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Mexico’s military kills avocado-extortion ringleader ‘R5,’ one other in surprise shootout

By
MND Staff
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Mugshot and vehicle of R5, deceased leader of the Cártel de Los Reyes
Federal Security Minister Omar García Harfuch said in an X post on Tuesday morning that Luis Enrique Barragán (R5) had been identified as the leader of the Cártel de Los Reyes and the "main coordinator of extortion against avocado producers" in Michoacán. (@GabSeguridadMX/X)

Mexican security forces on Monday shot dead an alleged cartel leader and one other person after they came under fire in the state of Michoacán, authorities said.

The alleged cartel leader who was killed was Luis Enrique Barragán Chávez, known as “El Güicho” (Wicho) and “R5.”

Federal Security Minister Omar García Harfuch said in an X post on Tuesday morning that Barragán had been identified as the leader of the Cártel de Los Reyes (Kings Cartel) and the “main coordinator of extortion against avocado producers” in Michoacán.

According to Mexican authorities and the U.S. Department of State, which was offering a reward of up to US $3 million for information leading to the arrest of Barragán, the Cártel de Los Reyes is a faction of Cárteles Unidos, one of eight Mexican criminal groups designated as foreign terrorist organizations by the U.S. government.

Clash in Tocumbo 

The federal Security Cabinet said on X on Tuesday morning that Mexican Army troops and a Navy plane came under fire on Monday in Tocumbo, a municipality in Michoacán on that state’s border with Jalisco.

According to García Harfuch, the attack occurred as Mexican Army and National Guard troops were carrying out an operation in Tocumbo in coordination with the Michoacán Attorney General’s Office and state police.

The security minister said that the security forces returned fire and “two attackers lost their lives,” including Barragán, who died around two months before his 40th birthday. The other victim wasn’t identified.

García Harfuch and the Security Cabinet noted that Barragán was subject to an arrest warrant for the purpose of extradition to the United States. The Security Cabinet said that authorities seized firearms, magazines and a quad bike during the operation in Tocumbo.

The death of Barragán came a month after another alleged leader of the Cártel de Los Reyes, Alfonso Fernández Magallón, was detained in the Michoacán municipality of Los Reyes. Barragán allegedly succeeded Fernández as the leader of the criminal group.

Barragán, a ‘well-known sicario,’ was wanted in the US on drug and firearms charges 

In a statement published in August 2025, the U.S. State Department noted that an investigation in the United States carried out by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) “led to an indictment charging Barragán in the District of Columbia with drug conspiracy offenses and firearms offenses in July 2023.”

“The indictment was unsealed in July 2025 in conjunction with the announcement of Treasury sanctions against Cárteles Unidos leaders as well as a Narcotics Reward Program (NRP) reward offer for Barragán,” the State Department said.

At the start of its statement, the State Department noted that HSI had identified Barragán as the “chief sicario,” or hitman, of the Cártel de Los Reyes.

It said that HSI had determined that Barragán used the proceeds from the sales of illegal narcotics in the United States to fund the Cárteles Unidos’ “combat operations” against the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, “and the projection of power in their area of control in Michoacán.”

R5 wanted poster
The U.S. Department of State was offering a reward of up to US $3 million for information leading to the arrest of “R5” — real name Luis Enrique Barragán — who headed up the Cártel de Los Reyes faction of Cárteles Unidos in Michoacán. (HSI)

“Drug proceeds were used to acquire small arms from the United States, hire local fighters and Colombian mercenaries, and the acquisition of heavy weaponry such as landmines, .50 caliber rifles, up-armored vehicles and the use of bomb-dropping drones,” the State Department said.

“Barragán was at the forefront of those combat efforts, becoming a well-known sicario and combat leader, working closely with other elements of Cárteles Unidos.”

‘A decisive blow to organized crime’

Michoacán Governor Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla acknowledged the death of Barragán in an X post on Tuesday morning.

“In Michoacán, there is no room for impunity or for those who threaten the peace of our families and the economy of our producers,” he wrote.

“My full recognition to the National Security Cabinet and our sincere gratitude to President Claudia Sheinbaum for her constant support to our state. Thanks to coordinated intelligence work and operations in Tocumbo between the Ministry of National Defense and the Michoacán Security Ministry we dealt a decisive blow to organized crime by neutralizing Luis Enrique ‘N’, alias ‘El Güicho’ or ‘R5’, the main extortionist of avocado growers in the region and a priority target with an extradition order,” Ramírez wrote.

