Cont. from front page,

At this stage the move to Celaya is only a proposal. According to Alejandro Salas, the immigration delegate in San Miguel, he is waiting for a response from the local governments of Celaya and San Miguel, both of which have been asked to donate land for building new offices and an immigrant detention center. “Both mayors have been very kind and both are able to give us their support,” he said.

Salas also stated that facilitating services to the expat community is a national priority. He confirmed that the national policy is to streamline and facilitate procedures for foreigners seeking to reside or invest in Mexico or to extend their visits. Considering that, if the current office is relocated to Celaya, Salas will attempt to find a space where foreigners can apply for documents and submit their paperwork for renewal in San Miguel.

Central American immigrants in Celaya

Salas said that last year 1,200 indocumentados (illegal immigrants from Central America) were arrested in the state of Guanajuato. “We are currently halfway through the year and we have already detained 500 immigrants,” said Salas, who added that between 70 and 80 percent of the illegals pass through Comonfort, Celaya and Irapuato on their way to the United States. Fewer than 10 percent pass through San Miguel.

Gerardo Hernández, mayor of Celaya, said that most of the immigrants coming through Celaya stow away on trains coming from Central America. “The illegal immigrants travel on the roofs of trains and suffer from hunger and fatigue. Sometimes they fall asleep and fall from the train; others are hit by the train as they try to board surreptitiously. Rather than only passing through Celaya, some of them stay here, and this has become a social problem because criminal activity has increased,” said Hernández. “We are really very interested in having the immigration office move to Celaya, because it would help to solve this problem. We would be able to donate the land.”

Need for a detention center

Salas said that the immigration building in San Miguel is inadequate to handle the traffic it receives and that the state needs a detention center, a facility it currently lacks. “When we detain several immigrants, or even when we detain just a couple in the middle of the night, we have to send them to Querétaro. We sometimes also send them to an auditorium the Celaya authorities let us use,” said Salas. “In the past, we used the local jail in the Presidencia, but one immigrant being held there died, and the Secretaría de Gobernación prohibited us from using local jails for sheltering detained immigrants.” Salas added that the Human Rights Department constantly monitors the conditions in which the immigrants are housed, and the detention center must meet certain requirements such as adequate food and medical attention.

For Salas, it would be better if the immigration office would relocate to Celaya because of the larger number of illegal immigrants in that city.

Donating the land

According to Mayor Correa, on January 11, 2005, the San Miguel city council unanimously authorized donating 2,000 square meters of land near the fair grounds on the road to Los Rodríguez. “When we authorized the donation, the immigration office did not have the money to build, and when the deadline for taking possession expired, they even asked for an extension, which was granted. The land is there and the donation has been authorized,” said Correa. However, Salas said that although the land has already been donated, it has not yet been legalized and he has not received a response from Correa regarding this. 

Celaya’s Mayor Hernández said that he has not yet identified a parcel of land but that he is looking for a proper one, and he reiterated that his government is very interested in having an immigration office in Celaya and that he would give his complete support.

Salas said that he would like to have an answer before the end of the year, so that he can begin getting the funds to build. 

Continuing service to expats

Hernández said that if the offices are moved to Celaya he would not forget about the foreign residents and tourists in San Miguel. “I would try to open a provisional office, with the support of the local government, so that once a week we could receive all the documentation and return it the following week. Celaya is very close to San Miguel; via the new road that bypasses Comonfort one could be in Celaya in less than half an hour,” he said. 

Mayor Correa said that he would support local immigration procedures by providing office space in San Miguel, should the INM offices move to Celaya. 

The National Migration Institute

The Instituto Nacional de Migración forms a part of the Public Federal Administration under the auspices of the Secretaría de Gobernación (Federal Government Department), which is charged with enforcing Mexico’s immigration laws. Among its functions this department issues temporary visitor permits to foreigners, student visas, documents that allow foreigners to live or work here, document renewals, and permission for a foreigner to marry a Mexican citizen or adopt a Mexican child. 

