Guevara is a native of Guanajuato state and had already amassed a huge following on Instagram prior to appearing on the 10-week reality show. (VICKY LÓPEZ/CUARTOSCURO.COM)
A 30-year-old native of Guanajuato state is the first transgender woman to win a reality television series in Mexico.
Wendy Guevara, an influencer with over 6 million followers on Instagram, was one of 14 contestants on “La casa de los famosos México,” a Mexican version of the “Celebrity Big Brother” reality program.
With a total of 18.2 million votes, Guevara was declared the winner of “La Casa de las Famosos” earlier this week. (Wendy Guevara)
The finale was broadcast Sunday, with Guevara receiving 18.2 million viewers’ votes to win the 10-week contest.
“I’m shaking, … I can’t believe it, my God!” she exclaimed after she was declared the winner.
Guevara, who was born in León, Guanajuato, will take home 2.6 million pesos (US $151,700) once tax is deducted from her 4-million-peso prize, according to a report by the newspaper El Financiero.
In a video posted to Instagram before the inaugural season of the reality program began, she said she would pay off her home and “help my parents and sisters obviously” if she won the top prize.
Guevara has become a public icon during her run on the show. (Rogelio Morales/Cuartoscuro)
During the 2 1/2 months that the program went to air, Guevera “won over fans and supporters with her captivating personality,” NBC News reported.
She and her celebrity housemates participated in weekly challenges after which viewers voted to evict one of the tenants of “La casa de los famosos.”
The runner-up was Peruvian TV host, actor and former soccer player Nicola Porcella, who also stayed in the celebrity abode until the 71st and final day of filming. Entrepreneur and influencer Alfonso “Poncho” de Nigris came third and Sergio Mayer, an actor, singer and former lawmaker with the ruling Morena party, finished fourth.
The show was a ratings hit, making Guevara’s victory as a transgender woman even more impactful.
“In a country plagued by prejudice and discrimination, a trans woman today won the most popular reality show with the votes and love of the audience,” said a user of the social media site X, formerly known as Twitter.
The X user @albertxrex, who identifies as non-binary, added that Guevara’s victory should be “an invitation to embrace trans people, listen to their stories and respect their lives.”
An estimated 500,000 faithful turned out for the first gathering of the La Luz del Mundo megachurch since the COVID-19 pandemic, and the arrest and imprisonment of leader Naasón Joaquín García for child sex offenses. (Fernando Carranza Garcia/Cuartoscuro)
In its first large-scale event in Guadalajara since the Covid-19 pandemic began in 2020 — and since its leader was convicted last June after pleading guilty in Los Angeles to three charges of sexual abuse of minors — the La Luz del Mundo (Light of the World) megachurch drew an estimated 500,000 people to a religious ceremony on Monday, according to media reports.
During the so-called Santa Cena, a ceremony that recalls the death of Jesus, parishioners of the Guadalajara-based evangelical church listened to a recorded audio message from their spiritual leader Naasón Joaquín García, who faced 23 charges of sex crimes against children — including multiple counts of rape and conspiracy to engage in human trafficking and child pornography. Joaquín was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport in 2019.
Church dignitaries from 60 countries were in attendance at the gathering. (Fernando Carranza Garcia/Cuartoscuro)
In exchange for prosecutors dropping many of the charges, including the most serious, Joaquín, 54, pleaded guilty last year to two acts of forcible oral sex with minors and performing a lewd act on a child. He was sentenced in June to 16 years and 8 months, a term he currently is serving at a state prison south of Fresno, California.
In his taped remarks Monday, delivered with the same vigor in which he gave his sermons in person, the so-called “Apostle of Christ” said he prays to God “for those who were deceived and confused” and for “those dominated by the flesh.”
“There is no sadder and pitiful state,” he said, “than that of the sinner plunged into the field of guilt, the abyss of malice, all due to a whim of his flesh, due to an unhealthy whim and a soft deception that brought him the worst evils, a momentary pleasure that damaged him all his life.” He added that he turns to God seeking “mercy and forgiveness.”
The ceremony marked the first in-person gathering in more than 2 1/2 years at La Luz del Mundo’s main headquarters in Guadalajara’s Hermosa Provincia neighborhood. The streets around the 80-meter (262-foot) tall white temple were crowded with people, though few images of Joaquín – especially those alluding to his innocence, something which many believers still maintain – remain on nearby facades and walls.
The imposing main church of Luz del Mundo, where the majority of the 500,000 attendees gathered. (Policía Guadalajara/Twitter)
According to one report, some 300,000 people from 60 countries were expected for what used to be an annual gathering called Holy Convocation. Another advance report estimated 400,000, but on Monday, several news sources reported that approximately 500,000 people had attended, primarily at the church’s main location, but also at two other sites in Guadalajara. That figure was confirmed by church spokesperson Eliezer Gutiérrez Avelar, who added that most attendees were Mexican nationals.
