John Kelly and his friend Snoopy from Candian Legion Branch 182.
Patrick O’Heffernan, Ajijic. Fire departments, paramedics and civic organizations in Canada have pulled together three shipping containers of valuable and badly needed fire fighting equipment for bomberos in Mexico, including three fire trucks and dozens of protective suits for firefighters. But the equipment is mired in Mexican Customs red tape, with one container being held up for three years and even AMLO could not dislodge it.
John Kelly and Branch 182 of the Royal Canadian Legion are on the job.
“We did everything they demanded; they wanted us to list every item in the containers on their forms, then they changed forms, then they demanded a photo of each item, then detailed descriptions and then we had to redo the letterhead and then told us we took too long and had to start over again. It was crazy – unbelievable amounts of bureaucratic red tape,” Kelly told Laguna.
Even lobbying at the highest levels has not budged the shipment, which Branch 182 discovered when it was able to bring the problem to the attention of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
“One of our members was in a car with AMLO and told him about the customs problem and AMLO said he would fix it – a year and half later there is no change,” Kelly told Laguna, explaining that it is difficult for very high-level leaders to change local decisions in Mexico.
Kelly and Chapala Branch 182 are not giving up. They are starting over but working with lower level politicians who may have the experience and influence to move it. Kelly explained that it is necessary to work with people in the right place in the organization because “the top level can’t reach down to change things on the ground.”
Kelly told Laguna that a prime reason the members of the Chapala Branch 182 – and he himself – are determined to get the equipment to Mexico is that the Canadian military shares the values of the bomberos about community service and protecting people.
“The bomberos are amazing, selfless people. They run into burning houses with no air tanks and no protective suits to save people. Their values are almost identical to the values instilled in us by the Canadian military,” he said.
Kelly and his wife moved to Ajijic in 2013 as “economic refugees” from high living costs in Canada. He joined Branch 182 and volunteered and within a year he was asked to be President. Since Branch 182 actually represents Canadian vets throughout Mexico and is a well-run source of services for Canadian veterans, he was proud to take over its leadership. Since his election, Branch 182 has grown not only in membership, but in its relationships with the Mexican communities, governments and non-profit organizations in cities and towns where there are concentrations of Canadians. Here in Chapala, it is highly respected as a well-organized partner in community work.
His involvement with the bomberos and with bringing in equipment for them started with a request for Legion members to bring in fire suits in their luggage when they returned from Canada. When the director of LCS learned that a local Mexican, Alicia Gomez, had gotten 200 fire suits donated from firehouses in Canada and needed them shipped to Chapala, he called Kelly, whom he knew from John’s teaching English at the Wilks Center.
“We could not do that (ship 200 fire suits) ourselves at the Branch, so we put together a coalition of the American Legion, Rotary, Shrine, and Red Cross and the Bomberos to get these suits to Mexico. Then Firefighters without Borders in Vancouver had a firetruck to donate, so we figured out how to get that here too,” Kelly told Laguna.
The firetruck made it to Mexico in 2017, about the time when the red tape started for the shipping container with fire suits and other gear (including baseball team equipment) that Kelly and the Branch are working on now. But, in the meantime, Branch 182 is involved in many other local charities and events. Some of the most fun things they do, Kelly said with a smile, is marching in parades and entertaining the Cancer kids in Chapala, where members appear as Santa Claus and Snoopy. Kelly hasn’t worn the Snoopy suit, but he does bring it to the party and was happy to show it off.
Families picking up despensas.
Patrick O’Heffernan, Ajijic. The Lakeside community responded to Foodbank Lakeside’s cry for help. Down to enough money to buy only two weeks supply of food for hungry families, the charity put out a call for donations and soon saw their funding horizon doubled with renewed support from the Lakeside community.
“We now have food for a month. We collected enough money to feed families for a month,” said founder and director Paola de Watterlot, who added that the organization’s recent survey of donors and supporters and volunteers was very successful, showing the community’s enthusiasm and giving them ideas for how to better operate and connect with their donors.
Lakeside Food Bank spends approximately $300,000 pesos a month on despensas, buying food from local stores who give them a discount and also pack the bags of food for them. Since de Watterlot founded the organization this past April, it has distributed over 10,000 despensas to families in 6 Lakeside communities. Initially focusing on families devastated by Covid-19, FBL has expanded its mission to include vulnerable families and individuals overwhelmed by sickness, old age, unemployment, and poverty.
Full note in print edition.
Foto: Cortesía.
