President Sheinbaum receives from Kia Mexico CEO Andy Kim a scale model of the EV3 SUV the South Korean company will soon be manufacturing in Mexico.
(Camila Ayala Benabib / Cuartoscuro.com)
South Korean automaker Kia announced Wednesday it will invest US $649 million in Mexico over the next two years to manufacture the EV3 SUV model, the company’s first fully electric vehicle to be produced in the country.
Speaking at President Claudia Sheinbaum’s Wednesday morning mañanera press conference, Kia Mexico CEO Andy Kim said his company’s project fits in with Plan Mexico, the administration’s ambitious economic strategy that seeks to promote industrialization, substitute imports and trigger regional development through multi-million dollar investments.
La presidenta @Claudiashein anunció que KIA México invertirá 649 millones de dólares para trasladar a nuestro país la producción de vehículos eléctricos que hoy se fabrican en Corea del Sur.
The investment will be deployed between 2026 and 2028 and includes the expansion and adaptation of Kia’s Pesquería plant in the northern state of Nuevo León in order to receive production of the new vehicle, a compact SUV that until now was assembled exclusively in South Korea.
The company also said that part of the investment will be allocated to environmental and sustainability projects.
According to Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard, operations will begin on Aug. 4, making Mexico the first country outside of Korea to manufacture the model.
“This is great news because it allows Mexico to produce an electric vehicle with very competitive and advanced features,” Ebrard said at Wednesday’s mañanera.
The project incorporates new industrial technology and more efficient energy systems, and will gradually increase the vehicle’s domestic content, which will start at around 27% and aims to rise with the inclusion of local suppliers.
Production of the new car will create 500 new jobs and later 1,500 additional direct jobs between 2027 and 2030.
Although the Korean automaker has not yet released its production forecasts, President Claudia Sheinbaum assured the press that a significant portion of the production will be destined for the domestic market, a key promise of Plan Mexico.
“The idea is to strengthen the adoption of electric vehicles in the country,” Sheinbaum said.
Kia’s move offers reassurance for Mexico at a time when certainty about the investment environment is scarce due to protectionist measures by the United States and the ongoing review of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
“In a time of such uncertainty regarding the automotive industry […] this decision means that this company […] is seeing investment opportunities in the country,” Ebrard said.
World Bank Group President Ajay Banga (third from right) stands next to Mexico's Agriculture Minister Columba López before a scheduled meeting with President Sheinbaum Wednesday. (Sader)
World Bank Group President Ajay Banga is in Mexico this week with plans to move forward a new Country Partnership Framework (CPF) to support future investment in Mexico.
On his organization’s first official visit in over five years, Banga is meeting with senior government officials and private-sector leaders to advance the CPF 2026-2030, which will be developed in line with the Sheinbaum administration’s overarching Plan México economic development strategy.
World Bank President Ajay Banga:
I come from Punjab which was India’s agricultural centre. Today you’ll find young kids there who have just sold their farms. They are rich for 4 years and buy an SUV, smoke and drink a lot. Soon they are broke and end up trying to find gig jobs. pic.twitter.com/oa0q5mHQbE
The CPF will therefore focus on strengthening competitiveness, developing human capital, expanding productive investment, consolidating domestic industries and strengthening value chains.
The World Bank’s previous CPF with Mexico was established in February 2020 at which time it aligned with the previous Morena government’s National Development Plan.
Banga emphasized that the new framework will concentrate more resources on fewer objectives, compared to the seven aims outlined in the 2020-2025 framework.
“We are trying to narrow these priorities to put more resources to work on fewer things and make a difference at scale over the next five years,” Banga said.
The current discussions in Mexico City are focusing on sectors with high potential to boost growth and employment in Mexico, such as agriculture and manufacturing, as well as emphasizing support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
SMEs are the lifeline for job creation, Banga stressed.
As president of the World Bank Group — an international organization that oversees five development agencies, including the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA) which two together are referred to as the World Bank — Banga is discussing strengthening the organization’s partnership with Mexico’s agricultural sector through its AgriConnect program, which focuses on transforming smallholder farming, creating jobs, and strengthening global food security.
Through the program, the World Bank aims to provide smallholder farmers with better inputs and connect them with regional and international export markets to add value to their agricultural activities.
The World Bank aims to work closely with authorities to create curated CPFs that fit the country’s context. Banga also emphasized the need to raise greater private-sector investment to support growth.
“We need to mobilize private capital,” said Banga. “The World Bank as a whole closed the last fiscal year having mobilized US $122 million of private capital to emerging markets.”
Banga said that, in Mexico, the World Bank aims to direct private investment toward sectors such as energy, health and pharmaceuticals.
The overall percentage of Mexican respondents who told Pew they had a favorable view of China is 19 percentage points higher than the 40% of Mexican adults who said they had a favorable view of the United States. (Shutterstock)
Mexicans view China and Chinese President Xi Jinping more favorably than the United States and U.S. President Donald Trump, according to the results of a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center.
Between Feb. 20 and April 10, the Washington, D.C.-based think tank surveyed 1,017 Mexican adults for its Spring 2026 Global Attitudes Survey. People from dozens of other countries also participated in the survey.
(Pew Research)
Pew asked the respondents whether they had a “very favorable, somewhat favorable, somewhat unfavorable or very unfavorable opinion of China.”
Among Mexican respondents, 44% said they had a “somewhat favorable” view of the single-party East Asian economic powerhouse while 15% said they had a “very favorable” view of the country. Thus, 59% of Mexican respondents indicated they had a favorable view of China.
By contrast, only 27% of Mexican respondents said they had an unfavorable view of China. Among that cohort, 12% said they had a “very unfavorable” view of China — the world’s second largest economy and second most populous country — and 15% said they had a “somewhat unfavorable” view of the Asian nation that has been led by Xi since 2013. Thirteen per cent of Mexican respondents said they didn’t know whether they had a favorable or unfavorable view of China or declined to answer the question.
