General News

In Mexico, there’s a saying about the climate, “Febrero loco y Marzo otro poco” (Crazy February and March a bit too). Judging by the wave of unpredictable weather that hit Jalisco this week, there certainly seems to be some truth to the dicho. 

Talking on the phone and texting at the wheel aren’t the only “no-nos” that can distract drivers and provoke accidents, some Jalisco state legislators are pointing out.

In a groundbreaking accomplishment last week, 27 young men and women from the Wixarika (Huichol) native Indian people of northern Jalisco and Nayarit graduated with law degrees after more than three years of study at the University of Guadalajara.

The pioneering Niuweme Project had been hailed as the first of its kind in Mexico for indigenous people.  During their studies, the students received specialist orientation in human rights, and worked closely with the Jalisco Commission for Human Rights (CEDH). 

CEDH President Felipe Alvarez Cibrian congratulated the students on their achievement and said he was sure they would take their knowledge back to their homes, and fight for human rights in their communities.

Recently videos posted online show a man feeding and petting crocodiles in the Boca Negra estuary in the area between the Airport and the mouth of the Rio Ameca on Banderas Bay in Puerto Vallarta. He has even invited tourists to mount crocodiles and have their photo taken. 

More than 50 of Jalisco’s leading business leaders met with Mexican President Enrique Peñã Nieto during a visit to Guadalajara made prior to his state visit to the United Kingdom.

As almost every corner store owner in Mexico knows, success breeds imitation, and tequila’s push into the Asian continent has brought a bevy of knockoffs sporting a minimal percent maguey juice, but proudly sporting the name “Tequila” on the label. Of particular ire to the Tequila Regulatory Board (Consejo Regulador de Tequila -CRT) are the 18 fake brands they found on Malaysian liquor store shelves. “They make it smell, taste and look like Tequila, but it isn’t,” said CRT director Ramon Gonzalez Figueroa.

Jalisco lawmaker Roberto Mendoza last week submitted a bill to Congress hat he says will allow those suffering with a terminal illness to “die with dignity.” 

The next few weeks are likely to prove the wisdom of the familiar Mexican proverb: Febrero loco y marzo otro poco. Weathermen at Mexico’s national meteorological service are forecasting sporadic rains and shifting climatic conditions for the remainder of February and into next month. 

It is not uncommon for February weather in our part of the planet to be marked by intermittent drizzle, cloudbursts and overcast skies, frequent low range temperatures mixed with abrupt jumps on the thermometer that may occur from one day to the next or within a 24-hour period, and powerful winds that seem to suddenly come out of nowhere.

However, in the overall forecast for the first three months of 2015 forecast, the El Niño phenomena rising from the Pacific Ocean is expected to provoke episodes of rain that will exceed the historical trimestral average. 

Over the first week of this month temperatures in Guadalajara have registered below the norm, with occasional showers.  And while predictions for next week anticipate sunnier skies bringing on a spike in daytime temperatures, it would be advisable to keep sweaters, jackets and umbrellas handy over the coming days.