MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s Economy Ministry announced Monday a comprehensive strategic framework for renewing the USMCA trade agreement, citing what officials described as “highly reliable indicators” that the deal will be renewed — chief among them that U.S. President Donald Trump said publicly he does not want it renewed.
This is the face of a man who is about to get exactly what he wants. (Cuartoscuro/Moisés Pablo Nava)
Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard told reporters his ministry had spent 72 hours in intensive preparation following Trump’s statement last Wednesday. “When the President says he is not looking for something,” Ebrard explained, “our models indicate a 94 percent probability that he will announce he has obtained exactly that thing within the next 90 days.”
The forecast is grounded in what analysts now call the TACO Doctrine — internal shorthand derived from the Wall Street acronym meaning Trump Always Chickens Out. Mexican trade economists have adopted the framework as a formal predictive tool since late 2025. “They named their most reliable market indicator after our most reliable export,” said one senior official. “We choose to take that as a win.”
The pattern is well-documented. Trump threatened 50 percent tariffs before granting a 90-day extension. He called USMCA “irrelevant” in January, then dispatched negotiators in March. “The stronger the denial,” said one senior ministry official “the more aggressively we prepare.”
Formal talks are currently proceeding across three scheduled rounds — a calendar set in motion, officials noted, the same week the president said there was no calendar.
Magda restaurant in Mexico City is showcasing "ballsy" efforts from 100 artists as the World Cup nears. (Magda/Instagram)
This summer, there won’t be any shortage of fútbol-themed events and experiences around Mexico. The country is no stranger to throwing parties, after all — and as a host nation of the World Cup for the third time, with thousands of visitors expected to pour in, it’s set to be a full-blown summer of soccer and celebrations.
Mexico City is especially eager to showcase its internationally acclaimed offerings and venues. Among them, Magda — a restaurant and cultural space inside a 400-year-old building in San Ángel, located merely 20 minutes by car from Estadio Banorte (formerly Estadio Azteca) — has capitalized on the moment with a thematic display of Mexico’s creativity. Their World Cup-inspired exhibit is playfully titled “A Lot Of Balls.”
The balls have been designed by 100 Mexican artists. (Alan Chazaro)
Ballsy and creative
The months-long exhibit opened in April and showcases 100 multidisciplinary Mexican artists and creators in a large-scale effort that invited each participant to submit a soccer ball of their making, interpreted in a way that presents a part of their identity, community and views, without restriction. The cadre of makers — which includes visual artists, painters, illustrators, architects, fashion designers, writers and more — used the circular ball as a blank canvas to tell their story, and it’ll all be on display at Magda until July 19, when the World Cup ends with its final match.
Of the 100 artists asked to contribute, Atrapaluz (real name Adan Days) — known for his sports fandom and for his prior work with NFL Mexico in designing their “Hasta La Muerte” collection — expressed his thoughts on the FIFA World Cup by papier-mâchéing a soccer ball with a collage of hand-drawn dollar bills from different countries, representing the international greed and corporatized elements of the tournament and sport. His ball art is titled “Fútbol Actual,” or “Current Football.”
“Each face on the banknotes represents or refers to a person or executive who has somehow influenced soccer to be experienced more as a business than as a game,” Atrapaluz tells Mexico News Daily. “Meanwhile, all these banknotes surround a single golden segment where two children are playing soccer without a care in the world.”
What matters during the World Cup, according to artists
Atrapaluz says he is a passionate, lifelong soccer fan and grew up with the sport as his primary athletic interest. For him, being able to experience his country as a host nation of the World Cup is exhilarating, despite his awareness of and criticism against the profit-making vortex it’s inevitably a part of.
(Alan Chazaro)
“It will be a different World Cup due to the media attention and how it will be consumed now with social media,” he admits. “I felt a bit repulsed, and then I thought that’s how football feels today, like something you want to enjoy, despite the 300 commercials, brands, influencers and shady dealings behind it. In the end, what matters is the game, but I think we’ve forgotten that.”
His commentary is one out of a literal 100 on display at Magda. The architect Adán Cárabes used a perfectly plain and white ball and painted the silhouette of a rabbit in red paint in the center, and then built a circular steel sculpture with rays emitting from its outer ring, and titled it “El Conejo de la Luna.” It emits a mixture of minimalism, indigenous symbology and industrial techniques, perhaps reflecting Mexico’s many — and often opposing — realities.
Balls, reinterpreted
One designer, Alexis Del Toro, made a colorful piñata in the shape of a large soccer ball; the fine artist APKO (real name Ana Paula Kuri) submitted a partially deconstructed balón covered in bronze hues, and is named “Tonalli” after the Nahuatl word for heat and sun, which is believed to represent a human’s vigorous spirit at birth. The interpretations are vast — in both medium and materials, but also in philosophy and global perspective — ranging from acrylic spikes, stitched-together wood, a replica time bomb, metal baskets, a faux globe, a deflated ball on glass and even a soccer ball-turned-lampshade.
There are whimsical versions (like a plain white soccer ball with a childlike handwritten message that simply reads, “I should’ve been a fucking athlete”) and highly inventive and imaginative ones (such as “Three with everything,” which reutilizes the discarded materials of a deconstructed soccer ball, but arranged in the shape of tacos al pastor, with a napkin holder and salt shaker beside it that read “Tacos Campéon,” in homage to the famous Japanese anime, “Supercampeones.”
A collaboration built around the World Cup and Mexican values
(Alan Chazaro)
“Our restaurant has always been a place that enjoys collaborating with artists,” says Ricardo Casas, the creative director at Magda. The multiuse restaurant joined forces with Condesa’s Galeria Ricardo Reyes to curate the exhibit; in the past, they’ve teamed up with them and other artists in the city to display a rotation of various artworks and artifacts.
“Obviously, with the international spotlight, and with visitors coming from all over the world (for the World Cup), we hope to make San Ángel an epicenter of tourism where the games can be enjoyed,” Casas continues. “We decided to organize this special exhibition with 100 artists as a universal symbol. It has the pretext of football and the World Cup as a certain motive, but it’s important to reflect our values, to demonstrate who we are as Mexicans in terms of our sense of design, architecture, art, style and illustrations. This is about who we are and what we are about, and the things we produce beyond foreigners’ perceptions and stereotypes, or names like Frida Kahlo.”