Combating extortion — a widespread problem in Mexico — is a top priority for the federal government, which launched a national strategy against the crime in July 2025. Criminal groups have long targeted avocado and lime producers in Michoacán, a leading producer of those fruits.

In terms of total homicides, Michoacán ranked as Mexico’s 12th most violent state in the first seven months of 2026. The state recorded 477 murders between January and July, a 41.8% reduction compared to the same period of last year, according to the federal government.

Last November, the federal government began the implementation of “Plan Michoacán for Peace and Justice,” a 57-billion-peso (US $3.35 billion) initiative devised in response to the murder of the mayor of Uruapan on Nov. 1 and general insecurity in the state.

On Tuesday morning, the Security Cabinet said that “within the framework” of that plan, its coordination with state authorities allows criminal structures to be weakened, extortion to be combated and “those who generate violence” to be detained.

Mexico News Daily

CFE restores power in Yucatán Peninsula after 7-hour blackout reportedly caused by vandalism

By
MND Staff
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CFE workers in front of power line
Power was 100% restored to the states of Yucatán, Chiapas, Campeche and Quintana Roo at approximately 3 a.m. on Tuesday. (CFE/Facebook)

The Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) reported that service was restored in four southeastern states that were without electricity for approximately seven hours beginning Monday evening, blaming the lengthy blackout on vandalism.

As the 34-degree (93 F) day came to an end, cities across the Yucatán Peninsula were darkened after two high-voltage power lines were “damaged.” The power outage crippled commercial activities in Mérida, a city of nearly 1 million people, and left hundreds of businesses unable to process electronic payments, operate refrigeration systems or run air conditioning. Cancún, Playa del Carmen, Chetumal and parts of Chiapas and Campeche were also impacted.

In a statement on social media issued at 3:08 a.m. Tuesday, the CFE reported that “following damage to two high-voltage lines due to acts of vandalism, the energy supply has been 100% restored to affected users in the states of Yucatán, Quintana Roo, Campeche and Chiapas.”

The state-owned electric utility said that once its “specialized personnel were deployed to the site,” they were able to quickly identify the problem as “damaged insulation strings” on one of the transmission structures. After several hours of “uninterrupted repair and restoration work,” power was restored to the region.

The explanation that the blackout was caused by vandalism targeting the insulators on two 400 kV high-voltage lines was met with skepticism by members of the public, dozens of whom responded to the CFE statement on X with critical comments.

The respondents recalled that former CFE director Manuel Bartlett (2018-2024) frequently blamed vandalism, illegal connections and sabotage to explain away widespread electrical grid failures and instability.

The lack of accountability fueling public skepticism is highlighted by a scandal in late 2020 where the CFE forged official documents to blame a Tamaulipas brushfire for a blackout affecting 10 million people.

Monday’s blackout affected more than 10 million people in southeastern Mexico while also partially impacting the neighboring country of Belize. 

The region is no stranger to electricity insufficiencies due to the combination of extreme heat, low power generation and the lack of infrastructure to distribute natural gas. One year ago, a blackout left more than 2.2 million residents in the region without power for six hours, and rolling blackouts affected the area in May 2025. 

With reports from The Yucatán Times, El País, Diario de Yucatán and LopezDoriga.com

‘Throttle Therapy’ in Mexico: Sometimes, it’s not about the miles

By
Charlotte Smith
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Shadow of two motorcycle riders on a road through Jalisco
The urge for "throttle therapy" can come at any time and works its magic over any distance. (Charlotte Smith)

I know it’s been a minute since I’ve written a “Throttle Therapy” column, but there’s a pretty good reason for that: It’s hot. I mean, like really, properly hot.

And while I love riding on our motorcycle, Dora, I have absolutely no desire to spend several hours sitting on top of a hot engine while wearing boots and a helmet, with the sun doing its best to turn me into a roast dinner.

Dora the motorcycle at a Pemex station
Mexican summers are hot, particularly when you’re wearing motorcycle boots and helmets. But Dora needed a ride, and so did we. (Charlotte Smith)

So, for the past few months, Dora has been sitting there.

She hasn’t complained. She hasn’t guilt-tripped Omar and me. She hasn’t even looked particularly disappointed that the long rides that used to be such a big part of our life in Mexico have disappeared from the calendar.

She’s just been waiting.

And I’ve been making excuses.

Some of them are legitimate, like the brutal heat. But I’ve also realized I had quietly fallen into the habit of thinking that if we couldn’t go for a proper ride, there wasn’t much point in going at all.

