Landau said he "personally gave the order" to cancel the visa of Melissa Cornejo, the name listed on the account that posted a profane message in support of the protesters. (Gage Skidmore CC BY-SA 2.0)
Would you expect a high-ranking United States government official to respond to a Mexican woman who took to social media to tell U.S. bureaucrats to stick her U.S. visa up their backsides?
That’s exactly what Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau did on Thursday.
Let’s back up a bit (pardon the pun).
Earlier this week, Melissa Cornejo, a member of the state council of the ruling Morena party in Jalisco, shared a photo to the X social media site of a man holding up a Mexican flag in front of a burnt-out vehicle in Los Angeles, where protests against immigration raids have been held in recent days.
Painted on the side of the car in capital letters was the message “FUCK ICE” — ICE being the acronym of United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which carries out raids targeting undocumented immigrants.
Above the photo, Cornejo wrote: “They’re going to take away visas from those who share…”
Cornejo shared the comments alongside a photo of protester with a Mexican flag in a post that has since been made private. (X)
She was apparently alluding to the possibility that she could be stripped of her U.S. visa for sharing a photo of a defiant protester. However, Cornejo made it clear she didn’t care about that (if in fact she actually has a U.S. tourist visa, that is).
“And it shouldn’t surprise you what they answered: that you don’t even have a valid visa to cancel,” he wrote.
“How easy it is to talk about your disdain for ‘my visa’ on social media when you don’t have one. Those who glorify violence and the defiance of legitimate authorities and public order (‘FU** ICE’) are in no way welcome in our country,” Landau wrote before signing off with his name and official title.
By mid-afternoon, the deputy secretary of state and former ambassador to Mexico had attracted a response from Denise Dresser, a well-known Mexican political scientist and writer.
“With all due respect, Ambassador Landau, this is conduct unbecoming of a U.S. government official,” she wrote.
Landau — who met with President Claudia Sheinbaum in Mexico City on Wednesday — got a mixed reaction to his post from other X users, with comments including “that’s right Mr. Secretary”; “excellent response”; “fascist”; and “don’t you think it’s totally extremist to cancel a visa for expressing an opinion on social media?”
Mexico's central bank will have to decide whether to continue slashing interest rates, as advocated by its governor, Victoria Rodríguez, or pause the cuts in order to further study inflation trends, as suggested by Deputy Governor Jonathan Heath. (Galo Cañas/Cuartoscuro. Archive)
The one-two punch of rising inflation and stagnant growth have weakened confidence in Mexico’s economy, but the Bank of Mexico (Banxico) supplied some positive spin in its biannual stability report, suggesting it will continue to lower interest rates.
However, consensus on that strategy may be hard to reach, as prominent central bank Deputy Governor Jonathan Heath suggested that it may be time to “pause” the rate cuts.
Banxico Governor Victoria Rodríguez, shown here at an April Senate appearance, told the press Wednesday that Mexico “has a solid macroeconomic framework.” (Graciela López/Cuartoscuro)
Either way, Banxico Governor Victoria Rodríguez sought to assuage fears about Mexico’s banking system and its economy on Wednesday, pointing to the optimistic outlook in the report, while insisting Mexico “has a solid macroeconomic framework.”
The report says Mexico’s financial system has shown “resilience” despite lingering trade tensions with the U.S. and a global context characterized by an economic slowdown.
Banxcio insists the nation’s banking system “maintains solid liquidity with capital levels above regulatory minimums,” according to Reuters, and stress tests indicate it can withstand simulated adverse scenarios, the report says.
Even so, Banxico faces a difficult balancing act: It must ease rising inflation while stimulating the sluggish economy.
The challenge is made more formidable by concerns of long-term high inflation, especially as headline inflation rose to 4.42% in May, well above the 3% target. The concerns are partially fueled by Banxico’s own forecast that inflation won’t converge on the target until the third quarter of 2026.
Talking to reporters on Wednesday, Rodríguez insisted it would be “premature” to conclude that Mexico will slip into a period of high inflation. She pointed to a steady downward trajectory from the highs reached in 2022, when it peaked at 8.7%.
Still, core inflation — excluding volatile items like food and oil — hit 4.06% in May, its highest level in nearly a year.
Although Rodriguez said Banxico will probably continue easing its monetary policy, the decision is not likely to be unanimous.
Heath said on Tuesday that the spike in inflation requires a cautious stance.
“This might be the moment to pause and study the inflation data,” he said, referring to Banxico’s three consecutive 50 basis-point cuts to its benchmark interest rate.
