Eliza showing off a completed book. (Joseph Sorrentino)
Eliza Holliday is a bit of a throwback. She’s someone who still finds pleasure in the simple act of holding a book in her hands.
“I love books,” she said. “I like the act of opening a book, discovering something, absorbing information.”
Amor Amate works with many different kinds of books and paper, but the traditional amate is Holliday’s favorite. (Eliza Schulte Holliday/Facebook)
And she does much more than just open books. She makes them and teaches others how to do so as well.
A native of Chicago, Holliday is also a professional lettering artist.
“I took a [lettering] course in college,” she said. “I’ve always made my own greeting and business cards. I like making words look pretty. When I discovered calligraphy, that opened the door to art.”
Holliday has always had an interest in books. “I’ve been making books my whole life. The first one was for a boyfriend when I was 17.”
Coptic stitch is one of the oldest ways to bind books, dating from early Christian practices in Egypt. (Kenneth Cain)
She taught calligraphy for many years, including at the curiously named Camp Cheerio, a Boy Scout camp in North Carolina where calligraphy retreats are held twice a year. When not teaching classes, she took workshops to learn bookmaking.
“Calligraphy and books are an obvious marriage, and I learned bookmaking so I could hand-letter my own books,” she explained.
Holliday and her husband Kenneth Cain came to Mexico eight years ago.
“We spent a year in Guadalajara and then went on a six-month quest around Mexico before landing in Cholula,” she said.
Holliday now lives and works in San Francisco Acatepec, Cholula. (Tripadvisor)
They now live in San Francisco Acatepec, a pueblo in San Andrés Cholula, where she started Amor Amate, a name that combines amor, meaning “love,” with amate, a type of Mexican handmade paper she’s fallen in love with.
She discovered papel amate when she walked into a Hiperlumen (an art-store retail chain in Mexico) and saw the paper for sale.
Papel amate is made in San Pablito, a tiny village about 3.5 hours from Puebla city, usually from the bark of the jonote tree (Trema micrantha). The bark is first cooked and then pounded with a rock, then dried in the sun.
After learning about the paper, Holliday and Cain drove to San Pablito and went to some of the galleries there.
Amate paper drying in the sun. (Luis Fernando Orozco Madero/Wikimedia Commons)
“People there are very open to the public,” she said.
She’s formed a close connection with the Santos Rojas family, who own the gallery Artesanía, and visits regularly to replenish her stock.
“Amate is very fragile, so you have to back it up with Japanese rice paper or some other paper,” she said. She also uses paste paper to make her books, and acid-free paper for the pages inside.
She teaches six different bookmaking workshops, including ones on making accordion-fold books, origami books and Coptic journals.
Amate was originally used by Mexico’s Indigenous people to record events or present offerings to the gods. In the mid-20th century, it began to be used for artisan works. (Wikimedia Commons)
“Classes are [for] one day and [they are] four hours long,” she said. “In class, the first book you make is an instruction book on how to make the book. Then you get all the materials needed to make a bigger book, and you leave with two books.”
On the day I visited her, Holliday was working on a Coptic journal, binding the papers with what’s known as a Coptic stitch.
“The Coptic stitch is one of the most ancient binding techniques of mankind,” she said, explaining that it was invented around A.D. 200 by an early Christian group in Egypt.
Using a thick, curved needle, Holliday gently pierced the book’s paper, making a series of stitches that formed a chain, a trademark of the Coptic stitch. One benefit of this technique is that a book can lay flat when opened.
Holliday also holds bookmaking classes for those interested in learning the craft. (Kenneth Cain)
When asked how long it would take to make a book like the one she was working on, Holliday admitted she didn’t know.
“I never sit down and just complete a book,” she said. “I just work on them as I can work on them. Stitch by stitch, folio by folio.”
It may seem a little old-fashioned to put photos in a book since a book can hold a limited, rather small, number of photos while a cell phone or computer can hold thousands, but there’s something special about having just a few photos in a book, says customer Martha Cabrera, who recently bought a book from Holliday to give to her son and his girlfriend to use as a photo album for their first child.
“In a book, you only put in the most special photos,” she said. “You spend more time with each photo, and it brings back more memories. I like the book I bought from Eliza because it is made by hand. It is artisanal and unique.”
Holliday holds classes at the Jardín Etnobotánico Francisco Peláez Roldan in Cholula — although they’re briefly on hold due to construction work in the botanical garden.
“The classes are on demand,” she said. “There’s probably a two-person minimum, a maximum of 15.” Classes cost 400 pesos.
Holliday also takes commissions, designing photo and sign-in books for weddings, births and other occasions. She’s also coauthored books on calligraphy with Marilyn Reaves under the name Eliza Holliday and Eliza Schulte, available at johnnealbooks.com.
As Holliday showed me her various books and papers, I noticed that she handled them gently, almost caressing them. “All things handmade are important,” she said. “People want to touch and feel things.”
Joseph Sorrentino is a writer, photographer and playwright who currently lives in Chipilo, Mexico. More articles, stories and photographs may be found at his Substack account.
Safran is one of the world's largest producers of jet engines, providers to popular aircraft such as the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320. (Safran)
French aerospace equipment manufacturer Safran Group has announced a multimillion-dollar investment in the state of Querétaro, according to an announcement made by Governor Mauricio Kuri at the Paris Air Show, which ended on June 25.
With a further investment of US $80 million, the company will expand two of its plants in the country and build a new one to house an aircraft engine test bench.
The Safran facility in Chihuahua is the largest producer of airliner wiring in the world. (Christel Sasso/CAPA Pictures/Safran)
The new SAESA Testcell project is part of the Safran/GE-owned CFM jet engine division, which supplies engines to both the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320, the world’s two best-selling aircraft. The company was previously best known for providing the engines for supersonic passenger aircraft Concorde.
The expansion will create 800 new jobs in maintenance, production, innovation, development and R&D, Kuri said.
“We are very proud and really appreciate the support of Querétaro in helping us expand our capacity,” said Safran CEO Jean-Paul Alary.
Kuri added that Safran México is interested in continuing its support of government educational programs and projects that strengthen the competitiveness of the company and of Querétaro.
The manufacturing process for the front axle of an Airbus A380, the world’s largest airliner, also built by Safran. (Adrien Daste/Safran)
“Thank you [Safran] for trusting in our state,” Kuri wrote on Twitter.
Safran, which arrived in Querétaro 16 years ago, is the largest employer in Mexico’s aeronautical industry, with 11,000 employees across 17 production, maintenance, and engineering sites. In Chihuahua, it operates the world’s largest center for manufacturing aircraft electrical wiring.
