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LAND FOR SALE
Land suitable
for small ranch.
In La Loma 10
minutes north of La Penita. 700,000 pesos. Ejido.
Contact Rafael
at
(cell phone 045
311 161 0573)
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lessons.
February 28 2010
..the heartbeat of the Riviera Nayarit
We're Number 1
Patty & Javier pull off another fantastic win. This time
in Tequila
La Peñita Wins the Tequila Challenge
Become a Friend of Riviera Nayarit on
Facebook
click here
Headline News
Tsunami alert is canceled
Tsunami
warnings were canceled for all countries Sunday, a
day after a deadly 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck
Chile, forecasters said.
However,
the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said in its
cancellation alert it was only advising governments,
and "only national and local government agencies
have the authority to make decisions regarding the
official state of alert in their area and any
actions to be taken in response." ....Go
to original article
Pre-Hispanic relics found in Mexico
Mexican archeologists have found at least
500 stone and ceramic pieces of the pre-Hispanic colonial era in the
Chichimeca region of San Luis Potosi and Guanajuato states in central
Mexico, local press reported on Thursday.
The relics, which date from 1000 A.D. to
1800 A.D., were found in 37 camps distributed in five areas…..
Go to original article
Mexico oil output rises to 9-month high in January
Mexican oil output rose in January to its
highest level in nine months as production at the country's aging
Cantarell field and troubled Chicontepec project edged higher, state oil
monopoly Pemex [PEMX.UL] said on Thursday. ….Go
to original article
Tlacaxipehualitzi: second month
of the Aztec calendar
Dancers dressed in traditional costume
celebrated Tlacaxipehualitzi the second month of the Aztec calendar and
popularly attributed to the god Totec-Xipe ….Go
to original article
Small earthquake hits US-Mexico border near SoCal city
A magnitude-3.9 earthquake has rattled the
California-Mexico border, but there are no immediate reports of damage
or injuries. ….Go
to original article
U.S. Closes Consulate After Mexico Border Gunfights
— The United States has temporarily
closed its consular office in the Mexican border city of Reynosa, across
from McAllen, Texas, after gunbattles with drug gangs rocked the area
this week.
Four suspected cartel gunmen were killed
Thursday outside the nearby city of Matamoros after they attacked an
army patrol on a highway, Mexico's Defense Department reported. ….Go
to original article
Mexico puts its drug suspects on parade
Critics of the media events say human
rights are also on the line, along with the country's efforts to
establish the rule of law. But Mexico wants to show victories in its
drug war.….Go
to original article
Mexico drug lord apologizes for a lifetime of
‘mistakes’
As Mexican drug kingpin Osiel Cardenas
Guillen — whose ruthless Gulf Cartel took hundreds of lives while
smuggling tons of cocaine — stood before a federal judge in Houston, he
made his first public statement in years, saying he was sorry for his
“mistakes,” according to a transcript obtained by the Houston Chronicle
on Thursday.
“I apologize to my country, Mexico, to the
United States of America, to my wife, especially my children, for all
the mistakes I have made,” a shackled Cardenas said, according to the
transcript.….Go
to original article
Mexico's First Lady Meets With Michelle Obama
Mexico Says First Lady Met With Michelle
Obama, Discussed Obesity, Migrants, Addictions. The Mexican government
says first lady Margarita Zavala has met with Michelle Obama during a
visit to the White House. ….Go
to original article
Venus Williams retains Mexico Open title
Venus Williams fought back from a set down
to retain her Mexican Open title with a 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory in
Acapulco on Saturday over Polona Hercog of Slovenia.
It was Williams' second consecutive WTA title after her successful
defence of Dubai champion. She has won a total of 43 WTA titles in her
career.
 Mexico to apply new passport mandate
Beginning March 1, Americans and Canadians
will be required to present passports to authorities in Mexico when
traveling to that country by airplane or ship or when driving into the
interior.
The requirement will not apply to those
going no farther south than Mexican border cities such as San Luis Rio
Colorado, Son., or Los Algodones, Baja Calif., or to the nearby popular
Sonora tourist destinations of El Golfo de Santa Clara and Rocky Point.
…..Click
here to go to the original article
Medium earthquakes shake southeast of Mexico
Two earthquakes measuring 5.2 and 5.4
magnitude on Richter scale, shook the state of Chiapas in the southeast
of Mexico, without report of victims or material damages, the National
Seismological Service (SSN) said Tuesday.
