President Sheinbaum and Health Minister David Kershenobich display to the press a graphic describing some of the features of the Ebola virus, including the fact that it is transmitted through contact, not by air, and that no vaccine or treatment as yet exists for it.
(Galo Cañas/Cuartoscuro)
Mexico has issued an Ebola-based travel advisory due to an active Ebola outbreak in Central Africa that the World Health Organization has classified as an international emergency.
While the advisory is meant especially for people traveling to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, where the outbreak has been most severe, the Health Ministry (SSA) is urging all travelers to exercise epidemiological vigilance and caution.
In the past week, Health Minister David Kershenobich has penned a health warning for the hantavirus and a travel advisory for the Ebola virus, but at the same time, assured Mexicans that there are no confirmed cases of either one in the country and the probability of a local outbreak is very low. (Gaolo Cañas/Cuartoscuro)
“Given that this is an event with a risk of international spread, it is important to consider that travelers could be exposed not only to potentially sick people, but also to other health risks present in the affected areas,” the SSA said.
While authorities have stressed that there are no confirmed cases in Mexico to date and the overall risk of contagion abroad is low, individual risk depends on recent travel history, length of stay and exposure in areas with active transmission and contact with sick people or contaminated materials.
The Bundibugyo Ebola variant of the virus is deadly. No specific vaccine or approved treatment exists for the disease it causes.
The SSA has said that transmission occurs through direct contact with blood, secretions, or contaminated objects, not by air like COVID-19 or influenza. The incubation period varies between two and 21 days and timely identification and isolation of symptomatic individuals significantly reduces the risk of transmission.
Furthermore, the SSA has warned travelers that if they experience fever, severe weakness, headache, muscle pain, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain and/or unexplained bleeding within 21 days of their return, they should avoid self-medication, proceed to immediate isolation and inform health authorities via telephone of their travel history.
Health authorities have stressed that due to international mobility and global air connectivity, they maintain epidemiological surveillance for emerging diseases of international concern.
Just last week, Mexico issued a preventive hantavirus alert following the confirmation of a hantavirus outbreak on May 2 onboard an international cruise ship sailing the South Atlantic Ocean.
As with Ebola, hantavirus has no approved antiviral treatment.
Beer sales are seen as contirbuting as much as 65% of the economic windfall during the World Cup tournament in Mexico, with sales increasinfg by almost 10% in the World Cup host cities of Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey. (Unsplash)
Of all the factors that will contribute to Mexico’s expected economic windfall from co-hosting the upcoming World Cup, beer seems to be the clear champion.
According to a recent report from Deloitte, the leading multinational professional services firm, beer sales will account for between 55% and 65% of total spending related to the World Cup.
The increased demand will require logistical adjustments by the breweries, such as increasing delivery trucks by 25% (Facebook)
According to Deloitte, beer sales in the host cities of Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey could increase by up to 9.9% during the tournament, which translates to triple the usual profit the brewing industry experiences in that period in years without sporting events of the World Cup’s magnitude.
The increase will be driven both by increased consumption by locals and the arrival of thirsty international visitors.
In Mexico, per capita beer consumption reaches 68 liters annually, positioning the industry as a significant economic driver within the manufacturing and agribusiness sectors.
Given that the World Cup’s focus is on sectors like tourism and hospitality, beer sales will bring an important retail opportunity. But they also present a challenge because wholesalers must achieve the logistical capacity to supply extraordinary demand in record time, logistics company Chep said, citing data from Deloitte.
The Chep report further warns that logistics costs in urban areas could increase by up to 30% due to city congestion and mobility restrictions. Brewing companies may need to increase their logistics assets, such as pallets and transport units, by up to 25% to avoid shortages during peak demand weeks.
“Events of this magnitude demonstrate that the challenge is not only to move more product, but to do so more efficiently, in a coordinated and sustainable way,” Giovanni Mirabent, Chep’s Country General Manager for Mexico and Key Accounts for Latin America said. “Logistics becomes a key enabler for responding to peak demand without compromising operations.”
Overall, Deloitte anticipates that the 2026 FIFA World Cup will contribute US $2.73 billion in added value — equivalent to 0.14% of Mexico’s GDP — and will generate 112,200 temporary jobs, representing 0.19% of total employment in Mexico.
The most benefited industries will include the food service, hospitality and transportation sectors.
In ordering a work suspension to allow for further impact studies, President Sheinbaum expressed concern that Royal Caribbean's "Perfect Day" water park project would alter Mahahual's "very important ecological balance, particularly for the reefs.” (Greenpeace Mexico)
President Claudia Sheinbaum has ordered a fresh environmental review of Royal Caribbean’s Perfect Day Mexico water park planned for Mahahual, Quintana Roo, amid mounting protests on the coast and in Mexico City.
