PAN Senator Lilly Téllez, shown here during a Senate session, went on the Spanish-language version of Fox News this week and accused President Sheinbaum of refusing U.S. help in order to protect the cartels. (Cuartoscuro)
Mexican Senator Lilly Téllez engaged in a war of words with President Claudia Sheinbaum Thursday and Friday after telling Fox News that most Mexicans would welcome U.S. assistance in the war against drug cartels.
Téllez, a member of the conservative National Action Party (PAN), angered President Sheinbaum and members of the ruling Morena party by referring to them on Wednesday as narco-politicians resisting the U.S. offer to battle the cartels.
Senator Téllez is not known for being hesitant to have her voice heard, but her recent war of words with President Sheinbaum has taken her outspokenness to a new level. (Rogelio Morales/Cuartoscuro.com)
Sheinbaum responded on Thursday by calling Téllez a traitor for encouraging U.S. intervention.
“It’s not a minor issue that a senator gave an interview to a foreign media outlet calling for intervention,” Sheinbaum said.
“What I said was ‘help’ (cooperation and consent), not ‘intervention’ (violation of sovereignty). … Speaking of help is a political act that is realized through the will of the parties, it is freedom of expression and parliamentary inviolability, not a crime,” she wrote.
During Wednesday’s appearance on Fox Noticias, Téllez told Rachel Campos-Duffy that the U.S. offer to help Mexico fight drug cartels “is absolutely welcome,” assuring the Fox News host that “this is the opinion of the majority of Mexicans.”
“The only people opposed to the offer to help us … are the narco-politicians, which includes President Sheinbaum and her entire group,” Téllez said, pointing to the president’s recent endorsement of Morena Senator Adán Augusto López.
On Tuesday, Sheinbaum ratified López as the leader of the Morena caucus in the Senate.
Telléz, a former member of Morena, said the ratification proves that the Sheinbaum administration is “infiltrated by the drug cartels,” which have been labeled as terrorists by the U.S. government.
“This government is clearly associated with the cartels,” she said, adding that this is why Sheinbaum has been “angered by [U.S. President Donald] Trump’s offer to help” while her administration “is doing everything it can to obstruct” U.S. efforts to take on the drug cartels.
🚨 EXHIBE SHEINBAUM A LA VENDEPATRIAS de Lilly Téllez por ir a Fox News y pedir la int3rvención de Estados Unidos.
The PAN senator said Mexicans are fed up with the violence and corruption cultivated by organized crime gangs, asserting her view that Morena is protecting the cartels, which is “the genuine treason against the homeland.”
Téllez also criticized Sheinbaum’s foreign policy stance, accusing her of preferring ideological alliances (citing Venezuela and Cuba) over security cooperations (citing Sheinbaum’s public denial of cooperation with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration).
President Sheinbaum responded emphatically to the DEA chief's Thursday comments on bombing Mexico, as tensions linger over the U.S. agency's announcement of a "bilateral" effort that Mexico never agreed to. (Presidencia)
At her Friday morning press conference, President Claudia Sheinbaum responded forcefully when asked about the possibility of the United States military bombing cartel targets on Mexican soil.
During her final mañanera of the week, the president also revealed that her Foreign Affairs Minister had spoken to the United States Ambassador to Mexico about a statement issued by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) on Monday.
US bomb attack against Mexican cartels ‘won’t happen,’ Sheinbaum says
A reporter referred to remarks made on Thursday by DEA Administrator Terrance Cole, telling the president that he “didn’t dare to rule out the possibility that President Trump might carry out a bombing in Mexican territory against drug cartels.”
She asked Sheinbaum whether she saw a U.S. strike against cartels as a possibility.
“Mexico is a free, independent and sovereign country, and no foreign government would dare to violate our sovereignty,” Sheinbaum declared.
▶️ “México es un país libre, independiente y soberano y ningún gobierno extranjero se atrevería a violar nuestra soberanía”: Sheinbaum descarta bombardeo de EU contra cárteles
“It’s not like before. Mexico has a lot of strength — national and international [strength] because of our people, because of what we represent as a government of the people,” she said.
“So, no, that won’t happen,” she said, referring to the possibility of a U.S. bombing against cartels in Mexico.
“So I know that’s been in the paper the last few days. I know that decision lies with the president. The men and women of the DEA will support the decision that comes from the president. We will complete the mission, but let’s remember we have been at war with these cartels for the last 40 years. The men and women of DEA have been consistent, they’ve been at the forefront, they’ve been at the tip of the spear, this is what we do and we will continue to support the mission and the orders that come down from the president of the United States.”
