Tomás Zerón, seen here in 2016, was instrumental in the construction of the "historic truth" presented by the attorney general's office about the Ayotzinapa case in 2014. He is wanted on charges of torture and tampering with evidence.(SAÚL LÓPEZ/CUARTOSCURO.COM)
Former federal law enforcement official and fugitive from justice Tomás Zerón has denied any involvement in the purchase of the Pegasus spyware system during the 2012-18 administration of former president Enrique Peña Nieto and rejected the suggestion that he fled to Israel because that country doesn’t have an extradition treaty with Mexico.
The Federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) announced in May that it was prosecuting the former head of the now-defunct Criminal Investigation Agency (AIC) and three other ex-officials in connection with an “illegal” purchase of the Israeli-made Pegasus system in 2014.
Tomás Zerón gave an interview on Israeli television on Saturday. (Screenshot/Channel 12)
The FGR said the four ex-officials were accused of embezzlement, fraud, abuse of power and criminal association in connection with a 460-million-peso purchase of Pegasus, which can infiltrate and extract information from cellphones. It said that the purchase was made by the PGR, as the Attorney General’s Office was formerly called.
Zerón also faces charges related to the disappearance and presumed murder of 43 students in Guerrero in 2014, a crime he was tasked with investigating as head of the AIC. Those charges include torture and tampering with evidence. The current government has been asking Israel to extradite Zerón to Mexico for over two years.
In an interview with Israeli television in Tel Aviv, the ex-official asserted that he is a victim of “political persecution” in Mexico and said that he has the evidence to prove it.
The president discusses the Zerón case at a daily press conference in July 2021. (GALO CAÑAS/CUARTOSCURO.COM)
“I took the decision to leave my country, I went to Canada and later flew to Israel,” he told Israel’s Channel 12.
When the interviewer asked whether his decision to go to Israel was because that country doesn’t have an extradition agreement with Mexico, Zerón gave a strange and less than convincing response.
“No. There are other countries in the world. Why come to a country where my language isn’t spoken? Why not go to Chile? Why come to a country that complicates everything for me?”
The interviewer then remarked that “people in Mexico think that you fled here because you had connections … to NSO,” the company that makes Pegasus.
Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán in an archival photo from 2016 after being recaptured by Mexican authorities. He had escaped in 2015 from a prison while awaiting formal sentencing. (Photo: Pedro Valtierra/Cuartoscuro)
“There is no way. I don’t know anyone from NSO, I don’t have a relationship [with the company], I never sat down with them, there is no proof, ” Zerón said.
After he spoke about his involvement in the 2014 capture of former Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, Zerón responded to the assertion that he was living in Israel “like a criminal.”
“It’s not an easy situation. In the end my objective is to be able to return to my country, return to my family … and for justice to be served,” he said.
“… It’s not easy to live in another country,” he reiterated at the conclusion of a 12-minute news story that included other interviews as well as information about the 2014 disappearance of the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers College students in Iguala, Guerrero.
“… I live alone without my family, without my people. Now I have only one target in my life in Israel and the target is [to] fight for my life,” Zerón said.
Protesters outside the Israeli embassy in Mexico City in September last year, demanding Zerón’s extradition. (ROGELIO MORALES /CUARTOSCURO.COM)
Last Friday, the day before the interview with Zerón aired on Israeli television, Mexico’s Interior Ministry (SEGOB) released a statement in which it said that “investigations, evidence and testimonies” implicate the former AIC chief in the torture of a presumed member of the Guerreros Unidos, a crime gang allegedly involved in the abduction and murder of the Ayotzinapa students.
“Physical and psychological torture of people was one of the multiple lies that inspired the construction of the poorly named ‘historical truth‘ about the disappearance of the 43 Ayotzinapa teaching students,” SEGOB said.
“… Despite a million-dollar campaign to make [Zerón] look like a politically persecuted person, Mexican authorities have asked Israel to extradite him. The Mexican state maintains that no government should protect a torturer,” the ministry said.
López Obrador said in late July that he had received a response to a letter he sent to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seek the extradition of Zerón. He said there was “willingness” on the part of the Israeli government “to help us,” but didn’t confirm that it would actually agree to the extradition.
Despite a fall in worldwide grain prices, the savings have not been passed on to consumers, say agricultural analysts.(Andrea Murcia/Cuartoscuro)
Importing yellow corn, wheat and soybeans into Mexico is costing less these days — thanks to a drop in grain prices on the world market, and the peso’s newfound buying power.
However, food prices in Mexico are not going down accordingly.
Food prices rose significantly in response to inflation in the past three years. (Dassaev Telléz Adame/Cuartoscuo)
“In theory, they should lower the prices [of food], but in reality, it does not happen — in Mexico or anywhere,” said Juan Carlos Anaya, director of the Agricultural Markets Consulting Group (GCMA). “This is a complaint heard in other countries.”
In the last 12 months, international grain futures prices have dropped significantly, according to GCMA data: yellow corn costs 29% less; wheat for baking flour is down 24%; durum wheat to produce pastas is down 16%; and soybean paste, which is used by livestock farmers, is down 10%. Mexico uses primarily domestic white corn in food production, but imports yellow corn for use in livestock feed.
Moreover, importers are benefiting from the stronger peso, which has appreciated around 16% this year against the dollar, opening this week at 16.74 per US dollar.
Yet tortilla prices reportedly have gone up 9.7% nationwide this year, cornmeal has risen 13.3% and cereal flakes are up 12.5%. Products made from wheat derivatives are higher, as well, as are prices for pasta.
Juan Carlos Anaya, director of the Agricultural Markets Consulting Group (GCMA) called on Profeco to investigate the price rises. (Juan Carlos Anaya/X)
“They are not going down because it is a captive demand,” Ayala said. “These are staple products.”
Food producers and retailers “argue that when [the cost of these products] rose [with inflation] they had to maintain their prices and reduce their profits” to remain viable, Ayala said. “And now that prices are falling, they are trying to maximize their profits.”
Ayala stopped short of accusing companies of price fixing, but he urged the government’s consumer watchdog agency, Profeco, to look into the drop of grain prices — which has caused Mexican grain farmers to seek increased government subsidies — compared to the prices consumers are paying. “Profeco should review who is getting the most benefit,” he said.
According to the GCMA, Mexico imports 39% of the yellow corn, 95% of the soybeans and 54% of the wheat consumed in the country.
Mexico says it is phasing out GM corn imports by 2024 to protect Mexicans’ health and Mexico’s native corn from contamination. The U.S. says Mexico’s concerns are not based on science. (Government of Mexico)
In June, Mexico implemented a 50% tariff on white corn imports to reduce the amount of genetically modified corn used in the country’s food supply. Import levies on white corn had been lifted earlier in the year in response to high inflation and elevated food costs, but the government stated that the exemption had not “generated a significant impact on the decrease in prices in the national market” when it decreed the 50% tariff.
“It is a measure that is not understood, because Mexico is not self-sufficient” in corn production, said Mario Jorge Yáñez, a Mexico-based partner at Hogan Lovells, a law firm with expertise in foreign trade.
