Pulido is running for a U.S. House of Representatives seat in Texas, one of several states at a political tipping point ahead of the midterm elections. (Bobby Pulido/Facebook)
Bobby Pulido, a singer and Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in Texas’s 15th District, recently said that he does not have health insurance and has had to go to Mexico to receive medical care.
Pulido, who is running against Republican Mónica De La Cruz, made the unexpected remark to Council President and CEO Javier Palomerez during a virtual discussion on Monday with the U.S. Hispanic Business Council.
“I’m going to start off by telling you that I don’t have health insurance, Javier. And I’m embarrassed to tell you that I’ve had to go to Mexico for my health care,” Pulido said, as cited by news outlet Border Report, reportedly the only journalism outlet that accessed the meeting.
Pulido, 52, whose full name is José Roberto Pulido Jr., lives in Edinburg, a border city located in southern Texas. According to Border Report, he also owns a home in Mexico.
During the conversation, Pulido contrasted U.S. President Trump’s reported plans to boost military spending with the difficulties U.S. residents face in obtaining affordable medical care.
“I live in the richest country in the world. Now the president wants to give a million and a half trillion dollars for our military budget when we cannot provide affordable health care to our people,” he said.
Pulido’s statements did not describe what specific illness, procedure or medical emergency has brought him to seek care in Mexico. Nor does the information shared by Border Report specify which Mexican city he visits for treatment, how much he pays or the reasons why he lacks insurance in the United States.
However, this isn’t the first time Pulido has publicly shared that he has traveled to Mexico for healthcare. On Sept. 27, he told Univisión he sought medical services in Mexico due to high costs in the U.S., while questioning the power of insurance companies in that country.
Before turning to politics, Pulido had a renowned career as a Tejano singer, with a fan base spanning Mexico and the U.S. Over the course of a three-decade career, he won two Latin Grammy Awards for Best Tejano Music Album — one of which he won in November 2025.
Our headline finding for October 2026 indicates that the peso is undervalued against the dollar by 0.7%, a decrease of 6.5 percentage points compared to the 5.8% overvaluation we determined in early August. (Mexico News Daily)
THE MND PESO INDEX™
Tracking the exchange rate people actually experience
MND Intelligence · Sixth edition
Welcome to the sixth edition of the MND Peso Index™, part of the MND Intelligence™ suite of data products developed by Mexico News Daily.
The MND Peso Index™ is a monthly purchasing power parity measure that assesses whether the Mexican peso is overvalued, undervalued or fairly valued against the US dollar by comparing the prices of a standardized basket of 20 goods and services in Mexico and Dallas, Texas.
Between Sept. 2, the date on which we collected prices for the September index, and Oct. 6, the date on which we collected prices for this index, the peso depreciated 5.5%, trading at 16.98 to the dollar on the former date and 17.97 to the greenback on the latter date.
The peso’s depreciation was the decisive factor behind our first undervaluation finding for the currency since we launched the MND Peso Index™ in May.
Our headline finding for October 2026 indicates that the peso was undervalued against the dollar by 0.7%, a swing of 6.5 percentage points compared to the 5.8% overvaluation we determined in September.
For a detailed explanation of the purpose of the MND Peso Index™, the makeup of the basket and more, please refer to the index article we published in June. You can read even more about the index in our introductory article published in early May.
What did the MND Peso Index™ tell us in October 2026?
In October 2026, the MND Peso Index™ suggests that the USD:MXN exchange rate on the date we collected prices in various Mexican cities and in Dallas, Texas, undervalued the Mexican peso by 0.7%.
The Mexican and Dallas prices were collected on Oct. 6, 2026. The MND Peso Rate — the simple average of the 20 item-level implied exchange rates, rather than the rate produced by dividing the total Mexican basket cost by the total Dallas basket cost — came in at 17.84 pesos per dollar, compared with a Banxico FIX rate of 17.97 pesos per dollar on Oct. 6.
(Mexico News Daily)
The gap between those two figures indicates that the peso — at a rate of 17.97 to the US dollar — was undervalued by 0.7% in early October.
In the table above, you can see the Mexico and U.S. prices for all 20 goods and services in the basket, the total costs of the two baskets, the implied exchange rate for each item, the MND Peso Rate (i.e., the overall implied rate), the Banxico FIX rate on the date prices were collected and the undervalued assessment for the peso.
Why did the peso go from overvalued to undervalued in just one month?
In contrast to September, the MND Peso Rate for October (17.84) is lower than the Banxico FIX rate on the date prices were collected (17.97).
As a result, the peso has gone from being overvalued against the dollar in early September, per the MND Peso Index™ methodology, to being undervalued against the dollar in early October.