According to Salas, the current policy of the Institute is to facilitate all procedures related to foreign visitors and to promote the flow of tourism and foreign investors. “We are improving our processes. Procedures that used to take more than 19 days currently take between 15 and 17 days,” said Salas. 

Another function of the Institute is the detention and deportation of illegal immigrants in the country.

Immigration information from Mexican Government
National Institute of Migration
http://www.inami.gob.mx/EN/index.php 


Services list

I want to travel to Mexico as a tourist

I would like to visit Mexico

I lost my Tourist Migration form

I would like to live in Mexico

I want to renew my FM3 or FM2


I want to acquire Mexican citizenship

Migration statuses and categories

I want to prolong my stay in Mexico as a tourist

I lost my FM3 or FM2



Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs
http://www.sre.gob.mx/english/


Services list

Passports

Naturalization

Registering companies

Creating trusts

Foreigners acquiring properties

Rogatory Letters

Scholarships

Visas for foreigners

Other services

Ecopark in Hidalgo recreates illegal immigrant experience
By Atención staff

Parque EcoAlberto, located 45 minutes northeast of Hidalgo’s capital of Pachuca, offers a unique experience: crossing the border without leaving Mexico. The ecological park is part campground and part extreme sport—one with a clear message. For a modest fee, visitors can take part in a four-hour simulated border crossing that gives them a taste of the hardships and dangers involved in crossing over to “el otro lado.”

Every Saturday night, dozens of the remaining several hundred villagers take part in the Caminata Nocturna, the nighttime hike. Many are costumed as border patrol agents, fellow migrants and masked coyotes and polleros, the Mexican guides who escort migrants for a fee.

Apart from the occasional sprained ankle or poke by a cactus spine, the perils of the course are entirely make-believe. But the Caminata is not without challenges. The route takes participants up steep mountains studded with spikey cactuses and sharp-edged maguey plants, along the banks of the swift-flowing Tula River, through cow pastures and ancient Indian burial grounds. For much of the journey, participants are pursued by the ersatz border guards (also known as “la migra”), racing along in pickups, barking commands to surrender and firing guns loaded with blanks.

The 3,000-acre park opened in 2004 with government funding and has long-term development plans. Rather than a training ground for would-be emigrants, as some critics have argued, the experience of the crossing has reduced the number of people who choose to make the dangerous passage—its intended goal.

Besides the simulated border crossing, the park offers thermal springs, boat trips, visits to sacred sites, rappelling and camping. The land is home to an indigenous community of Otomí, natives of the Valle del Mezquital who prefer to be called by their original name, hñahñú, which means “man who speaks through his nose.” The majority of the members of this community now work in the US, and before the park opened their culture might have been nearly lost due to the exodus northward.

The park not only provides income for the community and preserves the natural landscape, but it also teaches the virtues of trying to better one’s life at home rather than risking everything to follow a dangerous dream. 


To read a recent report on the park go to www.mexicoreporter.com/ 

More trees fall to “progress”

Construction of the supermarket Bodega Aurrerá, a Wal-Mart subsidiary, continues at the corner of the Manuel Zavala Libramiento and Calzada de la Estación.

The future of more than 40 trees lining the property, however, hangs in the balance. As we go to press, branches are being cut from the old mesquite trees.

Mayor reports on trip to Paris
By Jesús Ibarra

In an interview with Atención, Mayor Jesús Correa said he was satisfied with the results of his trip to Paris. Correa and the City Secretary Cristóbal Finkesltein made the trip to promote San Miguel for the last time before the Québec meeting in July at which UNESCO ambassadors will decide whether San Miguel de Allende will be included on the list of World Heritage sites.

