The island of Cozumel, along Mexico's Caribbean coast, receives 66% of visiting cruise ship passengers. (Elizabeth Ruiz/Cuartoscuro)
Mexico began to impose a US $5 tax on cruise ship tourists on Tuesday, finally implementing a compromise between the government and the cruise ship companies that had lobbied fiercely against the originally proposed $42 (780 pesos) levy.
The government had planned for the Non-Resident Duty (DNR) to kick in as of January this year, but it was met with pushback from cruise ship companies, who argued that implementation would threaten Mexico’s tourist economy.
The $5 cruise tourist tax isn’t collected in person from the passengers as they disembark, but rather charged by the shipping company in advance. (Cuartoscuro)
The revised DNR, collected by the cruise companies in advance, was agreed upon in May between the government and the shipping sector, including the Florida Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA), which represents major cruise lines such as Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruises.
The revision set the levy at $5 (90 pesos) per passenger for 2025, $10 in 2026, $15 in 2027 and $21 by August 2028.
Upon the initial announcement of the DNR late last year, the FCCA threatened to cancel cruises to Mexican ports and halt several million-dollar investments.
Shipping companies were also asked to promote Mexican crafts, textiles and art on ships and in ports; to gather growth metrics for the participation of Mexican companies in the industry’s supply chain; and to participate in working groups led by the Mexican Association for the Attention of Tourist Cruises.
Mexico depends heavily on the cruise industry to support its tourism economy.
By the end of May, the Caribbean resort of Cozumel had welcomed 2.1 million cruise ship visitors, while the nearby beach town of Mahahual saw 1.1 million passengers pass through.
The Caribbean coast receives 66% of all visitors entering Mexico through its ports, according to the Port Directorate of the Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation figures.
Moss said the U.S. president's attempt to ban asylum claims was an overreach of his executive authority. (Carlos Sánchez Colunga/Cuartoscuro)
A United States federal judge ruled on Wednesday that U.S. President Donald Trump’s ban on asylum claims by migrants who cross the Mexico-U.S. border is unlawful, saying that the president exceeded his authority when he issued a “protection against invasion” proclamation on the first day of his second term.
U.S. District Judge Randolph D. Moss issued the ruling, but put a related order on hold for two weeks to give the Trump administration time to appeal. White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said the U.S. government would indeed appeal and expressed confidence it would win.
Under Moss’s ruling, the ban will remain in place for two weeks to give the Trump administration time to appeal. (White House/X)
In the proclamation, the U.S. president ordered a suspension on the entry to the United States of “aliens engaged in the invasion across the southern border” until he determines “the invasion has concluded.”
Trump also directed the secretary of homeland security to “take all appropriate action to repel, repatriate, or remove any alien engaged in the invasion across the southern border of the United States.”
The U.S. president said that the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) “provides the President with certain emergency tools,” pointing out that it states that the president may “suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of alien” if he deems that their entry “would be detrimental to the interests of the United States.”
However, in a 128-page written ruling, Moss said that neither the INA nor the U.S. Constitution grants the president the authority to “replace the comprehensive rules and procedures set forth in the INA and the governing regulations with an extra-statutory, extraregulatory regime for repatriating or removing individuals from the United States, without an opportunity to apply for asylum” or other humanitarian protections.
“… The Court recognizes that the Executive Branch faces enormous challenges in preventing and deterring unlawful entry into the United States and in adjudicating the overwhelming backlog of asylum claims of those who have entered the country. But the INA, by its terms, provides the sole and exclusive means for removing people already present in the country,” wrote the judge, an appointee of former U.S. president Barack Obama.
Moss also wrote that “the President cannot adopt an alternative immigration system, which supplants the statutes that Congress has enacted.”
The Reuters news agency reported that “the decision applies to migrants who were subject to Trump’s ban or could be in the future, part of a certified class in the litigation.”
“Such class certifications remain unaffected by last week’s Supreme Court decision reining in nationwide injunctions,” Reuters said.
Moss’s ruling came in response to a challenge to Trump’s asylum ban brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of three advocacy groups as well as migrants who had been denied access to making an application for asylum in the United States.
Border crossings along the Mexico-U.S. border have been on the decline since June 2024, when former President Biden sharply limited asylum claims. Like Trump’s total ban, those restrictions faced challenged from the American Civil Liberties Union. (Mireya Novo/Cuartoscuro)
The ACLU filed the lawsuit in February, at which time an attorney for the ACLU, Lee Gelernt, asserted that “no president has the authority to unilaterally override the protections Congress has afforded those fleeing danger.”
What does the ruling mean for migrants?
If its appeal is unsuccessful, the Trump administration will be barred from expelling asylum seekers already in the United States before their cases have been considered. In addition, the ruling “could reopen asylum processing on the southern border and enable migrants to cross into the United States in hopes of seeking refuge,” The Washington Post reported.
