All stories in El Jalapeño are satire and not real news.
MEXICO CITY — Citing U.S. President Donald Trump’s attempts to purchase Greenland as “a groundbreaking precedent in international real estate law,” top Mexican legal experts announced Monday that they are reviewing the move as the basis for a new plan to legally reclaim Texas.
“Trump opened the door when he insisted sovereign territory could just be bought if you want it badly enough,” said Dr. Carla Jiménez, constitutional law professor at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. “We simply wish to expand on his theories — albeit in the opposite direction and with a much better food scene.”
Not to be outdone by the White House, the Presidential Palace released their own penguin-related shenanigans.
Sources within the Peña Nieto Institute for Advanced Territorial Law confirmed the research has already led to lively debate over whether to annex Austin first for its live music or Houston for its “rich petrochemical opportunities and really good tacos.”
U.S. officials have not issued a formal response, though several Texas residents were reportedly open to negotiation. “Depends if they’ll honor our Costco memberships,” said Plano accountant Brad Miller.
At press time, Canada had ordered a full review of the findings to determine whether “this new buy-a-country thing” might help them finally secure Hawaii.
The Temple of the Cormorants in Dzibanché, built during the 5th century A.D. (Patytc/Wikimedia Commons)
As part of an exploration into Mexico’s long and rich history, Mexico News Daily has teamed up with one of the country’s top Maya experts to examine the ancient world that flourished across Mesoamerica.
In our first installment, we talked about the beginnings of Mayan culture during the Preclassic period in what is now Mexico and further south into modern entities like Guatemala, Belize, Honduras and El Salvador. That early era culminated in the rise of the ancient city we call today El Mirador, the great metropolis of the Preclassic period, located in the Petén area of modern-day Guatemala.
The Temple of the Masks in Uaxactún was built in the Late Preclassic as the city was beginning to rise to prominence. (Clemens Schmillen/Wikimedia Commons)
However, all great things come to an end, and so it did for El Mirador, when around A.D.150, the city suffered a major sociopolitical crisis, theorized to have been driven at least in part by increased building activity, which meant increased deforestation to fuel the wood-fired kilns that helped the Maya make stucco for their buildings.
This widespread deforestation had inevitable environmental consequences and was likely a key factor in El Mirador’s decline, as was likely competition from newer cities that had already begun to emerge.
Transition from the Late Preclassic
By the Late Preclassic period (approximately 450 B.C. to A.D. 250), many political entities had begun to emerge in the southern Maya Lowlands, cities that were growing in both construction and population, notably through the building of astronomical commemoration groups and large triadic pyramidal structures.
These entities were developing large-scale hydraulic engineering, as well as communication routes, so these cities were interacting with each other and trading materials. Archaeological findings of luxury goods that had to have traveled long distances to be placed in their burial offerings not only point to increased interaction between these centers but also an increase in class differentiation within cities, as well as a high degree of sociopolitical control led by power groups.
Archeologists have also found that the production of stelae, altars and ceramics increased during this period, signaling innovations in the standardization of production, something which would have required specialized labor.
The Early Classic period (A.D. 250–550)
As Maya civilizations left the Preclassic period and moved into the Early Classic period, we see huge advancements: The building of stelae increased exponentially, and these monuments featured new iconographic and calligraphic styles, suggesting advancements in writing and astronomical knowledge — skills previously adapted from other Mesoamerican peoples.
The Mundo Perdido (Lost World) Pyramid in Tikal was built during the Maya Early Classic period. (Simon Burchell/Wikimedia Commons)
New settlements emerged, led by power groups who needed to legitimize their position. This likely drove the increase in hieroglyphic narratives and the complexity of a worldview where the ajaw (rulers) established divine dynastic lines linked to ancient or mythical times.
During this time, cities such as Uaxactún, Tikal, Naranjo, Caracol, Naachtunand Dzibanché rose to prominence. Each ruling family asserted its importance through the “emblem glyph,” a specific hieroglyphic compound used to distinguish their lineage.
Evidence of defensive constructions, such as walls and moats, also increased toward the end of the Late Preclassic. Recent research using LiDAR technology has helped study these defenses in cities like Tintal, El Mirador and Holmul.
This friction likely arose from the struggle to control natural resources, sharpening the social changes that followed a crisis around A.D. 150.
An unexpected arrival in Tikal changes Mayan history forever
Stelae in the Guatemalan Petén point to escalating regional conflicts, particularly between the neighboring cities of Uaxactún and Tikal, located just 25 kilometers apart. Following decades of warfare in the fourth century, Tikal achieved regional supremacy when King Chak Took’ Ihch’aak defeated Tz’akbu Usiij of Uaxactún, an event recorded on Tikal’s Stela 39.
However, the political landscape shifted dramatically on Jan. 16, in A.D. 378.
Stela in Tikal depicting Yax Nuun Ayiin, a ruler imposed by the Teotihuacans in an episode that forever changed the history of the Mayas. (H. Grobe/Wikimedia Commons)
Monuments at Tikal and Uaxactún record the arrival of foreigners from the distant metropolis of Teotihuacán (located northwest of modern-day Mexico City). Known in academic literature as “The Entry” (La Entrada), this group was led by figures named Sihyaj K’ahk’ and K’inich Mo’.
According to Stela 31 in Tikal, the Teotihuacans then imposed a new ruler, Yax Nuun Ayiin, who was the son of a high-ranking Teotihuacán citizen named Jatz’o’m Kuy. This event fundamentally changed the Maya’s history, introducing Teotihuacán artistic symbols, deities and power structures that Maya rulers later used to legitimize their authority.
The rise of the serpent dynasty
By A.D. 500, population growth and warfare intensified across the region. In the modern-day state of Quintana Roo, the settlement of Dzibanché rose to power as the capital of the Kanu’l dynasty (the “Place where Snakes Abound”), identified by the Snake Head emblem glyph. Hieroglyphic stairs in Dzibanché’s “Captives Building” depict bound men, likely the result of territorial expansion campaigns.
The Kanu’l dynasty eventually engaged in a massive conflict against Tikal, involving multiple regions. While Caracol was initially subordinate to Tikal, in A.D. 562, the Kanu’l of Dzibanché supported Caracol in a war against Tikal.
The Kanu’l coalition was victorious, establishing a vast network of alliances with cities like Naranjo — in modern-day Guatemala — and Caracol, in modern-day Belize. This victory triggered Tikal’s decline and marked the beginning of the Late Classic period, an era when the institution of divine supreme leaders, i.e., “sacred lords,” would reach its peak.
Pablo Mumary holds a doctorate in Mesoamerican studies from UNAM and currently works at the Center for Maya Studies at IIFL-UNAM as a full-time associate researcher. He specializes in the study of the lordships of the Maya Lowlands of the Classic period.
Several typical Mexican salsas and their ingredients. (Deposit Photos)
Contrary to popular belief (though we’re not saying it’s entirely wrong), being more Mexican in the kitchen is not just about using spicy sauces and adding chiles to everything.