One of the earthquakes measuring 5.4 magnitude was registered at 9:16
a.m. local time (1516 GMT). The epicenter was located 90 km southeast to
Las Margaritas municipality with a depth of 25 km…..Click
here to go to the original article
Ahead of spring break, State Dept issues travel alert for
Mexico border
Travel alert places emphasis on a few
hyper-violent cities and states near the Mexico border. It comes as many
US college students and families are making travel plans for spring
break. …..Click
here to go to the original article
Mexico's Actinver plans stock listing
Mexican financial group Actinver said on
Tuesday it is planning an initial public offering, the country's first
since the global credit crisis.
Actinver, a brokerage and mutual fund
operator, said in an exchange filing it would propose the the stock
listing at a shareholders meeting on March 11. …..Click
here to go to the original article
Mexico fines Eli Lilly, others for collusion
Mexico's antitrust watchdog said on
Tuesday it fined Eli Lilly and Co and other global medical companies for
colluding to inflate prices in government tenders for medicine.
Eli Lilly Mexico and three Mexican
pharmaceutical companies took turns placing winning bids in government
tenders to buy insulin from 2003 to 2006, eliminating competition and
ensuring artificially high prices, the antitrust commission said.…..Click
here to go to the original article
Mexico's earthquake recovery could be a model for Haiti
Though Mexico's government botched its
initial response to the 1985 earthquakes, it found the right formula to
build and repair tens of thousands of homes. The devastating 1985
earthquakes delivered Felipe Lembrino a mixed blessing: one year living
in a squalid makeshift camp for the displaced, but also a new home built
on government-granted land, financed by the Red Cross, constructed with
his own calloused hands.
But it was not until Mexicans like
Lembrino launched large protests against ineffective government --
barrio por barrio, neighborhood by neighborhood -- that they were
assured permanent housing.…..Click
here to go to the original article
Circular Aztec temple found in Mexico
A temple built on a circular base,
possibly consecrated to the Aztec wind god, has been found in the
historical centre of Mexico City.
Archaeologist Eduardo Matos Moctezuma told the German Press Agency Matos
Moctezuma, Mexico's most respected archaeologist and coordinator since
1978 of excavations on the remnants of the former Aztec capital, said
the building was found behind Mexico City's Metropolitan Cathedral.…..Click
here to go to the original article
U.S. Will Share Intelligence With Mexico
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security
will share intelligence and conduct joint operations with the
notoriously corrupt Mexican Federal Judicial Police, under a new plan to
"secure the U.S.-Mexico border."
DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano and Mexican Secretary of Public Safety
Genaro García Luna signed a Declaration of Principles of Cooperation on
joint efforts to secure the U.S.-Mexico border, Napolitano said in a
statement. …..Click
here to go to the original article
Jaltemba Bay Animal Rescue
Advocating humane
and healthy practices for animals in the Jaltemba Bay area by promoting
health, education, sterilization,
adoptions, foster
care and positive relationships with animals and their owners.
December 2006 to
Febuary 2010: Four and a half years, 8 clinics and more than 1,510
animals spayed
or neutered in the
Jaltemba Bay area!
JBAR UPDATE:
Well, we broke our
record! We had 153 animals arrive at our clinic and spayed or neutered
144 animals
along with 9
consultations and 8 adoptions. It was an amazing clinic with up to 4
operating tables happening
simultaneously!
The clinic
experienced some terrible winds, rain and dampness throughout the 4 day
clinic but we survived!
Go here to continue
to the full article!
Canada wins over US for Olympic Men's Hockey gold...true patriot love in
Mexico
Canadians celebrate gold victory at Hinde and Jaimes Restaurant in La
Penita ..
 
Governor Ney Gonzales Sanchez opens Eco park in La Penita
and new civil protect building in Guayabitos
  
  
  
  
Nayarit is
No. 1 Tourist Destination
The News
go to original
February 23, 2010
|
| Mario Basulto Mares (Revista Opción) |
|
|
Tepic - According to the official data made available on the Internet by
the Federal Tourism Secretariat, Nayarit holds first place as a tourist
destination and received a certificate of recognition as the best
destination in 2009.
Thanks to an investment of approximately 700 million dollars in private
tourist infrastructure and the administration of Governor Ney González
Sánchez, Nayarit houses more accommodation establishments and
recreational alternatives for national and international tourists. The
Under-Secretary of Tourism, Mario Basulto Mares, said that in 2010 they
expect to increase the number of destinations, particularly in the
Riviera Nayarit.