A few hours? Not really worth getting the gear on. A couple of hours? We wouldn’t get anywhere. Just a quick ride? Well, we might as well wait until the weather cools down.

And so, we waited.

I’ve missed it, though. I’ve missed those rides where we leave home without much of a plan and somehow end up six hours later in a place neither of us intended to visit.

Confusing therapy with mileage

The rides where we stop for coffee, then tacos, then happen on something interesting down a road we’ve never taken before. The ones where we pull over simply because the view is too good to keep moving.

Somewhere along the way, I think I started confusing the therapy with the mileage. If we couldn’t give Dora a full day, it somehow didn’t count. Then, recently, I realized that was a bit ridiculous.

I needed a ride.

Not an epic adventure or a new destination. Not a six-hour exploration of roads neither of us had ever traveled. I just needed to get on the bloody motorcycle.

Pacific Ocean from the back of a motorcycle in a Jalisco
A motorcycle ride along Highway 200 between Mismaloya and Boca de Tomatlán is enough to fall in love with Mexico … if you haven’t already. (Charlotte Smith)

So yesterday, Omar and I took Dora out for a short ride along one of our favorite stretches of Highway 200 between Mismaloya and Boca de Tomatlán.

If you’ve never ridden that road, it’s one of those places that makes you understand why people fall in love with this part of Mexico. And yes, I know that sounds like the beginning of a tourism advertisement, but I’m afraid it’s true.

Bougainvillea spills over walls. Palm trees pop up between buildings. There are little tiendas, concrete houses painted in colors that somehow seem brighter in the Mexican sunshine, battered signs and the occasional roadside shrine decorated with flowers.

There’s activity everywhere: A man sitting in the shade, someone washing something outside their house, kids running around, dogs that seem to believe they own whichever patch of road they happen to be standing on.

And then, as if by some glorious magic, the jungle opens up and there it is: the Pacific. Blue all the way to the horizon, crashing against the rocks below.

A quick stop along the Pacific

I’ve ridden that road countless times, and it still gets me.

We rode for a while, then pulled Dora over and walked down to the beach. There was music coming from somewhere. Families were sitting under umbrellas. Young couples were running in and out of the water. Boats bobbed offshore. And, because this is Mexico, there was a man selling shrimp on a stick.

Obviously, we bought some. I’m not sure whether food tastes better when it’s slathered in salt and hot sauce, and you’re eating it on a Mexican beach, but I’m willing to conduct further research.

We sat there for a while, talked a little, watched the water and did absolutely nothing.

And it was exactly what I needed.

The whole thing probably took less than two hours. A few months ago, I might have looked at that and thought it didn’t really count. We hadn’t gone far enough. We hadn’t discovered somewhere new. We hadn’t found some tiny mountain village neither of us had heard of. We hadn’t clocked enough miles to justify getting Dora out of the garage.

But sitting there with grilled shrimp and lime, my feet in the sand and the Pacific in front of me, I realized I’d been looking at it all wrong.

The author on a beach in Jalisco with rocks and Pacific Ocean waves in the foreground
Motorcycle road trips through Mexico often end at the beach, and may include fresh shrimp. (Charlotte Smith)

It was never really about the distance. It was about getting out of my own head.

That’s what riding has always done for me.

When you’re on a motorcycle, there isn’t much room for thinking about the emails you haven’t answered, the article you need to finish, the laundry sitting in the basket, or whatever else has been rattling around in your head.

Living outside the waiting room

You have to pay attention.

To the road. The traffic. The bend ahead. The truck coming the other way. The smell of the trees. The heat. The sudden glimpse of the ocean.

And for a while, that’s all there is.

I think we spend far too much time waiting for the right conditions to do things. We’ll go when work settles down. When the weather is better. When we have a whole weekend. When we have enough time to do it properly.

I’m starting to wonder how much of life gets missed while we’re waiting for “properly.”

That little ride reminded me that sometimes two hours can be enough. You don’t always need to go somewhere. Sometimes you just need to go.

And maybe that’s what I’ve missed most about Dora.

Not the long rides themselves, although I certainly miss those. It’s the way a motorcycle can make an ordinary day feel like you’ve gone somewhere. You can leave home with no particular plan, follow Highway 200 for a while, stop on a beach, eat shrimp from a stick and sit looking at the Pacific. Then you get back on, and you go back home.

Nothing monumental happened. And somehow, everything feels a little better.

