Mexico City once again topped the competitiveness index for 2024, the only entity in Mexico to rank "very high" based on a range of indicators in categories including innovation, law, labor market and infrastructure. (Shutterstock)
Mexico City is Mexico’s most competitive state for business while Oaxaca is the least competitive, according to an assessment by a Mexico City-based think tank.
The Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (IMCO) has published its 2024 State Competitiveness Index (ICE), in which it ranks all 32 federal entities, or states, based on their performance across 50 indicators in six different categories or “sub-indexes.”
This map shows the most competitive and least competitive states, according to the think tank’s report. With the exception of Mexico City, which is the highest ranked, the most competitive states are in the north. (IMCO)
Those categories are innovation and economy; infrastructure; labor market; society and environment; law; and political system and governments.
According to IMCO, the ICE “measures the capacity of the country’s entities to generate, attract and retain talent and investment.”
Mexico’s most competitive states
Mexico City — the country’s leading recipient of foreign investment — retains its status as Mexico most competitive state as it also occupied the No. 1 position on IMCO’s 2023 index.
Ranked second to fifth are:
Baja California Sur, which also ranked second last year.
Coahuila, which retained the No. 3 position.
Nuevo León, which improved to fourth place from fifth last year.
Querétaro, which jumped nine places to fifth from 14th in 2023.
According to the ICE, Mexico City has a “very high” level of competitiveness, while Baja California Sur, Coahuila and Nuevo León have a “high” level. Querétaro’s competitiveness level is “medium-high.”
Mexico’s least competitive states
Ranking 32nd to 28th and thus occupying the last five positions on the index are:
Oaxaca, which also ranked as Mexico’s least competitive state last year.
Guerrero, which dropped one place to 31st.
Chiapas, which improved one place to 30th.
Michoacán, which dropped six places to 29th.
Puebla, which improved one place to 28th.
Oaxaca is the only state in the country with a “very low” level of competitiveness, according to IMCO. Guerrero, Chiapas and Michoacán have a “low” level, while Puebla has a “medium-low” level.
Exactly three-quarters of Mexico’s 32 federal entities — 24 of 32 — were deemed to have either a “medium-high” or “medium-low” level of competitiveness.
CDMX ranks first on 3 ‘sub-indexes’
Mexico City ranked first on three of the six “sub-indexes,” while Chiapas ranked last on two.
Innovation and economy: Chihuahua ranked first. Oaxaca ranked last.
Infrastructure: Mexico City ranked first. Chiapas ranked last.
Labor market: Mexico City ranked first. Chiapas ranked last.
Society and environment: Mexico City ranked first. Hidalgo ranked last.
Law: Coahuila ranked first. Zacatecas ranked last.
Political system and governments: Yucatán ranked first. Baja California ranked last.
Valeria Moy at a press conference in November 2023. (Cuartoscuro)
In one post, she noted that Mexico’s least competitive states are concentrated in the south of the country.
“The model of development that should be implemented in that region, in my opinion, needs to be very different from industrialization as we have understood it until now,” Moy wrote.
In another post, the IMCO director said that none of Mexico’s 32 states performed well or poorly “on everything.”
“Even those in the first positions have serious problems to resolve,” Moy wrote.
With regard to Mexico City, the capital “has many advantages in relative terms, but also issues to deal with and urgently,” she said.
An image she included in the same post showed that Mexico City ranked first on the IMCO index for things such as “educational coverage” and “hospital beds,” but was among the worst-ranked entities on indicators that measure “attacks on journalists,” the local “crime rate” and “perceptions of security.”
Jalisco, home to Guadalajara (pictured), moved up six spots in the competitiveness ranking for 2024. (Unsplash)
One of the other states Moy looked at was Jalisco, home to the major city of Guadalajara, and one of Mexico’s most powerful criminal organizations — the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. The state ranked as Mexico’s 10th most competitive in 2024, up six spots from 16th last year.
“Jalisco — an extremely interesting state not just because of its industry but also the innovation created there — also has to resolve the serious security problem it has or its competitiveness will fall over time,” Moy wrote.
Advice to improve competitiveness
IMCO acknowledged that an analysis of each and every state is required to develop strategies to increase their individual competitiveness. However, the think tank did offer some general advice aimed at boosting competitiveness.
It recommended that states design “local strategies” aimed at attracting investment related to nearshoring.
It advised states to create “digitalization strategies” to increase access to telecommunication services and the internet.
It recommended that states strengthen links between industry and educational institutions in order to “promote abilities related to STEM,” or science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
* IMCO’s 2024 State Competitiveness Index report (Spanish), which runs to more than 100 pages, can be download by clicking the “Índice” tab at the top of this page.
Authorities and activists have been patrolling the forests to provide water and food to the heat-stressed monkeys. (Cobius/Facebook)
Monkeys are reportedly falling dead from trees in Mexico’s tropical forests, and authorities are investigating whether the extreme heat sweeping the south is to blame.
Conservation and animal welfare groups in the state of Tabasco have reported that as many as 100 howler and spider monkeys have been found dead in the forests since the onset of the season’s second heat wave.
Conservation groups criticized federal and state authorities for being slow to address the situation, which they say began in early May. (Cobius/Facebook)
“At this time, several hypotheses are being considered with regard to the reported deaths. They include heat stroke, dehydration, malnutrition and fumigation of crops with agrotoxins. Studies are ongoing.”
Even as federal, state and municipal officials are working in tandem with scientists and zoos to find an answer, conservation groups criticized federal and state authorities for being slow to address the situation.
The criticism grew louder after Tabasco officials — who did not begin investigating the situation until 15 days after the initial reports, according to the news magazine Proceso — insisted over the weekend that only four monkey deaths had been recorded. The Tabasco-based wildlife organization Cobius responded by saying its people had confirmed at least 85 monkey deaths since May 4.
