The Mexico City skyline as seen from the Torre Mayor on Paseo de la Reforma. (Shutterstock)
Mexico’s central bank and one of the world’s leading economic bodies both upgraded their growth outlooks for the country this week, offering encouragement for an economy that grew just 0.8% in 2025.
The Bank of Mexico (Banxico) raised its 2026 GDP growth forecast to 1.6% from 1.1% in its quarterly report for October–December 2025, published Thursday. The central bank also revised its projected range upward to between 1% and 2.2%, abandoning its previous range of 0.4% to 1.8%.
Banxico governor Victoria Rodríguez Ceja said that the 2026 forecast improved thanks to strong GDP performance in the last quarter of 2025. (Daniel Augusto/Cuartoscuro)
Separately, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published its Economic Survey of Mexico 2026 on the same day, projecting GDP growth of 1.4% this year and 1.7% in 2027. That compares with the OECD’s December forecast of 1.2% growth for 2026 — meaning the Paris-based organization has also nudged its outlook higher.
Banxico Governor Victoria Rodríguez Ceja, presenting the quarterly report, said that 2025 had seen an intensification of economic weakness that began in 2022, in what she described as a “particularly complex” environment characterized by “elevated uncertainty.” She attributed the improved 2026 forecast largely to better-than-expected GDP performance in the fourth quarter of 2025, which created a higher statistical base for this year’s growth.
Despite the upgrades, both institutions struck a cautious tone. Rodríguez Ceja said risks to the growth outlook remain skewed to the downside. Banxico’s report identified six key downside risks: a worsening of global uncertainty; geopolitical conflicts; slower-than-expected U.S. economic growth; supply chain disruptions from tariffs; financial market volatility; and adverse weather events.
The OECD echoed those concerns, noting that trade tensions and heightened global policy uncertainty remain significant risks, and that private investment will continue to be constrained by domestic and international uncertainty, even as it gradually benefits from lower interest rates.
Banxico’s 2027 forecast remained unchanged at 2%, the midpoint of a range between 1.2% and 2.8% — above both the OECD’s 1.7% projection and a Citi market survey estimate of 1.8%.
Both forecasts remain well below the Mexican government’s 2.3% projection, which underpinned its 2026 budget package.
The upgraded forecasts come as Mexico navigates a delicate moment: trade policy uncertainty from the United States, a pending USMCA review and domestic fiscal consolidation efforts are all shaping the economic outlook. The OECD noted that a swift and successful USMCA renegotiation could provide a meaningful boost to investment and exports beyond what is currently anticipated.
TV Azteca shareholders approved the reorganization of company liabilities through a voluntary bankruptcy proceeding (a “concurso mercantil”), with the aim of restructuring financial obligations under judicial supervision.
(Rogelio Morales/Cuartoscuro.com)
TV Azteca filed for bankruptcy protection on Thursday, taking a step that is typically a prelude to liquidation.
Shareholders approved the reorganization of company liabilities through a voluntary bankruptcy proceeding (a “concurso mercantil”), with the aim of restructuring financial obligations under judicial supervision.
Ricardo Salinas Pliego, TV Azteca’s billionaire owner, recently reached a deal with the SAT that requires him to pay US $1.86 billion in back taxes. (Edgar Negrete Lira/Cuartoscuro.com)
TV Azteca, owned by billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego, insists that this is not a bankruptcy, but is instead a preventative measure. The network said the decision was influenced by structural challenges facing the broadcast television business due to declining advertising revenue and pressure from digital platforms.
The network outlined a perfect storm of negative factors that pushed the company into these proceedings. The TV Azteca statement pointed to nearly 19 years of litigation and tax disputes, a “complex negotiation with international creditors,” the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of 3.8 billion pesos (US $220.6 million) in government licensing fees paid in 2018.
Trading in the broadcaster’s shares on the Mexican Stock Exchange was suspended in 2023 after the company failed to file corporate results.
Salinas Pliego — who last month reached an agreement with the Mexican Tax Administration Service (SAT) to pay more than 32 billion pesos (US $1.86 billion) in overdue tax debts — refuted declarations that he was going bankrupt.
#GrupoSalinas. La televisora @Azteca entra a concurso mercantil (quiebra técnica) mientras que @ElektraMx, también propiedad de @gruposalinas, reportó pérdidas por casi 20 mil mdp en el último trimestre de 2025. Al tío Richie aún le quedan por pagar 18 mensualidades de su adeudo… pic.twitter.com/Irr0EglvCq
Responding to a Wednesday social media post by Jenaro Villamil, the director of the Mexican State Public Broadcasting System, Salinas Pliego said Villamil and his friends in the government “are messing with the wrong person.”
“We’ll see you all in 2030 and then you’ll find out if I’m bankrupt,” Salinas Pliego wrote, referencing the next presidential election, for which he is considered a potential candidate.
As for TV Azteca — Mexico’s second-biggest television broadcaster — El Universal columnist Mario Maldonado believes that behind the corporate message are significant obligations that explain the decision.
