Nearly 20% of hotel bookings in Quintana Roo for the next holiday period have been canceled. (Joseph Barrientos/Unsplash)
The state of Quintana Roo and the Riviera Maya are paying the price for the violence that erupted last Sunday on the other side of the country.
Nearly 20% of hotel bookings for the next holiday period were canceled even as Quintana Roo Governor Mara Lezama oversaw the deployment of 10,000 troops to protect residents and tourists alike.
While cancellations of bookings made for upcoming holidays have been increasing, Quintana Roo Gov. Mara Lezama points out that there are right now hundreds of thousands of foreigners in her state and no lasting decrease in tourism is expected. (Graciela López/Cuartoscuro.com)
Valeria Rindertsma, president of the local chapter of the Mexican Association of Female Entrepreneurs, said the now-subdued violent reaction in 22 states by the CJNG cartel targeted in last Sunday’s military operation created a negative image that the hotel sector is working to address.
“We must change the perception,” she said, “and we can do that through the media, through our networks, so that people feel safe and come to visit us.”
At the same time, Gov. Lezama said her government reacted quickly to the disorder sparked by the CJNG and its associates, who were “trying to sow fear and cause conflict and uncertainty.” Her state government acknowledged 17 incidents in which vehicles were burned on Sunday.
The state security operation in place now comprises state and municipal police, the National Guard, the Army and the Navy. Civil Protection and fire fighting teams were also active and on heightened alert.
Rindertsma told reporters that the business sector had high expectations for the year, particularly since Mexico is co-hosting the FIFA World Cup, but admits that the violence “has shaken us up a bit.”
She pointed out that enhanced security strategies have eliminated the problem of extortion which had plagued the region in recent years, attributing the improvement to strong coordination between authorities and the business community.
Lezama warned about misinformation circulating on social media, including false reports about fires at schools, banks, convenience stores and restaurants, saying such fake news contributed to travel alerts being issued.
After reports of roadblocks and targeted attacks proved untrue, the U.S. Embassy removed Quintana Roo and its tourist destinations from the security alert it issued Sunday. The governor said there were more than 180,000 U.S. citizens in the state this week.
Even as vehicle fires were still breaking out across Jalisco, security personnel began invstigations and field operations to find and apprehend the 23 prisoners that escaped from the Puerto Vallarta prison. So far, their efforts have resulted in the recapture of four. (@OHarfuch/on X)
Four prisoners who broke out of the Puerto Vallarta State Penitentiary during last Sunday’s military operation against Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) leader “El Mencho” have been captured, the Security Ministry reported Thursday, while 19 other escapees remain at large.
On Sunday, amid the chaos that erupted across Jalisco state after El Mencho’s killing, 23 inmates escaped. Most had been imprisoned for serious crimes, including homicide, drug trafficking, aggravated robbery and possession of firearms and ammunition restricted to the Mexican Army. They hailed mainly from the states of Nayarit and Jalisco.
Autoridades federales encabezadas por SEMAR detuvieron a 4 de los 23 reos evadidos del Centro Penitenciario Estatal de Puerto Vallarta el 22 de febrero. Recaptura en El Colorado, Jalisco; investigaciones continúan para localizar a los 19 restantes tras fuga violenta. pic.twitter.com/RXFumOrbo9
Local reports attributed Sunday’s mass escape to outside help, with a group of armed assailants opening fire and ramming one or two vehicles into the prison walls, opening a breach for the breakout.
“Four people who escaped from the Puerto Vallarta State Penitentiary on February 22 were apprehended” following an operation led by the Mexican Navy, investigative personnel and the Security Cabinet, Security Minister Omar García Harfuch, wrote on the social media platform X on Thursday.
The Public Security Ministry (SSCP) began to gather intelligence and conduct field operations immediately on Sunday. It attained warrants and launched inter-institutional and immigration alerts, as well as strengthened coordination with state authorities to track routes, points of interest and possible hiding places for the escapees.
García Harfuch credited the quick actions for the capture of the four escapees in the town of El Colorado, within the Puerto Vallarta municipality.
Following Sunday’s violence, Puerto Vallarta is steadily moving toward normality (save for the presence in the vicinity of 19 violent escaped prisoners). An elevated number of police and military personnel are still deployed across the city.
Still, Jalisco state’s “Code Red” status was lifted on Tuesday, meaning that highways are now fully open, airport operations are increasing, businesses have reopened across the city and many tourist activities have resumed.
Kathleen Clement was a Mexico-City based American painter whose work documents and celebrates the natural world, particularly the flora of the Valley of Mexico. (Courtesy of Jennifer Clement)
Kathleen Clement — American-born painter, photographer, cultural documentarian and passionate advocate for the natural world — has passed away at the age of 97, her family reported earlier this month. For more than six decades, she made Mexico City her home, creating a body of work that bridged nations, artistic traditions and generations.
Born in 1928 in Ord, Nebraska, Clement grew up during the era of the Dust Bowl, a formative experience that shaped her lifelong sensitivity to landscape and environmental fragility. As a child she witnessed both hardship and wonder — famously recalling the awe of a whale that arrived by train in the plains of Nebraska, an image that stayed with her as a symbol of displacement and marvel. She graduated from Ord High School in 1946, studied at Milton College in Wisconsin, and earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in 1950. She later pursued studies in art criticism with Maestro T. Joysmith and studied museography in Paris.