"In order to accomplish it, we need to review the unregistered
accommodation alternatives, as is the case of Sayulita, a town that does
not have any Gran Turismo hotels but does have over 25 boutique hotels
with a capacity from 15 to 30 suites resulting on a tourist population
of over 4,500 who can enjoy the beaches and surf as well as extreme
sports at the Ranch 'Mi Chaparrita," he said.
Basulto stated that during the end of year period, the 74,000 visitors
they expect will spend over 1 billion pesos.
Update on the kindergarten projects of
Rotary and Los Amigos:
Thanks to all the supporters of the kindergarten in Las Cabras.
Your
donations of money and labour have made it all possible.
The kindergarten in Las Cabras will be inaugurated on March 2nd at 2
pm.
You are invited to see the result of this community effort in person.
The parents of the
kindergarten want to invite you to eat a meal with them in celebration
of this important event. The food is free but we will probably
pass the hat to pay for the well which we still need.
If
not come anyway. We really want to see all the workers and supporters
and
there will be lots of food anyway.
To see pictures of the project click this link:
http://sites.google.com/site/jaltembarotaryprojects/jaltemba-bay-rotary-la-penita/Home/kindergarten-in-la-colonia-las-cabras
The next kindergarten project is La Patria where we managed to get the
walls built last year. Work there will start in the next two weeks and
should be complete by mid May depending on how the funding flows. We
have
enough to get the roof on and almost enough to complete the project.
To see pictures of that project click this link:
http://sites.google.com/site/kinderlacolmena/
If you want to help you can purchase a coupon map.
You not only support a worthwhile project but it's a good deal. You get
about 1,500 pesos worth of 2 for 1 dinners, pizza, lunches and
breakfasts
for a donation of 300 pesos to the education committee of Los Amigos.
The coupons are available at:
the trailer park from Heater and Rob,
Hala at Hamaca Maya
Jeanie's real estate booth in Guayabitos
market Mondays and Thursday La Penita
market,
Xaltemba Restaurant
Bob and linda Gibbs at Casita La Penita
and of course from the los Amigos booth in
front of the church every Thursday.
Thanks to all the supporters of these projects......Johan
Amigos La Penita Meeting Next Meeting
The next meeting of Los Amigos de La Peñita
will be on Monday, February 22 at Restaurante La Palapa de Guty,
Circuito Libertad #4.
There will be a social gathering at 6:30 with the formal
meeting starting at 7:00.
Key agenda items will be:
-
Final
report on Fiesta 2010
-
Notice
of Motion: Changes to Operating Policy
-
Potential for 3x1 Funding
- Proposals for 2010-2011 Projects
All are welcome.
The Youth
Time Bomb is Ticking Away
Kent Paterson - Frontera NorteSur
go to
original
February 21, 2010
Flashed around the world, the image of Luisa Maria Davila, mother of two
of the Ciudad Juarez, Mexico youths murdered in the now infamous Villas
de Salvarcar massacre last month, scolding Mexican President Felipe
Calderon for long-running official indifference photographically
captured the reality of a city now nearly destroyed by criminal
violence.
While Villas de Salvarcar undoubtedly ranks high among the more
notorious episodes of Mexico's so-called narco war, the bloodshed
registered that unforgettable night is far from exceptional in terms of
the ages of the victims and their victimizers. Less covered by the
international press, for example, was the killing of eight young people
at a Torreon nightclub the same weekend as the Villas de Salvarcar
slaughter.
Leaving aside questions of guilt or innocence for a moment, it stands
out that a great number of the estimated 15,000-17,000 people slain in
drug-related violence in Mexico since late 2006 are young people. Of
1,623 murders in Ciudad Juarez in 2008, 1,073 were committed against
persons less than 26 years of age, according to the Reforma news
service. In a recent piece, veteran Mexican journalist Raymundo Riva
Palacio reported that 54 percent of the victims of the narco war during
2008 and 2009 were aged 21 to 35.
According to Riva Palacio, the overwhelming majority were males, "and
practically all of them died by guns."
In Mexico, narco and other forms of criminal violence disproportionately
involve the young, and the victims and victimizers are getting younger
and younger. The violence affects certain regions of the country more
than others, with two of the hardest-hit areas being Ciudad Juarez and
the state of Chihuahua in the north, and the state of Guerrero in the
south, which encompasses the internationally-known resorts of Acapulco
and Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo. The link is not accidental.
