“Confidently Wrong” is back with a new episode from Mexico News Daily, and this time we are doing a deep dive into the realities of receiving urgent healthcare in Mexico. In an earlier episode, we tackled one of the most asked — and most misunderstood — topics: healthcare in Mexico. We reviewed the Expat Healthcare Survey results, digging into the responses of over 700 foreigners actively using healthcare in the country.
After the usual questions about safety and life in Mexico, the conversation almost always turns to healthcare. Do you have a doctor? Is it affordable? Can you trust the system? In that episode, we broke down those questions using real data and real experiences.
The MND team surveyed foreigners living across Mexico to better understand what healthcare here is actually like. From routine dental cleanings to major procedures like heart surgery, respondents shared insights on cost, accessibility and quality of care. While no single survey can cover everything, the results offer a grounded, firsthand look at the system.
In this episode, we do a much deeper dive into the nitty-gritty of the healthcare system. We review the real-life example of George Reavis, my co-host, and his recent heart surgery in Mexico. We discuss the entire process including interactions with doctors, the procedure and health insurance. We also review what went well and what he thinks he should have done better.
I’m sure you will find, as I did, his story extremely insightful and helpful to better understand how to navigate the healthcare system in Mexico. It’s filled with unbiased, real-life anecdotes relevant to anyone wanting to learn more about the realities of receiving urgent healthcare in Mexico.
Check it out below.
Confidently wrong about receiving urgent healthcare in Mexico: Episode 6 - Season 3
Travis Bembenek is the CEO ofMexico News Daily and has been living, working or playing in Mexico for nearly 30 years.
One of Mexico's gold medals went to its most decorated rower, Kenia Lechuga, who won the lighweight race after finishing second and third in the two previous World Championships. (Conade)
Mexico made history at the 2026 World Rowing Championships, winning two gold medals and a bronze at the event in Amsterdam.
Aylín Ibarra and Melissa Márquez started things off Thursday with a victory in the women’s lightweight double sculls to become the first Mexican rowers to win a gold medal at a senior World Championships.
Alexis López, of San Felipe, Baja California, took home a bronze Medal by finishing third in the men’s lightweight individual sculls. (COM)
ESPN reported that the duo — which won gold last month at the 2026 Central American and Caribbean Games — dominated from the outset and resisted attacks from Greece, the reigning under-23 world champion, to claim victory with a time of 7:10 minutes.
Mexico had never before won a gold Medal at this event and its rowers had never won more than one medal at a single World Championships.
Kenia Lechuga helped turn that history around by winning the lightweight race, capturing the world title that had eluded her until now. Lechuga — Mexico’s most decorated rower — won silver in this event in 2023 and came home with a Bronze in 2025. She won gold in this event at the 2019 Pan American Games.
On Thursday, the 32-year-old Nuevo León native took the lead from the start aboard her signature pink boat and maintained control to the finish line. She completed the standard 2,000-meter course in 7:29 minutes.
Aylín Ibarra and Melissa Márquez finished first in the women’s lightweight double sculls to become the first Mexican rowers to win a gold medal at a senior World Championships. (COM)
“We are competing fearlessly against the European monarchs,” Lechuga said afterward.
It is believed that this year’s World Championships was the last time Lechuga will compete in the lightweight category as she is expected to focus on the individual sculls leading up to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Lechuga competed in the 2016 Rio Games (finishing 12th), the 2020 Tokyo Games (finishing 16th) and participated in the open weight category at the 2024 Paris Games.
Finally, Alexis López earned a bronze medal in the men’s lightweight individual sculls, completing the 2,000-meter race in 6:52 minutes, placing him third behind Greece’s Petros Gkaidatzis and Uruguay’s Felipe Kluver. Gkaidatzis, is the reigning European champion and Kluver was world champion in 2025.
López, a native of San Felipe, Baja California, won four medals at the 2026 Central American and Caribbean Games — two gold (individual and mixed double) and two silver (men’s double and men’s quadruple).
In an example of the intertwined nature of the two nations’ monetary policies, a comment by the head of the U.S. central bank was enough to send the peso over 17 to the dollar, acting as kryptonite on the eight-day run of the "super peso." (Sandra Gabriel / Unsplash)
The peso climbed above 17 to the U.S. dollar on Friday after U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh expressed concern about inflation.
