both.
A traditional Day of the Dead bonfire in Santa Ana Tlacotenco.
At some point, the procession began and made its way through the pueblo with the band playing and men dancing. There were stops in front of houses — more food and drink — where skits were put on, mostly about the dead and about dying. Whenever the band started playing, the men started dancing.
The procession continued until about 9 a.m. the next morning. Comparsa had lasted more than 12 hours and I was exhausted just from walking. I asked one man how he could continue dancing after so many hours. He didn’t hesitate to answer.
“Faith,” he said.
Day of the Dead in Santa Ana Tlacotenco, a Mexico City indigenous pueblo in Milpa Alta, is different from what I’d witnessed in other pueblos like Metepec and the Mexico City town of San Gregorio Atlapulco, where people spend the night in a graveyard. People in Santa Ana visit the cemetery during the day. At night, they build fires, called fogatas, in front of their homes.
“Years ago, there was a fire in front of every home,” said José Ortiz Rivera. “Now, not so many. We are losing the tradition.”
I asked several people why they have fogatas and got different answers. One was that it was to bring people together, and I certainly saw that. Another was that the fires guided spirits back to their homes. But the answer I got most often was the one I got from Ortiz.
“It is because when our grandparents return,” he said, “they will be cold. The fires are to warm them.”
I’ve now been in Mexico for four Day of the Dead celebrations. While that certainly doesn’t make me an expert, I have seen enough to clearly recognize the differences in the attitude toward death between the United States and Mexico.
Mexicans seem more accepting — or maybe it’s resigned — to the inevitability of death, and Day of the Dead is a perfect example of that. While most people in the U.S. would try to avoid coming in contact with spirits, Mexicans welcome them, using the petals from cempasúchil (Mexican marigolds) and other brilliantly colored flowers to make paths to guide the spirits back to them.
These paths can be seen outside homes all over the country. The graves and altars in homes have food, drink, cigarettes and other things that the departed liked in life.
In the U.S., death’s a much more somber occasion. I wouldn’t call Day of the Dead festive (unless you go to the Catrina procession or other parades in Mexico City), but there’s music — often small bands traveling from grave to grave, playing music the deceased enjoyed in life. In the graveyards and immediately outside, there’s food and drink and laughter but overall I’d say there’s a melancholy feeling.
Like many things in Mexico, there’s a lot of regional variation on how Day of the Dead is observed. In San Gregorio Atlapulco, November 1 is for remembering children who have died and November 2 is for adults. There are also other days for remembering people who died violently and in accidents. I’ve come to think of it as “Days of the Dead” — or as my friend Karla puts it, “Month of the Dead.”
I’m happy to say I’ve finally overcome my fear of graveyards, and I feel privileged to be able to attend Day of the Dead in Mexico. It’s changed my attitude toward death. I mourn when someone I know dies, but I no longer wrestle with the question, “Why?” Since attending Día de Muertos ceremonies, I see death more clearly as part of the continuum of this thing we call life, and I have come to accept it.
Considered allies, President López Obrador and Chief Justice Zaldívar disagree over preventative custody.
President López Obrador and the chief justice of the Supreme Court (SCJN) are at loggerheads over the court’s ruling against the use of preventative custody for people accused of certain crimes.
The SCJN handed down a decision Monday that eliminates preventative detention for suspects in cases of smuggling, the sale of fake invoices and tax fraud.
López Obrador railed against the ruling on Tuesday, saying that it supports corruption and will stop “fifís,” or elites, from going to prison.
“These decisions don’t help the judicial power. Why don’t they act like that when delivering justice for common people? This is about white-collar criminals,” he told reporters at his regular news conference.
López Obrador said people who have committed “large tax frauds” and have become “immensely rich” will avoid preventative prison because the Supreme Court ruled that holding them in custody before trial “affects their human rights.”
The SCJN’s decision Monday eliminates preventative detention for suspects in smuggling, tax fraud and fake invoice crimes. Fernando Gutiérrez Ortega/Shutterstock
“… I don’t agree [with the ruling]. I believe that it continues protecting minorities and punishes only those who don’t … have the money to buy their innocence. I think that [the court] didn’t act properly,” he said.
Chief Justice Arturo Zaldívar, considered a close ally of the president, took to Twitter later on Tuesday to defend the court’s decision.