Correa reported that the documents they submitted to the ambassadors in Paris will be made available to the San Miguel community in the upcoming weeks. The report is a summary of the complete file on San Miguel’s history, architecture, festivals and traditions in both English and Spanish. Correa also said that if the outcome in July is favorable, the Mexican delegation in Québec will prepare a huge celebration that will include a visit to the Canadian parliament.

Summer soccer camp for kids in San Miguel
By Jesús Ibarra

From July 28 to August 2 the professional Italian soccer club A.C. Milán (Associazione Calcio Milan) will hold a summer soccer camp for children 6 to 16 years old at the new sports field located at kilometer 5.5 on the road to Querétaro. Luca Savignani, technical director of the Milan Soccer Academy in Mexico and coordinator of the Milan soccer project in Central and South America, said that the summer camp “is the first step to see the response of San Miguel’s children to the Italian method of playing soccer and participating in athletics.” He added that he hopes to open a soccer academy in September.

Savignani explained that A.C. Milan has schools and camps all around the world; two years ago, it opened a school in Mexico City. The camp will offer children not only an education in the sport of soccer but also in the importance of values and discipline. According to Savignani, “in Italy, getting involved in sports is different than in Mexico. It is a littler more professional. I think Mexicans need better organization in the way they practice sports, and that is what we try to teach our children. The training of coaches is very important, and in Italy coaches have better opportunities for training, which is another thing we lack in Mexico.”

An Italian coach will come to direct the camp, supported by San Miguel resident Nunzio Valente, a former soccer player and local coordinator of Milan in San Miguel. Savignani said that two participants in the camp will be chosen, based on their playing ability and sense of discipline, to go to Italy and play in a tournament with kids from other countries. They will also attend a soccer match with A.C. Milan and meet the players.

Savignani and Valente will promote the camp through the local media and visits to the main schools in San Miguel. For more information call Nunzio Valente at 152-4946 or 151-9583.

Robbery at Santa Ana church
By Jesús Ibarra

Seven paintings of sacred art and a chalice were stolen on the night of Thursday, May 22 or early morning of Friday 23, from the Santa Ana church on Insurgentes, next to the Biblioteca Pública. According to the police report, the robbers might have entered the church by the roof; the lock of the choir door had been forced and the curtains opened. The thieves may have come in through the parking lot on Insurgentes or through the Biblioteca itself. The paintings were cut from their frames.

The newspaper from Celaya, AM, reported than in the last three months three robberies of sacred art have been committed in Comonfort.

The police and the district attorney’s office are investigating the theft.

Road works in progress
By Gabriela Blanco

Local government is improving a road to benefit more than 50 communities located around La Cieneguita. As a first step, the Cieneguita road rehabilitation will cover the extension of calle Calzada de la Estación to La Cieneguita at the Rio Laja ford.

 The municipality of San Miguel will invest 1,363,000 pesos in the work, which will last about two months. According to Jorge Zavala, Obras Públicas (Public Works) will fix the potholes and re-pave with a mixture of asphalt, gravel and tepetate (or caliche, a hardened cement of gravel, sand and clay). “The work will be done well, including good signals and center-line painting.”

La Cieneguita resident Victor Ramirez said the road was finished only three years ago and has already been repaired more than once. “The best thing would be to pave the road the way the municipality did for the Manuel Zavala Libramiento road. This patching will not last more than six months because many heavy trucks use it, especially now with the rainy season coming.”

However, Guadalupe Sanchez said she is grateful for the improvements as they facilitate access to municipal medical services and schools.

On Monday, May 19, several La Cieneguita residents organized a march to the Jardín Principal aboard tractors to thank the municipal authorities for beginning the rehab works.

New roundabout

Public Works will begin constructing a roundabout in the coming weeks, as soon as they receive the engineer’s plans. They already have the resources to build the roundabout at the intersection of Calzada de la Estación and Manuel Zavala road. Construction will cost one million pesos of municipal funds and will help in the short and medium term to expedite traffic.

