General News

As of this week, the Jalisco Attorney General’s Office (PGEJ) has now officially confirmed the identities of all but two of the 18 people whose dismembered remains were discovered on May 9 in two vehicles abandoned on the outskirts of Ixtlahuacan de los Membrillos. Additional body parts of the murder victims were found on May 12 concealed inside a freezer at criminal hideout located in Chapala’s Riberas del Pilar residential neighborhood.

Conventional wisdom disproves headlines in both the Guadalajara and foreign press suggesting that violent crime in the Lake Chapala area has caused an expatriate exodus.

According to conventional wisdom, the start of the summer rainy season at lakeside coincides with the June 13 Feast of Saint Anthony in San Antonio Tlayacapan.

More than a dozen conferences on retirement living in Mexico, a variety of cultural and social activities and a commercial expo of products and services geared for seniors are wrapped into the program for the Baby Boomers 50+ Living Show, scheduled for Friday, June 8 and Saturday, June 9 at the Hotel Real de Chapala, La Floresta.

In an effort to foil criminals who have taken advantage of the recent climate of fear in the lakeside area to prey on unwary residents, leaders of the Chapala Security Initiative (CSI) and police department chief Reynol Contreras lined up a June 1 orientation session to educate the public on the ins and outs of telephone extortion scams.

While lakeside area expats often complain of harassment by local traffic cops, the tables turned on Chapala’s traffic department (SVT) commandant Hector Magaña Rios, who was recently on the receiving end of vile abuse by an expat motorist.

Some 400 high school students and teachers arrived at Ajijic’s Malecon last Saturday to launch the Labyrinth of Peace meditation garden.

A small but energetic volunteer group is making significant headway in wiping out unsightly graffiti in the heart of Chapala.