Refugees fleeing repression in Central America and Cuba can find themselves trapped in Chiapas, with little hope of employment or regularization. So they tend to head north. (Damián Sánchez/Cuartoscuro)
More than 1,000 migrants have set out together from southern Mexico, but they have no intention of trying to reach the United States.
Instead, their goal is to get to Mexico City, where they hope to expedite their asylum claims and regularize their legal status in this country.
The new caravan is similar, though larger, to the one shown here that left Chiapas in August, also with Mexico City and not the U.S. border as its destination. (Damian Sánchez/Cuartoscuro)
The 1,100-kilometer trek on foot to Mexico City is fraught with difficulty: extreme temperatures, rain, food and water shortages, as well as the constant risk of abuse, extortion and violence.
But staying in Chiapas where there are few job opportunities is not an option, so the migrants — primarily from Cuba, but also from Honduras, Ecuador, Brazil and Haiti — began heading north on Wednesday.
For the past eight years or so, dozens of caravans have set out from Chiapas, the southernmost state in Mexico, with one goal: to cross the northern border and reach the United States.
However, that mindset changed after U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January, introducing and enforcing strict immigration policies and discouraging asylum seekers.
Since Trump took office, the migratory flow has dried up. Activists on Mexico’s southern border report a drop of up to 80%, according to the newspaper El País. There used to be camps on the Guatemala side of the Suchiate River where hundreds or thousands of migrants gathered, but the area is virtually empty. The few who cross do so in secret.
The current group is just the second to coalesce in Chiapas since Trump took office and, like the caravan that departed Tapachula in August, leaders say they aren’t planning to make their way to the U.S.
When questioned by a reporter from El País, a 37-year-old Cuban woman scoffed at the notion of traveling to the U.S.
“Why would I want to go to the United States?” responded Esther López. “They hate us there! All I want is to get to Mexico City where my friend is waiting for me so I can make a life for myself there.”
Vladimir Ortiz Cassola, another Cuban immigrant, was of the same opinion.
“The United States isn’t on my mind,” he told CNN en Español. “We want to regularize our status here … nothing more than that, so we can work and contribute to this nation.”
But in addition to the lack of jobs in Tapachula, the local office of the Commission for Refugee Assistance (Comar) is seen as little more than a bureaucratic roadblock.
Migrants in the caravan reported waits of up to 10 months with little to show for it and work is hard to find without legal documentation. Others said people posing as lawyers help with the processing, but for exorbitant fees. Still others spoke of being scammed by these “lawyers.”
Before departing for Mexico City, a spokesman for the migrants spoke of the dire situation they face: “We’re leaving Tapachula because we’re trapped here. They won’t give us papers to live formally, and to obtain them we have to pay up to 20,000 pesos (US $1,080).”
On occasion, Mexican authorities have allowed migrant caravans to proceed for a few days before offering to help with their documents or provide transportation.
Private sector analysts mostly agreed with recent forecasts from major public organizations in seeing modest growth for the Mexican economy over the next year.
(Shutterstock)
For the fourth consecutive month, private sector analysts have raised their expectations for economic growth in Mexico this year, while reducing their year-end inflation estimates for the third straight month.
The results of the monthly survey conducted by the Bank of Mexico (Banxico) indicate the central bank is expected to continue the monetary easing policy that has seen the Board of Governors lower the benchmark interest rate at 10 meetings in a row.
The private analysts’ predictions came out in a survey by Mexico’s central bank in which 45 prominent Mexican analyst groups and consulting firms provided their insights. (Banxico)
The 45 national and international private-sector economic analysis groups and consulting firms that participated in the survey projected Mexico’s year-end growth in GDP to be 0.53%, up from 0.46% predicted in August. The survey had estimated back in May that 2025 would end with only 0.18% growth.
At the same time, these experts anticipate GDP growth of 1.33% for next year — slightly lower than the 1.34% they projected last month and well below the 1.75% they expected in January.
Regarding consumer prices, the survey sees inflation reaching 3.85% by year-end, a downward adjustment from the 3.95% estimated in the August survey, and below Banxico’s own 4% projection.
While Banxico expects inflation to converge toward its target of 3% by the third-quarter of 2026, those surveyed don’t anticipate a similar reduction. Instead, the analysts project inflation will register a variation of 3.80% in 2026 and 3.71% in 2027.
Still, the newspaper El Economista reported that “the anticipated context for inflation and growth [as represented in the survey] will lead the Board of Governors to continue its cycle of cuts.”
The experts surveyed expect the benchmark rate to end the year at 7.14%, and anticipate the central bank will continue its rate-cutting, lowering the rate to 6.54 percent by year-end 2026.
Finally, the analysts’ perceptions of the current economic environment were not bullish: 81% believe the economy is no better than it was a year ago; 16% anticipate the business climate will worsen; 25% believe it will improve; and 59% believe it will remain the same.
This is the number of federal entities in Mexico, all of which Sheinbaum visited during her first year in office.
While the president lives in Mexico City, she travels to la provincia — a term used in Mexico to describe anywhere outside the capital — virtually every weekend.
In this respect, as in others, Sheinbaum is following in the footsteps of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who traveled frequently and widely within Mexico during his presidency and once boasted of having visited each and every one of the country’s almost 2,500 municipalities. Also like AMLO, the presidenta is happy to get up close and personal with her supporters — she’ll kiss babies, high-five kids, hug grandmothers.
In September alone, Sheinbaum visited every state in the country on what she dubbed an “accountability tour,” delivering speeches to update residents on government projects and initiatives in their local areas.
“I made a decision, I decided to go to all the states of the republic to report because to govern is to be accountable,” she said during her “accountability” address in Aguascalientes on Sept. 5.
“You can’t govern far from the people, you have to govern close to the people and we have an idea about how to govern, and we say that we govern from the territory,” Sheinbaum said.
While the president lives in Mexico City, she travels to different areas of the country virtually every weekend. (Senadores Morena/Facebook)
The president’s frequent trips to la provincia help her to consolidate her nationwide support, and undoubtedly provide good optics (just take a look at Sheinbaum’s social media). Saying your government is putting the poor first is one thing, visiting Mexico’s most disadvantaged communities and explaining to people firsthand what concrete actions are being taken to make their lives better is another.
It is worth noting that Sheinbaum finds herself in politically favorable territory in the majority of states across Mexico. The Morena party holds office in 23 of the 32 federal entities, while its ally, the Ecological Green Party of Mexico, governs one state (San Luis Potosí). The fact that more than 70% of Mexico’s states are governed by a party that only came into existence 11 years ago is nothing short of extraordinary. Can you imagine the same thing happening in a country like the United States or Canada?
The ubiquity of Morena’s political power across Mexico adds to the strength of Sheinbaum and her government, in part by ensuring that constitutional reforms approved by the federal Congress are ratified. Such reforms must be ratified by at least 17 of the state legislatures to take effect.
While she is in friendly territory in Morena entities, Sheinbaum has spoken about being well received in states governed by the National Action Party and the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). That’s not surprising given that at least seven in ten Mexicans across the country approve of her performance as president, according to many polls.
This is the number above which Sheinbaum’s approval rating remained throughout almost all of her first year in office.
There is no doubt that Sheinbaum is a wildly popular president.