The overall percentage of Mexican respondents who told Pew they had a favorable view of China is 19 percentage points higher than the 40% of Mexican adults who said they had a favorable view of the United States.
Mexico is not unique in this respect. Citing its 2026 survey results, Pew reported that in “most of the 36 countries surveyed, more people have a favorable view of China than of the U.S.”
Among those countries is Canada, where 44% of respondents said they had a favorable view of China versus 33% who said the same about the United States.
Pew reported this week that for “the first time in almost two decades of Pew Research Center surveys, both Canadians and Mexicans now view China more favorably than their neighbor, the United States.”
“Our spring 2026 global survey marks the first time that Canadians have expressed a significantly more positive view of China than the U.S.,” the think tank said.
“Mexicans, by contrast, have viewed China more favorably than the U.S. in several previous Center surveys — all of them conducted during President Donald Trump’s time in the White House.”
Pew said that in Mexico, “the share of adults who say the U.S. government respects its people’s freedoms has reached an all-time low in our surveys.” (Donald J. Trump/Facebook)
Trump, of course, is known for making disparaging remarks about Mexico, including his infamous 2015 claim that Mexico was sending “rapists” to the United States. Such remarks certainly don’t endear the U.S. president to the Mexican people.
Beyond Trump’s rhetoric, there are real tensions in the Mexico-U.S. relationship, including ones related to trade — think U.S. tariffs on Mexican vehicles, steel and aluminum, and the Trump administration’s refusal to renew the USMCA in its current form. There are also pressure points related to security, sovereignty and the treatment of Mexicans in the United States, of whom at least 17 have died while under the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or in ICE operations since Trump returned to the White House in January 2025.
Due to geography, Mexico’s relationship with China is not nearly as close as the one it has with its northern neighbor. However, trade between Mexico and China has increased in recent years. In fact, China is now Mexico’s second-largest trade partner as it is Mexico’s third-largest export market and second-largest source of imports, according to the Mexican bank Banorte.
Respondents to Pew’s Spring 2026 Global Attitudes Survey were asked how much confidence they had in Xi and in Trump to “do the right thing regarding world affairs.”
Among Mexican respondents, 7% said they had “a lot of confidence” in Xi to do the right thing while 29% said they had “some confidence” in the Chinese president.
By contrast, only 1% of Mexican respondents said they had “a lot of confidence” in Trump to do the right thing while 10% said they had “some confidence” in the U.S. president.
(Pew Research)
Pew summarized the results as such: “In Mexico, 35% of adults have confidence in Xi and 11% in Trump.”
The think tank also noted that in its 2025 survey, “Canadians and Mexicans both named the U.S. as their country’s top ally and top threat.”
In its latest survey, Pew found that 65% of Mexican respondents had “no confidence at all” in Trump to do the right thing regarding world affairs, while an additional 23% had “not too much confidence” in the U.S. president.
Twenty-four per cent of Mexican respondents had “no confidence at all” in Xi to do the right thing regarding world affairs, while an additional 25% had “not too much confidence” in the Chinese leader.
In a report published on Monday, Pew noted that Mexicans are “much more likely to call China a reliable partner to Mexico than to say this about the U.S. (58% vs. 34%).”
Pew found that 70% of Mexican respondents aged 18-34 have a favorable view of China. Among Mexicans aged 35-49, the percentage declined to 61%, while among Mexicans aged 50 and older it was lower again at 44%.
Pew also found that young Mexican adults view the U.S. more favorably than older Mexicans. Among those aged 18-34, 52% had a favorable view of the U.S. compared to 39% among the 35-49 cohort and 28% among the 50+ cohort.
Pew noted that in Mexico, “views of the U.S. and China don’t differ much by ideology,” whereas “Canadians who place themselves on the ideological left are much more likely than those on the right to have a favorable view of China and an unfavorable view of the United States.”
Thirty-five per cent of Mexican respondents said that the Chinese government “respects the personal freedoms of its people” whereas just 20% said the same about the U.S. government. Pew said that in Mexico, “the share of adults who say the U.S. government respects its people’s freedoms has reached an all-time low in our surveys,” adding that “for the first time in the nearly two decades we’ve asked this question, Mexicans are now more likely to say this about the Chinese government than the U.S. government.”
Only 28% of Mexican respondents said that the United States contributes “a great deal” or “a fair amount” to “peace and stability around the world,” down from 50% in 2023 when former U.S. President Joe Biden was in office.
Forty-seven per cent of Mexican respondents said that China contributes “a great deal” or “a fair amount” to “peace and stability around the world,” up from 41% in 2023.
Almost three-quarters of Mexican respondents (73%) said that the United States interferes in the affairs of other countries, while only 45% said the same about China.
Forty-seven per cent of Mexican respondents said that China takes the interests of countries like Mexico into account when making international policy decisions, while 49% said it does not. Pew noted that “around three-in-four” Mexican respondents “say that the U.S. does not take these interests into account” when making international policy decisions.
National Guard troopers adopted Comando as a humanitarian rescue but he turned out to be a valued recruit. (El Observador de Chihuahua/Facebook)
A small dog resembling a Chihuahua has become the newest — and perhaps unlikeliest — face of Mexico’s National Guard, after troopers in the northern border state of Chihuahua adopted him from an elderly couple who could no longer care for him.
The mixed-breed dog, named Comando, has spent the past four months living at the National Guard’s state coordination headquarters in Chihuahua, where he now follows officers’ routines and responds to their orders.
🇲🇽🐕 ¡Mordidas por la patria!: un perro adoptado luce el uniforme de la Guardia Nacional de México
🪖 Su nombre es “Comando”, un cachorro de raza pequeña que se ha convertido en el integrante más querido de la Coordinación Estatal de la Guardia Nacional en Chihuahua (norte),… pic.twitter.com/XHA60Zq9ZA
In videos and photos shared on social media in recent weeks, Comando trots alongside National Guard members in a miniature uniform complete with helmet, sunglasses, booties and a custom shirt.
