Newfound aquifer may ease Mexico City's water woes

Los Angeles Times
By Richard Fausset
January 21, 2013

MEXICO CITY — It turns out a partial solution to this unwieldy megacity's vexing water problem may have been under residents' feet all along — albeit a long way down.

Mexico City government officials Monday announced the discovery of an aquifer more than a mile below ground that could provide enough water for at least some of the metropolitan area's 20 million residents. Officials say the aquifer could reduce the city's dependence on water pumped from outlying areas and reduce the strain on the region's shallower aquifers — the over-pumping of which is causing the city to sink precipitously, in some cases more than a foot each year. Read more.

Drought and savagery: a girl is murdered in Durango for taking water from a well

Desinformemonos: Americas Program Original Translation by David Feldman.
See Spanish Original.

Sofía Sánchez Morales. For more than two years, a bloody drought has been battering the northern part of Mexico. In Durango, one of the most affected states, the water scarcity took the life of Regina, an indigenous girl whose crime was taking water from a well. 

Mexico. In the state of Durango, in the northern part of the country, there are areas where it hasn’t rained for more than two years. During the last 22 months, 350,000 heads of cattle have been lost. The land is suffering from erosion and this has led to a decrease in agricultural production, 80 percent of which is dependent on storms. This means that it is completely dependent upon precipitation. The area’s residents struggle every day to find water and food.

Already by October 2011, the area’s reservoirs on average did not exceed 48 percent of their total capacity. The lack of water was even greater in the region’s semi-desert municipalities: Tlahualilo, San Juan de Guadalupe, Cuencamé, Simón Bolívar and Guadalupe Victoria. This has constituted a crisis for Duranguenses in several aspects of life, with hunger being the main—and most worrying—one.

Far from resolving itself or even improving, the problem only continues to get worse as the months pass. Just a few days ago—on Friday, June 8— the news of the murder of Regina Flores Flores broke. Regina was an eight-year-old girl from the indigenous community of El Chalete who had walked a kilometer and a half with her father in order to look for water in a well. When they reached the community of La Cantimplora, they were threatened by a man who ordered them not to take any water. After a verbal argument between the two men, father and daughter filled their three casks. The man, who had left the scene after the argument, returned with a gun, and proceeded to fire repeatedly. One of the bullets entered through Regina’s back, hitting her kidney and taking her life.

Hunger has led thousands of families to migrate, to the state capital, Zacatecas, Nayarit, Monterrey, and—for those who can—the United States. Although it is expected that this hurricane season will help in regards to the low water level, as a result of the migration there will be no one left to work the land.

Drug War Violence: 11 policemen die in an attack in Guerrero

CNN Mexico: "Gunmen ambushed a group of the State Preventive Police ... and killed 11 policemen and wounded another 14 in the municipality of Acapetlahuaya, located in the "hot country" (coastal) region of Guerrero, in southern Mexico. They were killed in an area where, hours earlier, 10 human heads  had been found with a message from a criminal group, according to the Ministry of Public Security (SSP).

The confrontation lasted just over half an hour. Among the injured were state and municipal police, but no attackers. Soldiers and federal, state and municipal police cordoned off the area of confrontation. There were hundreds of shell casings from AK-47 assault rifles, AR-15's, two grenades and four vehicles .

Hours before this confrontation, and in the same area, 10 human heads were found , those of three women and seven men in the municipality of Teloloapan, in northern Guerrero. So far no bodies have been found, said government spokesman for Guerrero, Arturo Martínez Núñez.

Since 2008, Guerrero has recorded an increase in the number of executions by organized crime groups. Guerrero's territory is disputed by the Sinaloa cartel, the South Pacific cartel, and the Independent Cartel of Acapulco. Acapulco is considered one of the five most violent cities in the world, according to a study presented in January this year by the Citizens Council on Public Safety and Criminal Justice." Spanish original

Drug trade--the money: US sees cash smuggling as critical in drug trafficking fight; experts doubt results are enough

AP/Washington Post: "U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement reported more than $150 million in seized cash and 428 arrests in bulk cash smuggling investigations in fiscal year 2011, up from $7.3 million and 48 in fiscal year 2005. But experts say measuring the impact of the beefed-up focus is tricky.

It’s hard to track cash’s origin and destination... Plus, the amount seized represents a fraction of the total money at stake. Estimates cited by federal authorities suggest at least $18 billion in illicit proceeds is smuggled across the southwestern border each year. "

Drug Trafficking: Record Meth Seizure Suggests Mexico has New 'Cash Crop'

InSight Crime: "The Mexican Army seized a record 15 tons of pure methamphetamine in Jalisco, in a sign that criminal groups in the region are increasingly reliant on the drug, which is easier to produce than cocaine, and immune to the drought currently affecting Mexico's marijuana crops.

... Methamphetamine is relatively cheap to produce and is not at the mercy of shifting weather patterns, unlike Mexico's marijuana and opium producers, who, according to the Mexican Army, have lost much of their crop to a prolonged drought in the northern border states. Along with stiffer competition from the US marijuana industry along the West Coast, this helps explain the jump in Mexico's meth production in recent years." read more

Drug War: Mexico Says Drought Also Hurting Marijuana Growers

ABC News: "The drought in northern Mexico is so bad that it has hurt even illicit drug growers and their normally well-tended crops of marijuana and opium poppies, a Mexican army commander said Monday. One effect of the lack of rains is that drug planting has "declined considerably," said Gen. Pedro Gurrola, commander of army forces in the state of Sinaloa, the cradle of the drug cartel by the same name." read more

Drought and Cold Snap Cause Food Crisis in Northern Mexico

NYTimes.com: "A drought that a government official called the most severe Mexico had ever faced has left two million people without access to water and, coupled with a cold snap, has devastated cropland in nearly half of the country.

The government in the past week has authorized $2.63 billion in aid, including potable water, food and temporary jobs for the most affected areas, rural communities in 19 of Mexico’s 31 states. But officials warned that no serious relief was expected for at least another five months, when the rainy season typically begins in earnest." read more