Mexico’s currency closed on Thursday at 16.9752, but the spot exchange rate reached 17.0151 shortly after Warsh’s speech at the Fed’s annual Jackson Hole (Wyoming) symposium, his first since being confirmed as Fed chairman on May 12.
Kevin Warsh’s Friday speech at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, a traditionally key appearance by a U.S. Fed chairman, contained the words “we have work to do,” which were enough to weaken the Mexican peso immediately. (Condoleezza Rice / Facebook)
“We must be certain that core inflation is heading toward our target, clearly and at a sufficient pace,” he said. “Otherwise, we have work to do. That is our task.”
As the market digested the chairman’s comments indicating that the Fed still has work to do, the dollar strengthened.
Warsh said the most recent inflation data did not point to a change in trend and the Fed must move to ensure prices are clearly converging toward its 2% target, especially since the July Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index rose more than expected.
A day earlier, senior Fed officials had admitted that there are concerns about the inflation outlook.
Warsh’s speech prompted the futures market to reflect an increase in bets on a rate hike.
The peso, which began the day with moderate gains, retreated after Warsh’s Friday remarks and those made by other Fed officials on Thursday.
For the first time in eight days, the exchange rate rose above 17 pesos, trading within a range of 17.0467 and 16.9440. By noon Mexico City time, the Mexican currency was trading at 17.0463, a loss of 7.51 centavos, or –0.44%.
For several weeks, the peso has been one of the best-performing emerging market currencies despite sluggish economic growth and persistent trade tensions with Washington.
The peso surge has been attributed to “lower trade-risk premia, political stability and solid macroeconomic conditions,” not to dollar weakness.
Following Warsh’s admission regarding U.S. inflation, investors are likely to demonstrate confidence that the Fed will raise its interest rate at the September meeting. This would then contribute to further depreciation of emerging market currencies, including the peso.
Higher U.S. interest rates also reduce the relative appeal of “carry trades,” a profit-seeking strategy based on investing in higher-yielding currencies. Carry trades have been one of the factors driving the peso’s appreciation.
The surge in exports in July — up 43.7% year-on-year, the biggest leap in five years — comes amid a boom in investments related to artificial intelligence infrastructure.
This is the largest growth for any month since May 2021, when exports soared 125% as the country recovered from the most acute phase of the crisis triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Disregarding the statistical rebounds in 2021 and May 2010 (the +43.8% bump that month was part of the recovery from the Great Recession of 2008-2009), July’s record represents the largest increase since at least 1993.
At the same time, imports totaled US $82.3 billion, increasing by 45.7% year-on-year. This represents the best growth rate since August 2021, though it resulted in a deficit of US $847.5 million, a month after June’s trade surplus of US $4.1 billion.
The strong export performance is primarily attributed to the 64.9% rebound in non-automotive manufacturing, which totaled nearly US $60 billion and represented 73% of total foreign sales.
“This data reflects a context wherein U.S. companies are demonstrating high demand for inputs to develop data centers associated with artificial intelligence,” Enrique Covarrubias, chief economist and director of analysis at Actinver investment bank, told El Financiero newspaper.
“It also comes at a time when the United States is tightening trade restrictions on the import of such inputs from Asian partners,” he added.
Analysts at Grupo Financiero Monex concurred, saying the advance in exports was driven by greater dynamism in non-automotive manufacturing, where shipments of electrical and electronic equipment and machinery stood out.
The total value of exported manufactured goods was US $76.3 billion, representing a 45.7% year-on-year increase.
The most significant advances were observed in exports of electrical and electronic equipment and appliances (134.0%), mining and metallurgy products (27.3%), machinery and special equipment for various industries (13.9%), plastic and rubber products (13.3%) and automotive products (2.4 percent).
Non-oil exports to the United States, which account for 84.5% of the total, surged 49.8% year-on-year in July and an improvement over the 35.9% growth reported in June.
In contrast, oil exports slowed their growth trend to 6.8% year-on-year in July, well below the 42.6% reported the previous month.
