Playa El Palmar I y II, Zihuatanejo, Mexico, became Blue Flag beaches in 2023. (FEE International)
With 12 additional beaches receiving Blue Flag certifications this 2024-2025 season, Mexico will have the largest number of Blue Flag beaches in the Americas — and rank 10th worldwide.
Isla Mujeres’ Playa Centro is one of Mexico’s 78 Blue Flag beaches. (islamujeres.gob.mx)
With over 15,000 kilometers of coastline, Torruco stated that “Mexico’s beautiful beaches” continue to be one of the country’s main draws for tourism from around the world. “This is why we must care for and preserve them, always under a responsible and sustainable vision,” he added.
The international Blue Flag program promotes sustainable development in freshwater and marine areas by incentivizing local authorities and beach operators to achieve high standards in the four criteria required by the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE): water quality, environmental education, environmental management and safety.
Torruco said that his office continues to promote the Blue Flag program as it helps to raise awareness among tourists and residents about the relevance of ecosystems, particularly coastal ones. It also helps fulfill the current administration’s goal to position Mexico as a “green destination,” he said.
Torruco also recognized the outstanding work of the FEE’s branch in Mexico, which has ensured compliance with the established standards to maintain excellent beaches, marinas and boats.
The Blue Flag award is earned on a yearly basis, meaning that if a Blue Flag beach does not maintain the required criteria, it can lose its flag.
Journalist Denise Maerker's comments on the topic of political polarization in Mexico during a roundtable discussion have gone viral. (Screen capture)
Like the United States and many other countries, Mexico is politically polarized.
On one hand, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) has maintained high approval ratings throughout his six-year term, and over 33 million Mexicans voted for Claudia Sheinbaum, delivering a landslide victory to the ruling party candidate who has pledged to build on the “transformation” of Mexico initiated by her political mentor. The president has legions of devotees, colloquially known as AMLOvers.
Claudia Sheinbaum’s landslide victory in the election signals that a majority of the population wants continuity of President López Obrador’s policies, which Sheinbaum has promised to build on. (Lopezobrador.org.mx)
On the other hand, millions of Mexicans loathe AMLO and believe that he — and the president-elect — pose a threat to Mexico and its democratic institutions, in part due to the constitutional reform proposals the president submitted to Congress earlier this year and which Sheinbaum supports. The presidential candidate most of those people supported on Sunday was Xóchitl Gálvez representing the PAN-PRI-PRD coalition, who received more than 15.5 million votes.
One manifestation of the political polarization in Mexico is that “friends and relatives no longer talk politics for fear of worsening unbridgeable divides,” the Associated Press said in a recent article.
On Sunday, while analyzing and discussing the election results during a Televisa broadcast, well-known journalist Denise Maerker weighed in on polarization in Mexico. Her remarks “resonated widely,” El Universal reported, and in this day and age that means they went viral on social media.
During a discussion with other high profile journalists, including Ciro Gómez Leyva and Jorge Ramos, Maerker was asked whether polarization is good, bad or “inevitable,” and whether there could be some kind of “national reconciliation” after the elections.
🚨 ESTO PASÓ
Denise Maerker 🧑🏻, productora y conductora de N+ 📺, se hace viral por su reflexión y conclusiones en mesa de análisis respecto a la jornada electoral 🗳️. pic.twitter.com/v6PSkpTMX0
This clip of journalist Denise Maerker speaking about polarization in Mexico has 1.8 million views.
She began by speaking about the vast economic gulf between Mexico’s poorest people and the middle and upper classes. AMLO’s political base is mostly the former cohort — who have benefited from expanded social programs during the current administration — while more well-off Mexicans are more likely to be critical of the president.
“There is a polarization that is structural and it has to do with a deeply unequal society,” Maerker said.
“What does this polarization mean? The [different] social groups can’t think alike nor can they have common interests or views of the world,” she said, adding that in some cases they are incapable of understanding each other.
“The division between social classes and the immense inequality is a polarization in itself,” Maerker said.
Mexico is a very unequal society, which Maerker emphasized is part of the structural polarization in the country. (Cuartoscuro)
The journalist asserted that López Obrador has exacerbated that polarization — and made the divide a more deeply political one — with his rhetoric, in which he often pits ordinary Mexican people, el pueblo, against “greedy” elites. He once derided the middle class as “aspirational” and “without moral scruples.”
“What López Obrador did,” Maerker said “was to bring this existing polarization out into the light and throw loads of gasoline on it.”
She asserted that political polarization can be reduced “very quickly” if the “gasoline the president throws every morning” at his press conferences, or mañaneras, is no longer thrown.
“I believe there is a polarization [in Mexico] that is deeply fueled [by López Obrador],” Maerker said, referring to political polarization rather than “structural,” economic polarization.
“I believe that [political polarization] is going to diminish” when López Obrador leaves office, she said.
However, structural polarization won’t diminish until Mexican society becomes “more even,” Maerker added.
Will there be less divisiveness during the next presidential term? Maerker asserts that political polarization will recede when AMLO leaves power, and Sheinbaum has said she wants to unite Mexican society. (Cuartoscuro)
“It’s obviously structural [polarization] that gives rise … to tremendous differences [between classes],” she said, noting that many Mexicans find it impossible to understand why their fellow citizens voted for Sheinbaum, or why they voted for Gálvez, as the case may be.