He even appeared at a recent ceremony marking the National Guard’s seventh anniversary in the state.
Authorities said Comando, whose name is the Spanish spelling for “commando,” originally lived with an elderly couple who “could not provide him with the necessary care” and put him up for adoption.
The National Guard decided to step in — not for an operation, but a rescue of their own.
From there, the dog quickly became “the most beloved and viral member of the Chihuahua National Guard,” according to a report from Sopitas.com, a Mexican digital media outlet.
Officers describe him as one of their most “intelligent and dedicated” elements, the outlet added. They say he adapted immediately to barracks life, enjoys teamwork and has become a kind of emotional support companion for those who patrol and protect the state.
Beyond the novelty of his tiny uniform, Mexican news sources framed Comando’s story as a reminder of the value of responsible pet adoption, as well as the bond between security forces and the animals that work alongside them.
In May 2026 — our third focus month — the MND Economy Index™ scored 68.61. (Mexico News Daily)
THE MND ECONOMY INDEX™
Providing broad insight into the Mexican economy
MND Intelligence · Third edition
Welcome to the third edition of the MND Economy Index™, part of the MND Intelligence™ suite of data products from Mexico News Daily.
The MND Economy Index™ is a 10-pillar, 19-indicator composite index that compiles a broad range of economic data into a single score between 0 and 100, giving Mexico News Daily readers a clear, accessible picture of how the Mexican economy is performing across multiple dimensions.
The inaugural edition of the index — using data mostly from the month of March — was published in late May. The second edition of the index, which yielded a score of 67.55 for the Mexican economy, was published in late June.
In the inaugural MND Economy Index™ article, we not only analyzed the index score — 63.39 out of 100 — but also explained what the index is, why we developed it and how it works. Click here to read (or re-read) those explanations.
In this July edition of the MND Economy Index™ — which uses economic data primarily from the month of May — the index score increased by just over 1 point compared to the second edition to reach 68.61. That score is above the neutral benchmark of 60, but there is still significant room for improvement.
(Mexico News Daily)
Before we look more closely at the latest index result, and the index trend in early 2026, here is a short guide to what the overall index score means.
85–100: Exceptional — the economy performing at a high level across nearly all indicators.
75–84: Strong — broad-based performance with only minor areas of concern.
60–74: Above neutral — meaningful strengths, but with notable room for improvement.
50–59: Mixed — passing marks overall, more indicators above benchmark than below.
Below 50: Broad underperformance — more indicators below benchmark than above.
The MND Economy Index™ trend between February and May
The first two MND Economy Index™ scores we calculated for 2026 — both corresponding to the first quarter of the year — were very similar.
The first index score we calculated for 2026 was 63.69, a number derived mainly from economic data for the month of February. The index score declined slightly to 63.39 based on a calculation using data that was primarily for the month of March.
(Mexico News Daily)
While there was little variation in the index score across those two editions, there were some significant changes in individual pillar scores, including the Inflation one and the Sovereign Risk one (see more details here).
In April, we saw the first significant movement of the year in the overall MND Economy Index™ score. In the space of a month, the score rose 4.16 points to 67.55, a clear indication that the Mexican economy was gaining strength. What was particularly encouraging was that the biggest contributor to the increase was the Economic Growth pillar, as the Mexican economy expanded 2.2% in April compared to just 0.5% in May.
While economic growth moderated to 2% in May, there were encouraging signs in other data related to the Mexican economy for that month, allowing the MND Economy Index™ score to increase for a second consecutive month to approach 70.
The July edition of the MND Economy Index™ (based mainly on May data)
As noted above, the MND Economy Index™ score for this July edition — based mainly on data for May 2026 — was 68.61, an increase of 1.04 percentage points compared to the previous month. Below you will see the score for each of the ten pillars that make up the index, expressed out of 10 to reflect each pillar’s exact contribution to the final composite score.
Pillars are color-coded using a traffic light system: green (a score above 7.5) indicates strong performance; yellow (5.0–7.5) signals decent performance but with room for improvement; and red (below 5.0) flags a pillar that is falling short of its benchmark. Where a pillar score has improved compared to the previous month, an upward arrow appears alongside its corresponding traffic light; a downward arrow indicates deterioration; and a pause symbol denotes no change.
(Mexico News Daily)
As you’ll see below, scores for five of the ten MND Economy Index™ pillars increased in May compared to the previous month. Scores for three pillars declined while two stayed the same.
There are only three green light pillars in this edition of the index whereas there were four in the previous one. A lower Bank of Mexico interest rate in May and lower inflation were among the factors that contributed to the improvement in the MND Economy Index™ score.
Weaker economic growth in May compared to April was one factor that stopped the improvement from being greater.
🟢 ⬆️ MONETARY POLICY (9.86):
The score for this pillar improved to 9.86 in May from 9.35 in April. The Bank of Mexico’s benchmark interest rate fell to 6.50% in May after a 25-basis-point cut to that level took effect on May 8.
The score for this pillar also improved as Mexico’s real interest rate — i.e., the Bank of Mexico’s benchmark interest rate minus the annual headline inflation rate — moved further toward the 2.7% neutral midpoint. The real interest rate in May was 2.56%, up from 2.30% in April.
The improvement in the overall score for this pillar ensured that Monetary Policy remained the index’s top-performing pillar in May 2026.
🟢 ⬆️ INFLATION (9.06):
The score for this pillar increased to 9.06 in May from 8.55 in April.
Inflation eased to 3.94% in May from 4.45% in April, causing an increase in the score for the current inflation component of the pillar.
The score for the pillar component that considers the 12-month forward inflation forecast remained steady — and perfect — as the Bank of Mexico anticipates an annual rate on par with its 3.0% target in the second quarter of 2027, which, of course, includes the month of May.
The inflation pillar score is poised to improve in the next edition of the MND Economy Index™ as inflation fell again in June, settling at 3.37%.