His remarks came two weeks after The New York Times reported that Trump had “secretly signed a directive to the Pentagon to begin using military force against certain Latin American drug cartels that his administration has deemed terrorist organizations.”
On Friday morning, Sheinbaum suggested that her government would consider a U.S. bomb strike on Mexican cartels as an act of war against Mexico.
“As I’ve said: any attempt, we have the national anthem, [el cielo] un soldado en cada hijo te dio,” she said.
The English translation of that line of the (bellicose) Mexican national anthem is “heaven gave you a soldier in every son.”
Sheinbaum: Foreign minister spoke to US ambassador about DEA statement
Sheinbaum told reporters that Foreign Affairs Minister Juan Ramón de la Fuente spoke to U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ron Johnson on Tuesday about the statement the DEA released on Monday.
In its statement, the DEA announced what it called a “bold bilateral initiative to dismantle cartel gatekeepers and combat synthetic drug trafficking.”
Sheinbaum said on Friday that Mexico’s foreign minister told the ambassador that “information provided by U.S. government institutions” — when the information pertains to the security relationship between Mexico and the U.S. — “has to be within the framework” of agreed cooperation between the two countries.
“And the ambassador agreed,” she said.
Sheinbaum stressed that Mexico wants to collaborate with the United States on security issues, but doesn’t want the U.S. government to issue “statements that provide incorrect information.”
If you took Spanish classes outside of Mexico, you were probably given a simple rule to use usted with anyone older than you. The reality is a bit more complex. (Andrea Piacquadio/Pexels)
Growing up, I went to a bilingual school. The curriculum was equally divided into English and Spanish lessons, which were taught in equal depth. I recall having my Spanish classes, like math or biology, in the morning. Then, after recess, the English teacher would cover grammar, spelling or vocabulary.
As an absolute nerd, I often approached the teacher, Miss Riley, with questions, out of sheer curiosity. One of them was how to use the word “usted” in English. Bewildered, she explained that respect was shown differently in English. The word “you” was used to address everyone, I remember her saying, from the elderly to your superiors at work.
In classical Náhuatl, the suffix —tzin was used as a diminutive or to imply reverence. (Public domain)
I found that kind of disappointing. As someone born in a traditional Mexican household, I wanted to be able to show respect to her and anyone I felt needed it, just like I did in Spanish.
To further understand why we use “usted” in Mexico, I contacted Linguist Cristal Yeseidy Cepeda Ruíz. With a Ph.D. in Linguistics from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Dr. Cepeda has dedicated decades to studying the use of usted in Mexico and other Latin American countries.
According to her research, in addition to being a sign of respect, the use of usted in Mexico implies social class relations. In some cases, it marks gender distance as well. Through decades of research into the linguistic origin of the word, these have been her findings.
Is the use of ‘usted’ a question of social class in Mexico, historically speaking?
“The origin of the pronoun usted,” Dr. Cepeda explained, “is associated with several social and linguistic factors.” According to her research, up until the 15th century “Castilian Spanish had two pronouns inherited from Latin: ‘tu’ (yes, without an accent) and ‘vos.'” The former was used “to address people who were close,” while the latter “was used to mark interpersonal distance and was used in exchanges among the bourgeoisie.”
This suggests that there was a social-class distinction in the way people referred to each other in Spanish. In other words, for family and friends, people already use tú. Whereas vos was reserved as a distinctive way to address those who belonged to a higher social status. Additionally, usted comes from the phrase “vuestra merced,” a way to suggest a higher hierarchy that was commonly used in Europe in the 15th century.
During the 16th and 17th centuries, during the colonial period in the Americas, “American Spanish (particularly that of the territories now occupied by Mexico, Peru, and Colombia) inherited the ternary pronominal system from Castilian Spanish (tú, vos, vuestra merced, usted),” Cepeda explained. Little has changed ever since.
Migrants from Europe — conquistadors, settlers, state officials and missionaries alike — began using these pronouns in the Americas too, which resulted in the use of “tú” for intimate relationships, and “vos” in “the treatment that Spaniards and Creoles used toward Indigenous populations
Is the use of ‘usted’ reverential in Mexico?