Art at the intersection of football and flavor
Of course, the restaurant is more than just about displaying art and culture. It’s also about consuming Mexico’s flavors through its local gastronomy. The interior of the space is well designed, with aqua blue walls arching high into the ceiling above checkered floor tiles. The artful, elegantly understated decor reflects the spirit of the restaurant’s broader vision: to be an intersection of Mexican art, food and culture. Simple, classic dishes like tacos de chamorro and empanadas de plátano can be ordered alongside more upscale takes on Mexican cuisine, like the Chimalistac-style goat rib eye, slow-cooked in pulque and piloncillo sauce and served over mashed potatoes. To close out, a housemade cheesecake served with papaya compote that is infused with cardamom, and accompanied with helado de vanilla, should do the trick.
Waving the Mexican banner
It’s a ballsy proposition, as Casas might say, to unite 100 Mexican artists under one restaurant’s roof. But it’s tasteful, and its timing couldn’t be better, especially for those looking to get their supply of Mexico’s spontaneous, ever-refreshing creativity and soulful nourishment this summer. So if you couldn’t snag a ticket to any of the games (see: historically unprecedented spikes in demand and prices), you can still snag a seat at Magda or many of the other countless spaces around the city that will be proudly waving Mexico’s tricolor banner in more ways than one.
Alan Chazaro is the author of “These Spaceships Weren’t Built For Us” (Tia Chucha Press, 2026), “Notes from the Eastern Span of the Bay Bridge” (Ghost City Press, 2021), “Piñata Theory” (Black Lawrence Press, 2020), and “This Is Not a Frank Ocean Cover Album” (Black Lawrence Press, 2019). He is a graduate of June Jordan’s Poetry for the People program at UC Berkeley and was selected as a Lawrence Ferlinghetti Poetry Fellow at the University of San Francisco. His work can be found in NPR, The Guardian, SLAM, GQ, L.A. Times, and more. He is currently based in Veracruz.
Life in Mexico works much like the principles of a good barbecue. Not only does one need the right ingredients, but it's imperative to understand the interrelationships between them. (Andrik Langfield/Unsplash)
Perhaps it is time for me to tackle one of the larger realities of life here in Mexico. It is not an easy subject to approach, as the issue has so many sides that trying to put a roof over it without leaving several corners exposed can feel like an ambitious carpentry project.
Like many people who arrive here, I began with simple observations inspired by a conversation with a neighbor, a story told over coffee or a headline in the morning news. At first, these seemed like isolated moments. But over time, a pattern began to appear. Mexico, it turns out, is an intricate arrangement of political, financial and well-connected personalities. On the surface, that sounds like a promising combination. One imagines a collection of experienced minds working together to guide a nation of remarkable culture and energy. Yet somewhere in that arrangement lies the puzzle that has followed Mexico for centuries.
The very human way things get done in Mexico
Mexican politics can seem a little bewildering to those new to the country, not least because the relationships between people, political parties and other powerful institutions have been forged over centuries. (Hazel Cárdenas/Cuartoscuro)
The longer I live here, the more I notice that power, relationships and institutions have grown together much like vines climbing an old stone wall. After enough years, they become so intertwined that it is difficult to tell where one begins and another ends. The result is not always tidy, and it does not always serve the public as smoothly as one might hope. Still, the story is not entirely dark. In fact, much of it is deeply human.
Mexico is a country that sometimes seems to have been assembled the way an enthusiastic cook prepares a stew: a little history, a handful of revolutions, several centuries of strong personalities and a generous dash of improvisation. Stir thoroughly and allow to simmer for a few hundred years. The result is a nation that is endlessly fascinating and occasionally bewildering. On paper, the ingredients are excellent. There are capable politicians, accomplished business leaders, proud regional traditions and a remarkably resilient population. If you gathered these elements in a conference room with a whiteboard and a good supply of coffee, you might expect the outcome to be a marvel of organization and efficiency.
How politics evolved in Mexico through the eras of colonization and independence
Instead, what sometimes emerges resembles a lively family reunion where several cousins are attempting to run the same barbecue. To understand why, one must begin with history. I am not professing to be a history buff or one confident of the true timetable of events, so this may be a bit simplistic for those readers well versed in this subject. This is a whittled-down summary to serve this essay.
For three centuries, Mexico was governed as part of the Spanish Empire. Authority flowed downward from distant offices, and local power often rested in the hands of those who were well-connected, persuasive or simply difficult to ignore. When independence arrived in 1821, the country inherited not only freedom but also the complicated habit of governing through networks of influence rather than tidy bureaucratic charts.
Then came the 19th century, which Mexico treated less like a calm stroll and more like an obstacle course. Empires appeared briefly and disappeared again. Presidents came and went with remarkable enthusiasm. Revolutions were staged with the sort of energy usually reserved for festivals. By the time the 20th century arrived, Mexico had learned a valuable lesson: if stability was desired, it might be wise to keep the argument mostly inside the house.
For much of that century, political life was dominated by a single party that developed an extraordinary ability to keep everyone, politicians, unions, business leaders and regional bosses somewhere inside the tent. It was not always elegant, but it was often effective. Think of it as a very large table where everyone had a chair, even if some chairs were noticeably more comfortable than others.
The evolution of discourse and problem-solving in modern Mexico
Mexico is deeply social, a fact never lost when it comes to a family dinner or coming to a consensus on a complicated issue. (Nogal Nogal/Instagram)
Modern Mexico, of course, has changed. Elections are competitive. Voices are louder, and the tent now has several entrances and a good deal more shouting near the door. Yet the old habits remain.
Relationships matter, personal trust matters even more and occasionally a solution to a complicated problem appears not in a policy document but over lunch, somewhere between the second cup of coffee and a discussion about whose uncle knows the mayor. This can be frustrating for those who prefer straight lines and orderly procedures. But it also reveals something important about Mexico: beneath the complexity is a deeply social culture. Decisions grow out of conversations, agreements are built on familiarity and systems bend because people do. If this sounds chaotic, it sometimes is. But it is also human.