Patrick O’Heffernan and Domingo Flores, Ajjic. Last Friday Josué Díaz Vázquez , Director of the Executive Directorate of Planning, Land Use and Urban Management of the Secretariat Medio Ambiente y Desarrollo Territorial (SEMADET) conducted a second “Reunion de Ecologica Chapala” public consultation to hear final input from citizens on the Chapala aspects of Jalisco’s Instruments of Territorial Planning of the Chapala Region.
About 50 people attended the presentation, which boasted a panel of local officials including Director of Ecology, José Guadalupe Jaime Ibáñez , who greeted citizens as they entered the Chapala government auditorium. Josué Díaz Vázquez spoke for nearly an hour, framed by a wall-sized projected planning map of the Lake and the Chapala region, which includes the Municipalities of Chapala, Jamay, Jocotepec, Ocotlán, Poncitlán, Tizapán el Alto and Tuxcueca. Friday’s consultation focused on the municipality of Chapala.
SEMADET’s territorial planning process began a year ago to establish conservation and development areas in the mountains and shoreline surrounding Lake Chapala, as well as other regions of the state, such as the coast. Last year, the agency conducted workshops in Chapala to hear from the different interests concerned with the environment, development of land, and the area’s heritage. SEMADET also set up a page on its website where citizens could voice their opinions and make suggestions. Over 1000 entries were recorded, causing the agency to pause the process in Chapala and hold Friday’s “Reunion”, although it was not required.
“Legally, we don’t have to hold another public consultation in Chapala because we can close the process now, “ Josué Díaz Vázquez said, “but we are here to be open to the opinion of the people of Chapala”.
His office decided to revisit Chapala after local people had organized to oppose some aspects of the plan, especially those related to development of Cerro de la Cruz, the prominent hill at the entrance to the town, and the Tepalo in Ajijic. Many people in Chapala were angry that the initial plan designated the hill as an area of development, although the municipality had designated parts of it for conservation and parts of it for development.
Josué Díaz Vázquez explained that the original plan released earlier was developed last year and is now obsolete. He told the audience that in this revised plan, existing deciduous forests are shown as preservation areas because the agency does not want to lose more forests on the hill. He explained that this land cannot be developed, which upset some landowners but gratified many of the citizen organizations seeking to preserve the hill.
The territorial planning and public consultation process is required under the Urban Code for the State of Jalisco, the State Law of Ecological Balance and Protection of the Environment, as well as article 101 of the Law of the System of Citizen and Popular Participation for the Governance of the State of Jalisco. Citizens were able to participate online until October 23 at https://bit.ly/35nXyeC
Foodbank Lakeside team.
Patrick O’Heffernan , Ajijic. .- Foodbank Lakeside has only enough money to buy food for the families it feeds for two more weeks. FBL has been providing despensas to families in Lakeside devastated by Covid-19, sickness, and unemployment since April of this year, operating on donations from the Lakeside community and discounts from local food stores. But donations have fallen to a trickle and there may be no food to dispense after next week, even though there are hundreds of families who depend on it for their daily meals.
Paola de Watterlot, founder and Director of FBL, says that “many people who have donated think that families in Lakeside have returned to work and there is no more need for despensas,” she says pointing out that, “this is not true. There are still many families who need help.”
FBL serves approximately 600 families a week throughout Chapala, ranging from elderly couples to large families with many children. Each family is carefully vetted to insure they need help. Each family receives a despensa – a small one for two to four people, or a large one for 5 -10 people, each one feeding an average family for two weeks; families do not receive money. Food is bought from local vendors in each community who provide discounts to FBL.
“We know all of these families,” says de Watterlot, who was born in Guadalajara but has lived in Ajijic since she was 7 years old. “We have a Mexican member of our team who lives in each community we serve and knows the community and the families”, she adds.
De Watterlot founded FBL in April of this year to help families whose breadwinners lost their jobs when Covid-19 shut down businesses and the economy shrank. But as her team quickly learned, it was not just Covid-19 that was the problem – there were families with other medical problems or chronic unemployment that needed help, primarily the elderly, disabled, and sick. Since they opened, FBL has distributed over 10,000 dispensas to help these people.
“We help one family in Santa Cruz where one member has cancer and another has kidney failure,” said de Watterlot, as an example of the range of families they feed. They help over 200 families in Chapala, using a team of 2 American expats and three local Mexicans. The team even prepares special food for the family with kidney disease.
Food Bank Lakeside is managed by a volunteer board and 30 volunteers, both expats and Mexicans. Many of the expat volunteers help with fundraising, registering the families and purchasing. The Mexican volunteers often deliver the food despensas because they know the communities and the families, but everyone pitches in to do everything. The result is an organization which feeds 600 families at a cost of about 280,000 pesos — less than 125 pesos per person per month, a little going a very long way.
