Emergency Number in Mexico

911 will be new emergency number starting next year. 

I experienced a little chest pain last night. It could have come from the bad diet I brought back from our trip from NOB: Cheetos which I can only get here with bacon added, and those little candy hearts with sayings like "CRAZY 4U", "LOVE YOU", and "MISS YOU", all in delicious pastels.

As I tried to get comfortable, back, side, and other side, I thought about emergency numbers to call. Does 9-1-1 work in San Miguel?

Mexico News Daily cleared things up for me.

"The number for a new national emergency phone line will be 911, the Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT) announced this week.

Last April the federal Chamber of Deputies approved legislation to make 066 the official number.calls was announced last November by President Enrique Peña Nieto as one of a series of measures in response to the Iguala-Ayotzinapa events of September 26 and 27. At the time it was to be 911.

Now 911 is back, and existing emergency numbers will be required to migrate to it. Those include 060 for local police, 061 for state and Federal District judicial police, 065 for the Red Cross, 066 for the national system for citizen emergencies, 068 for fire emergencies and 080 for security and emergency calls.

The new number, for both fixed line and mobile telephones, is to begin operating early ( in 2016).

Puebla’s Tunnels Will Open Soon to Public

From Mexico News Daily, "Five months after the discovery of ancient tunnels beneath the city of Puebla, the centuries-old passageways are being opened as part of the Secretos de Puebla, or Secrets of Puebla, project.

Believed to be as many as 500 years old, the tunnels were originally constructed within the foundations of the city, possibly to provide underground passage between monasteries, or to function as a drainage system.

The tunnels are also rumored to have aided Mexican soldiers in their celebrated fight against French troops, which they won on May 5, 1862.

Located in Puebla’s historical center as well as on the fringe of the area known as Las Fuertes, the tunnels reach seven meters in height and 3.5 meters in width and extend for an estimated total of 10 kilometers in length.

The president of the State School of Civil Engineers, Ricardo Olea Ayala, believes that the tunnels were used as secret passageways between a network of monasteries, including Santo Domingo, San Agustín, La Merced and San Javier.

Sergio Vergara Bermejo, manager of the Historical and Heritage Center of Puebla, remarked that the discovery of Puebla’s tunnel network was the confirmation of a popular urban legend. He said, “We talked of the tunnels of Puebla, but nobody had seen them.”

Specialists from the National Institute of Anthropology and History will assist in the recovery of the remaining tunnels, but on February 17 the first recovered sections will be opened to the public. Secretos de Puebla will introduce about 2.5 kilometers of uncovered tunnels in addition to its other catalogued historical sites, including the Puente Bubos.

They are calling on visitors to create videos to recount their personal experience with the tunnels, stories of which have been passed down through generations.

Total restoration of the subterranean passageways, whose existence was confirmed last September, is expected to take 10 years.

Sources: El Economista (sp), Puebla Capital (sp), Union Puebla (sp)