Less than three days after 40,000 fans packed the stadium to see a bullfight in Mexico City, a federal judge has ruled that bullfights in Plaza México must once again be halted.
Judge Sandra de Jesús Zúñiga on Wednesday granted a provisional suspension that will remain in place until the next hearing on Feb. 7, when it will be determined if the suspension becomes permanent.
Animal rights activists protested the resumption of bullfighting last weekend. (Andrea Murcia/Cuartoscuro)
The competition on Sunday — in which six bulls fought and all were killed — marked the first bullfight in Mexico City in 20 months.
In the first half of 2022, a lower court judge issued an injunction that sided with activists, mainly on the point that bullfighting hinders people’s rights to a healthy environment. But this decision was overruled by the Mexican Supreme Court (SCJN) in December..
That opened the door for nine bullfights to be scheduled from Jan. 28 through March 24 at Plaza México, now the capital’s only official bullring. It has been hosting events since 1946.
Now, however, the two bullfights scheduled for Sunday, Feb. 4 and Monday Feb. 5 are up in the air, as well as those that follow. It wasn’t immediately known if Plaza México would try to overturn the decision before the hearing scheduled for next week, or even if that would be possible by Friday.
Mexico City’s Plaza de Toros, the world’s largest bullfighting ring, is the last remaining site in the capital. (Mario Jasso/Cuartoscuro)
In making her ruling on Wednesday, Fifth District Judge de Jesús accepted an injunction presented by the animal rights association Todas y Todos por Amor a los Toros (Everyone for the Love of Bulls).
Her ruling hinged on a law against “mistreatment and cruelty” for animals in public shows, rather than the 2022 ruling, which focused on presenting a healthy environment for people.
Before and during the Jan. 8 bullfight, members of the Todas y Todos organization– and others – protested outside the stadium. Estimates put the number of protesters between 200 to 300.
Her ruling was based on the Animal Protection Law of Mexico City, which while not specifically prohibiting bullfighting, calls for action when a complaint is filed.
Bullfighting is currently prohibited in five states: Sonora, Guerrero, Sinaloa, Coahuila and Quintana Roo. Meanwhile, it is considered as an intangible part of cultural heritage in Aguascalientes, Tlaxcala, Hidalgo, Querétaro, Zacatecas, Michoacán, Nayarit and Guanajuato.
Many Mexican fans are ready to watch the Super Bowl LVIII. (Canva)
The annual Super Bowl ritual of gathering around the television with friends, family and food is now part of many Mexican homes, restaurants and bars.
One reason is American football’s long but unknown history in Mexico.
How did American football get to Mexico?
Like the undisputed king of Mexican sport, soccer, the U.S. version was introduced by foreigners in the late 19th century. There is dispute as to exactly how. Various sources claim the first games were in 1896, organized by U.S. sailors, but another credit Veracruz native Raúl Dehesa for introducing it after spending time up north. Yet another story credits a pair of brothers who organized games at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in Mexico City.
What is more certain is that formal games began in the 1920s among various universities and other schools. In 1929, there was an exhibition game between UNAM and the University of Mississippi and by 1935, Mexican teams were touring the U.S.
American football continued to grow, primarily as a scholastic sport for the rest of the decade.
Who plays the sport in Mexico today?
Since its founding in the 1940s, football has been an important part of the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Studies’ image as an “American-style” education. (ITESM Facebook)
College and other scholastic play still dominates organized American football in Mexico. The vast majority of teams are non-professional and supported by various organizations such as National Student Organization of American Football (ONEFA), which has four leagues for players from 8 to 25 years of age, with the most important being the “major” or university league.
But there was no professional American football league until the establishment of the Professional American Football League (LFA) in 2016. With ten teams representing various cities, it is an effort to create a Mexican alternative to the NFL. The league has caught the attention of current and former NFL players as it “slowly starting to build a brand…” said Trevone Boykin, formerly of the Seattle Seahawks, now with the Galgos of Tijuana. The league is also actively recruiting foreign talent.
Watching the Super Bowl: A new Mexican tradition
Just like in the US, you can get all the fixings for a home Super Bowl party delivered to your door. (Party City/Facebook)
As “gringo” as it is, American football has been a spectator sport here since U.S. games began to appear on Mexican television in the 1960s. It grew slowly for the rest of the century, but in the past two decades, the NFL’s popularity has taken off.
