Mexico beach bands victorious after noise complaints

Hotel owner in Mazatlán had suggested limiting the time or places where the bands could play after complaints from foreign tourists

Bands who play the thumping tuba-and-drums songs of northern Mexico on beaches in the resort city of Mazatlán appear to have emerged victorious this week after noise complaints had threatened to silence them.

But anybody who planned to witness the 8 April eclipse in a moment of awed silence will likely be disappointed. Mazatlán, on the Pacific coast, will be first place in North America where the path of totality will be visible.

Because of complaints from foreign tourists who like to observe the resort’s sunsets in peace – or with a bit of soft music – a local hotel owner had suggested limiting the time or places where the bands could play. The bands usually wander the beaches, asking for a few dollars per song to play.

Their music is hardly conducive to reflection or relaxation – think of a frantic, speed-fueled polka with lots and lots of brass and snare drums.

But after a protest march by the musicians turned into a violent scuffle with police last week, efforts to limit them appear to have been abandoned.

“The people are very conscious now, and they are defending their rights,” President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said on Monday. “This is how they make a living, and besides, this is a long-standing tradition … and for that reason they protested and managed to get it reversed.

“What isn’t good is the violence,” López Obrador added. “But the Sinaloa bands, or the musicians of the Sinaloa bands, are completely within their rights to protest, just no violence.”

While there never appears to have been any city-wide ban, at least one hotel had put up signs prohibiting the bands from offering their services to beachgoers.

Videos of the scuffles between musicians and police went viral last week, with some band members hitting police with drum sticks. Drums were turned into weapons.

Rubén Rocha, the governor of the northern state of Sinaloa, where Mazatlán is located, wrote in his social media accounts Thursday: “I do not share the idea of prohibiting the musicians of Mazatlan from carrying out their honest dignified work, that allows them to feed their families.”

The issue came to a head when a local hotel operator, Ernesto Coppel, posted a video urging that the bands be limited as to when or where they could offer to play.

“They are a disaster on the beaches of Mazatlán. They don’t allow people to rest,” Coppel said. “I have a lot of complaints from hundreds of American tourists who say to me ‘I won’t return to Mazatlán because of the noise.’”

The ideas apparently included designating certain spaces on the beach for musicians, rather than having them wandering up and down the sand, playing to people in beach chairs in front of hotels.

Health Insurance	Travel Insurance for your Mexico Journey

Mexico’s president mourns after 2 local candidates are killed shortly after starting their campaigns

Candidate Bertha Gaytán

Mexico’s president said Tuesday that he was hurt by the killing of a mayoral candidate just hours after she requested protection and started campaigning. A city council candidate who was wounded in the same attack on Monday also died, authorities said.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said the killing of his own party’s candidates “hurts a lot,” but he did not announce any increase in security for politicians.

Candidate Bertha Gaytán was gunned down on a street in a town just outside the city of Celaya, in the north-central state of Guanajuato. She had just launched her campaign for Celaya mayor on Monday and acknowledged she had asked for protection.

City council candidate Adrián Guerrero, wounded in the same attack, died on Tuesday.

“These events are very regrettable, because these are people are fighting to defend democracy, they’re out on the street, face to face,” López Obrador said at his daily news briefing.

The killings was the latest in the increasingly bloody runup to Mexico’s June 2 elections. At least 15 candidates have been killed since the start of 2024 — and expressions of regret have become routine.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the killing but Mexico’s drug cartels have often focused assassination attempts on mayors and mayoral candidates, in a bid to control local police or extort money from municipal governments.

The slayings have prompted the government to provide bodyguards or bulletproof cars for some, but candidates for municipal positions — while the most endangered — are the last in line for security.

On Monday, as Gaytán was walking down a street, shouting “Morena!,” gunshots rang out and she crumpled to the pavement, according to a video posted on social media. The footage then shows people running and falling down.

