Separation ponds at a lithium mine in Chile's Atacama Desert. Mexico has yet to mine any lithium. (Shutterstock)
Canceling lithium mining concessions held by a Chinese company is against the law, the president of the Mexican Mining Chamber (Camimex) said Wednesday.
In a document sent to investors in late August but which wasn’t reported on until this week, Ganfeng Lithium – which holds concessions to mine lithium at a large reserve in Sonora – said it had been advised by Mexico’s General Directorate of Mines that it had failed to meet minimum investment requirements between 2017 and 2021.
Jaime Gutiérrez, president of the Mining Chamber of Mexico. (Camimex)
According to a Reuters report, Ganfeng said in a filing that Mexico’s mining authorities had issued a notice to its local subsidiaries indicating nine of its concessions had been canceled.
However, President López Obrador indicated that wasn’t the case on Thursday, telling reporters at his morning press conference that the cancellation was still under consideration.
The concessions – which were awarded before the 2022 nationalization of lithium – are being reviewed “legally,” he said.
“But we’ve taken the decision that lithium belongs to the nation because it’s a strategic mineral,” López Obrador said.
According to mining industry representatives, the nationalization of lithium should not retroactively affect concessions. (Alfonso Durazo Twitter)
Camimex president Jaime Gutiérrez said that canceling Ganfeng’s concessions – a process the Economy Ministry reportedly began in August – cannot be done because a reform to the federal Mining Law that nationalized lithium in April 2022 isn’t retroactive.
“The validity of the possible cancellation will have to be looked at,” he said during the presentation of a Camimex report.
“It’s not yet done, it’s still in development because the law can’t be considered retroactive. I don’t believe it’s possible to cancel the concessions,” Gutiérrez said.
He said that Mexico needs to issue concessions to exploit lithium reserves because the state, via the Mexican Geological Service, “doesn’t have the sufficient capacity or budget” to mine the alkali metal.
Most of Mexico’s potential reserves are in clay deposits that are technically difficult and expensive to mine. No lithium has yet been mined in Mexico, but the government – which has created a state-owned lithium company and established its own lithium reserve in Sonora – has high hopes for the industry.
The Finance Ministry has estimated that lithium reserves in Sonora – where the countries largest potential deposits are located – could be worth as much as US $600 billion. There are smaller deposits in other states including Baja California, San Luis Potosí and Zacatecas.
Lithium is highly sought after because it is a key component of lithium-ion batteries used for green energy storage and can thus play an important role in the transition to clean energy.
Export revenues at the state-owned firm rose almost 10% last month, thanks to increased oil prices. (Pemex/X)
State-owned oil producer Pemex exported US $2.6 billion of crude oil in August, up 10% from the US $2.3 billion reported in July – Mexico’s highest value of monthly crude exports since July 2022.
The increase was mostly due to higher international prices for crude oil. Average export prices in August were at their highest since last November at US $76.10 per barrel, up 7.5% from the US $70.77 reported in July.
Overall oil production remains lower than in 2018, when President López Obrador first assumed office, despite energy independence being a key policy goal of his administration. (Woodside)
The volume of crude exports also increased by 2.2%, from 1.52 million barrels per day (bpd) in July to 1.76 million bpd in August. Pemex reported that 72% of exports went to the Americas, 13% to Europe, and the remainder to other continents.
Pemex’s total crude production also showed a slight monthly increase of 1.8%, reaching 1.6 million bpd, a figure 5.2% lower than August 2022, and lower than production in April, May and June this year.
Despite President López Obrador’s efforts to increase Pemex’s productivity, crude production has trended downward from the 1.8 million bpd reported when he began his presidency in 2018.
Pemex has also struggled with several incidents in recent months, including adeadly fire on an offshore platform and a leak at amajor export terminal in July.
Pemex has been affected by a number of accidents this year, which have affected production. (Ángel Hérnandez/Cuartoscuro)
However, Pemex’s overall hydrocarbon production was up 5.6% annually in August to 1.88 million bpd thanks to greater production of condensates – a lower-density form of oil. Pemex’s condensate production in August was 277,000 bpd in August, the lowest so far this year, although still 214% higher than August last year.
“It should be noted that so far this year the production of liquid hydrocarbons has remained above the barrier of 1.8 billion bpd, despite the incidents that were registered,” Pemex said.
In total, Pemex exported US $2.88 billion of oil, natural gas and petrochemical products in August and imported US $2.71 billion, leaving a trade surplus of US $171 million.