La Luz del Mundo was founded in 1926 by the late Aarón Joaquín González, the grandfather of the convicted Joaquín. The faithful practice a form of Restorationist theology, which hearkens back to early Christianity. Female members follow a dress code that includes the wearing of long skirts and head coverings during religious services, and are seated apart from men.
The Holy Convocation continued Tuesday with the farewell to national and international delegates.
Pancho Villa, the famed Mexico Revolutionary leader, allegedly hid an enormous stash of gold in the desert between El Paso and Mexico - though to this day it has never been found.(Library of Congress/Wikimedia)
Francisco “Pancho” Villa, — born José Doroteo Arango Arámbula and known as the Northern Centaur — was the leader of the División del Norte (Northern Division) during the Mexican Revolution. Villa is said to have been a ruthless soldier and a thief.
The history of the 19th and early 20th centuries in Mexico is packed with revolutions and counter-revolutions. One of the most popular stories from this period is the legend of Pancho Villa and his missing treasure, thought to be buried somewhere in the Sierra Madre mountains.
Pancho Villa is one of the best-known of the many fascinating protagonists of the Mexican Revolution. (D.W. Hoffman/Wikimedia)
It was common at the time for revolutionary leaders to protect their plunder by burying it in different locations. Even wealthy landowners buried their money underground to safeguard it from bandits.
Ever since the Mexican Revolution, people have searched for Villa’s buried treasure, which was plundered from local towns and villages throughout northern Mexico.
During the 30-year presidency of Porfirio Díaz, money was concentrated in the hands of wealthy landowners. After Francisco I. Madero’s appeal to begin a revolution in 1910, Villa decided to join the fight.
Money for armies was difficult to acquire, and as a result, many revolutionaries depended on looting to fund their operations. Villa may have been the most brazen and successful in funding his efforts this way.
Villa with his generals. From left to right: Rodolfo Fierro, Pancho Villa, Torribio Ortega and Juan Medina, photographed in 1913. (W.H. Horne/Wikimedia)
There are two documented accounts of significant amounts of money being stolen by Villa and his men.
In 1999, the University of California, Berkeley, released a letter that was among the papers of Silvestre Terrazas — Villa’s secretary of finance and former governor of Chihuahua. The letter — written by Wells Fargo Bank in El Paso, Texas — details the looting of one of their trains by Villa and 200 of his men. They absconded with 122 ingots of silver — estimated to be worth at least US $3.4 million today.
Three weeks after the heist, Villa made a secret deal with Wells Fargo to return the silver for the sum of US $50,000 (the equivalent of US $1 million today). Villa returned only 96 bars of silver, leaving 26 bars unaccounted for.
Another account says that in December of 1913, Villa and his men captured Chihuahua and robbed the Bank of Mexico located in the city. The director of the bank, Luis Terrazas, hid the bank’s gold in one of the columns of the building for protection and then fled to the British consulate for safety.
Luis Terrazas was one of the most prominent Chihuahuans of his day, and had several run-ins with Villa throughout his life. (Library of Congress/Wikimedia)
Villa captured Terrazas and took him from the consulate. His men then tore apart the bank until they located the gold – worth US $6.3 million – which was hidden in a column. The gold was never recovered.
Historians continue to scour the papers of Villa’s accomplices to try and discover more clues to the hidden treasure’s location. Several are housed at the University of California. The University of Texas holds the papers that once belonged to Lázaro de la Garza, who controlled the acquisition of arms and munitions from the United States for Villa and his army.
The United States National Archives also contains the FBI files on the smuggling, money transfers, and financial activities of Felix Sommerfeld — a German spy in Mexico — who also acquired arms for Villa.
Rumors abound over where Villa might have buried his hoard. Some think it was hidden in remote places in Durango, Chihuahua or Coahuila. Historian Carlos Castañón cites Torreón, Coahuila, as a possibility — it was a center of commerce and transportation during the Porfiriato, making it attractive to mercenaries.
“The Treasure of Pancho Villa,” a 1955 film mythologizing the hidden hoard – and starring Villa’s youngest son – which has become one of the most popular Mexican revolutionary legends. (Benito Movie Poster)
The La Laguna area was taken over at least four times and looted for large sums of cash, gold, and silver. It is said that people in the region have dug hundreds of holes searching for the treasure. Searches of entire towns in northern Mexico have turned up nothing.
Another account says the gold was hidden in Tepuxta, north of Mazatlán, in a cavern used by Villa as a hideaway for him and his men.
