Who signs up for the Beer Mile where you have to drink a lot of beer while running a mile? 81-year-old Elvira Montes from El Paso, that’s who!
It’s actually her second time running the FloTrack Beer Mile World Championships, but she didn’t enjoy the first time because “I’m not a big beer drinker,” Montes said. “I like beer when the weather is real hot and there’s nothing else to drink. I’m really a scotch drinker, Chivas if it’s available. If it was scotch we were drinking instead of beer, I would have run a lot faster.” There’s an idea.
Vera, who runs three miles four times a week, was the oldest runner in the race. And she beat her daughter Renee, a marathon runner, coming in at 20 minutes vs her daughter’s 21 minutes.
Maybe, if there’s scotch next year, she’ll beat everyone.
Many were surprised when Mexico’s government declared beer production a ‘non-essential’ service when it implemented measures meant to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus. In early April, the federal government mandated the closure of millions of businesses – including breweries.
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador declared a national health emergency at the end of March and called for a halt to non-essential activities that included most manufacturing.
Now, Mexico is running out of cerveza.
As the country faces another month of quarantine, a new crisis looms on the horizon: Mexico is running out of beer.
Mexico is running out of beer since breweries were declared non-essential. But plants that make Modelo and Corona for export to the United States continue to operate https://t.co/00EVxvPGbw
Beer is in short supply across Mexico as manufactures were ordered closed because of Coronavirus. Mexico’s beer lovers have had a hard time finding stocked shelves after the government deemed the industry non-essential and ordered it shut down.
Since President AMLO declared a national health emergency, beer production is no longer authorized under current sanitary restrictions. This means that production plants from Tabasco to Baja have had to shutter their doors. As a result, beer is a hot commodity. In fact, last weekend at least 25 states across Mexico reported beer shortages both in large supermarket chains and corner tienditas.
Although Mexico is the world’s largest exporter of the beverage — cornering almost 27% of the global beer market — the federal Health Ministry has made it clear that the product is not essential, even after the Agriculture Ministry invited beer manufacturers to resume production in early April.
As of Friday, the giant Mexican chain of convenience stores, Oxxo, announced they only had inventory for 10 days.
Oxxo is Latin America’s largest chain of convenience stores and they’re quickly running out of beer.
“If and when we run out of beer, which could happen in the next couple of weeks, that would be negative for sales,” Juan Fonseca, Femsa’s head of investor relations, said on a conference call with analysts. “I don’t want people to get off the call and run to the store, but right now we are probably looking at about 10 days of inventory.”
Although beer production doesn’t pose a major health risk, many see it as possibly limiting adherence to strict social distancing measures. When you drink alcohol, you often become less inhibited and it can also act as a social lubricant – meaning beer drinking may lead to more casual get together or parties.
“I think the government might be afraid if they drink beer, there will be more social interaction,” Padilla said in the call with analysts.
Several groups are urging the government to classify beer as an essential product to help mom and pop tiendas as well as to avoid social unrest.
Mom and pop corner shops and tienditas are struggling to make ends meet since beer often makes up more than 40% of their sales.
“There’s no beer because there’s no production. They closed the plants because of the disease,” said Emilio, a Mexico City shop owner with a few lonely cans of less popular brands of beer left in his refrigerators. Shops carrying ‘No Hay Cerveza’ signs are littered across the city.
“It’s hitting us real hard because beer is what we sell most. Now that we don’t have any, it obviously hurts us. My business supports eight families,” he said among mountains of empty bottles.
Even larger grocery stores are starting to see stocks run low, and the scarcity is being felt at the cash register, as beer prices have risen around 30%. In Tamaulipas, the price of a six-pack has doubled and a case of beer that used to sell for 280 pesos is now going for up to 600 pesos.
Some states are under mandatory ‘dry’ laws while a booming black market is leading many to worry about violence.
Some areas of the country are under government-mandated dry laws either banning outright the sale of alcohol or limiting the hours during which it can be purchased, but the shortage has imposed de facto dry laws on other regions simply because supplies do not exist.
Even in the capital, Mexico City, certain parts of the city have enacted dry laws banning the sale of alcohol.
Meanwhile, smugglers on the northern border are bringing in clandestine shipments of beer from the U.S. Beer runners are taking to social media to sell their illegal beers, which are being trafficked similarly to cocaine and marijuana. Sellers will bring beer to a customer’s door to lower the risk of being caught by police, but purchasers will often pay a 300% premium for the service.
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El Paso shooter, Patrick Crusius, has been indicted on 90 federal charges related to the deadly attack, including hate crimes. The shooter admitted to having a specific community in mind when he carried out the attack at the Texas Walmart.
The El Paso shooter is facing federal hate crime charges in connection with the deadly shooting.
Credit: p_craig / Instagram
On Aug. 3, 2019, shooter Patrick Crusius walked into an El Paso Walmart and killed 22 people, injuring 23. Some of the victims were Mexican nationals who were shopping.
Crusius has now been charged with 90 federal charges because of the attack including hate crimes resulting in death and an attempt to kill. The shooter admitted to wanting to target Mexicans and Mexican-Americans in the attack.
The grand jury that indicted the shooter referenced “substantial premeditation” before the attack.
Credit: @JakeBGibson / Twitter
Before the attack, Crusius spent six weeks buying an AK-47 and ammunition. Shortly before a 911 alert of the shooting, the shooter’s manifesto appeared online. The manifesto spoke of a “Hispanic invasion of Texas.” The manifesto also stated that “if we can get rid of enough people, then our way of life can be more sustainable.”
Crusius drove 10 hours overnight from Dallas to El Paso to carry out the shooting. After the shooting, Crusius gave himself up to police stating, “I am the shooter.” The federal indictment comes on the six-month anniversary of the tragic shooting.
Some claim that the language in the manifesto parroted some lines and sentiments from President Trump.
Credit: @eptxyds / Twitter
While the wording ming be similar to what President Trump has said in the past, it is not known if the president actually inspired the shooter. According to AP, the shooter claims that his anti-Mexican beliefs were set before the president and his campaign.
A memorial has been built at the Walmart to honor the 22 victims of the shooting.
Credit: tallyngrams / Instagram
“This hate crime may be considered an act of domestic terrorism, as have other hate crimes throughout our history, like the violence wrought by white supremacists and the Ku Klux Klan,” Eric Dreiband, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, told reporters on Thursday.
The deadly shooting united a community in the face of hate and mobilized a gun reform message from Walmart.
.@BetoORourke on Walmart decision to limit some gun/ammunition sales: “If we wait for this kind of corporate responsibility across the country, given the number of gun shows and gun dealers and gun stores, we’ll be waiting for the rest of our lives.” pic.twitter.com/6AlTabJGnK
The announcement to change open carry policies for the stores and limit the sale of guns and ammunition was widely celebrated. Gun reform activists saw the move as a way to limit the spread of gun violence in the country.
