Highway damage at the Juluchuca bridge in Petatlán, Guerrero. Civil proteciton guerrero
Hurricane Rick made landfall in Guerrero as a Category 2 hurricane Monday morning, bringing strong wind and heavy rain to that state and Michoacán.
Rick reached land at approximately 5:00 a.m. in La Unión de Isidoro Montes de Oca, a municipality that borders Zihuatanejo to the north and Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán, to the south.
The National Meteorological Service said the hurricane, which has since been degraded to a tropical storm, brought sustained winds of 165 kph with gusts of up to 205.
The hurricane caused flooding and toppled scores of trees in both Guerrero and Michoacán. Some homes were flooded while wind ripped the roofs off others. Strong swells were reported on Mexico’s southwest coast.
There have been no reports of injuries or loss of life since the hurricane made landfall, but scores of families took refuge in government shelters. Cars were stranded in floodwaters in Zihuatanejo and Acapulco.
Debido al paso del huracán #Rick por #Guerrero se produjo un corte sobre la carretera Acapulco-Zihuatanejo, a la altura de Petatlan, por lo que no hay paso hacia ese puerto. Se desbordó el Río Petatlan, inundando varias colonias de la cabecera municipal. pic.twitter.com/jW9WfsMdcA
The Petatlán River overflowed, shutting down the Acapulco-Zihuatanejo highway Monday morning at Petatlán.
The Guerrero Civil Protection service reported landslides on at least six roads, and the Acapulco-Zihuatanejo highway was cut off by floodwaters in the municipality of Petatlán. Authorities warned that several rivers and creeks in Guerrero and Michoacán were at risk of overflowing.
Blackouts were reported in the Costa Chica and Costa Grande regions of Guerrero as well as in Acapulco. Schools were closed in several municipalities in both Guerrero and Michoacán due to the dangers posed by the passing of the storm.
The United States National Hurricane Center (NHC) said that Rick was about 170 kilometers north of Lázaro Cárdenas at 1:00 p.m. Central Time and that maximum sustained winds were 95 kph. It said the storm was expected to produce five to 10 inches (12-25 cm) of rain with isolated amounts of up to 20 inches (51 cm) across sections of Guerrero and Michoacán.
“A generally northward motion is expected over the next 12 to 24 hours. On the forecast track, the center of Rick will move farther inland over Mexico today and tonight,” the NHC said.
“… Continued weakening is expected this afternoon and evening, and Rick is forecast to dissipate over the mountainous terrain of Mexico tonight,” it said.
The president got a warm welcome in Chilpancingo, Guerrero, Sunday, where he presented a heightened federal security plan to combat violence.
The federal government will bolster security in Guerrero as part of a new support plan for the southern state.
Presenting the plan in Chilpancingo on Sunday, President López Obrador said his government is committed to guaranteeing peace and tranquility in Guerrero, Mexico’s ninth most violent state, which recorded 1,020 homicides in the first nine months of 2021.
An additional 700 soldiers and National Guard members will be deployed across the municipalities of Chilpancingo, Acapulco and Iguala, said Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval. The deployment will increase the number of federal troops in the state to approximately 10,700.
Cresencio also said that almost 16,000 federal security force members stationed in states that border Guerrero can be used to reinforce security in the southern state if required. The army chief said that a strengthening of the federal government’s law enforcement presence in mid-August resulted in a 46% decline in organized crime-related homicides in Iguala and a 33% reduction in Chilpancingo.
However, homicides only fell 6% in Acapulco, Cresencio acknowledged, pointing out that the monthly average of murders had fallen from 69 to 65. “So the [security] strategy … will be strengthened in that municipality,” he said.
Soldiers are stationed in Acapulco, but more are on the way. File photo
The defense minister also acknowledged that the cultivation of marijuana and opium poppies remains a significant problem in Guerrero. Navy Minister Rafael Ojeda noted that some 2,800 marines are stationed in Zihuatanejo and Acapulco, adding that the navy will increase its intelligence capacity so it can offer additional support to Guerrero security authorities.
For his part, López Obrador highlighted that the state will have 24 National Guard barracks by the time he leaves office in 2024.
“This will help a lot … to protect the people,” he said.
Inaugurated in mid-2019, the National Guard already has four barracks in Guerrero. Five more are nearing completion, and the government intends to build 15 more over the next three years.
López Obrador said federal social programs will also help reduce insecurity by dissuading people from criminal activities. An additional 10,000 places in the government’s tree-planting employment program will provide an alternative to growing illicit crops, he said.
