A Journey to the Zone of Silence

There’s an area in the Chihuahuan desert in northern Mexico where radio signals don’t work, and compasses spin out of control when placed near stones on the ground. It’s called the Zone of Silence. It measures only 50 kilometers across, and it is located in the Mapimí Biosphere Reserve, a huge, mostly uninhabited expanse of almost 400,000 hectares, where the flat and desolate terrain is interspersed with lonely mountain outcrops.

 

Horses and 'Venus' build site at the Palacios ranch.

“The Zone is my passion,” Benjamin Palacios says as we bounce through the area in his 4-wheel drive Suburban, surrounded by mesquite, cactus, and guamis—brilliant yellow flowers resembling buttercups. Palacios, 61, grew up in the village of Escalón, Chihuahua, on the edge of the Zone, and now has his own UFO-themed ranch on the area’s periphery.

Read full article by La politica's TE Wilson here at Atlas Obscura.

US Citizen Kidnapped in Mazatlán México

UPDATE: O’Neil Patrick McGean has since been found dead, and his killers captured by police.

The family has requested that this news be spread without media speculation. For that reason, La politica is posting the following unedited press release:

O’Neil Patrick McGean, an American full-time resident of Mazatlán, Sinaloa for 10 years, has been missing since Tuesday, Oct. 25 under suspicious circumstances.

 

O’Neil Patrick McGean

McGean was last heard from earlier that evening, as he was on his way to meet a new friend at the Hotel Punta Pacifico, at the far north end of this popular retirement and vacation destination for foreigners. His last communication was with another friend at about 8pm, saying that he was on his way.

After that, he has not been seen or heard from. The vehicle he was driving, a white Spark (license plate VRK-1996) was found by friends early Saturday morning parked on Camaron Sabalo one of the busiest streets in the center of the tourist area, near the restaurant Los Zarapes. Neighbors said it had been there for several days. It is now in police custody.