“The majority of people subjected to preventative prison are people of limited resources,” he wrote. “It’s a sentence without a sentence that as a general rule punishes poverty. We must advance toward a system that establishes preventative prison as an exception” rather than the rule, Zaldívar said.
The chief justice also defended the court’s decision in a video message posted to his TikTok account.
“In the majority of democracies, people are free [while waiting for trial], except in exceptional cases,” Zaldívar said.
“… For a long time in Mexico, we’ve abused preventative prison,” he said, adding that its use frequently delays criminal investigations.
“This has especially affected thousands of poor people who don’t have the possibility of having a high-quality lawyer. That’s why preventative prison, that which is enforced automatically without assessing the circumstances of the case, is contrary to the American Convention on Human Rights,” Zaldívar said.
Mexico has been subject to the convention, a document created by the Organization of American States, since it ratified it in 1981.
The chief justice said the court’s ruling doesn’t mean that dangerous criminals or people who have defrauded the country in a significant way will automatically be granted bail.
The ruling came in response to a challenge filed by opposition senators and the National Human Rights Commission against a 2019 government decree that classified tax offenses as crimes that warrant preventative prison.
A majority of justices took the view that the legislative branch of government went beyond its purview by stipulating the use of preventative custody for crimes that are not mentioned in Article 19 of the constitution.
Zaldívar said in court that preventative detention is “openly unconventional because it’s a sentence in advance — prison when a person’s culpability is not yet proven.”
“Preventative prison completely dispels the principle of presumption of innocence,” he said.
“… The concept of serious crimes against the security of the nation, as set out in Article 19 of the constitution, cannot become a ‘catch-all taxon’ that accommodates the priorities of the politicians of the day.”
The caravan had advanced 40 kilometers by Tuesday night.
The 2,000-strong migrants caravan traveling north from Tapachula, Chiapas, rested on Wednesday in the town of Huixtla, about 40 kilometers to the north.
Many of the migrants were relieved to have a day to wash their clothes, phone home and eat something substantial. The town’s numerous grilled chicken shops proved a popular choice: the dish is a regional favorite. Once again, locals were curious to hear from the travelers and about the caravan.
With information hard to come by, rumors circulate constantly among the convoy, usually about the threat of being detained by officials from the National Immigration Institute (INM) or National Guard. The information gap is exacerbated by the scale of the caravan — about a kilometer long — which means that the experience at one end of the convoy is distinct to that at the other.
The migrants’ concerns are based on their distrust of authorities, which are built on solid foundations: many of them were interned in the prison-like “21st Century” migrant detention center in Tapachula, where they have no legal recourse, and instead have to wait — potentially for months — for their names to be read from a list for release. Also, the convoy itself has felt heavy-handed treatment: the response to the caravan leaving Tapachula on Saturday came from National Guard riot police attempting to block its path.
Some of the migrants’ suspicions were proved valid on Tuesday. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) condemned the Saturday actions of law enforcement and its “excessive use of force:” a 3-year-old Guatemalan child suffered a head injury, the news magazine Proceso reported. Officials from IACHR and from the National Commission for Human Rights (CNDH) gave medical assistance.
The IACHR called for restraint: “The use of force must be governed by principles of legitimate use, absolute necessity, proportionality and progressiveness,” it said, and also urged “the special protection of girls, boys and adolescents.” The IACHR is part of the Organization of American States (OAS), which is headquartered in Washington, DC.
Meanwhile, migrants that strayed away from the convoy were picked off by the INM. On Sunday various people who had fallen behind — some of whom were disabled — were detained. A further 15 people including children, who had gone ahead of the group, were arrested by authorities on Monday about six kilometers from Huixtla, the newspaper El Sol de México reported.
They were likely taken to the 21st Century detention center in Tapachula. About 100 National Guardsmen and INM agents participated in the Monday arrest, and moved farther up the highway when the bulk of the convoy got close, the newspaper reported.
Presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio was shot and killed in 1994 at a campaign event in Tijuana, Baja California.
The National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) has urged the federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) to conduct a new investigation into the 1994 murder of presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio Murietta.
Just one man, Mario Aburto Martínez, was convicted of Colosio’s murder, but there has long been speculation that he wasn’t the culprit.
A man – supposedly Aburto – was arrested at the scene of the crime, but many people believe that a different man — the real Aburto — was convicted of the crime. In other words, the killer was replaced with an innocent man.
Millions of Mexicans believe that the PRI was behind the murder of Colosio, who was determined to take the then omnipotent party in a new direction.