Gerlent, the ACLU attorney, welcomed Moss’s ruling.
“The decision means there will be protection for those fleeing horrific danger and that the president cannot ignore laws passed by Congress simply by claiming that asylum seekers are engaged in an invasion,” he said.
“… The importance of restoring asylum in the United States cannot be overstated, not only for the people whose lives are in danger but for our standing in the world,” Gerlent said.
In recent years, large numbers of migrants have traveled through Mexico en route to the United States. They typically enter the country via the southern border with Guatemala and then seek to make the perilous journey to the United States by any means possible, including walking, riding on freight trains and crowding into the cargo compartments of tractor-trailers.
A caravan of migrants walks through Huixtla, Chiapas, near the border with Guatemala. (Damián Sánchez/Cuartoscuro)
While the majority of migrants seeking to reach the United States via Mexico come from Western Hemisphere countries, people from all over the world have made the journey. People from Afghanistan, Egypt and Turkey were among the migrants on whose behalf the ACLU filed the lawsuit against Trump’s proclamation.
The US government responds
Jackson, the White House spokeswoman, said in a statement that “a local district court judge has no authority to stop President Trump and the United States from securing our border from the flood of aliens trying to enter illegally.”
“This is an attack on our Constitution, the laws Congress enacted, and our national sovereignty. We expect to be vindicated on appeal,” she said.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said on X that “a rogue district court judge is already trying to circumvent the Supreme Court’s recent ruling against nationwide injunctions.”
“The American people see right through this. Our attorneys @thejusticedept will fight this unconstitutional power grab as @POTUS continues to secure our border,” she wrote.
Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, was also highly critical of Moss’s ruling.
A rogue district court judge is already trying to circumvent the Supreme Court’s recent ruling against nationwide injunctions.
The American people see right through this. Our attorneys @thejusticedept will fight this unconstitutional power grab as @POTUS continues to secure our…
— Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) July 2, 2025
“To try to circumvent the Supreme Court ruling on nationwide injunctions a marxist judge has declared that all potential FUTURE illegal aliens on foreign soil (eg a large portion of planet earth) are part of a protected global ‘class’ entitled to admission into the United States,” he wrote.
Trump himself didn’t comment directly on the ruling, but said in a Truth Social post on Wednesday afternoon that “we still have Radical Left Judges trying to open the Border, and defy the Supreme Court, which is why Republicans must be smart, strong, and never let these Crazed Judges turn us into a Third World Country.”
Ruling coincides with publication of data showing record-low migrant crossings
Moss’s ruling against Trump’s Jan. 20 proclamation came the same day that the U.S. government reported that illegal immigration at the Mexico-U.S. border declined to a record low in June.
“Border Patrol encountered just 6,070 illegal immigrants at the southern border in June — another record-setting low (15% lower than the previous record set in March) that underscores the effectiveness of President Donald J. Trump’s robust border enforcement policies and aggressive deportation measures,” the White House said in a statement.
“It’s a stark contrast to the Biden Administration, when approximately 10,000 unvetted migrants were illegally crossing the southern border every day at the peak of the invasion — most of whom were released into the country with little or no oversight,” the White House said.
Tom Homan, the United States’ “border czar,” said on X that “none of the 6,070” people detected by Border Patrol in June “were released into the U.S.”
U.S. “border czar” Tom Homan. (Gage Skidmore CC BY-SA 2.0)
“… President Trump has created the most secure border in the history of the nation and the data proves it. We have never seen numbers this low. Never,” he wrote.
Migrant crossings at the Mexico-U.S. border began declining after former president Joe Biden issued an executive order in June 2024 that prevented migrants from making asylum claims at times when crossings between legal ports of entry surge.
Reuters reported that “key parts of the Biden ban were blocked by a separate federal judge in May in a lawsuit also led by the ACLU.”
Manuel García-Rulfo has been nominated for an Ariel as Best Actor for his portrayal of the title character in the Netflix adaptation of Juan Rulfo's novel Pedro Páramo. (Netflix)
The film adaptation of one of Mexico’s most acclaimed novels, “Pedro Páramo,” received no less than 16 nominations for the 67th edition of the Ariel Awards.
The Ariels are the most important awards in Mexican cinema, presented annually by the Mexican Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences (AMACC) since 1947. This year’s award ceremony is scheduled for Sept. 20 in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco.