Since she took office a year and a day ago, her approval rating has been above 70% every month except November, when it was 69%, according to the results of monthly polls conducted by the El Financiero newspaper. For four consecutive months between January and April, Sheinbaum’s approval rating exceeded 80% in El Financiero polls. Other surveys have yielded similar results.
The one thing that stands out is her government’s provision of financial support for Mexican people — especially disadvantaged citizens — through its various welfare programs.
One recent poll identified “help for the people” as the president’s top achievement, while another found that 77% of respondents viewed the government’s social support programs in a positive light.
Although homicides have decreased during Sheinbaum’s term, a large majority of Mexicans do not approve of the federal government’s response to insecurity, poll results indicate.
However, it appears that a significant number of people are still prepared to support the president and her government despite its perceived shortcomings in combating insecurity and organized crime.
Beyond cash transfers — derided as vote-buying by some government critics — there are many other factors that can help explain Sheinbaum’s high level of popularity. They include the following:
Sheinbaum is the successor and political protégé of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a controversial but widely loved politician who built up a loyal following over a period of decades.
She is Mexico’s first female president, a situation that automatically endears her to many women, and at least some men.
A “rally ’round the flag’ effect amid frequent tariff threats from United States President Donald Trump and speculation that the U.S. could take military action against Mexican cartels on Mexican soil.
Her tireless defense of Mexico’s sovereignty.
Her appearance at press conferences every weekday morning, which allows her to set the national agenda and gives her a regular platform to communicate directly with the people of Mexico.
Her extensive travel around Mexico, and willingness to get up and close with “the people.”
What they’re saying
Francisco Abundas, a renowned Mexican pollster:
“The [majority] approval of President Claudia Sheinbaum in August 2025 mainly depends on three factors: continuity and strengthening of the social programs, which maintain a connection with the majority [of Mexican people]; a favorable comparison with past governments, which reinforces the perception of relative efficiency; a personal image of close, honest and competent leadership, which legitimizes her decisions.”
Senator Alejando Moreno, national leader of the Institutional Revolutionary Party:
“[The federal government] has gone so far as to manipulate the population with social programs that don’t guarantee rights or solve structural problems, but do ensure political loyalty.”
3,145
This is the length in kilometers of the Mexico-United States border.
The famous phrase is attributed to former Mexican president Porfirio Díaz, who ruled with an iron fist for more than three decades in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Mexico’s proximity to the world’s most powerful country and largest economy has its advantages, but — as the aforesaid phrase indicates — it comes with a healthy dose of challenges. That is certainly the case for the current occupant of Mexico’s National Palace.
Donald Trump has conveyed a simple message to Sheinbaum: Combat the cartels and stop narcotics and migrants from crossing Mexico’s northern border into the United States.
While the message is simple, achieving those objectives is exceedingly difficult — if not impossible.
Still, Trump expects results, and has shown he is willing to use the tools at his disposal — especially tariffs — to get (or at least attempt to get) what he wants. The threat of U.S. military action against cartels in Mexico (foreign terrorist organizations, according to the U.S.) looms as a possibility, as unrealistic as that eventuality appears to some, including the presidenta herself.
Nevertheless, satisfying Trump on the drug issue is no easy feat, perhaps impossible, given that Americans continue to die from drug overdoses and blaming Mexico for the problem (and China, Venezuela and other countries) is seen as a surefire way to make political capital.
Sheinbaum has earned praise for the way in which she has handled Trump, won some concessions from him and the pair say they have a good relationship. But the fact remains that there are U.S. tariffs on a range of Mexican goods, including steel, aluminum and vehicles, that didn’t exist before the current U.S. president returned to the White House.
Still, given that Trump has also imposed new tariffs on goods from U.S. allies around the world, it is unfair to apportion blame to Sheinbaum for the protectionist status quo in intra-North American trade.
There is criticism at home as well: A recent poll found that a majority of Mexicans believe that the Sheinbaum administration is not doing a good job managing the relationship with the U.S. president.
Attending to the Mexico-United States relationship will be an ongoing and ever-evolving task for Sheinbaum during the next five years of her presidency. Next year will be especially pivotal given that the USMCA is up for review.
While trade and security have been the key focus of the bilateral relationship over the past 12 months, it is important not to forget that there are a range of other binational challenges, including ones related to Mexico’s water debt, the ongoing screwworm saga and the Tijuana-San Diego sewage crisis.
What they’re saying
President Sheinbaum:
“We collaborate, we coordinate, we work together [with the United States], but we will never be subordinated. Mexico is a free, sovereign, independent country and we don’t accept interventionism in our country.”
Marco Rubio, United States Secretary of State:
“We’ve had a great relationship with the government of Mexico during the eight months of the Trump presidency. It is the closest security cooperation we have ever had, maybe with any country, but certainly in the history of U.S.-Mexico relations.”
Carlos Pérez Ricart, an academic who focuses on arms trafficking, drug policy and organized crime:
It indicates that an average of around 95 people were arrested for crimes such as homicide, kidnapping, rape and extortion each and every day over the past year. Considering that impunity is still considered to be a major problem in Mexico, the average daily number of arrests and the accumulated figure are extraordinarily high, demonstrating that the federal government’s security strategy — which includes enhanced intelligence and investigation practices — is working.
Speaking of her administration’s security strategy in October 2024, Sheinbaum emphasized “prevention, intelligence and presence [of security forces].” (gob.mx)Secondly, the 32,400 figure underscores the vast scale of the security challenge the Sheinbaum administration faces. How many people would have to be put behind bars to truly pacify the country?
The high number of arrests over the past year also creates a significant additional challenge for Mexico’s recently renewed judiciary, which will have to assess the culpability of a huge number of suspects. The pace of justice delivery in Mexico is already glacial, in many cases. The additional burden could make things even worse.
“The joint work of the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of the Navy, the Ministry of Security and Citizen Protection, the Federal Attorney General’s Office, the Ministry of the Interior, the National Guard and the National Intelligence Center has made it possible to dismantle criminal networks, detain priority targets, execute judicial orders, and also impact the financial structures of criminal groups through the [drug] seizures carried out.”
Sheinbaum, like leaders around the world, inherited a range of problems when she took office.
Mexico’s long-running missing persons crisis is one of the biggest. The president is determined to make progress on addressing the problem, but disappearances have remained a major problem during her administration.
The president subsequently announced six actions against abductions, including the strengthening of the National Search Commission and legislative reform.
Search collectives from Jalisco protesting in February in Mexico City, saying the government is ignoring their cases despite Jalisco being the number one state in Mexico for forced disappearances. (Galo Cañas Rodríguez/Cuartoscuro)
But some of the most important stakeholders in the plan — the families of the missing — are not convinced it is the right way forward (see below).
Within the vast missing persons crisis, Sheinbaum inherited the unresolved, 11-year-old Ayotzinapa case — the disappearance of 43 teachers’ college students in Guerrero in September 2024.
Effectively dealing with Mexico’s missing persons crisis — including solving unresolved cases, holding abductors to account and reducing the incidence of new cases — will be a major challenge for the president. If she can effectively address the problem, and convince the people of Mexico that she has done so, millions of Mexicans will thank her, not least the nation’s madres buscadoras (searching mothers) and other relatives of the missing.
The failure to do so would taint the Sheinbaum administration, especially considering that the president has made addressing the missing persons problem a “national priority.”