Mario Aburto Martínez remains in prison for Colosio’s murder. PGR
In a new report, the CNDH said that evidence has come to light that Aburto — who confessed to the murder — was tortured by police, prison staff and officials with the PGR, as the Attorney General’s Office was then known.
It said it received a new complaint from Aburto seven months ago, in which he noted that “he has reported before this commission repeated and constant acts of torture” that began after his arrest in 1994.
“The new considerations and findings” point to “grave violations of human rights,” the CNDH said. It also said there were “multiple omissions” and “concealments” as well as violations of due process in the original investigation.
In that context, the FGR should carry out a new investigation into the case, the rights commission said. “The purpose of this new investigation or the reopening of the previous one will be to rectify deficiencies and to reach full clarification of the facts,” it said.
The CNDH also said that the OADPRS, the federal prisons authority, has violated Aburto’s rights by imprisoning him in jails far from where his family lives. He was previously incarcerated in a Tabasco prison and is currently believed to be in a Guanajuato jail.
His father told the newspaper Milenio that the CNDH has asked federal authorities on several occasions to transfer his son to a prison in Baja California, where it would be easier for his family to visit him. But the requests have been denied.
Millions of Mexicans believe that the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which held the presidency at the time, was responsible for Colosio’s murder. @colosioriojas/Instagram
Rubén Aburto asserted that his son is a scapegoat of the government of former president Carlos Salinas, who was in office when Colosio was murdered.
“The real murderers are free. They grabbed a person and said ‘it was you,’” he said.
All governments over the past 27 years have continued to cover up for the true culprits, Rubén Aburto charged.
“We even sent a letter to [President] López Obrador, and he said he would pass it on to the interior minister [Olga Sánchez at the time] … but the minister said there were no elements to [re]open the case. We investigated who she was, and [it turns out] she’s another Salinas person,” he said.
Rubén Aburto, who lives in Los Angeles, told Milenio that his son — sentenced to 42 years in prison — is currently trying to obtain an early release by having “false declarations” removed from his file.
“He told me a month ago that he wanted my wife to go to see him because he was going to give her some papers so she could take them to a judge in Toluca,” he said, adding that he hasn’t heard from his son since and that his wife still hasn’t traveled to Guanajuato to visit Mario and collect the papers.
Colosio’s assassination continues to haunt Mexico. His monument is displayed in Los Pinos, the official presidential residence. Fernando Macias Romo/Shutterstock
Rubén Aburto said that he is considering taking his son’s case to the United Nations in New York. Mario, now 50, is almost blind and has severe gastrointestinal problems and leg injuries he sustained while being tortured, he said.
Rubén Aburto made an audio recording available to Milenio in which Mario pleaded his innocence.
“… We will avoid any aspiration to shelve the Colosio case,” Mario said in the tape he sent to his father, adding that there is a “significant quantity” of studies, testimonies and other evidence that support his claim that he is innocent. He also told his father he is a political prisoner, a victim of torture and a scapegoat.
The CNDH’s recommendation for a new investigation will be submitted to the lower house of Congress. The rights commission also urged the FGR and the OADPRS to compensate Aburto and his family and offer them medical and psychological care.
The new US rule requiring WHO-approved COVID vaccination to enter the country goes into effect November 8. Children under 18 and other groups will be exempt.
Children – the vast majority of whom have not had access to vaccination against COVID-19 in Mexico – will be exempt from a United States rule requiring incoming travelers to be fully vaccinated.
Starting November 8, all foreign adults seeking to enter the United States must provide proof that they are fully vaccinated with a vaccine approved by the World Health Organization (WHO).
People aged under 18 are among a range of groups that are exempt from the rule, the U.S. government said Monday. Others include people who couldn’t be vaccinated for medical reasons and nationals of about 50 countries where access to vaccines is extremely limited.
About four in five Mexican adults have received at least one vaccine dose, but the federal government hasn’t offered shots to most youths aged 12–17, even though the Pfizer vaccine is approved for use with that age group. It has, however, begun inoculating adolescents with underlying health conditions that place them at risk of serious COVID-19 illness. The government has also vaccinated minors who obtained injunctions ordering their vaccination.
Foreign adults seeking to enter the United States from November 8 will be required to show proof of their vaccination in digital or paper form, according to White House officials cited by the newspaper Reforma. For Mexicans, that will mean presenting their government-issued COVID-19 vaccination certificate, provided they were vaccinated with a WHO-approved vaccine.
