AMLO laments US silence on complaint about funding ‘adversaries’

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May 31, 2021

AMLO — 'It's very regrettable that the United States government hasn't taken our request seriously,' President López Obrador said Monday.

President López Obrador said Monday that the federal government has not received a response to its request that the United States stop funding what he says are political groups opposed to his administration.

The government sent a diplomatic note to the U.S. earlier this month, asking it to explain why it has provided funding to Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity (MCCI), a civil society organization that has been critical of López Obrador and his administration.

The president has also railed against the United States government’s funding of press-freedom group Article 19, which has also criticized him.

Speaking at his news conference on Monday, López Obrador said, “They’re not parties, but they are lobby groups or organizations that participate in politics, as is currently being done. … It’s improper that the United States government gives money to these organizations, even more so in electoral times. … It’s interference in the public life of our country,” he said.

“It’s very regrettable that the United States government hasn’t taken our request seriously. For that reason, we’re going to keep on respectfully insisting that it no longer finance political groups in Mexico, and the best thing would be that it didn’t intervene to finance any political group in any country in the world.”

María Amparo, right, is the head of Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity. On her left is the head of another similar NGO, Transparency Mexico.

Despite that remark, López Obrador said he wouldn’t raise the issue with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, who is scheduled to visit Mexico next week to discuss ways to stem migration from Central America.

“There’s another agenda [for the meeting with Harris]. This [funding issue] has to do with the Department of State, with the embassy, because it’s the United States Embassy that distributes the money,” López Obrador said. “… This mustn’t be done. … It’s not related to the good foreign policy, the cooperation between the people [of Mexico and the United States], the friendly [bilateral] relations …”

The president also said that if organizations such as MCCI and Article 19 had any scruples, they would reject funding from a foreign government. “They claim that they’re not playing politics when it’s public knowledge that they are. It’s not necessary to present evidence; they are completely devoted to campaigning against us,” he said.

Source: Reforma (sp), Milenio (sp)

2021 growth forecasts move upward: OECD predicts 5%, Ministry of Finance 6.5%

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MND Staff

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May 31, 2021

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The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Ministry of Finance have both upped Mexico’s growth forecasts for 2021, albeit by differing rates.

But both are cause for optimism: the OECD has raised predicted growth by 0.5% to 5% and the ministry expects growth of 6.5%, up from an April prognosis of 5.3%.

The OECD also expects Mexico’s GDP to grow by 3.2% in 2021, a rise of 0.2%.

The revised growth rates are largely the result of a lever effect from the United States, which is predicted to import more industrial goods, aided by a US $1.9-trillion rescue package. Mexican exports have already returned to pre-pandemic levels.

Deputy Minister of Finance and Public Credit, Gabriel Yorio, cited confidence in the vaccination program as a reason for the brighter forecast.

He added that the pandemic had revealed the vulnerabilities of an economy with a wide social gap, a large informal sector and barriers to digital assimilation.

The OECD addressed some of those social issues facing the economy in its recommendations. “Accelerating the vaccination campaign is crucial to reinvigorate the recovery. Greater income and training support would help the hardest-hit workers, both in the informal and formal sectors. Expanding access to childcare would facilitate female labor force participation … ” it said.

The report also stated the importance of boosting private investment by reducing regulatory barriers.

The OECD expects global GDP to grow 5.8% this year, up 0.2%, and to grow by 4.4% in 2022, up 0.4% on earlier forecasts. The United States’ US $1.9 trillion stimulus package could boost the GDP of Canada and Mexico by as much as 1%, and world GDP by the same rate.

Sources: El Financiero (sp), Milenio (sp)

New efforts to solve Central American refugee problem will not succeed

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Carlisle Johnson

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May 31, 2021

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kamala harris — The US vice president will travel to Mexico and Guatemala next week to seek solutions to the migrants problem.

Over five years ago I editorialized against a proposal called the Alliance for Prosperity, made by what are now known as the northern tier Central American countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

The plan was to use around US $5 billion (now $4 billion) to create conditions which would be so attractive at home that the budding refugee problem would go away. My then demurral was based principally on the corruption of the northern tier countries.

The refugee problem was warm enough at the time that then president Obama gofered it to his VP Joe Biden. Biden has now lateraled the hot potato to his VP Harris, who is traveling to Mexico and Guatemala next week to seek resolution.