Conversely, sales in the extractive industry accelerated to 87.1%, up from 37.3% in June and marking 13 consecutive months of double-digit growth.
Agricultural products were the only export category that failed to achieve year-on-year growth, posting a negative-8.6% rate in July.
Meanwhile, the jump in imports can be attributed to the 56.3% increase in imports of intermediate goods, which accounted for 81.6% of total purchases. Also noteworthy was the 9.9% increase in imports of capital goods, the largest in 27 months.
The resulting trade deficit was Mexico’s first since February. The biggest factors were an oil trade balance that showed a deficit of US $3.7 billion, whereas the non-oil trade balance showed a surplus of US $2.8 billion.
Analysts at Banamex forecast a surplus of US $14.2 billion for the full year, anticipating 22% growth in exports and 20% growth in imports.
For its part, Monex says Mexico’s foreign trade will continue to be closely linked to the evolution of negotiations between Mexico and the United States, as part of the annual review of the USMCA, North America’s free trade agreement.
While Aeroméxico will be offering added winter flights between Guadalajara and New York and between Mexico City and Querétaro, Viva will be connecting two of Mexico's states best known for their culture, history and natural wonders — Chiapas and Oaxaca. (Mario Jasso / Claroscuro.com)
Winter will offer new connectivity options for national and international travelers with the addition of a nonstop route between Guadalajara and New York, a new flight between Tuxtla Gutiérrez and Oaxaca city, and increased flight frequencies between Mexico City and Querétaro.
These recently announced developments will occur during a period of high demand associated with the December holidays, family gatherings, and year-end tourism.
Guadalajara – New York
Guadalajara, a top Mexican aviation market, will have a daily, nonstop connection to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. The Aeroméxico flight will operate from December 17, 2026, through January 3, 2027, on a Boeing 737 with a capacity of 166 passengers.
Departure times and flight duration have not yet been made public, but the new flight will offer an alternative to passengers who currently need to stop over in Mexico City, Monterrey, or airports in the United States to travel between Guadalajara and New York City.
It’s also an opportunity to attract U.S. tourists during the peak season, as well as to meet the demand from business travelers and Mexicans living in the northeastern U.S. who travel to the country during the holidays.
The seasonal route adds to the growth of Guadalajara International Airport’s network, which will expand from 66 to 71 destinations during the winter season.
Tuxtla Gutiérrez – Oaxaca
Authorities in the southern state of Chiapas announced a new air link between the state capital, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, and Oaxaca. According to the announcement by Governor Eduardo Ramírez, the new route will be operated by Viva on Mondays and Fridays, starting October 30.
The service will improve mobility between two states known for their cultural, natural and culinary attractions, as well as facilitate business travel.
Mexico City – Querétaro
In central Mexico, Aeroméxico will expand its operations between Mexico City and Querétaro starting October 25. The airline is adding an extra flight on Sundays and Mondays, increasing the route’s frequency from three to four daily flights on those days.
The additional flight will depart Mexico City at 3:25 p.m. and arrive in Querétaro at 4:34 p.m. The return flight will take off from Querétaro at 5:10 p.m. and land in the capital at 6:20 p.m.
With this addition, the route’s monthly capacity is set to rise from approximately 16,000 seats in September to 23,000 in November—an increase of nearly 40%.
Beyond serving travelers between the two cities, the new service will provide Querétaro with greater connectivity to domestic and international flights departing from Mexico City International Airport.
Fears of Jalisco residents becoming zombies have grown following the recent discovery of a "zombie fungus" named for acclaimed horror-movie director Guillermo del Toro. (This image was generated using AI tools)
GUADALAJARA, Jalisco — State health officials in Jalisco addressed public concern Thursday by detailing the specific, highly improbable conditions under which the newly discovered Ophiocordyceps deltoroi zombie fungus could theoretically jump to human hosts, confirming a real-life cinematic nightmare would require a blend of atmospheric humidity, Victorian-era interior design and deeply tragic family lore.
The announcement follows wide fascination over the University of Guadalajara’s cataloging of six ant-parasitizing “zombie fungi” species in the forests of San Sebastián del Oeste. Given that one species was named after Guadalajara-born director Guillermo del Toro, researchers spent the week answering press inquiries regarding how an actual cinematic-style biological spillover could unfold on Mexican soil.
