In this monthly series, we republish a few of the headlines from our January editions 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 years ago.
1967
Classrooms needed
The Department of Education estimates that 18,500 children between the ages of six and 14 do not know how to read and write and that another 42,000 over the age of 14 have never attended school. The blame was placed on a lack of classrooms in the poor areas of the city.
Rats eat crops
Lakeshore crops around Chapala suffer damage from country rats as high as 85 percent of their value each year, according to Jalisco’s secretary of agriculture. Together with Michoacan and Guanajuato, some 240,000 dollars will be spent in eradication campaigns this year.
1977
Chapala asks expats for anti-crime funds
Chapala’s new mayor announced this week that he will ask foreign residents living along the north shore of Lake Chapala for financial assistance to provide radios so local police patrols can tackle the wave of car thefts that has recently erupted — all seven were stolen from foreign residents. Radios would allow road blocks to be quickly set up in Chapala and Jocotepec to keep thieves boxed in.
American prisoners want to stay
None of the 17 prisoners from the United States in Jalisco’s state penitentiary — most all of whom are serving sentences from four to eight years for possession of small quantities of drugs — are in favor of the prisoner exchange treaty being completed by the Mexican and U.S. governments. The prisoners said they preferred to complete their sentences in this country because the Mexican penal system is “more humane.” Conjugal visits by prisoner’s wives are permitted here, whereas in the U.S. prisoners are only allowed visits by their wives twice a month with iron bars separating them. They do not have to wear uniforms, can dine at several prison restaurants or cook on grills in their cells, are permitted to return to bed after roll call and can go to the prison orchard to sunbathe or play basketball.
1987
Murder among expats shocks lakeside
Joe James Kovach, 66, murdered his wife’s best friend, Donna Leason McCready, 45, stabbing her three times while he and his wife, Barbara, were having dinner at the victim’s home January 9. Investigating officers reported that Barbara Kovach said she had told her husband of 35 years some time ago she wanted a divorce and was returning to the United States to seek work. Other sources said that she and McCready planned to leave Mexico on January 11, for the United States, where McCready planned to sell property and buy a home for herself and Barbara Kovach near Palm Springs, California. Both Joe Kovach and McCready were active in the Lakeside Little Theatre. Kovach’s most recent role was the psychiatrist in “Duet for One,” in which he was directed by McCready.
Gov’t ignores nuke plant protests
Mexico’s first nuclear reactor, built near at Laguna Verde near the cities of Jalapa and Veracruz on the Gulf coast, was being fueled for preliminary testing and planned electricity production as early as September of this year, as the Chamber of Deputies opened the first of four public forums to examine the advantages and drawbacks of the nation’s domestic nuclear energy program. Nicknamed Cherno-verde by locals protesting the plant, it has been unanimously condemned by the Republic’s conservationist groups on energy supply, economic, social, political and ecological grounds. Originally proposed in 1971 when Mexico’s proven oil reserves were not fully known, Laguna Verde’s costs have jumped from an original US$128 million budget to the US$3.2 billion estimated last year by the energy secretariat. Local conservation groups claim the final cost will be closer to US$7 billion.
1997
Belize man charged in murder of Canadian
Donald William Frasier, 67, from Ontario, was tied up, beaten and suffocated in his fifth-floor apartment on the corner of avenidas Chapultepec and La Paz in the upmarket “Pink Zone” of Guadalajara December 19. The body was discovered the following afternoon by long-time friend and neighbor Gary Pickering, who noticed the door to the apartment ajar. Within 22 hours after his body was found, the case was solved. Edward Anthony Itza, a 26-year-old man from Belize, was arrested for the murder after attempting to use the credit card of the deceased man in a local bar, that only accepted cash. While Itza was cooling his heels at the state attorney general’s office headquarters, a detective overheard the name on the credit card mentioned and put two and two together.
Smog control urgent
If Guadalajara residents are unwilling to comply with government efforts to reduce air pollution, the city will soon have smog problems as great as Mexico City, the director of the State Ecology Commission Ramon Gonzalez told this newspaper in early January. More than 75 percent of air pollution in the state can be attributed to passenger vehicles. Some 70 percent of private autos in the city are pre-1986 models without catalytic converters. The state began an emissions inspection program January 1 of this year. Gonzalez is pushing the legislature to make the program mandatory.
2007
Mexicans come home
As U.S. housing starts fell 23.5 percent between October 2004 and October 2006, and the price of existing homes began to fall, many Lakeside area families are seeing their sons and daughters return … and looking for jobs. Out-of work auto mechanics, carpenters, plumbers, cooks, masons, gardeners, maids and even computer savvy youngsters and real estate agents were knocking on doors locally looking for work after losing their jobs in the United States. Also hitting the area hard are the lack of dollar remittances these workers had been sending back to their families here.
Jalisco animals protected
Tougher penalties for animal abuse and clearer jurisdiction for prosecuting offenders were laid out in a new animal rights law pushed through Jalisco’s Congress in the last week of 2006. This law replaces the 1982 code that was deemed inadequate and vague to the point of being unenforceable. Under the new law recognized animal protection agencies are empowered to intervene when they witness animal abuse.