Guerrero was part of a small group that was walking with Gaytán. It wasn’t immediately clear if anyone else was wounded.

“The people are with us, they watch out for us, but of course we are going to have security provisions,” Gaytán had said shortly before she was killed, noting a request had been made through her Morena party. “Let’s see if we get some kind of answer today.”

The leadership of López Obrador’s Morena party issued a statement, calling the killings “cowardly,” and calling for an investigation.

Federal Security Secretary Rosa Icela Rodríguez said Tuesday the government has taken on the commitment to respond to protection requests within 72 hours. She said over 100 candidates nationwide have asked for protection.

Guanajuato has for some time had the highest number of homicides of any state in Mexico, and Celaya is arguably the most dangerous place, per capita, to be a police officer in North America. At least 34 police officers have been killed in this city of 500,000 people in the last three years.

In Guanajuato state, with its population just over 6 million, more police were shot to death in 2023 — about 60 — than in all of the United States.

The state has been wracked for years by violent turf battles between the Jalisco drug cartel and the homegrown Santa Rosa de Lima gang.

Violence against politicians is widespread in Mexico. Over the weekend, the mayor of Churumuco, a town in the neighboring state of Michoacan, was shot to death at a taco restaurant in the state capital, Morelia.

In late February in another town in Michoacan, two mayoral hopefuls were shot to death within hours of each other

 

Liability Insurance for your Boat or Yacht	Homeowners Insurance for your house or condo

Mexico and FIFA go back to sports court in decadelong dispute over soccer fans’ gay slurs

FIFA has repeatedly held the Mexican soccer federation responsible, handing out fines and closing stadiums after incidents of fans engaging in discriminatory behavior.

GENEVA — A decadelong dispute between the Mexican soccer federation and FIFA over multiple fines for fans chanting anti-gay slurs at games went to sport’s highest court on Thursday.

The latest appeal by Mexico at the Court of Arbitration for Sport challenged financial penalties totaling 100,000 Swiss francs ($114,000) imposed by FIFA for incidents at two games at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Mexico’s next World Cup game will be the opening match at the 2026 tournament, which it is co-hosting with the United States and Canada.

That game at the Azteca stadium in Mexico City should have a global television audience of hundreds of millions viewers.

It will be the first of 13 games at the 2026 tournament played in Mexico, which has tried to curb and educate fans who insist on chanting anti-gay slurs, often at the opposing team’s goalkeeper.

FIFA has repeatedly held the Mexican soccer federation responsible, handing out fines and closing stadiums for games after incidents in qualifying matches for the past two men’s World Cups, at the finals tournaments held in 2018 in Russia and 2022 in Qatar, plus qualifying games for the Olympics.

One case involved fans aiming a slur at Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuer at a 2018 World Cup game played in Moscow.

The same insult was heard in Qatar by anti-discrimination observers working for FIFA in stoppage time of Mexico’s 2-1 win against Saudi Arabia.

The Spanish word aimed at Saudi Arabia goalkeeper Mohammed Alowais “refers to a male sex worker,” FIFA appeal judges said last year.

The word has been widely used by fans in Central and South America, and has been prosecuted by FIFA since the 2014 World Cup. A CAS panel for a previous Mexico appeal ruled in 2017 that using the word in a soccer context was insulting but not meant to offend.

At CAS on Thursday in Lausanne, Switzerland, the Mexico federation was challenging its 2022 World Cup sanctions of a 50,000 Swiss francs ($57,000) fine with a further 50,000 Swiss francs ($57,000) to be spent on a campaign educating fans.

The FIFA judges credited work done by the federation which said it had invested “considerable economic and human resources in the implementation of campaigns, measures and actions aimed at preventing and raising awareness among fans regarding the importance of not engaging in discriminatory behavior.”

Mexican fans have continued the chants even after being threatened with five-year bans from national-team games.

At an appeal hearing at FIFA last year, the Mexican federation argued it could only take full responsibility for incidents at games it organized.

