Viva Aerobus has begun flights from Mexico City to Felipe Carrillo International Airport in Tulum. Aeromexico and Volaris are also offering new flights to the recently opened airport in the Caribbean destination. (VivaAerobus/Twitter)
Beginning May 2, Aeroméxico will operate two daily nonstop flights from Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA), outside Mexico City, to Tulum. And starting Dec. 5, Volaris will feature a nonstop Guadalajara-Tulum flight. Tickets for the latter route are already on sale, she said.
Lezama added that “Aeroméxico, Viva Aerobús, Volaris and Aerus will increase their routes to our destinations.”
The Quintana Roo governor made the announcements via social media from Acapulco, where she is attending the Tianguis Turístico, a national tourism fair that gathers industry representatives from around the world. She presided over the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the fair’s Quintana Roo pavilion, which features representatives from the state’s 12 primary tourist destinations, the Quintana Roo Hotel Association and 16 tourism operators.
Lezama also revealed that Hopper, a travel booking app and online travel marketplace, had granted the Quintana Roo Tourism Promotion Council (CTPQ) its Best Campaign prize. Trip Advisor handed out 12 Best Destination awards to Quintana Roo, including one for Best Beach Destination.
In addition to the new routes to Tulum, Viva Aerobus celebrated a new Mexico City-to-Tulum flight, which started operating last week. Viva Aerobus spokesman Walfred Castro Novelo also told the newspaper El Economista that the airline’s seasonal Monterrey to Cozumel flight has become a year-round offering.
El Economista also reported on additional flights being offered by Aerus, an air taxi service based in San Luis Potosí:
Beginning May 13: five daily flights from Cancún to Mérida and Cancún to Cozumel.
Beginning June 1: flights from Cancún to Chetumal three times a week.
A daily Aerus Cozumel-Chichén Itzá flight is in the planning stages as well, El Economista reported.
Tiger Woods new venture, The Woods Cabo, is set to be the newest of the famed golfer's business ventures in the area. (All photos belong to The Woods Cabo.)
In November 2023, within a week of the first-ever PGA-sponsored golf tour event teeing off in Cabo San Lucas, a new restaurant also opened in the Land’s End city.
That these things happened so close together was not an accident. The same man was responsible for both: legendary golfer and now golf course architect and restaurateur Tiger Woods. It was Tiger and his design team who crafted the course, El Cardonal, that the pros played during the World Wide Technology Championship, and it was Tiger who was responsible for the opening of The Woods Cabo, the restaurant that within days of its opening was already among the best in Los Cabos.
It’s a testament to the increasing presence Tiger has in Los Cabos and the legacy he is building here. In addition to El Cardonal and The Woods Cabo, he has also designed a 12-hole Oasis Short Course and is expected to premier a new course, The Legacy Club, next year at Diamante, the resort community associated with all his local projects. The difference between the golf courses and the restaurant, however, is that only the latter is open to the public. The golf courses are all private.
But according to Tiger, that’s all part of the plan. “TGR Design has been a part of Diamante since we broke ground on El Cardonal in 2013, so opening up The Woods Cabo at Diamante seemed like a natural extension of our partnership and the perfect backdrop for an elevated sports bar experience,” he told Mexico News Daily. “I look forward to enjoying The Woods Cabo as much as I hope the public will.”
What to know about The Woods Cabo
The Woods Cabo, like The Woods Jupiter in Florida, is billed as a sports bar, for obvious reasons – Tiger is one of the most famous sports figures of the past 30 years. But despite the televisions mounted around the bar and dining area, and despite a bar menu featuring lollipop chicken wings, this is as much a steakhouse or a fine dining restaurant as it is a sports bar. Hence, Tiger’s qualifier: “elevated.”
Poshly appointed, with a setting overlooking the 18th hole at El Cardonal (the terrace surveys a nearby driving range), The Woods Cabo is an oasis of wagyu steaks, sushi, fine wines, and other gustatory pleasures, and offers a dining experience completely unlike any other in Los Cabos. If that seems incongruous, it should be noted that Tiger isn’t the only legendary figure associated with the project.
The chef is a Los Cabos legend
When Chef Larbi Dahrouch came to Los Cabos in 2003 to helm what eventually became Agua by Larbi for benchmark local luxury resort, One&Only Palmilla, he was already famous in the culinary world. That was due in part to his long working relationship with Jean-Louis Palladin, who earned two Michelin stars in his native France and subsequently opened an acclaimed restaurant at the Watergate Hotel in Washington D.C. that hosted everyone from President Ronald Reagan (for his 70th birthday party) to iconic ballet star Mikhail Baryshnikov.
