A opposition councilor for the National Action Party (PAN), Maribel Alfeiran Ruiz, has said that between 250-300 young people between the ages of 11 and 17 are working as prostitutes in Guadalajara.  Alfeiran criticized the efforts of the municipal government  authorities in confronting the issue, which she said has become a visible problem in certain areas of the city center.  “Mexico is in second place, behind Thailand, in rates of child prostitution,” the politician claimed. 

A new free app, No Mas XT (No Mas Extorsiones), provides a warning if a call is coming in from a number filed on a national  database of known numbers used by criminals and extortionists.

The app, developed by a non-profit civic group, also allows the person receiving the call to immediately relay its details to a centralized monitoring system in Mexico City.

The app is intended to help guard against telephone extortion and give clues to the identities of the criminals.

Since December 2007, the Consejo Ciudadano de la Ciudad de México (Mexico City Citizens’ Council) has collected a database of 65,000 numbers and almost 8,000 bank account numbers used for extortion attempts.

One of the most common telephone extortion scams is for criminals to call someone and pretend they have kidnapped one of their family members, usually a son or daughter.   The victim is then told to deposit a ransom immediately in a bank account to secure their relative’s release.  

Guadalajara’s most famous clown, Lagrimita (Guillermo Cienfuegos), has collected enough signatures to secure his candidacy for city mayor. The performer and his team personally delivered dozens of gift-wrapped boxes to the offices of the Jalisco Electoral Institute containing 26,476 signatures, comfortably above the 23,887 he needed to appear on the ballot for the June 7 election. 

“We are overjoyed,” Cienfuegos declared. “We were sweating bullets for 40 days, but we managed it.”

The Citizen’s Movement (MC) candidate for mayor of Guadalajara, Enrique Alfaro, is leading several pre-election polls, suggesting that the two-party monopoly in the municipality may soon come to an end.  

The job of running Guadalajara city hall is considered the jewel in the crown of all the mayorships in Mexico, and would set up Alfaro as the leading contender for Jalisco governor in 2018.

Friends and family gathered as popular Mexican wrestler Hijo del Perro Aguayo was laid to rest Sunday at the Parque Funeral Colonias in Guadalajara. The athlete died Saturday morning from injuries sustained during a wrestling match in Tijuana Friday night.

Traditional pageants enacted out by enthusiastic local thespians will bring the Easter story to life, heightening personal identification with core values of the Christian faith.  Judeas, or Passion Plays, take place in the San Martin de las Flores community of Tlaquepaque, as well as in Ajijic and San Antonio Tlayacapan.