Mexico fans also chanted a homophobic song at different times during a 0-0 draw with Poland in Qatar.

The federation noted to FIFA that a warning broadcast to fans in the 90th minute in the stadium “was made in English and Arabic, but not in Spanish.”

CAS has not indicated when it could rule on the latest Mexico vs. FIFA case.

Insurance for your American or CanadianVehicle while in Mexico	Insurance for your MexicanVehicle

Asparagus demand from Mexico continues to improve

The collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland, after a vessel collision in the early morning of March 26, is expected to severely impact the Port of Baltimore. The bridge collapse shut down the main channel into the Chesapeake Bay, leading into the Port of Baltimore, a major route in the agricultural supply chain. Agri-Pulse reporter Philip Brasher reports the Port of Baltimore is the largest importing port for large farming equipment and the sixth largest port of fertilizer in the US, receiving 351,000 metric tons in 2023.

Asparagus demand from Mexico crossings through Calexico, California and Arizona continues to improve as volume is expected to decrease as growers and shippers shut down operations for Easter holy week. Some shipments sold at previously committed prices as the Easter retail pull comes to an end. Most open spot market sales are between shippers to fill contracts and commitments. Prices increased due to less volume.

Avocado movement from Mexico crossings through Texas is expected to decrease as shippers close for Easter Week, March 27-31, 2024. Trading for 60s, 70s, and 84s is very active, others fairly active. Prices are higher. Cartons 2 layers Hass 32s are mostly 47.25-48.25, 36s are mostly 46.25-48.25, 40s are mostly 45.25-48.25, 48s are mostly 45.25-46.25, 60s are mostly 47.25-50.25, 70s are mostly 36.25-39.25, 84s are mostly 28.25-30.25.

 

Latin American governments rally around Mexico after embassy raid in Ecuador

QUITO, April 6 (Reuters) – Latin American governments, including regional heavyweight Brazil, rallied around Mexico on Saturday after its embassy in Ecuador was raided to arrest a controversial politician who had been granted asylum by Mexican authorities.

The late Friday night seizure of Jorge Glas, Ecuador’s former vice president who was detained on graft charges, triggered a suspension of relations with Quito by Mexico City, with the government of Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador blasting the unusual diplomatic incursion and arrest as an “authoritarian” act as well as a breach of international law and Mexico’s sovereignty.

The government of Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa had argued asylum protections were illegal because of the corruption charges Glas is facing.

Still, under international law, embassies are considered the sovereign territory of the country they represent.

On Saturday, governments across the political spectrum in Latin America – including Brazil and Colombia on the left, and Argentina and Uruguay on the right – sharply criticized the arrest of Glas, who had sought refuge in the embassy since December.

He could be seen on video circulating on social media being taken by police convoy to the airport in the capital Quito, flanked by heavily armed soldiers. He then boarded a plane en route to a jail in Guayaquil, the Andean nation’s largest city.

Photos on social media, including one posted by Cuba’s foreign minister, showed what appeared to be the embassy’s wall being scaled by armed police or soldiers. Reuters could not immediately confirm the authenticity of the photos.

Brazil’s government condemned Ecuador’s move as a “clear violation” of international norms prohibiting such a raid on a foreign embassy.

Ecuador’s move against the embassy “must be subject to strong repudiation, whatever the justification for its implementation,” according to a statement from Brazil’s foreign ministry, which stressed Brasilia’s solidarity with Mexico.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller in a statement said the United States condemns any violation of the convention protecting diplomatic missions.

The statement added the United States encourages “the two countries to resolve their differences in accord with international norms.”

‘FLAGRANT VIOLATION’

Mexico’s top diplomat Alicia Barcena expressed shock at Ecuador’s incursion into the country’s embassy, located in Quito’s financial district, calling it “a violent attack” perpetrated by the police.

