#Mexico’s likely next president is a scientist. Politics has her mostly quiet on climate threats
"Sheinbaum has said she supports the president’s goal of keeping 54% of #Mexico’s electricity generation under state control, a vision that effectively casts aside more renewable energy production in favor of dirtier fuels.
But there are also some indications that Sheinbaum could take a more science-driven approach than her predecessor."
A new investigation of a deadly fire that killed 40 migrants in a locked detention cell in #Mexico shows that keys and fire extinguishers were readily available, but withheld.
Call for solidarity with Jorge “Yorch” Esquivel, anarcho-punk political prisoner in Mexico
Jorge has now been held in prison for over a year without a trial, and urgently needs funds to cover legal fees and prison costs (food, water, phone calls, visits, administration fees, service costs, etc).
Jorge "Yorch" Esquivel is a beloved compañero of the punk community, and a long-time participant of the Okupa Che. He was arrested on December 8, 2022 by plainclothes police as he was leaving the campus of the Ciudad Universitaria (of the UNAM university) in Mexico City as part of a campaign of criminalization against the Okupa.
BACKGROUND
On February 24, 2016, an operative was carried out in which plainclothes policemen detained him, "planting" drugs on him in order to fabricate crimes, and accusing him of drug trafficking, as part of a campaign of repression on the squatted auditorium Okupa Che in UNAM (still existing). The whole case was plagued with irregularities. He was transferred to Oaxaca and then to a maximum-security prison in Hermosillo as a strategy to hinder his legal defense by taking him far away from his support networks. Thanks to the solidarity and legal work, he was reclassified from the crime of drug dealing to simple possession of narcotics, and was released on bail in March 2016.
Even though he was no longer in prison, he was not out of danger. Constant threats and journalistic reports did not cease; the press even reported his death and accused him of participating in organized crime. Meanwhile, steps were being taken to frame him once again and re-arrest him for the same fabricated crime.
On December 8, 2022 he was arrested in exactly the same place - a few steps outside Ciudad Universitaria, where the Okupa is located, once again by plainclothes police - with the grounds for this illegal detention being that the Attorney General's Office appealed the decision to reclassify the crime.
The compañero's health is fragile due to an extended hospitalization a couple years back and the toll the prison conditions have taken on him.
CURRENT SITUATION
Jorge is currently incarcerated in the Reclusorio Oriente prison in Mexico City. The legal process is still in the evidence stage. Several hearings have been postponed and Jorge’s process is being delayed and prolonged to keep him in what is called “preventative imprisonment” with no sentence, which is common for cases of political prisoners in Mexico. Despite the fact that there is no evidence to keep him in prison, the strategy of the State is clearly to drag it out as long as possible, which is a tortuous level of uncertainty for all of us close to Jorge.
Thanks to the solidarity of individuals, collectives and networks, it has been possible to cover Jorge's expenses inside the prison, which have been very high due to the corruption that reigns in Mexican prisons. We are raising funds to support his legal costs and basic needs to be able to survive in this unjust incarceration, and to re-join the community on the outside as soon as possible. We call upon the solidarity of our friends and compañerxs around the world to help us in supporting our compañero Yorch.
Today in Labor History April 2, 1903: Mexican police fired on more than 10,000 protestors, killing 15 and wounding many more. People had been protesting the reelection of General Bernardo Reyes as governor of Nuevo Leon, who was aligned with Mexico's brutal dictator, Porfirio Diaz.
Sinoquipe, Sonora, Mexico, about 30 minutes ago. I'm with a group of Mexican and American biologists en route to a remote mountain range as part of a biological survey of the area. We got stopped by this protest.
A few years ago, there was a massive retention pond spill from the giant copper mine near Cananea. It contaminated the water supply so new wells had to be drilled, but this town pump has been out of service for three weeks. Protesters say the President of the municipio (like an American county), does not listen to them and has been unresponsive to their needs.
They have been without water for three weeks now. To get water, they go to a nearby pig farm that has a well and have to pay for it, filling containers that they take home. People have been getting sick because of lack of sanitation.
Legal Situation of Indigenous anarchist Miguel Peralta Betanzos
What is currently happening?
Indigenous Mazatec community organizer and anarchist, Miguel is one of 35 members of the community assembly of Eloxochitlán de Flores Magón, Oaxaca, who have faced political persecution and/or imprisonment following a campaign of cacique repression, torture, and terror which came to a head in December 2014.