A quote from Shakespeare sums up the optimism of the coming meetings: “There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.”

She will fail.

There are now three reasons for the impending failure:

Corruption continues in the three northern tier countries;
Mexico, a key although unnamed element in the alliance, is not ready;
The U.S. is involved in four tendentious bilateral disputes, one each for the northern tier countries and a fourth for Mexico.

The climate for agreement is not good.

These are recent rankings for perceived corruption among 180 countries: Guatemala 149, Honduras 157, El Salvador 104 and Mexico 124.

All are failing scores.

There is gallows humor in the details. Here are two examples: a would-be accountant and former president of El Salvador confessed to misappropriating $299 million and there was a recent seizure in Guatemala of over $15 million in cash in the vacant house of a now-on-the-lam former minister. Took two whole days to count the cash.

Eight former presidents from the three northern tier countries are charged or have been convicted of peculation, and one former chief executive from Guatemala has been in confinement for five years. Corruption continues.

Mexico, technically not northern tier, is still corrupt and a party to the refugee muddle. Just last week I used two smugglers’ crossings in one border excursion.

The U.S. is now involved in public disputes with Mexico over funding of anti-government NGOs, El Salvador over the president’s dismissal of elections supervisory judges, Guatemala over the year-long failure to name constitutional judges, and Honduras for sentencing the president’s brother for drug trafficking.

VP Harris is going to need four umbrellas to salvage an alliance for prosperity in this weather environment.

Carlisle Johnson writes from his home in Guatemala.

‘If you want war you’ll get war:’ cartel hunts down, kills Guanajuato police in their homes

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MND Staff

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May 31, 2021

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State police officer in Guanajuato killed by cartels Agent Zavala — Agent Zavala, a Guanajuato state police officer found dead on a highway on Thursday, had been kidnapped from his home on his day off.

The Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) is targeting and killing police officers at their homes in Guanajuato, Mexico’s most violent state and the most dangerous for police.

According to a report by the Associated Press (AP), the cartel abducted several members of an elite police force in Guanajuato and tortured them to obtain names and addresses of other officers.

Now CJNG members are showing up at officers’ homes on their days off and murdering them in front of their families, the news agency said.

According to Poplab, a news cooperative in Guanajuato, at least seven officers have been murdered on their days off in 2021.

AP said the offensive against the state police officers — members of a force known as the Tactical Group — poses “the most direct challenge yet” to President López Obrador’s so-called “hugs, not bullets” policy, which is characterized by the desire to avoid conflict with cartels and instead focus on addressing the root causes of crime through government welfare and social programs.

Guanajuato state police Tactical Group division — Publicity photo for Guanajuato’s division of the state police known as the Tactical Group.

However, the CJNG — generally considered Mexico’s most powerful and violent criminal organization — doesn’t share the desire to avoid conflict, having declared war on the Tactical Group, which it says has treated its members unfairly.

“If you want war, you’ll get a war. We have already shown that we know where you are. We are coming for all of you,” read a professionally printed CJNG banner that was hung on a building in Guanajuato this month.

“For each member of [the CJNG] that you arrest, we are going to kill two of your Tacticals, wherever they are, at their homes, in their patrol vehicles,” the banner said.

AP said that officials in Guanajuato — where the CJNG is engaged in a turf war with the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel and other local gangs supported by the Sinaloa Cartel — refused to comment on how many members of the Tactical Group have been killed.

State police did, however, publicly acknowledge the latest case in which an officer was kidnapped from his home last Thursday and killed. His body was dumped on a highway.

Without offering an exact figure, Guanajuato-based security analyst David Saucedo said there have been many cases of cartel violence against police.

“A lot of them [the elite police officers] have decided to desert. They took their families, abandoned their homes and they are fleeing and in hiding,” he told AP. “The CJNG is hunting the elite police force of Guanajuato. … This is an open war against the security forces of the state government.”

Cartel gunmen went to the home of a policewoman in January, where they kidnapped her and killed her husband. The female officer was subsequently tortured and shot dead.

Tactical Group officers are among the 262 police who have been killed in Guanajuato between 2018 and May 12. According to Poplab, more police have been killed in Guanajuato than in any other state since at least 2018.

The average since that year of about 75 killings of police per year in Guanajuato is higher than the annual average of officers killed in the entire United States, which has a population 50 times that of the Bajío region state.