Sheinbaum said Monday she instructed the Environment Ministry (Semarnat) and its head, Alicia Bárcena, to scrutinize the megaproject after weeks of demonstrations by residents, environmentalists and online activists.
Royal Caribbean’s plan to bring 30 waterslides, 12 eateries, 24 bars and the “world’s largest sombrero” to an area now occupied by a tiny fishing village, coral reefs and mangrove forests has generated protests from within and well beyond Mexico. (Mario Jasso/Cuartoscuro)
Royal Caribbean, the multibillion-dollar cruise ship giant, is pushing ahead on the massive park, which it wants to open in phases starting in late 2027 as its own private cruise-ship playground on Mexico’s Caribbean coast.
“We must not do anything that affects that area, which has a very important ecological balance, particularly for the reefs,” Sheinbaum said at her morning press conference, according to Infobae.
“In any case,” she added, “the project can be moved to another area of Quintana Roo that does not have so many impacts on the area.”
The review comes as the environmental group Sélvame MX is calling for a peaceful march on Thursday outside Semarnat’s offices in Mexico City to demand the project’s cancellation.
Protesters are being urged to bring banners and “energy to remind [government officials] that Mahahual is not for sale.” Greenpeace has already hung a banner at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in the capital denouncing the project and warning of an “environmental tragedy” if it goes ahead.
Opposition has spread beyond traditional green groups. Fans of K‑pop group BTS and singer Taylor Swift have launched social media campaigns, circulating Change.org petitions and slogans such as “Mahahual needs us” and “Our love for BTS can also change the world.”
Mahahual is a small fishing community of fewer than 3,000 people on the southern Caribbean coast that sits beside the Mesoamerican Reef System, the world’s second‑largest coral reef, and mangrove forests that act as a natural hurricane barrier and major carbon sink.
Activists warn the park — planned to open in phases from late 2027 and receive up to 20,000 daily visitors — would damage more than 90 hectares of jungle and mangroves and threaten endangered species, including jaguars and sea turtles.
The park reportedly would include more than 30 waterslides, the world’s longest “lazy river,” three beaches with cabanas and water sports options, and roughly 12 eateries and 24 bars — including the Tipsy Sombrero Bar in the Fiesta Plaza arrival area that Royal Caribbean says will be adorned by the “world’s largest sombrero.”
Rocha and nine other defendants are facing charges by the United States of conspiracy with the Sinaloa Cartel. (Galo Cañas/Cuartoscuro)
The federal government’s Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) has blocked the bank accounts of Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rocha Moya and nine other current and former officials accused of drug trafficking by U.S. prosecutors in an indictment that was unsealed on April 29.
President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Monday that the UIF acted after Mexican banks took “a series of measures” related to the accounts of Rocha and the nine other officials accused of colluding with the Sinaloa Cartel. Mexican media first reported last week that the defendants’ accounts had been frozen.
Claudia Sheinbaum afirmó que será la UIF la que detalle las razones del congelamiento de cuentas de Rubén Rocha Moya y otras personas con órdenes de aprehensión en Estados Unidos.
La presidenta aclaró que la Unidad de Inteligencia Financiera no abrió una investigación propia o… pic.twitter.com/VSYAHYtcKL
— Aristegui Noticias (@AristeguiOnline) May 19, 2026
On Monday, Sheinbaum said that “since there is an arrest warrant in the United States for 10 individuals, banks here, because they have relationships with banks there, take a series of measures, and the UIF automatically takes preventive action.”
She said that the UIF would issue a statement explaining that its freezing of the accounts of the people accused of drug trafficking in the United States was the result of “automatic mechanisms” that are triggered in such cases.
In its statement, the UIF said that additions to the “List of Blocked Persons” were of a “strictly preventive nature” and due to “reports issued by institutions of the Mexican financial system.”
“These reports … stemmed from allegations made by U.S. authorities and disseminated publicly,” said the UIF, which is part of the federal Finance Ministry.
“Consequently, Mexican banks, which maintain correspondent banking relationships with U.S. financial institutions, issued alerts regarding customers considered to be Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) in accordance with their compliance and monitoring procedures,” the statement said.
“Based on these bank reports, … the UIF carried out a preventive freeze in order to protect the integrity of the national financial system.”
The UIF said that “these measures don’t constitute a definitive determination nor do they imply a finding of liability.”
Rather, they are “preventive actions of an administrative nature,” the agency said.
The UIF also said that “the people included on the List of Blocked Persons have access to defense mechanisms and guarantees provided under applicable legislation, including the exercise of the right to a hearing.”