The spread of the “zombie fungus” to humans is unlikely, but if it were to happen, Jalisco officials confirm it would happen just like in a Guillermo del Toro movie. (This image was generated using AI tools)
“To cross the species barrier, the microscopic spore would need a host possessing a very specific physiological profile,” explained Dr. Arturo Mendoza, lead bio-risk consultant for Jalisco’s Ministry of Health. “The ideal human candidate must be an orphaned heiress, wear a yellow velvet gown with massive leg-of-mutton sleeves, and reside in a crumbling, 19th-century hacienda where red clay continuously seeps up through the floorboards.”
According to mathematical models developed by Mendoza, the infection process would not involve aggressive biting or rapid viral decay. Instead, the mutated spore would infect a human host only after they spend several minutes staring intensely into an ornate, gilded mirror while listening to a haunting lullaby played on a broken, mechanical music box.
Mendoza added that secondary transmission would rely almost entirely on dramatic pacing. “If a human were to inhale the spores, they would not transform overnight. They would spend three weeks coughing delicate flecks of blood into a linen handkerchief while lingering near a dimly lit spiral staircase, ignoring clear visual warnings from a glowing, translucent ancestor.”
University of Guadalajara mycologists concur with this assessment, and have reassured the public that despite the rich narrative potential, the real-world probability of a human outbreak remains very low.
“Human biology is simply too warm, our immune systems are too active, and most modern apartments in Guadalajara lack the damp, oppressive Gothic archways necessary for spore incubation,” confirms Inés Santos, one of the researchers who discovered the Guillermo del Toro fungus. “Unless you happen to be keeping a mysterious, lock-bearing trunk hidden beneath your floorboards, the fungus will remain strictly interested in forest ants.”
President Sheinbaum reflected on the state of the nation ahead of her second annual government report, and gave an update on the corruption case involving former Security Minister García Luna. (Rogelio Morales Ponce / Cuartoscuro.com)
Sheinbaum’s mañanera in 60 seconds
💰 García Luna case yields $5.8M for Guerrero schools: UIF chief Omar Reyes Colmenares said Mexico received US $5.8 million this week from its civil suit victory over the Weinberg family — ex-Security Minister García Luna’s alleged frontmen — in a Miami-Dade court. Sheinbaum said the funds will go to schools in Guerrero’s disadvantaged Montaña region.
🇲🇽 Mexico is‘Doing very well,’ Sheinbaum says ahead of second report: Sheinbaum declared Mexico is “doing very well” almost two years into her six-year term. Her positive assessment of the current state of affairs came ahead of the presentation of her second annual government report next Tuesday.
🚣 Gold for rower Kenia Lechuga: Sheinbaum congratulated Nuevo León native Kenia Lechuga on her gold medal in the women’s lightweight sculls at the 2026 World Rowing Championships in Amsterdam, saying that as a former rower herself she felt “special affection” for the win. Mexican rowers also won gold in the women’s lightweight double sculls and bronze in the men’s lightweight sculls.
Why today’s mañanera matters
Today’s mañanera was significant as the federal government was able to demonstrate that its successful civil suit against former Security Minister Genaro García Luna — now imprisoned in the United States — is reaping monetary rewards.
Also of note was President Claudia Sheinbaum’s positive assessment of the current state of affairs in Mexico almost two years into her six-year term. Her favorable evaluation of the prevailing situation came four days before she is scheduled to present her second annual government report (segundo informe de gobierno) in a speech in Mexico City.
Sheinbaum: US $5.8 million recovered in García Luna case to go to schools in Guerrero
UIF chief Omar Reyes Colmenares explains how Mexico recovered US $5.8 million in illicit funds that García Luna and collaborators diverted to the U.S. (Rogelio Morales Ponce / Cuartoscuro.com)
He noted that the UIF filed a civil suit in Florida aimed at recovering public money that was diverted out of Mexico in a corruption scheme involving García Luna and members of the Weinberg family. Members of the Weinberg family have been identified as frontmen for García Luna, who served as security minister during the 2006-12 government led by former President Felipe Calderón.