The president said that just over 1 million Guerrero residents already receive some kind of government financial assistance. The three states that receive the most federal support are Guerrero, Oaxaca and Chiapas, he said.
A mother and daughter in an illegal poppy field in Guerrero’s Montaña region.
In the Montaña region, which he visited over the weekend, López Obrador said there are three or four welfare beneficiaries per household. “In other words, more support is being allocated to the poorest areas of Guerrero,” he said.
López Obrador also highlighted a range of other ways in which the government is supporting the state.
Among them: the distribution of fertilizer to farmers; the allocation of funds to carry out school improvements; the construction of branches of the state-owned Banco del Bienestar (Bank of Well-Being); and the investment of 2.1 billion pesos (US $103.9 million) to build new roads in the Montaña region;
“… We’re going to continue investigating until we find the young men from Ayotzinapa. It’s a matter of the state; it’s not any old case. We’re going to find out the whole truth. It’s a commitment, and commitments are kept,” he said.
“… We’re going to continue supporting the people of Guerrero,” López Obrador added. “I’ll end by congratulating the good, hard-working, brave and intelligent people of Guerrero, who elected a very good governor, an extraordinary governor, Evelyn Salgado.”
Children from several communities in Chilapa de Álvarez marched to protest against violence in April.
Several federal ministers also spoke at the event and made commitments to allocate resources to support sectors such as tourism, health, culture and agriculture.
Salgado, who took office on October 15, didn’t stop smiling as she heard official after official pledging to support her state, the newspaper Reforma reported.
The Morena party governor committed to leading an honest, austere government that will put an end to corruption and impunity and allow the participation of the people in the decisions it makes.
“That’s the way we’re going to work,” she said. “I’m joining the national strategy.”
The vehicle in which cartel boss El Tigre was traveling when he was killed Friday.
Three members of the Gulf Cartel including one of its leaders were killed during a shootout with the army and state police in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, on Friday night, authorities said.
A bystander was also killed during the confrontation and two police officers were wounded. Tamaulipas authorities said that the security forces detained four members of the Gulf Cartel and seized an armored vehicle and weapons.
Governor Francisco García Cabeza de Vaca said Saturday that the identity of one of the deceased persons had been confirmed as Ariel Treviño, a leader of the Scorpions faction of the cartel.
Tamaulipas authorities said in a statement that Treviño, also known as “El Tigre” (The Tiger), was a plaza chief in Nuevo Progreso, a border town 50 kilometers northwest of Matamoros. He was a priority target for law enforcement authorities in Tamaulipas and the United States, they said.
Friday’s gun battle began after soldiers and state police came across “several suspicious vehicles” while patrolling the streets of Matamoros, authorities said. The security forces ordered the vehicles to stop but their occupants ignored the instruction and fled while shooting at the soldiers and police.
Ariel Treviño, aka El Tigre, was one of three cartel members killed in Matamoros.
A chase and gunfight ensued during which the cartel members used spike strips and hijacked vehicles to set up 15 roadblocks, some on highways that connect Matamoros to Nuevo Progreso and Valle Hermoso. Three vehicles were set on fire, authorities said, adding that several aggressors fled on foot and were lost in crowds as they entered public places, including shopping centers, in the center of Matamoros.
A woman was struck by a stray bullet and died from her injuries on her way to hospital. The victim was identified as Sonia Grimaldo Velazco, an official with a trade union in the municipality of Victoria.
The rolling clash between the cartel members and security forces passed a circus where families ducked for cover as they heard gunfire. Numerous other citizens, including shoppers and restaurant patrons, were caught up in the confrontation but apart from Grimaldo’s death, there were no reports of injuries or fatalities. In video footage that circulated online, one witness described the situation as “war” while speaking to his family over the phone. Gunshots rung out as he spoke.
Governor García – who the federal government is seeking to prosecute for ties to organized crime – said in a Twitter post that his government will use all the resources available to combat criminal groups that operate in Tamaulipas, a state notorious for cartel violence. “There will be no truce,” he declared.
Migrants on the highway north of Tapachula, Chiapas. ben wein
A large migrant caravan is heading north after leaving Tapachula, Chiapas, where National Guard troops in riot gear were unable to stop it despite a blockade across the highway on Saturday.
As many as 2,000 migrants set off from Bicentenario Park in Tapachula at around 7:00 a.m. and marched north up the main highway. The National Guard attempted to block their path near the town of Viva México but the front of the caravan charged the police line and, amid chaotic scenes, crowds of people ran past the authorities, who were unable to deter the surge.
