Wednesday, June 25, 2025

“They’re not junk”: AMLO strikes back at critics of Iberdrola sale

By
Cat Rainsford
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The purchase of the Iberdrola facilities has been criticized by some economic think tanks. (Iberdrola/Twitter)

President López Obrador has defended buying 13 electric power plants from the Spanish company Iberdrola, insisting that Mexico will see a return on the investment within ten years.

In his morning press conference, AMLO confirmed that the $6 billion deal to purchase the plants, announced on April 4, would be completed in the next 45 days.

President Lopez Obrador of Mexico
The President defended the decision to purchase the 13 power plants, noting that they were built more recently than many CFE sites. (lopezobrador.org.mx)

“This investment is profitable, it will be recovered in maximum ten years,” he said. “It is guaranteed there will be no lack of electricity, the country will continue to grow, the demand for electric energy, and we need to guarantee the energy.”

The President also hit back at critics – including some energy experts – who have suggested the price for the plants was too high, given that many have been operating for between 10 and 25 years already and may have a limited useful life ahead of them.

“They’re not junk,” AMLO insisted.

“This park of plants, 13 plants, 12 combined cycle and one wind, have an average useful life three times higher than the average useful life of the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) [plants],” he said.

List of Iberdrola plants being sold to Mexico government
The list of plants in Mexico that Iberdrola is selling. Twelve of them are combined-cycle plants. La Venta III is a wind farm. (Government of Mexico)

“They are newer than the [average] CFE [plant], and for what reason? Because what they wanted was for the CFE plants to become scrap, as they did with petrochemicals, so the CFE would leave the electricity market and the entire market would be in the hands of individuals.”

AMLO has hailed the Iberdrola purchase as a “new nationalization” of Mexico’s electricity industry. It increases the state-owned CFE’s share of Mexico’s electricity generation from 39% to 55%.

The president has long pursued a energy policy that seeks to favor CFE and state-owned oil company Pemex over private energy companies. He has been particularly critical of Iberdrola, accusing the Spanish company of “looting the country.”

The 13 plants from Iberdrola are mostly located in northern Mexican states: three each in Tamaulipas and Nuevo León; two each in San Luis Potosí and in Sinaloa; and one each in Durango, Baja California and Oaxaca. They have a combined electricity generation capacity of 8,539 megawatts. The oldest plant opened in 1998. The newest opened in 2022.

An Iberdrola Electric plant at night
The new power plants are predominantly located in the north of the country. (Iberdrola)

“If we tried to build these 13 plants, it would take us ten years,” AMLO said.

He said the purchase would be complemented by two new combined cycle plants in Yucatán, the modernization of 12 existing hydroelectric plants, and investments in solar plants in Sonora.

AMLO’s nationalist energy policy was a key part of his electoral agenda, but private sector analysts argue it will be economically damaging to Mexico and slow its green energy transition.

Despite the president’s optimism, Monday saw the Center for Economic Studies of the Private Sector call the Iberdrola purchase a “bad decision” that would create future maintenance expenses and give “a negative signal towards investment.”

 With reports from El Universal, Forbes and Aristegui Noticias

Mexico faces potentially high costs for failure to protect vaquita

By
Cat Rainsford
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This dead vaquita was recovered from the Gulf of California in 2018.
A dead vaquita caught in an illegal gillnet in the Gulf of California.

The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) will debate whether to sanction Mexico for failing to protect the endangered vaquita marina, potentially leading to a ban on Mexican seafood.

The U.S. market accounts for 50% of Mexico’s seafood sales, worth around $745 million in 2022.

Illegal fishing of totoabas has caused significant decline in the population of vaquitas. Environmental organizations have condemned Mexico for not doing enough to eliminate the practice. (Sea Shepherd)

In a court settlement on Friday, the DOI pledged to decide by May 19 whether to certify Mexico under the “Pelly Amendment” to the Fishermen’s Protective Act. This requires the DOI to embargo products from nations that “diminish the effectiveness” of international wildlife agreements.

The DOI was responding to a lawsuit filed in December 2022 by the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) and the NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council).

These U.S. conservation groups argue that Mexico’s failure to stop illegal fishing in the Gulf of California violates the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and has driven the endemic vaquita porpoise to the brink of extinction.