Violence against police in Guanajuato, Mexico’s worst state for homicides in recent years, has become so bad that the state government published a special decree on May 17 in which it pledged to provide an unspecified amount of funding for mechanisms to protect police and prison officials.

“Unfortunately, organized crime groups have shown up at the homes of police officers, which poses a threat and a greater risk of loss of life, not just for them, but for members of their families,” said the decree issued by Governor Diego Sinhue.

Guanajuato governor Diego Sinhue — Guanajuato Governor Diego Sinhue recently confirmed that the Jalisco New Generation Cartel has begun targeting police officers in their homes. File photo

“They have been forced to quickly leave their homes and move so that organized crime groups cannot find them.”

AP said that state officials refused to describe the protection measures offered to police. They also declined to comment on whether officers would receive financial assistance to rent new homes or whether there were plans to build secure housing compounds for police and their families.

Federal security forces are deployed in Guanajuato but have failed to stem the violence or put any significant dent in criminal activity.

The federal government argues that its “hugs, not bullets” approach to security will result in a reduction in violence, but 2 1/2 years after it took office, homicide numbers remain extremely high, declining just 0.4% in 2020 from the record set in 2019 despite the coronavirus pandemic and the deployment of almost 100,000 National Guard troops.

Despite a campaign promise to withdraw the military from the nation’s streets, López Obrador has continued to use the armed forces for public security tasks but given them a clear directive to avoid direct confrontations with cartels wherever possible.

Former United States ambassador to Mexico Christopher Landau said last month that the president sees combating cartels as a distraction from his political agenda and has adopted a laissez-faire attitude toward them.

“He sees the cartels … as a distraction from focusing on his agenda. So he has basically adopted a pretty laissez-faire attitude towards them, which is troubling to our government, obviously. I think it’s a big problem for Mexico,” he said.

Source: AP (en), Infobae (sp)

Government to raffle ex-drug lords’ houses, box seat in Aztec stadium

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MND Staff

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May 31, 2021

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The Mexico City mansion of former cartel boss Amado Carrillo Fuentes.

A government “mega raffle” on September 15 will feature the residences of deposed drug lords and a corporate box at the Aztec Stadium in Mexico City.

The houses of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, formerly boss of the Sinaloa Cartel, and Amado Carrillo Fuentes of the Juárez Cartel had failed to sell when previously auctioned by the Institute to Return Stolen Goods to the People (Indep). The stadium box has been government property since 1984.

The raffle will give away 22 prizes with a total value of 250 million pesos (US $12.5 million).

The prize asset on offer is Fuentes’ former residence in Tlalpan, Mexico City, which is valued at more than 77 million pesos (slightly under US $4 million). The property, which was seized more than 20 years ago, comprises over 3,000 square meters in an exclusive area, with an indoor pool, nine bedrooms, jacuzzis, saunas, a wine cellar and a party salon.

The residence was auctioned in May last year and although a pallet was raised to acquire it, the purchase did not materialize.

Joaquín Guzmán’s more moderate former property in Culiacán, Sinaloa, valued at under 4 million pesos (US $200,000), has failed to sell after three times at auction. Its standout feature may be its bathtub, under which the diminutive ex-drug lord escaped from the Mexican navy through a tunnel in 2014.

The corporate box at the Aztec Stadium is valued at 20 million pesos and is valid until 2065. The box is described as being in “an excellent location” and has a 20-person capacity, a bathroom and four parking spaces. It is where in 1986 then-president Miguel de la Madrid handed the World Cup trophy to Diego Maradona, crowning Argentina as champion.

In last Thursday’s morning press conference President López Obrador clarified how the money raised from the “stolen” resources would be spent. “Selling properties, residences, even a box that the government had in the Azteca Stadium, all of that [the money raised] is going to be delivered to the people. … and help in the purchase of vaccines and medicines and given away as scholarships …” he said.

The event is similar to one held on the same date last year, in which the presidential plane was nominally up for grabs. In reality, cash prizes to the value of the plane were given away.

So far the Mexican government has spent more than two years trying to sell the plane. The United Nations has launched a tender to promote the sale amid low demand.

Sources: El Universal (sp), Infobae (sp)

Lottery agency keeps mum after hackers claim to have accessed servers

By

MND Staff

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May 31, 2021

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Lotenal building — A criminal group claims to have accessed the servers of Lotenal, Mexico's national lottery. The group is asking for an unknown ransom amount.