On the set of The Irishman, legendary actor Al Pacino, acclaimed director Martin Scorsese, and DP Rodrigo Prieto immerse themselves in their craft, bringing unparalleled talent and vision to the film. pic.twitter.com/UdW6j4BFiL
Pedro Páramo, directed by Rodrigo Prieto who has worked as a cinematographer for Martin Scorces, among other premier directors, premiered in select theaters in 2024 before its run on the streaming platform Netflix, which produced it. Among the film’s 16 nominations are Best Film, Best First Feature Film, Best Photography, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Direction, Best Actor (Manuel García-Rulfo), Best Supporting Actor (Héctor Kotsifakis), Best Supporting Actress (Giovanna Zacarías and Mayra Batalla) and Best Art Design.
It was listed as the No. 1 film on Netflix within 24 hours of its release, yet it received mixed reviews. Among the U.S. critics, RogerEbert.com called it “an alluring ghost story full of visual intrigue and surrealist imagery.” Meanwhile, the New York Times deemed it a “grave adaptation” of the novel in which “the filmmaking is oddly orthodox.”
Mexican critics, on the other hand, tended to praise Prieto’s technical achievements. Said one anonymous reviewer: “The contrast between the images depicting the pueblo’s abundance and decay is striking; the landscapes are enchanting and desolate, and the colors pay tribute to Mexico’s essence.”
Based on the classic 1955 novel by Juan Rulfo, the film is a work of magical realism that tells the story of Juan Preciado, who, after the death of his mother, travels to the town of Comala to look for his father, Pedro Páramo, thus fulfilling his mother’s last wish.
Pedro Páramo was previously adapted for film in 1976, when it won several Ariel awards. These included Best Cinematography (Jorge Stahl Jr.) Best Set Design (Pedro F. Miret, Xavier Rodríguez) and Best Setting (Guillermo Barclay).
Following Pedro Páramo in the number of nominations, “La Cocina” by Alonso Ruizpalacios garnered 13 nominations in various categories, including Film, Director, Actor (for Raúl Briones), Art Design, Editing, Special Effects, Original Music, and Makeup. Meanwhile, the films “They Will Not Move Us” and “Sujo” tied with 10 nominations, directed respectively by Pierre Saint Martin and filmmakers Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez.
A quirk of the Ariel Awards is that the number of nominees can vary widely from category to category, sometimes reaching a low of only three. According to AMACC head Armando Casas, the reason for that is “if more than 50% of voters vote for a film, the film is nominated. If it’s less than 50% the film isn’t nominated.”
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The midpoint of the summer is here. What's on in Guadalajara? (Protoplasmakid / CC BY-SA 4.0)
We’ve reached the middle of the summer – and the year – and Guadalajara has some exciting events awaiting you. From international concerts to a beer festival and sporting tournaments, there’s more than enough to keep you busy.
British singer James Blunt will perform live in Guadalajara as part of his international tour Back To Bedlam 20th Anniversary Tour. The tour marks 20 years since the release of Blunt’s breakthrough single “You’re Beautiful,” which became an international sensation, hitting No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 list in 2006.
Date: July 3 Location: Auditorio Telmex. Av. Obreros de Cananea 747, Industrial los Belenes Cost: Tickets start at at 300 pesos
If you’re curious about hypnosis, you’ll want to attend the John Milton show in Guadalajara this summer. Combining entertainment with hypnosis techniques, Milton’s show has gained popularity due to its surprising demonstrations. During the show, Milton selects volunteers from the audience to take part in live hypnosis demonstrations. Reviews note that the show is entertaining, dramatic and even stress-relieving.
Date: July 3 and 4 Location: Teatro Galerías. Av. Lapizlázuli 3445, Victoria, 45089 Cost:Tickets start at 756 pesos
Born in the United States to Mexican parents, Iván Cornejo, 20, is one of the latest revelations of Mexican regional music; and this summer, he’ll be performing in Guadalajara. Cornejo’s music, which blends alternative influences with sierreño sounds, has established him as a new idol in the genre and has earned him the Billboard Latin Music Award.
Date: July 10 at 9 p.m. Location: Teatro Diana, Av. 16 de Septiembre No. 710, Zona Centro Cost: Tickets start at 756 pesos
Banda El Recodo and Banda Machos take Auditorio Telmex
If you’re looking to experience some authentic banda music show, don’t miss out on this concert Banda El Recodo and Banda Machos, two of Mexico’s most popular banda groups. This concert is a special collaboration titled “Las más Perronas,” where Banda El Recodo and Banda Machos will share the stage to perform their most iconic hits. The event promises to be historic for fans of the genre.
Date: July 10 Location: Auditorio Telmex. Av. Obreros de Cananea 747, Industrial los Belenes Cost: Starting at 549 pesos
Sara Baras, the internationally renowned flamenco ballet dancer, will present her show “Vuela” in Guadalajara this summer. The show is a tribute to Paco de Lucía – the best flamenco guitarist in history – to celebrate her dance company’s 25th anniversary. The show promises a celebration of life, music and shared memory.