“Mexico reiterates its condemnation for the violation of the immunity of its embassy in Quito and the attack on its staff,” she said in a message shared on X late on Saturday, adding that 18 would return to Mexico on Sunday.

“(Mexico) reiterates that it will appeal to the International Court of Justice and all relevant regional and international bodies after this clear and flagrant violation of international law.”

Earlier in the day, she said that Glas was granted asylum after an exhaustive analysis of the circumstances surrounding the accusations he faces.

Also on Saturday, the Washington-based Organization of American States issued a call for dialogue to resolve the escalating dispute between Ecuador and Mexico, adding in a statement that a session of the body’s permanent council will be convened to discuss the need for “strict compliance with international treaties, including those that guarantee the right to asylum.”

Colombian President Gustavo Petro, meanwhile, argued in a post on X that Latin America “must keep alive the precepts of international law in the midst of the barbarism that is advancing in the world.”

Petro’s government noted it will seek human rights legal protections for the now-detained Glas, according to a separate statement.

Glas, convicted twice for corruption, had been holed up in the embassy in Quito since seeking political asylum in December, a request Mexico granted on Friday.

Ecuadorean authorities had unsuccessfully sought permission from Mexico to enter the embassy and arrest Glas.

In 2017, Glas, the former second-in-command to ex-President Rafael Correa, also a leftist, was sentenced to six years in prison after he was found guilty of taking bribes from Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht in exchange for awarding it government contracts.

As he faced a fresh arrest warrant on separate graft charges, Glas has claimed he is the victim of political persecution, a charge Ecuador’s government has denied.

Mexican president suggests Maya Train derailment may have been intentional 

Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador discusses the Maya Train during a press conference earllier this year. At a Tuesday press conference, López Obrador questioned whether a Monday derailment was intentional. Screen shot from Government of Mexico YouTube video.

MEXICO CITY — Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Tuesday suggested that Monday’s Maya Train derailment could have been intentional, while the candidate to succeed Lopez Obrador from the coalition including his party said the derailment will not affect her campaign.

In his morning press conference, López Obrador said the incident was “strange,” Publimetro.com reports.

There was a human error at the station,” he said. “… A change was not carried out in a track device, and a search is underway to see if it was intentional or it was if it was intentional or if was an error by those responsible for managing the tracks.” A safety system prevented any injuries, he said.

The last car of a four-car train bound for Cancún derailed at a switch entering the station at Tixkokob on Monday morning. The train was moving about 10 kilometers per hour (6 mph) at the time, the Maya Train operating company said in a statement [see “Maya Train experiences low-speed derailment,” Trains News Wire, March 25, 2024.]

Meanwhile, in a campaign appearance in Oaxaca, Claudia Sheinbaum, candidate of the three-party “Let’s Keep Making History” coalition, was asked about the derailment’s role in the campaign, La Silla Rota reports.

“I don’t think it will impact us in the campaign,” she said. “The president has already said that he will investigate whether it was a human error or whether there was any fraud in this. We are going to wait for the results, but I do not consider that there will be any impact on the campaign.”

The Maya Train project is increasingly a campaign issue. On Monday, La Silla Rosa reports opposition candidate Xóchitl Galvez filed a complaint against relatives of López Obrador for alleged corruption regarding ballast contracts for the project. She claimed the cost for those contracts increased from 120 billion pesos to more than 500 billion pesos ($7.2 billion to $30 billion), and also filed a criminal complaint, saying the ballast does not meet safety requirements.

Liability Insurance for your Boat or Yacht	Homeowners Insurance for your house or condo

Mexican cartels use US border to arm themselves with ‘military-grade’ weapons

 The cache of weapons include FNH SCAR rifles, Barrett .50 caliber rifles, FNH M249S rifles and M1919 rifles, federal authorities say

Federal authorities toppled a major gun trafficking operation intended to arm Mexican drug cartels with over 100 “military-grade” firearms, according to court documents.