A group of hackers that claims to have infiltrated the computer servers of the National Lottery (Lotenal) has threatened to reveal confidential information if the agency refuses to cooperate with it.

A criminal group claims to have accessed Lotenal’s servers last Thursday using Avaddon ransomware, malicious software (also known as malware) that has been used in numerous cyberattacks in several countries.

The group demanded the payment of a ransom within 10 days in exchange for not leaking information it stole. The amount it is asking for is unknown.

“… We have data such as all contracts and agreements from 2009 to 2021, legal documents, correspondence, finance, notarial data, outsourcing, and much more,” the group said in a statement published online. “Also remember that data cannot be decrypted without our general decryptor. And your site will be attacked by a DDoS [distributed denial of service] attack,” it said.

Lotenal has neither confirmed nor denied that it was the victim of a cyberattack. It said on Friday that it was updating its systems and that this was causing some interruptions to its online services. On Saturday, the criminal group published another statement.

loteria nacional hackers message — Message published Saturday online by hackers claiming to have hacked the National Lottery’s servers. The group is threatening to leak confidential documents.

“Apparently the [agency] does not quite understand the seriousness of this situation and wants to hide the fact that they were hacked and we stole data from their servers,” it said.

“… What if we say that we have a lot of confidential data (see photo below), such as sexual harassment in the workplace, unpleasant incidents and a lot of dirt associated with your [agency]? If you continue to lie to everyone and do not contact us on this fact, then we, in turn, are ready to surprise all who follow the news related to our blow to your companies with very interesting documents that we have.”

The group published an image of a redacted federal government document about a case in which a Lotenal cleaner was a victim of sexual harassment.

According to Hiram Caramillo, co-founder and director of information security at the cybersecurity consulting firm Seekurity, groups that use ransomware such as Avaddon are “criminals that earn millions of dollars” through extortion.

He said that Lotenal should be working to ensure that Avaddon ransomware is no longer being used to infiltrate its systems. Caramillo also said the lottery agency must identify what information has been stolen.

“It’s not the first time that a company that has been hacked denies the attack,” he said, referring to Lotenal’s decision not to publicly acknowledge the cyberattack.

Rocio Nahle Garcia, Mexico energy minister — Hackers targeted Pemex in 2019 for US $5 million, which Energy Minister Rocio Nahle said would not be paid. File photo

Nor is it the first time that ransomware groups respond to companies that refuse to cooperate, he said. “The same situation has already happened several times,” Caramillo said.

According to the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Avaddon ransomware was first advertised on Russian-language hacking forums as a ransomware-as-a-service, or RaaS, product. Raas refers to the sale of malware to would-be hackers via a subscription model. Hackers that do not have the skills to write and deliver their own ransomware code to victims can do so by buying Raas products on the dark web. The ransomware developers typically get a cut of the victim’s payment.

According to the cybersecurity research company Group-IB, almost two-thirds of ransomware attacks worldwide that it analyzed during 2020 came from cybercriminals operating on a RaaS model.

The FBI said in a statement issued earlier this month that it had received notifications of unidentified online criminals using Avaddon ransomware against U.S. and foreign companies, manufacturing organizations, and healthcare agencies.

“Avaddon ransomware actors have compromised victims through remote-access login credentials. … After [they] gain access to a victim’s network, they map the network and identify backups for deletion and/or encryption,” the FBI said.

“… The actors threaten to leak the victims’ data to The Onion Router (TOR) network unless their ransom demand is paid in virtual currency within days of infection. Avaddon’s extortion tactics progress from a warning to a partial data leak and, finally, to a full data leak of all exfiltrated files,” it said.

There have been Avaddon attacks in the United States, Europe as well as in Latin American countries such as Brazil, Chile, Peru and Costa Rica.

The cyberattack on the National Lottery is the second on a federal government agency since President López Obrador took office in late 2018. The state oil company Pemex was targeted in a 2019 attack in which hackers demanded the payment of about US $5 million in bitcoins.

Source: El Universal (sp), Reforma (sp), El Financiero (sp), ZDNet (en)

Mexico now leads world in papaya exports with 44% of the market

By

MND Staff

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May 31, 2021

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papaya plants — Oaxaca, Colima and Chiapas are the principal papaya-growing states.

Mexico is now the world’s biggest exporter of papaya and sits in third place in terms of volume produced, which grew 3.2% last year.

