Catemaco Sprinkles

Catemaco News has just about died which will probably thrill the Tepetapan tourism booster bozo and his in-crowd.

I changed this blog's address from catemaconews.com to the original catemaconews.blogspot.com almost 3 months ago, because I listened to my survival instinct. And expectedly I dropped 100 or so average daily readers and feed subscribers. Today 240 of the 400 old posts of the News since 2006 are STILL listed by Google, but they sent you to never-never land.  And of course the change destroyed links from more than a dozen pages.

Now, presumably readers finding a Catemaco News post on Google or on a link, are conditioned to ignore the "News", because readership has dropped to about a dozen. (PS in the publishing "empire" of catemaco.info,  the "News" in the last few years was less than a 3% contributor.)

Things are heating up around Catemaco. Aside from the usual drunk machete wielding killers, there have been some worrisome presumed drug lord encounters in nearby Veracruz City and Coatzacoalcos. The last Zeta I talked to, just before he was killed, had told me, Don´t worry, be happy!, because supposedly they controlled the situation.
BTW: Ironically, The Latin American Tribune is the best English news feed for Mexico and Veracruz.

It would be a shame to start besmirching my opinion of Veracruz's reputation as the home of only peace loving inhabitants, and Catemaco as the home of retired Zetas.

Maybe the weather drove them nuts. Since the last fiasco of the aftermaths of Hurricane Karl and Matthew, two more potential hurricanes wiggled themselves into striking range. Fortunately, none of the 4 caused major damage in Catemaco, irregardless of the "DISASTER" screaming money hungry leader of the county's government.

The first cold waves of autumn have been arriving, and it became time to unpack those Alaskan down comforters for us of thin tropical blood.

The next few weeks should probably be some of the most gorgeous in Los Tuxtlas. - Everything lushly green, relatively cool, clear air, and no tourists. That's probably why I'll be heading north for a few days. I miss the tourists.

Banks in Veracruz are having a field day. The government announced "fondos perdidos" (don't pay me back loans) for people having incurred damage during the last few disasters. Now anyone that got their feet wet is clamoring for a loan, and the processing of normal bank business is almost at a standstill. (I'm the victim of a client's repeatedly postponed closing of a mortgage.)

Hotels in Catemaco and the associated tourism providers are the real victim of this last mess. Business usually is lousy this time of year, but even a louse would feel lonely in the lobbies of most hotels.

The local newspaper business is a vanity affair. A few years ago the major news rag Diario Los Tuxtlas fell out of love with the local mayor and for almost 3 years now has consistenly only published bad news about Catemaco that would make Tepetapan residents cry.  And they still buy that crap in Catemaco.
Not to be outdone, every major newspaper in Los Tuxtlas, plus blogs, are now on the bandwagon.

I mentioned road blocks a few posts ago. More true than ever. During the darkest days of the recent weather disaster, political jerks across Veracruz blocked federal and state highways for hours at a time to protest delays in aid, electoral decisions, etc. As far as I know it is a federal crime to block highways. Just chalk one up for blind justice!

Another stick of chalk should be wacked at INEGI, the Mexican statistical agency. They used to report the crime rates in Mexico, but have now disappeared them, and are now only publishing convictions.
The murder rate was above 10 thousand before the drug wars. I keep wondering whether they should be added to the annual bloodbath reported for drug related killings.

Mexico is just as corrupt as ever, only its rating is getting worse. In the latest corruption rankings of 178 countries released recently by Transparency International, Mexicocame in at number 98, down 10 slots from last year.

Ok - what's new in Catemaco?
Nada - zip - zilch.
Oh yeah, they opened a bring one-take one book exchange at the Casa de Los Tesoros and they keep stocking bagels from who knows where; 
there is a rumor that the Walmart/Aurrera store is considering closing because the local Rodeo store keeps outselling them; (I think the Rodeo does so, but I don´t believe the rumor);
some guy from San Andrés now delivers several courses of  homecooked meals;
a few bars changed hands, reopened, got wasted or whatever and lost their volume controls.,
and trash pickup has become do it yourself service.

I have been on Facebook for a while now and have accumulated more than 500 "friends" mostly from the Catemaco area, many of whom are apparently unable to spell. They use a language call texting based on cell phone communication. That is usually not too difficult to decipher, but many use abbreviations or acrononyms only known to select groups. Aside from that they have a propensity for saying "jajaja" in every sentence. Fortunately Facebook has a function to shut them up. So now I am down to 103 "friends" that never said "jaja" or "jiji"; which is the equivalent of LOL in the good old AOL days.
Sample:  wENooOO PuueEZ MeE GUztA vivIR mi VIda MUi loK Y meE gUZTA paZaR La MAYOr partE De nMI tIEMpoooO koN mIS amiWooS

|Just struggling to survive!  Send or bring dollars!