Date: July 17 at 8:30 p.m. Location: Conjunto Santander, Av. Periférico Norte No. 1695, Parque Industrial Belenes Norte Cost: Tickets start at 1,000 pesos
Beer lovers rejoice as the Tlaquepaque Beer Festival is back for its eighth edition. This annual event, which celebrates craft beer, food, music and art, has become a renowned festival in the national and international craft beer scene. Thanks to its growing popularity, this year organizers hope to surpass the 15,000 attendees the event recorded in 2024.
Date: July 19 and 20 Location: Plaza de las Ciudades Hermanas, Blvd. Gral. Marcelino García Barragán, Prados, San Pedro Tlaquepaque Cost: Free general admission with donation of three or more non-perishable food items
Learn to cook mole this summer at The Cooking Table, a culinary franchise that teaches cooking class in Mexico City and Guadalajara. At this class, the team will teach you how to prepare Mexico’s famous mole poblano from scratch, as well as homemade tortillas, red rice and the classic Jalisco dessert jericallas, a milk custard dessert.
The school has three locations in Guadalajara: La Platza, La Estancia and Zona Real. For more information, WhatsApp them at +52 333 8149 857.
Date: July 23 at 8 to 11 p.m. Location: All locations in Guadalajara Cost: 800 pesos
Charros de Jalisco home games at the Estadio Panamericano
If you’re a baseball fan, July has something for you too. Zapopan’s hometown baseball team, the Charros de Jalisco, will play several home games at the Estadio Panamericano in Guadalajara, as part of the 2025 Mexican Baseball League (LMB) regular season.
The Charros will play Caliente de Durango on July 1, 2 and 3; the Algodoneros de Unión Laguna on July 11, 12 and 13; the Rieleros de Aguascalientes on July 15, 16 and 17; and the Tecolotes de los Dos Laredos on July 29, 30 and 31. Date: Throughout July Cost: Prices vary per game Location: Estadio Panamericano de Béisbol, Calle Sta. Lucía 373, Tepeyac, Zapopan
This innovative staging fuses the intensity of opera with the energy of metal, offering a unique experience for lovers of musical theater and alternative genres.Expect a reinterpretation of Mary Shelley’s classic story, combining operatic voices with powerful brass arrangements, visual effects and high-impact stage production.
Date: July 26 Location: Teatro Galerías. Av. Lapizlázuli 3445, Victoria, Zapopan Cost: 800 pesos
Attend a classical music concert om the Chapala Ribera
Residents of Chapala and the Chapala Riviera can enjoy the Quinteto de Alientos Saturnino, which will perform chamber music by composers from various parts of the Americas. This music ensemble was founded in 2017 in Aguascalientes city. It is composed of flute, oboe, clarinet, French horn and bassoon.
Date: July 6 Location: Centro para la Cultura y las Artes de la Ribera. Carretera a Chapala-Jocotepec 168, La Floresta, Ajijic Cost: Free
Gabriela Solis is a Mexican lawyer turned full-time writer. She was born and raised in Guadalajara and covers business, culture, lifestyle and travel for Mexico News Daily. You can follow her lifestyle blog Dunas y Palmeras.
You can encounter various types of sharks in Mexico in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. (Shane Myers Photography/Shutterstock)
It’s June 1975. Audiences are packing into cinemas to watch a young female character named Chrissie Watkins wander down to the ocean for a midnight swim. The setting is peaceful and beautiful, yet the flat sea and summer night sky carry a chilling edge of danger.
The shark attack, when it happens, is subtly filmed: There is no blood, no close-up of mutilated limbs. We hear muffled screams and see the woman being pulled underwater. Her drunken friend wakes on the beach in the morning to find her missing, and movies will never be the same again.
JAWS | Official Trailer | Experience It In IMAX®
When Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws” was first released in 1975, it dramatically increased the public’s fear of sharks.
“Jaws,” when it was released 50 years ago, propelled Steven Spielberg to fame and marked the start of the summer blockbuster. From this point onwards, studios would be on the lookout for the next cultural phenomenon, a motion picture with a big budget and a star-studded cast that would bring in the crowds during the summer holiday season. “Star Wars,” “Alien,” ”Indiana Jones” and “Ghostbusters” all followed the path established by “Jaws.”
If “Jaws” revived the movie industry, it probably did little for scuba tourism. Despite widespread societal fear of them, shark attacks are extremely rare. Incidents can be classified into two types.
The first is the phenomenon of unprovoked bites, in which an attack occurs in the shark’s natural habitat with no human provocation. Swimmers, waders and surfers are the most common targets.
The second, a provoked bite, takes place when there a human interacts with a shark. This might include spearfishers, people attempting to feed or touch sharks or those trying to remove a captured shark from nets.