Querétaro is a hub for aerospace manufacturing in Mexico. As of 2022, it had received 50% of all foreign direct investment in the industry over the last decade and ranked as the world’s eighth most competitive region in the aeronautical sector, offering more than 355 products and services to the global aerospace industry.
Remittances to Mexico in May set a record since amounts began being tracked in 1995. (UNAM)
Remittances to Mexico hit a new monthly record of just under US $5.7 billion in May although the strength of the Mexican peso in recent weeks and months is softening the impact of money sent home by workers living abroad.
Most of the money sent to Mexico in remittances comes from the United States, where millions of Mexicans live and work.
Mexican workers in the United States make up the majority of people sending remittances to Mexico. (Ryan Hagerty/Wikimedia Commons)
The Bank of Mexico (Banxico) reported Monday that $5.69 billion in remittances flowed into the country in May, an increase of 10.7% compared to the same month of 2022.
The dollar amount for May is the highest for any month since remittance records were first kept in 1995. The previous record was $5.36 billion, set in October last year.
The month-over-month increase in remittances was 13.8%, with Mother’s Day on May 10 helping to boost inflows of money from Mexicans working abroad, according to analysts at the Monex financial group and the banks BBVA and Banco Base.
“Mexican migrants … send additional amounts of money this month so that women who are mothers … can buy a present or save the money,” said BBVA México senior analyst Juan José Li Ng.
A stronger peso means less money for recipients who depend on remittances to contribute to their monthly budget. (Margarito Pérez Retana/Cuartoscuro)
Banxico data shows that the almost $5.7 billion in remittances sent to Mexico in May came via 14.6 million separate transactions, a 7.4% increase compared to the number registered in the same month of 2022. The average amount sent was $391, a 3.1% jump from a year earlier.
The dollar-peso exchange rate in May 2022 fluctuated from just above to just below 20. At 20 pesos to the greenback, the same $391 remittance is worth a more appealing 7,820 pesos.
With a stronger peso, the recipients of remittances — families primarily, albeit not exclusively — have less money to spend in Mexico, unless remitters increase the amounts they wire to offset the strengthening of the local currency.
Alberto Ramos, head of Latin America economics at Goldman Sachs, acknowledged that “a strong peso hurts remittances,” and said that remittances — once converted to pesos —actually declined 2.2% annually in May.
He also said that the strength of remittances in US dollars is indicative of “a very solid U.S. labor market and visible wage gains in activities and in skill-levels where Mexican citizens are disproportionately represented.”
Analysts at the Monex financial firm recently noted that remittances from abroad between January and May 2022 contributed more to Mexico’s economy than agriculture and oil exports combined. (Agriculture Ministry)
Even as a strengthening peso eats into the total amounts of money that ends up in the pockets of those receiving payments from abroad, the importance of remittances to the Mexican economy remains significant.
Central bank data shows that $24.67 billion was sent to Mexico in the first five months of the year, a 10.3% increase compared to the January-May period of 2022. Analysts at the financial firm Monex noted that the amount is higher than the combined value of Mexican agricultural and oil exports in the same period.
Based on the data for the first five months of the year, Mexico is on track to exceed the calendar year record of $58.51 billion in remittances that was set in 2022. Mexico was the second largest recipient of remittances last year behind India, which had inflows of some $100 billion.
Analysts at Banco Base increased their forecast for remittances to Mexico in 2023 to $63.26 billion from a $62.88 billion prediction in April because many remitters are sending larger amounts to compensate for high, albeit falling, inflation and the current dollar-peso exchange rate. One greenback was worth just above 17 pesos on Tuesday morning.
Banxico reported that remittances in the 12 months to the end of May totaled $60.8 billion, a record high for a period of that length.
President López Obrador frequently describes Mexicans who work abroad and send money home as “heroes.”
President López Obrador is so aware of remittances’ importance to Mexico’s economy that in May, he created a way for nationals abroad to send money home to social welfare recipients at a lower cost than through money-transfer services. (Presidencia)
During an address on Saturday to mark the fifth anniversary of his 2018 election victory, he said that 12 million Mexican families were benefiting from remittances, many of whom live in “the country’s poorest and most marginalized communities.”
“I thank our compatriots [abroad] for their help in the most difficult moments of the pandemic,” López Obrador said.
“… A migrant proudly said to me: ‘Mr. President, don’t forget that we left Mexico, but Mexico never left us,” he added.
The first cars for the Maya Train project have left the factory, but are taking more than twice as long to transport as originally anticipated. (Presidencia/Cuartoscuro)
The first four cars of the Maya Train have left the factory where they were produced and are currently on route to Cancún, but the delivery is already facing delays.
Javier May, general director of the National Fund for Tourism Promotion (Fonatur), announced at President López Obrador’s Monday press conference that the convoy had departed the factory in Ciudad Sahagún, Hidalgo, at 5 a.m. that morning.
The convoy is only making progress at 90 km per day, rather than the projected 300 km. (Tren Maya/Twitter)
“The first four-car train left the Alstom [the manufacturing company contracted to build the carriages] plant a moment ago and is on its way to the workshop and garage in Cancún,” May said. “It will arrive on July 8 for assembly and the start of static tests.”
May’s statement was in keeping with the scheduleannounced last month. According to that schedule, the cars will start dynamic tests on the railroad between Cancún and Mérida in mid-August.
Alstom has committed to delivering another two cars in August and 13 in December. The Maya Train will have 42 carriages in total, the rest of which will be delivered over the course of next year.
According to Maité Ramos, general director of Alstom Mexico, the cars are being manufactured entirely in Mexico, with 72% Mexican materials. Each four will have the capacity to carry 230 passengers.
The stock will be transported via road from Hidalgo to Cancún, where it will undergo testing. (Tren Maya/Twitter)
During the press conference on Monday, May stressed that the train is “comfortable, modern, safe and the result of great coordination.” He thanked the companies and agencies involved and insisted that the Maya Train is still on track tobegin operations on Dec 1.
Diego Prieto Hernández, general director of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), alsospoke optimistically about the archaeological rescue work that has accompanied the project, which isnow almost complete.
“[While] there is already a Maya Train,” there is also “memory, identity and recovery of our ancestry,” Prieto said.
By Tuesday, however, President López Obrador admitted that the complexity of transporting the cars was likely to delay the delivery.
President López Obrador had been planning to inspect the Maya Train’s first carriages this weekend in Quintana Roo, but he acknowledged Tuesday that they won’t likely arrive on time. (Galo Cañas Rodríguez/Cuartoscuro)
“It is not yet on the tracks; it was calculated that it was going to advance 300 km a day and it barely advanced 90,” he said. “I don’t think it’s going to come on Saturday.”
