This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page a young Jesús Montiel Hernández left his home in the Mixtec Indigenous region of southern Puebla working all kinds of jobs for 10 years until he and his family founded a jewelry business That business became successful enough that Hernández could send money to invest back home a rural area just southwest of Izúcar de Matamoros The time spent up north also introduced him to something else – the United States’ decades-long movement of hobbyists who brought back all kinds of beer wines and spirits that had been ignored by commercial producers for decades By the time Hernández decided to turn over most of the business to his children and return to Mexico in 2010 he says “…I had two passions: making jewelry and making alcoholic beverages.” Bourbon whiskey was (and still is) of particular interest “[My family and I] began researching the origins of whiskey in Scotland and discovered that it is made in Japan and China as well we looked for a Mexican version and found none,” Hernández says “We also found that “whiskey” does not have a denomination of origin Hernández spent time in Kentucky to learn more about bourbon (American corn whiskey) because he was curious about whether the corn varieties he grew up with had possibilities He quickly learned the pros and cons of using corn and learning that Kentucky whiskey was a blend of 75% corn and 25% barley was determined that a Mexican whiskey needed to be from 100% Mexican corn this is the accepted standard of what makes a whiskey “Mexican.” Hernández’s home in Ayutla today is a testament to his passion for investing in his community… and the idea that it could be a center of fine beverage production he has built facilities filled with large commercial vats barrels and experimental gardens to find what needed crops The Ayutla Distillery and Brewery’s flagship brand is Cetxim Mexico’s first “Mexican corn whiskey,” which came out in 2011 It is made with a local Mixtec variety simply known as “white” corn clear) and  the more common barrel-aged type with their characteristic caramel hues It is this product that has caught the attention of both local and regional press for some time now but it is by no means Ayutla’s only product It produces various craft beers using Mexican ingredients such as cacao damiana (and other herbs) and a regionally-popular fruit called nanche or nance It also produces two other spirits – Volfran vodka and Monavgi gin whose juniper berries are now grown locally In Hernández’s favor is the fact that whiskey is growing in popularity in Mexico with Johnnie Walker claiming about 45% of the domestic market a number of distilleries have followed Hernández’s lead sensing opportunities in higher-end markets where pride in a purely Mexican product is important Mexico has gained a reputation for fine spirits due the meteoric rise in the prestige of tequila and the up-and-coming mezcal A “Mexican corn whiskey” can certainly piggyback onto the trend While Hernández has been successful in producing high-quality whiskey and promising craft beers there is absolutely no local market in the Izúcar area for these beverages While whiskey may be growing in popularity local consumers simply cannot pay three to five times the price of a regular commercial beer or spirit making it essential to get the product into outlets in larger cities taxes on alcoholic beverages on average account for about 60% of the retail price and the government requires a seal called a marbete which classifies alcoholic products sold in main outlets like supermarkets While there are some exceptions to this rule for traditional home-brewed products Ayutla Distillery does not qualify for this This and the costs of small production make it very difficult to compete even against other larger Mexican distilleries experimenting with Mexican corn The other issue is getting city markets interested in the brand Efforts to get into markets in cities like Atlixco and Puebla began about 8 years ago which included participation in the Puebla State Fair although the pandemic put a damper on many of these efforts to reach restaurants and hotels Hernández realizes that tourism is an important element to the distillery’s success as visitors may be more inclined to try what a Puebla operation has to offer He recently opened a restaurant featuring his beers called El Bateador on Highway 892 just outside of Izúcar de Matamoros which will also have hotel rooms ready by the end of the year It’s a slight detour if you are traveling between Puebla/Mexico and Oaxaca on the libre but it’s a good way to sample the product (with some chicken wings) if you are passing by The distillery has a website for ordering as well as reserving a time for a tour/visit If you are a fan of whiskey and/or entrepreneurial projects with a social side a visit to the Ayutla facility is recommended I was fortunate to catch him just before he went out to visit farmer-suppliers and got a tour despite just dropping in It remains to be seen whether Ayutla Distillery will grow from a passion project into a true local industry But the project did plant a seed – several areas of the country including Oaxaca San Luis Potosí and even Sonora have corn whiskey projects in various stages This achievement is just as important as the whiskey itself which Hernández strongly recommends sipping neat or with a little ice to fully appreciate what Mixtec corn has to offer the palate Leigh Thelmadatter arrived in Mexico over 20 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 ADVERTISE WITH MND COMMUNITY GUIDELINES Subscription FAQ's Privacy Policy Mexico News Daily - Property of Tavana LLC In late January I traveled along winding mountain roads in Guerrero state to witness the opening of a new chapter in the country’s enduring battle against organized crime a drug eradication mission conducted by the Mexican Army or an operativo by the Federal Police to nab cartel chiefs I was there to document a burgeoning movement of “Auto Defensa,” or autonomous uprisings by campesinos who pushed to the breaking point by criminal gangs operating in their communities decided to take back control of their towns and villages The event generally credited with sparking this movement occurred on January 5th in Ayutla de los Libres A group of locals decided to combat the kidnappers freed the comesario and took his captors prisoner in Ayutla that takes its historical precedent from the concept of “Uses and Customs” that the Mexican government affords indigenous communities in some parts of the country allowing them a level of self-governance that includes the formation of community police forces This contemporary incarnation of community policing in Ayutla It was not mediating land disputes or arguments over livestock Donning masks and wielding shotguns and machetes these self-deputized protectors were willing to confront — head on — the sort of crime and lawlessness that has turned parts of Mexico into North American killing fields There have been 60,000 murders in Mexico since 2006 and large tracts of the country are virtually ungovernable in Guerrero — as remote and impoverished as it is — drug gangs have operated with near-impunity and in collusion with corrupt security forces The threat of extortion and kidnapping hangs like a pall over every farmer stall owner and businessman — most of whom pay protection money to local mobsters manifests itself in the epidemic of violence Residents of La Costa Chica in Guerrero could not leave their houses after dark and entire villages were paralyzed with fear until the community banded together and kicked both the municipal and federal police out of Ayutla (they have since returned) and began rounding up known delinquents and clearing the streets of criminals The Ayutla uprising has been so successful (residents say criminal activity has dropped 90% since early January) that it caused a ripple effect in villages all over La Costa Chica and in other indigenous communities throughout Guerrero The group from Ayutla and the district of Teconapa (known as UPOEG) have even gained recognition from State Governor Ángel Heladio Aguirre Rivero who has publicly praised their fight against crime The movement is not without its own dark underbelly newspaper reports began appearing detailing the operations of the Policia Communitaria operating what seemed like a program of social cleansing arresting criminals and those suspected of crimes and detaining them in makeshift prisons in the Guerrero hinterlands It was rough popular justice: the accused were often paraded and shamed before crowds of hundreds Critics of the Policia Communitaria suggest they are not merely operating outside the law but are violating human rights and denying accused criminals due legal process What will happen to the Auto Defensa movement remains to be seen but for now spirits are high in the villages of Ayutla El Pericon and many of the other places I visited in the mountains of Guerrero The people have turned the tables on the criminal gangs and have managed in a couple of weeks to do what the central government has failed to do for years: impose order Ross McDonnell is a photographer and filmmaker born in Dublin. LightBox has previously featured McDonnell’s work on Irish public housing projects and Enrique Metinides Contact us at letters@time.com Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.  