From Guerrero, marijuana, cocaine and opium for heroin flow north to
Ciudad Juarez, where a local drug market of perhaps more than 100,000
users assures a thriving black market economy.
A sampling of events in Guerrero during the past few weeks is
illustrative of the nature of the violence claiming many Mexican youths.
As the Guerrero State Congress prepared to celebrate a historic
anniversary in Iguala late last month, the bodies of seven men estimated
to range from 20 to 25 years of age were found tossed around the city.
The victims had been bound, tortured and probably suffocated. All bore
cryptic messages labeling them as kidnappers, money lenders and thieves
with degrees. The daily El Sur newspaper later reported that one of the
victims, Fernando Delgado Torres, was a minor.
Young faces, especially those of men, etch the portraits plastered on
the posters of the disappeared. In Zihuatanejo, tourists who snap out of
their margarita dazes might notice the huge banner draped on the fence
of City Hall pleading for information on the whereabouts of Alberto
Acosta Apreza, missing since September 2009. Attentive pedestrians might
also see one of the small posters placed around town for Eduardo
Hernandez Santacruz, reported disappeared since January 26 of this year.
On February 1, "collateral damage," in the vocabulary of war planners,
claimed the life of five-year-old Yoselin Guadalupe Padilla Corona, who
was riding a truck that was ambushed by gunmen in Quecheltanango.
Meanwhile in Acapulco, Julieta Fernandez, president of the local DIF
family shelter, told the press that street children as young as five
years of age were addicted to drugs and being used to sell illicit
substances.
On Mexico's Gulf Coast, developments are as alarming as those on
Guerrero's Pacific Coast In February, young offenders rioted at a
Tabasco "correctional center," perhaps in a dress rehearsal for the
frequent adult prison riots which have turned Mexican penitentiaries, in
the judgment of prominent journalist and commentator Miguel Angel
Granados Chapa, into de facto execution chambers. In another news item,
Tabasco authorities announced the detention of a 13-year-old girl
allegedly trained as a hired assassin.
Smug and racist North Americans are prone to dismiss the violence
described above as additional examples of Mexico's failed state, or as
inevitable outcomes of an inherently violent culture. Can't happen in
the Good Old USA? Think again. Immediately, the inner-city crack wars of
the 1980s come to mind.
Lately, it's been fashionable in some quarters to explain away Villas de
Salvarcar and similar atrocities as the inevitable consequences of the
loss of family values and moral turpitude. But there is much more to an
explanation.
Writing in Mexico's Proceso newsweekly last month, columnist Axel
Didriksson commented on a recent study by Jack Goldstone on the world's
new "population bomb."
In Mexico's case, Didriksson noted, 40 percent of young people aged
16-18 do not study. According to Didriksson, 10 million young people are
not enrolled in school. "Almost one million-and-half youths do not have
stable work, and more than two million who obtained higher education do
not have adequate work," he added.
In Ciudad Juarez, academic researchers have coined a term for the idle
youth population—Ninis, which translates into no work or no study.
Quoted in Proceso, Professor Maria Teresa Marrufo of the Autonomous
University of Ciudad Juarez said another 7,000 local children have lost
one or both parents to the drug violence during the past two years.
Viewed through Didriksson's demographic lens, it is safe to predict that
an almost endless stream exists of future drug consumers, dope dealers,
hired killers and other illegal professionals. Unless, of course,
economic, social and political conditions undergo radical changes.
"Really, we are facing a time bomb," Didriksson concluded.
For Marrufo, the situation in her city is a "social catastrophe."
The youth crisis is not exclusive to Mexico. Citing the Center for Labor
Market Studies at Northeastern University, the Washington, D.C.-based
Center for American Progress (CAP) reported this month that the number
of young people aged 20-24 who attend school in the US dropped by 10
percent during the last two years. For those in school, skyrocketing
tuition in many states promises many a post-graduate, job-thin future of
debt servitude.
Young people are being denied gainful employment in massive numbers. And
as always, communities of color are disproportionately affected by the
unemployment crisis. According to the CAP, at least 14 percent of
African-American adolescents and 23 percent of low-income Latinos in the
same age range are unable to find a job. Shirley Sagawa, a CAP visiting
fellow, noted that many youths "could wind up permanently marginalized
economically."
What shreds will the youth bomb leave if it blows up north of the
border?
Kent Paterson is the editor of Frontera NorteSur, a free, on-line,
U.S.-Mexico border news source.
