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‘Completely false’: Sheinbaum dismisses report of US pressure to prosecute narco-politicians

By
MND Staff
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A camera films Sheinbaum as she speaks at her morning press conference
Pressure is mounting for Sheinbaum to crack down on corruption, but going after her fellow politicians carries major political risk.(Victoria Valtierra/Cuartoscuro)

Is the United States pressuring Mexico to investigate and prosecute politicians with suspected links to criminal organizations?

Does the United States government have a so-called “narco-list” of Mexican politicians it believes have ties to organized crime?

The focus on these questions has intensified over the past month since Baja California Governor Marina del Pilar Ávila revealed that the United States had revoked tourist visas for her and her husband, Carlos Torres Torres.

Now, Reuters has reported that the Trump administration is indeed pressuring Mexico to go after politicians with suspected narco ties, but Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Ministry (SRE) and President Claudia Sheinbaum denounced the news agency’s reporting as “completely false.”

That the United States believes there are corrupt officials in Mexico with links to drug cartels is nothing new. Indeed, the White House made the daring assertion in February that that “the Mexican drug trafficking organizations have an intolerable alliance with the government of Mexico.”

“The government of Mexico has afforded safe havens for the cartels to engage in the manufacturing and transportation of dangerous narcotics, which collectively have led to the overdose deaths of hundreds of thousands of American victims,” the White House said in a “fact sheet” on tariffs.

The U.S. wants Sheinbaum to go after corrupt politicians who have made Mexico a “safe haven” for traffickers who manufacture and transport narcotics like fentanyl. (US CBP)

Meanwhile, twice in the past eight days the United States Embassy in Mexico has felt it was necessary to publicly debunk “narco-lists” circulating on social media.

Reuters: Mexico under pressure to investigate corrupt politicians

Citing “sources familiar with the matter,” Reuters reported that “the Trump administration is pressuring Mexico to investigate and prosecute politicians with suspected links to organized crime, and to extradite them to the United States if there are criminal charges to answer there.”

The news agency said that the U.S. “requests” were raised at least three times by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his team in bilateral meetings and conversations with Mexican officials. The “list of Marco” or “Marco’s list” is an alternate name for the alleged U.S. list of Mexican politicians with suspected organized crime ties.

Citing “four people familiar with the matter,” Reuters said that the U.S. requests “seek to push President Claudia Sheinbaum’s government to investigate current elected officials and launch an unprecedented crackdown on narco corruption.”

The news agency said that it was told by two of its sources that U.S. officials “have called for action against several politicians from Sheinbaum’s own Morena party and threatened to levy further tariffs if Mexico did not take action.”

Reuters also reported that two sources said that “five current Morena officials and one former senator were mentioned” during conversations between U.S. and Mexican officials “including Baja California Governor Marina del Pilar Ávila.”

Security Secretary Harfuch, Mexican generals and others pose for a photo at a White House meeting with Marco Rubio where the US requested Sheinbaum step up pressure on corrupt politicians
The U.S. first requested that Sheinbaum step up pressure on corrupt politicians at a bilateral security meeting in February. In attendance were U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Mexican Foreign Minister Juan Ramón de la Fuente and others. (U.S. White House via SRE)

Again citing its sources, the news agency said that the United States government first raised its request about the investigation and prosecution of Mexican officials at a meeting in Washington on Feb. 27 attended by Rubio, Mexican Foreign Minister Juan Ramón de la Fuente, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, Mexican Attorney General Alejandro Gertz, Mexican Security Minister Omar García Harfuch and other officials.

Citing an unnamed member of Sheinbaum’s security cabinet, Reuters said that a “crackdown” on Mexican politicians with suspected links to organized crime “carries political risks” for the president “as some of the allegations involve members of her own party.”

In its report, Reuters also said it “could not determine if the U.S. provided Mexico with a list of politicians suspected of links to organized crime, or evidence against them.”

It also said it was not “able to independently confirm if any individuals flagged by the U.S. had engaged in any wrongdoing.”

Ávila has rejected claims of wrongdoing, including reports that she is under investigation for links to a money laundering network. She has asserted that the revocation of her visa was “an administrative decision, not an accusation.”

Like his wife, Carlos Torres Torres is a Morena party politician. He has served as a deputy in both the federal Congress and the Baja California Congress.

The governor of Baja California, Marina del Pilar Ávila, with her husband Carlos Torres, a allegedly corrupt politician and member of the ruling Morena party.
Baja California Gov. Marina del Pilar Ávila and her husband Carlos Torres both lost their U.S. visas earlier this year. (@MarinadelPilar/X)

Sheinbaum has defended Ávila as questions linger over why the governor’s U.S. visa was revoked.

Sheinbaum responds to the report

Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Ministry responded to the Reuters report in a social media post on Wednesday.

“Both the Mexican Foreign Affairs Ministry and the United States Department of State have given transparent accounts of the various conversations held between the two countries on various issues, including security,” the SRE said.

“It is completely false that requests were made to investigate, prosecute, or extradite any official from Mexico in the meetings held with Secretary Rubio or with his team from the State Department,” the ministry said.

“The conversations have revolved around the search for agreements on various issues based on the principles of sovereignty, coordination without subordination, and respect for human rights,” the SRE said.

Sheinbaum also described the information in the Reuters report as “completely false.”

“Don’t you think it’s strange that when we were in the meeting [with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau” an article came out … saying that they were asking us to give them names of Mexican politicians. There is nothing more false than that,” she told reporters at her Thursday morning press conference.

“But the question is where does the [information in the] article come from?” Sheinbaum asked before describing the content of the Reuters report as “completely false.”

She said that the United States “didn’t ask for anything” at her meeting on Wednesday with Landau and U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ron Johnson, which came ahead of expected bilateral talks between Sheinbaum and U.S. President Donald Trump during next week’s G7 Summit in Canada.

The US Embassy denounces another ‘narco-list’

The United States Embassy in Mexico denounced on Wednesday an “initial list” of politicians with alleged criminal links posted to social media by Simón Levy, an entrepreneur and former deputy tourism minister in the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

“WARNING. This information is false,” the embassy said in a post to X that showed Levy’s list superimposed with the word “FALSO” in red.