Dahrouch eventually ran that restaurant himself, as well as several others – including the Country Inn in Princeton, Massachusetts – and even helped launch Euro Disney before coming to Los Cabos. At each stop, his cuisine was premised on, as the chef himself puts it, “the freshest possible ingredients, but with a twist.” In Los Cabos, that twist has often been what Dahrouch refers to as “Mexiterranean”, meaning a blend of Mexican ingredients with Mediterranean influences. Palladin may be the “father of the farm-to-table movement in America,” per the Michelin Guide, but his former executive sous chef deserves plaudits aplenty, too, for enhancing the focus on great ingredients first, locally sourced if possible.
It’s perhaps no coincidence that the farm-to-table movement in Los Cabos, which has produced great restaurants like Flora’s Field Kitchen and Acre, where Dahrouch also served a stint as chef, began to flower soon after he arrived.
The menu is unlike any other in Los Cabos
Dahrouch doesn’t take credit for the bar menu at The Woods Cabo, but the dinner menu is all his and features many of his trademark specialties, like a focus on fresh local ingredients. The restaurant sources many ingredients from its nearby garden, for example, and much of the seafood is regionally caught.
Not all of it, though. The sublime trout, served with a green lentil stew that reflects the chef’s Moroccan heritage and an achiote sauce, is sourced from Tasmania; and the superb wagyu steaks are from eponymous cattle in Margaret River, Australia. The chef has also scoured the globe to find outstanding selections for the restaurant’s wine list, with fine offerings from France, Italy, the U.S., and elsewhere. México, whose burgeoning wine scene has now expanded well beyond Valle de Guadalupe in Baja California, is also well represented.
Some of these food and wine selections are quite expensive. If you want to try a 35-ounce wagyu tomahawk steak for two and order a bottle of Cheval Blanc to accompany it, the former will cost 5,520 pesos, the latter 48,530. But more reasonably priced fare is available (the trout entrée is 940 pesos), including discounts during Happy Hour from 3 to 5 p.m.
How to experience The Woods Cabo
Diamante is a very private resort community where many famous people have homes. Tiger himself has a home there. So given the very public status of his restaurant, it’s built on a corner of the 1,500-acre property on the Pacific Coast north of Cabo San Lucas (Diamante Blvd., to be exact), so diners who don’t live there don’t have to deal with Diamante’s notoriously unobliging gate guards. There’s a public entrance, although that too is manned by a security guard, albeit a much more friendly one.
Actually, there are two entrances to the restaurant. One for Diamante residents, and one for locals or visitors who want to sample one of the best dining experiences in Los Cabos. Reservations are strongly recommended in either case (call 624-144-2960), however, and if you’re interested in Los Cabos real estate, a new development will accompany The Legacy Club course from TGR Design. The restaurant, meanwhile, is open daily from 2 to 10 p.m. This includes its bar area and also the onsite butcher’s shop, where fine cuts are available from around the world. The former is a good place to watch the Masters Tournament, which Tiger has won five times. The latter is a grill master’s dream.
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.
The value of Mexico's commercial services exports (which includes computer and telecommunication services) increased 9% annually in 2023. Economic analysts see potential for growth in this sector as more tech companies invest in data centers and other facilities in Mexico. (Shutterstock)
Mexico was the world’s 18th largest exporter of commercial services last year — excluding intra-European Union (EU) trade — rising five places from its 2022 ranking, according to the World Trade Organization (WTO).
The value of Mexico’s commercial services exports increased 9% in 2023 to reach US $52 billion, WTO data shows.
Among the sectors that contributed to that figure were financial services, transport, computer services, telecommunication services, and personal, cultural and recreational services including those related to tourism.
The top 10 exporters of commercial services among the 164 WTO members last year were, in order, the European Union; the United States; the United Kingdom; China; India; Singapore; Japan; Switzerland; the United Arab Emirates; and Canada.
Mexico also ranked behind South Korea; Turkey; Hong Kong; Israel; Australia; Thailand; and Taiwan.
Global commercial services trade totaled US $7.54 trillion last year, a 9% increase compared to 2022.
Tourism has made a strong comeback since the COVID-19 pandemic, and contributed to Mexico’s commercial services exports. (Cuartoscuro)
In separate rankings that considered each European Union country individually and included their trade with other EU states, Mexico was not among the leading 30 exporters of commercial services. (The WTO only listed the top 30.)
While the 9% increase as shown by the WTO data is encouraging, the vice president of the Mexican Business Council for Foreign Trade, Investment and Technology said late last year that there was an opportunity for Mexico to grow its commercial services exports sector as more foreign companies establish a presence here amid the growing nearshoring trend.
The WTO said in its April 2024 Global Trade Outlook and Statistics report that “information and communication technology (ICT) services continued to rise in importance in overall
services trade [in 2023], reflecting pent-up demand for software, cloud services, machine learning and cybersecurity as well as increased global Internet traffic.”