Mexico imported only 614,000 tonnes of white corn from January to October last year, but produced 23 million tonnes domestically. However, yellow corn imports from the United States alone are worth about US $5 billion a year. The U.S. announced it would request a dispute settlement panel under the USMCA free trade pact on Aug. 17 in response to Mexico’s stance on GM corn.
Prices for most foods in Mexico are still rising, even as headline inflation declines, with the processed food, beverages and tobacco category up 8.75% annually in the first half of August, and fruits and vegetables up 8.66% according to data from the national statistics agency (INEGI).
Janet Blaser has lived in Mazatlán for 20 years, and contemplates the many changes she has witnessed, while seeing Mexico through the eyes of a newcomer. (Dianne Hofner Saphiere)
Yesterday I had to take my computer for a (thankfully) small repair, to an expat who’s had a business here for more than a decade. Through the years, he has moved steadily into less expensive, more “Mexican” neighborhoods, whether out of necessity or desire I don’t know.
Using the Google map he sent, I packed up my laptop and headed inland, driving away from the beachfront malecón, away from the main expat enclaves in centro histórico and the hotel zone. As I went deeper into the neighborhoods, I passed cocinas económicas, several tapicerías, a storefront church next to an alcohólicos anónimos (AA). Each block had its own little tienda with the same onions, tomatoes and bedraggled video game machine on the sidewalk; there was no Walmart, Sam’s Club or Home Depot, Wings Army or McDonald’s. Abuelas were outside sweeping and chatting; a few dogs meandered here and there.
The author at her favorite local taco stand, Raymundo’s, where she’s watched the family’s babies grow up to have kids of their own. (Matt Mawson)
Memories came flooding back of the Mazatlán I’d found when I first moved here almost 20 years ago, of a vastly simpler city and way of life. It was only a few minutes’ drive, but it felt worlds away from the overwhelming tourism, traffic and development that characterizes Mazatlán—and, dare I say, much of Mexico—today.
Like many of you, I’m full of conflicting emotions about the giant condo towers, the tremendous and constant tourism, the traffic, the crowded beaches, restaurants, stores, plazas and sidewalks. There’s a secondary set of problems as well: the insufficient infrastructure and management for trash, water and cell signals; woefully inadequate parking for the thousands of people coming on vacation; the sudden need for reservations at even the smallest neighborhood café or coffee shop.
As the city has “grown up” and taken its place as a popular (very popular!) tourist and vacation destination, both for foreigners and folks from other parts of Mexico, the small, unpretentious town I was originally attracted to is all but gone. And it’s not only here in Mazatlán; I hear the same thing from friends in San Miguel de Allende, Puerto Vallarta, Ajijic and Guanajuato. I know the other side of this is increased income and opportunity for many locals, and from my privileged American position I do appreciate that. Yet I still have to ask, “At what cost?”
A new friend I’ve been spending a lot of time with lately, who is also new to Mexico, affords me a different perspective. Let’s call her Annie. She moved to Mazatlán last fall, following her dream of a new and different life, with less stress, a lower cost of living, more adventure and better weather than her home in the Pacific Northwest.
I have a car (she doesn’t) and so I’ve been taking her out and about on errands to help get her apartment set up. I’d forgotten what it was like to be the “stranger in a strange land,” the almost guaranteed frustration and aggravation that often accompanies even the most basic of chores here as one attempts to get settled. Mostly she remains enthusiastic, patient and open to whatever it is that’s coming next. Often (embarrassingly) I’m the one who’s irritated and annoyed.
Being around her has made me remember when I first got here, the struggles and challenges and “surprises.” I remember my first few years as an expat, before any of the big chain stores even existed, when the only places to shop were small local stores. We had to learn about our neighborhoods, practicing our Spanish with incredibly tolerant locals, to try and find things and services we needed or wanted. I used to have an ongoing list of stuff to bring from the U.S., and I can still recall the excitement of “finally” having turmeric, organic cotton sheets, Edison bulbs or a really nice stainless-steel pan. One learned to do without and to let go of so much, and to really live simpler, without so many material options.
The city has changed in so many ways it’s hard to even remember what it was like—or what I was like—whereas Annie’s outlook is fresh and optimistic, full of good-natured enthusiasm. She’s appreciative to be “living the dream” she’d imagined for so long. For her, Amazon Mexico, those big box stores and U.S. fast food chains are just accepted as part of her experience here; there’s no judgment or concern that her “Mexican experience” has been changed by their presence.
Truth be told, I don’t shop at the little tienditas or mercados much anymore either, preferring instead the clean, air-conditioned comfort and convenience of the big chains. (Once the weather cools off and the weekly organic farmers’ market begins in November my habits will change, though.) I find myself eating less traditional Mexican food and more plant-based, “heart-healthy” meals, and as some of you know, Italian food is my go-to for comfort.
Here on the coast, we’re deep in the throes of the summer doldrums, and it’s too hot, day and night, to do much of anything. Perhaps there’s too much time to think, but hanging out with my new friend has been a wake-up call for me, another reminder to count my blessings. Her buoyant happiness even as the power goes out (again), there’s a cockroach in the toaster oven (again) or a hundred other only-in-Mexico scenarios unfold makes us both chuckle (again).
The six aspirants have been touring the country since the candidate selection process began in June. From left to right: Manuel Velasco, Marcelo Ebrard, Adán Augusto López, Claudia Sheinbaum, Ricardo Monreal and Gerardo Fernández Noroña. (Morena/X)
The aspirants to Morena’s 2024 presidential election nomination closed their campaigns on Sunday ahead of a weeklong polling process that will determine who the ruling party’s new standard-bearer will be.
In their final pitches to citizens, the three leading Morena hopefuls – former Mexico City mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, ex-foreign affairs minister Marcelo Ebrard and former interior minister Adán Augusto López Hernández – all expressed confidence that they will prevail in the contest to represent Morena at the June 2, 2024, presidential election.
The six Morena hopefuls: from left to right (top), Adán Augusto López, Manuel Velasco and Marcelo Ebrard; from left to right (bottom), Claudia Sheinbaum, Ricardo Monreal and Gerardo Fernández Noroña. (Morena/X)
They also emphasized their closeness to and admiration for President López Obrador, the founder of Morena and the leader of what he and his government colleagues call the “fourth transformation” (4T) of Mexico.
A day after holding a rally at Mexico City’s Monument to the Revolution, Sheinbaum spoke in front of some 5,000 supporters at an event in the Veracruz capital of Xalapa on Sunday.
“Our movement is the present and future of the nation,” said the ex-mayor, who polls show is the most popular of the six Morena aspirants.
“… There is no turning back, no backward steps or steps to the right, only the continuation of the transformation,” Sheinbaum declared.
Claudia Sheinbaum is leading in the polls and says that Morena is the “present and future of the nation.” (YERANIA ROLÓN/ CUARTOSCURO.COM)
Among those listening to the 61-year-old physicist and environmental scientist was the president’s brother, Ramiro López Obrador, who described her as the “best” person to lead Morena at next year’s election.
Sheinbaum said that honesty is the “main attribute” required of the person who will lead the “defense of the fourth transformation.”
Among the other attributes needed are “love for the homeland, love for the people, love of our history and love for our movement,” she said.