Heath did clarify that his posture reflected a more aggressive approach to reducing inflation by the third quarter this year as opposed to Rodríguez’s preference for gradual easing. He also acknowledged that the situation could evolve depending on changes in the global economy or with regard to U.S. trade policy.
A Reuters survey indicated that Banxico is expected to implement a fourth consecutive 50-point rate cut at its next meeting on June 26.
Analysts cited by El Economista noted that the rise in merchandise prices could continue to offset the decline in prices of services, preventing core inflation from continuing to decline. However, they expect Banxico to bet that services prices will begin to fall due to cyclical conditions and, as a result, to continue their monetary easing later this month.
The 2026 World Cup is a chance for Mexicans to show that they are the "best fans in the world," Sheinbaum said. (Saúl López Escorcia/Presidencia)
The 2026 FIFA World Cup and the Mexican government’s electric vehicle project were among the topics President Claudia Sheinbaum spoke about at her Thursday morning press conference.
Here is a recap of the president’s June 12 mañanera.
Sheinbaum: FIFA World Cup opening will be a ‘very special moment for Mexico’
Sheinbaum declared that next year’s FIFA World Cup — to be co-hosted by Mexico, the United States and Canada — will be “very special.”
Sheinbaum said that Mexico will need to collaborate with its co-hosts (and USMCA partners) in a range of ways to ensure the event is a success.
“The football World Cup is the world’s premier event,” she said.
Mexico City’s Aztec stadium will host the first 2026 FIFA World Cup match on June 11, 2026. (Wikimedia Commons)
“… In Mexico it will be in Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey. Yesterday the Cup was with [Mexico City Mayor] Clara [Bruagada],” Sheinbaum said, seemingly giving precedence to the winner’s trophy.
Sheinbaum said that the 2026 World Cup will give Mexicans the opportunity to show that they are the “best fans in the world,” a controversial statement given that those very fans have been punished in the past for using a homophobic chant at matches.
The president also told reporters that her government wants World Cup-related activities to be held in all 32 states, not just in those that will host matches.
“It’s a very beautiful project that will elevate the name of Mexico. We also hope that the national team does very well,” she said.
Asked whether she would attend the inauguration of the 2026 World Cup, Sheinbaum responded, “I don’t know yet. Politics is for some things and sport is for others, and you have to give each its space.”
— Clara Brugada Molina (@ClaraBrugadaM) June 12, 2025
Sheinbaum nevertheless declared that the World Cup opening ceremony at Estadio Azteca will be a “very, very good event.”
“… It will be a special moment for Mexico,” she said, adding that she expected a worldwide audience similar to the 550 million people who watched the opening match in Qatar at the 2022 World Cup.
“In addition Mexico City is the only city that [will] have held the opening ceremony of the World Cup three times,” said Sheinbaum, who confirmed that she is a football fan herself.
Mexico’s electric vehicle project going ‘very well,’ says Sheinbaum
A reporter asked the president how the federal government project to build an electric vehicle is progressing. The Sheinbaum administration said in January that it was planning to debut the vehicle — called Olinia — at the 2026 World Cup opening match in Mexico City.
Sheinbaum said on Thursday that the project is going “very well.”
She confirmed that “the idea” was to “present” the vehicle at Estadio Azteca on the day of the opening match of the World Cup, but asserted that it was too early to say whether that would in fact happen.
Olinia, which means “to move” in Nahuatl, will be designed as an affordable EV for Mexican families and young people, with competitive prices compared to other available brands. (Shutterstock)
She indicated that only a prototype, rather than the final model, would be ready next year.
“The idea is that next year … the first prototypes will begin to be produced,” Sheinbaum said, adding that the goal was to subsequently commence “mass production” via a joint venture between the government and a private company.
Authorities made no attempt to interfere with the striking teachers at Chichén Itzá, and the tourists' access to the archeological site was not hindered. In fact, the CNTE even issued a statement in English for their benefit. (Coordinadora Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación/Facebook)
Hundreds of teachers from the National Coordination of Education Workers (CNTE) have escalated their protest movement in Yucatán this week, taking over the Chichén Itzá archaeological site on Wednesday and staging a demonstration at the Maya Train station in Valladolid on Thursday.
The Valladolid train station of the Train Maya line in Yucatán state was another site of a CNTE takeover. The protesters did not interfere with arrivals or departures. (@desdebalcon/X)
On Wednesday morning, around 300 CNTE members occupied the ticket booth at Chichén Itzá, allowing free entry to tourists and setting up tents at the site, all the while chanting slogans in Spanish, such as “You can see it, you can feel it, the CNTE is present!”