Mexico could conceivably increase its ability to meet that demand in coming years.
In addition, he said that Mexico should aim to continue growing other commercial services export sectors including tourism — both recreational and medical — telecommunications and software.
President López Obrador (center) accompanied by government officials and magnate Carlos Slim (far right) at the inauguration of the first passenger train of the Interoceanic Corridor project in December. (Lopezobrador.org.mx)
Meanwhile, Mexico’s transport sector commercial services exports should get a boost once the Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec becomes fully operational, allowing shipping companies to unload goods from Asia on the Pacific coast in Oaxaca and move them by train to the Gulf coast in Veracruz before they are transported via the Atlantic Ocean to points in North America or Europe.
The corridor, which includes a modernized railroad between Salina Cruz, Oaxaca, and Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz could — of course — also facilitate the movement of goods in the opposite direction. It has been touted as a rival to the Panama Canal.
Other WTO data on Mexico
The WTO’s latest Global Trade Outlook and Statistics report also showed that Mexico was the 17th largest importer of commercial services last year, excluding intra-EU trade.
Mexico rose two spots in the rankings in that category, its services imports increasing 10% compared to 2022 to US $69 billion. Mexico wasn’t among the top 30 countries in rankings that considered total commercial services imports of EU members individually.
WTO data also showed that Mexico ascended four positions to become the world’s ninth largest merchandise exporter in 2023 with revenue — as reported in January — of just over US $593 billion. Mexico ranked behind China; the United States; Germany; Netherlands; Japan; Italy; France and South Korea.
One of Mexico’s main exports to the U.S. is vehicles and auto parts, seen here being loaded on a dock in the port of Veracruz. (Asipona Veracruz)
Data also showed that Mexico was the 12th largest importer in 2023, purchasing foreign-made goods worth US $621 billion, a 1% decline compared to the previous year. Excluding intra-EU trade, it ranked as the ninth largest importer in the world.
Mexico wasn’t among the world’s 30 leading exporters of digitally delivered services. The United States ranked first in that category, followed by the United Kingdom, Ireland, India and Germany.
Mexico is fast becoming a global nearshoring hub. Find out where companies are choosing to invest in their new businesses. (Gobierno de Querétaro/Facebook)
Mexico has become a top destination for relocation, as companies from across the world look to move their operations closer to the United States. Mexico has a skilled workforce and low production costs, making it an attractive option for manufacturers and distributors.
But once in Mexico, where are the best spots to relocate? Companies that have already made the leap to nearshore in Mexico are mostly concentrated in the country’s north, west and central regions. These locations are best for nearshoring in Mexico because they have access to natural resources such as water and energy, are close to the United States, have favorable logistics and infrastructure conditions and concentrate a strong talent pool.
Mexico’s skilled workforce means that businesses from automobiles to robotics have chosen the country to serve as a production and distribution hub for the United States. (Gobierno de Guanajuato/Facebook)
Here is a list of the best nearshoring spots in Mexico divided into four areas: northern Mexico, southern Mexico, western Mexico, the Bajío and Mexico City.
Northern Mexico
Several states in the North stand out when it comes to nearshoring, for several different reasons. According to a report by organization Caminos de la Libertad, Nuevo León, Chihuahua and Coahuila are attractive for their energy security, reduced bureaucracy, easier business startup processes and legal security.
Nuevo León
Nuevo León has become a leading destination for nearshoring. By the end of 2023, the state had successfully attracted US $45 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI), largely due to nearshoring. Most of this investment has been directed towards the state’s capital, Monterrey.
Monterrey has been by far the biggest winner in the nearshoring boom. (David Liceaga/Unsplash)
To date, 76% of nearshoring in Mexico is concentrated in Nuevo León. Perhaps even more impressively, 45% of nearshoring in Latin America is also concentrated in the northern state.
The industries using the most real estate in Nuevo León are the automotive, electrical, electronics, construction and supply chain sectors.
Coahuila
Another popular state for nearshoring in Mexico is Coahuila. Until May 2023, it had received US $2.2 billion worth of FDI, and the previous year, it became the second-highest exporter of goods from Mexico.
Coahuila is known for its mining industry. The state is the world leader in refined silver production and holds Mexico’s largest steel producer.
The industry that has boosted nearshoring the most in Coahuila is the automotive sector, mainly located in the cities of Saltillo and Torreón.
Coahuila has become an auto manufacturing hotspot, predominantly for Asian firms. (Municipio de Torreón/Facebook)
Chihuahua
Last year, the state of Chihuahua received an impressive $2 billion in FDI, with more than 35 new investment projects. According to official numbers, 25 of these projects were the result of nearshoring.
