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MND Local: San Miguel de Allende August news roundup

By
Karla Parra
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A warm, late-afternoon street scene in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Colorful colonial buildings in shades of pink and yellow line a cobblestone street where people are walking. The iconic dome of the Las Monjas church is visible in the background against a pale sky.
San Miguel de Allende's news this month includes announcements about the San Miguel Writers Conference, city infrastructure updates and the annual grape harvest season. (Chris Luengas/Pexels)

San Miguel de Allende is buzzing with new developments this month, from the announcement of a major national tourism summit to investments in infrastructure, technology, literature and wine. As the city continues to grow and evolve, we asked residents and visitors in a separate feature, how they feel about these changes. Read their perspectives here.

This month, the headlines reflect the city’s dynamic mix of tourism, culture and innovation. Here’s a look at what’s making news in San Miguel de Allende.

City to host National Tourism Summit

Mexico's Secretary of Tourism, Miguel Torruco Marqués, delivers a speech from a podium at the 2nd Summit on Tourism, held in Mexico City on August 25, 2022.
All previous iterations of the National Tourism Summit have taken place in Mexico City. (Cumbre de Turismo)

San Miguel de Allende will take center stage in Mexico’s tourism industry when it hosts the fifth National Tourism Summit from September 3–5, 2025. The theme this year is “The New Tourism: Culture and Prosperity.” It will be the first time the high-level tourism industry gathering has been held outside Mexico City. 

Organized by CUMBRES HUB, a platform that connects leaders across sectors to engage in dialogue and develop strategies for sustainable growth, the summit will gather more than 120 government officials, legislators, investors and academics to discuss how cultural tourism can help position Mexico among the five most-visited countries in the world, and how the sector can be a catalyst for sustainable, equitable development. 

The city’s host role comes at a time of strong tourism performance for the UNESCO World Heritage city. According to Jorge Olalde, president of the San Miguel de Allende Hotel Association, the city is maintaining its position as Guanajuato’s top destination for hotel occupancy. 

“We’re currently at 42%, but the annual projection is 44%, which suggests the coming months could be very positive,” Olalde noted, referencing seasonal peaks due to festivals and upcoming fall holidays that could push San Miguel’s numbers even higher.

At the same time, city leaders are working to address perception challenges following the recent U.S. travel advisory discouraging travel to Guanajuato. San Miguel Mayor Mauricio Trejo Pureco described the alert as “extremely serious and dangerous,” warning of its potential impact on the state’s economy, which relies on tourism for 84% of its revenues. 

In a recent address, Trejo highlighted the importance of seeing the city’s 16,000 U.S. expat residents as partners and friends, noting that each month they contribute thousands of free breakfasts, support cultural programs and help build community centers. The mayor also emphasized the value of sister-city partnerships with places like Palm Springs and Santa Fe as symbols of confidence in the city. 

“We need to be hand-in-hand with each other,” he said, adding that fostering a culture of respect among all residents and visitors is the foundation for maintaining the city’s vitality and welcoming reputation.

Infrastructure projects aim to boost connectivity

A multi-lane highway running through a small-town Mexico. The recently modernized road features fresh pavement, a landscaped median, and a long row of new, solar-powered streetlights. The road connects San Miguel de Allende and Dolores Hidalgo in Mexico.
The long-awaited Bulevar de la Libertad, which connects San Miguel de Allende and Dolores Hidalgo, is now fully open to traffic. (Government of Guanajuato state)

La Libertad boulevard, which connects San Miguel with the town of Dolores Hidalgo, has officially opened its four lanes to traffic, marking a major step in improving connectivity between two of Guanajuato’s most notable municipalities. Built with hydraulic concrete, the 30-kilometer road includes a bidirectional bike lane, lighting, bridges, returns and other safety features. 

The boulevard represents an investment of more than 3 billion pesos and is considered a vital step toward strengthening regional development.

Though the La Libertad project is still only 95.8% complete — with sidewalks, drainage, signage and landscaping pending due to recent heavy rains — state officials expect final work to be finished by September 10. 

At the same time, a state legislator is pushing for the planned Guadalajara–Mexico City passenger train to include a stop in San Miguel de Allende, noting the city’s status as Guanajuato’s flagship tourism destination and the fact that existing rail tracks already run through San Miguel, meaning the corridor would mainly require rehabilitation and a station to return to service.

Currently, the train route is slated to make stops in the following Guanajuato cities: 

  • Salamanca
  • Apaseo al Alto
  • Celaya
  • Irapuato
  • Villagrán
  • León

Together, these initiatives highlight how the city increasingly sees infrastructure as a cornerstone for its future, supporting its rapid tourism growth.

San Miguel strengthens its role as a tech hub with new ODATA center

Odata center in Querétaro
Brazilian company ODATA has built the largest data center in Mexico to date. (File photo/ODATA)

San Miguel de Allende has taken a major step into the digital economy with the opening of a new large-scale data center by the company ODATA on the city’s outskirts. The project represents a significant investment in technology and innovation, designed to enhance data connectivity not only locally but across Latin America.

ODATA has built several major data centers in Mexico and Latin America. These centers are essential for technologies like cloud computing, artificial intelligence and machine learning. The company aims to establish itself as the leading platform of interconnected data centers in Mexico and the region. 

ODATA says its new center emphasizes sustainability and energy efficiency, creates 80 highly skilled jobs and positions Guanajuato as a growing tech hub, which helps diversify San Miguel’s economy beyond tourism.

2026 San Miguel Writers’ Conference announces star-studded lineup

Margaret Attwood in San Miguel
Last year’s event featured Margaret Atwood receiving the San Miguel Writers’ Conference Award for Literary Excellence. The 2026 edition promises to feature more major literary heavyweights. (File photo)

The annual San Miguel Writers’ Conference & Literary Festival has unveiled its 2026 program, set for February 11–15 at the Hotel Real de Minas, under the theme “Our Stories, Doors to the World.”