Similar actions took place at Ek Balam and Uxmal, with teachers reiterating their demands for a 100% salary increase, 90 days of bonuses and, mainly, the repeal of a 2007 ISSSTE (public sector social security) law that restructured federal pensions.
They even issued a statement in English, explaining their demands and the reasons for their protests, in the presence of foreign tourists and the media.
“The teachers of Yucatán denounce that federal and state authorities have remained silent or continue to simulate dialogue, while laws that violate the right to a decent pension remain in force,” CNTE stated on social media, according to the newspaper Reforma.
Despite the disruption, authorities from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) and local police did not intervene, and operations for tourists continued under the supervision of site staff.
The Cultural Trust called for dialogue, emphasizing the need to avoid compromising the local economy or Yucatán’s reputation as a tourist destination.
Thursday’s protest shifted to the Maya Train station in Valladolid, where about 100 teachers rallied outside the facility without disrupting train operations. Organizers said they would return to their camp in downtown Valladolid while awaiting the outcome of talks with the state government.
Earlier in the week, on Tuesday, teachers and administrators at Metropolitan Technological University called off classes so people could join a march from San Juan Park to the Government Palace in Mérida, Yucatán. Additionally, there were reports of high school students joining the march.
Not all groups supported or participated in the “takeover” at Chichén Itzá.
Juan Luis Robert Arias noted that his group, the Independent Union of Education Workers of Mexico (SITEM-UTM), disagreed with the illegal nature of the action and its negative impact on the final stretch of the academic year.
Protestors at Yucatán’s Ek Balam archeological site on Wednesday. (CNTE/Facebook)
“We are convening a discussion table with this group of teachers and administrators,” he said. “We have a proposal to teach online classes to properly close the school year and not affect students.”
The actions in Yucatán have come on the heels of the Mexico City sit-in and various other actions around Mexico since May 15. These include toll-booth takeovers, embassy protests, and blockades at the Mexico City International Airport (AICM) and main roads in the capital.
President Claudia Sheinbaum had proposed a 10% salary increase, but the union rejected the offer, vowing to continue local demonstrations until their demands are met.
The CNTE has warned that if negotiations do not yield results, protests could intensify nationwide in September, with a possible return to the capital.
For now, teachers across Yucatán, Guerrero and other states say they will keep up the pressure with ongoing strikes and demonstrations.
Immigration and security were the focus of what Sheinbaum described as a "courtesy visit." (Claudia Sheinbaum/X)
Mexico doesn’t agree with immigration raids targeting people working “honestly” in the United States.
President Claudia Sheinbaum said Thursday that she conveyed that message to United States Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau during their meeting in Mexico City on Wednesday.
Sheinbaum discussed issues including immigration and security policy with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau. (Presidencia)
Speaking at her morning press conference, Sheinbaum said that she and other Mexican officials discussed a range of issues with Landau, who was accompanied by U.S. Ambassador Ron Johnson during the meeting at the National Palace.
“We showed him the security results, [we spoke about] migration issues, we spoke about the defense of our migrant brothers and sisters, [we said] we didn’t agree with raids being used to detain people who work honestly in the United States,” she said.
Sheinbaum said she told Landau that the arrest of immigrant workers in the United States doesn’t just “harm” the workers themselves, but also the United States economy.
“We don’t agree with this scheme of criminalizing working people,” she told reporters.
While Mexicans in the United States send tens of billions of dollars to Mexico in remittances each year, the president and other Mexican officials have stressed that some 80% of their earnings remain in the U.S.
Sheinbaum said that Landau told her that he would convey Mexico’s opposition to raids against immigrant workers both to the State Department and President Donald Trump.
“What we want is recognition of the Mexican community [in the United States], of the honest, noble work they all do,” she said.
“… [Landau] said he was going to pass on this message. And I said it was one of the issues we wanted to speak about with President Trump the day we’re at the G7 [Summit],” Sheinbaum said.
Sheinbaum: We have ‘various issues’ with the United States
Sheinbaum described her meeting with Landau as a “courtesy meeting.”
“He came to introduce himself in his new assignment in the State Department of the government of President Trump,” she said.
“And — he said — to seek the best [possible] relationship between Mexico and the United States,” Sheinbaum said.
“… It was a good meeting,” she said.
Landau, seen here on a trip to Mazatlán, Sinaloa, previously served as U.S. ambassador to Mexico from 2019-2021. (Christpher Landau/X)
Later in her press conference, Sheinbaum noted that there are a range of “issues” (and tensions) in the Mexico-United States relationship, and said they were discussed with Landau.