These new investments have led to significant growth in the state’s industrial real estate sector. In 2023, Ciudad Juárez, the capital of Chihuahua, began constructing 458,000 square meters of new industrial space to meet the increased demand.
The industries that have attracted nearshoring in Chihuahua include automotive, aerospace, electronics, metalworking, and medical device industries.
Baja California
According to the Nearshoring Score by Mexican bank Banorte, Baja California is among the states with the greatest potential to receive the benefits of company relocation, along with Nuevo León and Chihuahua.
Tijuana has long played an important role in trade between the U.S. and Mexico, but nearshoring is taking it to an even greater level. (Gautman Krishnan/Unsplash)
Wall Street mega-funds like Oaktree Capital Management show a growing interest in Baja California, recognizing the region as key for strategic investments. Such interest has been driven by the notable improvement in the state’s financial health under the management of the Secretary of the Treasury.
Moreover, Mexico’s largest aerospace hub is in Baja California, where more than 100 aerospace companies generate 30,000 direct jobs, mostly around Tijuana and Mexicali.
The Bajío
Rodrigo Folgueras, regional head of real estate consulting firm CBRE in the Bajío, has praised the region as an investment destination thanks to its location, skilled labor force and infrastructure.
Querétaro
According to Banorte, Querétaro is the non-border state that stands to gain the most from nearshoring in 2024. This is attributed to the strategic location of its industrial parks and zones, the potential GDP by state and the influx of FDI over the past three years.
The state is known for its innovative industry, large aerospace cluster and its role in the global supply chain.
The industries that have attracted nearshoring in Querétaro include the automotive, aerospace, warehousing, transportation and food and beverage industries.
Querétaro has seen investment from a wide variety of industries. (Gobierno de Querétaro)
Guanajuato’s Ministry of Sustainable Economic Development (SDES) said the state secured 31 investment projects last year, all related to nearshoring. To attract this investment, the region tackled two primary challenges that often hinder relocation to other states: efficient energy management and attracting skilled human talent.
The industries that have boosted nearshoring in Guanajuato mainly belong to the automotive, food, household appliances and pharmaceutical chemical sectors, as well as the medical cluster.
Aguascalientes
The Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (IMCO), a think tank, has found that Aguascalientes is the state taking the most advantage of nearshoring. Foreign direct investment from sectors most related to this phenomenon increased by 310% from January to September in 2023, compared to the same period in 2022.
Warehousing space across Mexico is being leased almost as fast as it can be built. (Adalberto Ortega/Vesta)
IMCO highlighted that Aguascalientes’ performance reflects the state’s structural conditions in terms of labor, basic input infrastructure and regulatory quality, making it an attractive investment destination.
The industries that have boosted nearshoring in Aguascalientes are mainly the automobile and truck manufacturing sectors.
Western Mexico
Jalisco
After Querétaro, Jalisco stands out as the second non-border state that could benefit the most from nearshoring.
To enhance Jalisco’s appeal for nearshoring, the state’s government has implemented the Jalisco Tech Hub Act, a public policy initiative which includes investments in expanding educational infrastructure and developing highly specialized talent.
Tech-focused Jalisco is looking to receive investment from the digital sector. (Hiram Prigadáa)
In the last two years, the electronics and appliance manufacturing sector has driven the most nearshoring activity in Jalisco.
Mexico City
Of the US $32.92 million that arrived in the country in 2023, US $10,580 million went to Mexico City, according to Economy Ministry (SE) figures.
In 2023, IMCO found that 27% of the FDI that arrived in Mexico City was related to nearshoring.
Gabriela Solis is a Mexican lawyer turned full-time writer. She was born and raised in Guadalajara and covers business, culture, lifestyle and travel for Mexico News Daily. You can follow her lifestyle blog Dunas y Palmeras.
Pemex crude production has dropped and in efforts to boost fuel self-sufficiency, the state oil company will reportedly reduce exports by at least 330,000 bpd in May. (Pemex/X)
State oil company Pemex plans to reduce crude exports by at least 330,000 barrels per day (bpd) in May as Mexico seeks to move toward self-sufficiency for fuel, Reuters reported Monday.
The news agency said that the information came from two sources, both of whom are traders.
Citing those sources, Reuters said that the planned cuts would leave Pemex customers in the United States, Europe and Asia with a third less supply. Pemex exported just over 1 million bpd of crude last year and 945,000 bpd in the first two months of 2024.
Exports are set to fall from early 2023 levels this month. Reuters reported last week that Pemex had asked its trading unit PMI Comercio Internacional to cancel up to 436,000 bpd of exports in April as it prepares to process oil at the new Olmeca refinery on the Tabasco coast.
Data published by the United States Energy Information Administration on Wednesday showed that U.S. imports of crude from Mexico fell to 209,000 bpd in the week to April 5, the lowest level on record. U.S. imports from Mexico averaged 733,000 bpd in 2023.