The newly released schedule features some impressive guests. 

This year’s keynote speakers include Abraham Verghese, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Rebecca F. Kuang, Emily St. John Mandel, Andrés Neuman and Mixe linguist Yásnaya Elena Aguilar Gil. Special guest and San Miguel local Sandra Cisneros will also join the teaching faculty at this year’s event.

The rest of the conference’s teaching roster features celebrated authors in both English and Spanish, including Eduardo Antonio Parra, Amaranta Caballero, Jean Kwok, Bonny Reichert, Christopher Bollen, Martin Fletcher, Ann Hood, and Hope Edelman.

In addition to the main program, the annual Writing Contest in poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction/memoir is now accepting entries in both English and Spanish until September 15. Winners will receive lodging, full admission to the conference’s workshops and events and lodging.

Discounted packages are available through September 1, with additional discounts for students, teachers, Mexican nationals and San Miguel seniors.

Time for the grape harvest celebrations

Promotional graphic for the "Vendimia ¡Viva la VID!" grape harvest festival at Viñedo San Miguel winery in Guanajuato, Mexico, scheduled for August 30, 2025. The poster features watercolor illustrations of grapes and includes the logos for Guanajuato tourism and Viñedo San Miguel.
Viñedo San Miguel is just one of several San Miguel de Allende vineyards that will participate in the state’s grape harvest festivals. (Guanajuato state government)

San Miguel de Allende is a key player in Guanajuato’s 2025 Vendimias, the statewide grape harvest festival season, running Aug. 9–Oct. 18. 

Alongside Dolores Hidalgo and Comonfort, San Miguel hosts some of the region’s most anticipated wine events, including vineyard tastings and celebrations at the Gran Reserva Fiesta and at Vendimia Santa Catalina. 

The festivals highlight both tradition and growing international recognition. Local winery Viñedo San Miguel has earned prestigious awards this year, including a gold medal at the Decanter World Wine Awards in London, underscoring the state’s reputation as a rising force in global viticulture.

The Vendimias also provide a significant economic boost, with projections of over 12,000 attendees and a total economic impact of 11.6 million pesos for the 2025 season.

Patron saint festivities kick off with ancestral reseña ceremony

A street-level view of a crowded religious procession for the feast day of San Miguel Arcángel in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. A statue of the patron saint is carried on a platform, surrounded by participants in the parade and traditional, colorful feather decorations.
The reseña, a traditional kickoff to patron saint festivities in San Miguel de Allende in August, is a ceremony that dates back centuries. (San Miguel de Allende government)

San Miguel de Allende officially began its annual patron saint celebrations in honor of San Miguel Arcángel (St. Michael the Archangel) with the traditional Indigenous “reseña” ceremony, a ritual that dates back centuries. During the event this past Sunday, community leaders placed symbolic staffs on the atrial cross, seeking divine permission to carry out the festivities, which culminate on September 29, the Catholic saint’s feast day.

The city is celebrated for its deep Indigenous and religious roots, where centuries-old traditions have endured through adherence to values and customs passed down from the evangelizing friars. The ceremony this year featured offerings, processions and communal meals, involving more than 600 participants, including dancers, families, Indigenous community members and religious image bearers.

The end of the festivities will feature the traditional alborada, which this year continues into the early hours of Oct. 4 in the atrium of the city’s main church, the Parroquia de Arcángel San Miguel, and in the surrounding plaza, with a spectacular display of fireworks.

City prepares for peace march after shootings

The shootings happened in the Infonavit Malanquín residential neighborhood early Monday during a traditional religious ceremony celebrated by residents annually. (El Sol de Bajio)

Following an armed attack early Monday morning in the city’s Infonavit Malanquín neighborhood during the annual Virgen de San Juan festivities, different sectors of civil society have called for a peaceful march this Friday, August 22, at 10 a.m. 

The attack killed two people and wounded at least 17 others, one of whom, according to the newspaper Infobae, later died from injuries sustained at the scene.

Friday’s march will begin at El Cardo street and proceed downtown to the Parroquia de San Miguel Arcángel, where a message of unity and a call for peace will be delivered.

Organizers are encouraging families to bring candles, flowers or signs in the victims’ memory. The call has also been shared across the community to dress in black, “because our town is in mourning.”

Karla Parra is a Mexican-American writer based in San Miguel de Allende. She writes the MND series Hecho en México, authors Coloring Across Lines on Substack and helps organize the annual San Miguel Writers’ Conference. You can find her on Instagram as @karlaexploradora.

Made in Mexico: Juan Rulfo

By
María Meléndez
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Juan Rulfo in front of a page of his book
Juan Rulfo was not especially prolific during his career, but the mark he left on Mexican literature endures to this day.

There are many ways to get to know a country: through its food, its music and its politics. But literature always struck me as the truest way in. Even when a story is invented, the way its characters speak and the way its landscapes are drawn reveal the habits, fears, and humor of a people. Truman Capote gives us one map and Jane Austen gives us another. In Mexico, Juan Rulfo gives us perhaps the starkest and most unforgettable map of all.

He left behind scarcely more than 350 pages. Yet in them — “El llano en llamas” (The Plain in Flames, 1953), “Pedro Páramo” (1955), and the screenplay-novella “El gallo de oro”’ (The Golden Rooster, 1964) — he conjured a rural Mexico scorched and silent, abandoned by the Revolution, peopled by voices both living and dead. These slim volumes altered the trajectory of Mexican literature forever.