The Mexican Association of Zoos, Hatcheries and Aquariums (AZCARM) insists soaring temperatures are the primary cause of the rising death toll, while the government-led investigation hopes to eliminate viruses or disease from the panorama.
According to CBS News, Cobius recently made an appeal to the public: “If you see monkeys that are weak and apparently suffering from heat or dehydration, please try to hoist a bucket of water by rope for them to drink.”
Cobius also said extreme heat is likely causing the monkeys to die, but that it is important to rule out other causes.
Authorities and activists have been patrolling the forests to provide water and food to the monkeys. Tabasco’s Civil Protection Institute recruited biologists and veterinarians over the weekend to check in on the monkey troops, while also providing them fruit and water.
Semarnat also urged the public to immediately report sightings of dead monkeys and animals in distress to the proper authorities.
There are an estimated 1,200 wild primates living in Tabasco jungles alone. In addition to the heat, they are threatened by illegal poaching and habitat encroachment due to changes in zoning laws.
In a career spanning decades, writer and diplomat Octavio Paz wrote extensively about what it meant to be a Mexican. (Poblanerías)
Writer and poet Octavio Paz once wrote “Solitude is the profoundest fact of the human condition. Man is the only being who knows he is alone.” Today, the author continues to exert an enormous social legacy on Mexico — but what makes Octavio Paz so important, some 26 years after his death?
During his 84 years of life, he positioned himself at the center of political, cultural and intellectual discourse during different historical events of social change for the world. Paz sought to pinpoint and describe the essential values of modern society, like democracy and peace. Most of all, his legacy leaves us a profound reflection of what it means to be an intellectual and an activist, and the importance that lies in combining them both.
A young Octavio Paz in 1930. (Zona Octavio Paz)
Early life and education
Octavio was born amid the Mexican Revolution, a war that took his father away from home. Octavio and his mother moved into his grandparents’ house in Mixcoac, then one of the municipalities that made up Mexico City. The area left a profound effect on him, and Paz is memorialized in the neighborhood’s metro station.
The young Octavio was raised mostly by his mother and grandfather. His grandfather Irineo had been a writer and had spent much of his life writing political manifestos against Santa Ana and Benito Juárez’s government.
Political and intellectual discussions were common in Octavio’s house while growing up. As a result, he became involved in them from a very young age, inspired by his father and grandfather’s aspirations to make Mexico a better country and a better place to live. However, he also fell in love with his grandfather’s personal library and realized early on that his “destiny was not an active life, but one of words,” he told Canal Once in 1993.
In 1930, he started high school at the prestigious San Ildefonso school, where he was introduced to an intellectual world that immediately resonated with him. Many celebrated poets and writers had studied there as well, some of whom became his teachers. There, Paz began to get involved in different publications and started writing poetry.
Octavio Paz and his first wife, renowned writer Elena Garro. The couple divorced in 1959. (Humanidades.com)
In an interview with Canal Once in 1993, he said that a lot of his friends believed in fascism, and the majority in communism. “Although I was never part of the communist party, I was violently inclined towards the left,” he said. During those years, he became very involved in social and political activism, which landed him in jail multiple times.
Following in his father’s footsteps, Octavio Paz started studying law after graduating from high school. There, he met his future wife Elena Garro. Garro, who later became a renowned writer and one of the voices of Mexican classical literature in her own right, was a dancer and choreographer at the time. They married when Paz was just 23 years old. In 1939, Elena gave birth to their only daughter, Elena Paz Garro. It is said Paz never had a good relationship with his daughter, possibly due to the nature of his own relationship with his father — quiet, absent, and cold. The couple split in 1959.
He abandoned his studies at law school just one class shy of graduating.
Octavio Paz as a diplomat
Paz (center) and his second wife, Marie-José, in 1987. (Cuartoscuro)
Because his literary legacy was so impactful, many people forget that Paz was a diplomat for twenty-five years of his life. In 1943, when he received a Guggenheim scholarship and moved to the United States, he began working at the Mexican consulate in San Francisco. He lived there for two years, where he discovered some of the poets that most inspired his work, such as Robert Frost and E.E. Cummings.
After San Francisco, he was relocated to Paris to serve as third Secretary of the Embassy in France. In Paris, he became part of a network of world-renowned philosophers that included the likes of Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus.
Paz also served as the Mexican Ambassador to both India and Japan, as well as consul for two countries that had no diplomatic relationship with Mexico before his arrival: Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.
After the tragedy of the Tlatelolco Massacre in 1968, Paz’s disappointment in the government led him to resign as an Ambassador, an act which turned him into a political enemy and forced him to move to England.
The Labyrinth of Solitude and what it means to be Mexican
Paz’s magnum opus, “The Labyrinth of Solitude” won him a Nobel prize. (Audible)
Diplomats in Paz’s time were poorly paid, and so he lacked the financial freedom to visit Mexico. This, he told Canal Once, forced him to think about Mexico differently. “There were many perspectives to be had: Mexico was not only an everchanging and complex country, but there were also different ways to look at it. One of those was to look at it from afar.”
This reflection led to the coming together of his most important work. For many years, Paz had published essays on the nature of Mexican culture and “Mexicanism” in different literary magazines, which were the seed of what ultimately became the acclaimed Labyrinth of Solitude in 1950.
In that same interview, he mentioned that maybe one of the reasons why he became obsessed with Mexican identity was his time at school. He went to primary school partly in the United States — where they made fun of him for not speaking good English and being a foreigner — and partly in Mexico, where they teased him for being a “gringo.”
After the political chaos caused by the Tlatelolco massacre, President Echeverria wished to normalize relations between the government and prominent Mexican intellectuals, who had largely dissented (although notably, these did not include ex-wife Elena Garro). He welcomed Paz back to the country, and made the Labyrinth of Solitude mandatory reading in public high schools, some twenty years after its publication.