While most sharks can bite if provoked, three species account for the vast majority of unprovoked attacks: the bull shark, the tiger shark and, of course, the great white.
In 2024, there were 47 shark attacks reported around the world, with four fatalities. To put that into perspective, around 81,410 to 137,880 people die each year from snake bites, while 24,000 die from lightning strikes.
Mexico’s Office of the Attorney General for Environmental Protection, or Profepa, confiscated this illegal shark fin haul at the Port of Ensenada in early June. (Profepa)
Mexico has a long coastline, and sharks can be found in both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. However, no attacks were recorded in Mexico during 2024, and the last five years have seen just eight recorded attacks. Surprisingly, four of these were fatal, a high ratio of deaths to attacks that might suggest fishermen who receive some relatively minor injury do not report the bites.
Humans are far more deadly to sharks than sharks are to humans. According to a low estimate, 73 million sharks are taken from the seas every year, and the last decade has seen Mexico increase its share of this international trade. According to the National Aquaculture and Fishing Commission’s (Conapesca) Fisheries Statistical Yearbook, Mexico is now ranked sixth in terms of the total catch of sharks, with an annual catch of 20,000 to 40,000 tons per year.
A fisherman in Mexico receives around US $2 per kilogram of shark, but by the time the dried fins reach Asia, they can be worth up to $70. This market has resulted in several shark species in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean being fished to the point where they are now described as being “exploited to the maximum sustainability.”
While the shark trade is regulated in Mexico, there are ways around any rule. Some fishing boats operate without permits or boats might creep out during the closed season, and protected species are still being caught. Add this to poor recordkeeping and corruption, and it is reasonable to assume that at least some of the shark that passes from Mexico to Asian markets is off the books.
While the situation in Mexico is uncertain, studies have shown that more than 70% of the fins that end up in Hong Kong fish markets come from vulnerable or endangered species. There is also a terrible level of animal cruelty in shark fishing. It is primarily a shark’s fin that is valuable, so it has become a common practice for fishermen to cut these from a living shark and then throw the animal back into the water, where the sharks, unable to swim, will slowly drown.
One hope for sharks is that humans are fascinated by them; each year, world shark tourism generates more than US $300 million. While any diver going into warm water might be lucky enough to spot these wonderful animals, there are a handful of Mexican dive sites famous for shark spotting. Playa del Carmen offers a variety of diving tours that focus on viewing the bull sharks that gather here from November to March.
Bull sharks are large sharks responsible for many attacks on humans. However, this is largely because they share the shallow waters where humans like to splash around, and they are not considered a threat to divers. Indeed, Playa del Carmen is famous for the opportunity of seeing these ocean giants swim past at close range.
Another hot spot for shark encounters in Mexico is Cabo Pulmo, on the southeast coast of the Baja California Peninsula. This reef is around 20,000 years old, and after many years of overfishing became protected in 1995. It is now one of the most successful marine parks in the world, with over 6,000 species recorded. Sharks can be seen here in large numbers in winter, and there are many other attractions, from whales to the seasonal gathering of Mobula Rays.
Mexico’s third famous shark site is currently closed to tourists. This is Isla Guadalupe, 240 kilometers from the western coast of the Baja Peninsula. Declared a Biosphere Reserve in 2005, it offers clear, calm waters and great views of the white sharks that gather here from July to December. The start of shark season is marked by the arrival of juvenile male sharks. As the weeks roll by, these juveniles are joined by mature female sharks, some of which measure over five meters.
Until recently, Guadalupe Island was a noted destination for cage diving. This concept was pioneered in Australia in the 1970s by Rodney Fox. Having survived a shark attack, Fox developed the idea of putting divers into a cage and letting great whites come to them.
Each year, world shark tourism generates more than US $300 million. (Nautilus Adventures)
The idea was copied in South Africa and here in Mexico, but has always been controversial. The main problem with cage diving is that in many places, sharks need to be attracted by throwing chum — fresh chunks of fish meat with bone and blood — into the water. This puts excessive nutrients into the sea. Detractors say the easily available food source changes the sharks’ migratory habits.
Cage diving off Isla Guadalupe made headlines for the wrong reason in 2016, when a young shark managed to force its way into a cage. The trapped diver escaped injury, but the incident was filmed and widely shared, with 8 million views on YouTube.
Despite this incident, Guadalupe cage diving had a good reputation within the industry. The water was clear, the sharks gathered here naturally and although some bait was used, this was not chum but fish heads. At one point, three companies were operating small but profitable businesses.
So it came as a surprise when cage diving was suspended in 2022 and all tourism on the island stopped in January 2023. While the explanation that the closure was intended to “make it possible to gather information that will guide activities and the adoption of the best sustainability practices that guarantee the conservation of the aforementioned populations” sounded commendable, it also posed questions.
