La Proepa impartió a los municipios ribereños, el curso “Fundamentos y alcances legales de la autoridad municipal en materia de inspección y vigilancia de descargas de aguas residuales”. En la foto una pareja disfruta de un atardecer en el malecón de Chapala. Foto: D. Arturo Ortega.
Redacción.- Con el fin de apoyar los gobiernos locales dentro del Área de Intervención Prioritaria del Río Santiago (Aip), la Procuraduría Estatal de Protección al Ambiente (Proepa) impartió un curso de capacitación sobre la descarga de agua residuales y así dar continuidad a la estrategia Revivamos el Río Santiago.
La capacitación incluyó información sobre legislación federal y estatal, en la cual se señalan atribuciones de la autoridad municipal en materia de aguas residuales, así como Normas Oficiales Mexicanas que establecen límites máximos permisibles de contaminantes para las descargas que se vierten tanto a cuerpos receptores y bienes nacionales, como a redes de alcantarillado urbano o municipal.
El curso busca fortalecer las capacidades técnicas y legales de las autoridades municipales para que el personal técnico y operativo de las áreas y direcciones involucradas en este rubro, conforme a los conocimientos adquiridos, desarrollen habilidades y herramientas que mejoren sus funciones de inspección y vigilancia, llevando a cabo como parte del curso una evaluación diagnóstica previa y una más al final del curso a las y los participantes.
El curso “Fundamentos y alcances legales de la autoridad municipal en materia de inspección y vigilancia de descargas de aguas residuales” estuvo dirigido a autoridades municipales de los ayuntamientos involucrados, así como a municipios que integran la Asociación Intermunicipal para la Protección del Medio Ambiente y Desarrollo Sustentable del Lago de Chapala (Aipromades) y el Instituto de Planeación y Gestión del Desarrollo del Área Metropolitana de Ocotlán (Imeplan).
Al Centro Cultural Metropolitano Ramón Vargas del Ayuntamiento de Poncitlán, asistieron las y los titulares, así como personal adscrito de las Direcciones de Ecología; de Inspección y Reglamentos; Agua Potable y Alcantarillado; Padrón y Licencias, así como los directores de Aipromades, Gabriel Vázquez Sánchez y Luis Arturo Macías García de Imeplan Ocotlán, entre otros.
Alex at Italia. Photo: Jazmin Stengel.
Patrick O’Heffernan and Jazmin Stengel.- Alex Sgroi was seven years old in Switzerland when Hitler invaded Poland and still remembers the sound of the German planes flying overhead; the war did not touch him directly, but he lost friends in the war and he lost contact with many people he knew. As a result, he still carries the need to help with him, which is why when Russia invaded Ukraine, he knew he had to do something.
“I wanted not only to raise money to help the refugees, but to raise awareness of the suffering that the invasion was causing. I saw the atrocities that are happening in Ukraine today as no different than the atrocities of WW2. So I decided to raise money and awareness,” Alex told Semanario in an interview at his new restaurant, Italia.
The plan was simple; ask people to buy a takeout lasagna for $500 pesos and have them pick them up during a week set aside for the fund raising. Before starting, however, he consulted friends with relatives in Ukraine, and local nonprofits and his contacts from being in Rotary and Masons, and their advice helped.
“It was very successful. We raised more than we planned and have already sent the money to the Canadian Red Cross. I chose the Canadian Red Cross because the Canadian government was matching donations until they reached $130millinon CN. Our donation was too late for the match, but it still helped,”, Alex said.
Having spent almost all of his adult life in the restaurant industry, including managing restaurants for major hotel chains in Europe, Alex knows exactly how to most efficiently produce the dinners. He started a few weeks before the designated donation week and he and his staff cooked the lasagnas, packaged them for takeout, and froze them as part of their regular routine. They defrosted them during the donation week and were able to deliver delicious fresh lasagna to donors who arrive at his new location, Italia, in Ajijic.