One reason is the fond recollections of ordinary Mexicans who played the sport at school as children and young adults. Gabriela Ortiz of Mexico City said that her cousins played and the family watched the games, leading to interest in pro games on television.
Like in the U.S., the physical nature of the game is an attraction, said NFL fan and ITESM professor Tony Alcalá. He also credits “…the salary cap [which] makes it very competitive, so you don’t have the same teams always at the top like in soccer worldwide.”
The logos and gear have been part of modern popular music for some time and the grand spectacle of the Super Bowl also adds to the celebrity allure of the sport. Football-loving Mexicans now watch the game much the way their U.S. counterparts do, with friends, family and food, either at home or in establishments promoting themselves as places to watch the game. Mexican antojitos get mixed in with the obligatory chicken wings and dips.
Mexico is now the NFL’s and Super Bowl’s second biggest market. The 2023 game between the Eagles and Chiefs was available on broadcast TV, cable and streaming services. Of the 56 million who watched the game outside of the U.S., over 23 million of them were in Mexico.
Today, it is not unusual for Mexicans to support a U.S. team. Tijuana resident Lin Robinson says the city is “… pretty much all Raiders fans,” though popular NFL teams seem to vary by region and by generation.
Mexican players in the NFL
Only recently has the NFL been working to take advantage of foreign talent, in contrast to baseball, which has been doing it for many decades. Football scouting at Mexican universities was not common until about 20 years ago. In 2017, the league established the International Player Pathway program for players from outside the U.S. and Canada.
With and without active recruitment, there have been notable Mexican players over the years Two early players are kickers Raúl Allegre and Efrén Herrera (both drafted by the Cowboys in 1983). But the Pathway program is making an impact. Recent arrivals include offensive tackle Alfred Gutiérrez Urías from Tijuana, defensive tackle Isaac Alarcón García from Tijuana and offensive lineman Héctor Zepeda from Ensenada, Baja California.
The future of American football in Mexico
Despite the long history of play and talent pools in major universities, there is still a lot of growth potential in American football in Mexico. Mexico-born players do not (yet!) dominate the NFL’s pool of foreign recruits, and the Mexican professional league is in its infancy. But in an interview with ESPN, LFA Commissioner Alejandro Jaimes said,“It is clear that this sport has extreme potential in Mexico.”
Leigh Thelmadatter arrived in Mexico over 20 years ago and fell in love with the land and the culture in particular its handcrafts and art. She is the author of Mexican Cartonería: Paper, Paste and Fiesta (Schiffer 2019). Her culture column appears regularly on Mexico News Daily.
Solarever is also investing in an EV assembly plant in the state of Durango. (Solarever USA)
Solarever Group has announced another multi-million-dollar investment in Durango, as it seeks to expand renewable energy and electromobility manufacturing in the country.
With an investment of 3.4 billion pesos (US $197.9 million), the solar panel manufacturing company recently announced its plans to build a factory for solar cells and panels, in addition to the assembly plant for electric vehicles announced earlier this month, also in the northern state.
The plant will start with solar cell and panel production, and later expand to storage battery development. (solarever.com.mx)
According to the president of Grupo Solarever Simon Zhao, the company’s markets can benefit from current business conditions in Mexico, namely its strong manufacturing industry and ample investment opportunities.
“This investment marks an important day for Durango, for Mexico, and for the world, as we fulfill our mission of shifting from traditional energy sources to more sustainable ones,” Zhao said.
The 1.2-gigawatt (GW) solar cell and panel factory will be the company’s fourth solar panel manufacturing plant in Mexico and the largest on the North American continent, according to Forbes México.
Covering 13.6 hectares in Durango’s Parque Industrial CLID, the Solarever solar panel plant will generate 600 jobs, and will be developed in stages — it will start with solar cell and panel production, and later expand to storage battery development.
Chinese manufacturer Solarever has announced it will also build its new E-WAN EV in Durango starting in 2025. (Esteban Villegas Villarreal/Facebook)
With this plant, Solarever will manufacture over 160 million cells and one million photovoltaic modules each year for export to the United States, Colombia and Canada. Production will include PERC and TopCon-type cells.
Speaking at the Technological Institute of Durango, Zhao said that Solarever’s mission is “to replace traditional energy with clean, renewable, intelligent and dignified energy for everyone,” with products that are “highly competitive and innovative, but also accessible.”
Carlos Gutiérrez, the company’s manufacturing director, explained that Solarever plans to integrate their supply chain as this plant will distribute products across Mexico, from Baja California to Quintana Roo.