The use of usted in Mexico comes from the European use of “vuestra merced,” which implied differences in hierarchy in Castilian Spanish. (Public domain)
Before the Spanish invasion of the Americas, Cepeda said, people who spoke classical Náhuatl, the common tongue of the Mexica, used a “complex system of honorifics marked with suffixes.” In other words, social class was distinguished in the way you referred to others. Duringthe Mexica empire, for example, one would have never spoken to the Huey Tlatoani, the emperor, in the same way as to a friend or a servant.
The social differences implied in classical Náhuatl were much more pronounced than in Castilian Spanish, Cepeda explained. It separated “interactions of utmost respect or reverence from others in which the main value is symmetry, reciprocity or affiliation between people.” Among them, the reverential use of the —tzin suffix was popular. At the time, it was used both as a diminutive and to imply reverence.
To date, however, there does not appear to be a link between “the use of ‘usted’ and the more reverential forms of address in native languages,” Cepeda said. What is certain, she pointed out, is that “the world’s languages reflect a regular pattern; the people who use them need to distinguish two clear planes [proximity, and that of social class].”
The use of usted in Mexico is not always reverential
After more than five centuries, the use of the usted has changed in Mexico. The ancient boundaries have become blurred in Mexico City. Although in some neighborhoods, as in the provinces, children address their parents and grandparents using the word usted, I don’t use it. No one in my close social group does. Are we leaving a centuries-old tradition behind? Not exactly.
Through her research, Cepeda and her colleagues have found that, in contemporary Mexican Spanish, “the most frequent, but not categorical, form of address in Mexico City is ‘tú.’ ‘Usted’ is employed in formal contexts,” the specialist wrote, “with older people and authority figures, especially outside the family context.”
Is the use of usted changing in the modern world?
Just as it was more than 500 years ago, the use of usted in Mexico stands out in situations where the value of asymmetry or differentiation between people predominates. Thinking in a contemporary, everyday example, whenever I go to the market to buy my groceries, I address my vegetable vendor with usted. Why? Because she is older than me, and I feel she deserves respect, otherwise, my interaction with her would be considered rude or even irreverent. The same goes for teachers, physicians or researchers.
That is not the only use it has today, however.
“A particular finding from Mexico City is that women prefer to use usted in situations where they feel vulnerable,” Cepeda said. “For example, with unknown men. This is a discursive strategy of autonomy that allows them to set boundaries.”
And yes, in case you’re wondering, I addressed Dr. Cepeda with usted in the interview for this article.
Diego Luna (seated) stars in and Gabriel Ripstein directs the upcoming Netflix feature "Mexico 86," about Mexico's last hosting of the World Cup in 1986. (Netflix)
Before Mexico submerges itself into the fervor of co-hosting the FIFA World Cup men’s soccer tournament next summer, Netflix will be turning back the clock with “México 86,” starring Diego Luna.
The feature-length film — still in production — is a satirical retelling of how Mexico landed the 1986 World Cup after Colombia withdrew due to economic and political problems.
Diego Luna, who has the lead in “México 86” is one of the biggest Mexican film stars in the world. (@GrupoLeferas/X)
Though no release date has been disclosed, Netflix is expected to premiere it ahead of next year’s World Cup, which will open June 11 at Estadio Banorte, the renamed Estadio Azteca in Mexico City. The United States and Canada will also be hosting games in the 39-day tournament.
“México 86” is directed by Gabriel Ripstein, the son of acclaimed Mexican director Arturo Ripstein and the grandson of Alfredo Ripstein, a prolific producer during Mexico’s Golden Age of Cinema starting in the early 1940s.
Netflix last week announced a handful of Mexican films that it is working on — in part due to the success in recent years of “Roma” and “Pedro Páramo” on the platform.
The streaming giant made the announcement on Día Nacional del Cine Mexicano, or Mexican Film Day, which honors the country’s film industry, its history and its impact on Mexican culture. It takes place every year on Aug. 15 — the anniversary of the first public film screening in Mexico in 1896.
“Sharing the different faces of Mexico through each new production represents an opportunity to showcase the country’s richness and diversity to the world,” said Carolina Leconte, Netflix’s vice president of content for Mexico.
“México 86” is part of Netflix’s ambitious push into Mexican cinema that Netflix executive Ted Sarandos announced in February alongside President Claudia Sheinbaum. He said Netflix will invest US $1 billion in Mexican film and television production over the next four years.
“México 86” stars Luna, a major star in Mexico and beyond. He first gained fame 24 years ago in “Y Tu Mamá También” and has gone on to star in Hollywood blockbusters such as “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” and in series such as Netflix’s “Narcos: Mexico.”
