The Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG) flexed its muscles May 1, unleashing a violent statewide response to a federal operation aimed at capturing one of its leaders.

Suspected cartel members armed with high-calibre rifles terrified motorists and pedestrians by torching some 40 buses and trucks at busy intersections in the Guadalajara metro area, as well as other cities in Jalisco, including  Puerto Vallarta. 

A major makeover of the unsuccessful Ciudadela mall in Zapopan will include the construction of at least 500 apartments and a new name: Urban Village.

Lower-priced tickets are already sold out for the Guadalajara appearance of internist, endocronologist, best-selling author and alternative medicine and spirituality advocate Deepak Chopra, who is set to give a presentation in simultaneously translated English at the cavernous Teatro Galerias in about two weeks, on Sunday, May 17, 6 p.m. 

Cycling activists upset at an apparent snub by Jalisco Governor Aristoteles Sandoval staged an unusual demonstration this week in the Guadalajara city center.   Led by members of the Bicicleta Blanca (White Bicycle) cooperative, cyclists from 17 groups spent 24 consecutive hours pedalling around the Plaza Liberacion in a bid to get the governor to acknowledge a strongly-worded letter they gave him a month ago. The petition detailed the shortcomings of the state government’s efforts to modernize the Guadalajara metro area’s disorderly and unsafe streets and make them safer for cyclists and pedestrians. It also listed a series of measures that should be introduced in favor of non-motorized transport in the city.

Traders from Guadalajara’s Corona Market, destroyed in a fire in May 2014, have been stepping up protests outside city hall in a bid to get assurances from the mayor that they will be allocated spaces in the new market currently under construction on the original site.  The vendors say they have only received verbal promises that their spots are guaranteed – with the same size puestos and rents – but demand ratification in writing. One trader, a 61-year-old woman suffering from cancer and diabetes, says she will camp out in the plaza until she receives an answer from Mayor Ramiro Hernandez. 

Traders, many of whom are second or third generations tenants, are fearful that authorities will give priority to new vendors willing to pay higher rents.  Some city officials have said they would like to bring in other kinds of food vendors to give the new commercial space a more upmarket ambience.

The new Corona Market is expected to be finished by the end of the year.

Dozens of clients were evacuated from the Diamonds Casino in Zapopan Monday after a fire broke out around midnight in the room housing the establishment’s generator.