Last week, Tequila Mayor Diego Rivera Navarro was sitting in his office overseeing the affairs of one of Jalisco’s most popular Pueblos Mágicos.

This week, the Morena Party presidente municipal languishes in a cell in Guadalajara’s Puente Grande prison, accused of transforming the town hall into a criminal enterprise, extorting the very tequila industry that gives the region its name, and pledging allegiance to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).

For the third time, the Jalisco State Congress has voted against reforming the Civil Registry Law to allow transgender children to change their gender identity on birth certificates, openly defying a mandate from Mexico’s Supreme Court.

Dan Turnquist, a decades-long Guadalajara snowbird and former U.S. State Department employee, is contributing to a local musical project that expresses alarm over the political direction of the United States.

An elephant seal weighing approximately 1.5 tons drew crowds as it rested on Los Ayala beach in the municipality of Compostela, Nayarit on Tuesday, January 27. The same mammal was spotted in recent days in the bay of Santa Cruz de Miramar, also in Nayarit.

As January unfolds, the highways leading to the Jalisco town of San Juan de los Lagos transform into rivers of devout travelers. Right now, thousands of pilgrims are undertaking the traditional journey for the Fiesta de la Candelaria, one of the most significant religious events in western Mexico, culminating on February 2.

In a solemn ceremony this week, state and municipal authorities unveiled a bust of former Jalisco Governor Jorge Aristóteles Sandoval Díaz (2013-2018), who was shot to death in Puerto Vallarta five years ago.