“TV Azteca carries an estimated total debt of between US $2 billion and US $2.2 billion and, in addition, faces defaults to creditors in the United States for around US $600 million, a situation that has increased the legal and financial pressure on the company,” he wrote on Friday.
Maldonado said that whether the bankruptcy proceedings successfully stabilize the company “will depend on the cash flow the television station manages to generate in a shrinking advertising market.”
Rafael Rodríguez, TV Azteca’s CEO, implied just that in a statement. “This is a last‑resort tool aimed at preserving the value of the company, ensuring the continuity of its operations, and facilitating the orderly fulfillment of its obligations without interrupting its functioning,” he said.
Under Mexican law, the “concurso mercantil” aims to seek an agreement between the company and its creditors in order to avoid a shutdown in a process that typically lasts six months. If a procedure on restructuring debts can’t be agreed upon, the company’s assets would be sold off to pay creditors.
The event was set to take place at the Zapopan Aquatic Center, Mexico’s national diving training hub in the Guadalajara metropolitan area, where much of last Sunday's unrest took place. (World Aquatics)
The Diving World Cup event scheduled to take place next week in Jalisco has been canceled, but Mexico’s National Commission for Physical Culture and Sport (Conade) and the Jalisco state government are lobbying World Aquatics to continue with the event as planned, or, failing that, change the venue.
World Aquatics — the international federation that administers international swimming and diving competitions — announced its decision on Wednesday after consultations with Aquatics Mexico, the Mexican Federation of Diving and High Diving and the Jalisco Council for Sports Development (CODE Jalisco).
Conade president Rommel Pacheco, a former Olympic diver himself and a gold medalist at the 2016 World Diving Cup, has joined President Claudia Sheinbaum in efforts to get the international diving authority to keep the event in Mexico, perhaps by selecting an alternative site. (Conade)
The event was scheduled to take place at the Zapopan Aquatic Center, Mexico’s national diving training hub, just west of Guadalajara, the state capital. Guadalajara and other regions of the state experienced considerable unrest and violence following a military operation to capture a notorious drug kingpin last Sunday.
World Aquatics said the decision took into account travel restrictions issued by foreign embassies in Mexico, some of whom rescinded authorization for their national teams to participate.
“The safety and participation of all athletes remains a fundamental priority for World Aquatics,” it said.
Jalisco Governor Pablo Lemus said the decision to cancel was not solely based on the risk assessment, since his government lowered alert levels on Tuesday. He told reporters that logistical complications resulting from this past weekend’s disturbances were also responsible.
“China has considerable influence in the World Diving Federation and they asked that the event be postponed due to air connectivity issues,” he said.
Lemus said that along with Conade and CODE Jalisco he is asking China not to insist on the cancellation of the competition.
Along with the cancellation, World Aquatics said that qualification for the May 1-3 Diving World Cup Super Final in Beijing would be based on the results of the competition currently taking place in Canada.
These events are all part of the qualification process for the 2028 Summer Olympics and Conade is concerned that the loss of a competition — especially one at home — would be detrimental to the diving team’s preparations. Along with archery, the diving team is one of Mexico’s most successful Olympic squads.
In the wake of the death of El Mencho, the world rushed to write lurid headlines about supposed experiences in Mexico. Resident Charlotte Smith fights back against the misinformation. (Roman López/Cuartoscuro)
I stood in the soot-lined streets of London the morning of the July 7, 2005, bombings and started walking home because there was no other way to get there. It took me nearly 16 hours. The air tasted like metal. I held hands with a stranger for a while, neither of us knowing quite what to do.
Ten years later, almost to the day, I was having dinner near the Grand 16 Movie Theatre in Lafayette, Louisiana, when people started running and screaming from an active shooter inside the theatre. Police cars swallowed the street in blue and red light. I remember the sound of sirens folding into each other.
The 2005 London bombings killed 56 people in a series of coordinated attacks across the British capital. (Toby Mason)
Social media misinformation after El Mencho’s death
I’ve lived through real chaos. I’ve reported on hurricanes, terror alerts, elections and the long tail of grief that follows tragedy.
I know what fear feels like in a city, and I know what it looks like when things actually fall apart.
That’s why what happened Sunday in Puerto Vallarta has left me shaken in a way I didn’t expect.
Not because there was unrest — of which there absolutely was. A cartel leader was killed elsewhere in Mexico, and as a result, violence flared in pockets of the country. Puerto Vallarta saw vehicle fires and property damage. There were tense hours, and authorities responded in force. It was all very serious.
But seriousness and sensationalism aren’t the same thing, and what followed wasn’t careful reporting or measured analysis. It was panic porn.
This image, almost certainly generated by AI, was among an estimated 200-500 posts on social media sharing false or unverified information in the 48 hours after the cartel kingpin’s capture, according to the Tecnológico de Monterrey’s Digital Media Observatory.
While I was at home with a stomach bug, toggling between my notebook and the bathroom floor, calling sources, confirming details, asking for photos and videos I could verify and checking timestamps and locations, social media was already sprinting ahead with a version of events that barely resembled reality.
An influencer posted a breathless video of himself being “extracted” by private jet, flanked by what he claimed were armoured security vehicles. If you actually watch the footage, you can see they’re standard SUVs. Not armoured or tactical. Just really, really shiny.