The move comes soon after the Secretariat to CITES announced its own sanctions against Mexico on March 27, after declaring Mexico’s proposed action plan to protect the vaquita “inadequate.” These sanctions prevent CITES member countries from trading with Mexico in more than 3,000 species of animals and plants, potentially costing Mexico US $1.5 billion in lost trade.

A 'save the vaquita' rally in the Zocalo, CDMX
Demonstrators in Mexico City’s Zócalo demanding that more be done to preserve the vaquita. Despite years of promises from the Mexican government, little has been done to prevent the vaquita’s extinction. (Diego Simón Sánchez/Cuartoscuro)

“We’re relieved the U.S. government is finally going to make this call,” said Sarah Uhlemann, international program director at the CBD, in a press release. “Strong U.S. sanctions will force Mexico to pull this little porpoise back from the brink.”

Vaquita often die after becoming entangled in nets used to catch totoaba fish, which are highly coveted on the Chinese black market for their supposed medicinal properties. Although Mexico formally prohibits totoaba fishing, the ban has never been effectively enforced.

The conservation groups first petitioned to ban imports from Mexico under the Pelly Amendment in 2014. After the DOI failed to respond for more than eight years, they sued to force a decision. During this time, the vaquita population declined by 90%.

“While DOI dithered, the vaquita population plunged from approximately 100 animals to fewer than 10,” said DJ Schubert, wildlife biologist at the AWI.

President López Obrador immediately sent eight officials to Geneva to attempt to appeal the sanctions. The Environment Ministry announced that it was reviewing fishery protection measures and had worked with the Navy to remove more than 4,700 meters of illegal fishing nets.

Mexican officials also protested that sanctioning Mexico for illegal totoaba fishing fails to recognize the responsibility of transit and destination countries, such as the U.S. and China.

“Mexico is not solely responsible and is not the only one that should have to spend on this,” said Blanca Alicia Mendoza Vera, Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection.

With reports from Diario El Independiente

Four soldiers charged in Nuevo Laredo civilian shooting case

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MND Staff
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Protest in March in Oaxaca City in support of the 4 soldiers charged in the killings of five civilians in Nuevo Laredo.
Protestors in March demanded the liberation of the soldiers who were charged on Monday. (Carolina Jiménez/Cuartoscuro)

Federal prosecutors have formally accused four soldiers in the killings of five men in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, in late February. 

During a court hearing on Monday, the Federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) presented homicide and attempted homicide charges against the soldiers, who opened fire on a pickup truck in the early hours of Feb. 26. 

Mexican army soldier at the Independence Day Parade, September 16, 2013 in León, Guanajuato, Mexico.
The four soldiers charged on Monday, not pictured here, have been detained at a Mexico City military base since early March. (© Tomas Castelazo, www.tomascastelazo.com / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0)

Five young men, including a United States citizen, were killed, and a sixth man was wounded. A seventh man in the pickup was unharmed but is reportedly suffering psychological distress. 

Deputy Interior Minister Alejandro Encinas said last month that the victims were unarmed and not involved in a confrontation with the army. They were reportedly returning home from a night on the town when they came under attack.

Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission report determined that the four soldiers charged had acted against protocol and described the shooting as unjustified.

 

A federal judge in Reynosa ruled on Monday that the four soldiers must remain in preventive detention in a prison at a Mexico City military base. The troops, who appeared at Monday’s hearing via video link, have been held there since their arrest in early March.  

Protesters called for their release at demonstrations in numerous cities on March 12. 

Another hearing at which a judge is expected to order the soldiers to stand trial will be held Wednesday. The accused face prison sentences of up to 60 years for each homicide.  

Lawyers for the victims’ families intend to ask prosecutors to bring charges against 17 other soldiers, including a captain, who were part of the same company as the accused troops and on the ground in Nuevo Laredo when the alleged homicides occurred. They say these 17 other members were negligent and should have prevented the shootings.  

“Only four [soldiers] activated their firearms, according to ballistic reports, but the others committed willful misconduct to a greater or lesser degree against the young men who lost their lives and those who survived,” lawyer Edgar Netro Acuña told the El Universal newspaper.  

The National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) last month described the shooting as unjustified. In a March 21 report directed to Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval, the CNDH stated that the four soldiers fired a total of 117 shots at the pickup in which the young men were traveling. 