By Sunday night the caravan had arrived in Huehuetán, having met no serious attempt to stop it, though immigration officials, National Guard officers, the army and the navy were seen traveling on the highway.
The majority of the migrants are from Central America. Pregnant women, seniors, one person in a wheelchair and many families pushing strollers with young children are among the convoy. Many said they had asylum claims or that the living conditions in their countries were intolerable. The caravan’s leader, Mexican-U.S. activist Irineo Mújica of Pueblos Sin Fronteras, or Peoples Without Borders, said the goal of the march was to travel to Mexico City, but many migrants said they were committed to reaching the United States.
The convoy’s first major milestone is Huixtla, about 40 kilometers north of Tapachula. Organizers said the success of the march could depend on whether officials try to obstruct the caravan near there. From there, the group plans to move toward the state capital Tuxla Gutiérrez, about 330 kilometers farther north, from which Mexico City is another 840 kilometers.
Here is the moment earlier today the caravan, under the sign of the cross, broke through the lines of the Guardia Nacional. pic.twitter.com/Dy217NZ3MF
Most of the migrants are poorly prepared, many wearing unsuitable shoes and walking in extremely hot conditions. They sleep in the warm open air without tents or cover. There is no system for the migrants to be fed and one woman was treated for exhaustion Sunday morning.
The convoy’s leaders are keeping one lane of the three-lane highway open to passing traffic. However, sometimes the migrants stray into the third lane causing traffic to build up behind.
Representatives from the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) said the caravan was smaller than previous ones, but recognized a considerable presence of pregnant women and children.
Guatemalan, Salvadoran, Honduran, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan are the principal nationalities, but Cubans, Colombians, Ghanaians, Nigerians, a Chinese family, and at least one Panamanian are also part of the convoy.
Haitians, thousands of whom are in Tapachula, have not joined the caravan in large numbers.
The group slept in the small town of Álvaro Obregón Saturday night. The atmosphere was peaceful and local merchants appeared pleased with the sudden increase in business. They spent Sunday night in similar conditions in Estación de Huehuetán, and were well received by locals.
Víctor Manolo Contreras of El Salvador carries the cross at the head of the caravan. He blames corrupt governments for the mass exodus. ben wein
Faith plays an important role in caravans, also known as the “Migrant’s Way of the Cross,” a term that relates to the Catholic pilgrimage tradition. The caravan is spearheaded by a large wooden cross, which is normally carried by Salvadoran Víctor Manolo Contreras. He blamed corrupt Salvadoran governments for mass migration.
“The rich and the politicians are always looking to benefit themselves … we came from 30 years of disgraceful governments. They robbed with their hands full and finished the country,” he said.
Caravan leader Mújica is a devout Catholic and another leader, Mexican Luis García Villagrán of the Center for Human Dignity, is an evangelical Christian.
García said the spirit of the caravan would help it overcome obstructions in a speech on Saturday night. “There are more than 1,000 men, young men, we are more than them … They [security forces] try to look the part with a uniform and a helmet. But we are guided by our hearts, we are guided by necessity, we are here to survive,” he said.
Representatives from CNDH and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) are following the caravan in an observational capacity. Officials from the National Immigration Institute (INM) are providing medical assistance. Mexican human rights NGOs and Save the Children are also present.
Tapachula is the modern Casablanca: a city flooded with migrants, desperately awaiting their papers, which may never arrive. Their legal status is increasingly clouded: they have been banned from leaving Tapachula while they await the outcomes of their applications to the government refugee organization Comar and the INM. However, both agencies have buckled under the pressure of migrant influxes leaving undocumented migrants waiting for responses to applications without any reliable time frame.
The INM has not responded to applications for residence for more than two years in some cases, the newspaper El Orbe reported.
Many of the migrants who enter Mexico illegally quickly become well acquainted with the INM, which sends them to the prison-like migrant detention centers that it runs. Their imprisonment is called “rescue” by federal officials.
Women in Catrina makeup and Yucatán huipiles for Day of the Dead in Yucatán. Pxhere.com/Creative Commons
The animated film Coco has probably done more than anything else to take the “ew” factor out of Day of the Dead for those of us who grew up with nothing like it.
This is great because there are good psychological reasons for celebrating it.
