Modelo Especial beer for sale in Atlanta. The brand became the top-selling beer in the U.S. in May, knocking off Bud Light from the No. 1 spot for the first time in more than two decades. (The Toidi/Shutterstock)
Mexico’s Modelo Especial beer became the top-selling brand in the United States in May, with an 8.4% share of U.S. retail sales.
In a four-week period ending June 3, the incumbent, Bud Light, fell off the top spot for the first time in more than two decades after the beer’s owner Anheuser-Busch became embroiled in controversy. Its share of the U.S. retail beer market fell to 7.3%.
Constellation is the licensed brewer and distributor in the U.S. for Grupo Modelo brands, including Corona and Modelo. The diversification of the Modelo brand is seen as key to the success of the beer in the U.S. (@cbrands/Twitter)
U.S. earnings for Modelo Especial beer also grew during the same period by 12.2% over the last month while Bud Light’s earnings fell 24.4%.
Diversification of the Modelo brand under Constellation’s stewardship in the U.S. — it’s licensed by Mexico owners Grupo Modelo to brew and distribute the brand in the U.S. — is also helping the beer to capitalize on the momentum gained by Bud Light’s downfall.
“Modelo Especial appears to be increasing its sales growth each week as we get deeper into summer,” brand analyst Dave Williams told the media company CNN. He added that the Modelo Oro, a new, low-carb version of Modelo Especial, appears to be a success.
The Mexican beer brand is also benefiting from a trend for Mexican alcohol in the U.S., said Williams. Tequila and mezcal have also seen strong sales in recent months, and the “springboard effect” from strong Cinco de Mayo sales had on Mexican drinks in general has also helped.
Mexican alcohol has increased in popularity in the U.S. across the board — that includes spirits such as tequila and mezcal. (Mario Jasso/Cuartoscuro)
Greg Gallagher, vice president of brand marketing for New York-based Constellation, said that Modelo has been “enjoying an incredible run of success” in recent years and that it’s looking to recreate the success that Modelo traditionally sees with a Hispanic audience in the United States.
“Our growth is in maintaining that core but also bringing in non-Hispanic customers, and we’re having incredible success,” he told CNN.
While some may look to tie Bud Light’s downfall with the brand’s recent controversial advertising campaign — which featured transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney and angered both sides of the political spectrum — the downturn in its sales also reflect wider issues with the Belgian brewer, which also owns Busch Light, Michelob and Natural Light.
Mexican beer brands have seen significant growth in the U.S. market in recent years, according to the Washington Post newspaper, which estimates as much as 80% of U.S. imported beer is from Mexico. Even before the Bud Light campaign, Modelo was on track to become the top-selling beer by 2030, the newspaper said.
If current sales trends continue, Modelo is well-placed to end 2023 as America’s top-selling beer brand for the calendar year.
13,000 visitors are reported to have seen the life-size dinosaur replicas at "Dinos en Los Pinos," which opened Sunday. (Centro Cultural Los Pinos)
The former presidential residence of Los Pinos in Mexico City is currently hosting a dinosaur exhibition to showcase pieces recovered and reconstructed by paleontologists in Mexico.
Entrance is free, and the exhibition will run through October 23.
Some 13,000 people arrived for the exhibition’s first day, including former Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, who resigned on Monday to focus on his candidacy in Morena’s presidential primary race.
“This is the best inauguration event I’ve ever attended,” Ebrard tweeted alongside a photograph of the ribbon cutting.
The exhibition, titled “Dinos en los Pinos: Dimensiones prehistóricas” (Dinos at Los Pinos: Prehistoric Dimensions), showcases over 50 pieces, including fossils, life-sized skeletons, bones, artwork and paleontological remains of dinosaurs such as the Tyrannosaurus rex and Coahuilaceratops magnahorn and ancient sharks like Aquilolamna milacrae. Many of these pieces belong to the Museo del Desierto (Desert Museum) in Saltillo, Coahuila, which participated in the exhibit design for “Dinos en Los Pinos,” and some were only recently found in northern Mexico.
Realistic and interactive representations of different dinosaurs can also be seen in the center’s green areas, as can other figures modified by Indigenous Wixárika artists. The Wikárika dinosaurs are decorated as alebrijes, a classic form of Mexican folk sculpture, with wings and bright colors.
“Dinos en Los Pinos” will run through late October.