Solarever’s EV assembly plant announced earlier this month will require an initial investment of 6.8 billion pesos (US $395.7 million) and is expected to start operations in 2025. Together with the new solar panel factory, Solarever’s investment in Durango will amount to 10.2 billion pesos (US $582.5 million).
Founded in 2012, Solarever is one of the world’s leading manufacturers and distributors of solar panels with markets in Mexico, Canada, the United States and Latin America.
Melina Bistrot is an ideal gathering place for late afternoon drinks with your girlfriends. (Melina Bistrot/Instagram)
Happy hour, a two-hour time-slot dedicated to drink specials that is wildly popular in many U.S. cities, is a term often credited to the U.S. Navy. Sources claim that the entertainment breaks granted to sailors during World War l were referred to as “happy hours.”
Other sources claim that the term arose during Prohibition, when U.S. citizens desperate for a tipple would gather at underground clubs known as speakeasies, in get-togethers that became collectively known as “happy hours.”
Either way, they quickly became a national phenomenon, as a way to decompress with a discounted drink after a long day at the office. Over the years, the two hours of uninhibited drinking have become more elaborate, often including food specials and popping up at unforeseen hours — like 10:00 p.m. to midnight — in cities like New York and Miami.
Needless to say, I’m not in New York or Miami. I’m in Mexico City. I’ve found, much to my own chagrin, that “happy hour” on the whole doesn’t exist with the same fervor of my birth country. So when I heard that Condesa’s Hotel San Fernando, a concept from Austin-based Bunkhouse, had put an official happy hour on the schedule, I gleefully added it to the top of my to-do list.
While not-so-patiently waiting for the clock to chime 4:00 p.m. on the day of my scheduled visit, I investigated by aggressively interviewing every chilango I knew for additional options.
What I found out confirmed what I had already believed to be true: happy hour is just not a thing here. Still, with the arrival of an uncountable number of American expats, I have my suspicions that a new “hora feliz” might soon pop up at a bar near you.
In the meantime, here are six locations recommended by locals from the grand city of CDMX that have already jumped on the bandwagon.
Lounge Fernando
Iztaccihuatl 54, Hipodromo Condesa
Lounge Fernando. (Chad Wadsworth)
Let’s start with that which kicked off the almighty research project, the lounge at Hotel San Fernando. At first glance, it’s an excellent date spot due to its seductive lighting and sleek bar area, perfectly Instagrammable as one might expect from a Bunkhouse property.
The real draw, however, is the two-for-one cocktail special offered from Monday to Thursday, 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. The lead bartender, Alberto, is not only passionate about his craft, but also possesses a wealth of alcohol-soaked information and makes drinking his flavorful creations a lot of fun.
What to try: Sotol and tonic with basil and cardamom, for a Mexican twist on Europe’s drink of choice.
Melina Bistrot
Dinamarca 46, Juárez
This establishment is immediately inviting, with delicate pink-and-green tiled tables that spill out onto a leafy sidewalk. Aperol spritzes seem to reign supreme, though the restaurant is also known for its polished versions of traditional sips like Negronis, margaritas, and gin tonics.
The crowd is young and trendy, an ideal gathering place for late afternoon drinks with your girlfriends. Happy hour is offered daily from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. with two-for-one cocktails and select spirits.
What to try: Aperol spritz, if only for that delightful color contrast against the restaurant’s pastel color palette.
Pata Negra
Avenida De 5 de Mayo #49, Centro
Río Niagara 43, Cuauhtémoc
Pata Negra Facade. (Bethany Platanella)
There is always something going on at one of Pata Negra’s two locations in Cuauhtémoc and Centro Histórico. Jazz nights with no cover, live DJs, even an occasional pop-up flea market. Most events are accompanied by a drink special, like discounted Tanqueray concoctions and two-for-one mojitos to boost your confidence during Thursday night’s onsite salsa classes.
If you’re looking for a laid-back, local watering hole with an extensive bar and Spanish bites, this is it. Price specials kick off at different times depending on the event, so it’s best to check with the location you’re planning to visit to confirm the day’s offer.
What to try: Spicy margarita with Ancho Reyes at the bar, because while the drink is delicious, it’s the staff that make it memorable.
Casa Bruna
Sinaloa 106, Roma
I imagine that for most the term “happy hour” stirs up images of crisp wine, fruity cocktails, and cold beer. Freshly brewed coffee likely does not come to mind, but it should, since Casa Bruna is one of the few cafes I’ve seen that offer two-for-one brews in the morning. From 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m., all java-based drinks on their menu are up for grabs, from classics like cappuccinos to the more experimental “bevies” like dirty chais.