Mexico’s overall exports also performed well in August, according to the national statistics agency (INEGI), increasing3.8% year-on-year.
Border closures and increased checks have caused significant delays, affecting an estimated US $1 billion in trade. (Shutterstock)
Border shutdowns between Mexico and the United States are entering their eleventh day, leaving an estimated US $1 billion in trade stuck in Mexico.
The cargo processing at the Bridge of the Americas between Ciudad Juárez and El Paso, Texas, has beenclosed since Sep. 18 following a surge in irregular migration. The crossing between Piedras Negras and Eagle Passresumed some operations on Saturday after a three-day closure, but extra security checks have caused major delays.
The heightened security measures have been triggered by a significant rise in migrant crossings in recent weeks. (Cuartoscuro)
Enhanced security operations are also in place at two other bridges between Ciudad Juárez and El Paso.
Manuel Sotelo, president of the Ciudad Juárez transport association, told Reuters the measures have left about 8,000 trailers stranded in the city, forcing many companies to reroute merchandise through New Mexico and Arizona to avoid the backlog. An estimated 2,400 rail cars have also been affected.
The delays also caused Canadian manufacturer Bombardier to suspend production at three factories in Ciudad Juárez. Jesús Salayandía, a spokesman for Mexican trade body Canacintra, told Reuters that more work stoppages could be expected if the delays continue.
“The long lines of trailers continues on the Zaragoza Ysleta bridge, the Córdova Americas bridge has been closed to exports for 9 days and there is no mood from the federal government to negotiate a solution,” Nora Yu, of Ciudad Juárez’s Business Coordinating Council, told El Heraldo de Juárez newspaper on Tuesday.
Webcam footage of the Ysleta-Zaragoza bridge shows significant tailbacks of cargo traffic. (Screen Capture)
“We are victims of a political situation which is becoming tense because of the 2024 elections in both countries, and worst of all is that no one is offering a real solution to this problem,” Yu said.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) imposed extra security measures at the El Paso border posts after attempted migrant crossings reached afour-month high in mid-September. Days later, the CBP closed theEagle Pass bridge “in order to redirect personnel to assist the U.S. Border Patrol with taking migrants into custody.”
CBP told Reuters that they had targeted the measures to cause the minimum possible disruption to trade. On Friday, senior CBP official Troy A. Millermet with Mexican officials and transport representatives to discuss the operations.
“We are continuing to work closely with our partners in Mexico to increase security and address irregular migration along our shared border,” Miller said. “The United States and Mexico remain committed to stemming the flow of irregular migration driven by unscrupulous smugglers while maintaining access to lawful pathways.”
Texas Governor Greg Abbott is well-known for hishardline stance on irregular immigration. In April 2022, the Texas border wassnarled for a week after Abbott ordered additional inspections on trucks crossing from Mexico. The resulting backlogs had an estimated cost of US $996.3 million per day.
Many of western Mexico's churches serve dual masters, with hidden Indigenous symbolism hiding in every carving. The Chapel of Santa Cruz, shown here, has the shape of a hawk, which represents the water god Tlaloc. (All photos by John Pint)
Some Mexican churches built by Indigenous artisans hide secrets of pre-Columbian mythology in their architecture and design.
South of Guadalajara and north of Lake Chapala stand a string of venerable old churches which bear witness to the naïveté of the Franciscans who had them built and the cleverness of their Indigenous builders and decorators.
Decorations at the top of the Church of San Juan Evangelista suggest the goggle eyes of Tlaloc. (Jorge Monroy)
In the 16th century, the Spaniards settled remnants of Indigenous peoples from all over Mexico in a corridor stretching from Santa Anita at the southwest corner of today’s greater Guadalajara to Lake Cajititlán, 12 kilometers north of Lake Chapala.
Native peoples displaced by Spaniards
Living in this corridor were Purépechas and Cocas, who were previously accustomed to fighting with each other; there were Náhuas, transported from the center of Mexico and Caxcanes from Zacatecas; and then there were the Tlaxcaltecas who had been allied to the Spaniards and were considered conquerors rather than conquered. They were allowed to ride horses and carry weapons and enjoyed benefits the other Indigenous did not.
A Republic of Indigenous Peoples
On the facade of the Santa Cruz chapel, what should be a crown looks suspiciously like the head of Tlaloc.
“So, what happened,” says archaeologist Francisco Sánchez, who has been studying the area and the period for years, “was that they formed a kind of Republic of Indigenous Peoples, consisting of “pueblitos,” each of which was known as an “altepetl.” This concept had already existed in pre-Columbian Mexico and was resurrected in what I call ‘The Tlajomulco Corridor’ around the end of the 17th century.”