Alejandro Encinas, Mexico's Deputy Interior Minister
Deputy Interior Minister Alejandro Encinas acknowledged that the civilians were unarmed and did not pose a threat to the troops that confronted them. (Andrea Murcia Monsivais/Cuartoscuro)

According to the report, soldiers in four vehicles followed the pickup based on “suspicion” of criminal activity. The army didn’t follow correct procedure in engaging the vehicle, the CNDH alleged. 

“Without giving verbal orders [to pull over], one soldier opened fire into the back of the private vehicle, and three other soldiers did the same to support the first one,” the report said. 

In a statement issued on Feb. 28, the Ministry of National Defense (Sedena) said that soldiers heard gunshots before they saw a pickup without license plates and with its lights off, traveling at high speed. 

“Upon seeing the presence of the troops, they accelerated in a brusque and evasive way,” Sedena said, adding that the pickup came to a halt when it crashed into a parked vehicle. 

“Upon hearing a bang, the military personnel activated their firearms,” the statement said.

Crime scene reports didn’t mention any weapons found in the pickup, and the CNDH said there was no evidence of shots fired at soldiers or their vehicles. 

Located opposite the Texan city of Laredo, Nuevo Laredo is a stronghold of the Northeast Cartel, an offshoot of the Zetas crime organization. Clashes between the military and cartel henchmen occur frequently in the border city. 

The military has been accused of committing other human rights violations in Nuevo Laredo, including enforced disappearances. Thirty marines were arrested in 2021 in connection with the disappearance of an unspecified number of people in the city in 2014. 

Dozens of other people went missing in Nuevo Laredo in the first half of 2018 during military operations against cartels.     

With reports from El Universal, Reforma, El Financiero and AP

Pre-Hispanic ball game marker disc found in Chichén Itzá

By
MND Staff
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Mayan disc showing a ball game.
The disc is 32.5 centimeters in diameter, 9.5 centimeters thick and 40 kilograms in weight.

Researchers from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) have unearthed a pre-Hispanic ballgame stone marker in the archaeological site of Chichén Itzá in Yucatán. 

The limestone circle has images of Maya dignitaries in the center playing the ancient ballgame Pok Ta Pok, along with Mayan hieroglyphics along the edge. Unlike many discoveries at the archeological site, the disc presents its complete glyphic text.

The temple of Kulkulcan in Chichen Itza
Chichén Itzá is a UNESCO world heritage site, and one of the most historically significant cities of the Maya world. (Luka Peternel/Wikimedia)

“It is rare to find hieroglyphic writing in Chichén Itzá,” said archaeologist Francisco Pérez Ruiz, “let alone a complete text.” 

Marco Antonio Santos Ramírez, head of Chichén Itzá’s archeological zone, told the EFE news outlet that the discovery could change the way archeologists think about Chichén Itzá, “by adding a new element that we were unaware of,” he said.  

The “Piedra Juego de Pelota” (Ballgame Disc), as archeologists are referring to it, is a marker of some important event related to the Casa Colorada Ball Game played in a smaller court than that of the Great Game of Chichén Itzá. 

“The character on the left wears a feathered headdress and a sash that features a flower-shaped element, probably a water lily. At the height of the face, one can distinguish a scroll, which can be interpreted as breath or voice. The opponent wears a headdress known as a “snake turban,” a representation observed multiple times in Chichén Itzá,” archeologist Santiago Alberto Sobrino Fernández detailed. 

A pelota hoop in the stadium of Chichen Itaza
Pelota was ancient Maya game similar to basketball. It was often played for ritual reasons and formed an important part of the culture. (infoquintanaroo)

Santos agreed that the artifact could expand our knowledge about Mayan culture, as “it apparently contains dates, names and actions that were recorded by the ancient inhabitants of Chichén Itzá.”

The hieroglyphics depicted in the 40-kilogram stone could be some of the last ones written about the ancient culture around the Late Classic or Early Postclassic period (approximately between around A.D 800 and a short time after A.D. 900), before classical Mayan writing ceased, he added. 

Pablo Alberto Mumary Farto, a professor of Mesoamerican history at the National Autonomous University (UNAM), noted that the discovery of the artifact represented a chance to understand more about the rituals and events associated with the game.

