The National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV) has taken over management at Intercam and CIBanco, after the U.S. sanctioned the banks for allegedly providing financial services to cartel affiliates. (File photo)
The National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV) has decreed a “temporary managerial intervention” at the Mexican banks CIBanco and Intercam after both were accused by the U.S. Department of the Treasury of laundering money for Mexican drug cartels.
The CNBV, the Finance Ministry (SHCP), the Bank of Mexico (Banxico) and the Institute for the Protection of Bank Savings (IPAB) said in a joint statement on Thursday that the CNBV governing board decreed the intervention, explaining that it “has the objective of replacing” the two banks’ “administrative bodies and their legal representatives for the purpose of safeguarding the rights of savers and clients of these institutions.”
The decision to intervene was taken in light of “the implications that the measures announced by the United States Department of the Treasury may have on these banks,” the statement said.
The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued orders on Wednesday that prohibit certain transactions between U.S. banks and CIBanco, Intercam and Vector.
The Mexican financial authorities didn’t say how long the CNBV “intervention” was expected to last.
The three financial institutions “have collectively played a longstanding and vital role in laundering millions of dollars on behalf of Mexico-based cartels and facilitating payments for the procurement of precursor chemicals needed to produce fentanyl,” Treasury said.
FinCEN accused Intercam executives of meeting “directly with suspected Jalisco New Generation Cartel members to discuss money laundering schemes” in 2022. At least some of the executives with that bank as well as CIBanco and Vector will presumably lose their jobs due to the intervention decreed by CNBV.
The SHCP said on Wednesday that the CNBV had conducted a review of the three financial institutions and detected “administrative problems,” but no evidence of involvement in money laundering. It also said it asked the Treasury Department to provide proof that links the financial institutions to “illicit activities,” but “no evidence was received.”
In their joint statement, the CNBV, SHCP, Banxico and IPAB said that “financial authorities maintain confidence in the strength and resilience of the Mexican financial system and will continue working in permanent coordination to continue fostering the stability, integrity and correct functioning of the system.”
Mexican Banking Association: Intervention ‘seeks to create an environment of certainty’
The Mexican Banking Association (ABM) responded to the “temporary managerial intervention” announcement in a statement.
“Concerning the announcement made by the regulatory authorities with respect to the intervention of two banking institutions, the ABM expresses that, according to the available information, these particular situations don’t represent a systemic risk nor do they affect the stability of the Mexican financial system, which remains strong and well-capitalized,” the association said.
— Asociación de Bancos de México (@AsocBancosMx) June 26, 2025
“The intervention announced seeks to create an environment of certainty that allows the institutions to operate with normality during the time required to ensure that said institutions comply with regulatory standards,” the ABM added.
“This measure provides clarity and stability, without interrupting the regular operation of the banks in question,” it said.
The ABM also said that “the prevention of illicit activities and the protection of legality are strategic priorities for the banks that operate in Mexico.”
“That’s why we have promoted robust mechanisms for regulatory compliance, audit and control,” the banking association said, adding that said mechanisms “operate under the highest international standards of quality.”
The crew of 22 had to abandon the Morning Midas when fire broke out eight days after setting sail from a port in China. The cause is still unknown, but some conjecture that it may have started in one of the electric vehicles it was carrying to Mexico. (US Coast Guard)
A cargo vessel carrying 3,048 new vehicles to Mexico sank in the North Pacific Ocean on June 23 after being abandoned weeks earlier when fire disabled the ship.
The Morning Midas sank in international waters off Alaska’s Aleutian Islands chain, the ship’s management company, the London-based Zodiac Maritime, said in a statement.
🚨Cargo ship Morning Midas sinks in Pacific Ocean after days of fire
3,000 cars onboard, including 800 EVs, Lithium batteries, 1500 tons of fuel now sitting 16,000 feet underwater. Pollution risk being monitored#morningmidaspic.twitter.com/r6u31EB1zC
The carrier departed on May 26 from Yantai, China, and was headed for the port of Lázaro Cárdenas in the Pacific coast state of Michaocán.
Bloomberg News reported the ship’s load included at least 800 new electric vehicles (EV) manufactured by Chinese automakers Chirey and Great Wall Motor. The newspaper El Financiero reported that there were also automobiles produced in China by General Motors aboard the ship.
Zodiac Maritime has yet to offer details on the vehicle models lost in the disaster.
The vessel was under charter to Anji Logistics, a subsidiary of Chinese automaker SAIC Motor, according to US-based reports cited by multiple publications.
The Coast Guard said it received a distress alert June 3 about a fire aboard the Morning Midas, which then was roughly 300 miles (490 kilometers) southwest of Alaska’s Adak Island.
A large plume of smoke was initially seen at the ship’s stern coming from the deck loaded with electric vehicles, the U.S. Coast Guard and Zodiac Maritime said at the time, according to the AP.
The newspaper The Maritime Executive reported that a salvage team from Resolve Marine, a marine response company, took a week to reach the vessel because of its remote location, approximately 360 nautical miles southwest of the Aleutians in Alaska.
The Morning Midas was reportedly still burning when teams reached it on June 9, believing the water integrity had been maintained. A towline was attached on June 11, and by the time a second salvage vessel, the Garth Foss, arrived on June 16, thermal scans and visual inspections showed no signs of an active fire onboard.
However, the fire damage was compounded by bad weather and water seepage, causing the ship to sink in waters about 16,404 feet deep and about 415 miles from land, Zodiac Maritime said in a statement.
Preliminary investigations suggest the fire might have originated from an electric vehicle onboard, according to Mexico Business News.
The combination of bad weather and fire damage caused the ship to sink on June 23. (US Coast Guard)
There were 22 crew members onboard the Morning Midas. All evacuated to a lifeboat and were rescued by a merchant marine vessel. There were no injuries.
