Carlos Miguel Real Navarro, new municipal director of the Human Rights Commission in Chapala.
Jazmín Stengel (Chapala).- The new municipal director of the Human Rights Commission (CDH) in Chapala, Carlos Miguel Real Navarro, expressed concern that «the culture of respect is being lost,» in an exclusive interview with Semanario Laguna.
Since his appointment, which took place on May 26, the lawyer with a master’s degree in Constitutional Law and Amparo ( people’s right to have access to the courts) has observed countless violations of the human rights of the inhabitants of Chapala and its delegations.
Real Navarro believes that education is the basis of everything, and that respect and self-respect must be recognized in order not to harm or cause harm to our human rights. That is why the 29-year-old will focus on education while addressing the present problems.
Among the faults he can point out are complaints about Public Safety, mostly issued during the 2018-2021 administration, where abuses of power and conflicts between hierarchies within the same department were mentioned, as well as from municipal and state officials towards the community. The lack of response to reports of serious crimes and lack of agility in the search for missing persons are other examples.
That is why Real Navarro wishes to use his knowledge to defend his people. «I am a citizen more than anything else. I like to help and solve people’s problems,» said the official.
Real Navarro has started to manage the first support required by the National Institute for Adult Education (INEA) and the Colegio de Bachilleres del Estado de Jalisco (Cobaej) so that citizens who no longer have access to the primary school system can acquire literacy skills, complete secondary or preparatory education as well as receive workforce training.
He noticed that minors stop attending school at an early age, so Real Navarro will join the prevention programs managed by the Women’s Institute, Ciudad Niñez (Childhood Legal Services) and the Dif de Chapala (Social Assistance Program). One such program is the Barrios de Paz (Neighborhoods of Peace) program which includes ways to reinforce and strengthen the institutional capacities of the municipality.
The newly appointed director is aware of the legal situations of the 39 boys and girls of the municipality who are in foster homes. Some of the minors removed from their families between 2018 and 2021 had inconsistencies in the legal process.
In certain cases, the minors were attending school and were being cared for by their grandparents or close relatives. The government decided to remove them without an investigation. The legal process began after they were already in shelters, said Real Navarro. This is a clear violation of the minors’ human rights by the municipal and state authorities at the time.
Real Navarro promised to make sure that the authorities respect their work as public servants. When a public servant receives complaints that show that he does not perform his duties or ignores those duties the municipal General Secretary and Mayor Alejandro de Jesús Aguirre Curiel can remove the person from his position as a municipal official.
Real Navarro is a native of Chapala. He has dedicated his life to defending the rights of the people as an activist from his private office, in the companies he has worked for, and now as a public official. In addition, he hopes to be named president of the ECOFAM (Esfuerzo y Comisión por las Familias) association this year.
Translated by Nita Rudy
Jocotepec.- Residents of the village of Potrerillos took to the streets to clean them up and give a better urban image to their town. The cleaning was carried out on May 31 with the participation of the people who make up the committee and the direction of Citizen Participation.
Potrerillos is a small rural community in the municipality of Jocotepec, located in the mountains above San Juan Cosalá.
Text and photo: Héctor Ruiz Mejía.
San Juan Cosalá.- The invitation to the Arts Workshop given by the teacher and artist Isidro Xilonzochilt «Xilotl,» at the «Voz al Viento» Cultural Center in San Juan Cosalá, ended with a full house.
The painting and linocut workshops are held on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 5:00 to 6:30 in the afternoon, for children 11 years and older, and have three different levels according to age.
Call to find out about upcoming courses: 331-013-3995.
Text and photo: Alma Serrano.
Translated by Rebecca Zittle
Chapala.- After the final whistle, soccer fans lit fireworks and went out in caravans of cars to parade with flags in hand, one flag waving over the fountain at the main crossroads in the municipal capital of Chapala, Francisco I. Madero Avenue.
The grand final match was screened on the night of Sunday, May 29, free of charge in the parking lot of the Acapulquito restaurant area, located to the east of the municipal capital, with approximately 100 people attending.
Club Atlas FC of Guadalajara won the Liga MX final with a 3-2 aggregate score against Pachuca. It was the third star for the Club and the second National Championship.
Text and photo: Jazmín Stengel.
Translated by Rebecca Zittle
Merchants and public officials during the project presentation May 31.
Jazmín Stengel (Chapala). After some electrical fires in boardwalk commercial stalls, the City Council is looking to put the electrical lines underground. Additionally, they will reorganize the registration and permits of the stallholders.