The suddenness of the decision left small tour operators unable to refund deposits, and the ruling did not seem to be part of any greater conservation plan. There was also a concern that removing the licensed dive boats, which acted as watchdogs, would leave the waters deserted and open to the poachers.
Sharks are great survivors. Over the last 500 million years, they have lived through five mass extinction events that have decimated other species. However, 50 years after Police Chief Brody hunted down the monster in “Jaws,” sharks might be facing their greatest challenge.
Bob Pateman is a Mexico-based historian, librarian and a life term hasher. He is editor of On On Magazine, the international history magazine of hashing.
"The government is not going to spy on anyone, like they spied on us," the president said on Wednesday, referring to alleged espionage carried out by previous governments. (Daniel Augusto/Cuartoscuro)
At her Wednesday morning press conference, a day after the Senate approved legislation dubbed the “Spy Law,” President Claudia Sheinbaum rejected claims that security authorities will be able to access citizens’ personal data, including on their cell phones, without first obtaining a judicial warrant.
She also declared that the federal government “is not going to spy on anyone.”
The president came prepared Wednesday morning with a lesson on the Mexican Constitution after national headlines announced a new “Spy Law” had passed in the Senate. (Daniel Augusto/Cuartoscuro)
Her remarks came after various politicians, non-government organizations and media outlets stated that security authorities will be able to access citizens’ personal data without obtaining a court order.
The National Action Party’s leader in the Senate, Senator Ricardo Anaya, asserted in a social media post on Tuesday that the ruling Morena party “consolidated the #SpyGovernment: geolocation, access to your health, bank and biometric data without a judge.”
The Network in Defense of Digital Rights, a non-governmental organization, said on social media on Tuesday that the Senate had granted the government “permission to spy.”
“Legalizing surveillance and access to our [personal] information without controls, judicial orders or any safeguard, through public and private databases, is an abuse of human rights,” the organization said.
Sheinbaum denies any intent of government to spy on citizens
During her Q&A session with reporters, Sheinbaum called for the front page of the Wednesday edition of the Reforma newspaper to be displayed on a screen behind her.
A headline in the newspaper referred to opposition parties’ warning that a “spy state” will be created as the result of the Mexican Congress’ approval on Tuesday of the National Investigation and Intelligence System Law.
“The opposition in the Congress yesterday accused [the ruling party] Morena and its allies of imposing a ‘spy state,’ through laws that authorize security and law enforcement authorities to request the geolocation of citizens without a court order,” stated the opening sentence of Reforma’s report.
“They also questioned the authority granted to authorities, in the Investigation and Intelligence Law, to have access to any public or private record with useful data to ‘create intelligence products,'” the report continued.
After reading out the report’s headline, Sheinbaum requested that Article 16 of the Mexican Constitution be displayed, and reminded reporters that “no law can violate the Constitution.”
The president read out two sections of Article 16, with which she sought to refute claims from opposition politicians and others that the government will be able to access people’s personal data and track their location without first obtaining a court order.
The sections she read out — as translated in English-language copies of the Mexican Constitution available on the websites of the Organization of American States and Mexico’s Electoral Tribunal — are as follows:
“Private communications shall not be breached. The law shall punish any action against the liberty and privacy of such communications, except when they are voluntarily given by one of the individuals involved in them. A judge shall assess the implications of such communications, provided they contain information related to the perpetration of a crime. Communications that violate confidentiality established by law shall not be admitted in any case.”
“Only the federal judicial authority can authorize telephone tapping and interception of private communications, at the request of the appropriate federal authority or the State Public Prosecution Service. The authority that makes request shall present in writing the legal causes for the request, describing therein the kind of interception required, the individuals subjected to interception and the term thereof. The federal judicial authority cannot authorize telephone tapping nor interception of communications in the following cases: a) when the matters involved are of electoral, fiscal, commercial, civil, labor or administrative nature, b) communications between defendant and his attorney.”
“It’s what the laws say, it’s what the Criminal Code says,” Sheinbaum said.
“There can only be an intervention, a GPS location, etcetera, under court order, unless it’s a missing person, a kidnapping, where the information is requested directly to the telephone company in order to attend in an extraordinary way to a case of this type,” she said.
“… It’s false, it’s a lie that the laws approved [by the Senate on Tuesday] have to do with the state spying. False, they’re lying deliberately,” Sheinbaum added.
“In fact, I believe that all of us here were spied on in one way or another, because all of the colleagues have been members of the [Morena party] movement for many years,” said Sheinbaum, who was joined by various federal and state officials at her morning press conference.