Frontera NorteSur (FNS)
Center for Latin American and Border Studies
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, New Mexico
Riviera
Nayarit Sets Sail: Nautical Extravaganza Will Showcase the Destination
in 2010
Rafael Torres - rivieranayarit.com
February 16, 2010
|
| Nautical Extravaganza will bring eleven
spectacular events together in a month of unprecedented
activity. For more information, visit
NauticalExtravaganza.com. |
|
|
Riviera Nayarit is positioned to become a top maritime destination,
welcoming a much anticipated series of nautical events from February
27th through March 20th that are being hailed as Riviera Nayarit's
"Nautical Extravaganza."
Leading the forefront is the maritime "crown jewel," the new Marina
Riviera Nayarit in La Cruz de Huanacaxtle. The biggest marina in Mexico,
the Marina Riviera Nayarit, has 341 slips that can accommodate yachts up
to 400 feet. The marina, along with Riviera Nayarit's pristine coastline
and beaches, allow for Riviera Nayarit to seamlessly evolve into a
renowned nautical destination.
In 2010, Riviera Nayarit will host a variety of nautical events,
including the internationally renowned Regatta Copa Mexico, which will
showcase the destination's water-friendly appeal; from boat races, to
dry land beach competitions, to the Latin America boat show, to the
final event, the Regatta Bahia de Banderas.
The major highlights of the Riviera Nayarit Nautical Extravaganza are:
Desafio 2012 (The Challenge)
Tania Elias Calles will make the journey from Los Cabos to Riviera
Nayarit (approximately 500 miles) without touching ground or assistance.
Beginning on February 27th, and after her 48 hours, she will be welcomed
to the Bahía de Banderas.
MEXORC Oceanic Race, February 27 - March 6
In conjunction with the Copa Mexico, the MEXORC Oceanic Race will be
held from consisting of 7 days of racing with a lay day period including
the Presidents Cup distance race, Mariettas Islands distance race and
windward-leeward races.
Regatta Copa Mexico, February 27 - March 13
The Regatta Copa Mexico is a joint effort between the Mexican Government
and the Mexican Sailing Associations. It is a great international
perpetual event, with multi-classes that takes place every two years,
throughout the coasts and ports of Mexico. This year, the events will
take place in Banderas Bay, Riviera Nayarit.
Beach Volleyball championships, March 3-7
Round robin games with national teams from Brazil, Spain, the United
States and Mexico.
J24 Regatta, March 7-13, 2010
Ten races over five days featuring the one-design keelboat; ideal for
racing competitions with family togetherness in mind.
Latin America Boat Show, March 11 - 15
The second Latin America Boat Show held in Mexico will be at the Marina
Riviera Nayarit at La Cruz where more than 120 boats will be on display
for all boat enthusiasts and visitors to view.
Regatta Bahia de Banderas, March 16 - 20
Held in Nuevo Vallarta and hosted by the Marina Riviera Nayarit, the
intent of this bi-annual event is to increase tourism to the region and
to develop the Sailing Culture in Mexico. The five day event is intended
for competitive fun designed for coastal and offshore cruising.
How
Mexico's Drug War May Become Its Iraq
Ioan Grillo - Time
go to original
February 22, 2010
|
| A cross built by residents in the Ciudad
Juarez graveyard symbolizes the death of a once thriving
city. (Janet Jarman/Corbis) |
|
|
The no-nonsense government ads flash onto prime time Mexican TV
between soccer games and steamy soap operas. Bullet-filled corpses
are shown sprawled on the concrete; ski masked special forces are
seen storming down residential streets; and bearded bulky capos are
dragged before the cameras in handcuffs. "Today these killers are
behind bars," says a booming voice-over. "We work using force for
your security."
But while the spots boast of victories and progress, a rising chorus
of voices across Mexico are complaining that the military approach
to Mexico's crime problem is not bearing fruit. Leftists and human
rights groups have slammed the central role of the army and
paramilitary police since President Felipe Calderón took office in
2006 and ordered 50,000 troops to fight the drug gangs. But in
recent weeks, critics have been joined by some of the government's
key allies, including members of Calderon's conservative National
Action Party, regional business lobbies and the Roman Catholic
Church. Such pressure could affect how the president sees through
the drug war during the second half of his term, which ends in 2012.