The last documented sighting of Villa’s plunder – or at least part of it – was in 1915. In November that year, the El Paso Times newspaper detailed the raid of The Villa Stash House — as the FBI termed it — in El Paso, Texas.
The house used by Villa, his brother Hipólito and their wives was raided by Treasury Department agents based on the belief that it contained items smuggled into the United States.
The Villa Stash House – where some of Pancho’s legendary gains are rumored to be hidden. (kisselpaso)
The agents said they were tipped off by the purchase of a large safe by Mrs. Hipólito Villa. Inside the safe they found US $30,000 (almost US $1 million today) in diamond jewelry and more than $500,000 in US currency and gold coins (more than US $15 million today) – along with a solid gold medal inscribed: “To General Francisco Villa from the Constitutional Government for personal valor.”
The agents confiscated the jewelry and a French touring car parked outside but later returned them by court order, as there was no way to establish where they were purchased.
Since Villa’s death in 1923, treasure hunters have searched the Sierra Madre seeking the loot. Emil Holmdahl — the soldier-of-fortune who is suspected of stealing Villa’s skull from his grave and selling it to the “Skulls and Bones” secret society at Yale — spent decades searching for the hidden treasure but never found it.
The Villa Stash House has also been searched thoroughly. The abandoned house was purchased by entrepreneur Enrique Guajardo who began renovating it to turn it into a tourist attraction. During the renovation, he discovered a place hidden beneath the floorboards that he believes was used to hide Villa’s stash. But yet again, there was no sign of the treasure.
Emil Holmdahl in the regalia of an insurgent fighter. He spent years searching for Villa’s treasure. (Wikimedia Commons)
In 2020, the public gained access to the Villa Stash House, with a grand opening attended by curious historians from both sides of the border and a number of treasure seekers. Last year, a Las Cruces company, Construction Survey Technologies, was brought in to search the area where the house is located, using ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and other cutting-edge technology used for subsurface mapping and excavation.
But after over 100 years of searching in many different locations, Villa’s treasure remains elusive.
Sheryl Losser is a former public relations executive and professional researcher. She spent 45 years in national politics in the United States. She moved to Mazatlán in 2021 and works part-time doing freelance research and writing.
Ticketmaster Mexico has announced that it will retire paper tickets in favor of a more secure digital option. (Fernando Carranza Garcia/Cuartoscuro)
Ticketmaster Mexico will replace paper tickets with a new form of digital ticket, which it hopes will combat issues with reselling, duplicates and fakes.
Event-goers will be able to buy tickets using the SafeTix app, via a user account verified with an email address and phone number. The app then creates a digital ticket that can be displayed on a mobile phone, with a dynamic barcode that changes every 15 seconds to prevent counterfeiting.
Ticketmaster is implementing the new app to cut down on reselling and fraudulent tickets, as well as make the customer experience smoother. (Depositphotos)
Ticketmaster launches the new system in Mexico after it was forced to pay more than18 million pesos (US $1 million) to 2,155 ticket holders who were denied entry to aBad Bunny concert at Mexico City’s Azteca Stadium in December.
The venue saw dangerous crushes and repeated failures of the ticketing system, due to what Ticketmaster claimed was an unprecedented number of fake tickets. The company avoided a fine from the Federal Consumer Protection Agency (Profeco) by agreeing to pay disappointed ticket holders 100% of the ticket price, plus 20% compensation.
“The Ticketmaster SafeTix ticket is part of the technological and service evolution that the company is making for the benefit of consumers,” Ana María Arroyo, CEO of Ticketmaster Mexico, said at a press conference on Monday. “We seek to close spaces to illegal tickets and protect the user experience.”
Arroyo took over direction of the company in January, tasked with promoting technological change. At Monday’s press conference, Arroyo explained that users will initially be able to choose between paper or digital tickets, but that paper tickets will be phased out over the coming months as people become familiarized with the new system.
The company faced significant backlash after thousands were denied entry to a concert by singer Bad Bunny due to what Ticketmaster called “an unprecedented number of fake tickets.” (Mario Jasso/Cuartoscuro)
“Migration [to digital tickets] is progressive and we expect it to be quite rapid,” she said. “It’s not a transition that we’re going to force, it’s a decision that users are going to make.”
As well as greater security, the SafeTix app offers other benefits, including a help button, advance registration for events, and improved systems for buying tickets.
“The virtual queue gives clarity and certainty to fans of the place they occupy for the acquisition of their tickets,” explained Alejandro Ordaz, Ticketmaster’s deputy director of marketing.
