The 52 billion peso investment would mark GAP’s largest investment in its Mexican airports to date. (Aeropuertos GAP/Facebook)
Pacific Airport Group (GAP) will invest 52 billion pesos (US $2.6 billion) over the next five years to expand and renovate the 12 airports it operates along Mexico’s Pacific Coast. More than 40% of the funds will go to expanding and modernizing the Guadalajara International Airport.
This would mark GAP’s largest investment in its Mexican airports to date.
Over the past years, all GAP-run airports have seen improvements, the company said. (Jeat1993/Wikimedia Commons – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0)
“These investments are carefully analyzed and designed to add additional capacity at GAP airports”, the group said in a statement to investors at the Mexican Stock Exchange, “for the future growth of the regions where we operate.”
The airports GAP operates in Mexico are:
Guadalajara (GDL)
Tijuana (TIJ)
Los Cabos (SJD)
Puerto Vallarta (PVR)
Guanajuato (BJX)
Mexicali (MXL)
La Paz (LAP)Morelia (MLM)
Hermosillo (HMO)
Aguascalientes (AGU),
Los Mochis (LMM)
Manzanillo (ZLO)
All 12 locations have seen improvements in infrastructure, operation and passenger service over the last five years, GAP said.
Bueno, pues oficialmente Guadalajara tiene ya dos pistas en el monstruo de aeropuerto que está ampliando Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico, GAP.
— Más Grinch que nunca. (@GuillermoBGR) July 12, 2024
“Our goal is to provide passenger service, while contributing to Mexico’s economic development with airports operating at optimal conditions for passengers and the exchange of goods,” GAP CEO Raúl Revuelta Musalem said in a statement.
According to GAP, 60% of the new investment will be allocated to increase terminal capacity, 45% to expand passenger inspection points, 25% to renovate aircraft platforms and 20% to enhance the flight field.
Of all the airports, Guadalajara will receive the largest share of the funds — 22 billion pesos, or US $1.1 billion — driven by nearshoring and the upcoming World Cup 2026, Revuelta told newspaper El Economista.
In Guadalajara, GAP will build a new 69,000-square meter terminal to increase passenger capacity by approximately 70%. The group will also increase cargo capacity, invest in land acquisition for the territorial reserve and build a third runway and third terminal.
After Guadalajara, the Tijuana International Airport will receive the second largest funding package, GAP said. (Comisión Mexicana de Filmaciones/Wikimedia Commons – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0)
Revuelta added that the increase in passenger and air cargo capacity at the Guadalajara airport also requires growth in road infrastructure, so part of the investment will go to building a second access road to the airport. Currently, the only access is through the Chapala highway.
After Guadalajara, the Tijuana International Airport will receive the second largest funding package to expand the air terminal by 34,000 square meters, while Los Cabos International Airport will be expanded by 18,700 square meters.
President Sheinbaum signed the women's rights amendment Friday morning, accompanied by Womens Ministry chief Citlalli Hernández and legal counsel Ernestina Godoy. (Presidencia/Cuartoscuro)
President Claudia Sheinbaum on Friday signed into law a constitutional amendment that enshrines a range of rights for Mexican women.
“Women are now in the constitution, our rights are guaranteed,” Sheinbaum said at her morning press conference after endorsing the Substantive Equality reform that was previously approved by both house of federal Congress and ratified by a majority of state legislatures.
“… There is recognition of historical inequality,” she said.
The reform, which modifies seven articles of the Mexican Constitution, will take effect after it is published in the government’s official gazette on Friday.
Among its objectives are to:
Guarantee women’s right to live a life free of violence.
Ensure that gender perspective is taken into account in public security initiatives and by judges.
Guarantee’s women’s right to access opportunities such as education and employment.
Increase gender parity in government departments at the federal, state and municipal level.
New prosecutor’s offices that focus on investigating and prosecuting crimes against women will be created as a result of the enactment of the reform and the federal government will have new powers to offer protection measures to female victims of crime.
Women’s Minister Citlalli Hernández hailed the reform as a positive example for both the region and the international community. (Andrea Murcia/Cuartoscuro)
Women’s Minister Citlalli Hernández described the modifications to the constitution as “historic.”
The equality reform serves as “an example” to both the region of which Mexico is part and the world, she said.
Hernández as well as Ernestina Godoy, the president’s top legal adviser, and lawmakers with the ruling Morena party stood alongside Sheinbaum — Mexico’s first female president — when she signed the decree to promulgate the reform.