My NewsSign Out Sign InCreate your free profileSections news Alerts 24.Pedro Pardo / AFP - Getty ImagesHooded men stand guard outside the Justice palace 24.Pedro Pardo / AFP - Getty ImagesArmed men guard the Justice palace from a car 24.Pedro Pardo / AFP - Getty ImagesA female guard watches over 27 people arrested by a residents' police force in Ayutla de los Libres in the Guerrero state of Mexico on Jan 25.Pedro Pardo / AFP - Getty ImagesHundreds of men and women in the southern Mexico state of Guerrero have armed themselves with rifles pistols and machetes to defend their villages against drug gangs that local police are unable or unwilling "There isn't one of us who hasn't felt the pain ... of seeing them take a family member and not being able to ever get them back," said the young civilian self-defense patrol member, who identified himself as "just another representative of the people of the mountain." Continue reading Associated Press article. home to the Pacific resort town of Acapulco has been one of Mexico's hardest hit states by drug violence which has left more than 70,000 people killed across the country since 2006 Masked and armed men guard a roadblock near the town of Ayutla Hundreds of men in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero have taken up arms to defend their villages against drug gangs On the main road into the Mexican town of Ayutla about a dozen men cradling shotguns and rusted machetes stand guard on a street corner Their faces are covered in black ski masks The men are part of a network of self-defense brigades formed in the southern state of Guerrero to combat the drug traffickers and organized crime gangs that terrorize residents arrested suspects and are set on running the criminals out of town and communicate with other checkpoints in town via walkie-talkies who wouldn't give his name but identified himself as a "lower commander," said the townspeople had no choice but to take up arms The 66-year-old cattle farmer and great-grandfather says it started at the beginning of the year His cattlemen association was told each member had to pay 500 pesos — about $40 — to a local gang But he says people started talking about fighting back He says the gangs snatched several heads of communities in the middle of the night The townspeople grabbed their rifles and freed the victims Then they started stopping cars coming in and out of town checking IDs against lists of names of so-called "bad guys." A man who calls himself Comandante G-1 says residents had no choice Anyone who had a small business or started building something had to pay the gangs," he says Guerrero state Assistant Interior Secretary Rossana Mora Patino says it's understandable and even legitimate that the people of Ayutla have taken matters into their own hands But she says their actions are illegal and must stop Stopping the self-defense brigades has become a sticky situation Several more have sprouted up in nearby towns and authorities are cautious about how to proceed Guerrero state has a long history of rebellion dating back to Mexico's War of Independence Ayutla was host to a significant uprising against the Spanish the state has been home to some of Mexico's most stubborn guerrilla movements the army and state police were sent in to restore the peace They set up checkpoints and allowed the brigades to continue their own stop and searches Caught in the middle of the current standoff is Ayutla Mayor Severo Castro Godinez They brought the situation here in Ayutla under control They've controlled the criminals," he says "Now it's time for the authorities to do their job His 16-year-old daughter was kidnapped from his restaurant three years ago She was held for 10 days before the kidnappers released her drivers shout out the names of nearby towns to passersby Taxi driver Leopoldo Castillo says most businesses make regular payments to the gangs "We are sick and tired of it — the pressure the harassment by the crime gangs," he says but he hopes the self-defense brigades stay on Become an NPR sponsor Mexican attorney general says it's a "legal certainty" missing students were murdered Authorities in Mexico say it is a case of mistaken identity Mexico's President says it's time to move on from the tragedy '+n.escapeExpression("function"==typeof(o=null!=(o=r(e,"eyebrowText")||(null!=l?r(l,"eyebrowText"):l))?o:n.hooks.helperMissing)?o.call(null!=l?l:n.nullContext||{},{name:"eyebrowText",hash:{},data:t,loc:{start:{line:28,column:63},end:{line:28,column:78}}}):o)+" \n '+(null!=(o=c(e,"if").call(r,null!=l?c(l,"cta2PreText"):l,{name:"if",hash:{},fn:n.program(32,t,0),inverse:n.noop,data:t,loc:{start:{line:63,column:20},end:{line:63,column:61}}}))?o:"")+"\n"+(null!=(o=(c(e,"ifAll")||l&&c(l,"ifAll")||n.hooks.helperMissing).call(r,null!=l?c(l,"cta2Text"):l,null!=l?c(l,"cta2Link"):l,{name:"ifAll",hash:{},fn:n.program(34,t,0),inverse:n.noop,data:t,loc:{start:{line:64,column:20},end:{line:70,column:30}}}))?o:"")+" A community in Oaxaca has accused a neighboring town of ceding control of the only spring in the area to a drug trafficking organization The municipalities of San Pablo Ayutla and Tamazulapam del Espíritu Santo in the Mixe region of the state have disputed the boundaries of their communities for 50 years fighting over 3,600 hectares of land between them Authorities from Tamazulapam say that according to their documentation the spring belongs to them but residents of the neighboring town beg to differ a representative of the communal landowners of San Pablo Ayutla rejects the idea that the dispute is territorial claiming that the problem now is that Tamazulapam has given narco-traffickers exclusive access to the spring in order to irrigate their opium poppies Galván asserts that the criminal organization has made a base in Tamazulapam and has infiltrated the municipal council and the communal lands office He added that he has proof of the cultivation and production of poppies in the region and has brought the matter before the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena) Oaxaca Governor Alejandro Murat reiterated his promise to resolve the problem with dialogue He said that discussion tables remain open despite the instability caused by the positions the towns have taken He added that Tamazulapam has reneged on three of the 62 accords it has signed with San Pablo Ayutla The government’s intention is to install 600 kilometers of water line to reconnect the water via a gravity-fed system from the spring to Ayutla but Tamazulapam is demanding the return of 25 plots of land and that the reconnection of water be done with a pumping system A district judge recently granted a permanent suspension of the reconnection on the grounds that it would put Ayutla at risk of further dispossession of its land Tamazulapam now wants 200 more hectares of land from its neighbor The stage appears set for the dispute to continue for another 50 years Source: Milenio (sp) SaveSave this storySaveAt first glance, Ross McDonnell’s ambrotypes resemble 19th century portraits of desperados Then you see the semi-automatic weapons and the ballcaps and realize McDonnell’s retro images depict men on the front lines of Mexico’s most fraught contemporary struggles An ambrotype is a photograph created on a glass plate that has been coated and sensitized in a chemical bath When the glass plate negative is turned around and placed against a black background McDonnell used the technique to great effect in Vigilantes a series documenting Mexico’s Auto Defensa—bands of vigilantes who protect communities against the violence of the cartels they have all but replaced the ineffective policing of federal forces The movement spread westward from the state of Guerrero to Michoacán The groups have enjoyed some success in those areas because the people there have little faith in the central government They are more likely to respect and trust those from within their community He’s provided material for television news reporting using a variety of approaches and techniques “It has been great to work on a story like this and see how the meaning and ambience of the work can change depending on the context in which it is presented,” he says His decision to use ambrotypes grew from a collaboration with Galeria Grafika LaEstampa a gallery in Mexico City that specializes in vintage photography “I was initially a little bit skeptical about the process,” he says “but the fact the plates are unique editions and their beautiful ethereal nature of the results quickly convinced me that it would be a success.” The Auto Defensa are a response to a drug war between the government and powerful cartels a war that has seen more than 70,000 people killed Rural areas like La Costa Chica in Guerrero Auto Defensa police guard villages in these areas around the clock arresting and detaining those suspected of crimes and trying them in popular courts a quasi-religious cartel that specializes in systematic kidnapping and torture one might question McDonnell’s decision to use ambrotypes and argue he is aestheticizing violence and trauma McDonnell doesn’t believe this to be the case; he points to Mexico’s history of revolution and upheaval and how photographers have documented it from the earliest days of their medium McDonnell also believes there is a powerful visual tension between the historic process and the vigilantes’ modern-day garb. “An audience must ask themselves if these armed men appear