Despite a decline in funding, Mexican cinema remains stronger than ever, after another record year. (Chris Murray/Unsplash)
Mexico produced more films than ever in 2022, despite an increasingly difficult funding environment caused by reductions in government support for the industry.
In its Statistical Yearbook of Mexican Cinema, the Mexican Institute of Cinematography (Imcine) recorded 258 Mexican feature films produced in 2022, surpassing the previous record set in 2021.
Production levels in the Mexican cinema industry have continued to rise, though the industry remains Mexico City-centric. (Imcine)
“For the second consecutive year after the pandemic, when production collapsed, the indexes have risen sharply, and this year, the number of feature films is 258,” Imcine General Director María Novaro said.
“[This is] a number similar to last year, and a record for Mexican cinema throughout its history. Not even in the golden age [of Mexican cinema, from the 1930s to about 1960] was so much cinema produced.”
Novaro said that the increased number of productions over the last two years demonstrated real growth in the sector, not just a return to pre-pandemic levels. Film production rebounded 133% between 2020 and 2021, but those sorts of numbers hadn’t been expected to last into 2022.
Novaro also praised the diversity in Mexico’s film industry, claiming it is “more diverse, inclusive, egalitarian and decentralized than ever.” She highlighted that 21 feature films were made by indigenous or Afro-descendant filmmakers in 2022 — although this is a drop from the 31 such productions in 2021.
Targeted incentives could help attract film production companies from the U.S., says a recent report by UK-based Olsberg SPI. (Ruben Ramirez/Olsberg SPI)
One hundred forty-two of these films, or about 55%, were made in Mexico City in 2022, up from 35% in 2021, suggesting that Mexico is still struggling to decentralize the industry. However, 2022 did see an increase in films made by women, from 25% to 32%.
The explosion of Mexican cinema has taken place despite an increasinglydifficult funding environment. In 2022, 46% of Mexican films relied on some public financial support, but government support for the industry has been sharply reduced under President López Obrador’s austerity measures, which have cut arts and culture funding down to just 0.25% of the federal budget, according to the Mexican think-tank Fundar. That is the lowest figure seen in decades.
In November, the Mexican Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences (AMACC) said it will suspend the 2023 Ariel Awards because of a “serious financial crisis” as a result of these cuts.
“The state, which was the motor and support of the academy for a long time, has renounced its responsibility as the main promoter and disseminator of culture in general, and of cinema in particular,” the AMACC said at the time.
International analysts have also suggested that a lack of financial incentives is holding back Mexico’s film industry. In late May, the international creative consultancy Olsberg SPI said that Mexico could become aglobal audiovisual production hub if it offered federal production incentives such as cash rebates or tax credits.
The Olsberg report also said that Mexico’s talent base, relatively low costs, infrastructure and proximity to the United States were highly attractive to foreign production companies, and the country would be “primed for immediate growth” if these incentives were introduced.
Tijuana Mayor Montserrat Caballero said that the move was a "sacrifice," but explained, "I have a child, I have a family and I have a commitment to my city." (Montserrat Caballero/Facebook)
With her life apparently at risk, the mayor of Tijuana is moving into military barracks in the northern border city.
Morena party Mayor Montserrat Caballero announced Monday that she will live in barracks in the south of the city for an undefined period after receiving threats from presumed members of crime gangs.
The mayor says her life is being threatened by criminals because she is taking them off Tijuana’s streets. Her city has the most homicides in all Mexico.
She attributed the threats to the positive security results the Tijuana government has achieved since she took office in late 2021.
“Why am I receiving threats? Because we deliver results,” Caballero told a press conference.
The mayor said that Tijuana police have detained thousands of alleged criminals since she was sworn in and have seized more firearms than any other force in the country.
Caballero also said that personnel with the National Guard — under the army’s control —suggested that she move to the barracks for security reasons.
“I hope that it’s temporary,” she said.
“… It’s not [about] the protection of an [ordinary] citizen, it’s the protection of the citizen that has seized the most weapons of [the past] three administrations,” she said.
Caballero, seen here with U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar, must navigate not only constituent satisfaction but also the relationships between her border city and the U.S. (Montserrat Caballero/Twitter)
Caballero, who admitted to being afraid and concerned about her safety, described her decision to move to the barracks as a “sacrifice.”
“I have a child, I have a family and I have a commitment to my city,” she said.
Her announcement on Monday came almost four weeks after a vehicle in which one of her bodyguards was traveling was shot at. The man suffered minor injuries caused by broken glass. The Baja California Attorney General’s Office is investigating the incident.
As Tijuana’s mayor since 2021, her tenure has not been without controversy. In 2022, in response to a wave of organized crime violence in her city, she released a video in which she told criminals to “only make those who owe you debts pay,” i.e., not ordinary Tijuana citizens. Critics said that her statement was turning a blind eye to criminal behavior.
Following a wave of violence in her city in 2022, Caballero made a statement directed at organized crime via video that provoked controversy. She told criminals to target “those who owe you debts,” not bystanders. (Tijuana City Council)
In response to criticism, Caballero said that her words were taken out of context.
While data presented by Mayor Caballero shows that some crimes — including business robberies and vehicle theft — have declined in Tijuana, the city remains Mexico’s murder capital. Drug cartels covet control over Tijuana due to its proximity to the United States.
There were over 1,800 homicides in Tijuana between June 2022 and May 2023, according to statistics presented by federal Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez at President López Obrador’s morning press conference on Tuesday.
That figure is almost double the number of homicides in the same period in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico’s second most violent city over the past year.
Mexico City's mayor Claudia Sheinbaum announced she would step down on Friday to focus on winning the Morena party nomination for 2024. (Daniel Augusto / Cuartoscuro.com)
Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum announced Monday that she will step down on Friday to focus on securing the ruling Morena party’s nomination for the 2024 presidential election.
Under selection process rules approved at a meeting of the Morena National Council on Sunday, aspirants to the party’s candidacy must resign their positions this week. The winner of a polling process will be announced on Sept. 6.
Sheinbaum (center) with other Morena party aspirants for the nomination, from left to right, Marcelo Ebrard, Adán Augusto López and Ricardo Monreal. (CNM/Twitter)
Speaking at a press event in the capital, Sheinbaum said her aim is to become “the first woman in the history of Mexico to lead the fate of the nation.”
