Cole says that the DEA is "hunting the foreign terrorists responsible" for the fentanyl crisis in the United States. (Screenshot)
Combating Mexican cartels that traffic in fentanyl is the top priority of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the agency’s chief said in a video message last week.
“Every day I walk into DEA headquarters, I’m reminded of DEA’s mission. I see the faces of fentanyl. I see Americans that have lost their lives at the hands of the cartels. DEA is poised to lead this fight against the cartels,” Terry Cole, a former DEA agent and now the agency’s administrator, says at the start of the video that wasposted to social media and tothe DEA’s website.
“DEA has never been more focused, more aligned, or more dedicated to attacking the fentanyl crisis than we are right now. Across the globe DEA is bringing the full weight of our global enterprise to this fight.”
Cole says that the DEA is “hunting the foreign terrorists responsible” for the fentanyl crisis in the United States, where the powerful synthetic opioid has caused hundreds of thousands of overdose deaths in recent years. Among the organizations on the United States’ foreign terrorist list are six Mexican cartels, including the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).
In his video, Cole names the Sinaloa Cartel — which was founded by convicted drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo Guzmán” and incarcerated trafficker Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada — and the CJNG, formerly led bythe now-deceased capo Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera, as criminal groups that the DEA is going after.
“Fentanyl is the threat like we’ve never seen before. The Mexican cartels, Sinaloa and CJNG, are priority number one of the DEA,” he says in a part of the video that wasshared on social media by the U.S. Embassy in Mexico.
Fentanyl — which is manufactured by cartels in Mexico using precursor chemicals illegally imported from China — has “shattered families, … devastated communities” and “challenged law enforcement at every level,” Cole says.
“The American people expect and deserve the DEA to eliminate this threat, and that is exactly what we are doing,” he says.
After highlighting that the DEA has seized “over 14,000 kilograms of fentanyl and more than 62 million fentanyl pills” since the second Trump administration took office in January 2025, Cole declares that the DEA is pursuing “a fentanyl-free America.”
“That isn’t a catch phrase. That isn’t a slogan. This is our promise to the American people that we are responding with urgency, with resolve, and with the same unbreakable determination that has defined this agency for more than five decades,” the DEA administrator says.
“We are all gas, no brakes,” adds Cole.
The DEA chief’s remarks came the same week that U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin claimed that “there is not one inch of Mexico’s northern border that isn’t covered by a [cartel] plaza.”
Responding to the comment at her morning press conference last Friday, Sheinbaum highlighted that U.S. President Donald Trump recently posted a statement to social media that says that the United States border with Mexico is the “most secure.”
Mullin himself said earlier this month that “under President Donald Trump’s leadership, we are delivering the most secure border in American history.”
For her part, Sheinbaum said, “There couldn’t be a secure border if work is not done on both sides.”
The Sheinbaum administration has adopted a much more proactive approach to combating drug cartels than the 2018-24 government led by former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Security Minister Omar García Harfuch reported earlier this month that between October 2024 and May 2026, authorities dismantled 2,407 clandestine drug laboratories, detained 56,134 people who allegedly committed high-impact crimes, seized 419.3 tonnes of drugs and confiscated 29,572 firearms.
With shouts of "Fuera Morena!" (Out with Morena), supporters of Somos México, one of two newly certified political parties in Mexico, celebrate their registration at a rally Sunday near the Monument to the Revolution in Mexico City. (@SomosMxMexico/X)
Two new parties will be on the 2027 ballot after the National Electoral Institute (INE) granted certification to PAZ and Somos México.
Their official status as political parties gives them immediate access to public funding to the tune of 86.8 million pesos (nearly US $5 million) — 73.6 million pesos ($4.2 million) for ordinary party activities through December, 4 million pesos ($229,000) for gender-specific promotions and 9.2 million pesos ($526,000) for communications, advertising and candidate registration.
PAZ leader Hugo Éric Flores is a Morena deputy but his original PES party was viewed as right-wing and socially conservative, rooted in evangelical Christianity. (INE/X)
The two parties — one of which says it will work with the ruling Morena party, while the other has announced it will serve as loyal opposition — feature familiar faces and long-standing interests.
PAZ — officially Construyendo Sociedades de Paz (Building Peaceful Societies) — is seen as the stronger of the two new political entities, the latest manifestation of a movement led by Hugo Éric Flores, now a federal deputy with Morena.
Flores founded the Social Encounter Party PES in 2014. Viewed as a right-wing, socially conservative political party rooted in evangelical Christianity, PES joined forces with left-leaning Morena which also earned formal party status in 2014.
After losing its registration in 2018, PES re-emerged as the Solidarity Encounter Party, retaining its acronym and continuing as a Morena acolyte. The rebranded PES lost its registration in 2021 and its leadership restructured its organization and created PAZ.
Despite holding right-wing social views, the movement started by Flores has frequently allied with Morena, in exchange for political survival and influence. PAZ’s current leader, Armando González Escoto, is currently Flores’s alternate in the Chamber of Deputies.
Gonzalo Guízar, a PAZ leader and former federal deputy with PES, said PAZ “seeks a completely cordial relationship” with Morena, but insists the new party will not simply be a Morena satellite. “PES began as a movement long before Morena was formed,” Guizar said.
Somos México (We are Mexico) is led by Guadalupe Acosta Naranjo, a former leader of the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), which spawned Morena.
Somos México traces its roots to the grassroots protests in November 2022 and February 2023 against controversial electoral reforms proposed by then-President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Emilio Álvarez Icaza, the party spokesman, is a former senator (2018-2024) and served as president of Mexico City’s Human Rights Commission from 2001-2009.
Other prominent politicians in Somos México’s ranks include Gustavo Madero (former National Action Party leader and senator), Enrique de la Madrid (Tourism Minister from 2015 to 2018 and son of a former president), Fernando Belaunzarán (PRD federal deputy from 2012 to 2015) and Cecilia Soto (Labor Party presidential candidate in 1994).