In-person ticketing for Ticketmaster Mexico currently requires customers to physically visit a Ticketmaster location after making an online purchase, often having to wait a significant length of time in order to obtain their printed tickets.
The SafeTix system is already in use in the United States and Canada, where about 20 million digital tickets were scanned last year. It will be implemented in Mexico alongside a new event entry system, called TM1 Entry, which speeds up the reading of legitimate tickets and facilitates the identification of fakes.
INAH archaeologists have discovered the bones of someone believed to be an important figure in the ancient Maya site known as El Tigre. (Insituto nacional de Antropología e Historia / Cuartoscuro.com
The Maya Train project has led to a wealth of archaeological finds on the Yucatán Peninsula, and now there’s a new one: the skeletal remains of a human dating back an estimated 1,200 years.
The National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) announced the finding on Monday. Per INAH, the discovery is notable because the bones of the deceased, a young person at the time of death, were found inside a large funerary vessel with “a showy and well-preserved jade ring.”
An INAH press release emphasized the skeleton’s “showy and well-preserved jade ring,” which likely denotes the importance of the person who was buried with it. (INAH / Cuartoscuro.com)
The discovery from the Mesoamerican Late Classic period (600-800 AD) was made in the archaeological zone of El Tigre, Campeche. Lying on the bank of the Candelaría river, El Tigre – called Itzamkanac by the Chontal Maya – was a major commercial and ceremonial site in antiquity. It is speculated to be the place where Hernán Cortés executed Cuauhtémoc, the last Mexica emperor, during his 1525 expedition to Honduras.
“A green stone ring, a jade ring, was placed as an offering,” Diego Prieto Hernández, head of INAH, said during President López Obrador’s Monday morning press conference. This is “a very prominent element that speaks of the importance of this person.”
The Maya Train crosses through the state of Campeche on two different routes — one from Mérida, Yucatán and one from Bacalar, Quintana Roo — before meeting up in Escárcega, Campeche and continuing on to Palenque, Chiapas.
Archaeological digs in three areas on the Maya Train route – Moral-Reforma in the state of Tabasco, along with Palenque and El Tigre – are being conducted under the auspices of the Program for the Improvement of Archaeological Zones (Promeza).
One of the vessels found at El Tigre. The skeleton with the jade ring was found in a similar vessel. (INAH / Cuartoscuro.com)
With the latest finding, Prieto Hernández noted, 177 pre-Columbian human burials have been located along Section 1 of the Maya Train. These discoveries have taken place during archaeological monitoring while the tracks were being laid.
In the section of the train that runs from Escárcega to Palenque, Prieto Hernández said findings through Aug. 14 have included 2,698 buildings, 248 elements of furniture, 281,353 ceramic fragments and 55 natural features associated with pre-Columbian human activity.
Progress is being made toward opening El Tigre to tourism. Activity towards this end includes the exploration and conservation of the site’s main square, the market square and what is being called a triadic complex, as well as the construction of a visitor center.
Voters go to the polls on June 2, 2024 to choose not only a new president but new leaders in many other government positions. (Mario Jasso/Cuartoscuro.com)
The Morena party is the early favorite to win the 2024 mayoral election in Mexico City, a recent poll found.
Voters in the capital will elect a new mayor on June 2, 2024, the same day that Mexicans will choose a new president.
Martí Batres took over from Claudia Sheinbaum when she stepped down as mayor to pursue the Morena presidential candidacy. (Martí Bartrés/Twitter)
Morena, the party founded by President López Obrador, came out on top in four mock races set up by polling company Enkoll, which surveyed just over 1,000 people earlier this month for the newspaper El Universal.
In each of the contests, the current mayor of the Mexico City borough of Benito Juárez, Santiago Taboada, was put forward as the candidate for the alliance made up of the National Action Party (PAN), the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), while Salomón Chertorivski, a federal deputy who served as health minister for just over a year in the 2006-12 government of former president Felipe Calderón, represented the Citizens Movement (MC) party.
The candidate for the alliance made up of Morena, the Labor Party (PT) and the Ecological Green Party of Mexico (PVEM) changed in each of the four contests.
Omar García Harfuch, Mexico City’s security minister since late 2019, won the first mock race, with 53% of respondents saying they would vote for him if the mayoral election was held on the day they were polled. Taboada, a lawyer by profession who represents the PAN in Benito Juárez, attracted 39% support, while just 8% of respondents said they would vote for Chertorivski.
Santiago Taboada is the leading candidate to represent the opposition PAN-PRI-PRD coalition in the contest. (GALO CAÑAS/CUARTOSCURO.COM)
Clara Brugada, currently serving as mayor of the borough of Iztapalapa, represented the Morena-PT-PVEM alliance in the second contest, attracting 52% support compared to 40% for Taboada and 8% for Chertorivski.
