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Mexico City : Hate Crimes Laws Won’t Bring Back the Dead Pero It’s More than the U.S. Has

8:11 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · GLBT| Justice| Violence| crime| mexico · Comments Off

27 Aug 2009

mexic2 I have a pretty radical stance towards hate crimes legislation. I’m not the type of person who likes to push legislation as an answer to way communities are brutalized. Laws certainly won’t bring back the dead and a society with hate woven into the fabric of its narrative isn’t going to stop attacking people it sees as “imperfections” in that weave.

That being said, in Mexico City there have been at least 6 murders of gay men that have not been classified as hate crimes. Instead, authorities in the D.F. label the deaths as “crimes of passion”. From vecino Blabbeando:

LGBT advocates have already claimed that homophobia might be at play in the murders of six gay men during the last year, even if authorities have said otherwise. The latest, they say, occurred on August 15th, when 24 year old Victor Galán, who had moved to live in Mexico City a month earlier, was stabbed 12 times and found dead in his apartment. Advocates say that robbery was not a motive in the crime and that they suspect he was killed based on the fact that he was gay. Authorities, on the other hand, say that they have not ruled out a “crime of passion.”

Mexico City Tells Swine Flu ‘Adios’

4:52 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Health| Latin America| mexico| society · Comments Off

21 May 2009

3482891591_0772d4b1b1 While the swine flu might have claimed its latest victims stateside, Mexico City – plagued by the stigma of the disease for weeks now — is officially declaring the illness to be yesterday’s news. The city has lowered the alert level as the Mayor, Marcel Ebrard, tells citizens it to take a chill pill, since the megapolis has reached a milestone in its fight against the flu: one full week with no new cases. The AP reports:

Mayor Marcelo Ebrard said the change means the risk of contagion is low, the situation is under control and the images of countless people wearing blue surgical masks in cars, sidewalks, restaurants and theaters can be consigned to history.

“There’s no longer any need” to wear masks, Ebrard said. “Now you can come to the city without any risk.”

City Health Secretary Armando Ahued said nobody has been hospitalized with respiratory infections in the last three days, and no swine flu cases have been confirmed since May 14. “We are seeing a 96.1 percent drop in cases, and that’s why we are dropping the alert level to green today,” Ahued said.

The flu has meant a sharp dip in tourism to the city and indeed to the entire country, so I assume that as small as this milestone might be, the capital is anxious to milk it for all its worth in an effort to get tourists back to the Mexican capital with a quickness.

Via / AP

Image via xaminmo on Flickr

Breaking News: Mexico City Hit by Strong Earthquake

12:24 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Health| Latin America| mexico · Comments Off

27 Apr 2009

As if Chilangos didn’t have enough problems with the swine flu emptying the Mexican capital’s streets (see related video above), a 6.0 earthquake centered in Guerrero just shook the city. Reuters reports:

Mexico was hit by a 6.0 magnitude earthquake on Monday, the U.S. Geological Survey said.The USGS said the quake hit 19 miles south-southeast of Tixtla, Guerrero, about 150 miles south of the capital, Mexico City. It was 25.6 miles deep.

Buildings in the capital shook.

Quakes of this magnitude are classified as strong and are capable of causing severe damage.

The USGS earlier reported the quake measured 5.8.

As we speak, CNN is reporting that buildings in tourist spot Acapulco, located close to the epicenter, are being evacuated.

Via / Reuters

Dangerous Swine Flu Breaks Out in Mexico

10:50 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Health| Immigration| Latin America| World| mexico · 3 Comments

26 Apr 2009

Mainstream media was a-buzz all weekend with news that a flu originating in swine had broken out in Mexico, killing some 60 people and making several people sick stateside. The SF Chronicle reports:

California doctors and other health experts are on the lookout for cases of a new strain of swine flu, a potentially dangerous virus that has reignited fears of a pandemic flu outbreak after killing about 60 people in Mexico and sickening eight people in the United States.

Hospitals and public health departments throughout California, where six of the American cases have been found, were told Friday to increase surveillance of the rare strain of flu that combines genetic material from humans, pigs and birds.

Today it appears that the death toll has risen to 81 in Mexico, and all public events in Mexico City have been cancelled for fear of the disease spreading from person to person, which is apparently how the flu gets around (not from consumption of pork). Kissing has also been banned, as has all other “close contact”.
Read more…

Thousands of Stargazers Gather in Mexico City

7:11 am By Maegan La Mala · Latin America| World| mexico| science · 1 Comment

9 Feb 2009

To kick off International Astronomy Day — which marks the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s invention of the telescope – thousands of Mexico City residents gathered this weekend in the city’s main plaza, El Zócalo, to turn their telescopes to the sky and do a little stargazing:

But it wasn’t just Mexico City residents who got in the stargazing spirit. Events took place all over the republic, in city squares in all major Mexican cities. In addition, astronomy buffs also gathered at archeological sites all over the country in an event called “Night of Stars 2009: Our Ancestors’ Skies”, which took place a Boca de Potrerillos, in Nuevo León; Xochicalco in Morelos; Calixtlahuaca in Mexico State; Cholula in Puebla; Dzibichaltún in Yucatán; and Edzná in Campeche.