Among the hopefuls that failed to earn certification from INE were México Tiene Vida (Mexico Has Life) and Que Siga la Democracia (Let Democracy Continue). The electoral agency said it denied registration to these two applicants due to irregularities during the formation process.
The "Sterile Screwworm Fly Production Plant in Metapa (Chiapas)" will produce 100 million sterile flies a week to suppress the population of the parasite that's disrupting Mexico's cattle trade with the United States. (gob.mx)
Officials from Mexico and the United States inaugurated a US $50 million sterile fly production plant on Saturday in Metapa de Domínguez, Chiapas, near the Guatemala border, aiming to contain the New World screwworm outbreak across Mexico and increasingly the U.S., which is disrupting cattle trade.
The joint development and financing of the plant marks “a major step in protecting the health of all warm-blooded animals,” said Mexico’s new Agriculture Minister Columba Jazmín López Gutiérrez.
En Metapa de Domínguez, Chiapas, con recursos del gobierno de Estados Unidos y México, construimos una Planta para producir moscas estériles que acaben con el Gusano Barrenador que tanto afecta al ganado. Esta es una muestra de trabajo conjunto, de cooperación para el desarrollo… pic.twitter.com/xJ3dcnUfeT
— Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo (@Claudiashein) June 28, 2026
The facility is expected to eventually produce up to 100 million sterile flies a week to suppress the screwworm, a parasite that burrows into the flesh of warm-blooded animals and can be fatal if untreated. However, concerns remain about whether it is possible to produce enough sterile flies to eradicate the screwworm.
Mexico confirmed its first screwworm case in November 2024, and the pest has since traveled northward through Mexico and into the U.S. The first animal case in the Mexican border state of Durango was confirmed in early June, with a total of 27 animal cases having since been confirmed in the United States.
Mexico launched cross-agency and industry efforts to contain the spread and impact of the pest in November 2024 and has since inspected over 5.3 million head of cattle. Still, the screwworm has infected over 30,000 animals in Mexico to date.
In addition to the Chiapas plant, the U.S. announced last year plans to develop its own sterile fly facility in Texas.
“Our countries have beaten this before, 40, 50 years ago; we will beat the New World screwworm again,” U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said during the opening ceremony of the Chiapas plant.
President Sheinbaum praised the new plant as an example of the benefits of Mexico-U.S. cooperation. “Animal diseases, pests and the challenges of food safety aren’t limited by borders,” she said. “In the face of those challenges, the best response is to team up, share our experiences and build solutions together.”
The U.S. has kept its border mostly closed to Mexican live cattle since May 2025, disrupting a trade that previously supplied more than 1 million animals to U.S. feedlots each year. Mexico is now forced to export meat rather than live cattle.
For the past two weeks, MND's Peter Davies has witnessed the World Cup action from Mexico City's stadium, streets and sidewalks. (Peter Davies)
The group stage of the 2026 FIFA men’s World Cup is now over and the knockout stage has begun, with Canada becoming the first team to reach the round of 16 thanks to a 1-0 victory over South Africa in Los Angeles on Sunday.
The Mexican team, known as El Tri or more formally la Selección Nacional de México, gets its chance to reach the round of 16 this Tuesday night when it takes on Ecuador at the Mexico City Stadium (aka Estadio Azteca).
The first two weeks of the tournament were an exciting — and emotional — time for Mexican football fans both here and abroad in places such as New York, where large numbers of Mexicans celebrated the 1-0 victory over South Korea and bonded with fans from the East Asian nation.
In Mexico City, a seemingly incredulous 800,000 people (per Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada) descended on Paseo de la Reforma and the Angel of Independence monument to celebrate Mexico’s win over Czechia last Wednesday night, a victory that gave El Tri an unprecedented perfect record in the group stage of the World Cup — three wins, zero losses, zero ties, six goals scored and zero goals conceded.
I’ve been lucky enough to witness some of the World Cup action up close — well, from the media tribune high up in the stadium — and have experienced some of the broader World Cup vibe in Mexico City, one of the tournament’s sixteen host cities. Here are some observations from the past two weeks or so in the axolotl-adorned capital — a kind of “World Cup notebook” largely based on things I jotted down in my notebook while watching matches, or wrote in my mind as I traveled to and from Mexico City Stadium.
For El Tri — and Mexico — a dream tournament … so far
Many millions of Mexicans will be hoping, wishing — praying! — that this racha (streak) of wins continues with a victory over Ecuador on Tuesday night, and then continues some more with a triumph in the round of 16 clash, possibly against England, scheduled for this Sunday at Mexico City Stadium. Could Mexico, with Álvarez, Jiménez, Rangel et al., go further in a World Cup than it has ever gone before? Only time will tell.
The first day of the tournament in Mexico City was also a success for FIFA and the governments of Mexico and Mexico City. While protests occurred, they didn’t cause major disruptions to the World Cup opening ceremony and first match, although they did indirectly shut down a key public transport route for fans after they left the match (see below).
To date, it’s hard to argue that the World Cup in Mexico hasn’t been a success. While international visitor numbers might not have been as high as anticipated, the group stage of the tournament generated an economic impact of around US $1 billion for Mexico, according to the Confederation of National Chambers of Commerce, Services and Tourism.
There are now just three remaining matches to be played in Mexico: a round of 32 game between the Netherlands and Morocco in Monterrey on Monday night, Tuesday night’s clash between Mexico and Ecuador and a round of sixteen fixture at Mexico City Stadium on Sunday that will hopefully involve El Tri.
Mexico’s wins have sparked exuberant celebration
Three wins in three World Cup group matches. El Tri had never achieved this feat before 2026. And didn’t Mexican fans enjoy the three victories!
You’ve probably seen photographs and videos of hundreds of thousands of fans packing Paseo de la Reforma in the vicinity of the Angel of Independence after Mexico’s victories. The exuberant celebrations — as rain fell in the capital in some cases — speak for themselves. Similar scenes have been seen in many other parts of the country, albeit with fewer revelers, including around the iconic Glorieta La Minerva in Guadalajara. (Yes, the rubbish left behind isn’t a great look.)