The UIF chief said the money was obtained from the recovery of a surety bond and “the liquidation of 12 properties located in Florida, United States, and linked to the Weinberg family.” He noted that Mexico is awaiting the liquidation of other assets in order to recover additional funds diverted out of the country by García Luna.
Later in the press conference, Sheinbaum said that the $5.8 million in recovered funds that Mexico received this week would be allocated to schools in the Montaña region of the southern state of Guerrero.
“It’s around 100 million pesos that is going to be used in [one of] the most disadvantaged areas in the country,” she said.
Mexico is doing ‘very well,’ Sheinbaum says ahead of her second annual report
A reporter reminded Sheinbaum that in her first annual report speech — delivered at the National Palace on Sept. 1, 2025 — she said that Mexico and her government were “doing well” and would do “even better.” He subsequently asked the president how her administration is doing 12 months later.
“Mexico is doing better, Mexico is doing well,” Sheinbaum said.
“We’re doing very well — with the difficulties that any country can face, but we’re doing well,” she said.
@Claudiashein afirmó que México progresa positivamente en economía, reducción de la violencia y bienestar social, rumbo a su Segundo Informe de Gobierno.
Algunos spots de campaña serán difundidos en radio, televisión y redes sociales.
Sheinbaum subsequently spoke about her government’s raison d’être, saying that the reason why “we’re here” is to “create well-being for the people of Mexico.”
On Wednesday, the president presented economic data that she said was indicative of the strength of the Mexican economy. She highlighted the record foreign direct investment Mexico received in the first half of 2026, quarter-over-quarter economic growth of 1.4% in the second quarter of the year and the USD:MXN exchange rate, which at the time was below 17.
Sheinbaum congratulates world champion rower
The president congratulated Mexican rower Kenia Lechuga, a Nuevo León native who on Thursday won gold in the women’s lightweight sculls at the 2026 World Rowing Championships in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
“Many congratulations,” Sheinbaum said, adding that as a former rower herself, she reserved “special affection” for a victory by a Mexican rower.
Lechuga, who had previously won silver and bronze medals at World Rowing Championships, wasn’t the only Mexican rower to win gold in Amsterdam on Thursday. Aylin Ibarra and Melissa Márquez won the women’s lightweight double sculls, while Aléxis López placed third to secure the bronze medal in the lightweight men’s sculls.
Mexico City's water crisis goes back four centuries, and remains a critical issue for the capital's residents. (Angel Maldonado/Unsplash)
Following a bout of heavy rains in September 1629, water rose through the streets of Mexico City and did not recede. The city had just spent 22 years digging a drainage channel through the mountains, the Desagüe de Huehuetoca, meant to solve a problem the closed, mountain-ringed basin had faced for centuries: nowhere for excess water to go.
The project failed. Parts of the city stayed flooded for years and more than 30,000 people died, mostly from disease in the standing, sewage-laced water.
The city kept making the same trade for four centuries after that: draining the water to survive and turning every success into a new, worse problem.
A city that traded its lake for a sinking foundation
Before the Spanish conquest, Tenochtitlán sat on an island in Lake Texcoco, its neighborhoods built with the lake rather than against it. Colonial and then Porfirian-era engineers kept draining it instead, culminating in the Gran Canal del Desagüe around 1900. Draining the lake solved flooding and erased the city’s water supply at the same time, so the city turned to pumping the aquifer beneath the old lakebed’s soft, clay-rich sediment.
Pumping that aquifer releases the pressure holding the clay open. The clay compacts, causing the ground to drop. A 2021 study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth measured subsidence near 50 centimeters a year in the worst areas, and found the sinking no longer tracks current pumping rates: It is now driven by decades-old compaction that cannot be undone, even if every well stopped tomorrow.
That uneven sinking has warped the Gran Canal itself, leaving stretches of the drainage system sloping the wrong way. Mexico City has sunk roughly 30 feet across the lakebed zone, and engineers now run pumping stations just to lift sewage back up to where gravity can take over — the same 1607 trade, repeated at greater cost.