Consider the average Mexican town meeting. Officially, there is an agenda. Unofficially, there are greetings, jokes, stories about someone’s cousin in Guadalajara and perhaps a plate of pastries that arrived without explanation. By the time the discussion returns to the actual topic, everyone in the room knows a little more about one another, and oddly enough, the decision often works out better for it.
Mexico’s strength lies in adaptation and flexibility
Mexico’s great paradox is that its institutions can appear tangled while its society remains remarkably functional. Markets open early, families look after one another and streets fill with vendors who somehow know exactly which corner will be busy at precisely the right hour. Entire neighborhoods coordinate themselves with the quiet efficiency of a well-rehearsed orchestra, without anyone waving a baton. In other words, the country often succeeds in spite of the complexity above it. Or perhaps because of it.
The truth is that Mexico has spent centuries practicing the art of adaptation. Rules exist, but people understand when flexibility is wiser. Authority exists, but community often proves stronger. Plans are made, revised and occasionally replaced with something better that someone thought of that morning. To an outsider, this may look like disorder. To many Mexicans, it simply looks like Tuesday.
A sense of humor helps, too
And here lies the hopeful part of the story. A system built entirely on rigid rules can break when the rules fail. But a system built on relationships, improvisation and a certain tolerance for imperfection can bend, recover and keep moving. Mexico bends constantly. It also laughs constantly, which may be its most effective survival strategy of all. Walk through a plaza in almost any town, and you will hear it: the laughter of people discussing politics with the same tone they might use to describe a stubborn goat or a cousin who borrowed the truck and returned it with half a tank of gasoline and a mysterious dent. The message is clear. Life continues, people adjust and tomorrow will bring another attempt to get things right. And over time, despite all predictions to the contrary, the country keeps working its way forward, slowly and unpredictably, but with a resilience that is difficult not to admire.
Mexico may indeed be a complicated arrangement of political, financial and well-connected personalities. But it is also something else. It is a place where the machinery of government occasionally creaks, while the machinery of everyday life hums along with remarkable determination. And if history is any guide, that hum will continue long after the latest debate has faded and someone has finally managed to fix the barbecue.
Robert Santacroce is a contributor to Mexico News Daily.
Hundreds of fans converged on Mexico City's Angel of Indepedence on Thursday to celebrate Mexico's 2-0 win over South Africa in the first game of the 2026 World Cup. (Graciela López / Cuartoscuro.com)
The eyes of the world turned to Mexico City on Thursday, June 12, and the country delivered. Mexico’s national team opened the first 48-team FIFA World Cup with a 2-0 victory over South Africa at Estadio Azteca, with Julián Quiñones scoring in the 9th minute and Raúl Jiménez adding a header in the 67th. Seventeen-year-old Gilberto Mora became the youngest Mexican ever to appear at a World Cup, and the match set an opening-game record with three red cards. By evening, President Claudia Sheinbaum was calling the day “a triumph for Mexico.”
Getting there, however, required days of careful maneuvering. Protest groups, led by the CNTE teachers’ union, had spent the week blocking highways and Metro stations and vowing to march on the stadium. On Monday, Sheinbaum used her morning press conference to appeal for calm, warning that outside provocateurs were hoping for a government crackdown to generate damaging headlines. Security forces ultimately shut down major roads near Estadio Azteca (Mexico City Stadium) on match day, with riot police stationed along the Periférico ring road and access to the international airport restricted. The protests drew smaller crowds than organizers had projected, and the opening match proceeded without serious incident.
As protestors sought to disrupt festivities at the Zócalo and Mexico City Stadium, President Sheinbaum watched the opening game from a fan festival in the Gustavo A. Madero borough of Mexico City. (Gobierno de México)
While the stadium drama played out, Mexico’s trade relationship with the United States moved into a more uncertain phase. On Wednesday, President Donald Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he was “not looking to renew” the USMCA — then softened the comment hours later. A second round of formal talks is scheduled for next week in Washington. The peso, meanwhile, climbed to a near four-month high, buoyed not by trade news but by easing U.S.-Iran tensions after Trump posted on Truth Social about a possible peace deal.
Didn’t have time to catch this week’s top stories? Here’s what you missed.
El Tri opens the World Cup with a statement win
More than 80,000 fans packed Estadio Azteca on Thursday as Mexico opened the 2026 World Cup with a 2-0 win over South Africa, with Julián Quiñones scoring in the 9th minute and Raúl Jiménez adding a header in the 67th. The match set an opening-game record with three red cards, and 17-year-old Gilberto Mora became the youngest Mexican ever to appear at a World Cup. Outside the stadium, the country celebrated in force: an estimated 100,000 fans filled the Zócalo Fan Fest while 200,000 more spread across 18 Fan Fests in all 16 CDMX boroughs.
At her Friday presser, Sheinbaum noted that she had given her own ticket to Yolett Cervantes of Veracruz, winner of a national juggling competition — part of a broader program that distributed 500 seats exclusively to ordinary citizens. “The image of Mexico is happiness,” she said. The week had opened on a more ceremonial note, with Sheinbaum presenting the national flag to goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa — appearing in his sixth World Cup — at an official team sendoff.
Protests, the CNTE and the price of a peaceful opening
For most of the week, the big question was not only Mexico would win, but also whether the opening would unfold peacefully. Multiple groups of protestors announced plans to converge on the stadium, including CNTE union teachers demanding pension reforms and wage increases, families of the disappeared, and housing and water rights activists. Sheinbaum devoted three consecutive morning press conferences to the subject, pledging “complete safety” for visiting fans while declining to characterize the CNTE’s demands as illegitimate.
On Tuesday, she issued a work-from-home decree for match day and acknowledged that 1.4 million students had been affected by union-led school closures. By Thursday’s mañanera, the government announced it would bypass the CNTE’s national leadership and consult directly with more than one million teachers school by school beginning in August — a significant strategic shift. Officials also said they were investigating reports that outside groups had funded buses for protest participants, though no conclusions had been reached.
USMCA in flux as Mexico braces for Washington talks
Trump’s Oval Office remark that he was “not looking to renew” the USMCA landed on Wednesday and sent an immediate signal about the tone heading into the next negotiating session. Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard said Mexico was prepared for the June 15–18 round in Washington.