Octavio Paz’s Legacy
Paz arriving in Mexico City in 1990, shortly after winning the Nobel Prize for Literature. (Wikimedia Commons)
Apart from the Labyrinth of Solitude, Paz had an enormous body of work. Mostly poetry and essays, these paint a vivid picture of not only his personal life, but also the historical and cultural context that changed and affected the world while he was alive. Aside from an immense gift to Mexican literature, they provide us with insight on how to make sense of social and political change at the crossroads of revolution, intellect, and art.
Finally, Paz attempted to describe the nature, culture, and characteristics of what it means to be Mexican in a tangible way. How effectively the resulting literature did that is subjective, but he gifted us with something priceless: the certainty that ours is an identity so special and complex that it deserves its own dictionary.
Montserrat Castro Gómez is a freelance writer and translator from Querétaro, México.
With several new hotels opening in Los Cabos, where can high end vacationers look forward to staying in the next few years? (Four Seasons Resort and Residences Cabo San Lucas at Cabo del Sol)
The newest hotel to open in Los Cabos premiered this month, May 1, to be exact. The Four Seasons Resort and Residences Cabo San Lucas is an exciting addition for those who can afford its luxurious charms. Set at Cabo del Sol, a private coastal community in the Tourist Corridor, the resort features 96 guest rooms, suites, and 61 private villas and residences. Upscale amenities include Cayao, a restaurant created by celebrated chef Richard Sandoval, a world-class spa, and access to the Tom Weiskopf-designed Cove del Sol golf course.
It isn’t the only new hotel to open in Los Cabos this year nor the first local foray for the famed ultra-luxury hospitality brand. Grand Velas Boutique Hotel, an adults-only all-inclusive property, opened its doors in January 2024. Four Seasons, meanwhile, unveiled its first regional resort at Costa Palmas, on Los Cabo’s East Cape, back in 2019. But these are only a few among the flurry of projects in recent years, resulting in hotels and resorts from acclaimed brands like JW Marriott, Nobu, Ritz-Carlton, and Waldorf Astoria.
The Grand Velas Boutique Hotel opened in January of this year. (Grand Velas)
Even more are on the way. At least seven more new hotels from big-name hospitality brands are expected to open in Los Cabos by 2027. Several more could open this year. If that last sentence sounds cryptic, it bears mentioning that hotels are many years in the making. Plus, reputation counts in building brand loyalty in such a competitive environment. So new properties don’t open until rooms, services, and amenities are all judged ready.
With that in mind, here are the latest details and projected opening dates for these upcoming hotel projects.
New oceanfront accommodations in Cabo San Lucas
The St. Regis Los Cabos at Quivira was first announced in 2017, so anticipation has had plenty of time to build. Will it finally open in 2024? That’s the plan, Forbes reports, with its 120 rooms and 60 residences expected to be unveiled later this year. The luxury hotel property sprawls across 33 acres along the Pacific Coast of Cabo San Lucas in the exclusive Quivira development. Infinity pools and a pampering spa are sure to be major attractions, although Quivira is best known for its spectacular Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course, named one of the “world’s 100 best” by Golf Digest. The “Golden Bear” is in the process of building another course at Quivira, too.
Golf also promises to be a preferred activity option at the 300-room Grand Hyatt Los Cabos when it opens at Oleada in late 2026. Four-time major winner Ernie “Big Easy” Els has signed on to design the golf course there, which is expected to be completed in 2026, the same year the hotel opens. A 1,200-acre development, Oleada is nestled between Diamante and Rancho San Lucas, north of Quivira.
The Grand Hyatt Los Cabos, set to be completed in 2026, boasts a golf course designed by legend Ernie Els. (Park Hyatt Los Cabos at Cabo del Sol)
Upcoming hotel openings in the Tourist Corridor
The Cabo del Sol community — framed by the evocative whale-shaped Punta Ballena — has long been home to the notable regional resort Sheraton Grand Los Cabos, Hacienda del Mar. But suddenly, potentially within a calendar year, it’s receiving an influx of new luxury properties. The Four Seasons Resort and Residences Cabo San Lucas is already open and will soon be joined by the Park Hyatt Los Cabos at Cabo del Sol and Soho House and Beach Club.
The members-only Soho House is projected to open by the end of 2024, with the soon-to-be trendy hot spot showcasing 70 rooms, plus an outdoor restaurant, beach club, and a seaside palapa bar.
The Park Hyatt, by contrast, isn’t expected to open until early 2025. However, the 163-room upscale resort should be worth waiting for thanks to the gorgeous Gulf of California vantage points and amenities such as a trio of restaurants, a beach club, a spa, and a kid’s club. Pool areas should also be abundant, with two distinct “pool zones” and private plunge pools offered as a feature of some rooms and suites. Golf access, a Los Cabos specialty, is also expected.
Elsewhere in the Tourist Corridor, Kerzner International, which operates One&Only and Atlantis, is planning a neighbor for its acclaimed One&Only Palmilla – although the 120-room and 14-villa SIRO Palmilla resort isn’t expected to open until 2027. If the name sounds unfamiliar, SIRO is a new wellness-inspired brand from Kerzner. The first SIRO property opened in Dubai in 2024 and the Los Cabos property will be among the first six of an estimated 100 SIRO-branded resorts to be built worldwide.
What’s new (sort of) in San José del Cabo
There is no shortage of luxury hotel options for visitors to Cabo in 2024 and more brands than ever are projected to open soon. (Grand Velas Boutique Hotel)
Two so-called new hotels aren’t new at all, but rather iconic properties receiving renovation and rebranding. Upon reopening, the Hotel Perla in La Paz and the Tropicana Inn in San José del Cabo will receive the Tapestry Collection by Hilton imprimatur. The former property is not just iconic, but historic, as it was the first modern hotel in Baja California Sur and helped usher in the tourist age when it premiered in 1940. The 90-room grand dame is getting a $10 million facelift before it’s officially renamed Perla La Paz and opened to the public in winter 2024.