Via / Reforma on YouTube

Mexico City Has Something for the Hombres on December 1, Too.

7:42 am By Maegan La Mala · Health| mexico · Comments Off

19 Nov 2008

Earlier this week, we wrote on how starting on December 1st, Mexico City is starting an HPV vaccine push on girls between 11-13. Lest Mexican viejos feel left behind, el D.F. is beginning an initiative for older men that day as well.

Beginning December 1, Mexico City plans to hand out free medicine to elderly men with erectile dysfunction, the local government said.

“Everyone has the right to be happy,” said Marcelo Ebrard Casaubon, governor of the federal district that encompasses the Mexican capital.

“We have to protect people — senior citizens above all,” he said in a statement Thursday. “Many of them are abandoned and lack money. They don’t have medical services, and a society that doesn’t care for its senior citizens has no dignity.”

HPV Vaccine being Pushed On Young Mexican Girls

1:10 pm By Maegan La Mala · Health| Women| mexico · 1 Comment

17 Nov 2008

When I took my 11 year old to the doctor a few weeks ago I was asked if I wanted her to have the Gardasil vaccine. I declined. End of story. Pero as we have been following here, mujeres who want to enter the United States don’t have the option of refusing the fairly new shot that is said to prevent the human papillomavirus, a cause of cervical cancer.

Continuing with the trend of using women of color bodies as test subjects, Mexico City is will begin to offer the vaccine for free on December 1st, targeting girls between 11-13.

Mexico City Residents Losing Sense of Smell

11:05 am By Maegan La Mala · Health| Latin America| mexico · Comments Off

13 Jun 2008

As a former resident of the world’s biggest city, Mexico D.F., I can attest to the horrid pollution, often augmented by occasional spurts from nearby El Popo (though I insist it’s no worse than L.A.’s smog). Capital residents are so used to it you really don’t notice it, but what they appear to be noticing now is a serious physical manifestation of the problem: the loss of their sense of smell. The BBC reports that a study

“…compared the sense of smell of people from Mexico City to that of people from Tlaxcala, a nearby community with the same environmental characteristics and altitude. The results were revealing…the residents of the capital had a less ability to distinguish between smells like orange, coffee or milk due to the high levels of pollution.”

That’s bad news but in truth there are so many smells in Mexico City that one would prefer not to smell that this might have a positive side for some. The city of 20,000,000 people, as amazing as it is, almost always smells like a mixture of bleach, garbage and tacos al pastor. Try smelling that when stumbling out of a bar at 5:00 a.m…That’s when a weak nose comes in handy.

Via / BBC Mundo

Image via el ranchero on Flickr

CSI: Mexico City

1:30 pm By Maegan La Mala · crime| mexico · Comments Off

12 Feb 2008

It’s not the most recent addition to CBS’ lineup but a new crime lab that’s opening up in Mexico’s capital, which will be the most advanced in Latin America. Mexico’s El Universal reports that the new center cost close 16 million dollars to build, boasts over 17,000 square feet of space and cutting-edge architecture.

According to El Universal, the current center, known as Semefo, is dark and lugubrious, while the new facilities aim to be a “warmer” place with the most advanced technology available (I still wouldn’t want to hang out there…) Indeed, it is said that the center is on par with similar labs in Germany and the U.K., with state of the art equipment and highly trained professionals.

Via / El Universal

Mexico City goes wild for Zocalo rink

2:05 pm By Maegan La Mala · Entertainment| Lifestyle| mexico · 1 Comment

3 Dec 2007

I don’t live in Mexico City anymore so I can’t say whether Mayor Marcelo Ebrard is really good for the city, but what does seem evident is that he’s made the most visible changes in the metropolis than any other recent mayor. Case in point: turning the country’s “kilómetro cero” — the iconic Zocalo main plaza in the city’s historic downtown — into a massive ice skating rink.

While in another time this would sound crazy to the average Mexico City citizen, it doesn’t sound that strange coming from a mayor who installed a series of artificial beaches throughout the city over the summer, and, in the months of lead-up to his latest project — the ice rink — permanently ridded Mexico City’s Centro Histórico of the street peddlers who have worked in that area for hundreds of years (I have very mixed feelings about that one).

Shocking or not, La Jornada reports that over 50,000 people turned out this weekend to check out the urban ice spectacle, with a few minor injuries already reported.

Via / La Jornada

Image via Rodolfochka’s Flickr page

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