The film will focus on how what was supposed to be Colombia’s big moment on the world stage became Mexico’s instead — as a cadre of determined officials led a “crazy gamble” (as Netflix describes it) to pull off what many deemed impossible.
“Aura”, el clásico literario, llegará a Netflix 😱📚 ¡Será adaptado por Alonso Ruiz Palacios! Te contamos 👇🏼https://t.co/jjsgkvr6Te
“México 86” stars Luna, a major star in Mexico and beyond. He first gained fame 24 years ago in “Y Tu Mamá También” and has gone on to star in Hollywood blockbusters such as “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” and in series such as Netflix’s “Narcos: Mexico.”
The film will focus on how what was supposed to be Colombia’s big moment on the world stage became Mexico’s instead — as a cadre of determined officials led a “crazy gamble” (as Netflix describes it) to pull off what many deemed impossible.
Colombia officially withdrew in November 1982 due to being unable to meet FIFA’s requirements, and Mexico was awarded the tournament in May 1983, giving it just over three years to prepare.
The film dives into machinations, wild bets and “pure Mexican ingenuity” that sealed the deal.
“It may seem like a simple story that is only possible in Mexico, but the story questions the guidelines, bureaucracy, politics and power — all told with humor and satire,” said Leconte.
The other Mexican films Netflix is working on:
“Aura,” a screen adaptation of literary legend Carlos Fuentes’s novel from 1962 about a young historian meeting a mysterious woman while working on her late uncle’s memoirs. Alonso Ruizpalacios, whose feature debut “Güeros” earned five Ariel Awards in 2015, wrote the script and is directing.
“Contra el huracán” (“Against the Hurricane”), an action-drama from Mexican director Jorge Michel Grau. It’s about two half-brothers fighting for survival on their small boat when an unexpected storm turns into Category 5 Hurricane Otis off the coast of Acapulco in October 2023.
“La hora de los valientes” (“The Hour of the Brave”), a comedy in which a psychoanalyst sentenced to community service is assigned to provide therapy to a police officer devastated by his wife’s infidelity.
“Un hijo propio” (“A Child of One’s Own”) is the working title of a film that follows a woman whose fake pregnancy turns into a nationwide scandal. Directed by two-time Oscar nominee Maite Alberdi of Chile, Netflix calls it “a feature-length documentary” though its connection to actual events is murky.
“Las locuras” (“The Madness”), a previously announced film that will hit select theaters and Netflix in November. The story intertwines the tales of six women who, amidst self-censorship and family and social pressure, embrace their emotions and decide to break free.
Official release dates for all the films remain under wraps.
The opulent interiors of Gran Cantina Filomeno offer a window into a Mexico gone by. (Gran Cantina Filomeno)
I’m a sucker for a good cantina. I’m also a big fan of Porfirian architecture. Mexico City, to my delight, is a hotbed of those eye-catching façades blending French, neoclassical, and Mexican design elements. So when my date invited me to dinner at the new Gran Cantina Filomeno, an optimal mix, I all but ran there in my kitten heels. Obviously, I was elevating my look — and my height — for this elegant outing.
We arrived together at the double marble staircase encased by an iron-wrought rotunda, crowned by a bronze bull suspended in mid-air. What my date didn’t know was that as I ascended the grand entrance, I imagined for a brief minute that I was an aristocratic lady of a bygone Mexico, donning an elegant Belle Époque gown. A welcoming hostess guided us around a wooden bar into a lively dining room with high ceilings clad in dangling ivy. With each step, I delved deeper into Mexico’s storied pre-Revolutionary past, thanks to an abundance of 19th-century artworks that include Victorian furniture, original stained-glass windows and ornate crystal chandeliers.
If you see a bronze bull suspended in mid-air, you’ve come to the right place. (Gran Cantina Filomeno)
We slipped into carved wooden seats as she handed us each a bound menu with the letter F inscribed in gold. I thumbed through the various pages of Mexican specialties before stopping on a short blurb of the cantina’s history. Wow, I thought, this place isn’t a cantina, it’s a living museum.
And that’s when I decided to write an article about it.
The wild journey of a Mexico City mansion
From a millionaire’s mansion to a refuge for Spanish exiles, a girls’ boarding school to a famous art gallery, Rio de Janeiro 54 has lived a full Mexico City life.