Secret messages from native church builders
Sánchez discovered that the churches and chapels in this area were being used not only as places of Christian worship but also displayed what he calls “ideographic information,” visible in their facades and sometimes in the very architecture of the buildings.
“When those Indigenous people looked at a church,” says Sánchez, “they didn’t just see what the priests were presenting. Instead, they were getting secret messages. They were seeing concepts that went back to pre-Hispanic times.”
The portrayal of three drinking gourds suggests: “This place is dedicated to Tlaloc, god of water.”
An example of this, Sánchez added, is the Chapel of Santa Anita’s facade, built between 1740 and 1795.
This church is named after Saint Anne, the grandmother of Jesus, but locally, it is best known for an image of the Virgen de la Candelaria (the Virgin Holding a Candle), a friar brought to the church from Spain around 1782. The image, it was claimed, could cure the infirm and gained great popularity.
The grandmother of Jesus or the goddess Toci?
All of this was noted by the Indigenous artisans who were sculpting the facade of the Santa Anita Chapel. These artisans knew very well that the pre-Columbian goddess famed for curing the sick was Toci, whose name means “nuestra abuela,” our grandmother.
A disguised snake’s head is hidden above this window. The small angel’s truncated legs represent fangs.
Toci, says Sánchez, is represented by snakes in pre-Columbian mythology, “and here, on the facade of Santa Anita chapel, we see snakes all over the place.”
For example, Sánchez points to the projections beneath two statues on either side of the door. “Each is the head of a Mexican horned pit viper, much venerated in ancient times. The eyes of the snake are disguised as the heads of cherubs, and spirals on both sides represent its horns. At the bottom, a double spiral represents its forked tongue.”
So, at this chapel, a Spaniard sees the grandmother of Jesus and a virgin who cures illnesses, but, comments Sánchez, “any Indigenous person who looks at this facade says: ‘This is the house of Toci,’ and when they walk into this building they are not walking into the sanctuary of the Virgin of the Candelaria, they are entering the house of Toci.”
Tlaloc, the rain god
Archaeologist Francisco Sánchez with a decoration meant to recall the head of a Mexican pit viper.
Another example Sánchez brought up was the nearby church of Santa Cruz de las Flores: “The silhouette of this building is in the shape of a hawk, a pre-Hispanic symbol of water, and among the decorations on the wall, you may find one that looks a lot like Tlaloc, the rain god.”
This church is also well decorated with symbols of flowers because the town was initially called Xochitlán, the Place of the Flowers. On one of the oldest sections of the church’s often repaired facade, three bules (gourds), traditional vessels for carrying water, can be seen.
“If you find this interesting,” commented Sánchez, “you should also look at the church in San Juan Evangelista, located on the shore of Lake Cajititlán: the entire building is shaped like Tlaloc!”
Anything goes “out in the boonies”
The chapel of Santa Anita is dedicated to Jesus’ grandmother, but to the indigenous people of the 17th century, it was the house of the goddess Toci.
I asked Francisco Sánchez whether the priests of these churches had an inkling of what their parishioners saw in them.
He replied that in the Tlajomulco Corridor, they may not have suspected what was going on. Near Mexico City, he explained, “priests were armed with detailed descriptions of everything the native people held sacred. They made efforts to prevent ‘pagan’ symbolism or practices creeping into Catholic rites. Out in the ‘boonies’ (read western Mexico), the Spaniards thought the natives were disorganized and bereft of culture, so the Franciscans were allowed to develop their own style of evangelization. St. John, for example, was accepted by the Indians as a sort of new, improved Tlaloc, and ancient rites related to rain were incorporated into Catholic ceremonies.
“In this multi-ethnic republic,” said Sánchez, “the Indigenous people are not passive at all; they are actively involved in constructing their own reality. Here, we have something beyond a ‘conquista.’ These people still have a cosmovision of their own… and they are transforming it into something new.”
A thousand-year-old pyramid
A visitor heads for the top of La Pirámide de la Loma, which has been around for 1000 years.
If you visit some of the churches and chapels mentioned above, you may also want to climb to the top of a thousand-year-old pyramid in San Agustín, just 2.5 kilometers southwest of the Chapel of Santa Anita.
La Pirámide de la Loma (the pyramid of the hill), warns Francisco Sánchez, was “restored” by local people who didn’t bother to consult an archaeologist. Nevertheless, what you experience at the top of the pyramid is impressive because you have a 360-degree view from this point, allowing you to discover that you are standing smack in the middle of a great circle of mountains.