The U.S. Coast Guard was on site to assess pollution damage as there was approximately 350 metric tons of gas fuel and 1,530 metric tons of very low sulfur fuel oil onboard.
A Coast Guard spokesperson said on Thursday that there was no visible pollution, but two salvage tugs containing pollution control equipment remained on scene to monitor for any signs of pollution or debris, Zodiac Maritime said.
Zodiac Maritime was also sending another specialized pollution response vessel to the location as an added precaution.
Intercam, CIBanco and the brokerage Vector are the targets of the new U.S. sanctions. (Intercam/Facebook, Mario Jasso/Cuartoscuro)
The United States Department of the Treasury has accused two Mexican banks and a Mexican brokerage firm of laundering millions of dollars for drug cartels involved in the trafficking of fentanyl and other narcotics to the U.S.
The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) outlined the accusations in orders that also prohibited certain transactions between U.S. banks and the three Mexican financial institutions, namely CIBanco, Intercam and Vector Casa de Bolsa.
In addition to restrictions on two mid-sized banks, the U.S. also announced sanctions against Vector, a major Mexican brokerage. (via Reforma)
“Financial facilitators like CIBanco, Intercam, and Vector are enabling the poisoning of countless Americans by moving money on behalf of cartels, making them vital cogs in the fentanyl supply chain,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Wednesday.
The accusations against the three Mexican financial institutions and the prohibition on certain transactions involving them represent the United States government’s latest salvo in its fight against Mexican cartels and the trafficking of narcotics to the U.S.
The accusations against CIBanco, Intercam and Vector
The Treasury Department said in a statement on Wednesday that FinCEN had issued orders identifying CIBanco, Intercam and Vector “as being of primary money laundering concern in connection with illicit opioid trafficking.”
Treasury said that the orders also prohibit “certain transmittals of funds involving” the three financial institutions.
“These orders are the first actions by FinCEN pursuant to the Fentanyl Sanctions Act and the FEND Off Fentanyl Act, which provide Treasury with additional authorities to target money laundering associated with the trafficking of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids, including by cartels,” the statement said.
“CIBanco and Intercam, commercial banks with over [US] $7 and $4 billion in total assets, respectively, and Vector, a brokerage firm managing nearly $11 billion in assets, have collectively played a longstanding and vital role in laundering millions of dollars on behalf of Mexico-based cartels and facilitating payments for the procurement of precursor chemicals needed to produce fentanyl,” Treasury said.
CIBanco
Treasury said that FinCEN determined that CIBanco, a Mexico City-based bank with branches across Mexico, is “of primary money laundering concern in connection with illicit opioid trafficking based on its long-standing pattern of associations, transactions, and provision of financial services that facilitate illicit opioid trafficking by Mexico-based cartels.”
Those cartels include the Beltran-Leyva Cartel, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and the Gulf Cartel, Treasury said.
The U.S. accused CIBanco of providing financial services to Those cartels include the Beltran-Leyva Cartel, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the Gulf Cartel. (File photo)
Treasury also said that CIBanco has “facilitated the procurement of precursor chemicals from China for illicit purposes.”
“For example, a CIBanco employee in 2023 knowingly facilitated the creation of an account to purportedly launder $10 million on behalf of a Gulf Cartel member,” the department said.
“From 2021 through 2024, CIBanco processed over $2.1 million in payments on behalf of Mexico-based companies to China-based companies that shipped precursor chemicals to Mexico for illicit purposes,” it added.
Intercam
FinCEN accused Intercam, another Mexico City-based bank with branches across Mexico, of providing financial services “that facilitate illicit opioid trafficking by Mexico-based cartels, including CJNG.”
“Intercam has also processed USD-denominated funds transfers that finance the procurement of precursor chemicals from China on behalf of drug trafficking organizations for illicit purposes,” Treasury said.
“For example, Intercam executives in late 2022 met directly with suspected CJNG members to discuss money laundering schemes, including transferring funds from China,” Treasury said.
Intercam is a mid-sized Mexican bank specializing in international commerce. (Wikimedia Commons)
“From 2021 through 2024, a China-based company associated with an individual shipping precursor chemicals from China to Mexico for illicit purposes received over $1.5 million from Mexico-based companies through Intercam,” it said.
Vector
Vector is a brokerage controlled by businessman Alfonso Romo, who served as chief of staff for former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador between 2018 and 2020.
FinCEN accused the company of facilitating “money laundering activities of Mexico-based cartels, including the Sinaloa Cartel and Gulf Cartel.”
“Vector has also facilitated the procurement of precursor chemicals from China for illicit purposes,” Treasury said.
“For example, from 2013 through 2021, a Sinaloa Cartel money mule employed various methods to launder $2 million from the United States to Mexico through Vector,” the department said.
“Additionally, the order describes how from 2018 through 2023, Vector was found to have completed over $1 million in payments on behalf of Mexico-based companies to China-based companies known to have shipped precursor chemicals to Mexico for illicit purposes,” Treasury said.
Alfonso Romo, seen here front and center, is the owner of Vector and previously served as chief of staff for former President López Obrador. (Galo Cañas/Cuartoscuro)
“These payments illustrate significant failings in Vector’s AML/CFT [Anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism] controls,” it added.
Treasury officials said that the Sinaloa Cartel used Vector to send bribes to former Mexican security minister Genaro García Luna, who last October was sentenced to just over 38 years in prison in the U.S., almost 20 months after he was convicted of colluding with the Sinaloa Cartel.
The response from the financial institutions
All three financial institutions rejected the accusations the U.S. Treasury Department made against them.
CIBanco said in a statement that it has no connection to “activities outside the law” and reiterated its commitment to “compliance” with “all guidelines established by the relevant authorities.”
Intercam “categorically” denied “any association between this institution and any illicit activity — particularly money laundering.”
In a statement, the bank also reiterated its “firm commitment to transparency and legality.”
Vector also “categorically” rejected “any accusation that compromises its institutional integrity.”