🟢 ⬆️ INVESTMENT CLIMATE (8.25):
The score for this pillar increased to 8.25 in May from 7.65 in April.
The top contributor to the pillar in April was the S&P/BMV FIBRAS Total Return Index, which tracks the performance of Mexico’s listed real estate investment trusts. The index grew 44.2% annually to the end of May, up from a 32.9% year-over-year increase at the end of April.
The score for the foreign direct investment component of the pillar remained steady as the data published by the Economy Ministry in May — i.e., the most recent available data — was also used for the previous edition of the MND Economy Index™. That data showed that FDI increased 10.4% annually in the first quarter of 2026, a result that is marginally weaker than the 10.8% growth recorded in 2025.
🟡 ⬇️ MANUFACTURING SECTOR HEALTH (7.48):
The score for this pillar declined in May, falling to 7.48 from 8 in April. Thus, the pillar’s performance was downgraded into yellow light territory.
However, a narrowing in Mexico’s 5-year credit default swap spread effectively canceled out the decline in the sovereign credit ratings score. The credit default swap spread fell to 86.03 basis points in May from 89.70 basis points in April. The decline reflected a decrease in the market-implied cost of insuring against a Mexican sovereign default.
🟡 ⬇️ CURRENCY STABILITY (6.77):
The score for this pillar fell to 6.77 in May, down slightly from 6.8 in April.
The deterioration in the score occurred despite decreased volatility of the Mexican peso in May.
The standard deviation of daily exchange rate movements fell to 0.42% in May from 0.47% in April, leading to a slight increase in the score for that component of the pillar.
Thus, the decline in the pillar score in May was entirely due to a lower spot rate score. The score for that component declined as the peso strengthened against the US dollar in May to trade at 17.34 to the greenback at the end of the month, an appreciation of 0.7% compared to the end of April.
The exchange rate thus moved further away from the index’s 19.00 USD:MXN baseline, which is based on the 2025 average rate. This pillar penalizes significant deviation from the 19.00 USD:MXN baseline in either direction, recognizing that a peso that has strengthened too far from this benchmark can erode export competitiveness and reduce the purchasing power of remittances, just as a weakening peso raises import costs.
🟡 ⬆️ LABOR AND EMPLOYMENT (6.02):
The score for this pillar increased slightly to 6.02 in May from 5.95 in April.
Nominal wages rose 6.6% year-on-year in May — down fractionally from 6.9% in April, but still well above the 3.5% benchmark.
The overall pillar score improved as the year-over-year growth in Mexico’s informality rate was only 0.3 percentage points in May, down from an annual increase of 0.5 points in April. Still, over 55% of all Mexican workers worked in the informal economy in May. Lowering that rate is a major challenge for the Mexican government.
🟡 ⬆️ EXTERNAL INCOME (5.53)
The score for this pillar also increased in May, rising to 5.53 from 5.2 a month earlier.
Incoming remittances grew 3.8% year-on-year — an increase compared to the 3.7% increase in March.
Thus, the score for the remittances component of the pillar increased slightly.
The pillar score also improved in May compared to April as the year-over-year decline in tourism revenue was lower. The decline in May was 0.3%, which is undoubtedly bad news. However, compared to a 2.3% annual contraction in tourism revenue in April, the result looks a little less depressing.
🟡 ⬇️ ECONOMIC GROWTH (5)
The score for this pillar fell to to 5 in May from 5.4 in April.
The decrease was due to a month-over-month decline in Mexico’s annual economic growth rate. The annual growth rate in May was 2%, according to final data published by INEGI last week, whereas the rate in April was slightly higher at 2.2%
While Economic Growth remains one of the index’s worst-performing pillars, the fact that growth reached the 2% benchmark in May can be seen as a positive, especially given the weak growth rates earlier in the year.
President Claudia Sheinbaum has predicted that economic activity will pick up in the second half of 2026 as new public and private investment projects commence. World Cup-related spending, including by international tourists, could also increase Mexico’s growth rate in June, and also possibly in July. Thus, the economic growth pillar is one to watch when we publish the next edition of the MND Economy Index™ in late August.
🔴 ⏸️ PRODUCTIVITY (3.2):
The score for this pillar remained at 3.2 in May after plummeting to that level in April from an already low 4.8 in March.
Data published by the national statistics agency INEGI in June showed that the IGPLE — INEGI’s quarterly productivity measure — increased only 0.1% annually in the first quarter of 2026. That level of productivity growth was significantly weaker than the 0.9% reading in the final quarter of 2025.
An annual productivity growth rate of 0.1% is well below the 1.0% neutral benchmark, and thus, the score for this pillar is very low.
INEGI will publish productivity data for the second quarter of 2026 in early September. We will use that data for the September edition of the MND Economy Index™.
Mexico's bilateral relationships with the United States and Peru were among the most important topics discussed at President Claudia Sheinbaum's Wednesday morning press conference. (Hazel Cárdenas/Presidencia)
Sheinbaum’s mañanera in 60 seconds
📍USMCA tensions and Peru rapprochement: President Sheinbaum’s Wednesday press conference included a focus on Trump’s latest USMCA remarks, Economy Minister Ebrard’s response and signs of a possible diplomatic thaw with Peru.
🇲🇽🇺🇸🇨🇦Ebrard downplays Trump’s USMCA remarks: Responding to Trump’s comment that he doesn’t “really want” to update the USMCA, Ebrard noted that USTR Jamieson Greer had recently been in Mexico and said the two governments are working “very closely” as they seek to settle differences over trade.
🥇Mexico is the top U.S. customer: Ebrard highlighted that Mexico is the world’s largest importer of U.S. goods, saying “we’re the number 1 customer.”
📊Ebrard: “As of today we’re doing well”: The economy minister acknowledged there are “warnings every week” regarding USMCA. Still, Mexico is “doing well” and waiting to see what happens in the coming months, Ebrard said.