Morena will never “divorce” itself from the people of Mexico, asserted Sheinbaum, who declared late last year that she was ready to become Mexico’s first female president.
President López Obrador founded Morena and won a landslide election in 2018. (lopezobrador.org.mx)
“This is a social movement that will continue fighting for justice. That’s why we say loudly and proudly … it’s an honor to be with Obrador,” she said.
Sheinbaum said that the past ten weeks she spent traveling in Mexico as she attempted to sell herself as the best option for Morena had been “unforgettable” and thanked her supporters for speaking about “the continuation of the transformation” with “the face of a woman.”
She described López Obrador, her boss when she was environment minister in Mexico City in the early 2000s, as a “great leader.”
Speaking to residents of Veracruz as well as people who were bussed in from the neighboring states of Tabasco, Chiapas, Oaxaca and Puebla, Sheinbaum took a shot at probable opposition presidential candidate Xóchitl Gálvez, although she refrained from mentioning the senator by name.
“There are those who don’t know the southeast [of Mexico], who speak disparagingly of the men and women of this region, who criticize the Maya Train [railroad] – a project of the present and future of Mexico,” she said.
Sheinbaum told those in attendance at the Xalapa International Velodrome that it won’t be the last time she sees them “because I’m going to come back as national coordinator of the committees of defense of the fourth transformation,” the title the winner of the Morena selection process will assume before officially becoming the party’s 2024 presidential candidate.
Marcelo Ebrard and his wife at the Sunday event where he delivered his final address before polling begins. (Marcelo Ebrard/X)
At Arena Ciudad de México, a concert hall in the Azcapotzalco borough of the capital, Marcelo Ebrard delivered his final address as a Morena aspirant to some 20,000 supporters.
“This is a festive meeting, a celebration. We’re finishing one stage of work and starting another. The future of Mexico begins today, today we begin on the road to win the 2024 elections, to defend the fourth transformation, to take it to the next level,” said the ex-foreign minister, who was mayor of Mexico City between 2006 and 2012.
He said his aim was not to “stay where we are,” but to build on the “transformation” initiated by López Obrador when he took office in late 2018.
“We want a better country, [improved] security, a universal health system, gender equality, very well paid jobs, economic growth, a better justice system, education – a winning country,” said the 63-year-old, who also served as a minister in Mexico City when López Obrador was mayor.
Ebrard said that the transformation already has “very large foundations” and acknowledged “the great work that my friend and colleague Andrés Manuel López Obrador has done” since becoming president.
He called on his supporters to open the doors of their homes to pollsters who will conduct surveys across Mexico between Aug. 28 and Sept. 3 to determine whose name will appear on ballot papers in 2024.
Mario Delgado, the president of Morena, shows the polling ballot at a press conference on Monday. (Morena/X)
“We need to participate in the poll. Only 12,000 people will be polled. … When you take a decision, when you put [the name of] who you want on the ballot, you’re representing thousands and thousands of people,” Ebrard said.
“In an election in Mexico 63 million of us vote, but they’re only going to poll 12,000 people. What I ask of you, colleagues, is to help me … and [with that] we’re going to win the poll next week,” he said.
Ebrard, who has claimed that sections of the government have favored Sheinbaum during the Morena selection process, said he will host another “party” on Sept. 6 to celebrate his victory.
“See you on Sept. 6 … at the party, the second chapter of this party. Long live Mexico, we’re going to win. … Those of you here are free, you’re convinced [I’m the best person to lead the country] and you’re committed. And that’s why we’re going to win,” he said.
Across town at the Monument to the Revolution, Ebrard’s former cabinet colleague López Hernández was accompanied by thousands of supporters at his final public event of the contest to select the presidential candidate for Morena and its allies, namely the Labor Party (PT) and the Ecological Green Party of Mexico (PVEM).
He noted that Saturday marked the second anniversary of his resignation as governor of Tabasco so that he could he could “accept the most honorable assignment” of his life: “accompanying the greatest president in history as interior minister.”
Adán Augusto López at an event in Toluca on Saturday. (Adán Augusto López H/X)
That role, López Hernández said, allowed him to “build a dream that will undoubtedly become reality.”
“We’re going to win and we’re going to represent the people of Mexico,” he said.
López Hernández, who, like the president, is a native tabasqueño, said he was convinced the 4T would continue and declared that the transformation is “for you and with you.”
Imitating López Obrador, he pledged to follow the orders of the Mexican people as president, and asserted that there is strong support for the current government across Mexico. After noting that he has recently visited the capitals of the majority of Mexico’s states and many of its municipalities, López Hernández said that citizens don’t want the government’s welfare and social programs to stop and don’t want generous pensions for ex-presidents to return.
The former interior minister called on the other Morena aspirants to maintain unity and support whoever becomes the party’s presidential candidate.
“We need all of us, we can’t afford the luxury of not building collectively due to personal ambitions,” he said.
“… You, the Mexican people, deserve everything. I already put my heart in your hands. Together we’re going to build the better Mexico of the future. … The country needs all of us, the country belongs to all of us,” López Hernández said.
Ricardo Monreal at a rally in Mexico City on Friday. ( PEDRO ANZA /CUARTOSCURO.COM)
The three other aspirants to the Morena-PT-PVEM nomination also closed their campaigns on Sunday. Gerardo Fernández Noroña, a former PT deputy, held a rally in Zacatecas city while former Chiapas governor and ex-PVEM senator Manuel Velasco spoke at an event in the Santa Fe business district of Mexico City. Former Morena senator and ex-governor of Zacatecas Ricardo Monreal addressed supporters in the Three Cultures Square in the capital’s Tlatelolco neighborhood.
Recent polls conducted by the El Financiero and Reforma newspapers found that Sheinabum is the most favored Morena aspirant ahead of Ebrard. López Hernández ranked third in the El Financiero poll, but fifth behind Fernández Noroña and Velasco in the Reforma one. Numerous earlier polls found that he was the third most likely candidate behind Sheinbaum and Ebrard.
Morena will announce the winner of its selection process on Sept. 6, three days after the Broad Front for Mexico (FAM) opposition bloc names its 2024 candidate. Gálvez, a National Action Party senator, and Senator Beatriz Paredes of the Institutional Revolutionary Party are the only aspirants left in the FAM contest.
Published on Monday, the results of the El Financiero and Refoma polls indicate that Morena will win next’s presidential election with either of Sheinbaum or Ebrard as its candidate.
Unemployment increased slightly from the last quarter of 2023, but remains lower than this time last year. (Moisés Pablo/Cuartoscuro)
Mexico’s unemployment rate was 2.8% in the second quarter of 2023, the national statistics agency INEGI reported Monday.
The rate is slightly higher than the record low of 2.7% recorded in the first quarter of the year, but 0.4 percentage points lower than unemployment in the April-June period of 2022.
Statistics showed that just 46.1% of women were working, or actively seeking work. (Graciela López/Cuartoscuro)
INEGI said that 1.7 million of 60.2 million “economically active” people were unemployed in the second quarter of the year. An additional 4.7 million people were underemployed. That figure, representing 8% of Mexicans with jobs, was 391,000 lower than a year earlier.
Just over three-quarters of Mexican males aged 15 and older were in work or looking for paid work in Q2, while the figure for females was significantly lower at 46.1%.