The country has 44.7% of the global export market, followed by Guatemala and Brazil, and became the third biggest producer in 2019, and is now growing 7.6% of the world’s total.

Growing international demand has driven the rate of export, which brought in more than US $86 million last year from the United States alone.

Based on figures from the Agriculture Ministry, last year’s yield showed 3.2% growth, to 1,118,000 tonnes. Papaya production averaged 984,000 tonnes between 2015 and 2019, with an average annual growth rate of 5.2%.

The area designated for papaya production in 2019 was 19,865 hectares, which increased 1.2% to 20,100 hectares in 2020.

Preliminary data for 2020 shows Oaxaca to be the main producer with 31.2%, Colima in second place with 17.6%, followed by Chiapas 14.1%.

A member of the Caricaceae family, the papaya is native to Central America and tropical areas of Mexico, and flourishes in warm, humid environments. One of the most popular Mexican variants is the maradol.

The fruit is rich in vitamins A, C and B-complex, and contains minerals such as potassium, magnesium, fiber, folic acid and small amounts of calcium and iron.

It is valued for as a tool for slimming, tanning and to remove skin blemishes. It is also used in the food industry to tenderize meat, in manufacturing to tan leather and in textiles to treat wool and cotton fibers.

In Mexico, the annual consumption of papaya per person is 7.3 kilograms.

Sources: Diario Marca (sp), Al Momento (sp)

The mananeras: from a love-in with the president of Argentina to swipes at the media

By

MND Staff

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May 29, 2021

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AMLO and the president of Argentina enjoy a chat.

President López Obrador can’t be faulted for his enthusiasm. Every weekday he has put sleepy journalists to shame and kept his cabinet on their toes with his rise and shine, mammoth press conferences.

AMLO’s mañaneras (as they are known in Spanish) have been ridiculed, denounced and celebrated in a similar vein to Donald Trump’s Twitter feed. However, while the former U.S. president can be imagined tweeting from a golden sofa in a bath robe, López Obrador is on stage at the National Palace every day at 7:00 a.m., looking sprightly. Contracting Covid-19 has been the only disruption to his routine.

Like a compere at a wedding, the 67-year-old will invite a speaker with just a single word, or the casual wave of a hand. Like an absorbed history professor he responds to journalists with an eloquent ramble, and sometimes a parable or two.

Sessions of two hours or more or 10,000 transcripts would be enough to test anyone’s patience, so here are some of the highlights from this week’s morning conferences.

Monday, May 24

The week began with news of a completion date for the construction of the Santa Lucía airport — March 21, 2022, and a positive economic figure: the first quarter broke the record for foreign investment. Drugs, of the legal kind, were next on the list. The president accused his adversaries of sabotaging the government’s efforts to secure medicines, claiming they were sour that the rules had been changed.

Land distribution featured, and Oaxaca’s egalitarian model was celebrated. “To this day, 85% of the land in Oaxaca is communal … 5% is private … How is it that in Oaxaca they maintain their customs, their traditions, their cultures? Because they have also conserved the communal land, it belongs to everyone.”

The mañanera ended earlier, or perhaps later, than the president expected. He wasn’t entirely sure. “I forgot my watch and I don’t know what time it is. Let’s go. Well, see you tomorrow, have a good day,” he announced, striding away to attend to the nation’s business.

Tuesday, May 25

The president of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, dropped in via video link for a chat and expressions of mutual admiration on Tuesday.

“What a joy to see you, my dear friend, president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel, dearest friend. How are you? How is everything?” Fernández began.

“You know that today we celebrate in Argentina on May 25, for us it is a very important date, because it is the day that began the path of Argentine Independence from the Spanish Crown …” he related.

The pair discussed the two countries’ cooperation to produce the AstraZeneca vaccine, before Fernández relaunched the charm attack. “It’s the admiration and respect that I have for you, and you know what a friend I consider you to be. It is almost the perfect image, two twinned peoples … that value honesty,” he versed.

AMLO responded in kind. “Personally, Alberto, I have a very special appreciation for you. I consider you a man with principles, with ideals, a good president, what the people of Argentina deserve.”

The call ended, and the Mexican president pondered the next item. “Great. So let’s go to … oh sorry, Carlos.”

Latin America’s richest man, Carlos Slim, had waited patiently for his turn. The Carlos Slim Foundation has been central to the Mexico-Argentina vaccine project.