Reuters reported Wednesday that “Pemex has no option other than applying monthly cuts to exports after its crude production in February fell to the lowest level in 45 years and the country’s refineries, including a new facility in the port of Dos Bocas, began taking in more crude oil.”
The Dos Bocas refinery in Paraíso, Tabasco is one of the president’s key infrastructure projects. (Gob MX)
However, the news agency reported that its sources said that PMI has not declared force majeure over its supply contracts. The sources explained that most of the contracts allow volumes of crude to be altered depending on availability.
The new refinery in Tabasco was inaugurated in July 2022, but didn’t begin producing fuel until the first quarter of this year, and is “yet to contribute to the domestic market with finished motor fuels,” according to Reuters.
Pemex — which Moody’s Investors Service dumped deeper into speculative, or junk, territory earlier this year — anticipates the facility will need an average of around 179,000 bpd of crude this year. The government has also invested in upgrading Pemex’s six other refineries in order to increase their production capacity.
Pemex CEO Octavio Romero said in January that Mexico would stop importing gasoline in the not too distant future, although projections he presented showed that Mexican production wouldn’t meet growing domestic demand in the coming years and that the soonest self-sufficiency can be achieved is 2027.
Pemex CEO Octavio Romero has said that Mexico will soon be fuel self-sufficient but based on current government data, the soonest this could happen would be in 2027. (Cuartoscuro)
A Reuters source at Mexico’s Energy Ministry said that in addition to increasing domestic demand for fuel, another challenge for authorities is dwindling oil reserves, especially in old Gulf of Mexico fields. A number of new oil fields, such as the large Trion field jointly owned by Pemex and Australian company Woodside, are set to be developed, but it remains to be seen whether production will be sufficient to allow Mexico to achieve President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s coveted self-sufficiency objective. AMLO promised in 2020 that Mexico would be self-sufficient in gasoline by 2023 through the rehabilitation of the six existing refineries and the construction of a new one on the Tabasco coast.
Reuters quoted its Energy Minister source as saying that “there have been ‘discrepancies’ in Mexico’s data on [oil] reserves.”
Official numbers “overestimate both the amount of crude oil Pemex can technically recover at a cost that is financially feasible, and the quality of the crude oil itself,” according to the source.
“The prognosis for the future is not encouraging,” the person told Reuters, adding that a decline in petroleum production in Mexico — despite the opening of a new refinery and the rehabilitation of six others — is “unavoidable.”
Nexteer Automotive plans to invest US $20 million in a new engineering hub in the state of Querétaro. It already has three plants in the central Mexican state. (Nexteer)
Nexteer Automotive, a Michigan-based company that develops motion-control technology, will expand its operations in Mexico.
Nexteer announced its plans to build an engineering center in Mexico’s central state of Querétaro, known for its innovative industry and its position in the global automotive supply chain.
The new facility, expected to be completed in 2026, will serve as the hub for Nexteer Mexico’s engineering activities. It will provide local support, including prototyping, product validation, testing and vehicle systems integration.
Nexteer also plans to relocate 13 metal-mechanical suppliers from China to Mexico over the next two years to strengthen its supply chain.
According to Nexteer’s President Robin Milavec, the new Mexico Technical Center (MXTC) will create more than 350 new jobs by 2026 and increase the company’s local presence by 8,350 square meters.
The venture will require a US $20 million investment.
“Nexteer’s new, state-of-the-art Mexico Technical Center supports our strategy for creating a diversified and balanced approach across our products, customers and footprint by expanding our engineering capabilities to more effectively and efficiently serve our OEM customers’ needs in Mexico,” Milavec said in a statement.
Nexteer has five plants in Mexico — three in Querétaro and two in Ciudad Juárez. Across their five facilities, Nexteer employs 3,200 people, 2,100 of whom work in Querétaro.
Like an increasing number of foreign companies, Nexteer is beginning to bring more of its resources to Mexico. According to Abiel Villarreal, vice president and COO of Nexteer Automotive México, the company relocated two suppliers from Asia in 2023.
“We had a meeting with all of our suppliers inviting them to come to Mexico,” Villareal said. “As we have a global presence, we have many suppliers in China, and we’ve invited them to relocate.”
Messi, left, longtime player for the world-class team FC Barcelona, is currently playing for Club Internacional de Miami, or Inter Miami, a Major League Soccer team for Miami, Florida. They face Monterrey Football Club Wednesday night. (Inter Miami)
Lionel Messi and Major League Soccer (MLS)’s Inter Miami team arrived in Monterrey, Nuevo León, on Wednesday, and the Argentine soccer legend is expected to be on the field tonight for a pivotal match against host team, C.F. Monterrey.