View of the Pacific Ocean in Jalisco
Picture postcard moments are never very far away in Mexico, and they can happen at virtually any time. (Charlotte Smith)

That’s one of the things I love about living in Mexico. It isn’t always the big, postcard moments. It’s the fact that they can turn up in the middle of an otherwise completely ordinary day.

I know we’ll get back to the long rides, and we already have plans for Dora when the weather finally decides to stop trying to melt us. There are roads we haven’t traveled, places we still want to see and, knowing us, probably a few wrong turns waiting to happen.

But I’m not going to wait for the perfect day or the perfect amount of time anymore.

Because it turns out “Throttle Therapy” doesn’t require a full tank, six hours and a destination.

Sometimes it just requires getting on the bike. And sometimes, if you’re extra lucky, it even comes with a side of shrimp.

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.

Fierce storm downs trees and damages shopping malls in Guadalajara, with more rain on the way

By
MND Staff
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Guadalajara storms
Guadalajara has been hit with a number of fierce storms this summer but Sunday's was especially damaging, felling at least 20 trees in the metropolitan zone and blowing out windows in major shopping plazas. (ZMG Noticias/Facebook)

The intense storm that struck the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area (ZMG) Sunday afternoon left behind downed trees, pooled water on roadways and damaged shopping centers in both Guadalajara and Zapopan.

In Zapopan, Civil Protection and Fire Department authorities reported that at least 13 trees had fallen, mostly in the city center. One went down on Patria Avenue, near the urban forest of Los Colomos, blocking traffic.

The trees felled during Sunday’s fierce storm can be added to the summer-long count of downed trees in the Guadalajara Metropolitan Zone that has been reported to surpass one thousand. (Alcalde Barranquitas GDL)

In Guadalajara, initial reports counted another seven fallen trees. The affected areas include Pablo Neruda and Circuito Madrigal intersections; Terranova and Buenos Aires; Manuel Diéguez and José María Vigil; and Patria and Alberta. 

Authorities worked to remove branches and trunks, clear streets and reduce risks for pedestrians and motorists.

The storm also caused damage to shopping centers.

Andares, a shopping mall in the high-end residential area of Puerta de Hierro, Zapopan, reported that water leaked through the roof of a department store, damaging merchandise. 

Meanwhile, gusts of wind caused glass panels to detach and fall from the roof in Midtown, a shopping mall located along López Mateos Avenue in Guadalajara. Debris fell onto the food court, where diners and visitors were taking shelter from the storm. However, no injuries were reported as a result of the incident.

In addition to fallen trees and damage to shopping centers, Sunday’s storm reportedly caused power outages in several neighborhoods in the ZMG, where power didn’t return until Monday morning. 

More rain was expected today across the city, with the National Water Commission (Conagua) anticipating an 80% chance of rain in Guadalajara and 40% in Zapopan. 

Despite the severe storms that have occurred this year in Jalisco, rainfall has not generated a significant recovery in the level of Lake Chapala, the main source of water supply for the ZMG. Data from Conagua revealed that the lake’s water capacity currently stands at 69% — up 6% compared to the beginning of June. 

Josué Sánchez Tapetillo, a specialist in water resource management, told the local newspaper El Informador that the lake has recovered approximately 46 centimeters during the current rainy season. He noted that although the recovery rate has been slow compared to previous years, there is no cause for alarm as the rainy season is not over yet. 

With reports from Telediario and El Informador

In Coatepec, INAH discovers ceremonial plaza and stele with never-before-seen features

By
MND Staff
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stele in Coatepec
The stele's ornamentation features square-like figures and circular stones on two of its sides, attributes that are not typical of the region and had not been previously recorded there. (INAH)

A civic-ceremonial plaza and a monolithic stele featuring atypical characteristics for the region were discovered in the area of Coatepec, Veracruz, in a find that could provide new clues about the societies that lived there prior to the Conquest.  

Both the structure and the sculpture, which are reminiscent of those from nearby Maya settlements, were found in a good state of preservation.

 

The National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) said in a statement that the find offers the opportunity to explore a unique regional expression that has been little studied and that is challenging to connect definitively with the established traditions of the Gulf Coast.

In an interview with newspaper La Jornada, INAH archaeologists Lino Espinoza García and Alberto Vázquez Domínguez said that the settlement dates back some 1,500 years before the Christian era, coinciding with the beginning of the Campo Viejo settlement.

According to the archaeologists, “from that time onwards, there was a continuous population [inhabiting the area] until the colonial era,” which began in the early 1500’s.