Wednesday, May 26

Black gold was the focus on Wednesday as Pemex directors joined the meeting to discuss the imminent acquisition of the Deer Park oil refinery in Texas.

“During the entire neoliberal period, 40 years, a new refinery was not built in Mexico … we sold oranges and bought orange juice: we sold raw materials, crude oil and we bought gasoline. Completely absurd,” said the president.

“Only a traitor delivers his country to foreigners,” he added, reinforcing his position with a quote from former leader Adolfo López Mateos.

However, when asked whether debt was attached to the purchase, AMLO and Pemex’s top brass were caught off guard.

“The plant hasn’t had any losses, it’s had profits,” he affirmed.

“Last year there were no profits,” interjected the head of Pemex, Octavio Romero.

“And what is the value of the debt.”

“Excuse me?”

“What is the value of the debt?”

“The debt totals around US $980 million,” Oropeza conceded.

AMLO then assured all concerned that the nation’s pockets were plenty deep enough, and the investment would be recuperated in two to three years.

Thursday, May 27

Health Minister Jorge Alcocer opened Thursday’s conference with a well scripted tale of the administration’s reform to make medicinal drugs free, despite obstructions.

The president was quick to highlight the virtuous force of his administration. “When a just, noble cause is involved, when it comes to honesty, you have to act firmly and not take a step back,” he said.

However, one word was enough to change his mood. “Propaganda” featured in a question from the floor, relating to the official denunciation of his March 30 mañanera.

“What was it, what was it …? What? Violation of the constitution? … There is the right to information, the right of the people to be informed by the authority,” he retorted.

A similar reaction followed an inquiry about whether the U.S. downgrade of Mexico’s air safety rating would affect flights from the new Santa Lucía airport.

“No, no, no. It is dry grass for the bonfires of our adversaries in the media, who want to magnify everything,” he rebutted.

Friday, May 28

The final conference of the week opened with a vaccination update, including the news that the 40-49 age group would begin to receive their first jabs.

The Maya Train was next on the agenda: Rogelio Jiménez Pons, director of the National Tourism Promotion Fund, was joined by executives from the Alstom-Bombardier consortium, which has won a hefty infrastructure contract. Local partnership will be higher under their proposal, which made it the most attractive, Pons said, adding that once the service is operational trains should depart from Cancún every 15 minutes.

The president found an opportunity to have his say on the the latest edition of The Economist newspaper, which branded him “Mexico’s false messiah.”

“They were dedicated to applauding neoliberal policies … so, they put out this cover, stupid, very rude, and dishonest, calling me ‘the false messiah’ … All those who participated or kept quiet when Mexico was being looted are now annoyed because the people said ‘Enough,’” the president affirmed, shortly before calling time on the week.

Mexico News Daily

Siglo 21 highway collapses where crack appeared Wednesday

By

Tony Richards

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May 29, 2021

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The section of highway that collapsed on Saturday.

It began as a narrow but long crack in the Siglo 21 highway in Michoacán on Wednesday. On Saturday, the 150-meter-long crack expanded, causing a section of the highway to collapse entirely.

Authorities suspect the collapse may be due to excessive moisture in the soil, caused by its proximity to the Francisco Mujica dam.

The highway was closed Wednesday between Santa Casilda and the Cuatro Caminos junction with the expectation that repairs would take up to 15 days. The extent of the damage today suggests the closure will be for a much longer period.

The federal Ministry of Transportation said in a Tweet Saturday afternoon that technical studies are being conducted to determine the cause of the collapse but offered no further details.

highway collapse — Part of the highway dropped several meters today.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Diverse Baja migrant community finds pride, identity, connection in murals

By

Leigh Thelmadatter

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May 29, 2021

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Mural promoting San Quintín by Rogelio Santos — San Quintín attracts a diversity of indigenous migrants from other parts of Mexico to work on vegetable, fruit or fish farms and in border factories. Rogelio Santos

It is definitely a case of “great minds think alike.”

Julia Celeste and Rogelio Santos are both artists dedicated to using murals to improve community ties in San Quintín, a poor rural farming valley that is near Ensenada but also a world away from it. Separately, they saw the beauty and problems that surround them and came up with the same idea.

San Quintín is highly representative of the migration north into Baja California, not only by those hoping to get to the United States but by those attracted to Baja’s large industrial farms and border factories.