The exhibition is mainly located in Los Pinos’ Miguel Alemán house. Access is through Gate 1 or Gate 5 of the compound. Los Pinos is open from Tuesday to Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
This is the second time that the Desert Museum has set up an exhibition of this kind in Mexico City. The first, called “Huellas de la Vida” (Footprints of Life), took place in 2009. It remained on display in the Zócalo for 102 days and broke attendance records, attracting more than 13 million visitors. Coincidentally, it was also inaugurated by Ebrard during his tenure as mayor of Mexico City.
Agua Bendita is a tranquil country retreat near San Miguel de Allende. (Courtesy/Agua Bendita)
In the market for a venue near historic San Miguel de Allende? Look no further for the location of your next corporate or wellness retreat, family reunion, party or wedding, or film location. Agua Bendita, just minutes away from the UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a slice of magic.
This centuries-old family ranchito has recently been converted into fourexquisitely tasteful modern cottages, surrounded by verdant lawns, lavender beds, freshwater lakes, walkways and bridges, quiet reading nooks, and orchards. The grounds are even graced by the occasional peacock!
Agua Bendita makes a stunning wedding venue. (Courtesy/Agua Bendita)
Gone are the days of stuffy, windowless conference rooms, the charmless hotel with the long corridors and airport-style dining room. Here, you’ll find the artistic touch of Isabella Castro and Luz Marcela Vera, fourth generation women from a legendary hotelier family, who own and manage the property. You’ll also be greeted and tended to by a staff that exudes personalized care, generosity and warmth. This welcoming family ambience is a key feature of their four hotels in the area.
And don’t worry if you don’t want to lift a finger! Agua Bendita offers a menu created by personal chefs, who will deliver your preferred cuisine, or come and cook in your state-of-the art kitchen. A wedding, festival or fiesta can be catered under a marquee for up to 500 people, and at night, the tree lights reflecting in the surrounding lakes imbue the gardens with romance.
The largest of the four homes on the property is Casa Lago, with fivebedrooms. A stand-out feature is the master bedroom with a wall-sized window overlooking a lake. There is also an ample salon and dining room for 10, and a beautiful library.
The cozy one-bedroom cottage covered in vines is called Casa Gloria, and has a slightly whimsical English charm, complete with a rocking chair, white wood floors and antiques.
Charming cottage “Casa Gloria” on the property. (Courtesy/Agua Bendita)
All four houses have shaded terraces with gorgeous views over the gardens, and of the mountains in the distance. In total, there are eleven rooms that sleep up to 22.
Ambling between the properties, through box hedge gardens and over bridges, it’s easy to envision film industry “writers rooms”, business execs breakfasting on the patio, or urban escapees lounging on the lawns and enjoying a candlelit soiree under the pink pepper and mezquite trees.
Even the 15-stall bathrooms in the garden are eye-catching and roomy.
“We invited Paloma Padilla and PedroPérezto design the restrooms for caballeros and damas. They’re some of the top fashionable Mexican designers right now, and we love to support emerging artists”, says Marigel Piquent, the director of sales who is on hand for any questions.
Even the restrooms at Agua Bendita are exquisitely designed. (Courtesy/Agua Bendita)
Grupo Mexico Real’s 45 year-old hotel, complete with bull-ring,Real de Minas de San Miguel de Allende,is still the largest and one of the most popular in the state. Along with the award-winning El Santuario, it’s centrally located in San Miguel.
Their most recent addition is this countryside retreat, Agua Bendita, found near natural hot springs, outside the town of Atotonilco. A three minute walk away, La Gruta offers thermal pools, a restaurant and an enticing tropical grottothat’s best visited early morning before the crowds.
“We grew up here!” says Castro. “It was a working ranch, and the whole area is not only renowned for its healing thermal spring waters, but also for the supposed health benefits of the quartz in the ground. It sounds a little crazy, but my mother genuinely believes people get healthier here, and now we’ve opened the hotel, we joke that our staff seem to be getting younger by the week! Atotonilco has a special place in Mexican history also; it was here Hidalgo gathered his men, and launched the war for independence.”
The beautiful master bedroom overlooking the lake in Casa del Lago. (Courtesy/Agua Bendita)
A short stroll down the cobbled road takes you to Atononilco’s church, which appears more like a medieval castle. Visitors flock to see its frescoes, as well as to enjoy a stroll through the markets and catch “the best family-run quesadilla stand in San Miguel”, according to acclaimed local chef, Jorge Avendaño.
“We’ve been popular with Mexicans from the big cities all over the country for decades,” continues Castro. “And we’ve adapted and evolved the features, design and amenities over the years, keeping up with the times, and particularly the influx of new visitors from around the world.”
