The Hotel Villa Montecarlo is located at the western entrance of the municipal capital of Chapala.
Although the conversion of the hotel to isolation housing was always a long shot, the high incidence of new coronavirus cases in Jalisco resulted in a second look. However, the town council rejected the idea on June 24 in a plenary session. Two days before that rejection, Villa Primavera had begun operations and to date has registered few admissions but in the next few days that could change.
The Voluntary Isolation Centers (CAV) are for patients of Covid-19 who do not require hospitalization because they have mild or asymptomatic cases , but lack a suitable place to isolate themselves from their relatives, necessary to cut the chain of contagion in the state.
To date, Villa Montecarlo, which depends directly on the University of Guadalajara (UDG), has not informed the municipality directly of its proposal; however, Municipal President, Moisés Alejandro Anaya Aguilar, has made it clear that this type of use will not be permitted in the municipality and the town will do everything possible to ensure that this does not happen, or if it does, it will be without his authorization, a position supported by his Municipal Trustee and the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the National Regeneration Movement (MORENA).
The city councilors consider that the incidence of Covid-19 in Chapala is not high. They contrast the municipality with fewer than 30 cases to the municipality of Guadalajara with more than 6 thousand cases registered, excluding those from the municipalities of the Guadalajara Metropolitan Zone. Translated by Patrick O’Heffernan
Editor’s note: Since the Hotel Villa Montecarlo is located in the center of the town and not in an isolated place like the Hotel Villa Primavera, the town’s authorities did not like the idea that Chapala could host a Voluntary Isolation Center.
Five tarpaulins were placed by the merchants on the Chapala boardwalk.
Manuel Jacobo (Chapala, Jalisco) – Tourists who visited Chapala during the last week of July when the malecón was opened were denounced by the President of Chapala, Moisés Alejandro Anaya Aguilar, for irresponsibly ignoring measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
In view of this, the merchants on the boardwalk followed his subsequent recommendation willingly, putting up banners inviting respect for healthy distance and the use of mouth guards and masks. The municipality could close the shops that do not comply with the sanitary measures, an action possible in response to the announcement that the national epidemiological traffic lights will no longer be taken into account due to the emergency declaration in Jalisco.
Among the actions announced by the Mayor of Chapala on July 9th on social networks is the mandatory use of masks. He told merchants not to serve those who do not have it.
«We are going to reinforce the vigilance with our areas so that any business that does not comply with the sanitary measures will be closed; Wal-Mart, Soriana, if they do not attend these measures, they will be closed,» he said. He added that the same applies to Oxxo branches, vendors in the Chapala malecón, hotels which work at more than 50 percent of their capacity, and restaurants which serve more than 25 percent of capacity.
If the instructions issued by the state governor, Enrique Alfaro Ramírez, are followed, it would be possible to avoid activating the «emergency button» – as the president has already threatened – under which everyone must be isolated for 14 days because the medical services are becoming overloaded. This would exclude medical personnel, public safety and Civil Protection and Firefighters.
As of the close of July 9, Chapala had registered 36 positive cases through the Radar Jalisco system, and 24 on the platform of the General Directorate of Epidemiology. Twenty of these had recovered, two had died and two were active. Of the two deaths caused by the new coronavirus, an 87-year-old man lost the battle with Covid on June 29 and a 77-year-old male on June 6, the first Covid-related death in Chapala. Translated by Patrick O’Heffernan
The tourism strategy will seek to position Jocotepec as a destination and not a transit point.
Miguel Cerna: In order to stop being a «passing through» option and turn Jocotepec into a «destination» attraction, the Municipal Government is betting on more hotel rooms.
The plan is to move from the 492 rooms that the municipality currently has, to more than 3,000 in less than five years, according to the Municipal President, José Miguel Gómez López, plan he described in a July 5 interview posted on social networks.
«Our mission is to change the image of Joco from a pass-thru municipality to a destination,” he said, explaining that “we have a very stable economy but people think of us as a pass-through municipality. Why? Because at this point we only have 492 rooms, when Chapala probably has 3,000. I think that in less than five years we could have 2,000 to 3,000 rooms.»
The mayor announced the construction of a 400-room hotel and negotiations with three more developers interested in building resorts, saying that he hopes to raise the number of available rooms to over a thousand at the end of his three-year term in 2021.
Instead of a destination of «disorder or drunkenness», Gómez López said that the tourism strategy is aimed at family vacation tourism, that is, for visitors to holiday in Jocotepec for more than a weekend, reversing the trend of being a transit area for people going to Chapala or Mazamitla.