The same day, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon met with Sheinbaum in Mexico City to discuss the country’s economic outlook, a meeting that the government presented as a vote of confidence from global capital
At Thursday’s presidential press conference, Sheinbaum pushed back on Trump’s framing, arguing that the USMCA had benefited all three signatory nations and reiterating Mexico’s position that the agreement should be renewed. By the end of the week, the peso hit 17.20 per dollar, its strongest position in four months, driven largely by geopolitical news rather than bilateral trade signals.
The World Cup economy, an AI video and a new EV
Beyond the pitch, the World Cup was already generating measurable commercial activity. The small-business association ANPEC projected that up to 10 billion pesos — roughly US $578 million — would flow through taquerías, street stalls and neighborhood grocery stores during the tournament. On the diplomatic front, Trump posted an AI-generated birthday video featuring himself eating tacos alongside Sheinbaum, released ahead of his 80th birthday on June 14; neither government issued a formal response. Earlier in the week, Sheinbaum unveiled the Olinia, presented as Mexico’s first domestically developed electric vehicle, with a starting price of 150,000 pesos (roughly US $8,590), a 50-kilometer range per charge and a production start date of 2027.
Mexico built its own electric car. But can it survive Mexican roads?
Looking ahead
Economy Minister Ebrard will lead the Mexican delegation at next week’s USMCA negotiations, set for June 15-18, after unusually blunt signals from the U.S. side this past week. On the domestic front, a report is expected soon from a committee of scientists assembled by President Sheinbaum to study the possibility of sustainable fracking. And after this week’s protests, the government’s declared intent to bypass the CNTE and consult teachers directly sets up a potential flashpoint heading into the August school-year reopening. El Tri, meanwhile, returns to action in its second group-stage match, this time playing against South Korea in Guadalajara — with Estadio Akron already sold out.
This story contains summaries of original Mexico News Daily articles. The summaries were generated by Claude, then revised and fact-checked by a Mexico News Daily staff editor.
Though Mexico has expanded its capacity to refine its own oil, but still imports nearly 75% of its natural gas. President Sheinbaum wants to change that. (Shutterstock)
I understand that many people will disagree with me on this article, but I ask that you please take a few minutes to read my thoughts and the data below before forming an opinion.
Fracking is one of those topics that brings an immediate reaction (often negative) from people. People reference news programs they saw, oftentimes many years ago, where someone tasted gas in their water, or where a community reported seeing its water table drop from nearby fracking activity.
Mexico is currently evaluating the prospect of initiating fracking in the country, with President Claudia Sheinbaum appointing a special commission to investigate if and how the country can do “sustainable fracking.” The results of this investigation are due next week, and so I thought I would do some digging into what the potential for Mexico could be. I reached out to Pablo Eisner, a former geologist who is now the COO of the Houston and Mexico City-based Mexico Petroleum Company. I recently met Pablo at the U.S.-Mexico Chamber of Commerce annual meeting in Washington, D.C., and was impressed by his presentation. The following are the highlights of our conversation.
1. Some facts and figures on fracking in the United States: Thanks largely to fracking, in 15 years the U.S. has gone from importing 30% of its energy needs to becoming energy independent, as well as the world’s largest energy exporter. The Permian Basin alone has created over 800,000 jobs and has produced over US $1 trillion in value.
2. Mexico has a super basin that is geologically very similar to the Permian Basin, called the Tampico-Misantla Basin. The hydrocarbons in place in the Permian are estimated to be 150 billion barrels. In Tampico-Misantla, the estimate is 140 billion barrels. So the two basins are very similar in potential. Currently, the Permian is producing 6 million-plus barrels of oil and 24 billion cubic feet of gas per day. Tampico is producing 60,000 barrels of oil per day and 150 million cubic feet of gas per day. In other words, Tampico is producing approximately 1% of the Permian. Let me repeat that again: Despite similar sizes and potential, the Permian Basin in Texas is producing 100 times more than the Tampico-Misantla Basin in Mexico. Thousands of horizontal-multifrac wells are being drilled each year in the Permian, while just 62 of these have been drilled in total in Tampico-Misantla.
3. Mexico currently imports nearly 75% of its gas from the Permian and the Eagle Ford areas in the United States — all of which is produced by fracking. As a result, Mexico has become exceptionally dependent on U.S. energy to continue to power its economy. That alone is a geopolitical risk, made worse by the fact that if and when the Permian producers slow production of oil, there will likely not be sufficient gas available for Mexico. If falling oil prices cause production to be reduced, Mexico would need to find alternative sources for its natural gas. That gas would likely be at a much higher price in the post-Strait of Hormuz closure world. Given the new geopolitical risks, the shift in priorities of the Western Hemisphere, and a much more difficult global oil and gas market, Mexico needs to mitigate its exposure to this new reality.
4. Hydrocarbons in Mexico have a long and emotional history going back to the 1900s and the creation of Pemex in 1938, in which total control of exploration, production, refining and distribution was transferred to the federal government. Pemex has gone from being a net contributor to the Mexican economy to having faced inefficiency and rising debt. In the face of declining production, successive governments have implemented deep structural reforms and had to provide the company with financial assistance.
5. In 2015 under President Enrique Peña Nieto, Mexico opened the distribution of gasoline, which allowed for competitors to open gas stations throughout the country. This reduced the need for Pemex to invest in distribution, but did not help solve the debt load problem. Then, under the leadership of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in 2019, Mexico began building a massive new refinery called Dos Bocas to reduce Mexico’s dependence on the United States for refining its own oil. The project has ultimately resulted in Mexico being able to refine more of its own oil. In spite of all this and with nearshoring coming back to North America, Mexico has had an increasing need for U.S. natural gas, which is used for electricity production and manufacturing.
6. President Sheinbaum recognizes the limitations to economic growth due to insufficient Mexican gas production and the risks of gas dependence on the United States. In April of this year, she commissioned a group of 30 scientists to evaluate if and how fracking can be done in a “sustainable manner” in Mexico (using biodegradable chemicals and water recycling systems). Given that these methods are already being used in the United States, it seems likely that the scientists will give a green light to fracking in Mexico next week when their report is due.