The drama was the point. He went from looking terrified to important to rescued. And his video racked up views.
Then the New York Post reported that security teams had swooped in and escorted millionaire clients onto ferries from Puerto Vallarta to Cabo.
There is no ferry from Puerto Vallarta to Cabo.
Not a seasonal one. Not a private one. Not a secret one. It simply doesn’t exist. And yet that detail didn’t slow the story down, because it sounded good. It fit the narrative of making Mexico feel more like a war zone that required extraction.
Nuevo Nayarit (formerly Nuevo Vallarta) came in No. 2 for highest hotel occupancy in Mexico. (File photo)
An influencer staying in the highly gated, wealthier tourist destination of Nuevo Nayarit, claimed she was “trapped,” “stranded,” and “without food and water.”
Nothing happened in Nuevo. No chaos, just holiday makers enjoying lockdown by their pools with open all-you-can-eat buffets beckoning them with a hearty welcome.
Photos circulated that weren’t from here. Video clips were miscaptioned. Phrases like “city under siege” and “center of hell” moved faster than any verified fact ever could. I watched the lie outpace the truth in real time. Over and over and over again.
And what hurt, what still hurts, is that I’ve given years of my life to doing this work carefully. To earning trust slowly. To double-checking names, locations, timestamps. To correcting myself publicly when I get something wrong.
That’s supposed to matter, but some days, I’m not sure it does anymore.
We’re in a moment where social media mixed with AI means anyone can look authoritative. Add dramatic music, a confident voice, a few urgent captions, maybe a headline generated in ten seconds, and suddenly you’re credible.
So where does that leave those of us who built credibility the slow way? Who were taught that publishing something wrong wasn’t embarrassing, it was unethical?
I live here. This isn’t a dateline to me. It’s home. I know the woman who runs the corner shop, the hotel manager fielding cancellation calls from guests who think tanks are rolling down the Malecón, and families whose livelihoods depend on whether someone in Ohio or Alberta decides Mexico is “too dangerous” this week.
The lies don’t just bruise abstract concepts like ‘reputation.’ They hit real people.
I was contacted by seven major media outlets. Seven. They’d read my work here in Mexico News Daily, so they knew I wouldn’t sensationalize what happened. But it became clear they were hoping for something sharper that matched the temperature of the headlines already circulating. That isn’t what I do.
I knew the nuance I’d bring wouldn’t fit neatly into a segment built on urgency and fear. And more than likely, it’d be trimmed until it did. So I said no seven times. I said no to opportunities that could’ve expanded my reach in ways writers are told they should never pass up.
Then the BBC World Service reached out.
Images of a burning Costco in Puerto Vallarta went viral across the globe, but the extent of the damage was exaggerated.
From the first conversation, it felt different. They weren’t chasing panic, they were chasing context. They wanted to talk about how we process events without feeding fear. They made space for three of us, right here in Mexico, to speak honestly.
That conversation reminded me why I became a journalist in the first place.
Still, I woke up with a heavy realisation. I’m never going to be widely read. I’m never going to be famous. And it’s not because I’m not good at what I do, because I most certainly am. It’s because I’m not willing to trade accuracy for amplification, and right now amplification is what the system rewards.
I’m angry today, because I love this place. And loving a place means defending it when it’s misrepresented.
I’m angry that I had to spend precious hours fact-checking viral nonsense instead of focusing on deeper reporting. I’m angry that geography is optional for some outlets. I’m angry that corrections whisper while lies shout. And I’m angry that Mexico is so often flattened into a caricature.
After the London bombings, no one asked me if the entire United Kingdom should be avoided indefinitely. After mass shootings in the United States, people don’t declare the whole country off-limits.
Over the last two decades, London has been the site of multiple bombings, mass stabbings, attackers driving vehicles into crowds and even a missile attack. Yet, argues the writer, no one hesitates to visit the city in fear of violence. (Marcin Nowak/Unsplash)
But let something happen in Mexico, and suddenly a nation of nearly 130 million people becomes a single, ominous headline.
My phone lights up every time.
“Is it safe?”
Here’s what’s true:
Sunday was rough. It was tense and unsettling, and I had a little cry.
But it wasn’t the apocalypse. Smoke clears, and algorithms move on.
Mexico is Charlotte Smith’s adopted home. The violence that occurred in Mexico this week was unsettling but not apocalyptic, she says, and it has not changed her mind about living here. (Charlotte Smith)
And those of us who still care about the truth will be where we’re meant to be, like me in Mexico with my notebook in hand, sunburned, stubborn, and committed to facts, doing the slow, unglamorous work of getting it right.
As angry as I am right now, I’ve also been reminded of something rather beautiful. In the middle of all the noise and exaggeration, I watched this city do what it always does: neighbors checking in on neighbors; business owners sweeping up soot and opening their doors anyway; friends sending messages that simply say, “We’re okay. Come for coffee.” Life asserting itself.
The beach is still here every morning. The water doesn’t care about the headlines. Children are back on bicycles and playing marbles right outside my door. The corner shop is open on time.
