The activists called for the Mexican government to tackle plastic pollution and enforce existing plastic bans. (Greenpeace)
Activists from Greenpeace Mexico and other organizations demonstrated Sunday at a sprawling, open-air garbage dump in the state of Veracruz, denouncing the country’s growing plastic waste crisis and calling for urgent action.
The protesters — some dressed in hazardous material suits and holding a huge banner reading “Anti-Plastic Law Now!” — temporarily blocked operations at the Villa Allende landfill in Coatzacoalcos, a major port city in southern Veracruz on the Gulf of Mexico.
Coatzacoalcos, population 212,000, is an important maritime port on the Gulf of Mexico. (Gobierno Municipal Coatzacoalcos)
According to activists with the Allende 213 environmental group, the 33-year-old dump began as a facility for waste only from the locality of Villa Allende.
Now, even though the State Attorney General for Environmental Protection (PMA) has determined the dump should have already been closed, it continues to operate, receiving an estimated 350 to 400 tons of domestic and industrial waste daily, with an estimated 45-60 daily trips by garbage trucks from throughout Coatzacoalcos, according to a Greenpeace Mexico press release.
And since there is no tangible division between the landfill and nearby homes and businesses — some less than 500 meters away — Villa Allende is being impacted with air, soil, subsoil and water pollution problems, Greenpeace Mexico noted. Nearby residents have long reported issues with noxious odors and health concerns linked to the facility’s operation.
However, the Sunday protest was about more than just Villa Allende.
Without proper divisions between the dump and residential areas, Villa Allende residents like Asunción Ovando Magaña have reported impacts to their health and quality of life. (Greenpeace Mexico)
The activists called for immediate government intervention to tackle plastic pollution and improve management of overflowing and unregulated garbage dumps throughout the nation — where single-use plastics such as PET bottles, industrial plastics and construction materials are usually the most commonly found items.
“Facilities like this exacerbate environmental and public health risks, particularly for nearby communities,” Greenpeace said in a statement.
The activists urged national and local authorities to more strictly enforce existing legal bans on disposable plastics while also prioritizing investments in infrastructure for waste segregation, recycling and composting. They also called for incentives for sustainable alternatives.
Mexico generates an estimated 1.9 million tons of plastic waste annually, but less than 10% is recycled, according to Greenpeace.
The activists called on authorities to enforce existing laws banning disposable plastics. (Dustan Woodhouse/Unsplash)
The newspaper El País cited a report by the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) indicating the situation of plastic pollution on the coasts has reached critical levels, especially in Oaxaca, Guerrero, Chiapas and Veracruz.
Across Mexico, landfills and dumps have become flashpoints for community grievances over pollution and public health risks.
The mayor of Coatzacoalcos, Amado Cruz, has said he will close the Villa Allende dump this year in coordination with Semarnat. However, the local “government has filed an appeal against the closure and so far the dump remains” open, Greenpeace noted.
Greenpeace Mexico urged citizens to sign a petition that aims to get an anti-plastic law presented to the Senate.
While supervising the construction of a tunnel in Mexico City, the INAH found a pre-Columbian dock and an ancient navigation channel. (Fabián González/INAH)
During construction work to build a tunnel in Mexico City, the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) discovered a small dock and parts of a human-made canal from pre-Columbian times under Chapultepec Park.
Archeologists think the canal, set on what used to be the beach of a peninsula at the foot of the Chapulín Hill, must have been a “water path” connected with Lake Texcoco.
Descubren los restos de un muelle y un canal navegable de época prehispánica
INAH researcher María de Lourdes López Camacho said the discovery was a stroke of luck, given its location in an area that has been heavily disturbed since the end of the 19th century due to construction of housing and the Chapultepec Metro Station.
Furthermore, she said the canal must have been a main waterway.
INAH researcher María de Lourdes López Camacho explained that the house, which dates from the Late Postclassic period (1200-1521 A.D.), is aligned with the canal.
The canal appears on the Santa Cruz Map, also known as the Uppsala Map. The map was painted between 1550 and 1556, when Mexico City was the capital of New Spain. (U.S. Library of Congress)
“There was a path that the residents used to access the main road. Often, the ‘water paths’ ran parallel to the dirt ones,” she said.
López explained that the canal appears on the Santa Cruz Map, the earliest known map of Mexico City created in the 1550s. The map depicts the canal with a canoe in transit. With a maximum width of 1.8 meters, the canal was wide enough for small vessels to transit.
According to the analyses carried out by the archaeobotanical expert Aurora Montúfar López, some of the canal’s posts are made of fir. Samples of timber used to build the dock, ranging from 40-137 cm tall and 13-29 cm thick, will be sent to the INAH laboratories for analysis.
Excavators also found remains of common lake deposits like seeds, wood, gastropods and roots. Some of the recovered samples reveal that residents of this area had a diet based on quelites (edible herbaceous plants like purslane and lamb’s quarters), squash and tomato. Other objects include items from the early colonial period (1521-1620 A.D.), including the first hammered coins of New Spain and basins bearing the seals of hospitals run by religious orders.