Clement was known for incorporating textile elements into her work, including fabric, stitching and reflective elements. (Courtesy of Jennifer Clement)
In 1960, Clement emigrated to Mexico City, where she would live for the remainder of her life. Settling in San Ángel, she became part of a vibrant creative community that included artists such as Juan O’Gorman, Gunther Gerzo, José Luis Cuevas, Mathias Goeritz, Helen Escobedo, Leonora Carrington and Elizabeth Catlett. Among her early solo exhibitions, her 1969 presentation at the Museo Casa del Risco, Centro Cultural Isidro Fabela, marked an important milestone.
Clement’s art evolved from lyrical realism into impressionistic and ultimately abstract compositions, achieved through multiple layers of transparent paint. Her work was deeply rooted in the flora of the Valley of Mexico and carried an unmistakable ecological conscience. As Sylvia Navarrete Bouzard, the former director of Mexico City’s Museum of Modern Art, observed:
“Nature is triumphant in Kathleen Clement’s painting; leafy, nascent, free, but at the same time fragile and perishable … In the manner of the botanical drawing of past centuries … Kathleen Clement’s painting acquires the value of testimony — and warning — it makes us rediscover organic life and natural beauty that surround us and that we no longer notice and reminds us of the imperative of preserving them.”
Influenced by Japanese line, Mexican color, Chinese porcelain, and textiles from India and Africa, she created works inspired by fabric and stitching, sometimes incorporating glass and mirrors, and even sewn elements into her paintings. She was also an accomplished portraitist and photographer; her photographs of Mexico City graffiti appeared in Zapatista Graffiti: A Photographic Essay (2003) with a text by Jennifer Clement.
Over a career spanning more than seventy-five years, Clement mounted more than fifty solo exhibitions and participated in more than one hundred group shows across Mexico, the United States, Europe and beyond. Her work received international recognition. She was awarded prizes at the International Biennial of Humor and Satire in Gabrovo, Bulgaria (1989 and 1991), received the International Culture Prize of Parma, Italy, and participated in the 1994 Monterrey Museum Biennial. In recognition of her lifelong artistic achievement and cultural contribution, she was also honored with the 2025 Elizabeth Heywood Wyman Award.
Clement’s works are held in significant public and private collections, including the Museum of Nebraska Art; the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C.; the Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil; and the Library of Alexandria in Egypt; and in prominant private collections such as those of the Jordan Black family, Elena Poniatowska and Yusef Komunyaaka. She was included in numerous major publications and reference volumes, among them Who’s Who of American Art and 20th Century North American Women Artists.
Kathleen Clement is remembered for her luminous canvases, her devotion to Mexico’s endangered landscapes, and her unwavering belief in art as witness. She leaves behind family, friends, fellow artists, students and admirers in both the United States and Mexico, as well as generations of viewers moved by her layered, radiant meditations on nature’s endurance and fragility.
Members of the advocacy group "National Front for 40 Hours" protested against the six-day workweek on Tuesday, demanding two rest days per week. The reform passed by Congress reduces weekly hours to 40, but keeps the six-day workweek intact. (Mario Jasso / Cuarocscuro.com)
Mexico’s lower house of Congress approved on Wednesday a constitutional reform bill that will gradually reduce the standard workweek from 48 hours to 40.
All 469 lawmakers present in the Chamber of Deputies voted in favor of the bill when it was considered en lo general, or as a whole.
¡Felicidades trabajadoras y trabajadores de México! ¡La semana laboral de 40 horas será una realidad! Reconocemos el trabajo de las y los legisladores del Congreso de la Unión que ha permitido avanzar en el compromiso 60 de la Presidenta @Claudiashein. pic.twitter.com/G5NeGAg0WF
In a second vote held after consideration of the legislation’s individual articles, 411 deputies supported the bill while 58 opposed it.
The bill was first presented by the federal government in December and approved by the Senate earlier this month. It now needs to be ratified by at least 17 of Mexico’s 32 state legislatures in order to become law. That is expected to happen relatively quickly and the new law is slated to take effect on May 1 — International Workers’ Day.
In accordance with the legislation, Mexico’s standard workweek will be reduced by two hours annually starting next year in order to reach 40 hours in 2030, the final year of President Claudia Sheinbaum’s six-year term.
Despite the reduction in hours, the standard workweek will remain at six days, an aspect of the bill that was opposed by many opposition lawmakers.
Still, the federal Labor Ministry emphasized the significance of the legislation.
“After more than 100 years without modifications, Mexico will gradually leave behind the 48-hour work week and usher in a historic transformation,” it said on social media on Wednesday morning.
Labor Minister Marath Bolaños said in a video message that workers will have more time to rest, spend time with their families, play sports and enjoy cultural activities.
As things stand, Mexico has the worst work-life balance in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, with more than 2,226 work hours per person per year, according to Reuters.
“The country, where around 55% of workers are employed in the informal sector, also has the lowest labor productivity and the lowest wages among the group’s 38 member states,” the news agency reported.
Among the other changes in the reform bill that has now been approved by both houses of Congress is an increase in the number of permitted double-time overtime hours from nine to 12. Workers will be limited to a maximum of four triple-time hours per week, meaning that a total of 16 overtime hours will be permitted. Workers aged below 18 will not be permitted to work overtime.
Employers will be prohibited from reducing workers’ salaries and benefits as the standard workweek is gradually shortened over the next four years.
Citizens Movement (MC) party Deputy Claudia Ruiz Massieu rejected Bernal’s “labor spring” claim.