The findings on the platform and the stela, however, could date back to the Protoclassic period, ranging from 200 B.C. to 200 A.D. 

A discovery with features never seen before

The discovery occurred on a private residential property as part of an archaeological salvage operation led by INAH archaeologists in the San Lucas subdivision, near the Campo Viejo archaeological zone. 

The findings consist of a platform — 30 meters long by 12 meters wide — built with white slabs and blocks of dressed limestone, with a texture similar to plaster, which would have been selected or worked to create a specific visual finish.

The ornamentation features square-like figures and circular stones on two of its sides, attributes that are not typical of the region and had not been previously recorded there.

The monolithic sculpture measures 1.88 meters high, 1.47 meters wide at its widest point and 0.68 meters wide at its narrowest. With a thickness that ranges from 22 to 25 centimeters, it features engravings alluding to a symbolic event in which two elite figures, seated and wearing elaborate attire, receive a fluid from a divine entity holding a vessel on a higher plane.

Lino noted that “the entire stele, made of andesite stone, references themes of fertility and cultivation of the land.”

Field excavations conclude this month, and specialists will proceed with laboratory analyses, which will extend until early 2027.  

Mexico News Daily

Mexican-built particle detector slated to help global scientists illuminate the birth of the universe

By
MND Staff
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team of scientists from the UNAM's Nuclear Sciences Institute
The team of scientists from the UNAM's Nuclear Sciences Institute has a lot of work to do before the ALICE 3 project gets underway in 2036 — including not just building the Muon Identifier Detector (MID) but arranging the funding for it. (ICN - UNAM / Facebook)

A Mexican physicist was recently chosen to lead the development of a particle detector for one of the world’s largest scientific projects: an underground atom smasher in Europe that is helping scientists understand the universe shortly after the Big Bang.

The proposed detector would be built in Mexico and installed at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), home of the Large Hadron Collider beneath a portion of the French-Swiss border.

Antonio Ortiz
Antonio Ortiz Velásquez (right), a researcher with UNAM’s Nuclear Sciences Institute, has been selected to head the Muon Identifier Detector (MID) project for the ALICE experiment at CERN. (ICN – UNAM/Facebook)

The Mexican-built device, called the Muon Identifier Detector (MID), is planned for ALICE 3, a future version of one of the collider’s four main experiments.

If built and approved, it would give Mexican institutions responsibility for a central subsystem of ALICE 3.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is a particle accelerator and collider covering a circular circuit of 27 kilometers, or 17 miles, near Geneva, Switzerland. It speeds beams of protons or electrically charged atomic nuclei to within a whisker of the speed of light — about 1.08 billion km/h, or 671 million mph — before steering them into head-on collisions.

Collisions involving heavy atomic nuclei can briefly create matter thought to resemble conditions in the universe’s earliest moments.

The Mexican project is still not guaranteed to reach CERN.

While the MID is included in the reference design for ALICE 3, the Mexican team must obtain funding, finish the design and construction work and clear technical reviews before it can be installed. Operations are targeted for 2036.

The Mexican project is headed by Antonio Ortiz Velásquez, a senior researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) whose appointment was approved by the ALICE Collaboration Board, UNAM said Aug. 13.

UNAM said Ortiz, a physicist at UNAM’s Institute of Nuclear Sciences, is the first Mexican scientist chosen to direct development of a strategic ALICE 3 subsystem.

Mexico has already worked with ALICE for years, helping build and operate earlier detector equipment and analyze collision data, but the new project goes even further.

The Mexican-built device would track muons, small particles that can pass through much of the detector after a collision. Their paths can help researchers study a fleeting, superheated state of matter that scientists believe filled the universe immediately after the Big Bang.

“We are recreating tiny droplets from the early universe and studying them through the traces they leave in particle detectors,” Ortiz said.

The team hopes to begin construction in Mexico in 2028. It includes researchers from UNAM, the Center for Research and Advanced Studies, the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, the Autonomous University of Sinaloa and the National Technological Institute of Mexico, along with partners in the United States, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Pakistan.

With reports from La Jornada, MxPA and Space Daily

11 injured in car bomb attack on Zacatecas police station

By
MND Staff
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Damaged police car with shattered windshield and dust in Mexico.
The attack was the third carried out with explosives in Zacatecas in four days. (Adolfo Vladimir/Cuartoscuro)

Eleven people, including a policewoman, were injured Sunday night when a car bomb exploded outside a municipal police station in Ojocaliente, a town in the state of Zacatecas.