“This is truly a special place,” you say to yourself, and even if the pyramid was restored all wrong, that message from its original builders still comes through loud and strong.
To visit the duplicitous churches and the incorrectly restored pyramid mentioned above, ask Google Maps to take you to:
Santa Anita Chapel: “GHX5+GC Santa Anita, Jalisco”
Santa Cruz Chapel: “FFJR+CC Santa Cruz de las Flores, Jalisco”
San Juan Evangelista Church: “CM3P+MC San Juan Evangelista, Jalisco”
Pyramid of La Loma: “GGPQ+PF San Agustin, Jalisco”
You don’t need to be an archaeologist to discover the hidden messages in these 17th-century churches and chapels.
The writer has lived near Guadalajara, Jalisco, since 1985. His most recent book is Outdoors in Western Mexico, Volume Three. More of his writing can be found on his blog.
The state's security minister, Gerardo Palacios, says a "purge" of a criminal group is the cause of the outbreak of violence. (GOBIERNO NUEVO LEÓN / CUARTOSCURO.COM)
Twelve bodies dumped across multiple locations. Eleven alleged criminals arrested. Three presumed cartel members killed in shootouts with police. Twenty-four military-grade weapons seized. At least five highway blockades.
All that happened in the northern border state of Nuevo León in the past two days.
Police found bodies at seven points around Monterrey on Tuesday. (Cuartoscuro)
State authorities reported that heads and other body parts of at least 12 male victims were found at seven locations in the metropolitan area of Monterrey on Tuesday. The grisly discoveries were reminiscent of the 2010s when cartel violence plagued the state capital.
Messages left alongside the human remains were signed by the Northeast Cartel, which is based in the neighboring state of Tamaulipas.
“A purge within an organized crime group … due to disloyalty” is believed to be the most likely motive for the murders, according to Nuevo León Security Minister Gerardo Palacios Pámanes.
He said that authorities believed that members of a rival criminal group had infiltrated the Northeast Cartel and were found out.
Police have arrested 11 suspects in relation to the outbreak of violence in the state. (Fuerza Civil/X)
The general secretary of the Nuevo León government, Javier Navarro, suggested they were members of the Sinaloa Cartel, which is involved in a turf war with the Northeast Cartel in northeastern Mexico.
State Attorney General Pedro Arce said that authorities will review security camera footage to try to identify the people who dumped bags and coolers containing human remains in Monterrey and nearby municipalities that are part of the city’s metropolitan area.
On Wednesday, state authorities carried out operations in the municipalities of General Bravo, Los Aldamas and Doctor Arroyo and arrested 11 presumed criminals, Palacios told a press conference. It was unclear whether the suspects, one of whom was wounded in a shootout with police and admitted to hospital, are members of the Northeast Cartel and linked to the murder of the men whose bodies were dumped on Tuesday.
General Bravo, Los Aldamas and Doctor Arroyo are all on the border with Tamaulipas. The first two are located in eastern Nuevo León while Doctor Arroyo is in the south of the state.
Authorities have had confrontations with armed men in various parts of the state. (Secretaría de Seguridad NL/X)
Palacios also reported that three presumed criminals were killed in clashes with police. One death occurred in Los Aldamas and two in Doctor Arroyo. One of the slain men allegedly planned and may have perpetrated the murder of the director of the Linares municipal police in June, he said.
The security minister said that police on Wednesday seized 24 firearms whose use is restricted to the army as well as two grenades and eight vehicles.
One police officer was shot in the leg during the confrontation in Doctor Arroyo. He was admitted to hospital, but discharged on Wednesday night, Palacios reported on X, formerly Twitter.
In addition to clashing with police on patrol, cartel henchmen attacked two police stations, one in Iturbide and another in the neighboring municipality of Linares. No injuries were reported, Palacios said.
Cartel members also set up fiery blockades on the Carretera Nacional (National Highway), which links Monterrey to locations in the south of Nuevo León. Blockades, including ones created by setting hijacked trucks and buses on fire, were set up at at least five locations in the municipalities of Hualahuises, Montemorelos and Linares.
The newspaper Milenio reported that traffic was blocked in both directions due to the blockades, which were set up in the late afternoon. Security forces and firefighters responded and brought the situation under control.
According to Milenio TV, 15 of Nuevo León’s 51 municipalities reported being “under criminal siege” in the past two days. Eight of the municipalities are in the Monterrey metropolitan area and seven are in the south of the state. Murders, confrontations, blockades and other “violent events” occurred in those municipalities, according to Milenio TV.