“While it doesn’t include an additional day of rest, this reform will fall short,” said Ruiz Massieu, a former foreign affairs minister and ex-president of the Institutional Revolutionary Party.
“It promised more than it effectively guarantees … And it is working people who will pay the cost of that false promise,” Ruiz Massieu said, adding that without the introduction of a five-day workweek, “there is no labor spring.”
MC Deputy Patricia Flores Elizondo was also critical of the failure to guarantee workers two days of rest per week.
“In this chamber, they don’t want to talk about rest, they don’t even want to say the word,” she said, referring to deputies with the ruling Morena party and its allies, the PT and the Green Party.
“That is deeply hypocritical,” Flores claimed, “because many of those present here take six days of rest for every one they work.”
National Action Party Deputy Sarahí Gómez acknowledged that her party supported the reform bill, but nevertheless criticized it.
“What we don’t support is simulation — a pretty figure doesn’t change your life, 40 hours distributed across six days doesn’t change anything, increasing [overtime] hours cancels out the benefit,” she said.
The gradual reduction in the standard workweek “sends a very clear message — for the 4T [fourth transformation] there is no urgency,” said Gómez, referring to the government by its self-anointed nickname.
The bill was considered by Congress after consultation with workers, unions and private sector representatives.
Bolaños asserted in December that the reform “doesn’t imply greater costs for the business sector,” and claimed that some industries will see productivity gains from a shorter working week.
Some 13.4 million Mexicans who currently work more than forty hours per week will benefit from the gradual reduction in working hours.
In a recent survey, Mexicans expressed broad support of the recent military operation that killed CJNG cartel boss 'El Mencho.' (Presidencia via Cuartoscuro)
A national survey has found that seven out of 10 Mexicans have a favorable opinion of the military operation that led to the capture and death of Nemesio “El Mencho” Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, founder and top leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). At the same time, nearly half of respondents said their approval of the president increased following the operation.
Conducted by De las Heras Demotecnia, a Mexican company that conducts political and electoral research, the survey also found that 88% of respondents were aware of El Mencho’s death.
The level of awareness reflects the media and political dimension of the federal deployment, which involved armed forces and federal authorities in one of the most significant actions against organized crime in Mexico in recent years.
When asked how participants rated the military operation against the CJNG and its leader, 69% of respondents gave the operation a rating of eight or higher out of 10. The average rating was 8.3.
Despite the violence, arson attacks, and numerous road blockades attributed to alleged members of the CJNG following El Mencho’s death, public opinion over President Claudia Sheinbaum’s remains largely favorable, with over 55% of respondents saying their opinion improved or remained positive.
When asked whether their opinion of President Sheinbaum improved or worsened after the operation, 48% of participants said their opinion improved; 7% responded that it remained just as good; 8% indicated that it remained just as bad; 20% responded it worsened and 17% either didn’t know or chose not to answer.
In political terms, Sunday’s military action strengthens the narrative of state territorial control. However, the killing of El Mencho does not mean that the CJNG, a transnational criminal organization with operations on almost every continent, will disappear.
It is yet to be seen who will succeed El Mencho and how the internal succession process will affect stability in the rest of the country. Displays of violence in regions where the CJNG operates will ultimately depend on the institutional capacity to prevent internal realignments and disputes between cartel cells.
Bosque de Chapultepec is a massive green space beloved by Mexico City residents. (Gobierno CDMX/Wikimedia Commons)
My favorite place in Mexico City is my backyard: Bosque de Chapultepec (Chapultepec Forest). Obviously, the forest and urban park — famously twice the size of New York’s Central Park — is not my actual backyard. But it might as well be. I live a five-minute walk from this nature paradise and gleefully visit it almost daily.
First, some impressive context
Chapultepec is so massive, approximately 1,700 acres, that it’s divided into four sections, which we’ll dive into later. Yes, it’s home to the only royal castle in the Americas, and that’s undeniably historic and cool. But the true star of Chapultepec isn’t the architecture or landmarks. It’s the nature.
“El Sargento,” the ancient Montezuma cypress tree that died in Bosque de Chapultepec in 1969. (Chapultepec.org)
With roughly 200,000 trees and hundreds of documented plant, fungi and wildlife species, Chapultepec is often called “the lungs of Mexico City,” offering fresh air and green space in the middle of one of the busiest cities in the world. Among its most revered residents are the ancient ahuehuetes, or Montezuma cypress, sacred trees that have stood for 500 to more than 700 years — quietly anchoring the city to its pre-Hispanic past.
And people come. A lot of them. Chapultepec receives an estimated 20 million visitors each year, with busy weekends and holidays drawing well over 200,000 people a day.
And because this is Mexico — magical and sometimes wildly absurd — no other massive green space I’ve ever visited has an iconic mascot quite like Chapu does. If you’ve been, you’ve seen them: the colorful changuitos miones (peeing monkeys), perched cheekily atop visitors’ heads, squirting water as if to remind you not to take anything too seriously.
A brief history of Chapultepec
Long before it became Mexico City’s most beloved green escape, Bosque de Chapultepec was already sacred ground.
The name Chapultepec comes from Nahuatl and roughly translates to “grasshopper hill.” For the Mexica (Aztecs), the hill and surrounding forest were both spiritually powerful and strategically vital, thanks to the natural springs that supplied fresh water to Tenochtitlán. Aqueducts built centuries before European arrival once carried water from Chapultepec directly into the heart of the empire, and remnants of that ancient system can still be found today.