She also said she wanted “provide continuity” with her “own stamp” to the “transformation” of Mexico initiated by President López Obrador.
Sheinbaum, a physicist and engineer who was a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, said that she is the only Morena presidential aspirant with a scientific background.
“I’ve participated in the fight for the rights of the people of Mexico, democracy, freedom, social and environmental justice and women’s rights since I was 15 years old,” she added.
The “#EsClaudia” (“It’s Claudia”) slogan has been appearing around the country in support of the aspiring candidate. (Graciela López Herrera / Cuartoscuro.com)
Sheinbaum, who will outline her achievements of the past 4 1/2 years in an address on Thursday, also said that “the time for women” has arrived. It is not yet clear who will replace her as mayor of Mexico City.
Sheinbaum, who was chief of the Mexico City borough of Tlapan between 2015 and 2017 and served as environment minister in the 2000-2005 Mexico City government led by López Obrador, is considered the leading Morena aspirant among a field of four main “pre-candidates” and two peripheral ones.
The other aspirants to the ruling party’s candidacy are Interior Minister Adán Augusto López Hernández, Senator Ricardo Monreal, Labor Party Deputy Gerardo Fernández Noroña and Green Party Senator Manuel Velasco.
The presidential election will be held on June 2, 2024, with the successful candidate to take office four months later.
Party leaders of the opposition Va por México alliance said last week that they would announce their candidate selection method by June 26.
Alicia Bárcena was the executive secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) between 2008 and 2022. She's currently Mexico's ambassador to Chile. (Rogelio Morales Ponce/Cuartoscuro)
President López Obrador announced Tuesday that former United Nations official Alicia Bárcena will replace Marcelo Ebrard as foreign affairs minister.
Bárcena, who was executive secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) between 2008 and 2022 and is currently Mexico’s ambassador to Chile, will assume the role in 10 days, the president said.
President López Obrador announced Bárcena’s appointment Tuesday morning at his daily press conference. Bárcena’s naming to the post must be ratified by the Senate. (Galo Cañas Rodríguez/Cuartoscuro)
“She has an extensive career in the field of diplomacy. She is a very intelligent and capable woman,” López Obrador said.
He said that Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Carmen Moreno Toscano will take charge of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the period before Bárcena starts.
The appointment of the new foreign minister, which must be ratified by the Senate, comes after Ebrard stepped down on Monday to focus on campaigning for the Morena nomination for the 2024 presidential election.
López Obrador will also have to replace Interior Minister Adán Augusto López Hernández as he too is vying to secure Morena’s candidacy, and under Morena’s selection process rules, he must resign this week.
“She’s a professional, a diplomat, a woman with convictions, with principles,” said President López Obrador, seen here with Bárcena at the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean Summit in 2022. (Presidencia)
With Bárcena as foreign minister, Mexico will be “well-represented” on the world stage, the president said.
“She’s a professional, a diplomat, a woman with convictions, with principles, and she will help us in this last stretch in government,” said López Obrador, whose six-year term ends Oct. 1, 2024.
He also said she is well-known in the entire region of Latin America and the Caribbean as a result of her work with ECLAC.
Bárcena studied biology at the National Autonomous University and later completed a Master in Public Administration degree at Harvard University. She was a deputy environment minister in the federal government in the 1980s before becoming head of the National Institute of Fishing near the end of that decade.
Bárcena, who studied biology at the National Autonomous University, visiting Mexico’s health regulator, Cofepris, on Saturday to discuss the creation of pan-Latin American and Caribbean medications agency. (Alicia Bárcena/Twitter)
Bárcena has also worked in academia, and held other high-ranking United Nations positions before becoming ECLAC chief. She served as acting chef de cabinet in the office of former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan in the mid 2000s, and as under-secretary-general for management during the tenure of Ban Ki-moon.
After a long career in the United Nations, Bárcena took up the position of ambassador to Chile last September, becoming Mexico’s first female head of mission in the South American country.
She replaces a foreign minister who became well known on the world stage, as Ebrard stood in for López Obrador at numerous international meetings, forums and summits.
One of Bárcena’s main responsibilities will be to collaborate with United States officials on shared challenges, including immigration flows through Mexico to the U.S. and the fight against the smuggling of narcotics and firearms.
Outgoing Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard described Bárcena’s 14-year tenure at the ECLAC as “brilliant.” (Mario Jasso/Cuartoscuro)
In a Twitter post, Ebrard congratulated his successor and wished her well in her new role.
“Alicia collaborated closely with us during her brilliant tenure at the head of ECLAC and showed her ability and commitment to the best causes,” he wrote.
The Margaritaville website says the community will have a total of 192 residences plus "resort-style amenities and an island-inspired feel." (margaritaville.com)
“It’s in the tropics somewhere between the Port of Indecision and Southwest of Disorder, but no parallels of latitude or longitude mark the spot exactly. You don’t have to be a navigator to get there. Palm trees provide the camouflage…”
Singer Jimmy Buffett
Scores of Jimmy Buffett fans, I’m told, embrace life at “a new latitude,” the promise of their spiritual guru, a 76 year-old billionaire who continues to tour, write books, and inspire millions of baby boomers longing for life’s perfect sunset. Buffett’s multiple businesses include a real estate collection of lifestyle communities for 55 and over, open in Florida, South Carolina, Texas, and coming soon to Mexico.
In 2024,, Latitude Margaritaville International is set to open on the northwest shore of Lake Chapala. This new Buffett venture will soon offer “Parrot Heads” (Buffet’s followers) a new roost in Jalisco state, adjacent to the village of Ajijic, whose fame with foreigners dates to the 1940s.
A new twist on the overseas living experience is now upon us. What could possibly go wrong? Are Lake Chapala and the rest of Mexico ready to welcome Margaritaville to the homeland of margaritas?
Lake Chapala’s one attempt at a United States-style senior care model (formerly marketed as “La Pueblita”) went into receivership in 2022, the victim of the pandemic and a marketing pitch that never caught on. Latitude Margaritaville International and its partner Levy Holding will take over the ill-fated, 200-unit facility of unfinished condos and casitas.