to them to be good guys or bad guys,” he says. “In a way it says much about the level of crime and corruption in Mexico that armed, hooded vigilantes ostensibly represent the side of good in certain parts of the countryside, places where law and order have ceased to exist.” “And, they are masked for their own safety.” It is the essential source of information and ideas that make sense of a world in constant transformation The WIRED conversation illuminates how technology is changing every aspect of our lives—from culture to business The breakthroughs and innovations that we uncover lead to new ways of thinking KQED Live EventsPRX Podcast Garage EventsEvents Around the Bay AreaMember Benefits with KQED LiveVideos from KQED LiveWatch recordings of recent KQED Live events FeaturedThat's My WordAn ongoing exploration of Bay Area hip-hop history See Senior Director of TV Programming Meredith Speight’s recommendations from this month’s KQED 9 Watch recordings of recent KQED Live events Support KQED by using your donor-advised fund to make a charitable gift San Francisco’s longtime tenants count on rent control to keep their housing costs down But if you’re a small business owner in a hot neighborhood there’s not much to stop a landlord from jacking up your rent once the lease is up many landlords of commercial spaces are raising rents They’re cashing in on the demand for new businesses that serve tech workers But at least one pair of landlords in the neighborhood is not going that route — Bob and Marta Sanchez When their mother passed away two years ago, Bob and his sister Marta inherited the old Casa Sanchez restaurant on 24th Street The siblings decided they didn’t want to just rent to the highest bidder they rented to a local family of Latino restaurateurs who had been displaced from their previous restaurant Marta Sanchez says she and her brother wanted to give them one last shot in the neighborhood where 89-year-old Casa Sanchez sits and which still has the highest concentration of Latino-owned businesses in the city is the heart of the Latino Mission district It stretches from the BART station on Mission Street east to Potrero Hill which has seen rapid gentrification and an influx of new restaurants and shops over the last decade And it is now at the front line in the city’s growing turmoil over tech-driven gentrification This stretch of 24th Street has had a tumultuous past It was known in previous decades for gang violence and drug dealing tortilla companies fought for turf at the street’s taco joints in what came to be called the “tortilla wars.” She says it grew so heated that tortilla delivery men were said to carry guns Those years also saw a burst of Latino pride and activism on the street. Community and arts organizations sprang up, like the Precita Eyes Mural Arts and Visitor Center and Galeria de la Raza a gallery that displays Latino and Chicano art The alleyways and storefronts up and down the street are still covered with giant murals painted by graffiti artists during that time upscale restaurants and cafes have popped up a Jewish-inspired deli where Mark Zuckerberg has been seen dining — he is reported to have bought a house several blocks west toward Noe Valley Tour groups now come through to see the murals and Google employee buses stop near the BART station on their way to the tech campuses on the Peninsula and in the South Bay At a rally last month protesters marched down 24th Street to call attention to the impact of the Mission’s rapid gentrification “24th Street is not for sale!” they chanted “No more evictions!” One speaker demanded that “the city provide incentives to keep long-term businesses in the Mission.” The message was clear: This isn’t just about displaced residents Marta Sanchez says the restaurant has always been a family business they concentrated on chips and salsa instead They concocted their first batches at a table inside the restaurant the company made national headlines by offering free lunches for life to anyone who got a tattoo of the Casa Sanchez logo — a boy in a sombrero riding a corn cob rocket Sanchez’s mother ran the restaurant for years she held sway from a chair in the corner of the room – she actually died while sitting in that chair they made a shrine for her in one of the patio booths out back there’s a picture of her up on the wall Marta Sanchez says she and her brother have been flooded with offers to lease or sell the place She says a chef from a famous San Francisco restaurant came in and offered her $200,000 up front just to sign the lease “We had a family meeting,” Sanchez says “and I just gave a lot of credit to my brother because he was paying the mortgage after my mom passed away and he didn’t have to do that — he could have taken the $200,000.” they decided to go with the Banuelos family who opened a taqueria called Ayutla in the Casa Sanchez space in mid-2012 The family is paying far less than market rate to rent the space But Marta Sanchez and Maria Elena Banuelos knew each other from grade school Emilia Estrada is part of the Banuelos family The Banuelos have run restaurants in the Mission for almost 40 years “It was so sad when they demolished La Posta,” Estrada says Erick Arguello runs the Lower 24th Street Merchant & Neighbors Association he points out two properties side by side on the street One was left to a brother and the other to a sister The brother’s property was turned into condos while the sister kept her building as an independently owned boutique All up and down the street you can see this kind of uneven development Arguello says the reason 24th Street hasn’t changed entirely is because many businesses actually own their buildings — that’s how the Latino barber shops churches and knickknack shops can afford to stay Maybe it would be called “Mission Viejo” (Old Mission) or some other kind of made-up real estate term The Sanchezes made an emotional decision about renting Casa Sanchez They are keeping the rent low so a local business can stay in the neighborhood But not everyone has the resources to rent below market rate “It’s not easy,” Marta Sanchez says “because if you have to pay a mortgage and you really need the money and people keep waving that amount of money at you “You can’t be blamed for it,” she says “because there is only so much you can do on behalf of your values with the community.” Berkeley amended its ordinances to satisfy that shortcoming but the state then enacted a law pre-empting further local attempts at commercial rent control The impact of the law is that in San Francisco businesses live or die at the whim of their landlords Casa Sanchez has been hosting punk music and other live music events at nights Marta Sanchez says what the Banuelos family pays in rent barely covers the mortgage She hopes some of the young hipsters and techies moving into the neighborhood will come in for burritos and help them stay in business To learn more about how we use your information, please read our privacy policy. Mexico — The young man at the roadside checkpoint wept softly behind the red bandanna that masked his face he told how his cousin's body was found in a mass grave with about 40 other victims of a drug gang the cousin had caught a ride with an off-duty soldier "There isn't one of us who hasn't felt the pain .. of seeing them take a family member and not being able to ever get them back," said the young civilian self-defense patrol member who identified himself as "just another representative of the people of the mountain." Now he has joined hundreds of other men in the southern Mexico state of Guerrero who have taken up arms to defend their villages against drug gangs a vigilante movement born of frustration at extortion killings and kidnappings that local police are unable Vigilantes patrol a dozen or more towns in rural Mexico the unauthorized but often tolerated edge of a growing movement toward armed citizen self-defense squads is what has given the communities the legitimacy to say 'We will assume the tasks that the government has not been able to fulfill,'" said rights activist Roman Hernandez whose group Tlachinollan has worked with the community forces The young man and his masked cohorts stop cars at a checkpoint along the two-lane highway that runs past mango and palm trees to Ayutla a dusty town of concrete homes with red-tile roofs where pigs a masked and armed man checks the identity of a driver at a roadblock at the entrance to the town of El Pericon Mexico.Dario Lopez-Mills / APThe men wear fading T-shirts and leather sandals and most are armed with old hunting rifles or ancient 20-gauge shotguns hanging from their shoulders on twine slings as they stop cars and check IDs had intensified to the point that they were demanding protection payments from almost anybody with any property In a region where farmworkers make less than $6 per day "When they extorted money from the rancher and the store owner raised the price of tortillas," said a defense-patrol commander who wore a brown ski mask Because the patrols are not formally recognized by the government — and they fear drug cartel reprisals — most members wear masks and refuse to give their full names The self-defense movement has spread to other towns and villages such as Las Mesas and El Pericon Recently Associated Press journalists saw 200 to 300 masked armed men patrolling in squad-size contingents and manning checkpoints and ask for driver's licenses