“What is interesting is that [this disc] comes from the ninth century, and it will surely provide us more information about the government [during that period], as the image appears to depict two possible governors engaged in a ritual or event,” he told Mexico News Daily.

Found by archeologist Lizbeth Beatriz Mendicuti Pérez, the disc is one of the many archeological findings unearthed as part of the Program for the Improvement of Archaeological Zones (Promeza), which undertakes archaeological projects along the controversial route of the Mayan Train.

“Since the creation of INAH, there has not been such an important investment in the archeology of Mexico. And now it is paying off,” Santos stressed.

Just in February, archaeologists reported yet another finding in Chichén Itzá: the tomb of a person from the city’s elite belonging to the Canules dynasty (Ah Canul). It was found in “Chichén Viejo,” an underexplored area of the archeological site which, according to INAH Yucatán, will soon open to the public.  

With reports from INAH, La Jornada Maya and National Geographic. 

Mexico City Metro to stop using paper tickets in 2024

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MND Staff
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Ticket office at Mexico City Metro
The new card-only system will be required on the refurbished Line 1. (Gobierno CDMX/Cuartoscuro)

Next year, the Mexico City subway’s paper tickets will be a thing of the past: riders will have to use a rechargeable card, according to Metro head Guillermo Calderón. 

The new cards, known as Integrated Mobility (MI) cards, are already in use and required for Line 12. Line 1 — currently under renovation — will be the first to follow Line 12 with the requirement, Calderón said Monday during a press conference with Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum. 

The subterranean section of Line12 of the Metro, before its reopening on Sunday.
The Metro network is undergoing significant renovations, including a deep-clean across the network. (@Claudiashein/Twitter)

While Calderón did not give an exact date for when the transition would begin, he said that the switchover next year would be a gradual process.

“Line 1 will fully move on to the prepaid system of the Integrated Mobility Card, and by next year, the entire Metro System will only be using the electronic payment system,” he said.

Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum tweeted on her account that Mexico City has bought 1,548 turnstiles to support the changeover, and is making other investments in new lamps and a deep cleaning of all the city’s Metro stations. 

Launched in 2020, the MI card is a payment method to access the city’s Metro, Metrobús, Light Train, Cablebús, Trolebús and Ecobici transportation networks. In addition to the Metro ticketing office, users can top up their cards using the MercadoPago app, the largest online payment platform in the country.

In a statement published early March, Mexico City’s government reported more than 4.3 million recharges to the MI card through MercadoPago. This is equivalent to some 192.6 million pesos (US $10.6 million) and 28.5 million trips on the city’s transportation network. 

Mexico City’s Metro boasts that the cost of its ticket is one of the cheapest in the world: since 2013, a  Metro ticket has cost just 5 pesos (worth a bit more than a U.S. quarter), according to the city government.

The MI card itself has a one-time price of 15 pesos (US $0.83) and can only be topped up to 120 pesos (US $5.45). The card’s balance is valid for 300 days.

The capital’s Metro system — the country’s most-used public transportation network — ferried more than 241 million people in 2022’s first quarter, according to the Metro’s own data. According to the newspaper Expansión, 2.5 million people have stopped using the Metro since the pandemic began.

With reports from El Financiero, Expansión and Excelsior.

El Salvador demands immigration officials resign over Cd. Juárez fire

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MND Staff
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Protest against March 27 fire in Juarez, Mexico migrant detention center
The March 27 fire that left 40 migrants dead has sparked outrage both across Mexico and from countries like El Salvador, whose nationals were among the dead. (Isabel Mateos Hinajosa/Cuartoscuro)

President López Obrador said Monday that the governments of countries mourning the deaths of their citizens in a fire in a Ciudad Juárez migrant detention center late last month “are right” to demand the resignation of Mexican immigration officials. 

A reporter at the president’s morning press conference noted that the government of El Salvador had demanded the resignation of National Immigration Institute (INM) officials in light of the March 27 blaze that claimed the lives of 40 Salvadoran, Guatemalan, Honduran, Venezuelan and Colombian migrants. 

Aftermath of fire at INM detention facility in Ciudad Juárez.
The fire at the detention center in Ciudad Juarez left 40 migrants dead. (Juan Ortega/Cuartoscuro)

Video footage showed that the migrants were left in cells as the fire raged inside the INM facility. 