“This lack of understanding is because there are places in society that are profoundly different,” Maerker said.
Her explanation of polarization in Mexico was “widely praised” on social media, El Universal said, highlighting comments such as “I completely agree with Denise Maerker” and “while people with money continue living in their bubble and don’t see the reality of the country, this will continue happening.”
One comment beneath a clip of Maerker’s remarks that has been watched 1.8 million times simply said: “Very true.”
It remains to be seen whether Sheinbaum — who has said she wants to unite Mexican society — will be able to reduce polarization with less divisive rhetoric, but one thing that is clear is that combating political division will be one of the key challenges for the incoming president, along with things such as reducing violence, growing the economy, managing the relationship with the United States and lifting even more Mexicans out of poverty.
We’re all annoying in our own way. There is always a quirk or personality trait that irritates the masses. Oftentimes those traits span an entire nationality.
I should know, I’m American.
Oh Americans. Known the world over as loud, obnoxious, fashionably-challenged, and completely coddled. According to The Times and a 10-year-old article on Business Insider, citizens of the U.S. travel simply to compare everything to the U.S., speak English loud and proud, and make little attempt to learn the local culture. Who is more intolerable than us?
Avoid getting this look by paying attention to our handy guide. (Alev Takil/Unsplash)
I’m happy to say that since moving to Mexico City I’ve found out that we aren’t the only deplorables. At least here in Mexico. (I’m talking to you Canadians, Brits, and Aussies.)
Not to fluff my own feathers, but I have always made a very concerted effort to meld with the local culture as much as possible. Yet, I’m still classified as annoying. Why? I needed answers. So I set out on a very entertaining quest to uncover the most offensive things I, my fellow gringos and selected other nationalities, do to roll both the proverbial-and-physical eye of our Mexican neighbors.
Through in-depth interviews of six born-and-raised-in-Mexico friends, I found out more than I needed to know about the actions we (often unknowingly) take to offend them.
Here are the top 10, coupled with my personal interpretation of what we’re doing wrong.
Admittedly, you probably weren’t intending to come to Mexico and do this… but don’t ride your motorbike on a crowded tourist beach either. (Carlos Alberto Carbajal/Cuartoscuro)
Expect English everywhere. It’s true that Mexico City restaurants are handing out English menus to Mexican patrons, much to their chagrin. It’s a double-edged sword. It’s a testament to the country’s accommodation of outsiders, but it’s also preventing English-speaking expats from immersing themselves in the language and, therefore, learning it.
Refuse to drink filtered water. I understand this from both sides. If you’ve fallen victim to Moctezuma’s rite of passage, just looking at an ice cube will make your stomach turn. However, it likely didn’t come from an ice cube. Dining establishments have no intention of poisoning you, or anyone else, with tap water. No one drinks it here anyway. Filtered is fine.
Talk about how cheap everything is. This has come up before on Mexico News Daily. Even if it is cheap compared to your home country, it’s not cheap compared to Mexico’s average salary. Delight in the money you’re saving, but keep it to yourself.
Guilt payments and over-tipping. If your housekeeper gives you a rate, that’s the rate you should pay. Don’t double it because you think it’s too low. It throws off the pay scale for Mexicans who might not be making the same salary you’re raking in from a San Fran-based tech giant. This also goes for tipping. The standard is 10-15%, so unless the service is absolutely spectacular beyond belief, stick with the local customs.
Tipping is expected, but going above 15% can be seen as problematic. (Blake Wisz/Unsplash)
Not eating like a Mexican. This is one of my favorites. I’m not referring to Mexican dishes and I’m sure you’re noshing heavily on tlayudas and mole. This refers to Mexico’s traditional dining schedule. Think about it – gringos eat lunch around 1:00 P.M. and dinner around 7:00 P.M. Mexicans eat lunch around 2:00 P.M. and dinner around 8:00 P.M. This means that when a Mexican couple shows up for date night at 8:15 P.M., there are no tables available.
Crossing the street like a gringo. The rules here are pretty obvious — pedestrians yield to cars. Yes, it’s opposite to most other countries but trying to change this societal rule will end up getting you squashed. It’s confusing to drivers and safer for you to follow the rule so just do it.
Don’t even think about ordering this. Pretend you’ve never heard of it. (Creative Headline/Unsplash)
You don’t look Mexican. Very delicate territory here. There has been a long held belief that Mexicans look a certain way, work in certain industries and have a certain style. This is particularly rampant in the United States. And for a country that is so sensitive to class, a statement like this can be really offensive (especially when coming from an American).
Mexicans don’t eat burritos. This isn’t true everywhere, obviously. The seafood joint up the street from my apartment has a pretty rico seafood burrito on the menu. If you’ve flown into Puerto Vallarta, you’ve probably filled up on a famous smoked marlin burrito at Tacón de Marlin. What is meant by burrito in this case is a lack of research or curiosity about true Mexican culture. Mexico is mole, it’s Tenochtitlan, it’s Quetzalcoatl, it’s Catholicism, it’s copal, it’s mariachi, it’s agave. This country is so rich beyond the edges of a jack-cheese and ground beef burrito from Chipotle. Mexico is simply amazing.