What they’re saying
An open letter to Sheinbaum endorsed by search collectives, activists and relatives of victims of abduction and enforced disappearance:
“The families of disappeared persons saw and listened to your response in the face of a disappearances crisis that gets worse every day. The proposal you make deeply concerns us as it reflects a lack of awareness of the institutional search and investigation mechanisms and procedures that already exist in the country.”
34.3 billion
This is the amount in US dollars that Mexico received in foreign direct investment (FDI) in the first six months of 2025.
This is undoubtedly a win for Sheinbaum and her administration, which is aiming to attract foreign investment, boost domestic manufacturing capacity and reduce reliance on imports.
In a social media post after the publication of the FDI data for the first six months of the year, Sheinbaum asserted that the “Fourth Transformation [economic] model doesn’t just reduce poverty, it generates investment as well.”
An especially positive aspect of the aforementioned data is that the “new investment” component more than tripled between January and June compared to the first six months of 2024.
The federal government will be hoping that trend continues, and that new projects are launched across the country, not just in areas that have traditionally attracted high levels of FDI such as northern Mexico and the Bajío region.
A slogan of the Sheinbaum administration is “shared prosperity” — it wants Mexico’s wealth (including that derived from foreign investment) to be shared among all Mexicans, no matter their background or where in the country they live.
Continuing to receive record levels of FDI, and attracting at least some of that investment to historically disadvantaged parts of Mexico, could go a long way to helping the government achieve its “shared prosperity” goal. Conversely, any significant slump in FDI would undermine that initiative, and affect Mexico’s overall economic wellbeing as well.
With Plan México and other initiatives, including security and infrastructure-focused ones, Sheinbaum and her government will be determined to do everything they can within their control to make sure that doesn’t happen in the coming years.
What they’re saying
Mexico’s federal Economy Ministry:
“Mexico attracted new investments amounting to US $ 3.149 billion [in the first six months of 2025], which is 246% more than in 2024. … This is the highest growth in the last 12 years. It reaffirms the interest that foreign investors maintain in our country, despite the global economic and political scenario.”
Earlier this month, the explosion of a LP gas tanker killed over 30 people and injured dozens in the Iztapalapa borough of Mexico City, prompting investigations and calls for accountability. (Agencia Cuartoscuro)
Three weeks after a tanker truck carrying LP gas exploded in Mexico City, the federal government on Thursday announced two new regulations for the transportation and distribution of the fuel.
Energy Minister Luz Elena González outlined the new regulations at President Claudia Sheinbaum’s morning press conference.
Energy Minister Luz Elena González detailed the new federal rules on Thursday. (Galo Cañas/Cuartoscuro)
The new rules “strengthen the regulation of the transportation and distribution of liquified petroleum gas,” she said.
González said that one of the new regulations applies to the transport of LP gas from refineries or “points of importation” to “plants or storage terminals.”
The other regulation applies to “last mile” distribution to businesses and homes, she said.
Under the new regulations, companies that transport and distribute LP gas will be required to demonstrate to the government’s Security, Energy and Environmental Agency (ASEA) on an annual basis that their vehicles are adequately maintained.
González said that a current regulation requires companies to have maintenance programs for their vehicles, but doesn’t require them to “demonstrate their compliance.”
She said that the new regulations will also “demand the accreditation of safety tests.”
González said that a current regulation obliges companies to carry out visual inspections of vehicles and “leak tests,” but there is no obligation to “periodically present hydrostatic pressure tests except in cases of damage, accidents or repairs of the containers.”
The carrying out of hydrostatic tests, which will become compulsory, “guarantee” the safe operation of vehicle containers filled with LP gas, she said.
“In the two new regulations, not just external visual inspections will be required but also internal visual inspections of vehicle containers, and, in addition, the permit holders will be obliged to periodically present [the results of] hydrostatic pressure tests of all vehicles,” González said.
The energy minister said that the new regulations will also strengthen requirements for drivers to have “adequate training, not just in driving but also in industrial safety.”
“The current regulation establishes the obligation to have training programs for drivers, but these are generic and left to the discretion of each company. With these two new regulations, it is mandatory that this training be technical and practical, and that it be certified through a specific competency standard, both for the transport and distribution of LP gas,” she said.
González said that the new regulations will also require vehicles transporting LP gas to be equipped with speed limiters and GPS.
González noted that the two new regulations will be published in the federal government’s official gazette on Friday. She said that all LP gas distribution vehicles must show that they are complying with the new regulation that applies to them within four months.
“The rest of the units will be able to demonstrate their compliance during the next six months,” González said.
“In addition to the publication of the two regulations, a joint inspection program is being implemented by the Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transport, the National Energy Commission, and ASEA,” she said.
Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada earlier this week announced detailed new standards for hazardous material transport in the nation’s capital. (Gobierno de CDMX)
“These agencies will review, at the regulated entities’ facilities, the physical and mechanical conditions of vehicles, the safety elements of the containers, the validity of permits, the consistency of records in the vehicle registry, and evidence of compliance with obligations under the applicable regulations,” she said.
Separately, Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada announced earlier this week 13 measures that are aimed at making the transportation of hazardous materials in the capital safer.
One of the rules that vehicles transporting dangerous substances will have to follow is not exceeding 30 kilometers per hour, no matter the speed limit of the road they are on.
It has been one year to the day since Claudia Sheinbaum took office as Mexico's first female president. How has she changed Mexico in the eyes of those who didn't vote for her? (Secretaría de Bienestar)
As part of Mexico News Daily’s ongoing coverage of Claudia Sheinbaum’s first year in charge, we are highlighting a variety of personal perspectives and opinions from Mexico and beyond.
I did not vote for Sheinbaum. I cried on election night — not out of surprise, since her victory was expected — but as I watched Mexico’s map turn maroon and saw both the Senate and Chamber of Deputies change color in real time on television. A sinking feeling took hold: This was slipping out of control. I was furious with the opposition parties, with the nearly 60% of voters who handed her the win, and yes, I wondered whether my doubts about her as AMLO’s heir made me biased. Such is democracy.
I cried because I had sworn that Sheinbaum wouldn’t be able to preserve her independence from the now-former president. I cried because, in Mexico, elections rarely unfold without hints of corruption. Although, honestly, is anyone who wins entirely squeaky-clean? Probably not.
Beyond the frenzy of the first 100 days, it’s now possible to take a more measured look at Sheinbaum’s presidency. (Secretaría de Bienestar)
Today marks her first year in office. Beyond the initial frenzy of the first 100 days, we can now begin to assess her governorship and glimpse what the next five years might hold. Below, in seven points, I review the year’s highlights and setbacks. At the end of each section, I offer a personal reflection, hoping to spark debate.
1. Greater approval, less polarization
Sheinbaum is Mexico’s first female president, and her victory set a record thanks to a raw vote total unmatched in the country’s democratic history. Polling has been revealing: a Banamex report placed her approval rating above 70% — the highest for a comparable period among the last five presidents—and an Enkoll survey published in El País put it at roughly 79%.
Where is she strongest? Among women and notably young voters (18–29). States like Oaxaca, Tlaxcala, and Tamaulipas report approval levels near 80%. Meanwhile, Mexico City and Guanajuato remain in the low to mid-50s.
Whether it’s her more measured rhetoric, her governing style or the absence of near-constant tirades against “fifís” and rival ex-presidents, Sheinbaum seems to be knitting consensus rather than ripping it apart. Charming or tactical — take your pick.