“We realize that people aren’t only coming here for tourism, but for business, retreats and culture. And many people are relocating here from different countries. There’s a lot of younger families and entrepreneurs, who are looking for a sustainable way of life. We created Agua Bendita with the discerning foreigner in mind. It’s like a template for how to live an abundant, healthy and wealthy life here in Mexico!”
Casa del Lago, one of four houses on the property, has 5 bedrooms and a serene view. (Courtesy/Agua Bendita)
Right next door, you can visit another part of their former family ranchito, Tierra y Amor. A feast for the senses, it’s replete with art installations, private party rooms, cabins, a working flower, fruit and lavender farm, a honey bee sanctuary and the Museo de Miel (honey museum).
“My parents were committed to preserving the beauty of the natural world, and learning how to live happily within it. I think Agua Bendita speaks to that; it’s an upscale version of Tierra y Amor,” Castro tells me.
“It’s definitely a unique spot for weddings, photo shoots, yoga retreats, or a small arts festival. It would be my first choice out of all our hotels for a family reunion that lasts for days, Mexican style!” she laughs. “You will feel secluded and private in this beautiful natural sanctuary, but you’re still close to the city with all its markets, restaurants and culture.”
Agua Bendita makes a romantic setting for a wedding in San Miguel de Allende. (Courtesy/Agua Bendita)
Agua Bendita may not be a “hidden” gem for long, but it will certainly feel like you’ve found the city’s best kept secret.
Perhaps it’s all that quartz and thermal water under our feet?
It was the first time AMLO has met with the autonomous elections oversight body's councilors since taking office in 2018. (Presidencia)
A day after hosting Mexico’s electoral councilors at the National Palace, President López Obrador declared Wednesday that a “new stage” has begun in the federal government’s relationship with the National Electoral Institute (INE).
López Obrador met on Tuesday with all 11 INE councilors, including President Guadalupe Taddei Zavala, who succeeded Lorenzo Córdova in April.
After the meeting, INE President Guadalupe Taddei told reporters that there was respect between the autonomous body and President Lopez Obrador because “it’s a reality that has to happen.” (Galo Cañas Rodrígez/Cuartoscuro)
It was the first time that the president has met with the country’s top electoral officials since taking office in late 2018.
López Obrador was a fierce critic of the INE while it was under Córdova’s leadership, and his government recently approved an electoral reform package that slashed the institute’s funding and diminished its capacity to sanction politicians who violate electoral laws.
Government critics have argued that the reform package – the first part of which was invalidated by the Supreme Court (SCJN) last month and the second part of which was suspended in March — significantly weakens the INE, Mexico’s elections oversight body.
With Taddei rather than Córdova now at the helm, the president’s view of the INE has significantly softened.
AMLO frequently railed publicly against the INE and former INE president Lorenzo Córdova, whose term ended in April, accusing him and the INE’s councilors of being corrupt and elitist. (Graciela López Herrera/Cuartoscuro
At his morning news conference on Wednesday, López Obrador said that he had a “very good” conversation with the INE councilors and that the shared goal of the institute and the government is to “make democracy a reality.”
He said on Tuesday that that he believed there were “excellent conditions” to start a “new stage” in the government’s relationship with the INE, and asserted Wednesday that that stage had begun.
“Yesterday I told the INE people that I’m not going to be telling them what to do — they’re independent, they’re autonomous,” López Obrador said.
“They should just act democratically and not become employees of oligarchs like the INE was before,” he said.
On social media on Tuesday, López Obrador wrote that “democracy must be established in Mexico forever.”
“Never again kratos (power) without demos (people),” he added.
AMLO appears to have softened his rhetoric about the INE since Guadalupe Taddei became its president in April. On Wednesday, he said that the body were no longer made up of “oligarchs.” (Daniel Augusto/Cuartoscuro)
Interior Minister Adán Augusto López Hernández, who also attended the talks, said on Twitter that “a new chapter in the country’s democratic life is being written” thanks to the government’s engagement with the INE councilors.
“We’re advancing together in the task of positioning the people at the center of national public life,” he added.
Taddei — who has family links to the federal government and the ruling Morena party — told reporters that the meeting with López Obrador was “highly productive.”
“Respect is requested, respect is given; the respect is from both parties,” the INE president said.
Taddei said a range of issues were discussed at the meeting, including the INE’s budget and its autonomy.
“The budget is being drawn up based on the Austerity Law and following all the budgetary rules that exist,” she said before asserting that the funding will be “exactly what the institute needs.”
The INE released a statement after the meeting in which the councilors “confirmed their commitment to strengthen dialogue and collaboration” with the federal government in the lead-up to the June 2, 2024, national elections. (Mario Jasso/Cuartoscuro)
López Obrador doesn’t need to promise to respect the INE’s autonomy because “it’s a reality that has to happen,” Taddei added.