Earlier on Wednesday, Levy announced on X that he would reveal the names of “Mexican politicians, governors and politically exposed people” who are subject to arrest warrants in the United States due to their alleged links to “organized crime, money laundering and drug trafficking.”

The eight names on his “initial list” included Tamaulipas Governor Américo Villareal, Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rocha Moya and former Morelos governor and soccer star Cuauhtémoc Blanco. It also included former Federal Electricity Commission director Manuel Bartlett and Andrés Manuel López Beltrán, son of former president López Obrador and Morena’s secretary of organization.

Levy claimed, without citing any source, that those five men and three others face charges related to “huachicol,” or fuel theft.

His claim came a day after The Financial Times published a report headlined “How smuggled US fuel funds Mexico’s cartels.”

In the report, The Financial Times said that “under pressure from the Trump administration, Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum is trying to crack down on illegal fuel imports.”

“But the cartels’ connections to the authorities, as well as the huge sums to be made, mean that they have the protection and incentive to continue,” the report said.

The United States Embassy’s denunciation of Levy’s list as “false” came eight days after it labeled as “false” a supposed U.S. government statement that purported to identify various “political leaders in Mexico with ties to drug cartels.”

Asked about Levy’s list on Thursday, Sheinbaum said “this person is not worth talking about.”

Other media outlets fuel speculation 

Citing unnamed United States officials, the U.S. investigative journalism organization ProPublica reported on May 15 that “the Trump administration has begun to impose travel restrictions and other sanctions on prominent Mexican politicians whom it believes are linked to drug corruption.”

“So far, two Mexican political figures have acknowledged being banned from traveling to the United States,” ProPublica said, referring to Governor Ávila and her husband.

“But U.S. officials said they expect more Mexicans to be targeted as the administration works through a list of several dozen political figures who have been identified by law enforcement and intelligence agencies as having ties to the drug trade. The list includes leaders of President Claudia Sheinbaum’s governing party, several state governors and political figures close to her predecessor, former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the U.S. officials said.”

Lopez Obrador stands at a military event with Mexican politicians
The list includes figures close to former President López Obrador, ProPublica reported. (lopezobrador.org.mx)

In response to the ProPublica report, Sheinbaum said that its author, journalist Tim Golden, “already has a history of providing information without sources.”

She also said that her government wouldn’t “protect anyone linked to organized crime as long as there is proof.”

A few days before ProPublica published its report, journalist Salvador García Soto wrote in a column for the newspaper El Universal that the Trump administration, “through its powerful Secretary of State Marco Rubio has commenced the ‘hunt’ for Mexican politicians, which, according to their investigations, have links to drug trafficking.”

García asserted that the Department of State has a so-called “list of Marco” that includes “at least 44 names of prominent officials and politicians” from Mexico with alleged links to drug trafficking, including federal ministers, governors, mayors and lawmakers.

He wrote that the list includes “politicians from all existing parties in Mexico,” but “the majority of those mentioned are active members of Morena, the party of President Sheinbaum, and some have a very close relationship with her and with the ex-president López Obrador.”

Asked on May 15 about a supposed U.S. “narco-list,” that includes the names of “narcogobernadores” (narco-governors) and other officials, Sheinbaum responded:

“There are a lot of rumors. They are rumors.”

She said at the time that her government had not received any notification from the United States government about the existence of “lists” of politicians with links to drug cartels.

With reports from Reuters 

Support for deported Mexicans goes unused as the US sends returnees elsewhere

By
MND Staff
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Men deboard a Global X airplane as Mexican airport workers and immigration agents stand by
Many repatriated Mexicans deboarded their flights from the U.S. in the Tapachula, Chiapas, airport near the Guatemalan border, and not in Mexico City as expected. (Gabriela Coutiño/X)

A government program designed to provide support for deported Mexicans from the United States is proving to be woefully deficient, mainly because the U.S. is flying them far away from where the support resources are located.

In January, President Claudia Sheinbaum’s government formally launched the “Mexico Embraces You” deportee reception program with much fanfare. Sheinbaum enlisted the support of a leading business association and more than 380 companies that had agreed to provide 60,000 permanent jobs to repatriated Mexicans.

With Donald Trump’s election as U.S. president in November 2024, the Sheinbaum administration anticipated a spike in return-migration as Trump had repeatedly pledged to carry out mass deportations during his campaign.

Upon presenting the new program in January, the Mexican government touted months of preparation that would provide returnees “with an appropriate reception and give them certainty of opportunities for a dignified life in their native country.”

However, an update provided last month by the Interior Ministry revealed that the program had provided jobs for only about 4% of the nearly 40,000 Mexicans who had been deported since Trump returned to the White House.

A geographic mismatch

The major stumbling block for the “Mexico Embraces You” program has been the U.S. government’s decision to send deportation flights to airports near Mexico’s southern border with Guatemala.

That decision, according to Bloomberg News, was to discourage the returnees from attempting the arduous journey north again. But the practical effect is that it strands them miles distant from the job opportunities and reintegration services so carefully prepared by the Sheinbaum administration.

Mexican officials had expected deportees to arrive by plane in Mexico City — where services to receive them had been established — or to be sent across the northern border by land, where a significant amount of resources had been sent.

Mexico’s Business Coordinating Council (CCE) had agreed to hold job fairs to assist expelled Mexicans at Mexico City’s AIFA airport. But so far, no such fairs have been held since regular flights have not arrived.

Instead, more than 90 deportation flights have been sent to Chiapas or Tabasco in southern Mexico and not a single deportation plane has landed in Mexico City since Feb. 17.

A sign reading "are you looking for a job" at a refuge for deportees in Tijuana
Employment resources are available at welcome centers like this Tijuana refuge — but many deportees are arriving in southern Mexico. (via ContraRéplica)

The CCE further says that the lack of space at smaller airports in southern Mexico makes it impossible to host job fairs there.

Mexico’s National Migration Institute has been enlisted to transport repatriated countrymen who find themselves in southern Mexico to bus terminals, but the one-time cash benefit supplied by the government is often not enough to purchase a ticket home.