The Tropicana Inn, although not quite as historic as Hotel Perla has been a downtown fixture in San José del Cabo since 1985. The boutique 70-room resort will retain its Mexican art and accents, but receive some upscale touches courtesy of its in-progress makeover. The newly minted Tropicana Los Cabos, Tapestry Collection by Hilton will begin accepting reservations on January 31, 2025, as it celebrates its 40th anniversary.
“Both of these unique properties encapsulate the vibrant personality of La Paz and San José del Cabo respectively and we look forward to offering guests authentic experiences at each property as they explore Baja California,” notes Jenna Hackett, brand leader for Tapestry Collection by Hilton.
Another luxury resort is coming to the East Cape
The Four Seasons Resort Los Cabos was never intended to be Costa Palmas’s only luxury accommodations option. Originally, Soho House was also expected to be built there before it was relocated to Cabo del Sol.
However, another long-awaited project, this one by luxury hospitality brand Aman, will be seen through to completion, with the opening of Amanvari at Costa Palmas scheduled for 2025. Guests can look forward to five-star service and plenty of secluded beachfront as soon as next year, not to mention fine dining and pampering treatments at the signature Aman Spa.
Most of the private villas at Amanvari, priced at $13 million and up, have already been sold, and it’s rumored, per The Hollywood Reporter, that a small airport may be built at Costa Palmas to accommodate private jets. So this is another new Los Cabos resort that won’t qualify for the budget-friendly category.
Chris Sands is the Cabo San Lucas local expert for the USA Today travel website 10 Best, writer of Fodor’s Los Cabos travel guidebook, and a contributor to numerous websites and publications, including Tasting Table, Marriott Bonvoy Traveler, Forbes Travel Guide, Porthole Cruise, Cabo Living and Mexico News Daily. His specialty is travel-related content and lifestyle features focused on food, wine and golf.
Anti-AMLO protesters gather in Querétaro city's Plaza de Armas, ahead of Mexico's presidential elections. (César Gómez Reyna/Cuarotscuro)
In front of a sea of anti-AMLO protesters in Mexico City’s central square, presidential candidate Xóchitl Gálvez asserted on Sunday that Mexicans have a choice between “oppression” and “freedom” at the June 2 elections.
Gálvez, candidate for an opposition alliance made up of the National Action Party (PAN), the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), was the star attraction at Mexico City’s latest Marea Rosa (Pink Tide) rally, which attracted approximately 95,000 people to the Zócalo, according to the Mexico City government.
The federal government said that 90,000 protesters gathered to hear Gálvez’s speech at the march, a tad shy of an event organizer’s estimate of 1 million. (Cuartoscuro)
“At these elections not just the presidency is at stake, not just the Congress is at stake. Nine governorships [including the mayorship of Mexico City] are at stake. At stake are whether the coming years will be years of oppression or years of freedom,” she told the large crowd.
“Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!” roared the rally-goers, prompting Gálvez to cut short her next sentence to join in.
Gálvez warns protesters against AMLO’s “fourth transformation”
The message that the PAN-PRI-PRD candidate was aiming to send to the protesters ahead of Mexico’s June elections is that a continuation of the so-called “fourth transformation” initiated by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) is dangerous for the future of democracy in Mexico.
López Obrador in February sent a total of 20 constitutional reform proposals to Congress, including ones aimed at the objectives listed above. Claudia Sheinbaum, a close ally of the president and the leading presidential candidate, has expressed her support for the proposed measures, which are seen by some as an attempt by AMLO to continue to have an influence on politics after he hands over the presidential sash to his successor on Oct. 1.
López Obrador, Sheinbaum and other officials affiliated with Morena say that the measures they support are in fact aimed at strengthening democracy in Mexico and giving “the people” a greater say in the country’s affairs. They argue that previous governments ruled in the interests of a “greedy minority” and that a return to power of the PAN and the PRI is in fact the real danger Mexico faces.
Ruling party candidate Claudia Sheinbaum has adhered closely to AMLO’s platform. (Claudia Sheinbaum/X)
Organizers overtly support Gálvez ahead of Mexico’s elections
The demonstration on Sunday was the fourth in Mexico City of the Marea Rosa protesters, a movement that formed in late 2022 to defend the National Electoral Institute (INE) amid what opposition parties perceived as an attack by AMLO on the election authority and other democratic institutions. At the time, López Obrador and his government had recently proposed and approved a sweeping electoral reform package that the Supreme Court later struck down in 2023. The movement is known as the Marea Rosa because protesters typically wear pink to demonstrate their support for the INE, which uses pink in its logo.
While the previousrallies’ organizers were also civil society groups that support or are affiliated with Mexico’s main opposition parties, none was quite as overt as Sunday’s in its support for Gálvez and disdain for the current government.
“So that there is no confusion we say it loud and clear: The citizens [here] are not apolitical, this movement is not neutral, we can’t be neutral when [the government] wants to destroy our democratic institutions, seeks to colonize the National Electoral Institute,” Guadalupe Acosta Naranjo of the National Civic Front declared in an address before Gálvez took the stage.
“We’ve defended the INE like no one else, now it’s up to the INE to defend democratic legality,” said Acosta, who called on the electoral authority’s president, Guadalupe Taddei, to put an end to what he and others see as a “state election” that AMLO is attempting to have undue influence over.
“Ms. Taddei, the law is the law. The energy with which you watch over citizens [to ensure electoral rules aren’t violated] — show that with the president of the republic, who systematically violates the constitution,” Acosta said.
The pink-clad protesters of the ‘Pink Tide’ have showed up across the country in recent years to express support for a robust National Electoral Institute (INE), Mexico’s autonomous electoral oversight body. (Fernando Carranza García/Cuartoscuro)
Gálvez: Elections are a choice, oppression or freedom
In her speech, Gálvez called on her supporters to vote on June 2 in order to “defend life, truth and freedom.”
“We’re going to win to give, not receive. To share, not take away. To serve, not be served,” said the candidate, who — in the polls at least — is currently a distant second to the ruling Morena party’s Sheinbaum.