Zacatecas Attorney General Cristian Camacho said Monday that authorities were investigating whether the attack was linked to the capture on Saturday of an 18-year-old man who is allegedly a sicario (hitman) for the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). The federal Security Cabinet is collaborating with Zacatecas authorities on the investigation. No arrests had been reported as of early Monday afternoon.

car bomb aftermath
The explosives detonated at approximately 8 p.m. on Sunday during a town celebration. (Especial/Cuartoscuro)

Rodrigo Reyes, general secretary of the Zacatecas government, reported on Monday that 10 civilians and a female police officer were injured in the explosion on Sunday, which occurred as Ojocaliente residents were taking part in festivities honoring the town’s patron saint. The official said that 10 of the victims were in stable condition while one was in a “delicate” state but “out of danger.”

Reyes said that explosives were placed in a car that was reported as stolen in the state of Jalisco. They detonated at approximately 8 p.m. Sunday.

In addition to injuring 11 people, the explosion damaged 30 properties, including homes, and 13 vehicles, including police cars, according to Reyes.

The attack was the third carried out with explosives in Zacatecas in four days. Three police officers and one civilian were injured in the two other attacks, which were perpetrated on Thursday and Saturday of last week.

Ojocaliente Mayor Juan Manuel Zambrano canceled classes on Monday — the first day of the 2026-27 school year — in light of Sunday’s attack, while municipal government offices were closed to the public.

Reyes said that security in Ojocaliente had been beefed up, with army troops and members of the National Guard deploying to the municipality.

The federal Security Cabinet said on social media on Monday that authorities from all three levels of government were “reinforcing the security operation in the area to protect the population.”

A revenge attack by the CJNG?

The car bomb explosion on Sunday night came a day after an 18-year-old man was arrested on Saturday near the border between Zacatecas and the state of Aguascalientes.

In an interview with Radio Fórmula on Monday, Camacho said that “we’re not ruling out that yesterday’s attack was a reaction to that result.”

The attorney general said that the suspect had admitted to being a sicario for the CJNG. He also said that “everything suggests” that the attack in Ojocaliente on Sunday was carried out by that criminal group.

The CJNG is based in Jalisco but operates in virtually all of Mexico’s states. The cartel’s leader is now said to be Juan Carlos Valencia González, stepson of CJNG founder and former leader Nemesio Rubén “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, who was fatally wounded in a military operation in Jalisco in February.

Zacatecas is known for violence, but homicides have declined by more than 50% this year 

On Aug. 11, the federal government reported that there were 51 homicides in Zacatecas in the first seven months of 2026, a reduction of 53.2% compared to the same period of last year. The annual reduction in murders in Zacatecas was the fourth largest among Mexico’s 32 federal entities.

Earlier this decade, Zacatecas was one of Mexico’s most violent states, but it recorded the eighth-lowest homicide count among Mexico’s 32 federal entities between January and July.

There are, however, signs that the security situation is deteriorating in the state, whose location between the Pacific coast port of Manzanillo, Colima, and Mexico’s northeast border with Texas makes it a trafficking route for fentanyl and other drugs.

On a single day last month, the bodies of ten murdered men were found across three municipalities in Zacatecas. Five of the bodies were found hanging from a bridge in Pánuco, a municipality just north of Zacatecas city. Among the 10 victims were a former mayor of Sombrerete, Zacatecas; an official with the Fresnillo municipal government; and an ex-councilor in the municipality of Canatlán, Durango.

With reports from El Universal, Julio Astillero, Radio Fórmula, AFP, El Economista and El Financiero

Is it parmesan-style or Parmesano? Mexico-US trade talks hit snag over cheese names

By
MND Staff
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cheese display
It's a three-way standoff: Mexico signed a deal with the EU that would enforce protection of regional names for cheese, the U.S. is demanding that Mexico eliminate that protection and the EU says the pact is not open to amendment. (Unsplash)

Mexico-U.S. trade talks have hit a snag over cheese, with the sticking point going back to the trade agreement Mexico signed with the European Union (EU) in May.

The Mexico-EU accord grants special protections to hundreds of European products whose names are linked to specific regions, including Parmigiano Reggiano, Feta and Manchego cheese. It also provides the EU with legal recourse against violations.

manchego cheese
Manchego is an enormously popular cheese in Mexico, but not everybody realizes its name means “from the La Mancha region.” Mexico has agreed with the EU to respect that regional identity, raising the possibility that manchego cheese not made in La Mancha would need to be labeled as something along the lines of “manchego-style cheese.” (Wilson Tovar/Unsplash)

U.S. officials say the protections could restrict future sales by U.S. producers to Mexico under names like parmesan and feta, forcing them to use descriptions with labels such as “imitation” or “style.” 