Because the need for food assistance goes beyond families devastated by Covid-19 de Watterlot wants to make the FBL a permanent fixture in Lakeside and has structured it as a registered non-profit that can provide a tax exemption to US donors. But first, she must get the organization through the next two weeks.
People can donate online or in person. Online donations can be made to the Foundation for Lakeside Charities at https://lakechapalacharities.org/donate/. Specify that your donation is for Food Bank Lakeside. Watterlot stresses that monthly donations are the best because they allow her to project income and plan better. Donors can also contact Food Bank Lakeside through their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/FoodBankLakeside/ or call at 376 765 7084 and a staff member will pick up a cash donation. Donations are tax-deductible for US citizens and FBL will provide a tax receipt for donations. And consider volunteering.
New dog pen at the West Ajijic animal shelter gives dogs more space.
Patrick O’Heffernan, Ajijic. Ecology Department Director José Jaime Ibañez tells Laguna he plans to move the offending West Ajijic animal shelter during this administration, but homeowners charge that his department is actually building a more permanent shelter at its present site. Both sides say they want to collaborate to resolve the problem.
In separate interviews, Laguna spoke with José Jaime and Vice President of the Puerto Arroyo Homeowners Association (HOA) Linda Freeman, hearing different views of movement on the issue, but saw signs of potential collaboration and a resolution.
The West Ajijic Animal Shelter was established by the Department of Ecology on land donated to the municipality. The Department supervises animal protection and control. The constant barking of the approximately 80 sheltered dogs has outraged the residents of nearby developments of Puerta Arroyo, Sierra Viva, Los Abinos, Villas Colorado, and Los Alebrijes and La Canacinta. Ecology staff did not consult with the nearby residents first.
“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”, José Jaime told Laguna, “we were surprised by the opposition”.
About 200 households in the developments, many of which are Mexican, initially submitted petitions to various agencies to solve the noise problem. They also met with Ecology Director José Jaime to find a new location, although he did not attend subsequently scheduled meetings. Faced with what they felt was a recalcitrant agency, the homeowners filed a case with the Human Rights Commission, which agreed to intervene on their behalf.
This past Wednesday lawyers from the Human Rights Commission, representatives of the homeowners, and a private attorney for the HOA’s all met to move the solution forward, but an expected written agreement did not materialize.
“We gave José Jaime Ibañez a draft agreement at an earlier meeting and he asked for a new clause indicating that we would work in collaboration with the agency, so we brought the revised agreement to Wednesday’s meeting,” said Freeman, who was at the meeting. “He didn’t sign it, claiming he did not have his glasses so he couldn’t read it,” she added, noting that the Human Rights lawyers have agreed to stay involved.
However, José Jaime told Laguna that he stood by the original agreement with the residents to find a new site for the shelter. He did not mention the written agreement but said that he had an agreement with the residents to locate a new site and move the shelter and his department was moving ahead on it. He also promised the homeowners at Wednesday’s meeting to bring the problem and potential solution to the attention of Chapala President Moisés Alejandro Anaya Aguilar to speed things up.
“We will find a new site; that is the current proposal and we will do it. We now have a possible site that we can use if we can obtain electricity from the land across the Libramiento. We are waiting for a decision now,” he said.
That is not the impression the homeowners have. Freeman visited the animal shelter on Wednesday and was shocked to find that it had been expanded. She charged that shelter manager Ana Luisa Maldonado is expanding the shelter and installing permanent buildings that will make it harder to move.
“The situation is urgent. The more they spend at the present site, the harder it will be to move it. Director José Jaime is saying one thing and doing something else,” Freeman told Laguna, complaining that “I don’t think there has been movement. I was hopeful until I saw the permanent structures they are building. It is actually getting worse and worse,” she said.
Director José Jaime pointed to the progress that continues to be made and pledged to resolve the problem during the current administration, saying his plan is to bring electric power to this Libramiento site and move the shelter there as soon as practicable.
“We have looked at 4 sites; three were not usable because they lacked water or power or were not in Chapala, but one site is possible if we can draw power from the nearby lot. We have applied for permission to bring in the power and we are now waiting for a decision,” he told Laguna, adding that the municipality is required by law to operate a humane shelter for homeless animals and they were following that law with the current shelter while they obtained the permissions needed to move it.
There are costs involved, but fundraising seems to be an area of agreement between the agency and the homeowners. Jose Jaime said that his department will pay for water and power, and if the cost of moving the electric lines exceeded his budget, he will work with the homeowners to raise the needed funds – something they have agreed is reasonable for them to do.
