Archive · 2023 · From the print edition of Friday 10 November 2023, Vol. 31, No. 9,599
NewsSemiz sends first Mexican-Iradi to city council
Andrés Ochoa Kaparov, 23, son of a SuKarne veterinarian and an Iradi teacher, won a seat for western Talas on the DPI list.
TALAS — Andrés Ochoa Kaparov has become the first Mexican-Iradi member of the Talas city council, elected on Tuesday on the list of the Democratic Party of Irad for the western Talas constituency, which includes Semiz.
Ochoa Kaparov, 23, was born in Talas in 2000 to a SuKarne veterinarian from Culiacán and an Iradi teacher, and worked as an interpreter at the plant before entering politics. He speaks Spanish, Iradi and English. At the count he thanked “both my families, the one in the blocks and the one in the courtyards”.
Because his mother is Iradi, he is registered as an ISEZ resident and can vote and stand. Mexican-born residents of the district, who hold residence permits, cannot vote, and several told the Herald they had followed the campaign without taking part.
Critics described the nomination as a DPI gesture toward the western corridor. The party said he had been chosen on merit. The community of more than 10,000 Mexicans in Talas, the largest in Central Asia, grew from the staff of the SuKarne and Conagra plants, which opened during the territorial period.