Mexicans, it seems, don’t just celebrate World Cup victories — they feel them, in a way that seems distinct from fans in many other countries. The joy is visceral, and it’s shared: with family, with friends, with complete strangers.
President Sheinbaum put it this way: “Sorry [ahem, why the apology?!], what people experience in Mexico isn’t experienced in the United States or Canada.” In Mexico, she said, there is “happiness,” a very warm welcome for World Cup visitors and great “jubilation related to the World Cup” — on the streets, in public squares and elsewhere.
Even Mexicans opposed to the staging of the World Cup in Mexico — people who believe that addressing the nation’s various problems, including the missing persons crisis, must take precedence over the hosting of a football tournament — have supported El Tri and screamed with joy when la selección has scored. This viral video aptly explains the contradiction, the “cognitive dissonance.”
Mexicans’ passion for World Cup football has extended beyond Mexico’s matches. On Sunday, I went with my family to the official FIFA Fan Festival in the Zócalo, Mexico City’s main square, where the sizable crowd of mostly Mexican fans lived every moment of the match between Canada and South Africa, letting out gasps, cheers, groans, screams and virtually every other audible expression of emotion you can think of as they watched the action on the giant screen.
An exhilarating stadium experience
Each of the three times I attended a World Cup match at Mexico City Stadium this month, the experience was exhilarating and unforgettable. Of course, the raucousness reaches its crescendo when Mexico (or Colombia as the case might be) scores a goal. On five occasions so far this tournament, El Tri has found the back of the net in Mexico City, sending the vast majority of the 80,000+ fans into raptures.
The time between goals is liberally peppered with deafening chants of “!Olé!” or “¡México, México!,” of impromptu renditions of “Cielito Lindo,” of waves (Mexican, of course!) sweeping around the stadium, of piercing whistles when opposition teams maintain possession for longer than is liked (or deemed acceptable), and all manner of other collective expressions of staunch support for El Tri.
If only words could do it justice…
When Colombian fans took over Mexico City Stadium earlier this month, they created their own unique and equally — or dare I say more? — rambunctious atmosphere (see below).
On the eve of their national team’s World Cup opener, a multitude of enthusiastic Colombian fans turned the area around the Angel of Independence into a sea of yellow. (Galo Cañas/Cuartoscuro)
The atmosphere they collectively created in the stadium, in the streets around the stadium, in the metro, in central Mexico City and wherever else they went in numbers was simply fantastic. A sea of yellow, a cheerful chorus of carnivalesque Colombians, a brigade of bogotanos here, a mass of medillenses there.
Outside the stadium, I could see the economic impact Colombians were making on Mexico City in real time — in the OXXO and 7-Eleven-bought beers they were drinking, in the tacos they were eating in stadium side streets. Of course, that was the small (albeit not unimportant) potatoes of economic impact — the more meaningful one came from money spent on accommodation, in restaurants, in shops and in bars in Mexico City, and subsequently in Guadalajara, where Colombia defeated the Democratic Republic of Congo last Tuesday.
On June 17, after downing their pre-match beers, los colombianos created a home match atmosphere for Los Cafeteros inside “The colossus of Santa Úrsula,” as “El Azteca” is colloquially known. A rapturous rendition of the National Anthem of Colombia provided a brief but fierce lesson in patriotism that left me wishing that I was Colombian myself just so I could participate in the camaraderie.
When Colombia’s Daniel Muñoz toed a lofted pass into the back of the net in the 40th minute, the tens of thousands of Colombians in attendance had the collective strength and voice power to bring the house down. But a 60th minute goal from Uzbekistan to tie the match precipitated minutes of quiet and tension — Colombian fans became a dormant volcano — … until BOOM!! A 65th-minute goal by Luis Díaz reinitiated the joviality, and everything was right with the (Colombian view of the) world again.
The CDMX public transport system has been impressive
I live in a southern neighborhood of Mexico City that is about 10 kilometers north of Mexico City Stadium. Prior to each of the three World Cup matches I attended this month, I walked around 10 minutes to the Parque de los Venados metro station on Line 12 and traveled two stops along that line before disembarking at the Ermita station to change to Line 2. I then journeyed two stops down Line 2 to Tasqueña station, where I changed to the light rail (tren ligero) to complete the trip to the stadium.
Despite large numbers of fans traveling to the matches, my public transport trips were orderly and relatively quick. After the Colombia-Uzbekistan and Mexico-Czechia matches, large crowds gathered outside the stadium’s light rail station, but getting onto the platform and onto a train was much quicker and much easier than I anticipated. Overall, I have been satisfied and pleasantly surprised by the efficiency of the Mexico City public transport system as it came under increased pressure on match days.
For me, the only public transport hiccup on match days has been the suspension of light rail service on the opening day of the World Cup due to damage protesters caused to stations and objects they threw onto the tracks. In the absence of other transport options, that left me — and thousands of others — with a long walk to the Tasqueña metro station, but, in the company of happy fans, the walk was a jubilant and enjoyable one that seemed shorter than it actually was.
The little moments that matter
Yes, the World Cup is about money, perhaps as much as it’s about football (or soccer if you prefer). Fans have complained about “rip-off” ticket prices and the greed of FIFA. These complaints are hard to dismiss. But what has heartened me are the interactions between fans of opposing teams in and around Mexico City Stadium, interactions that simply wouldn’t have occurred had they not been facilitated by the World Cup. As I watched friendly engagements between Colombians and Uzbeks, I wondered, do these countries have embassies in each other’s countries? (Answer: They do not). In the absence of formal diplomatic relations, Colombians and Uzbeks — supporting their national team as it competed at a World Cup for the first time — conducted well-meaning, unofficial football-based personal diplomacy. It was a joy to see.
Over the last couple of weeks, I have seen similarly friendly interactions between Mexicans and South Africans, and between Mexicans and Czechs. Such amiable engagements no doubt also occurred in and around stadiums in Atlanta, in Kansas City, in Toronto, and in Monterrey. The friendly relationship between Mexican and Korean fans, whose teams faced off in Guadalajara, is famous and dates back a number of years.