“That’s an issue that the [INE] complaints commission has to analyze,” she said.
Taddei also said that the INE councilors will attend future meetings with other federal government officials that work in areas such as security and welfare.
Meetings with the government are needed, she said, to establish what can and can’t be done within the electoral landscape that the government sought to modify through its so-called Plan B reform package, only to have the SCJN strike down or suspend its constituent parts.
The electoral councilors’ meeting with López Obrador came less than a year before Mexicans will go to the polls to elect thousands of political representatives across Mexico, including a new president, governors of nine states and federal deputies and senators.
National Action Party Deputy Hector Saúl Tellez criticized the meeting, saying it appeared as if the INE were going to the National Palace to “pay homage” to López Obrador. (Hector Saúl Tellez/Twitter)
In a statement, the INE said that its councilors told López Obrador that over 98 million Mexicans will be eligible to vote next year.
The INE also said that the councilors “confirmed their commitment to strengthen dialogue and collaboration” with the federal government in the lead-up to the June 2, 2024, elections and the official electoral period, which begins in September.
“The federal government requires a strong and solid election organizing body, and the institute, in turn, requires a government that attends to budgetary, security and other issues within its power,” Taddei said at the meeting, according to the statement.
Andrés López Muñoz, a political analyst, asserted that López Obrador’s aim in meeting with the INE councilors is to “bend” them to his will.
“He already has the president of the INE; she’s from his team. Therefore he needs to bend the other councilors [so] that the INE is subordinate to the presidency,” he said.
“… He wants to have complete control over the electoral process,” López added.
Héctor Saúl Téllez Hernández, a National Action Party deputy, said before Tuesday’s meeting that it appeared that the INE councilors were going to “pay homage” to the president at the National Palace.
“We would have liked the meeting to be public, held in a neutral place, and for the president to provide guarantees of respect for democracy in our country,” he said.
One goal of the AccioNNar initiative is to improve regional cooperation and data exchange with Central American governments to better protect at-risk migrant children in Mexico’s southern border region. (Marcel Crozet/ILO)
A new United Nations project seeks to tackle the poverty-related factors that push an estimated 3.3 million minors into child labor in Mexico.
The project, called “AccioNNar: combating child labor and forced labor,” will work with local authorities as well as with employers’ and workers’ organizations in the southern states of Chiapas, Quintana Roo and Yucatán.
Worldwide, the UN estimates that 160 million children work, some as young as 5 years old. The majority of them work in agriculture. (Flourish.com)
AccioNNar has three main objectives:
To generate data for the development of laws, policies and programs to combat child labor and trafficking
To stimulate the development and enforcement of laws, policies and programs
To improve regional cooperation and data exchange with the governments of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Belize, to protect at-risk migrant children in Mexico’s southern border region.
The United Nations Office for Mexico and Cuba announced the project to mark World Day Against Child Labor on June 12. The agency estimates that 3.3 million children in Mexico work — 11% of the country’s 29 million children.
According to a report by Save the Children, most of these minors started working between the ages of six and eight, two thirds of them are in unauthorized occupations that put their physical and mental health at risk and 26% receive no financial remuneration.
The NGO lists occupations in which minors are often found working in Mexico, including agricultural labor, textile factories, street work such as cleaning windscreens and shining shoes and sex work.
Save the Children found that poverty was the main factor pushing children into work but also found that 26% say they do it for pleasure; 20.6% to pay for their studies or other expenses; 15.3% because their family needs their work and 12.9% because their family needs their economic contribution.
“Poverty is one of the most important factors [pushing children to work], but it is not the only one,” Save the Children’s political advocacy coordinator Miguel Ramírez told the newspaper El Universal. “[There’s also] difficulty in accessing school, obstacles to continuing with studies or that the family is in the informal sector and lacks social security.”
The initiative will work on building relationships between Mexican officials and those in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Belize, where many migrants to Mexico come from. (Google Maps)
Ramírez acknowledged that federal and state governments have tried to address the issue but said that more inspectors were needed to monitor child labor, particularly in the informal sector, to prevent minors from falling into a cycle of poverty.
“Children who work from an early age will hardly be able to attend school, or if they do, they face educational lag,” he said. “When they become adults, they will not be able to aspire to a good job and will have to look for one in precarious conditions.”
The UN project’s focus on Chiapas, Quintana Roo and Yucatán reflects the fact that child labor is largely concentrated in Mexico’s southern states. Local authorities working with the program described situations of children selling items on the streets in Chiapas, working in tourist bars in Quintana Roo and even being forced into construction or agricultural labor in Yucatán.
