Due to the unsafety that deprives in the municipality of Jerez, Zacatecas, this Friday the coordinator of the Secretary of State Education (SEZ) in that town, Esther Ibarra, confirm the cancellation of the Carnival morning paradewhich would take place next Sunday, February 19, with the participation of 1,600 students from the 40 schools in that demarcation.
The activities of the Carnaval are the preamble to Jerez Fair, which this year will take place from April 5 to 16, which has not yet been cancelled.
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Esther Ibarra announced that the directors of the educational institutions decided not to participate in the event.
The Carnival of Jerez is develops with three activities:
1.- queen choice (which is the same as the Spring Fair)
2.- night parade (which since the organization of the Carnival was canceled) and
3.- morning parade (which takes place on the Sunday before Shrove Tuesday), in which school students participate and which was canceled this Friday.
Yesterday, Thursday, hours before the election of carnival queenthe seven applicants (between 16 and 20 years old, as established in the call), representatives of various educational institutions and the queen of the festival, they canceled their participationexpressing their rejection of the artistic, tourist and cultural events scheduled due to the risk that they represent for the population in the face of the climate of insecurity.
In the parade, associations of old cars, charras associations and karate schools also participate.
This is the third consecutive year that carnival activities are not carried out in the municipality, since in 2021 and 2022 they were canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. Covid-19.
For 50 years the Carnival of Jerez has been held, initially organized by the Francisco García Salinas preparatory school, in 1990 it was organized by Cetis 114 and, for eight years organizes the address of Town Hall Tourismrespecting the participation of educational establishments.
In addition, Jerez is the first municipality in the state of Zacatecas which obtained the designation of Pueblo Mágico in 2007.
For his part, the mayor, José Humberto Salazar, maintained that “It is important to preserve traditions and the responsibility of generating economic conditions for the benefit of the population,” although he said he respected the decision of those who decided not to attend.
Regarding security problems, Salazar mentioned that he has requested the support of more federal and state police officers.
It is not in our hands to offer an immediate solution, therefore, I will continue to insist on the corresponding instances so that they do not leave us alone.
He also promised to report on “the follow-up or not of the implementation of the activities that are scheduled.”
He emphasized that the festivities “are requests from the merchants and service providers to avoid further impacts on the economy”.
Crime and insecurity in Jerez
They have been frequent crimes occurred this year in the municipality of Jerez. Among the most recent is the massacre in the bar “El Venadito”, where on January 27 an armed commando killed six people and injured two other people who died in the hospital.
Another fact that caused outrage is the disappearance occurred last Saturday of the 20-year-old Frida Sofia Murillo Raygoza.
So far in 2023, nine people have disappeared whose whereabouts remain unknown in the entityas recorded in the National Registry of Missing and Unlocated Persons of the Ministry of the Interior.
The State Attorney General’s Office released yesterday, Thursday, the search files for three women and a man who disappeared between February 11 and 15 of this year.
The presence of criminal groups in the mountain area of the municipality of Jerez forced nearly three thousand people they will leave their homes since the year 2020, having its maximum climax in 2021 and was until the end of 2022 when some of them began to return with the support of the National Guard and the Army.
Published in The Sun of Zacatecas