In addition, the Municipal President invited the developers to invest in the municipality in the form of housing, entertainment and related improvements since, according to him, the Jocotepec Lakeside area currently has the highest probability of economic growth.
He pointed to the proximity to the Guadalajara Metropolitan Zone and the airport, the road infrastructure, the demand for places to relax and the unspoiled environment of the southern area of the lake between the towns of San Pedro Tesistán and San Cristóbal as investment draws in Jocotepec.
An example of the attraction of Jocotepec for investment, Gómez López pointed to the proposal for the sustainable «Poblado del Cardenal» housing complex that will build 1,500 homes in an ecologically sound design that will not to generate a negative impact on the local ecosystem.
«I hope they invest in it,” Gómez López said, “and we are open to seeing how well they do. The only thing I ask is that when an investment is made with sustainability in mind, it is also good for the investors »
Translated by Patrick O’Heffernan
Foto: Patrick O’Heffernan.
Ajijic’s own global music radio program, Music Sin Fronteras, hosted by music critic and writer for the English page on Semanario Laguna , Patrick O’Heffernan, will now be available at semanariolaguna.com/. Each week, Laguna readers will get an advance peek at the upcoming guest and a phone number they can use to call in live on the show.
Covering every facet of popular music, Program Host Patrick interviews artists and plays cuts from their albums, EP’s and singles. He talks with artists from the US, Latin America and sometimes even Europe. All interviews are in English, although the song lyrics are often Spanish or Spanglish.
Host Patrick focuses on rising singers and bands, local talent in Lakeside, and artists who are at the cusp of going big time, with the occasional famous guest. While his specialty is fusion music –Latino/gringo– he plays virtually anything you can dance to from cumbia to hip hop to blues and jazz and rock and even folk and electronica. He also covers local live music – it’s coming back!– and the FIMPRO Latin Music Convention in Guadalajara, the Latin Alternative Music Conference in New York, and the Latin Grammys.
On the air for seven years in Los Angeles as Music Friday Live radio, Host Patrick changed the name to Music Sin Fronteras when he moved to Mexico last year and set up a broadcast studio in downtown Ajijic. He broadcasts every Friday at 1 pm CT on stations in the US and the UK. Semanario Laguna readers will get the broadcast link, the weekly lineup, and the talk line to call in and talk with the artists.
Chapala Expat Liasion Hector nEspana helping families.
Patrick O’Heffernan.- As the Lakeside community begins to up from the quarantine to stop the spread of Covid-19, both Mexicans and Expats are working to help ease the impact on the local families in need, but the help provided by Expat organizations and businesses to the local communities needs to remain strong.
Among the businesses and organizations who have been “angels” are Operation Feed in San Juan Cosalá, Super La Huerta Market in West Ajijic, which has been providing food despensas, Programa de Niños Incapacitados, Lake Chapala Center, Foodbank Lakeside, and many others.
Many Expats have donated to these organizations or taken personal responsibility for supporting local individuals they know or who work for them, even when they must stay home. Local restaurants, which are themselves often in a difficult situation, have been feeding families in need. Casa Maybella Test Kitchen and La Bodega are two of the many restaurants that have provided meals to families devastated by the quarantine.
But the need will not diminish immediately as restaurants and stores open. Chapala Expat Liaison Héctor España points out that and almost every neighborhood in Chapala has families that are stressed for things beside food and that there is a great need in many neighborhoods throughout Lakeside.
The towns of Santa Cruz de la Soledad and San Nicolás de Ibarra have no economic activity and are especially hard hit. “The people there need more than food – they need money and medical care and everything required to support families,” he said, noting that “even in Ajijic with many gringos, there are hungry families because people like waiters and dishwashers and cooks have been out of work.”
España himself goes out and delivers despensas and knows of families that have not been helped, so he tries to see to it that they get what they need. On his Facebook Page he complements the Expat “angels” who go out on a second round of deliveries with more despensas including visiting families who tell him that they have been missed by all others. Some “angels” also continue his second round with other families.
Some families do get government assistance he noted, from the several million pesos the Federal and Jalisco governments allocated for relief and small business help. But it was far too little for
Delegado Juan Ramon Flores in is office. By Patrick O’Heffernan.
Patrick O’Heffernan. Ajijic. The Plaza and the Malecón are still closed, but the churches are open with sanitary guidelines, along with restaurants and stores throughout Ajijic. But hotels and galleries, if they are open, see little or no business. The economy has a long way to go before it is anything like normal, which means that many local families in Ajijic are still on the edge financially and need help. Ajijic Delegado Juan Ramon Flores sat down with Laguna this week to talk about them and what is being done for them
“In the past five weeks we have distributed 5000 dispensas throughout the area, using the money from Chapala”, he said, noting that there were not specific neighborhoods he concentrated on. He and his volunteers look at the conditions of families from week to week to know who to distribute despensas and other help to rather than designate specific neighborhoods because situations change with people.