At a rate of 90 kilometers per day, the cars would complete the 1,582 kilometers from Ciudad Sahagún to Cancún on July 17.
The Maya Train has already faced multiple delays, due both to technical difficulties and legal injunctions. On Monday, the Defense Ministry, which administers the project, reported that construction on the track’s Section 5 North and Sections 6 and 7 is only 20% complete.
The project is also hugely over budget. Costs ran to 186.28 billion pesos (US $10.93 billion) in 2022 — nearly three times the 64.86 billion pesos (US $3.8 billion) projected. In 2023, the project had nearly reached its annual budget of 143.73 billion pesos (US $8.43 billion) by the end of the first quarter.
Despite this, AMLO remained upbeat on Tuesday about progress on the Maya Train. The delay in the arrival of the cars to Cancún “doesn’t make it late,” he insisted.
The President made headlines Monday when he announced that Senator Xóchitl Gálvez is the chosen Va Por México presidential candidate, despite the official selection process not having begun. (Santiago Alba Ibarra/Wikimedia Commons)
President López Obrador claimed Monday that Senator Xóchitl Gálvez has already been chosen as the 2024 presidential candidate for the main opposition parties, even though the PAN-PRI-PRD bloc’s official selection process hasn’t even started.
Speaking at his morning press conference, López Obrador asserted that the Va por México opposition alliance selected National Action Party Senator Gálvez as its candidate as long as a month ago.
At his Monday press conference, the president displayed a cartoon with caricatures of Gálvez, front right, posing with important figures in the Va por México coalition, including ex-president Vicente Fox, front left, and businessman Claudio X González, back right. (Presidencia)
The president alleged that a “process of consultation” led by businessman Claudio X. González was carried out in which “those who don’t show their faces” were asked who should represent the three-party coalition at the June 2, 2024 election.
AMLO repeated his assertion that Gónzalez is the person ultimately in charge of the opposition alliance, which announced last week that it was forming a grouping called the Frente Amplio por México (Broad Front for Mexico) to support its ambition to seize the presidency from Morena.
“I have all the information that consultations were carried out so that Xóchitl Gálvez [would] represent this group. … [The participants were] those who provide money for the campaigns, for the dirty war, … the owners of media outlets, … the intellectuals,” López Obrador said.
Some would-be aspirants to the opposition parties’ presidential candidacy decided to pull out due to Gálvez’s designation, he claimed.
Gálvez expresses pride about her Indigenous roots, seen in this family picture she posted recently on Facebook. AMLO said it was one of the reasons she was supposedly picked as the Va por México candidate. (Xóchitl Gálvez/Facebook)
“And why decide in favor of Xóchitl? Because they suppose that if she was born in a pueblo [town] she’ll have the support of the pueblo [people],” López Obrador said.
The senator, a former mayor of the Mexico City borough of Miguel Hidalgo, was born into a family of modest means in Tepatepec, Hidalgo. She is an indigenous Otomí woman and first-term senator and ran as a candidate for governor in her home state in 2010.
López Obrador asserted that Gálvez is “not of the people” but rather “part of the conservatives.”
“Why Xóchitl?” he asked again. “… Because she worked with [former president Vicente] Fox, she was director of the indigenous institute,” López Obrador said, adding sarcastically that she has “well-defined convictions in favor of poor people.”
Before she was elected a senator in 2018, Gálvez was the borough mayor of Miguel Hidalgo in Mexico City. (Victoria Valtierra Ruvalcaba/Cuartoscuro)
“The only election she has won … was for the borough chief of Miguel Hidalgo, where the richest people of Mexico live … and they’re the ones who are supporting her now,” he said.
Gálvez, who declared last week that she would become Mexico’s next president, responded to the president in a video message posted to social media.
“Mr. President, you say that so-and-so is going to install me as candidate because you can’t conceive that a strong and capable woman can win a position in politics for herself,” she said.
“You can’t imagine a woman getting a candidacy by her own merits because you, Mr. President, are sexist. The only women you respect are those you appoint because men like you are afraid of an independent and intelligent woman,” Gálvez added.
“In my life, no one has ever gifted me anything. And from you I only want one thing — that you respect me. You are going to give me the presidential sash, and I’m going to receive it with a broad smile,” she said.
The senator claimed in a media interview that López Obrador’s aim was to encourage criticism of her.
“He slanders me because it will trigger a wave of hate. They’re going to try to destroy me, discredit me,” Gálvez said, perhaps referring to pro-AMLO social media users.
She reiterated that her achievements in politics are a result of her “own merit” and said that it was “regrettable” that “the president doesn’t respect women.”
Galvez is known for camera-friendly stunts. When he accused her in a press conference of wanting to take away seniors’ pensions, she arrived at the National Palace to refute his statements. In December, she protested the now-revoked “Plan B” electoral reform legislation by protesting what she called a “Jurassic Plan” by attending the session in a dinosaur costume. (Cuartoscuro)
“… I’ve always had to fight with men like the president. I’ve encountered many of his kind in my life, but fortunately I’ve gotten on in the world,” Gálvez said.
The first stage of the Va por México candidate selection process – in which aspirants will be required to officially register their interest in becoming “the personal responsible for the construction” of the Broad Front and collect signatures demonstrating a minimum threshold of support – starts Tuesday. Around a dozen people remain committed to participating in the process.
The winner is scheduled to be announced Sept. 3 following a polling process and a “direct” vote in which citizens who have registered with the three-party alliance will be permitted to cast ballots.
The ruling Morena party is set to announce its new standard bearer on Sept. 6 following its own polling process in which six aspirants are participating. Polls show that former Mexico City mayor Claudia Sheinbaum is the leading aspirant in that contest.
A winery in Valle de Guadalupe, one of Mexico's prime wine-growing regions today. (Archive)
I remember a time not so long ago when foreigners were skeptical of alcoholic beverages made in Mexico, but today, they are taking the world by storm – from handcrafted mezcal, to bestselling Modelo beer to award-winning Baja California wines.
Let’s start with Mexican beer. About ten years ago, I started seeing Corona beer at hot spots in cities around the world. Corona – via its outstanding marketing – created a “coolness” surrounding their product. Which other beer transported you to a hammock on a beautiful sandy beach? Corona’s branding propelled it to the top spot in the import beer market globally. In the process, Corona introduced many people around the world to Mexico in a very positive way – via its renowned beaches.