Author Juan Rulfo
Mysterious and often contradictory, Rulfo was a man who knew how to spin a yarn or two. (Quiosco de la Historia)

Mexico in the aftermath of revolution

The landscape of Rulfo’s youth — and later of his fiction — was shadowed by the Cristero War, the bloody conflict (1926–1929) that erupted after the revolutionary state moved to curtail the Catholic Church. Outdoor masses were outlawed; priests were stripped of political rights; church property was seized. In a country where faith had long controlled daily life, the closures sparked rebellion. Under the cry “¡Viva Cristo Rey!” tens of thousands rose against the government. Roughly 250,000 people died. Many more fled north. Only the mediation of U.S. ambassador Dwight Morrow produced an uneasy truce.

By the 1930s and 40s, Mexico cast itself as a nation rooted in tradition yet eager for progress and modernization, a country determined to turn the page on violence. But by the 1950s, the generation born after the Revolution began asking harder questions. Had the upheaval delivered justice, or merely exchanged one form of despair for another? Few gave that uncertainty such haunting expression as Juan Rulfo.

The boy and the myth

Juan Nepomuceno Carlos Pérez Rulfo Vizcaíno was born on May 16, 1917, in Sayula, Jalisco. He was as artful in shaping his own biography as he was in crafting fiction. In interviews — now archived on YouTube or Spotify — he embroidered his origins into legend.

Later journalists would unpick this embroidery. Both sides of the family were hacendados, with estates such as San Pedro Toxín in Tolimán and the Hacienda of Apulco part of their patrimony. Rulfo often recalled his childhood as marked by the murder of his father, shot, he said, by marauding gangs after the Revolution. His siblings remembered otherwise: their father was killed by the son of Tolimán’s municipal president in an argument over cattle crossing the Rulfo property. Juan was six.

Made in Mexico: Author Juan Rulfo

His mother died soon after, undone by grief at seeing her husband’s killer walk free. The children were sent by their grandmother to an orphanage in Guadalajara — an institution Rulfo would later liken to a penitentiary. “The only thing I learned there,” he said, “was how to feel depressed.”

There, in that bleakness, books found him. The parish priest in his hometown had abandoned a small library, and there the boy discovered Alexandre Dumas, Victor Hugo and even Buffalo Bill.

Becoming a writer

By 1935, he had moved to Mexico City. He likened himself to an orphan drifting alone through an indifferent metropolis. In reality, he lodged with his uncle, Colonel David Pérez Rulfo, a member of President Ávila Camacho’s general staff. 

Family connections secured him a desk at the Secretaría de Gobernación. Then he worked as a migration agent chasing foreigners, a tire salesman and an advertising man. At night, he wrote about the ghosts that chased him. His first stories appeared in unlikely outlets — medical journals, engineering bulletins, ephemeral magazines where a voice could grow unnoticed. 

The stories

A sculpture of Juan Rulfo in a central reservation
Rulfo’s legacy lives on today across Mexico even today. (The Collector)

The Plain in Flames introduced 17 stories. Rather than narrating from above, Rulfo let his characters speak, their voices summoning a landscape at once physical and spectral.

He admitted later that he had invented campesino cadences, not merely transcribed them. Among the collection’s most enduring pieces: “¡Diles que no me maten!” (“Tell Them Not to Kill Me!”), often read through the prism of his own family trauma,condemned the Revolution’s pointless violence; “Luvina,” a bleak prelude to the ghostly murmurs of Pedro Páramo; and “No oyes ladrar los perros,” whose stark brutality still stuns readers.

Pilgrims sometimes travel to Jalisco searching for the towns of these stories, only to find they never existed. But their imagined geography has proven more enduring than any map.

Pedro Páramo remains Rulfo’s masterpiece — a novel he warned must be read three times before its meanings reveal themselves. On the surface, it is a ghost story. But its true protagonist is not the landowner Pedro Páramo, whose cruelty ruins a town, but Comala itself.

Comala’s name derives from “comalli,” the griddle for tortillas. Rulfo’s vision was harsher: “a village set on the hot coals of the earth, in the very mouth of hell.” The book was nearly titled “Murmullos” — Murmurs — for the voices that fill it. “Time and space are broken,” Rulfo said, “because the work was done with the dead.”

For some, the novel is an attempt to reassemble his own family history; for others, a reckoning with the Revolution’s aftermath. Still others place him in the lineage of magical realism — alongside García Márquez, Allende, Cortázar — writers who blurred the border between the real and the uncanny and who gave Latin America a new literary authority on the world stage.

Pedro Páramo Netflix
An adaptation of Pedro Páramo has hit streaming service Netflix. It’s every bit as good as the original book. (Netflix Latam/X)

Translated into more than 40 languages, Pedro Páramo remains Mexico’s most enigmatic novel. Douglas J. Weatherford’s recent English translation comes closest to capturing its lyric strangeness. Read it in Spanish if you can. If not, find the version that lets you hear its murmurs.

A legacy

Rulfo’s slim library has had an outsize afterlife. His stories are taught in primary schools, adapted into more than 30 films, reshaped into music and theater. One biographer even suggested that his father’s murder was among the most consequential deaths in modern Mexican history. Perhaps an exaggeration, but without that rupture, Rulfo might never have written.

He died 39 years ago. And still his work whispers, like the dead of Comala: murmuring of Mexico’s past, and of the Mexico that endures within it.

If you have never read him, start small — with a single story from The Plain in Flames. Or surrender yourself directly to Pedro Páramo instead, if you’re feeling brave. In scarcely 350 pages, Juan Rulfo created a haunted library that Mexico still carries inside it.

María Meléndez is a Mexico City food blogger and influencer.