Five of the seven vaccines that have been used in Mexico are WHO-approved, but the Sputnik V and CanSino shots are not. President López Obrador last week criticized the WHO for its tardiness in approving those two shots, describing the organization as inefficient and indolent.
On the same day that the United States’ new entry requirement takes effect, the country’s northern border will open to nonessential travelers. People crossing into the U.S. by land will also have to be fully vaccinated, but unlike air travelers, they won’t have to show proof of a negative COVID test result obtained in the previous 72 hours.
In other COVID-19 news:
• The Health Ministry reported 1,121 new cases and 150 additional COVID-19 deaths on Monday. Mexico’s accumulated tallies are currently 3.78 million and 286,96, respectively. Estimated active cases number 26,719.
• More than 117.2 million vaccine doses have been administered in Mexico after almost 780,000 shots were given Monday. Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said on Twitter that the vaccination of adults will conclude on Friday.
• López-Gatell told the president’s morning press conference on Tuesday that coronavirus infections among children have not increased since schools reopened at the end of August. Case numbers among minors have in fact been going down, he said.
“We have a sustained reduction [in case numbers] as we’ve had for the entire population,” the deputy minister said.
He also said that outbreaks have only been detected in 0.15% of schools. “In general they have impacted just one group [of students] without the disease COVID-19 spreading to the rest of the school,” López-Gatell said.
“In schools local control [of the spread of the virus] has been shown to be possible with timely actions,” he wrote on Twitter.
Mexico ranks ninth in the world for having the most owners of cryptocurrency, according to a survey. deposit photos
Cryptocurrencies are not legal tender in Mexico, but many Mexicans have nevertheless acquired them: just over 12% of adults own a digital currency such as bitcoin or ethereum, according to a recent survey.
The comparison website Finder surveyed internet users from 22 countries and found that Mexicans were the ninth most likely to possess cryptocurrencies.
Of more than 2,400 people surveyed in Mexico, 12.1% own crypto, Finder found. Bitcoin was the most popular among Mexicans followed by ethereum, binance coin, cardano and dogecoin.
Finder also found that Mexican women are more likely to own cryptocurrencies than men. Of the crypto owners it identified, 53.7% were female and 46.3% were male.
Finder.com's survey results. Click on the small arrow at top to see the full list. Courtesy of Finder.com
The percentage of Mexican respondents who own a cryptocurrency was just above the 22-country survey average of 11.4%.
Mexicans who own cryptocurrencies can use them at approximately 100 businesses across the country, according to the website Coinmap.
One such business is the Bitcoin Embassy Bar in Mexico City's trendy Roma neighborhood, where discounts are on offer for customers who pay with bitcoin. A single bitcoin is currently worth more than US $62,000.
Owned by 31-year-old entrepreneur Lorena Ortiz, the establishment is “a kind of mecca for cryptocurrency enthusiasts,” according to the newspaper El País. In addition to functioning as a bar and restaurant, it offers seminars on cryptocurrencies and hosts debates on associated topics.
Ortiz rejects claims that cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin can't be considered real currencies because they weren't issued by central banks
“That's not true. History has taught us that money shouldn't be issued by an institution. [The concept of money] is a consensus of the population,” she told El País.
Lorena Ortiz's Bitcoin Embassy Bar in Mexico City is one of about 100 businesses in Mexico that accept payment in cryptocurrency. Twitter
“The bankers who criticize [cryptocurrencies] are like taxi drivers who complain about Uber,” said Gustavo Grillasca, a 42-year-old digital artist and Bitcoin Embassy Bar customer. “There is now no way to stop bitcoin,” he said.
Their views, and those of the vast majority of cryptocurrency devotees, contrast sharply with the opinions of most governments and central banks, including those of Mexico. Shortly after El Salvador adopted bitcoin as legal tender earlier this year, the federal Finance Ministry, the Bank of México and the National Banking and Securities Commission issued a joint statement reiterating that cryptocurrencies cannot be legally accepted in the Mexican financial system.
Ignacio Flores, a bitcoin user and director of a company that offers protection for digital currency transactions, told El País that their stance is not surprising.
“It's like the 90s when the internet arrived. There was radio and television, and suddenly an alternative channel that transmits audio and video arrived. Technology is always ahead of laws,” he said.
Another opponent of cryptocurrencies is Gabriela Siller, director of economic analysis at Banco BASE.