7. What will make fracking successful in Mexico is the type of contract that is ultimately used. Foreign fracking companies will invest and thrive under license contracts or production sharing agreements similar to what they are used to in the United States. In the U.S., the landowner gets 20%, taxes are 30%, and the remaining 50% goes to the fracking company. In Mexico, the numbers would be something like a 20% royalty to the government, 30% in taxes and 50% for the fracking company, as all costs related to drilling, completion, and production fall squarely on their shoulders. The good news: Both the licensing contract and production sharing agreements already exist in Mexico.
8. Previous presidents likely would not have been able to push this initiative through without serious pushback (as well as cynicism and lack of trust) from the Mexican population. Given Sheinbaum’s popularity, especially with lower- and middle-class Mexicans, she has an opportunity to sell it not only as something that reduces dependence on the United States — which is how she has framed it thus far — but also as a major accelerator to both Mexican economic growth and job creation. Mexico has an economic growth problem, Mexico has a jobs problem (especially with formal sector, high-paying jobs), and Mexico has a gas dependence problem. Fracking in Mexico can quickly and significantly help with all three of these problems.
9. Concerns will be rampant about water scarcity and water contamination issues. Over the past 15-plus years, the fracking industry has learned how to significantly manage, control and reduce these problems. The industry could not have grown so quickly if it had not. Thankfully, the area where the Tampico-Misantla Basin is located is not in a water-scarce area. It is important that the environmental frameworks are put in place to ensure that there is transparency and trust.
10. Fracking could have a big impact on Mexico in a very short period of time. According to Pablo, a similar impact of 6 million-plus barrels per day and 800,000 jobs created within 10 years in Mexico is very possible. More importantly, given much of the existing infrastructure already in place and lessons learned, significant production increases could happen as soon as next year.
Most of us would love to live in a world free of hydrocarbons, but that world is going to take decades yet to become a reality. For those of you who are completely against fracking, I would ask for your suggestions: How would you decrease the energy dependency of Mexico on the U.S., create hundreds of thousands of well-paid jobs, and contribute hundreds of billions of dollars to the Mexican economy? Please put your ideas in the comments and let’s have the discussion.
President Sheinbaum has a historic opportunity to quickly get Mexico on the path of increased energy security and with it, significantly increased employment and economic growth. Let’s hope she gives fracking the green light to move forward. This is a time where her science background, her desire to reduce corruption, and her high levels of popularity can help bring a step change to the country.
Travis Bembenek is the CEO ofMexico News Daily and has been living, working or playing in Mexico for nearly 30 years.
Legendary Mexican goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa will be one of three men to make a record sixth World Cup appearance in 2026. (Guillermo Ochoa/Instagram)
The record they said could never be broken is about to be broken by three men, one of them Mexican, surpassing a standard first achieved by another Mexican 60 years ago.
On July 19, 1966, the Mexican football team walked out onto the pitch in the iconic Wembley Stadium in London, England, to face Uruguay in the World Cup. Mexico needed to win this, their third game, and by at least two goals, if they were to progress in the tournament. Although they failed to achieve this target, they outplayed the two-time winners for long periods of the match and won the respect of the home crowd.
Mexican goalkeeper Antonio Carbajal earned his nickname, “Cinco Copas,” by being the first player ever to appear in five World Cup tournaments. (Public Domain)
However, the match is best remembered for the appearance of goalkeeper Antonio Carbajal. He had been left out of the team for the first two games, the younger Ignacio Calderón being preferred. However, Calderón had not been particularly impressive against England, and Carbajal was back in the team on merit. This was a record-breaking moment, for Antonio Carbajal became the first man to play in five World Cup tournaments. As a bonus, the game finished 0-0, giving him a clean sheet to finish his World Cup career.
Carbajal’s achievement and the tying of an ‘unbreakable’ record
Antonio Carbajal first played in the 1950 World Cup, back in an age when the players traveled to the tournament by ship. He captained the team in 1958 and 1962 and gave Mexico a certain stability during a time when the national team was not the soccer power it has since become. At 1.81 meters, he was big for a Mexican of this generation, and he combined his size with a fair amount of agility. Perhaps his strongest point was his bravery in rushing out to take the ball from an opponent’s feet. His remarkable longevity was not limited to the Mexican team. He played for 16 years for Club León, and in a country where a football manager’s life is often measured in months, he guided Club Atlético Morelia for a decade.
After the Uruguay game, English newspaper The Times suggested that, with football’s ever-increasing demands, five World Cup tournaments was a record that would never be beaten. This seemed a fair point at the time. Playing in five tournaments required a career of 18 to 20 years, which meant playing through to at least your mid-30s. You had to play for one of a handful of nations guaranteed a place in the tournament every four years, and you had to be lucky with injuries. It was 1998 before the German player Lothar Matthäus came on as a substitute against Yugoslavia to equal Carbajal’s record of five World Cup appearances. Surprisingly, Matthäus was an outfield player, men generally expected to have shorter careers than goalkeepers. Since then, four other men have played in five World Cup tournaments, and two of these have been Mexicans.
Rafael Márquez crafts a World Cup legacy
The third player, and the second Mexican, to appear in five tournaments was Rafael Márquez, a man whose career would make a perfect blueprint for any young player to follow. He first made his name in the Mexican league with Atlas. He also made his debut for Mexico, although there was some controversy surrounding this event. The story is that Serbian coach Velibor Milutinović had intended to call up his older Atlas clubmate César Márquez, but there was confusion over the similar names.
Rafael made the expected move to Europe, starting in France with Monaco, a medium-sized club where he could get plenty of playing time. It was a wild time to be in Monaco, their team of stars winning the French league in 2000, but with the club’s finances so chaotic that they came close to being relegated as a punishment. In the summer of 2002, the 23-year-old Márquez was selected for his first World Cup tournament. He was nominated as captain and played in all four games.
How he got to 5 tournaments
He now made the big step, signing with Barcelona. This is the stage that trips up many players, who might spend two to three frustrating seasons on the bench. Rafael Márquez, however, thrived. He joined the club at a low point — they had not won a major trophy for 5 years — teamed up in defense with the legendary Carles Puyol, and the club entered a golden spell that brought four league titles and two wins in the Champions League.
