Action to further reduce congestion at Mexico City International Airport - the country's busiest - will be delayed until 2024, say authorities. (Carlos Aranda/Unsplash)
A week after a decree was issued to reduce the number of flights at the Mexico City International Airport (AICM) starting in October, the government announced Wednesday that its implementation will be delayed until January 2024.
The reason given was to prevent a negative impact on travelers using Mexico’s busiest airport during the winter travel season.
Facilities at the Mexico City airport are over capacity, warn the government and airlines, although they disagree over the solution. (AICM/Instagram)
The reduction from 52 to 43 flights per hour will now begin on Jan. 8, the first Monday after the country’s Christmas vacation period.
The Federal Civil Aviation Agency (AFAC) announced last week that, starting on Oct. 28, takeoffs and landings per hour at AICM should total no more than 43. The airport’s two runways, taxiways and aprons have become overcrowded, and the terminals have become oversaturated with travelers, AFAC noted.
In response to those issues, the federal government had already enacted a year ago a “temporary” plan that has reduced the number of flights arriving and departing from 61 to 52 per hour.
In light of last week’s announcement, the National Chamber of Air Transport (Canaero), which represents the airlines, went on the offensive, saying the new reduction would bring about “a massive cancellation of flights” and “put the country in an unfavorable situation.”
The new Felipes Ángeles airport (AIFA) has greater capacity than its current traffic, and authorities hope the reduction in flights at AICM will shift traffic to the new airport. (ProtoplasmaKid/Wikimedia)
“The basic problem at AICM is not the capacity of [flights] per hour, but the age of the infrastructure and [its state of] deterioration,” Canaero said in a statement.
Mexico’s Ministry Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation (SICT) said this week that the postponement is being made with the aim of supporting travelers and avoiding the cancellation of flights.
Officials said they didn’t want anyone who had already purchased airline tickets for the winter travel season to be affected, and said that “with this resolution, no international flight will be [canceled].”
Earlier this week, the Aviation Pilots Union Association (ASPA) warned that the reduction of operations at AICM would be “disastrous” for commercial aviation and tourism, and “in the worst case, will generate massive layoffs of national workers.”
“With this reduction in operations, which affects only domestic flights, what will come is a cascade of problems: fewer flights and less passenger flow will affect tourism and the Mexican airlines themselves,” ASPA noted.
Like Canaero, ASPA said the root problem at AICM is related to the lack of investment in the infrastructure of Terminals 1 and 2.
The cost of food has remained a major driver of inflation, but the headline rate dropped again last month. (Half Half Travel)
Mexico’s annual headline inflation rate declined for a seventh consecutive month in August to reach its lowest level since February 2021.
The national statistics agency INEGI reported Thursday that the annual headline rate was 4.64% in August, down from 4.79% in July.
Inflation is still above the government target of 3%, according to the National Statistics Agency. (Moisés Pablo/Cuartoscuro)
The annual core inflation rate, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, was 6.08%, the lowest level since December 2021.
The headline rate was slightly higher than the forecast of analysts surveyed by Reuters and Citibanamex, while the core rate was slightly lower.
The former rate remains above the Bank of Mexico’s target of 3% inflation, with tolerance for one percentage point in either direction.
The month-over-month increase on the National Consumer Price Index, which measures headline inflation, was 0.55%, INEGI reported.
Robust fiscal policy is taking effect, and curbing the inflation – which is down significantly from 2022. (Gobierno de Mexico)
Headline inflation peaked last year at 8.7% and was just below 8% in January. But high interest rates have helped drive inflation down this year. The central bank’s key rate has been set at a record high 11.25% since March
Andrés Abadia, chief Latin America economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said that the decline in inflation is “thanks to a delayed effect from more restrictive financial conditions” as well as the strong performance of the Mexican pesos in recent months (if not recent days) and lower prices for raw materials.
“Overall, the disinflation story in Mexico is continuing, despite a resilient labor market and solid wage growth,” Abadia said.