En una taquería de Guadalajara vieron a un grupo de coreanos comiendo y les pusieron Gangnam Style. En lugar de ofenderse o algo, todos se levantaron a bailar juntos.
El Mundial es la prueba de que países con culturas totalmente distintas pueden convivir y llevarse bien. 🇰🇷🇲🇽🥰 pic.twitter.com/4fPK2w01Mw
These unlikely human interactions between people from different countries and cultures may be brief in many cases, but at a time of significant conflict in the world, maybe they are more meaningful than we think. Perhaps the FIFA Peace Prize should have been awarded to “the football fans of the world,” rather than U.S. President Donald Trump.
Community — and World Cup fever — via Panini
In May, I bought the Panini World Cup 2026 album and a few packets of stickers as a way to get my four-year-old son interested in the tournament. It was a bit of a slow burn at first, but 18 days after the World Cup began — and after countless cries of “¡gooooooool!” emanating from our television set (and perhaps my larynx on occasion, too) — I can say my son is a World Cup enthusiast, if not an avid, minute-by-minute watcher of games.
Messi, Mbappé, Cristiano Ronaldo, Julián Quiñones, Raúl Jiménez and Alphonso Davies, among various other footballers’ names, now roll off my son’s tongue regularly, as do the names of the 48 competing countries. Inquiries of “Dad, can you play football [in our living room]? have become more and more frequent.
In addition to helping to create “World Cup fever,” the act of collecting Panini stickers (estampas in Spanish) helps create community. If you want to complete your collection, it’s basically mandatory to gather with your fellow collectors at public swap meets. Over the past month or so, I’ve handed over and received countless estampas in front of the iconic Palace of Fine Arts in the historic center of Mexico City, where literally hundreds of Panini aficionados congregate on a daily basis, and at the Oasis Coyoacán shopping center in southern Mexico City — another mecca for sticker-swapping football fans.
Just as World Cup fans from different countries have meaningful interactions in and around stadiums, Panini sticker collectors do the same, sharing their passion for football as they try to help each other complete their sets. Personally, I’ve engaged with many Mexicans, young and old, at these swap meets as well as people from Uruguay, Spain and Germany, among other countries. Kids, moms, dads, uncles, aunts, grandmas and grandpas all huddle together with a glint in their eyes as they search for those elusive estampas they need.
The unofficial mascot that’s outshining the official ones
The “Gray Ghost” is an unfinished hotel property that has been haunting downtown Cabo San Lucas Marina since the early 1990s. (The Oppenheim Group Real Estate)
Although the first hotel in Los Cabos was built in the 1950s, the first few decades of tourism were defined by a dozen or so pioneering hotels. It wasn’t until the 1980s and 1990s that the first real building boom occurred, as the area grew from just over 2,000 rooms in 1990 to nearly 8,000 by the close of the decade. “Steel and stucco are on the move everywhere you look, and suddenly, Los Cabos has a skyline, still patchy, but indicative of what is obviously just around the corner,” wrote Larry Dunmire in the Spring 1989 edition of “Baja Traveler.”
What was right around the corner for one notable hotel project of the era, however, was a historic peso devaluation, followed by a union dispute with the Revolutionary Confederation of Workers and Farmers (CROC) that left the construction unfinished. That hotel, known by locals as the “Gray Ghost,” has been haunting Cabo San Lucas’ downtown skyline as an eyesore ever since.
That’s not to say there haven’t been signs of improvement. In 2014, one of the investors in the original project, Eduardo Sánchez Navarro — president of Grupo Questro, and the most accomplished local developer since the original pioneer hotel builders — managed to negotiate a settlement with the union, thanks to the intervention of then-President of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto, opening the way for a future without a hulking monument to failure marring picturesque marina views.
Still, it was another eight years before a new conception of the property, A Place at Cabo, was unveiled. Since then, much has been done under that banner to bring the area around the “Gray Ghost” back to life, opening open-air restaurants and shops accessible from the marina boardwalk and from Marina Boulevard.
The “Gray Ghost” itself remains standing — or crumbling, depending on one’s perspective — although for how much longer remains to be seen. Sánchez Navarro has announced a recent deal with Universal Studios (though the company has not publicly affirmed its commitment) to build a 150-room hotel on the site of the long-stalled construction project, with a 1,500-seat theater to host live concerts and performances.
But there is still no definitive timeline for the projected opening. So the long wait continues.
A tragic occurrence that didn’t have to happen
“I am appalled, as is the entire community, because we are not at all accustomed to such acts here; in the history of Baja California Sur, there has never been anything like this,” Secretary General of the Los Cabos City Council, Alberto Rentería Santana, told El País, following a hit-and-run incident in which a car accelerated into a crowd of revelers in downtown Cabo San Lucas in the hours after Mexico’s 3-0 win over Czech Republic in the World Cup on June 24, injuring 17.
The driver, a 52-year-old identified only as Óscar “N”, was subsequently pulled from the car and beaten by the enraged crowd, which led to him being hospitalized in serious condition. So that makes 18 who were injured in the tragic event; plus the trauma done to the wife and two children of Óscar “N”, who were in the car, and witnessed the savage aftermath.
⚠️ Un conductor arrolló a un grupo de personas que celebraban el triunfo de la selección mexicana en el bulevar Lázaro Cárdenas, Los Cabos, Baja California, dejando 17 personas lesionadas que fueron trasladadas a diversos hospitales 🚑. Se reportó que el responsable fue detenido… pic.twitter.com/WhqbtiOZ30
The sad part, for those affected and for the reputation of Los Cabos, is that it was all preventable — but to understand why, it’s first necessary to give some background on the intersection where the incident occurred, and on the infrastructure challenges that Cabo San Lucas specifically, and Los Cabos generally, are still struggling to try and overcome.
Unmanageable growth and traffic issues
Los Cabos had about 10,000 residents in 1970. But by 2020, that number had grown to over 350,000 (including more than 200,000 in Cabo San Lucas) … and it’s still growing. Tourism has likewise exploded, increasing over 130% in the last decade alone. The strain this has put on local infrastructure and traffic is, as might be imagined, immense.