Working from an early age means little or no access to school, a lack that has ripple effects through adulthood, making it harder to escape poverty, says Miguel Ramírez of Save the Children, one of the organizations involved in the initiative. (UNICEF)
“[The project] is a very big door because it gives us the opportunity to add other institutions we didn’t previously have a relationship with,” said Ana Keyla Álvarez Arzate, Deputy Minister of the National Employment Service in Chiapas. “This is only the beginning of these actions aimed at combating child and forced labor in Chiapas.”
The Laredo crossing, seen here in 2019, is at the center of allegations of corruption. As a result, the U.S. government will no longer permit CBP One asylum appointments to be made at the point of entry. (Gabriela Pérez Montiel/Cuartoscuro)
The United States’ government has stopped taking mobile app appointments to admit asylum-seekers at the Laredo border crossing, according to the Associated Press (AP), following reports that migrants face extortion by Mexican authorities.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced its decision in a June 2 message to migrant advocates in Nuevo Laredo sent by a U.S. consular official and reviewed by Reuters.
The U.S. government has encouraged migrants not to “just show up” at the border without having made an appointment, and encourages use of a new Customs and Border Patrol application, CBP One. However, U.S. officials announced they will no longer be accepting making appointments at the Laredo crossing due to corruption concerns. (Google Play Store)
Migrants in Mexico seeking to travel to the U.S. had been encouraged to use the free U.S. Customs and Border Protection CBP One app, launched in 2020, to submit information in advance and schedule an appointment at authorized border crossings.
Some asylum seekers told the AP that Mexican officials in Nuevo Laredo had threatened to detain them and prevent them from attending their scheduled asylum appointments unless they paid a bribe. Humanitarian organizations in Laredo had also reportedly alerted the CBP.
Migrant advocates say the situation in Nuevo Laredo, where there are ongoing cartel conflicts and other issues, challenge the Biden administration’s notion that Mexico is a safe place for people escaping violence in Central America and other regions. In 2021 and 2022, Human Rights First recorded more than 13,000 reports of violent attacks against migrants in Mexico.
Rafael Álvarez, 29, who fled Venezuela, told AP that after he arrived in Nuevo Laredo early in June, Mexican immigration authorities seized his documents and held him along with other migrants, demanding to be paid 1,000 pesos (US $57) before they would allow them to proceed to their appointments.
The transition from Title 42 to Title 8 policy, which means harsher penalties for attempted re-entry, has reduced the number of undocumented immigrants trying to enter the United States. (Omar Martínez/Cuartoscuro)
Álvarez refused to pay and was eventually let go. Five Russians held with him paid a total of 5,000 pesos (US $290), he said.
Neither the U.S. nor the Mexican governments responded to requests for comments from the AP regarding the extortion reports.
Last month, the pandemic-era rule Title 42, which allowed U.S. authorities to quickly expel asylum seekers during the COVID-19 pandemic, expired. Since then, thousands of asylum-seekers have been stranded in Mexican border towns awaiting appointments.
Although the Biden administration has opened new legal pathways for immigration, the CBP One app is the only resource for many migrants. There are only 1,250 appointments available per day across the entire U.S.-Mexico border.
The U.S. government has said it will maintain the daily allocation of appointment slots by reallocating them from Laredo to the seven other border crossings.
Online appointments for the Laredo crossing scheduled before the June 3 change of policy will remain in place, U.S. officials said.
Mexico is the leading supplier of medical devices to the United States. (Courtesy/Entrada Group)
Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic, GE HealthCare, Philips and Kimberly-Clark. They are just a few of the more than 2,000 companies that manufacture medical devices in Mexico, the world’s leading supplier of such equipment to the United States.
Foreign investment in the sector – measured in the billions of dollars over the past 15 years – is significant for the same reasons that manufacturing any type of product in Mexico is potentially a good idea: proximity to the United States, the presence of an educated and motivated workforce, competitive labor costs and low or tariff-free trade with the U.S. and Canada.
Companies operating in Mexico’s medical device manufacturing industry, which was worth more than US $16 billion in 2022, can tap into a growing pool of qualified workers, as thousands of students complete their studies in related fields every year. In state-of-the-art plants, those companies make a wide range of medical devices, both big and small, that meet all U.S. standards.
Whether it’s high-quality prosthetics or pacemakers, dilators or defibrillators, or nearly any other medical device your company is seeking to make at an affordable cost, Mexico could be the answer you’re looking for.