Rafael Márquez in 2018, the year the Mexican standout made his record-tying fifth World Cup appearance. (Светлана Бекетова/Wikimedia Commons)
While with Barcelona, Rafael Márquez captained Mexico in his second and third World Cup tournaments. He then stepped down a level, first playing in New York, before returning to Mexico. In this way kept playing regular football and captained Mexico in a fourth World Cup in 2014. He retired from club football at the end of the 2018 season but kept training and was in that year’s World Cup squad. The Mexican captain, Andres Guardado, was nursing a muscle injury, and Rafael Márquez covered for him.
In the 74th minute of the opening match with Germany, he came on to play in his fifth tournament. His last game came 15 days later in the knockout stages when he started the match against Brazil and was taken off at half-time with the score at 0-0. Remarkably, three of the men in the Mexican team that afternoon would be selected for five World Cup tournaments, the others being Andres Guardado and Guillermo Ochoa.
Andrés Guardado joins the 5-timer club
Born in Guadalajara, Andrés Guardado was a first-team player at 19 and played his first game for Mexico a few months later. He was selected for the 2006 World Cup and played in one game. Like Márquez, he headed for Europe, where he would spend most of his career. He played on the left of midfield, either as an out-and-out defender or with more license to roam forward. He was very good at his job, but this was not one of the glamor positions, and none of the really big clubs came looking for him. The years from 2007 to 2015 were spent at Deportivo de La Coruña and Valencia, respectable Spanish clubs but unlikely to win silverware.
Two more World Cups came and went, with Andres Guardado now a key member of the side. A spell in the Netherlands saw him win two Dutch championships, and then it was back to Spain with another mid-table side, Betis. He appeared in the 2018 (his 4th) and 2022 (his 5th) World Cups, playing through various muscle injuries. In 2018, he started every game and captained the team, but was usually taken off in the second half to save him for the next game. In 2022, he was limited to a single match, captaining the team against Argentina before leaving the pitch at the start of the second half.
Guillermo Ochoa becomes the 2nd Mexican goalkeeper to play in 5 World Cups
Two other men have attended five World Cups but not played in all of the tournaments. One is the great Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, who went to the 1998 tournament but had to wait until 2002 to get onto the pitch. The other is Mexican goalie Guillermo Ochoa. Born in Guadalajara, he made his name with América and stayed with them for eight seasons at a time when other promising young stars were leaving on the first plane for Europe. He was in the Mexican World Cup squad in 2006, but was only the third choice and did not get on the pitch. In 2010, he was, to the surprise of many fans, an understudy to Oscar Pérez, and it was 2014, and his third tournament, before Ochoa made his World Cup debut.
Ochoa was voted “Man of the Match” in the game with Brazil, producing a save that is widely regarded as one of the best ever seen at a World Cup tournament. Both Rafael Márquez and Andres Guardado shone for their clubs, their World Cup performances being the icing on their careers. Guillermo Ochoa, in contrast, has built his whole reputation around his World Cup tournaments. When he eventually moved to Europe, it was to AC Ajaccio. Based on the island of Corsica, they had just won promotion to the French first division, and Ochoa was with them for three seasons of relegation struggles.
Ochoa set to break a 60-year-old record
Joining Ochoa in breaking the record for World Cup appearances this year are icons of the sport Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, seen here with their respective national teams, Portugal and Argentina, in 2011. (Fanny Schertzer/Wikimedia Commons)
From there, it was to Malaga, a club where the fans respect loyalty and flair. However, they already had a good goalkeeper in Cameroon international Carlos Kameni, and Ochoa’s playing time was limited. The fourth World Cup came in 2018, and there was a fifth tournament in 2022, when Ochoa again made headlines by saving a penalty from the great Polish player Robert Lewandowski.
It is difficult to access Ochoa’s career, for much of it has taken place out of the limelight. When on form, he is a lively figure, shouting and motivating his team from the back. At 1.85 meters, he is a fraction small for a modern keeper. But he has an amazing ability to stretch for the ball — almost a superhuman elasticity in his limbs — that allows him to get a finger to a shot that looks beyond his reach. However, at times, he can also seem to lose concentration.
Ochoa and the elite company he is keeping with his 6th World Cup appearance
There was considerable debate as to whether Ochoa should be included in this year’s squad, with the keeper now 40 years of age and playing out of the international spotlight in Cyprus. However, an injury to Luis Ángel Malagóndecided the issue and Ochoa will be attending his sixth tournament.
With modern care and diet, professional players can extend their active careers, and on June 17, 2026, Lionel Messi is expected to become the first player to appear in a sixth World Cup tournament. A few hours later, Cristiano Ronaldo might equal that record when Portugal starts its campaign.
Bob Patemanlived in Mexico for six years. He is a librarian and teacher with a Master’s Degree in History.
The Dominicans were the last of three missionary orders on the Baja California peninsula, following the Jesuits, depicted here in a mural at the Museo de Historia Natural de Cabo San Lucas, and the Franciscans. (Chris Sands)
“Salvatierra, Venégas and the rest have furnished a copious account of the Jesuit period; Palóu and his associates have left satisfactory material for the Franciscan occupation, but the Dominicans have left no account of their labors. It would appear they accomplished nothing in California worth recording, even in their own estimation.”
So wrote esteemed American historian Hubert Howe Bancroft in his “History of the North Mexican States and Texas,” published in 1884, regarding the Dominican mission era on the Baja California peninsula.
The ruins of the second location of Misión Nuestra Señora del Santísimo Rosario de Viñadaco, as they appeared in the early decades of the 20th century. This mission was originally founded at El Rosario in 1774 and was the first Dominican-built mission on the Baja California peninsula. (Peveril Meigs/UC San Diego)
This period properly began with the arrival of 18 Dominican missionaries on the peninsula in May 1773. The missionaries were tasked with taking charge of Baja-based missions previously administered by the Jesuits and Franciscans. It was an undertaking that would be defined by challenges, from declining numbers of Indigenous converts and a poverty of resources to Mexican Independence in 1821, which resulted in the gradual secularization of missions over the following decades. However, it should not be imagined — despite Bancroft’s withering observation — that the Dominican padres accomplished nothing of value.