In addition, it said that it was analyzing a range of “information and documentation” related to the politically exposed persons included on the List of Blocked Persons.
According to the U.S. indictment, Rocha and the nine other defendants participated in a conspiracy with the Sinaloa Cartel to “import massive amounts of fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine from Mexico into the United States.”
“Among other things, the defendants have shielded Cartel leaders from investigation, arrest, and prosecution; caused sensitive law enforcement and military information to be provided to members of the Cartel and allied drug traffickers to assist the Cartel’s criminal activities; directed members of state and local law enforcement agencies … to protect drug loads stored in and transiting through Mexico to the United States; and allowed brutal drug-related violence to be committed by members of the Cartel without consequence,” the indictment states.
“In exchange, the defendants have collectively received millions of dollars in drug money from the Cartel,” it says.
Rocha and other accused officials, including a Morena party federal senator and the mayor of Culiacán, have rejected the accusations against them. Mexican authorities have said there is currently insufficient evidence against the defendants to warrant their arrest for the purpose of extradition.
Rocha and various other suspects are affiliated with Morena, the party founded by former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and which backed Sheinbaum at the 2024 presidential election.
Milenio: UIF investigating companies linked to Rocha’s sons
“The noose is tightening around Rubén Rocha Moya, the governor of Sinaloa who is currently on leave,” the newspaper wrote.
“In addition to having his accounts frozen, the Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) yesterday began reviewing all financial transactions involving his son’s companies, according to requests within the national banking system to which Milenio had access.”
Milenio said that companies linked to Rocha’s sons are suspected of carrying out “operations of financial triangulation and money laundering.”
Those companies include construction firms, a market research firm and an agricultural business.
The newspaper Reforma published a similar report on Sunday, writing that the UIF was looking at “possible money laundering operations, financial triangulation and the use of companies” linked to Rocha’s family.
Reforma reported that the bank accounts of the governor’s sons have also been blocked.
“The freezing of accounts ordered by the Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) is no longer limited to former officials and security commanders accused in U.S. investigations, but has extended to the ex-governor’s children,” the newspaper wrote, specifically mentioning Rubén, Ricardo and Jose Jesús, three of Rocha Moya’s four children.
(Rocha’s also has a daughter, Eneyda Rocha Ruiz, who is president of the DIF family services agency in Sinaloa.)
Citing letters sent by the National Banking and Securities Commission on May 6, Reforma said that the UIF wasn’t just required to add the 10 people accused of drug trafficking by U.S. prosecutors to the List of Blocked Persons, but family members of the governor as well.
The creation of Germán Valdés, Tin Tan became a movie star and Mexico's first binational icon. (IMDb)
In Mexico, the first binational icon may be the mestizo: 500 years of cultural collision condensed into what Octavio Paz once called a contradictory soul. But there are many Mexicos, and one that rarely makes it into English-language coverage is that of the pachucos — young Mexicans in Los Angeles who appropriated U.S. slang and style on their own terms. The pachuco was everything official Mexico preferred not to see: despised by the upper classes, nothing like the charro masculinity of Jorge Negrete or Pedro Infante, and a world away from the cosmopolitan chilangos of mid-century Mexico City.
One actor changed how that figure was seen and, alongside Cantinflas, became a pillar of Mexican comedy: Germán Valdés, better known as Tin Tan. Dressed in an oversized zoot suit and singing in a jazz-inflected cadence, he exploded onto the screen shouting, “¡Ya llegó su pachucote!” What he announced, without quite knowing it, was a future that looks a lot like our present: the binational, border-born self.
Like Mario Moreno with Cantinflas, Germán Valdés became famous by portraying the character of Tin Tan. (Héctor García/Wikimedia Commons)
A binational legacy
Germán Genaro Cipriano Gómez Valdés y Castillo was born in Mexico City on September 19, 1915: his mother was from Aguascalientes; his father, Rafael, was a customs agent whose work would carry the family north.
Rafael was first posted to Veracruz and then, in 1931, to Ciudad Juárez. Germán was sixteen. He arrived at the border just as a generation of young people on both sides was inventing something new: a hybrid culture stitched together from Mexican migration, African American jazz, Hollywood swagger and Depression-era poverty. Historians would later call them the “Mexican American generation.” On the street, they called themselves pachucos.
Germán took to it immediately. A poor student pushed to work, he was hired as a janitor at XEJ, the local radio station. One afternoon, alone in the studio, as the legend goes, he began imitating the announcers for his own amusement, unaware that the microphone was live. Station owner Pedro Mesenes heard him and turned the janitor into an on-air personality.