Chapultepec’s history stretches back even further. Archaeological evidence shows people living along the shores of Lake Texcoco here as far back as 3,000 years ago, long before the Mexica made it a sacred retreat. Over time, Mexica rulers transformed the forest into a place of rest, ritual and power. Emperors, including Moctezuma II, planted trees, shaped the landscape, built baths and early zoological gardens, and used the hill as a royal refuge. Many of the ancient ahuehuete trees still standing today trace the original boundaries of that pre-Hispanic park.
Chapultepec Castle is a must-visit attraction in Mexico City. (Sisgeo/Wikimedia Commons)
The Spanish conquest reshaped Chapultepec’s role entirely. It became the site of one of the final battles in 1521, and later a privileged retreat for colonial elites. In 1785, construction began on what would become Chapultepec Castle, built atop the hill and surrounded by forest largely reserved for the powerful.
Chapultepec continued to mirror Mexico’s political shifts. It served as a military academy, a battleground during the Mexican-American War, an imperial palace, and later the official presidential residence. It wasn’t until the late 19th and early 20th centuries, during a period of modernization, that Chapultepec began to transform into a public park, with landscaped paths, lakes, monuments and museums.
Chapultepec had fully become a shared civic space. Presidential functions moved out, cultural institutions moved in, and the forest expanded, allowing Chapultepec to remain not just a park, but a living archive of Mexico’s history.
The park is divided into four sections. Here’s an overview of my personal favorites in each one, along with a few highlights not to be missed.
Section I: My everyday Chapu
Section I is the most visited of Chapultepec’s four sections, largely because it holds many of the park’s most iconic attractions and is also the most accessible. The main entrance, Puerta de los Leones, sits along Reforma, and walking in from here always feels a bit cinematic. Almost immediately, you’re greeted by the monument to the Niños Héroes, honoring the six young cadets who lost their lives during the Battle of Chapultepec in the Mexican-American War.
Just behind the monument, the castle rises above the trees, which somehow makes the entrance feel even more epic. While I usually enter Chapu through a side entrance near the metro, I still walk along the main path that leads past the monument. Parque México and Amsterdam Avenue get a lot of hype, but for my daily walks, Chapultepec wins every time. When pollution levels cooperate, I like to jog along Gran Avenida and often end my walks with a short meditation under a tree. I can’t recommend this enough.
Depending on my mood and how much time I have, I’ll sometimes stop by the Audiorama to unwind, unplug and let the classical music do its thing. If you go, make sure to say hello to the ahuehuete known as “El Sargento” just outside. Planted in 1460 by order of Emperor Moctezuma, the tree stood for more than 500 years and grew nearly 40 meters tall before it finally died in 1969. Even now, its presence feels grounding.
I also love picnicking near the Totem Canadiense or around the José Martí monument. Nearby is Los Pinos, the former presidential residence until 1940, now a museum and cultural space that’s fascinating to explore even without an exhibit. Close by, the Cablebús connects different sections of Chapultepec to Santa Fe from above. It’s fast, inventive and surprisingly peaceful, and I highly recommend using it if you’re exploring more than one section.
Other popular stops in Section I include Chapultepec Castle, the National Museum of Anthropology, the Botanical Garden, the zoo, the lake and Librería Porrúa.
Section II: Art, water and wide-open space
One of the biggest perks of Section II is that dogs are allowed, which immediately gives it a different energy. It feels looser and more lived-in, with people lingering longer rather than passing through.
One of my favorite stops here is Lago Algo, a space that’s part farm-to-table restaurant, part contemporary art venue, all set right on the water. I’ve come here for brunch and loved it, then wandered straight into whatever exhibit they had on view at the time. They’re constantly hosting thoughtful exhibitions and cultural events, so if artsy vibes are your thing, it’s worth checking their website or Instagram before you go.
Nearby is the Museo Cárcamo de Dolores, a small but fascinating museum dedicated to Chapultepec’s relationship with water. Outside stands a monumental sculpture of Tlaloc, the Mexica god of rain and water. Inside, you’ll find a structure that once carried water through the space itself. The walls were painted by Diego Rivera, though the water didn’t end up being kind to the murals. Today, an audio installation recreates the sound of water flowing through the building, making for a quiet, unexpected visit.
Small but fascinating, Museo Cárcamo de Dolores in Bosque de Chapultepec. (Gobierno de Mexico)
Section II is also home to more playful attractions. Aztlán 360, an 85-meter Ferris wheel opened in 2024, offers sweeping views of the city and anchors the revamped Aztlán Parque Urbano. Nearby are classics like Papalote Museo del Niño and the Museo de Historia Natural.
Section III: Where the city disappears
Section III feels like stepping out of Mexico City altogether. The first time I wandered into this part of Chapultepec, I genuinely felt like I was no longer in the city but deep inside a forest far away from it. The trees grow denser, the paths feel less intentional, and the noise of traffic finally drops away. This is Chapu at its most untamed.
There isn’t much to “do” here in the traditional sense, and that’s exactly the point. Section III is ideal for slow wandering, quiet walks, a peaceful solo picnic and moments of stillness. It’s also one of the best places in the city to practice “forest bathing,” or shinrin-yoku, a Japanese concept centered on simply being present in nature. It’s not about hiking or exercise, but about engaging your senses, breathing deeply, and letting the forest regulate your nervous system. This part of Chapultepec practically invites you to do just that.