or voter IDs which they check against a handwritten list of "los malos," or "the bad guys." They sometimes search vehicles and drivers The movement so far seems to be well accepted by local residents they have done something that the army and state and federal police haven't been able to do in years," said Lorena Morales Castro who waited in a line of cars at a checkpoint Friday have cautiously approved of the do-it-yourself police Angel Aguirre offered to supply them with uniforms so they wouldn't be confused with masked gang members but he also said he is trying to eliminate the need for vigilantes by beefing up official forces the vigilante squads here present problems 44 people accused of crimes ranging from homicide to theft where they are being kept in a makeshift jail knows what conditions they are being held in Members of the vigilante squads in Guerrero say that what counts is their relationship with the community and resistance to corruption not even bullets from an AK-47 can defeat us," said the self-defense commander in Las Mesas Mexico's drug war is also part of a drug culture with roots in music Mexico seeks to pivot relationship with US as new president takes office Despite constant bloodshed, Mexico is ignored during White House race Top 10 fugitive went to extremes to evade capture in Mexico The food, like the kitchen, was concertedly rural. Bubbling away in clay cazuelas were dishes including mole de queso, salty curds of fresh cheese half melted into a thick red sauce nutty with chile costeño, and mole de platano, bananas in a sweet-sour sauce of onions, garlic, chiles and tomatoes, like Mughlai court cooking by way of the Caribbean. Food In a special bonus episode of ‘Off Menu,’ Food columnist Lucas Kwan Peterson goes to Mexico City to sample a variety of Mexican food. Tornés, who uses his maternal surname (he’s never had a relationship with his father), is a gentle giant with a messy tumble of long black hair and the huge melancholic eyes of a saint. In the first year of the restaurant’s existence, he spent hours hunched over his black stone metate, grinding corn that he nixtamalized on site into a fragrant masa to be shaped into tortillas or sold by the kilo. He was, at the time, one of few people in the city’s central neighborhoods selling heirloom-corn masa, still widely seen as a luxury product in the capital, where most tortillas are made from the industrial corn flour Maseca. “I’m convinced that the whole problem in Mexico’s food system comes from our inability to value things as they are,” he says. “The question is simple: How much do you value a tortilla?” Blue corn masa is prepared to make tortillas at Expendio, where the menu changes daily. (Claudio Castro / For The Times) Though invariably revelatory, eating at Expendio was an exercise in patience — you ate what Tornés wanted you to eat at the pace he wanted to serve it: It was, and is, a place of both devotional seriousness and joyful informality. Even for people who knew about the rich diversity of Mexico’s regional cuisines, the flavors coming out of Tornés’ kitchen were unfamiliar: There were rajas (thin strips of green poblano chile) cooked in coconut oil and a briny shrimp mole and a banana-stuffed enchilada bathed in a pale mole of pine nuts and white cacao, a dish, Tornés says, that he’s made only once. Equally unfamiliar was the story Tornés told about his homeland. Ayutla, just inland from the Pacific coast, is best known today as the home of Guerrero’s notorious autodefensas, a network of community police forces that emerged in 2012 after years of escalating drug violence. Though some of the autodefensas have succeeded in restoring a kind of order to their communities, many others have since succumbed to the same systems of corruption and exploitation that they were meant to combat. From left: Requesón tamal and blue corn tortillas; pumpkin mole, ayocote mole, beef and red salsa from Expendio; hoja santa taco, nixtamalized corn, squash blossom, cheese and avocado. (Claudio Castro / For The Times) Restaurants that pay homage to, and often romanticize, the cooking of rural Mexico have been common in the capital at least since Enrique Olvera opened Pujol in 2000, serving his now-legendary bull’s-eye of aged mole on stark white haute cuisine flatware. But no one has ever translated the spontaneity and ordered chaos of a country kitchen to the city so faithfully. Tornés says he learned much of what he knows about cooking in secret. As a child, he followed his grandmother around like a shadow, from the bakery, where she made pan dulce to sell at the local market, to the kitchen, where he watched her nixtamalize corn over an open flame; watched the fluid roll off her wrists as she ground the softened grains into a thick paste; and watched the rotation of her hardened hands as she pressed the masa into tortillas. “My first school was in the streets of Mexico City,” he says. “That’s where I learned to value popular culture.” Tornés didn’t begin to value the culture of Ayutla, though, until he moved to Puebla for culinary school in 2007. For his five years as a student, he lived on 100 pesos per day, cooking with inexpensive ingredients from the Mercado Miguel Hidalgo and biking out to surrounding villages each weekend rather than spend money eating in town. “I always felt more comfortable in rural communities, and going out on my bike, I realized how good it felt to be in those places, and that’s when I started to recuperate the rural part of my identity,” he says. “People would ask where I was from and I would say Mexico City. But then, with time, I started feeling proud to say that where I was from and what I knew was Guerrero.” In April 2011 the people of Cheran, an indigenous Purhepecha community in Michoacan, Mexico, took up arms to expel the illegal loggers who had decimated their forests. In the years since, the wild mushrooms that had gradually disappeared through decades of deforestation have returned. That part of his identity has since become the basis of his livelihood through the company he founded with his mother — called Siva de Metate, Mixteco for chocolate ground on a metate. Siva de Metate imports ingredients farmed around Ayutla, first to Puebla and then to Mexico City, where he moved in 2012. Clockwise from top: Pineapples, sweet and astringent in flavor, on display in Ayutla de los Libres; the view of the Guerrero’s mountain range from the village of Tepuente; lagoon shrimp taken from Laguna Chautengo in Guerrero. (Claudio Castro / For The Times) “We’re not doing anything innovative,” he says. “For me, it’s about making food from the region through respect for the ingredients from the region.” The result at Expendio was a rural cooking less obsessed with “authenticity” than with reading food as a historical text. Ana Gonzalez, chef de cuisine at Expendio. (Claudio Castro / For The Times) “In some ways, it’s like we’re still living at the beginning of the 20th century,” Tornés says, “when people preferred to be seen eating French food and would eat their tortillas in private.” Climate & Environment California Subscribe for unlimited accessSite Map Mexico – Not far from the glimmering water of Acapulco the hills to the northeast of this tourist destination were marauded by criminal gangs that did as they pleased without interference from courts and police Sergio Loza Moreno says merchants paid the gangs protection money teachers had to turn over part of their paychecks to them and ranchers were charged a "tax" for each head of cattle "It was a cancer that kept growing," said Loza "People saw the police as part of that cancer." masked vigilantes armed with hunting rifles sticks and machetes became the law in this municipality of indigenous settlements people in 36 communities have organized to take responsibility for security in their villages since Jan The emergence of these community police forces reflects the ongoing difficulties in combating organized crime in Mexico and the depth of the distrust in the institutions that are supposed to protect people from the gangs It also may impede the preferred priorities of President Enrique Peña Nieto who is trying to focus on the economy and is speaking sparingly about security since his Dec "The situation continues being as bloody as ever … (but) they're not speaking as much about this sort of news," says Raymundo Díaz director of an Acapulco-based human rights group the Collective Against Torture and Impunity Peña Nieto has shunned the hard language against the drug lords here and talks more of stopping crimes affecting ordinary citizens such as kidnapping and extortion He has promised to improve security by spending more on social programs instead of sending more soldiers into the streets Years of violence and victimization have convinced many Mexicans in crime-plagued towns that the government is no longer a source for a solution They are arming and going after criminals themselves the desperation of these groups is linked … to the inability of the government to enforce the law," said Roberto Campa an undersecretary in the Interior Ministry The National Human Rights Commission warned about "the existence of armed groups with interests distinct from self-defense." "Nothing justifies that a group of persons decides to take justice into their own hands and attempt … to place themselves above the government," it said Rebellion has been ebbing and flowing for years in