In 1943, impresario Paco Miller arrived in Juárez with a traveling company. When one of his comedians suddenly quit, Miller heard Tin Tan on the radio and hired him almost immediately.
Pachucos under suspicion
Pachucos were young, mostly working-class Mexican Americans who emerged in border cities in the 1930s and 1940s. Influenced by Black jazz culture, they wore zoot suits — oversized jackets with padded shoulders, baggy trousers pegged at the ankle, wide-brimmed hats, two-tone shoes — popularized by performers like Cab Calloway and adopted by Mexican American youth as a visible statement of identity and refusal. They spoke a slang that blended Spanish, English and their own inventions: a kind of early Spanglish that dominant cultures on both sides of the border found incomprehensible and vaguely menacing. In the eyes of two nations, they were simultaneously the wrong kind of Mexican and the wrong kind of American.
In June 1943 — just as Germán was preparing to leave Juárez with Miller’s troupe — the Zoot Suit Riots exploded in Los Angeles. White U.S. servicemen, with the tacit cooperation of the LAPD, attacked Mexican American youths, stripping them of their suits and beating them. The Mexican government, allied with the United States during the Second World War, struggled to respond.
From punchline to protagonist
Tin Tan was not a parody of a pachuco, but the pachuco as a hero of his own story. (Asociación Nacional de Actores/Wikimedia Commons)
Other comedians had already dressed up as pachucos, but only to mock them, using the slur pocho to mark their distance from “real” Mexicans. In their hands, the pachuco was a walking punchline.
Tin Tan inverted the formula. He didn’t perform the pachuco as a caricature; he played him as a protagonist — sly, charming, musically gifted, romantically successful and linguistically inventive. He was the hero of his own story. That, more than the zoot suit or the slang, is what scandalized cultural nationalists. José Vasconcelos — one of the architects of post-revolutionary national identity — denounced such foreign influences. To mix Spanish with English, to dress in foreign clothes and dance to foreign music, was, for him, a betrayal of the patria.
Octavio Paz, writing in “The Labyrinth of Solitude,” was more sophisticated but no kinder. For Paz, the pachuco was a figure of negation, defined by his refusal to belong to either culture that had produced him. His defiance was a kind of self-humiliation: “Su voluntad era la de no ser” — their will was not to be.
It’s one of Paz’s most quoted observations and also one of his most incomplete. Paz was looking at pachucos from the outside, as pathology. Tin Tan had grown up among them in Ciudad Juárez; he knew them as friends and neighbors, and carried that sensibility into Mexican mass culture with a generosity Paz, writing from California, could not see.
A radically modern way of being funny
On set, he improvised constantly, pushing directors to give him space “to do and undo” as he pleased. As critic Carlos Monsiváis noted, he didn’t leave a single word in peace: he twisted, stretched and jazzed the language until it broke into something new. He did the same with the camera — in an era when most actors behaved as if the audience were sealed off in the dark, Tin Tan looked straight into the lens, treating it as another character and the audience as an accomplice. The effect feels surprisingly modern: a proto-YouTube directness in the middle of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema.
Five films as an entry point
Tin Tan made more than 100 films. A handful are enough to open the door:
The Valdés brothers in 1958, with Germán at the far left. (Secretaría de Cultura de la Ciudad de México)
“El hijo desobediente”: His first leading role, and the debut of actress Marga López. Watch it to see him still working out the character.
“Calabacitas tiernas”: Directed by Gilberto Martínez Solares — his most important collaborator — this 1949 film is the one that made him a star.
“El rey del barrio”: If you only watch one Tin Tan film, make it this one. He plays a railway worker by day and the leader of a hopeless band of thieves by night, a Robin Hood of the vecindad whose schemes collapse with the elegance of a Buster Keaton routine. This is widely regarded as one of the great achievements of Mexican cinema.
“El ceniciento”: A 1951 parody of Cinderella featuring one of the most joyful dance sequences of his career, set to Beny Moré’s “Dónde estabas tú.”
“El revoltoso”: A meddlesome shoeshine boy gets entangled in a plot that lands his girlfriend in jail — a reminder that Tin Tan’s characters lived in the barrio, fought for the barrio and never aspired to leave it.
The other voice you already know
Almost every Mexican parent eventually learns a small, delightful fact: Tin Tan is the Spanish-language voice of Baloo in Disney’s “The Jungle Book“ (1967) and of Thomas O’Malley in “The Aristocats” (1970). Listen to Baloo singing “Busca lo más vital” and you’ll hear it immediately — the rasp, the swing, the way he hangs slightly behind the beat, turning “vital” into a word that carries an entire philosophy of life. This is why Mexicans of a certain age sometimes become unexpectedly emotional during an old Disney cartoon. They’re not crying about a bear. They’re remembering Tin Tan.