The reform “will guarantee girls a different future,” said Deputy Anaís Miriam Burgos Hernández.
Senator Martha Lucía Mícher said that the signing into law of the reform was “a historic wish come true.”
“From our feminist hearts we thank the feminist leader of this country,” she said in reference to Sheinbaum.
The president noted that the government is also working toward the establishment of a national care system consisting of state-run facilities that will provide care services and thus reduce the care-giving burden on women.
“The state must provide conditions so that women can dedicate themselves to other tasks if they wish to do so,” Sheinbaum said.
Sheinbaum said the government is creating a national system to give Mexican women alternatives for managing the care-giving that often falls to them. (Graciela López/Cuartoscuro)
She said that the care system her government is working to establish will allow women — who more often than not are Mexico’s primary care givers — to “leave their children in a place where they are looked after well.”
Sheinbaum is determined to stand up for the rights of women and girls during her six-year term as president. Her predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, was accused by some of having a “women problem.”
She has declared on various occasions that “it’s time for women” in Mexico and asserts that her ascension to the presidency represents the arrival of all women to a position of power.
Arizona Cardinals guard Will Hernandez runs with a Mexican flag before his team's game against the 49ers in Mexico City in 2022. (Ben Liebenberg/NFL)
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell confirmed that the American football league is poised to return to Mexico City for one game of the 2025 season. It would be the sixth regular-season game in Mexico and the first since 2022.
The arena is a preferred destination for the NFL, but hosting a game next season depends on the venue being in optimum condition following the 900 million-peso (US $44 million) makeover.
The renovation effort is scheduled to be completed before the end of next year which means any game in Mexico City would have to be later in the NFL season.
No date for the game has been suggested as yet, and it could still be called off: The league does not take chances with player safety, as evidenced by the cancellation of a game in Estadio Azteca back in 2018 because of poor field conditions.
VUELVA LA NFL A MÉXICO? 👀#RogerGoodell acaba de decir este domingo en NFL Network que esperan 8 partidos internacionales en 2025, y mencionó a México como una de las sedes.
Los lugares serían: Londres, España, Brasil, Ciudad de México, Alemania y posiblemente Dublín, Irlanda.… pic.twitter.com/1forqCGEJw
Ahead of last Sunday’s NFL game in Germany, Goodell told NFL Network’s Colleen Wolfe that the league is looking to play at least eight games outside of the United States in 2025 after NFL team owners voted last December to authorize the league to host up to eight international games each season.
“We are definitely going to Spain, we announced that,” Goodell said from Allianz Arena in Munich. “We expect to return to Mexico City. We expect to return to Brazil. We will certainly be back in the U.K. And we’re also looking at the potential of another game … in Ireland, possibly. … And we’ll certainly be back here in Germany.”
The league hosted five international games this season in London, Munich and Brazil.
Previous NFL games in Mexico
The largest crowd in NFL history was recorded at a preseason exhibition game on Aug. 15, 1994, in Mexico City when 112,376 people filled Estadio Azteca to watch the Houston Oilers defeat the Dallas Cowboys 6-0.
Before that, from 1986 to 2005, the NFL staged 40 preseason exhibition games in cities outside the United States, including London, Tokyo, Montreal, West Berlin, Barcelona, Dublin and Sydney.
Barbara Sibley, owner of La Palapa, has brought a slice of Mexican life to New York City, promoting the best of Mexican culture in the heart of the United States. (La Palapa)
When you interview a chef, chances are you’ll come out of it with useful tips for the kitchen. A new recipe, a must-try restaurant, a versatile ingredient. And while I did check those boxes during my chat with Barbara Sibley, I also managed to squeeze out some very powerful relationship advice.
Of course, my primary intention was to talk about food. After all, Barbara is an award-winning chef, co-author of a cookbook, and owner of East Village gem La Palapa Cocina Mexicana, going on its 25th year in business. But I quickly realized that Barbara’s not just about the ingredients — though she’s got a lot to say about them too — but more about the deeper connection food has to culture and identity.
La Palapa’s main location, in New York’s East Village. (La Palapa)
Who is Barbara Sibley, the East Village’s Mexican chef extraordinaire?