The federal government has implemented its own anti-inflation plan in conjunction with the private sector, but whether it has contributed to the steady decline in inflation seen this year is a matter for debate.
INEGI data shows that processed food and fruit and vegetables were among the key drivers of inflation in August.
Processed foods, beverages and tobacco were 8.44% more expensive last month than they were in August 2022, while fruit and vegetable prices were up 8.15% in annual terms.
The cost of non-food goods rose 5.03% from a year earlier, services were 5.15% more expensive, housing was 3.49% dearer and meat prices ticked up by 0.47%.
Energy costs, including those for gasoline and electricity, declined 2.68% compared to August 2022.
The event includes sections dedicated to agave, chocolate, vegan food and more. (Fantastic Ordinary/Unsplash)
Once again, Mexico City’s World Trade Center will be host to one of the country’s premier food and drink industry events, The Gourmet Show, which opens Thursday and runs through Saturday.
Back for its seventeenth edition, this event will offer three days celebrating flavor, separated into different culinary realms: the Gourmet Show, the Wine Room, Agave Fest, Veganauta, Expo Café and Salón Chocolate. In each event area, attendees will find specialized products that range from food items sold directly from producers, to specialized machinery for coffee, pastry making, and restaurant service, as well as publicity services crafted for the food industry.
One of the areas to explore is the Salón Chocolate, with Mexican chocolatiers displaying their wares. (Gourmet Show/X)
Among the many items to be found are national and imported wines, cheese and charcuterie from around the world, spices, condiments, dried and fresh fruit, vegan products, diet products, items low in sodium and even gluten-free options. In attendance will be internationally renowned brands alongside new companies that will use the Gourmet Show as their first launch. A specific section of the Gourmet Show will be dedicated to facilitating business deals among vendors.
At Agave Fest, you’ll find mezcal, tequila, bacanora and other distilled spirits, alongside maguey worms and roasted crickets, special sipping glasses for agave spirits and even clothing made from maguey fiber. Also available for tasting will be other national spirits like sotol, pox, and even whiskey made from blue, red, and yellow corn.
Check out Salón Chocolate to find cacao from across the globe – but expect a particular focus on Mexican chocolate, both for use in cooking and as a standalone treat.
At the culinary presentations attendees are invited to taste, learn about, and buy products at wholesale prices. Experts will be on hand to provide tastings and talks, and to share new items in their industries.
A vendor at the Gourmet Show in Mexico City. (Gourmet Show/X)
Industry professionals, students, businesspeople and the general public are all welcome at The Gourmet Show. The event host, Tradex Exposiciones, expects close to 20,000 people to attend this year’s event at the World Trade Center. Tickets can be purchased on the event website.
Tradex Exposiciones is an international leader in the food industry and has successfully run The Gourmet Show throughout its entire tenure.
The doors of the World Trade Center will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., making for a day-long culinary fiesta. The venue offers parking on the premises and nearby in the neighborhood. You can also arrive by taking Line 1 of the Metrobus to the Poliforum station.
The Supreme Court has now decriminalized abortion at the federal level, building on a historic 2021 ruling that said a woman could not be sent to prison for pregnancy termination. (United Nations)
Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Wednesday to decriminalize abortion at the federal level, opening the door to accessing free, legal abortions in public health institutions across the country.
“The legal system that criminalizes abortion in the Federal Criminal Code is unconstitutional, since it violates the human rights of women and people with the capacity to gestate,” the court’s 11 judges concluded.
Government healthcare providers such as IMSS will now be obligated to provide abortion services. (IMSS)
The decision also prevents states from criminalizing medical personnel who provide abortion services. It builds on a2021 Supreme Court ruling that no woman can go to jail for terminating a pregnancy, which forced the state of Coahuila to modify its penal code.