“With more than 50 years of experience, our brokerage has operated under the highest standards of regulatory compliance, internal audit and supervision by national financial authorities,” Vector said in a statement.
It said that the financial “operations” FinCEN referred to “correspond to ordinary transactions with legally established companies.”
All three financial institutions referred to a statement issued by the federal Finance Ministry in response to the accusations made by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
The response from the Mexican government
Mexico’s Finance Ministry (SHCP) said in a statement that within the framework of its “relationship of coordination and dialogue” with the U.S. Department of the Treasury, it notified its Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) of the “alleged irregularities” involving CIBanco, Intercam and Vector.
The SCHP said that it asked the Treasury Department to provide proof that links the financial institutions to “illicit activities” so that the evidence could be corroborated by the UIF or the National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV).
Mexico’s Ministry of Finance, or SHCP, asked the U.S. Treasury Department to provide evidence to back up the allegations against Mexican banks. (File photo)
“However, no evidence was received,” the ministry said.
“The only information provided by the Department of the Treasury that can be verified by Mexico contains data on some electronic transfers made through the aforementioned financial institutions to legally established Chinese companies,” the SHCP said.
“… Such transactions are carried out by the thousands through national financial institutions. The UIF found that more than 300 Mexican companies made transactions to these Chinese companies through ten national financial institutions. This is the case because Mexico conducts thousands of ordinary operations with legally established Chinese companies, as there is annual [two-way] trade of US $139 billion,” the ministry said.
The SHCP also said that the CNBV carried out a review of CIBanco, Intercam and Vector “within the framework of national regulation.”
“The results of these investigations revealed administrative problems that have been sanctioned in accordance with current regulations, with fines and other actions that together amount to 134 million pesos [US $7.1 million],” the ministry said.
“We want to be clear: If there were conclusive information proving illicit activities by these three financial institutions, we would act with the full weight of the law; however, to date, we do not have any such information,” the SCHP said.
President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Thursday morning that “there is no proof” of money laundering in the documents published by the United States Treasury Department on Wednesday.
“So what is our position? If there is proof, action is taken. There is no impunity, it doesn’t matter who it is. But if there is no proof, no action can be taken like in any crime,” she said.
“Until now, the Treasury Department hasn’t sent any proof that indicates that there is money laundering,” Sheinbaum said.
Sheinbaum said the U.S. has a history of making accusations without proof. (Andrea Murcia/Cuartoscuro)
She said there are “precedents” in the Mexico-United States relationship of the U.S. making accusations without proof, mentioning the case of former defense minister Salvador Cienfuegos. Sheinbaum asserted that when Cienfuegos was arrested in the United States in 2020, the U.S. government didn’t have “any proof” he had committed a crime.
“We act if there is proof,” she said before urging the Treasury Department to send evidence to Mexico, “if” it has any.
“If there is no proof there can’t be recognition on our part of money laundering,” she said.
“There has to be proof in order to know whether there was money laundering or not. We don’t deny it nor do we accept it,” Sheinbaum said.
How will the FinCEN orders affect the accused financial institutions and their customers?
The FinCEN orders prohibit “covered” financial institutions from “engaging in any transmittal of funds from or to” CIBanco, Intercam and Vector.
Thus banks and other financial institutions in the United will be barred from accepting monetary transfers from Mexico made via CIBanco, Intercam or Vector, and sending money to those financial institutions.
FinCEN said that its orders “become effective 21 days after … [they] are published in the Federal Register.”
“By that date, covered financial institutions should … cease any and all transmittals of funds, from or to CIBanco, Intercam, or Vector, as defined in the orders,” FinCEN said.
FinCEN, a financial crime division of the U.S. Treasury, accused Intercam, CIBanco and vector of facilitating financial transactions for organized crime. (Wikimedia Commons)
Deputy Treasury Secretary Michael Faulkender told reporters on Wednesday that the FinCEN orders would “effectively cut off” CIBanco, Intercam and Vector from doing business with financial institutions in the United States.
The Associated Press reported that Treasury officials “did not rule out the possibility of foreign branches of the banks outside of Mexico being able to continue to do business with U.S. banks.”
Citing a U.S. Treasury official, Reuters reported that “the FinCEN sanctions do not block property or cut off all global dollar-based activities of the Mexican firms as other Treasury sanctions would, but they do prohibit U.S. transactions with their locations in Mexico.”
Reuters also reported that the assets of CIBanco and Intercam make them “relatively small by global banking standards.”
Vector, however, is among the 10 largest brokerages in Mexico. The sanctions against Vector “underscores the significance of our actions,” Faulkender said.
CIBanco, Intercam and Vector all sought to reassure their customers and clients that their money is safe.
CIBanco said that “the resources of our customers are protected in accordance with the Bank Savings Protection Law.” It also said that its operations “continue with complete normality.”
Intercam also said that it “continues to operate normally and will continue supporting its clients.”
“We also remind our clients that their deposits are protected by the IPAB (Instituto para la Protección al Ahorro Bancario), and that investment instruments are safeguarded by INDEVAL (Instituto para el Depósito de Valores),” the bank said.
The banks sought to reassure customers that their savings were not at risk. (Shutterstock)
Vector said that “the investments of all and each one of our clients are 100% supported by the investment instruments in which they are invested, which are safeguarded in the Instituto para el Depósito de Valores.”
Michel Levien, a lawyer and anti-corruption expert, told the newspaper El Financiero that “in the medium term, clients of these [three] institutions must be very attentive to the legal procedures that are carried out in Mexico and in the United States” because “very serious sanctions” could be imposed on CIBanco, Intercam and Vector.
Those sanctions could include fines, orders to suspend operations and “even dissolution” of the financial institutions, he said.
Reaction to the US accusations and sanctions
Vanda Felbab-Brown, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and an organized crime expert, described the FinCEN actions against the three Mexican financial institutions as “a bold move.”