The shift was primarily driven by the significant weakening of the peso, as mentioned in the introduction to this article.
The peso depreciated 99 centavos from 16.98 to the US dollar on Sept. 2 to 17.97 to the dollar on Oct. 6, per the Banxico FIX rates for those dates. The U.S. Federal Reserve’s Sept. 16 interest rate hike and increased investor risk aversion are among the factors behind the peso’s recent depreciation. The Fed’s hike narrows the gap between U.S. and Mexican interest rates, making peso carry trades less attractive to investors.
The MND Peso Rate declined 12 centavos from 17.96 in September to 17.84 in October, reinforcing the shift toward undervaluation. Had the MND Peso Rate increased by 1 centavo, rather than declined by 12, it would have been exactly the same as the Banxico FIX rate, indicating that the peso was trading at fair value under the index’s methodology.
In any case, the difference between the Oct. 6 Banxico FIX rate and the MND Peso Rate in October was just 13 centavos. Hence, the undervaluation assessment for the peso is minimal, indicating that it was trading close to fair value on Oct. 6.
The slight variation in the MND Peso Rate is due to month-over-month changes in the implied rates for some individual goods and services. The implied rates that changed due to price fluctuations are highlighted in the table above.
6 months of the MND Peso Index™
Through the use of the MND Peso Index™, we have now determined that the peso was overvalued against the US dollar by 2.8% in late April, 4% in late May, 2.9% in late June, 2.4% in early August and 5.8% in early September. That’s right — there were five consecutive overvalued assessments for the peso before this month’s determination that the currency was slightly undervalued in early October.
(Mexico News Daily)
The difference between this month’s undervalued assessment for the peso and the highest overvalued assessment — that in early September — is 6.5 percentage points.
So far in 2026, the peso has depreciated around 2% against the US dollar. It closed at 18.00 to the greenback on the final day of 2025, according to the Bank of Mexico, while the closing USD:MXN rate on Tuesday, Oct. 13 was 18.38. If the Banxico FIX rate was 18.38 when we collected the prices for the Mexican and Dallas baskets on Oct. 6, the undervaluation assessment for the peso would have been 2.9%.
* Price sources: Mexico prices were collected from the websites and apps of Walmart México, Costco México, AutoZone México, Telmex, Cinépolis, Petco México, McDonald’s, Starbucks, Netflix, Spotify and Microsoft. Dallas prices were collected from their U.S. equivalents. The Banxico FIX rate of 17.97 published on Oct. 6, 2026, was used as the official exchange rate reference.
Peak migration should occur within the next week, with most monarchs reaching overwintering sites in Michoacán and México state in early November. (Unsplash)
The monarch butterfly’s annual migration from southern Canada to central Mexico is in full swing, with the first sighting confirmed in the border state of Coahuila last week.
Linabeth Flores with the Mexican NGO Profauna confirmed, “We can now officially say that the migration is here.”
The monarch butterflies undertake a perilous southward migration each year from Canada, through the United States, and to Mexico starting in late August to reach their winter resting spot in the pine forests of Michoacán before the bacchanalian breeding season. New generations then migrate north to the Canadian Prairies for spring and summer.
Sightings so far have been concentrated in the cities of Acuña, Múzquiz, Monclova and Cuatro Ciénegas and are expected to increase in the coming days. At the Higher Technological Institute of Múzquiz, several monarchs were spotted feeding on polocote (Mexican sunflower) and pomegranate blossoms.
Before this year’s migration began, two dozen monarch butterflies were tagged with toothpick-sized radio transmitters in Winnipeg, Canada. The practice of tagging butterflies with tracking devices is common among conservation groups in Mexico, Canada and the United States, as it provides valuable information for the protection of the monarch population, which is endangered by climate change and habitat loss.
The first butterfly tagged in Winnipeg, known by the identifier MB26011, has already crossed the Mexican border, just five weeks after leaving Canada.
“She’s done about 2,300 kilometers in about 40 days,” said Laura Burns, the conservation program manager at the Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg. “It’s really incredible.”
Conservation researchers and members of the public can track the butterflies’ movements on the Project Monarch app.
Peak migration should occur within the next week, with most monarchs reaching overwintering sites in Michoacán and México state in early November. Profauna has asked the public to share photos and reports of the butterflies to help identify flight routes and locate the sites they use to rest and feed during their passage through Coahuila.
The eastern monarch population has fallen by an estimated 80% to 90% since the 1990s, although the number of butterflies in central Mexico this spring was around 64% higher than in the previous season, according to figures from Mexico’s Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
In the midst of U.S. Hispanic Heritage Month, writer María Meléndez asks what the label really means. (Evie Martinez/Unsplash)
A new Pew Research Center analysis asks who counts as Hispanic. For many Mexicans, the answer only arrives after they cross the border — sometimes shouted by a stranger.