Although the 2021 ruling effectively made criminalizing abortion unconstitutional, state law has been slow to catch up. Currently, the only Mexican states to legalize abortion up to 12 weeks of pregnancy are Mexico City, Oaxaca, Hidalgo, Veracruz, Coahuila, Baja California, Colima, Sinaloa, Guerrero, Baja California Sur,Quintana Roo and Aguascalientes. The service remains illegal in 20 of Mexico’s 32 states.
However, the Supreme Court’s new ruling means that even in those states, people should be able to legally access abortions at public hospitals and clinics.
“I’m very moved and very proud,” said Rebeca Ramos, executive director of GIRE, theabortion rights group which filed an injunction against the 1931 Mexican regulation that criminalizes abortion in the Supreme Court last year. “This makes possible what we had not achieved in many years, which is that at least in certain institutions all across the country, legal and safe abortion services can be provided.”
The Supreme Court has struck down penalties against abortion at the federal level, paving the way for better access to reproductive healthcare for women across Mexico. (SJCN)
Following Wednesday’s ruling, both GIRE and other abortion rights groups vowed to keep pushing for abortion to be decriminalized and made freely available in states across the country.
“Hopefully, this is the preamble so that the Court can go state by state helping local legislatures eliminate the crime of abortion, since legislators do not do their job,” Verónica Cruz, founder of the feminist group Las Libres in Guanajuato, told the New York Times.
Isabel Fulda, deputy director of GIRE, explained to El País newspaper that her organization has already filed 21 injunctions in the Mexican states that have yet to modify their penal code. Besides the legal battle, she added that many states lack supplies and training for medical personnel to offer adequate abortion services.
“Implementation is still the big pending issue,” she said. “There is a big gap between whether abortion is allowed and whether it can actually be done.”
Women marched in favor of decriminalizing abortion in September in Chiapas, one of 21 states in Mexico that still includes abortion in the penal code. (Isabel Mateos Hinjosa/Cuartoscuro)
Nevertheless, Wednesday’s decision was greeted with jubilation by women’s rights groups and progressive politicians across the country. Many express hope that Mexico is following in the footsteps of other Latin American countries that have recently moved to legalize abortion – most notably Colombia, where the Constitutional Court ruled last year to decriminalize abortion up to 24 weeks of pregnancy.
“Today has been a huge, historic advance, but it is still limited,” Fulda said. “The horizon is that abortion is completely removed from the [penal] codes and is regulated as a health service.”
Construction of a floating barrier in the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass as part of Texas's Operation Lone Star. (U.S. Customs and Border Patrol/Supervisory Border Patrol Agent Abraham Garcia)
The state of Texas has been ordered by a federal judge to remove the floating border barriers it placed in the Rio Grande to discourage migrants from crossing the river from Mexico into the United States.
On Wednesday, a U.S. federal judge issued a preliminary injunction instructing Texas to move its 1,000-foot string of wrecking-ball sized orange buoys out of the water by Sept. 15, calling them a threat to people’s safety and to U.S.-Mexico relations.
Migrants attempt to Cross the Rio Grande. 2022 was the deadliest year for migrants on record, according to U.S. government statistics. (Pedro Anza / Cuartoscuro.com)
In his ruling, District Judge David Ezra said the barriers could violate treaty agreements between the United States and Mexico. He also cast doubt on their effectiveness. “The State of Texas did not present any credible evidence that the buoy barrier as installed has significantly curtailed illegal immigration across the Rio Grande River,” wrote Ezra, a Reagan administration appointee.
Within hours of the decision, Texas had filed an appeal. “Texas is prepared to take this fight all the way up to the Supreme Court,” Gov. Greg Abbott wrote on social media, calling the judge’s ruling an attack on the state’s “sovereign authority.” The $850,000 floating barrier was installed in July near Eagle Pass, Texas, as part of a larger migration deterrence effort known as Operation Lone Star.
In August, Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Ministry (SRE) expressed concern “about the impact on migrants’ human rights and personal security that these state policies could have, as they go in the opposite direction to close collaboration.” Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Justice sued the state, accusing Texas of violating federal law by putting a barrier on an international boundary without permission. The suit also said the barrier raised humanitarian and environmental concerns.
