
Six people were injured last Friday, one of them gravely, when a bridge under construction near the town of Tamazulápam in Oaxaca’s Sierra Norte region collapsed. El Universal quoted unnamed local residents as saying that the structure simply couldn’t support its own weight. The bridge would have connected the town of Tierra Caliente with Tamazulápam over the Salinas river. The injured were taken to the nearby Basic Community Hospital.
The newspaper El Imparcial reports that armed gunmen on a motorcycle stole more than 700,000 pesos in cash from Oaxaca city employees as they left the Banorte bank at Plaza Oaxaca with the cash in a satchel… The money is used to pay some employees’ wages in cash. The city employees told the paper they usually get a municipal police escort, but on this occasion had been told that no officers were available.
And a customer leaving the BBVA branch in Colonia Reforma was robbed at gunpoint of 1.3 million pesos in cash on the same day. The victim had left the bank and was heading into the parking lot when they were approached by an armed assailant on a motorcycle. El Imparcial reports that the armed motorcyclist was seen on security cameras talking to the driver of a passing police cruiser moments before.
Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador met with Chinese premier Xi Jingping at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum this week in San Francisco. Xi offered China’s assistance in helping the victims of Hurricane Otis in Acapulco get needed supplies.
President López Obrador will be meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden today. According to Reuters, the two are expected to discuss migration and the illegal trafficking of the drug fentanyl.
This coming Monday, November 20th, is an official holiday here in Mexico: Banks and schools will be closed in commemoration of the Mexican Revolution of 1910.
Support for today’s Oaxaca Newscast comes from Estudio 711 yoga and wellness studio, which will be participating in the 2nd annual wellness weekend tomorrow, Saturday the 18th, at Humboldt number 105. There will be free workshops, discounts on yoga packages and a raffle for free classes:
🌟 Discover wellness in action at the Second Wellness Weekend! Checkout our exciting workshops at Humboldt #105, Col. Centro
✨ Pilates Reformer
Barre and Fit Oaxaca @barreandfit.oax
🕤 Hora: 9:30 am
💲 Cost: $70.00
Sign up here
🤰 Fit Mom
@solatium.centrodeterapiafisica, Solatium Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Centeer in Oaxaca
🕚 Hora: 11:00 am
FREE!
Sign up here
💪 Barralates
@danceandfit.studiodf Dance & fit Studio by Daniela Fagoaga
🕧 Hora: 12:30 pm
FREE!
Sign up here
🌼 Flores de Bach
Star Blen @blen_oaxaca
🕑 Hora: 2:00 pm
FREE!
Sign up here
🧘♀️ Posturas de Yoga
Estudio 711
🕞 Hora: 3:00 pm
FREE!
Sign up here
Oaxaca’s public hospitals and clinics registered 98 new confirmed cases of dengue this week — more than twice the number of new cases confirmed last week. During the same week last year, there were only 12 confirmed cases of dengue. In other words, there were more than 8 times more confirmed cases of dengue this week than during this same period last year.
Officials also registered 924 new suspected cases of dengue this week, almost one and a half times as many as were registered last week, and more than 4 times as many suspected cases as were registered in the same period last year.
According to the world health organization, the mosquitoes that transmit dengue tend to be most active during the day, but the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cautions that mosquitoes can bite at night as well. According to a recent article in the New York Times, three out of four cases of dengue don’t produce any symptoms at all, and those who do experience symptoms might get lucky and experience only mild flu-like symptoms. The symptomatic disease is sometimes called “breakbone fever” because of the excruciating joint pain it can cause, along with headache, high fever, and nausea. The disease can be quite debilitating and it can take up to 5 weeks to recover. While dengue is usually not fatal, severe dengue requires medical treatment or it can be fatal.
Increasing temperatures around the world are fueling the spread of the disease around the world — cases have recently been reported in California, Texas, and Florida — as well as in Europe.
Here in Oaxaca, the mosquitoes that cause dengue are normally controlled through the spraying of insecticides by municipalities. But we have received reports that some municipalities have done less spraying this year.
Also, an article in the journal Nature says the particular mosquitoes that transmit the dengue virus are really hard to kill with insecticides. One of the most promising new measures to control the spread of the disease involves releasing mosquitoes infected with a bacteria called Wolbachia. The good news is that tests in Colombia showed this could reduce dengue infections by up to 97 percent! The bad news… It can take years of releases to get those results.
According to Mexico’s National Water Commission, the rainy season officially ended this past Wednesday. El Imparcial reports that 86.8% of the state of Oaxaca is currently experiencing drought conditions, with some 35% of the state experiencing “extreme drought” conditions — which is the second-most severe classification of drought.
Oaxaca Newscast had a look at the federal drought data to see what exactly how new this is: Most of the towns in Oaxaca registering the worst levels of drought this year experienced little to no drought conditions last year at this time. The last time the state saw anything near this level of drought was the summer of 2020, although that year’s drought was less widespread than this year’s.
Oaxaca’s institute of Graphic Arts, better known as the IAGO, is celebrating its 35th anniversary with an exhibition of 150 prints by the institute’s founder, the late Oaxacan artist Francisco Toledo. The exhibition runs through January 2nd.
And tomorrow, Saturday, November 18th, the Macedonio Alcalá Theater will host a livestream of X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X from New York’s Metropolitan Opera. The show starts at noon. Tickets are available at the theater’s box office.
If you’re going to be in the city of Oaxaca and you’re in the mood for an American Thanksgiving celebration and a community to enjoy it with, the Oaxaca Lending Library will be holding its annual Thanksgiving comida and concert at La Panadera y El Chef from 2pm to 4pm this coming Thursday, and there will be both a turkey option and a vegetarian option. If you know La Panadera y El Chef, you know the food will be good. There’s even a shuttle available