Five men were arrested on March 20 and accused of illegally buying weapons throughout Texas to allegedly smuggle them across the border. 

“These firearms included FNH SCAR rifles, Barrett .50 caliber rifles, FNH M294S rifles, and M1919 rifles, all of which are highly prized by Mexican drug trafficking cartels for their firepower and battlefield reliability,” the federal criminal complaint says. 

“They are symbols of cartel profit, power, and prestige due in part to their high price to purchase and operate … Mexican drug trafficking cartels use these weapons to engage in battle with their enemies and exert control over their claimed territory.”

Federal authorities have seized high-powered firearms and ammunition related to gun trafficking groups that have provided weapons to violent Mexican drug cartels in the past. (Justice Department )

Gerardo Rafael Perez Jr. is the alleged ringleader of the operation that was intended to arm cartels in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico. 

Four straw purchasers – identified as Gerardo Ibarra Jr., Gerardo Corona Jr., Francisoc Alejandro Benavides and Mark Anthony Trevino Jr. – illegally secured weapons in western, southern and northern districts of Texas, the criminal complaint alleges.  

Straw purchasing of firearms is the illegal act of buying a gun for another person who is prohibited from owning the weapon or does not want their name associated with the transaction.

It became a crime in 2022 after the bipartisan gun safety bill – authored by Texas Sen. John Cornyn – passed and went into effect. 

Mexican marines escort five alleged drug traffickers of the Zeta drug cartel in front of an RPG-7 rocket launcher, hand grenades, firearms, cocaine and military uniforms seized from alleged members of the Zetas drug traffickers cartel and presented to the press on June 9, 2011 at the Navy Secretaryship in Mexico City. Guns flowing from the U.S. into Mexico have helped arm cartels. (Yuri Cortez/AFP via Getty Images)

The straw purchasers allegedly bought the guns from unlicensed dealers, including Jose Emigdio Mendoza, who was named as a defendant in the complaint. 

Luis Matias Leal, who went by several nicknames including “Wicho,” “Poncho” and “El Tio,” allegedly funded the operation, and Antonio Osiel Casarez allegedly smuggled the guns into Mexico and returned to the U.S. “with bulk cash,” according to court documents. 

Mendoza allegedly sold at least 22 guns for $169,900 between December 2022 and March 2023, the criminal complaint says. 

The scheme began to unravel in late January 2023, when federal firearm licensees in San Antonio denied a sale because of “suspicious circumstances of the attempted purchase,” according to court documents. 

Mendoza – who allegedly sold the guns – along with two suspected straw purchasers, Ibarra and Corona, were arrested and charged last March. 

Perez Jr., the alleged ringleader, and Casarez, who is accused of smuggling the guns across the border, were arrested last September in Laredo, Texas, where law enforcement found a large cache of weapons and over hundreds of rounds of ammunition. 

The suspects – all 30 or younger – face a 14-count federal indictment. 

If convicted, the conspiracy to traffic firearms charges carry a penalty of up to 15 years in prison and conspiracy to straw purchase guns carries a maximum sentence of 25 years.

People smuggler admits using sewer pipes to take people from Mexico to U.S.

Health Insurance	Travel Insurance for your Mexico Journey

Mexico’s controversial new ‘superhighway’

The 104km Barranca Larga-Ventanilla highway radically reduces travel time to Oaxaca’s beautiful and bohemian coast, but are local communities prepared for it?

The Oaxaca Coast has long been a dream destination of mine ever since a friend came home from a year in a yoga centre with tales of full Moon circles and plant medicine ceremonies held right on the beach.Last December, after living in Oaxaca City, the capital of the eponymous state, for five months, I finally made it this beautiful Pacific coastline to watch waves pummel Playa Zipolite, Mexico’s only official nude beach; admire the sun set on a sea cape that’s said to be home to buried Aztec treasure; and try neo-shamanic healing in the bohemian town of Mazunte.But getting there was no easy feat.