Shortly after the judge’s ruling, the SRE issued a brief statement on the matter on X social media platform: “We will remain attentive to the final resolution and we reiterate the urgency of definitively removing the buoys on our shared border; as well as the importance of respecting the Bilateral Treaty of 1944 and safeguarding the human rights of migrants.”
El @GobiernoMX, a través de la @SRE_mx, reconoce la decisión emitida por la Corte Federal para el Distrito Oeste en EE. UU., en la que ordena retirar la instalación de boyas colocadas dentro del Río Bravo en el área de Eagle Pass, Texas.
President López Obrador also addressed the judge’s ruling in his Thursday morning press conference, saying “I must extend my sincere thanks to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which filed this complaint, and to the judge who ruled that the buoys should be removed by no later than Sept.15.” He chastised the Texas government for not seeking federal authorization before installing the barrier and said that the ruling is “good news for the Mexican people.”
The buoys, which hold up nets meant to keep migrants from swimming beneath them, are attached to concrete anchors using 12-meter chains and can shift greatly in the current. In August, Texas quietly moved the buoys back to the U.S. side of the Rio Grande, with Abbott saying they had simply “drifted” into Mexican territory. He offered no apology to Mexico, which had complained for weeks about the violation of its sovereignty.
The U.S. Justice Department submitted evidence to the federal court that roughly 80% of the barrier was on the Mexican side of the border at that time, citing a survey by the International Boundary and Water Commission, the binational agency that controls the river. Moreover, an 1899 U.S. law prohibits construction in a waterway without federal approval.
Abbott has said Texas needs no such permission because it’s under “invasion” by migrants and drug smugglers. District Judge Ezra addressed this claim in his ruling: “Under this logic, once Texas decides, in its sole discretion, that it has been invaded, it is subject to no oversight of its ‘chosen means of waging war,’” the judge wrote. “Such a claim is breathtaking.”
If Morena and allies win a supermajority in both houses of Congress, the sitting president will have a month to pass constitutional reforms before Claudia Sheinbaum takes office. (Morena/X)
The ruling Morena party has selected Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo as its candidate for the 2024 presidential election, putting the former Mexico City mayor in a strong position to become Mexico’s first female president.
Sheinbaum, a protégé and close ally of President López Obrador, defeated five men who were also seeking the Morena nomination, attracting average support of 39.4% across five polls conducted by the ruling party itself and four private polling companies.
Claudia Sheinbaum (center) with Alfonso Durazo (left) and Mario Delgado (right) at the announcement of the Morena poll result. (Claudia Sheinbaum/X)
She will represent Morena (officially the National Regeneration Movement) and its allies, the Labor Party (PT) and the Ecological Green Party of Mexico (PVEM), at the June 2, 2024 election, at which another woman – Senator Xóchitl Gálvez – will also be aiming to make history in a country known for its macho culture.
It will be the first time that two women backed by Mexico’s major political parties will face off at a presidential election. The results of recent polls suggest that Sheinbaum, who was born in Mexico City to Jewish parents, will prevail.
The ex-mayor, a 61-year-old physicist and environmental scientist who was a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, beat her closest rival in the Morena contest, former foreign affairs minister Marcelo Ebrard, by almost 14 points. Ebrard cried foul before the result was announced Wednesday night, asserting that the polling process “must be redone” due to alleged irregularities.
The Morena aspirants after registering to contest the 2024 candidacy. (Claudia Sheinbaum/Twitter)
The other four aspirants – former interior minister Adán Augusto López Hernández, ex-PT lawmaker Gerardo Fernández Noroña, ex-PVEM governor of Chiapas Manuel Velasco and former Morena senator Ricardo Monreal – claimed positions third to sixth, respectively, but all were about 30 points or more behind Sheinbaum.