Being intentionally Mexican in the kitchen involves understanding the complexity and diversity of flavors and freshness that underscore Mexican cooking. It also involves a certain attitude and a lot of love.
If you want to learn to cook “very Mexican,” take an abuelita’s advice. (Monica Belot)
Since I grew up with Russian-Ukrainian babushkas and not a Mexican abuela (grandmother), I set out to fill my traditional Mexican cooking knowledge gaps by going straight to the source — Mexican grandmas. The elderly in Mexican culture are carriers of the essence of the country’s heritage, rituals and traditions — and that very much includes at the table and in the kitchen.
I started with a book I snagged from a used bookstore called “Las Recetas de Abuelita Linda” (Dear Grandma’s Recipes) by television host Verónica Zumalacárregui, who assembled the stories, cooking secrets and signature recipes of dozens of abuelitas from around Mexico. These fabulous women reveal the roots of regional Mexican cooking, with some delightful twists (like animal cracker crumbs in a chicken mole dish from Puebla or beer in the beans from Sonora).
Regional identity
Mexican cuisine fragments into dozens of distinct regional identities, each with its own pantry, its own techniques and its own stories. To cook Mexican food authentically means first understanding that there is no single “Mexican cuisine”: There are many, and they speak different dialects.
But certain ingredients appeared again and again in my research, forming something like a shared vocabulary across these regional variations. What follows is less a shopping list than a map of Mexican cooking’s foundational terrain — the pantry essentials that will allow you to cook with genuine Mexican flavor.
Corn in all its forms
Unsurprisingly, nearly everything starts with corn. Tortillas de maíz are nonnegotiable in most of Mexico, though tortillas de harina dominate the northern states. But corn’s presence extends far beyond the tortilla. Stock your pantry with maíz pozolero for soups, harina de maízfor making masa (the dough used to make tortillas) from scratch, andhojas de maíz (corn husks) for wrapping tamales or presenting certain dishes. Corn plays multiple roles on the kitchen stage.
The chile archive
If you’re serious about cooking Mexican food, you need to build a chile collection. This is where most home cooks go wrong, thinking that one or two types will suffice. They won’t.
There’s something captivating about these little devils that grow in a wide range of colors, sizes and pungency. (El Mono Español/Wikimedia Commons)
Start with the essentials: Guajillos provide the backbone for red salsas with their tannic, berry-like notes. Chiles de árbol bring pure, clean heat. Anchos (dried poblanos) offer sweet, almost raisin-like depth. Chiles pasilla add earthiness to moles. You’ll need fresh serranos for everyday salsas, jalapeños for pickling and stuffing, and poblanos for dishes like rajas and chiles rellenos.
As you advance, add habaneros for Yucatecan dishes, chipotles (smoked jalapeños) for adobos, plus mirasol, chilacates, chiltepin and, if you can find them, Yucatecan xcatic peppers. Each brings not just heat but a distinct flavor profile, from smoky to sweet, fruity to bitter. The abuelas treat chiles as individuals with personalities, not interchangeable units of spice, and you should too.
Fresh vegetables
White or red onions, and occasionallycebolla de rabo (scallions) appear in nearly every recipe. Tomatoes and tomatillos(both red and green varieties) form the base of countless salsas. Cherry tomatoes are typically not a part of traditional Mexican cooking.
Nopales (cactus paddles) might seem intimidating, but they’re worth learning to handle. Rábanos (radishes) are essential, not only as a garnish but for their peppery crunch and vibrant color. Calabaza (zucchini) is a nourishing part of many dishes, while ajo (garlic) appears constantly, often roasted whole. Meanwhile, squash blossoms (flores de calabaza) are a versatile delicacy used in quesadillas, soups or stuffed with a mild, soft cheese and fried.
The fresh-herb trinity
Stock up on cilantro as a primary ingredient, and use it generously. Epazote (a fragrant herb) is nonnegotiable for authentic bean dishes. It has a pungent flavor that might seem off-putting at first, but mixed into popular plates like beans, it rounds out the dish.
Beyond these basics, regional variations matter: Hojas de chilpilin for Chiapan tamales, pitiona (verbena) for Oaxacan dishes, avocado leaves for certain bean preparations and moles. These aren’t always easy to find, but when you’re cooking a specific regional dish, they’re what make it authentic.
Dried spices and aromatics
Mexican spices bring piquancy and flavor to any dish. (Calum Lewis/Unsplash)
I was surprised to see the number of times oregano was mentioned in traditional recipes. I had associated the spice more with Italian cuisine. Yet Mexican oregano is not Mediterranean oregano. It’s more citrusy, more resinous and essential to pozole and to another Mexican dish, birria.
Build your spice cabinet with the following: cumin (comino), mejorana (marjoram), laurel (bay leaves), tomillo (thyme), whole canela (Mexican cinnamon) sticks and clavo (cloves). But here’s the critical part: freshness matters intensely. Many recipes specify pimienta recién molida (recently ground pepper) because the difference between fresh-ground and pre-ground is the difference between a dish that sings and one that whispers.
Legumes and staples
Frijoles (beans) are a versatile dish, whether flavored with epazote, enriched with manteca or simmered with avocado leaves. Stock both pinto beans and frijoles negros (black beans), depending on what region’s cooking you’re exploring. Meanwhile, arroz rojo (requiring medium-grain white rice, tomato and patience) is often featured as more just than a side dish.
Fats and flavor bases
Manteca de cerdo (pork lard) is a staple in authentic Mexican cooking. Its flavor coats the mouth in a way that carries spices more effectively, giving dishes like refried beans their buttery taste.
Achiote defines Yucatecan cooking. Keep semillas de achiote (annatto seeds) for making your own paste, or buy prepared pasta de achiote and recado rojo y blanco (red and white seasoning pastes). These turn chicken or pork an orangey-red and give off an earthy, slightly peppery flavor.
Mole paste in different flavors can be purchased in blocks from your local market and edited with your preferred flavors. And be sure to stock various salsas: My favorite is a crunchy salsa macha with its chiles and nuts.
Fruits, nuts, and sweeteners
Limes are a ubiquitous element in Mexican food and its preparation. (ProtoplasmaKid/Wikimedia Commons)
Limones (limes) appear at nearly every meal. Aguacate (avocado) is a daily staple as well.
The supporting players in savory dishes can be surprising: pasas (raisins) add sweetness and texture. Cacahuates (peanuts) provide body and richness. Plátano macho (plantains) appears in coastal and southern cooking, adding starchy sweetness.
For sweetening, use piloncillo (cone-shaped blocks of unrefined cane sugar). And keep good Mexican chocolate (Ibarra or Abuelita brands work well) on hand for chocolate caliente or moles, where it adds depth and silky body.