Moonlight & Magnolias 2020.
Patrick O’Heffernan (Ajijic). – Little Lake Theater’s Ajijic Readers Theater (ART) will open the laugh-out-loud comedy Moonlight and Magnolia this weekend, in matinees Oct. 16, 17, and 18.
Presented by special arrangement with Dramatist Play Services of New York, the play is inspired by actual events surrounding the behind-the-scenes story of Gone with the Wind as seen through the eyes of producer David O. Selznick, director Fleming and writer Ben Hecht.
The play, a live read by LLT actors, opens with the film’s producer five weeks into the shoot of Gone With Wind when he realizes that the script is awful and the director doesn’t have a clue. Over the next five frantic days the script is rewritten by a writer who has not read the book, resulting in some of the most hilarious situations in modern drama.
Tickets are available for all performances at 150 pesos at the box office. Covid protocols including social distancing will be in place.
¿Dr. Santiago Hernandez, Medical Director of the new Ribera Medical Center.
Patrick O’Heffernan, Ajijic. This past Friday the new Ribera Medical Center was inaugurated in a ceremony studded with stars of the medical establishment, including Secretary of Health Dr. Jorge Alcocer Carlos Varela, as well as local dignitaries like Chapala President Moisés Alejandro Anaya Aguilar. The two story state-of-the-art facility was envisioned 4 years ago by its investors, led by Luis Antonio Michel Ruelas of the Vallarta Medical Center and Humberto Famanía Ortega of Puerto Vallarta. The actual opening is scheduled for October 31, although it could be a few days earlier, if the final equipment is installed early and finishing touches applied to the building.
Two day before the inauguration, the Medical Center’s Medical Director, Dr. Santiago R. Hernandez, M.D. who is also Director of ChapalaMed, sat down with Laguna for a conversation about the new hospital and hospital care in Lakeside.
Laguna: How did you determine that a private hospital was needed in Lakeside, since there is a new hospital in San Antonio, a hospital in Ajijic and new cardiac center in west Ajijic.
Dr. Hernandez: Our vision started in 2016 when one of our main investors planned to open a nursing care center and we did know about the plans for a new hospital in San Antonio. In 2017, when we formalized our plans, we did quite a bit of study and we found that there is a need for a full-service hospital that could handle emergencies, heart attacks and strokes, and had the necessary ICU, labs – everything that would expect to find in a hospital north of the border, where my standards come from.
Laguna: So that capability does not exist in Lakeside now?
Dr. Hernandez: We did not see all that capability in one place in Lakeside. The other medical centers have some of it, but lack other elements like an ICU or cardiac catherization lab, or the ability to accept all emergencies, although they may add these capabilities later. The Ribera Medical Center will have all the capabilities that you would expect from a hospital up north all in one place.
Laguna: What do you plan to offer at the Ribera Medical Center?
Dr. Hernandez: At this point in time, Ribera Medical Center will be dedicated primarily for emergencies and for surgery. We will do all levels of surgery, except transplants or open-heart surgery – we need to be open for a couple of years and have our blood bank ready for those kinds of procedures – but everything else. And eventually, we will be able to handle almost all other kinds of procedures.
Laguna: What kind of equipment and facilities will the hospital have at opening?
Dr. Hernandez: We will have an ICU, a neo-natal unit, a labor and delivery room, and an emergency room; at this point we have 14 hospital rooms, a fully functioning blood bank, an infusion lab for chemotherapy, a cardiac catherization lab – a hybrid lab where we can take care of heart attacks or strokes, three surgical suits, and full imaging. We have CT and full radiology and x-ray and mammography now, and we are expecting delivery of the MRI equipment and insulation for installation in our MRI room.
Laguna: What doctors will have admitting privileges at the Medical Center?
Dr. Hernandez: We are an open hospital, which means that as Medical Director my job will be to vet the credentials of all doctors who want privileges. I will make sure they are trained and certified for the surgery they want to do here. So, if a cardiology surgeon wants to admit a patient for heart surgery, they have to be certified for this kind of surgery. In another example, we can’t have a general practitioner without certification granted privileges to do plastic surgery, which is done in Guadalajara.
Laguna: Do the high standards you describe indicate that the Medical Center will be involved in medical tourism?
Dr. Hernandez: We intend for this hospital to be one of the main hubs in for medical tourism. I am member of the Congreso de Nacional Turismo Medico in Mexico; we promote medical tourism on a national and international basis. We want to promote that the doctors at our hospital have full credentials and respect here and abroad. Plus, our telemedicine partnerships should give patients additional confidence. And it is convenient that the Radisson Hotel is right across the street.