Sonora Governor Alfonso Durazo, president of Morena’s national board, announced Sheinbaum’s “indisputable” victory at an event at the World Trade Center in Mexico City attended by five of the six aspirants, with Ebrard the only one absent. Durazo on Wednesday defended the legitimacy of Morena’s selection process and dismissed the ex-foreign minister’s concerns.
To avoid violating electoral rules regarding when presidential hopefuls can officially be designated as candidates, Sheinbaum will initially be known as the “coordinator of the committees for the defense of the fourth transformation.”
The fourth transformation, or 4T, is the nickname of the political project led by López Obrador and supported by Morena, which the president founded. AMLO, as the president is best known, claims that the “transformation” of Mexico carried out by his government is as significant as events such as independence from Spain in the early 19th century and the Mexican Revolution 100 years later.
Marcelo Ebrard at a rally during his campaign to represent Morena in 2024. He has said the poll must be “redone”. (Cuartoscuro)
Sheinbaum, flanked by López Hernández and party president Mario Delgado as they raised their arms in victory at the World Trade Center event, declared that Morena – easily Mexico’s most dominant political force – “will win in 2024,” asserting that the party will prevail in federal congressional elections as well as state gubernatorial ones.
“And there will be a female president of the republic and she will be of the fourth transformation,” she said before a boisterous crowd of Morenistas, as Morena members and supporters are known.
Sheinbaum will be seeking to capitalize on the strong support López Obrador has enjoyed throughout his presidency even as violence remained a major problem and Mexico endured a particularly difficult pandemic, both in terms of lives lost and the impact on the economy during the first year of the COVID-19 crisis. She has been a faithful supporter of the president, and has avoided making public criticisms of him, even though her views on some matters, such as the importance of transitioning to the use of renewable energy and pandemic management, differ from those of the president.
AMLO won a landslide victory in the 2018 presidential election, attracting 53% of the vote in a contest between four candidates.
Almost nine months before polling day, the 2024 race is shaping up as a significantly closer contest, with one recent poll showing that Sheinbaum had an advantage of just eight points over Gálvez, a company owner and senator whose profile has risen exponentially since she announced her attention to seek the presidency just a couple of months ago.
Ebrard, who appears almost certain to leave Morena’s ranks, could try to revive his stifled presidential ambitions by running as an independent candidate, or possibly as a representative of the Citizens Movement (MC) party, whose leader has pledged to field an MC candidate rather than backing Gálvez and the FAM, as other party figures have advocated. His participation in the contest could potentially affect the support of both Sheinbaum and Gálvez.
The ex-foreign minister – who claimed that Sheinbaum received preferential treatment during the Morena selection process – is set to announce his future plans at an event with supporters on Monday.
In her victory speech, Sheinbaum didn’t mention Ebrard by name, but suggested he was welcome to remain in Morena and support her in her quest to become Mexico’s next president.
“Unity is fundamental. The doors will always be open and will never close. Democracy won today, the people of Mexico decided,” she said.
The president said he supports Claudia Sheinbaum at his Thursday morning press conference. (Gob MX)
“We need everyone … and there’s not a minute to lose,” added the new Morena standard-bearer, who in fewer than 300 days could be Mexico’s first female president-elect.
López Obrador, who on Thursday is set to hand over a “baton of command” to the new leader of the 4T, expressed his satisfaction with Sheinbaum’s victory at his morning press conference.
“She’s an honest woman, with principles and ideals, and she’s very prepared,” he said.
AMLO added that Sheinbaum has the experience required to lead the nation as she has held important positions before.
Prior to serving as Mexico City mayor, Sheinbaum led the government of the Mexico City borough of Tlalpan between 2015 and 2017, and was environment minister when López Obrador was mayor of the capital in the early 2000s.
Tequila has an appellation of origin, meaning the name can only be used for spirits made in specific regions of the country. (Shutterstock)
Inexpensive bottles of tequila are ubiquitous in Mexican supermarkets and convenience stores, but you may have noticed that the word “tequila” is nowhere to be found on their labels. You’re much more likely to find licor de agave (agave spirit) printed there. That’s because there are legal restrictions on what products are allowed to use the name “tequila.”