Former boxing champion Julio César Chávez Jr. imprisoned in Mexico on cartel allegations

By
MND Staff
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0
Julio César Chávez Jr.
According to the United States Department of Homeland Security, Chávez is believed to be an affiliate of the Sinaloa Cartel. (Wikimedia Commons)

Julio César Chávez Jr., a former world middleweight champion and son of Mexican boxing legend Julio César Chávez, was deported to Mexico on Monday and is now imprisoned in Sonora.

Chávez was detained by U.S. immigration agents in Los Angeles, California, in July, just days after losing a fight to U.S. boxer Jake Paul.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said at the time that the 39-year-old Culiacán native was a “criminal illegal alien.”

Chávez allegedly overstayed his U.S. visa and lied on a green card application.

The DHS said on July 3 that it was “processing him for expedited removal from the United States,” and noted that Chávez has an “active arrest warrant in Mexico for his involvement in organized crime and trafficking firearms, ammunition, and explosives.”

It also said that Chávez is “believed to be an affiliate of the Sinaloa Cartel, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization.”

The DHS told U.S. media outlets this week that Chávez was deported to Mexico on Monday.

On Tuesday, United States Ambassador to Mexico Ron Johnson posted a photo to social media of the boxer apparently being escorted across the border by U.S. immigration agents.

“@DHSgov deported Julio César Chávez Jr. to Mexican authorities to face charges under his country’s justice system. This action reflects the strong cooperation between our governments, showing that collaboration delivers results and advances the security of both nations,” Johnson wrote on X.

President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Tuesday morning that her government was informed that Chávez was going to arrive in Mexico. She noted that there was a valid warrant for his arrest in Mexico.

Sheinbaum said in July that her government would seek the deportation of the boxer so he could serve in Mexico any sentence resulting from the charges he faces.

Behind bars in Hermosillo 

Chávez was deported to Mexico across the border between Nogales, Arizona, and Nogales, Sonora, on Monday.

He was subsequently transferred to a federal prison in Hermosillo, the capital of Sonora.

Sonora Governor Alfonso Durazo acknowledged that Chávez was being held at the Federal Social Rehabilitation Center in Hermosillo.

Federal Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero has said that the investigation into the boxer’s alleged criminal activities began in 2019. A warrant for his arrest was issued in 2023. Gertz said last month that federal prosecutors are “ready” to present their case against the boxer.

It appears likely that Chávez will plead not guilty to the organized crime and firearms charges he faces in Mexico.

After his arrest, a Los Angeles-based lawyer for the boxer, Michael Goldstein, said that the allegations against his client were “outrageous.”

Who is Julio César Chávez Jr.?

Julio César Chávez Jr. was born in 1986 in Culiacán, Sinaloa. He started his boxing career at 17. His greatest achievement was becoming the WBC world middleweight champion in June 2011, a title he successfully defended three times before losing it in 2012.

Saúl "El Canelo" Álvarez and Julio César Chávez Jr.,
Mexican boxers Saúl “El Canelo” Álvarez (L) and Julio César Chávez Jr. (R) before a fight in Las Vegas in 2017. (Isaac Esquivel/Cuartoscuro)

Throughout his career, he has faced several problems, including doping suspensions and criticism for a perceived lack of discipline. In 2012, he was convicted of drunken driving in Los Angeles and sentenced to 13 days in jail. In January 2024, he was again arrested in Los Angeles for possession of an illegal AR-style “ghost rifle.”

The Associated Press reported that he was freed after his second arrest on a US $50,000 bond and on the condition that he went to a residential drug treatment facility. “The case is still pending, with Chávez reporting his progress regularly,” the news agency said Wednesday.

Chávez’s wife is Frida Muñoz Román, who was previously married to Édgar Guzmán López, the deceased son of convicted drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

His father, Julio César Chávez, was a world boxing champion in the 1980s and ’90s, and earlier this year participated in a “National Boxing Class” led by President Sheinbaum.

After his son’s arrest in Los Angeles last month, Chávez said he had full confidence in his innocence.

The Associated Press reported that Chávez Sr. “was a massive celebrity in the 1980s and ’90s who mixed social circles with drug dealers and claimed to have been friends with drug lord Amado Carrillo Fuentes.”

With reports from El Financiero, Milenio and AP

Motorists find 6 human heads in violent display attributed to La Barredora

By
MND Staff
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police car with do not cross tape in the foreground
The six heads, all belonging to men, were found on a highway in the municipality of Ixtacuixtla de Mariano Matamoros, Tlaxcala. (Margarito Pérez Retana/Cuartoscuro)

Six severed human heads were found on Tuesday in Tlaxcala, a state not normally associated with cartel violence.

The Tlaxcala Attorney General’s Office (FGJ) said in a statement that it launched an investigation following the discovery of the six male heads, which were found on a highway in the municipality of Ixtacuixtla de Mariano Matamoros.

The FJG said that police and forensic investigators traveled to the location where the heads were found, removed them and began investigations.

It said that the location where the heads were found was not where the murders of the men occurred. The rest of the victims’ bodies had not been located as of Wednesday morning.

The FGJ didn’t give a motive for the killings or say who might have committed them.

However, a narcomanta (narco banner) signed by the criminal group La Barredora was left with the heads. The Reforma newspaper said that the message on the banner alludes to a dispute between criminal groups over control of the area and the theft of gas.

The location where the heads were found is close to San Martín Texmelucan, Puebla, which has been described as Mexico’s capital huachicolera, or fuel-theft capital.

The Ixtacuixtla municipal government said in a statement that it “vigorously condemns the terrible events that occurred on the Ixtacuixtla-Nanacamilpa highway, where human remains were found.”

Tlaxacala was one of Mexico’s least violent states in the first seven months of the year in terms of total homicides. There were 75 murders in the state between January and July, according to data presented by the federal government last week. Only Yucatán, Durango, Coahuila and Aguascalientes recorded fewer homicides in the first seven months of 2025.