She said that she pointed out to Landau that Mexico imports more steel and aluminum from the United States than it exports to its northern neighbor, and stressed that “it’s necessary to reach an agreement” on the trade of those metals.
The Bloomberg news agency reported earlier this week that Mexico and the United States were “closing in on a deal” that would remove Trump’s tariffs on Mexican steel — which doubled to 50% last week — “up to a certain volume.”
But as of early Thursday afternoon, no deal had been announced.
A deal to bring down 50% tariffs on Mexican steel is in the works, Bloomberg reported earlier this week. (Mads Eneqvist/Unsplash)
Asked whether Landau had asked for anything specific from Mexico, as was the case when Noem met with Sheinbaum in March, the president said he did not.
She subsequently denounced as “completely false” a Reuters report that stated that “the Trump administration is pressuring Mexico to investigate and prosecute politicians with suspected links to organized crime, and to extradite them to the United States if there are criminal charges to answer there.”
On Wednesday, Landau and Ambassador Johnson “didn’t ask for anything,” Sheinbaum said.
“It was a courtesy visit. And we [interacted with them] always with respect, but with firmness in the defense of Mexicans in the United States, and of what affects the people of Mexico at this time,” she said.
Sheinbaum reiterates that meeting with Trump next week is ‘very probable’
Three days after she confirmed that she would take up the invitation of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and attend next week’s G7 Summit in Alberta, Sheinbaum reiterated that a bilateral meeting with Trump was “very probable.”
She said Thursday that Foreign Minister de la Fuente and the head of the Foreign Ministry’s North America department Roberto Velasco would accompany her to Canada, and that other ministers may join the trip as well.
“We’re determining [who] according to the issues that will be dealt with,” Sheinbaum said.
Pressure is mounting for Sheinbaum to crack down on corruption, but going after her fellow politicians carries major political risk.(Victoria Valtierra/Cuartoscuro)
Is the United States pressuring Mexico to investigate and prosecute politicians with suspected links to criminal organizations?
Does the United States government have a so-called “narco-list” of Mexican politicians it believes have ties to organized crime?
Now, Reuters has reported that the Trump administration is indeed pressuring Mexico to go after politicians with suspected narco ties, but Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Ministry (SRE) and President Claudia Sheinbaum denounced the news agency’s reporting as “completely false.”
That the United States believes there are corrupt officials in Mexico with links to drug cartels is nothing new. Indeed, the White House made the daring assertion in February that that “the Mexican drug trafficking organizations have an intolerable alliance with the government of Mexico.”
“The government of Mexico has afforded safe havens for the cartels to engage in the manufacturing and transportation of dangerous narcotics, which collectively have led to the overdose deaths of hundreds of thousands of American victims,” the White House said in a “fact sheet” on tariffs.
The U.S. wants Sheinbaum to go after corrupt politicians who have made Mexico a “safe haven” for traffickers who manufacture and transport narcotics like fentanyl. (US CBP)
Meanwhile, twice in the past eight days the United States Embassy in Mexico has felt it was necessary to publicly debunk “narco-lists” circulating on social media.
Reuters: Mexico under pressure to investigate corrupt politicians
Citing “sources familiar with the matter,” Reuters reported that “the Trump administration is pressuring Mexico to investigate and prosecute politicians with suspected links to organized crime, and to extradite them to the United States if there are criminal charges to answer there.”
The news agency said that the U.S. “requests” were raised at least three times by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his team in bilateral meetings and conversations with Mexican officials. The “list of Marco” or “Marco’s list” is an alternate name for the alleged U.S. list of Mexican politicians with suspected organized crime ties.
Citing “four people familiar with the matter,” Reuters said that the U.S. requests “seek to push President Claudia Sheinbaum’s government to investigate current elected officials and launch an unprecedented crackdown on narco corruption.”
The news agency said that it was told by two of its sources that U.S. officials “have called for action against several politicians from Sheinbaum’s own Morena party and threatened to levy further tariffs if Mexico did not take action.”
Reuters also reported that two sources said that “five current Morena officials and one former senator were mentioned” during conversations between U.S. and Mexican officials “including Baja California Governor Marina del Pilar Ávila.”
The U.S. first requested that Sheinbaum step up pressure on corrupt politicians at a bilateral security meeting in February. In attendance were U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Mexican Foreign Minister Juan Ramón de la Fuente and others. (U.S. White House via SRE)
Again citing its sources, the news agency said that the United States government first raised its request about the investigation and prosecution of Mexican officials at a meeting in Washington on Feb. 27 attended by Rubio, Mexican Foreign Minister Juan Ramón de la Fuente, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, Mexican Attorney General Alejandro Gertz, Mexican Security Minister Omar García Harfuch and other officials.