USA Today called the match “the most anticipated Messi game since he joined the MLS club” last summer.
Lionel Messi is widely considered one of the greatest soccer players of all time and Mexican fans are excited for the chance to see him in action. (Inter Miami CF/Instagram)
Indeed it is, and for many reasons.
First of all, it will be the first official game in Mexico for the soon-to-be 37-year-old. Messi, whose nickname is La Pulga (the flea), has played twice here before, but both were exhibition matches over a decade ago.
Secondly, the match will be the quarterfinals of the Champions Cup, a tournament for the best club teams in North and Central America and the Caribbean, the region governed by FIFA’s Concacaf confederation.
Miami is trailing 2-1 after the first leg of the tournament on April 3 in Florida, which puts the Monterrey Football Club, of the Liga MX league, in the driver’s seat.
Miami must outscore Monterrey by two goals to advance in the tournament, while a one-goal win would force overtime. The Rayados therefore have the advantage, as either a tie or win by the Rayados will move the Monterrey team into the semifinals.
Messi didn’t play in Inter Miami’s first game, in Miami, due to an injured hamstring. Since then, speculation has run rampant: would he play in Mexico or not?
Monterrey C.F. coach Fernando Ortiz says he’s not worried about his team confronting the football legend, saying they have the home team advantage. (Fernando Ortiz/Instagram)
Messi has sat out four Miami games in MLS play and did not suit up for Argentina in friendlies against El Salvador and Costa Rica in March.
However, La Pulga did return to action on Saturday for an MLS game against the Colorado Rapids, entering after halftime and scoring one goal and assisting another within his first 15 minutes. He took five shots, made a sliding tackle and appeared “100-percent healthy in his first match since March 13,” USA Today noted.
Miami was a “completely different team [after] their superstar No. 10 entered the match,” wrote soccer website 90 Min.
Messi trained in full with his team on Tuesday and “will be available” on Wednesday in Monterrey, according to ESPN. Whether he starts or enters as a reserve remains to be seen.
On top of all that, Messi put himself in the middle of controversy after the last Miami-Monterrey match in the U.S. on April 3 — even though he didn’t play.
After the match, he entered the Monterrey locker room and got into a face-to-face shouting match with Rayados assistant coach Nico Sánchez, himself a former pro player in Argentina.
The source of Messi’s anger is not precisely known, although Monterrey head coach Fernando Ortiz, also an Argentine, did make some pregame comments about Miami’s decision to hold Messi out of action. Then in the game, Miami drew six yellow cards, leading to one ejection that forced Miami to finish the match with 10 players.
In a voice message leaked to Fox Sports México, Sánchez told friends that Messi “wanted to fight me” and had threatened to hit him.
“The dwarf was possessed,” Sánchez said of Messi in the message. “He had the face of the devil.”
Monterrey F.C. Assistant Coach Nico Sánchez made headlines after his team’s last encounter with Inter Miami, after he referred to an angry Messi as a “possessed dwarf.” He later apologized. (Nícolas Sánchez/Instagram)
USA Today commented wryly on the incident: “If Messi was supposedly so enraged after a game he didn’t play, just imagine what he’s going to do on the pitch against Monterrey. “
The big game is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at Estadio BBVA in Monterrey and can be seen in English on FoxSports1 and in Spanish on TUDN.
Tickets for the match were snapped up quickly by Rayados season pass holders, leaving only 5,000 seats for the general public at the 51,348-capacity stadium. Those sold out in less than half an hour, with prices ranging from 1,830 (US $111) to 5,300 pesos (US $322), with a limit of two tickets per person.
In the resale market, tickets have sold for between 8,000 and 35,000 pesos, and a private box with nine seats could be had for 432,000 pesos (US $26,287).
The madness continued on Tuesday, when the Miami club arrived at General Mariano Escobedo airport in Apodaca, Nuevo León. Hundreds of fans showed up to get a glimpse of longtime FC Barcelona star Messi, who won a World Cup with Argentina in 2022.
First, they staked out an area near the hangars, then they rushed to the terminal on a rumor that the players were headed there; however, after Miami’s landing at 11:30 a.m., the team bus left straight from an off-limits area far from public view — shutting fans out.
Forty minutes later, the bus reached the team’s hotel in Monterrey, where a sea of fans had gathered outside under a strong security presence.
As for all of the hullabaloo around Messi, Coach Ortiz said his Monterrey team isn’t worrying about the all-time great.
“Let him worry about us,” he quipped. “We’re Monterrey. We’re at home with our people. It’s a lucky thing to be with the best in the world, to enjoy it. But we’re going to want to win.”