I was on the phone with my mother — in Spanish, of course — when a woman who was clearly having a bad day shouted “f—ing South American” at me. My first impulse was to correct her: North American, actually. But I knew precision was beside the point. She wasn’t pointing at my exact origin; she was pointing at my culture.
Mexicans living in the U.S. are expected to self-identify as Hispanic, even if that’s not how they see themselves. (Tim Mossholder/Unsplash)
And yes, unlike her, I am not Anglo-Saxon. So what am I?
The moment I became Hispanic
It is the question the Pew Research Center asked this month in its survey “Who Is Hispanic?,” published at the start of Hispanic Heritage Month. Pew’s answer suggests that it depends on who is counting.
Mine is that I only became Hispanic when I crossed the border.
It sounds naive, but until then I had no idea how many labels I could carry. It was, on a much smaller scale, a Frantz Fanon moment.
Fanon was a Martinican psychiatrist trained in France in the mid-20th century. In “Black Skin, White Masks” (1952), he recounts how a child in the street pointed at him and cried out, “Tiens, un nègre!” The moment forced him to confront everything his skin color meant in the France of his time. It opened a body of work on how such labels are produced by racial violence — territory I won’t step into here.
Labels and how they’re given
One detail of Fanon’s account stays with me, though. He argues that in Martinique, Antilleans did not think of themselves as Black; the label was waiting for them in Europe. Mine was waiting for me in the United States.
If we’re going by labels, I am North American (the region, not the country). I’m also Latin American, Mexican and chilanga, from Mexico City — and, to be precise, from the south of the city.
I know that people who did not grow up in an urban setting like mine are often far more aware of their ethnic origin, especially where an Indigenous language is still alive. Think of Oaxaca and the Mixe, Zapotec, Mixtec or Triqui peoples. I’ll confess that I was always more conscious of my socioeconomic context than of my ethnicity.
The state that made us Mexican
For those of us raised in cities, that blind spot is largely the legacy of the post-revolutionary state. After a decade of war, it decided that the best way to calm the waters was to insist that we were, above all, proud to be Mexican.
To make that true, the state launched an intense education campaign whose first goal was for everyone to speak Spanish, because once you erase the language that sets people apart, you erase the distinction between them. But the shift had started long before.
Around 1820, as Mexico was becoming independent, an estimated 60% of the population spoke an Indigenous language. By 1900, the figure was 15.4%. In the 2020 census, it was 6.1% of Mexicans aged three and older — and 87% of them also speak Spanish.
The project had a name for what it wanted to produce: a generalized mestizo. Anthropologist Manuel Gamio’s “Forjando Patria” (1916) and former education minister José Vasconcelos‘ “La Raza Cósmica” (1925) turned mixture into national identity.
So when I say I was never aware of my ethnicity, that is not entirely accurate. The state gave me one. I simply never noticed it, because the dominant category never needs to be named.
The painted castes
Mixture is not new in Mexico. Under Spanish colonial rule, a hierarchy of castas gave a name to each combination of Spanish, Indigenous and African ancestry, and that name could limit access to offices, guilds and rights. Historians note that daily life was more fluid than the system suggests, but the categories carried weight.
The independence movement explicitly rejected them. Miguel Hidalgo‘s 1810 decree abolished slavery and the tribute paid by the castes. In 1813, José María Morelos’ “Sentimientos de la Nación” called for abolishing “the distinction of castes.” The Plan of Iguala of 1821 declared all inhabitants citizens, regardless of origin.
An 18th-century casta painting showing the various distinctions of racial identity in colonial Mexican society. (Public Domain)
From that era we keep the 18th-century casta paintings: picturesque and, to our eyes, a little terrible. Perhaps that is why it unsettles me when a society asks me to identify with a label. In Mexico, those labels still shape a person’s prospects. A 2016 survey by INEGI, Mexico’s national statistics agency, found that among Mexicans who placed themselves in the lightest skin tones, 10% had no schooling at all; among those in the darkest tones, the figure was 20.2%.
Who counts as Hispanic?
In the United States, the category was born as an administrative tool. Fifty years ago, Congress ordered the government to count Americans of Spanish-speaking background with roots in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Central and South America. The criterion is not geographic but linguistic — and, at bottom, colonial. Brazilians, Portuguese, Belizeans and Filipinos are left out.
The state does not always accept what people declare. If someone writes “Mexican” in the race question without checking the Hispanic box, the Census Bureau counts them as Hispanic anyway. If someone checks “Other Hispanic” and writes “Irish,” the bureau recodes them as non-Hispanic.