Citing an unnamed member of Sheinbaum’s security cabinet, Reuters said that a “crackdown” on Mexican politicians with suspected links to organized crime “carries political risks” for the president “as some of the allegations involve members of her own party.”
In its report, Reuters also said it “could not determine if the U.S. provided Mexico with a list of politicians suspected of links to organized crime, or evidence against them.”
It also said it was not “able to independently confirm if any individuals flagged by the U.S. had engaged in any wrongdoing.”
Ávila has rejected claims of wrongdoing, including reports that she is under investigation for links to a money laundering network. She has asserted that the revocation of her visa was “an administrative decision, not an accusation.”
Like his wife, Carlos Torres Torres is a Morena party politician. He has served as a deputy in both the federal Congress and the Baja California Congress.
Baja California Gov. Marina del Pilar Ávila and her husband Carlos Torres both lost their U.S. visas earlier this year. (@MarinadelPilar/X)
Sheinbaum has defended Ávila as questions linger over why the governor’s U.S. visa was revoked.
Sheinbaum responds to the report
Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Ministry responded to the Reuters report in a social media post on Wednesday.
“Both the Mexican Foreign Affairs Ministry and the United States Department of State have given transparent accounts of the various conversations held between the two countries on various issues, including security,” the SRE said.
“It is completely false that requests were made to investigate, prosecute, or extradite any official from Mexico in the meetings held with Secretary Rubio or with his team from the State Department,” the ministry said.
“The conversations have revolved around the search for agreements on various issues based on the principles of sovereignty, coordination without subordination, and respect for human rights,” the SRE said.
Sheinbaum also described the information in the Reuters report as “completely false.”
Claudia Sheinbaum (@Claudiashein) calificó como “falsa” la nota de Reuters que señala que EU pidió a México investigar a políticos mexicanos con presuntos vínculos con el crimen.
“¿No les parece extraño que cuando estamos en la reunión (con Landau) sale la nota? ¿De dónde sale… pic.twitter.com/1tQV353f1n
“Don’t you think it’s strange that when we were in the meeting [with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau” an article came out … saying that they were asking us to give them names of Mexican politicians. There is nothing more false than that,” she told reporters at her Thursday morning press conference.
“But the question is where does the [information in the] article come from?” Sheinbaum asked before describing the content of the Reuters report as “completely false.”
She said that the United States “didn’t ask for anything” at her meeting on Wednesday with Landau and U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ron Johnson, which came ahead of expected bilateral talks between Sheinbaum and U.S. President Donald Trump during next week’s G7 Summit in Canada.
The US Embassy denounces another ‘narco-list’
The United States Embassy in Mexico denounced on Wednesday an “initial list” of politicians with alleged criminal links posted to social media by Simón Levy, an entrepreneur and former deputy tourism minister in the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
“WARNING. This information is false,” the embassy said in a post to X that showed Levy’s list superimposed with the word “FALSO” in red.
Earlier on Wednesday, Levy announced on X that he would reveal the names of “Mexican politicians, governors and politically exposed people” who are subject to arrest warrants in the United States due to their alleged links to “organized crime, money laundering and drug trafficking.”
The eight names on his “initial list” included Tamaulipas Governor Américo Villareal, Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rocha Moya and former Morelos governor and soccer star Cuauhtémoc Blanco. It also included former Federal Electricity Commission director Manuel Bartlett and Andrés Manuel López Beltrán, son of former president López Obrador and Morena’s secretary of organization.
Levy claimed, without citing any source, that those five men and three others face charges related to “huachicol,” or fuel theft.
In the report, The Financial Times said that “under pressure from the Trump administration, Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum is trying to crack down on illegal fuel imports.”
“But the cartels’ connections to the authorities, as well as the huge sums to be made, mean that they have the protection and incentive to continue,” the report said.
The United States Embassy’s denunciation of Levy’s list as “false” came eight days after it labeled as “false” a supposed U.S. government statement that purported to identify various “political leaders in Mexico with ties to drug cartels.”
Asked about Levy’s list on Thursday, Sheinbaum said “this person is not worth talking about.”
Other media outlets fuel speculation
Citing unnamed United States officials, the U.S. investigative journalism organization ProPublica reported on May 15 that “the Trump administration has begun to impose travel restrictions and other sanctions on prominent Mexican politicians whom it believes are linked to drug corruption.”
“So far, two Mexican political figures have acknowledged being banned from traveling to the United States,” ProPublica said, referring to Governor Ávila and her husband.