A legacy that took its time
Tin Tan died on June 29, 1973, at age 57, from complications related to cirrhosis and pancreatic cancer. He left no fortune. One of the few formal honors he received in his lifetime was the Virginia Fábregas Medal, awarded for 25 years of professional service.
The rest came later. Today, the verb tintanear circulates in Mexican Spanish alongside Mario Moreno’s cantinflear. Where cantinflear means to talk in circles and say nothing, tintanear is its opposite: to express everything by mobilizing every available resource. Tin Tan was not corrupting Spanish; he was expanding it. Words he popularized — chido, chale, carnal, nel, ya sábanas — are now so embedded in Mexican Spanish that removing them would feel like amputating the language itself.
And that hybrid border identity Paz once treated as a symptom? It has quietly become the dominant cultural reality of a continent. Around 37 million people of Mexican descent live in the United States. Spanglish is the everyday language of an enormous demographic. Zoot suits hang in museums; pachucos are studied in Chicano Studies departments; the grandchildren of those young men beaten in Los Angeles in 1943 now run cities, write novels and win Oscars.
On a Saturday night in a dance hall in Tepito, you can still find men in their seventies and eighties wearing zoot suits and two-tone shoes. Ask them where the look came from and they won’t say Los Angeles or Cab Calloway. They’ll say: Tin Tan.
That, in its way, is the deepest kind of immortality — when a person’s name stops referring only to him and starts referring to a way of being in the world. And for the record: in 2026, Tin Tan has more monthly Spotify listeners than Sammy Davis Jr. — 710,700 to 636,500. The pachucos, it seems, are still very much alive in the algorithm.
Maria Meléndez writes for Mexico News Daily in Mexico City.
According to the government's plan, 6,364 of the new beds — around 70% of the total — will be in 50 new hospitals that have been built or will be built during Sheinbaum's presidency. (Saúl López Escorcia/Presidencia)
Sheinbaum’s mañanera in 60 seconds
🏥 9,000+ hospital beds planned: Deputy Health Minister Eduardo Clark announced the government intends to add 9,139 public hospital beds by 2030, spread across new and expanded facilities, at an estimated cost of 181 billion pesos.
⚖️ Zero extraditions from U.S. to Mexico: Foreign Affairs Minister Velasco said that since 2018, Mexico has made 269 extradition requests to the U.S., but none have been fulfilled. He said that 33 requests were denied and 233 still pending — context the government is using to push back on U.S. pressure to extradite Sinaloa Governor Rocha Moya and other officials accused of collusion with the Sinaloa Cartel.
🔄 Reciprocity demanded on serious cases: Sheinbaum pressed the U.S. to explain why none of the 269 requests have been honored, saying that those sought include ex-governors, organized crime figures, fake invoice brokers and suspects linked to the 2014 Ayotzinapa case.
Why today’s mañanera matters
At President Claudia Sheinbaum’s Tuesday morning press conference, the federal government once again sought to demonstrate that asking for proof (or additional proof) against a person that the United States wants Mexico to extradite, or vice versa, is not an unusual practice.
Mexican authorities have requested proof against the suspects from their U.S. counterparts, asserting that, as things stand, there is insufficient evidence to warrant the arrest of Rocha and the other defendants who remain in Mexico.
Also of note at today’s mañanera was the announcement of a plan to add more than 9,000 beds to public hospitals in Mexico before Sheinbaum leaves office in 2030.
Government aiming to add over 9,000 hospital beds by 2030
Deputy Health Minister Eduardo Clark announced that the federal government intends to increase the number of public hospital beds in Mexico by 9,139 during its six-year term (October 2024 to September 2030).
According to the government’s plan, 6,364 of the new beds — around 70% of the total — will be in 50 new hospitals that have been built or will be built during Sheinbaum’s presidency.
Clark said that 47 public hospitals will be expanded to allow the installation of 1,001 new beds, while 1,774 extra beds will be installed in 55 other hospitals.
If the government succeeds in adding 9,139 new beds during its six-year term, the total number of beds in public hospitals across Mexico will increase to 106,105 in 2030 from 96,966 in 2024.
Clark said that the plan to add more than 9,000 new hospital beds in new and expanded hospitals will cost an estimated 181 billion pesos (US $10.4 billion) between 2024 and 2030.
He presented data that showed that 5,308 public hospital beds were added during the six-year term of former President Felipe Calderón (2006-12), while 3,906 beds were added during the presidency of Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-18). During Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s presidency (2018-24), the number of public hospital beds increased by 7,404.