The result is that many deportees have found themselves stuck in states where jobs are scarce. Chiapas and Tabasco are among Mexico’s poorest states.

Bloomberg reported that around 40% of the more than 70,000 “Mexico Embraces You” job openings reported in mid-May were located in the northern industrial state of Nuevo León, in the west-central state of Jalisco and in Mexico City and surrounding México state. By contrast, Chiapas and Tabasco are among the states with the fewest openings, less than 1,000 each.

Another issue hampering the programs, according to Bloomberg, is the lack of advance notice regarding deportation flights given by the U.S. government to Mexico. 

With reports from Bloomberg News and El Financiero

Who is Hugo Aguilar, Mexico’s first elected Supreme Court President?

By
MND Staff
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Hugo Aguilar Ortiz, an Indigenous Mixtec originally from Oaxaca, was the top vote-getter among 60 candidates for Supreme Court seats in the June 1 judicial elections. (Hugo Aguilar Ortiz/X) Share

Hugo Aguilar Ortíz, an indigenous lawyer from Oaxaca, has become the first directly elected Indigenous president of Mexico’s Supreme Court, a historic milestone that is stirring controversy and debate over his record and the future of Mexican justice.

Aguilar, who grew up in the Mixtec community of San Agustín Tlacotepec, gained prominence in the 1990s for his involvement with the Zapatista movement and legal advocacy for indigenous communities. Later, he entered government service, serving as Subsecretary of Indigenous Rights and as General Coordinator of Indigenous Rights at the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples (INPI).

 

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His transition from activist to establishment figure has drawn criticism from some indigenous groups, who accuse him of being “corrupted by power.” Aguilar also faces scrutiny for his role in government consultations on controversial megaprojects, including the Tren Maya and Interoceanic Corridor. The United Nations has documented several irregularities in these processes.

Despite Aguilar’s pledge to introduce legal pluralism and integrate indigenous legal systems into the Supreme Court, critics question his impartiality, citing his lack of constitutional law experience and ties to former President López Obrador. His historic appointment raises pressing concerns about the court’s independence and the protection of indigenous rights.

María Melendez returns with the latest episode of our “Who’s Who in Mexican politics” series.

Mexico News Daily

Gracias a la vida: Finding my gratitude in San Miguel de Allende’s civility

By
Bruce Sarbit
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Aerial view of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, with colonial architecture dominated by tall church steeples and Moorish-style Spanish domed cupolas dotting the skyline.
The writer is a Canadian who spends a few months of winter each year in San Miguel de Allende, a colonial city in the state of Guanajuato. (Jiuguangw/Wikimedia Commons)

Not long ago, when a friend of mine wobbled as he rose from a low stone wall in San Miguel de Allende, I offered him a hand. As he stood, he told me a story about civility in Mexico.

“Gracias,” he said, then added, “I’m okay. But last week, I tripped and was stumbling toward the ground. I’d have landed face-first, but this man caught me. He held me up in a bear hug. He’d been walking with groceries in one hand, his son’s hand in the other. When he saw me coming, he dropped the groceries, let go of his son’s hand and caught me!

An elderly man sitting with a cane outside an adobe building on a Mexican street
The story of a friend’s near fall and the unthinking helpfulness and civility he experienced from an unknown San Miguel de Allende resident got the writer thinking about the time he and his wife spend each year in Mexico. (Tom Hollett/Shutterstock)

“‘Gracias, gracias,’ I said. The man replied, ‘De nada,’ as though catching falling people was something he did all the time. He picked up his groceries, took his son’s hand and walked on. I stood there for a long time — steadying and calming myself before continuing, thinking how grateful I was. I still am.” 

Even though the world gives us plenty of reasons to focus on things going wrong — Israel and Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan, hurricanes and horrible fires — I also find myself thinking and saying “thank you.”

While the topic of essential virtues has long been on my mind, I hadn’t thought — except in passing — about the particular virtue of gratitude. That recently changed. 

For starters, I thought about it when my wife Celia and I spent a couple of weeks babysitting our grandkids, encouraging them, especially the 3-year old, to say the magic words: “may I,” “please,” “thank you,” and “you’re welcome.” Secondly, I’ve thought more about gratitude as I age, maybe because the alternative would be an unhealthy bitterness and resentment over my aches, pains and failing body. 

And a major impetus to my thoughts on gratitude have been my three-month-long winter vacations in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, and the marvelous civility of the city’s people.

The last six of the 10 years we’ve come to San Miguel, we’re barely settled into our rental before Celia begins to look for next year’s place because “in Winnipeg, I’m stuck inside during the winter,” she says. “But in San Miguel, I come alive!”

A taxi driving alone down a long, narrow downtown cobblestone street with multicolored adobe buildings with balconies and wooden doors
San Miguel de Allende’s many narrow, cobblestone streets encourage residents — both drivers and pedestrians — to take things at a slower, more civil pace. (Los Viajeros77/Wikimedia Commons)

She is deeply grateful for the opportunities San Miguel de Allende affords her to participate in the culture, and in a community where there’s graciousness and civility at every turn — literally and figuratively. 

There are no traffic lights or stop signs in the heart of San Miguel de Allende. In Winnipeg, where we live in Canada, drivers and pedestrians move in accordance with the rules we were taught — with traffic lights and stop signs to help us follow them. We’ve come to assume that without these, there’d be chaos and accidents galore. 

Well, there’s certainly traffic in San Miguel de Allende: buses, scores of green-and-white taxis, motorcycles, quads and cars — especially on weekends, when people drive in from Mexico City. The streets are often congested with traffic. But, remarkably, we don’t see accidents. And, just as remarkably, we rarely hear horns.

A very small number of streets in San Miguel are paved in ways that we’re used to in Winnipeg. But most of the city’s streets are stone and cobblestone, usually very rough — hard on a car’s shock absorbers. That, plus the usually narrow streets and a plethora of speed bumps, causes drivers to proceed slowly and carefully, in keeping with a set of unspoken rules.

The first of these rules is that automobiles should defer to pedestrians. A second equally important principle seems to be that we practice civility: there’s little or no competition to be first into the intersection. Drivers get to a corner that, in other cities, would have stop lights or signs determining priority and, finding none, defer to the driver who arrived first or at about the same time.