A rendering of Latitude Margaritaville International, set to open in Lake Chapala, Jalisco by early 2024. (margaritaville.com)
“With the success and demand for Margaritaville-branded residential communities in the U.S., we’re always looking for licensing opportunities and destinations that are compelling and dynamic. Lake Chapala was exactly that,” according to Jim Wiseman, president of development at Margaritaville, the parent company of the Latitude Margaritaville real estate collection. “As a popular destination for expats, and with its diverse offerings and incredible climate, the area brings together elements of both active and laid-back lifestyles, and a dedication to community – all a major part of the way of life at Latitude Margaritaville International.”
The project will open for sales this summer, with move-ins happening in the spring of 2024, according to the Margaritaville website. Pastel-hued renderings also give us some clues about how the company will recruit “Parrot Heads” to Lake Chapala. An updated artist’s rendition of the existing pool area features giant macaws, a “Salty Rim Bar & Grill” logo, and Jimmy Buffett-inspired slogans and affirmations scrawled on walls and awnings.
That’s all fine. Who wants another abandoned real estate eyesore?
But bringing the Margaritaville brand to Lake Chapala – the birthplace of overseas living in Mexico (a heritage we lakesiders proudly embrace) – has some of us wondering how this will all go down. Buffet’s Margaritaville is the first corporate brand to parachute into the lakeside senior living landscape, and it will certainly impact the surrounding area. Will it further accelerate our community’s transformation from a lakeside village to something else? It’s very likely.
View of Lake Chapala and Ajijic at sunset. (Somniphobiac/Creative Commons)
It wouldn’t be fair to lay blame at Margaritaville’s door for Ajijic’s growing challenges: rickety roads, crumbling sidewalks, traffic snarls, water shortages, the rising cost of living, and lost village identity.
That blame could be placed on local authorities for abandoning any attempt at urban planning or growth impact abatement. Also responsible are foreign-born “invaders” who come here with U.S. lifestyles, affluence, and attitudes that foster what are essentially two community circles, the Mexicans and the outsiders; sometimes polarized, sometimes united.
Will the Margaritaville brand bring new residents with global views and attitudes congruent with making Mexico a better place to live? Will Margaritaville’s “55 and better” communities start popping up across Mexico?
Or, will it be just another gated community, this time bringing a Floridian vibe to the more muted, rural Lake Chapala area?
I’m hoping the model finds its footing, creates some good-paying jobs, raises living standards for our Mexican neighbors, and helps Mexico attract the inevitably growing share of Americans who can’t afford to retire up north.
I don’t personally know any “Parrot Heads”. They could all be civic-minded, progressive, and giving. They could help make the places they live in more prosperous. Or, will Mexico’s quest to attract foreign capital create another island of exclusivity that’s disassociated from the community’s needs – especially in a town like Ajijic, struggling to define its future?
If nothing else, it’s a homecoming of sorts for the drink that inspires followers to embrace “life on the other side.” I’m keeping an eye out for my “lost shaker of salt.” And hoping for the best.
Writer Greg Custer (www.mexicoforliving.com) has worked in Mexico tourism for over 40 years. He’s lived lakeside in Ajijic since 2015 and helps Americans explore Mexico for living opportunities.
Taxco is one of Mexico's most charming towns, and boasts what might be considered Mexico's most beautiful church. (Gob. de Mexico)
I recently succumbed to a strong urge to shake things up for a night. I googled “day trips from Mexico City” and was, as expected, bombarded with an abundance of blogs written by luxury travelers or backpackers — all of which suggested a quick jaunt to Taxco.
So I booked myself a trip to this Guerrero city by bus, leaving early on a Wednesday morning, to return late on a Thursday afternoon. I figured it would be a fun little adventure to get my creative juices flowing and teach me a thing or two about Mexican culture.
The winding, colonial streets of Taxco are more reminiscent of Europe than Guerrero. (Chris Havler-Barrett)
After about three hours of careening in and out of winding mountain roads, we drove underneath a set of bright white arches. From here, a sweeping scene of hundreds of thousands of rectangular, white-washed facades with burnt orange, terracotta roofs unveiled before me.
The buildings were perched on the slopes of the mountains, with a serpentine road cutting through the center. Peppered throughout the structures were palm trees, magenta bougainvillea, and rooftop terraces with blue umbrellas. I had to shake my head a few times… No, brain, I am not in Italy, though it would appear to be so.
Because the town’s incline is reminiscent of San Francisco, not just any vehicle will survive the uphill battle. Taxis here are all old white Volkswagen Beetles that can, according to my taxi driver, withstand the steep climb in any kind of weather.
This brings me to the first of many things you should definitely do in Taxco.
Taxco’s iconic white Volkswagen taxis are some of the few vehicles able to cope with the steep hills of the city. (freetworoam)
The old town is centered around its zócalo, home to arguably the most beautiful church in all of Mexico — a dusty rose-colored stone with incredible carvings and two multicolored mosaic-tiled domes.
Suggestion #2: Climb the 140 stairs leading you to the top of the tower in the Church of Santa Prisca.
For the views you’ll get, 50 pesos is a fantastic investment. The streets that spider off of the zócalo also lead you to a variety of jaw-dropping views. Every time you turn a corner, you’re hit with another vista that seems better than the last.
And if you have the quads for it, continue up to…
You are never more than a short climb away from an incredible view. (Anagoria/Wikimedia)
Suggestion #3: Capilla de Ojeda.
I happened to bump into this small church on an early morning walk and caught an unobstructed glimpse of the entire city before me, with a very slight mist above the mountains. It was a stunner, and my nalgas have been delightfully sore ever since.
At this point, I was hungry and wanted to try out a recommended establishment: Casa Spratling, named after William Spratling, who, shortly after the Mexican Revolution, brought Taxco silver back to the international stage.
I arrived too late for meal service but not too late to meet the owner, a Mexican woman of Italian heritage who welcomed me with a local mezcalito. She showed me her gallery, which included Spratling-style jewelry and antiques. It was a charming restaurant that offers a unique array of Italian-Mexican fusion dishes that I’ll have to try next time.
Suggestion #5: Don’t get a margarita, but do get a drink upstairs at Bar Berta.
Bar Berta is a whimsically decorated, historic bar with amazing views from its balcony seating. (Manuel Cuevas)
I later wandered back toward the zócalo to eat, and Bar Berta caught my eye. Established in 1930, its balcony seating is at eye level with the church. Prime real estate. The view, the people-watching, the sounds — it was all so perfect. The margarita was not so much, but I would not hesitate to return again and again for that view.