Anything self-deprecating behaviors you want to add? Please let us know, politely, in the comments below.
Bethany Platanella is a travel planner and lifestyle writer based in Mexico City. She lives for the dopamine hit that comes directly after booking a plane ticket, exploring local markets, practicing yoga and munching on fresh tortillas. Sign up to receive her Sunday Love Letters to your inbox, peruse her blog, or follow her on Instagram.
Beat the heat with some of the most delightful natural pools that Jalisco has to offer. (All photos by John Pint)
Weather forecasters have been predicting that these first days of June will see the hottest temperatures Mexico has ever known. Hopefully, the annual rains will then set in, bringing with them the cool and comfortable summer weather that Mexican highlanders have been enjoying for as long as anyone can remember. If you’re trying to stay cool in the high temperatures of Jalisco, it might feel like an impossible task.
In the meantime, everyone will be off to crowded beaches and balnearios (water parks) except you, perhaps, should you choose to visit one of the following clean, cool, or cold rivers, easily reachable from Guadalajara.
Cooling off in a waterfall at El Manto.
Las Cascadas de Chiquilistlán
This is the latest name for a series of breathtakingly beautiful waterfalls along Jalisco’s Jalpa River. These falls are also known as Las Cascadas de Aquetzalli or Comala. The last name fits best since the most scenic of these falls are located only 1.3 kilometers from the very tiny town of Comala, Jalisco, which, in turn, is located 80 kilometers southwest of Guadalajara.
Each of these falls could serve as a spectacular movie set, only for their sheer beauty, but they also offer better attractions than any water park: high jumps, natural water slides, kiddy pools, and—for the really adventurous—12 ideal falls for canyoneering.
These cascadas well as the other sites listed below may be crowded on a Sunday but normally you can have them all to yourself on a weekday. To get there, ask for ”3335+JF2 Comala, Jalisco” in Google Maps. Driving time is about 90 minutes from the heart of Guadalajara.
The cold spring at Agua Dulce. The water is clean and drinkable.
This campground also offers other attractions like a forest watchtower, ponies, and several short ziplines… and yes, it has clean toilets.
To get there, input: “Rancho Ecoturístico Agua Dulce en Bosque de La Primavera” in Google Maps. Driving time is 32 minutes from the west end of Guadalajara.
Huaxtla Falls
The local people call these the Jaguar Canyon Falls and the height of the dry season is the best time to visit them because the water is very cold and can only be fully enjoyed when the weather is unbearably hot.
For many years, the Huaxtla Falls were accessible only to canyoneers wearing neoprene suits and well-practiced in rappelling.
The wispy second waterfall at Huaxtla
Then a group of local entrepreneurs decided to construct a trail—-nicely sign-posted—-down to the Huaxtla river and three of the falls. The one-kilometer-long trail offers spectacular views of Jaguar Canyon and a fun hike for those who are fit.
If you’d like to spend a night in a place where stars can really be appreciated, you can take advantage of a campsite which has been set up in a wide, flat field at the trail head, offering light snacks and clean toilets. To reach these camping grounds, Google “WJP3+JHQ Huaxtla, Jalisco”
The first fall is around 60 meters high but only operates right after a storm. The second is 40 meters tall, wide and wispy, with a sunlit blue-green pool at its foot—complete with red and blue dragonflies fluttering about to welcome you. The third is 70 meters tall and, like the second, runs all year round. However, at its base you’ll find what is more of a puddle than a pool.
The second waterfall at Los Azules. Watch the dragonflies as you float on your back.
Fall number two is one of the prettiest you are likely to see in all your life and I speak as a globe trotter who has seen many a fine fall, so that is the one I recommend for you.
Fortunately, the pool at the base of this second cascada is deep enough for swimming.
Unfortunately, however, the trail leading down to the waterfall is both rough and steep. So this is a hike only for those who are very fit and fully cognizant that — after a most refreshing swim — they’ll have to clamber back up to the top of the canyon in the heat of the day.
Finding your way to and from Los Azules is tricky and I recommend scouting up a guide in Tequila town.
In spite of the drawbacks mentioned above, if you live in Mexico and love nature, you really should add Los Azules de Tequila to your bucket list. To get there, I suggest you ask Google Maps to take you to the town cemetery (“Cementerio Mpal Tequila Jalisco”) and there scout up some local person willing to take you to “La Cascada #2 de Los Azules.”
El Manto
El Manto is a beautiful river located 115 kilometers west of Guadalajara, in the state of Nayarit. The river has clean cool water, dotted with small waterfalls, and it flows for some distance along the base of a towering cliff. Floating down this river in an inner tube is an exhilarating experience that will surely make you feel like Huckleberry Finn.
The river head at el Manto in Nayarit.
It is, in fact, a unique place and therefore has become very popular over the years, which means you’d better go there on a weekday.
El Manto has cabins to rent, space for camping, toilets, and two restaurants. Note that the site might be closed once the rainy season begins, so, if you’re going, don’t delay!
To get there, ask Google Maps to take you to “El Manto, Amatlán de Cañas, Nayarit.” Driving time is about two hours from the west end of Guadalajara.
Take your pick, jump in and laugh away el calorón, the heat wave.