What is an appellation of origin and when did Mexico adopt it?
A man on horseback rides through an agave field in Amatitán, Jalisco, in the heart of tequila country. (David García Sandoval / Unsplash)
That restriction is called an appellation of origin (AO), or denominación de origen in Spanish. The concept originated in Europe with the aim of protecting certain highly respected foodstuffs from copying and modernization. The most famous example of this is champagne; officially, the name can only be applied to sparkling wine produced in Champagne, France.
Mexico adopted the concept when it signed onto the Lisbon Agreement for the Protection of Appellations of Origin and their International Registration in 1964. This agreement and a web of related treaties means that participating countries respect each others’ declarations of AO, meaning that “tequila” just about everywhere has similar protection as it does in Mexico.
AOs are managed by the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) as they are the property of the Mexican government.
Tequila received an AO in 1974, according to the Official Daily of the Federation or the Diario Oficial de la Federación, and it has become the gold standard as to how valuable the designation can be in making a product desirable worldwide. Since then, 17 other products have received the status. Among these are five kinds of liquor, three varieties of coffee, and several other agricultural products. Three non-food items also have AOs: Olinalá lacquerware, Chiapas amber, and Puebla and Tlaxcala talavera.
Chiapas amber on display at the Amber Museum in San Cristóbal de las Casas. (Alejandro Linares García)
AO-designated products and economy
According to figures from Mexico’s Merchandise Trade Balance, exports of goods with AO amounted to approximately US$4.475 billion, with much of that coming from the sales of tequila and mezcal alone. But obtaining an AO for a product is not easy as the process is complicated and costly. Mexico considers a number of factors in granting AO status, but the most important is that the product under consideration has a unique character that is tied to a geographic region and is generally known as being from that region historically. Other factors such as environment, workmanship, and culture can also be considered. A product’s name will often indicate its region, though not always.
Changes and considerations for AO products
Receiving an appellation of origin does not mean that changes to a product are out of the question. Intense pressure to supply the world with tequila means that Mexico has modified its AO to include spirits made with blue agave grown not only outside of the fields of Tequila but outside Jalisco altogether: tequila can now be made with agave grown in Michoacán, Nayarit, Guanajuato, and even Tamaulipas, on the other side of the country. Small batch production of tequila has all but disappeared in favor of industrial-scale production, and efforts have even been made to make the blue agave harvestable before the seven years needed for it to reach natural maturity.
Agave hearts in preparation to be cooked for mezcal. (Archive)
Mezcal is the AO with the largest geographical definition in the world. Historically, it simply meant a distilled liquor made with agave — tequila, for example, is technically a mezcal — but the term can legally be used in Mexico to label a spirit made in parts of Guerrero, Guanajuato, Durango, San Luis Potosí, Zacatecas, Oaxaca, Tamaulipas or Michoacán Whether the “mezcal” uses a particular kind of agave is not a factor.
Perhaps truer to the original intent of AOs are very regionally specific alcohols like bacanora, the various agricultural products, and even the above mentioned handcrafts, as these are not subject to the same pressure to meet demand as tequila and mezcal are. There aren’t the market pressures to tempt the industries to change their ways of production and issues like original materials and production techniques remain significant factors.
Could the appellation of origin be doing more harm than good?
The loosening of requirements to retain AO status under market pressure is one criticism of how Mexico handles the matter. Another has to do with day-to-day regulation, which IMPI delegates to non-profit organizations in the relevant business sector. This has become a problem with mezcal, as several years ago the one organization tasked with this dissolved and three others have since fought to take over. Who has the right to decide which products get the label has become contentious in no small part due to mezcal’s phenomenal growth over the past decade.
Another criticism is that AO status disproportionately benefits large producers with the resources to obtain an AO in the first place and make sure their own products carry the certification. It is extremely valuable as the federal government has programs to facilitate exports of AO products, another costly bureaucratic hurdle.
