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Last updateFri, 09 May 2014 2pm

News about Mexico



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News

SETTING

Obituaries - May 9, 2014

Larry Graves

Lakeside resident Larry Graves died April 20 at his home in San Ju...

Expat Living

SETTING

City Living - May 9, 2014

Street circus/theater presentations are now part and parcel of the May Cultural ...

Columns

SETTING

Signs of the season

We’re told by the Red Cross that certain pests get more active during the rainy ...

Mexican Lifestyles

SETTING

News

US Consulate sponsors Green Race for the Environment

1 HOUR AGO

For the second year in a row, the U.S. Consulate General in Guadalajara will hold a “Green Race” and “Green Fair” this weekend, a major environmental event with a local twist.

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Corona Market traders ask for interim relocation in city center's largest plaza

3 DAYS AGO

Guadalajara's Corona Market, damaged in a fire Sunday night, should be demolished as soon as possible, several city officials declared Monday.

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Gerardo Degollado makes comeback to Chapala political scene

2 HOURS AGO

Gerardo Degollado turned into the prodigal son of Chapala’s political scene after retaking his seat on the city council following a one-year leave of absence.

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Mayor backtracks on improvements for Ajijic tianguis street

6 DAYS AGO

Plans for renovating Calle Revoulcion, the site of Ajijic’s weekly tianguis street market, are on hold until the Chapala government receives a federal funding package that isn’t expected until August or September, according to Mayor Joaquin Huerta.

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Regional/national news briefs

-1 DAYS AGO

World Cup bid?

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State car emissions testing program facing overhaul

6 DAYS AGO

Jalisco’s underachieving vehicle emissions inspection program is set for a revamp this year, with state environmental authorities studying the possibility of resurrecting dedicated “smog check” stations to either supplement or replace many of the repair shops authorized to carry out the tests and is...

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Acclaimed Mexican actor brings US labor activist to the big screen

-1 DAYS AGO

Both U.S. President Barack Obama and U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Anthony Wayne have recently hosted screenings of “Cesar Chavez,” a new film about the inspirational U.S. labor leader who in the 1960s stood up for the rights of migrant workers and cofounded the United Farm Workers union.

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Some thieves will never be caught

-1 DAYS AGO

Bicycle theft is one crime in Mexico that delinquents are almost guaranteed to get away with.

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Drunk school bus driver detained

-1 DAYS AGO

Police have arrested a driver of a school bus in Puerto Vallarta who was transporting 31 children while heavily inebriated. The bus was registered to the municipality and the driver, Alfredo Solis, was a city employee.

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More foreigners refused entry at Puerto Vallarta Airport

6 DAYS AGO

During the Easter vacation, Immigration officials at the Puerto Vallarta Airport denied entry to four foreign citizens with criminal records in their home country for sex-related offenses, Jalisco Government Secretary Arturo Zamora said this week.

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International news briefs

23 DAYS AGO

Car insurance to be obligatory on federal roads

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Canadian paper claims Peña Nieto furious at Prime Minister Harper

1 MONTHS AGO

According to the Toronto Globe and Mail, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has cancelled a planned trip to Canada in June in protest at Prime Minister’s Stephen Harper’s refusal  to discuss the issue of visas for Mexican travelers to Canada.

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Ride network app could provide alternative to taxis

1 HOUR AGO

A company that uses a cell phone application to connect city dwellers looking for rides with drivers has its eyes on Guadalajara.

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Financial indicators as of Thursday, May 8, 2014

1 HOUR AGO

Mexican Stock Market (BMV) opened at 41,803.13 an increase of 1,091.57 points from Thursday, May 1, 2013.

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Obituaries - May 9, 2014

-1 DAYS AGO

Larry Graves

Lakeside resident Larry Graves died April 20 at his home in San Juan Cosala at the age of 68.

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Obituary - April 25, 2014

13 DAYS AGO

Christopher Michael Campana died April 4 while undergoing a stent procedure at a Guadalajara hospital. He was 52.

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Local soccer coach booted out for sexual harassment

8 DAYS AGO

The Argentine coach of the Guadalajara Chivas soccer club has been fired from his post after a female employee accused him of sexual harassment.

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The Charros are back! Baseball returns to city

27 DAYS AGO

The much-loved Charros de Jalisco franchise has purchased the Algodoneros de Guasave and will play in next season’s Liga Mexicana del Pacifico (LMP), which runs from October to February. 