When you sit down for Thanksgiving dinner this year, take a second to consider how much of your table originates in Mexico. (Shutterstock)
As our friends and families up North belly up to this week’s Thanksgiving table (plenty us here in Mexico will be doing the same), Mexico will likely be far from their thoughts. Why would it be? What do palm trees, sandy beaches and tequila have to do with our favorite autumn meal? However, in ways both subtle and overt, Mexico’s connection to Thanksgiving is worthy of celebration.
For starters — if you use your imagination, there’s a striking resemblance between the iconic Thanksgiving horn of plenty and a map of Mexico. Hold the horn upright, and it’s a stylized map of Mexico’s mainland, with the Yucatan Peninsula to boot.
Discovered in Mexico, turkeys were exported to Europe, domesticated, and brought back to American soil for the Thanksgiving celebration. (Margarito Pérez Retana/Cuartoscuro)
Beyond this curiosity of geography, the Thanksgiving dinner table owes an homage to Mexico in more direct ways. Consider how your afternoon of culinary grazing is likely to start. No appetizer table is completed these days without guacamole (a word and dish from Mexico’s Nahuatl heritage) and ripe tomato salsa, gifts from our southern neighbor.
Dip deeper and you may be surprised at how Mexico is, in fact, at the very heart of the Thanksgiving meal. We all know that the wild turkey roamed eastern seaboard forests when the Pilgrims arrived; no big surprise there. Turkey was a main source of pre-Hispanic protein across North America. However, the turkey we today enjoy has a more circumvented path to your dinner table. In the 19th century, the Mexican wild turkey was exported to Europe, domesticated, and then reintroduced to American diners. So, we will all be gobbling down poultry with a Mexican pedigree for the next few days.
Complementing this noble bird, your meal will most certainly include Mexico’s grandest gift to the world — corn. All the world’s corn came from Mesoamerica. Maize is one of the world’s greatest cultural and biological wellsprings, feeding billions around the globe while being at the core of Mexican identity. Rural Mexicans will sometimes refer to themselves as “hombres del maíz,” literally “men of corn.”
From appetizers to desserts, Mexican ingredients and recipes make their way across just about everyone’s Thanksgiving palate. So, serve yourself another slice and raise a fork to Mexico — a horn of plenty that continues to give.
¡Buen provecho!
Author Greg Custer lives in Mexico. He’s worked for over 40 years in international tourism, educating travel advisors around the world about Mexico and other Latin American destinations. He helps folks explore Mexico for living at www.mexicoforliving.com.
The Yucatán Peninsula has previously declared independence from Mexico on two occasions. Why? (Lineas Emergentes)
In a country whose history is as hyper-focused around its largest city as Mexico is, it’s easy to overlook historical events that didn’t take place in or around the capital. But this is a big and diverse country, and major processes and events happened all across it. One such event is Yucatán’s independence from Mexico, something that has happened not once, but twice.
This period of Mexico’s history is of immense importance to the Maya peoples of the Yucatan Peninsula, as it marked the beginning of the Caste War, a Maya rebellion that spanned generations. Due to the amount of lives lost during the war, the Mexican government extended a formal apology to the Maya community in 2021, in a ceremony held at the community of Felipe Carrillo Puerto.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador issued a state apology to the Yaqui and the Maya Indigenous peoples in 2021. (Archive)
Yucatán and Mexico
The Spanish colony of New Spain was ruled from Mexico City and included the Captaincy-General of Yucatán, which covered the whole peninsula. Due to its great distance from Mexico City, Yucatán’s colonial history was marked by a degree of autonomy from the central colonial government, as well as important cultural differences, as the peninsula is the heartland of Mexico’s Maya peoples.
When independence movements broke out across the Spanish Americas beginning in 1809, Yucatán had its own movement that operated separately from the one in Central Mexico. The peninsula declared its independence from Spain in 1821. When Mexico declared its independence in the same year, it extended an invitation to Yucatán to become part of the Republic. Yucatán accepted under the condition that it would remain autonomous, and was admitted as the Federated Republic of Yucatán.
In 1836, the government of Antonio López de Santa Anna abolished the federalist Constitution of 1824, which established the division of powers and granted autonomy to the states, to a centralist state in which the states became departments governed from Mexico City. This act kicked off a wave of rebellions across the country, with several states attempting to secede from Mexico — this was the context, for example, in which Texas took the opportunity to declare independence. Yucatán, unhappy with the new constitution, sought its independence too.
First attempt at Independence
The Republic of Yucatán as it appeared in 1841. (Quickworld)
In 1839, a separatist rebellion broke out in Yucatán, leading the state’s congress to end relations with Mexico until the federal regime was reinstated. On Oct. 1, 1841, the local Chamber of Deputies approved the Declaration of Independence of the Yucatan Peninsula, which stated that “the people of Yucatán, in full use of their sovereignty, declared themselves as a free and independent Republic within the Mexican nation.”
The national government rejected the separation and imposed sanctions on Yucatán. Santa Anna closed commercial ports between Mexico and the Yucatán Peninsula and tried to prevent international commerce between the peninsula and Cuba, Jamaica and the English colonies.
Santa Anna also sent troops to invade Yucatán in 1842 and 1843. However, with the support of the Maya population, white and mestizo Yucatecans repelled the central government’s forces.