Mexico City had the highest unemployment rate in the country – 4.4% – followed by Tabasco, 4.1%; and Coahuila, 3.7%. Guerrero had the lowest rate – 0.9% – followed by Oaxaca, 1.2%; and Yucatán, 1.6%.
Of the 58.5 million people with jobs in the second quarter, 6.6 million worked in the primary sector of the economy, 14.6 million worked in the secondary sector and 36.9 million worked in the tertiary sector, according to INEGI.
Many Mexican workers (such as street performers) are members of the informal economy, and do not pay tax or qualify for benefits. (Juan Pablo Zamora/Cuartoscuro)
Almost 32.3 million people – 55.2% of those with jobs – were working in the informal sector, meaning that they don’t pay taxes and don’t have benefits such as paid vacations or health insurance that would allow them to seek treatment at IMSS or ISSSTE hospitals and clinics.
With 80.3% of workers in informal sector positions, Oaxaca had the highest informality rate in the country followed by Guerrero (78.1%) and Chiapas (76%). The states with the lowest rates were Coahuila (35%), Chihuahua (35.1%) and Nuevo León (36.1%).
Almost half of all workers in Chiapas – one of Mexico’s poorest states – were deemed to be in “critical” financial situations despite having a job. Tlaxcala had the second highest rate in that category, with 42% of workers in “critical” situations, while México state ranked third with a rate of 39.5%.
The number of Mexicans living in poverty declined by 8.9 million between 2020 and 2022, the federal government’s social development agency Coneval reported earlier this month. However, 46.8 million people were still living in poverty last year.
While poverty has declined under the current Morena government, there were still some 46.8 million Mexicans below the poverty line in 2022. (Adriana Álvarez/Cuartoscuro)
President López Obrador focused on the positives of the Mexican economy in a 30-second video uploaded to social media on Sunday to promote the government’s fifth annual report, which he will outline in an address in Campeche this Friday.
More than 30,000 people entered the marathon in the Mexican capital this year - 58% more than last year. (Graciela López/Cuartoscuro)
More than 30,000 runners competed in the 40th edition of the Mexico City Marathon on Sunday, but none of them was as fast as Bolivian Héctor Garibay Flores.
In fact, no one in the history of the race had ever been so fast.
Bolivian Garibay beat out the hotly-rated Kenyan entrants, including last year’s winner, Edwin Kiprop Kiptoo, who finished third. (Daniel Augusto/Cuartoscuro)
The 35-year-old needed just 2 hours, 8 minutes and 23 seconds to run 42 kilometers (26.1 miles) through the capital, breaking the CDMX Marathon record by a whopping two minutes.
Competing in his very first Mexico City Marathon, Garibay Flores bettered the record of 2:10:38 set by Kenyan Titus Ekire in 2018, when the route of the marathon ran from the central Zócalo square to the Olympic stadium, in Coyoacán.
This year’s route instead started at the Olympic stadium at 6 a.m. under a light rain, progressed up to the Insurgentes roundabout and along the Bosque de Chapultepec to Reforma Avenue, finishing in the Zócalo. The number of participants increased by 58% over last year, when 19,000 people, mostly recreational runners, signed up.
In the women’s competition, Kenyan runners swept the top three places, with Celestine Chepchir (2:27:17) taking first.
Celestine Chepchirchir took the honors in the Women’s race, with a time of 2:27:17. Kenyan runners took all three podium places. (Daniel Augusto/Cuartoscuro)
Kenya’s men also were expected to dominate — and they almost did. But about halfway through the race, the Bolivian kicked it into high gear and moved past last year’s winner, Edwin Kiprop Kiptoo. Kiptoo responded and regained the lead, but Garibaysurged ahead and never looked back.
Kiptoo ended up finishing third, behind fellow Kenyan Leonard Langat. Both were nearly 3 minutes behind Garibay, a world-class runner who had previously qualified for the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
Despite that accomplishment, the native of Oruro, a city of about 260,000 in the Bolivian highlands, has been strapped for cash and was working as a taxi driver to raise money. Due to his lack of funds, he decided not to travel to Hungary for the recent World Athletics Championships.
Instead, he decided to pony up for a trip to Mexico — “and thanks be to God, it was worth it,” he said afterward. The first-place prize was 550,000 pesos (US $32,814) and a Garmin watch, plus he reportedly received another 550,000 pesos for breaking the record.
He conceded the prize money is also “very important” because it will help him prepare for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. Working as a taxi driver has robbed him of valuable training time, he said.
“I’m very happy because I only came [to Mexico] to get a podium,” he said, alluding to being one of the top-three finishers. “We are very short of money, but the truth is [finishing in the top 3 is what’s] important for me.”
Legendary Ethiopian long-distance runner Haile Gebrselassie, 50, a two-time gold medalist in the Olympics and a four-time world champion, attended the awards ceremony.
Smuggled firearms from the United States help arm Mexican cartels. Guns are heavily restricted in Mexico, but are widely available at gun stores on the U.S. side of the border.(Carlos Canabal/Cuartoscuro)
A hearing in Mexico’s case against five gun shops in Arizona that was scheduled to go ahead on Monday was canceled, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) said.
The federal government filed a lawsuit against gun stores in Tucson, Phoenix and Yuma last October, accusing them of involvement in illegal arms trafficking to Mexico.
The Mexican government hopes that by holding manufacturers accountable, unrestricted sales at the United States border will decrease. (Best Pawn Tuscon)
In a statement on Saturday, the SRE said that the suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, cites “tracing data” that shows that the gun stores “routinely supply high-powered firearms to criminal organizations in Mexico.”
“… After the suit was filed, both parties presented their arguments during the written stage of the proceedings,” the ministry said.
“The oral argument was scheduled for August 28, 2023. However, on Thursday, August 24, the judge assigned to the case, Cindy Jorgenson, issued an order canceling the hearing, stating only that she is considering recusing herself from the case. The public will be informed of the new date for the oral argument set by the District Court,” the SRE said.
The government filed its case against the gun stores 10 days after its US $10 billion lawsuit against United States gun manufacturers was dismissed by a Massachusetts federal judge.
The case has been delayed, as Tucson judge Cindy Jorgenson is considering recusing herself from the case. (Tucson District Court/Pfeiffer Partners)
The SRE said Saturday that a “favorable ruling” in its case against the Arizona gun shops “would strengthen the first lawsuit filed in Boston, since it would prove that the gun manufacturers are negligent for not monitoring or disciplining the dealers who sell their products to criminals.”
It noted that “while the broader Boston lawsuit alleges that the gun manufacturers bear responsibility for their negligence in manufacturing and distributing firearms that facilitates their illicit trafficking to our country, this second lawsuit addresses a specific angle of the issue.”
That issue, the SRE explained is “the negligence of gun dealers that enables criminal organizations in Mexico to acquire their products (for example, through sales to straw purchasers).”
Mexico has tried to deal with the flow of illegal firearms but has struggled to meaningfully stem the flow of weapons from the United States. (Daniel Augusto/Cuartoscuro)
The SRE said in 2019 that firearms from the United States are used in seven out of every 10 high-impact crimes committed in Mexico.