The mansion-turned-restaurant’s origins can be traced back to the early 1900s. That’s when Daniel Ruiz Benítez, architect and builder, oversaw its construction as a single-family home on the southeast corner of Parque Rio de Janeiro. Its sophisticated style satisfied the design preferences of Mexico City’s elite of the time, many of whom rose to prominence during the then recently ended Porfirio Díaz regime, and who heavily favored French and Neoclassical architecture.
In the late 1930s, during the presidency of Lázaro Cárdenas, the private mansion transformed into Casa de España, becoming a refuge for Spanish intellectual exiles fleeing Franco’s dictatorship. The exile community soon became El Colegio de México, where refugees joined Mexican scholars in advanced humanities and social sciences research. Some of these residents would become household names. Alfonso Reyes, for example, served as the college’s first president. Nobel Prize-winning poet Octavio Paz had an office on the ground floor, and notable scholars like Daniel Cosío Villegas and José Gaos also worked there. Even avant-garde filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky lived in the annex next door.
By the mid-20th century, Rio de Janeiro 54 went from housing Mexico’s intellectual elite to becoming a Catholic boarding school for girls. For decades, it remained a female-only residence until the 1980s brought another dramatic transformation.
From art gallery to restaurant
The façade of Rio de Janeiro 54 circa 1970, when it was still a boarding school for girls. (OMR Gallery)
For the next 30 years, the mansion housed contemporary artwork as the renowned OMR Gallery, founded by Patricia Ortiz Monasterio and Jaime Riestra. The gallery became one of Latin America’s most influential contemporary art spaces, helping establish Roma Norte as Mexico City’s arts district. Where Octavio Paz once pondered poetry, cutting-edge artists like Gabriel Rico and Jose Dávila now displayed their work.
OMR Gallery moved to Calle Córdoba in 2015, and that’s when this building’s latest, and perhaps most theatrical, chapter began.
The Filomeno fantasy
The cantina’s transformation started with a novel. In 2010, Daniel Liebsohn — one of Mexico’s leading antiquarians and art collectors — published “Filomeno,” chronicling the adventures of a handsome charro living in the final years of the Porfiriato era. Liebsohn, together with partners Santiago García Galván and George Diamandopoulos, decided to bring his fictional world to life by transforming Rio de Janeiro 54 into a living museum of Mexico’s aristocratic past.
But here’s the fun part: nobody’s quite sure if Filomeno was real or invented. The cantina displays a striking 1909 portrait of the dashing charro Filomeno, complete with a rather pronounced backside that draws every diner’s eye. Actual person or fictional character? Una nunca sabe, and that’s part of the charm.
150 antiques and one very patient team
Transforming this space into an authentic period cantina meant preserving every possible original detail while both making room for a flourishing restaurant and meeting complex safety codes. The restoration, completed in 2024 after OMR Gallery’s departure in 2015, kept the century-old stained glass windows, hand-painted wooden panels and Austrian crystal chandeliers that had survived over a century of career changes.
The team sourced and installed over 150 authentic pieces from the 1880s to 1915. One centerpiece, a monumental 19th-century Victorian showcase from an old pharmacy, is completely original. The portrait gallery is particularly striking. While each painting evokes period elegance, many are downright entertaining. “Carmencita,” for example, shows a stout child in a blue dress sporting an expression of absolute boredom.
Porfirian era decadence is recreated in Gran Cantina Filomeno’s dining room. (Gran Cantina Filomeno)
Just like Liebsohn’s novel, the cantina offers a playful, slightly tongue-in-cheek take on Mexican high society during the opulent Porfiriato era.
Dining where poets once worked
An impeccably-dressed waiter gently places a steaming fish fillet in front of me and refills my wine. Before I can take a bite, a mariachi band approaches our table. When my date politely declines a private ballad (grounds for removal!), the singer turns to me. “Would you like to request a song for the gentleman?” I briefly consider it, then decide I’d prefer to eat. “Next time,” we promise, and the band wanders off to another, hopefully more engaging, pair.
The menu was crafted by Chef Alfredo González Rivas, who researched traditional cantina dishes that once brought together Mexico’s working and elite classes. During the Porfiriato era, cantinas served as spaces for debate and networking, making them perfect venues for both business deals and social gatherings. You’ll find options like sopes de tuétano (bone marrow sopes) and chamorro en su jugo alongside classics like mole poblano and Baja fish tacos. Food arrives on glassware, ceramics, and silver-plated serveware reminiscent of the turn of the 20th century.
It’s surreal to think that within this space, Octavio Paz once had an office, Spanish exiles once hid from a dictatorship, and boarding school girls from the countryside studied. And here I am, stuffing my face with guacamole.