🌐Integrated economies: Later in the conference, Sheinbaum said the U.S. has been “setting a new vision” for trade since Trump’s return to office, but stressed that Mexico remains an “extremely important trade partner” and that the two economies “are very integrated because of the many years of free trade.”
☎️Foreign Minister speaks with Fujimori: Sheinbaum said Foreign Affairs Minister Roberto Velasco had spoken with Peru’s new president, Keiko Fujimori, following her Tuesday inauguration.
🛂Sheinbaum requests safe passage for Chávez: Sheinbaum said her government wants former Peruvian Prime Minister Betssy Chávez — who has been at the Mexican Embassy in Lima since being granted asylum — to be given “safe passage” to come to Mexico, adding “we’re going to see how this develops.”
🇲🇽🇵🇪No rupture desired: Despite Mexico’s continued objection to the 2022 removal of former President Pedro Castillo, which Sheinbaum has previously called a “coup,” Sheinbaum said “we obviously don’t want a rupture of relations.”
Why today’s mañanera matters
Mexico’s bilateral relationships with the United States and Peru were among the most important topics discussed at President Claudia Sheinbaum’s Wednesday morning press conference.
Mexico’s relationships with both countries are currently strained for different reasons.
On the Mexico-United States trade front, U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday added his voice to the ongoing USMCA negotiations, and, unsurprisingly, it wasn’t to offer an endorsement of the three-way trade pact that superseded NAFTA during his first term as president.
Mexican Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard was on hand at today’s mañanera to offer a response to the latest remarks from Trump, who said in January that he didn’t “really care” about the USMCA and that the United States doesn’t need Mexican and Canadian products.
Beyond Ebrard’s response to Trump’s latest USMCA comments, today’s mañanera was significant as Sheinbaum indicated that a rapprochement between Mexico and Peru might not be far off.
Peru broke diplomatic relations with Mexico last November, but the South American country now has a new president, providing the opportunity for a clean slate in the bilateral relationship, even though the Mexican and Peruvian governments sit on opposite sides of the political spectrum.
Ebrard responds to Trump’s latest USMCA remarks
A reporter asked Ebrard his opinion about Trump’s remarks on Tuesday about the USMCA.
During an interview with Fox News, Trump was asked whether he was looking to update the trilateral trade pact.
“I don’t care. I mean I don’t really want to. I’d rather be independent. Here’s the thing — Mexico and Canada need us. We don’t need them. The deal is important for them. It’s not important for us,” the U.S. president said.
Ebrard pointed out that U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer was recently in Mexico and declared that the Mexican government is working “very closely” with his team as they seek to settle differences over trade, including ones related to U.S. tariffs on Mexican products such as vehicles and steel, and to rules of origin for the North American automotive sector.
He noted that in “the overall table of countries, Mexico has the best [trade] deal” with the United States.
The economy minister also highlighted that Mexico is the world’s largest importer of U.S. goods.
“We’re the number 1 customer,” he said.
Mexican Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard was on hand at today’s mañanera to offer a response to Trump, who reiterated earlier this week that he “doesn’t care” about the USMCA. (Hazel Cárdenas/Presidencia)
Ebrard subsequently appeared to downplay Trump’s remarks on Tuesday.
“Obviously there are warnings every week, there are a lot of things. We’re going to see what happens in the coming months but as of today we’re doing well,” he said.
Later in the press conference, Sheinbaum said that the United States has been “setting a new vision” for trade since Trump’s return to the White House in January 2025.
Despite increased protectionism from the U.S., the fact remains that Mexico “is an extremely important trade partner for the United States,” the president said.
“… Our economies are very integrated because of the many years of free trade,” Sheinbaum said.
Chávez served as prime minister under former Peruvian President Pedro Castillo, who was removed from office by the Peruvian Congress in late 2022, angering then Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who put diplomatic relations with Peru “on hold” and issued a statement with other Latin American leaders expressing “profound concern” at the treatment of Castillo.
Sheinbaum said that Fujimori, whose deceased father was president of Peru from 1990 to 2000, “knows that we have a position related to President Castillo.”
Sheinbaum said that “beyond” the Mexican government’s dissatisfaction with the treatment of Castillo, “we obviously don’t want a rupture of relations” with Peru.
“Within that framework we’re talking [with the Peruvian government] and we hope to be able to provide more news soon,” she said.
Fátima Bosch became the fourth Mexican woman to be crowned Miss Universe in November 2025. (Miss Universe/Instagram)
The reigning Miss Universe is from Mexico. Fátima Bosch, a native of Tabasco, qualified for the “Super Bowl” of beauty pageants by winning Miss Universe Mexico in September 2025, and was then crowned with the South Sea pearl-adorned “Lumière de l’Infini” tiara as the 74th Miss Universe in Bangkok, Thailand, in November of last year, beating out Thai runner-up Praveenar Singh after a highly publicized bullying episode by a pageant offcial.
Bosch’s reign won’t officially come to an end until Nov. 26, 2026, when she crowns her successor in San Juan, Puerto Rico. But in the meantime, she’s helping to publicize this year’s Miss Universe Mexico, the competition from which the next national contender will emerge. Los Cabos will be the official site of the Aug. 29 event, Bosch recently announced on the Mexican morning television show, “Sale el Sol,” with Corazón Cabo Resort & Spa on Playa El Médano in Cabo San Lucas named as the host.
Miss Universe Mexico and other upcoming events in Cabo San Lucas
Bosch was recently in Los Cabos to unveil the destination as the host of the 2026 Miss Universe Mexico beauty pageant. (Fátima Bosch/Instagram)
Cape cities San José del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas each crown pageant queens at their annual fiestas tradicionales. But Miss Universe Mexico brings a national spotlight to the region, and to Baja California Sur’s contestant this year: Selene Zazueta of La Paz, who also represented the state at the Mexicana Universal pageant in 2023. That, incidentally, was the last Mexicana Universal to act as a qualifier for Miss Universe, as a new organization — Miss Universe Mexico, backed by Raúl Rocha Cantú — was subsequently recognized.