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Expat Living

Joys of books are highlighted at marathon read

6 DAYS AGO

As part of celebrations for World Book Day on Tuesday, nearly 450 people read aloud a classic Mexican novel in an annual event organized by the University of Guadalajara (UdG).

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City’s English-oriented churches announce worship, film, music and egg hunt for Holy Week & Easter

28 DAYS AGO

The English congregation at St. John Cristosomo Roman Catholic church is led by Padre Miguel in English and boasts a renowned choir, the 10-member, a cappella vocal group Cantabile, directed by Jesus Chavez. Cantabile sings every Sunday at the English Mass.

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City Living - May 9, 2014

-1 DAYS AGO

Street circus/theater presentations are now part and parcel of the May Cultural Festival, which got underway this week with concerts at the Degollado Theater. Among artists and groups appearing this year – many of them from the Canadian province of Quebec – are Throw2Catch, Caberlion Cirque, Les Buf...

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City Living - May 2, 2014

6 DAYS AGO

The American Society (AMSOC) will celebrate Mother’s Day on Thursday, May 8 with a special luncheon.

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Scrap Recyclers making progress in ‘precarious’ market

6 DAYS AGO

For years area governments and local volunteer groups have spawned dozens of plans to force lakeside residents into conventional models of recycling where trash is separated into color-coded categories.

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Moctezuma’s banquet delights top chefs

6 DAYS AGO

Savoring a rare occasion to unwind on the receiving end of a deluxe dining experience, a crowd of top notch chefs and restaurateurs from Guadalajara and lakeside converged at Chapala’s Centro Cultural Gonzalez Gallo (CCGG) on Monday, April 28 for La Gran Noche del Chef.

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Laguna Chapalac - May 9, 2014

-1 DAYS AGO

It’s Mother’s Day weekend. By now you’ve noted all the temporary stalls, tents and shops filled with flowers and other fussy gifts for the Mexican mothers on their day, Saturday, May 10. The tenth of May is always Mother’s Day in Mexico.

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Laguna Chapalac - May 2, 2014

6 DAYS AGO

Did you hear that? I don’t hear anything more than the songbirds trilling their heart-felt spring songs and I’m just a couple of blocks from the Wednesday tianguis (street market). There’s been a new, odd quiet in the streets of town all week.

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Fandango back in Puerto Vallarta

1 MONTHS AGO
Fandango back in Puerto Vallarta

The extravaganza combining dance, music and theater has returned to Teatro Vallarta, Uruguay 184, for another exciting run.  Fandango is a contemporary musical interpretation of Mexican cultural traditions. The production has 30 dancers and 15 musicians.

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Chacala looks to boost artistic credentials with first music festival

1 MONTHS AGO
Chacala looks to boost artistic  credentials with first music festival

Organizers are inviting one and all to enjoy “six days of music, singing, art, dancing and creativity” at the first Chacala Village Music Festival from March 24-30.

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North Banderas Beat - April 11, 2014

28 DAYS AGO
North Banderas Beat - April 11, 2014

Spring has arrived and the snowbirds are beginning their annual flights north.

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North Banderas Beat - March 21, 2014

1 MONTHS AGO
North Banderas Beat - March 21, 2014

The north shore of Banderas Bay is once again hosting the Mexico Cup Regatta.

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La Manzanillo Memo - March 28, 2014

1 MONTHS AGO
La Manzanillo Memo - March 28, 2014

The semi-annual La Manzanilla Regatta was held Friday, March 21.

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La Manzanillo Memo – March 7, 2014

2 MONTHS AGO
La Manzanillo Memo – March 7, 2014

The high winter season is pulsing along at a rapid pace.  Here’s what a typical week looks like in our little fishing village.

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Arts & Entertainment

Entertainment Guide - May 9, 2014

-1 DAYS AGO

Live from the Met

New York Met simulcast of Rossini’s “Cinderella.”

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Entertainment Guide - May 2, 2014

6 DAYS AGO

Guadalajara’s May Cultural Festival gets underway on Thursday with a concert by U.S. jazz great Gregory Porter at the Degollado Theater.

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‘Taking Leave’ kindles laughs, tears, debate

6 DAYS AGO

The choice of “Taking Leave” by Nagle Jackson, directed by Georgette Richmond, proved a great start to the fifth season of The Naked Stage Readers’ Theatre last weekend.