Barbara Sibley is first and foremost an artist, both culinary and visual. Born and raised in Mexico City, her first job was as a receptionist in a factory. “I hated it,” she reflects, adding that there was, however, one perk of the position. Every afternoon, ladies from the neighborhood would walk by selling tacos de canasta. “Even then, food was the highlight!” Barbara laughs.
Not long after, Barbara moved to Michigan for school. The culture shock was visceral. In lieu of dancing at parties, her classmates would drink to inebriation. Instead of sitting around a table after dinner conversing, an act so common in Latin America that it has its own word — sobremesa — friends would immediately rise and move to the T.V. “It was so removed from what I was used to,” she says. “My childhood was very Mexican, definitely not North American.”
Just as Barbara didn’t understand the United States, her classmates didn’t understand Mexico. “Do you go to school on a donkey?” she remembers being asked. The disconnect between the two cultures became more apparent as a budding chef. Addressing the general naivete amongst Americans when it came to Mexican food became part of her daily tasks.
“All my menus were educational exercises and I had to pay close attention to how I wrote them,” she says. She would include detailed descriptions of each plate. If she didn’t, patrons would simply order the only thing they knew how to pronounce: enchiladas.
Brunch at La Palapa. (La Palapa)
Today, Mexican food is one of the most popular cuisines worldwide, and we’re not talking Chili’s Classic Nachos. The authentic menu at La Palapa Cocina Mexicana has everything from street cart-style jicama to the Yucatán staple cochinita pibil, influenced not only by Barbara’s childhood, but also by her dedicated research. She spent years collecting traditional, rare and pre-Colombian Mexican recipes, and studying the notes and style of Diana Kennedy, the world-famous British food writer. Kennedy authored nine books on Mexican cooking, including “The Art of Mexican Cooking” and “Oaxaca al Gusto: An Infinite Gastronomy.”
Here’s what Barbara had to say about her journey from Mexico’s vibrant capital to the Big Apple, her favorite flavors, and what she really misses — and doesn’t miss — about Mexico.
The one ingredient she couldn’t live without
Ask Barbara what she’d never give up in the kitchen, and the answer is quick: arbol chilis. For her, these tiny, spicy peppers pack a punch, and they’re a key player in the symphony that is Mexican cuisine. A cuisine that, for better or for worse, has been replicated with gusto across the United States.
From Tex-Mex to tacos, Barbara loves it all. “I could never get bored of the traditional. Every single time you make a mole, it’s different,” she says. That’s because it’s never about the dish itself, but how it’s made. The simpler it is, the more authentic it tastes, and you can practically hear the love in her voice when she talks about giving her favorite bites, like humble huauzontles, the care they deserve.
What Americans can learn from Mexican culture
There’s plenty that visitors to Mexican can learn from the relaxed and community-focused pace of life. (Margarito Pérez Retana/Cuartoscuro)
It’s no secret that U.S. citizens are flocking to Mexico by the thousands, and Barbara has some thoughts on the matter. Having spent decades in New York City, doing her part to bridge the cultural gap between the U.S. and Mexico through the art of cuisine, she’s noticed a thing or two.
There are clear differences between Mexico and the U.S., particularly when it comes to art and self-expression. “In Mexico, it’s cool to be both an architect and a painter, or a bureaucrat and a poet. There’s room to be multiple things at once.” As a chef, a business owner and a painter, she quickly realized that in the U.S., mixing roles, especially in the arts, makes it harder to be taken seriously.
Perhaps that has to do with each country’s emphasis on the arts. Mexico spends about 0.07 percent of its federal budget on culture and the arts. The U.S. allocates only 0.002 percent. In Mexico, “people enjoy art,” she says, and that cultural support is something she believes U.S. artists living in Mexico could benefit from.
Mexicans love art, color and expression unashamedly, as evidenced by bookstalls, street artists and florists lining the roads of the capital. (Facebook)
What a CDMX transplant in NYC misses
Barbara’s love for her homeland runs deep. “I miss the people the most,” she says. Most of her family and friends still reside in CDMX. But it’s more than Sunday dinners with parents and aunts and uncles and cousins: it’s the people you encounter at the flower stand on the corner or the local lonchería. There’s a type of kindness and friendliness amongst Mexicans that’s hard to replicate anywhere else.
While her heart longs for the warmth of those daily encounters, there’s one thing Barbara doesn’t miss at all: the traffic. “It’s changed the city,” she says, noting how it’s become nearly impossible to have friends scattered across different parts of town. I mean, really, who’s going to Santa Fe from Condesa for a Thursday happy hour? Not me, thanks.