In San Quintín, farming is king, especially tomatoes, strawberries and, to some extent, seafood.

Large farms need large quantities of manual labor, and as is the case north of the border, these businesses look to impoverished areas to bring in less expensive help.

Rogelio Santos making mural in San Quintín, Baja California — Rogelio Santos and local children working on a mural in San Quintín, Baja California. Rogelio Santos

That help comes from many parts of Mexico but particularly from the indigenous groups from the states of Oaxaca, Guerrero and parts of Puebla.

These migrants are working legally within their own country but still share many of the same problems that those further north face: poverty, discrimination, drugs and violence. But perhaps the most important issue is that of identity. No matter where they were born, in many ways they are neither from Baja nor their states of origin.

San Quintín’s deputy minister of culture, Yohanna Jaramillo, says it is not easy to run cultural programs here as most residents have little free time and are dispersed over a wide area. However, such efforts are considered important — but not to “give” residents culture, since they already bring rich artistic cultures with them, she says. “The programs look to promote and find new ways to express these various heritages.”

Community inspired and executed murals have been on the rise in Mexico. In San Quintín, the overriding focus of this work has been on the migrant experience. Celeste and Santos in particular have been instrumental in such efforts.

Celeste’s family moved to Baja California in the 1960s, when her mother was just 4. Celeste showed a strong interest in art from a very young age but did not take any formal classes until she was 15.

Her lack of a degree did not stop her from starting an art school for children in her family’s garage. Over the years, the classes she taught formed a small artistic community in her part of San Quintín.

She became involved with the municipality’s culture ministry, which added mural work to an existing program, Culturas Comunitarias (Community Cultures), which documents the different ethnicities in the valley.

Through this work, Celeste managed to get two 30-square-meter murals done with government financial support before the pandemic put the program on hiatus.

Santos’ life is representative of the indigenous Mixtec experience in Baja: born in Juxtlahuaca, Oaxaca, he migrated there when he was 5, but he and his family have maintained ties to their hometown.

Like Celeste, Santos’ talent and interest emerged early, with an added plus: he found in art a way to get beyond discriminatory attitudes among other kids at school.

He went on to study art at the University of Baja California in Ensenada, then at the School of Fine Arts in Oaxaca. He believes that both experiences are an important part of who he is.

Santos had a more traditional career trajectory with individual and collective exhibits from 2011–2017, but since then he has become dedicated to community-based art projects both in Baja California and Oaxaca.

Julia Celeste mural in San Quintin, Baja California — One of Julia Celeste’s two murals completed with the help of community volunteers recruited from San Quintín’s migrant population.

The first project, Colores de mi entorno: Muralismo sobre la transculturalidad (Colors of my Environment: Muralism about Transculturalism), took place in 2018. With federal funding, he began with a workshop in muralism and identity, then created murals in various parts of San Quintín. He had to rely on personal connections at first for volunteers to paint with him, but once word went out about the project, more people came.

Santos considers the project a huge success not because it got significant local media coverage but because it involved young people of various ethnicities and even those marginalized because of drug use.

He has since done two other projects called Memoria de mi Valle (Memory of my Valley), and Pintura Experimental con el Centro Cultural de Tijuana (Experimental Painting with the Cultural Center of Tijuana) both in 2019.

Celeste and Santos created their programs separately, but their work shares important elements.

Both focus on themes of migration, farm work, natural beauty and indigenous cultures. Both integrate the faces of real people in the valley — in some cases using murals to honor specific people, such as one indigenous Triqui woman working to preserve her people’s weaving traditions and another who has spent years keeping a local park clean.

Both design their projects to allow maximum participation from the public, relying on brushes and acrylics instead of spray paint. The artists get the sketch on the wall, and volunteers fill in the lines, coloring-book style. In some cases, Santos adds more advanced touches like shadowing.

Santos says the murals are a form of “cultural resistance” that allows migrants to conserve as much of their original heritage as possible. It also works to get youths from different ethnicities working together, “in harmony,” as Celeste puts it. This is important because there are inter-ethnic rivalries that contribute to violence in San Quintín.

Despite his good fortune in getting government funding for his efforts, Santos admits it is not enough, especially in the long run. He is looking to create fundraising campaigns related to his projects that could be sold, such as calendars.

• Julia Celeste can be reached on Facebook at or through Instagram.

• Rogelio Santos can be reached via email or on Facebook or through Instagram.

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.