“But U.S. officials said they expect more Mexicans to be targeted as the administration works through a list of several dozen political figures who have been identified by law enforcement and intelligence agencies as having ties to the drug trade. The list includes leaders of President Claudia Sheinbaum’s governing party, several state governors and political figures close to her predecessor, former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the U.S. officials said.”
The list includes figures close to former President López Obrador, ProPublica reported. (lopezobrador.org.mx)
In response to the ProPublica report, Sheinbaum said that its author, journalist Tim Golden, “already has a history of providing information without sources.”
She also said that her government wouldn’t “protect anyone linked to organized crime as long as there is proof.”
A few days before ProPublica published its report, journalist Salvador García Soto wrote in a column for the newspaper El Universal that the Trump administration, “through its powerful Secretary of State Marco Rubio has commenced the ‘hunt’ for Mexican politicians, which, according to their investigations, have links to drug trafficking.”
García asserted that the Department of State has a so-called “list of Marco” that includes “at least 44 names of prominent officials and politicians” from Mexico with alleged links to drug trafficking, including federal ministers, governors, mayors and lawmakers.
He wrote that the list includes “politicians from all existing parties in Mexico,” but “the majority of those mentioned are active members of Morena, the party of President Sheinbaum, and some have a very close relationship with her and with the ex-president López Obrador.”
Asked on May 15 about a supposed U.S. “narco-list,” that includes the names of “narcogobernadores” (narco-governors) and other officials, Sheinbaum responded:
“There are a lot of rumors. They are rumors.”
She said at the time that her government had not received any notification from the United States government about the existence of “lists” of politicians with links to drug cartels.
Many repatriated Mexicans deboarded their flights from the U.S. in the Tapachula, Chiapas, airport near the Guatemalan border, and not in Mexico City as expected. (Gabriela Coutiño/X)
A government program designed to provide support for deported Mexicans from the United States is proving to be woefully deficient, mainly because the U.S. is flying them far away from where the support resources are located.
In January, President Claudia Sheinbaum’s government formally launched the “Mexico Embraces You” deportee reception program with much fanfare. Sheinbaum enlisted the support of a leading business association and more than 380 companies that had agreed to provide 60,000 permanent jobs to repatriated Mexicans.
With Donald Trump’s election as U.S. president in November 2024, the Sheinbaum administration anticipated a spike in return-migration as Trump had repeatedly pledged to carry out mass deportations during his campaign.
Upon presenting the new program in January, the Mexican government touted months of preparation that would provide returnees “with an appropriate reception and give them certainty of opportunities for a dignified life in their native country.”
However, an update provided last month by the Interior Ministry revealed that the program had provided jobs for only about 4% of the nearly 40,000 Mexicans who had been deported since Trump returned to the White House.
A geographic mismatch
The major stumbling block for the “Mexico Embraces You” program has been the U.S. government’s decision to send deportation flights to airports near Mexico’s southern border with Guatemala.
That decision, according to Bloomberg News, was to discourage the returnees from attempting the arduous journey north again. But the practical effect is that it strands them miles distant from the job opportunities and reintegration services so carefully prepared by the Sheinbaum administration.
Mexican officials had expected deportees to arrive by plane in Mexico City — where services to receive them had been established — or to be sent across the northern border by land, where a significant amount of resources had been sent.
Mexico’s Business Coordinating Council (CCE) had agreed to hold job fairs to assist expelled Mexicans at Mexico City’s AIFA airport. But so far, no such fairs have been held since regular flights have not arrived.
Instead, more than 90 deportation flights have been sent to Chiapas or Tabasco in southern Mexico and not a single deportation plane has landed in Mexico City since Feb. 17.
Employment resources are available at welcome centers like this Tijuana refuge — but many deportees are arriving in southern Mexico. (via ContraRéplica)
The CCE further says that the lack of space at smaller airports in southern Mexico makes it impossible to host job fairs there.
Mexico’s National Migration Institute has been enlisted to transport repatriated countrymen who find themselves in southern Mexico to bus terminals, but the one-time cash benefit supplied by the government is often not enough to purchase a ticket home.
The result is that many deportees have found themselves stuck in states where jobs are scarce. Chiapas and Tabasco are among Mexico’s poorest states.
Bloomberg reported that around 40% of the more than 70,000 “Mexico Embraces You” job openings reported in mid-May were located in the northern industrial state of Nuevo León, in the west-central state of Jalisco and in Mexico City and surrounding México state. By contrast, Chiapas and Tabasco are among the states with the fewest openings, less than 1,000 each.