And once this stomach bug finally clears, I’ll be right back out there sitting in the sand, talking with the people who stayed, who didn’t turn their fear into content, and who understand that loving a place means standing in it when it’s misunderstood. I’ll be here, because this is my home.
And the truth deserves someone willing to stay for it.
Charlotte Smith is a writer and journalist based in Mexico. Her work focuses on travel, politics and community.
Juan Carlos Yerenas, left, accepts the World's Best Coffee Shops award for his Guadalajara café, El Terrible Juan. At right, espresso brews at Histórico Café Tostador in Chiapas. (El Terrible Juan; Histórico Café Tostador)
From a 19th-century hacienda in Chiapas to a Guadalajara bar that seeks to control every step from bean to cup, three Mexican coffee shops have just entered The World’s 100 Best Coffee Shops 2026 ranking.
The competitive ranking, which evaluates more than 15,000 projects worldwide, was announced during CoffeeFest Madrid 2026. It recognizes innovation, quality and passion for coffee in shops around the world.
The facilities of San Cristobal’s Histórico Café Tostador, where coffee is grown on a legacy coffee farm then roasted and ground on-site. (Histórico Café Tostador)
And three of them are in Mexico.
Histórico Café Tostador – No. 35
Located in San Cristóbal de las Casas, in the southern state of Chiapas, Histórico Café Tostador “represents the urban continuity of its coffee legacy, connecting land, history, and cup in a single experience” the World’s 100 Best Coffee Shops said.
Set on the legacy coffee farm Finca Hamburgo (founded in 1888), this café grows and roasts its coffee on site. It also houses a coffee school offering courses, workshops and coffee experiences.
Exploradores de Café — No. 87
Born out of the desire to explore Mexico’s mountains in search of the best coffee, Exploradores de Café in Mexico City earned a place on the ranking thanks to their commitment to quality and sustainability of coffee production.
At Exploradores de Café, guests observe living coffee plants to understand varietals, genetics and ripening cycles. They can also watch coffee roasting firsthand and participate in cupping sessions.
El Terrible Juan Café — No. 96
Founded in 2015 in the western city of Guadalajara, Jalisco, El Terrible Juan Café focuses “on the quality of their products, flavors, and experiences,” according to the World’s 100 Best Coffee Shops. To achieve this, the café is involved in every step of the production chain, starting from the cherry harvest all the way to the preparation of their products and toppings.
El Terrible Juan started as a small coffee bar in the Americana neighborhood. Today, it has several locations in the city, establishing itself as one of the local benchmarks for specialty coffee.
According to the ranking, the top 3 coffee shops in the world are Onyx Coffee LAB in the United States, Tim Wendelboe in Norway and Alquimia Coffee in El Salvador.
The Huatulco Convention Center was supposed to raise tourism in the Oaxaca destination to a new level. Now it's in a legal limbo. (TEN Arquitectos)
The contrast is stark. One site is defined by manicured green fairways; the other, a near-empty marina dominated by an architecturally striking but unfinished waterfront building. Both sit along the Gulf of Tehuantepec, where warm Pacific breezes move through overgrowth at the marina and across the groomed palms and fairways of the golf course. Yet at each, something is missing: activity, purpose, and the steady flow of people they were built to attract.
The cost of immobilizing large tourism assets is felt well beyond the offices where legal, political and administrative decisions are made. In Huatulco, two major tourism assets have been rendered inactive, leading to lost employment and tourism revenue, along with prolonged uncertainty for existing businesses and for investment decisions tied to facilities expected to be operating, not waiting.
Tourism in Huatulco would be better served if key tourism projects, like a convention center and golf course, were kept open. (Visit Mexico)
These impacts are rooted in two very different cases: one is an unfinished convention center; the other, a professionally maintained golf course placed in legal suspension.
The Huatulco Convention Center: From flagship project to legal standstill
On Dec. 11, 2025, formal seizure notices were posted across the unfinished structure of the Huatulco Convention Center overlooking the Chahué Marina. Issued by the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office of Oaxaca, the notices designated the building as evidence in an ongoing criminal investigation, legally halting any further work on the site. With that act, a project once promoted as a cornerstone of Huatulco’s future tourism economy entered a new phase, no longer merely incomplete, but legally immobilized.
The Huatulco Convention Center began as a relatively modest proposal, a single line item of 70 million pesos (US $3.7 million) within a package of 118 infrastructure projects announced by then-Gov. Alejandro Murat in 2019. The package was presented as a state effort to stimulate employment and reduce poverty across Oaxaca.
Only months after the infrastructure projects were announced, the COVID-19 pandemic upended construction schedules worldwide and delayed the start of work on the Huatulco Convention Center. Over roughly two years of inaction, the convention center’s role quietly expanded. State officials began to describe it not as a regional facility but as a “strategic trigger,” one capable of lifting Huatulco into the international convention market, alongside destinations such as Cancún and Los Cabos.