“It’s your turn,” waves the one who thinks himself second in line, to which the presumed first person often mouths “gracias” as he turns the corner. 

And I think to myself, “How gracious!”

It’s not just that there’s an alternative set of rules. It runs much deeper. Things in San Miguel de Allende operate in accordance with values and principles different from what we’re used to, including especially patience and deference, the Golden Rule and gratitude. 

The principles at work for drivers also apply to pedestrians. As I navigated the city’s narrow sidewalks on my first trip here, I noticed that people coming toward me stepped off the sidewalk and moved into the street so I could remain on the sidewalk. A simple act of etiquette, but a meaningfully sweet one, and I thought to myself, “How gracious!” As we passed, I said “gracias” while they shrugged and mumbled something like “de nada.”

But it’s not nothing. When others give me the right of passage — and I thank them — we contribute to a positive community ethos. As with driving, there are no formal rules for what transpires.

A young Mexican woman in a white dress and platform heeled shoes walks with her toddler daughter in a white dress in her arms down a stone paved street in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.
In Mexico, it’s common to see young children not in strollers but carried in their mother’s arms. So on San Miguel’s narrow, uneven streets, women with children, as well as the elderly, are often prioritized by other pedestrians for the right of way. (Galo Cañas/Cuartoscuro)

It’s rather an appreciation of several unspoken and loosely applied but nonetheless effective guidelines: Women take precedence over men. Older people and those who have trouble walking are considered before the younger and more mobile. And people walking in the same direction as traffic are privileged over those walking against it, as are people accompanied by young children.

The words “grateful” and “gratitude” come from an archaic Latin adjective, “grate,” meaning “thankful.” They form all or part of several English words, including “congratulations,” “grace,” “gracious,” “gratify,” “gratuitous” and “gratuity.”

According to psychologist Robert Emmons, gratitude has stages: First comes a state in which we affirm that, all in all, life is good. Then, comes an acknowledgment that we have received something that gratifies us, both by its presence and by the effort the giver put into choosing it for us — the latter a recognition that sources of this goodness lie outside oneself. Having recognized that goodness, we know whom to thank for it.

We recently saw the play “Tuesdays with Morrie.” Morrie’s several “life lessons” are profound, all worth considering, perhaps heeding. But what struck me as most important, even as he struggled to find breath, even as he moved inexorably toward death, was his focus on the abundance — the blessings — of and in his life. He was, in a word, “grateful.”

During his last television appearance, just prior to his death in 1973, the great José Alfredo Jiménez introduced his last song, “Gracias,” to thank the public for all of the affection they’d shown him throughout his career.

“If I had the means,” Jiménez sang, “I would buy myself another two hearts, to make them vibrate and fill your souls with dreams again.” 

José Alfredo Jiménez
The Mexican great José Alfredo Jiménez. (José Alfredo Jiménez/Facebook)

At a men’s breakfast in San Miguel, the topic for discussion was the music that we find most meaningful. I chose the song “Gracias a la Vida,” a beautiful tribute to the blessings and challenges of life by the Chilean singer-songwriter Violeta Parra.

The lyrics highlight the gifts of sight and hearing, of language and communication. They acknowledge the gift of mobility, our ability to travel to and experience cities and landscapes. They point to the achievements of the human brain as well as our ability to distinguish between good and evil. They value laughter and tears, joy and sorrow, life’s ups and downs, as well as the power of light to illuminate the path of the soul, of the singer and of the one she loves. The closing lines celebrate a sense of unity and shared experiences with others. 

The song brilliantly encourages me to cherish, and to be grateful for, the multitude of experiences and opportunities that life in San Miguel de Allende — that life in general — affords me.

Bruce Sarbit is a San Miguel de Allende resident.

Why does Mexico call a main square a zócalo?

By
Diego Levin
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Mexico City zocalo from above
From Argentina to Guatemala, Spanish speakers call a city's main square its Plaza Mayor. Why do Mexicans call it a zócalo? (Comisión Mexicana de Filmaciones / CC BY SA 2.0)

Visit a Latin American city built during the colonial period and you’ll almost always find the same urban layout in the historic downtown: a central plaza flanked by a church and several government buildings. In every Spanish-speaking country, this place is called the Plaza de Armas or Plaza Mayor. Every country, that is, except for Mexico. Here, a city’s central square is its zócalo. Why the difference?

In keeping with Mexico’s capital-centric history, the answer has to do with Mexico City. And, like much that happened in the first decades of the country’s existence as an independent nation, it also has something to do with Antonio López de Santa Anna.

Mexico City’s Zócalo has undergone many changes over the centuries. (Galo Cañas/Cuartoscuro)

The square with many names

Officially called Plaza de la Constitución, the Zócalo in Mexico City, at nearly 47,000 square meters in area, is one of the world’s largest public plazas. It has changed dramatically over the centuries. In precolonial Tenochtitlan, the area that is now the Zócalo was a large open space bordered by the city’s sacred precinct to the north and by the palaces of the Mexica (Aztec) kings Moctezuma II and Axayacatl to the east and west. If this area had its own Nahuatl name, it has been lost to history.

When the Spanish and their Indigenous allies seized Tenochtitlan in 1521, conquistador Hernán Cortés tasked Alonso García Bravo, one of his soldiers, with redesigning the city’s layout. It was García’s work that produced the future Zócalo. At this point, like its counterparts across Latin America still are today, Mexico City’s main square was known as the Plaza de Armas or Plaza Mayor or Plaza Principal. Sometimes, in reference to the viceroy’s palace — now the National Palace — the square was called the Plaza del Palacio; other times, it was enigmatically called the Plaza de las Ánimas, or the Plaza of Souls. The plaza still, however, lacked an official name, and it would be two centuries before it would get one.

You might guess that the Zócalo’s formal name, Plaza de la Constitución, references one of Mexico’s six constitutions. But you would be wrong: The document the capital’s main square is named after is actually the Spanish Constitution of 1812. This notably liberal constitution played an important role in the crisis of the Spanish Empire and the independence of its colonies in the Americas. When it was ratified in Mexico — then still New Spain, but with the independence movement well underway — the Plaza Mayor was renamed in its honor. 