The Attitude: What recipes can’t teach
What you also need is a certain playfulness in the kitchen. Many of the abuelitas had a special secret ingredient added — singing and dancing in the kitchen. While Mexican cooking asks that you pay attention to smell, to taste, to touch and to the appearance, it’s not rigid. The abuelitas cooked with playfulness, with improvisation and with confidence born from repetition.
Being Mexican in the kitchen means understanding that recipes are guides, not laws. It means knowing when a dish needs more lime, more salt, more heat. It means tasting your salsa and deciding it needs another minute on the comal (griddle) or another clove of garlic or a pinch more cumin. It means cooking with generosity: making more than you need because someone might stop by, and because food is meant to be shared.
Monica Belot is a writer, researcher, strategist and adjunct professor at Parsons School of Design in New York City, where she teaches in the Strategic Design & Management Program. Splitting her time between NYC and Mexico City, where she resides with her naughty silver labrador puppy Atlas, Monica writes about topics spanning everything from the human experience to travel and design research. Follow her varied scribbles on Medium at medium.com/@monicabelot.
The president, flanked by the governor of Baja California and Mexico's navy minister, looks out at the newly inaugurated Maritime Traffic Control Center in Ensenada. (Gabriel Monroy/Presidencia)
How much sovereignty does Mexico really have? That question hung over the week of Jan. 26-30 as the United States exercised increasing authority within Mexico and weaponized tariffs to reshape Mexican foreign policy beyond its borders.
The week began with President Claudia Sheinbaum insisting alleged drug trafficker Ryan Wedding had simply turned himself in at the U.S. Embassy last week — contradicted by a Wall Street Journal bombshell revealing FBI agents handcuffed the suspect in what one official called a “zero-margin, high-risk operation” on Mexican territory. By week’s end, Trump issued an executive order threatening tariffs on any country supplying oil to Cuba, putting Mexico’s solidarity with the island in direct conflict with its need to maintain trade relations with its northern neighbor.
Between these episodes of American pressure, Sheinbaum grappled with a debilitated security narrative and the news of lackluster GDP growth in 2025.
Didn’t have time to follow this week’s top stories? Here’s what you missed.
Ryan Wedding arrest controversy deepens
The circumstances surrounding the Jan. 22 arrest of alleged drug trafficker Ryan Wedding dominated headlines throughout the week. Wedding, a 44-year-old former Olympic snowboarder wanted on U.S. drug trafficking and murder charges, was apprehended under circumstances that remain murky.
President Sheinbaum has consistently maintained that Wedding turned himself in at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, even as Wedding’s lawyer disputed the surrender narrative, telling reporters on Monday that “any spin that the government of Mexico is putting on this that he surrendered is inaccurate.” On Wednesday, a Wall Street Journal exclusive published Wednesday painted a different picture, citing U.S. and Mexican officials who described FBI Hostage Rescue Team involvement in an operation that Mexican law explicitly forbids.
FBI Director Kash Patel, who was in Mexico City during the arrest, called it a “zero-margin, high-risk operation” executed by FBI teams “alongside our Mexican partners.” The Journal reported the FBI’s involvement was intended to remain secret, as Mexican law prohibits foreign agents from participating in law enforcement operations on Mexican soil.
At her Thursday press conference, Sheinbaum insisted the WSJ report supported her version of events, even though the article clearly suggests U.S. intervention in Wedding’s arrest.
The controversy raises broader questions about U.S.-Mexico cooperation on security matters at a time when the Trump administration has threatened unilateral strikes against cartels in Mexico. On multiple occasions throughout the week, the president reiterated that Mexico will never “accept joint operations with the United States, or with federal, state or municipal forces of the United States, in our territory.”
However, according to the WSJ, the FBI is now mapping out more targets across Mexico for potential joint operations, suggesting this may be the first of many such incidents.
Is security in Mexico improving?
While the Sheinbaum administration has touted a 30% decline in homicides in 2025 as evidence of improved security, a comprehensive analysis of crime statistics this week revealed a troubling picture that calls the government’s claims into question.
The report examined evidence that state authorities may be systematically misclassifying murders as lesser crimes. The number of intentional homicide victims allegedly declined 11% over six years, while victims of culpable homicide and “other crimes against life and integrity” increased 11% and 103%, respectively.
More concerning, disappearances surged 16% during Sheinbaum’s first year compared to López Obrador’s final year. A total of 14,765 people who disappeared between October 2024 and September 2025 remained unaccounted for. When homicides and disappearances are combined, the total declined only 5% compared to the AMLO administration’s average — far less impressive than the promoted 30% homicide reduction.
Security experts suggested that disappearing people allows organized crime to “create terror” and “hide lethal violence” because without a body there’s no crime — a situation that is “politically profitable” for all involved.
Monday brought news that Pemex had canceled a scheduled January shipment. At her Tuesday press conference, Sheinbaum didn’t deny the cancellation but emphasized oil shipments are a “sovereign decision” made by Mexico and Pemex. When pressed on whether shipments would resume, she simply said: “In any case, we will inform you.”
The pressure escalated throughout the week. Trump declared on social media that “THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA – ZERO!” while Politico reported the administration was weighing a total blockade. Mexican officials observed at least three U.S. Navy drones conducting flights over the Bay of Campeche since December, following routes taken by tankers carrying Mexican fuel to Cuba — the same surveillance aircraft spotted off Venezuela’s coast before U.S. military intervention there.
President Sheinbaum had a phone call with U.S. President Trump on Thursday morning, but Mexico’s support of Cuba was reportedly not a topic. (Claudia Sheinbaum/X)
But the next day, Trump issued an executive order declaring a “national emergency” over Cuba and establishing a tariff system under which additional duties may be imposed on imports from countries that provide oil to Cuba. The order, as the Associated Press noted, “would primarily put pressure on Mexico.”
At her Friday press conference in Tijuana, Sheinbaum delivered a prepared four-point response: reaffirming Mexico’s commitment to sovereignty, warning tariffs could trigger a humanitarian crisis affecting Cuban hospitals and food supply, instructing the foreign minister to contact the State Department for clarification and pledging Mexico “will seek different options to help, in a humanitarian way, the people of Cuba.”
She stressed her government needs to understand “the reach” of Trump’s order because “we don’t want to put our country at risk in terms of tariffs.” She noted there are “other ways to support” Cuba beyond oil, and even suggested the United States itself could send oil to the island. “Our interest is that there is not a serious situation for the Cuban people,” she said, while acknowledging Mexico’s need to avoid additional tariffs.
Mexico’s exports surged to $664.8 billion in 2025, a 7.6% increase representing the strongest growth since 2022. More importantly, the strong finish created Mexico’s first trade surplus since 2020 — a modest $771 million that nonetheless contrasts sharply with 2024’s $18.5 billion deficit.
The December surge was particularly impressive, with exports climbing 17.2% compared to the previous year. This performance helped push GDP growth to 0.7% for the year, keeping Mexico out of recession despite what a Bank of America chief economist called “an environment of uncertainty and new tariffs.”