“We’re going to win to listen, not to insult. To respect, not to humiliate. To unite, not to divide. To heal, not to hurt,” added Gálvez as she continued to attempt to draw a stark distinction between herself and AMLO.
“… We’re going to win to open the doors of the National Palace to all Mexicans.”
The attendees — 1 million people, according to one of the organizers — responded enthusiastically, breaking into chants of “presidenta, presidenta!” and making their views on the current ruling party clear with blunt cries of “fuera Morena!” or “Morena out!”
Protesters share their perspectives
Carlos Noriega, one of the so-called “Xochilovers” in the Zócalo on Sunday, told the El País newspaper that he was electrified by the candidate’s speech.
“She heats you up, she excites you,” he said. “Finally there is a leader who is defending [us],” Noriega said.
Tere Silva, another attendee, told El País that “this election will be a watershed.”
“Pink Tide” protesters crowd Mexico City’s central square on Sunday, just two weeks before the presidential election. (Edu Rivera/X)
The choice is between the continuation of “this new dictatorship” and “high-mindedness,” she said.
Lorena Laboriel, another member of the Marea Rosa, said that she decided to attend the rally because she believed it was “very important to demonstrate that this election is not yet decided.”
“It’s not a [mere] formality, like Sheinbaum said,” Laboriel told El País. “That’s why I’m here.”
“The INE’s institutional color has been pink for many years. I think that its use by other organizations in open political support of a candidate doesn’t contribute to the respect both institutions have shown — the INE to the political parties and the political parties to the Institute,” Guadalupe Taddei said Friday.
For the majority of people who make up the so-called Marea Rosa — thousands of whom rallied in other cities across Mexico on Sunday — the use of pink and support for Gálvez doesn’t create any kind of conflict because they see her as the only candidate who can guarantee the survival of Mexico’s democracy, which for all intents and purposes is only 24 years old. Indeed, the catch-phrase of Sunday’s rally was “Let’s save democracy.”
“To save democracy, we have to support Xóchitl and remove Morena from power,” Lydia Ordóñez, another attendee, told El País.
Playacar, the hotel zone of Playa del Carmen, had the highest hotel occupancy rate in the first months of 2024. (Alisa Matthews/Unsplash)
Mexico’s tourism industry enjoyed a successful first quarter as hotel occupancy across the nation exceeded 60% in Q1 of 2024, according to data reported by the Tourism Ministry (Sectur).
Nuevo Nayarit (formerly Nuevo Vallarta) came in No. 2 for highest hotel occupancy in Mexico. (File photo)
Hotels benefited from the rising influx of tourists during the first three months of 2024. The national statistics agency INEGI reported a nearly 11% rise in international visitors in March as compared to the same month a year ago.
The quarterly Sectur report included data from 70 tourist destinations across Mexico with hotels in beach resorts enjoying an occupancy rate of 71.1% in Q1, the January-March period. Hotels located in cities in the interior of Mexico saw 51.7% of their rooms filled.
Tourism Secretary Miguel Torruco broke down the numbers further: The tourist destinations with the highest occupancy rate were Playacar (an exclusive tourism complex in Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo) at 92.9%; Nuevo Nayarit (formerly Nuevo Vallarta, Nayarit) at 86.7%; Akumal, Quintana Roo at 84.4%; Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur at 83%; Cancún at 81.8%; and Puerto Vallarta at 81.5%.
How many tourists have visited Mexican destinations in 2024?
Sectur calculated that 20.3 million tourists visited Mexican destinations during the first quarter of the year, with international tourists comprising 6.1 million — or 30% — of that total. Hotels in the interior of the country received 11.5 million tourists while beach resorts accounted for the remaining 8.8 million visitors.
Torruco revealed that the development of new tourism projects is also proceeding apace. From 2019 through 2023, the tourism sector added 87,000 new rooms, increasing Mexico’s total offering to 890,000 rooms in 25,900 establishments. As a result, the average number of rooms available during the first three months of this year exceeded 435,000, an increase of 0.8% over Q1 2023.
The ongoing construction and slowly increasing hotel occupancy is a positive sign that Mexico’s tourism sector has come back strong from the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Sectur report noted that beach resorts had 206,593 rooms available during Q1 this year, a 0.5% increase over the same period a year ago. In interior cities, there were 229,182 rooms available, a 1% increase over January through March 2023.
Mexican surfer Patricia Ornelas surfs in a traditional embroidered huipil. (Patty Ornelas/Instagram)
Mexican surfer Patricia Ornelas went viral on social media for surfing in a huipil, a traditional blouse or dress worn by Indigenous women in parts of Mexico.
A native of Guerrero on Mexico’s Pacific coast, Ornelas shared a video of herself surfing with an embroidered shirt and a purple skirt.
With over 4 million views on social media platform TikTok, more than 400,000 likes and over 4,200 comments, Ornelas’ video has gone viral.
“Being Mexican makes me proud and makes me feel very privileged to have been born in these lands,” Ornelas wrote in the video’s caption, adding that she represents her culture “with great pride and love” as a passionate surfer. Indeed, most of Ornelas’ videos on her social media accounts feature her surfing. Other videos also show her young daughter Leah following in her footsteps.
However, her use of the traditional huipil is not the first time the Mexican surfer has honored culture through her favorite sport. In November, she dressed up as La Catrina to celebrate Día de Muertos or Day of the Dead. Wearing a black bodysuit with a white skeleton print and an elaborate headband with flowers, Ornelas is seen skillfully surfing the waves.
Patty Ornelas, a “pearl of the sea”
Ornelas shared that the video is part of a project that started in the Philippines called “Pearls of the Sea,” a portrait series by artist Archie Geotina.
While she didn’t give further details about the project, we did a bit of research to find out more.
“Pearls started in a daydream inspired by women, our culture and our relationship with mother nature as we dance and play on her ocean’s faces,” the project’s website reads. “We are born of stardust and molded by the sea.”