The U.S. government’s stance is that these names are generic, while the EU insists they ought to be reserved for products produced in the region for which they are named.

“What Mexico did was completely wrong,” said Jaime Castañeda, executive vice president of the U.S. Dairy Export Council. “The Mexican government must guarantee that both the United States and Mexican manufacturers of common cheese brands can continue operating in the market.” 

While U.S. negotiators are pressuring Mexico to amend its deal with the EU (it has yet to be approved by the Senate), the European Commission insists it is not possible to modify the terms of the agreement.

Mexico — among the world’s top consumers of cheese — imports approximately US $1 billion worth of cheese annually from the U.S, while total EU dairy exports to Mexico amount to only US $200 million. 

The Washington, D.C.-based International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) is on record describing the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade deal (USMCA) as dairy’s most important trade agreement. 

The IDFA says the U.S. dairy industry, which supports more than 3 million jobs and contributes US $779 billion to the U.S. economy, depends on access to global markets to sustain growth and create new opportunities for farmers and processors.

U.S. negotiators are using the USMCA as leverage in hopes of forcing Mexico to accede to their demands, but critics say that in addition to the conflict with the EU accord, lower-quality U.S. cheeses are undercutting local production.

With reports from Reuters, CEO, The Independent and Fox 10 Phoenix

Nuevo León invests in 3 new bridges to boost trade via Laredo

By
MND Staff
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Puente Colombia NL
If all four infrastructure projects move forward as planned, the Colombia-Laredo area will end up with a total of four crossings: the current bridge, the two new bridges to be built next year and the Green Corridors viaduct linking northern Nuevo León and Tamaulipas with Laredo. (Government of Nuevo León)

Nuevo León Governor Samuel García confirmed on Friday plans for potentially three new bridges connecting his northern state to Texas, aiming to speed up trade and facilitate cross-border commuting. 

Following a working visit to the southern United States, García announced the construction of two new bridges at the Colombia-Laredo Port of Entry and reiterated plans to expand state Highway 1 North, connecting the Salinas Victoria industrial zone with the border municipalities of Anáhuac and Nuevo Laredo. 

 

With a US $200 million binational investment of equal parts from Mexico and the U.S., the aim is to construct two new international bridges at the Colombia-Laredo crossing to expand its operational capacity and facilitate trade. Construction is expected to commence in May 2027 and be completed in 2028. 

“I confirm the hypothesis we envisioned five years ago: the Texas-Nuevo León Golden Triangle is the most prosperous region in the world,” García said during a ceremony. “For Nuevo León, it’s crucial to have the infrastructure ready to be part of this triangle and be connected with Dallas, Houston, Brownsville, Corpus Christi, Austin, San Antonio and Laredo,” García stressed. 

García said that the ongoing modernization of the Colombia-Laredo trade port has already doubled the number of cargo lanes from 7 to 14, helping to raise crossings from between 80 and 800 to 8,000 per day, a figure that he expects to increase to 15,000 by 2030. 

In addition, a new viaduct will provide direct connectivity between Salinas Victoria and Laredo, Texas (via Anáhuac), running parallel to Highway 1 North as part of a larger project with the Texas-based startup Green Corridors.

The project, requiring $17 billion in investment, is being developed as a public-private partnership with the Nuevo León government providing the right-of-way. However, it is not expected to reach completion until 2031.

During the event, García also announced the development of a tax-free industrial park in the municipality of Anáhuac, as part of the federal government’s overarching Plan Mexico economic strategy. The state aims to attract investment in manufacturing, assembly and logistics by offering federal, state and municipal tax incentives, including exemptions on income tax (ISR), payroll tax and property tax.

“We are creating a tax haven,” García said.

If all four infrastructure projects move forward as planned, the Colombia-Laredo area will end up with a total of four crossings: the current bridge, the two new bridges to be built next year and the Green Corridors viaduct linking northern Nuevo León and Tamaulipas with Laredo.