The U.S. said in April that it was “deploying new authorities … to target southbound firearms flows and working with Mexican counterparts to increase firearms tracing to identify and choke off the source of firearms flows into Mexico.”
The task U.S. and Mexican authorities face is an enormous one.
It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of firearms are smuggled into Mexico from the U.S. each year, while data from the Federal Attorney General’s Office shows that the number of guns seized here annually has been less than 10,000 over the past decade.
Las Amazonas de Yanuxah show up to every game in the same team uniform: traditional huipiles and bare feet. (Cuartoscuro)
Shoeless and wearing traditional Maya dresses known as huipiles, the softball team Las Amazonas de Yaxunah is smashing old-fashioned machismo stereotypes about women competing in sports.
Recently crowned champions of the Yaxcabá quadrangular tournament, the team defeated the hosts, Las Bravas, 7-4 after a spirited effort produced an epic comeback from four runs down. It was the latest victory to propel them towards national stardom – but it wasn’t so long ago that they were criticized for playing sports at all, which was considered the dominion of men.
At 54 years old, María is still one of the big hitters of Las Amazonas. (Photo courtesy of Mark Viales)
The group of Indigenous softball players are from Yaxunah, Yucatán, a village of fewer than 800 people and a stone’s throw away from Chichen Itzá. Like the legendary women warriors known as the Amazons, Las Amazonas de Yaxunah have broken barriers to further the feminist movement in their community. Now with four female teams in Yaxunah, their success is quite a feat, considering not a single women’s team existed here five years ago.
“If it were up to the chauvinists in our village, women would spend their lives slaving away with chores at home, caring for the children and working on the farm,” María Enedina Canul Poot, 54, one of the founding members of the team, told me. “Sport was a no-go for women, but we had enough, and decided to tell our husbands, fathers and brothers that we would play whether they approved or not.”
María is no stranger to softball because, as a child, she used to sneak out of her home to play against the boys who gathered in the local field.
“I was the only seven-year-old girl in the village who could give them a good game,” she said.
María Enedina Canul Poot, 54, was the only seven year old in the village who played baseball against boys and she continues to break chauvinist stigmas. (Photo courtesy of Mark Viales)
“It gave me great pride to hold my own against the boys. My mother didn’t like it, and I would argue with her to allow me to play, even though she beat me, but I would do everything possible to convince her to go. Eventually, she relented.”
However, when María was 15 years old, her mother insisted she act “more feminine.” She either had to give up softball l or risk being thrown out of the house.
“My mother decided enough was enough, and that I needed to act more like a woman, which was incredibly frustrating,” she said. “I had to face the reality that it was prohibited in my village for young girls to play a man’s sport.”
When the opportunity to play again arose 35 years later, María took it. Four years ago, government health officials set up a fitness program for women in Yaxunah because of the high level of diabetes in the area. But when they proposed aerobics as a way to stay healthy, María was the first to object, suggesting softball instead.
María hit a home run to spark a spectacular comeback against Las Bravas de Yaxcaba, clinching the title of a recent quadrangular tournament. (Photo courtesy of Mark Viales)
“I’m a sportswoman, so dancing and jumping around just doesn’t do it for me,” she said. “I prefer the atmosphere and camaraderie of competitive team sports. They wanted us to play soccer, but baseball is the sport of Yucatán and the game I fell in love with from a young age. Most women in the community agreed with me, and that is how the idea was born, when softball became a part of us.”
It was tough in the beginning. María says she had to carve a makeshift bat out of a piece of wood and beg her late husband to donate one of his baseballs.
“We had no fear,” she said. “At first we played without gloves, so we ended up with some bumps and bruises, but I believe this made us stronger than teams from larger towns with full gear.”
Six months later, a neighboring softball team from Pisté saw the team playing in their field and invited them to compete in their first game. Word spread fast, and soon, other teams from the states of Yucatán, Quintana Roo and Campeche wanted to face the famous shoeless women warriors from Yaxunah.
Finding a good name to reflect the team’s tenacity and ferocity on the field became a priority, and that was when Las Amazonas was born.
Las Amazonas celebrate their victory with their traditional battle cry “We are the Amazonas! We are women warriors!” (Photo courtesy of Mark Viales)
“A few names were suggested, but only one word came to my mind: amazonas,” María said. “It brought about a moment of silence [when I told the team.] At first, they told me that it did not represent us because it was a story that belonged to another culture, but I didn’t care. This is what I felt we were, women warriors. I could definitely identify with this name, and I am delighted it stuck.”
The woman warriors have warmed the hearts of softball fans across the country, but none more so than their manager, who was love-struck by the team captain.
Three years ago, coach Joel Díaz Canul, 21, who happens to be María’s son, fell head over heels for captain Citlali Poot Dzib, 20. Their romance blossomed during one practice session when Citlali stayed behind to improve her pitching. Joel worked up the courage to place a bet with her: if he hit a home run, they would go out on a date that night.
His heart racing, Joel focused on the ball as Citlali lined up her pitch. He knew these pitchers never took any prisoners, but when he smashed it into the trees, he fell to his knees in celebration. Citlali jokes that she was slightly unimpressed with his antics, but thought he was cute enough to honor the bet.
“I was extremely nervous,” he said. “I don’t know if it was destiny or pure luck, but we are still together and going strong. It appears sports can make you happy in numerous ways. We have been married for almost two years now.”
The team has defied expectations, upsetting some of the big hitters in Yucatán. Joel believes his side is ready to participate in the official league, and says players like Citlali could one day go pro.
The team played a game in Mérida in March 2022 as part of International Women’s Day events. ( MARTÍN ZETINA/CUARTOSCURO.COM)
“She’s still young, so who knows?” he said. “It makes me so proud to see what they have achieved already. We were invited to play a match against a team from Campeche. It was the first time we traveled there. It was amazing. This sport has given us the chance to discover new places: Veracruz, Chiapas and Mexico City. We’ve traveled around the country because of the fame we have achieved.”
Joel said the team’s exploits have helped increase tourism interest in their village, which has a cenote and an important archaeological site. According to Joel, many visitors arrive at Yaxunah intending to meet the famous woman warriors.
“We are always open to having a nice conversation with visitors and showing them our cultural identity,” he said. “We are Maya, and the huipil is just one of the components of our diverse culture. I think the municipal mayors are beginning to realize and value our contribution.”
Coach Joel Díaz Canul, 21, shares words of wisdom with his wife, Team Captain Citlali Poot Dzib, 20, whom he fell in love with following a momentous practice session. (Photo courtesy of Mark Viales)
Joel admits there was a much stronger presence of machismo in the village a few years ago, but this changed because of Las Amazonas and other women’s softball teams.
“The same people who used to leer at the players and call them nasty names are now supporting them at matches and online,” he said. “It’s a real turnaround, and I suppose not many people expected chauvinist men would change their attitude in such a small village, but the majority have. Sport is a powerful tool.”
While both countries head into presidential elections, Travis Bembenek sees major contrasts between the two political scenes. (Shutterstock)
Mexico and the U.S. are both heading into presidential elections in 2024, but from my view, the two races could not be more different.
These are the five most notable aspects of Mexican politics in contrast with U.S. politics that I see today.