Connecting the chain of missions in Baja and Alta California
Most important among their achievements was the founding of missions to connect the Baja California peninsula missions to those founded by Junípero Serra and the Franciscans in Alta California. To this end, the Dominicans founded nine missions across more than half a century, from the Misión Nuestra Señora del Santísimo Rosario de Viñadaco in 1774 to the Misión de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe del Norte in 1834, in what is now Baja wine country. These missions spanned nearly 250 miles and connected the mission frontier in the south to that in the north.
Notably, almost all of these were near the Pacific coastline. As Peveril Meigs explained in his 1935 work, “The Dominican Mission Frontier of Lower California”:
“Seven of these nine Dominican missions were within a short distance of the Pacific Coast, and only two were far in the interior. This unsymmetrical distribution came about in the first place because the coastal terraces provided the most easily serviceable route from Velicatá to San Diego. Secondly, the plentiful seafood resulted in a marked concentration of Indians near the coast. Thirdly, sites with favorable water and land were most numerous in this part of the area.”
Hardships in El Sur
As history shows, however, the Dominican padres were overly focused on missions in what is now the state of Baja California — the region where the vast majority of the surviving Indigenous inhabitants were found — at the expense of existing missions in the southern part of the peninsula.
In what would become Baja California Sur, related historian Pablo L. Martinez in “A History of Lower California,” the missions were left “completely in ruins.”
An 18th-century illustration of unidentified Indigenous peoples of the Baja California peninsula by Jesuit padre Ignacio Tirsch. (Public Domain)
On the way to extinction
By 1786, Pedro Fages, who had succeeded Gaspar de Portolá as governor of the Californias, laid out the precariousness of the situation in no uncertain terms. “The missions of San José (del Cabo), Santiago, Todos Santos, San Javier, Loreto, Comondú, Cadegomo, Guadalupe and Mulegé are on the way to total extinction. The reason is so evident that it leaves no doubt. Syphilis has taken possession of both sexes to such a degree that mothers do not conceive, and if they do conceive, the fetus is born with little hope of living … In toto, there are three times as many adults who die as there are babies born.”
Santiago was so bereft of neophytes that by 1795 its mission was closed and the few Indigenous Pericú that remained there were transferred to San José del Cabo. The mission in San José had been destroyed by flooding in 1793 but was rebuilt with sturdier adobe by 1799, and the influx of Indigenous people from Santiago led to its highest population in years: 84 in 1800; 109 by 1808.
The final San José del Cabo mission, no longer extant, was described by Zephyrin Engelhardt in his “The Missions and Missionaries of California: Vol 1, Lower California” as measuring “58 varas in length, seven varas in width, and five varas in height, with a tule roof.” A vara was a Spanish measurement, which, when converted, describes a building 160 feet long by 20 feet wide, and 13 feet high.
How the Dominican mission period ended
The Californias were separated in 1804, so that Alta and Baja, or Upper and Lower California, were each administered separately. This was a time of great need for the missions of Baja California, a situation that would only worsen in the years to come.
French Emperor Napoleon’s occupation of the Iberian peninsula and his forced abdication of the Spanish monarch Ferdinand VII in favor of his brother Joseph in 1808 would set off a chain of events, both in Europe and in the Americas, that saw independence movements in the latter sphere gain momentum and ultimately prove successful almost everywhere save Cuba and Puerto Rico. Mexico’s independence in 1821, meanwhile, was followed by the sacking of San José del Cabo’s mission by captains under Lord Admiral Cochrane of the Chilean navy in 1822, under the pretense that it still flew the Spanish flag. In reality, it was a thinly veiled pretense for piracy.
Drawing by J. Ross Browne in “Explorations in Lower California” of a house and sugar cane fields in Santa Anita, a few miles north of San José del Cabo, circa 1866. (Public Domain)
The road to secularization
The missionaries had received little financial support from the beleaguered Spanish during the independence fight, and once it proved successful, the new governor, José María de Echeandía, pushed for secularization of all the Spanish missions. A few recalcitrant Dominicans, like the irascible Gabriel González in Todos Santos, would stave off this eventuality for years, and Dominican padre Felix Caballero even managed to found two missions after Mexican independence. But over the next decades, all the missions would be secularized into parish churches or closed, with Santo Tomás in the north being the last mission shuttered in 1849. The final two Dominican missionaries on the peninsula, of which González was one, had retired by 1855.
From mission to pueblo in San José del Cabo
Echeandía’s plan of secularization called for a significant percentage of former mission lands to be given over to the now-free Indigenous populations. However, this dictum was largely ignored in Southern Baja, for the simple reason that there were far more settlers by this point than there were Indigenous people, with close to 1,000 in the region by the early 1800s.
San José del Cabo had officially been designated a pueblo by 1830, 10 years before its mission finally closed. Ranching was to become a major occupation for settlers in both San José del Cabo and the newly formed community in Cabo San Lucas, where the soil was ill-suited for farming.
San José del Cabo, notably, was well-disposed to both ranching and farming, and the town was soon established as one of the most significant on the peninsula. It would become, like Todos Santos and Santiago, a regional sugar cane powerhouse and piloncillo producer; while its farmers also grew produce such as tomatoes, mangoes, avocados, limes, oregano and damiana.
The birth of Cabo San Lucas
According to the English ship surgeon Frederick Debell Bennett, who visited Cabo San Lucas in 1835 — a dozen years after its founding as a settled community — when the population was still only about 30 people, and wrote about it in his “Narrative of a Whaling Voyage Round the Globe from the Year 1833 to 1836”:
“The village or settlement consists of about eight dwellings, erected at a distance from the sea, beneath the shade of some mimosa trees. They are small, built of adobe and thatched with flags obtained from the neighboring town of St. José. Each hut usually contains one or never more than two apartments and is faced with a portico, which affords a favorite lounge for the resident family. Their furniture is scanty and rather more useful than ornamental. The hairy surface of a dried bullock’s hide, spread on the hard earthen floor, is the usual bed … They live contented, and consequently happy; and their conduct towards each other, as well as to ourselves, was equally courteous and hospitable.”