Grief is universal, but how we cope is largely determined by culture. European cultures have mostly lost their equivalent to Day of the Dead, with only All Souls’ Day and Halloween as distant reminders that we, too, used to actively honor our ancestors. Instead, a belief took hold to see anything associated with death as evil, something to be shunned, ignored and fought against at all costs.
Mexico is not completely immune to this, says National Autonomous University of Mexico professor and researcher Beatriz Glowinski, an expert on death and grieving. But that Day of the Dead has survived gives Mexicans a special outlet for their emotions.
Simply put, Day of the Dead is an annual festival dedicated to remembering lost loved ones and, yes, to mock something we fear. The underlying belief is that the dead can come back at this time to the land of the living, but it is no coincidence that it occurs at the end of the harvest, when fields die to sustain the living.
Large public Day of the Dead altar in Durango sponsored, perhaps appropriately, by the Hernández Funeral Home in that city. Leigh Thelmadatter
It is a syncretism of Mesoamerican and Catholic beliefs or, more accurately, the survival of Mesoamerican beliefs about death with a Catholic veneer. It survives in two forms.
The older and more “intimate” Day of the Dead is a gathering of friends and family to remember those important to them. The dead are not lamented but welcomed back as part of a family reunion.
The other Day of the Dead can be found in the large festivals and parades that have grown in popularity in both Mexico and the United States. In Mexico, they began to become more important as local and national efforts to counter the influence of Halloween began in the 1990s.
Many communities today have one or more open public events on this day, and Day of the Dead celebrations are popular in schools from kindergarten to college.
All cultures recognize the psychological need to grieve, but they also put limits on how long and how publicly a person may be in mourning.
“It is very complicated and very difficult … there isn’t a period of time … it does not exist,” Glowinski says. “It can take years, depending on the person.”
People decorating graves in Mixquic, Mexico City. This is one of the most traditional and colorful observances of Day of the Dead in the capital. Leigh Thelmadatter
And if grief is not addressed adequately, “a person can become stuck in their lives personally and professionally,” she says.
Even after the proscribed mourning period, grief lingers and returns, and Day of the Dead addresses this. Simply visiting graves, as is done in other cultures, can have the same purpose, but it is often a solitary activity, whereas Day of the Dead by its very nature is social.
On and around November 2, Mexicans have permission and even the expectation to acknowledge their losses in a supportive environment. The ritual of shopping for supplies, preparing an altar and sharing time with loved ones is therapeutic. Areas we do not casually visit, such as cemeteries, become a place of social gathering, both for those attending to family graves and those of us looking on.
There is nothing morbid or even remotely Halloweenish about this.
It is easy to see how lighting candles on graves fulfills this purpose, but what about the superficially corny skull and skeleton decorations? These decorations, parties and parades are about showing the relationship between life and death and take the morbidity out of thinking about death.
Many public festivals also have allusions to the cultural and historical past, making Day of the Dead also about connecting to heritage.
Day of the Dead in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, one of the most popular destinations for Day of the Dead tourism. El Motivo de Viajar
Many might have trouble with the belief that the dead come back, but counselor and psychotherapist Merrie Haskins says that such a belief can be beneficial. “[It] means that you have the chance to say anything that was left unsaid before they died.”
Taking the stigma out of talking about death also leads us to express what we want when it is our time to die and to communicate that to family. This is important because said family will be able to find closure when the time comes, knowing that they respected those wishes.
In the U.S., Day of the Dead was originally something celebrated privately only by Mexican-heritage families, but it’s growing in popularity. In the 1970s, public observances began with the aim of asserting Mexican American identity. Only recently has there been interest from the culture at large in the holiday, introduced in schools and with decorations now available in Walmart and Target.
If Day of the Dead becomes a larger part of the U.S. culture in some way, it is because it provides something that our native mourning rituals lack: social recognition and support for the idea that those who have gone are still important to us.
It’s not necessary to literally believe that the dead come back, nor be Catholic, to benefit from the observation, Glowinski says, but the communal aspect is essential. The annual observance is “ … a phenomenal way to deal with the emotions that remembering our loved ones bring,” she says, adding, “They externalize such emotions, and this is very liberating and healing.”
On a personal level, I find Day of the Dead particularly meaningful as I live so far away and rarely go back “home.” In particular, I cannot visit my mother’s grave as much as I “should,” and the yearly ritual of setting up the gringo side of my bicultural home’s altar is a more-than-acceptable substitute.
It even makes me smile as I place my favorite picture of my mother, in a 1970s plaid skirt and cat glasses, with the ever-present mug of tea in her hand.