“Being cut off from the US financial system is a death blow. It’s enormously impactful,” she told Reuters.
“These are hardly the biggest banks in Mexico, but they are not small entities. These are medium-level banks,” Felbab-Brown said.
While she called the FinCEN actions “a death blow” for the three financial institutions, she said they were “unlikely to “make any kind of dent in the financial flows of Mexican criminal groups.”
Luis Manuel Pérez de Acha, a Mexico City-based tax lawyer and money laundering expert, described the accusations agains CIBanco, Intercam and Vector as a “bombshell.”
“The entire financial system passes through the United States, so they are practically left without operations,” he told Reuters.
The pups may one day join the roughly 300 Mexican wolves that currently roam the mountains of Arizona, New Mexico and Chihuahua. (Sedema)
Four Mexican wolf pups, two males and two females, were recently born at the San Juan de Aragón Wildlife Conservation Center in Mexico City, according to the city Environment Ministry (Sedema).
The birth of the pups represent a key advance in the conservation of the Mexican wolf, a subspecies of gray wolf, which virtually disappeared from the American landscape during the 1970s.
Captive breeding programs like the one in Mexico City have helped bring back Mexican wolves. (Sedema)
However, thanks in part to the contribution of the Wildlife Conservation Centers of Mexico City in 2019, the Mexican wolf is making a comeback and now once again lives wild in Arizona, New Mexico and Chihuahua.
Since 1978 to date, this program has achieved the birth of 194 Mexican wolf pups. In 2019, Mexico reclassified the subspecies from the category of “probably extinct in the wild” to “endangered.”
The newest pups were born April 21 and left the burrow for the first time on May 21 under the care of their parents, a pair selected for their high genetic value.
The pair was specially transported from Tamaulipas and the Tamatán Zoo as part of the Mexico-United States Binational Conservation Program. According to reports, the wolves arrived at the center on Dec. 5, 2024, and displayed reproductive behavior in February.
The conservation program is already preparing the tiny pups to one day live in the wild. (Sedema)
In the coming days, the pups will receive a comprehensive health check including genetic testing to ensure a healthy and stable future for the Mexican wolf population.
Sedema has said that the pups are not on public display, as they need to be isolated from human contact to facilitate their incorporation in the wild.
“The goal is to achieve a genetically healthy and numerous population under professional care, capable of sustaining reintroductions to wildlife, achieving a wild population within its historical distribution range,” Sedema said.
Endemic to northern Mexico and the southern U.S., the gray wolf weighs 60-80 pounds and stands 26-32 inches high at the shoulder. This subspecies of the gray wolf lives in packs that usually include an adult pair and their offspring. Thus, the death of one individual severely impacts the entire group’s ability to hunt and therefore sustain itself.
Today’s Mexican wolves are descended from just a few individuals, meaning that many of the wild wolves are now inbred and lack genetic diversity. (US FWS)
This subspecies is the most genetically distinct among its canine relatives. It’s also inbred due to its near-extinction in recent decades — the entire population is descended from just seven individuals, making Mexican wolves more susceptible to disease and less able to adapt to their changing environment.
Despite those challenges, the population is slowly increasing with captive breeding programs like the one in Mexico City. The birth of the Mexico City pups is a step toward a stronger, healthier wolf population that can survive, and maybe even thrive, on its own in the wild.
Great beer and great seafood define Sinaloa's culinary offerings, as our State by Plate series nears its conclusion. (Sunset)
As this series nears it’s conclusion, we come to the northern state of Sinaloa, and the genre-defining food offered in the state. Sinaloa’s 386 miles of coastline ranks only sixth among Mexico’s states, but it’s a major producer of some of the nation’s favorite seafoods; notably, shrimp, tuna, and sardines, which account for about 78% of statewide catches.
All are delicious when served fresh, but shrimp, even more so than tuna and sardines, is the centerpiece of Sinaloan cuisine, providing the protein in the state’s two most famous creations, aguachile and tacos gobernador. This is only appropriate, given just how much shrimp is harvested in Sinaloa.
Many of Sinaloa’s best-known culinary creations feature fresh shrimp from the state’s shrimp fleet. (Tomas Castelazo/Wikimedia Commons)
Over 115,000 tons of the shellfish were caught in Sinaloa in 2023, which represented almost half of the total (over 45%) for Mexico that year and was two and a half times the amount harvested in the second-largest producing state, Sonora. This bounty is sourced from several bays, estuaries, and lagoons, including Bahía de Altata, Bahía de Santa María, and Bahía de Topolobampo, and the inland Laguna Caimanero.
The long evolution of aguachile
Aguachile wasn’t made with shrimp, though, when it originated in Sinaloa’s pre-Hispanic past. The name aguachile suggests two of the three original ingredients, water and chile; specifically, small and exceedingly spicy chiltepín chilies, known regionally as “oro rojo.” At least that’s what they’re called now. But because the dish developed before the arrival of the Spanish in Sinaloa in 1530, the original name was whatever they were called by the Acaxees or the Xiximes, the two Indigenous groups that lived in the mountainous areas of the state until their cultural extinction in the 18th century.
The third ingredient of the original dish was probably deer meat, which was a favorite of both the Acaxees and the Xiximes, particularly when prepared as carne machadada (a dried meat style) for preservative purposes, and flavored with “red gold.” When, centuries later, residents of the Sierra Madre Occidental in Sinaloa migrated to the coast, bringing their traditional recipes with them, the stage was set for the transition from meat to shrimp, and thus the modern variation of aguachile.
It was during the 1970s, when Sinaloa’s shrimp industry first became the powerhouse it still is today, that shrimp-based aguachile first burst upon the culinary scene. The new protein necessitated a change in cooking method, from boiling water to “cooking” via denaturation in lime, similar to ceviche. How this raw technique arose in Sinaloa is not exactly clear, with some attributing it to Japanese immigrants, others to the necessity for sustenance of shrimp fishermen out for extended periods.