“So we were all spied on [but] we don’t spy on anybody, nobody, absolutely nobody,” she said.
“What we want is to build a safe country, in peace,” Sheinbaum said.
In accordance with the constitution and Mexico’s laws, “a telephone intervention can only be approved by a judge,” she said.
“At no time is anyone being spied on. Let that be clear,” Sheinbaum said.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies (peter.davies@mexiconewsdaily.com)
President Sheinbaum witnessed the arrival at the AIFA airport of the first of what will be 20 deliveries of Embraer E-195-E2 planes to become part of Mexicana de Aviación's fleet. (Presidencia/Cuartoscuro)
Mexico’s state-owned airline Mexicana de Aviación welcomed the first of 20 Embraer E195-E2 aircraft on Tuesday, marking the beginning of a major expansion phase.
President Claudia Sheinbaum officially received the aircraft at Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA) in Mexico City, alongside other officials, including the Defense Minister, the Infrastructure, Communications, and Transportation (SICT) Minister and the governor of México state.
The purchase of 20 planes marks the beginning of a major expansion for Mexicana, for which the airline is training 56 pilots and 84 flight attendants. (Presidencia/Cuartoscuro)
“Mexicana de Aviación is not about nostalgia for the past, it is a bet on the future,” Sheinbaum said during the event. “It is a company that is being created with new principles, transparency, inclusion, efficiency, social responsibility and a sense of nationhood … it is a message to the people: ‘You have the right to fly.’”
The delivery of 20 planes over two years comes after the Mexican government signed a 20 billion-peso (US $1 billion) purchase agreement with the Brazilian company Embraer. Five aircraft will be delivered in 2025, followed by seven in 2026 and the final eight in 2027.
Mexicana is currently training 56 pilots and 84 flight attendants in preparation for the company’s expansion.
Having a state-owned airline is crucial for mobilizing the population, resources and security forces in emergency situations, natural disasters and logistical operations, said Mexicana’s CEO Leobardo Ávila Bojórquez.
The Embraer E195-E2 has a capacity for 132 passengers and can reach speeds of up to 963 kilometers per hour. Its aerodynamic design, consisting of lightweight, composite materials, helps to reduce operating costs, and its latest-generation engines have a fuel-saving capacity of 30%, according to the company.
The aircraft has a range of 4,615 km, which will allow it to reach parts of North, Central and South America from AIFA.
Mexicana’s first Embraer 195-E2 is expected to make its inaugural commercial flight by August 25, followed by a second aircraft on September 12.
The airline, which began operations in late 2023, currently has six main routes.
In June 2024, Bojórquez announced plans to expand Mexicana’s routes in the next three years to include 11 international destinations in the United States, Canada and Latin America, with bases in Tijuana, Baja California and Tulum, as well as AIFA.
The repopulation program, responsible for the introduction of nearly 300,000 totoaba in Gulf of California waters, aims to reverse decades of overfishing and illegal trafficking that have pushed the totoaba to the brink of extinction. (Marina Robles/X)
As part of a milestone conservation effort led by Mexico’s Environment Ministry, 40,000 baby totoaba fish were released into the waters of the Gulf of California, a unique ecosystem where this threatened species is endemic.
This marks the tenth generation of totoaba — 270,000 individuals in the past 10 years — that Mexico has reintroduced to prevent the extinction of the species. The fish plays a crucial role in marine balance in the Gulf, dubbed by Jacques Cousteau as “The Aquarium of the World.”
The 40,000 hatchlings released measured on average 25 centimeters, but adult totoabas can reach two meters in length and weigh 100 kilograms. (Maria V/X)
In an official statement, the Environment Ministry (Semarnat) said the release of the totoaba hatchlings — each about 25 centimeters long — “is the result of a collaborative effort between the private sector, civil society and the government.”
Thanks to the joint program involving Semarnat, the regenerative aquaculture company Santomar and civil society, the baby totoaba are now swimming freely in the waters off Santispac Beach, in the municipality of Mulegé, Baja California Sur.
The program aims to reverse decades of overfishing and illegal trafficking that have pushed the totoaba to the brink of extinction.
“The reintroduction effort promotes the recovery of this threatened species,” said Dr. Marina Robles García, undersecretary of Biodiversity and Environmental Restoration at Semarnat. “And this is possible thanks to totoaba cultivation in laboratories located in Sonora, Baja California and Baja California Sur.”
Robles García attributed the program’s success to scientific developments at the Institute of Oceanological Research at the Autonomous University of Baja California (UABC).
According to the website Big Fish, these research centers “have perfected the reproduction and rearing of the species under human care, then reintroduced them in a controlled manner to the wild.”
Robles García said the program is also assisted by a new, state-of-the-art regenerative aquaculture system in La Paz, Baja California Sur. There, larval food is cultivated in tanks filled with microalgae.