Asked for his opinion on El Salvador’s demand, López Obrador remarked that the authorities of El Salvador, as well as those of Guatemala, Colombia and Venezuela, “are right” to make such an exhortation to the Mexican government. 

“What happened is very regrettable,” the president said, adding that the authorities of the countries whose nationals died in the fire “have to protect the lives of their fellow citizens.

“That’s the work of governments, and we’re in contact with them to help,” López Obrador said. 

The fate of INM director Francisco Garduño is uncertain after migrants were left inside a burning INM facility. (Gob MX)

“As I said from the first day, there will be no impunity, the culprits will be punished, the investigation will continue. There are people arrested already, but the investigation process to punish those responsible for this tragedy isn’t yet finished,” he said.   

Three INM agents, a security guard employed by a private company and a Venezuelan migrant accused of starting the fire are in preventive detention on charges of homicide and causing injury. 

López Obrador said in the days after the fire that the government would wait for the result of the investigation before deciding the fate of INM director Francisco Garduño. He did not specifically name the immigration chief on Monday.     

Cindy Portal, a vice foreign affairs minister in the El Salvador government led by President Nayib Bukele, spoke to the media on Sunday after the remains of seven Salvadoran migrants were returned to their families. 

Vice foreign affairs minister of El Salvador Cindy Portal called on Mexico to hold immigration authorities accountable for the tragedy. (Foreign Ministry of El Salvador/Twitter)

“We’re demanding the resignation of the people responsible for Mexico’s immigration policy,” she said. 

Portal also said that the El Salvador government is demanding the imprisonment of those found responsible for the crime. Prosecutors must carry out an “exhaustive investigation,” said the official, who denounced impunity in previous cases involving Salvadoran migrants in Mexico.    

Emilio Álvarez Icaza, an independent federal senator and former head of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, described the detention center fire tragedy as a “state crime” and López Obrador’s “Ayotzinapa” in a media interview broadcast Sunday. 

Ayotzinapa is a locality in Guerrero where 43 students who were studying to become teachers disappeared in 2014. Their disappearance and presumed murder while Enrique Peña Nieto was president is widely described as a state crime.   

Emilio Álvarez Icaza was head of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights from 2012 to 2016. (CIDH/Flickr)

The Ciudad Juárez detention center tragedy “will follow Andrés his whole life,” Álvarez told the El Financiero newspaper program La Silla Roja. 

López Obrador said on March 31 that the case had “pained” him and was the second most difficult event he had faced as president, after a 2019 petroleum pipeline explosion in Hidalgo that claimed close to 140 lives. 

The deaths of the migrants in Ciudad Juárez “moved me” and “broke my soul,” he said.    

With reports from El Universal, Reforma, Milenio, Expansión and El Financiero

Domestic air travel up 28% during January and February

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MND Staff
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A Volaris flight in the clouds
Volaris airlines topped Mexico's list for ferrying domestic airline passengers in January and February. It transported 3.94 million people, giving it a 41.7% market share. (

The number of passengers who traveled on domestic flights in Mexico in the first two months of 2023 increased almost 30% compared to the same period last year, Tourism Minister Miguel Torruco reported Sunday. 

Just under 9.44 million passengers flew within Mexico in January and February, an increase of 28.2% compared to the first two months of 2022, Torruco said in a statement. 

A Viva Aerobes aircraft above Mexico
Viva Aerobus saw the second-highest numbers in the domestic market, according to the Ministry of Tourism. (Sedetur)

The figure is 24.2% higher than that recorded in the first two months of 2019, when the airline industry had not yet been affected by the coronavirus pandemic and associated restrictions.  

The low-cost airlines Volaris and Viva Aerobus dominated the domestic air travel market in January and February, transporting just over 6.7 million passengers – 71% of the total.  

Volaris transported 3.94 million passengers for a 41.7% market share, while Viva Aerobus filled 2.76 million seats for a 29.3% share. Both serve Mexico’s largest cities and main tourism destinations.   

National flag carrier Aeroméxico was the third biggest airline in the domestic market, transporting just under 1.75 million passengers, or 18.5% of the total, while its subsidiary Aeroméxico Connect had a 9.1% share of the market. 

passengers at Mexico City International Airport
Passenger numbers on international flights to and from Mexico also increased, by 29.5% on an annual basis. The first two months of 2023 saw movement of 9.43 million international passengers. (Milosz Maslanka/Shutterstock)

The Queretaro-based airline TAR only moved 43,384 passengers, for a 0.5% share of the market. It was the only airline among the top five that transported fewer passengers in January and February than in the same period of last year. 

