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.
The president presented the new locomotive, part of the railway that will haul cargo and passengers across the 303-kilometer line. (Luisa Alcalde/Twitter)
Several sections of the interoceanic railway project, which will include tracks connecting the Gulf of Mexico in Veracruz to the Pacific Ocean in Oaxaca, were visited as part of a three-day tour by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
In a tweet on Sunday, AMLO reported he was verifying the progress of the Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec (CIIT), a massive infrastructure project that includes the interoceanic train, which will carry passengers and cargo over a seaport-to-seaport route of 303 kilometers (188 miles).
AMLO inspected lines in Oaxaca, Veracruz and Chiapas. The new project is being touted as a faster and cheaper alternative to the Panama Canal. (Luisa Alcalde/Twitter)
The president also presented the project’s first locomotive, which provided a preview of the train’s logo: smiling women dressed in the traditional clothing of Oaxaca, Veracruz, Chiapas and Tabasco.
Largely using rehabilitated tracks from previous rail lines, the main line of the railway will run between the port cities of Salina Cruz, Oaxaca and Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz. Additionally, the project also includes passenger and cargo railway lines to other areas, roadways, industrial parks, a gas pipeline and a fiber optic network.
Mexican officials have compared the main line across the isthmus to a “cheaper and faster” Panama Canal, noting that it will have the capacity to transport 1.4 million containers annually from port to port on journeys of less than 6 hours. Last month, Economy Minister Raquel Buenrostro said the project, once operational, could account for as much as 5% of Mexico’s GDP.
AMLO visited the line that goes from Tapachula, Chiapas to Ixtepec, Oaxaca on Friday, before inspecting the main line on Saturday. He finished on Sunday with a look at the section that goes to Palenque, Chiapas, where it will connect with the Maya Train. Accompanied by some of his top cabinet ministers and other government officials, he also got to see the progress on some of the project’s 10 industrial parks.
A cargo ship docks in the port of Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz. (Wikimedia Commons)
“Another of the great projects that the government of Mexico is building,” remarked Energy Minister Rocío Nahle, in tacit reference to the Maya Train, Felipe Ángeles International Airport and the Olmeca Refinery in Dos Bocas, Tabasco.
Asked when the interoceanic train line will be operational, AMLO said it will occur before his administration ends on Sept. 30, 2024, although he did not set a date. On Twitter, he said a supervised test run will be carried out next month, on Sept. 17.
“That’s why I’m in a hurry,” he said. “I have very little [time] left. Before I go, I must leave the train operating.”
Protesters demanded justice for the victims of the fire, which killed 40 and injured 27 others, outside of the Interior Ministry in March. (GRACIELA LÓPEZ /CUARTOSCURO.COM)
The families of 40 migrants who died in a fire in a Ciudad Juárez detention center will receive 3.5 million pesos (US $204,785) each in compensation, the National Immigration Institute (INM) said Sunday
Two Venezuelan men allegedly lit the fire that on March 27 ripped through a locked section of the INM facility where close to 70 male migrants were being held.
The fire at the detention center in Ciudad Juarez left 40 migrants dead. (Juan Ortega/Cuartoscuro)
Video footage showed that the migrants were left behind bars despite the outbreak of the fire. Twenty-seven migrants were also injured in the blaze.
A Venezuelan migrant who allegedly set mattresses alight after he and other migrants learned they were going to be deported or moved to another INM facility was arrested in late March. Another Venezuelan man was arrested in June.
In a statement published Sunday, the INM said that the keys to the accommodation area of the facility were lost at the time of the fire. It noted that INM director Francisco Garduño and seven other officials are awaiting trial in connection with the deadly blaze in the Chihuahua border city, located opposite El Paso, Texas.
The INM said that on May 18 it asked the Ministry of Finance (SHCP) to put aside a “special” budgetary allotment to pay compensation to the victims’ families once the federal government’s Executive Commission for Attention to Victims (CEAV) had determined the amount.
INM director Francisco Garduño at a hearing in April. (JUAN ORTEGA/CUARTOSCURO.COM)
“On July 10, the CEAV authorized 3.5 million pesos for each of the deceased victims,” the INM said, adding that the SHCP had approved the transfer of 140 million pesos (US $8.2 million) so that it is able to make the respective payments.
In its statement, the INM also noted that in collaboration with other government agencies and consular officials, it repatriated the bodies of the deceased migrants to their countries of origin. The deceased men came from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Colombia, and Venezuela.