On Dec. 5, 1843, Santa Anna agreed to restore Yucatán’s autonomy if it was reincorporated into the Mexican Republic. Yucatán accepted the deal. Soon, however, the Mexican government declared the agreements null, and on New Year’s Day, 1846 Yucatán declared its independence once again.
Second attempt at Independence and the Caste War
A contemporary oil painting depicting the Caste War, from an unknown artist. (Public Domain)
The situation changed dramatically in 1846. In April, the United States invaded Mexico. The political turmoil the Mexican-American War unleashed in Mexico led to the readoption of the Constitution of 1824 in August. The government in Mérida, led by Miguel Barbachano, received the news happily and prepared to rejoin Mexico, but a rival government led by Santiago Méndez Ibarra had appeared in Campeche. The Campeche government, which also claimed to represent the Yucatecan people, wanted the peninsula to remain independent and neutral in the war.
It was in this context of crisis on the Yucatán Peninsula that the Caste War broke out. This social movement of the Maya population against white and mestizo Yucatecans would last over 50 years, and of all the Indigenous insurrections in Mexican history, the Caste War in the Yucatan Peninsula posed the greatest threat to the established order, coming within a hair’s breadth of victory.
The uprising began with the sentencing to death of Manuel Antonio Ay on July 25, 1847. The village chief of Chichimilá, Ay was accused of leading a conspiracy to overthrow white rule on the peninsula. With his execution, Ay became the first Maya martyr of the war.
With the weapons and training they received from the white Yucatecans during the 1839 rebellion, the conflict with Santa Anna and the struggle between the Campeche and Mérida governments, a group of Mayas led by chief Cecilio Chi and Jacinto Pat took up arms against them. One after the other, the wealthiest settlements south and east of Yucatán fell into the hands of the Maya until they conquered the city of Valladolid. After this, the entirety of the south and east of the Yucatán Peninsula was under Maya control for the first time in hundreds of years.
Maya rebels, in what is now Belize, during the Caste War. (Ambergris Caye)
Desperate, then-President of Yucatán Santiago Méndez Ibarra, the leader of the Campeche faction that opposed reincorporation into Mexico, sought support from the United States and Spain. He explicitly offered dominion and sovereignty over the Republic of Yucatan to whichever country offered military assistance. A “Yucatan Bill” paving the way for annexation actually passed in the U.S. House of Representatives, but ultimately stalled.
Unable to put an end to the Maya rebellion, Méndez resigned as president of Yucatán and offered the position to Miguel Barbachano, who ultimately requested assistance from the government of Mexico against the Maya in exchange for the peninsula’s return to the republic. Yucatán rejoined Mexico in August 1848, and the resources they received from the federal government allowed the Yucatecans to push the Maya back to the southeast of the peninsula.
The Maya rebellion, however, was revitalized in the 1850s by a religious movement known as the Talking Cross. The Maya established a state in modern-day Quintana Roo known as Chan Santa Cruz, which signed international treaties and was recognized by the British as an independent nation. The Caste War saw some 250,000 people die. Many captured Maya were also sold into slavery in Cuba by the Yucatecans.
The war officially ended in 1901 after troops of the Mexican federal army occupied the capital of Chan Santa Cruz, now the city of Felipe Carrillo Puerto. Fighting continued for decades, however, and it was only in 1935 that the last Maya holdouts signed a peace treaty with Mexico.
Gabriela Solis is a Mexican lawyer turned full-time writer. She was born and raised in Guadalajara and covers business, culture, lifestyle and travel for Mexico News Daily. You can follow her lifestyle blog Dunas y Palmeras.
The port city of Guaymas, Sonora, won in its size category for, among other things, having the smallest gender income gap of 66 Mexican cities compared by IMCO. (Government of Guaymas)
Mexico’s northern region hosts some of the most thriving, and thus most competitive, cities in the nation to live and work, according to the 2024 Urban Competitiveness Index published by the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (IMCO).
This year, Saltillo, Coahuila; Hermosillo, Sonora; La Paz, Baja California Sur; and Guaymas, Sonora – all located in the north of Mexico – won the overall top spot for competitiveness in 2024 in one of IMCO’s four city-size categories.
The size categories range from cities with 1 million residents to cities with populations of under 250,000.
The four top cities excelled in a long list of competitiveness indicators that included, among other things, innovation, education offerings, patent registration, economic diversification, growth dynamism, and the size of their mortgage market.
Sonora was the only state with two cities in top spots.
Every year, IMCO conducts the Urban Competitiveness Index (ICU) to assess the performance of and challenges faced by cities in Mexico.
The ICU evaluates 66 cities, which in total are home to over 62% of Mexico’s population. IMCO uses 35 indicators grouped into six sub-indices.
A student at the Research Center for Food and Development, one of Hermosillo’s many research centers cited by IMCO. (CIAD)
Here’s a look at which cities won and why:
Cities with over 1 million residents: Saltillo, Coahuila
Saltillo beat out 20 cities in its size category, including the nation’s capital, Mexico City.
Saltillo’s number one ranking is attributed to its low incidence of homicides and vehicle theft, its booming labor market and its having one of the highest rates of perceived security among residents.
Key areas for improvement that IMCO cited for Saltillo included its low number of health personnel (it ranked No. 56 in this criteria out of all 66 cities competing), its wastewater treatment capacity, and its extent of educational coverage.