The Mexico advantage
There are many locations that are a strong fit for companies thinking about establishing a presence on the doorstep of the world’s largest economy. One region that is already home to many foreign manufacturers and is actively seeking to attract companies that produce medical devices is the Bajío. This region includes parts of several states including Guanajuato, Jalisco, Querétaro, and Aguascalientes.
Medical device manufacturing in Mexico is worth US $16 billion today and growth is accelerating. (Courtesy/Entrada Group)
Guanajuato, where numerous small and medium-sized medical device manufacturers already have plants, is one of the most attractive options for companies thinking about producing for the medical device and life sciences sector, considered a strategic priority in Mexico. The state is currently governed by the business-friendly National Action Party and has been a manufacturing powerhouse for decades.
Recently, to spur additional growth in the medical device sector, the state launched Guanajuato’s Life Innovation & Technologies Cluster, comprised of international and domestic medical device manufacturers, industry services providers, related associations and educational institutes. Entrada Group, along with a handful of select other companies, is a founding member of this new cluster.
Entrada Group, a United States-based company, already has a manufacturing campus in Celaya, Guanajuato, and can facilitate the entire process of setting up and operating a medical device production plant in Mexico, helping companies save both time and money.
According to John Paul McDaris, Entrada’s director of business development, Celaya offers a range of benefits to foreign manufacturers, including those that specialize in the production of medical devices.
Entrada Group’s “campus” located in Fresnillo, Zacatecas. (Courtesy/Entrada Group)
These benefits include the presence of over 25 tertiary education institutes that offer degrees in relevant fields; the availability of an experienced manufacturing labor force; proximity to the expat friendly cities of Querétaro and San Miguel de Allende; and transport infrastructure that allows companies to get their product to market quickly.
Entrada’s Celaya campus is only around 100 kilometers from the Querétaro airport and a similar distance from the Bajío airport, which serves a growing number of international and domestic destinations. Better yet, highways connect Guanajuato to the rest of Mexico and beyond, facilitating the transport of both finished products and company personnel.
Celaya’s location in the Bajío places it within the Mexico City-Guadalajara-Monterrey triangle, which is home to a significant percentage of Mexico’s overall population, and also includes cities such as Aguascalientes, Zacatecas and San Luis Potosí.
Foreign manufacturers that establish a presence in the city would therefore be in an advantageous position to sell their products into the growing domestic market for medical devices in Mexico, potentially opening up a revenue stream to complement income generated from exports to the United States or other foreign countries.
Entrada Group also has a manufacturing campus in Zacatecas, which could suit companies that want to set up operations even closer to the United States border.
The alternative to China
As McDaris further notes, many companies that currently make medical devices in China are seeking alternatives due to a range of risk factors there, including supply chain delays, rising costs, intellectual property concerns and tariffs. Mexico is a viable option for such companies, even if they choose to maintain a presence in China.
“For medical device-makers, a diverse manufacturing footprint is a big advantage,” McDaris says. “By looking at other production locations to complement China, companies can reduce risk, be closer to customers and be prepared for future unknowns.”
McDaris believes there’s a compelling economic case for manufacturing companies focused on the North American market to question where they make their products.
“It has arguably never been more advantageous to shift some or all of production away from stalwarts like China to a viable alternative such as Mexico,” he says.
“Locating production closer to current and potential customers facilitates commerce. By working in similar geographies and overlapping time zones, producers can shorten lead times, improve service delivery and offer greater levels of customization.”
Mexico has averaged 83 homicides a day nationwide so far this year. (Margarito Pérez Retana / Cuartoscuro.com)
May was the most violent month so far this year with 2,660 homicides recorded across the country, official data shows.
Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez presented data at President López Obrador’s morning press conference on Tuesday that showed that homicides increased 9.2% in May compared to April.
Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez reviewed the latest data on homicides in Mexico at the president’s Tuesday morning press conference. (Galo Cañas Rodríguez / Cuartoscuro.com)
The last time more homicides were recorded in a single month was last October, when 2,770 people were murdered.
Rodríguez acknowledged that homicides increased last month compared to April, but highlighted that the number of victims was the lowest of any May in the past six years. The year-over-year decline in murders was 5.9%.
The security minister noted that the number of homicides in May was 13.4% lower than the all-time single month high of 3,074, recorded in July 2018 during the government of former president Enrique Peña Nieto.
Data also showed that there were 12,582 homicides in the first five months of the year for an average of 83 per day. The daily homicide rate has trended downward during López Obrador’s presidency, falling around 18% between 2018 and 2023.