The INM said it has covered costs and provided assistance to the families of the deceased and injured, some of whom accompanied their loved ones to Mexico City, where they received medical treatment.
Protesters hung posters outside the Ciudad Juárez detention center where 40 migrants died in a fire on March 27. (Photo by Graciela Lopez Herrera/Cuartoscuro.com)
“The process of accompaniment of the injured victims receiving medical treatment continues,” the institute said.
In addition to claiming 40 lives and injuring 27 other men, the March 27 fire caused material damage to the INM facility to the tune of just under 1.9 million pesos (US $11,400), according to the Federal Attorney General’s Office.
A total of 33 provisional detention centers were temporarily shut down after the blaze so that the conditions in each could be assessed and their future determined.
Smoke detectors, respirators and additional fire extinguishers were subsequently put in all INM facilities where migrants are held, the INM said. Emergency exit doors were installed and “bars and locks in all areas of transit and internal flow of people housed” at migrant detention centers were removed, the institute said.
The fire is among the deadliest tragedies involving migrants in Mexico in recent decades. Two incidents in which more migrants died include a 2021 tractor-trailer crash in Chiapas that claimed the lives of 55 clandestine passengers and the massacre of 72 migrants by cartel gunmen in Tamaulipas in 2010.
President López Obrador said in late March that the death of the migrants in the Ciudad Juárez fire took a heavy emotional toll on him.
“This case has been very painful for a lot of people. And I confess it has pained me a lot, it has hurt me. I’ve had difficult moments [as president], the most difficult was the explosion in Tlahuelilpan,” he said, referring to the 2019 petroleum pipeline blast in Hidalgo that claimed well over 100 lives.
“That was the hardest event, the one that affected me the most emotionally. And then this, this moved me, it broke my soul,” López Obrador said.
From the latest data on poverty reduction to corruption in the judiciary to "voluntary disarmament", it was another packed week at President López Obrador's daily press conferences. (MOISÉS PABLO/CUARTOSCURO.COM)
Twenty-nine years after Institutional Revolutionary Party presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta was assassinated in Tijuana, Baja California, history repeated in Quito, Ecuador, this week with the slaying of Fernando Villavicencio, who was one of eight aspirants to the top job in the South American nation.
The latest political assassination and its similarity with the murder of Colosio was among the numerous events and issues President López Obrador addressed at his morning press conferences, or mañaneras, this week.
The president ended the week with encouraging data on poverty reduction from 2020-2022. (Gob MX)
A range of other “bad news” items were discussed at the pressers, but on a positive note, López Obrador noted that data showed that inflation declined in July and poverty decreased considerably between 2020 and 2022.
Monday
Responding to his first mañanera question of the new workweek, AMLO once again denied that remarks he made about Senator Xóchitl Gálvez – a leading aspirant to the 2024 presidential election candidacy of the Broad Front for Mexico (FAM) opposition alliance – could be considered gender-based political violence, as the Federal Electoral Tribunal (TEPJF) ruled last week.
“This ruling … exposes the members of the Electoral Tribunal, the judges. … It exposes them because they lie, slander, act in a false manner. They’re even capable of changing my statements, my words,” he said.
“… They accuse me of gender-based political violence. Gender-based political violence! And what they do is attribute statements to me that I didn’t make in this press conference. It really is serious,” said López Obrador, who was directed by the National Electoral Institute (INE) on Aug. 4 to abstain from speaking about Gálvez.
“I’m not going to say her name, I think that is [what the INE order says]. … I won’t mention the name of the woman again,” pledged the president, who has defied an earlier INE directive to abstain from speaking about electoral issues in the lead-up to the 2024 elections.
In response to another question, López Obrador acknowledged that the husband of a cousin of Guerrero Governor Evelyn Salgado was murdered in Iguala.
“Regrettably there was this murder and the wife of the person who lost his life is wounded, fortunately not seriously,” he said, adding that an investigation is underway to determine who committed the crime and what the motive was.
AMLO also acknowledged that María Fernanda Sánchez, a 24-year-old Mexican student, was found dead in Berlin, Germany.
“The German government helped a lot, we thank them,” he said, adding that an investigation into the woman’s disappearance and death continues.
The Morelos Attorney General will now remain in custody until his case is heard in September. (Especial/Cuartoscuro)
Carmona has immunity from prosecution for federal crimes, but he is accused of a “common jurisdiction crime,” he said.