There is a dispute between several states over the appellation of origin for talavera. (Shutterstock)
Politics plays a significant role in the establishment of AO’s and who and what can be included. When sotol received its AO in 2002, it specifically excluded that made on the Texas side of the border, even though the exact same plant grown in the exact same Chihuahua Desert is used. It took some negotiation with the U.S. to get such exclusion recognized. The same AO also excludes sotol produced in northern Zacatecas because producers there did not participate in the original process, according to Roberto Palacios of Sotol Excéntrico in Coahuila.
In recent decades, there has been a dispute between Puebla and Tlaxcala on one hand and Guanajuato on the other over the use of the word talavera for the two pottery traditions. Guanajuato producers refuse to call their wares anything else despite the legal restrictions.
One alternative to the AO is the collective brand name, which allows a group of producers to market their products together as authentic, but with fewer requirements. Smaller producers have been pushing IMPI to expand such labeling, especially in the face of international copying of Mexican textiles, among other products.
Lastly, the most significant criticism of this geographical indication is that AO may simply be not much more than a marketing ploy, given how little attention is paid to conserving tradition, and the fact that copycats and false advertising remain rampant with Mexican products, especially domestically.
Mexican products with AO
Mezcal
Charanda
Bacanora
Sotol
Raicilla
Chiapas coffee
Veracruz coffee
Pluma coffee (from Oaxaca)
Papantla vanilla
Morelos rice
Grijalva cacao
Yucatán Habanero chili peppers
Yahualica chile de árbol chili pepper
Chiapas ataulfo mangos
Olinalá lacquerware
Chiapas amber
Puebla/Tlaxcala Talavera
Leigh Thelmadatter arrived in Mexico over 20 years ago and fell in love with the land and the culture in particular its handcrafts and art. She is the author of Mexican Cartonería: Paper, Paste and Fiesta (Schiffer 2019). Her culture column appears regularly on Mexico News Daily.
Marcelo Ebrard at a press conference where he called on his party, Morena, to repeat the polling process ahead of the announcement of results. (Cuartoscuro)
Former foreign affairs minister Marcelo Ebrard on Wednesday called for the ruling Morena party to repeat the polling process to select its 2024 presidential candidate due to alleged irregularities.
Ebrard is one of six presidential aspirants who participated in the contest to represent Morena and its allies at the June 2, 2024 presidential election.
From left to right, the Morena contestants: Manuel Velasco, Marcelo Ebrard, Adán Augusto López Hernández, Claudia Sheinbaum, Ricardo Monreal and Gerardo Fernández Noroña. (Morena/Twitter)
Morena is due to announce the winner Wednesday night. Former Mexico City mayor Claudia Sheinbaum is the clear favorite to win the nomination.
Ebrard questioned the legitimacy of 310 of 2,360 questionnaires supposedly completed by people who were asked to nominate their preferred Morena candidate.
“I’m not talking about fraud, but about incidents,” he said without specifying what they were.
“I say this to the party president [Mario Delgado], who says everything is perfect. This mustn’t occur in Morena. Of 2,360 questionnaires, [there are] 310 with inconsistencies; they say that represents 14%,” Ebrard told a press conference attended by a large group of supporters.
Mario Delgado, the president of Morena, shows the polling ballot at a press conference. (Morena/X)
Polling “must be redone,” said the ex-foreign minister, who complained of other irregularities and unfair treatment during the Morena selection process.
In a video posted to social media later on Wednesday, Ebrard said that Mexico City police had prevented his representatives from entering a part of the World Trade Center where polling ballots were being counted.
“There is proof of this,” he said, asserting that they were blocked from entering because he proposed repeating polling due to “serious inconsistencies” in the entire process.
“Every day [Morena] seems more like the PRI of old,” Ebrard said, referring to the once-omnipotent Institutional Revolutionary Party, which became synonymous with corruption during its seven-decade rule of Mexico in the 20th century.