Palacios said on Wednesday that municipal, state and federal authorities are working together on security challenges in Nuevo León, an industrial powerhouse and a hub for foreign investment.
“And that’s the way we’ll continue,” the security minister said.
“Nuevo León doesn’t have the option of dropping its guard. Nuevo León will never stop doing what is necessary to built lasting peace,” he said.
The Monterrey International Airport has added a new wing in Terminal A, with another under construction. (CancunIAirport)
With the reinstatement of Mexico’s FAA Category 1 safety rating, Viva Aerobus has announced plans to launch six new routes to the United States from the Monterrey International Airport in Nuevo León, which has recently expanded.
The low-cost carrier also added four new domestic routes from the same airport, representing the airline’s most significant expansion on record.
The new routes mark Viva’s most ambitious expansion plans yet. (Oliver Holzbauer/Flickr)
“This is Viva Aerobus’ largest expansion in its 16 years of history, strengthening itself as the city’s leading and most important airline,” the carrier said in a statement.
The new routes to the U.S. include:
Denver: Starting Jan. 25, 2024, with two weekly flights on Thursdays and Sundays.
Austin: Starting March 22, 2024, with four weekly flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays.
Orlando: Starting May 9, 2024, with three weekly flights on Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays.
Miami: Starting July 1, 2024, with three weekly flights on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
San Francisco (Oakland): Starting on July 1, 2024, with two weekly flights on Mondays and Fridays.
New York (JFK): No details have been announced yet.
The new domestic routes include:
Tulum: Starting Dec. 1, 2023, one daily flight.
Tapachula: Starting Nov. 2, 2023, three weekly flights on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
La Paz: Starting Dec. 23, 2023, two weekly flights on Saturdays and Tuesdays.
Durango: Starting on April 18, 2024, three weekly flights on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
Monterrey is an industrial hub in the northern state of Nuevo León. (
These 10 routes would increase Viva Aerobús’ offer during 2024 to 13 million seats and 49 destinations, including 13 in the U.S. – an increase in capacity of 23% compared to 2023. For this purpose, the Mexican carrier has assigned 28 aircraft to Monterrey.
“We applaud the historic growth of Viva Aerobús in Monterrey, which provides greater alternatives and facilities to all our passengers, whom we will continue to serve with the great service that defines us: safety, reliability, and first-class facilities,” said Ricardo Dueñas Espiru, general director of Grupo Aeroportuario del Centro Norte (OMA), which operates the Monterrey airport and 12 others in Mexico.
According to OMA, the renovation and expansion works in progress at the airport will increase its capacity to receive 1.4 million passengers per year in addition to its current capacity of 12 million passengers annually. Nuevo León Governor Samuel García wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the expanded and renovated airport will have state of the art facilities to receive “all the tourists and future companies arriving in Nuevo León.”
On Wednesday, the airport opened a new section in addition to the recently added West Ambulatory. Construction work is still underway for the East Ambulatory, which is expected to be completed in the first half of 2024.
Divorce rates in Mexico have jumped in the last decade according to official statistics. (elgrangestor)
Till death – or divorce – do us part.
The number of married couples getting divorced in Mexico on an annual basis has increased by more than 50% over the past decade, according to data published by the national statistics agency INEGI on Wednesday.
Two-thirds of divorces in Mexico last year were no-fault divorces, while just over three in 10 occurred by mutual consent. (Andrik Langfield/Unsplash)
There were 166,766 divorces last year, an increase of 53.4% compared to the 108,727 recorded in 2013.
The number of married couples who officially severed ties last year was up 11.4% compared to 2021 and 79.8% compared to 2020, when getting out of the house to arrange a divorce was not as easy due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Two-thirds of divorces last year were no-fault divorces while just over three in 10 occurred by mutual consent, INEGI said. Among the other reasons marriages ended in divorce were “adultery or sexual infidelity” and “separation for two years or more.”
The vast majority of marriages that were officially dissolved in 2022 – 99.6% – were between a man and a woman, while the remainder, 605 in total, were between same-sex couples.
Divorce rates are up 50% from 2013, according to national statistics agency Inegi (Inegi)
Profile of a recent divorcee
The average age of men and women who got divorced last year was 43 and 40.6, respectively.
Just over half of married couples who formally separated last year – 51.9% – didn’t have children at the time of their divorce. Just under a quarter had one child, 17.5% had two kids and 6% had three or more.