If it’s your turn to treat a coworker or you’re a very serious coffee drinker, take advantage of two caffeinated cups at Casa Bruna for the agreeable price of one.
What to try: Vanilla latte, so you can still have your shot of caffeine with delicate notes of vanilla that linger long after you’ve finished.
Club Lounge at the Hotel InterContinental Presidente
Campos Eliseos 218, Polanco
Located on the 39th floor of one of Polanco’s fanciest hotels, the InterContinental, is the exclusive Club Lounge with sweeping city views and daily drink specials from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Guests are granted access through one of two ways: booking a stay in a club level suite or paying a yearly membership fee of US $200, (which includes entry to the spa and fitness center facilities as well). Expect a refined, international crowd that could possibly result in a fattened rolodex of useful business contacts.
What to try: Classic martini or a glass of red wine, because an atmosphere like this calls for a sophisticated sip.
Karisma
Campos Eliseos 219, Polanco
Across the street from the InterContinental is Karisma, which has stood proud as the post-work bar of choice for many locals for nearly half a century. It’s casual, it’s buzzing, and it’s in the heart of Polanco, making it an easy choice for anyone who wants a quick meal and a cold drink at a moderate price.
Specials are always changing with the times and very unique — at present, those who mention to the bartender that they are “addicted to living in the present” will receive 10% off their beverage of choice.
What to try: Keep it simple and order a Mexican beer.
Bethany Platanella is a travel planner and lifestyle writer based in Mexico City. She lives for the dopamine hit that comes directly after booking a plane ticket, exploring local markets, practicing yoga and munching on fresh tortillas. Sign up to receive her Sunday Love Letters to your inbox, peruse her blog, or follow her on Instagram.
Four tourists died when the boat capsized on Monday night. (ELIZABETH RUIZ/CUARTOSCURO.COM)
Five people reported as missing at sea after a tourist boat capsized Monday night while traveling from Isla Mujeres to Cancún were rescued, Quintana Roo authorities said Tuesday.
Four people including a 10-year-old boy drowned when the catamaran Diosa del Mar capsized and sank shortly after leaving Isla Mujeres, a small island 13 kilometers off the coast of Cancún.
A total of 19 people were on board Diosa del Mar, which is designed to hold 16. (Cuartoscuro.com)
Five Mexican tourists reported as missing were rescued Monday night, authorities said.
The navy, state police and Civil Protection authorities participated in the search and rescue operation.
A total of 19 people were on board Diosa del Mar (Goddess of the Sea), a 26-foot boat designed to carry 16 passengers. They were the captain, a crew member, 14 adult passengers, two children and a two-year-old infant.
The overloading of the vessel has been cited as a possible factor in its capsizing, apparently after it was hit by a wave from a passing ship. However, the newspaper La Jornada Maya said “it is presumed” that a mechanical failure caused the accident.
The captain, identified as Ramón N., was arrested by police for questioning. A local reporter said on the X social media platform that he was detained for “negligent conduct.”
Quintana Roo Attorney General Raciel López Salazar described the Monday night accident as “regrettable” and said that authorities were analyzing a range of factors that may have contributed to the tragedy including climatic conditions and the state of the boat.
Local meteorological reports recorded winds up to 50 kilometers per hour and waves up to 3 meters high on Monday night.
López indicated that the captain will have a case to answer.
“We’re doing the investigative process, we can’t reach a conclusion at this time, but what I can say is that there is liability,” he told a press conference on Tuesday.
Despite much fanfare and a large budget, the new government "Mega Pharmacy" remains almost entirely empty. (Daniel Augusto/Cuartoscuro)
Federal authorities have dismissed a report by El Universal newspaper that the newly inaugurated state-owned “mega pharmacy,” set up to address Mexico’s medication shortages, currently stocks less than 1% of the drugs it was designed to offer.
According to a freedom of information request made by El Universal, the Laboratorios de Biológicas y Reactivos de México (Birmex) facility in Huehuetoca, México state, has capacity for 280 million medicine packets.
The mega pharmacy has launched with only 2.5 million medicine packets, less than 1% of its total capacity. (Presidencia/Cuartoscuro)
However, at a press conference on Jan. 19, Birmex director Jens Pedro Lohmann Iturburu announced that the pharmacy had launched with only 2,465,975 packets — 0.9% of its total reported capacity.