Leigh Thelmadatter arrived in Mexico 18 years ago and fell in love with the land and the culture in particular its handcrafts and art. She is the author of Mexican Cartonería: Paper, Paste and Fiesta (Schiffer 2019). Her culture column appears regularly on Mexico News Daily.
This creamy mushroom soup is just the thing when you're craving comfort food.
There are a good number of edible wild mushrooms native to Mexico, found mostly in the cooler mountainous regions of Oaxaca, Mexico, Morelos, Mexico, Puebla and Hidalgo. The Mexica (Aztec) deity Nanacatzin (from the Náhuatl word nanacatl, meaning “meat”) was the Lord of the Mushrooms, responsible for making them suddenly sprout overnight. It’s no wonder, then, that hongos silvestres have a long culinary, medicinal and religious history in Mexico.
If you do come upon wild mushrooms in a market somewhere, be sure to ask the vendor exactly how to prepare them and follow their instructions to the “T.” Some are only used for medicinal or religious purposes — not for eating — and you want to be sure of what you’re getting before you throw them into a stir-fry or something.
For the most part, what we find here are the common white or button mushrooms, usually called champiñones. In the last few years, portobellos have become popular too, appearing on menus as vegetarian alternatives for burgers and in other dishes.
It was a surprise to me to discover that those little white mushrooms grow up to be big brown portobellos! And, in their “teenage” stage, they’re called creminis, or “baby-bellas.” As they mature, besides getting bigger and darker, Agaricus bisporus develop more flavor as well. Mexico is a big producer of these kinds of mushrooms, with the state of Guanajuato growing the most.
Mushrooms are a versatile source of umami, that elusive flavor component that just makes everything taste better and richer. You may be able to find more exotic varieties of dried mushrooms, like shiitake or oyster mushrooms, in Asian stores or sections of bigger grocery stores.
These mushrooms in adobo make great taco filling, or just eat them on their own with rice.
Mushrooms in Adobo
Serve inside tacos or as an entrée with rice.
1 cup sliced white, cremini or portobello mushrooms, or a combination
3 dried guajillo chiles
3 dried morita chiles
1 medium white onion
2 cloves garlic
2 tsp. white vinegar
¼ cup fresh orange juice
Salt and pepper
½ tsp. ground cumin (or more)
2 tsp. olive oil
Carefully remove seeds from chiles, then soak them in warm water for 15 minutes. In blender, process the soaking water, half the onion, garlic, vinegar, pepper, cumin and orange juice and blend until smooth. Set aside. Heat a skillet over medium heat; add olive oil.
Mince remaining half onion and sauté until shiny. Add mushrooms and marinade. Cook 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Melt butter in large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms, season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring, until liquid evaporates and mushrooms are browned.
Add onion and garlic. Continue stirring until softened. Add flour; stir to combine. Add sherry/wine.
Cook until reduced by about half, scraping up browned bits from bottom of pan. Add milk, stock, bay leaves and thyme. Simmer on low for 20 minutes.
Remove bay leaves and thyme. Blend with an immersion blender or in batches using a countertop blender. Adjust salt and pepper. Garnish with fresh herbs and a drizzle of olive oil.
The touch of warming ginger in this Coconut-Tomato Soup makes it a great choice for colder autumn days.
Coconut-Tomato Soup with Shrimp and Mushrooms
1 (14-oz.) can whole peeled tomatoes
1 (12-oz.) jar roasted red bell peppers, stemmed, seeded and roughly chopped (about 1 cup)
4 Tbsp. olive oil, plus more for drizzling
8 oz. mixed fresh mushrooms, cut into 2-inch pieces (about 4 loose cups)
2 cloves garlic cloves, sliced
1 (1-inch) piece fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced or grated
1 Tbsp. lime zest
Salt
¼ cup sliced scallions
2 shallots, peeled and diced
1 Tbsp. tomato paste
1 (13-oz.) can full-fat coconut milk
½ red habanero chile, seeds removed
1 lb. large (tail-on) shrimp, peeled and deveined OR 1 lb. firm white fish, cut into 2-inch pieces
Steamed white or brown rice, for serving
1 cup mixed fresh herbs, such as cilantro, mint, basil or dill
Process whole peeled tomatoes, their juices and roasted red peppers in a food processor or blender until smooth.