Los Cabos, in its approach to urban planning, has tried to overcome some of these issues by establishing large transit corridors to expedite travel; and, on a municipality-wide basis, the creation of the Autopista Cabo San Lucas – San José del Cabo (Airport Toll Road) in 2015, the recently finished Fonatur roundabout project and a proposed Eje Interurbano (Interurban Axis) are positive steps forward.
Jesús Bojórquez Luque, in his 2014 academic assessment of the challenges, “Evolución y planeación urbana en la ciudad turística de Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur,” noted that local government had taken important action “to reverse the chaotic situation that resulted from the city’s rapid growth since the 1980s, and which manifested itself in the inability of the three levels of government to project harmonious growth and provide adequate services to a large population attracted by the development of tourism.”
In Cabo San Lucas, however, the city’s traditional downtown center has become choked and bottlenecked by traffic along the two main thoroughfares — Marina Boulevard and Blvd. Lázaro Cárdenas — which, since an expansion project circa 2009-2010, have been linked together with a loop. This traffic is problematic not only for drivers, but doubly so for pedestrians, a large percentage of whom are tourists. Crossing the street in the downtown area is, for the most part, done at one’s peril.
The worst pedestrian crossing in Cabo San Lucas
Perhaps the most dangerous of the pedestrian crossings is found just beyond where Marina Boulevard and Lázaro Cárdenas converge, at a crossing between traffic lights in front of Plaza Bonita and Los Cabos’ most concentrated nightlife district. This risk was recognized, which led to the implementation some years ago of topes, of the elevated rise variety. But while this did slow down drivers slightly, it didn’t have the intended effect of encouraging them to grant the right of way to pedestrians. Thus, during high-season days, transit cops are often stationed here to help tourists cross the road.
But when an official presence is really needed is at night. The El Squid Roe and Mandala nightclubs alone often have crowds spilling out the door into the intersection and onto the median that divides traffic lanes on Lázaro Cárdenas. This creates major traffic issues and serious potential for explosive situations, proven recently not just by the hit-and-run accident, but by the widely reported brawl that broke out in the street only 10 days prior in the same place.
Considering there have been honking parades of cars and revelers galore after each of Mexico’s group stage World Cup victories, there should have been a stepped-up police presence at this intersection. According to Rentería, that did occur. But if you look at the videos for either the brawl or the hit-and-run accident, there’s not a police officer in sight.
The ATP Los Cabos Open tennis tournament will celebrate its 10th anniversary this year
Although big-game fishing tournaments remain the most emblematic sporting competitions in Los Cabos, over the past 10 years, the area has also become a regular host of tennis and golf tournaments sponsored by the ATP and PGA, respectively. The tennis event — The Los Cabos Open, or Mifel Tennis Open by Telcel Oppo, in sponsorship language — came first, premiering in 2016. Since the 2020 event was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, that means the 2026 edition, scheduled from July 27 to Aug. 1, will mark its 10th anniversary.
A lot has changed in the course of the decade. Not only has attendance nearly tripled since Croatian Ivo Karlović won the inaugural event over Spaniard Feliciano López, growing from 12,000 to over 35,000, but prize money has also grown slightly (from US $850,000 to US $909,790), and the location has shifted: from the Delmar International School, site of the first four tournaments, to the Cabo Sports Complex, which has handled hosting duties since 2021.
Tickets for this year’s tournaments are still available
The tournament’s organization and attraction to talent remain, however. The Los Cabos Open is still an ATP 250 series event, welcoming 28 singles contestants and 16 doubles players, among whom are some of the best in the world. Since its premiere, it has showcased many of the best men’s players in the world, including Grand Slam champions Daniil Medvedev, Juan Martín del Potro and Alexander Zverev.
The Los Cabos Open, an ATP 250 series tournament held at the Cabo Sports Complex in Los Cabos, is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. (ATP Tour)
To find out more about this year’s tournament, including ticket availability, visit the official event website.
Chris Sands is a writer and editor for Mexico News Daily, and the former Cabo San Lucas local expert for the USA Today travel website 10 Best and writer of Fodor’s Los Cabos travel guidebook. He has also contributed to numerous other websites and publications, including The San Diego Union-Tribune, Marriott Bonvoy Traveler, Forbes Travel Guide, Porthole Cruise and Travel, and Cabo Living.
Losing a dear friend leaves an empty space in our hearts, and, for those of us who have moved to another country, in our conception of who we really are now. (Ann Eel/Unsplash)
We talk about reinvention, opportunity, experiences and adventure. We celebrate the courage it takes to leave behind everything familiar and build a life somewhere new. We swap stories about culture shock, visas, learning another language and finding our place in a different country.
Moving to Mexico will change your life, but it won’t change your feelings about where you grew up, or the friends and cultural touchstones that sustain that connection. (Shutterstock)
What’s being lost
What we talk about far less is what happens years later, when life back home continues to do what life has always done. The weddings we miss. The birthdays we watch through a screen. Family members growing older. Friends whose children we know only through photographs. The quiet, inevitable stretching of distance that comes with building a life elsewhere.
And then, eventually, for many of us, comes something even harder. We lose the people who knew us before.
My best friend, Kenny, died recently.
I thought I understood what grief would feel like. I foresaw the ache of missing him. I knew I’d reach for my phone to tell him something funny or absurd, only to remember that I can’t. Now I replay memories until they become both comforting and painful.
I expected to mourn someone who knew everything about me and loved me through every version of myself, because that’s what Kenny did. He knew me before I knew who I would become. He knew the awkward years, the ambitious years, the phenomenal ones, the reckless ones and the heartbroken ones. He knew my family, my history, the people I loved and the ones who hurt me. He watched me evolve without ever asking me to be anyone other than myself.
It was Kenny’s passing that made Charlotte reflect on the nature of living internationally. (Charlotte Smith)
To be fully known and fully loved anyway is one of life’s greatest treasures, and not everyone gets to experience that. I know how fortunate I was, and I will cherish that love and the memories of him for the rest of my life.