El Universal reported that Birmex’s stores were worth just under 120 million pesos (US $7 million); the federal government allocated 196 billion pesos (US $11.43 billion) for the pharmacy’s budget in 2023-2024.
The “Well-Being Mega Pharmacy” was inaugurated on Dec. 29, and hailed by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador as possibly “the largest pharmacy in the world.” AMLO touted the facility as the answer to Mexico’s chronic medicine shortages — the federal government failed to fulfill 42.7 million prescriptions between 2019 and 2022.
However, in response to El Universal’s information request, the head of Birmex reported that the pharmacy had only filled 67 prescriptions in the 21 days up to Jan. 19, despite 6,364 requests.
Birmex said that 4,069 requests had been rejected due to lack of a prescription or necessary paperwork.
Birmex also revealed that the facility was calling on other health institutions — specifically state-run health services IMSS, ISSSTE and IMSS-Bienestar — to fulfill requests for drugs, rather than relying on its own stores.
Speaking at President López Obrador’s Tuesday morning press conference, Zoé Robledo, head of the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS), dismissed El Universal’s report as “ill-intentioned.”
Robledo said it was misleading to cite Birmex’s storage capacity as 280 million packets, as this is based on “not only the mega pharmacy, but also what they were able to see in the visit, the Distribution and Storage Center, which is the largest space.”
Securing Mexico’s access to medicine has been a major policy for President López Obrador during his sexenio, something the Birmex project was meant to address. (Presidencia/Cuartoscuro)
He insisted that “the mega pharmacy has all the medicines and also has a contact center people can call” that is supposed to then coordinate distribution in the state where a patient is located.
However, questions remain about whether Birmex’s stock of 2.4 million packets is enough to tackle Mexico’s ongoing medication shortage. El Universal reported that 11.3 million prescriptions went unfilled in 2020, 5.92% of the total, compared to 0.44% in 2018, the final year of the previous administration.
Tourists from the United States make up about half of the foreign passengers in the air travel market in Mexico. (Unsplash)
Almost 119 million travelers traveled on international and national flights in Mexico in 2023 according to Tourism Minister Miguel Torruco Marqués.
The majority of passengers flew on five national and two international airlines, with the most foreign passengers traveling from the United States and Canada, a Tourism Ministry (Sectur) report shows.
Viva Aerobus was Mexico’s second largest carrier in terms of passenger numbers in 2023. (Mario Jasso/Cuartoscuro)
The four busiest Mexican airlines in the domestic market were Volaris (24.3 million passengers), Viva Aerobus (21.1 million), Aeroméxico (12.2 million) and Aeroméxico Connect (5.2 million).
Internationally, Aeroméxico and Volaris carried the largest number of passengers, with a total of 12.2 million — an increase of 17.9% compared to 2022 figures, and a massive 23.5% increase over the same period in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic decimated the industry.
American Airlines and United were the leading U.S. carriers in Mexico. Together, they transported a total of 12.9 million passengers, a 1% increase from 2022 and a 41.2% increase from the passenger figures of 2019.
North American passengers dominated the international market in Mexico with an 84.5% market share. Some 27.4 million passengers traveled with U.S. airlines to Mexico in 2023, while 15.3 million traveled on international routes operated by Mexican airlines, and 4.1 million passengers traveled on flights operated by Canadian airlines.
Increased airport capacity, including a new airports in Tulum, helped the country to record air travel figures, says Sectur. (Elizabeth Ruiz/Cuartoscuro)
As for European tourists, Torruco added that last year this market increased by 2.3% compared to 2022, with 4.63 million passengers. Meanwhile, the Central and South American markets increased 2.5% with 4.19 million. Both markets represent 7.6% market share.
The number of Asian tourists traveling to Mexico grew 20.4%compared to 2022, with 312,351 passengers.
Alfonso Gutíerrez is part of the San Francisco 49ers squad that has reached Super Bowl LVIII against the Kansas City Chiefs. (Alfonso Gutíerrez/Instagram)
You won’t hear Alfredo Gutiérrez’s name mentioned during the CBS telecast of Super Bowl LVIII on Feb. 11 — but Mexican fans will feel a sense of pride, anyway.
The 28-year-old Tijuana native is a member of the San Francisco 49ers, who will play the Kansas City Chiefs for the NFL title thanks to a come-from-behind 34-31 win Sunday over the Detroit Lions in the NFC Championship.