Corona has been one of Mexico’s best-selling beers globally. (igorgolovniov/Depositphotos)
Since then, many other Mexican beers have done extremely well. Modelo is now the top- selling beer in the United States, Sol and Pacífico are widely available around the globe, and many Mexican microbrews (like Allende beer and Tulum beer) are growing in popularity.
Tequila is another runaway success story. In the past, many outside of Mexico associated tequila with poor quality, cheap plastic bottles and bad hangovers. But today, tequila is the top-selling spirit globally. The world has fallen in love with margaritas and it seems every celebrity has their own tequila brand: George Clooney, Michael Jordan, The Rock, and Kendall Jenner, just to name a few.
Mezcal is the next frontier. Until recently, mezcal was relatively unknown. It too suffered from an initial perception of poor quality. I remember years ago, touring my first mezcal plant, the guide told us that the locals in the mountains drank mezcal to stay warm at night – not exactly a great marketing pitch! Today, mezcal is quickly following the growth path of tequila, though it is a more artisanal product than tequila, is often priced as a premium product, and is attracting its own flock of celebrities.
CNBC’s Jim Cramer recently launched his own mezcal brand, for example, and talks at length about his passion for the spirit. Mezcal aficionados everywhere are popping up and raving about the variety and complexity of different strains of agave.
The two stars of Breaking Bad enjoying their own mezcal. (Dos Hombres/Instagram)
Mexican wine is a very exciting segment to follow that I believe is poised for significant growth. Throughout my global travels and fine dining experiences, I can say that I essentially never saw a Mexican wine on a menu. Until recently, the industry had pretty neatly divided up the vast majority of the wine world as: Old World (Europe), New world (Argentina/Chile), and Others (Australia / New Zealand). Mexico wasn’t on the map. However, little by little, Mexico’s Baja California peninsula quietly began to win some prestigious awards and start to get the attention of the wine world.
Entrepreneurs in Mexico’s Bajío region quietly began making significant investments in vineyards throughout Guanajuato and Querétaro – just in the past decade alone, the amount of vineyards around San Miguel de Allende has gone from three to 23. Even states like Coahuila and San Luis Potosí started seeing growth in the segment. Today, Mexican wines are winning awards at top wine events and appearing on menus around the world. I believe that we are in the very early innings still of what will happen in this market.
So what does all of this mean? We see how in a short period of time the Mexican alcoholic beverage market has completely transformed. This Mexican industry has gone from being perceived as a bad joke, to the envy of the world. I think it’s a great example of the transformation – and there are others that I will write about – that “brand Mexico” is having on a global stage. In my opinion, it couldn’t be a more exciting time to be an investor or entrepreneur in the country. Mexico is increasingly cool on the world stage, and in part we have tequila and beer to thank for that.
The avocado has rapidly become an important export for Mexico, and is enjoyed in countries across the world. (Alina Karpenko/Unsplash)
With the conquest of what is today known as Mexico, the New World and the Old World experienced an extraordinary exchange of values, knowledge and, of course, food.
While the people in the New World were exposed to wheat, rice, poultry and new meats, the Indigenous people sent Europe corn, tomatoes, chiles, potatoes and chocolate, among other items.
The interaction of both worlds enriched global cuisines and shaped our culinary world into one where many basic ingredients used worldwide originally came from Mexico.
Join us on a brief history of four of the most popular foods Mexico has given the world.
Tomatoes
Many people mistakenly think the tomato is native to Mexico. So why is it on the list, you may ask? Well, because it was the Mexica (Aztec) people who first domesticated it and used it as a cultivated food.
Its name comes from the Náhuatl word xitomatl (shee-tomatl), which means “water fruit belly button.” It then turned to jitomate in Spanish and to “tomato” in English. In Mexico, jitomates are the red tomatoes and tomates, or tomatillos, are the small green ones used to prepare salsa verde.
While the tomato appears to have originated in the Andes, the Mexica people were the first to domesticate what is now considered a staple food around the world. (Courtney Smith/Unsplash)
The ancestral form of the tomato originated in the Andes mountains. Scientists think the species spread north — possibly as a weed — and wasn’t widely domesticated until it reached Mexico. From here, it was taken back to Europe after the arrival of the Spanish.
The tomato has become a staple in many international dishes (you’re probably thinking pizza and pasta!) and is also the basis of many Mexican recipes. It is now so widespread that it is hard to think of a household kitchen without it.
Today, there are some 10,000 different species of tomato cultivated across the world, ranging in size and color. While Mexico has always been one of the 10 top producers of tomatoes, (4 million tonnes per year) China leads worldwide production with 56.4 million tons. The United States comes in third with 13 million tons produced a year.
Chocolate
Its name is spelled almost the same way in many languages. In Spanish, Portuguese and English, it is chocolate. In Dutch, it is chocolade, and in French chocolat. Even in Arabic, it’s pronounced shwukulata.
Thanks to Mexico’s pre-Hispanic Mexica, you can call this cake “chocolate” — originally a Nahautl word. (David Holifield/Unsplash)
All these words have the same root: the Náhuatl word xocolatl,meaning “bitter water.” Some scholars, however, suggest that the word might have originated from the Maya chokol, which means hot, and a, which means water.
Whatever the origin, both Indigenous civilizations thought of chocolate as a sacred drink.
The Maya, for instance, praised it as the drink of the gods — it was regarded not only as a culinary pleasure but also as a ceremonial beverage. Babies were anointed with chocolate, and people used it as a celebratory drink to mark weddings, coronations and the forging of diplomatic alliances.
Later, the Mexica would use chocolate as an invigorating beverage for warriors. Spanish conquistador Bernal Díaz del Castillo wrote that Emperor Moctezuma’s personal guards drank 2,000 cups of chocolate every day “with foam.” Moctezuma himself drank some 50 cups of chocolate daily, and Spanish Conquistador Hernán Cortés adopted the habit to sustain his soldiers during battle at times when they had no other food.
Traditional Mexican Indigenous chocolate drinks often include chile, quite different from the sweet chocolate we enjoy from coffee shops and in chocolate bars. (currentevents.sg)
While the beverage wasn’t sweet, it was considered a delicious drink exclusively for society’s elite. They drank it as a hot beverage in the winter months and as a cold drink in the summer. It had a bitter flavor and was spiced with chile, flowers and vanilla. Women would pour the chocolate from high above the cup to create a foamy effect.
Chocolate was also preferred over the fermented spirit pulque as it didn’t have any alcohol; the Mexica culture highly condemned drunkenness.
After the Spanish arrived, they transformed the beverage into the sweet treat that we know today by adding sugar, almonds and cinnamon and by removing all other spices except for the vanilla, our next stellar ingredient.