The race question itself fits poorly. In 2024, 23.4 million single-race Hispanics chose “some other race,” and most wrote in a nationality such as “Mexican” or “Latin American.” For those of us raised on mestizaje as national identity, race and nation are the same answer.
Most revealing is how Hispanics describe themselves. According to Pew’s 2025 survey, 53% use their family’s country of origin, 27% use “Hispanic” or “Latino,” and 18% simply say “American.” Most of the people the category covers prefer not to use it for themselves.
One figure seems to contradict my story: 97% of immigrants with Hispanic ancestry identify as Hispanic. I don’t think it does. The survey measures whether you accept the label when it is offered, not whether it existed for you before you arrived. The question assumes you have already crossed the border.
I also understand why the term exists, and why being counted matters to many. In a 2021 Pew survey, 57% of Latino adults said skin color shapes their daily lives at least somewhat.
A society of societies
I know the United States is a different case: a country made of many societies, with different customs coexisting in the same space. In 2024, its immigrant population reached a record 50.2 million, or 14.8% of residents. The only other time the share was that high was 1890.
The Census Bureau’s own breakdown shows how these labels overlap. Of the 341.8 million people it estimated for July 2025, 72.3% are counted as White alone, 13.5% as Black, 6.9 percent as Asian, 2.1% as American Indian or Alaska Native, 0.3% as Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and 4.9% as two or more races. Hispanics, 20.5% of the population, are counted on top of those races rather than beside them, which is why non-Hispanic Whites are only 56.1%. The official estimates carry no “some other race” category at all — the box where millions of Hispanics write in their nationality.
The Hispanic population, now 70.1 million, is itself a federation of nationalities. In 2021, it included 37.2 million people of Mexican origin, 5.8 million Puerto Ricans and 2.5 million Salvadorans, with five other origin groups above 1 million each. “Hispanic” holds all of them in a single box.
Naming is classifying
When someone shouts my origin at me in the street — what a casta painter might have labeled mestiza — I become aware of what my features say, and of everything they tell another person before I open my mouth.
In 1952, the same year Fanon published his book, Jorge Luis Borges wrote in “The Analytical Language of John Wilkins” that every classification of the universe is arbitrary and conjectural. To name something is already to sort it.
So the question is not whether I am Hispanic. By the government’s definition, I am. The question is why it matters to name me that way — and what that classification says about us, and about those who do the classifying.
María Meléndez is a writer and art historian. She works at the Mexican Cultural Institute of the Embassy of Mexico in Washington, D.C.
The cluster's statement on the possibility of a Chinese automaker investing in San Luis Potosí came ahead of Automotive Connection Potosí 2026, a business-to-business (B2B) networking event that will be held in San Luis Potosí city on Nov. 11 and 12. (Shutterstock)
Could a Chinese automaker open a plant in the state of San Luis Potosí?
The president of the San Luis Potosí Automotive Cluster, an industry group, believes it’s possible.
President of the San Luis Potosí Automotive Cluster Alberto Rosales Reyna (L), State Economic Development Minister Mario García (M) and Luis Alberto González Olvera (R), executive director of the cluster. (Mario García Valdez/Facebook)
Alberto Rosales Reyna, the cluster’s president, told the San Luis Potosí-based newspaper Plano Informativo that Asian automakers, including Chinese ones, have considered investing in the state, where BMW and General Motors have plants.
He acknowledged that no new automotive plant projects have been confirmed for San Luis Potosí, but suggested that could soon change.
“A very significant [possible] investment in the production of Chinese vehicles [in Mexico] has been spoken about as part of an effort to increase local content and have Chinese production in our state,” Rosales said.
He didn’t mention the names of any Chinese automakers that could open a plant in San Luis Potosí. However, Rosales asserted that the state has the capacity to welcome an automaker from China or any other country.
The geographical location of San Luis Potosí, the “technical ability” of its workforce, proximity to supply chains and “support that the local government could provide” all make the state an attractive place for automotive investment, he said.
Those things give San Luis Potosí “a great advantage,” Rosales said.
BYD is among the Chinese automakers that have expressed interest in opening a plant in Mexico. But neither that company — the world’s largest electric vehicle manufacturer — nor any other Chinese automaker has opened a plant in the country to date.
(However, a Mexican company, Giant Motors Latinoamérica, does assemble vehicles for Chinese automaker JAC at a plant in Ciudad Sahagún, Hidalgo.)
SLP automotive industry event could generate ‘business opportunities’ worth more than US $100 million
Rosales’ remarks about the possibility of a Chinese automaker investing in San Luis Potosí came ahead of Automotive Connection Potosí 2026, a business-to-business (B2B) networking event that will be held in San Luis Potosí city on Nov. 11 and 12.