Carlos Capistrán Carmona, chief economist for Mexico and Canada at Bank of America (BofA), told Forbes magazine that exports will once again be Mexico’s economic engine in 2026, forecasting growth above 5%.
Light news and cultural highlights
Not all the news in Mexico this week was dominated by controversy.
The week’s events highlighted complex challenges facing the Sheinbaum administration. The Ryan Wedding controversy exposed tensions over U.S.-Mexico security cooperation ahead of USMCA review negotiations. Questions about crime statistics threaten the president’s security narrative, while export success provides economic leverage but may not offset broader growth challenges.
The message from Washington was unmistakable: Mexico’s decisions — on law enforcement, on trade partners, on foreign policy — are subject to American approval.
The Cuba decision will test Mexico’s ability to maintain foreign policy independence while managing an aggressive U.S. administration that has threatened military strikes. Sheinbaum faces a delicate balancing act between principle and pragmatism.
This story contains summaries of original Mexico News Daily articles. The summaries were generated by Claude, then revised and fact-checked by a Mexico News Daily staff editor.
From childhood in Mexico to college in the U.S., Ann Dolan shares her experience raising kids in San Miguel de Allende with podcast hosts Travis Bembenek and George Reavis. (Shutterstock)
Oftentimes, when one talks to parents who are considering moving to Mexico with kids, the focus of the conversation is on potential negatives. What if they don’t like it? What if they don’t learn Spanish? What if they don’t fit in? What if they fall behind their U.S. counterparts? What if they don’t have the same sports? What if they can’t get into a good college? Rarely is the conversation framed around the potential positives or benefits of growing up in another country and culture. I think this largely contributes to the persistence of “confidently wrong” perceptions about raising kids in Mexico.
In today’s episode, we interview someone who quickly puts to rest many of those questions. Ann Dolan and her family provide an exceptional case study that we can all learn from. Ann and her husband Jim moved to Mexico at a young age, and years before having kids. When they ultimately decided to have kids, they chose to have them in Mexico and to continue living in San Miguel de Allende.
When it came time to decide on elementary school, they stayed in Mexico. The same for middle school. All three of their kids grew up bicultural and bilingual and are now all at college in the U.S. Their oldest, who is graduating this spring, already has a job on Wall Street in New York City.
How could all of this have happened for a family living in little San Miguel de Allende? Listen to Ann share the experiences of having, raising and educating kids in Mexico. This episode is guaranteed to leave you informed and inspired!
Ángela Peralta was the greatest opera singer ever born in Mexico, a prodigy who by the age of 17 had already performed to acclaim in Milan’s La Scala opera house. (Public Domain)
In August 1883, fresh off a stunning performance in the title role of the opera “Maria di Rohan” in La Paz, Ángela Peralta, the opera singer known as the “Mexican Nightingale,” arrived in Mazatlán to a reception fit for a queen. Crowds of admirers holding flowers and handkerchiefs overhead thronged the pier where her ship had docked, as the celebrated soprano was greeted by the city council and serenaded by a band playing the national anthem.
Peralta, according to popular legend, was wearing a dark coat and a small hat and sang a brief rendition of “La Paloma.” When she made her way down to the carriage assigned to her, her most passionate admirers unyoked the horses so that they might convey her in the carriage aloft, followed by the rest of the crowd, to her arranged lodgings at the Hotel Iturbide, next door to the Teatro Rubio, where she was scheduled to perform in the coming days.
Peralta, at the peak of her powers as an artist in the role of Lucía de Lammermoor, was renowned for the rare emotional expressiveness of her voice and its exceptional clarity. (Public Domain)
Little did the Nightingale know, as her carriage was carried on broad shoulders through the streets of Mazatlán, that eight days later she would be married for the second time, and that eight days later she would be dead at the age of 38.
The yellow plague
Before virologist Max Theiler discovered a vaccine for yellow fever while working at the Rockefeller Foundation laboratories in New York City during the 1930s — an achievement for which he would later receive a Nobel Prize — the infectious viral disease had likely killed millions. It still kills tens of thousands of the unvaccinated each year, mainly in Africa and South America.
No, it’s not contagious. Like malaria or dengue, yellow fever is transmitted into the bloodstream via a mosquito bite. But unlike the other two, it can be particularly devastating due to its ability to cause rapid organ failure and death. In the 19th century, yellow fever was rightly feared, not only for its potentially fatal consequences but also for the extremely painful symptoms that accompanied the disease.
There are three phases: incubation, acute and toxic. During the initial “silent” phase of yellow fever, lasting three to six days, there is often no obvious sign of infection, as the virus spreads in the bloodstream, causing headaches and body aches that can be mistaken for the flu. However, once the acute phase sets in, so too does a high fever, along with symptoms such as dizziness and confusion. Worse yet is the so-called “coup de barre,” an excruciating pain in the back and legs that feels as if the afflicted is being beaten with a stick.
Only 15% of those infected are destined for the severe version. But they are first deceived by a brief period of remission before the tragic reality sinks in. Then, a week to 10 days after being bitten, yellow fever’s most famous symptoms arrive. These are jaundice, a yellowing of the skin and eyes, and “black vomit” as acids from the eroding stomach lining turn blood from red to black.
The outbreak that would ensue in 1883, killing not only Peralta but 2,500 people — an astonishing 16% of Mazatlán’s residents at the time — was already present when she and her company arrived aboard the steamship Newbern from Baja California Sur. According to local reports, yellow fever was brought from Panama aboard two ships, the San Juan and the San Blas, which were allowed to dock without being quarantined. These ships already had dozens of infected passengers aboard, who were then bitten by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in Mazatlán, which passed the virus on to the local population.
Early days in Mazatlán
The Hotel Iturbide in Mazatlán, where Peralta and her opera company were lodged. (Public Domain)
Peralta and her company had arrived at the worst possible time. Although there had been several outbreaks of yellow fever in Mexico during the 19th century in the cities of at Altamira, Tampico, Tuxpan and Veracruz, none had occurred on the Pacific coast. This was the first, and the conditions then present in Mazatlán were ripe for it. The rainy season, which had just ended, had left pools of stagnant water, and this, combined with the heat and humidity of August, fueled the mosquito population that would spread the disease.
By the time Peralta and her company arrived on Aug. 22, dozens of deaths had already been reported in Mazatlán. It’s quite possible many of the company were bitten by infected mosquitoes before they even arrived at the Hotel Iturbide — perhaps even before they disembarked from the ship. When the first rehearsal was held two days later, Friday, Aug. 24, at the Teatro Rubio, the company’s musical director, Pedro Chávez Aparicio, was already feeling ill. So Peralta stepped in to direct the rehearsal, singing several arias to get a feel for the acoustics of the venue.
Over the weekend, she would begin to feel the first symptoms. By the following Monday, Chávez had died, and Peralta was confined to her hotel room at the hotel, in the throes of the disease that would eventually kill her.