The coordinator of Economic Development in Chapala, María de la Luz Mendoza Huerta, the director of Regulations, Sergio Armando Real Serrano, and the chief of staff, Joaquín Huerta Barrios, presented a document based on safety reports from the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) and the Municipal Fire Department and Civil Protection.
Without legal representatives or CFE engineers present to explain the technical reasons, María de la Luz Mendoza only showed a couple of photographs as evidence of the report sent by the federal agency to the municipality after the fire on May 6, caused by an electrical overload in one of the commercial premises.
The safety report issued by the CFE urged the municipality to fix the electrical installation within a week, or the service would be cut off. The Municipality negotiated to have more time to carry out the work and to establish a dialogue with the merchants in the area.
The CFE’s recommendation dictates that the wiring of the electrical installations must be hidden and compliant. The Government of Chapala proposed that the merchants and the CFE-approved electrical engineers coordinate the work; the authorized engineer will evaluate the situation and the materials necessary to reinstall the upgraded electrical system and advise the merchants.
It is expected that the installation of the new power lines will be underground. Although the budget for the work has not been disclosed, the material will be paid for by the tenants, while City Hall will provide the labor from the Public Works Department.
The merchants asked for the area to be kept under surveillance since there have been robberies, even «they have stolen the cables from my shop», said one merchant present. In response, the reactivation of the small security booth located on the Chapala boardwalk was added to the proposals.
A letter of commitment will also be signed with the person in charge of the meter centers to avoid theft of electricity among neighbors. Many of the current connections are clandestine.
The director of Regulations, Sergio Real, said that while collecting electrical installation documents from the tenants, he will also update the merchant registration lists.
The goal is for all the merchants to have current permits, although the official did not specify exactly when. It is estimated that more than 300 vendors use the commercial area. The first registry from 2006 has only 132 merchants, plus a large number of street vendors, and more than 100 were granted permits during the 2018-2021 administration, many others work clandestinely.
Translated by Paul Weeks
Police seized a weapon from one of those arrested.
Editorial staff.- In separate incidents, two individuals were detained in Tizapán el Alto when they tried to evade police officers of the State Security Secretariat, who had approached them for a search. Drugs and a firearm were found on one of the suspects.
In the first incident, the state police officers driving along the intersection of Jalisco and Puebla Streets, in the Rinconada de Santa Anita neighborhood, noticed a man riding a motorcycle without a license plate and without a reflective vest or helmet. The suspect accelerated when he caught sight of the police officers.
The uniformed officers stopped the motorcyclist, identified as Santiago «N,» aged 36. After applying the security protocols, the officers found among the suspect’s belongings 11 small packages with granulated material resembling crystal meth, weighing 1.6 grams. The man also had a .357-caliber revolver with six live cartridges strapped to his waist.
The suspect in the second case, René «N,» aged 37, was apprehended at the intersection of Zaragoza Street and Guadalajara-Morelia Highway, in the Villa Emiliano Zapata neighborhood, in the same municipality.
The police officers were passing the location when they saw the man riding a motorcycle, also without license plates, so they asked him to stop to question him securely. Their search revealed 16 plastic bags with crystal meth, weighing 2.3 grams.
Translated by Mags Petela
The demonstrators blocking the road wore white t-shirts, and carried placards asking for the location of a man from the town.
In response to the forced disappearance of the Tuxcueca man, family, friends and neighbors took to the highway on the morning of May 29 to block the road to Mazamitla and Tizapán. The road is usually very busy on Sundays with tourist traffic so the blockade generated a long line of traffic. It was removed at noon.
The demonstrators wore white t-shirts and carried placards asking for the location of a man from the town who was taken by force by armed people while in San Luis Soyatlán, the second kidnapping in San Luis Soyatlán on that day.
Translated by Amy Esperanto
Enrique Cerda, doctor at the Health Center in San Juan Cosalá. Photo: Alma Serrano.
Alma Serrano (San Juan Cosalá).- For more than a year, the collective immunity of the population, together with preventive measures, have resulted in the absence of a single case of dengue infection, according to Enrique Cerda, physician at the San Juan Cosalá Health Center.
Preventive actions such as the cleaning of garbage dumps and water chlorination have significantly reduced the incidence of dengue cases in the last two years, which led Dr. Enrique Cerda to conclude that immunity in combination with preventive measures has prevented contagions since May 2021.
«These are positive and expected results,» stated the doctor. “In addition, the simplicity of the treatment in mild cases represents a viable option for people who self-medicate, since paracetamol and coconut water have been proven to reduce symptoms (some experts dispute this pointing out that coconut water has no curative properties but does increase needed hydration). We also need to take into account that dengue can be asymptomatic.»