A building that refuses to be boring
As our evening wound down and the mariachi band serenaded other tables, I marveled at this building’s refusal to fade into obscurity. While many historic mansions crumble or turn into museums where you can’t touch anything, this one continues to reinvent itself while staying true to its elegant bones.
Before leaving, my date and I take a quick tour and then split momentarily to visit the restroom. While washing my hands, I notice that the walls are adorned with rather risqué posters of handsome Mexican men. I swear I took a photo. Only, I can’t find it in the stacks of visual snapshots that live in my Photos App. Was it real? Or did I imagine it? I guess, in the end, it doesn’t matter.
Whether Filomeno was real or invented hardly matters either. What matters is that this building — with its century of wild career changes — proves that the best way to honor the past might just be to keep living in it, one dinner at a time.
Bethany Platanella is a travel planner and lifestyle writer based in Mexico City. She lives for the dopamine hit that comes directly after booking a plane ticket, exploring local markets, practicing yoga and munching on fresh tortillas. Sign up to receive her Sunday Love Letters to your inbox, peruse her blog or follow her on Instagram.
Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada (center) said that Mexico City's surveillance camera total will surpass such cities as New York, Chicago and Rio de Janeiro.
(Clara Brugada/X)
Mexico City is on its way to becoming “the most heavily monitored city in the Americas,” according to Mayor Clara Brugada.
As part of an ambitious expansion program for its public video surveillance network, the capital is investing over 445 million pesos (US $23 million) to install 30,400 new security cameras on the streets of the city. The expansion will bring the number of cameras to 113,814 across the city’s 16 boroughs — 36% more than in 2024.
That total includes 15,200 totems — also known as smart poles — that will be installed in areas with high crime rates, relevant urban facilities, and tourist public spaces, according to Salvador Guerrero Chiprés, general coordinator of the Command, Control, Computing, Communications and Citizen Contact Center of Mexico City (C5).
Each totem holds two cameras — one fixed and one with a 360-degree view, designed for urban monitoring. They feature help buttons and audiovisual alert systems, enabling rapid response to emergencies or crimes. They will also send automatic notifications to authorities when they experience a fault, removing the need for citizens or officials to report them.
During a press conference held at the C5 headquarters, Brugada noted that the new cameras will strengthen the security strategy and guarantee immediate assistance in any emergency. She said that with the additional cameras Mexico City will double or even triple the number of security cameras found in cities like New York, Chicago and Rio de Janeiro.
Do cameras help reduce crime in Mexico City?
Following the rollout of surveillance cameras and the creation of the “Safe City” program in 2010, high-impact crimes in Mexico City decreased by 23%, including a 25% drop in vehicle theft and a 20% drop in pedestrian robbery.
However, official data shows that although some types of crime (homicide, for example) have decreased in recent years at the national and local levels, others like extortion have significantly increased.
While surveillance cameras have contributed to the reduction of some crimes in Mexico City, especially in the first years after their installation, fluctuations in crimes reveal that they are not a stand-alone solution to reduce urban crime. Some studies cast doubt on whether they have any effect at all, but Mexico City’s experience shows they can at least serve as one tool within a broader security strategy.
Foreign companies are increasingly investing in sectors formerly dominated by domestic companies, including food and beverage production, the chemical industry and agricultural processing. (Adolfo Vladimir/Cuartoscuro)
Mexico continues to attract record amounts of foreign direct investment (FDI), with new investments soaring well above US $3 billion during the first six months of 2025, more than triple the same period last year. Total FDI, which includes reinvested profits, also showed a significant increase.
The six-month figure reflected a 10.2% increase in total FDI over the same period in 2024 (which itself was a record). The increase is the continuation of a positive trend going back to 2021, when Mexico began to recover from the first year of the pandemic.Last year’s January-June FDI performance was 7.1% better than the same period in 2023.
Most impressively, Mexico is set to capture US $3.1 billion in new investments as part of its FDI inflows thus far this year. The SE said that amount is the most new FDI reported in the past 12 quarters.
“[The new investments] reaffirm the interest that foreign investors maintain in our country, despite the global economic and political landscape,” the SE said.
The inflows are arriving despite the protectionist trade policies implemented by the U.S. (Mexico’s No. 1 trading partner) and a weakening global economic outlook that the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development ascribes to “substantial trade barriers that are diminishing confidence and heightening policy uncertainty.”
So how is Mexico pulling this off?