John Pint has lived near Guadalajara, Jalisco, for more than 30 years and is the author of A Guide to West Mexico’s Guachimontones and Surrounding Area and co-author of Outdoors in Western Mexico. More of his writing can be found on his website.
A migrant mother and her children heading toward the U.S. border camp for the night in Acajete, Puebla, on May 21. Under U.S. President Joe Biden's new Mexico border asylum claim policy, she could be denied an opportunity to even apply for asylum. (Mireya Novo/Cuartoscuro)
United States President Joe Biden issued an executive order Tuesday that prevents migrants from making asylum claims at the U.S.-Mexico border at times when crossings between legal ports of entry surge.
The New York Times described the order as “the most restrictive border policy instituted by Mr. Biden, or any other modern Democrat.”
The New York Times said that Biden’s executive order barring asylum claims at Mexico’s border with the U.S. is an attempt to address voters’ concerns in an election year. (White House)
The newspaper also said that the order “echoes an effort in 2018 by President Donald J. Trump to cut off migration that was blocked in federal court” and is “a dramatic election-year move to ease pressure on the immigration system and address a major concern among voters.”
Outlined in a White House “fact sheet,” the new restrictions take effect when the seven-day average for migrant crossings into the United States between ports of entry reaches 2,500. Numbers are measured by so-called “encounters” between migrants and U.S. authorities.
The Times reported that daily totals already exceed 2,500, meaning that Biden’s executive order could take effect immediately. U.S. border officers would thus be able to send migrants back to Mexico or to their countries of origin within hours or days without the chance to apply for asylum, even if a migrant believes they have a worthy claim.
In order for U.S. authorities to reopen the border to asylum seekers, migrant crossings between ports of entry would need to remain below a daily average of 1,500 for seven consecutive days. The border with Mexico would reopen to migrants two weeks after that, the Times said.
The White House fact sheet said that the Biden administration’s actions “will make it easier for immigration officers to remove those without a lawful basis to remain and reduce the burden on our Border Patrol agents.”
“But we must be clear,” the statement added. “This cannot achieve the same results as Congressional action, and it does not provide the critical personnel and funding needed to further secure our southern border. Congress still must act.”
A young boy plays on a train bound for Mexico City in Tlaxcala on May 25. Part of the Viacrucis Migrante, a migrant caravan that travels en masse through Mexico toward the U.S. to highlight the dangers migrants face, the boy and his group were hoping to board the cargo train. (Alain Hernández/Cuartoscuro)
The number of migrants arriving at the Mexico-United States border has risen greatly during the presidential terms of Biden in the United States and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Mexico.
Migrants typically enter Mexico at the country’s southern border with Guatemala before making the long, arduous and dangerous journey to the northern border on buses, atop trains, in tractor trailers and on foot. Mexican authorities detain and deport significant numbers of migrants, but many others make it to the northern border before attempting to make asylum claims in the United States or cross into the U.S. illegally.
Fleeing crime, poverty and political oppression, migrants come from Central American countries, from Caribbean nations such as Haiti and Cuba, from South America and even from Asia and Africa.
AMLO to speak to Biden about the new immigration policy
President López Obrador said Tuesday that he would “probably” speak to Biden on Tuesday about the U.S. government’s new immigration actions.
“We have a telephone call with President Biden pending; [it will] probably [be] today,” he said.
López Obrador said that Biden’s new policy didn’t amount to a closure of the Mexico-U.S. border, asserting that couldn’t happen even if U.S. authorities wanted to close it.
“There could be [new] deportation measures, that have always existed, but border closures, no,” López Obrador said.
Mexican and U.S. officials have held numerous migration-focused meetings in recent years, and AMLO said Tuesday that the two countries have made progress on the issue. He has long urged the United States to increase funding for development programs that address the root causes of migration in the region. For its part, the U.S. has pressured Mexico to do more to stop the flow of migrants to its northern border.
President López Obrador receives President Biden at the North American Leaders Summit in January 2023. López Obrador said on Tuesday that the U.S. should fund more programs in migrant source countries to provide migrants with incentives to stay home. (López Obrador/X)
“On the migration issue we have made good progress,” López Obrador said Tuesday, adding that both the Mexican and U.S. governments are committed to maintaining “a relation of respect for our sovereignties.”
However, he once again railed against the lack of U.S. funding aimed at reducing the number of migrants in major source countries from coming to the U.S. border with Mexico with asylum claims.
“It’s not possible that they approve 50, 60, 100 billion dollars for wars and absolutely nothing is approved in the [U.S.] Congress to support the people of Central America, Latin America and the Caribbean, who are the people who have to opt for migration out of necessity,” López Obrador said.
“I’m sure that if this was proposed to the citizens of the United States, they would accept,” he added.
Biden’s order set to be challenged in court
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a New York-based human rights organization, said on the X social media platform that it would launch a legal challenge to the U.S. president’s new executive order.
“The Biden administration just announced an executive order that will severely restrict people’s legal right to seek asylum, putting tens of thousands of lives at risk,” the ACLU said.
“This action takes the same approach as the Trump administration’s asylum ban. We will be challenging this order in court,” it added.
Lee Gelernt, an ACLU lawyer, said that the Biden administration “has left us little choice but to sue.”