The San Luis Potosí Automotive Cluster and the state Ministry of Economic Development are collaborating on the event.
According to the event website and media reports, Automotive Connection Potosí 2026 is projected to generate over US $100 million in “business opportunities” through meetings between automotive sector buyers and suppliers. Thirty buyers are listed on the event website, including BMW and Stellantis.
More than 500 suppliers are slated to attend the event, at which more than 1,500 B2B meetings will take place, according to the organizers.
According to a report by the news outlet Quadratín, San Luis Potosí Economic Development Minister Mario García Valde said that the event “seeks to facilitate local companies’ access to automotive sector buyers and open up opportunities for their incorporation in new productive projects.”
Viva accumulated US $133 million in losses during the first half of this year, so it's hoping that the "merger of equals" with its soon-to-be-former low-cost rival will turn things around. (File photo)
Mexico’s antitrust commission is expected to approve the unification of Volaris and Viva airlines before the end of the year, creating Mexico’s largest aviation conglomerate.
Citing six sources familiar with the case, Reuters said the National Antimonopoly Commission (CNA) will approve the planned merger between the popular low-cost carriers and the formation of a new company to be called Grupo Más Vuelos.
Like Viva, Volaris has been struggling financially since the pandemic, which is why the upcoming merger is seen as a “defensive action.” (File photo)
Executives from Volaris and Viva (formerly Viva Aerobus) say the self-styled “merger of equals” will respect brand identities and “strive to ensure consumers recognize the individual service models with which they have become familiar.”
The CNA will reportedly require Grupo Más Vuelos to meet specific benchmarks and consumer protection criteria — such as keeping fares low and avoiding widespread layoffs — according to three of the sources cited by Reuters.
Critics have raised regulatory concerns, such as route eliminations — the two companies currently operate 55 identical routes — and diminished market competition. They also point out that the transaction would concentrate 73% of domestic air traffic in a single company.
CNA approval is likely to come with requirements that the conglomerate maintain existing route networks and comply with a low-cost mandate that is aligned with regional budget operators.
Yucatán Magazine reported that the federal government has apparently sought to influence the vetting process, since both airlines “serve as redirection points and primary operators at the state-run Felipe Angeles International Airport on the periphery of Mexico City.”
Both carriers have experienced financial troubles since the COVID-19 pandemic. Volaris recorded a net loss of US $103.8 million in 2025 and reported a loss of US $127 million in this year’s second quarter. Viva accumulated US $133 million in losses during the first half of 2026.
According to the business consultancy Antitrust Intelligence, the merger aims to build a competitive advantage centered on cost reductions, fleet efficiencies and balance sheet recovery.
Despite the economic challenges the two airlines have been facing, market analysts and investors are said to view future operational synergies favorably.
After Vergara was detained for drug possession on Monday, three other state policemen were immediately kidnapped in retaliation by members of the Pueblos Unidos criminal gang. They agreed to release the policemen in exchange for Vergara. (Margarito Pérez Retana/Cuartoscuro)
Authorities in Morelos freed an alleged criminal leader just hours after he was captured on Monday to secure the release of three kidnapped police officers.
José David Vergara, an alleged leader of the Pueblos Unidos criminal group, was detained on Monday afternoon on drug possession charges in Totolapan, a municipality in northeastern Morelos on the border with México state.
#Estados | Quema de vehículos y bloqueos carreteros se registran la tarde de este lunes en Totoloapan, Morelos, luego de un enfrentamiento armado entre elementos de seguridad e integrantes de un grupo del crimen organizado.
De acuerdo con información preliminar, los hechos de violencia son resultado del despliegue de un operativo para capturar a un líder criminal considerado generador de violencia en la región. Información en desarrollo.
The Morelos Attorney General’s Office (FGE) said in a statement that police detained Vergara, known as “El Güero Gym,” during an anti-extortion operation. It said that “cells” of the Pueblos Unidos criminal group retaliated by detaining “three collaborators of the Eastern Region Prosecutor’s Office” — i.e., state police officers. Those officers were conducting homicide investigations and were not involved in the operation during which Vergara was captured.
After the police were kidnapped, “the protocol for handling kidnapping cases was activated to prioritize the lives of the victims being held against their will,” the FGE said before disclosing that the officers were freed at about 7:35 p.m. Monday after “the person detained hours earlier” was handed over.
“One of our colleagues was hospitalized due to a gunshot wound,” the FGE said, adding that he was in “stable” condition.
“The Attorney General’s Office of the State of Morelos stresses that the lives of our personnel are a priority for the institution and for that reason the necessary actions to protect their physical safety were carried out,” the FGE said, adding that “these criminal acts won’t go unpunished.”
The newspaper Reforma reported that criminals threatened to kill the state police officers if “El Güero Gym” wasn’t released.