Geotina’s project features portraits of women from around the world surfing in traditional clothes. Released in 2021 in the Philippines, it invites viewers to “immerse themselves in the strength, beauty and fierceness of women.”
Mexico's presidential candidates faced each other in the third and final debate on Sunday night. (Cuartoscuro)
Mexico’s three presidential candidates faced off in the third and final debate on Sunday, exactly two weeks before voters go to the polls to elect a successor to President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO).
Insecurity and organized crime was one of the four broad topics considered during the debate, giving the candidates the opportunity to outline their security strategies for a country that has recorded more than 450,000 homicides since former president Felipe Calderón launched a militarized war on drug cartels shortly after he took office in late 2006.
The three candidates, Jorge Álvarez Máynez (MC), Xóchitl Gálvez (PAN-PRI-PRD) and Claudia Sheinbaum (Morena-PT-PVEM) faced off for their third and final debate on Sunday. (Screen capture)
Claudia Sheinbaum, the ruling Morena party candidate and clear frontrunner, Xóchitl Gálvez of the three-party opposition alliance Strength and Heart for Mexico and Jorge Álvarez Máynez of the minor Citizens Movement (MC) party also faced questions in the areas of social policy; migration and foreign policy; and democracy, pluralism and division of powers.
As was the case in the previous debates on April 7 and April 28, Sunday night’s encounter was punctuated by accusations and personal attacks. Gálvez was particularly relentless in her pursuit of Sheinbaum, directing 24 attacks at the leading candidate, according to a count by the El Universal newspaper.
A “flash poll” conducted for the El País newspaper found that 49% of 512 respondents declared Sheinbaum the winner, while 26% asserted that Gálvez was the victor. Just under one in five of those polled — 18% — said that Álvarez Máynez came out on top.
Insecurity and organized crime
Gálvez, a former senator and ex-mayor of the Mexico City borough of Miguel Hidalgo, declared that the current security strategy — the so-called “hugs, not bullets” approach — has been a “failure” and accused the federal government of handing control of the country to organized crime.
Xóchitl Gálvez went on the offensive the most in the debate, launching 24 attacks against the frontrunner, Claudia Sheinbaum. FOTO: MARIO JASSO/CUARTOSCURO.COM
Since López Obrador took office in late 2018, there have been 186,000 murders and 50,000 people have disappeared, said the candidate for the National Action Party (PAN), the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD).
“I propose a new security strategy. Hugs for criminals are over. The National Guard will have a civilian command. The armed forces will only focus on what the constitution establishes — national security. We’re going to strengthen state and municipal police, paying them well and certifying them. [Security] technology in every neighborhood. The greatest investment [ever] in culture, in sports and in public spaces. But, above all, you will have a president with the character to combat criminals,” Gálvez said.
For her part, Sheinbaum committed to continuing the current security strategy, highlighting that a government she leads would — as López Obrador says his administration has done — address the root causes of crime and violence, such as poverty and lack of opportunity, with social programs such as the Youths Building the Future and Sowing Life employment schemes. She also pledged to strengthen the National Guard, a security force that was created by the current government and placed under military control until the Supreme Court ruled that that move was unconstitutional.
Sheinbaum, mayor of Mexico City until last June, touted her security record in the capital as she attempted to demonstrate that she is best placed to combat the violent crime that plagues parts of Mexico. She also noted that national homicide numbers have trended down during López Obrador’s administration, although the president’s six-year term will still go down as the most violent on record.
Claudia Sheinbaum presented statistics on crime reductions in Mexico City during her tenure as mayor, and said she would continue to address the “root causes” of crime. (MARIO JASSO/CUARTOSCURO.COM)
Sheinbaum said that AMLO, her political mentor, replaced a strategy of “declaring war to build peace” for one of “attention to the causes” of violence and “zero impunity.”
Homicide numbers are still high, the Morena candidate acknowledged, but “the important thing” is that they have started coming down.
Álvarez Máynez, a former federal deputy who is in a distant third place in the polls, also committed to moving away from the use of the military for public security tasks.
Mexico needs a strategy which allows for the creation of “competent” civilian police forces, said the candidate, who claimed that the MC is the only party that doesn’t receive funding from organized crime.
“For that reason, we have the autonomy to speak about [insecurity] with freedom,” Álvarez Máynez said.
Other proposals and remarks
Social policy
While López Obrador and Morena have ample support among Mexico’s most disadvantaged citizens, Gálvez accused the government of “abandoning” Mexico’s poorest people as well as the country’s Indigenous groups, small-scale farmers, fishermen and working women.
The opposition candidate has long refuted claims that she would eliminate government social programs if elected president, and on Sunday pledged to “improve” them and introduce new ones.
“The seniors pension will begin at 60. The scholarship for children and young people will be universal. We will create 20,000 child care centers and 100,000 full-time schools,” Gálvez said.
Gálvez said she will establish 100,000 full-time schools as part of her expansion of education and social programs.(Cuartoscuro)
“With the new Seguro Popular [universal health care scheme] there will be [free medical] treatment and medications. But above all I commit to ending extreme poverty,” she said, pledging to lift 9 million people out of that situation.
“For us, social policy means wellbeing and happiness for people. We’re recovering rights and broadening them,” she said, speaking of things such as education and health care.
Previous PRI and PAN governments turned such rights into “commodities” and “privileges,” Sheinbaum said.
“We’re the only ones who can maintain the social programs,” added the Morena candidate.
“We’re the only ones that have implemented them, and we do it out of conviction, not out of convenience.”
Máynez said his government would increase the minimum wage to 10,000 pesos a month, and would also implement 40-hour work week legislation. (Cuartoscuro)
Máynez reiterated his commitment to making Mexico’s children a priority for a government he leads. The nation’s children, he said, suffer the effects of poverty and discrimination more than any other sector of society.