Of course, chiltepín remained in the recipe, to be joined in modernity by such ingredients as purple onion, cucumber, cilantro, and avocado, and seasoned with salt and pepper. As aguachile’s popularity spread across Mexico, so too did the variety of seafood preparations, with scallops, octopus, and various fish species sometimes used instead of shrimp. However, in shrimp-rich Sinaloa, such experimentations are far rarer, particularly in aguachile hotbeds like Mazatlán and Topolobampo, although the substitution of serrano chilies for chiltepin is permitted.
The taco gobernador was invented at the Los Arcos restaurant in Mazatlán. (Los Arcos)
The political origins of tacos gobernador
Why are they called tacos gobernador? Maybe because it’s shorter than Francisco Labastida Ochoa, who was the actual governor of Sinaloa between 1987 and 1992, the timeframe in which this delicacy was created. As the story goes, the governor was fond of shrimp tacos (a surefire vote getter in Sinaloa), particularly those prepared machaca de camarón style like the kind his wife, María Teresa Uriarte, made for him. This knowledge inspired Eduardo Ángulo, owner of the Los Arcos restaurant in Mazatlán, to create a special shrimp taco in the governor’s honor.
The actual date of the governor’s reservation at Los Arcos has been lost to history, but it was likely before he took office on January 1, 1987, since, according to the Los Arcos version, the visit was at the end of his campaign. Regardless, the resulting taco has been famous ever since, thanks to a list of ingredients that includes not only shrimp (machaca de camarón style) but also tomatoes, onion, poblano peppers sautéed in butter, and melted cheese wrapped in the traditional corn tortilla for proper texture. Seasoning, meanwhile, is provided courtesy of salt, pepper, and oregano.
The dish has evolved in the years since, with more varied shrimp preparations, a variety of melty cheeses, the addition of cilantro and salsas, and the occasional substitution of chipotle for poblano chiles noted in some restaurants. As with aguachile, some different seafood options have also appeared, including marlin.
However, the originator, Los Arcos, remains the standard bearer for this Sinaloan taco style. It has since opened additional locations in cities across Mexico to spread its fame, where it continues to prepare shrimp the same way it did the first time.
The sipping history of Sinaloa’s most iconic beer
Ice-cold Cerveza Pacífico is the pairing option of choice in Sinaloa. (Cerveza Pacífico)
Of course, the ideal pairing partner for Sinaloan shrimp-based specialties like aguachile or tacos gobernador is a cold Pacífico, the tasty pilsner-style cerveza brewed in Mazatlán since the turn of the 20th century. The beer brand was founded by three German immigrants—Johan Georg Claussen, Germán Evers, and Emilio Philippy—a fact which places it in good company. Popular beer brands in Mexico, like Dos Equis, Indio, and Sol, were also founded by German immigrants.
Acquired by Grupo Modelo in 1954 (and AB InBev in 2012) and introduced to the U.S. market via Southern California surfers who discovered it during trips to the Baja California peninsula in the 1970s, Pacífico has continued to grow its sales and market share in both Mexico and the U.S. In Sinaloa, naturally, it remains a favorite, dominating the beer market, particularly along the coast. It’s not quite so ubiquitous in the U.S., but Pacífico is still a big seller in Los Angeles and earns $350 million (and rising) annually in the neighboring country.
Pacífico is still brewed in Mazatlán in some bottle sizes, and indeed, the beer’s Mazatlán bona fides are on every bottle, with Cerro del Crestón, one of the city’s most recognizable natural features, prominently framed in the logo by a life ring, with an anchor in the foreground. That makes ordering it an easy choice, especially for those enjoying seafood and beachfront views in its native state.
Chris Sands is the Cabo San Lucas local expert for the USA Today travel website 10 Best, writer of Fodor’s Los Cabos travel guidebook and a contributor to numerous websites and publications, including Tasting Table, Marriott Bonvoy Traveler, Forbes Travel Guide, Porthole Cruise, Cabo Living and Mexico News Daily. His specialty is travel-related content and lifestyle features focused on food, wine and golf.
Cacao ceremonies, Maya weddings and express limpias: Spiritual tourism in Mexico is giving foreigners a misleading impression of what pre-Colombian-era belief systems were like. (Amar Preciado/Pexels)
The very first time I was in Tulum, I was commissioned to write a piece about an exclusive resort for National Geographic Traveler. The cameraman and I stayed at one of the most expensive hotels in the entire country for a week. It was my first experience of spiritual tourism in Mexico.
I was surprised to be welcomed by a gorgeous Venezuelan woman in a bikini and a light beach wrap, addressing us both in English with a heavy accent. She was the hostess. When I answered in my Mexican Spanish, not only was she surprised, but she seemed to be taken aback, as if thinking: “Mexicans? Here?”
Siddhartha Gautama certainly never knew who the Maya were — and vice versa. Why are there representations of the Buddha in supposedly traditional Maya weddings celebrated in Tulum? (Dushawn Jovic / Unsplash)
Her expression was everything.
Despite her clear uneasiness, she urged a team of three staff members to start the limpia ceremony. The hostess asked us to hold hands, as the rest of the team walked in circles around us. One of them held a great copalera between her hands, steaming with palo santo, and smoked us from head to toe as her teammate chanted something in what they later said was ancient Mayan.
Why was a Buddha statue staring at us from above? Another staff member suggested we set an intention for our trip so that we could have Ixchel’s — the Maya goddess of fertility and the moon — blessing during our stay.
The hostess then instructed the team to guide us through the bungalows in the jungle to our rooms. Everyone was still surprised that we weren’t a foreign couple, as we were willing to take the 7 a.m. yoga class after a quartz meditation session while we admired the sunrise. By then, I assumed I was already high on copal smoke or whatever they were burning right in my face. Unfortunately, that was not the case: Before our eyes spread the phenomenon of spiritual tourism in Mexico, a profoundly misleading and gentrified understanding of local uses and customs.