If 9,139 beds are added during Sheinbaum’s term, the number of public hospital beds added in the 12 years between 2018 and 2030 will be 80% higher than the number added in the 12 years when Calderón and Peña Nieto were in office.
Velasco: Since 2018, Mexico has asked US to extradite 269 people; None have been sent to Mexico
Foreign Affairs Minister Roberto Velasco told reporters that between Jan. 1, 2018, and May 13, 2026, Mexico asked the United States to extradite 269 people. However, none of those people has been sent to Mexico, Velasco said.
Foreign Affairs Minister Roberto Velasco made a case for greater reciprocity in extraditions from the United States to Mexico, saying it is a “common practice” between the countries. (Saúl López Escorcia/Presidencia)
He said that 36 extradition requests were denied, while 233 are “still pending completion.”
Velasco said that in 47 of 50 outstanding cases in which Mexico requested the provisional arrest of people in the United States for the purpose of extradition, U.S. authorities asked for “additional information.”
“In other words, it’s a common practice between the two countries,” he said.
Velasco presented information about some of the people that Mexico has asked the U.S. to arrest for the purpose of extradition. Among them are suspects wanted in connection withthe 2014 abduction and presumed murder of 43 students in Guerrero (the Ayotzinapa case). Velasco highlighted that the United States rejected a request for the extradition of a man wanted in connection with an embezzlement case because the crime he allegedly committed was not a violent one.
Sheinbaum: ‘Why haven’t they handed anyone over?’
Sheinbaum emphasized that the United States hasn’t fulfilled any of the 269 extradition requests Mexico has made since 2018.
“They haven’t sent anyone,” she said.
Sheinbaum said that Mexico has requested the extradition of people in connection with “extremely serious cases.”
She said those people include factureros (fake invoice brokers), ex-governors, people accused of organized crime and people linked to the Ayotzinapa case.
“There has been no handover of any of these alleged criminals to Mexico,” Sheinbaum said.
“What does Mexico always ask for? … Reciprocity. Why haven’t they handed anyone over?” asked the president, whose government has sent over 90 organized crime figures to the U.S. in three large transfers that took place inJanuary 2026,August 2025 andFebruary 2025.
Party like a local or ride a bike naked, Guadalajara is offering some unique local experiences over the next month. (Roman López/Unsplash)
Early next month, the global spotlight will shine on Guadalajara as the FIFA World Cup kicks off on the city’s west side. As we look ahead to an action-packed month here in La Perla Tapatia, there are plenty of upcoming events and ways to keep busy, even if you don’t have plans to enjoy the matches.
World Naked Bike Ride back in Guadalajara on June 13
(World Naked Bike Ride Guadalajara/Facebook)
Hundreds of people will once again take to the streets of the city during the World Naked Bike Ride (WNBR) Guadalajara, scheduled for June 13.
More than just a bike ride, the WNBR is an international movement that seeks to raise awareness about the need to respect cyclists and the vulnerability of those who travel by bike in urban settings.
According to Miguel Asa, one of the Guadalajara event’s organizers, the ride is held as a challenge to car culture and the damage it does to both the human body and our environment.
“What we are looking for is for people on the street to question and criticize the excessive use of automobiles, to promote the use of means such as bicycles, to reflect on the way we move, because a large part of the city is built for cars, and there is little space for cyclists,” he said.
Riding naked also serves as a metaphor for the exposure and fragility that many cyclists face daily in Guadalajara’s perennially traffic-choked streets.
As in previous years, attendees can participate partially or completely naked. As the locals say, “Tápate lo que quieras, destápate lo que puedas.” (Cover up what you want, uncover what you can).
If this is your first ride, here are some recommendations:
Stay well-hydrated and use sunscreen
Carry only what you need
Report any disrespectful behavior or photographic abuse
When: The ride takes place on June 13 Where: Departs from Plaza José Clemente Orozco. Gathering begins at 9 a.m. The ride kicks off at 11 a.m. Cost: Free
Echoes Festival gets its fourth turn — in a new location
(Concerty)
Guadalajara’s only homegrown indie music festival is returning for the fourth time next month, in what’s being branded as its World Cup edition.
Headlining this one-day event will be Australia’s five-piece electropop band Parcels, known for their infectious, danceable beats. For a sample, check out their hit, Tieduprightnow.
Also scheduled to perform at Echoes Festival is French musician Darius (a DJ set), Guadalajara’s own Babas Tutsipop, and another special guest to be announced shortly.
This year’s event takes place at the University of Guadalajara Cultural Center in north Zapopan. For additional details check the event’s social media.