While crime groups including fuel theft gangs operate in Tlaxcala and the neighboring state of Puebla, the region has not experienced the same levels of extreme violence, including decapitations, as some other parts of Mexico.

Motorists reported grisly discovery 

Motorists traveling on the Ixtacuixtla-Nanacamilpa highway reportedly called 911 on Tuesday morning to alert authorities to the presence of six human heads near the community of San Gabriel Popocatla.

The Ixtacuixtla municipal government said that local police immediately responded to the reports and other relevant authorities were notified of the discovery.

It called on citizens to remain calm and to trust “the institutions in charge of the investigations.”

The municipal government said that it would “continue supporting all the necessary actions to guarantee peace and tranquility for the families of Ixtacuixtla.”

La Barredora

La Barredora is a Tabasco-based criminal organization allegedly affiliated with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).

The crime group’s notoriety has increased this year as a former security minister in Tabasco, Hernán Bermúdez, has been accused of heading it up while in office.

Bermúdez is currently a fugitive, while former Tabasco governor and current Senator Adán Augusto López Hernández has come under pressure to respond to questions about what he knew about his security minister’s alleged criminal activities.

The newspaper Excélsior reported that “the structure” of La Barredora “is characterized by operating from the inside of public institutions, especially in security areas, which allowed it to expand without facing an effective response from the state.”

The crime group is allegedly involved in a range of illicit activities, including migrant trafficking and extortion.

Federal prosecutor fatally attacked in Reynosa

Another head and human remains found in Colima 

More human remains, including a head, were found at different locations in the city of Colima in recent days, according to media reports. Some of the remains were reportedly inside bags, while others were not.

It was unclear how many people the remains corresponded to.

Colima, home to Mexico’s largest seaport in Manzanillo, is known for violent crime and the presence of criminal groups. There were 362 homicides in the Pacific coast state in the first seven months of the year, according to federal data.

In 2024, Colima had the highest per-capita homicide rate in Mexico. It is one of six Mexican states that is classified as “Level 4 – Do Not Travel” by the United States Department of State.

With reports from Eje Central, Reforma, Excélsior and Meganoticias 

Authorities investigate after Maya Train car derails near Mérida

By
MND Staff
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Car of the Maya Train derailed
The train was running from the resort city of Cancún to Mérida when one of its cars fell off the track at the Izamal station. (Cuartoscuro)

A single car of the Maya Train derailed near the city of Mérida, Yucatán, on Tuesday as it was slowly pulling into the Izamal station, with no reported injuries or deaths. 

According to a statement by Maya Train authorities, the cause of the incident, which occurred at 1:48 p.m., is currently under investigation by an examining committee. Service is operating normally at the railway’s remaining stations.

The statement said that after activating safety protocols, passengers were transported to their destinations on company buses. The train was running from the resort city of Cancún to Mérida. 

A federal official who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the incident, told the Associated Press that part of the derailed car leaned onto a train on a parallel track, ruling out a collision. Photos and videos that circulated online show one car veering off the tracks, but not overturned.

On Wednesday morning, the director of the Maya Train Óscar David Lozano explained the cause of the incident before President Sheinbaum’s daily press conference, insisting it was not a derailment but a “track error.”

“Just car 3 [of four] is off the track, so … it is leaning slightly on the MC1 of train 307, which is stationary. That is why it looks inclined. And car 4 is completely positioned on track 2,” Lozano said before a diagram of the incident. 

Maya Train derailment or "track error"
“This should not have happened in the design of the railway system,” Maya Train Director Óscar David Lozano said as he explained the track mechanism that failed on Tuesday. (Daniel Augusto/Cuartoscuro)

The director of the Maya Train added that he will be in contact with the companies responsible for installing the safety and railway traffic systems for the Maya Train, including Alstom. 

This is not the first time the Maya Train has experienced a rail incident in the same area. On March 25, 2024, a similar incident occurred near Tixkokob, the station following Izamal, when the fourth car of convoy D006 went off the tracks upon entering the station, traveling at just 10 kilometers per hour. 

No injuries or serious property damage were reported then. Passengers were evacuated and boarded another train to continue their journey. 

Investigations of such an accident concluded that the cause of the incident was inadequate mechanical fastening of the track clamps.

The Maya Train, operated and managed by the Mexican Army, is one of the ruling Morena party’s so-called “Fourth Transformation” of Mexico. It began construction under former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s term (2018-2024). 

The train runs through the Yucatán Peninsula states of Quintana Roo, Yucatán and Campeche as well as Tabasco and Chiapas. It has stations in or near the cities of Palenque, Campeche, Mérida, Valladolid, Cancún, Playa del Carmen and Chetumal, among others.  

Since the project was announced, it has faced widespread criticism due to its significant environmental impact and its questionable profitability, after it required an investment of over US $30 billion. It was originally projected to cost US $7.5 billion.  

Concerns have also been raised about the operation of the Maya Train by the Mexican Army due to a historic absence of accountability mechanisms for military operations.  

With reports from El Financiero

Sheinbaum to seek explanation from DEA: Tuesday’s mañanera recapped

By
MND Staff
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Sheinbaum mañanera 19 August 2025
"Why was this [DEA statement] published without the knowledge of the government of Mexico?" the president asked during her daily press conference on Tuesday. (Andrea Murcia/Cuartoscuro)

President Claudia Sheinbaum is now just six weeks away from completing her first year in office.

In less than two weeks, on Sept. 1, she will present her first informe del gobierno, or government report, to the Congress, and in a major speech.

In the lead-up to those two important milestones, Sheinbaum continues to hold morning press conferences every weekday, and travel widely in Mexico on weekends.

Here is a recap of the president’s Aug. 19 mañanera.