Mexico boasts a robust network of trade agreements and a strategic location next to the world’s biggest economy (even as access to the U.S. market shrinks), making it an attractive destination for foreign investors seeking fertile ground for capital deployment.
A trade markets report by Banco Santander points out that Mexico also offers a big domestic market, a wide variety of natural resources, a well-qualified workforce and a diversified economy. Incentives introduced in 2023 for nearshoring in the semiconductor, electromobility and medical device sectors have also proven attractive.
These structural advantages have combined to create a favorable setting for business expansion even as global FDI declined by 11% in 2024, according to the United Nations.
The Pérez Correa González corporate law firm noted earlier this year that FDI is “increasingly entering sectors that have historically been less accessible to foreign capital.”
Its report identified sectors such as the food and beverage, chemical and agricultural processing industries as targets of new investment, although manufacturing still accounts for 36% of total FDI.
Mexico’s positive business environment is reflected in the fact that reinvestment of earnings remained high, reaching nearly US $29 billion. Such reinvestment accounted for 84.4% of total FDI through June.
Manufacturing draws 36% of foreign direct investment in Mexico. (Gobierno de México)
Even though reinvestment of earnings registered a 4.5% decline compared to the first six months of last year, that decrease was offset by the record amount of new investments, which accounted for 9.2%.
Reinvestment of earnings corresponds to the portion of profits not distributed as dividends and is considered FDI because it represents an increase in capital resources owned by the foreign investor.
U.S. companies continue to be the dominant investors, accounting for nearly 43% of total FDI, down from 44.1% in 2024. Still, U.S. investments grew by US $986 million, rising from US $13.7 billion to US $14.7 billion.
Spain is second at 17.3% (US $5.9 billion), followed by Canada at 5.1% (US $1.75 billion), Japan at 4.2% (US $1.44 billion) and Germany at 3.7% (US $1.28 billion).
The expansion of L'Oréal's plants in Mexico City and San Luis Potosí will add to the 2,800 direct jobs the beauty products manufactuer already provides. (L'Oréal)
French multinational beauty products company L’Oréal will invest more than US $80 million next year to expand production at its two factories in Mexico, creating 1,000 direct and indirect jobs.
The upgrades to its plants in San Luis Potosí and Mexico City will include sustainable technologies and automation to improve efficiency and reduce the environmental impact of production processes.
“The Mexican market is really very attractive,” said Luis Miguel Moreno, director of corporate affairs for L’Oréal México. “We have been in Mexico for more than 63 years, and we believe we will continue to grow above the country’s economic growth.”
Mexico is one of L’Oréal’s top 10 markets, valued at nearly US $14 billion in 2024.
L’Oreal employs more than 2,800 people directly in Mexico, while generating an additional 15 jobs for each formal position via partnerships with salons and dermatologists, according to the consulting firm Asterès.
The synergistic effect is “distributed among suppliers of raw materials, packaging, distributors, beauty salons and other businesses related to its consumer ecosystem,” according to Asterès.
The city’s Economic Development Ministry (Sedeco) describes the L’Oréal plant in San Luis Potosí as a benchmark for industrial infrastructure, lauded as the largest hair color production plant in the world in terms of production capacity when it opened in December 2012. It runs on 100% renewable electricity.
Sedeco said the plant — featuring a total area of 178,700 square meters and built at a cost of US $100 million — has a capacity of 39 packaging lines and operates with renewable energy.
The company’s Mexico City factory, located in the southernmost borough of Xochimilco, is notable for its use of recycled water. Its reduced water consumption — 25% savings, according to Sedeco — benefits the local community given the shortage of water in the community.
The San Luis Potosí factory exports 70 percent of output, primarily to the U.S., while the Xochimilco plant serves domestic demand and exports to Latin America.
The DEA's goal of reducing the flow of drugs to the U.S. is at odds with Mexico's attempts to reduce violence within the country, Pérez Ricart writes. (File photo)
The relationship between Mexico and the United States is passing through a moment as delicate as it is peculiar.
From the White House, Donald Trump wields immense power and uses it without hesitation to extort Mexico on every possible front. The logic is brutally simple: The Mexican government is prepared to concede almost anything in order to safeguard the renegotiation of the USMCA and preserve the promise of low tariffs.
That willingness to yield has created fertile ground for a variety of U.S. agencies — each pursuing its own agenda — to push forward positions that had been closed to them for years. Among them, none has been more persistent than the Drug Enforcement Administration.