“This is what I knew how to do,” Alex told Laguna as we gathered around one of the Formica tables in Italia, “Because of my age I could not volunteer to fight – I would be more of a problem than a solution, but this I could do,” He added that if there is a need for restaurant management or cooking, he would volunteer.
The people who bought the dinners were mostly Canadians, he said, followed by Americans and a few Mexicans. He said he has both Expats and Mexicans customers, but because they eat dinner at different times, they rarely are at the restaurant at the same time. But since the campaign was mostly for takeout, it did not matter. What was important was that they donated and they knew of the fight in Ukraine and the suffering of the refugees.
Durante la madrugada del jueves 7 de abril, el Congreso de Jalisco aprobó tres iniciativas en pro de la diversidad sexual. Foto: Twitter.
Redacción.- Bajo las consignas de “Ya es hora Jalisco”, “Nada que Curar” y “Jalisco de Iguales”, el Congreso del Estado reconoció el matrimonio entre personas del mismo sexo, la identidad de género y sancionar las terapias de conversión.
En una maratónica sesión del Pleno que se extendió hasta la madrugada del 7 de abril, los diputados locales legislaron en favor de la lucha por el reconocimiento de los derechos de la comunidad LGTBTTIQ+.
Con 26 votos a favor, ocho en contra y tres abstenciones, se aprobó la modificación al Código Civil de Jalisco para que el matrimonio sea igualitario, es decir, entre personas independientemente de su identidad de género y no entre un hombre y una mujer como se tenía establecido.
Otra de las iniciativas votadas, fue la prohibición de los Esfuerzos para Corregir la Orientación Sexual y la Identidad de Género (ECOSIG) también conocidas como terapias de conversión.
Esta modificación fue aprobada con 32 votos a favor, cinco en contra y cero abstenciones, en la que se reformará el Código Penal de Jalisco para que quienes promuevan, apliquen o financien terapias de conversión sean multadas desde 50 a 300 veces del valor diario de la unidad de medida y actualización (actualmente de cuatro mil 811 a 28 mil 866 pesos), o con 30 a 100 jornadas de trabajo a favor de la comunidad.
La tercera reforma aprobada por los legisladores fue la iniciativa para reconocer la prerrogativa que tienen las personas transexuales a la identidad de género, misma que recibió 26 votos a favor, diez en contra y cero abstenciones.
Las tres iniciativas fueron sometidas a aprobación durante la 38 sesión extraordinaria del Congreso local que comenzó alrededor de las 23:00 horas y concluyó al filo de las 02:00 horas de la madrugada, bajo el método de votación por cédula, es decir, con voto secreto mediante papeletas.
A las afueras del recinto, colectivos de la diversidad sexual celebraron la aprobación de las reformas legislativas como un hecho histórico para el reconocimiento de los derechos humanos y la promoción de un “Jalisco de Iguales”.
Pro Mexico Civil Association of San Juan Cosalá with products for sale at a previous fundraising event. Credit: Courtesy of Pro México Civil Association of San Juan Cosalá
Alma Serrano (San Juan Cosalá).– Next Friday, April 29th, the Pro México Civil Association of San Juan Cosalá will hold a charity event to raise funds for its training and workshops. The event starts at 4:30 pm and will be held at the Racquet Club’s Club House, located at Raúl Ramírez #37. The event includes a Mexican dinner, snacks, drinks and music, as well as a historical talk about San Juan Cosalá given by Gabriel Chávez Rameño.
Tickets are $400.00 per person. For more information contact: María Blanco, Coordinator of Community Development at 33-3590-6442.
Translated by Amy Esperanto
The beneficiaries will have to continue going to the Family Medicine Clinic 3 in Guadalajara for their consultations and medicines, while ISSST locates a place where the City Council can provide for medical care.
Editor. – After almost two years without medical attention in Chapala, the beneficiaries of the Instituto de Seguridad y Servicios Sociales de los Trabajadores (ISSSTE), Jalisco Delegation, now have a doctor in Chapala; however, there is still no office to provide medical attention.