The flight of ‘La Ruiseñora Mexicana’
Despite Peralta’s rather florid name, María de los Ángeles Manuela Tranquilina Cirila Efrena Peralta, she had been born into a Mexico City family of modest means. Her talents, however, were soon apparent. By the age of eight, she had already been enrolled in the National Conservatory of Music. That same year, she met internationally renowned opera singer Henrietta Sontag, who was then visiting Mexico. Peralta was able to imitate her so perfectly that Sontag predicted that with European training, she would become one of the world’s best opera singers.
Her voice, heard for the first time publicly when she performed at the Gran Teatro Nacional at age 15 in the role of Leonora in Verdi’s “Il Trovatore,” was a rare soprano absoluta. With this versatile instrument, she was able to perform coloratura roles that required vocal acrobatics like trills and arpeggios while sustaining very high notes with flawless technical skill. But Peralta could also sing with immense power. Comparisons to songbirds, from goldfinches to nightingales, soon followed.
At 17, she performed the lead in Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor” at La Scala opera house in Milan, bringing down the house and receiving 23 curtain calls. One of Donizetti’s sons, in attendance, lamented that his father had not lived to see her perform. Francesco Lamperti, with whom she studied in Milan, declared her “angelic by voice and by name.” She went on to appear in all the other great opera houses in Europe, from Naples and Rome in Italy and Barcelona and Madrid in Spain, to Paris and St. Petersburg. She conquered the U.S., too, performing in New York City.
Painting of Peralta in performance as Aida, circa 1877. (Colección Museo Nacional de Historia)
But already, the “black star” that Peralta felt was following her had begun to show itself. Her first husband — first cousin Eugenio Castera, whom she married in Madrid — had already begun to show signs of mental illness during the first year of their marriage. By 1876, he had been committed to an institution in Paris, where he died the same year.
Peralta returned to Mexico, where a decade earlier she had performed for Emperor Maximilian and Carlota. This visit promised to be every bit the same success when she opened to acclaim, performing “Aida” at the Gran Teatro Nacional in 1877. But when it became common knowledge that she was now in an unmarried relationship with her lawyer and manager, Julián Montiel y Duarte, the capital’s public, electrified by the gossip, turned against her. Her opera performances were increasingly met with hecklers, and by the end of the 1870s, she had vowed never again to perform in Mexico City.
This was the reason for her tours of the “provinces” of Mexico, like the fateful one that brought her to Mazatlán in 1883.
Final days in Mazatlán
On the morning of Aug. 30, eight days after she’d arrived in Mazatlán, by which point she was on her deathbed, Peralta legalized her relationship to Julián Montiel y Duarte by marrying him in room 10 of the Hotel Iturbide. Her signature does not appear on the marriage certificate, though, and it is speculated that she was dead before her vows had been uttered, and that her head had to be manipulated so that she could nod her “I do.”
The Nightingale would sing no more. So devastated was Mazatlán by the yellow fever outbreak that claimed Peralta’s life that only a few members from the company went to the cemetery to see her buried, and not a single note was sung at her gravesite. Of the 38 people who had accompanied her to Mazatlán, 34 fell ill, and at least 14 died. Montiel y Duarte survived, but spent the last 19 years of his life disputing claims that he had married Peralta for whatever was left of her estate.
Her legacy would prove more enduring. In 1937 — the same year Theiler discovered the cure for yellow fever — Peralta’s remains were disinterred from Mazatlán and removed to the Rotonda de las Personas Ilustres in the Panteón de Dolores in Mexico City. She was the first woman ever to receive this honor. The Teatro Rubio in Mazatlán, meanwhile, built in 1874 and where Peralta had rehearsed before her death, was renamed for her and received a significant restoration in 1992. Today, it remains a magnificent showplace for the next generation of talented Mexican singers and performers.
The Teatro Ángela Peralta in Mazatlán is the restored theater where she was once meant to perform. (Gobierno de Mexico)
Of course, there will never be another “Mexican Nightingale.”
Chris Sands is 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’s also a contributor to numerous websites and publications, including Tasting Table, Marriott Bonvoy Traveler, Forbes Travel Guide, Porthole Cruise, Cabo Living and Mexico News Daily.
Mexico City's Paseo de las Heroinas honors important women in Mexican history with statues. (Instagram)
From the towering Angel of Independence, where the remains of Mexico’s founding heroes rest, to the anti-monuments erected by social movements, the statues and markers along Mexico City’s Paseo de la Reforma both commemorate the nation’s long history and show how different parts of society dispute the meaning of that history or fight to make their voices heard in its telling.
When we watch Women’s Day marchers paint the metal barriers around the Caballito statue or relatives of victims of forced disappearance turn the Glorieta del Ahuehuete roundabout into the Glorieta de las y los Desaparecidos, we’re seeing disputes over the nation’s collective story. In that sense, President Claudia Sheinbaum’s unveiling of six new statues of historical figures on Reforma, all Indigenous women, is a highly symbolic intervention by the state — especially since one of the figures commemorated has for generations been a synonym for treason to the country.
The president said as much at the unveiling ceremony on Wednesday morning, calling the new monuments “a firm symbol against racism, classism and misogyny.” The new statues form part of the existing Paseo de las Heroinas (Promenade of the Heroines), a sculpture walk established during Sheinbaum’s tenure as Mexico City’s head of government, which introduced statues of female heroes of the country’s history onto Reforma for the first time. So who are the six Indigenous women joining the Paseo de las Heroinas?
Malintzin: The interpreter, revisited
Long represented as a traitor, Malintzin is now looked at differently by historians. (Public Domain)
The strange group of foreigners to whom she was given as a slave in 1519 called her Marina, to which the Mexica (Aztecs) added the honorific “-tzin,” making her Malintzin, which the Castillians turned back into Spanish as Malinche. In Mexico, that name means everything from a preference for European trends to outright treason.
In another time, Malintzin’s inclusion in the Paseo de las Heroinas might have been highly controversial. But artists and scholars of Mexican colonial history have done much in recent years to rehabilitate her image from that of a traitor to that of a gifted polyglot and enslaved woman who did what she could to survive in a world turned upside down. President Sheinbaum’s own government staged Mujeres del Maíz at the end of 2025 to “revalorize, recognize and vindicate Malintzin in a different way,” in the president’s words.
Tz’akbu Ajaw: The Red Queen of Palenque
The Red Queen of Palenque is best known for her extraordinary funeral mask. (ProtoplasmaKid/Wikimedia Commons)
In 1994, 24-year-old archaeologist Fanny López was helping to stabilize Temple XIII of Palenque, one of the most important city-states of the Classic Maya period, located in modern-day Chiapas. Palenque had been famous for decades as the site where the fabulous tomb of Pakal the Great, lord of Palenque and the fifth-longest-reigning monarch in world history, had been found in 1952.