October 2019. After just over four years and five months in prison on fabricated charges, following growing pressure from the streets and almost a month on a hunger strike, Miguel is freed from prison.
March 2022. The Supreme Court of the State of Oaxaca revokes his freedom ordering a new arrest warrant, again imposing a 50-year prison sentence, forcing him to flee from his community.
August 2022. Los Otros Abogadoz, Miguel’s legal defense team, file an appeal against the resolution.
September 2023. The magistrate judges resolve the appeal, returning his legal process to the cross-examination stage, rolling it back more than seven years, which again he would have to face from inside prison.
His legal defense team files for revision, soliciting the Supreme Court of the Nation (SCJN) to review and rule on the appeal.
January 2024. The Supreme Court of the Nation accepts to review the appeal and has three months to rule on the case.
The legal situation of Miguel Peralta is still unresolved. He continues being persecuted by the state, subject to a legal process orchestrated and controlled by politician Elisa Zepeda Lagunas in coordination with other state authorities. We demand that the Supreme Court take account of the different human rights violations that have maintained the compañeros of Eloxochitlán imprisoned and persecuted for more than nine years. We demand a sentence of absolute freedom for Miguel.
Yesterday, hundreds marched in Mexico City for Trans Day of Visibility/Vengeance from the Chamber of Deputies to the Zócalo, where they were teargassed by police.
The opening of Mexico’s 104-kilometer Barranca Larga-Ventanilla highway has radically reduced travel time from Oaxaca City to Puerto Escondido, the gateway to almost 600 kilometers of glorious coastline. A “game-changer,” as one American traveler called it. But, the BBC writes, “as is typically the case when travel becomes more accessible, the highway is a double-edged sword.” A tourism boom could help one of the poorest states in the country, but will it put an ecologically and culturally rich region at risk? https://flip.it/5-Fyrl #Culture#Travel#Mexico#Oaxaca
New at my Patreon... At NGV International I saw art related to the darker side of the avocado - as a tapestry told the tale of deforestation, violence, and hope:
Black Pit of Dr. M 1959 ‘Misterios de ultratumba’
Directed by Fernando Méndez
Two doctors make a pact in which they swear that the first to die will return - if possible - to tell the other how to get a glimpse of the afterlife while still alive. #mexico#film#cinema#nw
“I must have crossed this bridge a million times, But the first time I remember was when I was five. That was when my brothers, the twins Mars and Alex, were born.”
The mass abductions happened in the region, which is home to Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman's dreaded Sinaloa drug cartel. Authorities are looking for the missing people with the help of the military.The search continues for the remaining 24 victims abducted on Friday in La Noria, outside Culiacan, the state capital. ...
This week: Eagle Pass native Robie Flores’ debut feature film is a love letter to la frontera. In Flores’ Eagle Pass, the river is not a geographical divide that signals danger but a “magical portal” and a character unto itself that brings communities on both sides together. https://www.texasobserver.org/documentary-border-eagle-pass/
Mexico says it will not accept migrants deported by Texas under new state law
> #Mexico will not accept #migrants deported by Texas, its foreign ministry said after the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a controversial law that allows Texas police to arrest people suspected of crossing into the state illegally.
A 3-judge panel of Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals said that it was dissolving its own earlier ruling, which had cleared the way for the law to be implemented once the #SupremeCourt acted.
The late-night reversal meant that an #injunction imposed by a #federal district court last month would again be in force, blocking the #law from being in effect.
The back-&-forth series of #legal orders — & the on-again-off-again reality of a sweeping new #state-level #immigration law— prompted uncertainty along the #border & defiance from #Mexico’s govt on Tues.
Even before the #FifthCircuit’s late order, it had been unclear when #Texas would begin making arrests under the law.
Here is the brief, late-night #FifthCircuit federal appeals court ruling that effectively again blocked a #Texas#immigration#law, #SB4, hours after the #SCOTUS had cleared the way for it to take effect. The TX law would make it a #crime to cross into the state from #Mexico, giving local authorities the #power to #arrest people suspected of illegally entering the country.
Mexico: 42 kidnapped victims rescued, dozens still missing (www.dw.com)
The mass abductions happened in the region, which is home to Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman's dreaded Sinaloa drug cartel. Authorities are looking for the missing people with the help of the military.The search continues for the remaining 24 victims abducted on Friday in La Noria, outside Culiacan, the state capital. ...