The newest version, the Túnel Emisor Oriente, finished in 2019 after 11 years of digging, carries wastewater 62.5 kilometers (39 miles) to Hidalgo state, where it irrigates the Mezquital Valley. Only about 36% of the city’s wastewater gets treated at all; the nearby Tula Valley region now draws 90% to 100% of its own aquifer from decades of Mexico City’s former runoff.
What survives to reach a kitchen tap
Mexico City’s water is treated properly at the source. What happens after is where the system fails.
Túnel Emisor Oriente was completed in 2019 to carry wastewater 62.5 kilometers to Hidalgo state, where it irrigates the Mezquital Valley. (PresidenciaMX/Wikimedia Commons)
Official figures from Mexico City’s water agency, the Sistema de Aguas de la Ciudad de México (SACMEX), put network-wide leak loss at roughly 40%, while researchers studying intermittent, low-pressure water systems in general have documented exactly how contamination gets in through a leaking network: a crack or joint, a nearby contaminant source, and a pressure gradient pulling inward.
Rooftop reservoirs, also known as tinacos, exist precisely because city pressure is not continuous, and a small pilot study in Guadalajara found contamination rates more than double after water sat in a home’s storage tank versus straight off the network.
Water contamination
Two boroughs carry a documented, more specific version of this.
In Iztapalapa, two named SACMEX/UNAM wells have shown arsenic and heavy-metal levels exceeding Mexico’s own drinking-water standard since they opened; separately, UNAM researchers found microplastics, Giardia muris and E. coli in the borough’s water.
SACMEX’s own 2020 data recorded arsenic violations across 28 wells in Tláhuac, Tlalpan, Coyoacán, Iztapalapa, Iztacalco and Azcapotzalco, signifying a documented national pattern: Only 1 in 10 Mexican treatment plants is even equipped to remove arsenic or fluoride.
Stressing the system
Meanwhile, large companies are also extracting from the same stressed basin. CONAGUA’s public registry shows Coca-Cola FEMSA holds a well concession in Cuauhtémoc, where it extracts 1.13 billion liters a year. PepsiCo’s bottler holds another in Iztacalco, extracting 511 million liters.
Mexico City systemic water issues include leakage, contamination and instability from a sinking lakebed. (Oscar Reygo/Unsplash)
Nationally, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo’s Mexican bottlers have extracted roughly 14.7 billion and 25.7 billion liters, respectively, since 1994.
What none of the public record shows is what becomes of the 15% to 30% of that water any industrial reverse-osmosis system inevitably rejects as concentrate, a limit set by the physics of the membrane itself.
Where the hope is
The subsidence side of this cycle has already been broken elsewhere.
Tokyo sank roughly 4 meters before two laws, the 1956 Industrial Water Law and the 1962 Law on Regulation of Groundwater Use in Office Buildings, made new wells prohibitively expensive to drill while the government subsidized cheaper surface-water infrastructure as the replacement. Groundwater pumping in the city’s 23 wards peaked in 1964 and has fallen since; subsidence in the most heavily regulated districts was brought close to zero.
Venice stopped pumping groundwater entirely and now draws its drinking water from the Italian mainland instead, sinking at about 1 millimeter a year, down from a rate that once threatened the city outright.
Neither city undid the damage already on the books. Both proved the mechanism itself can be stopped, and both did it with a law, not a technology.
Legal remedies vs. a household fix
Getting new laws passed is difficult. A simpler solution to cleaner drinking water is the installation of an ultrafiltration membrane. (Manki Kim/Unsplash)
The legislative move mirrors Tokyo’s. Sustained public pressure on regulators, not new technology, is what got its fix passed. Here, that looks like contacting a local representative directly, and backing investigations like “Veneno en mi agua,” or “Poison in my water,” that keep this issue on the public record instead of letting it fade after one news cycle.
A household’s own move is smaller and immediate: A fix goes under the sink.
An ultrafiltration membrane, at roughly 0.01 microns, physically blocks the bacteria and parasitic cysts responsible for most water-borne illness here, the exact risk documented above. It runs on the building’s own water pressure: no pump, no electricity and a 100% water recovery rate, so there is no reject stream at all. The water that enters the membrane is the water that leaves the tap, only cleaner. That combination — no pump, no electricity, no wasted water — also makes it the cheapest of these options to buy and run.