It’s all about the tamal
Barbara has a vision: a street cart in the heart of Mexico City selling tamales. At least for now. Tomorrow she might crave something different. For the moment, the successful chef is living and breathing tamales in her preparation for a pop-up tamal cart in New York’s Bryant Park. Through Jan. 5, she’ll be bundled up and dishing out homemade tamales stuffed with Oaxaca cheese and huitlacoche, as well as steaming cups of champurrado.
It’s the kind of food that takes her right back home, no matter where she is.
What Barbara inadvertently reminded me about relationships
If there’s one thing most lovers of Mexican food can agree on, it’s that you can taste the care and attention that goes into cooking it. Each bite explodes with juxtapositions: equal parts spicy and sweet, saucy yet dense. And while the flavors are complex, the dish is somehow simple. The taste isn’t manipulated as much as it’s amplified. To succeed in contrast, there’s one thing you’ve got to do with each ingredient: give it love and let it be itself.
Barbara’s reflections on her culinary journey emphasize the power of food as a bridge to understanding cultures. Whether it’s a tamal from a street vendor or a rich mole passed down through generations, food connects us all. And for Barbara, it’s that relationship between food, culture and identity that continues to inspire her, both in and out of the kitchen.
Bethany Platanella is a travel planner and lifestyle writer based in Mexico City. She lives for the dopamine hit that comes directly after booking a plane ticket, exploring local markets, practicing yoga and munching on fresh tortillas. Sign up to receive her Sunday Love Letters to your inbox, peruse her blog, or follow her on Instagram.
A novelty pan de muerto pambazo. (Cristanta Espinosa Aguilar/Cuartoscuro)
Mexico is home to one of the great global cuisines, and while the international image may not extend past burritos and beans, the country’s food is regionally-specific and steeped in history and flavor. Of course, Mexican food slang is every bit as diverse too.
The author of “The Mexican Slang Dictionary,” Alasdair Baverstock, has a few suggestions for the lesser-known dishes.
Alambre – noun. A dish in a taquería in which the taco filling and the tortillas are served separately, allowing the diner to taquear of their own accord.
Aporreado – noun. A dish typical of the Tierra Caliente, in which dried beefsteak, egg, beans, tomatoes and spices are stewed together. Also known as aporreadillo.
Barbacoa – noun. Slow-cooked meat dish, usually goat or mutton. The root of the English word ‘barbeque,’ Mexico’s best barbacoa is found in the Bajío — connoisseurs say specifically in the state of Hidalgo.
Traditionally prepared in deep ovens — often excavated into the earth itself — a fire is set at the bottom of the pit, followed by the stacked meat, wrapped in agave pencas. The whole is buried and left to cook over the course of many hours. As a result, barbacoa is a dish most-commonly eaten for breakfast or lunch. Cuts from the animal vary, but include costilla (rib), espaldilla (shoulder) and espinazo (spine), often served with pancita — offal prepared in the stomach — and consomé, the juices from the meat collected at the bottom of the oven and mixed with chickpeas.
Burrito – noun. A Norteño staple consisting of a flour tortilla wrapped around a filling. It is worth noting that while the burritois a dish commonly associated with Mexican cuisine, the Tex-Mex version found in el Gabacho is seldom found in Mexico, where burritos generally have only one filling, and are much smaller.
Carnitas – noun. A traditional dish most famously from the state of Michoacan, carnitas is a pork confit, i.e. meat cooked in the animal’s own fat. Literally meaning ‘little meats’, it is prepared in one large cazuela, with the individual cuts cooked at different stages of the process. Generally eaten in taco form, the cuts include maciza (lean meat), buche (stomach), cuerito (skin), costilla (rib) and trompa (snout). For newcomers to carnitas, a taco surtido, or ‘mixed taco,’ is a good entry point.
Chavindeca. (YouTube screen capture)
Chavindeca – noun. A Calentano dish consisting of meat and cheese sandwiched between two large grilled corn tortillas.
Chongos – noun. A dessert known as ‘burned milk.’ It is sweetened whole milk, which is evaporated, leaving behind the sugary curds. A rare and delicious dish, if you can find it.
Criadillas – noun. Testicles, when served as a dish.
Fraile – noun. A Campeche dessert consisting of meringue and fried churro-like tortilla, stuffed either with coconut or Edam cheese.