Diversity of political parties
After seven decades of being essentially a one-party system dominated by the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) until the election of PAN (National Action Party) president Vicente Fox in 2000, Mexico now has a plurality of active political parties, with seven officially registered.
President López Obrador was a member of both the PRI and the PRD (Democratic Revolution Party) in his career, but after parting ways with the latter, formed his own Morena (National Regeneration Movement) party in 2011, and went on to win the presidency with the party in 2018. Today Morena is the dominant party in Mexico, with more governerships and legislative seats than any other. Movimiento Cuidadano (Citizens Movement) is another political party that only recently began to gain momentum, and now the mayors of Mexico’s second and third largest cities, Guadalajara and Monterrey, are from the MC, as are the governors of their respective states of Jalisco and Nuevo León.
Alliances between political parties
After dominating Mexican politics for decades, the PRI has found itself losing momentum. The two other prominent parties of the past two decades, the PAN and PRD, have also been losing ground, and joined with the PRI to form an opposition coalition bloc to Morena.
This political alliance of rivals, called Va por México, and then changed to Frente Amplio por México or Broad Front for Mexico (FAM) before beginning the candidate selection process, is one that would have been hard to imagine only a decade ago.
Candidates switching political parties
Before founding Morena, AMLO was at different times a member of the PRI and PRD parties. Marcelo Ebrard, AMLO’s former foreign affairs minister, and current hopeful to be the Morena 2024 candidate, is rumored to be considering switching to the Movimiento Cuidadano (MC) party if he doesn’t get Morena’s nomination.
Xóchitl Gálvez (PAN) is currently the leading candidate to win the opposition’s nomination and just yesterday said she would welcome Ebrard to join her campaign if he fails in his bid with Morena. This all makes for a dynamic political scene, and also has inspired a Mexican political term: chapulineo, or “grasshoppering”, when a politician makes en expedient switch in party allegiance.
Left and right ideologies shifting
The ideologies and platforms of the political parties in Mexico are evolving quickly. As a result, legacy definitions of right and left don’t seem as applicable as in the U.S., with a coalition like the Broad Front for Mexico (FAM) made up of a conservative party (PAN), a leftist party (PRD) and an ideologically shape-shifting but most recently center-right party (PRI).
The prominence of women in Mexican politics today
Three of the leading candidates (Xóchitl Gálvez, Beatriz Paredes and Claudia Sheinbaum) to run for the presidency in 2024 are women, and two of them come from scientific and technological backgrounds. In a comparison of the two forerunners, we see diverse backgrounds and experience. Claudia Sheinbaum (Morena) is a physicist who has a doctorate in energy engineering. Xóchitl Gálvez studied computer engineering. Both are in their early sixties. Sheinbaum is the granddaughter of Jewish European immigrants and Gálvez is the daughter of an Otomí father and mestiza mother.
This will undoubtedly be a fascinating election season to watch, on both sides of the border.
From the Supreme Court to elections in Guatemala to the Maya train, President López Obrador covered a range of topics at the daily pressers. (lopezobrador.org.mx)
Last Sunday’s presidential election in Guatemala, the failure of the Supreme Court to issue a ruling in a case involving alleged tax evasion and the resignation of the head of the National Search Commission were among the topics President López Obrador addressed at his morning press conferences, or mañaneras, this week.
AMLO started his week of pressers as per usual in the National Palace, but ended it in the balmy climes of Acapulco, where the health of the city’s picturesque Pacific coast bay was discussed.
AMLO stands next to an image of the new Dos Bocas refinery, of which the president made special mention in the mañanera as proof that Mexicans are not “lazy.” (lopezobrador.org.mx)
López Obrador will be back on the coast next Friday, but on the other side of the country in Campeche, where he will present his fifth annual informe (report) in a State of the Union-style address. Brief video clips in which AMLO promotes his quinto informe appeared on the federal government’s official YouTube channel on Friday.
Monday
“They’re within their rights to protest, we’re free,” López Obrador said when a reporter asked his opinion about the burning of the government’s controversial school textbooks by a group of parents in Chiapas and a citizens’ protest against the books in Aguascalientes.
However, if they’re protesting because they believe that the books indoctrinate and “inject the virus of communism,” they’re wrong, AMLO said.
“They’re completely misinformed and manipulated,” he said before blaming opposition political leaders and “conservative bloc” business people for the alleged manipulation.
“They use all these lies to deceive – to try to deceive because a lot of people don’t believe them,” López Obrador said.
Later in his press conference, AMLO described the victory of Bernardo Arévalo in last Sunday’s runoff presidential election in Guatemala as “very good news.”
Guatemala’s President-elect Bernardo Arevalo and Vice President-elect Karin Herrera. (@BArevalodeLeon/X)
“I’m very happy because Bernardo Arévalo won the election in Guatemala,” he said, adding that there is ample evidence that the soon-to-be president is a “progressive man, with principles … who will govern for everyone.”
“But I’m sure he’ll give special attention to the poorest people,” López Obrador said of the 64-year-old son of a former Guatemalan president, who ran on an anti-corruption platform.
“Yesterday I spoke with him and we agreed to meet once he’s [officially] president-elect. Of course we have a lot of issues to address so that there is cooperation, so that we can help each other,” he said.
“… I’m sure that Bernardo will seek more cooperation in economic and social matters,” AMLO said.
Returning to domestic issues, López Obrador acknowledged traffic congestion in southern areas of the Veracruz city metropolitan area, but effectively ruled out starting any projects to address the issue during his administration.
“We’re trying not to start projects that won’t be finished [before I leave office],” he said.
“We don’t want to leave projects unfinished,” explained AMLO, who will hand over the presidential sash to his successor on Oct. 1, 2024.
“For example, in the case of Veracruz we’re finishing the widening of the highway to Tampico [in the neighboring state of Tamaulipas]. … In the case of the southeast, we’re committed to finishing the first stage of the link on the isthmus,” he said, referring to the modernization of the train line across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec between the port cities of Salina Cruz, Oaxaca, on the Pacific coast and Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, on the Gulf coast.
“… I expect that on Sept. 17, which is a Sunday, we’ll be able to take a passenger train in Salina Cruz and get off in Coatzacoalcos,” López Obrador said.
“… We’re already finishing the first stage of the expansion of the two ports. … And the modernization of the highway from the isthmus to [the Veracruz municipality of] Acayucan will be finished. We’re not going to leave anything [incomplete],” he said.
The president presented the first locomotive of the interoceanic rawilway on Aug.13, which will haul cargo and passengers across the 303-kilometer line. (Luisa Alcalde/Twitter)
AMLO also pledged that the government’s new universal health care scheme, IMSS-Bienestar, will be “completely established” before he leaves office.
“It will be, I repeat, the best health system in the world,” he asserted.
López Obrador noted there are “some governors that don’t want the system,” but predicted that between 23 and 25 of Mexico’s federal entities will agree to its implementation before his presidency ends.
“The rest will remain with the traditional system managed by state governments,” he said.
Shortly before concluding his first mañanera of the week, AMLO revealed that the director of the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS), Zóe Robledo, won’t leave his current position to contest the 2024 gubernatorial election in his native state of Chiapas.