The case against him is about “the concealment of the truth” in “the murder of a young woman in Mexico City,” AMLO said, referring to Ariadna López, who was killed at the age of 27.
“That’s why the Mexico City Attorney General’s Office is involved. Of course we want there to be justice,” he said, adding that it was “very clear” that some politicians and “members of the judicial power,” among others, had sought to protect the attorney general.
After a reporter told him there were “great expectations” for the Maya Train railroad in Europe partly because “some European companies are participating in the construction of the project,” López Obrador declared that the mega obra is in fact being eagerly awaited around the world.
“It’s a great project – not just the most important rail project in the world today; I would say that it’s the most important public project in the world,” he said.
Workers on the Maya Train project. (Gob MX)
“It’s important for the development of engineering. On the Maya Train [project] they’re applying all the fields of engineering: mechanical, electrical, hydraulic, civil engineering, railway engineering, of course. It’s a great project,” he said.
Among other remarks, AMLO said that he will leave office a happy man when his six-year term ends in late 2024, even though his administration is already the most violent on record in terms of homicides and the COVID-19 pandemic – poorly managed by the federal government, according to some experts – has claimed the lives of well over 300,000 Mexicans.
“I’m going to feel content, happy, when I finish and I can say: We didn’t repress anyone, we didn’t order massacres [by federal security forces], we didn’t order or allow anyone to be tortured, we didn’t allow or tolerate the disappearance of people, human rights were respected and no media outlet was censored even though I maintain that they manipulate [information],” he said.
Tuesday
Three people have been arrested in connection with a bomb attack in Jalisco that claimed the lives of six people including four police officers on July 11, Deputy Security Minister Luis Rodríguez reported during the regular “Zero Impunity” segment.
The third man detained has been identified as the person who placed the explosive devices on the road in Tlajomulco where the explosion occurred and who lured the police to the site by reporting that the bodies of missing people had been located there, Rodríguez said.
Continuing a broader security update, Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez told reporters that the government has destroyed 992 firearms that were handed in to authorities in exchange for cash during a “voluntary disarmament” program.
In 38 municipalities across 13 states, the government paid 3.8 million pesos (US $222,600) to people who handed in the guns and other firearm paraphernalia including ammunition, she said.
“One of the strategies to reduce violence linked to firearms is voluntary disarmament,” Rodríguez said.
Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez at the Tuesday morning press conference. (Rosa Icela Rodríguez/Twitter)
“This is a peace-building tool that is carried out in the states with the highest rates of violence. It’s done in coordination with the Ministry of National Defense, the National Guard and state and municipal governments,” she said.
The security minister also said that “warlike toys” could be exchanged for “educational and recreational toys to raise awareness among boys and girls about the danger that firearms represent.”
Interior Minister Luisa María Alcalde later took aim at a federal judge who – in response to an injunction request filed by Xóchitl Gálvez – ordered López Obrador to abstain from engaging in hate speech against the complainant.
She said that the same judge has made numerous other rulings against the government, including one that suspended a ban on the sale of electronic cigarettes and another that suspended a prohibition on the use of mascots that appeal to children on food and beverage products.
Now the judge is going too far by “seeking, through this injunction, to silence the president of Mexico,” Alcalde said.
“We have to wait for the distribution and delivery of the books to start [to see what happens],” he said.
Opposition to the textbooks is nothing more than a “defamatory campaign of conservatism, without basis,” AMLO added.
“They’re saying that with the books the virus of communism is going to be injected [into students]. The truth is that’s grotesque, it’s absurd. It doesn’t just have no basis but is also an extremist, irrational, bad faith statement,” he said.
Interior Minister Alcalde at the morning press conference. (Gob MX)
Any effort to block the distribution of textbooks would go against the constitution, López Obrador said, reiterating that the federal government has the right to develop textbooks and deliver them to students.
Later in his presser, AMLO once again expressed his admiration for United States President Joe Biden because he’s “the only U.S. president in decades that hasn’t built even a meter of wall” on the border between the North America neighbors.
Previous presidents from both the Republican and Democratic parties all built “their sections of wall,” he said, adding that their motivation was “publicity” and “politicking.”
“And now this man from Texas, the governor, also … [for] publicity and in a very inhumane way places these buoys with barbed wire in the … [Rio Grande], affecting agreements, treaties, threatening our sovereignty,” said López Obrador, who told reporters that Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena would raise the issue with U.S. officials during meetings in Washington later in the week.