49ers #77 Gutíerrez is yet to play a match, but has been an important member of the 49ers practice squad for 3 seasons. (Alfredo Gutíerrez/Instagram)
The hulking 6-foot-9, 332-pound offensive lineman didn’t play in that game, nor will he play in the Super Bowl in Las Vegas, nor has he ever played in a regular-season NFL game.
But he’s on the 49ers’ roster as a member of the practice squad, meaning he’ll play an important role as the 49ers work on their game plan.
Gutiérrez was born in Tijuana, Baja California, on Dec. 29, 1995 and after playing youth football in Mexico, he attended Montgomery High School in San Diego, where he played football as a junior and senior.
After graduating, he wanted to play at a community college in Southern California, but an eligibility issue prompted his transfer to the Institute of Technology and Higher Studies in Monterrey, Nuevo León.
There, he played on scholarship for the Monterrey Tech Borregos (Rams) in the National Student Organization of American Football (ONEFA), one of two leagues in Mexico playing U.S.-style football.
The Borregos won one national championship with Gutiérrez, finishing with a 10-1 record in 2019.
In 2021, he entered the NFL’s International Player Pathway Program and impressed scouts so much that he was signed to a one-year contract for US $207,000 by the 49ers, who will be going for their sixth Super Bowl ring next week.
The 49ers have re-signed him twice since then, and now he is hoping to become the first athlete who played American football at a Mexican university to become a Super Bowl champion.
Gutíerrez also won a Mexican college national title with Borregos. (Alfonso Gutíerrez/Instagram)
Other Mexicans have played for Super Bowl winners — such as Torreón, Coahuila–born kicker Raul Allegre of the 1987 New York Giants — but they generally played college football in the United States.
Gutiérrez has never played a down for the 49ers in the regular season or playoffs, but after his preseason debut in 2022, he was presented a game ball from 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan.
After the NFC Championship ended on Sunday, he presented his 49ers jersey to his father during the post-game celebration at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.
“We come from playing in the streets and now we are one step away from winning a Super Bowl,” the dad says in a video that captured the moment. “I feel like the proudest dad in Mexico.”
Also proud is the family of Isaac Alarcón, a 25-year-old Monterrey native who was signed by the 49ers this month. The 6-foot-7, 301-pound offensive lineman, who, like Gutiérrez, played for the Borregos, was signed to a reserve/future contract, meaning he can’t play or even practice with the team until next season. Alarcón has participated in four Dallas Cowboys’ training camps but has never played in a regular-season game.
The assassination of presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta in 1994 remains a defining event in Mexico's modern political history. (Pedro Valtierra/Cuartoscuro)
Almost 30 years after the assassination of Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta at a political rally in Tijuana, the case is back in the spotlight after the Federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) revealed that it formally accused a former federal agent of firing one of two bullets that struck the 44-year-old politician on March 23, 1994.
The FGR alleges that Jorge Antonio Sánchez Ortega, formerly an agent of the now-defunct Center for Investigation and National Security (CISEN), was the “second shooter” in the assassination of Colosio, but the evidence it presented to a court earlier this month did not convince the presiding judge to issue a warrant for his arrest.
Sánchez Ortega at the time of his arrest in 1994. (FGR)
The only person ever convicted of the assassination — described by the El País newspaper as Mexico’s “Kennedy case” — is Mario Aburto Martínez, who in 1994 was a 23-year-old factory worker. Aburto — who will leave prison this year — confessed that he acted alone, but has said he was tortured into making the confession.
Millions of Mexicans doubt or outright reject that he was the mastermind of — or even committed — the crime. Most fingers instead point at the PRI: an inside job against a candidate who — in pledging “to lead a new stage of change” in a country where the same party had been in power for decades — was trying to shake things up a little too much and made some powerful enemies in the process.
Carlos Salinas de Gortari, president of Mexico when Colosio was killed, described accusations that he was involved in a plot to kill the PRI candidate as “completely false.”
The FGR also alleges that Genaro García Luna, a former CISEN official and federal security minister, was involved in a federal government cover-up. García Luna was convicted in the United States on drug trafficking charges last year and is awaiting trial.
The FGR’s case against Sánchez Ortega
The Federal Attorney General’s Office said in a statement on Monday that it presented evidence to a federal court judge three weeks ago that proved Sánchez’s “presence at the place of the homicide at the same time of the crime, when there was a difference of seconds between both shots.”