When I’ve visited, there were no vendors selling food or drinks, so it’s best to come prepared with water or snacks if you plan to linger. Personally, I love that about it. Other than your attention, Section III asks very little of you.
Section IV: Chapu’s newest chapter
Section IV is the newest addition to Bosque de Chapultepec, officially incorporated into the park in the early 2020s after formerly being military land. Added as part of the Chapultepec: Naturaleza y Cultura project, it represents the park’s most recent evolution.
The main draw here is the Cineteca Nacional Chapultepec, the second location of the beloved Cineteca Nacional in Coyoacán. The programming leans artsy and international, with thoughtfully curated films and occasional exhibitions. Compared to the original location, it still feels calm and uncrowded, which only adds to the experience.
Cineteca Nacional Chapultepec, the second location of the beloved Cineteca Nacional in Coyoacán. (Cineteca Nacional Chapultepec)
Section IV doesn’t yet have the density of attractions found in the earlier sections, but it offers a glimpse into where Chapultepec is headed next. It’s a reminder that this park isn’t frozen in time. It’s still growing, still expanding, and still making room for new ways to experience culture and nature side by side.
Chapultepec, my love
I’m a sucker for parks and green spaces, and wherever I travel, I always find myself drawn to them. Not in a box-checking way, but because parks reveal how a city rests, plays and takes care of itself. I’ve been lucky to experience many beautiful ones, but Chapultepec stands apart. Its layers of history, culture and everyday life make it feel deeply alive.
What I love most about Chapu is that it has always been a place of leisure, not just power or history. It’s a space where Mexico City feels comfortable being playful in public, where fountains & mascot souvenirs can be a little absurd, where families linger for hours, and where nature is woven into daily life. This is where I come to slow down, breathe and reconnect. That’s why it feels like my backyard. Not because it’s close to home, but because it’s where I return to myself.
Rocio is a Mexican-American writer based in Mexico City. She was born and raised in a small village in Durango and moved to Chicago at age 12, a bicultural experience that shapes her lens on life in Mexico. She’s the founder of CDMX IYKYK, a newsletter for expats, digital nomads, and the Mexican diaspora, and Life of Leisure, a women’s wellness and spiritual community.
A selection of the Gelman collection will be displayed in an exhibit at the Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City through May 17. (Gobierno CDMX)
Amidst the bustle of the Mexican fair in Madrid, a bureaucratic subplot was unfolding: The greatest private collection of Mexican modern art was being handed over to a Spanish bank for an indefinite period. This was the mysterious and once “lost” Gelman collection, in which big artists like Frida Kahlo, María Izquierdo, Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros and others found a home for their artwork.
But before going abroad, it was announced that the Gelman collection will have a three-month exhibit at the Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City.
Jacques and Natasha Gelman
Jacques and Natasha Gelman assembled one of the world’s greatest art collections, but controversy has surrounded it since their deaths. (Gelman Collection)
As the children they couldn’t have, Jacques and Natasha Gelman raised their collections to be among the most important of the 20th century. Although two collections grew together, parallel to the interests of Jacques and Natasha, we should rather consider them part of a trio because they created a third collection of pre-Columbian sculpture whose location is nowhere to be found to this day.
Let’s talk about the ones we do know about: The Gelmans were passionate about European art, as both came from Eastern Europe, which led them to build a collection of the European Masters. A selection of 47 paintings displayed works by Matisse, Picasso and Miró, and was exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) in 1989. In 2001, the MET became the permanent home of this collection after the Gelmans’ death, following negotiations with executor Robert Littman. As William S. Lieberman wrote in his introduction to the catalogue:
“Although acquired for personal enjoyment and never intended as a survey, the Gelmans’ choice of European paintings and drawings is astonishingly coherent. Its quality is superbly sustained, and I find it difficult — perhaps impossible — to suggest any other private selection similarly defined in focus that is of comparable caliber.”
The art collections
A portrait of the legendary Mexican actor Mario Moreno as his beloved character Cantinflas, painted by Rufino Tamayo. (Fundación Santander)
On the other hand, the couple gathered artworks from their chosen home, Mexico, where they met after Jacques emigrated here in 1938. They later married in 1941. This was the year when their collections were born.
Upon his arrival in Mexico, Jacques became one of the most important producers of Mexican film history. Along with actors Mario Moreno and Santiago Reachi Fayad, he helped to create Cantinflas, an iconic character in “Golden Age” Mexican Cinema.
Gelman became wealthy from the movies, as well as a good friend of Moreno. As they grew closer, Moreno introduced Gelman to the group of intellectuals he belonged to, which included Rufino Tamayo, David Alfaro Siqueiros and Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo.
From here, the Gelmans started not only collecting art but also commissioning portraits from these artists. Natasha was painted by Rivera, Kahlo and Siqueiros, among many other artists, making these artworks statement pieces of the collection.
“There are two kinds of collectors: those who own a collection and those who are owned by it. Jacques and Natasha Gelman were the latter,” said art historian Pierre Schneider, a friend of the Gelmans.
A lost archive
A portrait of Natasha Gelman, done in 1943 by Frida Kahlo. (Facebook)
Jacques and Natasha dedicated their lives to the Mexican collection, but the story took a turn after Jacques died in 1986. An 88-year-old widowed Natasha began to suffer from Alzheimer’s disease. That was when a secondary character became the face of the collection and, therefore, of the doubts that came to surround it: Robert Littman.