Runners-up just behind Saltillo were Mexico City, Monterrey and Guadalajara.
Cities with over 500,000 residents: Hermosillo, Sonora
Hermosillo ranked at the top of its category thanks to its solid labor market and its number of research centers relative to the size of the city’s economically active population.
IMCO also found Hermosillo to have the lowest percentage of households relying on water from external sources, such as water tanker trucks.
Key areas of opportunity for Hermosillo IMCO cited included increasing the construction of vertical housing and more sustainable water consumption.
Cities with between 250,000 and 500,000 residents: La Paz, Baja California Sur
La Paz won its size category in part due to having one of the highest monthly salaries for full-time employees and the highest number of research centers relative to the size of its economically active population. It also ranked high on rates of perceived security among residents and rates of hotel occupancy.
However, La Paz still faces challenges, namely electricity generation costs and infant mortality: in both these categories, La Paz ranked No. 65 out of the 66 competing cities.
Cities with less than 250,000 residents: Guaymas, Sonora
The other Sonora municipality that topped its category, the port city of Guaymas won the top spot thanks to its number of research centers and its superior educational coverage for residents under 15, IMCO said. It also featured the smallest gender income gap.
Guaymas’ areas of opportunity, according to IMCO, included lowering its homicide rate and reducing the number of transport-related accidents in the city.
President Sheinbaum shared the presidential podium on Wednesday with CEOs and business group leaders who were there to sign a document creating the government's Advisory Council for Regional Economic Development and Relocation. (Daniel Augusto/Cuartoscuro)
Donald Trump’s latest tariff threat was the dominant issue at President Claudia Sheinbaum’s Wednesday morning press conference.
Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard spoke about the potential impact of a 25% tariff on Mexico’s exports to the United States (read Mexico News Daily’s report here) and Sheinbaum fielded several questions on the incoming U.S. president’s plan to tax goods sent north from Mexico.
President Sheinbaum, left, on a call with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday afternoon in her office in the National Palace. With her is Foreign Affairs Minister Juan Ramón de la Fuente. (Cuartoscuro)
Sheinbaum said that the government’s Advisory Council for Regional Economic Development and Relocation is a collaboration with the Business Coordinating Council and “other private sector chambers.”
Sheinbaum reminded reporters that she first presented the initiative during the campaign period leading up to the presidential election in June and noted that the plan is to build industrial corridors that focus on the “productive vocations” of the regions in which they are located.
For example, the priority sectors of a corridor running mainly along the Gulf of Mexico coast will be petrochemicals, fossil fuels, lumber, fruit production and fishing.
Business titan Altagracia Gómez Sierra, the coordinator of the government’s new Advisory Council for Regional Economic Development and Relocation, has been called by Forbes magazine one of the most influential business leaders in Mexico. (Daniel Augusto/Cuartoscuro)
Sheinbaum said that the work of the new advisory council, in conjunction with government ministries, will be to support and promote the various industrial corridor projects “that form part of what we call Plan Mexico.”
“It’s a development plan for the country that represents well-being for Mexicans and sustainability – protection of the environment, in other words,” she said.
In a post to LinkedIn, the CEO of the American Chamber of Commerce of Mexico (AmCham), Pedro Casas Alatriste, announced that AmCham had been invited to join the new advisory council.
“Our mission is ambitious and clear,” he wrote before citing the following objectives.
Attract new investment projects to Mexico.
Foster the growth of local suppliers.
Drive sustainability initiatives.
Boost international academic exchanges.
Strengthen Mexico’s development bank to increase small and medium enterprises’ participation in global trade.
“This council represents an unprecedented opportunity for the public and private sectors to unite for the country’s progress. We’ll work daily toward these objectives and report tangible results to the president every two months,” Casas said.
“… We’re aiming for nothing less than a transformational impact on Mexico’s future. Let’s get to work. This is our moonshot,” he added.
Mexican officials to speak with Trump’s team soon, Sheinbaum hopes
Sheinbaum told reporters that Foreign Affairs Minister Juan Ramón de la Fuente is “already in contact” with members of Trump’s team and suggested that Mexican officials could speak with them in the coming days to discuss the president-elect’s tariff threat and other issues.
She noted that Thanksgiving is coming up, but said that “the idea” is to “communicate” with Trump’s team “in these days.”
Undocumented migrants in Tijuana. After a phone call with Trump on Wednesday, President Sheinbaum told reporters that migration would be on the agenda for an upcoming discussion with Donald Trump, but she didn’t say when that would happen. (Omar Martínez/Cuartoscuro)
Beyond Trump’s pledge to impose a 25% tariff on Mexican exports on the first day of his second term as U.S. president, Sheinbaum said that the two parties would discuss migration, violence and the illegal trafficking of weapons to Mexico.
In response to a subsequent question, the president walked back her suggestion that a meeting with Trump’s team would happen soon.
The “best time” for the meeting “will be found,” she said, adding that it will “ideally” take place before Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20.
Economy Ministry is preparing reciprocal tariffs to impose ‘if necessary’
At her Tuesday morning press conference, Sheinbaum said that U.S. tariffs on Mexican exports would be met by reciprocal tariffs on U.S. exports to Mexico.