Were limpias and other kinds of ‘traditional’ cleansing performed by the ancients?
The easy answer is yes. “Limpias” have been a part of “virtually all healing rituals in traditional Mazatec medicine,” asdocumented by the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). As its name suggests, limpias — or cleansings — are designed to cleanse spiritual and physical impurities from the human body.
Mexica physicians were in charge of preparing the temazcal to cleanse their patients’ impurities and ailments. (INAH/Wikimedia Commons)
Although there is no clear evidence as to when these practices began, historians suggest that several different pre-Colombian civilizations in what is now present-day Mexico shared these rituals.
Intended to soothe pain, curses or even fright, a shaman or local doctor would cleanse the ill person “with fragrant plants, such as basil, and red flowers” if the ailment was easy to treat. If, however, they encountered a more serious matter, more complex rituals would be performed, featuring lotions and sacred fungi.
Limpias varied from culture to culture. However, these elements were shared by most pre-Colombian civilizations. Most Mazatec therapists, for example, used divination via corn kernels and eggs — usually referred to as “blanquillo” — to diagnose their patients. Moreover, most limpias were performed in holy places, such as the therapist’s private altar, cenotes and other sacred spaces.
Limpias, of course, were not the only kind of medical procedures performed by ancient civilizations in Mesoamerica. Evidence shows the Maya had enough technology for dental procedures, as shown byresearch published by the Iztacala Faculty of Higher Studies (FES Iztacala). The medicinal use of temazcal rituals among the Nahua cultures was a way of cleansing the body through sweat, as biologist Margarita Aviléswrote for the INAH Morelos Center, and is still practised across the country.Cacao ceremonies, by the way, did not feature among the cleansing procedures of any ancient civilization.
It is worth noting that these rituals and spiritual cleansings did not remain the same throughout time. On the contrary, with the expansion of the Mexica Empire — and the growing commercial networks built across the centuries — pre-Colombian civilizations influenced each other. With the arrival of the Spaniards on the American continent, medical practices in the Americas also changed drastically.
Why are these alleged ‘ancient rituals’ only performed in high-demand tourist centers?
Have you ever felt like alleged cultural demonstrations, like the dances in Mexico City’s Centro Histórico or at tourist resorts across the Yucatán, are just too picture-perfect? Kind of costume-y, even? (Amar Preciado/Pexels)
When Cortés wrote his Relation Letters in the 16th Century, addressing Emperor Charles V himself, he described México-Tenochtitlan as a highly advanced city. The builders of the great, ancient city likely did not perform cacao ceremonies half-naked in performative trances or dancing in circles.
That is more of a caricature of what actual ritualistic dancing was like before the Conquest. Not only that, it’s also probably not even close to the religious practices the Mexica performed in their holy city: Most documentary evidence was destroyed by the Spaniards upon their arrival, considering it all blasphemous and unworthy of “good” Christian customs. The surviving evidence dates only to the 16th century.
However, entire Mexican families today are sustained by such performances, targeted at foreigners trying to get a taste of what that pre-Hispanic era was like. Those who perform limpias in Mexico City’s Zócalo do so in a new kind of cultural fusion, taking whatever supposedly ancient practice they were taught and what works with folk from abroad.
Tulum was not built for the Tuluminati
Many of these so-called ancient rituals are a product of the New Age movement. Presented as a “new integral ecological and holistic awareness,” as described by anthropologist Elizabeth Díaz Brenis, “[the movement] takes up approaches from the main religious traditions,” including elements of the pre-Colombian belief system.
New Age believers truly think that cacao ceremonies connect their souls to something greater. When you ask them to what, exactly, they wander around the idea of a god/goddess, the universe or something that elevates their third eye.
Is Tulum an authentic example of Maya Mexico? Probably not. Spiritual tourism in Mexico has made foreign folk believe otherwise. (Jimmy Caamal Poot/Pexels)
Though this might not seem harmful at first, these scattered elements of ancient cultures, all mixed into a heterogeneous mass, are often out of context. And though it might bring “ceremonial grade cacao users” a great joy to sing to the Pacha Mama as they drink hot cocoa, the idea that this practice comes from a millennia-old tradition is, to say the least, misinformed.
Disguised as white magic or spiritual cleansing — through crystals, sacred smoke and more— practitioners of these New Age “ancient” activities are often charging their customers in dollars and using elements taken from other cultures. Not only that: Entire yoga retreats and “healing” rituals are performed by people who are not mental health professionals, and, at times, address deep trauma as if it were some sort of Kundalini energy awakening.
That’s part of the reason there was a Buddha staring down at us during a supposedly Mayan blessing. And that is why, too, New Age rituals are potentially dangerous both for their consumers and to the general understanding of local traditional practices. Thai figurines, Hindu mantras and pseudoancient Mesoamerican practices are all brought together as if they were the same, each bastardized from its original culture.
But spiritual tourism in Mexico has made many foreigners believe otherwise.
Andrea Fischer contributes to the features desk at Mexico News Daily. She has edited and written for National Geographic en Español and Muy Interesante México, and continues to be an advocate for anything that screams science. Or yoga. Or both.
"If there is a person who committed a crime, action should be taken. But the millions and millions of Mexicans [in the U.S.] aren't criminals. They're heroes and heroines," Sheinbaum said on Wednesday. (Rogelio Morales/Cuartoscuro)
The heavy-handed arrest of an undocumented Mexican man in the United States on Saturday and a massacre in the state of Guanajuato on Tuesday night were among the issues President Claudia Sheinbaum spoke about at her Wednesday morning press conference.
She also acknowledged a monologue delivered by “Star Wars” and “Narcos:Mexico” actor Diego Luna while he was guest-hosting a late-night talk show in Los Angeles on Monday night.