The president said that Robledo told him late last week that he didn’t want to “abandon” IMSS, and wants to fulfill “the commitment we have to establish the IMSS-Bienestar system and guarantee people’s right to health care.”
“I gave him a hug because one has to know where he or she is most useful in the process of transformation,” AMLO said. You don’t fight for positions, you fight for principles [and] ideals.”
Tuesday
Federal tax prosecutor Félix Arturo Medina Padilla told reporters that the federal government will file a complaint against Supreme Court Justice Luis María Aguilar Morales for alleged negligence in a case involving an unnamed large company with a tax debt of over 25 billion pesos.
“This company, abusing its large corporate structure, has used a range of legal strategies to challenge and delay the issuance of a sentence that forces it to pay the taxes,” he said.
During the past eight months, Aguilar has been “negligent” because he hasn’t issued a ruling on the matter, Medina said.
“Improperly delaying the resolution of the matter not only violates the federal constitution, it goes against the very nature of the Supreme Court, which must impart justice,” he said, adding that that Aguilar’s conduct also has a negative impact on “the resources of all Mexicans.”
“… This kind of selective conduct … must be eradicated from our nation for the benefit of all Mexicans,” Medina said.
Later in the press conference, National Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval reported that authorities have seized 2,803 improvised explosive devices (IEDs) since the current government took office in late 2018, including some that had already detonated.
The Defense Ministry has seized 2,803 improvised, or homemade, explosive devices (IEDs) since 2018. (lopezobrador.org.mx)
“These devices have been seized in 22 states,” he said, adding that Michoacán ranked first for confiscations followed by Guanajuato, Jalisco and Chiapas.
“On land, 2,186 [IEDs] have been identified, 12 were in vehicles and 605 were on drones. … Those that exploded injured 77 people – 24 military personnel, 10 National Guard officers, 31 police and 12 civilians who belong to [organized crime] groups,” Sandoval said.
“All these explosive devices are homemade using tutorials found on the internet. The explosive material is gunpowder, common gunpowder that you can get in the market,” he said, adding that the majority of the artisanal bombs fail to explode.
Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez subsequently presented data that showed there were 2,462 homicides in July, a 3% decline compared to June. There were 17,589 homicides in the first seven months of the year for an average of 83 per day, according to data displayed by Rodríguez.
She noted that 47.8% of the murders between January and July were committed in just six states: Guanajuato, México state, Baja California, Jalisco, Chihuahua and Michoacán.
Having taken center stage to respond to reporters’ questions, López Obrador also railed against Justice Aguilar for failing to deliver a ruling in the company tax debt case.
AMLO criticized Supreme Court Justice Luis María Aguilar Morales of negligence in a case involving a company, rumored to be the mega-corporation Grupo Elektra, that owes over 25 billion pesos in unpaid tax. (Wikimedia Commons)
“Twenty-five billon pesos are involved – the budget of a state of the republic! It could be the budget of Baja California Sur, Tlaxcala, Zacatecas, Campeche, but he doesn’t rule [on the case]. … Where’s the prompt and expeditious justice?” he said, before noting that Aguilar had ruled in favor of suspending the distribution of government textbooks in Coahuila.
“There is prompt and expeditious justice [in that case] because it’s against us,” said AMLO, who frequently criticizes the judiciary.
“… I’m not saying that the judges have to side with the government in order to recover that [unpaid tax] money [but] I am proposing that [the case] be resolved in accordance with the law,” he said.
López Obrador said that the complaint against Aguilar would be filed with the Federal Judiciary Council, but Interior Minister Luisa María Alcalde interrupted to correct him, saying that it will in fact be presented to the Supreme Court and “the justices themselves” will assess it.
AMLO turned his focus to the Maya Train when a reporter remarked that small-scale tourism operators and other residents of the states through which the railroad will run had doubts about whether they would in fact benefit from the project, as the government has said they will.
The president noted that Quintana Roo Governor Mara Lezama recently attended his press conference and said that communities outside tourism hubs would benefit from the project because Maya Train passengers will visit them and stay there.
President López Obrador with Quintana Roo governor Mara Lezama. (Mara Lezama/X)
Tourists will stay in the “homes of campesino families, get to know what life is like in the indigenous communities and they can purchase crafts … and enjoy the succulent food of the Yucatán Peninsula,” López Obrador said.
Outside Quintana Roo, Environment Minister María Luisa Albores is working on projects that will benefit honey producers, among others, he said.
López Obrador said he was confident that the Maya Train, which is scheduled to begin operations in December, would “help the people a lot because tourism will increase” in the south of Quintana Roo and in the states of Campeche, Yucatán, Chiapas and Tabasco.
The Ministry of National Defense has no record of a person with the name mentioned in the Reforma report having been a member of the armed forces, García said.
She also condemned journalists who were critical of López Obrador for telling a joke at the end of his Aug. 16 mañanera when he was asked about the presumed murder of five young men in Jalisco.
Their sole aim was to influence public opinion so that citizens would reject the president and his actions, García said.
The president announced on Wednesday that Grupo Frontera will perform on Sept. 15 in the Zócalo. (Gob MX)
“The President Andrés Manuel López Obrador clarified a day later that it was a campaign of misinformation, a lie,” she said, referring to her boss’s claim that he didn’t hear the questions put to him.
“In December we’re going to have a pharmacy here in Mexico City, we’re already working on that. … In that warehouse, in that pharmacy, there will be all medications, all the medicines in the world,” he said.
“If a hospital or health care center reports a shortage of a certain medicine, new stock will be sent out to them and it will arrive within a day,” López Obrador said.
“… We have to get medicines in India, … in China, in France, in Korea, wherever. We’re going to have all medicines. We can do this because … there is no longer corruption,” he said.
On Wednesday, AMLO announced another end-of-term promise: a public pharmacy with ‘all the medicines of the world.’ The current administration has struggled to meet the demand for some medicines. (Archive)
Later in the press conference, a reporter asked the president about the Ministry of National Defense’s plan to lease 10 Boeing aircraft from Texan company Petrus Aviation to launch the new state-owned commercial airline, which will operate under the Mexicana brand.
Each month, the Defense Ministry will have to pay Petrus between US $230,000 and $350,000 per plane, the reporter said before suggesting that the expense was excessive.
“They did an analysis and reached the conclusion that it was the best mechanism,” López Obrador said.
“… What I did was speak to the president of the Boeing Board of Directors and asked him to help us and for them to advise us. I spoke with him by telephone and he has been helping,” AMLO said.
“They don’t lease [planes], but I understand that they recommended this company that is going to lease [the aircraft],” he said.
López Obrador indicated that he believed that the costs of leasing the planes won’t prevent the state-owned airline from being profitable.
The first fleet of the new state-owned Mexicana airline will be made up of 10 Boeing aircraft leased from the Texan company Petrus Aviation. (Mexicana)
“I feel that we’re going to have reasonable profits because … the tickets are going to cost 18% or 20% less,” he said.
“This airline is going to have a lot of success because when we inaugurate it, which we think will happen in November of this year or December at the latest, one of the main flights will be Mexico City-Tulum,” AMLO said, noting that planes will depart the Felipe Ángeles International Airport north of the capital and arrive at the airport currently under construction in the Quintana Roo tourism destination.