López discovered that Temple XIII held a tomb too, and as the Chiapas native and her team slid back the lid of its sarcophagus, their eyes met something incredible: the remains of a woman wearing an enormous malachite mask, surrounded by treasures and covered entirely in crimson cinnabar dust. Clearly, this woman had been important and had some relationship to Pakal, but there were no glyphs to tell for certain who she was. Was she the king’s mother? His grandmother? The answer has not yet been definitively proven, but most specialists now believe that the noblewoman, who has come to be called the Red Queen for how she was buried, was Ix Tz’akbu Ajaw, Pakal the Great’s wife.
Much is still unknown about the Red Queen’s life. Born around A.D. 610 into the royal family of Uhx Te’ K’uh, a Maya city in present-day Tabasco state, Lady Tz’akbu Ajaw married Kʼinich Janaabʼ Pakal as a teenager. Their two sons would both succeed their father and rule Palenque, showing the truth of Tz’akbu’s name, which means “Queen of Countless Generations.”
Pakal earned the sobriquet of “the Great” by leading Palenque out of a period of political turmoil and into its period of greatest wealth and splendor through an ambitious program of public works. Tz’akbu Ajaw’s name and titles feature prominently on the monuments of her husband’s time, suggesting an important role in Palenque’s public life.
Tecuichpo: Last empress of the Mexica
Tecuichpo Ixcaxochitzin was her original first name, which translates from ancient Náhuatl to “Divine Lady” and “Cotton Flower,” respectively. (ProtoplasmaKid/Wikimedia Commons)
When she died in 1551, Isabel Moctezuma was the richest woman in the colony of New Spain, holding extensive tracts of land and Indigenous slaves. This is not only remarkable because she was an Indigenous woman, but because she certainly died poorer than she was born: Isabel, also called Tecuichpo, was born Tecuichpoch-Ixcaxochitzin. Her parents were Moctezuma II, the Mexica king who ruled over most of Mexico and was overthrown by the Spanish, and Teotlalco, a princess of the city of Ecatepec.
Despite being a woman living in a world rocked by colonial invasion, Tecuichpo exercised what agency she had as an important noblewoman. First wed as a child to her father’s general, Atlixcatzin, Tecuichpo married Cuitlahuac and then Cuahtemoc, Moctezuma’s successors as leaders of the Triple Alliance, before being wed to a series of Spanish conquistadors.
In the Americas, Spanish colonialism was most effective wherever it came up against a settled, stratified society whose ruling class it could decapitate and replace, which meant that cooperative Indigenous nobles were key in setting up the new colonial order. After accepting Christian baptism and a new name, Doña Isabel was recognized as her father’s legitimate heir, a status she used to recover some of Moctezuma’s possessions through the Spanish courts. As royally certified nobility, Isabel’s descendants among Europe’s aristocracy, including the current dukes of Alba and Segorbe in Spain, continue her father’s line today.
Ñuñuu Dzico Yecu: Shield of Jaltepec
Known by many names, from Ñuñuu Dzico Yecu to Six Monkey and War Quechquemitl, she’s remembered as a Mexican heroine. (INAH)
The Ñuu Savi, better known as the Mixtecs, are one of Mexico’s largest Indigenous groups today. The Mixtec peoples never unified as a single empire; they were traditionally divided into competing kingdoms called ñuu. That competition was to mark the life of Lady Six Monkey, named for the day of her birth and born into the ruling family of the city of Jaltepec in the late 11th century. Her early years took place in the context of bloody struggle with Jaltepec’s rival kingdom of Tilantongo, and as a teenager, she became engaged to the ruler of the city of Huachino. When noble vassals of Huachino opposed the match and publicly insulted her, Six Monkey went on the offensive, leading troops against the rebels, capturing their cities and taking them back to Huachino for ritual execution. Her campaign — a striking example of the gender equality that could be found among Mixtec elites — was a total success, and Six Monkey took the name War Quechquemitl, for the garment she wore from then on, decorated with symbols of war.
The second part of Lady Six Monkey-War Quechquemitl’s life was shaped by her conflict with the man who would become one of the most powerful rulers in Mixtec history: Lord Eight Deer Jaguar Claw, king of Tututepec. A member of the ruling family of Tilantongo, Eight Deer had forged a huge sphere of influence in Oaxaca by the turn of the 12th century and had long nursed a grudge against Jaltepec and Huachino.
Seeking to stop Eight Deer’s rise, Six Monkey had his brother assassinated in 1100 and moved to crush her rival in open warfare. She lost, and Huachino was destroyed, while Six Monkey and her husband were captured and executed by Eight Deer. But the queen got some measure of revenge in the end: Six Monkey’s son Four Wind was taken by Eight Deer as a hostage, raised in his court and eventually installed as the puppet ruler of Jaltepec. Four Wind never forgot what Eight Deer had done to his mother: As a grown man, he led a rebellion against Eight Deer, executing the great lord and marrying his daughter so that the three cities were finally united as Six Monkey had dreamed of.
Xiuhtzaltzin: First queen of the Toltecs
Xiuhtzaltzin, queen of the Toltecs, ruled alongside Mitl, her husband, the king. (Facebook)
The fall of the great city of Teotihuacán marked the beginning of Mesoamerica’s Postclassic period, and one of the cities that came to fill the space left behind was Tollan, in what is now Tula, Hidalgo. Tollan’s inhabitants, the Toltecs, left no written records, so much of the information we have on them comes through the oral histories of the Mexica — whose civilization rose centuries after Tollan’s fall and who may have called all great builder cultures Toltecs — as viewed through the lens of Spanish chroniclers. That means that taking narratives about the Toltecs at face value can be tricky, but the exceptional circumstances of the reign of Xiuhtzaltzin might point to her actually having existed.
Only men could succeed to the throne of Tollan, and Xiuhtzaltzin’s husband was Mitl, the 11th king of the city. When Mitl died, the throne should have passed to their son. But Xiuhtzaltzin was so beloved by the Toltecs, tradition says, that her son declared that he would rather be his mother’s vassal than her successor, and so Xiuhtzaltzin became the only woman ever to rule Tollan. If Xiuhtzaltzin’s face looks familiar to you, that’s not by coincidence: 2025 was declared the Year of the Indigenous Woman by the federal government, and the steely-eyed woman in a huipil and earrings who appeared on the government’s official letterhead for all of last year is a representation of Xiuhtzaltzin herself.
Eréndira: Warrior princess of the Purépechas
Eréndira, as represented in the famous mural by Juan O’Gorman. (Radhee/Wikimedia Commons)
When the Spanish arrived in Mexico in 1519, the Mexica were the great power in the country’s Central Highlands; second after them were the neighboring Purépecha, who ruled much of Western Mexico. The Purépecha polity had its seat in Tzintzuntzán, Michoacán, and its last king was Tangaxuan II. Not believing that he could resist the Spanish, Tangaxuan accepted baptism and chose to become a vassal of the invaders when they reached his domains in 1522. Though they looted his city anyway, the Spanish allowed him to continue ruling until 1530, when the infamous conquistador Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán tortured and burned him at the stake.