Almost half of the homicides this year – 47.6% – occurred in just six states. Guanajuato was the most violent state with 1,380 murders followed by México state with 1,119.
Ranking third to sixth were Baja California, Jalisco, Chihuahua and Michoacán. Yucatán has been the least violent state so far this year with just 16 homicides between January and May, while Baja California Sur recorded 18.
Guanajuato, where clashes between rival crime groups and targeted killings of presumed criminals are common, has been Mexico’s most violent state in recent years. Eleven of the state’s 46 municipalities are among the 50 most violent in the country based on their per-capita homicide rates over the past year, according to data compiled by crime statistics website elcri.men.
The municipalities encompassing state capital Guanajuato city, tourism and expat hotspot San Miguel de Allende and the historic town of Dolores Hidalgo are not among the 50 most violent.
Forensic experts process a crime scene in Tijuana, the city with the most homicides in 2022. (Omar Martínez Noyola/Cuartoscuro)
The majority of homicides in Baja California occur in Tijuana, currently Mexico’s most violent city in terms of total murder numbers over the past year.
Data presented by Rodríguez showed there were over 1,800 homicides in the northern border city in the 12 months to the end of May, almost double the number recorded in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, the second most violent Mexican city.
Historian Borja Torres portrayed Nicolás Zuñiga y Miranda as a calm gentleman who went crazy each election year, entering a state of fury in his desire to be president. (National Archives)
One of the most colorful — and perhaps tragic — characters in the political history of Mexico was Don Nicolás Zúñiga y Miranda. Known as the “perpetual candidate,” he ran for president nine times in 30 years (1894–1924), never garnering more than a few thousand votes.
After each defeat, he would declare electoral fraud and announce that he was the “legitimate president” of Mexico.
Zúñiga y Miranda was born in Zacatecas in 1865 and studied jurisprudence in Mexico City, although there is no evidence he ever practiced law. He first rose to fame in 1887 when he claimed he had invented a machine — the seismeon — that could predict earthquakes. With chance in his favor, he successfully predicted an earthquake in 1887.
Shortly afterward, he predicted a second earthquake would happen on August 10 of the same year, one that he said would cause the Popocatépetl volcano to erupt and would destroy Mexico City.
People panicked, abandoned their homes and left the city or gathered in squares and parks on the designated day. But when the earthquake didn’t occur, an angry mob delivered Zúñiga y Miranda a public beating that sent him to the hospital.
He disappeared from public view for a while, then suddenly reappeared in 1896, announcing he would run as “the people’s candidate” against President Porfirio Díaz.
Zuñiga y Miranda ran for president against Porfirio Díaz four times, and twice the dictator jailed him. (National Archives)
A group of men opposed to Díaz told Zúñiga y Miranda that they would back him, hoping that he could defeat Mexico’s dictator, who had been elected in 1876 and with the exception of a few years where he was ousted, had stayed in power ever since.
But Díaz arrested Zúñiga y Miranda and imprisoned him a month before the election, releasing him only after the election was over and Díaz had been reelected.
After his release, Zúñiga y Miranda founded the newspaper La Voz Zúñiguista (The Voice of Zúñiga) and published an article titled “I Am the President.” Upon seeing it, Díaz was enraged and ordered that Zúñiga y Miranda be sent back to prison for another six months.
Upon this release from prison, however, it became obvious that the months of solitary confinement had impaired Zuñiga y Miranda’s mental faculties. The people started referring to him as el loco.
But he was persistent and continued to run for president as an independent candidate. He ran against Díaz four times, as well as against Francisco Madero (1911), Venustiano Carranza (1917), Álvaro Obregón (1920) and Plutarco Elías Calles (1924).
He was also a candidate in 1914. Mexican presidential elections have always been contentious, but 1914 was one of the most interesting scenarios.
In his earlier political life, Zuñiga y Miranda did attract some support for his campaign, but he never got more than a few thousand votes. (National Archives)
Francisco I. Madero was elected president in 1911 but assassinated in 1913 by Victoriano Huerta, who then took his place as president. People in the capital were so angry that they voted for Zúñiga y Miranda instead, even though he was by then a known loco.
He received more votes than Huerta, but there were other contenders in the race, and the Mexican Revolution had just entered a new stage of warring factions. The election was annulled, and Zuñiga y Miranda lost yet again.
After each defeat, he would declare electoral fraud and insist he was the legitimate president.
According to Ecuadorian historian Rodrigo Borja Torres, author of a biography of Zúñiga y Miranda, newspapers of the time wrote that “Díaz realized that Zúñiga was not a danger to him… The political class took [his candidacy] more as a joke.”
