Lost and found
Miscellaneous items I’d bookmarked in the last week.
Lost Soul?
From the Argentine general interest on-line magazine, Puercospin.
Nueva Jerusalén is an implausible place. There is a tall building at the entrance to it called simply “The Tower”. No one seems to know wht it is. Inside it is empty, just a just a staircase that runs up and down. The windows have no frames or glass. Suddenly a boy appears at the window, using binoculars. The Tower is a mix between a panopticon and oriental pagoda. But perhaps it is not the weirdest thing you can find. That would be the man from the United States: a big man with white hair who appears to be ill. Body trembling, his eyes dancing and unable to speak, although able to sputter Spanish words like “culero” or “maricón” to denote that it is a reactionary. He is able to say that he has 17 different names.
You do run across crazed gringos around Mexico now and again … He’s probably one of the undetermined number of U.S. citizens who go missing every year in Mexico, normally by their own choice. Although… if Nueva Jerusalén had internet service, I’d venture a guess at his identity.
Found bodies…
Workers have discovered hundreds of bones belonging to Ice Age animals, including mammoths, mastodons and glyptodons, while digging to build a wastewater treatment plant north of Mexico City.
The bones could be between 10,000 and 12,000 years old and may include a human tooth from the late Pleistocene period, Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History said Thursday.
Tusks, skulls, jawbones, horns, ribs, vertebrae and shells were discovered 20 meters (65 feet) deep in Atotonilco de Tula, a town in the state of Hidalgo, as workers built a drain, the institute said.
These remains belong to a range of species including mastodons, mammoths, camels, horses, deer and glyptodons…
Lost home
At least 500 Mennonite have fled the state of Durango, driven out of their homes by the severe drought that hit the region over the past 20 months.
Enrique Peter Klassen, governor of the Mennonite colonies in Nuevo Ideal and Santiago Papasquiaro, said […] many of those who were selling their animals before leaving decided to stay in Canada, others went to work in the state of Chihuahua.
Although the rains have returned to Durango and rainfall have been regular, they have not been sufficient to improve conditions and, Klassen said, “there was only rain in parts of parts of Nuevo Ideal”.
Finding a refuge
The Independent (Great Britain):
Ecuador has freed a Belarusian former police inspector who allegedly faced the death penalty in his homeland after uncovering government corruption there.
Judge Carlos Ramirez, of the National Court of Justice, in Quito, rejected the extradition request for Aliaksandr Barankov, which accused him of fraud and extortion. The reasons for the ruling have yet to be made public.
…
His case had come under the international spotlight after the decision by Ecuador’s president, Rafael Correa, to grant asylum to Julian Assange after the Wikileaks founder sought refuge in the country’s London embassy. One similarity in both cases was the claim that each faced execution if extradited.
Another similarity:
Mr Barankov claims to have uncovered an oil-smuggling ring involving members of Mr Lukashenko’s family and inner circle. He has won the support of democracy activists in Belarus.
If you’re going to blow a whistle, I guess it’s best to book a flight to Quito in advance.
Found a job
Notimex (via SDP Noticias)
Marcelo Ebrard, former head of the Federal District government ,was named vice president of Socialist International…
In a statement, the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) described the appointment as “a triumph and a recognition Ebrard’s management”.
Socialist International President, former Greek president, George Papandreou, who was appointed president of the organization said: “[Ebrard’s] win is arecognition of the successful plans for development in in Mexico City and the great expansion of human rights, and of economic and political benefits for important sectors of the population. “
The Mex Files 