City, state and federal officials took part Tuesday of a solemn, sober ceremony to commemorate Mexicali’s 114th. anniversary.
“Mexicali is a city that perfectly knows the value of work, willingness, effort, solidarity and honesty, and is a community that knows its destination and path,” said Mayor Gustavo Sánchez.
The event was somehow eclipsed by the death Monday of two police officers and two rescue group members during a helicopter crash while recovering the body of an excursionist who got lost Sunday.
Participants held a moment of silence in memory of the five deceased.
Municipal Institute of Arts and Culture Director Carmen Espinoza recalled the Cucapah tribe has lived in the area for over 800 years and their persevereance is a testimony of their hard work.
After several centuries other immigrants from Japan, India and especially China arrived to the valley to work by creating irrigation canals, promoting trade and livestock through discipline and solidarity, union, responsibility, work, effort and savings, setting a legacy that prevails until today, Espinoza said.
According to the director the city, where our grandparents and parents were born, has been sustained by love in a soil of men of good will who have created their vision of a paradise.
“This is a land we inherited from our parents and that will be inherited to our children,” said on his speech Governor Francisco Vega. “This is a land that was originally a small town isolated by the desert that turned into a prosperous metropolitan city.”
Gov. Vega remembered California and Mexico got together to produce the names of the cities of Mexicali and Calexico through their binational relationship.
“This relationship needs bridges, not walls,” Vega said. “The fifth most visited border in the world is without a doubt one of the more genuine binational and exemplary communities all over the world.”
School safety agreement signed
A state official signed along with other colleagues and federal officers an agreement to grant school safety.
Secretary of Education and Social Wellbeing Miguel Ángel Mendoza González said the agreement was signed during the 38 Annual Meeting of Mexico’s National Council of State Education Authorities.
The pact includes provisions to advance the action plan of crime social prevention and strengthening of school coexistence.
“Baja California adds to the national commitment to create the necessary conditions to advance in issues like school coexistence and to stimulate that our schools are free of violence,” Mendoza González said.
The agreement includes the recognition of the first grade of pre-school for 3- and 4-year-old students.
New medical service program proposed
A state lawmaker made a request to the state secretary of public health to launch a program to provide services to patients at their own homes.
The “Doctor at Home” project would focus on patients who are not able to go to clinics or hospitals due to their medical conditions, said proponent Assemblywoman Rocío López Gorosave.
The program would include doctors, psychologists, social workers, nurses and dentists to educate and serve patients in issues like diabetes, hypertension, obesity, overweight and prenatal control, as well as to bring food to patients, the lawmaker said.
A similar program was launched in Mexico City during the fall of 2015, López Gorosave said.
Men caught on vehicle reported stolen
Two men were arrested Tuesday in southern Mexicali in possession of a firearm while driving a vehicle reported stolen, said the state Department of Public Safety.
State troopers observed the individuals by the San Felipe Highway at Fraccionamiento El Dorado neighborhood on a Toyota Rav4 2002 driven over-speed.
Police agents attempted to stop the vehicle but the driver tried to flee.
Police officers were able to stop the driver yards away, authorities said.
The officers arrested Julio César “Doe,” 23 and José Ricardo “Doe,” 21.
Police officers found inside the vehicle a .380-caliber gun loaded with two cartridges.
The vehicle, that had plates 7VQH312, was reported stolen in the United States.
The suspects were transported to a prosecutorial agency.