Among other remarks, López Obrador announced that Grupo Frontera, a Texas-based band, will play in Mexico City’s central square, the Zócalo, on Sept. 15, the night on which he will deliver the Grito – the Cry of Independence – from a National Palace balcony.
“Inflation came down, [only] a little bit, but it declined,” AMLO noted not long after the national statistics agency INEGI reported an annual headline rate of 4.67% in the first half of August, down from 4.79% in July.
“This is very good because this means there is less risk of high costs and incomes go further if food and goods cost less,” he said.
The president at last year’s fourth yearly report. Next Friday, AMLO is expected to present another year in review following his fifth year in office. (lopezobrador.com.mx)
Later in his press conference, López Obrador reminded reporters that he will present his fifth annual report to the nation in Campeche on Sept. 1.
“We’ll have the report in the state of Campeche for the first time because it’s among the most forgotten states,” he said.
AMLO informed reporters that he will travel from Campeche city to Mérida on the Maya Train railroad after delivering his annual address, adding that executives of companies contributing to the construction of the railroad as well as the governors of Campeche, Yucatán and Quintana Roo will accompany him on the “supervision” trip ahead of the scheduled commencement of operations in December.
López Obrador said he will take another “supervision” trip from Mérida to Cancún the following day.
“On Sunday [Sept. 3] in Cancún we’re going to inaugurate the repaving … of the Colosio [Boulevard],” he said, referring to a major road in the Caribbean coast city.
“… And from there we’ll continue, but not on the train. We’ll fly over [the railroad] in helicopter to get to Tulum, oversee the Cancún-Tulum section and the Tulum airport,” López Obrador said.
“The Tulum airport … must already be about 65% finished, we’re going to inaugurate it in December along with the [new state-owned] airline Mexicana,” he said.
President López Obrador during a site visit to the Tulum airport in May. (Gob MX)
AMLO also outlined his itinerary for his trip to South America next month, during which he will meet with Colombian President Gustavo Petro and Chilean President Gabriel Boric.
“We’re going to leave on Friday Sept. 8 … and we’re going to Colombia, to Cali, I think. The issue is cooperation for development between the two countries, and also the issue of drug trafficking,” he said.
“There’s going to be a meeting beforehand, an analysis about the problem of drug trafficking, the consumption of drugs in Colombia. Experts from various places are going to meet in advance … and will deliver to us, to President Petro and I, their conclusions,” López Obrador said.
He reminded reporters that he will attend a ceremony in Santiago to mark the 50th anniversary of the death of former Chilean president Salvador Allende during the 1973 coup led by General Augusto Pinochet, who would go on to lead the South American nation until 1990.
“It’s said it was a suicide, but in the circumstances I would say it was murder, a despicable crime,” AMLO said.
The president was later asked to assess the performance of National Search Commission chief Karla Quintana, who resigned on Wednesday.
Quintana was appointed as director of the national commission in 2019 and did not give specific reasons for her departure. (Karla Quintana/X)
“A lot of progress is being made in the search for missing people,” López Obrador said without offering a direct appraisal of Quintana.
“… Progress has been made and we’re going to continue making progress. She decided to resign, her resignation was accepted and her participation [in the government] during several years was acknowledged,” he said.
It’s not just the Search Commission that is involved in the search for the nation’s missing people – of whom there are over 110,000 in Mexico – but rather the entire government, López Obrador added.
Friday
Dressed down in a guayabera, AMLO presided over his final press conference of the week in Acapulco, Guerrero.
“Acapulco is always Acapulco,” he said at the start of the mañanera.
“As long as the world exists, paraphrasing the Mexicas, the beauty and glory of the port of Acapulco will not end,” López Obrador said.
The president held his final press conference of the week in Acapulco. (Gob MX)
Violence, unfortunately, is another seemingly indomitable aspect of life in Acapulco, which was described by The Washington Post in 2017 as Mexico’s murder capital.
The city has recorded 395 homicides this year, making it the most violent municipality in the state, according to data presented by Navy Minister José Rafael Ojeda Durán.
He told reporters that Guerrero ranks as the eighth most violent state in Mexico for total homicides during the term of the current government. Based on murders per 100,000 people, the state ranks as the ninth most violent of Mexico’s 32 federal entities, Ojeda said.
Governor Evelyn Salgado – who replaced her father (and alleged rapist) Félix Salgado as the ruling Morena party’s gubernatorial candidate at the 2021 state election after he was disqualified – subsequently said that femicide numbers in Guerrero were down 70% in the first seven months of this year compared to the same period of 2018.
“There have been important advances in Guerrero,” she said. “Advances that are, without a doubt, the result of the support the government of Mexico has provided us at all times.”
López Obrador returned to the mañanera lectern to respond to reporters’ questions, but called on Salgado when he received an inquiry about contamination in Acapulco Bay, which has been sullied by discharges of sewage over the years.
National Guard and other law enforcement have been deployed to Acapulco recently in response to violence. (CARLOS CARBAJAL/CUARTOSCURO.)
Over 700 million pesos (US $41.8 million) has been allocated to addressing the issue since 2021, the governor said, explaining that the money came from all three levels of government.
Authorities are attending to the problem, but additional “millions” of pesos are needed to “achieve a total clean-up of the bay,” Salgado said.
AMLO added that having pristine water along the Acapulco coast is a “priority” for the federal government. “We’re helping and we’re going to continue helping,” he said.
López Obrador was later asked about recent violence in Nuevo León, where there were at least 11 murders on Wednesday and three bodies were found hanging from a bridge in the municipality of Salinas Victoria on Thursday.
“The situation was analyzed this morning and an investigation is being carried out,” he said.
AMLO disagreed that Governor Samuel García – who described the acts of violence as “isolated” incidents – had “played down” the crimes, as a reported claimed.
“The Nuevo León governor is a good governor. What’s happening is that those from PRIAN in Nuevo León and [the] El Norte [newspaper] are against him,” he said, using a hybrid acronym for the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, and the National Action Party, or PAN, political allies that are sometimes accused of being one and the same.
In a mañanera with a recurring focus on violence, López Obrador blamed the situation Mexico faces today on the government of former president Felipe Calderón, who he claims won the 2006 election – in which he was runner-up – thanks to fraud.
The Calderón administration – which launched a militarized war against drug cartels shortly after taking office in late 2006 – “got us into this spiral of violence,” he said.
“He stupidly took a whack at the hornet’s nest, there was no diagnosis [of the situation], they didn’t have programs to attend to young people, they never addressed the causes [of crime],” AMLO said.
“And not just that, the worst thing was that the person in charge of security was involved with one of the [criminal] groups,” he said, referring to former security minister Genaro García Luna, who a U.S. jury found guilty of collusion with the Sinaloa Cartel.
López Obrador ended his week of press conferences with another attack on Justice Aguilar for his failure to issue a ruling on the company that is said to have a monumental tax debt.
“Do you know how long he’s had a 25-billion-peso file? … Eight months and he hasn’t ruled on it. And he asked for that file to be given to him,” he said.
“… So I ask the chief justice and the justice, when are you going to rule one way or the other?”
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies ([email protected])