Vanilla
Vanilla has become the most common flavor around the world. In its natural form, it can be almost as expensive as saffron, the world’s most pricey spice.
Vanilla, another ingredient indigenous to Mexico, is a hugely popular flavor worldwide. (Vanillery)
Originally from the jungle highlands of the north-central state of Veracruz, the orchid that produces vanilla was first domesticated by the Totonaca people of Papantla. When the Mexica conquered the Totonacs in 1427, they discovered the vanilla pods and started using them medicinally and as flavoring for their food.
In the Totonaca language, vanilla was known as xahanat (shaHanat), which means “black flower.” When the Spanish conquistadors arrived in Mexico and discovered the orchid, they called it vainilla, which means “little pod.”
Vanilla became so popular in the world that people tried to bring it to other countries, but the vanilla orchid could only grow here because the Melipona bee, responsible for its pollination, only lived in eastern Mexico.
As a result, Mexico was the only producer of vanilla worldwide until 1841, when French botanist Edmond Albius discovered manual pollination.
Despite the orchid originating in Mexico, Madagascar is currently the world’s top producer of vanilla. Other producing countries include, of course, Mexico, as well as Tahiti, Uganda and Indonesia.
Avocado
Unmistakably Mexican, the avocado is a fruit (yes, technically it is a fruit not a veggie) loved across the world and has managed its way into even the most traditional of foreign cuisines. In India, people make curried avocado. Ethiopians mix avocado with papaya, mango and mint to create a refreshing beverage in the hot summer months, and in the Philippines, people mix avocado with sweetened condensed milk and ice to eat it as ice cream.
Mexico exports 2.1 million tonnes of avocados each year, providing 70% of the world’s supply. (Archive)
As with most of the produce listed in this story, the name avocado comes from the Náhuatl: the word ahuacatl means “tree testicles.” The Mexica thought the avocado had aphrodisiac properties and that it promoted fertility in both men and women.
Puebla, in the central Mexico highlands, is believed to be the motherland of the avocado. There, researchers have found vestiges of the fruit that can be traced back to over 10,000 years. Experts also believe that Mesoamerican tribes first domesticated the avocado tree (Persea americana) 5,000 years ago, which would make the cultivation of avocados as old as the invention of the wheel.
Perhaps due to its creamy and delicious flavor, the avocado was highly regarded by Mesoamerican cultures. The 14th month of the Mayan calendar (K’ank’in) is even represented by the glyph for an avocado.
In Mexico, avocados are traditionally used for savory dishes, mainly in the form of guacamole. But thanks to globalization, Mexicans have learned that it can also satisfy a sweet tooth.
Mexicans from across the country made their way to Mexico City’s central square on Saturday for a rally marking the fifth anniversary of President López Obrador’s emphatic 2018 election victory.
“It’s a badge of pride to be able to say … from the main square of the republic that our movement is stronger than ever,” López Obrador — who won 53% of the vote at the 2018 presidential election — declared at the beginning of an hour-long address in the Zócalo, where over 250,000 people were in attendance, according to Mexico City Mayor Martí Batres.
President López Obrador said that his administration had achieved many social and economic changes in Mexico, which he said were possible because his administration didn’t tolerate corruption. (Graciela López Herrera/Cuartoscuro)
With his wife, cabinet ministers and Morena party governors seated behind him, AMLO listed numerous government achievements during his 4 1/2 years in office, including the delivery of welfare and social programs, the increase to the minimum wage, post-pandemic economic growth, the saving of public money through “republican austerity,” the construction of infrastructure projects, the “rescue” of state-owned energy companies, the rollout of a new universal health care scheme and the establishment of the National Guard.
“What has been the key to achieving all these results?” López Obrador asked himself after outlining some of his administration’s accomplishments. “… In brief, not allowing corruption.”
In his closing remarks, the president said it was “natural” that the “process of transformation” that he asserts his administration is carrying out had created “a conservative opposition” whose leaders don’t accept a government that “governs for everyone,” rather than a privileged minority.
He also stressed the importance of “always looking to, looking after and walking with the people” of Mexico.
In his closing remarks, AMLO assured supporters that he is “always looking to, looking after and walking with the people” of Mexico. (Graciela López Herrera/Cuartoscuro)
“If we ask ourselves who is our best ally, what do we answer? The people. Who are we here for? The people,” López Obrador said before posing several other questions that prompted the large crowd to roar “the people” in response.
“All of us won five years ago,” two women aged in their 20s told the newspaper El País.
Previous presidents — who López Obrador blames for all manner of persistent problems in Mexico — left the country in a “very bad” state, but AMLO “is doing a great job,” agreed Fernanda Sánchez and María Guadalupe García, who attended the rally together.
They told El País that consolidating AMLO’s so-called “fourth transformation” of Mexico — as the aspirants to the ruling Morena party nomination for the 2024 presidential election intend to do — will be difficult but indicated that it’s possible with the support of “the people” — whom the president frequently claims to have on his side.
Supporters interviewed at the rally told reporters that they believed the president looked out for the least powerful in Mexican society, including the poor, elderly and disabled. (Moises Pablo Nava/Cuartoscuro)
Azucena Gallardo Peña, who traveled from Chiapas to join the fifth anniversary celebrations, also expressed her satisfaction with the government led by López Obrador.
“No president focused on senior citizens, the disabled or the poor until him,” she told El País.
Benito Martínez, María Concepción and Natalia Álvarez, all of Tamaulipas, told the same newspaper that “the people” want the “regime” implemented by López Obrador to continue and pledged their support to whomever Morena chooses as its new standard bearer, as all the aspirants to the party’s presidential candidacy are “capable.”
The tamaulipecos and the six Morena presidential hopefuls were among the throngs of supporters, nicknamed AMLOvers, who flocked to the Zócalo for the Saturday afternoon rally. Many endured long distances on buses to get there, with free travel and free food apparently sweetening the deal for some.
National Action Party President Marko Córtes tweeted this illustration the day after the rally, saying AMLO was celebrating “five years of failures,” such as high numbers of homicides and kidnappings, more public debt and more poverty. (Marko Córtes/Twitter)
Hundreds of attendees reportedly left the event early to ensure they didn’t miss their bus home, or because they were tired after spending hours on their feet.
The president of the National Action Party (PAN) — one of three main opposition parties preparing to field a joint candidate at next year’s presidential election — was among numerous government critics who offered an alternative assessment of the López Obrador presidency.
“López Obrador is right in saying that his government has made history. Never before had 160,000 homicides and more than 100,000 disappearances been recorded,” Marko Cortés tweeted on Sunday.