Mexico to ask US why it wasn’t informed about a DEA statement before it was published 

Early in her press conference, Sheinbaum said that her government hadn’t entered into any agreement with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

Her declaration came a day after the DEA announced what it called “a major new initiative to strengthen collaboration between the United States and Mexico in the fight against cartels.”

The DEA said in a statement that “at the core” of the effort to combat cartels is Project Portero, “DEA’s flagship operation aimed at dismantling cartel ‘gatekeepers,’ operatives who control the smuggling corridors along the Southwest Border.”

The U.S. agency also said that it had “launched a multi-week training and collaboration program at one of its intelligence centers on the Southwest Border” that “brings together Mexican investigators with U.S. law enforcement.”

Sheinbaum denies DEA agreement on anti-cartel operation, calls agency statement unauthorized

Sheinbaum said that she and her government became aware of the DEA statement at the same time as journalists and “all of Mexico.”

“When I saw the statement, I said: Just in case I’m wrong, I’m going to speak with the security minister,” she said.

Sheinbaum said that Security Minister Omar García Harfuch told her that Mexico hadn’t signed anything “additional” with the DEA and that Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero assured her that Mexico hadn’t agreed to “anything special” with the U.S. agency.

She indicated that she got similar responses from army and navy officials. Sheinbaum also indicated that an official — she didn’t say who — reminded her that she had authorized a number of Mexican agents to go to the United States to attend a “workshop.”

“Ah, yes, I remember,” she recalled saying.

“That’s all there is,” came the response from the official, according to Sheinbaum.

While the DEA referred to a “bold bilateral initiative to dismantle cartel gatekeepers and combat synthetic drug trafficking,” the president said there is “nothing in particular that has to do with an agreement with this U.S. agency.”

She said that the issuance of the DEA statement wouldn’t affect the security relationship between Mexico and the United States, but asserted that her government has “the obligation to clarify because if we don’t, this idea with no basis remains.”

Sheinbaum said that Foreign Affairs Minister Juan Ramón de la Fuente would speak to U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ron Johnson about the matter.

“Why was this [DEA statement] published without the knowledge of the government of Mexico?” she asked.

Sheinbaum met with Adán López, but says she didn’t speak to him about Tabasco corruption scandal 

A reporter noted that the president met on Monday with the ruling Morena party’s leaders in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.

Morena’s leader in the lower house is Ricardo Monreal, while its leader in the Senate is Adán Augusto López Hernández, a former federal interior minister and governor of Tabasco whose security minister in the Gulf coast state is accused of having headed up a criminal group while he was in office.

Adán López and Ricardo Monreal
Morena’s leader in the lower house Ricardo Monreal (L) with Senate leader Adán Augusto López (R). (Daniel Augusto/Cuartoscuro)

In late July, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) formally requested that the Federal Attorney General’s Office investigate López for criminal association and demanded that he resign from his position in the Senate.

Sheinbaum said that she spoke to Monreal and López about Morena’s “legislative agenda,” but didn’t discuss the case involving former Tabasco security minister Hernán Bermúdez, who is currently a fugitive.

Asked why she didn’t discuss such an “important” issue with the senator, the president responded that criminal investigations are the responsibility of the Federal Attorney General’s Office and state prosecutors’ offices.

“So, in the case of the ex-security minister, there is an arrest warrant issued by the Tabasco Attorney General’s Office. Anything that the senator has to say, he should say,” Sheinbaum said, noting that López has indicated that he will give a statement to authorities if summoned to do so.

“But everything needs to have a basis,” she said.

“That’s why we didn’t touch on that issue. That issue corresponds to the Tabasco Attorney General’s Office [and] to the Federal Attorney General’s Office,” Sheinbaum said.

She also said that there was no discussion about the possibility of López stepping down as leader of Morena in the Senate.

‘The end of an era of nepotism’

A reporter noted that the Supreme Court (SCJN) on Tuesday was holding its final session before recently-elected justices will assume their positions on Sept. 1. She asked Sheinbaum how she would “farewell” the current SCJN, and how she would describe its work over the past 30 years.

“[It’s] the end of an era of nepotism in the judiciary,” said Sheinbaum, who argued that the judicial elections held in June were needed to rid Mexico’s courts of ills such as corruption and nepotism.

“… It’s the end of an area of a judiciary that served only a few,” Sheinbaum said.

The president asserted that during a period of decades, more than half of Mexico’s judges and other judicial workers were “friends, siblings [and] cousins” of the people who appointed them.

“And now a new era begins starting Sept. 1,” Sheinbaum said.

“And it will be better, I don’t have the slightest doubt about that,” she said.

All of the incoming Supreme Court Justices are affiliated with, seen as sympathetic to, or were at least tacitly supported by the ruling Morena party at the judicial elections, a situation that government critics argue will eliminate a vital check on executive and legislative power.

By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies (peter.davies@mexiconewsdaily.com)

Profepa ordered to ensure illegal Tulum condo building is torn down

By
MND Staff
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unfinished building
Work on the seven-story condominium building was halted after a June court ruling, but the order for its demolition has yet to be carried out. (DMAS/Facebook)

The Federal Attorney’s Office for Environmental Protection (Profepa) has been ordered to guarantee full environmental restoration at a shuttered construction site in the Caribbean resort city of Tulum.

An Aug. 14 federal court ruling requires Profepa to ensure the so-called Adamar condominium is fully demolished and that the 731 square meters of affected land is restored to its natural state. 

unfinished building
Tulum residents and visitors no doubt find the condemned building hard to miss, given its prominent place in lush surroundings. (DMAS/Facebook)

Profepa must also collect 1.4 million pesos (US $74,370) in outstanding fines from the developer.