Legend tells that Tangaxuan’s daughter Eréndira, infuriated by her father’s weakness in the face of the Spanish, took it upon herself to lead the Purépecha resistance. Part of her story revolves around Eréndira becoming the first Indigenous person to learn to ride a horse, and the figure of the princess on a white horse leading Indigenous combatants against the Spanish invaders is a powerful symbol of the Purépechas and the state of Michoacán, depicted in artwork like Juan O’Gorman’s famous mural at the Gertrudis Bocanegra library in Pátzcuaro.
Was Eréndira real? It’s hard to say. Colonial-era records don’t mention her, although the “Relación de Michoacán,” set down around 1540 by Franciscan friars in the region, does mention women as part of the anti-Spanish resistance. She first appears in collections of Michoacán’s oral stories collected in the early 20th century, but what’s clear is that her story, a tale of the thirst for dignity triumphing over acquiescence, is a much older one.
A missing wallet became a lesson in Mexican values for Sarah DeVries. (Emil Kalibradov/Unsplash)
About 17 years ago, when I still lived in Querétaro, my sister came for a visit. I took some money out of my Mexican account and put it, along with my bank card, in a little card-sized wallet.
Before I realized it was truly missing a couple of days later — I was absolutely sure it was in the house somewhere — I got a call. A taxi driver had turned the card and wallet in at a Bancomer branch, and they were holding it for me.
The wallet and bank card were turned in at the nearest branch, but the cash was not. (Srkgoqpxtbtl/Blogspot)
“And the cash?” I said hopefully. I’d taken out a hefty sum of about 4,000 pesos to spend while my sister was visiting (this was back when the dollar was closer to 10 pesos than to 20).
The guy laughed.
“Oh no, of course there was no money in there,” he said. “I’m amazed even the card was returned — you should count yourself lucky!”
I went to get my card and tried not to be too sad about the lost money, which at the time represented almost a full quincena (two weeks of pay) for me. Since then, I’ve been much more attentive to my personal belongings.
Lost in a car wash
I recalled this incident last week when I went to get my driver’s license renewed where I live now in Xalapa — a very cold 3.5 hours of standing in line.
As I got closer to the bank clerk-style windows, I noticed that people were swiping their cards to pay the license fees. “Oh good!” I thought. For once, I wouldn’t have to take a sheet of paper, go to the X24 — a convenience store chain similar to OXXO — pay in cash and then return. Score!
A trip to the X24 store to pay for the license renewal wasn’t necessary, but money to pay was. (Facebook)
I felt in my purse for my wallet; I then looked down and did some digging. It was not there. Oh no.
I glanced at the friendly-seeming older guy I’d been chatting with in line behind me. Could he have taken it? A quick study of his non-bulging pockets reassured me he hadn’t — my wallet is pretty big, so at least it would have been noticeable.
The next step was to call my partner, who’d dropped me off and then taken the car for a car wash before taking it for verification — Mexico’s equivalent of getting your car’s annual emissions inspection.
This was followed by a fruitless search of car verification centers that actually had the requisite sticker for the car to verify said verification — he was all over the place.
“I don’t see it,” was his first response, and my heart plummeted.
“No, wait!” He looked in the back seat and found it sitting there, having gone through a solo car wash with various workers cleaning the car’s interior.
The car had been washed but the wallet was thankfully left untouched. (Facebook)
“Oh no. Check to see if the money’s still there,” I said.
Miraculously, it was — 2,000 pesos — as were all my bank and credit cards. I kept a close eye on my bank account for any unfamiliar transactions, of which there were none.
Thank you, thank you, honest car wash workers! Heads, I win. It could have been so much worse.
A one-in-a-million miracle
Little did I know that a couple weeks before, a friend had had an even more miraculous wallet rescue.
Hers was 100% higher stakes. She took a bus from Xalapa to TAPO, one of Mexico City’s main bus terminals, and a taxi from TAPO to the Mexico City airport — the one that has more than seven passengers a year.
Once at the airport, she had a terrible realization: Her wallet, where she carried her passport as well, was no longer with her. At first, she thought she’d dropped it somewhere in the airport. With her limited Spanish, she proceeded to find every security worker along the way to ask them if they’d seen it. This took a while.
Mexico City’s TAPO bus station was the site of another unlikely miracle. (Travel Mexico Solo)
Needless to say, she missed her flight.
Later, she figured she must have left it in the taxi. But how would she get back to TAPO with no money? Luckily, she remembered that she’d stashed about US $40 in her backpack, so she exchanged it for pesos and took the Metrobus back to TAPO. Most of those hearing about her plan were not optimistic.
“Your wallet is long gone,” someone told her. “You’ll never get it back.”
“It would be a miracle,” another said. “Literally a one-in-a-million miracle if you got it back.”
“I have to try,” she kept answering.
Back at TAPO, she approached the window where she’d bought her taxi ticket. She hadn’t looked at the driver’s name, but she remembered the car color: a kind of odd creamy beige.
Back to the TAPO terminal to try to track down a taxi driver, who miracle of miracles, was found and still had the wallet. (Thelmadatter/Wikimedia Commons)
The dispatcher wasn’t sure which driver it was, but she called around to all the different cabs, one by one, until someone was able to tell her which driver it probably was. Success!
And guess what — one-in-a-million. The driver had the wallet! Another car — my friend never really figured out why — returned her wallet to her. And inside was everything: cash, cards, passport, IDs.
Wow, wow, wow!
During all this, she’d gotten on the phone with the airline to explain the situation.
“You’ll have to pay the difference for a flight tomorrow,” they’d told her. She was looking at a painful US $700 credit card charge.
But guess what: She got to the ticket counter in Mexico City, explained what had happened, and the agent simply printed her another ticket, no charge.
She made her flight after all, thanks to an honest taxi driver in Mexico City. (Daniel Augusto/Cuartoscuro)
A more honest Mexico?
I tell these two anecdotes here because they’re just so freaking heartwarming. Mexico is famous for many positive things, but let’s be honest: Honesty — see what I did there? — is not one of them. For my friend and me, the honesty and integrity of two ordinary working people saved our butts.
Whether people in general are becoming more honest or the stars simply happened to align for us, I do not know.
But boy am I glad we both got to have one less gigantic problem to deal with.
After an update on security in Baja California, President Sheinbaum went into detail about Mexico's response to a new threat from U.S. President Trump against countries — like Mexico— that supply oil to Cuba. (Gabriel Monroy / Presidencia)
President Claudia Sheinbaum held her Friday morning press conference in Tijuana, the largest city in the state of Baja California.
“Today we’re going to finally inaugurate the first stage of the viaduct,” she said at the start of the mañanera.