Where: Plaza Bicentenario within the Centro Cultural Universitario in north Zapopan. When: June 19, 2026, from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. Tickets: Available from Boletomovil for 1,680 pesos, excluding fees.
100 cats descend on Zapopan in new MAZ exhibit
It isn’t just the internet that’s obsessed with cats: Local artist Cecilia Rébora recently launched her “Cien Gatos” (100 Cats) exhibition at the Zapopan Museum of Art (MAZ) in Zapopan’s Centro.
The show, created especially for children, features illustrations, prints, and pieces inspired by cats of all kinds. The exhibit is interactive, with visitors encouraged to draw their own cat on a collaborative mural inside the gallery.
The six-week exhibit runs throughout the month of May. There will also be special activities tied to the exhibition inside the museum.
Cecilia Rébora is an illustrator from Guadalajara who specializes in children’s and young adult literature. Her work draws on references from classic stories such as ”Alice in Wonderland,” ”Puss in Boots,” and “The Black Cat.”
When: April 25 – July 5, 2026 Where: Zapopan Art Museum (MAZ),open Tues–Sun from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., with the museum staying open on Thursdays until 10 p.m.Closed Mondays. Cost: Free admission
OCESA shares plan for revamp of Guadalajara’s 3 de Marzo stadium
(Tecos FC)
One thing that has differentiated Guadalajara from Mexico City (CDMX) in recent years has been Guadalajara’s lack of large-scale, world-class outdoor entertainment venues. This has prevented the area’s local entertainment promoter OCESA, from consistently staging high-profile shows on par with the Corona Capital festival in CDMX.
Fortunately, this infrastructure gap is narrowing with the recent announcement that the Estadio 3 de Marzo, on the campus of the Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara (UAG) in Zapopan, will be converted into a modern entertainment venue, to be known going forward as the Coliseo GNP Seguros.
The 55-year-old stadium has previously welcomed top acts such as Shakira, Lady Gaga, and Justin Bieber, but it currently serves primarily as a sports venue for UAG’s collegiate soccer team.
New plans call for the space to be converted into a top-tier venue capable of hosting massive tours and concerts, establishing it as a “strategic hub within the global entertainment circuit,” according to OCESA.
The renovation will see a nearly 60% bump in capacity, holding up to 30,000 people. In the new layout, the stage is being incorporated into the building’s structure, freeing up space for general admission and hospitality areas, luxury boxes, and additional seating.
Backstage dressing rooms, production offices, and service spaces are also being added.
The entrance plaza is also being redesigned to improve access and crowd flow, with accessibility for the disabled (which doesn’t exist today). A new roof will also help to weatherproof the space.
Among the first artists scheduled to perform at the revamped facility are Spanish-language musical acts Alejandro Sanz, Yuridia, Auténticos Decadentes, Caligaris, and Panteón Rococó.
When the work is completed, the GNP Seguros Coliseum — coming on the heels of the recently opened 20,000-capacity Arena Guadalajara on the north side of Zapopan — should help expand the city’s live entertainment schedule.
MND Writer Dawn Stoner is reporting from Guadalajara.
The El Cruce open water swimming compeition, considered one of the most important such events in the world, brought more than 1,600 swimmers to the Quintana Roo coast from more than 20 countries. (Mara Lezama)
Mexico’s world-renowned open water swimming competition known as El Cruce attracted 1,638 participants from 21 countries over the weekend, but at the end of the day, two local Quintana Roo athletes took home the honors.
Fernando Betanzos Rodríguez and María Elena Carreto Castro were crowned men’s and women’s winners of the 10-km competition on Sunday, the main event that took swimmers through the Caribbean Sea from Playa Caracol in Cancún to Isla Mujeres.
Patty Kohlmann, a swimmer who competed in two Olympic Games for Mexico, said El Cruce is an “emblematic swim,” a true test of endurance, strategy, and adaptation to ocean currents. (Mara Lezama)
Patty Kohlmann, a Mexican former female freestyle and medley swimmer who participated in two consecutive Summer Olympics for Mexico starting in 1984, described El Cruce (the Crossing) as a true test of endurance, strategy and adaptation to ocean currents.
“The Cruce competition is a must,” Kohlmann said about the competition on her personal Instagram account. “I believe that all open water swimmers must do it at some point because it’s an emblematic swim. It’s a swim that’s been prestigious for many years.”
She’s not alone in her opinion. El Cruce is considered by the World Open Water Swimming Association to be among the 10 most important open water swims in the world due to the physical demands of the course and the natural beauty of the turquoise waters.
Swimmers competed in 13 different categories across the competition. In addition to the 10-km swim, a Half Iron Swim (1.9 km) and an Iron Swim (3.8 km) were held on Saturday.