The policy restricting asylum claims “was unlawful under Trump and is no less illegal now,” he said.
Major Republican politicians in the U.S., though in favor of stricter immigration policies, dismissed the executive order as an effort to garner votes. “If he was concerned about the border, he would have done this a long time ago,” said Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Mike Johnson. (U.S. House of Representatives)
The Times noted there would be “limited exceptions” to the new restrictions on asylum seeking at the Mexico border, “including for minors who cross the border alone, victims of human trafficking and those who use a Customs and Border Protection app to schedule an appointment with a border officer to request asylum.”
However, “for the most part,” the Times added, “the order suspends longtime guarantees that give anyone who steps onto U.S. soil the right to seek a safe haven.”
Top Republicans respond to Biden’s plan
Mike Johnson, speaker of the United States House of Representatives, said that Biden’s executive order was “window dressing.”
“Everybody knows it. … If he was concerned about the border, he would have done this a long time ago,” said Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana.
He also said that “from what we’re hearing,” the order “will ignore multiple elements that have to be addressed.”
Johnson’s office called the new immigration policy an “election-year border charade.”
Mitch McConnell, the Republican Party’s leader in the U.S. Senate, said that due to the large number of migrants crossing into the U.S. at its southern border, Biden’s new policy was “like turning a garden hose on a five-alarm fire.”
“And the American people are not fools. They know that this play is too little, too late,” McConnell said.
Xóchitl Gálvez, seen here with leaders of the PRD (far left), PRI (left) and PAN (right) conceded to Claudia Sheinbaum, but has announced she will challenge the election. (Cuartoscuro)
Losing presidential candidate Xóchitl Gálvez and National Action Party (PAN) leader Marko Cortés have announced that the opposition will file challenges against what they believe was an unfair presidential election in Mexico, in which President Andrés Manuel López Obrador intervened and “the entire state apparatus” was used to favor Claudia Sheinbaum.
Sheinbaum, candidate for the ruling Morena party, easily won the presidential election, attracting 59% of the vote to beat Gálvez by more than 30 points, according to results announced by the National Electoral Institute (INE).
Candidate Xóchitl Gálvez at a polling station after voting on Sunday. (Cuartoscuro)
Gálvez, who represented an opposition bloc made up of the PAN, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), said in a social media post on Monday that she was aware that there was “a lot of confusion” and “many doubts” about the results of the presidential election.
However, she noted that she had acknowledged her defeat “because I’m a democrat and I believe in the institutions.”
“I trust INE’s quick count, it’s a statistical exercise devised by the country’s best data scientists. I know that the results surprise us and that’s why we must analyze what happened. We all knew we faced an unequal competition against the entire state apparatus dedicated to favoring its candidate,” Gálvez wrote without offering specific examples about how the government allegedly helped Sheinbaum.
Marko Cortés, leader of the PAN, has questioned the legitimacy of the presidential election results. (Marko Cortés/X)
“We will present the challenges that prove what I am telling you and what we all know. And we’ll do it because we can’t allow another election like this one. Today more than ever we must defend our democracy and our republic,” she wrote.
“The counterbalances and the division of powers remain at risk. … We’re the resistance and we must do what we have to do: defend Mexico from authoritarianism and bad government,” Gálvez added.
Cortés decries “enormous inequity” in the election
PAN national president Marko Cortés said Tuesday that the party he leads would launch a challenge against what he described as a “state election in which the president directly intervened.”
He asserted that López Obrador repeatedly violated the constitution and electoral laws during the electoral period and spent large amounts of public money to favor Claudia Sheinbaum and Morena.
PAN leader Marko Cortés with Xóchitl Gálvez at a campaign event in Nuevo Laredo last month. (Marko Cortés/X)
The party leader said that the PAN would “continue defending our country” from both houses of federal Congress and the states it governs. Cortés also said the PAN would “defend every vote” cast for Gálvez and the party’s other candidates.
“We acknowledge that the [electoral] results … don’t favor us, but we also point out that the election was not clean nor legitimate, that it was never a level playing field,” he said.
Cortés also expressed regret over the opposition’s failure to convince the majority of Mexicans of “the enormous authoritarian risk we face.”
“We are democrats and we will always recognize the will of the majority when its truly legitimate … [but] we can’t stop denouncing and challenging when the constitution and the electoral law were repeatedly violated,” he added.
AMLO: Sunday’s election was “the cleanest” in history
Asked at his Tuesday morning press conference about the opposition’s announcement that it would challenge the election, President López Obrador said that the government’s opponents, including Cortés, were within their rights to do so.
However, he asserted that they had nothing to complain about.
“The election on Sunday was the cleanest and freest that has existed in history,” López Obrador said before revising his remarks.
President López Obrador dismissed the opposition’s concerns about the legitimacy of the election, but said they’re within their rights to challenge. (Cuartoscuro)
López Obrador said that the PAN and the other opposition parties need to “breathe deeply, undertake a serious reflection and try to understand what happened” on Sunday.
“… Self-criticism is very important, it’s very important to know how to improve,” said AMLO, who lost the 2006 and 2012 presidential elections as a PRD candidate before winning with Morena in 2018.
