Calderon’s Harvard role shrouded in controversy
The petition at http://www.change.org cites the “100,000 dead from Calderon’s ill-fated, U.S.-backed war on drugs … another 25,000 people missing … [and] horrendous pending civil rights and murder cases linked to the actions of Calderon’s military and police.”
Calderon earned a master’s degree in public administration at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government in 2000 and will take up a year-long teaching position on January 28.
Poet-turned-activist Javier Sicilia, the leader of Mexico’s Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity, also wrote to Harvard this week, arguing that Calderon’s appointment “does not meet ethical standards of the institution” and “is an insult to the victims of violence in Mexico.”
David Ellwood, the dean of the Kennedy School, defended the decision to offer Calderon a fellowship, affirming that “we recognize that not everyone agreed with his policies or methods, as with all world leaders, but one of the fundamental principles of the Kennedy School and all U.S. universities is the free exchange of ideas.”
The anti-Calderon campaigners aim to gather 125,000 signatures but they will not receive the backing of the Harvard University Mexican Association (HUMAS) which comprises 166 Mexican students, teachers and researchers from the institution. HUMAS said it was “an apolitical organization” and would not be taking action to support or oppose Calderon’s appointment at the university.
Guanajuato to challenge Jalisco for tequila tourism
Having drawn 19 million visitors and 43 billion pesos from tourism last year, Guanajuato hopes interest in tequila production can help those figures rise to 28 million visitors and 74 billion pesos by 2018.
The Tequila Trail has long enticed tourists to Jalisco, with the Tequila Express train to the Herradura distillery in Amatitan and the new Cuervo Express to the Jose Cuervo distillery in Tequila among the most popular attractions. Guanajuato hopes to enjoy similar success upon launching its own Tequila Circuit this Easter.
“Jalisco has tequila tourism and I believe this can be extended to the Guanajuato area, which is home to important businesses in the industry,” Guanajuato’s Tourism Secretary Fernando Olivera Rocha said last weekend. “Visiting these places where they make the drink will become an unforgettable experience that will distinguish Guanajuato as one of the most complete tourist destinations in the country.”
Tourists will be encouraged to visit the municipalities of Cueramaro, Abasolo and Penjamo, home to iconic blue agave fields and the Corralejo, Real de Penjamo and Don Ramon distilleries. Like Cuervo and Herradura, Corralejo runs a museum and tours of its distillery, explaining the production process step-by-step.
Protected under a designation of origin, tequila can only be produced in Jalisco and certain regions of Guanajuato, Michoacan, Nayarit and Tamaulipas.
Three beheaded in Guadalajara
Witnesses said a group of men in dark clothing arrived in two sports cars and a pickup truck, dumping what appeared to be human bodies on Avenida Inglaterra, between Quetzal and Colon.
The corpses were wrapped in black plastic bags bound with tape. The Jalisco Institute of Forensic Sciences (IJCF) later confirmed that the bags contained the mutilated bodies of three males aged between 30 and 45.
Two of the severed heads were found in another plastic bag while the third was still semi-attached to one of the bodies.
No arrests were made but the Jalisco Attorney General’s Office (PGJEJ) has confirmed it is investigating the case.
The Tequila Files 