On Tuesday, Morelos Attorney General Fernando Blumenkron Escobar said that the events in Totolapan on Monday “can’t be analyzed in an isolated way or reduced to the assertion that [organized] crime forced authorities to give in.”
He said that Vergara was under investigation prior to his arrest, but was not subject to an arrest warrant. Blumenkron said the suspect was arrested for drug possession — not for high-impact crimes (such as murder) for which he is under investigation. Blumenkron also said that “at least 10 people” would be investigated in connection with the kidnapping of the three state police officers.
García Harfuch: Decision to release suspect was to ‘save lives’
At President Sheinbaum’s Tuesday morning press conference, Security Minister Omar García Harfuch said that the Morelos government’s decision to release Vergara was aimed at “avoiding a greater confrontation” with criminals.
“In effect, it was to save lives,” he said.
“There were a lot of civilian people in the streets,” García Harfuch said.
State police officers had “insufficient” force and backup from federal officers to effectively respond to the violence that erupted upon Vergara’s capture in Morelos on Monday, Mexico’s security minister said on Tuesday. (Presidencia)
Citing “preliminary information” from the Morelos government, the security minister said that the state police operation in Morelos on Monday wasn’t specifically aimed at capturing Vergara.
However, when officers saw “this individual in flagrante,” they detained him, García Harfuch said.
“It wasn’t an operation specifically to detain this person,” he said.
As a result, state police officers had “insufficient” force and backup from federal officers to effectively respond to the violence that ensued, García Harfuch said.
He said that the decision to release Vergara doesn’t mean that he will go unpunished. “We’re going to arrest him,” García Harfuch said.
Vergara’s arrest triggers narcobloqueos in Morelos
In addition to kidnapping three police officers, the Pueblos Unidos criminal group responded to Vergara’s arrest by setting vehicles and tires on fire to create so-called narcobloqueos (narco-blockades).
Reforma reported that narcobloqueos were set up in four municipalities in Morelos: Yecapixtla, Atlatlahucan, Tlayacapan and Oaxtepec.
Criminals also exchanged gunfire with police officers after the arrest of Vergara. Citing “unofficial information,” the El Universal newspaper reported that at least two police officers suffered gunshot wounds.
4 police officers killed in crash while responding to unrest
A police vehicle in which several officers were traveling crashed on the La Pera–Cuautla highway on Monday as they headed to assist colleagues responding to the unrest that followed Vergara’s arrest.
Two officers were killed at the scene of the crash, while two of three injured officers died while being transported to hospital, according to the Morelos Security Ministry.
Ceci Flores and Milagros Valenzuela Flores, organizers of two different citizens' search groups in Sonora, have earned official certification for their efforts in Mexico's missing persons crisis, with the number of unlocated people standing at 130,381 as of this week. (Madres Buscadoras de Sonora/Facebook)
After years of searching for missing loved ones, Ceci Flores and her daughter have obtained government certification recognizing their skills, a first for relatives confronting Mexico’s disappearance crisis.
Flores announced last week that she and her daughter, Milagros de Jesús Valenzuela Flores, had received the credentials, issued by Mexico’s National Council for Standardization and Certification of Labor Competencies, an agency affiliated with the Education Ministry.
Ceci Flores, founder of Madres Buscadoras de Sonora. (Searching Mothers of Sonora/Facebook)
The certification recognizes expertise developed by families who search for missing relatives while pressing authorities to investigate their disappearances.
Flores’ daughter, Milagros, leads Jóvenes Buscadores de Sonora, a youth search collective she helped establish with about 15 other young people. She is in her mid-20s.
Milagros de Jesús Valenzuela Flores, founder of Jóvenes Buscadores de Sonora. (Facebook)
Mexico had 130,381 people still missing or unlocated as of Oct. 12, according to National Registry of Missing and Unlocated Persons figures reported this week by Conexión Migrante. The total excludes people already located alive or dead by that date.
The credentials fall under Competency Standard EC1542, which evaluates information gathering, preparation of case files, interviews, field and remote searches, and reporting.
Flores credited Guanajuato’s State Training Institute and the forensic and legal consulting firm Forensic and Legal with supporting the training, evaluation and certification, El País reported.
“We want to have more tools to do what no mother should have to learn to do: search for her children,” Flores wrote in an Oct. 7 post on X.
Eight women searching in Guanajuato will also receive certification after meeting the same standard, UnoTV reported last week. The women, who will receive their certificates within two months, UnoTV said, completed nine five-hour training sessions, with state scholarships covering certification costs.
In her post, Flores stressed that certification does not transfer the authorities’ search responsibilities to families or search collectives.