In an informal poll of acquaintances, I’ve noticed less anger directed at her. More people seem willing to acknowledge her successes and shortcomings with an open mind. The reduction in polarization is real and encouraging and this allows policies to be judged with fewer distortions.
2. The Trump affair
Diplomacy matters. Sheinbaum and her cabinet members had shown up for meetings with their homework done and delivered results: large drug seizures, the extradition of more than 55 alleged traffickers (including high-profile figures linked to the CJNG and the Sinaloa Cartel) and a reported slowdown in migrant flows to the U.S. These moves have earned her unexpected praise. Trump himself called her “excellent and respectful.”
I cried when Sheinbaum was elected…do I feel any better now?
One issue worth noting: our tariffs compared to other countries. Mexico’s effective average tariff rate stands at 8.28%, one of the lowest worldwide. For now, 84% of Mexico–U.S. trade remains duty-free under USMCA exemptions.
However, we are currently under a pause — set to lift on October 29 — on a 30% tariff. Though most goods are protected by the USMCA, if Mexican authorities fail to meet U.S. demands, commodities like copper, heavy trucks, pharmaceuticals, kitchen cabinets and upholstered furniture could face tariffs of varying severity as soon as Oct. 14. If so, they would join steel and aluminum, which are already subject to tariffs.
Sheinbaum has successfully avoided the kind of American intervention that once seemed plausible. At the same time, there hasn’t been a mass exodus of multinationals, no immediate supermarket price shocks — and, on this narrow bilateral scorecard, she’s managing effectively.
But the real test lies ahead: the renegotiation of the USMCA. It’s already unofficially underway. Government officials have been negotiating in Washington for months. Threats to various treaty provisions are inevitable, but it will be her strategy — or rather her cool-headed negotiation skills — that determine whether Mexico emerges relatively unscathed.
3. Violence and security
Hard numbers tell part of the story: daily homicides fell from around 86.9 in September 2024 to roughly 64.9 in July 2025. That’s a 25.3% drop. Yet public fear of insecurity has grown. According to the National Urban Public Security Survey, those who feel unsafe rose from 59.4% to 63.2% over the same period. How do we reconcile fewer murders with heightened anxiety? Partly because the government shifted away from AMLO’s “abrazos, no balazos” approach. During her first 100 days, confrontations between criminal groups and authorities surged by nearly 97%, and deaths from these clashes increased by over 65%.
Some credit U.S. diplomatic pressure for the decrease in homicides. Regardless of the cause, President Sheinbaum and Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch have made clear their commitment to dismantling organized crime. Whether these declines will persist without more violence remains uncertain.
In July, there was an average of 64.9 homicides per day, a reduction of 25.3% compared to September 2024. (Mario Jasso/Cuartoscuro)
However, the Public Security Survey takes into account other crimes like kidnapping, robbery or extortion. For women, especially, there’s an added layer of anxiety about sexual violence. In everyday conversations, phrases like “let me know when you get home,” “avoid traveling at night,” “be careful at the ATM” and “don’t carry cash” feel like a subtle reminder that crime goes beyond cartel activities. While numbers offer hope, social perception and persistent fears show security remains fragile.
4. Judicial reform
I’ll admit: I’m no legal expert. But trusted voices agree on two points. First, comprehensive judicial reform was long overdue. Second, its rushed implementation has brought problems. The reform was necessary because many judges have historically engaged in corruption, received excessive payrolls and made political compromises. Yet, the changes have increased executive and legislative influence over judicial appointments, raising concerns about politicizing a judiciary traditionally staffed by career magistrates.
Now, as new magistrates settle in, issues emerge. Familiarity with procedures remains uneven, and perceptions of overreach persist. A telling example: reports once revealed that Supreme Court President Hugo Aguilar employed 84 advisers, costing roughly 6 million pesos monthly, until public uproar forced a 35% staff reduction. By contrast, former Chief Justice Norma Piña had just six advisers.
Will this reform reduce impunity or weaken judicial independence, undermining the rule of law? Only time and the rest of her term will tell. The reform addressed real problems, but its rushed rollout risks weakening judicial safeguards.
5. Internal rifts in Morena
Morena is far from monolithic. Ongoing investigations into alleged corruption networks have exposed fractures within its ranks. These probes reportedly implicate relatives of the former president and regional party figures, revealing the party’s internal vulnerabilities.
Within the presidency, one of Sheinbaum’s boldest moves against her internal opponents has been her proposal to eliminate proportional representation seats in both Legislative Chambers. In simple terms, she aims to diminish the influence of larger parties in the Deputy’s Chamber and the Senate. Another initiative targets nepotism in public appointments. It’s scheduled to take effect in 2030 and seeks to restrict direct family succession. Despite her good intentions, these measures do little to dismantle the extensive networks of family ties that have long permeated Mexican politics across parties and sectors.
During her first year in office, President Sheinbaum has visited every one of the nation’s states, while showing clear breaks from her predecessor’s policies. (Juan Carlos Buenrostro/Presidencia)
The party’s internal tensions confirm what many expected: a clear break from AMLO’s departure. But how Claudia has managed that rupture is surprising. Her apparent willingness to tolerate implicated figures or let them take political hits suggests a strategy — one that consolidates her power by allowing opponents to self-destruct, leaving lasting grievances within Morena.
6. Women in power
Compared with other countries, Mexico’s inclusion of women at the top has come late and rapidly. My sister, who has a PhD in gender politics, explained that “marianismo” — a paternalistic form of rhetoric from female leaders that seeks to empower women but often ends up being misogynistic — is a risk. Sheinbaum, with her professional demeanor and academic background, has consciously avoided that trap, unlike some other Latin American female presidents, like Michelle Bachelet in Chile or Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in Argentina.
Given Mexico’s high rates of femicide and violence against women, her calm, deliberate demeanor — often marked by symbolic acts like wearing purple or quietly observing the national celebration from her balcony — was a powerful image and felt like a moral victory. If a woman can hold the presidency, perhaps more will feel empowered to pursue public roles.
It’s still too early to tell whether her presidency will bring about transformative change, whether her mere presence can shift Mexico’s machismo culture. Watching her exercise power is impressive, but structural change for gender equality will require persistent policy and cultural shifts beyond representation.
7. Economy
You might have seen reports claiming Mexico is doing okay, and there’s truth in that. Sheinbaum has maintained economic stability. Inflation stands at 3.5%, within the Bank of Mexico’s projections, and GDP is forecast to grow by 1% this year, per the International Monetary Fund.
The so-called Plan Mexico — designed to attract foreign investment — is underway. While the country retains some advantages over competitors, challenges remain. The specter of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” agenda continues to undermine investor confidence.
Minimum wage has increased considerably under President Claudia Sheinbaum’s term, but significant economic hurdles remain to be cleared. (Gobierno de Mexico)
Most notably, inherited from AMLO, poverty has decreased considerably, and the minimum wage has risen by 135% in real terms.
There’s always a “but.” Mexico’s public debt now accounts for 60.7% of GDP. Pemex, the state oil company, carries one of the largest fiscal burdens, with debts approaching US $100 billion. Exploration activities have fallen by 43%, leaving Pemex unable to reliably pay its suppliers, perpetuating a vicious cycle of decline.
The International Monetary Fund has forecast an economic contraction this year, which Sheinbaum has publicly challenged. While Mexico remains stable, international evaluators are wary. They are closely watching key vulnerabilities — public debt, energy sector health and judicial independence—that could threaten the country’s economic trajectory.