Emotional and cultural ties that cannot be broken
But alongside the grief has come something I wasn’t expecting. It’s something I don’t think we talk about enough when we move countries.
Mexico has afforded me more than I ever imagined. I’ve built a beautiful life here. I’m deeply in love with a man who is everything I could have hoped for in a partner. His heritage is Mexican, but he also spent many years living in the United States, as I did between England and Mexico, so we share an understanding of what it means to belong to more than one place.
But there’s still a part of me that belongs entirely to England. Not geographically, but emotionally.
It’s the part made up of shared television references, pub garden jokes, phrases that don’t translate, humor that only really lands if you grew up where I did. It’s rainy afternoons, familiar accents, songs on the radio and tiny cultural moments that don’t seem significant until you realize they’re the building blocks of who you are.
My humor is unmistakably English. The rhythm of it and the sarcasm bordering on blunt truth. The expressions I don’t even realize I’m using. My partner listens. He laughs, and he cares. This isn’t about him falling short, because he doesn’t. It’s simply impossible for him to fully inhabit my history.
Kenny could. He didn’t need context because he was the context.
Despite living and working in Mexico, and loving the country dearly, a part of Charlotte remains forever tethered to England. (Marcin Nowak/Unsplash)
Connections to a former self
He knew exactly why something was funny before I’d finished the sentence. He remembered people I’d forgotten until their names resurfaced in conversation. He carried pieces of my past with me without either of us ever thinking about it.
And now he’s gone.
What I’ve realized is that I’m not just grieving my best friend. I’m grieving one of the last people who held the keys to a version of me that no longer exists in my everyday life.
Living abroad isn’t simply about adapting to a new culture. It’s about existing in two identities at once. There’s the person you’ve become, and there’s the person who made becoming possible. Usually, those two selves coexist quite happily. But grief has a way of exposing the distance between them.
When someone from your former life dies, it isn’t only a relationship that ends. Sometimes it feels as though a witness disappears. Someone who remembered your story without explanation. Who laughed before you’d finished the punchline because they shared the same references. Who knew the roads, the people, the hangouts, the family stories and the versions of you that existed long before your passport carried you to another land.
People often talk about homesickness when they move abroad, but not this. They don’t talk about the strange loneliness that arrives years later, when the people who anchored you to your first life begin to disappear one by one.
The language of grief and the place that made us
We don’t have much language for this kind of grief.
But I think we should.
I’ve spent years building a life in Mexico that I’m profoundly grateful for. This country has given me love, belonging, purpose and a future that feels full of possibility. I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. But grief has reminded me that we never stop belonging to the places that made us.
Home doesn’t disappear because we create another one. It becomes something we carry alongside the life we’ve chosen.
For those of us who’ve emigrated, the people back home become more than friends and family. They become custodians of our history. They remember our voices before they softened or changed. They remember our dreams before they evolved. They remember the person we were before our world expanded.
When one of those people dies, it can feel as though a living archive disappears with them.
Processing the grief of a lost friend
Whenever we lose friends, we also lose a sense of ourselves that was shared only with them. (Helena Lopes/Unsplash)
I’m still trying to understand that feeling. And honestly, I’m not processing it particularly well. Some moments I feel disconnected from the woman I was before I crossed an ocean. As though there’s a “before Mexico” that now lies dormant somewhere inside me, waiting for someone to remember her into existence.
Kenny did that without even trying.
Perhaps that’s one of the hidden costs of building a life abroad. We prepare people for culture shock, homesickness and bureaucracy. We tell them how to navigate visas, where to find familiar food and how long it takes to settle into a new culture, but we rarely prepare them for the day they realize that someone back home has taken an irreplaceable piece of their history with them.
Kenny’s death has left me mourning not only my best friend but a living connection to the woman I was before Mexico. I’m still here. She’s still here. But the bridge between us feels quieter now.
I suspect I’m not the only person who’s built a life abroad who’s felt this. Many of us have built extraordinary lives here in Mexico. We have partners, families, businesses and communities that make this country home in every meaningful sense. But when loss arrives thousands of miles from the place that shaped us, it asks us to grieve not only a person but the part of ourselves they carried.
Perhaps that’s what those lifelong friendships really are. They’re not just people who know us. They’re people who remember us. And maybe the work of grief is learning to remember ourselves and to carry both lives. To honor the one we’re living now without letting go of the one that shaped us.
I don’t know how to do that yet. But I do know that I was loved deeply by someone who knew me completely. Kenny remembered every version of me, and because of him, I don’t have to be afraid that she’s gone.
She’s part of me still. And so is he.
Charlotte Smith is a writer and journalist based in Mexico. Her work focuses on travel, politics, and community. You can follow along with her travel stories at www.salsaandserendipity.com.
Querétaro canines Orly, Balam, Kenai and Halley, who traveled to Venezuela on Saturday as part of the USAR (Urban Search and Rescue) team. (@SRE_mx/X)
Mexican Red Cross rescue dogs have departed for Venezuela to join the search for survivors after two devastating earthquakes measuring 7.2 and 7.5 on the Richter scale hit the South American country on June 24.
The most recent cohort includes Querétaro canines Orly, Balam, Kenai and Halley, who traveled to Venezuela on Saturday as part of the USAR (Urban Search and Rescue) team specializing in search in collapsed structures.
Hoy, el equipo #USAR a nivel pesado de #CruzRojaMexicana parte rumbo a #Venezuela para apoyar en las labores de búsqueda y rescate.
— Cruz Roja Mexicana IAP (@CruzRoja_MX) June 28, 2026
The dogs join a team of 18 canine heroes dispatched along with 250 Mexican troops following the earthquakes that have resulted in at least 1,400 deaths and more than 3,200 injuries.
Other countries from the region, including Colombia, Argentina and El Salvador, have also dispatched canine teams to join the search and rescue operations in Venezuela.
Trained dogs are a fundamental part of search and rescue efforts in the aftermath of natural disasters, as they are able to detect human scent at long distances, even when they’re covered by large amounts of concrete and debris. This ability surpasses the speed of human personnel and even some technological equipment trained for the same task.