Laguna: Will you take Medicare from the USA?
Dr. Hernandez: The short answer is no…there is no legal way to take Medicare in Mexico. I know the hospital in San Antonio says they work with Medicare, but “working with” and taking Medicare insurance are two different things. There is no legal way for us to take the insurance. Usually in cases where an American has been out of the US for 16 days or less, Medicare will reimburse for emergency care. That is the one way we can do it.
Laguna: You are “inaugurating” the medical center this week, but not opening it? When will it be open for patients?
Dr. Hernandez: Right now, I can tell you that we will open by October 31, but it could be sooner.
Laguna: And who will be managing the hospital?
Dr. Hernandez: The Director will be Julio Carbajal from San Miguel de Allende, and the Administrator is Roselda Dominguez.
Dogs in shelter.
Patrick O’Heffernan and Domingo Flores, Ajijic. After interviews with representatives of homeowners impacted by the government animal shelter established in west Ajijic and the Director of Ecology, José Jaime Ibáñez, Laguna has learned that possible alternative sites have been located, a financial agreement has been floated, and the parties are working together – although in fits and starts – to move the shelter and create a new one that better accommodates stray dogs.
The shelter was established on land donated to the municipalidad sometime ago for a cemetery, but was not usable for that purpose so it remained on the books until the Department of Ecology, which supervises animal protection and control, decided to use it for a shelter for stray dogs and other animals in the area. However, the 24-hour a day barking of the sheltered dogs has upset the residents of nearby developments of Puerta Arroyo, Sierra Viva, Los Abinos, 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 officers, submitted a petition to 7 government agencies to solve the noise problem and met with Jaime on July 28 to find solutions.
Since that meeting, the frustrated HOAs have filed a complaint with the Human Rights Commission and scheduled a meeting with Mayor Moisés Anaya (which was canceled at the last minute), and met twice with Director Ibáñez. They have also located 4 possible sites for a relocated shelter, two off the Libramento, one near Santa Cruz la Soledad and one near the international university. One of the sites is quite large, has access to water and can be rented for 5 – 10 years, a cost which might be shared between the government and the residents.
The existing shelter is currently managed by Ana Luisa Maldonado, an advocate for animals and a staff member of the Department of Ecology. While her salary is paid by the Department and she has been given wide authority to manage the shelter, she has the responsibility of raising the $75,000mx a month needed to operate the shelter. To do this, she has recruited local volunteers for staffing, and for funds has turned to local donors and to the Meximutt Project, a 13-year-old Oregon-based organization that transports dogs from Jalisco to the US for adoption. The organization, which also partners with Lakeside’s The Ranch dog shelter, provides about $150 per dog plus other costs, according to its website…
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The delivery of school packages in Chapala began on July 15.
Manuel Jacobo (Chapala, Jalisco): The «Recreate, Educating for Life» program that provides a package of school supplies to children was carried out in time in Chapala for the 11,660 students enrolled in school for to what is set to be an atypical school year.
Although the packages were delivered smoothly, the were a few children who did not receive their packs due to changes of address and they must go to the Social Development offices to pick up their supplies.
The delivery of the school packages, which include backpacks with school supplies, shoes and uniforms, was carried out in a little over a month, house by house, to avoid creating congested delivery centers. In total, more than $8 million pesos were spent on the supplies, of which $6 million were obtained from the state government and a little more than $2 million from the municipal government of Chapala.
Local officials including Chapala Mayor Moisés Alejandro Anaya Aguilar and Education Director Juan Manuel Arreola Martínez, do not l how many children in the municipality are having difficulties taking classes online or through the radio and television systems, but they are working on an analysis of the situation to provide schools that information.
However, the mayor considers that «we are blessed as I believe that many of the children do have the possibility, although of course some others not » to receive distance education. He added that he is also aware that no municipality in the country is prepared to provide operating systems such as computers. Translated by Patrick O’Heffernan
Photo: Patrick O’Heffernan.
Patrick O’Heffernan, Ajijic.- Three to five trees a month are cut illegally on private land in Chapala, according to Chapala Ecology Director José Jaime Albanes, and these are just the ones he knows about through reports and complaints. Many are on property owned by Expats who don’t understand Mexican law concerning trees and other natural resources on their property.
“Trees are the property of humanity”, Jaime told Laguna, “they can give the property owner shade, fruit and other benefits, but they belong to the nation, and here, we control the trees”, noting that many property owners don’t realize that even for trees on their property and behind their walls, they need a permit to cut, transplant, replace or even substantially trim trees…
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