General News

The modus operandi of a break-in reported last week at a home on the west side of Ajijic suggests the reappearance of the infamous pepper-spray bandit who has targeted numerous expat residences over the past several years. 

Citizen’s Movement (MC) candidate Moises Anaya is promising greater empowerment of citizens if he wins the election to be Chapala’s next mayor.

Running at that head of a slate made up almost entirely of men and women who have never held public office, Anaya pledges to establish a citizen council of elected, unsalaried representatives from each of the municipality’s 30 barrios, who will participate in decision-making by advising him on complaints, recommendations and the need for public works projects voiced by their neighbors. The body will also be encouraged to review Chapala’s public finances.

In addition, Anaya states his intention of holding a plebiscite at the half-way point of his administration, vowing to resign the mayor’s post if constituents are not satisfied with his performance.  

After nearly two years in the works, Jocotepec’s newly finished community hospital went into operation on Saturday, May 16. 

Heeding instructions in a circular issued last month by Mayor Joaquin Huerta, nine Chapala government employees have taken temporary leave of absence from their jobs while supporting the election campaigns of various local candidates.  According to press office chief Carlos Alberto Diaz Mendoza, the payment of salaries for absent staffers has been suspended until they return to their posts following the June 7 elections. 

Given an opportunity to air their views on how to address Chapala’s most urgent problems, contenders for the mayor’s seat inexplicably side stepped the local government’s financial crunch at a candidates’ forum held at the Instituto Tecnologico Superior (ITS) campus on Tuesday.

Other than a brief delay in the arrival of tourists coming in the for the extended holiday weekend, the Chapala-Jocotepec corridor was not directly impacted by the May 1 narco-blockades. 

In a story published in the May 8 edition of Guadalajara daily El Informador, Chapala was one of 12 Jalisco municipalities singled out for spending more resources on servicing public debt than on funding public works. 

Adding to what has become a historic year of international support for Chapala’s civil protection and firefighting squad (UPCB), the Rotary Club of Playa Venice Sunrise recently donated a second-hand ambulance to beef up the company’s emergency rescue fleet.