By the time I got to Bar Berta, I was borderline starving, and for that reason perhaps made a shortsighted restaurant decision. There are plenty of highly rated options in town, including:
I chose none of them. While my main dish at the restaurant I did choose left a bit to be desired, the view was great. My wine was crappy, but my guacamole was excellent, and with that vista, I was happy as a clam.
Ideally located Hotel Los Arcos will make you feel like you’ve stepped back in time to Mexico’s colonial era. (Hotel Los Arcos)
After I’d had my visual fill, I wandered downhill to my room at Hotel Los Arcos, a colonial house constructed in 1572 with a charming central courtyard and simple rooms.
The location is ideal, right next door to the Humboldt Museum and within walking distance of everything I wanted to see. There’s a lovely roof deck that guests don’t seem to know or care about but where I enjoyed the sparkling skyline before bed.
Taxco is a sleepy place in the morning, and not many coffee shops were open when I started exploring around 7 a.m. To my delight, I did discover Nueve 25, a ventanilla-style cafe where you order your beverage from a window. My cappuccino was delicious.
Taxco’s silver is world-renowned. (Government of Mexico)
Suggestion #8: Get yourself lost in the Taxco Tianguis
Under no circumstances should you skip this market, which has enough going on for a whole article in itself. I don’t know how to describe it, other than comparing it to an octopus. There is allegedly a central hub of some kind, although in practice it’s difficult to find.
But from the middle of the market extends an uncountable number of streets, tunnels, and stairs absolutely full of food vendors. Aside from fresh juices, flowers and pig heads, one can also purchase ceramics, herb capsules and cell phone covers.
After I’d had my juice and was well-fueled, I moved on to my next stop: located inside the impressive Posada de La Misión hotel are pre-Hispanic mines, discovered in 2013 underneath the hotel bar. Admission buys you a 45-minute underground tour, a drink and insight into Taxco’s fascinating history.
If these walls at La Casa de las Lagrimas could talk, they’d have such a story to tell. Luckily, it has tour guides who know its telenovela-like history. (La Casa de las Lagrimas/Facebook)
The house is preserved beautifully, as are the antiques that feel almost stuffed inside. There are giant windows, traditional talavera tiles and underground tunnels that once served as escape routes for its previous wealthy owners.
La Casa de las Lágrimas, or Casa Figueroa, manages to weave money, politics, love, scandal and murder into a 20-minute tour.
It was a pleasant and unexpected little stumble that rounded out two perfect days spent in an absolutely spellbinding town.
Bethany Platanella is a travel and lifestyle writer based in Mexico City. With her company,Active Escapes International, she plans and leads private and small-group active retreats. She loves Mexico’s local markets, Mexican slang, practicing yoga and fresh tortillas. Sign up for her (almost) weeklylove letters or follow her Instagram account,@a.e.i.wellness.
Soldiers on patrol in Guerrero in May. (Carlos Alberto Carbajal/Cuartoscuro)
Sixteen soldiers have been arrested and ordered to stand trial on charges related to the alleged murder of five men in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, last month.
Video footage that circulated online appears to show soldiers shooting the five men after they had already disarmed them. (Twitter)
President López Obrador said last Wednesday that it appeared there had been an “execution” on May 18 and pledged that the culprits would be punished.
The Ministry of National Defense (Sedena) said in a statement Saturday that the Military Justice Prosecutor’s Office last Thursday arrested 16 soldiers involved in the incident.
It said that a military court granted warrants for the arrest of the soldiers on charges they committed “crimes contrary to military discipline.”
A military judge ruled last Friday that the soldiers must face trial and remain in preventive detention, Sedena said. They are being held in a Mexico City military prison.
Sedena said that the arrest of the soldiers and the judge’s ruling that they must stand trial are “independent” of an investigation being carried out by the Federal Attorney General’s Office. Cases of alleged military abuses against civilians are heard in civilian courts, meaning that the soldiers could face a separate trial on murder charges in a civil proceedings.
The six aspiring candidates at the Sunday meeting of the Morena National Council, with Morena party president Mario Delgado. (Mario Delgado/Twitter)
The ruling Morena party on Sunday determined many of the key rules for the process to select its candidate for the 2024 presidential election, and said that the winner — who will head up the defense of President López Obrador’s so-called “fourth transformation” of Mexico — will be announced Sept. 6.
At a meeting of the Morena National Council (CNM) in Mexico City, officials approved an agreement that stipulates that a maximum of six aspirants will be permitted to participate in the selection process.
From left to right, the six aspiring candidates: Manuel Velasco, Marcelo Ebrard, Adán Augusto López, Claudia Sheinbaum, Ricardo Monreal and Gerardo Fernández Noroña. (Morena/Twitter)
National polls will be conducted between Aug. 28 and Sept. 3 to choose a new standard bearer for Morena, which was founded by López Obrador last decade and is now Mexico’s dominant political party.
Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard, Interior Minister Adán Augusto López Hernández and Senator Ricardo Monreal are the main “pre-candidates” seeking Morena’s nomination.
Gerardo Fernández Noroña, a Labor Party (PT) deputy, and Senator Manuel Velasco of the Ecological Green Party (PVEM) are also interested in competing for the candidacy but are awaiting the formal endorsement of their parties, which are Morena allies.
According to the rules approved on Sunday, each of the aspirants are required to formally register their intended participation in the Morena selection process this week and must resign their current positions the same day, if they haven’t already done so.
Marcelo Ebrard stepped down as Foreign Affairs Minister today to focus on his campaign. He’s seen here participating in a Chiapas event last week with President López Obrador’s brother Pío López Obrador. (Marcelo Ebrard/Twitter)
Ebrard, one of the leading contenders to win the Morena nomination, announced last week that he would step down as foreign minister today.
A total of five surveys will be carried out to determine Morena’s candidate for the presidential election, which will be held June 2, 2024.
Morena will conduct one of the surveys, while private polling companies — to be selected randomly from a pool of firms nominated by the aspirants — will carry out four “mirror polls.”
The surveys will likely include a range of questions to assess perceptions on things such as the pre-candidates’ honesty and knowledge of the country, according to the newspaper El País, which spoke with Morena party Secretary General Citlalli Hernández.