The highest level of education for around 20% of divorcees was high school, while around 22% had a tertiary level professional or technical qualification. Around 19% of divorcees only finished secundaria (middle school) while the highest level of completed education of almost 6% was primary school. The education background of almost three in 10 divorcees was unspecified.
One-third of divorces last year came after 20 or more years of marriage. (Inegi)
Almost seven in 10 men who got divorced last year were in paid employment while 52.1% of women had jobs. The remainder were either unemployed or didn’t declare their work status.
Campeche couples call it quits, Veracruz valentines value their vows
Campeche had the highest divorce rate in the country last year with 4.75 divorces per 1,000 adults. Sinaloa ranked second with a rate of 3.75 followed by Nuevo León (3.58); Coahuila (3.32); and Aguascalientes (3.25).
Veracruz had the lowest divorce rate among the 32 federal entities in 2022 with just 0.76 divorces per 1,000 adults. The next lowest rates were recorded in Oaxaca (0.92); Puebla (1.17); Jalisco (1.23); and Chiapas (1.24).
Across Mexico there were 1.86 divorces per 1,000 adults last year, INEGI said.
Many years of marital bliss or just holding on?
One-third of the divorces completed last year came after 20 or more years of marriage. Almost half of the divorces – 46.1% – ended marriages that lasted between six and 20 years, while 18.7% followed one to five years of matrimony.
INEGI said that 1.5% of couples who got divorced last year had been married for less than a year.
Divorce vs marriage
There were 166,766 divorces in Mexico last year and 507,052 marriages, according to INEGI. That means there were about three marriages for each divorce.
Put another way, there were 32.9 divorces for every 100 marriages. That figure is 77% higher than that recorded in 2013, when there were 18.6 divorces for every 100 marriages.
The website, while still in development, will soon offer low-price fares for its first flights in December. (lopezobrador.org.mx)
The government-operated Mexicana de Aviación airline has revealed its new website and first 20 national destinations. It is scheduled to launch operations in December this year.
The new airline will offer travelers the choice of three major destination types – “beach,” “adventure” and “business.” Tickets will be 18 to 20% cheaper than major domestic rivals, including Volaris, VivaAerobus and Aeroméxico, the company announced.
The Mexicana airlines website invites future passengers to explore “beach,” “adventure” and “business” trips. (mexicanavuela.com.mx)
The beach destinations include many of Mexico’s most iconic resort towns; Acapulco, Cancún, Cozumel, Huatulco, Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo, La Paz, Los Cabos, Mazatlán and Puerto Vallarta.
Meanwhile, “adventure” flights will take travelers to Chetumal, Hermosillo, Mérida and Oaxaca. Business travelers will be able to fly to Bajío International Airport in León, Guanajuato, as well as regional business centers Tijuana, Ciudad Juárez, Guadalajara, Monterrey and Villahermosa.
Mexicana has also announced that it will not charge for checked baggage weighing under 15 kilograms, and will offer free seat selection and complimentary beverages during its launch period. It will operate a modern fleet of 10 Boeing 737-800 series aircraft, with the first three expected to be delivered as early as next week, according to the news website Infobae.
With bases in Tulum and Mexico City, the state-owned airline will offer reduced ticket prices to 20 destinations in Mexico. (Andrea Murcia/Cuartoscuro)
In a statement on its website, the airline said it aims to “provide air transportation services … to everyone, with high standards of safety, trust and quality, while promoting the social and cultural values of Mexico.”
The airline hopes to achieve a 6% share of the domestic travel market and will employ less than 410 employees at launch. The military-run Olmeca-Maya-Mexico group, which owns the airline, will also operate both AIFA and the new Maya Train project, also scheduled to begin service in December.
Latin America's biggest arts and culture festival welcomes artists from over 30 countries to Guanajuato's stages, theaters and galleries for 17 days in October. (festivalcervantino.gob.mx)
This year’s International Cervantino Festival (FIC) in Guanajuato promises an unexpected twist for a performing arts festival: the inclusion of sports. Baseball, flag football and boxing can be enjoyed in addition to the festival’s world-renowned program of arts and culture celebrations.
The reason? The United States is this year’s invited country of honor.
United States Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar attended the inaugural conference for the 51st International Cervantino Festival, where the U.S. is this year’s invited country of honor. (Mario Jasso/Cuartoscuro)
The 51st “Cervantino” will take over the city of Guanajuato from Oct. 13 to 29. Though a small part of the festival will include athletic clinics and demonstrations, the festival’s marquee offerings will still be the music, dance and theater performances that have put Latin America’s largest cultural festival on the map.