There have been no cases this year, although this is not unusual during the dry season. In 2019 more than 300 cases of dengue were reported, of which 25 to 50 cases needed medical care due to their severity. As of May 2021, approximately 50 cases had been reported, all mild.
Cerda concluded by saying that there is a digital application called «Sin Dengue» (“Dengue-Free”) in which the user answers some questions and makes a home diagnosis, according to the symptoms of the disease.
Translated by Sandy Britton
Geolocation devices on display
Jazmín Stengel (Chapala).- While waiting for the implementation of a full ALE program of security devices and cameras, the municipality is distributing 10 geolocation devices in the form of necklaces bracelets that women can use to summon help.The ALE Strategy which Chapala intends to implement locally is theJalisco state program to provide women who have been victims of recurring domestic violence with signaling devices and security cameras that can summon police to their location if they are attacked.
The Women’s Institute obtained more than half a million pesos for the purchase of the ten geolocation devices and two electronic tablets that will serve as monitors, to obtain the immediate location of victims under protection of gender or domestic violence.
The interim geolocation devices will be given to victims of high or recurrent levels of violence. When wearing the geolocator, a victim of gender or intra-family violence will only have to press the device to activate its location on an Institute monitor and alert the nearest patrol which should respond immediately.
The Institute’s budget also includes the salary for adding a second psychologist to the Institute’s staff, a purchasing purple patrol car, which will supplement the two patrol cars and central office already existing in the municipality, and uniforms for its patrol officers.
So far, the emergency system for protected persons (those with restraining orders or a history of domestic violence) responds to 27 to 35 people per week throughout the municipality, according to the report of Public Safety in Chapala. When Public Security receives a report of an assault, they go to the scene, neutralize the situation and accompany the victim to file an official complaint with the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
In cases where the victim foresees further issues with the aggressor, regular visits are made to the victim for the next 60 days. At the end of this period, if the circumstances of the situation do not improve, the service may be renewed.
Although the Women’s Institute and Municipal Public Security will be in charge of the geolocation devices, the Regional Public Prosecutor of Chapala determines which women should receive them. The municipal trustee, Gamaliel de Jesús Soto Pérez, also can decide on the need for a device in certain circumstances, explained legal advisor Diego Muñoz.
Protection and emergency services are available in case of gender or domestic violence to women, men and the LGBTTQ+ community, since the Women’s Institute, working directly with the Jalisco Secretariat for Substantive Equality between Men and Women to protect all citizens from domestic violence.
Translated by Christalle Dalsted
Cofepris withdraws products such as Cheetos, Doritos and Oreo cookies, but does not act against illegal pesticides.
The Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risks, Cofepris, is acting effectively and quickly to remove products from stores that do not comply with labeling requirements, but has failed to remove illegal pesticides that are still being sold in self-service stores, according to Luis Eduardo Gonzalez Cepeda, president of the Mexican Union of Manufacturers and Formulators of Agrochemicals, A.C., or UMFFAAC.
The UMFFAAC president recalled that in May the public was informed about the health risk of the sale of illegal BOOM! and Max Control brand pesticides in self-service stores such as Home Depot, HEB, Soriana, ACE Hardware, Mercado Libre and Walmart. But Cofepris has taken no action to remove them from the market.
González Cepeda also said that last April 14, Cofepris announced withdrawal from supermarkets such as Soriana and Chedraui of about 80 products that do not comply with labeling requirements. Among the withdrawn products were Oreo cookies, Cheetos and Doritos. “But when dealing with substances such as illegal pesticides, Cofepris does not act with the same responsibility and effectiveness as any health authority should do,” González Cepeda said. “These are products used in the home, putting children and pets at risk.”
Cristian García de Paz, executive director of Protección de Cultivos, Ciencia y Tecnología A.C., said this serious omission by Cofepris, “Reflects the disparity of criteria with which this agency acts, since it has no problem in publicizing actions to withdraw food products that do not comply with labeling standards, but it gives no importance to such a relevant issue as the sale of illegal pesticides for home use, when they are authorized exclusively for agricultural use, that is, they are sold with registrations that are not endorsed by Cofepris itself.”
García de Paz said illegal products sold in self-service stores are also available online. “This requires firm action by Cofepris to prevent continued access to illegal pesticides and the proliferation of a business that does not respect health regulations, risking the health of consumers who, in a trusting manner, acquire these products for use in their homes,” he said.
Both directors made a respectful, but strong call to Cofepris, to remove from the market illegal pesticides sold in stores and online, given the health risk involved in their sale to consumers who unknowingly acquire products without a valid registration issued by the competent authority.
Translated by Mike Rogers
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