In everyday life — like shopping — the cost of living feels sharply higher. My weekly grocery bill has doubled from about 1,500 to 3,000 pesos. That personal pinch (which realistically represents 1% of the Mexican population) reflects broader economic turbulence felt across many households.
Bottom line (with feelings)
Governance in Mexico often feels masochistic. Yet Claudia Sheinbaum chose to lead a fragmented nation — diverse regions, entrenched criminal networks, a hungry neighbor to the north, internal party rivalries on top of external ones, demanding feminists and skeptical misogynists. In her first year, she has delivered tangible results—more than I might have expected. Though she insists she’s continuing AMLO’s project, her actions reveal crucial differences in style and priorities.
This was only her first year, and the toughest challenges are coming her way. I’m no longer crying with the results, but I’ll continue to look at her doing very closely, very skeptically, and I’ll still bristle at many of her party’s factions. But, as my mother says, I genuinely hope — more than anything — that the next five years bring real, positive change. Because if she succeeds, Mexico will succeed too.
María Meléndez is a Mexico City food blogger and influencer.
There's no shortage of fun and exciting things to do this month in Oaxaca. (Wikimedia Commons/Juan Porter)
October is a great time to visit Oaxaca. After the rainy season, the surrounding fields are full of flowers, including the vibrant orange marigolds that are grown to decorate the city during Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead).
There is a lot to do in and around the city during this month, including street parades for saints such as Francis of Assisi and Virgen de Rosario, as well as numerous activities leading up to the Día de Muertos celebrations.
Rubber exhibition
Join an artist talk that accompanies the temporary exhibition exploring traditional rubber making at the San Pablo Cultural Center. The conversation will explore the fascinating history of the “Mangas San Gabriel” rubber workshop, touching on topics such as time, technique, rhythm, and soul.
Throughout the talk, you’ll discover how this artisanal practice has managed to endure across generations of artists.
Date: Oct. 3, 6 p.m.
Location: Rosary Chapel, San Pablo Cultural Center, Oaxaca de Juárez
Cost: Free
Saint’s day for St. Francis of Assisi church
St. Francis of Assisi is remembered in Oaxaca on Oct. 4 at the temple and convent which bears his name. (Vive Oaxaca)
The Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi, founder of the Franciscan Order, is observed on Oct. 4 with mañanitas, a calenda and a food fair. He is celebrated for his love of nature, compassion for the poor and devotion to God.
Remembrances worldwide include religious services, the “Blessing of the Animals,” donations to animal shelters, nature walks and environmental awareness activities. The festivities coincide with World Animal Day.
Date: Oct. 4
Location: Templo y Convento de San Francisco de Asís, Calle del Dr. Pardo 4, Oaxaca de Juárez
Cost: Free
Oktoberfest in Oaxaca
Over 20 local craft breweries will participate in this year’s Oktoberfest celebration in Oaxaca. (Gobierno del Estado Oaxaca)
Recently, Oaxaca’s craft beer scene has been growing. This year, the annual Oktoberfest, Asociación de Cerveceros de Oaxaca, will be hosted at the Centro Gastronómico. Meet craft brewers and mead makers while enjoying live music and Oaxacan beer culture. Organizers ask you to “Save the date and prepare your palate to try new styles and have some old-fashioned Bavarian fun along the way.”
Date: Oct. 3, noon – 10 p.m.
Location: Centro Gastronómico, 610 Garcia Vigil, Oaxaca de Juárez
Cost: 80 pesos
Coffee experience with Tlayudona
Tlayudona’s “The Roast and the Ritual” offers a delicious bean-to-brew introduction to coffee in Oaxaca. (Tina Guina/Unsplash)
Let an expert roaster guide you through a demonstration that explores the journey of artisan Oaxacan coffee from bean to brew. Whether you’re a casual coffee lover or a seasoned enthusiast, you’ll learn how to distinguish flavor profiles, understand roasting techniques and engage your senses in the art and science behind every perfect cup. As part of the experience, you’ll receive a 250-gram bag of artisan coffee.
Date: Oct. 9, 10 a.m. – 11.30 a.m.
Location: Cafébre, C. de Manuel Bravo 108, Ruta Independencia, Oaxaca de Juárez
Cost: 1,650 pesos
Ha-Ash Concert
Ha-Ash is a Mexican-American pop and country duo comprised of sisters Hanna Nicole Pérez Mosa and Ashley Grace Pérez Mosa, formed in 2002 in Lake Charles, Louisiana.
Ha-Ash’s self-titled debut album appeared in 2003 and sold over 140,000 copies. Its success was aided by the singles “Odio Amarte,” “Estés donde estés,” and “Te Quedaste.” The record propelled the sisters to U.S. and Latin American recognition and was later featured on the animated film “Magos y Gigantes”.
Date: Oct. 11, 7 p.m.
Location: Auditorio Guelaguetza, Oaxaca de Juárez
Cost: 500 pesos
Anniversary of the Tule tree
The 2,000-year-old Tule Tree in Oaxaca is celebrated each year with a local festival. (Wikimedia Commons/Nsaum75)
This 2000-year-old Montezuma Cypress is a significant natural monument, rooted in the community and visited by many travelers in the Oaxaca region.
The Tule tree is celebrated annually in Santa María del Tule on the second Monday of October with a local festival, featuring garlands adorned with bottles of drinks and food. The tree is adorned with garlands decorated with hanging bottles of refrescos (soft drinks), cervezas (beers), grapefruit and empanadas.
Date: Oct. 13
Location: 2 de Abril, 8va Etapa IVO Fracc el Retiro, Santa María del Tule
Cost: 20 pesos to enter the enclosure of the tree
Gabito Ballestros’ “Ofrenda”
Gabito Ballesteros brings his bold talents to Oaxaca’s Auditorio Guelaguetza on Oct. 31. (Arema)
An innate talent that fuses the tradition of corridos with the energy of trap and hip hop, Gabito has emerged as a key figure in the “corrido tumbados” movement.
His bold vision for experimenting with rhythms and lyrics has positioned him as a leader of the movement, proving that one can honor one’s roots while looking toward the future. Gabito is not afraid of innovation, and his music reflects a constant evolution, making him a reference for many emerging artists.
This new musical space, Ofrenda, promises a different kind of concert by Gabito Ballesteros, an epic, almost cult-like evening.
Date: Oct. 31, 9 p.m.
Location: Auditorio Guelaguetza, Oaxaca de Juárez
Cost: Between 650 and 2,250 pesos
Kinky: Rave Sessions
Electronic rock band Kinky, formed in Monterrey, is coming to perform in Oaxaca on Oct. 31. (Facebook)
This Halloween, Kinky comes to Oaxaca. “Get ready to enjoy an unforgettable evening surrounded by the vibrant energy of music and a festive atmosphere.” Kinky is a Grammy-nominated electronic rock band formed in Monterrey, Mexico. They are known for their blend of rock, funk, and electronic dance music with Latin influences. Kinky gained global recognition after winning the Battle of the Bands at the 2000 Latin Alternative Music Conference. Their self-titled debut album, released in 2002, achieved critical and commercial success.
Take advantage of the 2-for-1 drinks from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Date: Oct. 31, 8 p.m. – 2 a.m.
