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The Cozumel News in English
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Each week we select articles from local newspapers that amuse or interest us and then translate them into English. We wish to stress that these translations are literal --English versions of exactly what was originally written in Spanish by reporters for Por Esto, Diario de Quintana Roo, Novedades and El Seminario. It should also be mentioned that we cannot always verify the facts in the stories we publish here. We leave that job to the newspaper that originally published the article.
Note: These articles are a great deal of work to find and translate. They are under copyright. But we all know what a temptation it is to want to share interesting info all over the internet. We don't mind you copying short snippets. But .....
Please GIVE CREDIT to "Cozumel News in English" at WWW.CozumelMyCozumel.Com. It's the right and fair thing to do. Don't you agree? |
The Cozumel News in English, Vol 34 |
July 28-August 5 , 2005 |
We would like to give special thanks for the very kind assistance of Israel Sanchez, a professional translator who has volunteered to help us with the more difficult passages. (Thanks, Izzy!). The simpler stuff was translated by the editors.
DEALING WITH STREET ANIMALS |
The city sacrifices an average of 12 street dogs and pedigree animals per day as was most recently the case for a pair of English Pit Bulls who were poisoned because they were so aggressive that they even attacked their masters, informed the office of Animal Control.
From very early, around 6 in the morning, a small army of five public servants head out into the streets. They go out to the streets in search of the dogs that wander about aimlessly, as they are considered a potential danger for Cozumeleños and tourists.
The employees of the municipal kennel capture between 10 15 specimens every day, of whom on average only one is rescued by their owners, or adopted by a good Samaritan.
These workers use a pickup truck adapted like to transfer the dogs, and use long sticks with a loop on the end which can be placed around the animal's neck to subdue it
Cozumel's head of animal control, Dr. Rodolfo Hernández, emphasized to us that it is crueler to leave a street dog exposed to the dangers of the street than to kill him and put an end to his suffering.
The persons in charge of the enclosure where the animals are sacrificed distribute fliers from house to house communicating to pet owners that all dogs found free on the street will be transferred to the Animal Control Center in the industrial zone of Avenida 65 where the proprieters must come to claim them.
The kennel has twelve little cages for a couple of tenants and another one two that are larger.
The owners however, will have to pay a shelter fee to have their pets released. 50 pesos for the first day of sheltering, 100 pesos for the second, and 150 for the third. If by the fourth day the owner has not shown or there has not been a petition for adoption, the animal will be destroyed via lethal injection.
“To prevent any unnecessary suffering, we first administer an anesthetic that induces a deep sleep” informed the employees of the pound, several of which have been bitten by the stray dogs more than once. They refer to the execution area as that of “those in deep slumber”
One of the proposals of the Municipality is to promote ownerless dogs' adoptions. In addition to that the Animal Control department offers other services like sterilizations. For more information telephone 872 98 00.
NATIONAL PARKS UPDATE |
Chankanaab National Park reopened its doors on Monday , August 1, only one week after the passing of Hurricane Emily.
According to the president of the Foundation of Parks and Museums, Aurelio Ruiz Joaquín, 80% of the reparation work has been completed. However, the park of Southern Punta, which was much more severely damaged projects is reopening in approximately three months because of the large amount of clean-up that must be done.
For his part, Travis Burke, company operations manager of Dolphin Discovery, announced that Chankanaab's delfinario finds itself in operation from Wednesday July 20 since they could not disregard the contracts with the different cruiselines that come to the island.
He also reported that they continue the hunt for Karla,one of the three sea lions that slipped out of the park installations on July 22 in consequence of the damages of the hurricane.
The search now includes not just Cozumel but Playa del Carmen, Tulum, La Riviera Maya and Isla Mujeres as well. However, Mr. Burke anticipated that the sea lion show will resume on Tuesday. nonetheless.
As to the sea lions that escaped, we were informed that they have managed to recapture a male and a female.
It leaked out that the company deployed a large search operation that included the hiring of a helicopter and various boats.