Littman was no newcomer in the art world. He had been the director of Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Rufino Tamayo and an art advisor to the late Televisa owner Emilio Azcárraga and his wife, Paula Cusi. Littman had been acquainted with Jacques, a Tamayo Museum board member, since the early 1980s, when Littman joined the museum board.
Littman was, for years, a great friend to Jacques and Natasha, so it was not entirely surprising that he was named the trustee for the Gelman estate, though there are some loose ends to this version of the story. Littman began taking liberties that the Gelmans may not have agreed with, such as expanding the collection after both were deceased and selling pieces of it, even though Natasha and Jacques had stated that all the pieces should stay together.
Littman’s stewardship of the Mexican collection
The Gelman Mexican collection was briefly exhibited in 2004 in the Gelmans’ last home of Cuernavaca, at the newly created Muros cultural center. But controversy took it out quickly.
After the Gelmans’ deaths, the Mexican government offered to design a space for their permanent exhibition at the Museo Nacional de Arte (MUNAL), and just like at the MET, that space would bear the Gelmans’ names. But Littman refused, saying that Natasha had asked that the collection remain in private hands. So instead, the Fundación Cultural Parque Morelos was founded to be in charge of managing the artworks.
“The understanding between us was that the collection would eventually find a safe and secure state-of-the-art private facility to house it within the borders of Natasha’s adopted land, Mexico,” explained Littman in the catalogue of the Gelman collection, edited for its first exhibition in 2004 at the Muros center in Cuernavaca.
Littman stated that the collection was “coming home” because the pieces had finally found a permanent, private abode in Cuernavaca, where the Gelmans spent their last years. But there was a lot of buzz around this museum because it was built on the land that had once belonged to the old Casino de la Selva, a historic building in Cuernavaca. The movement for the historic building’s protection and the rumors around the Gelman collection made this exhibit ephemeral, lasting just a few weeks.
After that, Littman (using his newly created Fundación Vergel) continued to be in charge of the collection, but not without issues. The artworks stepped out of the public eye, making them difficult to track with only hints now and then: an exhibit in Australia, a strange auction at Sotheby’s, an allegation from Natasha’s brother and only heir, and even a claim by Mario Moreno’s family, who declared Jacques and Mario had arranged for the latter to be in possesion of the pieces once Gelman died. That, of course, never happened.
After all these issues, Littman ultimately sold the collection to Lorenzo Zambrano, a member of the family that founded CEMEX, an important building materials company in Mexico.
A broken last will
Mexico’s Secretary of Culture, Claudie Curiel de Icaza, inaugurated the new exhibition, “Relatos modernos: Obras emblemáticas de la Colección Gelman Santander,” currently showing at the Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City on Feb. 16. (Gobierno de Mexico)
Now we have a completely different scenario: Fundación Santander, the cultural wing of the Spanish bank, recently announced that the Gelman collection would be exhibited at its new facilities for an undetermined period.
This breaks one of Natasha’s requests that the artworks stay in Mexico, although it is not an isolated case: Dolores Olmedo’s collection (which also includes works by Mexican masters) was in a similar situation when it was almost removed from its official site in Xochimilco, Mexico City. The reopening of her museum is planned for 2026.
As for the collection’s new manager (Zambrano is still the owner), Santander has stated that everything about the transition has gone smoothly and under the supervision of the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura (INBAL). But doubts have been raised about whether the temporary, undefined period of custodianship by Santander should happen at all.
A short stop in Mexico City
The announcement of the collection’s display at Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City has definitely taken us by surprise, since neither Bellas Artes nor the Santander Foundation mentioned it in the first press releases. Now, 68 of the 160 pieces that will be sent to Spain will be available for viewing in Mexico in the exhibit “Relatos modernos. Obras emblemáticas de la Colección Gelman Santander,” which will be open from Feb. 17 to May 17, 2026.
Lydia Leija is a linguist, journalist and visual storyteller. She has directed three feature films, and her audiovisual work has been featured in national and international media. She’s been part of National Geographic, Muy Interesante and Cosmopolitan.
CABO SAN LUCAS — As violence grips the imagination of U.S. cable news, a rotating cast of American correspondents continued their courageous on-the-ground reporting from the swim-up bar of a five-star Los Cabos resort this week, pausing occasionally to describe Mexico as “a nation on the brink.”
“The situation here is frankly terrifying,” Fox News correspondent Brad Whittaker told viewers Tuesday, adjusting his linen shirt as a waiter arrived with his second poolside margarita. “Ordinary Mexicans are living in fear.” Behind him, several ordinary Mexicans could be seen arranging towels on sun loungers.
“Day 3 of the conflict and the people of Tijuana are running low on tacos”
Within hours of the Mexican government asserting control over Mexico, no fewer than twelve U.S. television crews had touched down in Jalisco, spreading out across the state to document a collapse that locals were, frustratingly, completely oblivious to. CBS correspondent Jennifer Mallory delivered a solemn live shot outside a shuttered shopfront, which locals confirmed was closed because it was Wednesday afternoon.
“The mood here is one of barely concealed dread,” Mallory reported, as a family behind her took a selfie in front of a fountain.
ABC News ran continuous breaking news coverage under the banner “MEXICO MELTDOWN,” crossing live to their correspondent in Cancún, who described the atmosphere in Guadalajara as “extremely volatile” from a distance of some 700 miles, pausing twice to reapply sunscreen.