Most criticism centers on the relentless gang-related violence,
which has only worsened, even as thousands of traffickers are jailed
or extradited to the U.S. In total, there have been more than 16,000
murders that appear to be drug related since Calderón kicked off the
crackdown, with this January being the bloodiest month yet. Doubters
now say soldiers may be inflaming the gang killings rather than
diminishing them. "Security is not directly or principally related
to the ability to use force, the number of police officers, the
degree of militarization or the purchasing of weapons," the Mexican
bishops conference said in a Feb. 15 letter to the government. "With
the passage of time, the participation of the armed forces in the
fight against organized crime has provoked uncertainty in the
population."
Others argue that the violence has mushroomed because the army is
directing its attacks at certain cartels, a tactic that only
strengthens the rivals of those gangs. Rep. Manuel Clouthier, who
hails from a prominent National Action Party family, lashed out in a
series of interviews this week that the omnipotent Sinaloa cartel of
his native state has not been targeted. "In some places they have
hit the gangsters. But in my state, everyone can see that the bad
guys are being allowed to work," he told TIME. "There is a mafia
cabal of criminals, politicians and businessmen and it has simply
not been touched." Much of the bloodshed in Mexico is blamed on the
efforts of this Sinaloa cartel to expand into new territories. Party
leaders and officials swiftly hit back, saying that all criminal
groups have been equally attacked.
There are also signs the Mexican public is losing its stomach for
the fight. A Feb. 15 survey by Buendia & Laredo found that 50% of
respondents thought the government offensive against drug
traffickers has made the country more dangerous, while only 21%
thought it had made it safer. Another 20% said it had had no effect
and 9% gave no comment. Half of respondents also said they
personally felt threatened by criminal violence, up from 35% who
said they felt threatened in a 2008 survey.
These doubts come as the United States continues to throw its weight
behind the campaign. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano
signed an agreement for enhanced cooperation in the Mexican capital
this week, declaring that "the collaboration between Mexico and the
United States has never been stronger." The latest accord follows a
hike in funding for the so-called Mérida Initiative to beef up
Mexican security forces. In total, the U.S. has pledged $1.6 billion
worth of equipment and training for its neighbor, including eight
Black Hawk and 13 Bell helicopters for Mexico's army and federal
police.
Whatever the criticism, Calderón himself insists that he will not
steer away from his military strategy. Since taking power, he has
identified with the fight against cartels as his personal battle
more than any other Mexican president, breaking with tradition to
don a green army uniform in one address to frontline soldiers.
This Friday, he went to the top military school to praise the
efforts of the troops. "To confront these criminals without
scruples, the presence of the Armed Forces has been and is
fundamental," he said. It would also be tough for Calderón to send
the soldiers back to the barracks while the violence is worsening
for fear it would concede a defeat. This quandary has led critics
here to regularly compare the conflict to the Iraq War in Bush's
second term; it is a war in which the president cannot claim
victory, cannot pull out of, and which only gets worse.
The Good
Life in Xalisco Can Mean Death in the United States
Sam Quinones - Los Angeles Times
go to original
February 17, 2010
|
| People line up for a turn on the Himalaya
carnival ride at the newly enriched summer festival in Mexico's
Xalisco County. (Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times) |
|
|
Xalisco, Mexico - As a boy, Esteban Avila had only a skinny old horse
and two pairs of pants, and he lived in a swampy neighborhood called The
Toad. He felt stranded across a river from the rest of the world and
wondered about life on the other side.
He saw merchants pay bands to serenade them in the village plaza and
dreamed of doing the same.
He had a girlfriend but no hope of marrying her because her father was
the village butcher and expected a good life for his daughter.
Then Avila found an elixir and took it with him when, at 19, he went to
the United States. It was black-tar heroin, and selling it turned his
nightmare into a fairy tale.
Avila was part of a migration of impoverished Mexican sugar cane farm
workers that has had profound repercussions for cities and towns across
America. Over the last decade and a half, immigrants from the county of
Xalisco (population 44,000), in the Pacific Coast state of Nayarit, have
developed a vast and highly profitable business selling black-tar
heroin, a cheap, potent, semi-processed form of the drug.
Their success stems from a business model that combines discount
pricing, aggressive marketing and customer convenience. Addicts phone in
their orders, and drivers take the heroin to them. Crew bosses sometimes
make follow-up calls to make sure addicts received good service.
The heroin networks need workers, and the downtrodden villages of
Xalisco County have provided a seemingly endless supply of young men
eager to earn as much money as possible and take it back home.