Oaxaca’s peaceful, fragile and largely undeveloped coast is sheltered by the Sierra Madre del Sur Mountains and was at that time reached by a famously vomit-inducing mountain road with endless hairpin turns from Oaxaca City. Taking seven to eight hours by car – or 10-12 hours by bus – the journey was hard to fit into my work schedule. My only other option was an expensive flight to coastal city Puerto Escondido. I went with a night bus, whose nonstop twists and turns left me feeling like I was riding an out-of-control rollercoaster.Now, just a few months later, a quick weekend trip to the beach is entirely possible. A new 104km “superhighway” connecting Oaxaca City – named the best city in the world by Travel & Leisure in 2023 – to Puerto Escondido, the gateway to almost 600km of glorious coastline, finally opened in February 2024, 15 long years after its inception. It has radically reduced travel time to just 2.5 hours. “The new highway is a game-changer for people who want an easy commute from the city to the beach,” said Colleen Palmer, an American I met who was travelling with her husband. “People were buzzing about the highway when we left Oaxaca City and even more so when we arrived in Puerto Escondido.”Ida Pap/AlamyLGBTQ-friendly Zipolite is where you’ll find lively beach bars (Credit: Ida Pap/Alamy)

I spent a little under two weeks on the so-called Oaxacan Riviera, though I could have easily spent two months. My visit was limited to a small string of villages: the sleepy, hippie town of Mazunte; the fishing village St Agustinillo; and the LGBTQ-friendly Zipolite. Decidedly unplugged, they’re the type of places where ATMs are out of cash for a week and stable Wi-Fi is pretty much non-existent. Bouncing between the crystal healings of Mazunte and the lively beach bars of Zipolite hit the sweet spot.

But there is so much more to the coast. I could have headed south from Zipolite to hit up the nine bays, 36 beaches, coral reefs and lowland jungle of Huatulco National Park, or ventured inland into the mountains to cool off in the magical Copalitilla waterfalls.Or I could have explored surf city Puerto Escondido, whose 20ft waves have earned it the title “Mexican Pipeline”. Once here, it’s a matter of taking a bus, taxi, colectivo (shuttle), boat, tour or private transportation for an hour or two to get to other destinations. For example, a few hours north of Puerto are the remote, biodiverse lagoons of Chacahua National Park, one of the least-developed destinations in the area. Fifteen minutes west from Puerto is Laguna de Manialtepec, which brims with rare birds, crocodiles and bioluminescent plankton.        

Besides making it much easier for tourists to get here, the local government says that the road will increase trade between inland areas and the coast and make it easier for people in remote communities to access services like healthcare and education.

The more than 13bn pesos (around £609m) into the project reflects the government’s growing investment in trade and travel infrastructure in Oaxaca. Other projects include the upcoming expansion of Puerto Escondido airport, which will allow for direct international flights to the coast, and the ambitious Interoceanic Corridor, which aims to rival the Panama Canal.Arkadij Schell/Getty ImagesSome residents are concerned that the local infrastructure won’t be able to handle an influx of tourists (Credit: Arkadij Schell/Getty Images)

But as is typically the case when travel becomes more accessible, the highway is a double-edged sword.

Take the highway

The 104km Barranca Larga-Ventanilla highway is an impressive feat of engineering and offers a smooth, quick ride to the coast. It has two traffic lanes and 15 on-and-off-ramps for surrounding communities.

While some construction is still going on, the road is now in use. It’s free for everyone to use until September 2024, when a toll will go into effect for international and domestic tourists not from the state of Oaxaca.

Travellers can rent a car in Oaxaca City or take a bus or minivan. They can also support Coatlanes indigenous community affected by the highway by booking one of the vans offered by Ruta Coatlanes Costa.