At just 26 years of age, Katya Echazarreta became the youngest woman in space. The daughter of migrant workers from Michoacán now wants to make this journey accessible for all Mexicans. (Katya Echazarreta/Facebook)
At 26, Katya Echazarreta prepared to embark on a great mission: to be the first Mexican woman to travel to space — and the youngest woman to do so. Echazarreta is an electronics engineer and science communicator with an unwavering determination and a deep love for space exploration. Selected as a citizen astronaut by the nonprofit Space for Humanity, she boarded the New Shepard spacecraft on Blue Origin’s NS-21 flight.
Although Echazarreta is small in size compared to the other five crew members on that flight, all of whom were men, her dreams are huge. Now back on earth, she has a new mission: to boost the space industry in Mexico and assemble missions of Mexican astronauts trained in-country.
The first Mexican woman in space
A visibly elated Echazaretta experiences weightlessness while in orbit. (Katya Echazarreta/X)
What is the importance of being first? In any field, whether space exploration, science or art, coming first carries significance: opening new frontiers, recognition and prestige and a lasting legacy. For Echazarreta, it symbolizes new possibilities for future generations. When you search the internet for “Latin Americans in space,” she appears alongside Rodolfo Neri Vela, the first Mexican astronaut to go into the cosmos, and José Hernández Moreno, the migrant-born scientist selected by NASA on STS-128.
Echazarreta was born in Mexico and lived here until she was seven when her family decided to move to California. The first few years were complicated, as she had to learn English while starting elementary school. But in sixth grade, she was writing, talking and reading like an eighth grader. From an early age, she was interested in construction tools, Legos and cars; she seemed to love assembling things.
After high school, Echazarreta attended San Diego City College for three years, where she was named Student of the Year in 2016. She was part of the International Society of Women Engineers and served as a mentor for the Mathematics, Engineering and Science Achievement program. She later transferred to the University of California, Los Angeles to complete her degree, the top public institution in the United States according to the U.S. News & World 2024 Best Colleges report.
But it wasn’t all easy. “Getting to UCLA was very difficult. I didn’t have the resources to study. When I was 17 years old, my parents separated. I had been accepted to several universities and I was very excited, but unfortunately, my dad left us. My parents got married in Mexico, so legally, he didn’t owe us anything. From one day to the next, we were left without access to bank accounts, without my mom’s car, and without a house. My only assets were my remaining family — siblings and mother — and a job I had at McDonald’s,” Echazarreta recounted in a lecture titled “Espacio sin Límites” at the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN).
Echazarreta and the capsule that took her into space. (Katya Echezarreta/Facebook)
Thanks to two full scholarships, she started her university studies at UCLA. Did everything get better from then on? No. She faced discrimination for being Mexican and a woman, immersed in a scenario full of prejudice and inequality. “When everyone tells you this is not for you, including your professors, you must continue. There was nothing more exciting for me than electronic engineering. Some professors would mention that ‘women had no place in their class’ and would run us out of the classroom,” she recalls in an interview with Newsweek en Español.
Echazarreta finally finished her studies and began a master’s degree in electrical and computer engineering at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Her resume also includes an internship at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, where she later became a full-time engineer. She participated in five missions, including the Mars Perseverance Rover and the Europa Clipper voyage to Jupiter.
In addition to this winning streak, Echazarreta is known for her media work, hosting the YouTube series “Netflix IRL” and appearing as Electric Kat on the CBS show “Mission Unstoppable.”
Women, Mexico and STEM careers
The astronaut has become so influential that she even has her own Barbie line. (Katya Echezarreta/Facebook)
Breaking away from Earth’s gravity brought Echazarreta great success. Part of that success was being honored with a doll based on herself in the Barbie Role Models campaign. “Fewer than 80 women have gone into space, and fewer than three dozen have been Black, Indigenous or Latino from a total of 600 people that have ventured into space,” Mattel’s page for the toy says. “Katya is the first Mexican and Latin American-born woman to go.”
Mexico faces the problem of brain and talent drain due to a lack of infrastructure to advantage of peoples’ skills. This causes highly trained students and graduates — such as academics, engineers, doctors and other specialists — to emigrate in search of educational and professional opportunities abroad. This migration of human talent represents a significant loss, as it deprives the country of individuals with valuable skills and knowledge that could contribute to economic, scientific, cultural and social progress.
In 2021, In Mexico, only three out of every ten professionals in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers were women. The problem is social: young girls are not being presented with role models that inspire them to dream of a career in these areas.
Echazarreta is aiming to change that. Last year, she created Mission Mars 2023, the first aerospace camp ever held in Mexico. Here, 100 teenagers between 13 and 15 participated in various tasks at the facilities of Ciudad Creativa Digital and the Lunaria Planetarium in Jalisco. These included robotics, design and programming, habitat and surface research, sustainable crops, as well as simulators and a flight to the red planet.
The Katya Echazarreta Fundación Espacial has announced the second edition of the aerospace camp, scheduled to take place in Mexico City and the state of Morelos. This camp, unique in Mexico and Latin America, aims to train new talents in STEM and aerospace education. The second edition of the Camp will be held July 8-19 and will be free of charge.