Location: Parthenon Oaxaca, 105 calle eucaliptos, Oaxaca de Juárez
Cost: Tickets from 1,100 to 1,600 pesos
Day of the Dead in Oaxaca
Oaxaca’s Day of the Dead festivities take place from Oct. 31 through Nov. 2. (Carolina Jiménez Mariscal/Cuartoscuro)
October 31 marks the beginning of the Day of the Dead celebrations, one of the most important in Oaxaca, which take place from October 31 to November 2. There is a special market to provide flowers, sugar cane stalks, pan de muerto, chocolate, peanuts, fruits, sweets and all the necessities for the altars. Every family and many museums, churches, businesses and offices prepare an altar to honor their dead and await the visit of the spirits of the departed. On this night, those who have family or friends in the cemetery at Xocotlán begin arriving with flowers and candles. Most stay until dawn.
Date: Oct. 31 – Nov. 2, 7 p.m. – 6 a.m.
Location: Panteón Xoxo, Oaxaca de Juárez
Cost: No cost
Anna Bruce is an award-winning British photojournalist based in Oaxaca, Mexico. Just some of the media outlets she has worked with include Vice, The Financial Times, Time Out, Huffington Post, The Times of London, the BBC and Sony TV. Find out more about her work at her website or visit her on social media on Instagram or on Facebook.
The official death toll for the Tlatelolco Massacre in 1968 was 44, but other sources estimate it in the hundreds. (Wikimedia Commons/Andrés Barrios)
The Tlatelolco student massacre of 1968 — one of the most pivotal events in modern Mexican history, one that the renowned National Security Archive organization has called “Mexico’s Tiananmen Square” — all began with a fracas between two rival public vocational high schools that erupted into an out-and-out brawl in a Mexico City marketplace built for the upcoming 1968 Olympics.
The next day, riot police arrived at the two schools, wielding clubs and beating anyone within reach, attacking students and faculty with equal brutality. The following day, students took to the streets in protest of the previous day’s beating, which then, in turn, drew the police out for more violent confrontations.
Violent military repression occurred against students following demonstrations during the Mexican Movement of 1968. (Wikimedia Commons/Cel·lí)
How protests escalated into the 1968 Tlatelolco Massacre
“Those protests provoked more repression, which provoked more protests,” journalists Julia Preston and Samuel Dillon explained in their 2005 book, “Opening Mexico: The Making of a Democracy.”
By the fourth day of protests, tensions escalated. To express solidarity with their fellow teenage protesters, the students of the prestigious high school, San Ildefonso Preparatory — officially known as the National Preparatory School — declared a strike. When Mexican President Gustavo Díaz Ordaz learned that the students at the prestigious government-run school were on strike, he ordered the Mexican army to take the campus.
Soldiers in Jeeps and small tanks moved across the city, aiming to confront the students of San Ildefonso. When they arrived at the campus, they found the entrance locked, so soldiers blew the school’s ornate 18th-century wooden door, hand-carved by Indigenous craftsmen, to bits.
The soldiers rampaged through the school, beating anyone they could find. They then turned on other high schools, and even attacked unsuspecting pedestrians they encountered on surrounding streets.
“By the end of the day, 400 people had been hospitalized and 1,000 arrested,” Preston and Dillon noted. “Through the military occupation of the San Ildefonso School, the government elevated the situation from a local, primarily police matter to an issue of national security,” wrote Mexican historian Enrique Krauze, author of the seminal book “Mexico: Biography of Power.”
A teacher talks to soldiers while students protest in the background on July 30, 1968. (Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain)
A history of government repression
For most Mexicans, government repression was nothing new. In 1959, railroad workers who went on strike, asking for better working conditions and a modest pay increase, were viciously put down, a pattern well-established with striking miners, doctors, nurses and even teachers. Strikers were routinely either beaten into submission or cajoled into joining a newly created government-run union. But this episode — the government violently attacking a high school — stunned most Mexicans.
In response, on July 31, Javier Barros Sierra, the politically moderate rector of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) — which was in charge of San Ildefonso Preparatory and is the largest and most prestigious university in Latin America — led a dignified, peaceful march of 50,000 faculty and students through Mexico City’s leafy suburbs.
That Barros had the temerity to lead such a protest earned him the enmity of Díaz Ordaz; later that summer, it cost him his job. That march, however, moved the center of protests against the government from Mexico’s high schools to its universities.
Taking inspiration from the U.S. civil rights movement and the earlier 1968 student protest movements in Paris, West Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Japan, the Mexican university student activists had happened upon an issue that already deeply resonated with the general Mexican public: government brutality.
Students stand up in dissent
Raúl Álvarez Garín, a 27-year-old physics student from Mexico’s National Polytechnic Institute, emerged as one of the student leaders. Álvarez came from a family steeped in a tradition of protest and of standing up for its beliefs. His grandfather was an aide to Mexican Revolutionary General Álvaro Obregón. His parents were communists. His wife was the daughter of one of the leaders of the aforementioned railroad workers’ strike of 1959.
Álvarez helped draw up a modest list of demands: The government should release the recently jailed students, as well as the railroad union leaders still imprisoned since 1959. They should also compensate the families of injured protesters, disband the riot police and repeal vague laws used to jail anyone who dissented with the government.
Gustavo Díaz Ordaz Bolaños, seen here meeting U.S. President Richard Nixon, was Mexico’s president from 1964 to 1970 and was used to dealing with dissenters. (Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain)
Álvarez and his fellow activists weren’t advocating regime change or overthrowing the government. They were advocating that the political process in Mexico become more tolerant, open and democratic. But, for Díaz Ordaz, this was beyond the pale. The government never responded to the demands.
In the face of government silence, the student activists decided to hold a march from the southern suburbs to the Zócalo. They set the date for August 13, hoping to attract a few followers. On that day, by the time they reached the Zócalo, there were 200,000 people in tow. While many were students and families of students, there were also nurses, teachers, and every kind of worker in the city in the crowd. Speeches were delivered, and the event was entirely peaceful. As Preston and Dillon pointed out, “The unexpected size of the crowd proved that the students were voicing frustrations felt by Mexicans of all ages in a modernizing Mexico.”
A warning to protesters
The students then planned another march to the Zócalo for August 27, and this time, 400,000 people showed up. On this occasion, though, some students congregated under the balcony of the National Palace, the building from which Mexican presidents traditionally preside over annual Independence Day celebrations, standing on a balcony. Those students then started chanting, “Sal al balcón, chango hocicón” (“Come out to the balcony, you big-snouted monkey”) — referring to Díaz Ordaz’s pronounced buckteeth and frequent comparisons to a monkey.
As nighttime fell, most protesters left, but at the approach of midnight, a few thousand stragglers continued to mill around. At that point, a dozen armored personnel carriers rolled into the Zócalo; the army mercilessly beat any remaining protesters.
Then on September 1, Díaz Ordaz delivered his annual State of the Union address, essentially offering a warning.
“We can’t allow our legal order to continue to be ruptured so inexcusably,” the president declared in his speech. “We wouldn’t like to find ourselves in a situation where we would have to take measures we don’t want to. But we’ll take them if we must. We’ll go as far as we have to.”
Soldiers in a prone firing position during a violent confrontation with students at the Santo Tomás campus. (Gobierno de Mexico)
Unfortunately, the students did not recognize the warning.