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Art Studio Tour profits artists & kids

14 DAYS AGO

Ajijic children who attend the Saturday morning sessions of the Children’s Art Program at the Lake Chapala Society(LCS) continue to be the beneficiaries of an innovative annual event sponsored by the members of the Ajijic Society of the Arts (ASA).

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Ribera arts review - May 9, 2014

-1 DAYS AGO

Watercolors by the late Georg Rauch are the focus of a new show at Quattro Gallery, Colon 9, Ajijic.

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Ribera arts review - May 2, 2014

6 DAYS AGO

The program of the Monday, May 5 meeting of the Ajijic Society of the Arts (ASA) switches the members attention from fine arts to graphics with a TED talk, “Great Design is Serious, Not Solemn,” by graphic designer Paula Scher.

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At the Movies: Endless Love and Non-Stop

-1 DAYS AGO

Endless Love

Following their high-school graduation, Jade Butterfield, a sheltered but privileged teen, becomes enthralled with David Elliot, a working-class youth with a troubled past.

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At the Movies: Cesar Chavez and Homefront

6 DAYS AGO

Cesar Chavez

Chronicling the birth of a modern American movement, this powerful cinematic portrait of the legendary activist tells the story of the civil rights leader and labor organizer torn between his duties as a husband and father and his commitment to securing a living wage for farm workers.

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Columns

Steel soap, world’s strangest deodorant, sold in Mexican markets, used for crafts

-1 DAYS AGO

Many years ago, out of pure curiosity, I bought a soap-shaped bar made of stainless steel, which, an ad claimed, would totally remove the smells of garlic, onions or fish from your skin in seconds.

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Rub wings with Guadalajara’s Monarch butterflies inside the Mariposario at Parque Metro

9 DAYS AGO

We are with biologist Naila Campos, walking along the Interpretive Trail in Guadalajara’s Parque Metropolitano. Naila has been working in the Park for two and a half years.

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Signs of the season

11 MONTHS AGO

We’re told by the Red Cross that certain pests get more active during the rainy season.  We’re talking chiefly about scorpions, spiders, flying insects and snakes (never seen one here).

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Cleaning up

11 MONTHS AGO

A program recently sputtering to a start up in a nearby village went looking for folks interested in picking up trash thrown hither and yon.

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Dodging geo-restrictions raises ethical questions

-1 DAYS AGO

When I wanted to place an order online with Wal-Mart, I tried to pull up its U.S. website at walmart.com but every time I tried that I was instantly redirected to its Mexican site at walmart.com.mx.

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Windows XP: the final call for change-resistant computer users

23 DAYS AGO

As this column goes to press in the middle of April, 2014, I am anticipating something that has not yet actually happened to me.

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Mexican Lifestyles

Flying with your pet: ensure your journey is trouble-free journey

-1 DAYS AGO
Flying with your pet: ensure  your journey is trouble-free journey

The first two articles discussed official requirements for importing pets into Mexico and the travel considerations involved. Now we’ll look at the trip itself.

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The marvelous month of May

6 DAYS AGO

Bus drivers, police officers and Reporter staff apart, very little formal work was done on May 1 – Labor Day. But the monthly fiestas don’t stop there – they continue non-stop for the rest of the month.

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Savvy travelers use range of tactics to get cheaper flights

1 MONTHS AGO
Savvy travelers use range of tactics to get cheaper flights

An airline’s load factor – the percentage of seats sold on a particular flight –  would seem to be a mathematical calculation of scant relevance to most fliers. 

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Tequila trail to expand to include Tala, Ameca

8 MONTHS AGO
Tequila trail to expand to include Tala, Ameca

The International Development Bank (IDB) is prepared to inject new funds into the Tequila Trail (Ruta del Tequila) next year to permit further growth in two more Jalisco municipalities.

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Relaxing the mind, restoring the soul

-1 DAYS AGO
Relaxing the mind, restoring the soul

Measuring by chronological age, Tony Bishop of Ajijic’s Hacienda del Lago Boutique Hotel and Restaurant may be one of lakeside’s youngest expats.

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The flavors of Oaxaca & a good view to boot

6 DAYS AGO

La Oaxaquita, a small, relatively new restaurant on the periphery of the immensely popular plaza outside the neogothic Expiatorio church in central Guadalajara, promises to notch up the quality of food offered around one of the city’s jewels.

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Author Karen Blue brings fresh insights on lakeside living

-1 DAYS AGO
Author Karen Blue brings fresh insights on lakeside living

In 2000 Karen Blue published her first book, “Midlife Mavericks: Women Reinventing Their Lives in Mexico.”