The ruling reportedly stemmed from a legal complaint filed by a Tulum resident against Profepa “for failing to comply with a ruling ordering they ensure the site is returned to its original state.”

A June court decision had so ordered and at the time, Profepa director Mariana Boy said her agency was “committed to reversing damage caused by real estate developments that are built without proper environmental impact or land use change authorization.” 

As the weeks went by and restoration activities were not in evidence, the complaint against Profepa was filed.

In arguing its case, Profepa claimed it had fulfilled the requirements of that ruling. In actuality, it had only stopped the construction and the court declared Profepa had improperly delegated compliance to the real estate company without conducting any verification.

Instead of tearing down the illegal building, the developer sought to rescue the project, a seven-story structure that would feature 24 apartments and penthouses just south of the Xcacel Xcacelito Sea Turtle Sanctuary.

The developer requested permission to carry out an environmental impact study that should have been processed before the project began. Semarnat denied the permit request.

Profepa now has 10 days to appeal, but it is unlikely to win should it do so since both rulings were explicit.

Instead, a demolition request will have to be obtained from the Environment Ministry (Semarnat) and the remaining structure will have to be torn down and the lot completely cleared. Then, the environmental damage must be reversed and full restoration must be brought about in order to adhere to the terms of the June ruling.

With regard to the fine Profepa has been ordered to collect, Boy acknowledged that such penalties are no longer a deterrent since developers typically incorporate them into their financial projections.

Mónica Huerta, an attorney with the Association for the Right to a Healthy Environment (DMAS), celebrated last week’s ruling for safeguarding the collective interest of the public and ensuring that any citizen can access the protection of the courts.

“This ruling reminds us that access to a healthy environment is a right and the State is obligated to guarantee it for future generations, as well as for existing generations,” she said.

DMAS filed the complaint that halted the illegal construction project, which had been a target of activists for more than a year.

Before the condominium project was finally shuttered in June, the developer ignored two legal injunctions to temporarily halt construction — the second issued in February — according to the newspaper El Quintanarroense.

With reports from El Quintanarroense, La Jornada, El Punto sobre la i, Riviera Maya News and El Economista

Tourism Ministry launches program to accredit community-based experiences in 8 states

By
MND Staff
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small town street
Certificates will be reserved for individuals, groups or communities that offer community tourism products and services with a focus on sustainability and continuous quality improvement. (Alexis Quiroz/Unsplash)

Starting in September, Mexico’s Tourism Ministry (Sectur) will implement a new accreditation system that will certify tourist service providers who offer “community tourism” — that is, tourism experiences that benefit the local community and reflect its true culture.

Sectur, which made the announcement last Thursday, aims to identify community tourism experiences eligible for certification under its National Community Tourism Program. It’s the  first certification drive since 2017, and the first under a Morena-led government. 

man at podium while presidenet watches
Sebastián Ramírez Mendoza, head of the National Fund for Tourism Development (Fonatur), presented the certification program at a recent morning press conference by President Claudia Sheinbaum. (Daniel Augusto/Cuartoscuro)

Certificates will be reserved for “individuals, groups or communities that offer community tourism products and services with a focus on sustainability and continuous quality improvement,” Sebastián Ramírez Mendoza, head of the National Fund for Tourism Development (Fonatur), said during Thursday’s daily presidential press conference. 

Ramírez said the program is part of the National Tourism Quality System. He stressed that qualified local groups will be the ones to decide how their activities look, how big tour visitor groups are and other rules and specifications for tourism in their communities. 

“The certificate will guarantee authenticity, that is, that there is no cultural appropriation, that no one pretends to be a public servant,” Ramírez said. “Therefore, we can tell travelers that when they see this certificate, it means they have found a truly community-based experience.” 

By the August 8 deadline, 1,385 communities, cooperatives and service providers had registered their community tourism projects in hopes of being included in the 2025 National Guide to Community Tourism Experiences. Eight states were selected to participate in the first phase: Baja California Sur, Nayarit, Hidalgo, Oaxaca, Michoacán, Puebla, Morelos and Tlaxcala. The first eight Community Experience Guides (ETC) aim to provide lasting economic and social benefits to communities, as well as support tourism. 

Community activities are assessed using a diagnostic tool with 120 questions, with supporting evidence required. Following assessment, certificates will be distributed to groups designated as Community Tourism Providers, after which they will be included in the 2025 National Guide.

Sectur, in conjunction with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), plans to support community tourism providers by offering digital technology, training and professional development programs, among other tools. 

“What we want to do with this is make it easier for community tourism projects to access markets, platforms, travel agencies,” Ramírez said. 

With reports from Revista Contralínea, El Economista and Infobae

Canada imported more vehicles from Mexico than the US in June

By
MND Staff
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1
Car imports from Mexico to Canada
Vehicles accounted for around one-third of Mexico's sales to Canada in June. (John Cameron/Unsplash)

For the first time in more than 30 years, Canada in June imported more vehicles from Mexico than the United States, according to data from Statistics Canada.

First reported by Bloomberg, data from Statistics Canada — the country’s national statistical agency — shows that Canadian importers spent CAD $1.08 billion (US $779 million) on passenger vehicles from Mexico in June, exceeding the CAD $950 million (US $685.3 million) outlay on vehicles from the United States.

Bloomberg reported that it was the first time since the early 1990s that Mexico outsold the U.S. in monthly data on vehicle exports to Canada.

In a statement, Statistics Canada noted that imports of passenger cars and light trucks increased 6.9% on a month-over-month basis in June, “largely on higher imports from Mexico.”

The main reason that Mexico outsold the United States in Canada in June appears to be that Mexican vehicles that comply with the USMCA free trade pact (known as CUSMA in Canada) don’t face tariffs when entering Canada, whereas U.S.-made vehicles do.