Despite their expertise, rescue dogs are also vulnerable to injuries. Max, one of Mexico’s search and rescue dogs, suffered an accident in an area of collapsed structures and was temporarily removed from the operation to receive specialized medical attention.
Together with his trainer, identified as Fénix, Max entered high-risk areas to search for people trapped under rubble.
Before the accident, local media reported that the Mexican dog helped locate seven people, including two minors, who were rescued thanks to the coordinated efforts of the emergency teams.
Max, who is currently on bed rest, also helped locate and rescue three dogs.
Mexico has gained international recognition for its skilled rescue dogs, who have historically assisted in natural disasters around the world. Just in 2023, Orly and Balam earned a medal from the H. Fire Department of San Juan del Río after rescuing four people and locating 36 bodies in the aftermath of a 7.9 magnitude earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria.
According to authorities, the attacks could be related to recent security operations in the Valley of Mexicali, where an alleged member of the Los Rusos criminal group — a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel — was killed in a confrontation with state police. (@la_contrasena/X)
Two state police officers were murdered in recent days in separate attacks in the border city of Mexicali, Baja California, crimes that authorities say could be linked to operations against an organized crime group.
Ruben López, a 27-year-old Baja California state police officer, and his 26-year-old wife, Anayeli Anaya, were shot dead by armed men outside their home in Mexicali last Friday night. The woman was shielding her three-year-old boy when she was shot, according to state officials. The boy survived the attack.
🚨 El secretario de Seguridad, Laureano Carrillo señaló que los asesinatos de dos agentes estatales ocurridos con menos de 24 horas de diferencia son una respuesta a los operativos en el Valle de #Mexicali que han derivado en la captura de presuntos integrantes del grupo criminal… pic.twitter.com/E5r7S5KxaB
— La Jornada Baja California (@LaJornadaBC) June 28, 2026
The next day, 32-year-old state police officer Manuel Enrique Guerrero Sánchez was gunned down at a taquería in Mexicali, the capital of Baja California. A woman was wounded in the attack and was reported in serious condition in the hospital. Both deceased police officers were off duty when they were murdered.
At a press conference on Sunday, Baja California Security Minister Laureano Carrillo and state Attorney General María Elena Andrade said that the attacks could be related to recent security operations in the Valley of Mexicali, where an alleged member of the Los Rusos criminal group — a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel — was killed in a confrontation with state police.
The person who was killed, known as “El Wicho” or “Compa Wicho,” was a high-ranking criminal group member, Carrillo said.
“He was a very close relative of one of the [criminal] leaders we are aware of in the Valley of Mexico and that is the main reason why this reaction by them occurred,” he said, referring to the murders of the two police officers allegedly perpetrated by members of Los Rusos.
According to the news outlet Zeta Tijuana, “Compa Wicho” was the son of an old Sinaloa Cartel leader called Eduardo Alarcón Guillén, alias “El Colorado.” He was the brother-in-law of a criminal leader known as “El Isra,” according to Zeta.
Carrillo said that both slain police officers directly participated in investigations and intelligence work that allowed state police to locate and carry out operations against Los Rusos.
Those investigations led to operations that resulted in arrests and seizures of drugs, planes and stolen vehicles, the state security minister said. Following the operations, state police officers received intimidating messages and direct threats, he said.
No arrests have been reported in connection with the two murders, but five suspects have been identified, Carillo said. State and federal security forces are involved in an operation aimed at their arrest.
Andrade said that vehicles used by the perpetrators of the murders were located by authorities. One of them had been burnt out, she told the press conference on Sunday. Andrade said that the main hypothesis is that the murders were related to the police officers’ investigative work. She noted that the murders were committed with large-caliber weapons and appeared to have been well-planned.
Ecuador and Mexico flags. 3D Waving flag design. Ecuador Mexico flag, picture, wallpaper. Ecuador vs Mexico image,3D rendering. Ecuador Mexico relations war alliance concept.Trade, tourism concept
Mexico will come to a stop on Tuesday at 7 p.m. when El Tri takes the field to face Ecuador in a World Cup knockout clash.
The Round of 32 contest at Mexico City Stadium pits two teams with high hopes of making history at the global soccer tournament. The hosts are intent on advancing to a fifth game for just the second time ever, while Ecuador aims to win a knockout game for the first time.
Fans gather at Mexico City’s Angel of Independence to watch Mexico’s last World Cup group stage game against Czechia on Wednesday. (Galo Cañas/Cuartoscuro)
Mexico and fans across the nation will be hopeful that playing at home will prove to be an advantage. After all, El Tri’s two best World Cup performances came as host in 1970 and 1986, the team reaching the quarterfinals both times.
Although Mexico was one of just three teams to finish the group stage with a perfect 3-0-0 record (2022 Cup finalists France and Argentina being the other two) and Ecuador qualified as one of the best third-place finishers, the task won’t be easy.
Ecuador is arguably the best of the eight third-place teams to reach the knockout stage (Sebastián Beccacece’s team defeated heavily favored Germany 2-1 on Thursday, a win that Beccacece termed Ecuador’s greatest ever) and the talented team boasts an optimal blend of precocious youth and seasoned experience.
For its part, Mexico has been stingy (one of two teams yet to concede a goal, Spain being the other), but uninspiring on offense. Coach Javier Aguirre also has a blend of youth and experience, but has not demonstrated confidence in the promising young talent.
Setting the stage
This is Ecuador’s fifth World Cup appearance, whereas Mexico is appearing in its 18th World Cup and ninth straight.
Prior to this year, Ecuador advanced out of the group stage just once, that coming in Germany 2006 where the South Americans finished second to the hosts in the group stage before being eliminated by David Beckham and England.
The two teams have met just once before in a World Cup and that came in the group stage at Japan-Korea 2002, a 2-1 victory for El Tri.
Mexico — in Aguirre’s first stint as Team Mexico manager — came from behind to win and went on to finish atop the group, ahead of Italy and Croatia. Ecuador — in its first-ever World Cup appearance — came in last with one win and two losses.