Mexico has about 200 such groups — who look for missing relatives while pressing authorities to investigate their disappearances — according to an Amnesty International estimate cited by ADN40 in March.
Meanwhile, Mexico City’s Cuauhtémoc borough has named its council chamber Madres Buscadoras, or Searching Mothers, according to an agreement published Tuesday in the Official Gazette.
The designation honors mothers and other searching relatives without endorsing any specific organization or political position.
The "Texcoco Margarita" — made with mezcal instead of tequila, agave syrup, orange liqueur and lime juice — is one reason why Mexico City's Tlecan is among the world's top 50 bars. (Tlecan)
Crowned The World’s Best Bar in 2024, Handshake Speakeasy has maintained its high global ranking thanks to its culinary approach to mixology.
Located in the heart of Mexico City’s Zona Rosa, the establishment was founded by Rodrigo Urraca, Marcos Di Battista, and Dutch bartender Eric van Beek, who is responsible for its creative cocktail program.
“Hands down, the legend of Handshake Speakeasy speaks for itself,” The 50 Best Bars said, highlighting the bar’s special take on the classic piña colada.
Bar Mauro – Mexico City (No. 10)
Located in the Roma Norte neighborhood, Bar Mauro secured 10th place and won the Disaronno Highest New Entry Award 2026, which honors the highest-ranking of the bars that enter the top 50 for the first time.
The project belongs to brothers Ricardo and Eduardo Nava and opened its doors in November 2024. Ranking even higher (No. 2) on The 50 Best Bars in North America list, Bar Mauro marks one of the standout venues in Mexico.
The 50 Best Bars highlights the Negroni (named after an Italian count), the basilico (a basil-based cocktail) and the Maurito (a diminutive of the bar’s name) as some of the bar’s most recommended cocktails.
El Gallo Altanero – Guadalajara (No. 28)
The only Mexican bar outside Mexico City to make the top 50, El Gallo Altanero is located in the city’s hip Colonia Americana neighborhood. It was opened in 2018 by Swedish bartender Freddy Andreasson and Alejandra Aguinaga.
Its cocktail menu prioritizes Mexico’s seasonal ingredients, and The 50 Best highlights the Jalisco Old Fashioned and the tuna negra (that’s the Spanish word tuna, by the way, as in the fruit of the nopal cactus).
Tlecan – Mexico City (No. 47)
This mezcalería opened in 2019, founded by Bernardo Serna, Eduardo Panchur and Eli Martínez Bello. Like Bar Mauro, it’s located in the bar-rich Roma Norte neighborhood.
Tlecan’s cocktail menu is a nod to Mexico’s agave culture and lesser-known spirits like bacanora, pox and raicilla. The 50 Best highlights the paloma blanca, made with clarified grapefruit juice, and a piña colada variation using pulque.
Beyond the 50 Best
Mexico’s presence doesn’t end with those four names. The extended list features Form + Matter (No. 59) and Licorería Limantour (No. 63) in Mexico City; and Arca in Tulum (No. 67).
Famed for its rugged terrain and the endurance demanded by its nearly 1,000-mile length, the Baja 1000 is the world’s most famous off-road race. (Nattipat Vesvarute/Unsplash)
Before the recent announcement by SCORE (Southern California Off-Road Enthusiasts) International, the sanctioning and governing body of the world’s longest-running and most legendary off-road race, that the Baja 1000 would feature a unique “Cabo to Cabo” routing for its 59th edition this November, Cabo — shorthand for either the municipality of Los Cabos or its most populous city, Cabo San Lucas — had been included on the course map on only two previous occasions: in 2000 and 2007, when the race started in Ensenada and concluded in Cabo San Lucas.
That makes this year’s race — scheduled for Nov. 9 to 15 — a historic one, and not just because the race will start for the first time in Los Cabos; specifically, on Avenida Centenario in San José del Cabo, where the 964.66-mile competition sponsored by BF Goodrich Tires will both start and finish. This will also mark the first time the Baja 1000 has been run entirely within the state of Baja California Sur.
The course map for 2026
This year’s race will wind through the heart of Baja California Sur, starting and ending in San José del Cabo, but circling as far north as Canipolé. (SCORE International)
An estimated 250 teams representing 15 countries are expected to participate in the 2026 Baja 1000. Teams (generally two drivers or a driver and navigator, along with support crew) compete across several classes determined by age and vehicle type — from trucks, cars and buggies to motorcycles, quads and UTVs — vying not only for cash prizes, but also coveted points in the SCORE World Desert Championship, for which the Baja 1000 is the season’s finale.
The Baja 1000 has no set route. Ensenada has hosted the starting line for 49 of the 58 previous races, and the finish line for 31; hence, the city’s nickname as the “Desert Racing Capital of the World.” La Paz, Baja California Sur’s capital, has also been a popular terminus, serving as the finish line 22 times.