Mexico City’s main square finally had its very own name, but it still wasn’t the one we know it by today, and its equivalents in towns and cities across the country were still called Plaza Mayor or Plaza de Armas. To get to the Zócalo, we have to jump forward in time to the early republic.

17th century painting of Mexico City zocalo by Cristóbal de Villalpando
Painter Cristóbal de Villalpando painted this view of Mexico City’s Plaza Mayor in 1695, featuring a partially ruined Palace of the Viceroys. (Bibliothecamex)

1828 and the Parián Riot

Throughout the colonial period and into the 19th century, the Plaza Mayor was home to Mexico City’s central marketplace. As the center of the country’s political life, the square was also the stage where the capital’s residents expressed their discontent and, therefore, the scene of riots that repeatedly sacked the market and destroyed the businesses there. 

The final iteration of the Plaza Mayor market, called the Parián, was built after the city’s hungry masses destroyed the previous market and part of the viceroy’s palace following a major harvest failure in 1692. The riot that destroyed the Parián took place in the aftermath of the September 1828 presidential election, the country’s second as a republic. 

When the conservative Manuel Gómez Pedraza beat liberal independence hero Vicente Guerrero for the presidency, he was widely understood to have won because the election was indirect, with votes being cast by state legislatures.

Two weeks after the election, Guerrero’s fellow independence leader Antonio López de Santa Anna rose in revolt in Veracruz, demanding that the elections be annulled and all Spaniards be expelled from the country. In late November, soldiers of the Mexico City garrison barricaded themselves in a city armory, echoing Santa Anna’s demands, and on December 4, groups of plebeian rioters ransacked and burned the Parián, the center of Spanish commerce in the city. Gómez Pedraza fled the city, and Guerrero was sworn in as president the next year.

Santa Anna’s monumental column

Lithograph depicting planned monument in Mexico City Zocalo in 1843
The planned monument, pictured in an 1843 projection, was never completed.

The Parián never recovered from the events of 1828. Successful merchants took their business elsewhere, and the market became an eyesore. In the early 1840s, López de Santa Anna — who had stood aside when conservatives overthrew Guerrero in 1830 — was serving in one of his longest stints as president and decided he’d had enough.

In July 1843, the San Carlos fine arts academy published a notice for what we might now call an urban renewal initiative: A competition would be held to design a monument to commemorate the heroes of Mexico’s independence. It would stand in the Plaza Mayor, soon to be cleared of the blighted Parián.

The winner of the competition was the Spanish architect Lorenzo de la Hidalga. Describing his project, one friend wrote that it was to comprise an octagonal base with an independence hero represented on each angle. Their remains would be interred inside the base, which would support a column with an internal spiral stair to be topped with a statue representing the republic. Sound familiar? This is almost an exact description of the Angel of Independence that now stands on Mexico City’s Paseo de la Reforma avenue.

De la Hidalga’s monument was never built due to the political shakeups of the 1840s and Mexico’s debt-constrained finances — except for one part.

Santa Anna laid the cornerstone for the monument’s octagonal base on Independence Day in 1843. It was completed eight days later. Then the money ran out. But the column’s base remained in the square for decades, and it was this structure that gave the plaza the name we call it by today: the word “zócalo” literally means “plinth” or “base.” 

From Mexico City, the habit of calling a city’s main square its zócalo spread throughout the country. The practice became so widespread that, despite being the original zócalo, Mexico City’s main square is often called the Zócalo Capitalino, or zócalo of the capital, to distinguish it from the rest.

Excavations in the mexico city zocalo in 2017
The plinth that gave the Zócalo its name was briefly unearthed in 2017. (Melitón Tapia / Instituto Nacional de Arqueología e Historia)

Although it’s not used in other Spanish-speaking countries, the word’s Mexican connotation is so well known abroad that the Royal Spanish Academy’s (RAE) dictionary definitions of the word include “a city’s main plaza, especially Mexico City.”

And the base the plaza is named for is still with us: In 2017, during renovations of the Zócalo, it was uncovered by archaeologists just north of the monumental flagpole that stands in the plaza’s center. 

Mexico News Daily

Sheinbaum addresses Noem’s accusations: Wednesday’s mañanera recapped

By
MND Staff
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Sheinbaum initially responded to Noem on Tuesday, but said she would "touch on" the accusation in her Wednesday meeting with Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau.
Sheinbaum initially responded to Noem on Tuesday, but said she would "touch on" the accusation in her Wednesday meeting with Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau. (Daniel Augusto/Cuartoscuro)

The protests in Los Angeles against immigration raids in the city were once again a dominant topic at President Claudia Sheinbaum’s morning press conference.

Here is a recap of the president’s June 11 mañanera.

Sheinbaum acknowledges US ambassador’s social media post contradicting Noem

A reporter asked the president whether she had received an apology from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem after the U.S. official accused her of encouraging “violent protests” in Los Angeles, where thousands of people have taken to the streets in recent days to express their opposition to raids carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In response, Sheinbaum noted that the United States Ambassador to Mexico Ron Johnson had made a social media on the topic on Tuesday.

On X, Johnson wrote:

“I again join @POTUS @realDonaldTrump and President @Claudiashein in condemning the violent protests that are occurring in the US. These actions don’t help. Instead, they create more problems for the innocent majorities. Law and order will be restored.”

Sheinbaum said that Johnson “has been a very good channel” for communication “and his posts have been very respectful.”

She noted that she would meet with Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau later in the day and said she would “touch on” the accusation Noem leveled against her on Tuesday.

Shortly after the homeland security secretary made her claim, Sheinbaum rejected it, writing on social media that it was “totally false.”

On Wednesday, she said: “What we have to seek is to avoid any misunderstandings and advance in the [bilateral] relationship, always defending the people of Mexico [and] our sovereignty.”

Sheinbaum accuses government critics of spreading misinformation that led to Noem’s claim

Sheinbaum acknowledged that she has called on Mexicans in the United States to oppose the proposed tax on remittances that has already been approved by the U.S. House of Representatives.