Quintana Roo Governor Mara Lezama Espinosa opened the 21st edition of the competition after a Maya ceremony was held as part of the traditional event.
In addition to establishing Quintana Roo as a major sporting destination, El Cruce is a significant economic and tourism driver for the state, attracting athletes, coaches, families and visitors from around the world.
Kohlmann said that the competition is particularly difficult because conditions can change dramatically from one day to the next, meaning that you must always be prepared for what might come. She emphasized the importance of the swimmers’ strategy and the ability to adapt their style depending on the conditions.
She joined the 10-km competition on Sunday. “It was a spectacular swim… some difficult conditions but always fun,” Kohlmann said when asked about her latest experience.
King Felipe VI of Spain's main destination during his upcoming royal visit to Mexico won't be a high-level government meeting room but the Guadalajara area's Akron Stadium (under the FIFA-imposed temporary pseudonym Guadalajara Stadium), where he will watch his country's men's national team take on Uruguay. (Fernando Carranza García/Cuartoscuro)
Among the spectators at the June 26 World Cup match between Spain and Uruguay in Guadalajara will be King Felipe VI of Spain, who has accepted a formal invitation to attend.
The Spanish Royal Household has confirmed that the king will attend the match as part of the agenda for his royal visit at the invitation of President Claudia Sheinbaum and FIFA President Gianni Infantino.
King Felipe VI of Spain, who will be visiting Mexico next month, is seen here delivering the Cervantes Award for Spanish-Language Literature to Mexican writer Gonzalo Celorio in April. (UNAM/Cuartoscuro)
In March, Sheinbaum announced that she had sent an invitation to Felipe VI to attend the World Cup. The March invitation letter reportedly emphasized that the World Cup represented an opportunity to strengthen ties between the two nations through sport, culture, and bilateral cooperation.
The invitation was sent days before the king publicly acknowledged that “there were significant abuses” and “moral and ethical controversies” during the Spanish conquest of the Americas.
Sheinbaum described those words as “a gesture; an approach that we acknowledge,” noting that further progress is needed in historical recognition.
Indeed, the king’s statements were the first in which Felipe VI has directly and publicly addressed the context of the Spanish Conquest and colonization after years of diplomatic tension between Mexico and Spain over that very subject. The recent tension began when former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador sent a letter to Spain demanding an apology for the wrongs committed against Indigenous people during and after the Conquest.
The letter went unanswered, leading Sheinbaum to refrain from extending an invitation to King Felipe VI to her presidential inauguration ceremony in 2024.
However, formal diplomatic relations were never severed between the two countries, a fact recognized by Sheinbaum during her Monday morning press conference
“What happened was a moment of differing perspectives, and we reaffirmed our view, and they acknowledged it,” Sheinbaum said when asked about the king’s visit. “They are now seeing and speaking differently about the period known as the Conquest.”
Another recent boost to the trans-Atlantic relationship was Sheinbaum’s trip to Barcelona last month to participate in the Summit in Defense of Democracy, organized by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
The massacre occurred on a ranch in Tehuitzingo, a municipality about 120 kilometers south of Puebla City. (@SSPGobPue/X)
Ten people including a baby girl were killed during an armed attack in the state of Puebla early Sunday, authorities said.
The massacre occurred on a ranch in Tehuitzingo, a municipality about 120 kilometers south of Puebla City.
Six of the victims were members of the same family, while four were ranch workers, Puebla Attorney General Idamis Pastor Betancourt said Monday. Two of the ranch workers were teenagers. Among the victims was a baby girl aged one month and 20 days. She wasn’t shot but rather suffocated when her mother fell on top of her after she was shot in the back, Pastor said.
The attorney general said that preliminary investigations pointed to “a family issue” related to land ownership as being the motive of the attack. Pastor said that three men related to six of the victims had been identified as the alleged perpetrators. She noted that none of them had yet been arrested, but pledged that the crime wouldn’t go unpunished.
According to media reports, one of the alleged perpetrators is a man called José Alfredo, son of the ranch owner. Along with two other armed men, he allegedly killed his father, his mother and his three siblings, one of whom was just 15.
José Alfredo reportedly escaped from a drug treatment center sometime before he allegedly killed members of his own family on a ranch called “La Marihuana.” The news magazine Proceso reported that he had been sent to the treatment center by his family “due to his addictions” and he perpetrated the attack in “revenge.”
The newspaper 24 Horas reported that José Alfredo “allegedly harbored family grudges related to addiction issues and personal disputes.”
Mass murders are common in Mexico, but are usually related to organized crime rather than family disputes.