Volaris and Viva Aerobus also increased their domestic passenger numbers by 18.3% and 26.2% respectively, according to data published by the Tourism Ministry, but Aeromexico could also be considered a winner in this area: its number of domestic travelers went up by 79.2% in the period, and Aeroméxico Connect flights saw a 22% increase in passenger numbers. 

Torruco also reported that passenger numbers on international flights to and from Mexico increased 29.5% on an annual basis to 9.43 million in the first two months of 2023. The figure is 12.5% higher than what was recorded in January and February of 2019. 

According to Tourism Ministry data:

  • Around 85% of the 9.43 million passengers traveled within North America
  • 7.6% flew to or from Central America and South America
  • 6.9% began or ended their trips in Europe
  • 0.5% boarded or disembarked in Asia.  

Aeroméxico and Volaris were the top Mexican airlines for international flights, together transporting 1.87 million passengers in January and February. Torruco said the two airlines’ combined international passenger numbers were 35.4% higher than those recorded a year earlier and 19.7% above those recorded in the first two months of 2019. 

American Airlines and United Airlines were the leading U.S. carriers for trips to and from Mexico in the same period. 

Mexico News Daily 

Germany’s ZF Group to invest US $194M in Ciudad Juárez plant

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MND Staff
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ZF factory in Chihuahua
ZF already employs 7,000 in the state of Chihuahua, and hopes the new investment will add a further 500 jobs to the region. (ZF Group)

German automotive supplier ZF Group will build a new US $194 million plant in the northern city of Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, to expand its e-mobility business in North America.

With over 22,000 square meters and an initial investment of US $150 million, the new plant will increase the production capability of the company’s current facilities in Ciudad Juárez. It expects to employ some 500 people in the next four years and begin production in 2024. 

ZF group will also open a research and development office in Nuevo León
ZF group will also open a research and development center in Nuevo León. (ZF Group)

With 16 plants in Mexico, the multinational company employs more than 25,000 people in the country and manufactures everything from airbags and seat belts to steering wheels and brakes, as well as suspension systems. The company currently employs some 7,000 people in Chihuahua, where it manufactures steering wheel systems and airbags.

“The e-mobility market continues to gain momentum in all major markets, and ZF is investing to match the growth trajectory in North America,” vice president of electrified powertrain technology John Hawkins said. 

He added that the investment in Ciudad Juárez will further establish ZF as a leader in advanced e-mobility technologies and as investors that are significantly contributing to the efficiency and range of electric vehicles.

The new plant is one of the latest in a growing list of the company’s investments in Mexico.

In February, ZF Group also announced it would invest 245 million euros (US $266.18 million) into the opening of a distribution center and expanding existing facilities near the city of Querétaro that manufacture brake safety systems and aims to create US $1 billion of the US $4 billion of sales by ZF in Mexico. 

The company is also building a research and development center in Nuevo León. According to the group, this research center will carry out “cutting-edge projects for autonomous and electric driving.”

With reports from El Economista and Mexico Industry. 

With a last-minute injunction, judge bans bullfighting at San Cristóbal fair

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MND Staff
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Esau Fernandez fights a bull in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas
Bullfighting has been a traditional part of the festival for years. (@PrensaEsau/Twitter)

Bullfighting events at an annual fair in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, that’s over a century old were banned Sunday by a judge, hours before the first bullfighting event was due to begin.

A judge in the state capital of Tuxtla Gutiérrez ordered the provisional suspension of the blood sport at the Spring and Peace fair in San Cristóbal after complaints were filed by a local activist group, Animalix Alma Mestiza (Mixed-Breed Souls). Erika Brand, director of the group, said that the decision represented not only a victory for local animals but also for the municipality. 

The fair will continue despite the absence of bullfights, said San Cristóbál’s mayor, Mariano Díaz Ochoa. (Chiapas Viajes)

“We hope that this [ruling] represents a clear message to the rest of the country that it is time to put an end to this cruel and archaic practice,” she said in a statement. 

San Cristóbal Mayor Mariano Alberto Díaz Ochoa said that the city will abide by the ruling, although he added that the municipal council, which owns the La Coleta bullring where the bullfights were to take place, has filed an appeal.