He divides the city into halves and some volunteers work on one part and some on another part. “We are distributing over 200 despensas for Ajijic every week. Many people are out of work and need help”, he said, noting that there is no unemployment insurance in Mexico when asked about government assistance to the unemployed.
“I have ten volunteers – not employees – every week who help with the despensas ,” he said, “some are different people each week, some expat some Mexicans.” He continued that some people in Ajijic have friends in the United States who send money that is used to buy despensas.
“We all work together,” he said, “the cooperation is excellent, there are many good organizations helping.” He added that expats who want to get involved in helping should contact Héctor España, the Expat Liaison in Chapala.
When asked about plans for more opening he said that “The Malecon and the Plaza will be the last things to open. We wait for the word from the Jalisco government about when cases go down. Same with live music. It is their decision. “
He added that, except for important trips and volunteering , the people should stay safe at home and wear masks.
Mothers demand concrete responses from the authorities.
Manuel Jacobo.- From 2014 to 2019 the municipality of Chapala registered 62 people as “missing and not located”, according to data provided by the Jalisco State Prosecutor’s Office. ”Missing” is used by authorities to indicate a person whose location is unknown and who likely have been a victim of crime. Authorities use the category of a “non-located person” as one whose whereabouts are unknown but who is not suspected as being a victim of foul play.
Only two local people were listed as “disappeared” between 2014 to 2018 by the Prosecutor’s office, but it registered 25 disappeared non-local men and four women during the same period, although 29 non-local people were initially reported disappeared in Chapala, for a total of 31 disappeared in Chapala between 2014 and 2018.
Little is known about the identity and suffering of their families as the authorities did not obtain or provide sufficient information about the victims and neither did their relatives.
However, 2019 saw a brutal spike in “disappeared” and unlocated people with 31 total — as many as in the previous five years. Four people were listed as “missing persons” and likely victims of crime, and 20 men and seven women were listed as “unlocated” for a total of 31.
However, unlike in the previous years, families responded by publicizing the disappearances on social media, which may have contributed to the higher count and revelation of the serious situation in the Chapala municipality.
December saw the registration of most non-local people, 10 males, according to the records of the Prosecutor’s Office. Laguna obtained a transparency of the document FE / UT / 378/2020 which showed that from 2018 to 2019, 17 missing people were eventually found -37 percent of the total registered, of which 16 were alive and one deceased. Overall, of 46 missing persons registered as missing or unlocated in from 2018 to 2019, 29 people or 63 percent never returned home.
Various efforts are underway to put faces to the numbers of the disappeared, such as «hearts on the move» and in coordination with projects such as «Warriors in search of our treasures», so now the search, although with little government support, is underway. Below are the names and information of those still being sought:
Bryan Gabriel Ángel García, 16 years old, disappeared. Investigation folder 87594/2019 at the Jalisco State Prosecutor’s Office
Humberto Barajas Centeno disappeared on December 25, 2019; registration 224 / DS / FC / 2020 in the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic
Juan Pablo Navarro Flores, 26, disappeared in September 2018; registration 218 / DS / FC / 2020 in the Attorney General’s Office
Marco Antonio Santos Castañeda, 30 years old; on file in the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic
José Alfonso Tavares Fernández, 18 years old, disappeared on December 20, 2019; registration 217 / DS / FC / 2020 in the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic
Alfonso Tavares Contreras, 36 years old, disappeared on December 20, 2019; registration 216 / DS / FC / 2020 in the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic
Luis Eduardo Pérez Solís, 16 years old, disappeared on November 22, 2019; registration 249 / DS / FC / 2020with the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic
Bryan Alexander Rosas Ramos, 16 years old, from the La Purísima neighborhood, disappeared on November 22, 2019, his mother was extorted; registration 246 / DS / FC / 2020 in the Attorney General’s Office
Juan Pablo Romero Ríos, 35, disappeared on December 7, 2019 in the hills of Chapala; registration 230 / DS / FC / 2020 in the Attorney General’s Office
Alfredo Chávez Aceves, 51 years old, disappeared on December 24, 2019 in Chapala; registration 44653/2019by the Jalisco State Prosecutor’s Office
Julián Hernández Sánchez, 17 years old, disappeared on December 24, 2019 when he left his job and has not been located
Francisco Javier Contreras Ramírez, 49, disappeared in Chapala and registration 232 / DS / FC / 2020 with the Attorney General’s Office
23-year-old José Martín Mendoza Celis disappeared on December 23, 2019; registration 213 / DS / FC / 202 with the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic
(translated by Patrick O’Heffernan)
The creation of the corn leaf products has been on hold since March.