Mario Delgado, Morena’s national president and a former federal lawmaker, was backed by 49% of respondents in the third mock race, while Taboada and Chertorivski had support of 42% and 9%, respectively.
The percentages were exactly the same in the fourth contest, in which Ricardo Monreal, a former senator who is currently an aspirant to Morena’s presidential election candidacy, was put forward as the Morena-PT-PVEM representative and proved more popular than the potential PAN-PRI-PRD and MC candidates.
Enkoll also asked poll respondents to nominate their preferred candidates for Morena, the PAN and the PRI.
Omar García Harfuch and Carla Brugada came in first and second, respectively, as preferred Morena candidates in the poll by El Universal. (GALO CAÑAS/CUARTOSCURO.COM)
García, who is perhaps best known for being targeted in a brazen cartel attack in Mexico City in 2020, was the top pick for Morena, with 35% of those polled selecting him as their preferred candidate. Brugada, who also served as Itzapalapa mayor between 2009 and 2012 and as a federal deputy before then, ranked second with 27% support followed by Delgado with 24% and Monreal with 14%.
Taboada was nominated by 43% of respondents as their preferred PAN candidate, ahead of Lia Limón, mayor of the borough of Álvaro Obregón, with 27% support. Mauricio Tabe, mayor of the borough of Miguel Hidalgo, was the preferred PAN candidate of 18% of those polled, while Senator Kenia López Rabadán was nominated by 12%.
Adrián Rubalcava, mayor of the borough of Cuajimalpa, was easily the top PRI choice, with 55% of respondents nominating him as their preferred candidate for that party. Federal Deputy Cynthia López was chosen by 34% of those polled, while Deputy Xavier González was nominated by 11% of respondents as their preferred PRI candidate.
Sandra Cuevas is the mayor of the Cuauhtémoc borough of Mexico City today. (Sandra Cuevas/Twitter)
Another potential candidate for the PAN-PRI-PRD alliance is Cuauhtémoc Mayor Sandra Cuevas, who announced on Monday that she planned to contest the 2024 mayoral election.
Insecurity was nominated as the main problem Mexico City faces by 55% of those who responded to the Enkoll poll. Robberies including muggings was the main security concern of almost six in 10 respondents.
The current Mexico City mayor is Martí Batres, who took the reins from Claudia Sheinbaum when she resigned in June to focus on winning Morena’s nomination for the 2024 presidential election. Sheinbaum won the 2018 mayor election for Morena, receiving just over 47% of the vote.
Sheinbaum’s final report on her term as Mexico City mayor on June 15. (GRACIELA LÓPEZ /CUARTOSCURO.COM)
Over two-thirds of poll respondents – 68% – approved of the presidential aspirant’s performance as mayor, suggesting that there is enough goodwill for Morena to support the triumph of the party’s mayoral candidate on June 2, 2024.
The position of Mexico City mayor is considered one of the most powerful political positions in Mexico. López Obrador, mayor of the capital between 2000 and 2005, used the position as a springboard for his ultimately unsuccessful 2006 tilt at the presidency.
Samuel García (left), governor of Nuevo León, went on a tour of India last week and met with various officials and business representatives, including the governor of Maharahstra, Ramseh Bais, seen here. Indian companies are investing in the northern Mexican state. (Samuel García/Twitter)
People in business media are always on the lookout for the next big geography in globalization trends. Going back to the 1990s, it was NAFTA, then it was all China, China, and more China. Next came the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China), evolving to BRICS (adding South Africa), and then BRICS+ (adding Mexico and Indonesia to the list).
In the past three years, three significant global events have left many wondering where we go from here. The first of course was the COVID-19 pandemic, which ravaged supply chains and challenged the thinking of centralization of production in any one location.
Next came an increased concern globally on the degree of dependence on China, considering its government policies and lax intellectual property protection.
The third was the war in Ukraine, which changed the world’s perception of Russia (including as a destination for businesses), highlighted vulnerabilities in oil and natural gas supplies, and once again reminded us all of the fragility of peace.
Two significant and still developing business strategies have come out of these global events that I think are defining the next phase of globalization: “China +1” and “Nearshoring”.
China +1:
The idea that China alone cannot be a single or primary source of supply for any company. It makes sense to retain China as a key source of supply, but also add a +1 in another low-cost country
Nearshoring:
The idea that both long product supply chains reliant on Asia and also long energy supply chains are increasingly risky is resulting in shifting production closer to customers, and/or to less vulnerable regions.
I think India and Mexico will be the key beneficiaries of both of these shifts, for reasons outlined below.