Colosio was shot in the head and the abdomen while at a rally in the poor Tijuana neighborhood of Lomas Taurinas. Sánchez had been assigned to provide security to the candidate, according to the FGR statement.
The FGR said that “all the evidence” it presented to the court, “and especially the blood tests,” prove that Colosio’s “blood type” was found on Sánchez’s clothes.
Colosio Murieta’s son, Luis Donaldo Colosio Riojas, has asked President López Obrador to ensure that justice is achieved for his father. (Luis Donaldo Colosio Riojas/Facebook)
The results of sodium rhodizonate tests — which detect lead, including vaporous lead in the form of smoke — show that the accused “fired a gun,” it said.
The FGR also said that “a large number of [witness] testimonies” place Sánchez at the scene of the crime, “from which he fled.”
The same testimonies “deny that he helped transport the victim” to hospital, it added.
In addition, “a good number of testimonies confirm [Sánchez’s] arrest while he was wearing clothes stained with the victim’s blood,” the FGR said.
“… It is also duly proven that the CISEN of the Interior Ministry sent the accused to the scene of the crime” and subsequently got him out of Tijuana “urgently and surreptitiously,” it said.
The FGR said that García Luna — a CISEN deputy director at the time of the assassination — was “directly linked” to “a clear criminal cover-up” and was the person who “rescued” Sánchez from Tijuana after he was held in custody for less than 24 hours.
The FGR hits back at AMLO’s least favorite newspaper
The Reforma newspaper reported Monday that Judge Jesús Alberto Chávez Hernández refused to issue a warrant for Sánchez’s arrest because he concluded that the “only piece of evidence” the FGR has to “confirm a concerted action” between Aburto and the former CISEN agent is the statement of “a woman who is not reliable because she changed her testimony 25 years later.”
Mario Aburto Martínez remains the only man ever convicted in connection to the killing of Colosio. (Ricardo Reyes/Cuartoscuro)
It said that Leticia Ortiz, a colleague of Aburto at a Tijuana plastic factory, told authorities in 1998 that a man visited Arburto at his workplace on three occasions shortly before Colosio was assassinated. She described the person to authorities to allow them to complete a facial composite, Reforma said.
The newspaper — which is frequently derided by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador as a mouthpiece of Mexico’s “conservative elite” — reported that Ortiz was summoned by prosecutors last year and was shown two photographs, one of which featured Sánchez. She “guaranteed without any doubt” that he was the man who visited Aburto in the factory “days before the assassination,” Reforma said.
In its statement on Monday, the FGR said that the witness to which “a newspaper” refers and whom the newspaper asserts provided “the only piece of evidence” for its case against Sánchez “was never at” the scene of the crime “and didn’t witness any of the events.”
Without mentioning it by name, the FGR accused Reforma of “hiding all the incriminatory evidence” in the court file on which its article is based.
Reforma did report that police arrested Sánchez minutes after the assassination and that “his white jacket was stained with blood.”
It also said that he tested positive when a sodium rhodizonate test was conducted.
The Federal Attorney General’s Office, known at the time as the PGR, didn’t proceed against Sánchez because he wasn’t in possession of a gun when he was arrested and the only firearm found by authorities at the scene of the assassination was that used by Aburto, Reforma said.
The newspaper also said that prosecutors are investigating Jorge Tello Peón, who was the director of the CISEN when Colosio was assassinated.
The FGR accuses the presiding judge of bias
The FGR said in its statement that Chávez “acted with clear bias, breaking the obligatory principles of evaluation and analysis of the large body of evidence” presented to him.
It asserted that the judge gave precedence to footage of Colosio being shot for the first time over the entire body of evidence it submitted. The second shot — allegedly fired by Sánchez — came from a “totally different angle” and for that reason is not seen in the video, the FGR said.
“And there is no video directed toward the area where … [the] second shooter was,” the FGR said, adding that the footage of the first gunshot “cannot favor, in any way, the person responsible for the second shot.”
Colosio Murieta (center), moments before his assassination while campaigning in Tijuana in 1994. (Screen capture)
Later in the statement, the Federal Attorney General’s Office said that the judge “went so far as to express personal views against the federal executive, which is completely unacceptable in proceedings of such importance.”
Chávez, demonstrated that “political crimes,” just like cases of embezzlement “linked to previous governments” are “legally obstructed” to “prevent” justice from being served, the FGR said.