The former figure refers to the approximate number of murders recorded in Mexico since López Obrador took office on Dec. 1, 2018, while the latter refers to the total number of missing people, regardless of when they disappeared.
Many AMLO cabinet minister and high-profile Morena members were also in the crowd. Here Morena Party President Mario Delgado poses for a selfie taken by former Mexico City mayor and Morena presidential hopeful Claudia Sheinbaum. (Presidencia)
PAN Senator Xóchitl Gálvez — who AMLO asserted on Monday had been chosen as the presidential candidate for the Va por México opposition alliance — posted a video to social media on Saturday in which she criticized the government for failing to meet the projected completion date and cost for the construction of the new Pemex refinery on the Tabasco coast.
“Remember that incompetence is also corruption,” she said after asserting that a 200-billion-peso cost overrun (US $11.7 billion) was the cause of funding cuts for things such as treatment for children with cancer and public security.
Back at the Zócalo, the mood was buoyant despite rainfall as López Obrador concluded his 64-minute address.
“The people!” exclaimed the president’s devotees when he posed the question “who are we?”
“… Long live the fourth transformation!” AMLO cried. “Viva México! Viva México! Viva México!”
Guadalajara's Sergio "Checo" Pérez recovered well for a podium finish at the Austrian Grand Prix this weekend — though he narrowly avoided a time penalty for track limit infringements in Sunday's feature race. (Sergio Perez/Twitter)
Red Bull Racing Formula 1 driver Sergio “Checo” Pérez came in third at the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday, overcoming an awful qualifying session on Friday and narrowly avoiding a time penalty in the feature race after rivals Aston Martin appealed to the governing body, FIA, protesting the Mexican pilot’s performance.
The race at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria, saw the Netherlands’ Max Verstappen continue his domination of the 2023 season, taking a seventh victory this year. Teammate Pérez, however, was the one who sparked discussion after the race.
Words were exchanged between Red Bull teammates Pérez and Max Verstappen, after the Dutchman objected to Pérez’s audacious overtake during the sprint race on Saturday, in which Pérez came in second. (Sergio Pérez/Twitter)
All the Guadalajara-born driver’s qualifying session laps were deleted for track limit infringements, forcing him to start 15th. It was the fourth straight qualifying session in which Pérez has classified outside the top 10 as an early title charge has faltered in mid-season.
Track limits refer to the area surrounding the curbs at each corner of the track. Due to the high downward aerodynamic force of modern F1 cars — known as downforce — they are able to use small areas of the runoff behind each corner to maintain their speed — something the FIA is trying to prevent through issuing time penalties.
Pérez’s daring performance in Saturday’s short-form sprint race — which saw no track limit infringements on his part — saw him finish second, even briefly snatching the lead from Verstappen.
After the Dutchman took the checkered flag, Verstappen expressed his annoyance with Pérez to the team, calling his audacious overtake at the first corner “really not OK,” suggesting that it had been a dangerous move, and telling F1TV that they “had to have a chat about it.”
After a poor qualifying session that saw him start 15th, Pérez recovered to finish second and third in the sprint and feature races respectively. (Sergio Pérez/Twitter)
However, he later told the Associated Press later that he and Pérez had already settled the issue.
In Sunday’s feature race, Pérez struggled to recapture his spark from the previous day and finished third, behind winner Verstappen and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
The Aston Martin team of fifth-placed Fernando Alonso protested the final race result, claiming several drivers who finished ahead of the veteran Spaniard had failed to respect the track limits and should have been penalized as a result.
Ultimately, Pérez escaped a penalty, though several other drivers — including seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton — were not so lucky. Frenchman Esteban Ocon saw a 30-second time addition as a result of four separate track limit breaches.
Pérez remains the only other Formula 1 driver besides Verstappen to win races this season, and his two victories ensure that he remains second in the table as the championship heads to the United Kingdom for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone this weekend.
The president covered the opposition coalition, the Segalmex corruption scandal, security policy and much more at the week's daily pressers. (Moisés Pablo Nava / Cuartoscuro.com)
The selection process to be used by the three-party Va por México alliance to select its 2024 presidential candidate was a dominant topic at President López Obrador’s morning press conferences, or mañaneras, this week.
The PAN-PRI-PRD coalition unveiled its method on Monday and announced the formation of the Frente Amplio por México (Broad Front for Mexico), which will also include citizens’ groups aligned with what AMLO calls “the conservative bloc.”
The opposition coalition, including the PAN, PRI and PRD, has formed the “broad front for Mexico” and announced their selection method for a presidential candidate on Monday. (Daniel Augusto / Cuartoscuro.com)
Hours before the selection process was presented at an event at a Mexico City hotel, López Obrador had already labeled it a “sham,” asserting that the opposition candidate will in fact be chosen by a single person or a “corrupt oligarchy”, rather than via democratic means.
Monday
Claudio X. González, a businessman and co-founder of the civil society organization Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity, will ultimately choose the main opposition parties’ candidate for the 2024 presidential election, AMLO claimed while responding to his first question of the day.
“The corrupt, looting oligarchy is coming to an agreement to have a candidate,” he told reporters after dismissing the Va por México opposition alliance’s candidate selection process – which was announced on Monday but details of which emerged last weekend – as a “sham.”
“… They don’t have a plan [for the country], nothing. What they want to do is continue stealing,” López Obrador said.
The president said he would make his prediction about who the opposition standard bearer will be later in the week.
“I’ll tell you in two or three days and I’m sure I won’t be wrong,” AMLO said.
“… The top magnates are consulted, the conservative political leaders are also consulted. What do [former presidents] Fox, Calderón and Salinas think? They do that consultation then they interact with organic intellectuals, writers, journalists and after that [the candidate] is known,” López Obrador said.
“[The selection process] is a sham, and the conservative bloc candidate, regardless of who it is, … [will] continue with the same classist, racist, discriminatory politics,” he asserted.
Businessman Claudio X. González and former president Vicente Fox were special guests at the opposition coalition event. (Daniel Augusto / Cuartoscuro.com)
One reporter put it to the president that the aspirants to the ruling Morena party nomination for next year’s presidential election are seeking to style themselves in his image and demonstrate the closeness of their relationships with him as part of their strategy to gain support.
“The thing is we’re very similar, we come from … [the same] movement,” Lopez Obrador responded. “… They’re all my siblings. How many are there? I have five brothers and a sister.”
AMLO noted later in his presser that the government is carrying out a national survey on drug use. The aim is to “have a good diagnosis to improve our actions,” he said.