Homicides declined significantly in Baja California in 2025
Early in the press conference, National Public Security System chief Marcela Figueroa reported that the average daily homicide rate in Baja California declined from 6.5 in 2024 to 4.7 last year, a reduction of 28%.
The daily homicide rate in Baja California in 2025 was the lowest of the past eight years, she said.
The National Public Security System director, Marcela Figueroa, said homicides in Baja California declined 28% last year. (Gabriel Monroy / Presidencia)
San Felipe, located on the Gulf of California, ranked as Mexico’s fourth most violent municipality in 2025 based on its per capita homicide rate, according to crime data website elcri.men.
Tecate ranked as the 43rd most violent municipality in the country, while Tijuana ranked 45th, according to elcri.men.
Tijuana recorded more than 1,000 homicides last year, making it Mexico’s most violent city in terms of total murders.
More than 5,000 people arrested in Baja California since Sheinbaum took office
Between Oct. 1, 2024 — the day Sheinbaum was sworn in — and Jan. 15, a total of 5,509 people were arrested in Baja California for allegedly committing “high-impact” crimes, such as murders and kidnappings, Security Minister Omar García Harfuch reported.
He said that in the same period, authorities seized 1,253 firearms in the state, and confiscated more than 30 tonnes of narcotics, including 242 kilograms of fentanyl.
García Harfuch also said that authorities have dismantled three methamphetamine labs in Baja California during the past 15 months. Since the national strategy against extortion was launched last July, 70 people have been arrested in the state for allegedly committing that crime, he said.
Later in the press conference, García Harfuch said that “a cell of Los Chapitos” — a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel controlled by sons of imprisoned drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán — was to blame for an attack on two Sinaloa state deputies in Culiacán on Wednesday.
Sheinbaum responds to US plan to impose tariffs on countries that supply oil to Cuba
The question came a day after Trump issued an executive order declaring a “national emergency” because, the U.S. president claimed, “the policies, practices, and actions of the Government of Cuba constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat … to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.”
The executive order asserted that “Cuba welcomes transnational terrorist groups, such as Hezbollah and Hamas, creating a safe environment for these malign groups so that these transnational terrorist groups can build economic, cultural, and security ties throughout the region and attempt to destabilize the Western Hemisphere, including the United States.”
In his executive order, Trump also said that he had determined that it was “necessary and appropriate to establish a tariff system,” under which “an additional ad valorem duty may be imposed on imports of goods that are products of a foreign country that directly or indirectly sells or otherwise provides any oil to Cuba.”
The executive order, the Associated Press reported, “would primarily put pressure on Mexico, a government that has acted as an oil lifeline for Cuba and has constantly voiced solidarity for the U.S. adversary even as Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has sought to build a strong relationship with Trump.”
Mexico is the top oil supplier to Cuba, but state oil company Pemex canceled plans to send a shipment of crude to the Communist-run island this month. That move, Sheinbaum said earlier this week, was a “sovereign decision” rather than an act of succumbing to pressure from the United States, which is pressing for regime change in Cuba.
On Friday morning, Sheinbaum thanked the reporter for his question about Trump’s executive order before proceeding to read out a prepared statement.
“Number 1: Mexico unequivocally reaffirms [its commitment to] the principle of sovereignty and free self-determination of peoples, a fundamental pillar of our foreign policy and of international law,” she stated.
“[Number] 2: The application of tariffs on countries that supply oil to Cuba could trigger a humanitarian crisis of great reach, directly affecting hospitals, food supply and other basic services for the Cuban people. [That is a] situation that must be avoided through respect for international law and dialogue between the parties,” said Sheinbaum, who has said that Mexico could mediate talks between the U.S. and Cuban governments.
“[Number] 3: I have instructed the minister of foreign affairs to immediately establish contact with the U.S. Department of State in order to precisely know the reach of the order that was published [by Trump] yesterday, and also to let them know that we have to prevent a humanitarian crisis for the Cuban people,” the president continued.
“And [number] 4: Mexico will seek different options … to help, in a humanitarian way, the people of Cuba, who are going through a difficult time.”
Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum is warning that Trump’s threat to impose additional tariffs on countries sending oil to Cuba could trigger a humanitarian crisis. She also said Mexico will continue to offer Cuba humanitarian support. pic.twitter.com/gbzxc6QKGq
Sheinbaum stressed that her government needs to find out “the reach” of Trump’s executive order because, “we don’t want to put our country at risk in terms of tariffs.”
She also emphasized that “there are other ways to support” the people of Cuba apart from with oil.
“Mexico will always show solidarity [with Cuba],” she added.
Sheinbaum suggests US could send oil to Cuba
Later in her press conference, Sheinbaum was asked whether Mexico would stop sending oil to Cuba if it meant that the U.S. would impose additional tariffs on Mexican goods.
“We’re going to wait,” the president responded, stressing once again that her government needs greater clarity about the Trump administration’s plans.
She subsequently told reporters that Mexico has only sent a minimal amount of oil to Cuba, although the exact quantities shipped to the Communist-run island in recent times are disputed.
Mexico, via its state oil company Pemex, became the lead supplier of oil to Cuba after oil exports from Venezuela — the island’s previous top supplier — dropped in 2025. (Presidencia/Cuartoscuro)
“Yesterday, the director of Pemex … [said that] what has been sent … is less than 1% of what Mexico produces,” Sheinbaum said, referring to shipments corresponding to contracts between the state oil company and Cuba as well as oil given to the Caribbean island as humanitarian aid.
She went on to say that in Mexico, in Cuba, and in “other places around the world,” refined oil is used to fuel cars, public transport and power plants.
“Let’s imagine there is no electricity. Without electricity, hospitals don’t work, refrigerators don’t work, and a humanitarian situation is created, … a situation that impacts people’s lives,” Sheinbaum said.
“Our interest is that this doesn’t happen with the Cuban people. And I believe it’s not just our interest, the interest of the government, but the interest of all the people of Mexico,” she said.
“And that’s what we want to express to the U.S. government — that it’s very important that there isn’t a situation of humanitarian crisis on the island,” Sheinbaum said.
“So I gave instructions to the Minister of Foreign Affairs [Juan Ramón de la Fuente] to speak about this with the U.S. government, or [to propose] that they send oil [to Cuba]. It’s a matter of support for the Cuban people,” she said.
“Of course, we don’t want to risk there being more tariffs on Mexico, do we? Rather, via diplomatic channels, we simply seek a scheme of dialogue, of communication, that ensures there is not a serious situation for the Cuban people, who are already going through a very difficult situation,” Sheinbaum said.
Trump issued his executive order, titled “Addressing Threats to the United States by the Government of Cuba,” the same day as he spoke to Sheinbaum by telephone.
Sheinbaum reiterated on Friday that she and Trump didn’t discuss Cuba during their 40-minute call.
“We spoke about the Mexico-United States relationship. The issue of Cuba wasn’t discussed,” she said.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies (peter.davies@mexiconewsdaily.com)