The last of the Pericú
Dutch anthropologist Herman Frederik Carel ten Kate, who visited what is now Los Cabos in the 1880s, was looking for the last full-blooded Pericúes. (Public Domain)
As for the Pericú, no one knows when the last full-blooded Indigenous inhabitant of Los Cabos died. Dutch anthropologist Herman Frederik Carel ten Kate drew his own conclusions later in the century, after visiting the region in the company of acclaimed ornithologist Lyman Bender, a journey recalled in “Travels and Researches in Native North America, 1882-1883.”
“Based on what I have seen of the rural population, though, I am persuaded that … a number of Indians and half-blood Indians, who are descendants of the old Pericúes, still appear here in the southern part of Lower California. But all these Indians have forgotten the language, religion, traditions and customs of their people and are partially or fully Hispanicized. There are Indians and mestizos who are not aware, and sometimes do not want to know, that they are Indians and mestizos. The Pericú people have ceased to exist, but the blood of the Pericúes still flows through the veins of the present-day inhabitants.”
Chris Sands is a writer and editor for Mexico News Daily, and the former Cabo San Lucas local expert for the USA Today travel website 10 Best and writer of Fodor’s Los Cabos travel guidebook. He has also contributed to numerous other websites and publications, including The San Diego Union-Tribune, Marriott Bonvoy Traveler, Forbes Travel Guide, Porthole Cruise and Travel, and Cabo Living.
And while it’s popular to make grand generalizations about arbitrarily-drawn generations, to me it seems like a waste of time — even as a sociologist. Yes, the times you’ve lived through contribute to who you become, and certainly to the opportunities you have (or don’t). But humans are humans, and we’re all a lot more alike than different.
Getting old needn’t stop you from enjoying your life, or from making younger friends, for that matter. (Carlos Urrutia/Unsplash)
Plus, if you limit yourself to friendships only within your age cohort, well, you’re really missing out on some great friendships.
Mexico’s shifting population demographics
According to a recent article stating thatby 2034, there will be more people over 60 than under 12 in Mexico, it seems we’re all going to have more chances at “intergenerational” friendships. As people live longer and women have fewer children, the balance is tipping toward the end of the line, rather than the front. More on that shortly.
I’ve personally been thinking about aging a lot as I stand, at 44, on one of the last and increasingly low shaky peaks of my youth: the end is now clearly in sight. It’s not just about the humiliations of a sagging jawline or weight that is suddenly impossible to get off without extreme measures. For once, I’m genuinely worried about my overall health. How can I possibly be prepared?
At this point, I’ve also watched both my parents suffer earlier than they should have. My mother had health problems all her life and died in 2018 at 64. My dad is in a nursing home with dementia at the tender age of 71.
While I have plenty of friends who are perfectly healthy now at the age my mother would be today, both my parents’ experiences give me pause: what awaits me? So I go to the gym, I see a nutritionist and I buy fancy face creams. I’m going to the dentist even though it scares me a lot (all it takes is one bad experience, apparently).
The younger generations that we’re counting on
Still, it’s a crapshoot. And all these “interventions” that I’m betting on to give myself better odds depend, in great part, on others. Specifically, increasingly younger people who will be in the prime of their careers while I’m getting older.
What is the right age to retire and how do we decide? In Mexico, it’s not always so easy. (Galo Cañas/Cuartoscuro)
Often, when reports about an aging population come out, it’s with a little bit of panic. “What if there aren’t enough people to keep the lights on?” This often leads especially conservative pundits to turn their heads toward women of reproductive age. “Only 1.6 children per woman? What’s their problem?”
These tend to devolve into arguments about how we’ve collectively let things “go too far” with birth control and such (just look at Project 2025). The right blames the left for giving women too much freedom and encouraging them to have careers. The left fires back that, to survive in this economy, you need two careers. And besides, giving birth is a life-threatening job. And then there’s the childcare for many, many years, and guess what you get paid for doing it? Au contraire, you pay to do it. Love from and for your children is a great reward, it’s true, but you can’t eat love or use it to pay rent. “Well, maybe if people took marriage seriously, then …”
And on and on it goes.
Mexico’s family-first culture, and how it helps
Here in Mexico, people thankfully seem less panicked about the prospect. Part of this, I believe, is because the stereotype is at least partly true: Mexicans really are all about the family. I don’t know if it will stay this way — modernity is bulldozing us down here like it is in the rest of the world — but I hope it at least mostly does.
Part of what gives me hope is that families often seem to truly be friends with one another. They talk, they see each other, and importantly, they party together (it’s hard to find a prudish Mexican when it comes to parties). They also tend to be there for each other in important ways: not just emotionally and physically, but often financially. Whether it’s a wedding or a funeral, family members chip in.
Still, the shifting demographics of the country are going to be a real adjustment. In large part, this is simply because of the structure of the economy. Though I know I’ll get called a communist by the usual suspects, I’ll say it again: capitalism is simply not conducive to the way most of us want to live.
Family size has dropped steeply in Mexico since the 1960s, with Mexican women now having in the range of 1.6 to 1.9 children, on average. (Shutterstock)
We want (and deserve) free time, sure. But we also need quite a lot of time when we’re not at our “official jobs” if we want to do things like take care of kids, take care of aging parents, cook, clean, take out the trash and receive deliveries in the middle of the day. The list goes on. And those activities combined usually take up more than a typical work week does. So what happens when we all need to be working outside of the home? And what happens when many of us can’t anymore?
And that’s the issue: we want people to have time with their families. But we also need places like hospitals to be fully staffed. How do we balance these two things, especially as more people become too old to work and fewer people “age into” their working lives at the same time?
I believe that government support will become more and more necessary as we move ahead. The pension that senior citizens already get is, while small, a big contribution for some families — the kind that lets the older members comfortably stay in the home for longer without adding financial stress. A rising minimum wage and a planned reduction of the work week should help alleviate at least some of that “second shift” pressure as well.
Beyond this, I don’t have a major solution to offer, other than to simply point out that we fare better collectively than we do individually. The institution of the Mexican family needs to be supported and protected. We need to keep our ties strong and celebrate them. We need to resist falling into the bottomless well of our phones, lest we isolate ourselves by accident.
And for those of us without much family here, perhaps an expanding definition of what family means (and who counts) needs to be a part of that planning and conversation. For now, I’m just trying to do what I can to stay healthy and forge friendships with people of all ages. In the end, we’re going to count on each other.