Contestants representing all 32 states are expected to begin arriving in Los Cabos in mid-August for filming and promotional shoots, as well as a preliminary competition featuring interviews and swimwear and evening gown assessments, before the actual event is broadcast live on Aug. 29. For those unable to attend, Mexico’s Imagen Televisión has the broadcast rights.
Miss Universe Mexico will cap a busy month — especially by “low season” standards in Los Cabos — as it follows closely on the heels of two other high-profile events: the 10th anniversary edition of the ATP 250 Los Cabos Tennis Open, which is taking place July 25 to Aug. 1; and the Bisbee’s East Cape Offshore (ECO), the first of three annual Bisbee’s sponsored fishing tournaments in Los Cabos featuring million dollar plus prize pools, with the most lucrative of these, the Black and Blue and Los Cabos Offshore, following in October.
The ECO is a major event in its own right, however. The 2026 edition is scheduled for this week, July 28 to Aug. 1 in Buenavista, with the tournament aiming to top last year’s prize pool of US $1.52 million.
The next resort to open in Los Cabos
By the time the Los Cabos Tennis Open and Bisbee’s East Cape Offshore wrap up, a new resort will also have opened in Los Cabos. That’s Amanvari from Aman, an ultra-luxury brand noted for its intimate and exclusive accommodations in gorgeous natural settings. Amanvari, which officially opens Aug. 1, qualifies on all counts, with only 18 casitas — each with a private heated pool — available at Costa Palmas, the La Ribera-based development that’s also home to the East Cape’s other luxury option: Four Seasons Resort Los Cabos at Costa Palmas.
It’s the first Aman property ever to open in Mexico, and at US $3,000 per night and up, immediately slots in among the very top tier of local ultra-luxury resorts. Restaurants specializing in Mexican, Italian and Japanese cuisine will offer first-class dining experiences, while the on-site spa specializes in Mexico’s traditional sweat lodge-style temezcal therapies.
Amanvari opens this week, offering exclusive resort accommodations on Los Cabos’ East Cape. (Aman Resorts)
Other scheduled resort openings in 2026
When the St. Regis Los Cabos at Quivira was first announced in 2017, the estimated open date for the resort and residences project was early 2021. After the many delays that have followed, any forecasts at this point — such as the late 2026 timeline offered by the Los Cabos Tourism Board — must be taken with several grains of salt.
Soho House Los Cabos, the brand’s second private club-style resort in Mexico following the opening of a property in Mexico City in 2023, is still expected to open by November in Cabo del Sol, with 15 available accommodations (in 12 casas and 3 casonas), plus on-site residences, a 50-meter swimming pool, spa, seafood restaurant and beach club. Soho Club also boasts a “200-meter private beach,” although this is a misnomer, since all beaches in Mexico are, by law, public.
The 301-room resort Grand Hyatt Los Cabos, Golf and Spa at Oleada on the Pacific Coast of Cabo San Lucas, meanwhile, is also estimating a late 2026 opening (in December), by which time the development’s new golf course will also be playable.
The next golf course to open in Los Cabos
The Ernie Els-designed Oleada Golf Links has opened for preview play and remains on track to officially premiere in November. It’s the first course in Mexico for “The Big Easy,” a four-time major champion who has now designed over a dozen worldwide, and according to him, easily the best natural site he has had to work with.
Mario Navarro, a Ciudad Juárez native who played collegiately at the University of Texas El Paso and who has worked for several years in Los Cabos at Querencia and Cabo del Sol, including helping to organize the annual Cabo Collegiate tournament, has been announced as the golf pro at Oleada.
Campo Alto and Legacy Club updates
Campo Alto at Querencia, the second design at the upscale residential community from Tom Fazio, is also scheduled to open by the end of the year. Tiger Woods’ Legacy Club at Diamante, however — his third project at the Cabo San Lucas development, following El Cardonal, host of Los Cabos’ only PGA-sponsored tournament, and the 12-hole Oasis Short Course — has seen its opening date pushed back to early 2027.
Campo Alto golf course at Querencia is scheduled to open by the end of 2026. (Querencia)
When these three open, the inventory of local golf courses will increase from 18 to 21. The Campo Alto and Legacy Club courses will be private, while Oleada is expected to “initially allow limited outside play,” per Forbes, before transitioning to a private course for residents and resort guests (both those at Grand Hyatt Los Cabos, Golf and Spa, and the Conrad Los Cabos, anticipated to open at Oleada in 2027).
Chris Sands is a writer and editor for Mexico News Daily, and the former Cabo San Lucas local expert for the USA Today travel website 10 Best and writer of Fodor’s Los Cabos travel guidebook. He has also contributed to numerous other websites and publications, including The San Diego Union-Tribune, Marriott Bonvoy Traveler, Forbes Travel Guide, Porthole Cruise and Travel, and Cabo Living.
The CIA has a long history in Mexico, including as a "shaper" of art and culture, particularly during the 1960s. (CIA)
For months now, the same argument has played out in the press on both sides of the border: American voices floating military intervention against the cartels, Mexican officials answering back that nobody sorts out our house but us. This year alone, from The Atlantic to CNN to El País to President Claudia Sheinbaum’s own morning press conferences, the question of where cooperation ends and interference begins has been hard to avoid, sharpened by the Trump administration’s indictment of 10 Mexican officials on cartel-related charges.
It’s not a new argument, even if the vocabulary feels urgent. In security terms, it’s close to a century old. Carlos Pérez Ricart, who studied at El Colegio de México and later worked as a postdoctoral researcher and professor at Oxford, spent years combing archives to write “Cien Años de Espías y Drogas,” a chronicle of the U.S. narcotics agents who have operated inside Mexico for 100 years, and the uncomfortably close relationships some built with the cartels they were sent to dismantle.