India has the population and low-cost base to be the most logical “China +1” winner. Of course, other countries like Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand will benefit, but India has by far the most potential to be the biggest beneficiary.
Mexico has the geography, labor force, and cost base to be the most logical nearshoring winner. All of North America will benefit significantly from the nearshoring trend, but Mexico has the most potential.
Both countries have their share of challenges. Both have polarizing political leaders with outsized influence. Both have infrastructure challenges, social issues that must be overcome, and water scarcity issues. But both also have huge potential if they make sound policy decision.
Earlier this year, Mexico and India reached an agreement to collaborate on projects across a range of areas, including water management and the production of low-cost vaccines. Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard traveled to New Delhi to join Indian Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh to sign an agreement with India’s Council of Scientific and Industrial Research.
According to a statement issued by the Foreign Affairs Ministry (SRE), Ebrard announced that Mexico and India will collaborate on and jointly finance “binational development and innovation projects in several fields,” including ones related to water, lithium, the aerospace industry, biotechnology and vaccines.
Under the new agreement, the SRE statement added, “both countries will identify priority projects for development, among which are water management, development of electro-mobility and production of vaccines at low cost.
An interesting trend to note is Indian companies accelerating investing in Mexico. Recently, India’s Tata Consulting announced an investment in 2,500 IT consulting jobs in Monterrey, Mexico. Just last week, Nuevo León’s governor Samuel García announced a US $200M USD investment from India’s Vimercati, a leading company in the auto parts sector.
And more investment from other Indian companies is on the way, with Samuel García finishing up a trip to India last week in which he announced investments from three of India’s largest companies including Tata Group, Infosys and HCL Tech. According to García, these companies will generate at least 7,000 employees in Mexico.
The world is an increasingly complicated place for multinational companies to navigate. I think both India and Mexico will be clear winners in the next phase of globalization, and it’s fascinating to see how these two countries could collaborate, cooperate, and even complement each other given their unique strengths. I’ll be rooting for both countries in the next round of globalization!
In an interview with the newspaper El Economista, presidential hopeful Claudia Sheinbaum shares what's next for Mexico. (Galo Cañas/Cuartoscuro)
The nearshoring phenomenon will help drive significant economic growth in Mexico during the six-year period of the next federal government, according to leading presidential aspirant Claudia Sheinbaum.
Automotive manufacturing is one of the industries benefiting from nearshoring, as manufacturers relocate operations closer to the U.S. market. (Wikimedia Commons)
However, there must be a “sustained effort” aimed at ensuring that investment flowing into Mexico generates “wellbeing,” she said, making use of one the favorite words of her political mentor, President López Obrador.
Sheinbaum – who polls suggest is on track to secure the ruling Morena party’s nomination and win the 2024 presidential election – told El Economista that strong growth in the 2024-2030 period will come from nearshoring and “the internal market” – consumption in Mexico by Mexicans, in other words.
It is important that growth generates prosperity across Mexico and that the poorest Mexicans share in the wealth, she said.
“Attending to those below” – as the López Obrador administration has done through significant spending on welfare and social programs – spurs consumption, said the 61-year-old physicist and environmental scientist.
Former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, a close ally of the president, is on track to becoming the Morena party presidential candidate for 2024. (Archive)
“Distributing resources to the … [poorest] deciles [of the population] has given dynamism to the Mexican economy. We have to keep doing it,” she said.
Sheinbaum, who declared late last year that she was ready to become Mexico’s first female president, didn’t cite specific growth figures she would like to see in coming years, but Nuevo León Governor Samuel García – who has his eyes on a presidential run in 2030 – said earlier this year that Mexico could reach GDP expansion of 8-10% per year if it capitalizes on the opportunity presented by foreign companies’ desire to operate in Mexico due to its proximity to the United States and preferential trade agreement with that country, among other factors.
Growth of that level would be significantly better than the expansions of 3.1% and 4.8% recorded in 2022 and 2021, respectively. The higher figure came after a sharp coronavirus-induced downturn in 2020.
According to Sheinbaum, nearshoring is “a great opportunity, but we have to learn from our experience with the first free trade agreement and the maquiladoras.”
Much nearshoring investment is either on the northern border with the United States, or located on the Pacific coast, in reach of Asia. (Invest in MX)
She was referring to the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, which was superseded by the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement in 2020, and Mexican factories, especially those located in northern Mexico.
“We must take care of sustainability and make a sustained effort so that investment generates wellbeing – better salaries for workers, more care of the environment and greater national content in our exports,” said Sheinbaum, who served as environment minister in the Mexico City government led by López Obrador in the early 2000s.
