In this monthly series, we republish a few of the headlines from our December editions 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 years ago.
1966
Yankee fly-birds land
Suspense reached a climax recently when a private plane with engine trouble barely avoided a head-on collision with an oncoming bus when it touched down on the Manzanillo highway. Harvey Smith Jr. and a party of dove hunters from Guadalajara were headed for Tecoman when they made the surprise landing.
Another plane heading from Kernsville, California to Manzanillo ran out of gas over the Pacific Ocean. Just when the pilot thought they would all be going for a swim, the outline of the Melaque hotel loomed on the horizon. The made it, landing among the pigs and chickens of the highway “Y” close by in front of the pueblo of San Patricio. By the time gas was brought from Manzanillo, the foursome had decided the fishing was better in Melaque and they spent their vacation there … “the place that had saved their lives.”
Sweaters for
Chapala kids
Chapala’s informal Knitting Group has prepared a record 1,100 sweaters, as well as 25 baby blankets, this year to hand out to deserving poor children of the area. Harriet Rhodes was first-place winner among the Americans knitting with 90 completed garments. Valetin Zarate, a full–time employee of a local American family, was the overall winner with 165 sweaters completed, and who sent word that he could easily finish another 50.
1976
US headlines scare
If headlines here describing the dips and swivels of last week’s economic developments seem startling, confusing and, at moments, shocking, the 40-point headlines running on page one in many newspapers in the United States were even more so. For three days running last week Los Angeles area papers ran these headlines: “MEXICAN PEASANT REVOLT,” “MEXICAN PESO PANIC,” “MEXICANS BRING OVER MILLIONS IN DOLLARS.” As Reporter publisher Bob Thurston said in these pages last week, there is something about Mexico that makes the U.S. press run to hysterical conclusions and scare headlines every time a tortilla turns out lopsided. Not that Mexico isn’t going through one of the most difficult times it has faced in decades. It is and this disequilibrium will probably continue for some while, for incoming President Jose Lopez Portillo, while being an apparently brilliant man, is not a miracle worker.
Prez’s sister to save lake
“If a great effort is not made now to save Lake Chapala, 20 years from now there will be no lake,” according to Margarita Lopez Portillo, who is president of the Civic Committee to Save Lake Chapala. Calling for a vigorous approach to the solution of the contamination and clogging of Mexico’s largest inland sea, she announced that the Civic Committee will obtain the cooperation of each and every state, federal and municipal authority required to carry out a program to conserve the lake.
1986
Citizen outrage
Citizens of southern Guadalajara and Zapopan colonias were outraged after being informed that the 11-month delayed nitro-ducto (nitrogen pipeline) between the Industrial Zone and Avenida Patria to the Motorola plant was given the go-ahead, despite local fears over the safety of pumping of nitrogen through residential areas. The joint municipal decision was announced at a meeting to which no protesting citizen group was invited. Despite promises to citizens by both city councils that there would be ample consultation before a final decision was taken, most of the affected residents heard the news on the radio.
Busy Legion
In a spate of year-end activity, American Legion Post Three is hosting two dances (Christmas and New Year) and a raffle to benefit the Legion Little League Baseball program. They are also planning the first annual Chili Cookoff in Guadalajara and sponsoring the American Legion National High School Oratorical Contest.
1996
Dope plane
to LA busted
As Captain Roy Lotzar was making his final check of a Delta Airlines flight from Guadalajara to Los Angeles during a stopover in Puerto Vallarta, he noticed three shopping bags embossed with the Delta logo in the rear tail section. Fearing the bags might contain a bomb, he altered airport security. Federal agents found packages of marijuana in the bags and moved the craft to a hanger where it was searched thoroughly.
Lakeside burglar hits Manzanillo
The armed individual who burglarized Lakeside residents earlier this year has also been terrorizing expatriates in Manzanillo, Colima. Sergio Gomez Sanchez, 34, has reportedly committed more than 250 armed robberies in two countries, including the Mexican states of Baja California, Jalisco and Colima, as well as San Diego, California. Posters of Gomez Sanchez’ photograph have been put on bulletin boards in the Manzanillo area. He is a Mexican citizen who has U.S. residency and is fluent in English. According to Manzanillo accounts, he alters his appearance by wearing caps and toupees and occasionally shaving his eyebrows. During attacks he ties a bandana around the lower part of his face. He is wanted in Baja California for the murder of U.S. citizen Claude Falkenstein. Gomez Sanchez was jailed in 1990 after admitting to robbing at least 20 foreign residents in the Lakeside area in the late 1980s. After almost six years in the Puente Grande penitentiary he returned to a life of crime within three months. U.S. consular officials a puzzled why Gomez Sanchez was not extradited to Baja California.
2006
Moth threatens nopal
Cactoblastis cactorum, commonly known as the cactus moth is threatening to wipe out the iconic prickly-pear {nopal} cactus off the map of Mexico. Only a few kilometers off the coast of the Yucatan peninsula, on the vacation destination of Isla Mujeres, the cactus moth is already wreaking havoc. After discovering larvae there in August of this year. the Ministry of Agriculture set up a taskforce which is frantically trying to prevent the extremely aggressive plague from making the short hop to Cancun, where it could quickly run rampant through Mexico’s 83 varieties of nopal.
Troops enter Michoacan
More than 6,000 soldiers and federal police fanned out across Michoacan the second week of December as the new “hardline” Mexican government of just inaugurated President Enrique Calderon launched a massive crackdown on drug traffickers in the state. Operation Michoacan seeks to contain a crime wave that has seen more than 500 drug-related killings this year. Voices across the political spectrum applauded the deployment.