“Yes, we set out a strategy to mobilize [against the proposed tax] in many senses, always in a peaceful way,” she said, referring to remarks she made last month.

Sheinbaum subsequently asserted that opponents of her government distorted her remarks about opposing the proposed remittance tax, or took them out of context, to falsely claim that she incited violent protests in Los Angeles.

Last Sunday, “Mexican political personalities” claimed on social media that violent actions at protests in L.A. were “incited by the presidenta and the [ruling] Morena party,” she said.

Without mentioning any specific names, she said that political opponents disseminated “completely false” information on social media that was subsequently “picked up” by people in the United States.

People posting such information to social media “know that it’s a lie,” Sheinbaum said.

“They’re deliberately lying. … Instead of defending Mexicans … [they seek to] confuse those who read their posts,” she said.

“… It’s not a matter of criticizing the president, it’s a matter of wanting to elevate a conflict between Mexico and the United States. That’s why I say it’s unpatriotic. … They want to create, by lying, a problem between the United States and Mexico and that’s unpatriotic,” Sheinbaum said.

Miguel Elorza Vásquez, the federal government’s resident fact-checker, took the podium on Wednesday to criticize the online smear campaign accusing Sheinbaum and the Morena party of inciting violence in Los Angeles. (Mario Jasso/Cuartoscuro)

Just before the end of the president’s press conference, the federal government’s fake news debunker-in-chief Miguel Ángel Elorza Vásquez presented his regular “lie detector” segment.

“After the protests in Los Angeles, California, various commentators, cartoonists, media outlets and even politicians from the Mexican opposition have undertaken a campaign of lies and distortion to blame the president for encouraging violent protests,” he said.

“Those from Mexico who promote this lie join the disinformation chorus of United States media outlets and politicians who also promote it, and, at the same time, attack migrants with hate speech. The lie unites those who promote intolerance and hate on both sides of the border,” Elorza said.

He subsequently presented a video supporting his claim, and that of Sheinbaum, that a concerted disinformation campaign has been carried out to depict the president as an instigator of violent protest in the United States.

Sheinbaum: 61 Mexicans detained in LA raids 

Sheinbaum told reporters that 61 Mexicans have been detained in immigration raids in Los Angeles and are now in detention centers in the city.

She said that Mexican consular authorities are in contact with the detained people and their families and are providing them with “all the support they need.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday that immigration agents have arrested 330 immigrants in Los Angeles since Friday.

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

World Bank forecasts 0.2% growth for Mexico, citing persistent global ‘turbulence’ 

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MND Staff
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World Bank building
With the global economy in a state of "turbulence" and the uncertainty of fallout from the U.S. tariffs, the World Bank could only lift its 0% growth forecast for Mexico to 0.2%. (Shutterstock)

The World Bank updated its 2025 economic growth forecast for Mexico on Tuesday, amid growing trade uncertainty that is expected to hit Mexico harder than other Latin American countries. 

The World Bank anticipates a GDP growth rate for Mexico of just 0.2% in 2025. That’s slightly up from its April reading of 0%, but down from the 1.5% growth it had predicted for this year in January. The growth forecast for 2026 is 1.1%. 

vegetables at market
The World Bank cited “volatile food inflation” as Latin America’s major obstacle to managing headline (total) inflation in 2025. (@worldbankdata/on X).

Meanwhile, the growth rate for Latin America as a whole was revised downward from 2.6% to 2.3% in 2025 and to 2.4% in 2026. 

“Only six months ago, a ‘soft landing’ appeared to be in sight,” World Bank Senior Vice President and Chief Economist Indermit Gill wrote in the report’s foreword. “That moment has passed. The world economy today is once more running into turbulence.”

Gill explained, “International discord—about trade, in particular—has upended many of the policy certainties that helped shrink extreme poverty and expand prosperity after the end of World War II.” 

Increasing trade barriers and greater uncertainty globally are expected to slow economic growth across Latin America, according to the World Bank’s June Global Economic Prospects. 

Mexico, the region’s second-largest economy, will be the most directly affected, largely due to the 25% tariffs imposed on imports by the United States for goods that are not compliant with the United States-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement (USMCA). Mexican exports to the U.S. in 2024 accounted for 80% of the country’s total exports, and around half of them were not covered by the UMSCA.

In comparison, U.S. tariffs on imports from other Latin American countries are at 10%.

“Additional trade restrictions under a revised United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement could further reduce Mexico’s exports,” the World Bank warns. Meanwhile, “a sharper-than-expected slowdown in U.S. growth would significantly reduce demand for LAC (Latin America and the Caribbean) countries’ goods and services.” 

Latin America must focus on keeping “headline inflation relatively contained despite volatile food inflation,” according to the World Bank. 

The global economic growth forecast is also lower than last year, at 2.3% in 2025 compared to 2.8% in 2024.

Meanwhile, China’s economic growth is projected to decrease from 5% in 2024 to 4.5% this year and 4% next year. The strict tariffs on imports from China to the U.S. will likely also hamper Chinese nearshoring activities in Mexico.  

With reports from Minenio and Los Angeles Times

Peso appreciates to strongest exchange rate in 10 months

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MND Staff
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The peso is enjoying a sustained streak of gains on the US dollar, but it may reverse course as USMCA discussions begin toward the end of 2025.
The peso is enjoying a sustained streak of gains on the US dollar, but it may reverse course as USMCA discussions begin toward the end of 2025. (María Ruiz)

The Mexican peso appreciated to its strongest position against the US dollar in almost a year on Wednesday, dipping below 19 to the greenback due to a range of factors, including speculation that the United States could soon exempt Mexican steel and aluminum from its 50% tariff.

At 2 p.m. Mexico City time, the peso was trading at 18.92 to the dollar, according to Yahoo Finance!

The peso was even stronger earlier in the day, reaching 18.82 to the dollar.

The last time the peso was stronger was in August last year. The appreciation on Wednesday came after the peso closed at 19.06 to the dollar on Tuesday, according to the Bank of Mexico.