Family members held up a poster of the fugitive police officer on Sunday at the site of the student's murder, demanding action from authorities. (Dassaev Téllez Adame/Cuartoscuro)
A state police officer accused of killing a 23-year-old student in Chilpancingo, Guerrero, last month was arrested on Wednesday morning, authorities said.
At his Wednesday morning press conference, President López Obrador said the police officer had been detained near Acapulco. Three firearms were also seized at the property. (Presidencia)
The officer, identified as David “N,” is accused of firing the shots that killed Gómez. He was arrested shortly after the incident, but escaped custody on March 11 — allegedly with the assistance of state authorities. Two other officers with him at the time of the alleged murder were arrested on March 13.
López Obrador said that the officer detained on Wednesday was on a ranch owned by another police officer who was apparently protecting him. Security forces seized three firearms at the property, he said.
The Guerrero Attorney General’s Office said in a statement that state police collaborated with soldiers and members of the National Guard on the operation to arrest the suspect. David “N” is accused of murder and the attempted murder of another Ayotzinapa student who was traveling with Gómez in the same car in Chilpancingo.
On Monday, Ayotzinapa student protesters attacked government buildings in Chilpancingo, causing a fire in one of the buildings. (Cuartoscuro)
Governor Evelyn Salgado said on the X social media platform on Wednesday morning that the arrest of the police officer confirms authorities’ “commitment” to achieving justice for Gómez.
The arrest came two days after Ayotzinapa students carried out an attack on the Government Palace complex in Chilpancingo that caused a fire on the second floor of one building.
Students from the school have protested on numerous occasions since the death of their fellow trainee teacher, and have attacked other state government offices in recent weeks.
Located near Chilpancingo in the municipality of Tixtla, the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College is the school attended by the 43 young men who were abducted and presumably killed in 2014.
The security operation took place Tuesday night, after Mayor Martí Batres confirmed contamination in the water supplied to some areas of the Benito Juárez borough.(@tomaspliegoc/X)
The National Guard (GN) secured a well in the Álvaro Obregón borough of Mexico City on Tuesday night, after reportedly detecting a gasoline odor.
The Alfonso 13 well, according to borough official Mariana Rodríguez, supplies water to the Nonoalco neighborhood of Benito Juárez borough, where residents had previously reported a gasoline smell in their tap water.
Residents of Colonia Del Valle in Benito Juárez first reported that their water smelled of gasoline on March 31. (Rogelio Morales/Cuartoscuro)
In an interview with La Jornada newspaper, Rodríguez said that city authorities refused to give any information about the security operation and denied residents of the borough entry to the well.
Rodríguez also said she asked a deputy city official what she should tell residents and if they could use the water, but received no response.
Mexico City’s mayor Martí Batres acknowledged at a press conference on Monday that the drinking water in several neighborhoods of the Benito Juárez borough was contaminated. However, the mayor said that industrial lubricants had been detected in the water, not gasoline.
The complaints began on March 31, when residents reported a foul smell coming from their taps, but it wasn’t until April 4 that authorities began surveying the affected areas and taking water samples.
City authorities have not yet indicated whether the water in the Benito Juárez borough is safe to drink. (@tomaspliegoc/X)
On Tuesday evening, Batres posted a message on his X account reporting that his government had identified and closed a well in Álvaro Obregón, identified as the contaminated water source reported by residents of Benito Juárez. However, he did not specify the name of the well.
Batres added that “two industries in the area that deal with various components and substances were also closed off as a precautionary measure” and that the state-owned oil company Pemex inspected its pipelines located in the region and did not find any variations in their pressure (which could indicate a leak).
On Wednesday morning, residents blocked traffic on Insurgentes Avenue in protest, demanding a meeting with the mayor and the head of the municipal water agency, Rafael Carmona. According to La Jornada newspaper, the protesters expressed skepticism of official statements regarding the source of contamination.
Batres said authorities are continuing to investigate and will report back with updates.
President López Obrador showed security camera footage of Ecuadorian police raiding the Mexican embassy to arrest former Ecuadorian vice president Jorge Glas, who faces corruption charges there. (Galo Cañas/Cuartoscuro)
Mexico will file a complaint against Ecuador with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over last week’s police raid on the Mexican embassy in Quito on Thursday, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) said at his Wednesday morning press conference.
Mexico severed its diplomatic relations with Ecuador on Saturday after police broke into the Mexican Embassy on Friday night to arrest former Ecuadorian vice president Jorge Glas, who was in office from 2013 to 2017 but had been promised asylum in Mexico. Ambassador Raquel Serur Smeke — whom Ecuador declared a persona non grata before the raid — and other diplomatic personnel returned to Mexico on Sunday.
▶️ The world witnessed the violence, abuse and mistreatment of our Mexican personnel at the hands of the Ecuadorian police, and the violation of the immunity of our embassy in Ecuador.