Reverse osmosis, run at home, sends roughly 3 liters down the drain for every liter it produces, a smaller version of the same tradeoff bottlers make at industrial scale. Given how much of this city’s wastewater exits the basin rather than getting treated and returned, that reject water is likely gone from the Valley of Mexico’s own water cycle for good, unlike ultrafiltration, which never enters that path at all.
Ultrafiltration
Garrafón delivery carries its own documented risk: Independent testing found the majority of samples in one Mexico City study contaminated with coliform bacteria, and nearly a quarter with E. coli, in an industry that grew 85% between 2012 and 2018.
Ultrafiltration is the one choice in this entire chain that does not ask the aquifer for anything extra to keep a household safe. It does not fix the leaking network, the sinking ground, or the four centuries of trades that got the city here. It is the one piece of the cycle a single kitchen can opt out of today, without waiting on a General Water Law that has been stalled in Congress for eight years, or a recharge program that exists as exactly one working pilot against a documented crisis.
Andrew D. Daily lives in Roma Norte, where he runs awater filtration company and mexicocitytravel.com, a simplified guide for visitors. Before meeting his wife and relocating to CDMX, he worked 11 years in Los Angeles, CA, as a television Production Manager on shows like Shark Tank, The Voice, and Miss Universe.
After leading a Maya rebellion in present-day southeastern Mexico against the Spanish, Jacinto Canek was publicly tortured and executed by colonial authorities. This is his story. (Yodigo/Wikimedia Commons)
The people of Cisteil were tired. After years as a Spanish district, they depended heavily on the municipality of Yaxcabá, located in what is now the state of Yucatán. Despite being a relatively small town, it had a fiery population that wanted to free itself from the Spanish yoke.
Cisteil lasted no more than eight years under this abusive regime. Little did the Spanish know that this small Yucatecan town would spark a major Maya anti-colonial uprising, led by a Maya man named Jacinto Canek.
From student and Maya physician to revolutionary leader
Jacinto Canek proclaimed himself leader of the Maya revolution with a syncretic name sacred to both the Maya pantheon and the Christian faith. (Juan Pedro Balam Canul/Wikimedia Commons)
Long before Miguel Hidalgo began the Mexican independence revolts in Dolores, in what is now the Bajío region, southeastern Maya communities were already seeking to rid themselves of Spanish invaders.
Despite his standing as a prominent figure of Maya resistance, little is known about the early life of Jacinto Uc de los Santos Canek. Born in the 18th century, he led the “most important Maya rebellion in Yucatán during the colonial era,” according to the Great Maya Museum in Yucatán.
Documentary evidence shows he was born around 1731 to a poor family in the southeastern state of Campeche.Historical records indicate he studied Latin, history and Christian doctrine at the Convento Grande in Mérida before being expelled for his rebellious nature. Canek had a strong knowledge of Christian doctrine, joined a religious organization in his hometown of San Francisco de Campeche and practiced traditional Maya medicine learned through oral tradition.
After the 1761 rebellion, “Jacinto Canek chose a name of historical significance for the Maya,” according to a study by Robert W. Patch from the University of California, Riverside. He proclaimed himself king of the movement to reclaim “political and religious domination of the Yucatán Maya.”
Thousands of Indigenous people recognized his authority and viewed him as an incarnation of Kukulkán, the sacred serpent of the Maya pantheon. Researchers note the movement sought to revitalize Maya culture after two centuries of colonialism, with revolutionaries believing the days of Spanish rule were numbered.
Jacinto Canek: Kukulkán and Christ, embodied in a Maya revolutionary
No other significant anti-colonial movement had taken place in present-day Mexico to this point. However, as a review of a criminal trial resulting from the rebellion emphasizes, “it was a highly serious rebellion, with a strong anti-colonialist content.”
Maya communities resisted abandoning their cultural foundations and maintained a cyclical view of time. (A. D. White Architectural Photographs Collection, Cornell University Library)
Beyond establishing stronger trade ties with former Maya chiefdoms, the people of Cisteil wanted to reclaim their culture, traditions and religion. “The Maya continued to believe in a cyclic version of history,” the study points out, “which led them to think that one day in the future they would overthrow the Spaniards.”