When vision and practical realities collide
To realize this expanded vision, the state of Oaxaca engaged Enrique Norten, founder of TEN Arquitectos, a Mexican firm internationally recognized for contemporary civic and cultural projects. The proposed design called for an approximately 11,000-square-meter facility integrated into the Chahué Marina, including a 1,285-seat auditorium with advanced acoustics capable of hosting concerts, theatrical productions, and academic conferences. Public plazas and landscaped green spaces were also incorporated. What emerged was no longer a modest, 70-million-peso infrastructure line item, but a highly visible, architecturally ambitious waterfront complex with regional and international aspirations.
Vision and aspiration soon collided with the practical realities of constructing a large-scale performance venue on reclaimed waterfront land, introducing significant technical challenges. Once the bidding process was completed based on the finalized architectural plans, the projected cost had risen to 323.7 million pesos (US $16.1 million), more than four times the original budget allocation. Construction formally broke ground in February 2022.
The vision of the Huatulco Convention Center, seen here in a rendering from TEN Arquitectos, collided with a sad reality. (TEN Arquitectos)
Forty-eight hours before his term ended in November 2022, Murat formally inaugurated the Huatulco Convention Center in its then-current state, largely complete but not yet operational. What was once framed as a catalyst for economic growth now sits silent on the waterfront. Sealed and unused, the striking structure awaits judicial resolution rather than further development, its fate emblematic of how large public assets can slip from promised engines of growth into prolonged limbo.
The Tangolunda golf course: From strategic asset to legal limbo
Central to each of the five master-planned tourist resorts developed by FONATUR (the National Fund for Tourism Promotion) was the inclusion of a golf course, conceived as a strategic anchor within Mexico’s planned resort model. In Huatulco, that role was filled by the Tangolunda golf course (Las Parotas Golf Club), which opened in 1991 and functioned for decades as a core component of the destination’s tourism infrastructure.
In 2012, following several years of operating losses, FONATUR opted to lease the Tangolunda golf course to a private operator under a 10-year concession. The decision was intended to stabilize finances, attract third-party investment, and upgrade the facility to professional-level standards. Those objectives were largely met. The course was extensively redesigned by Mexican golf architect Agustín Pizá and reopened in 2014 as a first-class, professionally maintained facility.
A period of uncertainty
With the expiration of the 10-year lease in 2022, the golf course entered a period of uncertainty. Federal authorities initially indicated the property would be sold, publicly referencing a proposed sale price of 600 million pesos and granting the existing leaseholder a first option to purchase. In October 2023, however, the federal government announced that no purchase offers had been received and that the Tangolunda golf course would instead be designated a national park, abruptly removing a core component of Huatulco’s planned resort model.
On March 14, 2024, National Guard personnel closed and secured the Tangolunda golf course to enforce the national park designation. Since then, the site has remained closed to the public while maintenance has continued, as legal challenges over its status proceed through the courts.
The designation of the Tangolunda golf course as a national park has effectively shuttered what had functioned as Oaxaca’s only championship-grade, 18-hole golf facility, leaving it closed despite continued maintenance. Without a resolution, or even a timeline for one, a functioning, attractive tourist asset remains in limbo.
Despite a redesign by famed Mexican golf course architect Agustín Pizá, Las Parotas Golf Club now seems destined to become a national park. (Instagram)
Shared pattern: Governance paralysis and stranded public assets
Neither of these stalled tourism assets failed for lack of a clear economic purpose, yet neither has a clear path forward. In both cases, uncertainty, not market failure, has become the defining condition, illustrating how governance paralysis can strand otherwise viable public assets.
For Huatulco, the cost of this uncertainty is not theoretical. Each year without resolution brings foregone employment, lost tourism activity, and an erosion of confidence among local businesses and potential investors. Public funds, meanwhile, remain tied up in assets that function neither as economic engines nor as public amenities. Private operators and municipal authorities cannot plan around facilities that remain unusable. In this kind of limbo, delay is a multifaceted, unnecessary loss that accumulates over time.
What ultimately distinguishes stranded assets from failed ones is not their economic logic, but the absence of timely resolution. As legal and administrative processes unfold, often over years, there is no parallel mechanism to determine interim use, conditional operation, or negotiated outcomes. In practice, inaction becomes the default decision, leaving viable public assets suspended indefinitely.
Randy Jackson is a seasonal resident of Huatulco and a regular contributor to the Huatulco Eye magazine. He writes on tourism, infrastructure and local governance. Email: box95jackson@gmail.com
President Sheinbaum thanked FIFA President Gianni Infantino for his continued support of Mexico as a World Cup host after violence erupted in multiple states following the death of the chief of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. (Gabriel Monroy/Presidencia)
The operation against Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) leader Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes and the violent cartel reaction that followed remains a central topic in the national conversation.
President Claudia Sheinbaum spoke about various issues related to the events on Sunday at her Thursday morning press conference.
Here is a recap of the president’s Feb. 26 mañanera.
Sheinbaum: Tribute to the armed forces at Mexico-Iceland match was ‘very moving’
Twenty-five members of the National Guard, which is under military patrol, were killed in clashes with cartel gunmen after the death of Oseguera, the founder and longtime leader of the CJNG.
Emotivo homenaje a las Fuerzas Armadas durante el México vs Islandia - AS México
Sheinbaum said that the tribute was “very moving” and thanked those who organized it.