“The truth is that we succeeded from the beginning by attending to the causes of violence. If we hadn’t, the [security] situation would be very complicated. But we got down to attending to the causes [of crime], attending to young people. That has helped us a lot – all the scholarship programs [and the] Youths Building the Future [apprentice scheme],” López Obrador said.
The president subsequently asserted that there is not a lot of drug use in Mexico due to “cultural, moral and spiritual values” and “the cohesion” of Mexican families.
“The family is a fundamental institution, … a social security institution,” AMLO said.
Despite his previous remarks, he conceded that drug use is a problem in certain parts of the country including the border region and Guanajuato, Mexico’s most violent state in recent years.
“We’re working on the case of Guanajuato … because it’s a hot spot. And not all of Guanajuato [but] the industrial corridor. It has to do with the factories, the low salaries paid to workers, the abandonment of families, the lack of welfare programs, of support and other factors,” López Obrador said.
“And [drug] use is what leads to more homicides. That’s why Guanajuato accounts for 12% or up to 15% of [Mexico’s] daily homicides, because gangs clash over the market to control street-level drug dealing,” he said.
Among other remarks, López Obrador responded to United Kingdom government advice warning against “all but essential travel” to seven Mexican states and “all but essential travel” to certain areas within three others.
“They’re misinformed and they’re missing out on getting to know a beautiful country,” he said.
“… I would say to English citizens that there is nothing to fear in Mexico, that we’re reducing the crime rate and that there are very few places where there is violence, very few. Mexico is a beautiful and safe country,” AMLO said.
Tuesday
The press conference started with the government’s regular “Zero Impunity” report, during which Deputy Security Minister Luis Rodríguez Bucio offered details on a selection of recent arrests.
Among the thousands of people detained between June 13 and 26, he said, were a former judge in Veracruz accused of influence peddling, an ex-official from Hidalgo who allegedly embezzled 18 million pesos earmarked for the COVID-19 pandemic response and a former official from Nayarit accused of a range of crimes including embezzlement, influence peddling and criminal association.
National Guard chief Córdova gave an update on seizures of illicit drugs on Tuesday. (lopezobrador.org.mx)
National Guard Commander David Córdova Campos subsequently noted that 1,727 kilograms of fentanyl, more than 138,000 kilograms of methamphetamine, almost 53,000 kilograms of cocaine, nearly 21,000 kilograms of heroin, 41.2 million pesos in cash and banknotes totaling US $3.8 million have been seized by authorities so far this year.
Responding to his first question of the day, López Obrador stressed that the government is committed to combating illegal logging.
AMLO asserted that a lot of progress has been made, but acknowledged that the crime remains a problem in some parts of the country including an area of Mexico City near the border with Morelos and mountainous parts of Durango and Chihuahua.
Asked about Va por México’s presidential candidate selection process, the president repeated his claim that Claudio X. González hijo – the son of the 89-year-old magnate of the same name – is pulling the strings.
“The representative of the entire conservative bloc is Claudio X. González hijo, but of course behind him are [former president Carlos] Salinas and others,” López Obrador said, adding that ex-president Vicente Fox is “very active” behind the scenes.
The “tycoons, oligarchs [and] corrupt politicians” under the leadership of González will choose the Va por México candidate, AMLO said, even though the main opposition parties have outlined a selection process that includes a “direct” vote by citizens.
Later in his presser, López Obrador reiterated that the government’s purchase of 13 power plants from Spanish energy company Iberdrola had allowed the state-owned Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) to increase its share of the electricity generation market to 55%.
He noted that the government is modernizing 20 hydro-electric plants and building 12 new combined-cycle plants and a solar farm. With the “33 new plants,” the CFE will have a 60% share of the market “when our government ends,” AMLO said.
The Iberdrola power plants purchased by the government are predominantly located in the north of the country. (Iberdrola)
Toward the end of his mañanera, López Obrador said that the government would send a letter to the Supreme Court seeking an explanation as to why the 11 justices earn salaries higher than his own.
The government wants to know “why [the justices] are violating article 127 of the constitution, which establishes that no [public servant] can earn more than the president of the republic,” he said.
“They earn four, five times more than what I earn. … I earn about 140,000 or 150,000 pesos [a month] and they earn 600,000. So I want them to explain to me why so I can inform the people of Mexico,” López Obrador said.
He said that the letter would be sent later on Tuesday and that the Supreme Court justices would have five days to respond.
“They should explain to us why they earn four times more than the president, why they violate the constitution, whether what they are doing is legal,” AMLO said.
Wednesday
Making another attack on the “manipulative” media during his introductory remarks, López Obrador expressed his support for citizen journalism.
While the “conventional” press is “co-opted” by the powerful elite, “we have to move forward and bet on each citizen becoming a media outlet,” he said, adding that almost any person has the capacity to do so due to widespread cell phone usage.
Ana García Vilchis, the government’s chief debunker of (purported) fake news, replaced the president at the mañanera lectern and noted that her controversial “Who’s Who in the Lies of the Week” segment had turned two.
President López Obrador and Ana García Vilchis at the Wednesday morning press conference. (Gob MX)
“It’s an honor to be with Obrador and to belong to the fourth transformation team,” García said before getting down to business.
“… It’s false that the López Obrador government authorized a multi-million-dollar payment to a company … [linked to Genaro] García Luna,” she said.
García said that several media outlets had reported on an Animal Político article that asserted that the government paid just under US $6.5 million to a company controlled by the former security minister and convicted drug trafficker.
“The information provided lacks veracity because the [security] contracts correspond to the six-year terms of [former presidents] Felipe Calderón and Enrique Peña Nieto,” she said.
Back before reporters, AMLO asserted that he knew who the Va por México presidential candidate would be, but declined to offer a name.
“They already made an agreement, I have information that they have an agreement,” he said, adding that he would reveal who the person is after his July 1 rally to mark the fifth anniversary of his 2018 election victory.
AMLO took office in December 2018 following an election in which he received 53% of the vote. (Lopezobrador.org.mx)
AMLO claimed that the majority of aspirants to the Va por México candidacy know that the candidate has in fact already been chosen, but are nevertheless participating in the selection process because doing so increases their chances of being offered a proportional representation seat in Congress, which are allocated to parties based on the percentage of votes they attract.
A few aspirants might “naively” think “there will be democracy and a level playing field,” López Obrador said. “No, no, no,” he added. “They already decided.”
Later in his presser, AMLO said that Senator Lilly Téllez had decided not to take part in what he sees as a “sham” selection process because she realized she isn’t “the chosen one.”