Mariana Aymerich Ordóñez, Mexico’s new general director of Promotion and Cultural Festivals, explained that as the country of honor – following South Korea last year and Cuba in 2021 – the U.S. wanted to provide a sample of activities that are a fundamental part of the American experience.
According to Aymerich, the initial plan was to have a baseball tournament with teams from the U.S., Sonora and Guanajuato, two Mexican states where baseball is big. Sonora is this year’s Mexican state of honor.
Though things didn’t work out in that regard, “a series of [sports] clinics were organized, as well as [two flag football] workshops at the José Aguilar y Maya baseball stadium,” Aymerich said.
One of the sports offerings at this year’s FIC is a two-day clinic for youth basketball players, organized by the Mexico City minor league NBA team Capitanes. (capitanes.mx)
The 69-year-old ballpark happens to provide one of the most picturesque stadium views in all of Mexico, but this story can’t dwell on sports forever.
The real stars of the show at this year’s Cervantino are the international roster of artists that will descend on Guanajuato for 17 days, filling the city’s theaters, concert halls and public squares.
More than 2,800 artists from Colombia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, India and 29 other countries will participate.
The opening night show, “Broadway Goes to Hollywood,” is already sold out, as is the closing show with jazz musician Arturo O’Farrill, the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra and the Son Jarocho Conga Patria Collective, all of whom combined to create the 2023 Grammy-winning Latin jazz album “Fandango at the Wall in New York.”
Guanajuato’s Juárez Theater is the emblematic venue of the Cervantino. (Wikimedia Commons)
Other sold-out shows include a concert by La Santa Cecilia paying tribute to the iconic Mexican singer José Alfredo Jiménez, who died 50 years ago, and concerts by Mexican-American opera singer Arturo Chacón, Sonoran reggae-indie singer Caloncho, the band Orquesta Aragón from Cuba and the Venice Baroque Orchestra from Italy.
Several high-caliber folkloric ballet shows are also sold out.
Tickets remain available for many performances, including a concert by the 18-piece U.S. Army Blues band on Oct. 16 in the gorgeous, 120-year-old Juárez Theater.
In a push to provide more options for young people, an open-air stage in Pasitos park will be set up for aerial shows, street theater from France and a diverse lineup of music genres: hip-hop, pop, rock and the music of Indigenous peoples.
The U.S. Army Blues will play at the Juárez Theater on Monday, Oct. 16 at 9 p.m. (festivalcervantino.gob.mx)
Tickets can now be purchased at convenience stores around the country, as well as online.
By the 1990s women represented 63% of all registered voters. (Segob)
Though there had been earlier stirrings for Mexican women’s right to vote, the immediate spark for suffrage in Mexico was struck by the Revolution of 1910. During the Revolution, women took jobs traditionally held by men; many fought alongside men in the war. The experience of the Revolution catalyzed women’s desire to participate equally in civic society and be a part of post-war efforts to define the future of Mexico. To do so, they would need to obtain full citizenship and the right to vote.
The First Feminist Congress is convened in Mérida, Yucatán
The First Feminist Congress was convened in Mérida, Yucatán, in 1916. (Wikipedia)
In 1916, women were granted permission to convene the First Feminist Congress in Mérida, Yucatán. The historic event was arranged by a well-respected private school teacher, Señora Consuelo Zavata y Castillo. The congress was attended by a total of 620 delegates, both men and women. Yucatán Governor Salvador Alvarado, an advocate for women’s rights, provided leave time for female teachers to attend and supplied them with train tickets and pesos.
What Zavata y Castillo didn’t anticipate was the degree of anti-feminist sentiment by the male delegates. One feminist attendee read a reform proposal written by prominent Mexico City feminist Hermila Galindo for the delegates to consider. The text, called “The woman of the future”, included sex education for women and divorce, which shocked the men. Galindo strongly argued that women must be empowered with an education and supported the proposal which laid the foundation of what would become part of the Constitution of 1917 such as state-sponsored secular education and equal pay.
In the last session of the congress, a proposal was made to modify the Yucatán Constitution to include women’s suffrage – Galindo didn’t feel the proposal went far enough in giving women the right to vote. Salvador Alvarado’s successor, Governor Felipe Carrillo Puerto – a revolutionary socialist – remedied that failure by proposing legislation to make women citizens and give them the right to vote in 1922 which was officially recognized in 1923. By 1925, two other states, Chiapas and Tabasco, joined Yucatán by allowing women to vote in party elections.