In large pot, heat 3 Tbsp. olive oil on medium-high setting. Add mushrooms; cook without stirring until lightly browned, 2-3 minutes. Add garlic and ginger. Cook 2 minutes. Transfer to a bowl. Season with salt and a drizzle of oil. Add lime zest and scallions. Toss, set aside.
Pour remaining 1 Tbsp. oil into pot. Heat on medium setting. Sauté shallots until softened and translucent. Add tomato paste; cook about 2 minutes, until it darkens and begins to stick to bottom of pot. Stir in puréed tomato mixture, coconut milk, chile and 1 cup water, scraping to remove any stuck bits. Simmer about 20 minutes uncovered, until sauce reduces slightly. Season with salt. Add shrimp/fish. Cook 2–3 minutes until just opaque. Remove and discard chile.
Divide soup and shrimp/fish among bowls filled with rice. Combine fresh herbs with mushrooms and sprinkle atop soup. Drizzle with more olive oil; serve.
Chard and Mushrooms in Dijon Mustard Sauce
2 ½ Tbsp. olive oil
2 small bunches scallions, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ lb. mushrooms, sliced
1 lb. fresh chard, julienned
1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
Heat oil in large skillet. Sauté scallions and garlic for 2 minutes; add mushrooms, cook 5 minutes more. Add chard, cover and cook over low heat 5 minutes, till chard is tender but still crisp. Mix in mustard, heat 2 minutes more and serve immediately.
The president answers reporters' questions on Wednesday.
Unfortunately for his critics, President Lopez Obrador is difficult politician to pigeon-hole. As mayor of Mexico City he created pension plans and invested in education: so far, so left. However, he also partnered with Latin America’s richest man, Carlos Slim, to gentrify much of the capital’s downtown with private investment.
At the end of his mayoral term, one poll had his approval rating at 84%.
Monday
A compressed conference on Monday. U.S. climate envoy John Kerry was in town and AMLO was destined for his spiritual home Palenque, Chiapas, to show off the tree-planting Sowing Life project. The president has touted it as a solution to Central American poverty and migration.
AMLO said there would be little time for questions, and he was proved right. One journalist may have lost favor among her colleagues for her rather elaborate approach. Corruption was the topic and Sonora, she said, was full of it.
A former governor, Guillermo Padrés, had sent AMLO a letter from jail in 2018. Some months later he was released. Was the Tabascan involved?
“No, because it doesn’t correspond to me, and we are respectful of judicial powers. I don’t establish relationships of complicity,” he replied.
“There is no impunity,” he later affirmed.
Tuesday
The president made a call for any unvaccinated people to get a shot: “Changing opinion is a way of the wise,” he said.
Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said coronavirus case numbers were lower than they ever were between the first and second waves. He later stated that no one could be prevented from working because they don’t have a vaccination certificate: “In Mexican law there is no justification for this … it is not legal to put conditions on access to work,” he said.
Deputy Health Minister, Hugo Lopez-Gatell reported on the status of the pandemic on Tuesday.
Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell reported on the status of the pandemic on Tuesday.
The president dug out an article by the director of the newspaper Sin Embargo, Alejandro Páez Varela, which argued that there is indeed anti-AMLO media bias. “[Critical journalists] see a man who does not exist, and they put on their gloves to strike the shadow that their own crooked analysis generates. In my way of seeing things, their contempt for the president clouds their strategies,” he said poetically.
Helpfully, AMLO had the cure for any rancorous critics: “They really should breathe deeply; breathing exercises are great to avoid getting angry, always be calm, calm,” he advised.
A stronger remedy might be in order for ex-president Enrique Peña Nieto, his former foreign minister, Luis Videgaray, and the former leader of the National Action Party, Ricardo Anaya: a journalist said the attorney general was preparing charges against them.
“I don’t have information,” AMLO insisted.
Wednesday
Security officials lined up for the monthly security report. The commander of the National Guard, the navy minister and the defense minister all gave their spiel before － as is customary － Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez offered the juiciest details. Federal crimes were down 23% in annual terms in the first nine months of the year; financial crimes had dropped 20%; homicide was down 3.4%.
The president had another security concern on his mind: the Nintendo; his shorthand for video game consoles and gaming culture. Deputy Security Minister Ricardo Mejía Berdeja recounted a case where teenagers were recruited to work for a cartel through a shooter game. Rodríguez returned with a 10-point plan for parents to guide their teenagers’ playing habits.
Elizabeth García Vilchis was on hand for the media lies of the week, and looked to God for support. Or at least, God’s terrestrial representative: “To the media, I ask that you end the logic of post truth, the disinformation, the defamation, the lies and that perverse fascination with scandal and dirt and that you seek to contribute to human fellowship,” she said, quoting Pope Francis.