This will be the 26th meeting between the two sides since their first fixture in a 1993 Copa América semifinal at Quito’s Estadio Olímpico Atahualpa, a 2-0 Mexico triumph, coincidentally also on June 30.
El Tri leads the all-time series with 13 wins, 4 draws and 8 losses, but Ecuador has lost to El Tri just once in their last six encounters dating back to the 2015 Copa América.
Mexico fans will be quite familiar with three Ecuador players — team captain Enner Valencia plays for Pachuca in Liga MX, midfielder Pedro Vite plays for UNAM and back-up striker Jordy Caicedo is under contract to Atlas of Guadalajara.
Sheinbaum said on Monday that Víctor Rodríguez will never hold another position in her government after the former Pemex CEO's wife published footage of him being physically abusive. (Graciela López/Cuartoscuro)
Sheinbaum’s mañanera in 60 seconds
🗞️ NYT Morena informants report: Sheinbaum pushed back on a New York Times article claiming at least a dozen Morena officials — including governors and legislators — have quietly offered themselves as informants to U.S. authorities. She criticized the paper’s reliance on anonymous sources and said the Mexican government has no information confirming that any Morena member is cooperating with the U.S. to provide information against colleagues.
🚨 Ex-Pemex CEO domestic violence: Sheinbaum responded to a video showing former Pemex CEO Víctor Rodríguez physically assaulting his wife, María Felicia Jiménez, who has requested government protection for herself and her children. The president said the Women’s Ministry has been in contact with Jiménez, that the case falls under Morelos state jurisdiction and that Rodríguez will never hold another position in her government. “We’re not going to protect anyone in the face of acts such as these,” the president said.
🇮🇷 Iran’s World Cup welcome in Tijuana: Sheinbaum described the outpouring of affection Tijuana residents showed the Iranian national team — including mariachi serenades — as “completely organic” and unrelated to politics or diplomacy. She attributed the warmth to Mexico’s deep cultural values rooted in Indigenous traditions of community over individualism.
Why today’s mañanera matters
At her Monday morning press conference, President Claudia Sheinbaum responded to a New York Times report that states that Morena party politicians are aiding U.S. criminal investigations into their colleagues. That development, the Times asserts, “is a deeply worrying sign for Mexico’s dominant political party and its leader, Ms. Sheinbaum.”
Sheinbaum also responded to a distressing video in which the recently departed former CEO of Pemex is shown assaulting his wife.
Former CEO Víctor Rodríguez Padilla resigned from his role at Pemex in May. (Graciela López Herrera/Cuartoscuro)
The president’s responses were significant as they reinforced her distrust of The New York Times, which she has previously criticized, and other major international and local media outlets, and her determination to protect women from violence and stand up for their rights.
Also of note at today’s mañanera were Sheinbaum’s remarks about the Iranian World Cup team’s experience in Tijuana, which hosted the players and support staff in recent weeks despite the team playing its three matches in the United States.
Sheinbaum responds to NYT report about Morena officials collaborating with US authorities
The New York Times’ article states that “[a]s the Trump administration ramps up its investigations into Mexico’s government, elected officials in the country’s governing party [i.e., Morena] have been quietly offering themselves to U.S. authorities as informants against fellow party members, according to eight people involved in the conversations.”
“… At least a dozen elected officials in Mexico — including governors and members of Congress, many from the governing party — have reached out to discuss sharing information about fellow politicians, multiple people said, and several have already begun talks with the United States,” the Times wrote.
“Many of the officials are seeking to get ahead of investigations that they fear could soon focus on them, the people said.”
Morena-party officials Senator Enrique Inzunza Cázarez, former Sinaloa Security Minister Gerardo Mérida Sánchez and former Sinaloa Finance Minister Enrique Díaz Vega were recently accused by the U.S. of cartel links. (José Betanzos Zárate/Cuartoscuro)
On Monday morning, Sheinbaum urged the aforesaid reporter to “look at the article” published by The New York Times over the weekend.
She noted that the Times is known as “one of the best newspapers in the world,” but railed against its use of anonymous sources in the article in question.
“A source told me — who knows who — that there are people from Morena who are informing the United States. This is the article,” Sheinbaum said.
“‘They told me that there are people informing.’ Governor Durazo sent a letter saying it wasn’t true. We don’t have any information [about Morena officials providing information to U.S. authorities] and the truth is … [The New York Times] should provide greater context,” she said before once again criticizing the newspaper’s reliance on anonymous sources.
“We don’t know if it’s true because we don’t have any information of anyone [in Morena] cooperating with the U.S. government … to provide information,” Sheinbaum added.
‘The law has to be applied’; Sheinbaum responds to domestic violence case involving ex-CEO of Pemex
She said that it was up to the Morelos Attorney General’s Office to prosecute the case as the violence occurred in that state.
“It’s a state crime and the law has to be applied because there can’t be violence against women,” Sheinbaum said.
She also said that Rodríguez will never hold another position in her government.
Sheinbaum: What the Iranian team experienced in Tijuana was ‘completely organic’
A reporter noted that the coach of the Iranian World Cup team — which was eliminated from the tournament after three consecutive ties in group stage matches — thanked the people of Mexico for the “love” they were shown while staying in Tijuana.
Sheinbaum said that the love and support toward the Iranian team was an “expression of the people.”
After Iran’s elimination from the 2026 FIFA World Cup, dozens of Tijuana residents and fans gathered outside the Marriott hotel where the national team was staying. (Omar Martínez/Cuartoscuro)
“… What the Iranian team experienced was completely organic. … The people of Tijuana came out to welcome them, to take mariachis to them, to welcome them when they came back [from the United States],” she said.
“It has nothing to do with politics or even the relationship between governments. Rather it’s support for humanity, affection, which is what is seen in Mexico,” Sheinbaum said.
“That’s why we say that the values of the people of Mexico are very special … and unique. And a lot of this, I repeat, comes from the culture of the Indigenous peoples. … [It’s a manifestation of] the value of community over the value of the individual,” she said.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies (peter.davies@mexiconewsdaily.com)