President López Obrador, center, with the four main contenders for the party’s presidential candidate in 2024, seen from left to right: Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, Interior Minister Adán Augusto López, Senate Majority Leader Ricardo Monreal and Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum. (Presidencia)
The respondents will also be directly asked who their preferred candidate is, according to Hernández, but responses to all questions will be weighted equally.
Exactly who will be polled and the number of respondents are yet to be determined, but Morena has previously indicated that selection of a candidate will be a task for its members.
The official campaign period for the Morena hopefuls will begin next Monday June 19 and run through Aug. 27. López Obrador, members of his cabinet, Morena governors and all other officials from that party as well as the PT and the PVEM are barred from speaking out in favor of any of the pre-candidates under the rules approved at Sunday’s meeting.
Speaking after the meeting, CNM president and Sonora Governor Alfonso Durazo said that the aspirants would have to formally commit to “the fundamental ethical principles of our movement,” including by making an undertaking “to not lie, steal or betray the people.”
They will also have to pledge to put Mexico’s poorest and most vulnerable people first and always adhere to the law, Durazo said.
Morena national president Mario Delgado told the same press conference that the pre-candidates have been directed to carry out “austere” campaigns with no squandering of money on self-promotion.
Mario Delgado, Morena national president, at the council meeting on Sunday. (Mario Delgado/Twitter)
“We want them to go with [and meet] the people [of Mexico],” he said, adding that no debates between the aspirants — for which Ebrard strongly advocated — will be held.
“It has to be a fraternal contest, and there can’t be insults between colleagues; there has to be complete respect,” said Delgado, who left the lower house of Congress in late 2020 to assume the national leadership of Morena.
The aspirants who finish second and third in the selection process will be guaranteed cabinet roles — provided Morena wins the presidency — or leadership positions in Congress, while the other contenders will be allocated proportional representation seats in the federal legislature, according to Durazo.
Delgado said that the aspirants have been forbidden from “speaking ill of or discrediting” the selection process backed by the CNM, and that they must commit to accepting the results of the polls. The pre-candidates are also banned from speaking with “reactionary” and “conservative” media outlets opposed to the López Obrador administration.
Delgado said that the “route” to determine who will “coordinate the defense of the fourth transformation” has now been established, although some important details — such as the questions to be included in the polls and the number of respondents — haven’t been finalized.
“It’s an unprecedented process because it’s inclusive, democratic, transparent … and it ends forever the dedazo, or imposition [of successors by sitting presidents],” Delgado said. “That’s why today is a historic day for our movement.”
At Sunday’s CNM meeting, the six aspirants pledged to maintain unity as they compete with each other to secure the Morena nomination. Polls indicate that whoever Morena puts forward is likely to win the presidency on June 2, 2024.
Sheinbaum, the pre-candidate considered most likely to win Morena’s nomination, said on Twitter Sunday that a “historic agreement of unity” was reached at the CNM meeting.
“That gives me a lot of happiness and the conviction to move forward,” said the mayor, who would become Mexico’s first female president if she wins next year’s election.
Sheinbaum on Monday morning on her way to a meeting with the president. (Claudia Sheinbaum/Twitter)
“The desire of the people of Mexico to continue the transformation that President López Obrador began, and [what would be] the great feat of having, for the first time, a woman as the national coordinator of the transformation, gives us encouragement,” she wrote.
Ebrard, who is seen as Sheinabum’s main rival, said that a “real competition” between the aspirants has now begun.
“A direct debate hasn’t been accepted yet, [but] we’re going to continue insisting on one. But everyone has to present their proposals — if you don’t, how will you win support?” he added.
The PAN-PRI-PRD party leaders at their June 5 press conference. (Marko Cortés/Twitter)
There is currently little clarity about who will face off against the Morena candidate.
The parties of the opposition Va por México alliance — the National Action Party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party and the Democratic Revolution Party — announced in January that they would field a common candidate at the election, and at a joint press conference on June 5, the party leaders said they would announce their selection method by June 26.
Another opposition party, Citizens Movement (MC), has indicated it will also field a presidential candidate, but a recent Reforma newspaper poll found that MC — which is in power in Nuevo León and Jalisco — has national support of just 5%.
When I was in first grade, we had to go around the class saying what we wanted to be when we grew up. When I said I wanted to be the president, a chorus arose among my classmates: a girl can’t be president!
Now, there are plenty of reasons why I personally cannot be president; is it my tendency to cry about everything? My disinterest in large swaths of policy? My IQ? Come on, what?
But being a girl is not one of them.
My own life has seen some near misses when it comes to seeing a woman in the highest office. We all remember, of course, Hilary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and her shocking loss that pretty much no one — least of all, Donald Trump — was expecting.
I still suspect that election night must have been the moment some trickster grabbed the steering wheel and plunged us all off into the bizarre dimension we’ve been stuck in ever since. A clue to my theory: my dog suddenly couldn’t walk that day because of a tumor that had just started pressing on her brain, which is a bad omen if I ever saw one.
Then, during the primaries leading up to the 2020 elections, I was sure that Elizabeth Warren would win the Democratic nomination, and I let myself get excited again.
But the thing about presidential candidates is that frontrunners don’t just gracefully step aside to give someone else a chance; if they’re there, it means they think they deserve to be president. People like that don’t give up when they’re so close.
Sure, there have been women executive leaders in other countries, but I want to see it in one of my countries. The possibilities are there, but getting close to it, at least in the U.S., has been tricky, like trying to fish a little piece of eggshell from the yolk. It onlylooks like it will be easy to grasp.
In the U.S., female candidates have received much more scrutiny and criticism than their male counterparts; the same people who had enthusiastically backed male candidates and held the party line were suddenly policy experts engaged in microscopic-level investigation of all the things Hilary Clinton had done since elementary school.
The same characteristics voters liked in men were seen as unbecoming in women (a man’s assertiveness is a woman’s bitchiness), and many progressives made a big show of saying they were going to “hold their nose and vote for Clinton,” as if she were some cartoon villain. How’s that for enthusiasm?
For all that show of nose-holding, we wound up covered in vomit for the next four years. It’s true, I’m still bitter.