Another issue hampering the programs, according to Bloomberg, is the lack of advance notice regarding deportation flights given by the U.S. government to Mexico.
Hugo Aguilar Ortiz, an Indigenous Mixtec originally from Oaxaca, was the top vote-getter among 60 candidates for Supreme Court seats in the June 1 judicial elections. (Hugo Aguilar Ortiz/X)
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Hugo Aguilar Ortíz, an indigenous lawyer from Oaxaca, has become the first directly elected Indigenous president of Mexico’s Supreme Court, a historic milestone that is stirring controversy and debate over his record and the future of Mexican justice.
Aguilar, who grew up in the Mixtec community of San Agustín Tlacotepec, gained prominence in the 1990s for his involvement with the Zapatista movement and legal advocacy for indigenous communities. Later, he entered government service, serving as Subsecretary of Indigenous Rights and as General Coordinator of Indigenous Rights at the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples (INPI).
His transition from activist to establishment figure has drawn criticism from some indigenous groups, who accuse him of being “corrupted by power.” Aguilar also faces scrutiny for his role in government consultations on controversial megaprojects, including the Tren Maya and Interoceanic Corridor. The United Nations has documented several irregularities in these processes.
Despite Aguilar’s pledge to introduce legal pluralism and integrate indigenous legal systems into the Supreme Court, critics question his impartiality, citing his lack of constitutional law experience and ties to former President López Obrador. His historic appointment raises pressing concerns about the court’s independence and the protection of indigenous rights.
María Melendez returns with the latest episode of our “Who’s Who in Mexican politics” series.
The writer is a Canadian who spends a few months of winter each year in San Miguel de Allende, a colonial city in the state of Guanajuato. (Jiuguangw/Wikimedia Commons)
Not long ago, when a friend of mine wobbled as he rose from a low stone wall in San Miguel de Allende, I offered him a hand. As he stood, he told me a story about civility in Mexico.
“Gracias,” he said, then added, “I’m okay. But last week, I tripped and was stumbling toward the ground. I’d have landed face-first, but this man caught me. He held me up in a bear hug. He’d been walking with groceries in one hand, his son’s hand in the other. When he saw me coming, he dropped the groceries, let go of his son’s hand and caught me!
The story of a friend’s near fall and the unthinking helpfulness and civility he experienced from an unknown San Miguel de Allende resident got the writer thinking about the time he and his wife spend each year in Mexico. (Tom Hollett/Shutterstock)
“‘Gracias, gracias,’ I said. The man replied, ‘De nada,’ as though catching falling people was something he did all the time. He picked up his groceries, took his son’s hand and walked on. I stood there for a long time — steadying and calming myself before continuing, thinking how grateful I was. I still am.”
Even though the world gives us plenty of reasons to focus on things going wrong — Israel and Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan, hurricanes and horrible fires — I also find myself thinking and saying “thank you.”
While the topic of essential virtues has long been on my mind, I hadn’t thought — except in passing — about the particular virtue of gratitude. That recently changed.
For starters, I thought about it when my wife Celia and I spent a couple of weeks babysitting our grandkids, encouraging them, especially the 3-year old, to say the magic words: “may I,” “please,” “thank you,” and “you’re welcome.” Secondly, I’ve thought more about gratitude as I age, maybe because the alternative would be an unhealthy bitterness and resentment over my aches, pains and failing body.
And a major impetus to my thoughts on gratitude have been my three-month-long winter vacations in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, and the marvelous civility of the city’s people.
The last six of the 10 years we’ve come to San Miguel, we’re barely settled into our rental before Celia begins to look for next year’s place because “in Winnipeg, I’m stuck inside during the winter,” she says. “But in San Miguel, I come alive!”
San Miguel de Allende’s many narrow, cobblestone streets encourage residents — both drivers and pedestrians — to take things at a slower, more civil pace. (Los Viajeros77/Wikimedia Commons)
She is deeply grateful for the opportunities San Miguel de Allende affords her to participate in the culture, and in a community where there’s graciousness and civility at every turn — literally and figuratively.
There are no traffic lights or stop signs in the heart of San Miguel de Allende. In Winnipeg, where we live in Canada, drivers and pedestrians move in accordance with the rules we were taught — with traffic lights and stop signs to help us follow them. We’ve come to assume that without these, there’d be chaos and accidents galore.
Well, there’s certainly traffic in San Miguel de Allende: buses, scores of green-and-white taxis, motorcycles, quads and cars — especially on weekends, when people drive in from Mexico City. The streets are often congested with traffic. But, remarkably, we don’t see accidents. And, just as remarkably, we rarely hear horns.