Questioned about a claim that Mexico was interested in joining BRICS, an economic grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, AMLO said that wasn’t the case.
“For economic reasons, … geopolitical reasons, we’re going to continue strengthening the North American alliance,” he said, adding that Mexico would also seek to bolster economic ties with other countries of the Americas.
Wednesday
Before opening the floor to questions, AMLO once again defended the government’s new school textbooks, which have been criticized as being ideological, riddled with errors and lacking in content in key subject areas.
“The … [press conferences] about the textbooks will continue because it’s very interesting to become familiar with each book, to get to know the content, to expose how deceptive and cretinous the conservatives are, how they’re capable of slandering and lying to serve their own interests,” he said.
López Obrador said that mathematicians and scientists who contributed to the textbooks will attend press conferences next week and “refute” claims that “there is no mathematics” in them.
Education Minister Leticia Ramírez (center) at the first evening press conference about the textbooks held on Monday. (Leticia Ramírez Amaya/Twitter)
AMLO subsequently noted that the national statistics agency INEGI had reported that annual headline inflation in July was 4.79%, down from 5.06% in June.
“We have very good news, inflation continues to fall, this has a great effect on people’s finances, families’ finances, because income goes further,” he said.
During his engagement with reporters, López Obrador revealed that he had sent a letter to President Biden to thank him for opening up new legal pathways to the United States for certain migrants and for not building any additional sections of wall on the Mexico-U.S. border.
“He’s the only United States president to carry out this measure [in favor of migrants] in recent times and I acknowledge that in the letter,” he said. “And the other thing, which is very important, is that he’s the only United States president in decades that hasn’t build [sections of border] wall.”
While he praised Biden for offering new legal pathways to the U.S. for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans, AMLO said that “a plan to combat poverty” in “very poor countries” in the Americas is needed to reduce the need to migrate in the first place.
“Migration is not for pleasure, it’s a matter of necessity,” he said.
“So, countries that have more economic possibilities have the moral obligation to help poor countries and this … allows order to be brought to the migration flow. … We have to address the causes [of migration] so that people can work and be happy where they were born, where their families and customs are, and this can be achieved if there is investment, if there are work opportunities,” López Obrador said.
AMLO later acknowledged that remittances sent home by Mexican workers in the United States have taken a hit due to the appreciation of the peso this year. However, the current strength of the currency is good for the country, he asserted.
While the currency depreciated during the terms of previous governments, “with us the peso has strengthened like never before,” AMLO said.
“… What does this mean for us? Firstly, that Mexico is a country with economic and financial stability. There haven’t been tax increases in real terms,” López Obrador said.
A recent El Financiero newspaper poll found Gálvez to be the frontrunner among respondents questioned about who they’d like to see represent the Frente Amplio por México coalition in the 2024 presidential election. (Yerania Rolón/Cuartoscuro)
Among other remarks, the president said he would write to the Federal Judiciary Council to question the conduct of the judge who ruled that he must abstain from speaking about Xóchitl Gálvez. He also said that he would send a letter directly to the judge.
“He has a history of protecting white-collar criminals and tycoons,” AMLO said.
“… He permitted the distribution of vaping devices. What’s at stake? People’s health, young people’s health,” he said.
Thursday
“I already sent him the letter. I’m going to read it to you,” López Obrador said, referring to the missive he dispatched to the judge he spoke about on Wednesday.
“You, Mr. Judge, order me … to keep quiet, to censor information that should be public. … You accuse me … of hate speech for exposing the existence of contracts signed in the past nine years by the the company of the woman [Xóchitl Gálvez] and her family for more than 400 million pesos, of which 70% were signed in the [Mexico City] borough of Miguel Hidalgo, a district where she, coincidentally, served as mayor between 20215 and 2018,” AMLO said.
“You warn of … effective malice on my part, but the one guilty of effective malice is you. … It was you that granted a suspension to Joaquín [“El Chapo”] Guzmán Loera to prevent his extradition to the United States,” continued López Obrador as he read from his letter to Martín Adolfo Santos Pérez, a judge at a Mexico City-based administrative court.
The Mexicana airline will begin operations with an initial fleet of 10 Boeing aircraft. (Andrea Murcia/Cuartoscuro)
Alcalde said that the money will go to former employees of Mexicana, which is set to be revived as a military-run commercial airline.
“Today is a historic day, a day that will be worth remembering” because the “thousands of women and men that were left helpless [when they lost their jobs] now see light on the road,” she said.
National Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval said that tickets for flights on the new state-owned airline will likely go on sale in September. The airline, which is slated to start operations before the end of the year, already has 209 employees and will have 745 by the time the first flight takes off, he said.
The government has made an “initial investment” in the airline of 4 billion pesos (about US $235 million), Sandoval said.
“Profitability will depend on flight activity,” the defense minister said of the soon-to-be launched airline, which is set to initially operate with ten Boeing 737-800s.
Asked about the assassination on Wednesday of Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, AMLO said he very much regretted the event.
“These are very difficult and regrettable times,” he said before describing the murder as “reprehensible” and “very painful.”
Luis Donaldo Colosio at the Tijuana rally where he was murdered on March 23, 1994. (Archive)
“Many people remember those sad times, times of distress and fear. That’s why we very much regret that this has happened in Ecuador,” he said.
AMLO said “there is no evidence” that the Sinaloa Cartel is responsible for the assassination and remarked that it mustn’t be forgotten that “things are always made up, and even more so in electoral times.”
“So we have to act very responsibly, very seriously, not blame anyone lightly … and wait for the result of the investigation to be announced,” he said.
Toward the end of his presser, López Obrador said that five government helicopters will patrol the route of the Maya Train railroad once it’s operational “to guarantee security.”
He said that the railroad and all other infrastructure projects undertaken by his government belong to “the people” of Mexico and asserted that that’s the way it should stay.
“They mustn’t be privatized, the same thing [that happened during previous governments] mustn’t happen again,” AMLO said.
Friday
At the top of his final press conference of the week, López Obrador noted that data published by the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy on Thursday showed that poverty has declined during his government.
“They won’t be able to take this away from us, this happiness we get from the fact that there are fewer poor people in the country. It fills me with pride,” he said.
During his Q and A session with the press, a reporter asked AMLO what he made of Enrique de la Madrid’s assertion that Mexico has suffered from two viruses during his presidency: the coronavirus and “the virus of the 4T” (Fourth Transformation), the government’s self-anointed nickname.
Enrique de la Madrid’s father was president of Mexico and he served as tourism minister during the administration of Vicente Fox. (Enrique de la Madrid/Twitter)
The same reporter sought the president’s opinion on why Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele – who has taken a hardline approach to combating crime – is so popular.
“There are different realities [in Mexico and El Salvador] and also different ideas. I think the causes [of crime] have to be addressed, it’s not just about applying coercive measures. Lasting peace is achieved with justice and that’s what we’re putting into practice. I don’t want to argue with the president of El Salvador,” López Obrador responded.
“We’re doing well despite inheriting a very difficult situation because there was a president who declared war on drug trafficking,” AMLO said, referring to Felipe Calderón.
Later in his mañanera, López Obrador weighed in on the curious case of Israel Vallarta, who was arrested on kidnapping charges in 2005 – including for a second time in a televised setup – but hasn’t been sentenced. He said there was evidence that Vallarta has been tortured and noted the long period that has passed without the suspect being sentenced.
“Where is the fast and expeditious justice?” AMLO asked before acknowledging that a court had once again ruled that Vallarta couldn’t be released from prison as he continues to await trial.
López Obrador said that his cabinet looked at Vallarta’s case and decided that he “deserved” to be released from jail. He indicated he was in favor of pardoning him, but said an amnesty “can’t be applied” if the suspect hasn’t been sentenced. There are many other people who have been in prison for a long time without being sentenced and who should also be released, AMLO said.
Israel Vallarta and then-partner Florence Cassez were arrested for kidnapping in 2005, but only Cassez was formally convicted. Her conviction was overturned in 2013 and she was released. Later investigations revealed that Vallarta confessed to committing the crime under torture. (Pedro Marrufo/Cuartoscuro.com)
“This is another one of the deficiencies of the judicial power,” he said.
Late in his press conference, López Obrador advised people who want or need plastic surgery to be careful and do their research given that some doctors are practicing despite not having relevant qualifications. He then recounted a long story about severe back pain he experienced before becoming president.
“They did everything to me [to try to treat the problem], even something that has to do with electric shocks that seems like torture…,” he said during his dire yet diverting tale.
Changing subjects, AMLO said he had been reviewing the new school textbooks and informed reporters that “the word communism practically doesn’t appear.”
“It appears in one book, a fourth grade or fifth grade one I think, but what appears is a poem of Bertolt Brecht,” he said before his communications coordinator, Jesús Ramírez, corrected him by saying that the poem was in fact by Martin Niemöller, a Lutheran pastor who opposed the Nazi regime in 1930s Germany.
