Coronavirus cases continue to grow in Sonora, Mexico

Coronavirus cases continue to grow in Sonora, Mexico

The novel coronavirus has spread rapidly through the state of Sonora, and as you can see on the graphic above, Sonora’s coronavirus cases are still on a steep incline. Because of this, we do not recommend any travel to the state of Sonora, with the possible exception of brief border visits, until the pandemic has run its course.

Sonoran health officials confirmed the first coronavirus case in the state on March 16, a 72-year-old musician who had returned to Hermosillo from a trip to the United States.

To their credit, the Sonora state government, police and health officials were able to stop the throngs of people from migrating to the beach during Semana Santa, the holy week before Easter.

The week is an annual event that is Sonora’s spring break, and the fact that the state sucessfully closed beaches and imposed stay-at-home orders, and that the people complied with the guidance, definitely helped to slow the level of infection in Sonora.

Since then, though, the state’s cases have seen a continual increase, with a surge beginning in mid-May that continues today, where the state has 6,173 confirmed cases and 550 deaths.

Because there is no widespread testing program, the number of cases reported reflect sick people who have been tested as they sought medical assistance. This indicates that reported cases are far less than actual numbers of people infected with the virus. The state has no organized contact tracing program. 

Some manufacturers in Sonora who are deemed “essential” have continued to remain in operation. In addition, at the beginning of June, other maquiladora factories with ties to American companies began to re-open. The Hermosillo Ford plant opened on June 1, and within two weeks an employee had died from COVID-19.

To reaffirm, we do not recommend travel to Mexico during the pandemic. If you become ill while in Sonora, you may not be able to find a hospital bed and would likely need to be evacuated. So, if you do visit Sonora for an extended period of time, you should plan and prepare for potential issues, to include purchasing medical evacuation insurance.

To check daily numbers of coronavirus infections in Arizona and Sonora, click here. 

June 19 Sonora COVID cases

No tourists allowed at Comcaác Seri New Year celebrations this year

Comcaac Seri hand-woven baskets

Priority to protect the health of the Seris

This year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, outsiders will not be able to see the traditional New Year’s celebrations of the Comcaac Seri on June 30 and July 1.  

The Seris traditionally hold five fiestas in Desemboque and Punta Chueca, where hundreds of visitors typically attend. 

But the small Comcaác communities do not have a doctor or medical equipment, so they must be very careful about avoiding the coronavirus. 

Miguel Estrella Romero, President of the Council of Elders of Desemboque de los Seris, was quoted in the Sonoran newspaper El Imparcial yesterday regarding the travel ban.

He acknowledged that the lack of tourists will directly affect native artisans, who sell their art and crafts during the events. 

“But health comes first,” he said. 

The Comcaác New Year celebrates a time when the Sea of Cortez and Sonoran Desert begin a cycle of regeneration, with an abundance of food from the desert and fish from the sea. 

Sonora Business Leaders Demand a Solution to Violence

Members of the organization Comparmex, the “business center of Northern Sonora,” met with public officials on August 13 in Guaymas to demand action to address the extreme violence that has gripped the state.

In addition to Comparmex members, the meeting was attended by Sonora Governor Claudia Pavlovich, state and federal security officials and the municipal presidents of Cajeme, Guaymas, Empalme and Navojoa

According to its website, Comparmex is a politically independent group of employers and entrepreneurs founded in 1929. It seeks to establish social conditions that contribute to the prosperity of all Mexicans, to increase equity and social cohesion.

Sonora newspaper El Imparcial reported that Comparmex President Arturo Fernández Díaz recommended that state and federal governments devote more resources to security forces, to include better training, equipment and salaries.

Anti-government and -police violence

Of particular concern is the level of violence against municipal governments, in particular municipal police officers. Their increasing frequency and levels of violence may indicate signs of social instability in the state of Sonora, Mexico.

On June 20, the comptroller of the city of Guaymas, Daniel Morales Pardini, was gunned down with another municipal employee, Enrique Galarza Núñez, as they were driving on Avenida Serdán, the main street in Guaymas. Both men were killed. Pardini had previously been the municipal police director for Guaymas.

On June 28, the eastern command police headquarters in Guaymas was assaulted by an armed gunman. There were three violent murders in Guaymas earlier in the day, and the presidenta municipal (mayor) of Guaymas, Sara Valle Dessens, announced on the radio that because of the violence, people in Guaymas should not leave their homes if they do not need to.

And in July, after seeing his partner slain in front of an Oxxo convenience store, a Guaymas police officer is quoted as saying “They are going to kill us all.”

An August 4 attack on the palacio municipal (city hall) of the municipality of Mazatan, Sonora. Gunment riddled the building with a fusillade of bullets.

The next day, August 5, an Hermosillo police officer was shot to death in his home. He was the 15th police official killed in Sonora in 2019.

Violence within proximity of children

And unfortunately, children have not been spared from seeing examples of violence in the state.

On July 29, a dismembered body was left outside a primary school in Empalme, just 500 meters from the police station.

On August 3, two men were gunned down outside of an Hermosillo McDonald’s where children were celebrating at a birthday piñata party.

And on the evening of August 4, a man entered the Ballpark restaurant, withdrew a weapon and shot a man who was dining at the restaurant, killing him. At a nearby table, several children dove under their table in terror as the man was murdered.

One week later, the manager of the Ballpark restaurant was kidnapped. He was later released.