That is why the Secretary General of Section 16 of the National Union of Education Workers (SNTE), Elpidio Yáñez Rubio, sought out the Mayor of Chapala, Alejandro de Jesús Aguirre Curiel, to request a space for medical attention.
The meeting took place on March 3 and was positive, since City Hall agreed to look for a space out of three options available. In he next few days the options will be evaluated by the municipal authorities to reestablish the medical services for the ISSSTE’s beneficiaries.
After 21 years in which César Flavio Ibarra Soltero provided this service to the beneficiaries of Chapala and surrounding municipalities, Elpidio Yáñez acknowledged the lack of a hospital to provide this care and promised to conduct a census of beneficiaries and based on this, determine whether the construction of a clinic is feasible.
Medical attention for ISSSTE affiliates has not been provided since July 2020 and, for the time being, beneficiaries go to the Family Medicine Clinic 3 in Guadalajara for their consultations and medicines.
Translated by Patrick O’Heffernan
Enrique Alfaro Ramírez durante su última visita a la Ribera de Chapala. Foto: Sofía Medeles.
Sofía Medeles.- El gobernador de Jalisco, Enrique Alfaro Ramírez anunció que faltan solo cuatro meses para que se culminen los trabajos en el Auditorio de la Ribera, ubicado en la delegación de Ajijic, durante su última gira por la Ribera de Chapala, el 25 de marzo.
En total, la tres etapas de la remodelación del recinto, junto a la construcción de los edificios, tuvo una inversión aproximada de 70 millones de pesos, y fue parte del proyecto llamado «Cultura Cardinal» que pretende descentralizar la cultura de Jalisco con clases de diferentes disciplinas, oficinas de la Secretaría de Cultura, y presentaciones culturales en el auditorio.
Por otro lado, el equipamiento mobiliario del auditorio, no se encuentra dentro de los 70 millones de pesos, según lo que comentó Alfaro Ramírez, quien también agregó que ya se encuentran buscando maneras de financiarlo.
Dogs in the West Ajijic shelter. Photo: Archive
Editor. A group of 20 Mexican and Expat homeowners and representatives of several Homeowners Associations in West Ajijic have filed a lawsuit against the SOS Chapala Dog Rescue organization, the Chapala government, and the Jalisco State Employees Pension Fund over the dog shelter established by the previous municipal administration near homes. The shelter is operated by SOS under an agreement and occupies land transferred from the municipal government to the state Pension fund by the Móises Anaya Administration.
In a copy of the lawsuit obtained by Laguna, the plaintiffs charge that the dog shelter was illegally established by the Anaya Administration on land zoned for housing only, and that the agreement between the Anaya Administration SOS Chapala Dog Rescue was invalid. The suite requests that the court order administrative action be taken to move the shelter to a site zoned for the correct use.
Because the site of the shelter belongs to the Jalisco State Pension Fund, which is “the one that legally has the power of deed on that land”, the Chapala Department of Ecology is acting as a mediator of all parties involved and seeks to ensure that everyone has a favorable response to this situation.
The Chapala government issued a statement saying that “ the Municipal Government has been in constant communication and dialogue to generate agreements, one of them is that the people in charge of the association (SOS) have agreed to change the location of the shelter.
SOS representatives contacted by Laguna said there was no formal agreement, but they have agreed to move if a suitable site is located and meets the necessary criteria. They told Laguna in a message that while negotiations are ongoing , to date “ the Department of Ecology has suggested a new site and SOS has suggested a new site, but no one knows if either of these places is willing to provide a lease and no one knows what the rent would be.”
The shelter has been contentious since it was established by the former Director of Ecology, José Jaime Ibáñez on land originally donated to Chapala for a cemetery but was unusable for that purpose. Several years later, Jaime Ibáñez decided to use it for a shelter for stray dogs and other animals in the area in response to legislation passed by the Chapala Council. But, since the land had been given to the state Pension Fund in repayments for debts, leases or permits issued by Jaime Ibáñez’s staff were not valid.