As black-tar heroin ruined lives in the United States, it pulled the
poorest out of poverty in Xalisco. Drug earnings paid for decent houses
and sometimes businesses, and it made dealers' families the social
equals of landowners. By addicting the children of others, they could
support their own.
"I'd be lying if I said I was sorry," Avila said. "I did it out of
necessity. I was tired of birthdays without gifts, of my mother
wondering where the food was going to come from."
Boom times
Xalisco County begins a couple of miles south of the state capital of
Tepic and spreads across 185 square miles of lush, hilly terrain. A
highway curves through it to the tourist resort of Puerto Vallarta to
the south.
The county seat, also named Xalisco, is a town of narrow cobblestone
streets and 29,000 people. For many years, dependence on the sugar cane
harvest kept the county poor. Houses had tin roofs, and few had proper
plumbing.
Xalisco ostensibly still depends on sugar cane. But it is now among the
top 5% of Mexican counties in terms of wealth, according to a government
report.
Enormous houses with tile roofs and marble floors have gone up
everywhere. In immigrant villages across Mexico, people build the first
stories of houses and leave iron reinforcing bars protruding skyward
until they save the money to add second stories. Often the wait is
measured in years. In Xalisco, homes go up all at once.
Off Xalisco's central plaza are swanky women's clothing stores and law
offices. Young men drive new Dodge Rams, Ford F-150s and an occasional
Cadillac Escalade. Outside town are new subdivisions with names like
Bonaventura and Puerta del Sol.
Xalisco's Corn Fair, held every August, is another measure of the town's
newfound wealth. Twenty years ago, the fair's basketball tournament was
a modest affair. Teams from surrounding villages competed against one
another in ragged uniforms.
Then "the boys began going north and getting into the business," said
one farmer. "The town just began to come up."
The tournament purse grew so fat that semi-pro teams began competing.
Last year, with first prize worth close to $3,000, semi-pro squads from
Mazatlan, Monterrey and Puerto Vallarta competed, each with American
ringers. One local village sponsored a team made up entirely of hired
players, reputedly paid for by a heroin trafficker.
Sharing in this wealth to varying degrees are 20 villages scattered
across the hills south of the town of Xalisco. Esteban Avila was born in
one of them, a place named for the Mexican revolutionary hero Emiliano
Zapata.
Avila, now 35, is in a federal prison in Texas, serving a 15-year term
for conspiracy to distribute heroin. He described his odyssey in
interviews with The Times on the condition that he would not talk about
anyone else in the drug business.
When he was a boy, the village of Emiliano Zapata was poor and notorious
for its violence. In The Toad, where Avila's family lived, roofs leaked
and the hills were the bathroom. When Avila and his friends went to the
village basketball court, other boys ran them off with rocks and
insults.
Later, Avila wanted to join the Mexican Navy or highway patrol, but only
sons of well-connected fathers were admitted, he said.
"In the United States, there's no need to be a criminal to live well,"
he said. "But in Mexico, they throw you into a dead end."
At 14, Avila traveled to Tijuana, then slipped across the border and
made his way to the San Fernando Valley.
"I wanted to look for some new way to live, something with a future," he
said. "I wasn't going to find it in the village."
But he didn't want to go to school and he was too young to work. So he
returned to Emiliano Zapata and bided his time working in the sugar cane
fields.
In the mid-1990s, men from Xalisco began selling black-tar heroin across
America. A friend who ran a heroin network recruited Avila to work as a
driver in Phoenix.
Avila, then 19, accepted. Every day, he drove around the city, his mouth
full of tiny, uninflated balloons, each filled with a tenth of a gram of
heroin. Addicts phoned in orders. A dispatcher relayed them to Avila,
who delivered the drugs to customers and collected payment.
Five months later, he took a bus back to Xalisco with $15,000 in his
pocket. He was wearing new Levi's 501s - a prized garment in many
Mexican villages.
"That night was the first time we had more than enough to eat," Avila
said.
His parents never asked how he made the money.
In the Xalisco system, drivers commonly strike out on their own after a
few years and set up delivery operations. In 1997, Avila told his boss
that he was going to seek his own heroin market in New Mexico.
A friend told Avila about addicts in Santa Fe, so he went there. He
found those addicts and through them many more, including dozens in
Taos, Xalisco's sister city. A half hour away, he discovered the town of
Chimayo, in the verdant Espanola Valley, with one of the highest rates
of heroin addiction in the country. Soon, Avila's cheap, powerful black
tar drove out the powder heroin that addicts had been using.