“… Another thing [we need] that is very important – business people say it to me and I agree – is more innovation in Mexico. We need more public and private investment in science and technology,” she said.
Sheinbaum, who stepped down as Mexico City mayor in June to pursue Morena’s candidacy, has recently been on the campaign trail in northern border cities, where large numbers of foreign-owned maquiladoras are located.
“The growth that the maquiladora export industry has brought is remarkable, but it’s also clear what is lacking [on the northern border],” she said before mentioning “better public services, transport, housing [and] drainage.”
“I’m especially concerned about everything that has to do with the conditions of women who work, who are the majority in … [the maquiladora] industry,” Sheinbaum said.
Sheinbaum says working conditions must be a cornerstone of the conversation on nearshoring. (Wikimedia Commons)
“They need more support for the care of their children, … the state needs to provide [that] support,” she said.
Among the other issues Sheinbaum spoke about in her interview with El Economista were taxation and water.
In the short term, raising taxes in Mexico isn’t necessary, she said, asserting that “it’s possible to increase collection” without doing so.
“What’s needed is to provide facilities to micro and small businesses for the payment of taxes and to keep up the fight against tax evasion,” Sheinbaum said.
She also said that customs could contribute to an overall increase in tax revenue.
“About one trillion pesos [in duties and taxes] is collected [by customs annually] and there could be a lot more revenue [brought in] with the increase in foreign trade, the expansion of some ports including Salina Cruz and Coatzacoalcos and [improved] efficiencies in customs,” Sheinbaum said.
Nevertheless, she said that development in the south and southeast of Mexico, where water is abundant, should be promoted – as López Obrador has sought to do – and that greater focus on the efficient use of water in agriculture is required.
“My vision is that we have to keep working in the southeast, consolidate the investments that are now being made,” Sheinbaum said, observing that the Maya Train railroad, the new Olmeca refinery on the Tabasco coast and the Isthmus of Tehuantepec trade corridor – all government infrastructure projects – will be operational during the term of Mexico’s next president, who will be sworn in on Oct. 1 2024.
When completed, the Isthmus of Tehuantepec trade corridor will have 10 industrial parks, which are expected to greatly contribute to the economic development of the Southeast. (Gob MX)
“I also see opportunities in other regions,” she said, citing the potential of the electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing sector in Mexico’s central and northern states, including those that make up the Bajío region, where numerous automakers already have plants.
“We have to continue supporting [the production of EVs],” Sheinbaum said, referring to a domestic industry that will soon include Tesla.
“In the central region, there could be development of new industries that don’t contaminate. The Felipe Ángeles International Airport, which is projected to become the [country’s] main freight airport, could bring a lot of momentum to [the economies of] Hidalgo, México state and Mexico City, of course,” she added.
Sheinabuam’s main rivals for the Morena nomination are former foreign affairs minister Marcelo Ebrard and ex-interior minister Adán Augusto López, both of whom have also been campaigning for the ruling party’s candidacy since resigning from their government positions in June.
This classic dish from Puebla is a seasonal favorite around August and September all over Mexico. (Joseph Sorrentino)
The 22nd “Festival Internacional del Chile en Nogada” in San Nicolás de los Ranchos will be held for two more weekends in August.
The small pueblo is located about 25 miles from the city of Puebla and, because the road to get there is a one-lane road passing through several towns, it’ll take about an hour to arrive. But it’s definitely worth the trip.
San Nicolás de los Ranchos lies near Popocatépetl volcano. (Wikimedia Commons)
Chile en nogada is the iconic Pueblan dish. A poblano chile is stuffed with different fruits, nuts and usually, beef, pork or both. It’s then covered with nogada – a walnut sauce– before pomegranate seeds are tossed on top, along with a sprig of parsley, bathing the dish in the colors of the Mexican flag.
“The idea for the fair is to showcase what we have in this region,” said Gumaro Sandre Popoca, Municipal President of San Nicolás de los Ranchos. “We have had this event for 22 years but in the beginning, it was a local event. A year ago, we started advertising more to let others know what products we have here. There is no other fair like it in all of Mexico.”
Esperanza Ochoa Apantenco, the owner of the local Tía Pera café, has been coming to the festival since its first year. She stood in front of her stand, tempting passersby with a taste of her chile en nogada.
“Everyone has their special touch, their own recipe,” she said. “Mine is from my abuela. All of the ingredients in our chile en nogada are from this region.”
Guadalupe Rincón Amozoqueño with her chile en nogada vegano. (Joseph Sorrentino)
Although virtually all cooks add some type of meat to their chile en nogada, Ochoa said the dish was originally vegetarian – good news for us, since Martha and I are vegetarians, but her dish still contained meat.