“That’s why we’re going to promote a new policy of attention … to generate equality of opportunities [for children],” he said.
The MC candidate also reiterated his commitment to a minimum salary of 10,000 pesos (US $600) per month and a 40-hour work week.
Migration and foreign policy
Gálvez said that her foreign policy would have “two compasses,” explaining that the first would be her “values, respect for human rights and freedoms [and] protection of migrants.”
The second would be “a map,” she said.
“We have 3,200 kilometers of border with the United States — it’s our trade ally. We’re the link between North and South America. We have an important geographic position between Europe and Asia and therefore Mexico has everything [required] to take advantage of international trade,” she said.
Many migrants transit through Tapachula, Chiapas near Mexico’s southern border on their way to the United States. (DAMIÁN SÁNCHEZ/CUARTOSCURO.COM)
With regard to migration — specifically the use of Mexico as a transit country by large numbers of people seeking to reach the United States — the opposition candidate pledged to “establish order at the southern border,” where most migrants first enter the country.
The border with Guatemala is currently “in the hands of criminals,” Gálvez said. “Today criminals control migration and that is very serious.”
Gálvez also said that a government she leads would “demand a regularization program” for Mexican migrants in the United States.
She also highlighted the opportunity Mexico has to benefit from nearshoring.
To attract foreign companies in sectors including semiconductors, electric vehicles and aerospace, “we have to do the work,” Gálvez said.
“This government hasn’t done it and isn’t going to do it because the first thing that is needed is the rule of law. … Secondly, clean and cheap energy is needed, … water is needed, … education, science and technology is needed, … infrastructure is needed, … security is also needed,” she said.
Sheinbaum highlighted AMLO’s infrastructure projects in the south and said she would expand them as the “best way” to hire migrants. (Lopezobrador.org.mx)
For her part, Sheinbaum committed herself to Mexico’s constitutionally-enshrined foreign policy principle of “non-intervention” in the affairs of other countries, and emphasized the need to address the causes of migration.
“We have to strengthen the relationship with the United States and Canada, we have a free trade agreement … but as [Uruguayan writer] Mario Benedetti says, the south also exists and that’s why we’re going to continue broadening relations with Latin America and the Caribbean,” said the Morena candidate, echoing remarks previously made by AMLO.
“… And of course, we will be a country that is open to the world,” she added.
Later in the segment on migration and foreign policy, Sheinbaum spoke about establishing a “development hub” in the southern border region. She also said that the current government’s signature railroad projects — the Maya Train and the modernized line across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec — could be extended to the southern border and even into Central America.
“That’s the best way to offer work to migrants,” she said.
Having heard Gálvez’s criticism of the government for allegedly not taking advantage of the nearshoring opportunity, Sheinbaum noted that foreign investment has reached record levels during the current government.
“Of course we’re open to investment, but investment with wellbeing, not the kind of investment that previous governments boasted about – ‘come and invest in Mexico because there are salaries of hunger here, cheap labor.’ No, that’s over,” she said.
“Now we’re defending Mexican workers and private investment,” Sheinbaum said.
Personal attacks and responses
Gálvez, as mentioned earlier, was relentless in her attacks on Sheinbaum. She repeatedly referred to the frontrunner as “the candidate of lies” and repeated her claim that she is a “narco-candidate” for a “narco-party.”
Sheinbaum made far fewer direct attacks on Gálvez, but frequently referred to her as “the candidate of the PRIAN,” a derogatory acronym for the PRI and the PAN that has implicit connotations of corruption.
Outlined below are two of the attacks the PAN-PRI-PRD candidate made on her main rival, and the responses of the ruling party aspirant.
“In the previous debate, I called Claudia Sheinbaum a narco-candidate and that caused a lot of controversy,” Gálvez said. “I want to explain to millions of Mexicans why I did it. This is not a nickname nor an insult, but rather a description of facts.”
Gálvez cited a book by journalist Anabel Hernández (La historia secreta), as “clearly saying” that Sheinbaum and Omar García Harfuch, who served as the Morena candidate’s security minister in Mexico City, received “bribes” and “drugs” from organized crime.
Sheinbaum dismissed “the sources for that book” as not credible, and suggested Gálvez would find more accurate information in works of science fiction.
“Why doesn’t she read Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, or the Martian Chronicles?” she said.
Gálvez also took aim at Sheinbaum, who has a Jewish background, for once wearing a skirt featuring the image the Virgin of Guadalupe, who is widely revered in Mexico.
The opposition candidate asked her rival — who says she is not religious but is “a woman of faith and science” — whether she had told the Pope in her recent meeting with him that she had worn the skirt even though “you don’t believe in her or in God.”
“… You have every right to not believe in God, that’s a personal issue. What you don’t have a right to is to use the faith of Mexicans as political opportunism. That is hypocrisy,” Gálvez charged.
Gálvez accused Sheinbaum of hyprocrisy, holding up a photo of her rival wearing a skirt with an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe. (Screen capture)
Sheinbaum described her opponent’s remark as a deliberate “provocation” and declined to comment on her use of the Virgin of Guadalupe skirt.
Earlier in the debate, the Morena candidate said that the Mexican people “don’t deserve a presidential debate full of slander and lies.”
“That reflects the absence of [a political] project,” she said.
Mexico's next president in office must face the country's ever more brazen — and politically motivated— criminal actors, says analyst Stephen Woodman. (Genaro Natera/Cuartoscuro)
Criminal gangs have multiplied during the current presidential administration in Mexico, corrupting local democracies, tightening their grip on the economy and creating a security crisis.
Claudia Sheinbaum, the leading candidate ahead of the June 2 elections, would undoubtedly face ever more brazen — and politically motivated — criminal actors if she becomes Mexico’s next president.
Since the election of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in 2018, organized crime has ramped up efforts to strong-arm the state. Favored tactics include road blockades, banners threatening officials and the dumping of human remains outside government buildings.