During the previous administration in Mexico, the DEA was shut out: Joint operations were curtailed, drones were grounded, and overall police cooperation with Washington was scaled back. Today, however, the window has reopened. Faced with the urgency of maintaining economic stability and eager to avoid confrontation, Mexico’s government has become more inclined to make concessions, and the DEA is seeking to regain the prominence it lost both inside and outside the United States.
The problem is that, of all U.S. agencies, the DEA is the one that has most consistently shown contempt for Mexican sovereignty. It is no coincidence that its mere mention provokes unease among Mexican bureaucrats and officials. Unlike other agencies with which cooperation, while difficult, is still possible, the DEA has insisted on imposing its punitive vision of the “war on drugs,” regardless of the costs its actions have inflicted south of the border.
It must be stated clearly: far from being a factor of peace, the DEA has been a driver of violence. Its primary goal — to reduce the flow of drugs reaching the United States — stands in sharp contrast with Mexico’s fundamental objective: to reduce criminal violence within its own territory. These are not only different goals, but in many cases outright contradictory. Recent history shows that the obsession with cutting drug flows to the north often translates into greater violence to the south. As I demonstrated in my 2022 book “Cien años de espías y drogas” (“One Hundred Years of Spies and Drugs”), U.S. enforcement strategies have consistently generated more violence in Mexico than they have prevented.
The DEA’s metrics are, in large measure, Mexico’s failures. Each spectacular seizure celebrated in Washington usually translates into violent reconfigurations among cartels, surges in homicides, or waves of institutional corruption in Mexico. The agency has little interest in those collateral effects. Its gaze is fixed on indicators that serve to justify budgets before the U.S. Congress, not to alleviate the crisis of violence that is bleeding Mexico dry.
This is why any discussion of cooperation must begin from an elementary principle: the United States is an indispensable partner, but it cannot unilaterally dictate the rules. Cooperation cannot be built on the DEA’s agenda, nor on the political needs of Washington’s most conservative sectors. It must be the result of shared interests, defined jointly and in a manner that respects Mexican sovereignty.
Anything else would be a profound mistake. Even more so in a context where rumors circulate of potential unilateral interventions, whether through armed drones or covert operations on Mexican soil. Any such attack, regardless of its immediate effects, would place President Sheinbaum in an untenable position and would derail the negotiations her government is pursuing with Washington for a broader framework of security cooperation.
Accepting that logic would mean turning back decades.
It would mean returning to the years when the DEA operated in Mexico with near-total discretion, as though Mexican territory were simply an extension of its jurisdiction. It would mean opening the door to an endless cycle of impositions, failures, and violence.
Mexico cannot — must not — fall into that trap.
Bilateral cooperation is necessary, but not at any cost. To accept a DEA-led intervention or to tolerate unilateral operations would be to sacrifice sovereignty in exchange for the illusion of stability. In Mexico’s political history, that illusion has never yielded anything good.
Carlos A. Pérez Ricart is a professor and researcher in the Division of International Studies at the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE) in Mexico City, where he directs the the certification program Design and Implementation of Public Policy for Security and Justice CIDE-LAB-CO.
Foreign direct investment and Canadian tourism topics of note at Thursday's presidential presser. (Presidencia)
Foreign investment and tourism were among the topics President Claudia Sheinbaum spoke about at her Thursday morning press conference.
Here is a recap of the president’s Aug. 21 mañanera.
Record FDI in first half of 2025
Sheinbaum presented data from the Economy Ministry showing that Mexico received US $34.3 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) in the first six months of the year, up 10% from the same period of 2024.
She highlighted that the amount is a new record, exceeding the previous record set in the first six months of 2024.
Sheinbaum also pointed out that the FDI total between January and June is more than double the foreign investment Mexico received in the first six months of 2017.
“Not even tariffs could bring down the Mexican economy,” she said, referring to the various duties the United States imposed on imports from Mexico in the first half of this year.
In the first half of 2025, foreign investment in Mexico was up 10% compared to last year. (Juan Carlos Buenrostro/Presidencia)
Sheinbaum: ‘A lot of Canadians are coming to Mexico’
Mexico aiming to become world’s 5th most-visited country
Sheinbaum highlighted that Mexico is currently the world’s sixth most-visited country.
Mexico welcomed 45 million international tourists in 2024 to rank sixth. The only countries with more visitors last year were France, Spain, the United States, Turkey and Italy.
Mexico was the world’s sixth most-visited country in 2024, Sheinbaum said. (Juan Carlos Buenrostro/Presidencia)