Changing the landscape for Mexican astronauts
Now an active supporter of the Mexican aerospace industry, Echazarreta (pictured here with President López Obrador) has been championing space travel in the country. (Katya Echazarreta/Facebook)
In a daring move, Echazarreta has given up a promising future at NASA to help open the doors of space for her country. She is advocating for a constitutional reform to prioritize space activities in Mexico. In 2023, the Cámara de Diputados approved a draft decree reforming Articles 28 and 73 of the Mexican Constitution, which regulate activities in outer space. The decree will now pass to the Senate of the Republic, where it will be discussed and submitted to a vote for its possible approval. Among the objectives sought by the “Space Reform” are greater investment in research and technological development in the space field, the possibility of generating strategic alliances with other countries for space projects and the promotion of a culture of innovation and technological development in the country.
Echazarreta’s story has been featured in magazines such as Vogue Mexico, Newsweek en Español and Noir Magazine. Due to her success, the Mexico City borough of Iztapalapa painted a mural of Katya Echazarreta on one of its main avenues, which can be seen from Line 2 of the Cablebus, between the Quetzalcoatl and Xalpa stations. In March 2024, Space for Humanity — the non-profit that sent Echazarreta to space — welcomed three new members to its board of directors: Czech entrepreneur Yemi AD, Australian engineer Chris Boshuizen and Katya Echazarreta.
“Mexicans also dream about going to space,” Echazarreta said in an interview on TikTok, “and that is what I’m working towards: making those dreams reachable.”
Camila Sánchez Bolaño is a journalist, feminist, bookseller, lecturer, and cultural promoter and is Editor in Chief of Newsweek en Español magazine.
Sánchez had previously been kidnapped and repeatedly threatened by a local faction of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). (Juan José Estrada Serafín/Cuartoscuro)
Eight months after having survived a kidnapping, the mayor of a small municipality in the state of Michoacán was murdered on Monday night.
Yolanda Sánchez, the outgoing mayor of Cotija, Michoacán, was killed in a drive-by shooting in the main plaza of the town. The assassins reportedly used assault rifles, firing at the mayor and her bodyguard from a moving SUV and hitting Sánchez at least 19 times. The bodyguard was also killed.
The state government issued a statement on social media condemning the assassination, adding that “[a] security operation coordinated with federal agencies has been deployed to find those responsible for the incident.”
A member of the National Action Party (PAN), Sánchez was elected in 2021 and became the first female mayor of Cotija, which borders the state of Jalisco, home to the violent Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).
Sánchez’s murder occurred a day after her successor, Juan Pablo Aguilar Barragán — also a member of the PAN — was elected as the next mayor of Cotija. The newspaper El Universal reported that the CJNG issued public threats against Aguilar Barragán on Tuesday morning.
El Universal also reported that a gang known as “Calaveras” (Skulls) had claimed credit for Sánchez’s murder. “Calaveras” is reportedly a CJNG cell operating in the Jalisco-Michoacán border region known as Death Row, a dangerous area under the control of the CJNG, according to the news site Infobae.
In April 2023, a commando unit which allegedly included gunmen wearing National Guard uniforms stormed Cotija’s City Hall, killing two people. According to Infobae, a man in an official uniform told the mayor that the CJNG would be taking over the municipality’s security forces. Sánchez reportedly received a phone call later that day ordering her to replace Cotija’s police chief with a man chosen by the cartel.
Five months later, on Sept. 23, 2023, Sánchez was abducted while riding in a taxi with two members of her family in the city of Zapopan, Jalisco, a suburb of Guadalajara. She was rescued three days later by members of the National Guard (GN).
At 5 a.m. on Sept. 26, the mayor phoned the Cotija police chief and informed him she had been placed on a bus traveling from Jalisco to Michoacán. The police chief alerted the GN which intercepted the bus outside the municipality of Villamar, Michoacán, about 42 kilometers southwest of Cotija, and liberated Sánchez without incident. Three men were detained but have yet to be charged for her kidnapping.
Although Sánchez could not positively identify the kidnappers, local media assigned blame to the CJNG. She did say her kidnappers had made “demands” and inflicted “psychological terror” before releasing her, according to the BBC.
Mexicana airlines is looking to expand its offerings to more cities and even international destinations. The first of the 20 Embraer planes will arrive in 2025. (Solojaynvm/Wikimedia Commons)
The state-owned airline Mexicana de Aviación announced this week that it has placed an order for 20 new airplanes from the Brazilian manufacturer Embraer that will allow it to expand and begin flying to international destinations outside Mexico.
That’s all big news for the new airline, which had been searching high and low for ways to increase and modernize its fleet and expand its offered national and international cities since opening its doors in 2023. Embraer is the world’s third-largest commercial aircraft producer, following Airbus and Boeing.
The Brazilian aircraft manufacturing giant Embraer is the third largest in the world. (Embraer)
Deliveries of the planes are scheduled to begin in the second quarter of 2025.
“With this strategic decision, [Mexicana] will increase and modernize its fleet to strengthen the connectivity of more cities with various national and international destinations,” Mexicana’s press release issued Monday noted.
Mexicana was a private Mexican international airline for many years before declaring bankruptcy in 2010. The new Mexicana de Aviación is not the same airline, but President Lopez Obrador’s government purchased the brand name and brought it back into operation six months ago. The airline is run by the Defense Ministry (Sedena).