In replying to the “fake news” of the week: no one died at the Dos Bocas refinery strikes in Tabasco and no firearms were used; and there would be no sanctions against young people if they fail to register with the tax authority.
Thursday
Cigarettes, of the electronic variety, were a hot topic on Thursday. AMLO repeated his disagreement with a Supreme Court judgement that called the ban on electronic cigarettes unconstitutional. “We’re going to present a legal initiative to combat this … business can’t be put ahead of the health of the people,” the president affirmed.
AMLO spoke out against electronic cigarettes on Thursday.
He backed the integrity of the attorney general in the case of Emilio Lozoya. The former CEO of Pemex, arrested on corruption charges in 2020, had been photographed in a fancy restaurant in Mexico City. Last year, AMLO had said Lozoya was a collaborating witness, but said Thursday that no plea deal had been struck to keep him out of jail.
AMLO spoke out against electronic cigarettes on Thursday.
Friday
Race, the president said, was a concept that should be discarded on scientific grounds: “It is proven scientifically that there are no races. There are only cultures. If there are no races, how are you going to be racist? It is absurd. It has to do with this conservative thinking of seeking to be superior,” he said.
However, the 67-year-old was in no mood for a fight. He’d picked up an injury while engaged in his favorite pastime. “I hit a run, and I came back to bat for the second time … and I tore something … I kept batting … but then I got to first base and I couldn’t continue … in these cases ice and rest is recommended,” he said.
Inflation, which a journalist said was at 6.12%, wasn’t going to cause damage, AMLO assured. The president attributed it to two factors: productivity dropped globally, causing prices to rise, and the United States’ mammoth stimulus package that had “heated up the economy” and created more demand than supply could satisfy.
As ever, time was short, and AMLO had a weekend excursion planned. The mountain region of Guerrero beckoned: 19 poor municipalities in the southern state where the Mixe people reside.
“I’ve got to go, that’s the third call. You’re down for Monday. I give you my word,” he said to a waiting journalist.
The netleaf oak, or encino in Spanish, is one of Mexico's many native trees.
“All the ways you imagine us – bewitched mangroves up on stilts, a nutmeg’s inverted spade, gnarled baja elephant trunks, the straight-up missile of a sal – are always amputations. Your kind never sees us whole. You miss the half of it, and more. There’s always as much belowground as above. If your mind were only a slightly greener thing, we’d drown you in meaning.”
I’ve always loved trees — so much so that my entire back is covered in a tattoo of a tree. But the book from which the above quote is taken, Richard Powers’ The Overstory: A Novel, especially helped me to think of trees as living, conscious things and of forests as communities, as opposed to simply natural decorations set into the ground by the gods that may or may not be useful.
While the very definition of consciousness as we perceive it is debatable in terms of which living things it might include, we do now know that trees have more in common with us than we used to think.
They communicate with each other through their roots. They care for their young. They send medicine to their sick compañeros. As an extra touching surprise, we’ve discovered that dying trees send out the last of their nutrients to others before passing, like someone making sure to give away their last cent before heading to the other side.
So whenever I read news articles about trees in distress, I worry about them. What might they be going through?
I’m not trying to show off my interspecies altruism here; I’ve got as many despicable moral blind spots as the rest of us (humans, eh?). But that one line, “we’d drown you in meaning,” speaks to me.
It reminds me that in the community of life, even when there aren’t other people around, we’re not alone.
So here I am to remind us all of how deserving trees are of both our protection and even our love songs — and to sound my barely perceptible piece of the alarm about the danger to them.
The Mexican tree-planting program Sembrando Vida (Sowing Life) is of specific concern, both because of its consequences — which have been contrary to its stated goals — and because faith in the program, at least on an official level, seems to be expanding rather than contracting.
Planting trees that are specifically useful to us, a major tenet of the program is, of course, not something I’m going to rail against. What makes me recoil a bit (and only a bit) is that in doing so, we’re doing it only for us.
The program has shown many cracks since its inception, including accusations that there are not enough saplings to meet the demand, that they are sent out at the wrong time of year for planting, that the on-the-ground organizers are charging farmers to participate in the program and that program officials’ insistence on only enrolling beneficiaries with bare land parcels is encouraging landowners to deforest their plots in order to join.