Other projects

Another Public Works project already under way is fixing potholes in the connection between Calzada de la Estación and the Manuel Zavala road toward the esplanade of the train station. Public Works estimates the job will last throughout the rest of this year.

Another project is building a new road from El Cortijo to La Cieneguita and from there passing through Cruz del Palmar to Trancas.

This project will have two phases. The first one, the stretch from El Cortijo to La Cieneguita, will start soon. The second phase will cover La Cieneguita to Cruz del Palmar and then to Trancas. It will link to the Guanajuato road at the La Presa–Juventino Rosas section. This 20-kilometer road will be a large construction project.

The plan requires that a bridge be built at the Rio Laja ford. Today the ford serves the needs of many communities going to San Miguel, but it is dangerous. The frequent accumulation of logs and trash at the ford makes it necessary to build a vehicular bridge of appropriate size.

The first phase of the road work will cost 20 million pesos, funded by Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes (Communications and Transportation Department).

Vasconcelos awards to teachers

According to the bulletin sent by the Comunicación Social (Social Communication) office May 13, Municipal President Jesús Correa Ramirez joined with the Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación, SNTE (National Union of Education Workers) in celebrating Teacher’s Day.

San Miguel gave awards to 26 teachers and retiree-teachers.

Correa recognized their work and said that he was honored to share the ceremony with teachers who were his classmates and even some of them his teachers during his school years. Correa stressed the importance of educators because they are an essential part of the development of society. He emphasized the significance that teachers and educators have in training students to become better citizens.

Salvador Romo, representing SNTE General Secretary Marco Antonio Miranda Mazcorro, said that he recognized and appreciated the presence of municipal authorities in such events and congratulated teachers for their amazing work.

Correa and city council members Ana Maria Rodriguez and Estela Mendoza, Alfredo Orduña and Director Veronica Agundis of Educación y Cultura (Education and Culture), in addition to the SNTE representatives, gave the José Vasconcelos awards for all the teachers’ work through many years of service.

Mexico Round-up
By Gabriela Blanco

National News

To keep our readers in San Miguel informed of recent developments across Mexico, we’ve compiled an overview of lead stories from last week’s national newspapers.


The red government of Calderón 

According to La Jornada, more than 4,000 people have been murdered during the Felipe Calderón Hinojosa administration. The nonstop violence of organized crime particularly affects Sinaloa, Chihuahua, Durango, Michoacán, Guerrero, Baja California and Mexico City. More than 45 soldiers, federal agents, municipal or state policemen have been assassinated from January to May of 2008.

So far official records of the Calderón government show more than 4,000 executed—on average, 7.6 persons have died daily at the hands of organized crime in the course of 527 days. However, violence last week rose to more than 15 murders every 24 hours.

Elements of the federal Secretaría de Seguridad Pública, SSP (Ministry of Federal Public Security), through access to government statistics, acknowledged this month could develop into the most violent in recent years. While the monthly average is 200–220 murders, this month has already seen more than 180 murders, with many days left to go. 

According to federal authorities, the upsurge in violence reflects the criminal organizations’ reorganization to face federal combat against drug trafficking.

Three Mexican police chiefs ask US for asylum 

According to El Universal on May 15, three Mexican police chiefs asked the US for political asylum. The escalating violence of the Mexican drug wars spills across the US border. In the last few months, police officials have shown up at the US border fearing for their lives, said Jayson Ahern, deputy commissioner of Customs and Border Protection.

Ahern said the Mexican officials are being interviewed and their cases are under review for possible asylum. The violence in Mexico is increasing and many police department heads have been assassinated. Edgar Millán, head of the federal police office responsible for operations against drug trafficking, was killed last week by elements of the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the biggest bands of narcotraficantes in Mexico.

These drug fights have been compared to military skirmishes and Ahern doesn’t think the American people have any sense of the level of violence on the border.

Along several parts of the US border, patrols use vehicles with windshields protected by metal mesh because of attacks on officers with rocks or bullets. Sometimes agents are attacked by snipers to allow the illegal entry of people into US territory.