On Wednesday, she declined to specify whether Mexican tariffs would apply across the board or target specific U.S. industries or products, only saying that the Economy Ministry was preparing duties to impose “if necessary.”
Sheinbaum once again expressed confidence that Mexico and the United States will reach an agreement to avert the imposition of a 25% blanket tariff on Mexican exports.
Asked about the government’s plan to reduce Mexico’s reliance on imports from China, Sheinbaum stressed that Mexico has “very good relations’ with the east Asian nation and asserted that the government’s objective is simply to “recover” domestic manufacturing capacity that was “lost” over the years.
It’s not a matter of taking a position against China but rather adopting “a policy of national development,” she said.
“It has nothing to do with one nationality or another,” Sheinbaum said.
Mexico favors trade with countries with which it has free trade agreements, but that doesn’t mean goods can’t be imported from other nations, she said.
Despite new tariffs, Mexico's trade surplus with the U.S. increased between April 2024 and April 2025. (Shutterstock)
The American Society of Mexico (Amsoc), a community organization focused on bilateral development, said on Wednesday that “Mexico has the most to lose” if a trade war begins with the U.S.
“Both Mexican and American businessmen do not benefit from any type of action by either the Mexican government or the American government, but I think it is very important that instead of escalating the situation, a common understanding is sought,” Amsoc President Larry Rubin told the media outlet El Financiero.
Larry Rubin, president of the American Society of Mexico. (Eduardo B. Osorio/Wikimedia Commons)
Amsoc’s claim follows U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s pledge this week to impose a 25% tariff on all Mexican and Canadian exports to the United States upon assuming office on Jan. 20.
Trump cited illegal migration and the “flow of fentanyl and other drugs” via Mexico for the decision to impose the tariff on Mexico.
President Claudia Sheinbaum implied on Tuesday that any U.S. tariffs would be met with reciprocal measures on U.S. exports to Mexico and warned that such a scenario would hurt U.S. companies doing business in Mexico.
“Cooperation and reciprocal understanding of these great challenges is needed. To one tariff another will come in response…until we place common companies at risk,” Sheinbaum said in a letter addressed to Trump, which she read out during her morning press conference on Tuesday.
“I believe that dialogue is the best path for understanding, peace and prosperity in our nations. I hope that our teams can meet soon,” she concluded.
Response by Mexico’s private sector
José de Jesús Rodríguez, president of Mexico City’s chamber of commerce organization Canaco, assured attendees of a recent Canaco forum that the U.S. can’t do without Mexico, it’s number-one trade partner. (José de Rodríguez Cardenas/Facebook)
Several private-sector representatives have responded to Trump’s call for tariffs on its North American neighbors, with many stressing the importance of the continuity of the USMCA free trade agreement between the U.S., Mexico and Canada.
“We have to learn to negotiate and talk with our North American suppliers,” President of the National Association of Importers and Exporters of the Mexican Republic (ANIERM) Gerardo Tajonar Castro told El Financiero. “The type of trade war that could arise does not suit us because there would be retaliation from Mexico…”
Meanwhile, Mexico City Chamber of Commerce, Services and Tourism (Canaco) President José de Jesús Rodríguez told attendees of the Canaco Forum that Mexico is the United States’ main commercial partner, “and they [the U.S.] cannot hang themselves.”
“And the problem between China and the United States, which is geopolitical, [is] very complicated,” de Jesús added.
He appealed for calm. “The only alternative they have is Mexico; we are their main supplier, so let’s not lose sight of that,” he said.
Other experts also pointed to the highly intertwined trade relationship between the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
“Trump’s bet is risky since the U.S. economy depends enormously on the Mexican and Canadian markets for its exports, as well as on the inputs from these countries for its industrial production. It is a shot in the foot,” Kenneth Smith Ramos, a former negotiator of the USMCA, told El Financiero.
With 53 days left until Trump takes office, it is unclear if the threat to levy the tariffs is serious or not, or whether the move is an attempt to score an early political win in the ongoing dispute over the U.S.-Mexico border.
Despite President Sheinbaum’s implied threats on Tuesday about imposing retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods she has not given any specifics about how Mexico would respond.
Mexico's Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard said Wednesday that if U.S. President-elect Donald Trump makes good on a threat of a 25% tariff on Mexico, 400,000 U.S. jobs would be lost in the auto industry alone. (PX Media/Shutterstock)
Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard said Wednesday that the United States would be shooting itself in the foot if it imposes a 25% tariff on Mexican exports, as Donald Trump has pledged to do.
Speaking at President Claudia Sheinbaum’s morning press conference, Ebrard said that 400,000 jobs would be lost in the United States if Trump imposes the tariff he threatened to implement in a post to his social media site Truth Social on Monday.
Trump made the threat to immediately implement tariffs on Mexico and Canada upon assuming the U.S. presidency on his social media platform, Truth Social, on Monday (Gage Skidmore/CC BY-SA 2.0)
The U.S. president-elect said that his proposed 25% tariff on Mexican and Canadian imports would be imposed on the first day of his second term and remain in effect “until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country!”
Ebrard highlighted on Wednesday that a 25% tariff on Mexican exports would affect companies in the United States that operate in Mexico, “particularly” automakers that have long had a manufacturing presence here such as General Motors, Stellantis and Ford.