When Elizabeth Warren suddenly disappeared from the list of presidential candidates in 2020, I gave up on seeing a woman in the White House anytime soon.
But now there’s the real possibility of a woman as this nation’s chief executive. A divorced Jewish woman, at that (both of her parents were the children of Eastern European immigrants to Mexico).
Before going on, I feel the need to state the obvious, lest readers think I’m simply militant: no, I would not just vote for a candidate with no other criteria just because they’re a woman. If U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene were running for president, I’d campaign hard against her.
Still, the prospect of a woman president in Mexico excites me. And I think that Claudia Sheinbaum, currently the mayor of Mexico City, could make a formidable candidate — and even a good president. In fact, two women candidates may compete for the presidency in 2024 if aspiring opposition candidate Lilly Téllez is nominated.
Sheinbaum’s popularity has been growing, and she is now widely considered the top pick for the ruling Morena Party’s presidential nominee. And unless those tricksters show up and jerk the steering wheel again, all signs seem to point to the Morena candidate becoming our next president.
She’s certainly as qualified for the job as anyone else is. The fact that current president López Obrador seems to adore her might be a plus or a minus, depending on how you view the president.
But despite her popularity with the current chief executive, she’s got plenty of accomplishments under her belt in her own right. A physicist with a doctoral degree in environmental engineering (hey, wasn’t Angela Merkel a chemist? Bodes well so far!), Sheinbaum was on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that won a Nobel peace prize in 2007 and has been working in government for over two decades now.
As mayor of Mexico City, she was nominated by the City Mayors Foundation in 2021 for the World Mayor prize and has worked hard to improve and protect the environment, something I think should be a top priority for any world leader these days.
I have some reservations — mainly about how much control the current president will have over her from behind the scenes.
Hopefully, not much. Sheinbaum, while an enthusiastic proponent of the president’s agenda, has not been afraid in the past to contradict him, especially when it comes to women’s rights. I would hope that she also wouldn’t be afraid to contradict him on the environment, and there are lots of questions that I would like to see asked of her over the coming year.
On a lighter note: is there anyone that doesn’t love that no-nonsense let’s-get-to-work ponytail? Sheinbaum is 60 years old with two grown children (and recently became a grandmother), but hey, 60 is the new 40! Her spunky attitude says this lady is ready to rock and roll.
Sheinbaum is not perfect, it’s true. But in a world where “good enough” is often the enemy of “good,” I’d like to pre-request that everyone just freaking calm down a bit.
Mexico, a country suffering from femicides and rampant sexism and discrimination, may very well soon have a woman president.
I’ve been burned before, both by elections in my own country and by the great contrast between López Obrador the candidate and López Obrador the president.
But hey, a girl can dream, right?
Sarah DeVries is a writer and translator based in Xalapa, Veracruz. She can be reached through her website, sarahedevries.substack.com
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Mexico News Daily, its owner or its employees.
President López Obrador's daily morning press conferences this week covered everything from Foreign Affairs Minister Ebrard's resignation to the alleged extrajudicial killings by soldiers in Nuevo Laredo to the "headdress of Moctezuma" in Vienna. (Gob MX)
With gubernatorial elections in México state and Coahuila now over, focus on the 2024 presidential contest has intensified.
The ruling Morena party, which President López Obrador founded, is gearing up to choose its new standard bearer via an internal survey process, prompting Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard to take the decision to step down this coming Monday to focus on winning the nomination.
AMLO between the two presidential frontrunners for the Morena party, Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum (left) and Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard (right). (Andrea Murcia/Cuartoscuro)
AMLO, who contested the 2006 and 2012 presidential elections before his emphatic 2018 triumph, reaffirmed his commitment to not “tip the balance” in favor of any of the so-called pre-candidates, emphasizing at his Wednesday press conference that times have changed and that he, as president, would not anoint a successor.
Colloquially known as mañaneras, his morning pressers this week were – as always – wide-ranging, with the elimination of daylight saving time, an apparent army massacre and efforts to repatriate a pre-Hispanic headdress among the topics discussed.
Monday
After a brief introduction from AMLO and the weekly update on gasoline and grocery prices from consumer protection agency chief Ricardo Sheffield, Deputy Interior Minister Alejandro Encinas offered a report on the response to the June 5, 2009 fire in a daycare center in Hermosillo that claimed the lives of 49 young children and injured more than 40 others.
“Today, on the anniversary of the terrible tragedy of the ABC daycare fire, we want to reaffirm our commitment to, and solidarity with, the relatives of all the victims and the survivors,” Encinas said.
He said that compensation has been paid to 142 “direct and indirect victims,” including families of deceased children, injured children and adults and children “exposed” to the tragedy.
Zoé Robledo, head of the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS), noted that two former IMSS officials who held positions related to overseeing daycare centers were arrested in November 2020 in connection with the fire.
He said that the officials have been ordered to stand trial and that the Federal Attorney General’s Office is currently working to complete its investigation.
Deputy Interior Minister Alejandro Encinas at the Monday press conference. (Gob MX)
Yucatán Governor Mauricio Vila also addressed the press conference, and during an update on infrastructure projects in the state noted that López Obrador had authorized the Ministry of National Defense to build a branch line of the Maya Train railroad “practically” to the port in the Gulf of Mexico town of Progreso.
“This will help us a lot because we’ll bring the train closer to the port, and we hope to build a classification yard that allows us to make the connection from the Trans-Isthmus train project to the Maya Train [railroad] and the port in Progreso,” he said.
During his Q & A session with reporters, López Obrador congratulated the people of México state and Coahuila who “exercised their right to freely elect” new governors on Sunday.
“There were no major problems, people participated and there were no post-electoral protests,” he said.
AMLO also congratulated the winners of the gubernatorial elections – Morena candidate Delfina Gómez in México state and PRI-PAN-PRD candidate Manolo Jiménez Salinas in Coahuila.
The president told reporters that he had been “reflecting” on the “political composition in the states” in the wake of the elections, and noted that Morena will control 22 states “with the triumph of the maestra [teacher] Delfina.”
“The Green Party has one [state], Citizens Movement has two, the PRI has one and the PAN has five. That’s the way it is,” he said.
AMLO stressed that the federal government will continue to treat all states equally, regardless of whether they have a government that “belongs to the movement that supported me” or not.