Sheinbaum describes ICE’s use of force against Mexican gardener as an ‘injustice’
A reporter noted that a video showing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents punching 48-year-old Mexican gardener Narciso Barranco has gone viral. She noted that he was detained by ICE in Santa Ana and highlighted that he has lived in the United States for 31 years, is originally from Cuernavaca, Morelos, and is the father of three sons who serve or have served in the U.S. military (Marine Corps).
“What opinion do you have about this?” the reporter asked the president.
“All of that is unfair, it’s an injustice,” Sheinbaum said.
“The Mexicans who live in the United States — the migrants, because they’re not just Mexicans — are people who went to the United States out of necessity and they’ve made their lives there. They are Mexicans and Americans at the same time, even if they don’t have nationality papers, because they’ve contributed to the United States their whole lives,” she said.
“Just imagine, the sons of this person are even part of the United States Army,” Sheinbaum said.
“We’re going to continue defending our brothers and sisters there. The [Mexican] Consulate got in contact with [Barranco] immediately,” she said.
Sheinbaum, having seen the video of the violent detention of 48-year-old Mexican gardener Narciso Barranco, said it was particularly unjust given that his family members were veterans of the United States Army. (Rogelio Morales/Cuartoscuro)
NBC News reported on Wednesday that “initial videos of the arrest have been countered with videos from the [Trump] administration, which has said Barranco assaulted the officers with his weed trimmer.”
Barranco is undocumented “but has no criminal record,” according to his son, Alejandro Barranco, a Marine veteran who served in Afghanistan.
Sheinbaum acknowledges Diego Luna’s remarks in defense of immigrants
Having concluded her response to the question about Barranco, Sheinbaum took a moment to “recognize the monologue” Diego Luna delivered while guest hosting the television show “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
Luna denounced what he called “the authoritarian policies” of United States President Donald Trump and gave a staunch defense of immigrants in the United States.
Immigrants “are the ones who built this country, they feed it, they nurture and teach its children,” he said.
“They care for the elderly, they work in construction, hospitality, they run kitchens, they’re technicians, merchants, athletes, drivers, farmers. They pay a lot of taxes, … papers or no papers,” Luna said.
According to The Los Angeles Times, with his appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”, Luna became the first Mexican to host a late-night talk show in English.
Sheinbaum highlighted that the views he expressed are the same as her own.
His message, she said, was that millions of Mexicans “have given their lives so that the United States is what it is and the city of Los Angeles is what it is.”
“… We’ve said that the Mexicans there have to be recognized, that we don’t agree with the [immigration] raids, that migrants aren’t criminals,” Sheinbaum said.
“If there is a person who committed a crime, action should be taken. But the millions and millions of Mexicans [in the U.S.] aren’t criminals. They’re heroes and heroines,” she said.
Sheinbaum: Massacre in Irapuato is under investigation
Sheinbaum described a massacre in the city of Irapuato, Guanajuato, on Tuesday as “terrible.”
“It’s a terrible multiple homicide and it’s under investigation,” she said.
Gunmen opened fire during celebrations for the feast day of Saint John the Baptist in the Irapuato neighborhood of Barrio Nuevo late on Tuesday night.
Sheinbaum described the incident as a “confrontation,” although it didn’t appear that anyone shot back at the gunmen who perpetrated the massacre.
She also said children had “unfortunately died,” but the FGEG said that only one minor had been killed.
It said that the 11 people killed had been “preliminarily identified” as eight men, two women and a 17-year-old minor.
No arrests were reported and the motive for the attack was unclear. Guanajuato has been Mexico’s most violent state in terms of total homicides in recent years. The state has recorded more murders than any other entity so far this year, although homicide numbers have trended down.
Tim Burton's "The Labyrinth" is an immersive installation with 28 themed rooms where visitors can view over 200 of the director’s original works. (Tim Burton Exhibition)
Hollywood director Tim Burton was in Mexico City this week to inaugurate his massive exhibition called The Labyrinth, taking time to sightsee along the way.
The Labyrinth is an immersive installation with 28 themed rooms where visitors can view over 200 of the director’s original works, including sketches, sculptures and costumes from several of his movies.
The exhibition is interactive, giving each visitor the chance to choose their own adventure, meaning no two tours are the same. This feature is meant to give visitors insight into Burton’s creative process.
While in Mexico City, Burton took a trip on a trajinera boat in the Xochimilco canals in the south of the city, accompanied by Mexican celebrities, including Juan Manuel Bernal, the film and telenovela star who won an Ariel for best actor in 2015, and the Uruguayan-Mexican actress Bárbara Mori.
Burton, director of the films Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, Big Fish and Sweeney Todd, among others, also visited the Dolores Cemetery in Chapultepec Park, the resting place of many famous Mexicans, like Dolores del Rio and David Alfaro Siqueiros. There, standing before a red-lit chapel, the director spoke about how Mexican culture had influenced him as a child growing up in Burbank, California.
“I like visiting Mexico because it feels so close to my skin,” Burton said. “I mean, I was born in Los Angeles, so the Day of the Dead, Mexican art and its characters have had a huge impact on me since I was little. I truly believe that art and creativity in Mexico are inspiring. That’s why I love coming here.”
From the cemetery’s lote de los panaderos (Bakers’ Lot), rumored to be haunted, Burton described a long-held appreciation for graveyards
“I used to find [a cemetery in Burbank, California] very peaceful and inspiring. It was the place I used to go to think,” Burton said during the masterclass. “I always found it exciting and spiritual.”
During his time in Mexico, Burton visited the traditional town of Tepoztlán in Morelos, around 80 km from Mexico City. Tepoztlán is known for its strong pre-Columbian roots, its colonial architecture and the unusual mountain formations around it.
The Labyrinth will open to the public beginning July 3. The exhibition will be housed at the Lienzo Charro (rodeo) next to the Dolores Cemetery, with tickets available from 450 to 800 pesos (US $24 to $42).