“This joint effort shows that it is indeed possible to recover threatened species, as has already happened with the California condor and the Mexican wolf,” she said.
The totoaba repopulation scheme is also aided by the nine Wildlife Conservation Management Units (UMAS) that are dedicated to the care of the Gulf corvina fish, where around 3 million totoabas have been produced in recent years.
Though prohibited since 1975, illegal fishing of the totoaba continues due to the demand for the fish’s swim bladder, an organ that helps the fish control its buoyancy and is considered a delicacy in certain parts of Asia. The swim bladder can fetch prices of around US $500 per kilo in Mexico and $8,000 per kilo on the international market.
With the totoaba population stabilizing, the Mexican government last month amended the import/export tax law to grant Santomar, which cultivates the totoaba in submersible farms on the high seas, the exclusive authority to export totoaba meat as long as it adheres to traceability regulations. According to the newspaper Milenio, this modification seeks to exercise greater control over the illegal totoaba market.
Selling the swim bladder is still prohibited, as are sales of live totoaba.
The crematorium provided (or was supposed to provide) cremation services to six funeral homes in Ciudad Juárez, located on Mexico's northern border opposite El Paso, Texas. (Manuel Sánchez/Cuartoscuro)
The owner of a private crematorium in Ciudad Juárez where 383 bodies were left in piles to decompose has been arrested along with his sole employee.
The attorney general of Chihuahua, César Jáuregui Moreno, announced that José Luis Arellano Cuarón, the owner of the Plenitud crematorium in the Granjas Polo Gamboa neighborhood of Ciudad Juárez, and Facundo Martínez Robledo, an employee, were detained on Sunday.
A judge ruled that the two men must remain in preventive prison ahead of a court hearing on Friday. They face charges related to the improper handling of cadavers. If convicted on all counts, they face prison sentences of a minimum of eight and a maximum of 19 years.
Jáuregui said that the crematorium provided (or was supposed to provide) cremation services to six funeral homes in Ciudad Juárez, located on Mexico’s northern border opposite El Paso, Texas.
The 383 bodies found in the crematorium were “received by funeral homes, the mourning of families was carried out there and subsequently this company picked up the bodies to carry out the cremation service, which it didn’t do,” the attorney general said.
He said that the crematorium most probably charged the funeral homes for cremation services, but just left the bodies to pile up in its facilities.
Mexican police have discovered more than 350 corpses piled up, embalmed and abandoned at a private crematorium in Ciudad Juarez, local prosecutors reported pic.twitter.com/YrS8ma65Pw
Given that the bodies were taken to funeral homes by families, it is unlikely that any of them are of missing persons, Jáuregui said.
“In any case, each and every one of them will be investigated so that there is no doubt about the origin of the bodies. I think it will be difficult to determine how long they were there in the crematorium because all of them had funerary treatment [embalming],” he said.
“… The investigation will be sufficiently exhaustive to first provide dignity to these bodies, secondly to identify them [and] thirdly to provide them with the fate that their relatives decide,” Jáuregui said.
He also said that the investigation will look beyond the crematorium owner and employee to determine whether anyone else is guilty of negligence and/or criminal behavior. Officials responsible for inspecting such facilities and ensuring their compliance with applicable laws could be among those investigated. The crematorium had the permits required to operate.
Corpses ‘stacked’ in various rooms at crematorium
The 383 bodies found at the Ciudad Juárez crematorium were piled up in five or six rooms and in its yard, according to Jáuregui. Authorities discovered them last Thursday after receiving a report from a citizen about foul smells in the area. The bodies of four minors, including two babies, were found at the crematorium.
The Chihuahua Attorney General’s Office (FGE) announced on Monday that a total of 383 embalmed bodies were piled up at the crematorium. Some of them had been there for as long as five years, according to the FGE.
Eloy García, spokesperson for the FGE, told the AFP news agency that the cadavers were “stacked” in no apparent order.
They were “just thrown like that, indiscriminately, one on top of the other, on the floor,” he told AFP.
‘Unprecedented drama’: Prosecutor describes hell-like scene of 383 bodies in Juárez crematorium https://t.co/9P7FN6lLtx
García said that relatives of the deceased were given “other material” in lieu of ashes.
According to AFP, the FGE spokesperson “alleged ‘carelessness and irresponsibility’ by the crematorium owners, adding that all such businesses ‘know what their daily cremation capacity is.'”
“You can’t take in more than you can process,” García said.
Marcelo Ruiz, representative of the Ciudad Juárez Funeral Homes Union, said that it was not the first time that bodies were left to pile up in a crematorium in the border city, noting that there was a similar case in which 63 decomposing bodies were found during the COVID pandemic.