“The protection of the environment and animals is always welcome, but that is not what this is about,” Díaz said, suggesting that “third parties” and “particular interests” were behind the decision to suspend bullfighting. 

The fair, which is taking place for the 153rd time this year, started yesterday and runs until April 16. It was due to see appearances by the rejoneador (a mounted, lance-wielding bullfighter) Fauro Aloi, matador José María Pastor, and another matador who goes by simply Jussef. 

Bullfighting is only one part of the fair, which also features Chiapas cuisine and local artisan products for sale. Nevertheless, some residents of the city expressed disappointment by the decision to pause bullfighting, which they see as an important cultural expression of the region. 

Local businessman Enrique Solis was among them: he expressed sadness that the festival would no longer feature bullfighting — although he also said he was sure that the injunction would be lifted before the end of the festival, according to local news channel 7 de Chiapas.

“We are going to comply with the court order that declares [the fight] suspended,” he said. “We do not want to provoke acts of violence at this fair.”

Despite the suspension, the festival will continue “with or without bulls,” Díaz told the newspaper El Universal. 

It remains to be seen what will come of a second round of bullfighting scheduled for the upcoming weekend. 

With reporting by El Universal, El Heraldo de Chiapas and 7 de Chiapas

Mexico posts strong figures for first-quarter job creation

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MND Staff
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Worker in factory
A record 21.79 million people are now registered with the Mexican Social Security Institute, meaning that they have employment in the formal jobs sector. (Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock)

Mexico has recorded its best ever first-quarter job creation result, adding over 420,000 formal sector positions in the first three months of the year. 

The Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) reported that the number of people in formal sector IMSS-affiliated jobs rose by 423,384 between January and March, a 10% increase compared to the first quarter of 2022. 

The offices of IMSS in Mexico City
January through March saw the largest first-quarter formal-sector job creation growth on record, according to IMSS. (IMSS)

The loss of more than 345,000 positions in December has now been more than offset by job creation in the first three months of the year.    

A record 21.79 million people are now registered with IMSS after 790,428 formal sector positions were added in the 12-month period to the end of March. Just over 86% of the positions are permanent while the remainder are temporary, IMSS said. 

The total number of formal sector employees is up 3.8% from just over 21 million a year ago.

IMSS said that the sectors that recorded the strongest job growth in the past year were construction, up 6.8%; transport and communications, up 6.4%; and services for companies, up 4.5%. 

A robot in a Tesla vehicle factory
Nuevo León saw more than 47,500 new jobs, partly thanks to the boom in nearshoring. (Wikimedia Commons)

The number of people in formal sector positions increased over 9.5% annually in Tabasco, Baja California Sur and Quintana Roo, which recorded the largest percentage term-gains among Mexico’s 32 federal entities. 

However, Nuevo León, an industrial powerhouse and leading recipient of foreign investment, added more formal sector jobs than any other state in the past 12 months, with 47,540 additional positions created. Jalisco, Baja California and Guanajuato ranked second to fourth.

Mónica Flores, president of the Latin America division of ManpowerGroup, said that a poll carried out by that staffing firm showed that 43% of more than 1,000 surveyed employers planned to increase their workforces during the second quarter of 2023. 

Manpower’s general director for Mexico, Alberto Alesi, said that foreign investment could spur higher levels of hiring in the formal sector.  

Although there is global economic uncertainty, Mexico’s economy remains stable, and that generates confidence among investors, Flores said. 

Foreign direct investment increased 12% in 2022 to more than US $35 billion, the Economy Ministry said in February, while the Mexican economy grew 3.1%. The federal government is predicting 3% growth this year, while the International Monetary Fund and World Bank are considerably less optimistic. 

The tourism sector also likely helped Quintana Roo see 9.5% formal job growth in the same period. (Sectur)

President López Obrador recently asserted that Mexico is on its way to becoming an economic powerhouse given the current levels of foreign investment and the country’s “trained responsible workforce.” 

Draws for potential investors include Mexico’s proximity to the United States and competitive labor costs. IMSS reported that the average base salary of formal sector workers at the end of March was 525.3 pesos per day (about US $29), up 11.2% from a year earlier.  

With reports from El Financiero and La Jornada 

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