A shift in focus came via a reporter’s question on the government’s plan to give control of the Mexico City International Airport (AICM) to the Mexican Navy.
López Obrador confirmed that responsibility for the AICM would pass from the Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation to the navy, and noted that the latter is already in charge of security at the airport.
“[The navy] has done a very good job. I believe that a lot of people are already noticing that; there’s no theft of suitcases, as happened before, and care is taken so that contraband doesn’t come in, so that drugs don’t come in,” he said.
The president responded to questions on a range of other issues, including one on the recent arrest of eight soldiers in connection with the disappearance and presumed murder of the 43 Ayotzinapa students in Guerrero in 2014.
“We have the commitment to shed light on these events, there won’t be impunity,” López Obrador said.
“… If one member of the army, two, three, five, 10 [or] 15 acted badly – committed crimes – they can’t be protected, can’t be given impunity, because instead of helping the institution, that harms it,” he said.
“The problem with Ayotzinapa, apart from the crime committed, is that … [the previous government] wanted to hide things,” AMLO added.
“It’s a very regrettable event, it’s the most scandalous and I believe the only case of corruption that we’ve faced during our government,” he said.
“… This government doesn’t allow, doesn’t tolerate corruption or impunity because we’re different,” AMLO added.
Public Administration Minister Roberto Salcedo at the Thursday press conference. (Gob MX)
Public Administration Minister Roberto Salcedo Aquino said that irregularities totaling 9.5 billion pesos (US $555.1 million) had been detected at Segalmex by the ministry he heads up and the Federal Auditor’s Office.
“The amount … comes from the results of audits in 2019 and 2020. They are findings that are in the process of being analyzed by the relevant authorities,” he said, noting that Segalmex has the opportunity to “clarify” where the money went.
Eighty-seven people – 41 former public servants and 46 “owners, partners, representatives, shareholders and lawyers of companies linked” to alleged corruption at Segalmex – face charges, said federal fiscal prosecutor Félix Arturo Medina Padilla.
After returning to center stage, AMLO pledged that the Segalmex corruption case won’t go unpunished and reiterated his commitment to combating corruption.
The president subsequently said that the final year of the terms of previous governments, was known colloquially and “improperly” as “the year of Hidalgo,” named after Independence hero Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla.
During the final year before a government left office, officials “dedicated themselves to looting, to stealing,” López Obrador said, adding that in the final year of his administration – which will begin in October – there will be no “year of Hidalgo,” at least in the sense in which the term was previously used.
There will be a “year of Hidalgo,” but to celebrate “the father of our homeland,” he clarified.
Later in his presser while responding to a question about his government’s welfare programs, AMLO spotted an opportunity to criticize Senator Xóchitl Gálvez, a leading aspirant to the Va por México presidential nomination.
“The program most accepted by the people for a long time, since we began it when I was mayor [of Mexico City], is the program of support for senior citizens and now even more so. It’s the program that the people approve the most. It’s the program that the conservatives didn’t want,” he said.
Former president Vicente Fox and Gálvez, who was an official in Fox’s 2000-2006 government, said “it was better to put the elderly to work,” López Obrador said.
The National Action Party Senator is “now very active as a representative of the oligarchy, with the same thinking as Fox, she even worked with Fox, she’s from the school of Fox,” he said.
Among other remarks, López Obrador said he was very happy to hear about the Tourism Ministry’s designation of 45 new pueblos mágicos, or magical towns, and asserted – not for the first time – that groups that cause problems at women’s marches are “manipulated by the far-right” of Mexican politics.
“… It’s very sad and painful for families when a person is murdered. We regret it a lot,” he said.
López Obrador claimed that the murder of Mora and three bodyguards was a “remnant of the violence fostered and allowed” by previous governments, especially the 2006-2012 administration of former president Felipe Calderón.
“Remember there was a narco-state in Mexico during the government of Felipe Calderón. The public security minister of Felipe Calderón – who is in prison, accused [and convicted] of complicity with drug traffickers – applied a strategy of elimination for some criminals and protection for others,” he said.
Mora’s funeral was held on Friday in La Ruana, Michoacán. ( Juan José Estrada Serafín / Cuartoscuro.com)
AMLO said that Mora had asked for and received protection from the state government because he had been targeted in previous attacks, but “it wasn’t possible to avoid him being murdered.”
“The governor has said that he spoke with him to tell him to leave [the town of] La Ruana, to go to Morelia. He had an armored vehicle, but these criminals … are very violent, they have high-caliber weapons,” he said.
Later in his presser, López Obrador acknowledged that his term in government has been the most violent in recent history in terms of homicides, but blamed that fact on the security situation he inherited.
“Mexico’s highest paid journalist and one of the best paid in the world whose name is Jorge Ramos says: ‘It’s the six-year period of government with the most deaths.’ Well, yes, yes, due to this,” AMLO said after presenting data that showed increases in homicide numbers during the governments led by former presidents Fox, Calderón and Peña Nieto and a decline during his own presidency.
“Just imagine the years of corruption, of impunity, of collusion,” he said.
López Obrador left the past behind to focus on the near future when a reporter asked him whether his rally on Saturday to celebrate the fifth anniversary of his election as president would be the last time he would fill Mexico City’s central square, the Zócalo.
“On Saturday, tomorrow, everyone’s invited. We’re going to celebrate five years,” AMLO said.
“… It’s five years since the historic day on which the people decided to support us to begin a transformation in the country. … How many more times [will we fill the Zócalo]? Well, we don’t know, but that’s the way we’ve always fought, with the mobilization of citizens, the support of citizens. Without a doubt, we’re the ones who have summoned [people] to the Zócalo the greatest number of times in all of history,” he said.
The president discusses security during the Friday press conference. (Gob MX)
“We’re looking for [the police employees], there is coordinated work between … the federal government, the Ministry of Defense, the National Guard and also state police,” he said in relation to the first case.
López Obrador said that an investigation into the car blast was underway and noted that a member of the National Guard was killed, apparently while responding to a tip-off that there were dead bodies in the vehicle.
“They made the bomb explode when National Guard troops went to check a car,” AMLO said.
Just before the conclusion of his presser, López Obrador confirmed that new Foreign Affairs Minister Alicia Bárcena and Morena party state governors would attend his rally on Saturday.
“I have to go now because we’re going to the commemoration of the fourth anniversary of the [inauguration of] the National Guard,” he said shortly before he left the press conference to travel to a Mexico City military facility where the event was held.
“… Mañana fiesta, baile,” he added, referring to the festivities planned for the Zócalo gathering. “Adiós, adiós.”
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies ([email protected])