Women exercise their vote in Yucatán
Once women in Yucatán were given the right to vote, they elected women to office. Three women were elected to the state legislature and one woman to the Mérida City Council. All four were forced to resign their positions because the federal constitution did not allow women to hold office. Three decades of struggle would follow.
Several concerns shaped early opposition to women’s suffrage. Jocelyn Alcott, the author of “Revolutionary Women in Post-revolutionary Mexico”, says that opponents of women’s suffrage felt that “women would support Church-endorsed candidates subverting the anti-clerical regime.” There was also fear that they would abandon their role as mothers and caregivers and opponents felt they had a “superficial view of political issues,” Alcott says.
According to social scientist Victoria Rodriguez, the years “between 1916 – 1934 marked the rise of the women’s movement in Mexico, concerned almost exclusively with gaining the right to vote [nationally].”
Presidential support for suffrage brings hope to the movement
Hemrila Galindo strongly argued that women must be empowered with an education. (Segob)
The election of President Lázaro Cárdenas brought hope to the movement.Cárdenas had advocated for women’s suffrage for years under the premise that it would benefit the nation. In 1937, women challenged the wording of the Constitution concerning citizenship eligibility – the Constitution did not specify men “and women” in granting full citizenship.
Amalía de Castillo Ledón, a columnist for the newspaper Excelsior, became a champion of political rights for Mexican women, organizing the Club Internacional de Mujeres (1932) and the Ateneo Mexicano de Mujeres in 1937 which led the battle for suffrage. Ledón later went on to become the first female member of a presidential cabinet and the first female ambassador serving in five different posts including Ambassador to the United Nations.
María del Refugio García ran for office in Uruapan as a candidate of the Sole Front for Women’s Rights. She won by an overwhelming margin but was not allowed to take her seat due to the wording in the Constitution. In response, she went on a hunger strike for eleven days outside President Cárdenas’ residence in Mexico City. Cárdenas ended her strike by introducing a change to Article 34 of the Constitution to grant full citizenship to women but it failed to get ratified.
Women achieve national suffrage
President Miguel Alemán continued the effort through legislative proposals in 1947 but failed. Upon assuming the presidency in 1953, one of Adolfo Ruíz Cortínes’ first measures was to reform the Constitution to grant women political rights, fulfilling a campaign promise to reform Articles 34 and 115.
Thirty years after women acquired the right to vote in Yucatán, women were finally decreed full citizenship with no restrictions, giving women across Mexico the right to vote and to hold political office. The long struggle took many years and involved many courageous women leaders, but women finally voted in their first federal election in 1955.
Women make steady progress as a political force
Griselda Alvárez Pónce de Leon became the first woman elected governor of a state in Colima. (Segob)
Following the enactment of suffrage, women started claiming seats in local government. Their activism in social and political grass-roots movements sent a strong message to federal authorities that they were a political force to be reckoned with. In the 1970s they became more actively involved in agrarian and labor movements. By 1979, the first woman was elected governor of a state when Griselda Alvárez Pónce de Leon became governor of Colima. In 1982, the first woman, Rosario Ibarra de Piedra ran for president. By the 1990s, women represented 63% of all registered voters.
In 2014, President Enrique Peña Nieto included a quota system to ensure gender parity of candidates put forth by political parties for federal and local legislatures in his electoral reform rules, further increasing the number of women in political office.
Women achieve gender-parity
Today, Mexico has reached gender parity in both chambers of Congress. In the 32 state legislatures, women hold 47% of the legislative seats. Nine of the 32 states have a woman as governor. This year saw Norma Piña become the first female chief justice of Mexico’s Supreme Court. The office of the presidency, however, remained elusive although six women have unsuccessfully run for that position.
Claudia Sheinbaum (left) and Xóchitl Gálvez (right) will represent Morena and the Broad Front for Mexico coalition, respectively, in the 2024 presidential race. (MND)
In 2023, the two major candidates for president are women. Claudia Sheinbaum, the first woman mayor of Mexico City, will represent the Morena party and Xóchitl Gálvez, representing the Broad Front for Mexico coalition will be on the ballot next year. Both are engineers in their 60s.
After 100 years of struggle and setbacks, at this point in time, it looks like Mexico will have its first woman president in 2024. Another major step forward for women in Mexico.
Sheryl Losser is a former public relations executive, researcher, writer, and editor. She has been writing professionally for 35 years. She moved to Mazatlán in 2021 and works part-time doing freelance research and writing. She can be reached at A[email protected]