Avila declined to reveal where he got his heroin, other than to say that
Nayarit's mountains are filled with small poppy farms and that black tar
is easily made.
In Albuquerque, he bought a counterfeit birth certificate and driver's
license; he crossed the border posing as an American from then on. Back
in Xalisco, he hired drivers from villages near his own, paying
smugglers to bring them across the border.
"Some drivers just wanted enough to build a decent house or buy a new
truck. Then they were coming back home," he said. "Some wanted to fly,
like I did."
He returned to Emiliano Zapata and for three years managed the business
from Mexico, returning to the United States only occasionally. At home,
families asked him for loans; some paid him back. Poor young men asked
him for work up north.
He took his family to fine restaurants in Tepic, where they nervously
rubbed elbows with the city's middle class.
"Our life changed entirely," he said. "It gave me more self-assuredness.
If you have a peso in your pocket, you feel lighter of spirit. The
weight of life is easier to carry."
At a fiesta in Xalisco's plaza one night, Avila and a friend paid for 11
hours of banda music, plus alcohol: a $3,000 tab.
He paid for one sister's quinceañera and another's wedding. He paid for
a sister to attend college in Tepic, the first in her family to go.
Now he could give his girlfriend the life her parents expected. He stole
her away to a Puerto Vallarta hotel for a weekend - which in the village
meant they were married.
Avila hired workers to build a house for his parents and men to help his
father in the field. He hired a maid to help his mother. He moved his
wife and children away from Emiliano Zapata and its violence and low
expectations.
His father was greeted on village streets by those better off than he.
He drank less, yelled less. One day, seeing his son with some cocaine,
Avila's father took him aside and counseled him not to use drugs and to
avoid bad habits.
"For the first time, I felt he spoke to me the way a father should speak
to a son," Avila said.
Heroin opened vistas for other sugar cane cutters' sons as well. The
village's moneyed classes no longer could talk down to farmers.
"We were all equal now," Avila said.
Over the next decade, networks of Xalisco dealers moved across the
country, often competing with one another in such cities as Columbus,
Ohio; Portland, Ore.; and Nashville.
Much of the money they earned flooded south, reaching the poorest of
Xalisco County, people used to cutting cane for $8 a day.
So as quickly as dealers were arrested, they were replaced by others
from Xalisco betting they could elude capture long enough to return with
money for a house, truck or other mark of success.
One heroin driver from the village of Aquiles Serdan built a house with
an electric garage-door opener, awing his neighbors.
Another former sugar cane worker, speaking on condition of anonymity,
described the impression made by the device. "Everybody watched while
the door went up by itself," he said. "People would walk by and look at
it."
Seeing young men his age return from the United States with money, this
man decided he wanted some too. He became a heroin driver in a
southeastern U.S. city.
"I had a wife and son and I couldn't support them," he said. "I thought
I'd buy land, and build us a house." He said half the young men in
Aquiles Serdan left to try their luck as drivers.
In his first six weeks last year, he earned $7,000, more than he'd ever
had at one time. Then he was arrested. He pleaded guilty to distributing
heroin and faces up to 10 years in prison.
Back in Aquiles Serdan, 20 new houses have gone up, several with
electric garage doors.
Operation Tar Pit
In 2000, Esteban Avila's fairy tale ended. He was among nearly 200
people arrested in a dozen cities in a federal investigation dubbed
Operation Tar Pit. The case began in Chimayo after a rash of overdoses -
85 deaths in three years, representing 2% of the town's population.
The arrests marked the first time the Drug Enforcement Administration
had pieced together the national reach of Xalisco dealers. In Xalisco,
the busts had an almost recessionary effect. "The fiesta was dead.
Nobody was coming to the plaza," said a man who lived there at the time,
speaking on the condition that he not be identified.
The easy money Avila made turned out to be the hardest of his life. His
children are growing up without him.
Still, heroin lifted his family's horizons. Avila believes that poor
people get no breaks they don't make for themselves. Had he been able to
achieve anything by legal means, he would have, he says.
The truth of that is hard to know. But it does seem that black-tar
heroin, as it destroyed lives in America, remade his own in Mexico and
channeled his gumption unlike anything else available to him at the
time.
"At least I'm not going to die wanting to know what's on the other side
of that river," he said from prison. "I already know."
Driving Safely in Mexico
Driving safely in Mexico tips by Bill and Dot
Bell
Click here to read more
Click here to read
about the orphans of Tepic and how one man fishing dream became a Fishin
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