General News

One of the Jalisco’s grandest religious festivals (rivaling that of the Virgin of Zapopan in fervor but not in size) occurs February 2 — the festival of the Virgen de la Candelaria, celebrated in many places, throughout Jalisco (Acatic, El Arenal, El Cabezon, Encarnacion de Diaz, Guachinango), but no place like San Juan de los Lagos (250 kilometers northeast of Guadalajara) in the Los Altos region of the state.

Recently installed Jalisco Governor Enrique Alfaro has accused his predecessor  of “fabricating” crime statistics in the state during the past three years.

After weeks of playing her cards close to her chest, the state’s new culture secretary, Giovana Jaspersen, held a surprise press conference with Wednesday to introduce the newly selected artistic director of the Orquesta Filarmónica de Jalisco (OFJ), Monterrey-born Jésus Medina Villarreal, who in December guest-directed the OFJ and the Jalisco Ballet in Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker.”

Weeks of celebration of the town’s spiritual patron El Señor del Monte (The Lord of the Mount) endSunday, January 20.

The mayors of Jocotepec and Chapala are on board for a new era of transparency, joining in as affiliates of the Jalisco branch of the Colectivo Ciudadanos por Municipios Transparentes (CIMTRA), a national network of citizen advocacy groups related to government accountability.

Changes are afoot in the Jalisco government’s emissions testing program, known as the Programa de Verificación Vehicular Obligatorio.

Expectations for a rapid end to the acute fuel shortage in Jalisco were dashed Wednesday after Jalisco Governor Enrique Alfaro came back from a meeting with the nation’s interior minister in Mexico City with disappointing news.

The contract of Marco Parisotto, the Canadian musical director of the Jalisco Philharmonic Orchestra (JPO), has not been renewed, the state Culture Department (Secretaria de Cultura) announced in a press release prior to the Christmas holiday.