But Zúñiga y Miranda kept declaring himself the “legitimate president” and walked the streets of Mexico City greeting people as if he were. It made him a source of amusement and derision: people would mockingly greet him with “How are you today, Mr. President?” or “Good morning, Mr. President.”
Zuñiga y Miranda was famous enough that Diego Rivera included him in his mural filled with figures from Mexican history. He is the figure in the foreground touching his top hat. (INBAL/Twitter)
Historians say that in moments of lucidity, his proposals were populist in nature. During his one-man campaigns for president — he had no staff and he did no debates — he promised that if he won, eggs would cost two centavos, rents would drop by 80% and students would have open accounts at the best restaurants and free scholarships to study abroad.
He had no real proposals for achieving these lofty promises.
Historian William H. Beazley recounts that Zúñiga y Miranda was sincere in his awareness of social problems of the time and thought that poverty, especially rural poverty, impeded the nation’s progress.
But at one point, he proposed teaching jiu-jitsu tactics to the Mexican army. He also suggested a meeting of municipal authorities to analyze the effect the stars had on international politics.
During World War I, he announced he was organizing a séance — he called himself a spiritualist — in order to invoke the spirits of Aristotle, the King of Spain, the Kaiser of Germany, the King of England and the Tsar of Russia as a way to achieve peace in Europe.
And so he became famous as the “perpetual candidate.” Historians have studied him with great curiosity, books have been written about his life, newspapers have likened him to Don Quixote de la Mancha and his character makes an appearance in Juan Bastillo Oro’s 1944 film “Mexico of my Memories.”
The “perpetual candidate” had found enough fame throughout his life that his death in 1925 warranted a notice on the front page of the newspaper El Universal. (El Universal)
Zúñiga y Miranda was also immortalized by Diego Rivera in 1947 in his mural “Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Park,” where he is pictured speaking with Porfirio Díaz while a newsboy stands behind them holding up a newspaper announcing Zúñiga y Miranda’s candidacy for president.
Was he a madman or just another politician obsessed with becoming president? Probably both.
Historian Borja Torres portrayed him as a calm gentleman who would go crazy each election year and enter a state of fury in his desire to be president.
Perhaps historian Guillermo Mellado in his book “Don Nicolás de México” best sums up his life with this anecdote:
One morning, Zúñiga y Miranda awakened early. Still in his underwear, he went to the dresser and removed a tricolor sash from a drawer. Reverently, he crossed it over his chest, turning from side to side in front of a mirror to admire his reflection.
When his landlady walked in, he told her, “Don’t go. I called you because I wanted you to be the first lady to recognize me as the President of the Republic.”
In 1925, an impoverished Zúñiga y Miranda died in the Mexico City neighborhood of La Merced. Although he had made a career of running for president, he never achieved his dream of actually becoming the president of Mexico.
Sheryl Losser is a former public relations executive and professional researcher. She spent 45 years in national politics in the United States. She moved to Mazatlán in 2021 and works part-time doing freelance research and writing.
In Mexico City, some are taking to public fountains in an effort to escape the punishing heat. (Graciela López/Cuartoscuro)
The third heat wave of the year currently sweeping Mexico is expected to bring scorching temperatures across the country.
Temperatures of up to 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) are expected in 24 of Mexico’s 32 states.
Government forecasts show that temperatures are likely to be above 40 degrees across nearly all of the country. (Conagua)
Only the central states of Zacatecas, Aguascalientes, Guanajuato, Querétaro, México state and Puebla will escape the most punishing heat — although temperatures are still expected to rise to as high as 40 C. Tlaxcala and Mexico City expect temperatures to remain between 30 and 35 degrees Celsius.
Rains, hail and thunderstorms are also forecast in Campeche, Chiapas, Quintana Roo and Yucatán. Heavy rainfall could increase river and stream levels and lead to flooding and landslides in these areas.
Faced with these extreme conditions, the National Meteorological Service (SMN) has issued warnings urging residents to take all necessary precautions, stay informed on weather conditions and follow prevention measures issued by Civil Protection authorities. These measures include staying hydrated and avoiding prolonged sun exposure.
The extreme temperatures that began on June 1 have caused at least one death. A 78-year-old woman in Hermosillo, Sonora passed away while walking outdoors, according to the newspaper El País.
The extreme weather conditions are caused by El Niño, a climate pattern characterized by the warming of ocean surface temperatures. It occurs cyclically in the Pacific Ocean and has a significant impact on global weather patterns, causing altered rainfall, droughts, floods and temperature shifts.