However, new and “innovative” routes are regularly included in the course rotation.
Going ‘Transpeninsular’
“Every three years, we aim to hold a ‘Transpeninsular’ version,” notes Juan Tintos Funcke, General Manager of Score International, per El Imparcial. “The most recent one was in 2023 and ran from south to north. Normally, the route goes from Ensenada to La Paz, but that year it went from La Paz to Ensenada. That is how we constantly seek innovation and offer different challenges in our races — we adjust the logistics to keep the events appealing.”
The “Cabo to Cabo” route in 2026 will certainly be that, winding its way up the East Cape from San José del Cabo, passing La Paz and then Loreto before making a turn to head back down the Pacific Coast, skirting Todos Santos and El Pescadero on the return loop to San José del Cabo.
In total, four of the five municipalities in Baja California Sur will see action along the race route (Comondú, La Paz, Loreto and Los Cabos are included; Mulegé is not).
The birth of the Baja 1000 and its enduring popularity
Southern California hot rod pioneer Don Francisco and race vehicle builder Bill Stroppe were key links between Mexico’s legendary Carrera Panamericana — the world’s longest and most dangerous race held lengthwise across Mexico between 1950 and 1954 — and the Baja 1000. Francisco had helped Stroppe and Clay Smith prepare Lincolns for the Carrera Panamericana, experience with epic-scale routing that no doubt came in handy when he aerially surveyed the inaugural route for the Baja 1000, which was run under the auspices of NORRA (National Off-Road Racing Association), founded by Ed Pearlman, Francisco and others in 1966. NORRA organized the first six Baja 1000 races between 1967 and 1972.
Although the Carrera Panamericana supplied the precedent for an internationally promoted, grand-scale Mexican endurance race, the Baja 1000 grew directly from the timed record runs of the 1960s … inspired by the 1962 durability demonstration of Honda CL72 Scrambler motorcycles, which Dave Ekins and Bill Robertson Jr. drove from Tijuana to La Paz, navigating a network of dirt tracks, washes and trails in just under 40 hours. The 950 miles they traversed were very close to the total later covered by the Baja 1000, and 40 hours is still the time limit for teams to complete the race.
Baja’s timeless off-road allure
The challenges of the Baja California peninsula’s rugged terrain have been attracting those thirsty for adventure ever since, first from those seeking to beat Ekins and Robertson’s time, and later, during the six-decade heyday of the Baja 1000, from everyone from professional drivers to rock stars (Ted Nugent) and Hollywood movie stars like Steve McQueen, James Garner and Paul Newman (who also became a professional race car driver and completed his last Baja 1000 just before he turned 80).
Parnelli Jones, who famously described the Baja 1000 as a “24-hour plane crash,” was among the first of the crossover auto racing stars to embrace the event. After winning the Indianapolis 500 in 1963, he claimed overall Baja 1000 titles in 1971 and 1972 in his famed Dick Russell and Stroppe-built Ford Bronco, “Big Oly.” A host of Formula 1, NASCAR and IndyCar champions followed, including Robby Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Rick Mears and Alexander Rossi.
However, following the OPEC Oil Crisis in 1973, NORRA’s permits were revoked, and the Baja Sports Committee organized that year’s race before the 1974 event was canceled, and the Mickey Thompson-founded SCORE took over in 1975 — an association that to date has lasted more than 50 years.
What’s at stake this year?
The Baja 1000 brings with it tangible economic benefits: about US $35 million is expected to flow to municipalities statewide. Additionally, the race and its run-up — pre-running begins Oct. 24 — bring excitement as high season ramps up in Los Cabos during what has been a disappointing year for tourism. International arrivals, for example, have thus far been down 8.4% in 2026, and tourism as a whole down 5.6%.
There’s a lot on the line for racers, too. San Diego’s Luke “The Luke” McMillin, for example, is attempting to complete a rare full-season sweep of the 2026 SCORE calendar, having already logged Trophy Truck class wins in the San Felipe 250, Baja 500 and Baja 400. Tyler Lynn, Carter Klein and their SLR (Slam Life Racing) Honda team, meanwhile, are attempting to go that feat one step better, aiming at a second consecutive Motorcycle class season sweep.
Chris Sands is a writer and editor for Mexico News Daily, and the former Cabo San Lucas local expert for the USA Today travel website 10 Best and writer of Fodor’s Los Cabos travel guidebook. He has also contributed to numerous other websites and publications, including The San Diego Union-Tribune, Marriott Bonvoy Traveler, Forbes Travel Guide, Porthole Cruise and Travel, and Cabo Living.
