The US dollar-Mexican peso exchange rate. The size of the Mexican economy. The federal government’s plan to receive deportees from the United States. A recent New York Times’ dispatch from “inside a Sinaloa Cartel fentanyl lab.”
They were among the topics President Claudia Sheinbaum spoke about at her first morning press conference of 2025, held at the National Palace this Thursday Jan. 2.
Sheinbaum predicts exchange rate will stabilize after Trump takes office
Sheinbaum noted that the peso has depreciated against the US dollar since she was sworn in as president on Oct. 1.
“Among other things, it’s due to uncertainty in the United States and the changes in the [interest] rate of the Fed,” she said.
“We expect that once President Trump takes office, we’ll enter a period of stabilization,” Sheinbaum said.
The president presented data that showed that the peso depreciated less against the US dollar in the final three months of 2024 than several other currencies including the Japanese yen, the euro, the British pound and the Canadian dollar.
The data showed that the peso depreciated 5.8% against the greenback in the period, while the yen fell 9.5%, the euro declined 7.5%, the pound dropped 6.8% and the Canadian dollar dipped 6.3%.
“Look at the depreciation of other currencies so that you don’t say it’s a Mexico issue. It’s an international issue,” Sheinbaum said.
The peso is “among the currencies that had the lowest depreciation,” she added.
The Bank of Mexico’s closing USD:MXN rate on Thursday was just under 20.62.
Mexico ‘still the 12th largest economy in the world’
Sheinbaum also presented 2023 World Bank data that showed that Mexico was the 12th largest economy in the world, behind the United States, China, Germany, Japan, India, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Brazil, Canada and Russia.
“We’re still the 12th largest economy in the world, … above Spain, South Korea, Australia, Indonesia, Netherlands, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Switzerland,” she said, mentioning the countries ranked 13th to 20th based on the size of their economy.
The data Sheinbaum presented showed that Mexico had a GDP of US $1.789 trillion in 2023, equivalent to 1.7% of global GDP.
Plan to receive deportees during second Trump administration is ‘ready,’ says Sheinbaum
Asked about the progress that has been made in terms of preparing for the possible mass deportation of Mexicans from the United States during Donald Trump’s second term as U.S. president, Sheinbaum said that the government already has a “very elaborate plan.”
“… We already have it ready,” she stressed, adding that the government is waiting to see what happens vis-à-vis deportations before presenting the plan.
“But everything is prepared,” Sheinbaum said, adding that states all over the country will have a role in the plan’s execution.
The government is not just working with the border states but with entities all over the republic, she said.
“If a compatriot arrives to Mexico at the border, it’s very probable that he or she will want to go to their place of origin,” she said.
Government seeks to debunk NYT fentanyl report
Three days after Sheinbaum declared that a New York Times report about fentanyl production in Sinaloa “is not very credible,” no fewer than three other government officials sought to explain why the report is not grounded in truth.
A central focus of the officials — the director of health agency IMSS-Bienestar, the director of health regulator Cofepris and a precursor chemicals specialist with the Mexican Navy — was the Times’ suggestion that fentanyl cooks could develop a tolerance to the synthetic opioid.
Referring to a conversation with two alleged fentanyl cooks at a Sinaloa Cartel lab in Culiacán, reporters for the Times, who said they wore “gas masks and hazmat suits” to the lab, wrote:
“While one sniff of the toxic chemicals could kill us, they explained, they had built up a tolerance to the lethal drug.”
Cofepris director Armida Zúñiga Estrada told reporters on Thursday that “there is no evidence of tolerance of this substance.”
Similarly, navy chemicals analyst Juana Peñaloza Ibarra said “there is no scientific evidence that supports the idea” that a person can build up a “tolerance to the lethal drug.”
For his part, IMSS-Bienestar director Alejandro Svarch Pérez said that if cooks shown in the Times’ report had really been producing fentanyl, they would have fallen down unconscious in 30 seconds due to “the vapors” emitted from “the synthesis of fentanyl.”
The cooks were wearing face masks but were not using any professional protective equipment.
To produce fentanyl, “a laboratory where the conditions of exposure can be controlled is required,” Svarch said, adding that “specialized equipment” and “professional ventilation systems” are also needed.
Fentanyl can’t be made in “a domestic kitchen, as the report shows,” he said.