One of Ebrard’s representatives, Alberto Esteva, said that the ex-foreign minister will challenge the result of the polling process.
Sonora Governor Alfonso Durazo, president of Morena’s national board, said that none of the incidents or inconsistencies Ebrard referred to would modify the results of a polling process he defended as being above board.
Morena’s soon-to-be announced candidate will face off against Senator Xóchitl Gálvez, who will represent the Broad Front for Mexico opposition alliance at next year’s election.
The dollar has gained strength against the peso in the last five days, following steady appreciation of the Mexican currency throughout this year. (Steve Johnson/Unsplash)
The purchasing power of people with US dollars in Mexico remains significantly less than it was at the start of the year, but considerably greater than it was when the peso hit its 2023 peak in late July.
If you exchange US $100 today, you should get close to 100 pesos more than you would have received just over a month ago.
This year has been marked by a strong appreciation in the peso against the dollar, but that appears to be slowing. (Graciela López/Cuartoscuro)
The Mexican peso depreciated for a fifth consecutive day on Wednesday, trading at 17.6 to the greenback in the early afternoon after closing at 17.42 on Tuesday, according to Bloomberg data.
Exchanging US $100 at the 17.6 rate nets the changer 1,760 pesos, whereas a transaction involving the same amount on July 28 would have yielded just 1,662 pesos based on the Mexican currency’s strongest position on that date.
With a USD:MXN exchange rate of about 19.5 at the start of the year, anyone exchanging a bill bearing the likeness of Benjamin Franklin would have pocketed approximately 1,950 pesos, or almost 200 pesos more than they would get today.
The last time the dollar closed stronger than 17.6 was May 31, according to Bloomberg.
Analysts at Mexican bank CIBanco said that the slide of the peso that began late last week with a decision by Mexico’s Exchange Commission to reduce a six-year-old hedge program aimed at reducing currency volatility “intensified” on Wednesday due to weak economic data out of Europe and China and decreased appetite for risk assets.
“The negative bias toward assets of greater risk” – such as the peso – “stems from the idea that central banks, including the [U.S.] Federal Reserve, will have no other choice than to maintain their restrictive monetary policies to avoid a rise in inflation,” they said.
The peso’s depreciation on Wednesday increases the probability of a “sustained depreciation in the short term toward 18 pesos per dollar,” Gabriela Siller, director of economic analysis at Banco Base, said on the X social media site.
At 2 p.m. Mexico City time, the peso had appreciated slightly from today’s low to trade at 17.57 to the dollar.
Jova is a major hurricane as of Wednesday afternoon and could cause waves of up to 3 meters on the coasts of Jalisco, Nayarit, Colima and Michoacán. (Cuartoscuro)
Hurricane Jova has strengthened into Category 4 according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC). While it is not expected to make landfall, the storm will impact weather conditions in several western states of Mexico.
Currently located at some 565 miles (910 km) south of Baja California and moving in a west-northwest direction at 15 mph (24 km/h) with winds of up to 130 mph, Jova is a major hurricane, but there are currently no coastal watches or warnings in effect as of Wednesday afternoon.
Hurricane Jova’s predicted trajectory as of Wednesday afternoon. (Conagua Clima)
The National Meteorological Service (SMN) has forecast heavy to very heavy rains with gusts of wind in Jalisco, Nayarit, Colima and Michoacán. Waves up to 3 meters tall are expected to hit some coastlines of these states.
The population in these areas should take precautions as heavy rains could reduce visibility on stretches of roads, increase the levels of rivers and streams, and potentially cause landslides, floods and flooding.
Jova has strengthened rapidly. On Tuesday morning, it became a named tropical storm and some 24 hours later, it was designated a Category 2 hurricane. As of 3 p.m. MDT on Wednesday, the National Hurricane Center had categorized Jova as Category 4, but the hurricane is expected to begin losing strength by Friday.
Jova is the tenth tropical cyclone of the 2023 hurricane season in the Pacific, where between 16 and 22 tropical storms have been forecast for the season.