Miguel Cerna.- “Sin chamba” – without work – is how the nearly 200 artisans of San Cristóbal Zapotitlán describe themselves because they had to stop the production of corn leaf crafts due to the lack of sales when tourism stopped in March.
The situation is especially difficult for the artisans like Laura Flores Damasco, who has been working in the corn leaf technique for 20 years and relies on it to support her family. Damasco stopped producing due to the lack of buyers so she resorted to doing household chores with her relatives to survive the pandemic. It will be difficult to start again due to the increase in the cost of the materials she requires to produce the dolls, birth announcements, flowers and other items she makes.
Febronia Leal Arce, 58, also a corn leaf artisan and the head of a family of 10, explained her plight. «We are now in this situation because we have no jobs; we don’t even have tortillas, ”she said with resignation. She was echoed by Herlinda Anguiano who runs the “Creaciones San Cristóbal” cooperative of 10 women, who she said now are all out of work.
So far, the only support that this union has received was the delivery of 70 food despensas by the Ministry of Economic Development through the General Directorate of Artisan Development; however, as of our deadline, no support has been announced to restart their work or revitalize their market.
This devastating economic blow to corn leaf artisans has been caused by the virtual disappearance of the tourist sector nationwide as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and the travel bans enacted or urged to combat its spread, as explained by Jesús Carlo Cuevas González, director of Tourism and Crafts of Jocotepec. Corn leaf crafts had a strong presence in Tonalá, Chapala, Mazamitla and the neighboring state of Michoacán , and at the Jocotepec pier, which, is still closed due to contingency.
“The corn leaf artisans have no sales now because their main market is people from Guadalajara or the ZMG, who come to buy their crafts to take home. The issue is that with the paralysis of the tourism sector, there are no people who buy handicrafts because it is not considered an essential item,” he said.
Although not all artisans are heads of the family, most contribute considerably to the livelihood of their homes, so some have chosen to migrate to the countryside in order to restart the production of their crafts. (translated by Patrick O’Heffernan)
RESTAURANT IN THE CENTER OF AJIJIC.
Patrick O’Heffernan. Ajijic – Kicking off the reopening process, Chapala posted its Comprehensive System for Economic Reactivation (SIRI) on its Facebook page along with a video outlining the steps necessary for businesses to get accredited to open. Among the first to apply and reopen are restaurants.
At the state level, Governor Alfaro anticipates that in this “Phase Zero”, manufacturing industries will open first, followed by agricultural industries. Chapala is allowing the opening of its 450 restaurants in Phase 0. The official state plan and required sanitation protocols are to be released by this Thursday but local restaurant owners have already been able to apply. The plan will include dates for each phase of a sector’s reopening and the “new normal” for operation.
Tourism is expected to be the last sector to open and a spokesperson for UdeG projected 5 months before tourism is opened, bad news for Chapala and tourist-oriented Ajijic. But local restaurants are opening so Laguna talked with restaurant owners to get a picture of the reactivation process on the ground.
Pasta Trenta Italian Restaurant owner Barbara Romo reopened Tuesday night with 30% of her tables available and no more than 4 people per table plus following all sanitary protocols… Look for complete information in the print edition of this newspaper.
Families in the municipality of Chapala are in mourning. In the photo a family of Ajijic during the wake of the deceased
Sofía Medeles / Domingo M. Flores (Ajijic, Jal.) .- Ten inhabitants of Ajijic (between 32 to 61 years old) lost their lives in the five days from May 10 to 14 for the alleged intake of adulterated alcohol. Five others affected by the alcohol are in recovery for a total of 15 in Ajijic ,according to a count by Laguna reporters.
The Jalisco Ministry of Health (SSJ) official data as of May 20 shows 16 cases identified in the entire municipality of Chapala: 11 deceased, four discharged and one patient who is still hospitalized in grave condition. In the neighboring municipality of Jocotepec there has been only one death recorded, a 63-year-old male.
Four of the five survivors in Ajijic have already been discharged, according to Laguna’s last count of those affected. The fifth, Mrs. Martha Blas, is still hospitalized but stable. Those discharged are: José Guadalupe «Pepa», Rodrigo Alejandre Covarrubias «Pinky», Agripin Carranza Ramos «Pin» and Mr. Pedro Castillo. Three of the survivors have partial loss of vision… Find complete information in print edition.
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