Mexico will bring these violations of international law to the international courts and… pic.twitter.com/rLAOOS3EnZ
Footage released by the Mexican government showing the raid by Ecuadorian forces on Mexico’s embassy in Quito on Friday. (Ministry of Foreign Affairs/X)
Glas has been twice convicted for corruption in Ecuador and is currently facing new charges that he misused earthquake reconstruction funds. He has long claimed that the corruption charges leveled against him have been politically motivated, an allegation Ecuador’s government denies.
Mexican Foreign Affairs Minister Alicia Bárcena explained that the decision to break ties with the South American nation was taken “in view of [Ecuador’s] flagrant and serious violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, in particular of the principle of inviolability of Mexico’s diplomatic premises and personnel and the basic rules of international coexistence.”
“Our people condemn this violation of our sovereignty, the vast majority of Mexicans don’t agree with the authoritarian behavior of the government of Ecuador. … The majority of governments around the world condemn these actions,” said AMLO, who on Tuesday accused the United States and Canada of being “very ambiguous” in their positions on the incident.
U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan subsequently condemned Ecuador’s actions, saying that “the Ecuadorian government disregarded its obligations under international law as a host state to respect the inviolability of diplomatic missions.”
López Obrador noted that the Organization of American States — a regional body of 32 countries — also spoke out against Ecuador.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Alicia Bárcena hugs Mexico’s deputy chief of the Mexican diplomatic mission in Quito, Roberto Canseco Martínez, who returned to Mexico on Sunday. Canseco was assaulted by Ecuadorian forces after he tried to stop the arrest of Jorge Glas. (Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
“All the governments represented — and even Secretary [General] Luis Almago, who has had a very conservative, antidemocratic attitude — condemned the incident because the truth is, it’s unjustifiable,” López Obrador said.
At a meeting on Tuesday of foreign ministers of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), Bárcena urged CELAC member states to “back the lawsuit that we will bring to the International Court of Justice, as well as the letter that we will send to the UN Secretary-General condemning these appalling events.”
Earlier on Tuesday, López Obrador presented security camera footage of the police raid, showing one heavily armed officer scaling the front wall of the embassy complex and several police carrying Glas out of the embassy. The former vice president had been living there since December.
Attempts by the deputy chief of mission Roberto Canseco Martínez to stop the police operation were fruitless. He was restrained and assaulted by police on repeated occasions.
Glas, who was vice president during governments led by former Ecuadorian presidents Rafael Correa and Lenín Moreno, was taken away in one of two vehicles that entered the embassy complex.
“This is what is going to be reported [to the ICJ],” López Obrador told reporters at the conclusion of the video.
Sullivan said that the U.S. government has reviewed the footage and believes that Ecuador’s actions were wrong and violated the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. He also said that the U.S. government had asked Ecuador to work with Mexico to find a solution to the dispute between the two countries.
On Wednesday, López Obrador thanked U.S. President Joe Biden for “rectifying” the U.S. government’s position with the “more forceful declaration” issued by Sullivan. He added that he was waiting for a similar move from Canada, Mexico’s other North American commercial partner under the USMCA free trade pact.
The Canadian government said on Saturday that it was “deeply concerned at Ecuador’s apparent breach of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations by entering the Embassy of Mexico without authorization.”
López Obrador said Tuesday that he wasn’t happy with Canada’s use of the word “apparent.”
“We don’t allow that; we don’t accept it,” he said.
Former vice president of Ecuador Jorge Glas (2013-2017) back in 2015, when he was serving under President Rafael Correa. (Micaela Ayala/Flicker)
Earlier this week, opposition presidential candidate Xóchitl Gálvez weighed into the debate over the raid on the Mexican Embassy. The candidate condemned “what happened in Ecuador” before declaring that “[Mexican] embassies in my government won’t be caves for criminals.”
“I wouldn’t give asylum to anyone accused in the Odebrecht case, for example,” she said, referring to corruption scandals involving the Brazilian construction company and ex-officials in several Latin American countries, including Glas in Ecuador and former Pemex CEO Emilio Lozoya in Mexico.
On X social media platform, Morena presidential candidate Claudia Sheinbaum said that seeing the video López Obrador made public “provokes enormous indignation” and supported the decision for Mexico to cut diplomatic ties with Ecuador.
The office of Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa said in a statement issued shortly after the Friday night raid that “no criminal can be considered a politically persecuted person” and that “the diplomatic mission harboring Jorge Glas” had “abused the immunities and privileges” granted to it and gave the former vice president “diplomatic asylum contrary to the conventional legal framework.”
For those reasons, authorities proceeded with the “capture” of the ex-official, the statement said.
“Ecuador is a sovereign country, and we’re not going to allow any criminal to go unpunished,” Noboa’s office said.