“All the welfare programs are universal. It’s not, ‘let’s see, what party are you from?'” López Obrador said after asserting that previous federal governments treated states differently depending on which party was in power at that level.
“We have good relationships with the governors. Here is an example of how we’re working in a coordinated way, regardless of party backgrounds,” he said, referring to the government’s relationship with Vila, a PAN governor who is vying to represent the opposition Va por México alliance at next year’s presidential election.
Acknowledging that the 2024 presidential election is just one year away, AMLO said that “the important thing” to do in the lead-up to that contest is “strengthen democracy – not just as a political system … but as a way of life.”
“[We need] democracy in the family, democracy at school, democracy in unions, … democracy in the broad sense,” he said.
Among other remarks, López Obrador said he was in favor of the installation of a monument to recognize the life and work of Dora María Pérez Vidal, a Tabasco-born singer known as La Chaparrita de Oro who passed away last Sunday.
“She represents the music of Tabasco, she’s a musical ambassador of Tabasco, as was Chico Che,” he said.
Tuesday
AMLO’s engagement with the press began approximately 30 minutes into his mañanera, but he immediately called on his education minister to respond to a question about the dismissal of teachers during the 2012-18 government led by former president Enrique Peña Nieto.
“During the previous six-year period of government there was a very powerful campaign against teachers, against their educational activity, denigrating the work they did, … making it appear like teachers weren’t really committed to their work,” Leticia Ramírez Amaya said.
She noted that the current government repealed the previous government’s education reform, which forced teachers to undergo controversial evaluations, and asserted that the vast majority of educators who lost their jobs during the Peña Nieto years have been reinstated.
“Almost 95% of the teachers who were affected by the poorly-named education reform have been reinstated,” she said, adding that the government intends to resolve every case in which a teacher challenged the grounds of his or her dismissal.
“We got together to congratulate the maestra Delfina, we were all very happy. And we also met to [talk about] maintaining unity. … We’re doing very well, we’re fine and in a good mood,” the president said.
AMLO told reporters that he took the opportunity at a celebratory dinner for Mexico state governor elect Delfina Gómez to speak to the four main presidential hopefuls. (Andrea Murcia Monsivais / Cuartoscuro.com)
“I can’t say any more about the issue,” he added before noting that he has committed to not “tip the balance” in favor of any of those seeking the Morena party nomination, among whom are Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard and Interior Minister Adán Augusto López.
“Look, we haven’t had increases in use beyond what economic growth and population growth demand,” López Obrador responded.
“[Eliminating] daylight saving time was a very good decision, it was accepted by the majority of people, and there are studies that prove that the time change affected [people’s] health. So, there is no problem [and] the price of electricity hasn’t increased,” he said.
Toward the end of his Tuesday presser, AMLO directed Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell to meet with a reporter who raised the case of Lauro Hinostroza – a Peruvian shaman detained at Mexico City airport last year for possession of ayahuasca – and advocated the changing of laws that allow authorities to “criminalize those with ancestral knowledge” who work as curanderos, or healers.
“Explain to her what the health plan is with regard to traditional medicine, with regard to healers,” he told López-Gatell before indicating his openness to the use of medicinal plants in Mexico’s public health system today.
“It’s the original medicine of our country. We suffered from the smallpox pandemic because the healers didn’t know how to treat it because it was an unknown disease,” López Obrador said.
“That’s why it decimated the population in the entire colonial period after the invasion, but before that, in the time of pre-Hispanic civilizations, it was the traditional healers [who treated people] with traditional medicine,” he said.
Wednesday
“We’re going to start with the water projects we’re building. … Water is fundamental, it’s health, it’s life,” López Obrador said at the beginning of his presser.
“So we’re reporting on the projects we’re completing across the entire country – dams, aqueducts, very important water projects.”
Germán Martínez Santoyo, general director of the National Water Commission (Conagua), noted for the second time in as many weeks that the government is investing over 93 billion pesos “with complete transparency and zero corruption” in 15 priority water projects.
Construction of the La Libertad dam in Nuevo León is 65% complete, he said.
The Conagua chief said that the federal and Nuevo León governments are each investing 3.68 billion pesos in the project and that it will benefit 500,000 residents of the northern border state, which suffered a severe drought last year. Martínez said that the dam is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
The El Cuchillo II aqueduct, also in Nuevo León, will be built in “record time,” he said, without mentioning a completion date. The project will benefit all residents of Monterrey, Martínez said.
Iñáki Echeverría spoke about the project he is managing – the Lake Texcoco Ecological Park, which is under construction on a México state site where the previous federal government began building a new Mexico City airport.
The park encompasses “an area of 14,300 hectares that was protected by you, Mr. President, on March 22, 2022 through a decree that converted it into a natural protected area,” he said.
Echeverría said that the park is 17 times the size of the Chapultepec Forest in Mexico City and will “improve the living conditions” of all residents of the Valley of Mexico, including by helping to reduce air pollution. The project is 65% complete, he said.
Iñaki Echeverría discusses the Texcoco project at the morning press conference. (Daniel Augusto / Cuartoscuro.com)
AMLO returned to center stage to take reporters’ questions and was immediately asked about the decision by Foreign Minister Ebard to resign to focus on winning the ruling Morena party’s nomination for the 2024 presidential election.
The president said that Ebrard is resigning because the process to find a Morena candidate has “already started,” although the ruling party has not yet defined exactly what that process will entail.
López Obrador said it’s “possible” that other aspirants to the Morena candidacy will announce their resignations in the coming days.
The selection of a presidential candidate via an internal survey is an “unprecedented event, something never seen”, AMLO said, noting that previous presidents imposed a person of their choosing – a so-called tapado – in a move colloquially known as a dedazo.
“The president was the one who designated his successor, we’re talking about centuries, and for the first time there is no tapado, there is no dedazo, there is no imposition,” he said.
“It appears that there was an execution and that can’t be allowed, we’re not the same as previous governments,” he said.
“When there is abuse, … when human rights are violated, the culprits have to be punished. The process to deepen the investigation has already begun,” López Obrador said, adding that all the soldiers involved in the incident will face justice.
“In the past, massacres were ordered from above,” while the Nuevo Laredo incident, which followed a similar event in the same city earlier this year, is among “isolated cases” of extrajudicial killings that have occurred during the current government, he said.