Additionally, no discussion was held with nearby homeowners by Jaime Ibáñez or his staff and he told Laguna on October 20, 2020, that “We did not meet with the homeowners in advance because we saw that the developments were not close to the site and we did not anticipate any problems (and) we were surprised by the opposition”.
The homeowners immediately registered their opposition to the shelter built without their knowledge and the 24-hour a day barking of the sheltered dogs which upset their lives and lowered property values . The shelter affected the residents of nearby developments of Puerta Arroyo, Sierra Viva, Los Sabinos, Villas Colorado, and Los Alebrijes and La Canacinta.
The residents of those developments – about 200 households, half of which are estimated to be Mexican by the HOA officials — submitted a petition to 7 government agencies in 2021 to solve the noise problem and subsequently met with Jaime on July 28, 2021, to find a new location. Several sites were located but were rejected for various reasons by Jaime Ibáñez, despite his promises to resolve the problem.
Just before the end of the Anaya Administration, Jaime Ibáñez staff forged an agreement with SOS Dog Rescue to manage the shelter, although the Administration knew it was not on land controlled by the municipalidad, handing the problem to the state and SOS to deal with the impacted homeowners.
SOS Chapala Dog Rescue expanded the shelter and improved conditions for the dogs so that it is now one of the best run shelters in North America, according to inspections by other shelter operators. But the expansion created more noise for the homeowners, and negotiations have continued. SOS installed mitigation measures like dog feeding schedule changes and soundproofing, but these actions did not mitigate the noise of the dogs, and measurements by homeowner representatives found the barking exceeded 80 decibels – the legal maximum in Chapala.
SOS has resisted moving the shelter unless the move is paid for, the new site meets its conditions, and an orderly transition can take place to care for the dogs. The homeowners agree that the welfare of the dogs is paramount, but question why they should pay for a problem created by the municipality and now owned by the State. However they are willing to raise funds to rent a suitable site for three years — a continuation of an offer they made in 2021 to the Anya Administration to no avail. Faced with inaction and what they see as a record of broken promises the owners have filed suit.
Las 246 sillas nuevas y listas para instalarse fueron recibidas la semana pasada por la escuela J. Vicente Negrete. Foto: Cortesía.
Héctor Ruiz Mejía.- La Secretaría de Educación Jalisco (SEJ) en coordinación con las autoridades municipales, entregó la semana pasada mobiliario para dos escuelas de educación básica de Jocotepec.
Tras 20 años en el olvido, las autoridades educativas se acordaron de las primarias J. Vicente Negrete, de El Molino y la Francisco Villa, de la Loma, al entregarles 711 mil 978.56 pesos en equipamiento escolar.
La escuela Francisco Villa recibió 246 sillas hechas de herrería con plástico y 126 mesas binarias para los estudiantes, con un costo de 362 mil 743.60 pesos.
En el caso de la J. Vicente Negrete, dicho equipamiento constó también de 246 sillas y 126 mesas, más 12 sillas específicamente para el personal docente con un valor que ascendió a los 349 mil 234.96 pesos.
“La Secretaría de Educación dotó de todo el mobiliario completo para la primaria en colaboración con el personal del municipio para hacerlo llegar en tiempo y forma”, informó la maestra Ana María Cano Espinoza, directora de educación del municipio.
Al respecto, Mayra Berenice García Ramírez, directora de la escuela J. Vicente Negrete, agradeció el apoyo y el “por fin ser escuchados”, pues explicó que el equipo con el que contaban tenía ya más de 20 años sin ser renovado.
“Los niños están emocionados de estrenar, se siente ya diferente y pues ya teníamos más de 20 años con las mismas mesas y sillas, además ya eran un poco incómodas”.
También, la SSJ aportó 160 metros de cableado para la primaria de El Molino debido a que en septiembre de 2021 sufrió varios robos que la dejaron sin circuito eléctrico.