Conclusion

By August 24, Hermosillo had experienced 160 violent homicides in 2019, just 15 fewer than all of 2018.

Earlier this year the Mexican federal government announced the deployment of federal national guard troops to establish “security priority areas” in Sonora. It is not clear what specific actions have been taken at the state level to curtail the violence in Sonora, but it has continued. We are especially concerned about growing tensions between armed groups and local governments, in particular against local police officials.

We recommend that you exercise extreme caution when traveling to or driving through the cities of Guaymas – San Carlos, Empalme, Ciudad Obregon and Hermosillo. Nighttime travel is definitely not recommended.

More Sonora news and insights

August Is the Deadliest Month of 2019 in Hermosillo

Violent Murders on the Increase in Hermosillo

Sonoran newspaper El Imparcial reported this morning that August is already the most violent month this year in the state capital of Hermosillo. As of yesterday, when two people were murdered in gun violence, 38 people have been killed in Hermosillo in August. That brings the 2019 total of murders in the capital city to 160, just 15 fewer than all of 2018.

There were more “malicious homicides” in the municipality of Cajeme, which includes the city of Ciudad Obregon. Cajeme experienced 167 violent deaths through the end of July. There were 63 murders in that municipality in the month of June.

There were also dozens of bodies recovered earlier this year from killing fields in Cajeme, near Ciudad Obregon. 

There were 537 violent deaths in the state of Sonora, Mexico through the end of July. Most of the violence occurred in the areas of Hermosillo, Ciudad Obregon (Cajeme), Guaymas – San Carlos and Empalme.

We advise that you exercise extreme caution when visiting or driving through those areas, especially at night.

More Sonora news and insights

Armed Attacks in Cajeme Leave 5 Dead and One Injured

Saturday violence started with an attempted carjacking

 

Sonora newspaper El Imparcial reports that a young woman lost her life following an attempted carjacking, four others were also killed and one man was injured in armed assaults on a violent Saturday on June 15 in the Sonoran municipality of Cajeme.

19-year-old Daniela “MA” was a passenger in a vehicle that an armed assailant attempted to carjack in the Cajeme town of Yaqui Pueblo at 12:30 a.m. on Saturday. The gunman stepped in front of the car and when it failed to stop, he fired on the vehicle, wounding Daniela. She later died at a hospital.

The violence continued later that day, when five armed attacks occurred between 6:00 and 7:00 p.m. in Ciudad Obregon.

The assaults started shortly after 6:00 p.m. when two young people were killed in their home on Calle Francisco Zarco in Colonia Constitución.

Minutes later, two men were killed in a hail of more than 50 bullets while in a car at the corner of Calle Otancahui and Avenida Jesus Garcia in Colonia Las Arboledas.

And at 6:30 p.m. a man was seriously injured in an armed assault while riding in a car in Obregon’s Colonia Villa Fontana. His condition was not known at the time of the report.

After the assaults, police located two vehicles with weapons and tactical equipment in the El Rodeo subdivision of Ciudad Obregon.

And in an apparently related incident, witnesses reported that four alleged “sicarios” (assassins) in a gray late-model Nissan March abandoned their vehicle, leaving one man who had multiple gunshot wounds, and commandeered a red Yaris sedan from its owner to flee from the scene.

The Saturday gun violence followed the murders of nine people as a result of armed assaults in and near the border city of Agua Prieta.

We recommend that you use extreme caution if you choose to visit Agua Prieta, Ciudad Obregon or any other place in the municipality of Cajeme.

More Sonora news and insights

Border Gun Violence Continues in Agua Prieta

Following the nine homicides in the area on June 10, there were two more firearm-involved incidents on June 14 in the Arizona-Sonora border city of Agua Prieta, near the street where cross-border travelers wait to cross the border. Hermosillo-based newspaper El Imparcial reported that the gun violence involved two more murders and a shootout near a primary school. It is not clear whether the two events, which occurred one block apart, were related.

Early on June 14, two men were found dead in a home on Calle 3 between Avenidas 23 and 24 in Colonia Militar. The house is located just three blocks south of the international border and approximately 1.25 miles east of the Raul H. Castro Port of Entry border crossing.

El Imparcial reported that local police retrieved a variety of shell casings of various calibers from the scene, which also included a bullet-ridden late-model black GMC Sierra.

The deceased were identified by the Sonora State Attorney General’s Office (FGJE) as 39-year-old “Manuel N.,” aka “El Ratón” (the mouse) and “El Machi,” whose age was estimated to be between 30 and 35 years old.

Also that morning, nervous residents of Agua Prieta and Douglas were again listening to the sounds of gunfire as a gunbattle erupted outside of the Margarita Maza de Juarez Elementary School, located just two blocks south of the border on Calle 2, between Avenideas 22 and 23. The school’s young students were on summer break, but a group of administrators were meeting at the school.

Elements of the Mexican Army and Agua Prieta municipal police soon arrived at the scene to investigate. El Imparcial reported that there were rumors of fatalities, but police did not confirm them at the scene.

A “Code Red” police alert that indicates a firearms-related incident was activated at 9:40 a.m., activating a “C5i” Operations Center. The letters and number in C5i represent: Control, Command, Communication, Computing, Coordination and Intelligence.

Both shooting incidents occurred a short distance from Calle Internacional, the street where vehicles line up as they wait to cross the international border from Agua Prieta, Sonora to Douglas, Arizona. We reiterate our travel advisory for Agua Prieta, to take extreme caution if traveling to the area (which is not recommended).