“Put the poem up,” AMLO directed Ramírez. “It has to do with the way in which we must unite against fascism, against repression, against the violation of human rights. That’s what appears in the book,” he said.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies ([email protected])
First they came by Martin Niemöller
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me
Some who denigrate Mexico's new textbooks say they're a government tool of communist indoctrination. (Illustration by Angy Márquez)
Though it’s been a while since I’ve taught a class, the memories I have of being a high school social sciences teacher from 2006–2011 in Querétaro remain sharp — it was truly a unique experience.
Most of my students were the sons and daughters of the city’s elite. At the time I was there, we had several state politicians’ kids and many children from the region’s prominent business owners. Monthly tuition for each child was just over half of my monthly salary, and a peek outside the parking lot during the school day would reveal a cadre of bodyguards waiting to escort the ones from especially wealthy families to their homes.
I taught high school kids. High school kids are kind of high school kids everywhere: some are lovely, some are entitled and/or defiant jerks, some are just plain weird. Most, honestly, were pretty nice and well-mannered, especially if you consider what a self-centered period of life teenagerhood is.
I told myself that my work mattered greatly, as I was getting a small and unique chance to educate, quite literally, many of the future leaders of the city, state and possibly even the country.
And, boy, did I try hard.
Though I haven’t had a front-row seat to the culture wars in my own country, I’m pretty sure I’m exactly the kind of liberal teacher that conservative parents and local politicians would have wanted immediately fired and possibly burned at the stake.
Because look: if I’d been able to turn those kids into vegan socialists, you’d better believe I would have. I was not successful, but it certainly wasn’t for lack of trying!
Alas, most of them today (many are my Facebook friends!) are now simply 30-something rich people, the status-quo capitalism of Mexico having given them very little personal reason to “fight the system.” For the majority of them, “the system” is going just swimmingly.
They may sympathize with the masses, but I don’t see any of them fighting to cut their own privileges in order to even things out.
For most schoolchildren in Mexico, things are, and will likely remain, quite different.
This is true particularly for those younger students who attend public school and will be the recipients of the SEP’s new and (apparently) controversial textbooks.
I’ve been following this upset online, if you can count reading a couple of articles and looking at related memes as “following.” I’ve also virtually paged through some of the books that my daughter will receive this coming year, since we’re not in one of the states where the governor has declared they’d refuse to distribute them.
To me, the books seem just fine (you can look at the PDF versions here). I keep hearing about myriad errors in them, but in my own browsing, I haven’t yet come across any. Another complaint (possibly — just maybe — slightly exaggerated) is that the books are teaching “communist” values: have a look on Facebook, and you’ll find meme after meme joking and implying that after reading them, kids will be walking around in red sweaters with their own scythes and Che Guevara berets, fist-pumping solidarity gestures at each other in the hallways.
Ha! I wish.
Really, though, that’s not how it works.
For those not in the business of trying to “indoctrinate” (i.e., teach) kids, let me tell you: it’s harder than it looks. Again, I myself went all out, but there’s nary an anti-capitalism meme to be found among my former students’ social media pages. Nope. They’re filled with pictures of luxury world travel and evening gowns.
Conclusion? People vastly overestimate the degree to which students actually pay attention to their textbooks, let alone their teachers.
People who want to sound serious in their critiques have mostly stuck to talking about the books’ typos. But I don’t think the outrage is really about a few punctuation errors.
If there are schools that don’t even have toilet paper or soap in the bathroom, and others that are frequently left without water and electricity, outrage about a misplaced comma seems, well, misplaced.
So, what are they afraid of?
Here’s my radical take: they’re not worried about students like the ones I had. They’re worried about the future low-wage workers of Mexico developing a real life Marxian “class consciousness.” Because if that happened, they might stop accepting the social and economic status quo. They want to avoid class warfare, in which they’re not guaranteed to be on the winning side.
Sending one’s children to school is a compromise: you have to relinquish some of your own control in exchange for getting some time to yourself (usually just to work, not necessarily for fun stuff).
If you’re afraid of what they’re learning in school and you prefer that economically disadvantaged students have no textbooks of any kind — rather than allowing them to read what’s inside ones you consider flawed — then it’s time to examine what your real fears are.
Sarah DeVries is a writer and translator based in Xalapa, Veracruz. She can be reached through her website, sarahedevries.substack.com.