The autonomous government agency said it would appeal the judge’s ruling, “despite all these obstacles” to justice.
Where is Sánchez now?
According to Laura Sánchez Ley, a journalist who has investigated the Colosio case for years and wrote a book about it, Sánchez Ortega, now aged in his early 60s, no longer lives in Mexico.
If a warrant is issued for his arrest, locating him won’t be easy because he left the country, she said in an interview with Radio Fórmula without mentioning where he went.
Sánchez is not the first person accused of being the second shooter in the assassination of Colosio.
Othón Cortés Vázquez, who worked for the PRI as a driver, faced the same accusation, but the case against him was dropped in 1996 due to a lack of evidence.
AMLO weighs in
At his morning press conference on Tuesday, President López Obrador highlighted that García Luna is accused of involvement in a government cover-up of the assassination of Colosio. He has previously claimed that the conviction of the former security minister on drug trafficking charges is proof that Mexico was a “narco-state” when Felipe Calderón was president between 2006 and 2012.
López Obrador said that it is up to the FGR and “the judicial power” to ensure justice is served in the Colosio case, but stressed that no crime should go unpunished, and especially not one of such significance as the assassination of a presidential candidate.
“This is a state matter,” he said before responding to a request from Colosio’s son, Monterrey Mayor Luis Donaldo Colosio Riojas, to pardon Aburto.
Colosio Murrieta remains a political titan in Mexico, despite his assassination almost 30 years ago. (Isaac Esquivel/Cuartoscuro)
“I want to reply that I can’t do it. I know that neither [Colosio Riojas] nor his family want to know anything about this [crime], which was terrible, but it is, I repeat, a state matter and as far as I’m concerned, I don’t want the investigation to stop,” he said.
“… I have no intention to use such a regrettable situation for political purposes, … but it is important that there is no impunity if it’s a crime that, according to the Attorney General’s Office, has some relation to a state institution,” López Obrador said.
Late last year, he described the assassination of Colosio – who denounced corruption within the PRI, and almost certainly would have won the 1994 election – as a “state crime,” without offering any evidence to back up his claim.
A conviction against Sánchez — if he is arrested and the FGR manages to successfully prosecute its case against him — would likely give the president sufficient proof to support his allegation, although a conviction of a more senior member of the Salinas government would put his accusation beyond doubt.
The FGR is “following a route in which it begins accusing lower level ex-officials” before “going up the hierarchical ladder to try to get to … the ex-president Carlos Salinas de Gortari,” he wrote.
Internet retail giant Amazon will offer biweekly payment options in Mexico for the first time, through a partnership with Mexican fintech firm Kueski.
The collaboration aims to offer users without a credit card the option to purchase items in up to twelve biweekly installments with “buy now, pay later options” and personal loans, the startup’s Chief Financial Officer Andrew Seiz told Bloomberg in an interview.
Kueski will now offer credit to the millions of Mexican consumers outside of the traditional banking system. (Omar Martínez/Cuartoscuro)
“It’s an exciting milestone, given Amazon is such a significant merchant in the context of Mexico,” Seiz said. “With this agreement, people who may not have been able to access financing before will be able to purchase products on Amazon.”
Shoppers will now be able to select options of between two and 12 payments on their Amazon purchases. The new payment method will be available for every product in the e-commerce platform except for gift cards, e-books, Kindle, Prime Video and Audible products.
Mexico has become a significant market for fintech startups, as much of the country continues to remain outside the traditional banking system, and the majority of transactions are carried out in cash.
“Our agreement with Amazon demonstrates Mexicans’ need for more flexible, secure, and inclusive payment alternatives. Kueski Pay allows merchants to create more innovative shopping experiences and help Mexican consumers,” Kueski Vice President Lisset May said.
Shoppers can pay for their goods in up to 12 installments. (Amazon México/X)
Kueski has been in operation for 12 years and launched its BNPL area Kueski Pay three years ago. In that time, it has grown to employ 620 employees, and has approved almost 15 million loans.
In December 2021, the fintech announced it had raised US $202 million in a Series C funding round led by StepStone Group Inc and Victory Park Capital.
“The outlook in Mexico is very robust, from a macroeconomic perspective and consumer demand for our product.” Seiz said. “So, in the near to medium term we believe Mexico offers a pretty significant opportunity for us and we will as a result continue to focus on Mexico for now.”
While Kueski Pay is now available on Amazon Mexico, the company says it is in a preliminary phase before being rolled out to all users in April.