Less than four months ago, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador lamented to reporters that the fledgling airline was in a bind due to high worldwide demand for new aircraft.
“It is not easy to buy airplanes,” he said at the time, noting that although orders could be placed now, no new airplanes could be delivered before 2028.
Now, thanks to the new contract with Embraer, Mexicana will begin receiving new planes between April and June of 2025.
The airline is buying 10 new E195-E2 aircraft (with 132 seats each) and 10 new E190-E2 aircraft (with 108 seats each) — allowing the airline operated by the Defense Ministry (Sedena) to begin offering international destinations to customers.
Mexicana will be the first operator in Mexico of Embraer E2 aircraft, “whose cutting-edge technology will allow fuel savings and lower maintenance costs,” the Mexicana press release noted.
All of the new airplanes will have a single-class layout, which means there will be no first-class or business-class seating on Mexicana planes.
According to Mexicana, since its “restart” on Dec. 26, 2023, it has transported more than 115,000 passengers to 18 destinations throughout Mexico. The airline, however, was also hit with a US $840 million lawsuit just three months after completing its first flight.
SAT Aero Holdings, a Texas-based firm hired by the Mexican government to provide a range of services to Mexicana filed the breach-of-contract lawsuit in U.S. federal court in New York.
La cucaracha might have run out of drugs, but he is able to surprise us in other ways, writes Sarah Devries. (Erik Karits/Unsplash)
We all know the lyrics to Mexico’s (probably) most famous song — the one about the little cockroach or, as it’s known in Spanish, “la cucaracha”:
La cucaracha, la cucaracha
Ya no puede caminar
Porque no tiene
Porque le falta
Marijuana pa’ fumar
In English “The cockroach, the cockroach / Can’t walk anymore / Because it doesn’t have / Because it’s missing / Marijuana to smoke.”
No, we don’t know why the lyrics are like this either. (Desktop Nexus)
The song is only five or six centuries old — the above lyrics were popularized by the Mexican Revolution and are about a century old. We’re not even 100% sure where it came from, except that it’s always been sung in Spanish! But the poorly-understood cockroach has been around since the time of the dinosaurs. What’s weird is that there aren’t more songs written about it!
Unfortunately for these critters, the song — often sung as political satire, the lyrics adapted according to the current circumstance — has always been more popular than cockroaches themselves.
A few weeks ago, I went to a language exchange meeting in my city. My Spanish is pretty close to perfect, but I’m an extrovert and wanted to talk to some people I didn’t already know and hear their stories.
One guy I met, a güero from Mexico City that I’d have sworn was my own paisano if I hadn’t later heard him speak, had a lot of tattoos, which included a handful of cockroaches crawling up his arm. Obviously, I had to ask.
He turned out to be a veterinarian with quite a lot of appreciation and respect for this lowly creature: “Cockroaches are incredible. And they’re fantastic mothers, too.”
Well! Who knew? This guy did, apparently.
The same cannot be said for most people in Mexico, which is understandable. Cockroaches look gross like slimy specks of dirt, only bigger and scarier. They eat the stuff we want to eat and the stuff we’ve deemed way too gross to eat and hang out in gross places, peeking out from around corners in the creepiest ways. They move faster than they should be able to. They fly.
If there’s one thing Mexicans pride themselves on regarding their homes, it’s that they’re clean. Not merely dusted or organized, but majorly sprayed, mopped and scrubbed with Fabuloso and especially bleach: nothing’s clean if it hasn’t been bathed in bleach. The kitchen is wiped down daily, and bathrooms tend to get a deep-cleaning at least twice a week.
No matter how clean you might think your home is, cockroaches have other ideas. (Erik Karits/Unsplash)
So what are cockroaches even finding in our perfectly sterilized homes?
The very few species that humans actually come into contact with have mostly come in to cool off when it’s super hot outside. And who can blame them? Who among us hasn’t popped into a Starbucks during these relentless heat waves for a bit of a break?
But let’s assume that my vet friend knows what he’s talking about and dig a bit deeper — get it? — into cockroach appreciation: they’re good pollinators, and are an important part of the food chain for animals we do like, like birds and bats. We like bats, right?
They’re actually quite clean themselves, constantly grooming: think about a cat, and multiply that by about 10. If they’re causing allergies for you, it’s because they’ve inadvertently stepped in an allergen in your home already and accidentally dragged it out the few feet they’re able to.
They have feelings and individual personalities, and they’re smarter than we give them credit for. And here’s what my new friend was talking about: the mothers often raise their young all together, like a little roach commune or preschool. They’re social animals, preferring to eat with others even if it means eating less themselves. Take that, capitalism! The roaches are onto you.
Certain species mate for life, chewing off each others’ wings in a kind of gruesome display of wedding bands. “Sorry ladies, I’m taken.”
I won’t scowl at anyone working feverishly to get rid of them. I myself am merciless with the ants that appear in my home in the hot weather, wiping them out daily like an angry and tireless god. But at the very least, let’s not be so arrogant as to believe that we’re the only animals around here that matter in the grand scheme of things.
I asked my new friend what he would do in the event of an infestation. “Oh, my cats take care of them.”
Sarah DeVries is a writer and translator based in Xalapa, Veracruz. She can be reached through her website, sarahedevries.substack.com.