“It is not possible to make fentanyl in the way referred to in the article,” Svarch added.
Sheinbaum said on Monday that fentanyl is not produced in the way the Times’ photographs demonstrate, and suggested that the cooks were actually making methamphetamine.
On Thursday she said that “if there was [such a thing as] tolerance to the lethal drug, there wouldn’t be the deaths due to fentanyl that there [currently] are in the United States.”
In pointing out alleged falsehoods in The New York Times report, Sheinbaum said that the government was “defending the right to information, to veracity” and committed her administration to “denouncing” inaccurate reporting in the future.
After the president questioned the credibility of the Times’ article earlier this week, the newspaper said it was “completely confident” in its reporting on fentanyl production in Mexico.
Sheinbaum’s rejection of the newspaper’s reporting continues a practice of her predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who was an outspoken critic of the Mexican and international press during his presidency.
Whether the Times’ Dec. 29 report really shows fentanyl cooks in a fentanyl lab or not, the fact remains that large quantities of the synthetic opioid are made in Mexico (using precursor chemicals from China) and illegally shipped to the United States.
The Mexican government’s willingness and capacity (or lack thereof) to reduce the flow of fentanyl — and migrants — to the United States looks set to be a defining factor in the health of the Sheinbaum administration’s relationship with the U.S. government led by Trump. In November, the president-elect pledged to impose a 25% tariff on all Mexican and Canadian exports on the first day of his second term due to what he called the “long simmering problem” of drugs and migrants illegally entering the U.S. from the country’s southern and northern neighbors.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies ([email protected])
I’m not sure what her point is by saying “That’s not the fentanyl lab – that’s a meth lab you fools – the fen lab is across the street”.
Why bother disputing irrelevant details?
Fortunately, fentanyl and opioids are the drug of choice for trumpisti, Maybe there is a god!
To cover her tracks, Sheinbaum is becoming a bigger “liar” every day at her morning press conferences. She is making statements that she can’t “prove” and if she keeps going down this path of lying: she is going to lose all her “credibility”. Once that happens, the people of Mexico won’t believe anything she says. She is not acting like she is a “smart” president, but rather very naive about what is going to really happen in Mexico.
What goes around in “lying” comes back to “hunt” you later. Don’t “paint a “rosy” picture to the people, when there are many “black clouds” waiting in the horizon.
The government’s position on tolerance is wholly without foundation and an embarrassment. However, it seems plausible that far greater precautions must be taken in labs to prevent overdosing. I really doubt that the reporters got access to fentanyl labs.
I am more interested in what she does, rather than what she says. I received this notice today from Amazon Mexico. She is already getting in front of Trump with the following tariffs on inported goods. The message is loud and clear….We can put tariffs on goods too. She is one smart politician.
“ On December 30, 2024, the Tax Administration Service (SAT) published changes to the General Rules of Foreign Trade, which will come into effect on January 1, 2025. The main changes are regarding the global import rates.
– Shipments from the United States or Canada with a value of $50 USD or less: 0%
– Shipments from the United States or Canada with a value between $50 USD and $117 USD: 17%
– Shipments from the United States or Canada with a value between $117 USD and $2,500 USD: 19%
– Shipments from Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Colombia, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Panama, Peru, United Kingdom, Singapore, or Vietnam with a value of $1 USD or more: 19%
– Shipments from any country not listed above (e.g. China) regardless of the value of $USD: 19%
“
Even if she imposes these tariffs on those items, the Mexicans will be paying them also. Amazon for example.Millions of Mexicans use it!
Regarding the NYT article you just can’t believe it. The NYT is an arm of the USA propaganda. You can’t believe any news articles they write. The New York times USA governments mandate is to build consent.
They’ve done this before to the detriment and death of our of USA soldiers.
Good examples are Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. We did not need to be in any of these places. They publish lies to build consent of the American people to invade these countries, and and look what happened.
They’re doing the same thing to Mexico and other places around the world. It’s their job, building consent.
Mexico needs to eliminate the cartels or the US will do so. Trump is messing around this time.
Yes, Trump is indeed messing around and lets hope his abdicating his office to the oligarchs will fail like most of his failed projects.
I hope Trump cracks down on the retail end of the drug biz. As in most industries, drug retailers make more money than the producers.
Who are the major drug retailers or dealers in the US? I haven’t read much about that.