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Recommended Mexico reading: 15 of the best

7 MONTHS AGO
Recommended Mexico reading: 15 of the best

This historical season is the time to learn about Mexico, so we queried a handful of knowledgeable informants about what they recommend, other than Allyn Hunt’s column. What follows are their favorite books about Mexico in English, be they fiction or nonfiction, wide or narrow in scope. Many were or...

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Lakeside’s most hazardous spiders

-1 DAYS AGO
Lakeside’s most hazardous spiders

Love them or hate them, spiders are the largest group of venomous animals. The worldwide spider catalog of the Planetary Biodiversity Inventory lists 40,024 different identified spider species.

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Hot weather tips

23 DAYS AGO

As the hot season intensifies, dehydration can become an issue for some people, especially those who are not used to doing exercise under a blazing sun.  Here are some tips from Katherine Tallmadge of the Live Science website.

Letters to the Editor - May 2, 2014

Dear Sir,

The March 29 headline, “Immigration turns back 38 convicted foreign pedophiles” and the statements by Mexican immigration officials were misleading, particularly the use of the word “pedophiles.”

The Mexican officials quoted didn’t say if people convicted of crimes other than sex crimes are turned away, but my information is that Mexico’s denials of entry are based on “Megan’s List” — the U.S. database that contains the names of one out of every 135 California men and one of every 63 Alaskan men, to mention two examples. These are people convicted of a range of sexual crimes.

Very few of this huge number of people are “pedophiles.” They may be teenagers who had consensual sex with another teenager. They may have committed questionable “crimes” such as urinating in public. They may have committed a crime 40 years ago that has long since been addressed.

Many listed people committed crimes that had nothing to do with children, and, among those who did, the vast majority convicted for what is loosely called “child molesting” do not meet the definition of pedophile in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. This bible of mental health diagnosis defines pedophilia as recurrent and longstanding fantasies involving prepubescent children, a definition which does not fit most people on Megan’s List.

While it is understandable that Mexico wants to keep out dangerous criminals, they might restrict their efforts to that two percent of listed people who are classified as “high risk” (and probably to people still on parole or probation). But using the entire Megan’s List guarantees that Mexico will be excluding people who are not dangerous.

The existence of this over-broad list is based on the myth that convicted sex offenders have extremely high recidivism rates. But the truth, according to the U.S. Justice Department itself, is that “Recidivism rates for sex offenders are lower than for the general criminal population.” The California Department of Corrections reported in 2012 that only one percent of people on Megan’s List go on to commit a new sex crime — compared to about 50 percent for people convicted of drug and property crimes.

Buying into myths and tarring everyone on Megan’s List as a “pedophile” guarantees that injustices against listed people will continue. One injustice based on Megan’s List is barring harmless people from traveling. Is it fair for Mexico to ban individuals who pose no threat based on an unfounded bias?  See my Web page explaining the myths behind bad laws such as “Megan’s Law”: www.meganslawbook.com.

Alex Landon, Attorney,

San Diego, California

 

Dear Sir,

For those readers who do not know, the telegraph office in Chapala is more secure than ATMs. The debit card is swiped through the reader. You must sign for your money. I stopped using ATMs after my debit card was swallowed at the Walmart near the bus station in Guadalajara with no way to get it back.

However, you must have a debit card from a Mexican bank. The card cannot be from an “exchange” house. The fees are lower than at most ATMs. I have been using the telegraph office for a couple of years now without any problems.

Nanette Phillips,

San Antonio Tlayacapan

 

Dear Sir,

I would like to tell anyone who has a police or legal matter just how great is the new twice-monthly reporting process at the Lake Chapala Society.  

This service has been set up specifically for North Americans to report any crimes committed against them or to file a denuncia.  After living here for over 15 years, I have heard time and time again how hard it is to go to Chapala and file a complaint.

I had a meeting on Tuesday, April 1, with a representative from the Attorney General’s Office and another from the State Human Rights Commission.  Sandra Loridans acted as a go-between.   Both representatives spoke good English and were sincerely concerned. 

Since this meeting, we have had discussions with the Chapala mayor and police chief and have been given their private cellphone numbers. 

If you have a legal problem, go to the LCS and report it. So many things have gone unreported because of the difficulty of going to Chapala. We no longer have this problem.

Also, a big “thanks” to Sandra Loridans for her assistance.       

John McWilliams, Ajijic

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