“The truth is this tribute was very, very moving for everyone who is part of the armed forces, in particular the Army and National Guard, and for all of Mexico,” she said.
“Since Sunday, there have been a large number of very moving expressions of support. And yesterday was truly emotional,” Sheinbaum said.
Mexico defeated Iceland 4-0 in the friendly that followed the Wednesday night tribute.
Sheinbaum thanks FIFA after Infantino backs Mexico as World Cup host
A reporter noted that FIFA president Gianni Infantino expressed his support for Mexico continuing as a co-host of this year’s men’s World Cup, despite the outbreak of violence on Sunday.
Sheinbaum thanked FIFA and its president for their support, and noted that Infantino said that no changes would be made to the schedule of the World Cup, which will be held in the United States (78 matches), Canada (13 matches) and Mexico (13 matches).
In Miami on Wednesday, the FIFA chief told reporters that a World Cup qualifying tournament to be played in Guadalajara and Monterrey next month wouldn’t be moved.
“Nobody has to move anything. We are in constant contact with [the] presidency of Mexico, the authorities. We have full trust in the authorities in Mexico, [in] President Sheinbaum and her team, and we actually fully support them as well,” Infantino said.
“We live in a world where things happen, good things and bad things, situations happen, we don’t live in the moon,” he said.
“… We are monitoring of course the situation, but we have full confidence that everything will be great. Mexico is a football country, and the Mexicans, the authorities but also the people, will do everything they can to ensure that the World Cup and the playoffs … will be a celebration of football,” Infantino said.
President Sheinbaum thanked FIFA President Gianni Infantino, seen here at the World Cup draw in December, for his continued support of Mexico after Sunday’s military operation. (Presidencia)
Sheinbaum said on Tuesday that security in Mexico during the World Cup is guaranteed, and asserted that there was “no risk” for tourists who come to the country to attend matches in Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey.
On Thursday, she assured Mexican and international tourists alike that the World Cup “will be a great celebration, and we’ll be waiting for you with open arms.”
Sheinbaum: ‘Our objective is to protect life’
A reporter noted that a Labor Party deputy, José Luis Sánchez González, said that if the cost of achieving peace is the lives of “some Mexicans,” then “so be it.”
She asked the president what message she would send to politicians making such remarks.
“One cannot be a censor of what everyone says,” Sheinbaum said.
“Everyone is responsible for their own words and the people judge. In other words, I can’t know what a deputy or security minister is going to say,” she said.
Sheinbaum went on to say that in a situation such as that which occurred on Sunday, “no one would have wanted lives to be at stake.”
“… It’s not something that one seeks. Unfortunately, these events occur and what we have to do is support the families [of victims]. … What we want is to protect people’s lives, that is our objective — protect life, stability and people’s safety,” she said.
Sheinbaum rejected “this idea of ‘it doesn’t matter [if lives are lost because] there is always collateral damage.”
“That’s what [Felipe] Calderón said,” she remarked, referring to the ex-president who initiated a militarized war on cartels shortly after he took office in 2006.
“… Our objective is to protect life,” Sheinbaum said.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies (peter.davies@mexiconewsdaily.com)
Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard chats with President Claudia Shienbaum during a national meeting for the promotion of investment held earlier this month. As it turns out, year-end figures released this week showed a record year in 2025 for foreign direct investment in Mexico. (Mario Jasso/Cuartoscuro.com)
Mexico attracted a record US $40.87 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2025, a 10.8% year-on-year increase, the Economy Ministry (SE) reported on Wednesday.
In a press release, the SE said the growth — based on originally published figures — reflects a growth trend for the fifth consecutive year.
“Mexico is positioning itself as a strategic destination for global productive capital, in an environment in which FDI flows to developing economies showed a 2% drop in 2025,” it said.
The data indicates the United States remained Mexico’s principal investment partner, generating FDI flows of US $15.88 billion, 38.8% of the total.
Spain ranked second at US $4.4 billion (10.8%) with Canada (US $3.3 billion, 8.1% ), the Netherlands (US $2.4 billion, or 5.8%) and Japan (US $2.3 billion, or 5.6%) filling out the rest of the top 5.
The SE reported that reinvestment of profits registered the largest share of FDI flows entering Mexico in 2025 — nearly 68% — followed by new investments (18%), and intercompany accounts (14.3%).
New investments grew nearly 133%, to US $7.38 billion in 2025, providing the biggest bounce to the total FDI flow.
The SE described the performance of new investments last year as “entailing a greater capacity for Mexico to attract new capital that can promote the adoption of cutting-edge technologies and productivity growth in the national industry.”
The reinvestment of profits contracted slightly, falling 3.7% from US $28.7 billion to US $27.6 billion, which the SE attributed to a greater distribution of dividends.
As for intercompany accounts, they registered annualized growth of 17%, rising from US $4.99 billion in 2024 to US $5.8 billion in 2025. The SE said this is associated with the dynamics of capital reorganization in corporate groups.
Intercompany accounts are transactions originating from debts between Mexican companies that hold FDI in their share capital and associated companies abroad.