Jericalla – noun. A dessert, similar to flan, consisting of a thick custard which is set and then burned on top to caramelize, like crème brulée.
Marquesita – noun. A street dessert originating in the Yucatán Peninsula, in which crêpe batter is pressed into a large pancake in a specially-made waffle press, and rolled up into a tube with any of a variety of toppings – although most feature Edam cheese.
Montado – noun. A dish typical to northern Mexico, particularly Chihuahua, in which beans and cheese are sandwiched between two flour tortillas, and then topped with a filling, creating what is essentially a stuffed double-tortilla taco.
Pambazo – noun. A torta which has been coated in a chili sauce and cooked on a comal. A traditional dish around the country’s independence celebrations, although it can be found year-round.
Paste – noun. The Mexican version of Britain’s Cornish pasty, i.e. a wheat flour empanada, most commonly filled with beef, potato and chilis, but which has broadened to a wide range of fillings and is generally smaller than its Anglian ancestor. The word itself is an evolution of the word pasty, a foodstuff brought to Hidalgo — specifically the mountain town of Real del Monte, close to Pachuca — by Cornish miners in the in the early 19th century.
Polcan – noun. A Yucatecan dish, consisting of a fried corn dough ball which is cut open and filled with one of a variety of stuffings.
Tlayuda – noun. Oaxacan dish consisting of a wide, crunchy corn disk, topped with asiento, beans, vegetables, meats and salsa.
Torta ahogada – noun. A ‘drowned sandwich’; a dish typical to Guadalajara, in which a torta is put in a bath of the same carnitas consommé which has resulted form the meat’s preparation. It is served in a bowl or deep dish and eaten with a spoon.
Pescado Zarandeado. (Kiwilimon)
Zarandeado – adj. A food preparation style, in which a fish is basted in a blend of spices, and then grilled over charcoal. Most commonly found on the Pacific Coast.
The Mexican Slang Dictionary
You can buy “The Mexican Slang Dictionary” on Amazon in the United States, Canada and Mexico. MND readers can find the physical book stocked in bookstores:
President Sheinbaum also invited Morena Party coalition legislators to the National Palace Thursday to congratulate them on their work "for the good of our country." (Claudia Sheinbaum/X)
President Claudia Sheinbaum spent part of her morning press conference on Thursday responding to remarks made this week by U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar and Doug Ford, premier of the Canadian province of Ontario.
She also responded to social media chatter that former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador ordered senators to reelect Rosario Piedra Ibarra as head of Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission (CNDH).
U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar made headlines in Mexico Wednesday after a press conference in which he asserted that Mexico’s “hugs not bullets” security policy has been a failure. (Ken Salazar/Twitter)
Sheinbaum: There are differences in what the US ambassador says from one day to the next
“First, it’s worth saying that there are differences between what the ambassador of the United States says one day and what he says another day,” she said.
“That was the case, for example, with the judicial reform. On one occasion he said he thought it was good. A week later he said it was going to be very bad for Mexico,” Sheinbaum said.
“…One cannot say one thing and then another. [That’s the] first issue. Second issue: Mexico is a free, independent, sovereign country,” she said.
Responding to Salazar’s claim that López Obrador was responsible for a breakdown in bilateral security cooperation over the past year, Sheinbaum noted that Mexican and U.S. officials collaborated on a range of security issues during the previous term of government, including the fight against the trafficking of drugs and weapons.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, seen here at the Toronto Economic Forum earlier this month, has suggested that Canada should end the USMCA and deal directly with the US because he said Mexico serves as a “back door” to Chinese products entering Canada. (Doug Ford/Twitter)
“There is coordination and there will continue to be coordination because it’s very important as we have a shared border,” she said.
“… But not subordination. … Mexico is a free, independent, sovereign country. We coordinate with each other, we work together, but there is no subordination,” Sheinbaum said. “… It’s a relationship of equals.”
“So, that proposal has no future,” Sheinbaum reiterated. “There is no need to worry.”
Sheinbaum once again stressed that Mexico, the United States and Canada all benefit from the USMCA, which is up for review in 2026.
“… We complement each other, we don’t compete with each other,” she said.
Do you really think AMLO is interested in who the president of the CNDH will be?