Political assassinations are the most direct line of attack. The current campaign season is shaping up to be the deadliest on record, according to data from the Mexican think tank Laboratorio Electoral. Since the official start of the electoral season on September 7th, 2023 until the publication of this piece, 30 political aspirants and candidates have been slain in Mexico. Hundreds have withdrawn from the race (358 candidates in Zacatecas and another 190 candidates in Michoacán) — while an unknown quantity chose not to risk running at all.
Organized crime groups were likely behind most of these killings. As politicians across the country hit the campaign trail, gangs launched their own violent bids for increased protection and influence.
Criminals are also desperate to collaborate with politicians. Gangs have little chance of survival unless they can secure under-the-table deals with mayors and turf pacts with police. Illegal campaign financing is an ongoing concern. In troubled regions, criminal groups even field their own candidates.
Alongside the growing threat of “narco politics,” the new Mexican president will also have to shield the economy from the worst impacts of criminality. In recent years, gangs have diversified beyond drug trafficking. Illicit activities such as cargo theft and counterfeiting are a mounting problem for the private sector.
Extortion is an even greater menace to businesses. Criminal groups historically demanded payments from small-scale vendors, such as market workers or chicken shop owners. Today, they routinely fix prices by forcing family-owned businesses to buy products at inflated costs from suppliers they have compromised; for instance, fruit or poultry farms. Business leaders say gangs in at least 10 Mexican states are even banning the sale of products from companies outside their extortion rackets.
Nor is this crisis contained. Security challenges in Mexico have consequences that cross borders. Gangs threaten regional supply chains and forcibly displace communities, fueling undocumented migration. Criminal fragmentation also risks creating new entrants into the fentanyl market. That shift could deepen the opioid overdose crisis in the United States, as inexperienced cooks inaccurately measure substances.
Sheinbaum, the candidate for the ruling National Regeneration Movement (Morena) party, is keen to downplay this situation. The heavy favorite for the presidency, Sheinbaum has already backed the non-confrontational approach of President López Obrador. She also plans to double down on the militarization of public security. As well as spending heavily on the army, Sheinbaum hopes to complete the transfer of the National Guard, Mexico’s main federal law enforcement agency, from civilian to military control, which has been halted by the Supreme Court. But neither the army nor the National Guard have proven effective in tackling criminal networks. Both forces have also been accused of widespread human rights abuses.
Despite these failings, the leading candidate has outlined some policies that could prove effective. Sheinbaum hopes to strengthen Mexico’s intelligence agency and create a national crime database. She also wants to classify extortion as a serious crime.
But the next administration will face security challenges of an unprecedented scale. Turning a blind eye to the crisis is unlikely to remain an option. The widespread use of shock and awe tactics by Mexican mafias, criminal infiltration into politics and the economic impact of extortion will demand a response from the new president. That emergency will heighten calls to strengthen investigative capacities and counter the outrageous impunity that persists across Mexico.
Greater cooperation with U.S. security agencies is also essential. Both countries need to scrutinize suspicious financial activity and crack down on weapons trafficking. To be truly effective, Mexico’s next president must work from an understanding that insecurity in Mexico is part of a shared crisis with the United States.
Stephen Woodman is the associate director of Advanced Intelligence Solutions (AIS), a consultancy that works with government agencies and corporations to identify and mitigate security risks across Latin America. Based in Guadalajara, Mexico, he primarily investigates organized crime. Woodman was formerly a journalist, covering security and human rights in Mexico. His investigative features have been published by the Financial Times, BBC News and Reuters, among other outlets.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Mexico News Daily, its owner or its employees.
This week's heat wave will most affect Mexico's northern, southwestern and southern states. (Juan Ortega Solís/Cuartoscuro)
Monday marks the first day of another heat wave in Mexico, which is forecast to bring temperatures above 45 degrees Celsius in some parts of the country.
According to Mexico’s National Meteorological Service (SMN), the states most affected by the year’s third heat wave will be Baja California Sur, Campeche, Coahuila, Guerrero, Michoacán, Nuevo León, San Luis Potosí, Sinaloa, Sonora, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Veracruz and Yucatán. These states could see temperatures surpass 45 C.
Meanwhile, Baja California, Chiapas, Chihuahua, Colima, Durango, northern Hidalgo, Jalisco, Morelos, Nayarit, Oaxaca, Puebla and Quintana Roo will see temperatures ranging between 40 and 45 C.
Aguascalientes, southwest México state, Guanajuato, Querétaro and Zacatecas will see temperatures hover between 35 and 40 C. Only Mexico City and Tlaxcala will escape the highest temps — those states will see maximums between 30 and 35 C.
This season’s heat waves have brought record temperatures across the country. During Mexico’s second heat wave earlier this month, the highest temperature registered nationwide was 49.6 C, in Gallinas, San Luis Potosí. Ten cities nationwide broke their highest temperature records on May 9, and there have been at least a dozen heat-related deaths.
Due to the scorching temperatures, officials have warned residents to avoid prolonged exposure and to stay hydrated, paying special attention to chronically ill people, children and older adults.
However, some regions will get some relief with rainfall in the forecast this week.
Heavy rains are expected in Chiapas and Oaxaca, while scattered showers are forecast in Guerrero, Michoacán, Morelos and Zacatecas. Aguascalientes could see isolated rainfall, as well as Baja California, Campeche, Mexico City, Coahuila, Durango, State of México, Guanajuato, Jalisco, Puebla, Quintana Roo, San Luis Potosí, Tabasco, Veracruz and Yucatán.
Strong winds are also in the forecast for some regions.
Campeche and Yucatán will see gusts ranging between 60 to 80 km/h with dust devils likely on the coasts. Dust devils are also expected to appear in northern and central states.
According to the SMN, between 2017 and 2023, the earliest heat wave arrived in February while the latest occurred in June. The months of April and May registered peak heat wave activity: 71.4% of the heat waves in Mexico occurred during these two spring months.