The CIA and the ‘shaping’ of Mexican art and culture
Outsized U.S. influence over Mexican art and culture became a hot-button topic at the Museum of Modern Art’s Salón Esso competition in 1965. (José Luis Cuevas/Bond Latin Gallery)
There’s a quieter chapter to that history, one that never needed a wiretap because it operated in plain sight, dressed up as good taste. For roughly two decades, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) worked to shape Mexican culture from the inside — funding fellowships for painters, bankrolling literary magazines and cultural supplements and quietly steering the museums that decided whose work counted. It ran through galleries instead of embassies, critics instead of attachés, paintbrushes instead of sidearms.
Call it interference, call it soft power, call it the ordinary behavior of a powerful neighbor with strong opinions about its own image — it is what it is, and it has a long paper trail.
The playbook was built at home first
The method was tested in New York first. Thomas Braden, who later ran the CIA’s cultural operations division, spent the late 1940s as executive secretary of the Museum of Modern Art under Nelson Rockefeller — at various points MoMA’s board president, wartime head of U.S. intelligence for Latin America, and the man who called Abstract Expressionism, apparently without irony, “free enterprise painting.” Braden joined the CIA in 1950 and later admitted, without much regret, that covertly funding cultural organizations abroad had largely been his idea. Writing in the Saturday Evening Post in 1967, after journalists had already exposed the program, he argued that asking Congress to approve it would have gone about as well as asking the John Birch Society to endorse Medicare.
Rockefeller himself helped send the museum’s touring show “The New American Painting” through nearly every major European capital in 1958-59, with no mention that it doubled as a project of the CIA-created Congress for Cultural Freedom. MoMA already had history in Mexico by then: Its Latin American collection dates to 1935, and its 1940 show “Twenty Centuries of Mexican Art” had Mexico’s own institutional backing.
The local front: A magazine in disguise
By the early 1960s, Fidel Castro’s revolution had energized a generation of Mexican writers and intellectuals, and Washington’s anxiety had a specific address: ¡Siempre! and its cultural supplement, La Cultura en México, edited by Fernando Benítez — described in the CIA’s own internal paperwork as sympathetic to Havana. A memo dated June 24, 1963, proposed a rival magazine, code-named Crítica.
It launched in December 1964 as Diálogos, co-edited by philosopher and poet Ramón Xirau alongside a man calling himself “Enrique P. López.” In reality, CIA officer Edward G. Tichborn, operating under a cover so deep his real name barely surfaces in the record. Xirau was chosen, the agency’s own files show, for being too intelligent to be a Marxist and for a Rockefeller Foundation fellowship that already had him in the right rooms. He believed his American benefactor was a sympathetic lawyer with money to spend. He never learned otherwise.
Nobel Prize-winning author Octavio Paz was one of several notable writers to publish in Diálogos, little knowing that one of its editors was a CIA officer. (Gobierno de Mexico)
The magazine ran for two decades, eventually finding a home at El Colegio de México, and published Octavio Paz, Carlos Fuentes, Roland Barthes and Susan Sontag. It was built, in part, by people who never knew what they were part of.
Painting over politics: The night the Salón Esso exploded
If Diálogos shows how the method worked in print, the Salón Esso shows how it played out in a gallery: in public, with fists. By the mid-1950s, Mexican muralism — the state-sponsored, politically committed art of Rivera, Orozco and Siqueiros — had become an irritant to U.S. interests for the same reason it had once been celebrated at home. It was explicitly revolutionary. Around the same time, Abstract Expressionism and its European cousin, Informalism, offered something the Escuela Mexicana didn’t: an art without an obvious political message, easy to present as pure, apolitical freedom of expression.
Art historian Shifra Goldman argued, in “Contemporary Mexican Painting in a Time of Change,” that the shift was no accident of taste. She pointed to the CIA and USIS’s documented involvement in cultural programming, and to the OAS’s Visual Arts Unit, run by Cuban-born critic José Gómez Sicre, as a vehicle for promoting abstraction over social realism. Standard Oil’s Mexican subsidiary, Goldman noted, sponsored the very competition that bore its name: the Salón Esso.
The Esso salon, held at the Museo de Arte Moderno on Feb. 2, 1965, was an open competition for young painters and sculptors, with winners advancing to a showcase at the OAS in Washington. Only about 30% of the works submitted were figurative; the top prizes went to two abstract paintings, by Fernando García Ponce and Lilia Carrillo, and García Ponce’s own brother sat on the jury.
A fistfight over art
The opening turned into a brawl. Muralist loyalists confronted Tamayo, the García Ponce brothers and José Luis Cuevas — mocked for years as having sold out to the OAS ever since Gómez Sicre sponsored his first solo show in Washington in 1954. Writer Raquel Tibol recalled one socialite fleeing the scrum in her mink coat, taunting that the communists had nothing left but hammers and sickles. Cuevas and critic Francisco Icaza came to blows. Tamayo used the moment to declare that Mexican art no longer needed nationalism as a shield.
Whether the Salón Esso was a CIA operation with a paintbrush or an art-world grudge match that happened to have American money in the room is exactly what Goldman’s critics still argue about, and that ambiguity may be the most honest way to leave it. What isn’t in dispute is that the money, the institutions and the timing all pointed the same direction.
The CIA preferred abstract art to the social reality of Mexican Muralism, seen in works like David Alfaro Siqueiros’ “Del Porfirismo a la Revolución.” (INEHRM)
Fernando Gamboa, a senior National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature (INBA) official, spent the 1950s and 1960s denouncing American cultural influence and dismissing abstraction as decorative and second-rate. In 1972, he was named director of the Museo de Arte Moderno — the same institution at the center of the Salón Esso affair — and defended the art he had spent two decades attacking.
What this is and isn’t
None of this means every Mexican abstract painter was a witting or unwitting asset. Artists like Gunther Gerzso and Lilia Carrillo pursued serious, original work with little to do with Washington’s Cold War anxieties. Goldman’s thesis remains contested among art historians, not a settled verdict. What the documented record does show is that, for roughly two decades, U.S. agencies and U.S.-linked institutions treated Mexican museums, magazines and art prizes as worth a memo, a grant or a quiet word to the right curator.
