150 human sacrifice skulls found in a field in Mexico

The find has experts puzzled, as it is the first of its kind to be outside of a major pyramid or temple complex, and was in a simple mound, easy to overlook. 

Christopher Morehart, an archaeologist with the Georgia State University, is credited with the find in Xaltocan, a farming village north of Mexico City. 

Morehart told AP, ­"The interesting question is, why are we seeing this kind of sacrificial act that we often associate with something like Teotihuacan or a big center. Why do we see this … in a place that's not associated with these cities?" 

 

According to Morehart, the Xaltocan mound "is like a bump in the landscape that you could really easily walk over and not know you're standing on it." Morehart said that carbon dating of the skulls suggested they were at least 1,100 years old and that most were from men. Apparently the skulls were also found with a shorter length of vertebrae attached, which suggests that the decapitation cut was made closer to the base of the skull.

Morehart also said that several of the skulls were found with finger bones inserted into the eye sockets. He said, "It was common enough that it was intentionally placed there in the eye socket," but he did say that the ritual significance of that remains unclear.

 

Ironically Morehart and his colleagues stumbled across the site while using Google Earth to investigate ancient waterworks surrounding the ancient kingdom of Teotihuacan. Probably dating to a time between 660 and 860 AD, the heads appeared to have been carefully placed in rows, or small mounds, and most face east towards the rising sun.

 

Abigail Meza Penaloza, a physical anthropologist with the Institute of Anthropology at Mexico's National University is part of a team cleaning and assembling the skulls. Penaloza also reportedly confirmed that it was the first find of its kind, both in terms of the kind of decapitations carried out and also the location.

 

She told the media that mass sacrifices have often been documented at temple inaugurations of temple closings, but not in the middle of fields, such as in this example. She also noted that it was unusual that the skulls were from a varied population. Some reportedly practiced cranial deformation and others did not, whereas most groups of sacrifice victims found in the past have been more homogenous.

To the source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/342722

Mexican state oil company HQ explosion - 32 dead, 121 injured

An explosion rocked the high-rise headquarters of Pemex, a state-owned oil company in Mexico City on Thursday. At least 32 people were killed and around 121 people have been injured.

Mexico's Foro TV reported details of the blast and that the Red Cross are urgently seeking blood donors to help the injured. The blast is thought to be the result of a gas buildup in the building's basement.

President Enrique Peña Nieto directed the rescue effort from inside the building in Mexico City and said, "The priority at this time is to attend to the injured and to safeguard the physical integrity of those who work [at the site]."

Shortly after the blast, the building was evacuated with the help of police, city rescue crews and Mexican Army personnel. Initially there were reports that people were trapped in the building after the explosion, but the claim was soon dismissed by the country's interior ministry.

The Government has reportedly taken tentative control of the building's administration in the aftermath of the explosion. The President's office tweeted that many of those injured were taken to Pemex Central Hospital.

Shortly after the explosion, President Nieto vowed to discover the cause of the disaster.

"We will work exhaustively to investigate exactly what took place, and if there are people responsible, to apply the force of the law on them," he told the media before visiting survivors in hospital.

María Concepción Andrade, 42, a resident on the same block as the Pemex building, told the media, "We were talking and all of sudden we heard an explosion with white smoke and glass falling from the windows."

"People started running from the building covered in dust. A lot of pieces were flying," she added. Gabriela Espinoza, 50, a Pemex secretary for 29 years, was reportedly working on the second floor of the building when she heard two loud explosions and a third smaller one. "There was a very loud roar. It was very ugly," she said.

Reuters is reporting that Pemex had confirmed the explosion and had claimed that they have had electricity problems. Images and local news broadcasts from the scene showed people being carried out on stretchers, with smoke billowing from the base of the building.

 According to a government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, preliminary investigations are pointing to a gas boiler explosion. However, he stressed that nothing had been confirmed as certain. 

To the source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/342609

Toy guns in Mexico City destroyed by police to bring down crime rate

Officials estimate that three-in-ten violent crimes in Mexico City are carried out with an authentic-looking toy gun. On Friday, in an effort to stop this, police destroyed thousands of toy guns.

Crime statistics are bad in the city, as in the first 11 months of 2012, officials documented 82,117 robberies and 1,349 homicides.

 

The Mayor of Mexico City, Miguel Angel Mancera says that around three of every ten violent crimes in Mexico City involve a realistic-looking toy gun, and he says this is more than enough justification to destroy seven thousand replica guns. 

 

The guns were collected from stores in Mexico City and surrounding areas and destroyed, as can be seen in the video here. Shops are suffering from this decision, as Sunday is "Día de Reyes" (Three Kings Day), when Mexican children traditionally receive their gifts

 

 

Mexico has strict laws on gun ownership, and the country requires that toy weapons are made of transparent or colored plastic, with silver, grey and black being illegal colors. Also the size of the toy must vary to that of the original gun.

 

Besides destroying toy guns, officials in Mexico City have recently sponsored a program to give money, toys and computers in exchange for firearms. 

This plan started in December in Iztapalapa, an area of the city where a month before a 10-year-old boy died when hit by a stray bullet, while watching a movie in a commercial cinema.