The New York Times dispatched a four-person investigative team, which filed an 8,000-word piece on the fragility of the Mexican state that quoted eleven U.S. security consultants, three Mexican government officials, and zero people from Jalisco.
CNN, for its part, assembled a panel of experts to discuss what comes next, a segment that featured the phrases “power vacuum,” “tipping point,” and “this changes everything” a combined nineteen times in forty minutes.
On the ground in San Miguel de Allende, lifestyle influencer @Expat_Awakening_Brad posted a seventeen-minute Instagram Live from the courtyard of the local Starbucks, interviewing American and Canadian retirees about how they were coping with the psychological toll of the crisis.
Mexican security analysts noted that similar coverage had followed every major cartel disruption since 2009, and that the cartel had subsequently continued to operate on each occasion. This observation did not make it onto the panel.
Tourism officials noted that U.S. visitor numbers remain near record highs, suggesting that American tourists are considerably less alarmed by Mexico than American journalists are.
Puerto Vallarta hotel occupancy remains at 94 percent.
Sheinbaum said she spoke to Trump about the operation targeting "El Mencho" and mentioned to him that Mexico received intelligence from the U.S. government that assisted it. (Andrea Murcia/Cuartoscuro)
Much of President Claudia Sheinbaum’s Wednesday morning press conference was taken up by the presentation and discussion of the federal government’s electoral reform proposal, which will be submitted to Congress next week. (Read MND’s report here.)
During her Q&A session with reporters, Sheinbaum revealed that she spoke to U.S. President Donald Trump the day after Jalisco New Generation Cartel leader Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes was fatally wounded during a military operation in Jalisco.
She also acknowledged that high-ranking Mexican and U.S. officials held a security meeting at the National Palace on Tuesday.
Sheinbaum reveals she spoke to Trump after operation targeting ‘El Mencho’
Sheinbaum said that Trump called her on Monday to ask her, “‘What’s happening in Mexico? How are things? Are you OK?'”
She said that the call — which took place the day after the death of “El Mencho” triggered a violent cartel reaction across 20 states — lasted eight minutes.
Sheinbaum said she spoke to Trump about the operation targeting “El Mencho” and mentioned to him that Mexico received intelligence from the U.S. government that assisted it.
She also said she told the U.S. president that bilateral security coordination is going “very well.”
“… That’s how it was, the short call, to see how things were in Mexico,” Sheinbaum said.
📞La presidenta @Claudiashein informó que anteayer sostuvo una llamada telefónica con Donald Trump en la que preguntó por la situación del país.
La mandataria dio a conocer que por el momento no contempla una reunión con el republicano. pic.twitter.com/s2DiGYbdAB
She said that she and Trump currently have no plan for a bilateral, in-person meeting.
The operation against Oseguera in an exclusive residential estate in Tapalpa, Jalisco, on Sunday came as the Trump administration continues to pressure Mexico to do more to combat cartels and the narcotics they traffic to the United States.
“Mexico must step up their effort on Cartels and Drugs!” Trump wrote on social media the day after “El Mencho” was killed.
During his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, he appeared to play up the United States role in the operation against Oseguera, saying “we’ve also taken down one of the most sinister cartel kingpins of all — you saw that yesterday.”
“I regret that Sheinbaum took action against ‘El Mencho’ solely because of pressure from the U.S. government. Across all of Mexico, we know that this operation was carried out because the U.S. government was exerting pressure and pointing out that cartels rule Mexico,” she said in the Senate.
“Sheinbaum was forced to do something because she could no longer withstand the pressure. It’s a shame that Sheinbaum doesn’t act out of conviction,” Téllez said.
The PAN senator is in favor of the U.S. military coming into Mexico to combat cartels, and has asserted that “the cartels are partners of Morena,” the party that was founded by former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador and which Sheinbaum represented in the 2024 presidential election.
The US ambassador and drug czar met with Mexican officials
Sheinbaum noted that U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ron Johnson and Sara Carter, director of the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), met with members of the federal government’s security cabinet on Tuesday.
“It was a friendly meeting,” she said, adding that it was not organized “recently,” but had been planned for some time.
The meeting was held as part of the security “understanding” Mexico has with the United States,” Sheinbaum said.
The president, who said she didn’t attend the meeting, acknowledged that Carter congratulated the Mexican government for the operation against “El Mencho.”
“That’s what they told me this morning,” she said, referring to members of the security cabinet.
The cabinet — which includes Mexico’s military leaders, the security and interior ministers and the federal attorney general — said on social media that the “high-level meeting” was “very productive.”
The cabinet said that Mexico and the U.S. reaffirmed their commitment to “bilateral collaboration for the benefit of our nations within a framework of respect for sovereignty and cooperation based on mutual trust.”
Johnson said on social media that the U.S. and Mexico are “working together to stop the scourge of fentanyl and dismantle the networks that poison our communities.”
The ONDCP said that Carter and Johnson “met with Mexican military and security leadership to commend them on the successful operation targeting Nemesio ‘El Mencho’ Oseguera Cervantes.”
“‘El Mencho’ led Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), a Foreign Terrorist Organization responsible for trafficking illicit drugs into the United States and threatening our national security. President Trump is delivering on his promise to strengthen our national security and save American lives!” Carter’s office added in a social media post.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies (peter.davies@mexiconewsdaily.com)
The proposed electoral reform amends the Constitution and therefore needs two-thirds majorities in both houses of Congress, meaning Morena will have to keep its two congressional allies (the Green and Labor Parties) in line to get the reform passed without defections from the main opposition party, the PAN. (Michael Balam/Cuartoscuro)
Reducing the number of federal senators from 128 to 96 and cutting election costs by 25% are among the objectives of the federal government’s electoral reform proposal.
