Replacement for slain tourism secretary named
Following the assassination of Jesus Gallegos on March 9, Enrique Ramos Flores was named as Jalisco’s new Secretary of Tourism the following Friday.
“I’m sure Mr. Enrique Ramos Flores has the ideal profile for the position that sadly became vacant,” said Governor Aristoteles Sandoval at brief ceremony in the Palacio del Gobierno. Sandoval also added that Jalisco is the state with the seventh highest tourism revenue in Mexico but has the potential to be the highest.
Upon taking up office on March 15, Ramos said he hopes to bring Mexico’s Tianguis de Turismo back to Jalisco, and specifically to Guadalajara. The tourism fair has previously taken place in Puerto Vallarta and Nuevo Vallarta but the 2013 edition will take place in Puebla and next year’s event will be in Quintana Roo.
Ramos also said he will focus on ensuring that security problems do not cause any further decline in tourism in Jalisco, as well as constructing a highway from Guadalajara to Puerto Vallarta. Both Sandoval and President Enrique Peña Nieto have backed the project, Ramos said, suggesting federal funds will be made available for construction to begin.
A member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), Ramos, 67, has had a long political career, having served as Secretary of Economic Development 20 years ago and later worked for the Zapopan municipal government. Born into a family of hotel owners, he has a wealth of experience in the tourism industry and the world of business.
Ramos taught at the University of Guadalajara’s school of tourism from 1974 to 1976, he served as president of the Jalisco Association of Hotels and Motels from 1973 to 1977, and then became vice president of the national Association of Hotels and Motels from 1977 to 1979. Ramos also served as president of the Guadalajara chapter of the National Chamber of Commerce (Canaco) from 1984 to 1985.
Knights Templar leader reported dead
The Mexican Army is believed to have killed one of the country’s most wanted drug lords near the town of El Alcalde, Michoacan in the early hours of Friday morning.
Spanish-language magazine Proceso reports that Dionisio Loya Plancarte, alias “El Tio,” is thought to have been one of five people killed in a confrontation between soldiers and armed gangs members in the mountainous municipality of Apatzingan, a known stronghold of the Knights Templar cartel.
Loya was a former leader of La Familia Michoacana and later became a high-ranking leader of offshoot gang the Knights Templar. In 2009 the Mexican government listed him as one of the country’s 37 most wanted drug lords, offering a reward of 30 million pesos for information leading to his arrest.
The government has not publicly commented on the case but anonymous sources from the federal government and the Michoacan state police apparently confirmed Loya’s death to a reporter from the Narco Mundo blog. Loya’s death would mean at least 26 of Mexico’s 37 most wanted criminals have been killed or detained to date.
Jalisco struck by nearly five murders per day in 2013
From January 1 to March 15, 346 people were murdered across the state. The current average of 4.7 homicides a day is significantly higher than the 3.3 recorded in Jalisco in 2011, the most violent of the last six years.
Jalisco’s new Prosecutor General, Carlos Najera expressed surprise that authorities have found little information connecting the killings, but suggested the rise in the murder rate was due to changes within criminal gangs in the state.
At a recent regional security meeting, Mexico’s Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong confirmed that federal forces are coordinating with their local and state counterparts to combat violent crime in Jalisco.
Federal Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam added that the unified state-wide police force that the Jalisco government plans to implement is viable and could become a model for all states across Mexico.
The Tequila Files 