Los Cabos a La Carta · Los Cabos a la Carta

LCALC 08 de Abril de 2026

·1 hr 2 min·5 clips

Today marks 296 years since the founding of San José del Cabo, with the municipal chronicler set to reveal its turbulent origins.

1. Los Cabos a la Carta, broadcast April 8, 2026, focuses on three main topics: the Artemis 2 lunar mission return, the 296th anniversary of the San José del Cabo mission founding, and the SAGUARO liquefied natural gas pipeline project threatening the Gulf of California. 2. Host Armando Figaredo leads the program alongside co-host Magdalena Torres, with guests Aníbal Amador (Municipal Chronicler of Los Cabos) and Jacqueline Valenzuela (director of CERCA). 3. The episode's central environmental argument is that the SAGUARO project and proposed fracking policy put the Gulf of California's unique biodiversity at risk for the financial benefit of five foreign companies. 4. The program opens with the Artemis 2 crew's approach to Earth after setting a human spaceflight distance record of 406,000 kilometers, expected to splash down near San Diego on Friday or Saturday. 5. Crew members named are Christina Koch, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover (first Black pilot in a lunar mission), and Jeremy Hansen (first Canadian on a NASA lunar crew). 6. Host Figaredo recalls interviewing Buzz Aldrin—the second man to walk on the moon—in Los Cabos in approximately 1998, around the time of the Westin hotel inauguration. 7. The program briefly notes the closure of Plaza Paraíso in Cabo San Lucas by order of State Secretary General Alberto Rentería, following a major water main burst that flooded several businesses and caused significant damage to storefronts. 8. Aníbal Amador, appointed Municipal Chronicler fewer than two months prior, describes himself as a native of San José del Cabo who studied alternative tourism at UABCS and has promoted local history since a young age. 9. Amador explains that the Loreto Mission was founded in 1697, starting a chain of Baja California missions, and that the southernmost missions were essential because the Manila Galleon made its obligatory stop at the San José del Cabo estuary. 10. Father Clemente Guillén walked south in 1725 to scout a mission site, finding what he described as the largest waterway in those lands, but the formal foundation required five more years. 11. Father Nicolás Tamaral of Seville and Father José de Echeverría formally founded the Mission of San José del Cabo on April 8, 1730, after the original site was abandoned due to poor soil, bad water, and mosquito-borne infections. 12. Both Father Tamaral and Father Lorenzo Carranco were killed by Pericúes indigenous people in 1734—a clash of cultures over the missionaries' prohibition of polygamy—and their martyrdom is depicted in a retable in the current San José del Cabo parish church. 13. Jacqueline Valenzuela explains that SAGUARO originated in the AMLO administration as a plan for US gas to transit the Gulf of California for export to Asia, and that multiple nested projects including AMIGO share the same intent. 14. Sonora's Governor Durazo publicly supported the SAGUARO infrastructure, and reportedly stated that whales do not pass through Sonora's coastal waters—a claim Valenzuela describes as displaying extreme ignorance. 15. The Nuestro Futuro organization filed a rights-of-nature lawsuit in La Paz in October 2025, arguing that whales hold an inherent right to free transit through the Gulf; a judge admitted the case and suspended SAGUARO tanker traffic pending resolution. 16. Valenzuela notes that environmental lawsuits are routinely dismissed in Mexico, making the judge's admission of this case a significant legal development. 17. She identifies an international legal mechanism—declaring the Gulf of California a 'specially sensitive area' under maritime conventions, already applied in Peru—as a path to protecting waters beyond Mexico's 22-kilometer territorial jurisdiction. 18. SEMDA (Centro Mexicano de Derecho Ambiental) has also blocked proposed submarine mining for critical minerals in the Gulf, described as an additional threat running parallel to the SAGUARO pipeline. 19. The episode closes with Valenzuela warning that the newly announced fracking policy also threatens biodiversity, since subsurface soil is not inert and hydraulic fracturing can alter ecological conditions above and below ground. 20. Suited for listeners interested in Baja California history, Gulf of California conservation, or Mexican energy and environmental law; less relevant for those seeking political or financial news.

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