Politician and ex-education minister of Mexico City Salvador Martínez della Roca, one of the student leaders from UNAM at the time, told U.S. journalist Mark Kurlansky, “It was a threat, but we didn’t really listen.”
By September 24, “Mexico City was living under a barely camouflaged state of siege,” Krauze explains.
Mexican military mobilizes against campuses
On that day, the army seized the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN), known colloquially as the Politécnico; government forces had already occupied the UNAM campus. IPN students fought the army for hours, but there was only so much that unarmed civilians could do against tanks.
Although the army withdrew from both campuses on September 30, the message had been sent. Unfortunately, students failed to recognize that, for Díaz Ordaz’s government, a hard-and-fast deadline was quickly approaching: the 1968 Olympic Games, scheduled to begin in Mexico City on Oct. 12.
The Olympics were seen by many in the nation as Mexico’s moment to shine: The world no longer saw it as a chaotic, strife-ridden backwater nation but as the “Mexico Miracle” — with a powerful economy and a newly minted middle class. From the 1950s through the 1960s, Mexico’s economy had grown at 6% per annum (8% in 1968). In 1968, Mexico had the strongest economy in all of Latin America, with an inflation rate lower than the United States.
President Díaz Ordaz was not about to let students disrupt the Summer Olympics, which began in Mexico City on Oct. 12, 1968. (Wikimedia Commons/Sergio V. Rodriguez)
Díaz Ordaz was not about to let a bunch of long-haired students, whom he viewed as spoiled, ruin the opening of the Olympic Games and Mexico’s moment of glory.
President Díaz Ordaz sees conspiracies everywhere
Much like former U.S. president Richard Nixon, Díaz Ordaz was a tremendously insecure man, about his appearance and when interacting with others. “Ever since he was a little boy, the sense of being ugly had tortured him,” Krauze explained. “His mother would freely say to anyone, ‘But what an ugly son I have!’ It would take its toll on his life.”
And much like Nixon, Díaz Ordaz saw conspiracies everywhere. If students were protesting, it must be at the behest of French communists or Cuban agitators. In reality, this seems unlikely; even the CIA station chief in Mexico City, Winston Scott, doubted it.
“Although the [Mexican] government claims to have solid evidence that the Communist Party engineered the fracas of 26 July, and reportedly had indications of Soviet Embassy complicity, it is unlikely that the Soviets would so undermine their carefully nurtured good relations with the Mexicans,” Scott told CIA headquarters at the time.
It never occurred to Díaz Ordaz that it was, in fact, his policies — or his overreaction to a minor skirmish — that spurred the student protests.
After a few more protests, at which some buses were set on fire, the student leaders scheduled a rally to be held on October 2 at the Plaza de las Tres Culturas. This plaza sits in the Tlatelolco neighborhood on the north side of Mexico City. Perhaps more than any other site, it best represents Mexican history: Aztec ruins there are flanked by a Franciscan church.
Students being detained after a confrontation with police during the Mexican Movement of 1968. (Gobierno de Mexico)
In the 1960s, the ruling PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) government built a housing project there, one building of which was Edificio Chihuahua. The third floor of the Edificio Chihuahua had an open-air hallway with a three-foot wall overlooking the plaza. It was from this third-floor balcony that the speakers decided to address the crowd on October 2.
The day of the Tlatelolco Massacre
By 8:30 a.m. that morning, the army had taken up positions in each corner of the plaza — not necessarily unusual, as the army often posted soldiers at protest rallies. But something about this day seemed off: Witnesses later mentioned seeing men with short haircuts in civilian clothes, all wearing a white glove on one hand.
Myrthokleia Gonzáles Gallardo, a 22-year-old Politécnico student, had been chosen to introduce the speakers that day, even though her parents warned her not to go, fearing something might happen with the increased military presence.
Myrthokleia described her entry into the Plaza:
“As I approached the Tlatelolco with the four speakers, I was introduced, and we were warned to be careful, as the army had been seen nearby. But I wasn’t afraid, though we decided to make it a short meeting. There were workers, students, and families coming into the plaza, filling it up. We didn’t see any [soldiers] in the plaza.
“We took our place on the third floor and started our speeches. Suddenly, off to the left, over the church, were helicopters with a green light. Suddenly, everyone down in the plaza started falling. And then men with white gloves and weapons appeared, maybe from the elevator. They ordered us down to the ground floor, where they began beating us.”
Authorities pose with weapons confiscated during a student protest at the Santo Tomás campus. (Gobierno de Mexico)
Gunfire erupts and continues for hours
Raúl Álvarez Garín was also whisked down to the ground floor and made to stand facing a wall as government forces beat him relentlessly. Álvarez remembered the sound of automatic gunfire continuing for a full two hours. Other witnesses remember sporadic gunfire until 11 p.m.
The next morning, journalist Elena Poniatowska arrived at Tlatelolco at dawn. There were tanks and soldiers everywhere, yet no one tried to impede her strolling around the plaza. She had heard from a friend that bodies covered the plaza, but by morning, they all had been taken away.
In the newspaper Excelsior,Poniatowska learned that Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci was in Mexico to cover the Olympics and had been wounded while attending the rally. Poniatowska tracked down Fallaci in a hospital and interviewed her.
“What savagery!” Fallaci told her. “Police dragging students away by the hair. I saw many people get hit — until I was hit too. I lay in a pool of my own blood for 45 minutes.”
Shocked by what she heard, Poniatowska wrote an article detailing the events. Her editor immediately rejected it.
“There’s an order,” the editor announced, according to Preston and Dillon. “We’re going to concentrate on the Olympic Games. We’re not printing anything more about Tlatelolco.”
Remains of a bullet hole at Santiago Tlatelolco from 1968. (Wikimedia Commons/Protoplasma Kid)
The legacy of the Tlatelolco Massacre
The Tlatelolco student massacre was a tragic and immensely consequential event in Mexican history. The Olympic Games may have gone off without a hitch, but at what cost? Over 400 people were murdered in cold blood by government troops. Hundreds more simply disappeared, never heard from again. Hundreds more were imprisoned for years. Hundreds, if not thousands, went into hiding, fearing retaliation for simply expressing their ideas about the nature of their society.
Before 1968, most Mexicans felt proud of their nation’s economic achievements. During the Mexican Revolution, one leader after another had been brutally assassinated. In the wake of the Revolution, the PRI provided stability and economic growth, and Mexico had become a modern nation. In 1959, American academics conducted a poll and found that while most Mexicans were tired of their country’s endemic corruption, they were generally proud of their political system and its achievements and felt their presidents were, for the most part, benign. After 1968, however, most middle-class Mexicans felt disillusioned, resentful and utterly distrustful of their government.
Perhaps the students’ National Strike Council (CNH) final statement, issued in December 1968 upon its dissolution, summed it up best:
“Democracy in Mexico is just a concept, another formalism,” it announced. “Politics is carried out behind the backs of the popular majorities and of their aspirations, interests and demands.”
While the student movement of 1968 was neutralized, the Tlatelolco massacre has had a long-lasting impact on Mexican politics and history: More than 50 years later, October 2 is commemorated every year across Mexico with civilian demonstrations. Films and documentaries and countless books have been written about it — in Mexico and around the world.
Groundwork laid in 1968 also spawned a generation of the nation’s activists and political leaders, who were involved in Mexico’s electoral reform in the 1980s, which ultimately led to the end of the PRI’s uninterrupted rule over Mexico for 70 years in 2000, with Vicente Fox’s election as president.