“What [Trump] is saying is, ‘Dear fellows, we are going to impose a tax on the most important North American companies in the world,'” he said.
Ebrard noted that retaliatory tariffs on United States exports – as Sheinbaum said Mexico would impose – would also affect General Motors, Stellantis and Ford because they send auto parts from the U.S. to their plants in Mexico.
“We’re very integrated, we bring some things from the United States, we produce others here, we incorporate them and you see it as a final product,” he said.
Ebrard stressed that a 25% tariff “is a tax” that would have an outsized impact on the auto sector in North America, “whose main exponents are these three large groups from the United States itself.”
According to a new Barclays analysis, Trump’s proposed 25% tariff could effectively “wipe out” all profits for the major auto manufacturing companies General Motors, Ford and Stellantis, all of whom rely on multiple plants in Mexico. (File photo/General Motors México)
“In other words, it’s a shot in the foot,” he said.
“The taxes – I say ‘taxes’ because a tariff is a tax; the 25% proposed tax would have a direct impact on [U.S.] companies because it’s equivalent to doubling the tax on profits,” Ebrard said, referring to the 21% corporate tax rate in the United States.
“In the end,” Ebrard added, a 25% tariff would “affect the consumer in the United States” and “around 400,000 jobs” in the U.S. “would be lost.”
That figure, he explained, is an estimate made by the Economy Ministry after consultation with the auto sector in the United States.
“That is the estimated impact that we’ve been able to calculate between the [tariff] announcement and now,” Ebrard said.
“… The main impact of this measure is on the consumer in the United States and United States companies [including] the three largest of the North American automotive industry. That’s why we say it’s a shot in the foot.”
Analysts at Barclays, Reuters reported, estimate that Trump’s proposed tariff “could wipe out effectively all profits” of General Motors, Stellantis and Ford, known as the “big three” among U.S. automakers.
“While it’s generally understood that a blanket 25% tariff on any vehicles or content from Mexico or Canada could be disruptive, investors underappreciate how disruptive this could be,” the analysts wrote in a note on Tuesday.
Division or the joint construction of a ‘strong, competitive region’?
Ebrard said “there are two options on the table” for Mexico, the United States and Canada, the three signatories to the USMCA free trade pact that is scheduled to be reviewed in 2026.
A migrant caravan of about 2,500 in Tapachula, Chiapas, in early November, heading north toward the United States. (Damián Sánchez/Cuartoscuro)
“We can fragment and divide ourselves with accusations and tariffs – we can do that if we want …or we can together build a strong, competitive region that is prepared to lead the future and compete with other regions,” he said.
Mexico’s objective, “of course,” is to “create a strong region and not conflict and division,” Ebrard said.
The economy minister said that “the proposal that Mexico will prepare to achieve this” will be based on having “regional stability,” ensuring “shared prosperity” and increasing North America’s “global competitiveness.”
“We have to cooperate on security, on migration, on governance, on many issues,” Ebrard said.
Whether the Sheinbaum administration will be prepared to deploy additional monetary and human resources to combat the flow of migrants and drugs to the United States in order to stave off a 25% tariff on its exports remains to be seen, but the government led by former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador agreed to do so when Trump issued a tariff threat in 2019.
In a letter she sent to Trump on Tuesday, Sheinbaum highlighted the efforts Mexico is already making to reduce the number of migrants and the amount of drugs reaching the United States and gave no indication that Mexico was ready and willing to do more.
In January, Mexican officials — including then Foreign Affairs Minister Alicia Bárcena, left — met with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and were told that the U.S. was pleased with Mexico’s efforts to curb illegal migration. (Secretary Antony Blinken/X)
However, Trump is clearly dissatisfied with Mexico’s existing efforts and appears determined to get Mexico to ramp up enforcement against migrants and drug traffickers.
Tonatiuh Guillén, head of Mexico’s National Immigration Institute for the first six months of López Obrador’s six-year term, said earlier this month that the likelihood that Mexico will give in to pressure from Trump, as it did in 2019, is “high.”
With regard to “shared prosperity,” Ebrard said it should be an “objective” of Mexico, the United States and Canada.
Ebrard said that “everything that goes against shared prosperity,” including “unnecessary taxes,” is inadvisable.
“… Tariffs fragment us, hinder the work of industry, cause jobs and competitiveness to be lost,” he said.
“The United States is affected first and foremost, but others are affected as well, Mexico and other partners.”
To increase North America’s global competitiveness, Mexico, the United States and Canada need to “optimize regional supply chains, maintain low costs … and work as a team,” Ebrard said.
“This [idea] has a lot of support in Mexico, in the United States and in Canada as well, and we think it is the correct, intelligent route for the circumstances the world is going through,” he said.
“… So, presidenta, we’re already working on this, on the strategy you gave us,” Ebrard told Sheinbaum.
“And we’re also accelerating conversations with the European Union to finish the modernization of the [trade] agreement with the European Union,” he said, adding that the ministry he leads is also “accelerating agreements with countries such as Brazil.”