The volume of trade between Coahuila and Texas has outgrown the capacity of the Camino Real International Bridge, or Bridge II. The approved expansion is expected to ease that problem within three years. (Shutterstock)
The project, which is expected to alleviate congestion and boost trade, will double the available lanes (from six to 12) of the vehicular and pedestrian bridge — officially the Camino Real International Bridge, and also known as Bridge II — which connects Eagle Pass, Texas, with Piedras Negras in the Mexican state of Coahuila.
Traffic on the international bridge between Piedras Negras, Coahuila and Eagle Pass, Texas, both vehicular and pedestrian, is often busy. (Cuartoscuro.com)
“This approval is great news for South Texas,” said Republican U.S. Senator for Texas JohnCornyn in a statement. “The expansion of the Camino Real International Bridge in Eagle Pass will help modernize the bridge’s infrastructure and ultimately increase [its] capacity.”
Cornyn had written to Trump in November 2024 requesting the expansion, saying that trade in Eagle Pass increased by more than 9% in 2023, with two-way trade totaling over US $37 billion, making it the fourth-largest commercial crossing in Texas.
Congress recently approved a fast-track permit processfor bridges in the counties of Webb, Cameron and Maverick in South Texas.
The expedited permit process has led to approval of new international bridges in Laredo and Brownsville, Texas, as well as the expansion of the Laredo-Colombia Solidarity International Bridge and the World Trade Bridge in Laredo — and now Bridge II in Eagle Pass.
Bridge II is expected to be completed in three years, when it should strengthen economic exchange between the neighboring countries.
The permit for the bridge states that “before beginning construction, the beneficiary must obtain approval from the United States Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission.”
Acompañando a @BlasFG 🇲🇽🤝🏻🇺🇸 en la Reunión Plenaria del Grupo Binacional México–EUA sobre Puentes y Cruces Internacionales en la @SRE_mx.🌉🌐
¡Reafirmamos nuestro compromiso con la conectividad, la seguridad y el crecimiento económico de Coahuila y la región! pic.twitter.com/N3HfXspcGG
During roundtable discussions, the U.S. stressed Coahuila’s recent progress in security and development, which helped facilitate the project’s approval. Coahuila will hold a 30-year concession to operate the bridge.
“We are very pleased with this long-awaited news on both sides of the border,” said Carl Bres Carranza, the local president of the Mexican Employers’ Association (Coparmex). “This presidential authorization to expand Bridge II represents a great step forward for regional economic development.”
Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard has traveled to Washington, D.C. on several occasions to negotiate exemptions, or at least reductions, of U.S. tariffs on steel, aluminum and vehicles made in Mexico. (Mario Jasso/Cuartoscuro)
Mexico could get a reprieve from the United States’ 50% tariffs on steel imports, but only on exports up to a certain limit, according to the Bloomberg news agency.
Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that trade negotiations between the United States and Mexico are “homing in on a possible quota system to reduce tariffs on a certain volume of steel imports.”
Citing unnamed “people familiar with the talks,” the news agency said that “the developing framework” would “alleviate crushing duties for some of the Mexican steel imports that U.S. automakers and other industries have described as essential.”
Citing two sources, Bloomberg said that a “tariff-free steel quota” could be established based on Mexico’s export volumes between 2015 and 2017.
“That would predate a surge in imports as well as a slowdown tied to the pandemic,” the news agency said.
While the United States has been open to trade negotiations with Mexico, the Trump administration has held firm on its 50% steel and aluminum import tariff. (Instagram)
A quota based on 2015-2017 volumes would equate to about 2.79 million metric tonnes of steel per year, according to data from the United States Department of Commerce.
Citing its sources, Bloomberg said that steel imports from Mexico “under any threshold specified under the dealwould avoid the 50% tariff but are still expected to be hit with a 10% baseline charge.”
“… Amounts above it would be subjected to the full [50%] duty, said people familiar with the matter.”
A “tariff-free” or “tariff-reduced” quota of 2.79 million tonnes of steel per year would represent about 88% of Mexico’s steel exports to the United States last year, which totaled 3.19 million metric tonnes.
“Setting the threshold below current demand would ensure a domestic market for American steel while providing some relief to U.S. consumers of the metal,” Bloomberg said.
“At the same time, it would allow the [Trump] administration to provide some reprieve to a U.S. partner,” the news agency said.
“… Tariff-rate quotas have a long history in the U.S., having been imposed to regulate trade in everything from sugar to solar cells,” it noted.
Bloomberg did not report on any negotiations between the United States and Mexico related to the 50% tariff on aluminum.
Mexico is the third-largest exporter of steel to the United States, but it imports more of that metal, and aluminum, from the U.S. than it sends to its northern neighbor.
The Mexican government has repeatedly emphasized that Mexico has a deficit with the United States on the trade of the metals, and has thus argued that tariffs on Mexican steel and aluminum are unwarranted.
“It doesn’t make sense to put a tariff on a product you have a surplus in,” Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard said earlier this month.
Ebrard has traveled to Washington, D.C. on several occasions to hold trade talks with U.S. officials, including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. He is aiming to negotiate exemptions, or at least reductions, of U.S. tariffs on steel, aluminum and vehicles made in Mexico.
“In the case of Mexico, firstly, it’s unjust … because as we have said several times, Mexico imports more [from the United States] than it exports in steel and aluminum. Formally, a tariff is imposed when there is a deficit. … Secondly, from our perspective, it has no legal basis because there is a trade agreement.”
The trade agreement she was referring to is the USMCA, which is supposed to guarantee tariff-free trade for most of the goods Mexico, the United States and Canada import from each other.
Sheinbaum said last Wednesday that in a telephone call with U.S. President Donald Trump she proposed a separate “general agreement” between Mexico and the United States covering security, migration and trade.
“I suggested this general agreement and he agreed,” she said.
Sheinbaum said last Thursday that the Mexican government’s “objective” was for the agreement to be signed “very soon.”