Read more and watch video: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/340566

Mexico's decision on GM maize postponed until next year

A decision as to a widespread planting of genetically modified (GM) corn or transgenic maize in Mexico will not be made under the outgoing government of President Felipe Calderón. It will now await until sometime next spring.

 

Digital Journal recently reported that Monsanto Co. and DuPont are planning to take over Mexico's corn-growing heartland with GM corn, or maize, with the proposed planting of 2,500,000 hectares (more than 6 million acres), including the controversial strain of corn that has been linked to cancer in rats in a recently published peer-reviewed study.

 

Concern has been voiced that the planting of GMO's would be devastating for the heart of the center of origin and diversity for maize, where scientists have identified thousands of peasant varieties of maize.

 

According to a top Mexican government official speaking on Thursday, the highly controversial approval for planting of GM corn fields on a commercial scale will be delayed until next year.

 

A deputy agriculture secretary, Mariano Ruiz, said that the regulatory approval process will not be finalized under the current government and will, instead, fall to Calderón's successor, President-elect Enrique Peña Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, who is set to take office on December 1.

 

According to Ruiz, permits are not likely to be approved for four to five months, but he did state that the new government, under Peña Nieto, is like-minded in its support for the introduction of large-scale GMO corn cultivation in Mexico.He told reporters, "I think we are in agreement generally over the importance of having this instrument, and that farmers have the tool of genetically modified organisms."

 

However he did add, "But like they say, the devil is in the details." 

 

While scientists have acknowledged that Mexico is the birthplace of corn, and opponents argue that these genetically modified varieties would contaminate native strains and irrevocably damage the grain's biodiversity, Ruiz said that the government still had to designate so-called "centers of origin" where GM corn cultivation will be banned, as well as set other safety regulations.

 

Mexico currently plants around 7.2 million hectares (17.8 million acres) of corn each year, consisting mainly of white corn for human consumption. According to agriculture ministry data, domestic corn production this year will total almost 22 million tonnes.

 

However, the country relies on imports of yellow corn for animal feed, which includes around 9 million tonnes in 2012. Promoters of GM corn say it would produce yields between 10 and 15% larger than conventional strains. They say this could both boost production, and also curb Mexico's dependence on imports.

 

There are currently five applications for commercial-scale GM corn fields, totally around 2.5 million hectares, including Monsanto, with two applications of 700,000 each in Mexico's western Sinaloa state, the country's largest corn producer.

 

Pioneer Hi-Bred International, which is part of DuPont has three applications outstanding, each of which would cover around 350,000 hectares, in northeastern Tamaulipas state.  One other application is outstanding by Dow Agrosciences de Mexico, part of Dow Chemical, for 40,000 hectares also in Tamaulipas state.

Verónica Villa from ETC’s Mexico office was quoted recently as saying, “If Mexico’s government allows this crime of historic significance to happen, GMOs will soon be in the food of the entire Mexican population, and genetic contamination of Mexican peasant varieties will be inevitable. We are talking about damaging more than 7,000 years of indigenous and peasant work that created maize – one of the world’s three most widely eaten crops.”

 

Silvia Ribeiro, ETC Group’s Latin America Director, was quoted as saying: “It would be a monumental injustice for the creators of maize – who have so benefited humankind – to be obliged to pay royalties to a transnational corporation that exploited their knowledge in the first place.”

 

Another concern is that farmers will no longer be able to save their own seed from each harvest and will always have to buy more seeds for each planting, along with the necessary herbicides, causing more expense. Should harvests not go well, farmers will then struggle to survive.

 

A petition is being run by Avaaz addressed to the President of Mexico, to "Stop GMO Corn from Contaminating Mexico's Heartland."

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/337603#ixzz2DEQMQ7X7

Monsanto Co. seeks to take over Mexico's heartland with GM maize

If their requests are approved by outgoing president Felipe Calderón, Monsanto Co. and DuPont will be planting 2,500,000 hectares (more than 6 million acres) of transgenic or GM maize in the heartland of Mexico.

According to ETC Group, the consequences will be devastating for the heart of the center of origin and diversity for maize, and also globally. 

Mexico is considered to be the global repository of maize genetic diversity, as scientists have identified thousands of peasant varieties of maize.

Should Monsanto's applications be approved, this would mark the world's first commercial-scale planting of GM varieties of a major food group, in it's center of origin.Basically this would wipe out all biodiversity, and all the various local varieties of maize, developed over around 7,000 years... read more and find out how you can help/sign petition.

If their requests are approved by outgoing president Felipe Calderón, Monsanto Co. and DuPont will be planting 2,500,000 hectares (more than 6 million acres) of transgenic or GM maize in the heartland of Mexico.

According to ETC Group, the consequences will be devastating for the heart of the center of origin and diversity for maize, and also globally. Mexico is considered to be the global repository of maize genetic diversity, as scientists have identified thousands of peasant varieties of maize. Should Monsanto's applications be approved, this would mark the world's first commercial-scale planting of GM varieties of a major food group, in it's center of origin.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/337459#ixzz2CxYEVCur