National statistics agency INEGI reported that Mexican exports were worth US $57.67 billion in October, a 3.55% increase compared to September. (Andy Li/Unsplash)
Revenue from Mexican exports increased 11.2% annually in October and 4% in the first 10 months of 2024, according to official preliminary data.
The value of Mexican imports has increased 4% so far in 2024. (Cuartoscuro)
Mexico’s export revenue between January and October was $513.38 billion.
The 4% annual increase in the value of exports in the first 10 months of the year – assisted of course by inflation – means that Mexico is on track to have a record-breaking year for export revenue.
The value of Mexico’s imports also increased 4% annually between January and October, reaching $524.03 billion.
Donald Trump has threatened to impose up to 25% tariffs on Mexican goods. (Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons)
The publication of the latest data on Mexico’s exports and imports comes two days after United States President-elect Donald Trump pledged to impose a 25% tariff on all Mexican and Canadian exports to the United States on the first day of his second term as U.S. president.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said that Mexico would retaliate with a reciprocal tariff on U.S. exports to Mexico.
Mexico and the United States are each other’s largest trade partner and can ship products to their neighbor tariff-free under the terms of the USMCA pact. Despite that, Trump has made repeated threats to impose tariffs on Mexican goods until the Mexican government stops or at least significantly stems the flow of migrants and drugs to the United States.
More than 80% of Mexico’s exports go to the United States (see data below).
Exports and imports in October
INEGI’s data shows that 91% of Mexico’s total export revenue in October came from the shipment abroad of manufactured goods.
Manufacturing sector export revenue totaled $52.49 billion, a 13.2% increase compared to October 2023. Auto sector exports generated almost 36% of that revenue, while the remainder came from goods made by other manufacturing sectors. A wide range of manufactured products are made in Mexico including electronics, medical devices, household goods, aerospace equipment, steel and clothes.
The value of Mexico’s agricultural exports increased 3.1% annually in October to reach $1.71 billion, while mining exports surged 57.1% to $1.08 billion.
Oil exports brought in revenue of $2.38 billion, a 24.2% decrease compared to October last year. Mexico is keeping more crude at home as it works toward achieving self-sufficiency for fuel
Oil production saw a US $2.38 billion return last month, though that was 24.2% less than the previous October. (Pemex/X)
The strong year-over-year increase in export revenue in October allowed Mexico to achieve a rare trade surplus last month.
Expenditure on imports increased 9.7% annually to $57.3 billion, leaving Mexico with a trade surplus of $370.8 million.
Mexico’s expenditure on non-oil imports – including non-oil consumer goods, intermediate goods and capital goods – increased 12% compared to October 2023 to reach $54.05 billion, while its outlay on oil imports fell 18.3% to $3.24 billion.
Exports and imports between January and October
Mining exports generated 12.5% more between January and October than in the same period of 2023. (Depositphotos)
Just under 90% of Mexico’s total export revenue in the first 10 months of the year came from products made by the country’s vast manufacturing sector.
Manufactured goods shipped abroad brought in revenue of $461.33 billion, a 5% increase compared to the January-October period of 2023. Just over 35% of that revenue went to Mexico’s auto sector, which includes United States, Asian and European automakers.
Oil exports were worth $23.86 billion between January and October, a 15.2% decrease compared to the same period of 2023, while the value of agricultural exports increased 6.9% to $19.4 billion.
Mexico’s mining sector generated $8.78 billion in export revenue between January and October, a 12.5% increase compared to the first 10 months of last year.
Mexico’s overall export revenue between January and October was $10.64 billion lower than its outlay on imports. The country’s trade deficit was 3.4% higher than in the same period of last year.
Mexico’s expenditure on non-oil imports in the first 10 months of the year increased 7.3% annually to $491.61 billion, while its outlay on oil imports, including gasoline, declined 28.9% to $32.42 billion.
Majority of Mexican exports go to the US
INEGI reported that 84.06% of Mexico’s non-oil export revenue in the first 10 months of 2024 came from products shipped to the United States. Mexico overtook China as the top exporter to the U.S. in 2023 and has maintained that position this year.
Just under 16% of Mexico’s export revenue between January and October came from products shipped to other countries around the world.
The data underscores the importance of the United States as a market for Mexico’s exports. While importers pay tariffs, a 25% tariff on Mexican exports to the United States would have a significant impact on the competitiveness of Mexican products in the U.S. market.
President Sheinbaum said Tuesday that she was confident that Mexico and the United States would reach an agreement to avert Trump’s 25% tariff threat.
“I have a vision that there will be an agreement with the United States and with President Trump,” she said, adding that tariffs would hurt companies in both Mexico and the U.S.
Once upon a time, hundreds of turkeys—each wearing a tiny pair of sandals—would be herded along a 100-kilometer road to Guadalajara. (Canva/Photos by John Pint)
Turkeys wearing traditional huaraches marching through the streets in a giant annual drive? If it sounds like something that could only happen in Mexico, that may be exactly the case.
Is the story true? You be the judge.
Archaeologist Peter Jiménez tells a tale of turkeys in huaraches marching over 100 kilometers from Teúl, Zacatecas, to Guadalajara.
First, let me state that the turkey is very Mexican and it’s likely that the Maya were the first to domesticate it. In Mexico, it is popularly called guajolote, which comes from the Nahuatl “huexólotl,” meaning “old monster,” a rather unkind reference to the male’s looks.