A memorial remembering the 1968 student massacre at Tlatelolco. (Wikimedia Commons/Ralf Roletschek)
Kurlansky, in his book “1968: The Year that Rocked the World,” commented: “But very much in the same way that the invasion of Czechoslovakia was the (beginning of the) end of the Soviet Union, Tlatelolco was the unseen beginning of the end of the end of the PRI.”
Robert McLaughlin, Ph.D. is a historian specializing in Cold War Latin American history.
Roughly 340 students attend the school, located in the Magdalena Contreras borough of Mexico City. (Escuela A Favor del Niño)
The Escuela A Favor del Niño (AFN) in Mexico City was recognized with the international World’s Best School Prize in the Community Collaboration category, becoming the first Mexican institution to receive this award.
AFN is a charity school that offers preschool and primary education. It earned the award for its comprehensive, community-driven model focused on supporting marginalized students.
Director Daniela Jiménez Moyao credited the win to the hard work of the school’s teachers, families and students. (World’s Best School via Eje Central)
School Director Daniela Jiménez Moyao said the recognition represented a “historic moment” for her community and for education in Mexico. She said it is “a testament to the collective efforts of families, teachers, allies and children who inspire us every day to continue transforming lives.”
The model, which is one of a kind in Mexico, seeks to defuse structural problems — like poverty, malnutrition, fragile health and weak family ties — with shared care networks. It combines formal education with socio-emotional care, physical health and nutrition.
The publication Infobae reports that 100% of recent graduates have been accepted into high-performing secondary schools, their grades remain high and family engagement exceeds 80%. After graduating from AFN’s primary school, students continue to receive continuing support from the program as they continue on to high school.
AFN is located in San Jerónimo Lídice, a neighborhood in the borough of La Magdalena Contreras in Mexico City. It serves more than 335 students with an extended 10-hour school day and ongoing teacher training.
The Escola Estadual Parque Dos Sonhos, in São Paulo, Brasil, was the only other school in Latin America to recieve an award. It was recognized in the “Overcoming Adversity” category for becoming a “sanctuary” for students exposed to poverty, violence and pollution.
The other winning schools include the Franklin School (Jersey City, United States) for innovation, Arbor School (Dubai, United Arab Emirates) for environmental action, and SK Putrajaya Presint 11 (Malaysia) for supporting healthy living.
The award-winning schools will attend the World Schools Summit in Abu Dhabi, U.A.E on Nov. 15 and 16 to share their best practices with global education leaders.
World’s Best School Prizes is a prestigious international educational award established by T4 Education in 2022 to recognize best practices and innovations in education around the world.
Sheinbaum emphasized on Wednesday that her government has a responsibility to keep its promises to the people of Mexico, outlined in 100 commitments she made one year ago. (Andrea Murcia/Cuartoscuro)
President Claudia Sheinbaum was congratulated by reporters shortly after she appeared in the Treasury Hall of the National Palace for her Wednesday morning press conference.
Sheinbaum, in turn, congratulated the press corps for “enduring the first year of [her] mañaneras.”
‘The most important thing is to maintain conviction’
A reporter asked the president what “single adjective” she would use to describe her first year as Mexico’s president.
“Now, you’ve really made it hard for me,” Sheinbaum responded.
“… We come from a social movement, from the fight for democracy, from the fight for the well-being of the people, from the fight for freedoms,” she said.
“And I believe that the most important thing is to maintain conviction,” Sheinbaum said without directly responding to the reporter’s question.
“… There is a conviction of service to the people above all else,” she said.
Like her predecessor Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Sheinbaum has made providing support for Mexico’s most disadvantaged citizens — especially through welfare programs — her government’s raison d’être. She is also committed to improving the lives of Mexican women.
The president alluded to that commitment in a video she shared to social media on Wednesday to mark the completion of her first year in office. Among Sheinbaum’s remarks included in the video are:
It’s time for women. All of us women are arriving [to the presidency] and that’s very, very powerful.
I’m convinced that we are on the verge of a new era, that of the rebirth of Mexico.
I will not fail you.
I’m [just] another citizen in this magnificent country, with a responsibility that the people gave me.
Mexico is a free, independent and sovereign country.
‘We have to achieve the 100 points’
Sheinbaum told reporters that her government has a responsibility to keep its promises to the people of Mexico.
“We committed to 100 points, we have to achieve the 100 points,” she said.
Those commitments included reducing high-impact crimes such as homicides, developing new passenger railroads, lifting the minimum wage on an annual basis and commencing the production of lithium “with our own technology.”
The greatest challenges Sheinbaum has faced … will be revealed on Sunday
Asked what challenges she has faced during her first year as president, Sheinbaum told reporters they will have to wait until Sunday.
What has Sheinbaum missed the most during her first year as president?
A reporter asked the president what she has missed the most “from her daily life” during the first year of her presidency.
“Perhaps being more with the family,” Sheinbaum said.
“… One always sacrifices that part. I would like to spend more time with my grandson,” she said.
Sheinbaum’s stepson from her first marriage has a young son. The president, who married for a second time in 2023, has a daughter from her first marriage, which lasted almost 30 years.
San Luis Potosí Governor Ricardo Gallardo recently made a working visit to Japan and opened up a state trade office with that country in his ongoing effort to atttract even more Japanese investment to his state. (Ricardo Gallardo/X)
The recent announcement by Japanese manufacturer Daikan that it plans to spend 7 billion pesos (US $380 million) on a third plant in San Luis Potosí is the latest confirmation of the Bajío state’s ability to attract more Japanese investment than any other Mexican entity.
In fact, Governor Ricardo Gallardo Cardona, recently returned from a work trip to Japan, said he expects Japanese investment in San Luis Potosí to increase significantly as part of a broader strategy to attract new projects from Asia amid the tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump. He predicted that his state could attract at least 10 new investments in what remains of 2025, primarily from Japan.
Daikin’s plan to add a third plant to its San Luis Potosí operations underscores the success that the state has had in attracting Japanese investment. (Daikin.com.mx)
Following a recent work trip in Japan, Gallardo said that a key component of the state’s strategy is the new San Luis Potosí Representative Office in Tokyo, the only such office maintained by any Mexican state. Its function is to facilitate bilateral relations and to attract Japanese capital.
According to Gallardo, the representative office will soon be able to serve more than 50 Japanese companies operating in San Luis Potosí.
“Opening this office in Tokyo and strengthening our relationship with Japan will create opportunities for employment, development, and investment for the benefit of the people of San Luis Potosí,” Gallardo said, highlighting the cultural, academic, and economic benefits this initiative will bring.
He noted that during his visit in September, he held meetings with high-level officials and representatives from various organizations. These included the Japan External Trade Organization, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Mexican Embassy in Japan and corporations such as Zensho Holdings.
These discussions were focused on investment projects in key sectors, including automotive, electromobility, agribusiness, and technology. Also discussed was the relevance of the Mexico-Japan Free Trade Agreement, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary.
Daikan’s third plant in San Luis Potosí is expected to create 3,500 jobs during its initial phase, with the potential to balloon to 6,000 jobs over the next two years.
![Speaking of her administration's security strategy, Sheinbaum emphasized "prevention, intelligence and presence [of security forces]."](https://mexiconewsdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/WhatsApp_Image_2024-10-08_at_9.57.09_AM.jpeg)