Canek took a name sacred to two religious traditions: Maya and Christian. From 1761 onward, he was known as Jacinto Uc de los Santos Canek Chichán Moctezuma. He embodied the man-god myth of Mesoamerican tradition, presenting a syncretic Maya-Christian figure blending Jesus Christ and Kukulkán. Under that name, he summoned the highest rulers of Cisteil to wage revolution.
How the Maya remember Jacinto Canek
Yucatán Governor José de Crespo y Honorato ordered the arrest of the revolt’s leaders to quell the movement. Spanish forces captured Canek and took him to Mérida, where he was condemned to be “broken alive” — having his limbs broken with iron bars — before being executed on Dec. 14, 1761. His body was burned to ashes after his death.
Many followers were killed alongside him. Following the execution, Spanish commanders suppressed the rebellion before it could spread beyond central Yucatán.
The Spanish then launched a campaign to delegitimize the revolutionaries, framing the event as a “drunkards’ riot,” according to UNAM records. Among the Maya, however, it remained “a noble uprising against colonial exploitation.”
Today, Canek is remembered as “one of the most significant figures in the history of Yucatán” and as someone who “lives in the hearts of the women and men of the Maya people.”
Mexico's Supreme Court ruled 5-4 on Tuesday to let Indigenous and Afro-Mexican communities participate in constitutional disputes for the first time as interested third parties. (SCJN)
For the first time, Mexico’s Supreme Court (SCJN) has opened a formal avenue for Indigenous peoples, communities, and Afro-Mexican communities to participate in constitutional disputes (known as controversias constitucionales) as interested third parties — a role that had previously been limited to only government bodies.
“Today is a historic day,” Chief Justice Hugo Aguilar Ortiz, who is of Mixtec Indigenous origin, said during the Tuesday ruling. “We are attending this appointment with history to see if we can correct in some way 200 years of exclusion and racism, and, among them, the judicial exclusion of Indigenous peoples and communities.”
The case originated in the Indigenous community of Crescencio Morales, in Zitácuaro, Michoacán. The community sought to participate in a constitutional dispute filed by the Zitácuaro municipal government over control of the autonomous community’s budget. (Concejo Indígena fundador de Crescencio Morales / Facebook)
With five votes in favor and four against, the SCJN recognized the participation of the Mazahua community of Crescencio Morales, in Zitácuaro, Michoacán, in two constitutional controversies brought by the municipal government, related to regulations and actions connected to a prior consultation on Indigenous self-government.
In its ruling, the SCJN concluded that the Mazahua community “must be recognized as an interested third party, in order to remove obstacles to its effective access to justice and ensure its full participation in a process whose resolution may directly affect its collective rights and interests,” Minister Arístides Guerrero García said.
An interested third party is any person or entity that has a contrary interest to that of the complainant in an amparo trial or constitutional dispute. Even though they are neither the plaintiffs nor the defendants and thus can’t initiate the trial, they can join ongoing disputes as an interested third party when a ruling by the SCJN could affect their rights or interests.
Historically, only entities, powers or governing bodies were able to act as third parties in constitutional disputes.
That doesn’t mean that Indigenous communities weren’t able to defend their rights. They could, through other means. What the new ruling established is the opportunity to join a constitutional controversy promoted by an authority, meaning they can consult the file, submit arguments, and defend their rights.
The court cited articles 2 and 17 of the Mexican Constitution as the basis for the new ruling.
Article 2, reformed in 2024, recognizes Indigenous and Afro-Mexican peoples and communities as subjects of public law, with their own legal personality and assets. Together with the right of access to justice under Article 17 of the Constitution, the SCJN ruled that those groups have a procedural voice if the outcome of the constitutional controversy affects their legal sphere.
Three ministers voted against the ruling, arguing that granting a recognition that is not explicitly provided for in the Constitution, “directly implies an overreach of powers” and amounts to legislating.
“This decision breaks the separation of powers,” Minister Espinosa Betanzo said.
Meanwhile, Minister Ríos González, who also voted against the ruling, added that the votes against the ruling do not imply a stance contrary to the rights of Indigenous peoples.