Gabriela Siller, director of economic analysis at Mexican bank Banco Base, said on social media site X that the peso appreciated on Wednesday due to three reasons:

  1. The expectation that the United States Federal Reserve will cut its interest rate while the Bank of Mexico “could pause” its easing cycle.
  2. Optimism due to the trade agreement between the United States and China.
  3. Speculation that United States President Donald Trump could remove the 50% tariff on steel and aluminum from Mexico.

Citing industry and trade sources, Reuters reported on Tuesday that “the United States and Mexico are negotiating a deal to reduce or eliminate President Donald Trump’s 50% steel tariffs on imports up to a certain volume.”

Bloomberg reported earlier on Tuesday that the two countries were “closing in on a deal” that would remove Trump’s tariffs on Mexican steel “up to a certain volume.”

The United States imposed a 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum imports in March, and Trump doubled the duty to 50% last week.

On Wednesday, the U.S. president announced that the United States’ “deal with China is done, subject to final approval with President Xi and me.”

Trump said that the U.S. is “getting a total of 55% tariffs,” while “China is getting 10%.”

He said that the deal also included the supply of magnets and rare earths from China to the United States, and that Chinese students would have access to U.S. colleges and universities.

“Relationship is excellent,” Trump declared.

Mexican financial group Monex said that the peso got a boost from “the optimism of investors, who anticipate a possible trade agreement [on steel tariffs] between Mexico and the United States.”

“Additionally, Trump’s comments about a trade agreement with China subject to the confirmation of Xi Jinping favor an environment of less aversion to global risk,” it said.

In another X post on Tuesday, Siller said that data showing that annual inflation in the United States was 2.4% in May — slightly lower than expected — increased the probability that the U.S. Federal Reserve would cut the federal funds rate, although she didn’t specify how soon. Most economists polled by Reuters believe that the Fed won’t make a rate cut until September.

At 4.42% in May, inflation in Mexico was considerably higher than the rate in the United States.

The Bank of Mexico’s key interest rate is currently set at 8.50%, while the Fed’s rate is much lower at a 4.25%-4.5% range. The significant gap between the two rates is widely seen as benefiting the Mexican peso.

What’s the outlook for the peso?

Siller said that the peso could appreciate to 18.50 to the US dollar this year “if there isn’t aversion to global risk, if Trump removes tariffs on Mexico and if the Fed cuts its [interest] rate while the Bank of Mexico pauses its cycle of interest rate cuts.”

For its part, the bank Banamex said on Tuesday that it estimates a USD:MXN exchange rate of 20.6 in December, which would represent a depreciation of more than 8% for the peso compared to its current position.

Banamex predicted that “noise that could arise” from the start of the USMCA review — which is scheduled for 2026 but could commence this year — will cause the peso to depreciate later in 2025.

With reports from El País and Expansión 

Mexico City retains top spot as most competitive state, Chiapas ranks last

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MND Staff
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Mexico City Angel
Mexico City's competitiveness outpaces most parts of the country, but three states — Baja California, Jalisco and Nuevo León — have made significant advances. (Moisés Pablo/Cuartoscuro)

Mexico City remains Mexico’s most competitive state for business, while Chiapas is the least competitive, according to an analysis by a leading Mexican think tank.

The Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (IMCO) has published its 2025 State Competitiveness Index (ICE), in which it ranks all 32 federal entities based on their performance across 53 different indicators in six categories called “sub-indexes.”

The sub-indexes are innovation and economy; infrastructure; labor market; society and environment; law; and political system and governments.

Among the 53 indicators are ones that look at GDP growth rates in the 32 states, levels of informality among workers, state government debt, hospital beds per capita, access to the internet and crime rates.

According to IMCO, the ICE “measures the ability of the country’s states to generate, attract, and retain talent and investment.”

“A competitive state is one that makes efficient use of its capabilities to foster a favorable environment that contributes to improving its development and, consequently, the well-being of its inhabitants,” the think tank said in its index report.

IMCO also said that “in an era in which the global rules-based system is being questioned, the best strategy for Mexico is to bet on competitiveness.”

“The current geopolitical environment presents opportunities for the country, as long as it manages to maintain its relative advantage in access to the U.S. market. To capitalize on this situation, Mexico must promote its economic development,” it said.

Mexico City is the only entity in the country deemed to have a “very high” level of competitiveness. (Presidencia)

CDMX comes out on top once again 

Mexico City is the only entity in the country deemed to have a “very high” level of competitiveness. The capital — Mexico’s top recipient of foreign investment and a magnet for workers from all over the country — retained its 2024 position at the top of the IMCO index.

“Mexico City positioned itself as the most competitive state, … taking first place in four out of the six sub-indexes assessed. It stood out in the economy and innovation sphere by registering the highest GDP per capita excluding the mining sector (541,916 pesos [US $28,750] per person), a high level of economic diversification (943 sectors), and the second highest patent rate (4.71 per 100,000 economically active people),” IMCO said.

Mexico City also ranked first in the sub-indexes for infrastructure; society and environment; and political system and governments.

A large number of major Mexican and foreign companies have offices in the capital, while the federal government and most of its agencies and departments, as well as some of the nation’s leading healthcare and education facilities, are based in the city. This helps Mexico City attract highly educated workers from around the country and abroad.

Mexico’s next most competitive states  

IMCO determined that three states have a “high” level of competitiveness, allowing them to occupy positions 2, 3 and 4 on the ICE. They are:

2. Baja California Sur (BCS): a state that occupies the southern portion of the Baja California Peninsula. It is best known for the twin resort cities of Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo. A tourism powerhouse, BCS also ranked as Mexico’s second most competitive state last year.

3. Nuevo León: a heavily industrialized northern border state whose capital is Monterrey. The state moved up one spot on the ICE.

4. Jalisco: a western Mexico and Bajío region state that is home to the major city of Guadalajara. The capital is sometimes referred to as “the Silicon Valley of Mexico” due to the presence of a significant number of tech companies. Jalisco moved up six spots on the ICE.

Guadalajara hotel area leads the country in convention and business tourism

Baja California Sur was the top state on the “labor market” sub-index.

According to IMCO, that subindex “measures the efficiency of the main factor for production: human capital.”