Three vignettes, three decades: Braden built the model in a New York museum, Xirau ran it out of a Mexico City magazine office without knowing it, and Gamboa ended up defending it from the director’s chair of the very institution where it once nearly came to blows. None of it required a single mastermind, just money, prestige and institutions patient enough to let the shift happen slowly.
Pérez Ricart’s century of spies worked the border and the cartels; this article worked the galleries and the newsstands. Neither settles the argument still playing out in this year’s headlines, over where cooperation ends and interference begins. That’s a question with room for real disagreement. What both suggest is that the motive shifts by the decade: sometimes ideology, sometimes economics and sometimes simply a tighter grip on the region. In the years this piece covers, it came down to something as specific as whose paintings got hung on the wall.
Maria Meléndez writes for Mexico News Daily in Mexico City.
Typical of Mexico’s domination at Santa Domingo, Dalia Berenice Moreno Velasco and Yuritzi Salgado González finished 1-2 in the women’s open water swimming competition, bringing in a gold and a silver for Mexico. Paola Pérez of Venezuela (at right in red) finished third. Overall, Mexican open water swimmers won three gold medals, two silvers and two bronzes. (gob.mx)
Mexico is off to a commanding start at the 2026 Central American and Caribbean Games in the Dominican Republic, reinforcing its status as the region’s powerhouse as the century‑old competition enters its second week.
The Games opened Friday with a music‑ and fireworks-filled ceremony at Félix Sánchez Olympic Stadium in the nation’s capital, Santo Domingo.
Las grandes celebraciones deportivas también son una oportunidad para unir a todo un país.
Así vivimos la inauguración de los XXV Juegos Centroamericanos y del Caribe Santo Domingo 2026, una edición histórica que marca el centenario de esta competencia y reúne a los mejores… pic.twitter.com/qbT12Gdozl
They are the oldest regional multiple-sports competition in the world recognized by the International Olympic Committee.
Running through Aug. 8, this year’s edition marks the centennial of the Games, first held in Mexico City in 1926. More than 6,000 athletes from 37 countries and territories are competing in 40 sports.
Mexico is the only nation to have appeared in all 25 editions and is the two-time defending champion, with 13 championships overall.
Mexico’s best haul all-time was winning 375 medals in the 2010 Games in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.
So far in 2026, the Mexican team is delivering again, surging up to 106 total medals as the competition moved through day 5 on Tuesday — a haul that includes 38 gold medals with 11 days still to go.
Mexico sits atop the overall table, more than 40 medals ahead of Colombia with 63 and Cuba with 38. The Dominican Republic and Venezuela rank fourth and fifth, respectively.
Mexico’s lead has been built on familiar strengths, such as the taekwondo team registering 14 podium finishes, including gold medals for Daniela Souza and Iker Casas.
In skeet shooting, flag bearer Gabriela Rodríguez — the silver medalist at the 2025 ISSF Shotgun World Championships — delivered as expected, taking the women’s crown, while teammate Luis Gallardo won the men’s event.
Open water swimmer Paulo Strehlke won gold in the 10‑kilometer race, part of a four‑medal haul for Mexico’s open water swimmers over the weekend.
Rowers Melissa Márquez and Aylin Ibarra each won three gold medals, with other gold medals coming in badminton and rhythmic gymnastics.
Other sports being contested include basketball, figure skating, soccer, baseball, cycling and diving, along with netball, basque pelota (similar to racquetball and jai alai), billiards, chess and esports — high‑level video‑game competitions making their debut at these Games.
Mexico sees its performances in Olympic‑core sports in Santo Domingo as a stepping stone toward the Los Angeles Summer Games in 2028.
In 2024, tequila exports achieved a value of almost US $4.2 billion, solidifying the product’s position as Mexico’s second most important agro-industrial export behind beer. (Unsplash)
Mexico will introduce stricter trade tariff measures for imported alcohols to encourage other countries to reduce tariffs on Mexican tequila, Mexico’s Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard announced during National Tequila Day celebrations on Friday.
National Tequila Day, celebrated annually on July 24, recognizes the world-famous spirit for its economic and cultural value. Tequila production is a source of employment for thousands of families dedicated to agave cultivation and distillation.
Reconocimiento a la industria del Tequila y plan de acción conjunto para aumentar exportaciones a todo el mundo. pic.twitter.com/R06kE34c6N
In a presentation, Ebrard emphasized the need to review and dismantle all trade restrictions facing tequila exports to achieve more balanced treatment for Mexican products.“If another country applies 150 tariffs on me, I will say, ‘Hey, I’m going to impose restrictions on your products too,’” explained Ebrard. “It’s going to have to be more balanced.”
The economy minister said that while Mexico is one of the most open countries to international trade, some markets continue to impose tariffs of up to 150% or regulatory restrictions on tequila imports. Meanwhile, Mexico imposes few restrictions on the import of similar products from other countries.
In 2024, tequila exports achieved a value of almost US $4.2 billion, solidifying the product’s position as Mexico’s second most important agro-industrial export, behind beer, according to Agriculture Ministry (Sader) data. Mexican tequila is exported to over 120 countries, with annual exports exceeding 400 million liters.
It was the only spirit to register growth during the past year, with an increase of 1.2%. Global tequila volumes increased at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7% between 2019 and 2025, and are expected to expand at a CAGR of 2% to 2030, according to the global beverage data company IWSR.
Tequila was granted Denomination of Origin (DO) status in 1974, for its historical connection to specific Mexican regions and traditional production practices, making it the first Mexican product to gain this certification.
The Director General of the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI), Vidal Llerenas Morales, said that the status guarantees that only tequila produced in the states of Jalisco, Nayarit, Guanajuato, Michoacán and Tamaulipas can legally use this designation, which helps preserve the alcohol’s traditional characteristics and quality.
Other Mexican alcohols have since been granted DO certification, including mezcal, bacanora, sotol, charanda and raicilla.