However, the capture of the two sea lions was made thanks to the reports that fishermen and people in the community made to the authorities.
During the past week persons from the Attorney's Office for the Defense of the Environmen carried out an inspection visit to the Dolphin Discovery installations and they informed that they will fine the enterprise because their contingency plan was not not adequate, since right after the passage of the hurricane the 3 sea lions managed to escape,
In addition they lost two tons of fish by not exercising the proper measures of security
CONTINUATION OF MELGAR IMPROVEMENTS |
The reinstallation and burying of electric poles and cables on 2 kilometres of the waterfront avenue, Rafael E. Melgar is a work that has been paid for and the project will be going forward soon, according to Director of Public Works, Ricardo Espinoza Freyre.
The delay is caused by the fact that the electric company (CFE) will not begin work until all the materials and equipment have been accumulated and transported to the island. There are also some delays with several of the small, specialty suppliers.
"This kind of work cannot be done halfway," Director Espinoza Freyre stated. Particularly since they have ordered the best materials that will be the most durable.
The director assured that the 17 million pesos for the work is already in the CFE banks several million of which was contributed by the city of Cozumel and therefore there should be no fear or distrust by the population that this work will not come to completion.
The two kilometers of buried cable and poles on the island's principal avenue will, without doubt give great aesthetic improvement to the waterfront, the engineer concluded, adding finally that the city should be tranquil because as soon as the CFE has gathered all the agreed-upon materials, the work will commence.
POLICE REFORM CONTINUES |
The new operating Sub-Director of Police for the island, Orlando Saucedo Pinta emphasized that in the six months that he has been in office, good advancement have been made in creating the kind of model police system that is considered proper for such a popular tourist destination.
The police functionary expressed that they are emphasizing greater training for members of the police force.
"Without a doubt priority will be precisely to guarantee the security of the Cozumeleños so that the people feel proud of the police in their community," Saucedo Pinta stated in an interview with El Semanario of Cozumel.
"Cozumel needs not policeman quantity but policieman quality. And nothing is served with 1000 policeman who all have the same limitations. Better to have 400 elements with a higher level of training which will vindicate the police image in this municipality", he projected.
Saucedo Pinta said that any office like his always had to be ready for any eventuality that might show up and that, regrettably, as in all organizations some bad cops existed along with the good ones and this had, in the past interfered to some extent with the confidence and tranquility of the population in regard to the police force.
For this reason, the subdirector continued, it will be necessary to root out the bad guys and beware of allowing them to integrate themselves deeply within the police organization.
He further declared that at the moment the policemen have a strong spirit to move forward and achieve good things, an attitude stimulated by strong motivation and leadership from the new government.
"Without a doubt the vices and bad habits that may still exist,will die off little by little and, in the long run, the citizenship will begin to be proud of their police force." the sub-director emphasized..
He also added that he felt strong leadership was vital to accomplishing these goals. He said it is important not only to give orders but also to participate actively along with the men in the tasks that need to be accomplished thereby encouraging them to put forth their best efforts in a way that can be maintained in the long run.
Editor's Note: We've seen the new, slick blue uniforms and were impressed.
HOTELS NEED SAND |
Now that they have cleaned and repaired the various hotels affected by Hurrican Emily, the Cozumel Hotel Association has put in a request for the support of the Town Council to help replace the large amounts of sand that were blown away by the storm.
According to Gabriela Verduzco, manager of the hotel association, 8 hotels in the southern zone lost great quantities of sand and some sand was lost also by those in the northern hotel zone.
She represented that the first order of business had been to reestablish the electric energy, then to see that there was drinkable water and, finally to clean up the trash, fallen trees, branches, leaves and seaweed thrown up by Hurricane Emily.
But now that all this work had been done, they have solicited help from the Town Council headed by Mayor Gustavo Ortega Joaquin to back them up in bestowing sand to those hotels that have suffered the loss of this natural resource so that they may offer better attention to tourists that continue to come to the island for their summer holidays.