“Effective April 9, 2025, the Government of Canada is imposing 25 per cent tariffs on non-CUSMA-compliant U.S.-made vehicles, and on the non-Canadian and non-Mexican content of CUSMA-compliant U.S.-made vehicles,” the Canadian Department of Finance said in a statement.

That tariff was retaliation for United States President Donald Trump’s decision to impose a 25% tariff on vehicle imports. For vehicles made in Mexico and Canada, U.S. content is exempt from the duty, but Mexican and Canadian content is taxed at 25%.

Bloomberg: Mexico’s rise to No. 1 vehicle exporter to Canada may be ‘short-lived’

Bloomberg reported that Canada’s higher outlay on Mexican vehicles than on U.S. vehicles in June underscored “the historic shifts underway as the global auto industry grapples with United States President Donald Trump’s tariffs.”

However, the news agency said that “it’s possible that Mexico’s rise to No. 1 exporter of vehicles to Canada will be short-lived.”

Mexican auto industry rebounds in June with record production

“Canadian imports of U.S. autos were unusually high in February and March, averaging [CAD] $2.5 billion over those two months, as automakers raced to ship their products before any tariffs came in. That compares with a monthly average last year of a little more than [CAD] $1.8 billion,” Bloomberg said.

Mexico’s total exports to Canada increased more than 10% annually in June 

Published earlier this month, Statistics Canada’s import and export data also shows that Canada spent CAD $3.007 billion (US $2.17 billion) on imports from Mexico in June, a 10.7% increase compared to the same month of 2024.

The figure represented a 9.7% increase compared to May. Vehicles accounted for around one-third of Mexico’s sales to Canada in June.

Although Mexico exported more vehicles to Canada than the U.S. in June, the value of its total exports to Canada was dwarfed by Canada’s outlay on U.S. goods.

U.S. exports to Canada were worth CAD $39.53 billion in June, or 13 times the value of Mexico’s exports to Canada.

Canada also spent more on imports from China in June — CAD $5.93 billion — than on imports from Mexico.

In addition to vehicles, Mexico exports a range of other products to Canada, including auto parts, fruit, telephones, metal, meat and alcoholic beverages.

Around 80% of Mexico’s export revenue comes from products shipped to the United States, but earnings from goods sent to Canada have increased in recent years.

Mexico’s exports to Canada were worth US $18.9 billion in 2024, according to the Bank of Mexico, accounting for just over 3% of total export revenue, which was a record high US $617 billion last year.

With reports from Bloomberg

These are the 10 Mexican highways slated for upgrades worth US $6B

By
MND Staff
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5
fault in a highway
In addition to the road upgrades, improvements will be made to 16.3 km worth of bridges and interchanges across nine states. (Nemesio Méndez/Cuartoscuro)

Mexico’s Transportation Ministry (SICT) plans to invest more than 112 billion pesos (nearly US $6 billion) on highway improvements over the next five years.

According to a press release, the work will target 10 major federal expressways that cross 14 states, from Sonora and Chihuahua in the north to Tabasco and Campeche in the south. The project will also include maintenance of several state highways.

aerial shot of highway
The final budget for the federal highway project was less than originally announced by President Sheinbaum but transportation authorities stress that the priority is not the total kilometers, but rather what the repairs can do for the communities the roads connect. (Presidencia/Cuartoscuro)

Carlos Arceo, the SICT’s director of highways who announced the plan during a conference organized by the College of Civil Engineers on Monday, said the aim is to exceed 2,220 kilometers (1,367 miles) of repairs and improvements. 

The scope of the project will fall short of what was announced in February by President Claudia Sheinbaum when she presented a 173 billion-peso plan to upgrade 4,000 km (2,485 miles) of highway.  

“Investment alone is never enough,” Arceo said. “The important thing is to know where to invest. So, we’re going to stretch [the investment] as much as possible to achieve the greatest possible impact with fewer resources.”

In keeping with what Sheinbaum said in February, however, Arceo said the project will target roads that “truly serve the communities” they traverse.

“We’re building roads to close the inequality gap,” he said. “We’re not just thinking about a road, but about the benefits that road will bring to communities.”

In addition to the road upgrades, improvements will be made to 16.3 km worth of bridges and interchanges across nine states.

Among the projects being carried out this year are upgrades to the Cuautla-Tlapa-Marquelia Highway, connecting the states of Morelos, Puebla, and Guerrero, and the Pachuca-Huejutla-Tamazunchale Highway, linking the states of Hidalgo and San Luis Potosí. Long stretches of both of these highways will be widened from 7 meters to 12 meters.

The 67-km stretch of the Bavispe-Nuevo Casas Grandes Highway, from the state of Sonora to Chihuahua is scheduled for completion by the end of this year, while improvements to two key sections of the popular 650-km Tierra y Libertad highway that traverses 36 municipalities in the state Morelos — the El Hospital bypass and the Jojutla bridge — should be completed by the end of the month.

Additionally, the heavily utilized Highway 57 in the northern state of Coahuila will be widened from Saltillo, the state capital, to Monclova — a distance of nearly 200 kilometers (124 miles) — to accommodate the volume of cargo transported on this route.

Arceo said environmental impact assessments are underway in order to upgrade the Toluca-Zihuatanejo highway connecting the capital of México state with the popular Guerrero beach resort.

The other four stretches slated for improvement connect:

  • Ciudad Valles, San Luis Potosí and Tampico, Tamaulipas
  • Salina Cruz, Oaxaca and Zihuatenejo, Guerrero
  • Macuspana, Tabasco, and Escárcega, Campeche
  • Guaymas-Esperanza-Yécora, Sonora and Chihuahua, Chihuahua

With reports from La Jornada, Milenio and T21

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