Rosario Piedra Ibarra is sworn in as Mexico’s National Human Rights director in the Mexican Senate chambers on Wednesday after her reelection by the Senate. (Rogelio Morales Ponce/Cuartoscuro)
Toward the end of her Thursday mañanera, Sheinbaum told reporters that she had read comments on social media that claimed that former president López Obrador had instructed senators to vote in favor of Piedra Barra serving another five-year term at the helm of the CNDH.
“He already retired from public life, he’s writing his book, he’s [working] on other tasks of the transformation,” she said after noting that the former president now lives on his ranch in Palenque, Chiapas.
“Do you really think that – from Palenque – he’s interested in and thinking about who’s going to be president of the CNDH?” Sheinbaum asked rhetorically.
Some observers of Mexican politics have opined that AMLO would, from behind the scenes, indeed continue to influence the ruling Morena party, which he founded – and even Sheinbaum herself – although López Obrador said before he left office that that wouldn’t be the case.
This year WestJet is offering direct connections from Calgary and Toronto to Tulum, on a seasonal basis.(Tanja Cotoaga/Unsplash)
Tulum’s Felipe Carrillo Puerto International Airport celebrated the inauguration of two new flight routes to the popular beach resort from Canada as flights from Toronto and Calgary arrived this past weekend.
The WestJet flights — on offer through April 26, 2025 — depart once a week from the Calgary International Airport and twice a week from Toronto Pearson International Airport to the town nestled on the Caribbean coastline in the state of Quintana Roo.
Quintana Roo Tourism Minister Bernardo Cueto extolled the new routes as an important achievement for Tulum, saying they will help consolidate its position as a top-notch global tourist destination.
“The arrival of WestJet not only increases connectivity options for our international visitors, but also opens up new opportunities for economic development, employment and the strengthening of local tourism infrastructure,” Cueto said, according to the newspaper El Economista.
Daniel Fajardo, WestJet vice president of network and schedule planning, declared that the new routes add to the airline’s “robust network of service offerings to and from Mexico’s Riviera Maya.”
“WestJet is pleased to further enhance our connections to sun destinations this winter with new seasonal service to Tulum from Calgary and Toronto, allowing guests from coast-to-coast to explore the beauty of Mexico’s Riviera Maya,” he said, according to Riviera Maya News.
WestJet will offer Tulum-Calgary and Tulum-Toronto connection through late April. (Justin Hu/Unsplash)
In conjunction with the new Canada-Tulum flights, WestJet Vacations is offering flight and accommodation packages to 35 major hotels close to the airport, the airline said.
Cueto added that the new Westjet routes are just the beginning of what promises to be continuous growth for Tulum which he described as “a unique destination … at the vanguard of global tourism.”
The easing of inflation could allow the Bank of Mexico to cut interest rates more than previously planned. (Rogelio Morales Ponce/Cuartoscuro)
The Bank of Mexico (Banxico) announced a 25-basis-point cut to its key interest rate on Thursday, marking the fourth time that borrowing costs have been reduced this year.
The central bank’s benchmark rate will thus be 10.25% once the latest reduction takes effect on Friday.
Banxico’s interest rate cut came a week after the U.S. Federal Reserve lowered its federal funds rate. (Shutterstock)
Banxico’s announcement came after its governing board held a monetary policy meeting on Thursday. Governor Victoria Rodríguez Ceja and all four deputy governors voted in favor of a 25-basis-point cut a week after the United States Federal Reserve lowered its federal funds rate by the same margin to a range of 4.50%-4.75%.
The central bank targets 3% inflation but tolerates a 2–4% range.
Banxico also said that “the inflation outlook has been improving after the significant shocks caused by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.”
“The behavior of core inflation” – which declined for a 21st consecutive month in October – “reflects this improvement,” Banxico said.
The central bank’s governing board also voted in favor of 25-basis-point interest rate cuts at its monetary policy meetings in March, August and September.
Mexico’s central bank said that its decision to lower the key interest rate was in part influenced by overall reductions in inflation. (Rogelio Morales Ponce/Cuartoscuro)
Before the cut in March, Banxico’s key interest rate was set at a record high 11.25%, rising to that level in March 2023 at the end of a 21-month tightening cycle during which a total of 15 hikes — totaling 725 basis points — were made in an attempt to combat high inflation.
In its latest statement, the central bank said that “looking ahead,” the governing board “expects that the inflationary environment will allow further reference rate adjustments.”
“… Actions will be implemented in such a way that the reference rate remains consistent at all times with the trajectory needed to enable an orderly and sustained convergence of headline inflation to the 3% target during the forecast period,” Banxico said.