Sra Verduzco confirmed that right now they have the support of the mayor as well as the National Secretary of Tourism and the Governor of the state who all agreed in a recent meeting to try and avoid as many bureaucratic steps as possible so as to speed up the endowment of sand to the hotels in question.
"Sand, sun and crysalline beaches are all part of the tourism package on Cozumel, after all," the hotel association director stated. And not offering all these features to guests would be a deception.
Lastly, she manifested that she did not know if there is enough sand on the banks of the island to endow the hotels every time something like this happened. And it would be necessary for the correspondent authorities to do a study that would inform the hotel association in the future and help them to have a better conscience in regard to this natural resource of the island.
Editor's Note: There are few natural sand beaches on the island's west side so many hotels have resorted to trucking in sand to make narrow, artificial sand beaches in front of their hotels which are often retained by a sea wall.
MEX DRUG WAR SCORES A BIGGIE |
Last Thursday 5 drug traffickers were intercepted on the high seas near Cozumel with a cargo of close to 1.35 tons of cocaine base. The perpetrators, who are currently in jail on the island, were caught with the participation of two helicopters, a patrol ship and an intercepting patrol from the Secretary's Office of the Marine Armada.
This important confiscation, the greatest so far in the present year, is valued in the black market at over 200 million pesos.
According to official sources, the drug traffickers were stopped out at sea Thursday in the evening, on aboard a boat of the type known as Eduardoño with three outboard motors. They were carrying cocaine that would, on the black market have an approximate value of 202 million 568 thousand 700 pesos at the rate of 150 pesos for a gram, same that 350 thousand would represent one million 458 dose of the alkaloid.
4 of the 5 captured narcos, William Martínez's 25 years, Kevin Lincoln Smith 25 years, Miguel Pérez f 45 years, and Francisco Núñez 48 years old are from San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, Belize. The fifth perpetrator, a Honduran by the name of Jesús Castillo Orellano, was wounded as a consequence of the fire under which their vessel had to be placed by the navy in order to capture it.
The narcos are being held seperately in the public municipal jail and questioned individually as to the destination of the base cocaine which must surely have been heading for the United States of America , principal consumer of the drug.
POST EMILY LIGHTS ARE STILL PROBLEM |
Two weeks after the passage of hurricane Emily the arms of the traffic lights at the principal crossroads of the island are still bundled to the poles pointed downwards with only the lower pole light functioning. And the light at Avenue 30 and Adolfo Rosado Salas is still out of order.
It should be mentioned that the different traffic lights that exist in the principal of the island were disconnected and tied-down to fixed structures in order to protect them against the strong hurricane winds. However this Tuesday a journey to each finds that they are still in the same condition and many not working or only partially so.
The traffic lights located at the 30 avenue with 15 Sur and another one on the Juárez and 30 work halfway. The traffic lights at 65 avenue with Juárez and the one found at Calle 11 is in the same condition. While the light at Avenue 15 with 20 can only be seen by the first driver in the queue so that the ones that come behind don't know what's going on and, as a result some are driven to despair and clang their horns persistently in the present situation.
A seperate mention should be given to the light at Pedro Joaquín Coldwell which is also not working properly and which has made this intersection very dangerous as it is used by many tourists who do not understand the sign postings and the transit rules for this area and a fatal accident such as happened in the prior year is a possibility if this problem is not dealt with quickly.
Apparently Transit Management has forgotten about the repairs and the work of reinstalling the traffic arms and are instead concentrating on applying fines to drivers without licenses or plates and handing out parking tickets. These are all activities which generate money for the municipal chest. Whereas making the necessary repairs so that the traffic lights function at 100% rather than having to put out money to make the repairs require that money be spent by the city.
All Rights to the Above Material are Reserved. If you feel you must copy and paste any portion of what you've read here, please give credit to Cozumel News in English at www.cozumelmycozumel.com. Thanks for your cooperation.
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