The constitutional reform proposal was unveiled on Wednesday, ahead of its submission to Congress next Monday.
As executive president of the Presidential Commission for Electoral Reform, longtime politician Pablo Gómez is one of the architects of the proposed reform. (Andrea Murcia/Cuartoscuro)
“Rosa Icela [Rodríguez], the interior minister, will present the proposal,” President Claudia Sheinbaum said at the start of her morning press conference, noting that the proposed reform has 10 key points.
Fewer lawmakers, lower election costs
Rodríguez explained that the government is proposing that the Chamber of Deputies continue to be made up of 500 lawmakers, all of whom would be directly elected by citizens, including proportional representation (plurinominal) candidates, whose names would have to appear on ballots.
Among the proposed changes to the makeup of the lower house of Congress is that eight Mexicans who live outside Mexico would become deputies.
Rodríguez said that the government is proposing a reduction in the number of senators from 128 to 96. The proposal entails the elimination of senators who are elected via proportional representation based on their party’s share of the national vote.
Rodríguez said another proposal is that the cost of elections be slashed by 25% by reducing the amount of resources allocated to the National Electoral Institute, political parties, local electoral bodies and electoral tribunals.
In 2024, when Mexico’s last federal election was held, 61 billion pesos (US $3.55 billion) was spent on “Mexico’s electoral systems,” said Pablo Gómez Álvarez, head of the presidential commission for the electoral reform. He asserted that Mexico’s per-voter election expenses are higher than those of any other country.
Presenting the third “point” of the proposed reform, Rodríguez said that the government wants greater oversight of resources allocated to and used by political parties and candidates, a measure that, in part, aims to prevent organized crime groups from funding campaigns.
The other aims of the proposed reform are to:
Facilitate the voting process for Mexicans abroad.
Reduce political parties’ permitted per-day advertising time on TV and radio.
Regulate the use of artificial intelligence “in relation” to elections and ban the electoral-related use of bots on social media.
Modify the vote-counting system.
Increase “participatory democracy,” including via the use of electronic voting.
Prevent elected positions being filled by relatives of existing officeholders starting in 2030.
Ban politicians from seeking immediate reelection to all positions of public office starting in 2030.
The last two points have already been approved by Congress in separate legislation, but the government nevertheless decided to include them in this reform proposal in order to “reiterate” their importance.
Sheinbaum: ‘We don’t want a state party, we don’t want a single party’
Sheinbaum noted that the reform proposal seeks to eliminate “party lists for proportional representation” of deputies and senators that are not subject to endorsement or rejection by voters.
Mexico’s current plurinominal lawmakers — 200 in the Chamber of Deputies and 32 in the Senate — were not directly elected by citizens, but rather acquired their positions via selection by the parties they represent. Under the government’s proposal, the names of plurinominal candidates selected by parties would appear on ballots.
Sheinbaum said that polls and consultations with citizens have found that people don’t want leaders of political parties to remain as deputies and senators without winning their position via the popular vote.
“We don’t want a state party, we don’t want a single party,” she said, responding to claims put forward by opposition parties even before the proposed electoral reform had been unveiled.
Interior Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez will officially deliver the electoral reform proposal to Congress next week. (Andrea Murcia/Cuartoscuro)
“We want the political diversity of our country to be recognized in accordance with the votes cast in the election,” Sheinbaum said.
“There is just one thing in particular — everyone has to go out into the territory to earn their votes, everyone. Nobody can stay at home, relaxing, waiting to be number 1 on … [a party’s] proportional representation list,” she said.
“… Everybody has to seek the popular vote — those who go for direct [election] and those who go for the representation that corresponds to the percentage of their party [vote].”
Sheinbaum said that reducing election costs is also a “popular demand,” adding that savings could be allocated to education, health care and welfare programs.
“[There is] excessive spending on elections in Mexico, we have to reduce it,” she said.
“… There are a lot of needs in the country, many,” Sheinbaum said before asserting that cutting costs will not have a detrimental impact on elections or the autonomy of the National Electoral Institute.
Will the reform proposal pass Congress?
As the proposal seeks to modify the Mexican Constitution, it must be approved by two-thirds of lawmakers in both houses of Congress in order to become law.
Thus, the ruling Morena party will need to convince its two congressional allies, the Labor Party (PT) and the Green Party (PVEM), to support the proposal. Those two parties have expressed reservations about proposals to cut electoral funding and change the way in which proportional representation candidates are elected.
Morena may need to make concessions to those parties to get the legislation through Congress.
Sheinbaum said she did not yet know whether the reform proposal will be submitted first to the Chamber of Deputies or the Senate. Both houses of Congress could modify the constitutional bill before voting on it.
The national president of Mexico’s main opposition party, the National Action Party (PAN), said on social media on Wednesday that the PAN won’t support an electoral reform that doesn’t include sanctions for parties that use money that comes from organized crime.
“Without free and fair elections, there is no democracy,” Jorge Romero Herrera wrote on X.
According to Reuters, PAN Senator Ricardo Anaya said he believed the government’s arguments concerning party lists and funding were a “smokescreen.”
“The government’s goal is not to have more democracy, it is to have control of the electoral processes,” he said.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies (peter.davies@mexiconewsdaily.com)