Once again, Mexico City was the top destination for FDI in 2025, receiving US $22.38 billion, roughly 55% of the total. This represented a 55% increase over 2024.
Second place went to Nuevo León, which received US $3.63 billion, or 8.9% of the total and a nearly 73% increase compared to last year.
México state ranked third, receiving US $3.28 billion, or 8%, a 24% year-on-year improvement.
When Arly Velásquez suffered irreversible spinal damage at age 13, he had never tried on a ski. Now at age 37, he is representing Mexico at the Winter Paralympics for the fifth time. (Conade)
When the Winter Paralympics open next week in Italy, Mexico’s delegation will fit on a single monoski.
Arly Velásquez, a 37-year-old para alpine skier from Cancún, will be the country’s only athlete at the Milan-Cortina Games, the 50th anniversary of the Winter Paralympics. The opening ceremony is March 6.
Mexico’s presence at the Winter Paralympics has long been minimal, but this year they will have a one-man delegation thanks to para-skier Arly Velásquez. (Conade)
More than 600 athletes are expected to compete across six sports, with China favored to top the medals table again.
Moreover, its delegations have long been among the smallest in the field. Since making its Winter Games debut in 2006, Mexico has sent no more than two athletes to any edition.
This year, the entire Mexican presence will be Velásquez, who will race in downhill on March 7, super-G on March 9 and giant slalom on March 13 in the LW10-1 sitting category.
The opening ceremony will be held at Verona’s ancient Arena, a UNESCO World Heritage site retrofitted with wheelchair ramps and accessible restrooms.
“Receiving the Mexican flag on my way to my fifth Paralympic Games is a profound honor,” Velásquez said at a flag ceremony this week in Mexico City. “Representing Mexico in five Games is not by chance. It is the result of discipline, resilience and reinventing myself physically and mentally time and time again.”
Velásquez is the Mexican athlete with the most appearances at the previous 13 Winter Paralympics, having debuted at Vancouver 2010 and also raced at Sochi 2014, Pyeongchang 2018 and Beijing 2022.
In Sochi, he posted his best Paralympics finish ever, 11th in super-G, before a crash in his next race left him in an induced coma for three days and forced a two-year break from competition.
After moving from Cancún to Mexico City as a youth following his parents’ divorce, Velásquez took up mountain biking and became a national champion at age 12.
At age 13, however, he suffered a major accident that left him with broken vertebrae and an irreversible spinal cord injury, according to the newspaper Milenio. He was told he would never walk again.
But around age 15, he began practicing wheelchair sports such as shot put, basketball, javelin and swimming.
On a trip to Canada a few years later, he happened to see Mexican Paralympic athlete Armando Ruiz competing in the slalom and giant slalom. That led him to seek out ski lessons.
Fourteen months later, he was competing in the 2010 Paralympic Games in Vancouver.
Fake, AI-generated photos showed Puerto Vallarta and the Iberoamerican University in León, Guanajuato, in flames. Neither happened. (Social media)
A plane in flames on the tarmac at Guadalajara Airport. Smoke billowing from a burning church in the resort city of Puerto Vallarta.
Images of these scenes appeared on social media on Sunday as members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) reacted violently to the death of their leader, Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, who was shot by soldiers during an operation in Jalisco.
This fake image of a plane burning at the Guadalajara airport went viral on Sunday. (Social media)
They added to fear and panic in Mexico at a time when fiery narco-blockades were appearing in states across the country and cartel members were setting banks and OXXO stores on fire and engaging in gunfights with National Guard officers.
Both images, however, were fake, apparently created with the assistance of artificial intelligence, but nevertheless serving to make a very bad situation look even worse.
They were among a plethora of fake news that proliferated online on Sunday, and it wasn’t confined to social media.
Gunmen have taken over Guadalajara Airport, reported various major news outlets, a development seemingly supported by footage of passengers panicking and running, but which, in fact, was not true.
President Claudia Sheinbaum was taken by helicopter to a naval vessel off the Sonora coast to ensure her safety. Also false.
The Puerto Vallarta Costco burned to the ground. Didn’t happen.
Still, fake images and fake news went viral on social media on Sunday, shared not only by unsuspecting internet users but also by the CJNG itself, according to experts cited in media reports.
On Wednesday, the federal government ramped up its efforts to expose these fabrications, presenting a five-minute video during the regular “lie detector” segment of Sheinbaum’s morning press conference.
Ante los hechos registrados este día, es importante actuar con responsabilidad.
Se ha detectado la circulación de imágenes, audios y publicaciones falsas. Evita compartir contenido sin verificar su origen y confirma que provenga de fuentes oficiales. pic.twitter.com/NZbXxYsWlZ
No, a US agent didn’t strangle ‘El Mencho,’ says government
Before the aforesaid video was played, the government’s fake news debunker-in-chief Miguel Ángel Elorza Vásquez said that after Sunday’s operation targeting “El Mencho,” media outlets, commentators, politicians and social media users “promoted lies, disinformation and fake news about the operation, its origin and the events that occurred in different cities … of the country.”
Although some of the fake news went viral and fooled many people, Elorza — the head of Infodemia, a government initiative dedicated to debunking fake news — asserted that most Mexicans heeded the call to inform themselves about the prevailing situation via official channels of communication.
