The Guadalajara Reporter
Guadalajara's Largest English Newspaper
The private lives of public figures rarely make the front pages of Mexico’s “established” journals. An unwritten rule for many newspaper editors is to leave dirty laundry well hidden away from the public glare.
Members of the animal advocacy group Igualdad Animal staged a silent protest in Guadalajara’s Plaza de Armas on Saturday, April 4 to highlight what they say is the mistreatment of horses that pull the traditional carriages (calandrias) through the streets of the city center. The protestors also handed out more than 1,000 leaflets detailing the “inhumane abuse” the horses suffer as they take tourists through the traffic-filled historic downtown area. Calandria owners– and many city officials – dispute the activists’ claims, pointing out that the horses are in good health and subject to regular veterinary examinations.
Like many a seasoned politician, Jalisco Health Secretary Jaime Gonzalez Alvarez is sitting firmly on the fence when it comes to giving an opinion on the recently submitted legislation for “death with dignity” (assisted dying) legislation in the state.
The huge inflatable water slides installed in Guadalajara’s Plaza de Liberacion and Plaza Universidad over the Easter holiday were not only criticized by many Tapatiosas an “eyesore” but failed to attract the large numbers of participants as in previous years. Only 60,000 people used the slides, way below the sponsor’s target of 800,000. The installations also consumed a huge amount of water: 200,000 liters. The exercise cost the sponsor around three million pesos.
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.
The construction of the new Corona Market in downtown Guadalajara may be causing sinkholes and fractures to appear in properties surrounding the site. One expert this week warned of an “imminent danger” of collapse of the new structure – around 50 percent complete – and adjoining properties. The developers of the new covered market and officials at Guadalajara city hall reject the claim, and say the area is completely safe.
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.
In late April, Zapopan residents will get their first taste of the bike sharing system, Mi Bici, as 300 bicycles start appearing at 30 stations.
The city government has installed a booth in Plaza Juan Pablo II, the giant square facing the Basilica, where those interested in the program can obtain further information in person. The system for renting bicycles will be the same as in Guadalajara. The annual cost, using a credit card, is 365 pesos a year. Registration can be made through the online system on mibici.net.
At first, the bike stations will all be in Zapopan Centro, and later spread out across the municipality.
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.”