With reports from Reporte Indigo, Rio South Texas, Mexico Industry and El Universal

MND Local: The massive ongoing investment in Los Cabos

By
Chris Sands
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coastline of Los Cabos showing luxury villas and homes
More than US $2.5 billion has been invested in tourism in Baja California Sur since the start of 2024, most of it in Los Cabos. (Victor Hughes/Unsplash)

When foreign direct tourism investment numbers were announced for the first quarter of 2026, Baja California Sur (BCS) led all states, accounting for US $191.5 million, or 31% of the US $617.2 million invested in Mexico during that timeframe. That BCS received the most investment was not a surprise. If anything, the only surprise was that it did not receive a greater share of the total.

In 2024 and 2025, for example, BCS received upwards of US $1 billion dollars in foreign direct tourism investment during each year (US $1.039 billion and US $1.292 billion, respectively) — the most in Mexico — representing 36.2% and 40.6% of the national total. Of the US $2.5 billion-plus invested in BCS since 2024, an estimated 90% is centered on projects in Los Cabos; the municipality that, not coincidentally, accounts for 83% of tourism in the state.

Four Seasons Resort in Los Cabos at Cabo del Sol overlooking Punta Ballena and the Gulf of California
The Four Seasons Resort and Residence Cabo San Lucas at Cabo del Sol premiered in May 2024. (Four Seasons)

This raises two very interesting questions: Where is all this money coming from? And what is it being used to build?

Why is Los Cabos receiving so much investment, and from whom?

A third interesting question is how long BCS (and, by extension, Los Cabos) has dominated foreign direct tourism investment in Mexico. However, finding an answer is difficult, as annual figures for this category before 2024 aren’t easily accessible. But based on the quarterly announcements that have been reported in recent years, it seems that BCS has been leading the way in tourism investment since at least 2022, when it received 36.3% of invested monies during the fourth quarter of that year; a trend also noted in the second and fourth quarters of 2023, when the state garnered 47.3% and 38.1% of the national quarterly totals. 

As for where the money is coming from, the answer is overwhelmingly from U.S. sources. In 2025, for instance, nearly 85% of investments originated in the U.S., with Canada and Spain each contributing a little over 5%. No other country’s investment accounted for more than 2.1%.

What’s being built? Primarily luxury hotels and resorts — the Four Seasons Resort and Residences and Park Hyatt Los Cabos have both opened in Cabo del Sol since 2024, and Amanvari recently opened at Costa Palmas on the East Cape — although master-planned communities, vacation rentals, and marinas and beach clubs have also attracted significant capital.

The projects currently in the pipeline

As of the first quarter of 2026, Mexico’s Secretaría de Turismo (Sectur) noted 13 active tourism projects in BCS worth US $3.893 billion. Amanvari, the Aman brand resort at Costa Palmas on the East Cape of Los Cabos, recently opened on Aug. 1, with 18 casitas each fetching more than US $3,000 per night. So one project is complete. Of the dozen remaining, four relate to new hotels scheduled to open in Los Cabos between 2027 and 2029: the Conrad Los Cabos, SIRO Palmilla, Delano East Cape and Raffles Estera East Cape Resort & Residences.

The Conrad Los Cabos, a Hilton property with 111 guest rooms, 21 suites, 43 residences and access to a new Ernie Els-designed golf course, is slated to open in 2027 at Oleada, an 860-acre development on the Pacific Coast north of Cabo San Lucas. The SIRO Palmilla, a wellness-oriented hospitality brand from Kerzner International, is also expected to open its doors in 2027, with 120 rooms and 14 luxury villas. 

Luxury brands Delano and Raffles, meanwhile, have both announced East Cape resorts to open by 2029. However, neither has broken ground as yet, nor have their exact locations been divulged. The only thing that is known is that Delano is planning for 117 guest rooms and 60 branded residences; Raffles for 80 guest rooms, 46 residences and seven drinking and dining options.

Home Depot invests 690 million pesos in Los Cabos

Most, but not all, foreign investment in Baja California Sur is tourism-related. In 2025, for instance, a total of US $1.587 billion was invested in the state, 81% of which was earmarked for tourism projects. 

One example of a non-tourism-related project is the new Home Depot, which opened on Aug. 20 in San José del Cabo. The store, which is located by the Fonatur roundabout, represents an investment of 690 million pesos (about US $41 million) by Home Depot Mexico, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Home Depot, Inc., the home improvement chain headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. 

It’s the second Home Depot store to open in Los Cabos: the other is near Cabo Bello in La Ruta Escénica in the corridor which connects cape cities Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo. The state’s third Home Depot, of the 144 now open in Mexico, is in the capital city of La Paz.

The recently opened San José del Cabo location supports 95 new jobs for residents, plus an inventory of 50,000 products now available to local consumers.

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.

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