Citing a study by the Tec. de Monterrey university, the government’s “lie detector” video said that between 200 and 500 posts containing false information related to the operation against “El Mencho” appeared on social media.
Between 20 and 30 of those posts — which many social media users shared — were viewed more than 100,000 times, the video said.
The video labeled various social media posts and news stories as lies, including ones that claimed that cartel members were threatening to attack civilians and that armed men had entered the Guadalajara Airport.
It also highlighted that the two images described at the top of this article were false, and declared that posts asserting that U.S. tourists had been taken as hostages were untrue.
In addition, the video denounced as false claims that the U.S. was involved in the operation against “El Mencho,” including an assertion that a U.S. agent killed the CJNG leader by strangling him as he was being airlifted to a hospital for medical treatment.
The Tec. de Monterrey report cited in the video did not identify who produced the phony content related to that operation and the violent chaos that ensued.
🔴En la #MañaneraDelPueblo, el #DetectorDeMentiras mostró una campaña de desinformación tras la operación realizada en Jalisco para detener a Rubén “N”, alias ‘El Mencho’”:
❌Mentira que el crimen organizado amenazó con atacar a la población civil.
❌Mentira que miembros del… pic.twitter.com/K08deqo69z
‘They are trying to show that the Mexican government doesn’t have control over the country’
Citing experts, Reuters reported that fake news related to the death of “El Mencho” “spread at surprising speed,” with “unsuspecting” social media users — and the CJNG “in some cases — disseminating the phony images, posts and stories.
The objective of the cartel, Reuters wrote, was to “make its retaliatory wave of violence appear greater and more terrifying than it really was.”
Jane Esberg, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania, told the news agency that “they are trying to show that the Mexican government doesn’t have control over the country.”
Esberg, who has studied Mexican criminal groups’ use of social media, said that the dissemination of fake material on social media contributed to the creation of a narrative that the CJNG had a retaliatory presence all over Mexico on Sunday. While acts of violence occurred in 20 states, many municipalities of those states weren’t affected.
Federal Security Minister Omar García Harfuch said Monday that authorities had identified social media accounts sharing fake news and would conduct investigations to determine which ones have “direct relationships with an organized crime group” — i.e. the Jalisco Cartel.
While cartels have long used social media as a propaganda tool, the emergence of AI means that they — and others, including so-called “narco-influencers” — can create phony material that serves their agenda with nothing more than a laptop or a phone.
Pablo Calderón, an associate professor in politics and international relations at Northeastern University in London, told Reuters that cartels use social media to amplify their image and power and to influence public opinion, including by disseminating misinformation.
“Sunday was a good day for Mexican security forces,” he said, even though 25 National Guard officers were killed, and other troops sustained injuries in clashes with CJNG gunmen.
“But organized crime has been successful in shifting the narrative, away from the [military operation] to chaos,” Calderón said.
Vanda Felbab-Brown, an organized crime expert at the Brookings Institution in Washington D.C., told the Associated Press that it’s likely that people linked to the CJNG were responsible for some of the disinformation that circulated online on Sunday.
“The criminals are becoming very tech-savvy,” she said before describing the “level of misinformation” as “impressive.”
AI-generated images depicting scenes of violence “certainly added to the aura of chaos and meltdown in Mexico,” Felbab-Brown said.
‘We didn’t know what was true and what was false’
Victoria Elizabeth Peceril, a 31-year-old mother of three, told the Associated Press in Guadalajara on Wednesday that “we didn’t know what was true and what was false” amid the violent reaction to the death of “El Mencho.”
“We were really scared,” she said.
Given that the CJNG is known for extreme and spectacular acts of violence — including the downing of a military helicopter in 2015 and a brazen 2020 attack on García Harfuch when he was Mexico City police chief — deciphering whether an AI-generated image is real or false becomes even more difficult. Could the cartel have set a plane and a church ablaze? Conceivably, yes.
Yoni Pizer, a homeowner in Puerto Vallarta whose car was hijacked and firebombed on Sunday, noted in an interview with The New York Times that “there were images and videos that were not real.”
“People started posting that the gangs were just shooting randomly and killing people in town. That wasn’t true,” he said.
Fake news also distorted how people abroad perceived what was happening in Mexico on Sunday. One Mexico News Daily writer said that her grandmother in the United States believed that the CJNG was targeting Americans in Mexico due to U.S. involvement in the operation against “El Mencho,” which was limited to intelligence sharing, according to the Mexican and U.S. governments.
Back in Mexico, Nicolás Martín, a 28-year-old Mexico City resident who was in Puerto Vallarta when the violence began, told AP that “at first, we believed everything [we saw on social media].”
He said he was surprised by the high quality of the fake images that circulated on Sunday.
Sarai Olguín, a 22-year-old university student in Guadalajara, also said it was difficult to tell what was real and what was false. She found a silver lining in the dissemination of fake material, saying that it played a role in convincing people not to leave their homes.
“In a way it’s good, because all of this false news helped take care of people even though they sowed immense fear,” Olguín told AP.