IMCO determined that 12 states have a “medium-high” level of competitiveness. They occupied positions 5 to 16 on the ICE.

5. Aguascalientes: up one position compared to 24.

6. Querétaro: down one position.

7. Coahuila: down four positions.

8. Chihuahua: up one position.

9. Sonora: down two positions.

10. Yucatán: down two positions.

11. Baja California: up three positions.

12. San Luis Potosí: up six positions.

13. Guanajuato: up nine positions.

14. Hidalgo: up 11 positions.

15. Tamaulipas: down three positions.

16. Sinaloa: down three positions.

Twelve other states are deemed to to have a “medium-low” level of competitiveness. They are Tlaxcala, Colima, Campeche, Durango, Quintana Roo, Nayarit, México state, Puebla, Tabasco, Veracruz, Morelos and Zacatecas.

Those states occupied positions 17 to 28 on the ICE.

Mexico’s least competitive states 

Chiapas fell two places compared to the 2024 ICE to occupy the 32nd and final position on this year’s State Competitiveness Index. It is the only state deemed to have a “very low” level of competitiveness.

Chiapas ranked last on the index with poor results on the sub-indexes for society and environment; infrastructure; and labor market, IMCO said.

Among a range of poor results, the think tank noted that Chiapas had the lowest average income among full-time workers (7,059 pesos or US $375 per month), the lowest average level of schooling among people aged 25 or older (7.56 years), and the second lowest proportion of people with technical or higher education (16%).

Rural Chiapas state, known for its coffee and fruit exports, dropped two places on IMCO’s competitiveness index. (Isabel Mateos/Cuartoscuro)

IMCO determined that three states had a “low” level of competitiveness. They occupied positions 29 to 31 on the ICE.

29. Michoacán: no change on the index compared to last year.

30. Oaxaca: up two positions.

31. Guerrero: no change.

Mexico’s three least competitive states are all located in southern Mexico, a disadvantaged part of the country that has been historically neglected.

Oaxaca ranked as Mexico’s least competitive state last year.

The State Competitiveness Index and Plan México 

The publication of IMCO’s latest State Competitiveness Index comes five months after President Claudia Sheinbaum presented Plan México, an ambitious economic initiative whose goals include making Mexico the 10th largest economy in the world, reducing reliance on imports from China and other Asian countries and creating 1.5 million new jobs.

IMCO said that the success of the plan “needs local strategies,” and asserted that “the ICE is a tool that allows federal entities to understand their competitive advantages and develop collaborative strategies that help them to exploit their potential and benefit from this industrial policy.”

IMCO outlined “strengths and challenges” of 12 “economic well-being corridors” identified in Plan Mexico.

The challenges included combating insecurity in various parts of the country, increasing economic diversification in several economic corridors and lifting foreign investment in southern states.

Ebrard FDI
IMCO emphasized the importance of security, the rule of law and legal certainty in attracting business to the country’s southern development corridors. (Daniel Augusto/Cuartoscuro)

In its index report, IMCO said that states will “play a key role in the success of industrial policy and must be prepared to take advantage of Plan México to spur productive investment and raise the quality of life of their citizens.”

“To achieve this, they require logistical excellence, abundant energy, a capacity for innovation, talent and a solid rule of law,” the think tank said.

Proposals to support Plan México  

IMCO set out proposals in five different areas that are aimed at supporting Plan Mexico achieve its aim of “transforming the economic conditions in the country.”

The think tank proposed:

  1. Promoting innovation and economic diversification, including by supporting the adoption of technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI).
  2. Developing logistical infrastructure, including by investing in infrastructure in states with “high air cargo capacity” such as México state, where the Felipe Ángeles International Airport is located.
  3. Strengthening security, the rule of law and legal certainty, including by bolstering state police forces.
  4. Developing human capital, including by supporting training centers focused on digital skills.
  5. Promoting environmental sustainability, including by developing state-based energy efficiency programs.

* IMCO’s 2025 State Competitiveness Index report (Spanish), which runs to more than 100 pages and includes scorecards for each of Mexico’s 32 federal entities, can be downloaded by clicking the “libro” tab at the top of this page.

Mexico News Daily 

Foreign tourists still picking Mexico, but with tighter vacation budgets

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MND Staff
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Several tourists having their photo taken by the sea
International tourists continue to flock to Mexico in increasing numbers to enjoy its sun, sea, food and culture. (Mara Lezama/X)

The number of international tourists traveling to Mexico has increased this year compared to 2024, according to the latest report by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI). 

INEGI’s data indicates that Mexico received 7.66 million foreign tourists in April, compared to the 6.75 million tourists it received in the same month last year, a 13.5% increase.

The largest year-on-year increase was in cross-border tourists, which grew by 10.9% to 1.53 million in April, compared to 1.38 million in the same month of 2024. Meanwhile, those arriving by air grew by only 0.2% year-on-year in April, but still exceeded 1.9 million people.

As for total spending of international tourists, money spent in Mexico increased by 12.5% ​​year-on-year, reaching US $3.042 billion, up from a previous figure of US $2.703 billion. That increase is the result of the greater number of international tourists entering the country, as the average spending per tourist actually decreased by 0.8% from US $400.17 in April 2024  to US $396.8 in April 2025.

These figures reflect the upward trend in tourism in Mexico. In 2024, the country saw 45.03 million international tourists enter the country, up 7.4% compared to 2023, reflecting a sustained increase since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Looking at the overall number of international tourist arrivals between January and April of this year, the Tourism Ministry (Sectur) revealed that in those four months, air arrivals totaled 7.86 million foreign tourists. Based on data from the Immigration Policy, Registration, and Identity of Persons Unit of the Interior Ministry, this represents an increase of 4.8% in foreign air arrivals compared to the same four-month period in 2024.

The countries that sent the most travelers to Mexico were the United States (4.9 million, though tourism in the oppposite direction has been sluggish), Canada (1.4 million) and Argentina (144,551).

“The sustained growth in tourist arrivals is a good indication that tourism in Mexico is on the right track,” Tourism Minister Josefina Rodríguez Zamora said. “We will continue working to make tourism a generator of well-being for all members of the vast tourism value chain.” 

With reports from El Informador

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