The president has made it very obvious through his proposed legislation that moving us globally toward a clean and sustainable environment is not a top priority for him, despite claims to the contrary.
Planting trees is great, but billing that as a gigantic step in solving Mexico’s environmental problems is akin to those giant polluting factories — responsible for a very significant chunk of pollution — launching energy-saving campaigns to encourage the public to turn the lights out in their homes while making no effort to find environmentally sustainable production solutions.
Indeed, environmentalists contend that many of President López Obrador’s environmental proposals are wildly outdated.
Then, on top of all that, we’ve got illegal logging by organized crime to contend with — which has depleted about 15% of Mexico’s total territory, which is a lot. My, my. Is there any way that criminal groups aren’t allowed to diversify around here?
If we haven’t been able to protect people, I can hardly see how we’ll be able to protect trees. The will for it doesn’t seem to be there, anyway.
The Sembrando Vida program has problems woven through it, although heaps of confidence are being piled on top of it as a catch-all solution for everything from environmental degradation to mass migration. But what other things could we do to save the environment?
For starters, we could get serious about allowing clean, alternative energy to operate in the country; it’s going to be a reality at some point anyway; the Federal Electricity Commission and Pemex might as well face that reality now and adapt before facing inevitable demise when their supplies run out.
We could develop urban community gardens and more green areas, maybe tear up a bit of the concrete around here that’s contributed so much to flooding — not a bad idea considering how much more intense our weather is getting.
We could focus our efforts on protecting the trees and plants that we have now rather than saying, “Oh, just cut those old ones down; they’re not useful to us” — in that shortsighted way that humans often do.
I hope and pray that we can learn to respect our communities of trees. In the end, it might be their patient and wise presence that ends up saving us rather than the other way around.
Rick's forecast track as of Saturday morning. conagua
A hurricane warning is in effect between Técpan de Galeana on the central coast of Guerrero and Punta San Telmo, Michoacán, the national weather service said Saturday morning.
Hurricane Rick, rated Category 1, was situated about 335 kilometers south of Zihuatanejo, Guerrero, and 300 kilometers southwest of Acapulco at 10:00 a.m. CDT, reported the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC).
It was moving to the north-northwest at 11 kph and was expected to approach the coast late Sunday as a major hurricane due to rapid strengthening over the next couple of days, the NHC said. Maximum sustained winds Saturday morning were estimated at 130 kph.
The Mexican weather service predicts Rick will become a Category 3 hurricane by 7:00 p.m. Sunday and make landfall in Michoacán, just west of the Guerrero border.
Other areas that will be affected are east of Técpan to Acapulco and west of Punta San Telmo to Manzanillo, where a tropical storm warning has been declared.
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus invited AMLO to learn more about the organization's vaccine approval process earlier this week.
President López Obrador has once again criticized the World Health Organization (WHO) for its tardiness in approving the Sputnik V and CanSino vaccines.
He said it was “unbelievable” that the WHO has not approved the vaccines given that they are being administered on a massive scale around the world and have passed clinical trials.
“How long does it take to gather the data to grant the registration or not?” López Obrador asked.
He said that certification of the unapproved vaccines is urgent because many people inoculated with them need to travel to the United States which, starting November 8, will only admit travelers fully vaccinated with WHO-approved shots. López Obrador confirmed that he sent a letter to the WHO asking it to expedite its approval process.
“They shouldn’t get angry, they should hurry up, that’s what I respectfully say to them and that’s what I set out in the letter,” he said.
It is proven that the vaccines that have been used in Mexico despite not being approved by the WHO protect people from serious illness, the president added.
In other COVID-19 news:
• Mexico’s accumulated case tally rose to 3.77 million on Thursday with 4,798 new infections reported. The Health Ministry reported 322 additional fatalities, lifting the official COVID-19 death toll to 285,669. There are 33,880 estimated active cases.
• More than 486,000 vaccines were administered Thursday, lifting the total number of shots given to 113.95 million. According to The New York Times vaccinations tracker, 55% of Mexico’s population (adults and children) is vaccinated and 41% is fully vaccinated.
• Vaccination of youths aged 12 to 17 with underlying health conditions that make them vulnerable to serious illness will begin in Mexico City on Monday. To get an appointment, adolescents are required to register on the federal government’s vaccination website.
To get a shot on the day of their appointment, the youths will have to present a diagnosis, prescription or other document that proves they suffer from one of 40 ailments that make them eligible. The federal government hasn’t announced any plans to vaccinate minors without any health problems, despite a court order directing it to do so.