“When they happen, they’re punished, they’re not allowed. In other words, we’re not the same,” AMLO said.
Among other remarks, López Obrador noted he would meet with United States Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg later in the day to discuss Mexico’s efforts to recover its Category 1 aviation safety rating with U.S. authorities, which it lost in 2021.
“At 12 I’m going to [the] Felipe Ángeles [International Airport] and we’re going to meet [there]. We’re going to address the Category 1 thing because we already did everything [required],” he said.
“It’s a phenomenon, look at this, 17.37 pesos per dollar. When we arrived [to government] it was at over 20 [to the dollar] and the forecast of our adversaries was that it was going up to 30,” AMLO said.
The president discussed his administration’s economic policies at the Thursday morning press conference. (Gob MX)
Responding to a question about the public health system, the president claimed that the current level of medication supplies is sufficient for two years.
“People are still complaining that they can’t find medicines,” countered a reporter, prompting López Obrador to present data to back up his claim.
“We’re making progress and when I finish [my six-year term] – before I finish – this system will be much better than other public health systems around the world,” AMLO said.
He subsequently accused the reporter of bias. “I’m sure that on your radio station, if we do an analysis of the past month, [we’ll find that] all the stories are against us,” he said.
“… I’m absolutely certain that your radio station dedicated itself to attacking us this [past] month. Not just [then], but for some time now.”
Turning his focus to the contest between those vying for the Morena party’s nomination for the 2024 presidential election – currently one of the hottest topics in Mexico – López Obrador noted that the “rules” for the selection process will be set at a meeting of the Morena National Council this Sunday.
Asked how he felt about “presidential succession,” he responded:
“Very good, very good, because I have a lot of confidence in the people, … full confidence in the people. The people of Mexico are in a phase of [political] awakening, and are among the most politically aware people in the world – that’s exceptional, it’s extraordinary.”
Later in his presser, the president addressed a recent outbreak of violence in a southern region of Mexico’s southernmost state.
“We’re attending to what is happening on the border between Chiapas and Guatemala. … There is an organized crime presence, … that’s why [there have been] these confrontations. But we’re acting, the National Guard is there and a program to strengthen the welfare programs is about to be applied,” he said.
“It’s a bit like what we did in Aguililla, in Michoacán, where it wasn’t just about [having] the presence of the National Guard but also strengthening the welfare programs, and in that way we managed to calm things down and guarantee peace in Aguililla. We’re doing the same thing in … Chiapas,” López Obrador said.
Toward the end of his presser, AMLO expressed confidence that United States authorities would soon reinstate Mexico’s top-tier aviation safety rating.
“The transportation secretary is a very respectful person, attentive and I’m sure we’re going to have good news,” he said a day after meeting Buttigieg.
“I don’t want to set deadlines because they’re fatal. You’ll say to me, ‘What happened? Nothing yet?’ It depends on the paperwork and there in [the United States] there are also rheumatic elephants you have to push,” López Obrador said, employing a term he frequently uses to describe slow-moving bureaucracy.
Friday
The president dove straight into responding to reporters’ questions at the beginning of his final press conference of the week.
“The disappearance [of people] and later finding the victims in clandestine graves is very regrettable,” López Obrador said when asked about abductions and homicides in Jalisco, where the remains of missing call center workers were found last week.
He said that the federal government is working with the Jalisco government on that case and others, and that the United States government has offered “some recommendations” to assist the investigation into the disappearance of eight Zapopan-based call center workers.
“Regarding missing people in the country, a new census is being carried out in order to have complete certainty how many there really are,” AMLO added.
“State governments, state Attorney General’s Offices are helping us … in order to have … a reliable census because [the register] needs updating,” he said.
Over 112,000 people are officially registered as missing in Mexico, but López Obrador said there are cases in which disappearances remain on the register even after those who vanished are found.
The president was later asked about Mexico’s attempt to retake possession of the penacho de Moctezuma, a feathered headdress that is thought to have belonged to the Mexica huey tlatoani, or emperor, at the time of the Spanish conquest.
The government of Austria has demonstrated a “very arrogant attitude,” AMLO responded.
“In recent times they’ve argued or claimed that it can’t be moved because it would be destroyed. That’s something that has no basis, in our opinion. The truth is they don’t want to hand it over,” he said of the penacho, which is on display at the Weltmuseum Wien, an ethnographic museum in Vienna.
A replica of the artifact is displayed in the National Museum of Anthropology and History in Mexico City. (Thomas Ledl)
“And as tends to happen in these cases, it’s not just governments that consider themselves owners of things that don’t belong to them, but also associations of experts.”
AMLO noted that his wife traveled to Austria in 2020 and delivered a letter to the country’s president asking for a loan of the headdress for an exhibition commemorating the 500th anniversary of the fall of Tenochtitlán.
After acknowledging that the mission failed, López Obrador indicated that Mexico would continue to pressure Austria to return the artifact.
“Everything that was stolen, everything that was [illegally] removed from Mexico has to be recovered, in this case and others,” he said.
A reporter subsequently noted that there will soon be just two Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, governors – Esteban Villegas in Durango and Manolo Jiménez in Coahuila – due to Morena’s victory in México state, and asked AMLO about the relationship the federal government will have with the governments they lead.
“[Jiménez] is now governor-elect and later he will be governor … and we need to have good coordination and work together because it’s not a partisan issue, it’s not about our ways of thinking, which might be different,” López Obrador said.
“We have to serve the people of Coahuila … and all the people of Mexico. … I’ve always said that the party [you represent] is one thing and government is another. Party, as its name indicates, is a part, one part. The government represents everyone, the budget the government manages is for all people. So there will be a good relationship,” he said.
“… We’ve been supporting both states with welfare programs. In the case of Durango, the Sowing Life [reforestation/employment] program is being implemented … and we’re building roads in the most remote communities of Durango and we’re doing it jointly with the state government. And the same thing for Coahuila, the welfare programs are continuing,” López Obrador said.
Among other remarks, AMLO offered a synopsis of the economic situation in Argentina, where annual inflation is over 100%.
“What happened in Argentina? Why is the crisis in Argentina so deep? Because, in complicity with international financial bodies, the government of [former president Mauricio] Macri put Argentina into debt, but with no limit,” he said.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies ([email protected])