On the one hand, a tourism boom could help Oaxaca, one of the poorest states in Mexico, “rise from the ashes, giving people better jobs and a better life, with more opportunities,” said Nef Noyola, who was born on the Oaxaca Coast and now lives in Oaxaca City. Others I spoke to believe that coastal communities will benefit from access to services in Oaxaca City and overall improved connectivity between regions. But gentrification across Oaxaca has people on edge, and as coastal communities grow in popularity with expats and long-term visitors, rising costs are driving residents away. Pollution threatens the pristine landscape, and even the surf itself is changing due to development.A lack of government investment in infrastructure such as sewage treatment facilities means communities and the fragile environments they live in aren’t prepared for hordes of tourists. Some Oaxaqueños feel abandoned by the government’s lack of investment in service infrastructure to match that which was poured into the highway.”Everyone is talking about this,” said Nayola. “In many countries, governments will make sure everything is ready to receive more people before they build a road somewhere. In Mexico, they build stuff first and then they deal with what they were supposed to do before.”Meanwhile, the road has fuelled tensions between a local Indigenous group and the government. Members of the Coatlanes community say they ceded their land and cooperated with the government in the building of the highway for 20 years, with a promise that they’d have exclusive rights to operate transport. That promise wasn’t upheld, inciting the community to block traffic within 24 hours of the road’s inauguration.Arkadij Schell/Getty ImagesTravellers heading to the region should buy from small, locally owned businesses (Credit: Arkadij Schell/Getty Images)

“The quality of the life here is different if you are a white person or if you are Indigenous,” said Isabella Matt, an Afro-Indigenous artist, activist and Puerto Escondido native. “In Puerto Escondido, we have a clear view of this. We have two different Mexicos: The real Mexico, and one the tourists know.”

For those travelling to the region, being mindful and aware of the issues people face is essential, as is spending money in conscious ways, like opting out of resource-heavy accommodations (think beachfront resorts and high-rise hotels) in favour of ecologically responsible ones. Choosing simpler, more affordable accommodations may also help stop inflation.

“Just because you can pay for something more expensive doesn’t mean you should,” said Caleb Ramos Guzmán, who was born in and still lives in Zipolite. “Maybe you are here for a couple of weeks, but we stay here having to live under those prices with limited options.”

Travellers should also try to travel sustainably by buying from small, locally owned businesses; minimising waste; and avoiding plastics. Being very mindful of water use is especially important in drought-stricken Oaxaca.

As the highway opens up the coast like never before, it’s even more clear how precious and vulnerable this ecologically and culturally rich region is. While travellers like myself might rejoice at the prospect of a fast, convenient highway, it’s essential to respect the wellbeing of the land and the people who live there by travelling lightly and consciously.

Insurance for your American or CanadianVehicle while in Mexico	Insurance for your MexicanVehicle

Forest fires burn in nearly half of Mexico’s drought-stricken states, fueled by strong winds.

NOGALES, Mexico (AP) — Forest fires were burning in nearly half of Mexico’s drought-stricken states Monday fueled by strong winds.

The National Forestry Commission reported 58 active fires in 15 states, including in protected nature reserves in Morelos, Veracruz and Mexico states.

A preliminary estimate of the affected area reached more than 3,500 acres (1,421 hectares), the commission wrote on the social platform X.

Authorities had reported no injuries, but at least some homes were burned at a wildfire in Nogales, Veracruz Monday. A fire burned across mountain farms, killing livestock and charring homes. At least five families were moved to a shelter.

Firefighters battled with a water tanker while residents slapped at flames in their fields with branches.

Alondra Chávez a Nogales resident was among those fighting the flames.

“The wind is beating us and we do what we can,” Chávez said.

Catalina Villafuerte, a resident of Aserradero Maltrata, a nearby community battling another fire, said “Everything is destroyed, the machines to work, beds, mattresses, everything.”

Insurance for your American or CanadianVehicle while in Mexico	Insurance for your MexicanVehicle