Guerrero state which includes Ayutla and some of Mexico's poorest municipalities Guerrilla groups operate in the region and there have been massacres "This is one of the zones of the country where the state has traditionally been absent," says Alejandro Hope security analyst with the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness set up roadblocks and apprehended suspects The towns organized tribunals for the accused for alleged crimes that ranged from drug trafficking to kidnapping to extortion The Union of Peoples and Organizations of Guerrero State was the main organizer of the uprising in Ayutla and it held as many as 54 detainees in secret locations the group turned over 20 of its detainees to the authorities lawyer with the Tlachinollan Human Rights Center office in Ayutla But he says he also understands why the people took matters into their hands and points out that it worked "This movement is an example to the Mexican government that people can guarantee a state of security," he says Community police are not without precedent in Guerrero A force known as the Regional Coordinator of Community Authorities (CRAC) – which has been at odds with the leadership of the Ayutla group – has patrolled seven municipalities since 1995 It was formed to calm a region rife with crimes ranging from cattle rustling to road robberies to a disturbing number of sexual assaults CRAC's justice coordinator in the municipality of San Luis Acatlán says crime has plummeted 90% since the community police's formation Patrols of uniformed and unpaid police have confronted the powerful drug cartels destroying poppy plantations for heroin and stopped a shipment of 1,500 pounds of marijuana CRAC members now patrol corn-farming communities in pickups armed with pistols and assault rifles that were seized from gangs at CRAC checkpoints CRAC also detains suspects that Guzmán says are judged by local leaders and later "re-educated" through work on community projects that can last more than two years Guzmán brushes off claims that his police officers are not acting professionally and says they have training in basic policing they know whose is acting out of line," he said Ayutla appeared quite calm on one recent day Villagers kept their doors open well into the evening Sergio Loza Moreno says he endorses the community police approach But he suspects many of those detained were low-level figures "They're probably waiting for a lapse before reappearing," he says of the criminals 11 Princeton undergraduates in the course "The Art and Politics of Ancient Maya Courts" had an unusual assignment: deciphering hieroglyphs "This course is a deep dive into the art and culture within Maya courts from about 600-800," said Bryan Just Curator and Lecturer in the Art of the Ancient Americas the goal was to provide students with the basic skills to contextualize and understand that material This included learning to read hieroglyphs as well as exploring archaeological and ethnographic literature in addition to art historical studies," he said Just noted the trip provided "direct engagement with architectural spaces both fully restored for tourism and as-of-yet largely untouched ruins; and appreciation of the geography climate and ecology within which Maya civilization developed and much of its mythology and imagery derive." the wide variety of the students' majors helped everyone on the trip "rethink certain aspects of what we saw in new ways based on the students' particular perspectives and backgrounds." Whatever their academic concentration he said he hoped all "gained an appreciation for the richness sophistication and visual splendor of the ancient Maya Many came to the course with some basic knowledge of the culture but I suspect all were rather surprised by many impressive aspects of ancient Maya art." Just and the students captured the experience: This expansive vista of Palenque is only accessible atop the Temple of the Cross: the site's tallest step-pyramid and the central structure in its iconic "Cross Group." In the distance lie the excavated palace as well as the burial site of the Palenque's famous King K'inich Janaab Pakal Next to Pakal's pyramidal tomb is the burial chamber of the mysterious "Red Queen," whose unidentified body archaeologists found coated in brilliant red cinnabar Palenque seemed as vibrant a mystery as the Red Queen as energizing a challenge as the many stairs leading up to the apex of the Temple of the Cross Our class stopped in the interior court of Palenque's palace and I was drawn to the multiple sets of stairways leading down into the court from all sides My sketchbook is always with me when I travel so I can jot down notes alongside drawings and here I made note of the interesting glyphic staircase describing Palenque's return to regional prominence under the direction of King K'inich Janaab Pakal The sketch proved quite useful when I referenced the readings on Palenque after the visit and allowed me to contextualize our visit by orienting my sketch alongside maps of the site.  Detail from Crystal Wang's sketch of East Court of Palenque's Palace It was surreal approaching the recently discovered site Plan de Ayutla with the understanding that the hill beneath us was actually a pyramid swallowed by jungle growth we peered through the labyrinthine rooms of a temple structure and explored a building with a massive vaulted ceiling that was so high that it faded to darkness Plan de Ayutla revealed just how many sites could lay unexcavated and how the overgrowth can hinder our understanding of it It currently sits in a political nexus of local and state power and is contained within a town's private property Given that my thesis focused on management and ownership of Peru's Inca heritage it was fascinating to see this as a similar Some might look at the absence of true arches in Maya architecture and interpret it as a lack of advancement But sites like Plan de Ayutla were strikingly complex and exciting to explore The roof of this building is thought to have been designed to look like thatch the default material for more modest housing which captures an enormous amount of interior space is still standing is a testament to the incredible sophistication and durability of Maya architecture It's interesting to note that the temperature inside these buildings was impressively cool compared to the outside temperature due to the high ceilings and thick walls.  Nestled within a meander of the Usumacinta River that forms the border between Mexico and Guatemala in this area Yaxchilan is a jewel of an archaeological site thanks to its well-preserved sculpture towering architecture and lush tropical setting Yaxchilan's ceremonial core leverages natural topography to enhance the monumentality of commemorative structures Faced with masonry steps to make it seem an immense feat of construction this long ascent to Temple 33 in fact encases the natural rise of a mountain Visiting Yaxchilan and the other Maya kingdoms during this trip provided us all a healthy dose of exercise.  we were all amazed to see a noblewoman with her own stela and building since women are underrepresented in most of Maya history and especially on monuments Lady Ik' Skull (portrayed here) certainly merited her place in the annals of history As a secondary wife of King Itzamnaaj Balam II Lady Ik' Skull was less celebrated during her time as a queen consort After the king's death sent Yaxchilan into a decade of contentious political strife Lady Ik' Skull rose to prominence and installed her son on the throne Some scholars believe that she governed as queen regent until her death in 751 one of a select few women to rule in the Maya area.  The vibrant paintings in Structure 1 at Bonampak are the best preserved classic Maya murals which cover the walls and ceilings of the building's three rooms tell the story of Chan Muwaan's ascension to power in around 790 and depict scenes both of courtly life and bellicosity The courtly attendant pictured here at the corner of the room is a prime example of the significant planning that went into the execution of these murals While symbolizing the duties of the courtier he also has several counterparts located at the edges of all three murals who seem to help frame the scenes themselves Being in the space itself made me realize how thoughtful the organization of this project must have been but also made me question what the audience for these images was The small size of the rooms and large benches that swallow much of the space in each one indicates that viewing the scenes may have been a much more intimate experience than the scale of the paintings when considered alone might seem to indicate.  We look like we are simply enjoying whitewater rafting in this photo but the truth is that we are on an expedition to find the hidden With local Lacandon Maya as our trusted guides we navigated through the streams and the jungle as they encouraged us: " ¡Adelante!" I felt like we were tracing the ancient Maya ways of life as we made our journey on the water to the Lacanja archaeological site We dived into the clear water that was an important transportation route for the ancient Maya mysterious and astoundingly beautiful green canopy surrounding us that was the source of life and subject of reverence.  