By Patrick O’Heffernan
By now, you have probably heard of Paola Schietekat Sedas, a Mexican citizen working for the World Cup Organizing Committee in Qatar. If you haven’t heard about her, it is an appalling story with a warning for the soccer loving world, especially Mexicans.
Schietekat Sedas had to be spirited out of Qatar on June 25 last year after being raped by one if her fellow World Cup staffers, a Columbian. She reported the rape to the police the next day, accompanied by the Mexican Consul. When asked by the police if she wanted to press charges, on the advice of the Counsel, she said yes. That’s where things got appalling.
She went from victim to criminal, charged with the crime of sex outside of marriage. The police demanded she take a virginity test (after being raped???) and demanded to search her phone for romantic messages with the rapist or anyone else. She was arrested and charged with extramarital relations, a crime punishable by 100 lashes and 7 years in prison.
She was released pending trial, and the World Cup Organizing Committee snuck her out of the country. The Mexican Foreign Ministry will defend her at trial in absentia, but, needless to say, she’s not coming back to her job. She also noted that the Mexican Embassy in Qatar had no Arab speakers and no knowledge of Qatari law and could not be helpful.
The incident is a warning to anyone, especially Mexicans, who plan to attend the World Cup. If you were thinking of spending an exciting week sharing a hotel room with your girlfriend or boyfriend seeing the Cup live, forget it – 100 lashes and 7 years in prison. If you are gay, 3 years in jail. No kissing, drinking, dancing, hugging, or shorts in public.
How did a country that treats women like a cross between livestock and sex slaves, that jails gay people, that brutally whips girls who are raped, get the world Cup in the First Place? According to the US Justice Department, they did it with massive bribes to FIFA officials.
After years of investigations into corruption, abuse of migrant workers and women and other human rights crimes, on April 6, 2020, the Justice Department indicted three media executives and a sports marketing company for bribing FIFA officials. How much money are we talking about? A cool $400 million was offered to FIFA for “broadcasting rights” 21 days before FIFA announced that Qatar will hold the 2022 World Cup.
So here we are, 7 months from the Cup; a Mexican woman is on trial for the crime of being raped and threatened with a brutal, potentially fatal beating and 7 years in jail, and a Mexican Embassy unequpped to deal with local authorities and whose advice got her indicted.
The Mexican government needs to shape up and step in.
The President should issue a warning to its citizens not to attend the World Cup, especially if they are single, gay, or a male looking for a good time (no prostitutes and booze only in your hotel or a restricted fan area) or a married or single woman who can be raped with impunity and beaten and jailed for reporting it. Other Latin countries should issue the same warning. Defending Schietekat Sedas in the Qatar kangaroo court is a good first step, but México needs to train the Embassy staff in Qatar to protect its citizens from a vicious 12th century government.
Westerners attending the World Cup will be abused by the Qatar government; it is their law and their culture. Unwitting gays, cohabiting couples, and errant beer drinkers will be caught and punished, some violently. It is inevitable, given Schietekat Sedas’s treatment. The Mexican government needs to honor Schietekat Sedas by telling its citizens and those of other Latin countries don’t attend the World Cup. It’s on TV here with beer, tequila and your significant other.
Con la manifestación buscará mostrar rechazo a la guerra y a la invasión rusa. Foto: Shutterstock.
Redacción.- Para mostrar repudio a la invasión rusa a Ucrania, se convocó a una manifestación pacífica el miércoles 09 de marzo en Ajijic.
La concentración se realizará a las 04:30 de la tarde en la carretera Chapala-Jocotepec, a la altura del semáforo del fraccionamiento de La Floresta, al oriente de la delegación.
Se sugiere a los asistentes portar los colores azul y amarilloalusivos, a la bandera ucraniana, o blanco como símbolo de paz.
© 2016. Todos los derechos reservados. Semanario de la Ribera de Chapala