It looked like we wouldn’t be able to eat any of the chiles on offer, until we spied a “Chile Vegano” sign at nearby El Riconcito. “I got the idea because I know there are many vegetarians and vegans now,” said owner Guadalupe Rincón Amozoqueño.
She uses almond milk for the sauce. We’d already eaten a large quesadilla but we had to try hers. We’re glad we did because it was delicious.
There are stands serving quesadillas, gorditas and other traditional Mexican foods too – and plenty of places to grab snacks, cookies made from corn, and ice cream, including helado de nogada –walnut ice cream with pomegranate seeds and parsley, like its savory chile cousin. Efrain Huilotl Gallegos was selling his vinos artesanales, fruit wines that proved popular with festival goers.
Paola Pérez Romero (l) and her sister, Thelma Alicia Pérez Romero with the world’s largest molcajete. (Joseph Sorrentino)
The world’s largest molcajete (the traditional mortar and pestle), made by Don Antonio Tlapanco Sánchez in 2009, is on display at the fair. It’s 1 meter (3.28 feet) in diameter, 80 cms high (a little over 2.5 feet high) and weighs 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds). Having your photo taken with it appeared to be a must.
There’s music – everything from mariachi to symphonic – kids rides, dances, live performances by Grupo Moros and others.
On Aug. 20, the festival is scheduled to make the world’s largest chile en nogada, measuring 6 meters in length (almost 20 feet) and weighing 50 kg (1,100 pounds). It will be bathed in 900 liters of sauce, and stuffed with 600 kg of meat. Slices will be sold and the proceeds donated to local children with disabilities.
Miranda Huilotl giving Antony Torres Pérez a sample of vino artesanal. Torres found the wine “very good.” (Joseph Sorrentino)
At this time of year, chiles en nogada is available in what feels like almost every restaurant across Mexico. But when Sandre, the town’s mayor, was asked where the best could be found, he didn’t hesitate. “San Nicolás,” he said. “Por supuesto.”
The festival is open August 19, 20, 26 and 27, from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Entry is free of charge.
The Mexican wolf, a subspecies of gray wolf, was once considered extinct in the wild, but is now making a slow recovery thanks to the Laboratory of Conservation Genetics and Biobank of Tissues and Germplasm in Mexico City. (Sedema/Cuartoscuro)
On the verge of extinction in the 1970s, seven Mexican wolves – believed to be the last of their kind – were captured and placed into a captive breeding program shortly before the species was declared “probably extinct” in the wild. Today, the “frozen zoo” in Mexico City’s Chapultepec Zoo plays a vital role in the conservation of the Mexican wolf.
Founded in 2010, the project’s official name is the Laboratory of Conservation Genetics and Biobank of Tissues and Germplasm. It stores 2,400 samples of 85 different species of animals in frozen liquid nitrogen and is one of Latin America’s first such genetic banks, as well as Mexico’s largest.
The DNA bank has allowed researchers to catalogue and store the tissue of various species, from pandas to jaguars. (Sedema/Cuartoscuro)
The bank has laboratories to acquire, process, and preserve cells frozen at lower than -190 degrees Celsius (-374 F), at which temperature the vital functions of the cells are diminished, and can be kept in suspended animation for a long time. Also stored in the frozen zoo are biomaterials such as gametes (sperm and ovarian tissue), embryos, biological tissues, and blood.
Among the DNA samples kept in the genetic bank are those of giant pandas, Mexican wolves, jaguars and bighorn sheep. These samples have already been used for reproduction programs for endangered animals, and it is hoped that in coming years, it could also be used to restore endangered or extinct species.
In 2014, Chapultepec Zoo made the first successful artificial insemination of a Mexican wolf using only materials stored in the bank. Currently, the frozen zoo has 700 different samples of male and female wolves, taken from the United States-Mexico Binational Program for the Recovery of the Mexican Wolf.
A release program in the southwestern United States has led to a wild population estimated at around 200 wolves, while reintroduction efforts in northern Mexico have been less successful, with approximately 40 thought to be living in the wild in Chihuahua and Sonora.
Jaguars are another species whose genetic material is stored by the zoo laboratory. (Wikimedia Commons)
To commemorate International Wolf Day on Sunday, the Environment Ministry (Sedema) highlighted the role played by the frozen zoo in the recovery of the species.
“Thanks to these efforts, this species was reclassified from probably extinct in the wild to endangered,” Sedema wrote on Twitter.
The frozen zoo was also successful in thawing giant panda semen and transferring bighorn sheep embryos.
In July, Chapultepec Zoo celebrated its 100th anniversary and its current role as a center of wildlife conservation through its extensive breeding, conservation, education, and research programs.