Balancing on the top of a pyramidal temple at Tonina a Late Classic Maya city known for its militaristic strength I gained a sense of the meticulous planning and organization required to build such a site the steps gradually narrowed and their incline increased It was not until we as a class were cautiously balancing on steps no bigger than the height and width of bricks did we realize the extent to which these architectural decisions limited access to and determined the use of these uppermost structures we could not help but marvel at the vast landscape before us and the towering architectural feat underneath us.  the students brought innumerable insights to the subject matter and were energetic and adaptive travelers and allowed me to remember the initial wonder and excitement of my first visits to the grand kingdoms of the Maya west.  Tonina is the westernmost major polity in the Maya world Professor Just is telling the group about the unusual architecture of the palace that we are standing in Tonina is one of the most unique and spectacular Maya cities the city's defining characteristic is a huge The building we are standing in is on the fourth or fifth platform more than 100 feet above the base of the pyramid The peculiarities and stunning views of Tonina made it my favorite of the sites we visited and I ultimately wrote about one of its courtiers for my final paper.  San Cristóbal de las Casas was the link between past and present in our exploration of the Maya world The colonial-era city receives a steady flow of migrants from the indigenous communities in the surrounding mountains and has also attracted international attention in recent years we wandered off in search of food and came across one of many vegetarian restaurants in the rapidly globalizing city we noticed textile and amber shops right alongside cafes that might have been found just as easily in New York I found it especially compelling to see how new indigenous and international residents had altered the character of the 500-year-old city — tofu fajitas are just one way Mexico's identity is shifting.  the Mexican drug war has seen the state of Guerrero play a most important role This reportage looks at the region’s current social and political situation Violence is relentlessly on the rise amongst cartels and self-claimed defence groups and local feuds force the population to abandon their homes and towns surrendering them to a ghostly domestic conflict a mountainous region on the eastern side of the state the largest amapola cultivation of the country is located Despite the military’s crack-down on production and the sharp price drop of heroin the end product of amapola seems to see no real undermining in its share of the market In 2017 alone the army eradicated a total of 84,000 m2 of cultivation Unlike other states under the control of only a single organization Guerrero is hostage to various wars: between the cartels between the cartels and self-claimed defence groups and between the self-defence groups themselves Once famous for the exotic tourist town of Acapulco this now unclaimed territory is precious and worthy of violent internal fights which spread terror among the locals frequent power struggles and turmoil occur also within the local self-defence groups which were once inspired by socialist and communitarian ideals the Police of Tlacotepec has been occupying the municipality of Leonardo Bravo in the hopes of opening the way to control the capital city of Chilpancingo The Government is rarely present in the larger urban centres such as Chilpancingo which was meant to reduce violence and the number of killings resulted solely in the confiscation of stolen vehicles and a few arrests And as the desaparecidos abruptly become ghosts to the many families who live in the constant uncertainty of what has become of them the empty houses and the deserted villages quickly turn into ghost towns A disturbing silence is the only real presence Hundreds of families enervated and tired of waiting for official action have desperately started searching on their own for their loved ones in the woods In 2014 the disappearance of 43 students caught the attention of international media and exasperated the local population the drug cartels’ necropolitics continues to rule and imposes itself as the actual law in the region “There are too many bosses to deal with and too many evil people to face” says Chilpancingo Bishop Salvador Rangel Mendoza in an effort to describe the fights between the self-defence groups who aim for the control of the illegal gold mines In recent years the lowered profitability of heroin has reinstated gold as another sought-after resource in the mountains of Guerrero Mexico; Guerrero; San Felipe del Ocote; 2018 Local police forces in San Felipe del Ocote This ghost town is currently under the control of the Familia Michoacana Mexico; Guerrero; La Agavia; 2018 An abandoned toy in the ghost town of La Agavia Mexico; Guerrero; Acapulco; 2018 The stabbed back of a 17-year-old boy found dead with his head and limbs detached He is just one of the countless innocent victims found in Acapulco who are violently murdered to spread terror among the local population Mexico; Guerrero; Chilapa De Alvarez; 2018 Banner at a bus stop in Chilapa: "The who can avoid a crime but chooses not to Mexico; Guerrero; Ayutla; 2018 Displaced family in the area of Ayutla Many live in precarious conditions without basic needs Mexico; Guerrero; Chichihualco; 2018 Displaced coming from the town of Los Morelos heading to the Chichihualco auditorium Hundreds of people have been displaced since the Guerrero Unidos self-defence group decided to occupy the towns in the municipality of Leonardo Bravo Mexico; Guerrero; Area of San Miguel Totolapan; 2018 Picture of a wedding left behind in an abandoned home located in the ghost area of San Miguel Totolapan Mexico; Guerrero; Santa Maria de las Suarez; 2018 Family in Santa Maria de las Suarez they are leaving the town worried about for their safety Mexico; Guerrero; Corral de Bravo; 2018 Young girl in her home in Corral de Bravo Hundreds of families decided to leave their homes scared by the violent fights between the Police of Tlacotepec and the Policia Ciudadana de Leonardo Bravo groups Mexico; Guerrero; Acapulco; 2018 Assassinated man in the Acapulco neighbourhood of Zapata The sharp rise of violence in the city caused a tourism crisis and forced the Government to intervene with the security operation “Guerrero Seguro” are attempting to stop or at least limit the dramatic situation Mexico; Guerrero; Chilapa De Alvarez; 2019 Jose Navarro next to the memorial for his brothers He wants to create a memorial for the victims of Chilapa Mexico; Guerrero; Chilapa De Alvarez; 2018 Detail inside the abandoned home of a former local commissioner in a town near Chilapa He was one of the leaders of the Los Rojos cartel Mexico; Guerrero; Ayutla; 2018 Displaced in a shelter An estimate of 8,000 people are currently displaced in the state of Guerrero Local fights between self-defence groups and the drug cartels terrify the population and make life impossible Families are thus forced to leave their homes and seek shelter elsewhere Mexico; Guerrero; Filo de Caballos; 2018 Interiors of a house seized by the Police of Tlacotepec according to the population in Filo de Caballos many girls were raped by members of the Policia Ciudadana de Leonardo Bravo Mexico; Guerrero; Petlacala; 2018 Members of a self defense group in a poppy field The self-defence group of Sierra of San Miguel claim to protect the local population from the criminal group of the Tequileros which are specialized in kidnapping and extortion and at the same time take part in the heroin business Mexico; Guerrero; Acapulco; 2018 Crime scene in Acapulco Tourism and investments have dropped as Acapulco is currently the most violent city in Guerrero and for the last five years has been the most violent of Mexico Mexico; Guerrero; Santa Maria de las Suarez; 2018 Abandoned cars in Santa Maria de las Suarez Mexico; Guerrero; Chilapa De Alvarez; 2018 Federal police inside the abandoned house of a former local commissioner in a town near Chilapa Mexico; Guerrero; Petlacala; 2018 Little altar for a young boy killed by the Tequileros Many members of the self-defence group of Sierra of San Miguel have lost their sons fathers and loved ones fighting against the Tequileros Mexico; Guerrero; Petlacala; 2018 Church in Petlacala In fear of the internal feuds between the criminal group of Tequileros and self defense Guerrero Unidos there are numerous half-finished buildings around the mountainous isolated towns hundreds of masked men wielding old shotguns revolvers and machetes have claimed to be the law in the rugged mountains outside the faded resort of Acapulco Manning roadblocks and patrolling by the truckload these citizen posses have been rounding up accused drug dealers killers and rustlers under the wincing but winking watch of state and federal security forces.Last week the vigilantes paraded 54 captured men and women in front of thousands of their neighbors the vague and unsubstantiated charges against them read aloud over loud speakers “Organized crime,” intoned a community leader as the accused were escorted into the covered square in El Mezon a mostly Mixtec indigenous village belonging to Ayutla township Mexican justice remains cut from the thinnest of fabrics Tens of thousands of purported criminals rot for years in state and federal prisons as they await trial The convictions handed down for every 100 arrests