Although cryptocurrencies are becoming increasingly popular and mainstream, she described them as “a fad” and lamented that their main use will eventually be to conduct illegal transactions. She also said that businesses accepting cryptocurrencies are running a risk due to the volatility of their value. “[Businesses] set prices in official currencies but the value [of a cryptocurrency] can easily change 15% in a day. For a company, the risk is greater than the benefit,” she said.
BBVA México chief economist Carlos Serrano is concerned that cryptocurrencies could become a vehicle for tax evasion. BBVA
Carlos Serrano, chief economist at BBVA México, also raised concerns about the use of cryptocurrencies.
“In a country like ours, before thinking about [getting] more businesses to accept [cryptocurrency] payments, we have to make sure that ... [their use] doesn't become a vehicle for tax evasion. You can't currently pay your taxes with cryptocurrencies,” he said.
However, Mexican businesses that accept them are meeting their tax obligations, El País reported. Ortiz, for example, calculates her bitcoin earnings in pesos and reports them to tax authorities.
The vast majority of Mexican businesses that accept crypto are small and medium-sized businesses far removed from “the image of a virtual pirate” seeking to carry out a mega-fraud, El País said. In fact, some Mexican businesses willing to accept payments in cryptocurrencies haven't yet found a single customer. That's the case for a Mexico City dental clinic that announced three years ago that it would accept certain cryptocurrency payments.
Although her patients have yet to take up the opportunity to pay their dental bills with bitcoin or ethereum, 28-year-old dentist Carmen Salgado is convinced that they will one day. “I believe ... [cryptocurrencies are] the future,” she told El País.
Although he acknowledged that the use of cryptocurrencies comes with risks, Serrano believes that central banks should stop dragging their heels and begin using blockchain technology to develop their own.
“It's urgent for central banks to discuss alternatives. The advantage of getting rid of physical money is undeniable,” he said.
Archaeologist Melina Garcia at work at Aguada Fénix. inomata
Researchers have pinpointed almost 500 Mesoamerican ceremonial centers using a remote sensing method known as light detection and ranging, or LIDAR.
Aerial remote sensing carried out across Tabasco and southern Veracruz and in some parts of Campeche, Chiapas and Oaxaca revealed 478 Olmec and Mayan ceremonial centers.
Authorized by the National Institute of Anthropology and History, the 85,000-square-meter LIDAR survey was the largest ever conducted in the historical and cultural region known as Mesoamerica.
Its discoveries are detailed in a paper published Monday in the journal Nature Human Behaviour.
One ceremonial center was located at an early Olmec site in Veracruz called San Lorenzo. University of Arizona archaeologist Takeshi Inomata, who led the study, said the rectangular earthen ceremonial space was previously unknown.
Excavation at La Carmelita in Tabasco. inomata
It is approximately 1,000 meters long and 275 meters wide and is surrounded by 20 slightly raised platforms. Inomata said the exact purpose of the space is unclear but it may have been a plaza where crowds gathered for certain ceremonies. Dwellings may have been located on the elevated platforms, he said.
San Lorenzo, where there are 10 Olmec stone heads that are believed to depict ancient rulers, was at its peak roughly between 1400 and 1000 B.C.
The Olmec civilization is known as the “mother culture” of Mesoamerica because most scholars believe it was the first in the region and influenced those that emerged in later years, including the Maya civilization. Inomata believes there could be undiscovered Olmec stone heads, each of which is carved from a single basalt boulder, at other ceremonial centers
Many of the centers detected via LIDAR have similar layouts to San Lorenzo. Their design appears to be related to the position of the sun on important ceremonial dates.
“These centers were probably the earliest material expressions of basic concepts of Mesoamerican calendars,” Inomata said.
He and other researchers also detected a massive clay and earth platform near the Guatemala border in Tabasco. Found at the Aguada Fénix site using LIDAR, the Mayan structure was described in the journal Nature last year.
Excavation work under way at Aguada Fénix. inomata
“The advantage of LIDAR is that it provides a three-dimensional, bird’s-eye view of the landscape and modifications to it made by humans, ancient and modern, in the form of building, transportation, agricultural and water control infrastructure,” said Juan Carlos Fernandez-Diaz of the University of Houston’s National Center of Airborne Laser Mapping.
“LIDAR also allows us to ‘see’ the landscape and infrastructure that in many parts of the world is hidden under forest cover,” added the co-author of the study.