The bank anticipates that annual headline inflation will decline to 3.9% in the first quarter of next year and continue to fall to reach 3.4% in Q2 of 2025, 3.1% in Q3 and 3% in Q4.
Corn was the No. 1 agricultural product that Mexico imported from the U.S. in fiscal year 2024. (Shutterstock)
Mexico displaced China as the No. 1 recipient of U.S. food and agricultural exports as sales climbed 7% during the 2024 fiscal year, reported the Food and Environmental Reporting Network (FERN), citing U.S. Census Bureau data.
Together, Mexico (US $30 billion) and Canada (US $29 billion) accounted for one-third of U.S. food and ag exports of $173 billion for the year. They are forecast to repeat as the top two markets in fiscal 2025, with China (US $ 25.7 billion) again in third place, FERN reported.
Mexico’s imports of U.S. food and ag products this year were $2 billion more than in fiscal year 2023. Leading the way were purchases of corn totaling 24.5 million metric tons — a new record that accounted for 40% of all U.S. corn exports for the year.
Mexico is the largest consumer of U.S. corn. According to the latest “Grain: World Markets and Trade” report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), U.S. corn volume to Mexico in fiscal year 2024 “is the largest single-year trade volume to any destination in history and accounted for just over 40% of total U.S. corn exports.”
However, both U.S. growers and Mexican buyers have concerns about the future of corn trade. While U.S. corn producers await a ruling on a U.S. challenge to Mexico’s ban on genetically modified (GM) white corn, they are also bracing for the prospect of a fresh U.S.-China trade war under incoming U.S. President Donald Trump, according to the news agency Reuters.
In 2023, Mexico banned GM corn for human consumption, including in tortillas and dough. The ban was intended to eliminate glyphosate from Mexico’s food supply chain, which the Mexican government views as harmful to people.
Former President López Obrador banned the use of GM corn for human consumption in a 2023 decree. (Victoria Valtierra/Cuartoscuro)
The U.S. responded by threatening trade retaliation before initiating a dispute settlement panel under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). The panel is scheduled to release its preliminary and final reports in the coming weeks.
In February 2024, Mexico relaxed some restrictions and delayed the introduction of the ban until 2025. Mexico has argued that they have not actually implemented a ban, but rather they are applying an end-use limitation on corn in order to protect the diversity of its native maize.
Mexico does not appear ready to back down should the USMCA panel rule against it, even though the U.S. supplied almost all of Mexico’s imported corn.
Since taking office in October, President Claudia Sheinbaum has voiced support for food sovereignty, backing a plan that includes larger domestic production of non-GM white corn and beans. “It’s about producing what we eat,” she said, according to FERN.
Meanwhile, U.S. agricultural producers are still reeling from the 25% tariffs China slapped on U.S. farm imports from soybeans to sorghum during the 2018 trade war in retaliation against duties imposed by the first Trump administration.
According to preliminary reports, the driver burned to death inside the vehicle, which caught on fire after the crash. (Social Media)
The driver of a BMW SUV died early Thursday when his vehicle burst into flames after crashing into a roadside concrete barrier on Mexico City’s famous Paseo de la Reforma avenue.
The accident occurred before sunrise on a section of Reforma avenue in the city’s Miguel Hidalgo borough.
— Bomberos Ciudad de México Oficial (@Bomberos_CDMX) November 14, 2024
Mexico City’s Fire Department put out the flames that engulfed the vehicle early Thursday morning but not in time to save the driver’s life.
The BMW was reportedly traveling at high speed when it crashed into the barrier, which doubles as a roadside planter box. The vehicle also appeared to crash into the facade of a residential property.
The Mexico City Security Ministry (SSC) said in a statement that police were alerted to the crash by radio and subsequently made their way to the point where Paseo de la Reforma meets Retorno Julieta, a cul-de-sac in the Lomas Bezares neighborhood.
“The police officers observed a vehicle in flames and a person inside,” the SSC said, adding that the area around the crash was cordoned off and that firefighters extinguished the blaze.
The driver of the vehicle had no vital signs and was “burned,” the SSC said.
The ministry didn’t identify the victim, but media reports said that a man was at the wheel of the vehicle when it crashed.
Paseo de la Reforma lanes heading toward the Mexico City-Toluca highway were closed for a period after the accident occurred.