can be counted on one hand has vowed to move away from his predecessor’s strategy of military-led offensives against drug trafficking gangs the president plans to focus more on the robberies extortion and violence that affect mostly ordinary Mexicans Mexican security analysts say he will need better local policing and criminal prosecutions The villagers in these mountains aren’t holding their breath “The federal and state governments haven’t been able to do anything,” said Evert Castro “And we don’t have the capacity to fight these criminals So the people got tired and decided to act on their own Following negotiations this week between community leaders and Guerrero’s governor most of the detainees seem likely to be turned over to state prosecutors “They must be subjected to the established laws and institutions,” Gov Angel Aguirre recently told local reporters in the state capital “We are going to continue working to provide security and confidence so that a climate of harmony returns in communities where this problem is focused.” a founder of the volunteer forces that comprise the bulk of the vigilantes told the crowd last week that the accused would remain in community custody for at least two more weeks when another public assembly would be held “This is not taking justice into our own hands,” Placido Valerio told villagers Only a handful of the prisoners stand accused of murder and kidnapping One youth was arrested for tending to three marijuana plants at his house—and for smoking the harvest “Considering that he’s a parasite on society we want him to be judged according to the uses and customs of the people,” intoned the speaker of the supposed rustler referring to the traditional justice that exists a world apart from official law Punishment can mean everything from community labor to expulsion More than half the prisoners seem to have been taken for being “hawks,” or street corner lookouts for a local criminal group headed by an Ayutla native known only as “El Cholo.” The gang leader’s wife father and mother were all among the detainees But Cholo himself had slipped through the dragnet The tightly-packed crowd murmured and shook their heads as the vigilantes read the most serious charges Necks craned for glimpses of particular perpetrators “He’s from my village,” whispered a shotgun-toting man of one alleged murderer Anchored by Acapulco—which ongoing gang wars placed it among Mexico’s deadliest cities last year—Guerrero state stretches hundreds of miles along the southern Pacific Coast the high Sierra Madre range running through it like a backbone More from GlobalPost: Drug war rages on the edges of Mexico City Many urban Mexicans have long considered these mountain hinterlands as “untamed.” Popular wisdom holds that the rough and ready people living here are best not riled “They call us the wild people,” concedes Evert Castro have earned a sordid place in Mexico’s history Ayutla was the birthplace of a 1854 rebellion launched against Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna a leftist guerrilla movement that swept through the Sierra Madre was eventually crushed by a ruthless military campaign The state police put down a similar rebellion in 1988 Police dispatched by a governor ambushed and killed 17 unarmed protesting farmers near Acapulco in 1995 Soldiers in 1998 killed 11 suspected guerrillas and local village leaders meeting at a rural schoolhouse outside Ayutla criminals began to besiege Ayutla and other nearby towns about six years ago when gangster violence erupted along the US border and down both coasts many of them going to work for the dealers as lookouts “It was very quiet here and then from one day to the next it seemed to all go bad,” said Celerina García a housewife taking in the late afternoon air at Ayutla’s crowded plaza “You couldn’t leave your house at night.” García and other residents say things have calmed considerably since the vigilantes started patrolling have set up highway checkpoints of their own in recent days keeping a wary but respectful distance from the village militiamen ongoing talks with the governor aim to return the armed farmers to their plows “We are going back to the fields but we are not going to give up our weapons,” Placido Valerio told the assembly last week “We are going to start building a system of justice.” This story first appeared Feb. 3 on Global Post Photo by Keith Dannemiller, GlobalPost Mexico: campesinos bear arms against narcosWorld War 4 Report Indigenous communities rise up in MichoacánWorld War 4 Report MEXICAN PEACE CARAVAN OCCUPIES WALL STREETby David L. Wilson, New York IndymediaWorld War 4 Report MEXICO’S RESURGENT GUERILLASfrom Frontera NorteSurWorld War 4 Report 2013Reprinting permissible with attribution Karla Zabludovsky covers Latin America for Newsweek she reported for the New York Times from Mexico the effects of the drug war on the general population and miscellaneous topics (fish smuggling Her work has also appeared in The Economist and The Guardian.  either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content A Mexican research organization has developed an algorithm to organize and parse previously unreadable data Analysts at the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (IMCO) released a report this month revealing there are 1,442 teachers on the government payroll between the ages of 100 and 105 and all but one of those were born on December 12 The report which is based on statistics from Mexico's Education Ministry also revealed that 70 teachers in Mexico earn more than President Enrique Peña Nieto 19 work at schools that have failed or barely passed the national standardized test According to a 2013 report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Mexico spends the highest proportion of its education budget on teacher salaries and compensation of staff the report reveals that education statistics are disorganized and largely impenetrable "We have a kind of accounting anarchy," says Juan Pardinas the Hidalgo state government reached out to his team suggesting some of the discrepancies were the result of an engineer incorrectly filling out the payroll information by using a salary code for other types of payments but it has proved largely futile: Four out of 32 states have not handed over payroll databases for the last trimester of 2013 and eight states have handed over empty or incomplete databases particularly those who work within the public school system and are members of the powerful union—the largest labor syndicate in Latin America—have for decades enjoyed almost total autonomy from official authorities who was seen by political experts as one of the most influential political players in the country famous for her love of brand-name clothes and a penchant for collecting multiple properties But last year, Gordillo, whose aura of untouchability had grown steadily throughout the previous decade, was accused of embezzling millions of dollars from the union for personal use and went to prison. Forbes included Gordillo in its 2013 list of the most corrupt Mexicans noting her $4.7 million house in Coronado Cays featured "a private dock with a boat and jet ski." Congress approved an overhaul of the education system instituting evaluations of teachers at public schools and enacting an open competition among university graduates to fill teaching positions Experts hailed the reform as a major step toward transparency while cautioning that it had been watered down in response to violent protests chased legislators from Congress buildings and at one point blocked off access to Mexico City's international airport in an effort to stop the overhaul from reaching the president's desk Despite Gordillo's arrest and the legislative overhaul Pardinas and his team discovered 536 telesecundarias or secondary and high school programs available in rural areas via satellite that apparently operated without electricity They also found an undisclosed number of "phantom schools," which are unregistered and may very well not exist The report found that the average monthly national salary for Mexican teachers is $1,954 that the teacher with the highest salary lives in Oaxaca state and earns $46,849 a month and that there is a school in Guerrero state that has a single student enrolled but keeps six employees on its payroll whose salaries add up to $6,644 per month "There is a collision between a legacy of opacity a will toward transparency and disorganized accounting and accountability," said Pardinas told local reporters that as soon as the study was released the Education Ministry began modifying its data though she said IMCO would put the original documents on its web page where most of the century-old teachers were listed deputy secretary of the Education Ministry But Congress seemed more convinced about the validity of the report a group of senators requested an investigation into the study as well as the supposed modification of data They also requested that should the inquiry reveal wrongdoing the responsible parties should be sanctioned has been working on an analysis of the same databases as IMCO He says he has found troubling data manipulations he said Tamaulipas state reported to federal authorities that it has five commissioners or teachers that are allowed to perform a different activity temporarily while still receiving their teaching salary that there were at least 1,200 commissioners "Misuse