Frontera NorteSur
April 2002

April 23, 2002
Méxicali Environmental and Health News

Trees planted to fight odors

In an attempt to mitigate odors coming from a waste-water treatment facility in Méxicali's Zaragoza neighborhood, Méxicali's Dirección de Ecología (Office of Ecology) has begun planting 6,000 trees on the banks of a waste treatment pond. Another 9,000 trees will be planted in future phases of the project.

According to Alejandra León Gastélum, head of the Dirección de Ecología, the trees are all from species that absorb odors and should reduce odors around the treatment plant by 60%. Her office is also in the midst of testing some chemical products to see if they could help mitigate the problem.

The plan to plant the trees received the backing of the Comisión Nacional de Reforestación (National Reforestation Commission) and is a joint project between the city and and federal government.

Safe drinking water?

In an investigative article for the Méxicali newspaper La Crónica, writer Marco Vinicio Blanco found that drinking-water distributors throughout the city appear to violate a number of health regulations.

In contradiction to federal law, many distributors were selling bottles of water that had no safety seals on them. Blanco even witnessed people pouring water from one container to another with plastic or aluminum funnels.

The same people that delivered water to homes were also collecting money for the sales, which is also in violation of Mexican law.

Finally, trucks that were used to transport water did not have any signs on them to let buyers know from where and whom their water was coming.

The Federal Consumer Protection Office (Procuraduría Federal del Consumidor) has said that in May, 2002 it will conduct an intense investigation of the industry to detect any irregularities.

Sources: La Crónica (Méxicali), April 4, 2002. Tree article by José Manuel Yépiz Ruiz.
La Crónica, April 8, 2002. Drinking water article by Marco Vinicio Blanco.

April 16, 2002
Released BC Police Agents Comment on Jail Experience

The Baja California newspaper La Crónica reports that BC police thanked federal law enforcement agents for the good treatment they received while in their custody in Mexico City and gave them hugs good-bye.

"They treated us magnificently, I wish we had police agents like them here [Tijuana]," said Jesús Jacobo Aguilar, a Tijuana police officer with more than thirty years on the force. "They gave us everything: doctors, medicine, towels, soap, everything. For this reason we don't have any complaints," he said.

Other officers told La Crónica that they learned new ways to treat arrested people that they would apply to their work back home.

The freed BC agents' major complaint is that they were arrested by gossip picked up on by federal agents in Tijuana.

"We work honestly, I don't know why the hell they arrested us: they didn't find anything on us and we're free. I don't know right now if I believe in these institutions," said Baltazar Cortés, a Méxicali police agent.

Alberto Galaz said that he only knew about the Arellano Félix cartel from the press. "I don't even have enough money to get home, I have a public defender," he said.

Trinidad Reyes Ríos, a Méxicali law-enforcement official, said that 18 city officers were taken to Mexico City and that the city would pay for their room and board and their flight home.

Source: La Crónica, April 15, 2002. Article by Agustín Pérez & Oscar Santeliz.

April 8, 2002
Destroyed: Water Tanks Placed in Arizona Desert to Help Migrants

A knife or similar object was used to destroy two water tanks that were put in separate locations in the Arizona desert to keep migrants from dehydrating and dying. Also, thirty-foot high poles with blue flags on top that alert travelers to the presence of the potentially life-saving water sources, were uprooted and left on the ground where they would no longer be visible from any significant distance.

Both tanks were located in the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge on the Tohono O'Odom Nation. The religious-based group, Humane Borders, that put the tanks on the land, had received prior authorization from authorities to set up the life-saving stations.

Humane Borders, upon discovering the slashed, empty tanks, asked Pima County authorities to investigate the vandalized stations, according to Robin Hoover, group copresident.

Source: El Diario (Ciudad Juárez), April 3, 2002.

March 25, 2002
BC Health News: Diabetes and TB

The Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (IMSS), a Mexican health care provider, is dealing with more than 100,000 cases of diabetes mellitus in Baja California and San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora, according to Aureliano Cruz Montreal of the IMSS. Cruz also stated that this number represents a serious health problem given that the IMSS has approximately 1,500,000 health care users in BC and San Luis.

While Type 2 diabetes, the most common form of diabetes mellitus, can frequently be managed through exercise, meal planning and weight loss, Cruz said that few people in the region do anything to better their quality of life. Many people do not even know they suffer from the disease, he stated.

Cruz made the preceding comments at the end of a four-month long class on diabetes management that he gave to thirty diabetes patients insured by the IMSS. He also said that some of the obstacles he deals with in treating diabetes are a lack of knowledge about the disease and resistance to treatment programs, both on the part of patients and some doctors.

Tuberculosis is also a serious health problem in BC, especially in Méxicali, which is the city in Mexico with the highest rate of TB infection, according to Abelardo Rivera, a Méxicali nurse.

Rivera says that the high rate of TB is due to the large number of people that have drug-resistant TB. This form of the disease develops when people begin, but do not finish, their course of TB treatment.

Source: La Crónica, March 13 , 2002. Diabetes article by Marco Vinicio Blanco. La Voz de la Frontera, March 20, 2002. TB article by Javier Mejia.