As far as its taste goes, the 16th-century Franciscan missionary and chronicler Bernardino de Sahagún wrote “It has the best meat of all the birds; it is the master. It is tasty, fat, savory.”
That oh-so-tasty bird has been raised in great numbers in Mexico for at least two millennia, creating a special relationship between humans and these birds. One unforgettable episode of that relationship was told to me by archaeologist Peter Jiménez, who spent many years studying and unearthing the celebrated ruins of the Cerro de Teúl archaeological site, located immediately adjacent to the city of Teúl, Zacatecas.
At first, I thought Jiménez was pulling my leg, but the basic facts of the story which appears below have been confirmed by the municipal historian of Teúl, Ezequiel Ávila, as well as other sources.
The Black Cave
Don Ezequiel Ávila, historian of Teúl, Zacatecas, at the entrance to La Cueva Prieta where turkey drovers would overnight their birds on the long march to Guadalajara. (John Pint)
“In 1984, when I was just a kid studying archaeology in Zacatecas,” Jiménez told me, “we did a tour through the state with the then-Governor of Zacatecas, José Guadalupe Cervantes.”
“One of the most beautiful parts of our visit was the drive through the southern part of the state which is filled with deep canyons. Approaching Teúl, we drove past a large and imposing cave, visible from the highway. It’s called La Cueva Prieta (the Black Cave) and it has a waterfall over its entrance. So I made a comment to the governor: ‘That looks like a great place to excavate for pre-historic remains.’”
The governor smiled, but one of his party, a member of his cabinet, who was sitting next to Jiménez, spoke up: “Well, if you ever dig there, you’re probably going to find 20 or 30 centimeters of turkey guano.”
“Why?” asked Jiménez.
“Because, back when we used to move turkeys from Florencia, near Teúl, over to Guadalajara on foot, that was one of the caves where we would rest the turkeys and where we would all sleep during the night,” the man replied.
“What?” said Jiménez.
Down the canyon to Guadalajara
Don Ezequiel Ávila, historian of Teúl, Zacatecas, inside La Cueva Prieta where turkey drovers would overnight their birds on the long march to Guadalajara. (John Pint)
His informant’s eyes lit up. “Yes,” he said, laughing, “My father used to raise turkeys during the year, in Florencia, and come the fall, we’d move them off to Guadalajara because there was a thriving tianguis there; so we had to walk those turkeys from here in Teúl ten days down the canyon and across the Rio Santiago and back up into Guadalajara to the market.”
Jiménez looked at him: “Wow, I can’t believe that!”
Oh yes,” the cabinet member insisted. “We had measured distances of how much of a journey we’d make every day and where we’d camp at night. Now, caves were really good because we’d put the turkeys inside and then we’d build a number of fires around the outside and one of us would stay awake at night, while the rest of us slept, just to keep the coyotes and the pumas and the lynxes from the turkeys.”
Jiménez said, “That’s an incredible story.”
Leather huaraches for each turkey
His informant went on: “When I was a kid, all my friends would be playing marbles or soccer, but my daily chore every afternoon was to go home and cut little forms out of a huge piece of leather to make a pair of huaraches for every guajolote and each of these shoes would be held on by a little piece of wire.”
Huaraches are the classic sandal of Mexico, manufactured since pre-colonial times. Originally made entirely of leather, modern huaraches often use pieces of car tires as soles.
The cabinet member explained the reason behind the shoes. “You see, a turkey can’t walk great distances. Their feet are very delicate. If they’re going to walk for two weeks to Guadalajara, they need some assistance. So my chore was to make little huaraches for every turkey.”
“Okay, just how many turkeys are we talking about?” Jimenez asked.
The great turkey drive
“Well,” replied the man, “we would raise 200 here in Florencia, and we’d buy another hundred in Fresnillo and walk them down here. Then we’d finally start the great turkey drive to Guadalajara.”
The Mayans were likely the first to domesticate the turkey. The Spaniards took them to Europe and the Turks were soon raising them and exporting them to England, where people took to calling them “Turkey birds” … and the name stuck. (Redblakmonster after the Laud Codex)
“Since I was the youngest, I had to walk behind that big gaggle of turkeys, picking up huaraches which had come off, go find the bird that lost them, and put their shoes back on.”
Jiménez stared at him: “Sir, that is a great story, but it sounds like malarkey. I can’t believe it!”
His informant simply replied: “Come to my office on Monday.”
A few days later, Jiménez went to Zacatecas city, to the official’s office, arriving in the early afternoon.
“Come on in,” said the cabinet member’s secretary. “He’s been waiting for you.”
Jiménez walked into the man’s office and was offered a chair.
“So,” recalled Jiménez, “I sat down in front of his desk and he opened a drawer and pulled out a photograph, all sepia tones, of himself as a little kid, holding in his hand two little pairs of huaraches and behind him something like a hundred turkeys.
“Okay, okay,” said Jiménez, “I surrender!”
John Pint has lived near Guadalajara, Jalisco, for more than 30 years and is the author of A Guide to West Mexico’s Guachimontones and Surrounding Area and co-author of Outdoors in Western Mexico. More of his writing can be found on his website.