of public education funds is not corrected because it is the authorities themselves who are violating the law Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground Newsletters in your inbox See all A unique Mayan theater has been unearthed in Mexico according to researchers from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) Found at the archaeological site of Plan de Ayutla the 1,200-year-old theater did not seem to be a place for art and culture but was rather used by Mayan elite to legitimize their power and subjugate local minority groups ANALYSIS: Mayan Calendar Discovery Confirms 2012 'End Date' The stage lay within a palace complex," Luis Alberto Martos López the theater was enclosed by buildings dating to 250-550 B.C A 26-foot-long façade of one of these buildings was torn down around 850 A.D to create the forum and make it work as an acoustic shell the unusual architecture makes the theater stand out "It's different from all the other theaters that have already been studied These theaters were usually located in plazas and were built to entertain the crowds," Martos López said Get the world’s most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox the newly unearthed theater seated 120 people at the most NEWS: Ancient Maya Buried Relatives, Artifacts Under Homes ocarinas and sculptures depicting Mayan deities They most likely decorated the frieze below the building The scene probably represented the brutal ceremony of humiliation of prisoners subjugation was the running theme at the theater a "multepal" or shared governance ruled in Plan de Ayutla and used political plays at the theater to impose their ideologies on local minority groups WIDE ANGLE: Will the World End in 2012? The theater might have also housed some sort of political rallies "We found that a temple northeast of the stage was dismantled to leave space to a small podium for an orator," Martos López said This story was provided by Discovery News Ancient Egyptians drew the Milky Way on coffins and tombs Bone collector caterpillar: The very hungry caterpillar of your nightmares Armed vigilante groups policing 2 Mexican townsAPACAPULCO Mexico (AP) — Several hundred civilians have taken up arms in two towns in a southwestern Mexico state and are arresting people suspected of crimes and imposing a curfew leading authorities to promise to reinforce security forces in the area People wearing ski masks or bandanas and carrying small arms this week began manning checkpoints on roads into the municipalities of Ayutla de los Libres and Teconoapa in Guerrero state's Costa Chica area about 75 miles southeast of the Pacific resort of Acapulco Leaders said they were acting against crime and insecurity Angel Aguirre Rivero responded Friday by announcing that security in the region would be bolstered by sending in Mexican soldiers and marines and federal and state police officers People in the area said about 800 residents were participating in the armed groups acting as unofficial police curfew for the two towns and are looking for suspected criminals one of the coordinators for the civic group Union of Peoples and Social Organizations of Guerrero said that more than 30 people had been arrested The detainees are accused of drug trafficking A man in a ski mask at one roadblock told reporters that townspeople had to act against criminals "We want to return peace and tranquility to the entire population (ANS - San Pedro and San Pablo Ayutla) - Yesterday the celebration of the episcopal ordination of Fr Salvador Cleofás Murguía Villalobos It was last June 13th when L'Osservatore Romano published the news that Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Msgr Episcopal ordination is a Church event and also an encounter with the people and with the faithful for whom a bishop is ordained Murguía Villalobos entered the site of the celebration accompanied by Msgr indicating their affection for the new pastor The first words of welcome were those pronounced by the mayor "the population of San Pedro and San Pablo Ayutla Mixe gives you the most cordial welcome priests and Salesians - including the Councilor for Social Communication Regional Councilor for Interamerica - the ordination ceremony took place: the main consecrator of Fr Murguía Villalobos was Cardinal Alberto Suárez Inda and the principal co-consecrators were Msgr Murguía Villalobos has therefore become the pastor of a prelature located in a poor and mountainous area consisting of 19 municipalities and 274 communities and a population of about 200,000: Mixes (70%) in addition to mestizos (2%) and Mixtecs (1%) It is a region located in the northern highlands of Oaxaca with communities still isolated but a people proud of their customs and traditions "We hope that you may live among us as a Christian father and friend of all," were the words of welcome from the Temple Committee "You already know that you have come to a vast and little known area .. But we shall by your side in bringing the Word of God." ANS - “Agenzia iNfo Salesiana” is a on-line almost daily publication the communication agency of the Salesian Congregation enrolled in the Press Register of the Tibunal of Rome as n 153/2007 This site also uses third-party cookies to improve user experience and for statistical purposes By scrolling through this page or by clicking on any of its elements An ancient Mayan kingdom has been found in someone’s backyard It’s taken a quarter of a century but evidence of Sak Tz’i’ was recently unearthed following nearly 2 years of excavations Sak Tz’i’ (or “White Dog”) was referred to via Mayan inscriptions bioarchaeologist Andrew Scherer from Brown University and others have been exploring property owned by a Mexican cattle rancher Many archaeologists consider the modern day site of Plan de Ayutla as a very strong candidate for the ancient Mayan kingdom site of Sak Tz’i’ IFL Science notes “A preliminary count of structures… yields 120 structures and 56 carved monuments though there are likely many more that have been looted and currently unknowingly reside in public and private collections.” It’s believed this site used to be the kingdom’s capital The extraordinary finds of the ancient Mayan kingdom include what’s left of a royal palace and also ruined pyramids – for example a 45 ft pyramid is said to have dominated the city’s northeastern side A courtyard covering 1.5 acres called the ‘Plaza Muk’ul Ton’ (‘Monuments Plaza’) was a ceremonial center There’s even evidence of a ball court where bouncing back and forth across a narrow playing field using their hips and shoulders.” The modern Mexican ranch is bigger than a typical backyard but the fact it hosts the remains of a royal center is astonishing enough Golden’s team to the ranch in the first place That’s possibly the most eye-opening part of the story They owe it all to graduate student Whittaker Schroder and his trip to the state of Chiapas If he hadn’t decided to stop at the roadside for carnitas he wouldn’t have met a friend of the rancher The unnamed cattle wrangler had in his possession an ancient tablet This artifact bore the images of a water serpent and also Yopaat a dancing rain god amongst other amazing details Schroder was in the area visiting digs and looking for some dissertation-based inspiration “Because all previously known references to the kingdom came from looted monuments or texts found at other Maya centers the location of the Sak Tz’i’ kingdom’s capital has been the subject of ongoing modeling and debate among scholars” writes Prof Golden and colleagues in the Journal of Field Archaeology They must have been surprised to find a student stumbling across it in the search for sustenance and that was before they set spade to soil It took half a decade for permissions to be granted so the team could commence work cultural patrimony like ancient Maya sites are considered the property of the state,” Futurity writes “so the rancher worried that the government might confiscate his land Golden and Scherer worked with him and government officials to make sure that this wouldn’t happen.” who were liable to take a tumble into the holes Not to mention all those hoof marks and piles of dung Golden and co are keen to point out that “breakthrough discoveries often come as the result of collaborations with local communities and other stakeholders.” Having the locals on side was vital “Their involvement is central to our research and conservation efforts and their contributions are too often unrecognized in the public media.” Related Article: Enormous Mayan Palace in Great Shape Discovered Deep in the Jungle the find shows how Sak Tz’i’ coped with hostile elements It was a kingdom but not exactly the biggest in the land That less formidable position meant it needed masonry walls on one side and a stream with steep walls on the other to repel undesirables The archaeologists are turning to the LIDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) mapping system for the next stage in their research This will train lasers on the site in a bid to delve deeper below the surface It’s hoped light beams will throw even more light on the precious Mayan discovery Sites he contributes to include The Vintage News His short fiction has been published as part of the Iris Wildthyme range from Obverse Books linkedin.com/in/steve-palace-91399144/?originalSubdomain=uk Join 1000s of subscribers and receive the best Vintage News in your mailbox for FREE