The Mexican drug cartels have divided the border to get control of the main cities, but Mexican authorities have arrested or killed several drug cartel leaders in the last decade, creating a power vacuum that drug trafficking organizations are trying to fill by force.

“Spanglish” another language?

El Universal reported it is not possible that a mix of English and Spanish called Spanglish will become a new language. The grammatical structure of Spanish is strong enough to withstand the combination of words and expressions, said José Moreno de Alba, president of Academia Mexicana de la Lengua (Mexican Academy of Language).

Moreno explained that Spanglish is a dialect based on Spanish and has only differences in pronunciation and vocabulary, which enriches the language, but does not suggest the creation of a new language. 


Moreno considered it virtually impossible that Spanglish will be converted eventually into a language, as both Spanish and English are solid structures. 

Moreno said that phrases spoken in this slang used in the US and along the Mexican border are structured with the grammatical rules of both languages.

Some Hispanics who are living in the US are trying to assimilate themselves into American culture. This, Moreno added, can be seen in the impermanence of Spanish in generations of Hispanics who were born there and who have lost their roots with the Spanish language.



Regional News

This section compiles the main news from San Miguel, Querétaro and Guanajuato.

Salvatierra a new tourist destination

According to El Sol del Bajío, Salvatierra is now a tourist destination. Thanks to the gastronomic and tourist exhibition held May 21, the municipality of Salvatierra in Guanajuato drew national attention. The event is an example of resourcefulness and how employers can achieve great success with minimal investment, said Salvatierra Mayor Raùl Ulysses Cardiel.

Salvatierra gradually and with effort became one of the favorite cities for tourists in Guanajuato and around Mexico.

Representatives of 12 communities and municipalities exhibited the best typical dishes of their regions at the gastronomic show. A related show of pottery and craftwork gave the foodies a way to distract themselves from too much of a good thing.

The groups Acámbaro and Chupícuaro unveiled samples of food typical of their regions, while those from Santiago Maravatío offered traditional garapiñados and peanuts prepared in different ways.

Salvatierra is a good weekend get-away to visit restaurants and churches such as San Francisco, Del Carmen and Capuchinas. According to studies by the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (Nacional Anthropology Institute), Salvatierra has 357 monuments that are especially attractive to visitors. Salvatierra also has the Ecological Park El Sabinal and the Ballesteros spa.

Tigre River under control

El Sol del Bajío reported that this year the Tigre River will not overflow. The municipality of Jerecuaro is cleaning the river bed and reinforcing the banks to avoid future floods. Municipal President J. Carmen Mondragón Reséndiz said that his government will watch the population increase near the Tigre River to control risks.

According to La Jornada, last year a flood damaged 600 houses and injured four people.

Oliva is working to avoid unemployment 

According to El Correo, the Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografía e Informática, INEGI (National Institute of Statistics, Geography and Information) places Guanajuato seventh nationally in unemployment. However, state governor Juan Manuel Oliva said that he and his team are working to generate jobs.

To change Guanajuato’s unenviable spot on Mexico’s top 10 list of high unemployment rates, the government should bring more and better investments. These investments must be qualified to generate sources of employment. The problem is that Guanajuato has a large manufacturing industry such as in León, Moroleón, Uriangato and San Francisco del Rincon, but today the industry is in crisis due to the invasion of Chinese products on the world market, said Amador Rodríguez Leyaristi, president of Comisión de Desarrollo Económico y Social (Committee on Economic and Social Development).


The INEGI said that 4.6 percent of the economically active population in Guanajuato (over 14 years old) is inactive. Oliva said that the state is working with entrepreneurs. In Celaya the government has an agreement with businessmen to create companies. Olivia added that he has received a significant response from businessmen in León, who have decided to join forces to open sources of employment. Olivia thinks that his team is matching the effort, but recognizes the problems of high unemployment rates.