A very small number of streets in San Miguel are paved in ways that we’re used to in Winnipeg. But most of the city’s streets are stone and cobblestone, usually very rough — hard on a car’s shock absorbers. That, plus the usually narrow streets and a plethora of speed bumps, causes drivers to proceed slowly and carefully, in keeping with a set of unspoken rules.
The first of these rules is that automobiles should defer to pedestrians. A second equally important principle seems to be that we practice civility: there’s little or no competition to be first into the intersection. Drivers get to a corner that, in other cities, would have stop lights or signs determining priority and, finding none, defer to the driver who arrived first or at about the same time.
“It’s your turn,” waves the one who thinks himself second in line, to which the presumed first person often mouths “gracias” as he turns the corner.
And I think to myself, “How gracious!”
It’s not just that there’s an alternative set of rules. It runs much deeper. Things in San Miguel de Allende operate in accordance with values and principles different from what we’re used to, including especially patience and deference, the Golden Rule and gratitude.
The principles at work for drivers also apply to pedestrians. As I navigated the city’s narrow sidewalks on my first trip here, I noticed that people coming toward me stepped off the sidewalk and moved into the street so I could remain on the sidewalk. A simple act of etiquette, but a meaningfully sweet one, and I thought to myself, “How gracious!” As we passed, I said “gracias” while they shrugged and mumbled something like “de nada.”
But it’s not nothing. When others give me the right of passage — and I thank them — we contribute to a positive community ethos. As with driving, there are no formal rules for what transpires.
In Mexico, it’s common to see young children not in strollers but carried in their mother’s arms. So on San Miguel’s narrow, uneven streets, women with children, as well as the elderly, are often prioritized by other pedestrians for the right of way. (Galo Cañas/Cuartoscuro)
It’s rather an appreciation of several unspoken and loosely applied but nonetheless effective guidelines: Women take precedence over men. Older people and those who have trouble walking are considered before the younger and more mobile. And people walking in the same direction as traffic are privileged over those walking against it, as are people accompanied by young children.
The words “grateful” and “gratitude” come from an archaic Latin adjective, “grate,” meaning “thankful.” They form all or part of several English words, including “congratulations,” “grace,” “gracious,” “gratify,” “gratuitous” and “gratuity.”
According to psychologist Robert Emmons, gratitude has stages: First comes a state in which we affirm that, all in all, life is good. Then, comes an acknowledgment that we have received something that gratifies us, both by its presence and by the effort the giver put into choosing it for us — the latter a recognition that sources of this goodness lie outside oneself. Having recognized that goodness, we know whom to thank for it.
We recently saw the play “Tuesdays with Morrie.” Morrie’s several “life lessons” are profound, all worth considering, perhaps heeding. But what struck me as most important, even as he struggled to find breath, even as he moved inexorably toward death, was his focus on the abundance — the blessings — of and in his life. He was, in a word, “grateful.”
During his last television appearance, just prior to his death in 1973, the great José Alfredo Jiménez introduced his last song, “Gracias,” to thank the public for all of the affection they’d shown him throughout his career.
“If I had the means,” Jiménez sang, “I would buy myself another two hearts, to make them vibrate and fill your souls with dreams again.”
The Mexican great José Alfredo Jiménez. (José Alfredo Jiménez/Facebook)
At a men’s breakfast in San Miguel, the topic for discussion was the music that we find most meaningful. I chose the song “Gracias a la Vida,” a beautiful tribute to the blessings and challenges of life by the Chilean singer-songwriter Violeta Parra.
The lyrics highlight the gifts of sight and hearing, of language and communication. They acknowledge the gift of mobility, our ability to travel to and experience cities and landscapes. They point to the achievements of the human brain as well as our ability to distinguish between good and evil. They value laughter and tears, joy and sorrow, life’s ups and downs, as well as the power of light to illuminate the path of the soul, of the singer and of the one she loves. The closing lines celebrate a sense of unity and shared experiences with others.
The song brilliantly encourages me to cherish, and to be grateful for, the multitude of experiences and opportunities that life in San Miguel de Allende — that life in general — affords me.
From Argentina to Guatemala, Spanish speakers call a city's main square its Plaza Mayor. Why do Mexicans call it a zócalo? (Comisión Mexicana de Filmaciones / CC BY SA 2.0)
Visit a Latin American city built during the colonial period and you’ll almost always find the same urban layout in the historic downtown: a central plaza flanked by a church and several government buildings. In every Spanish-speaking country, this place is called the Plaza de Armas or Plaza Mayor. Every country, that is, except for Mexico. Here, a city’s central square is its zócalo. Why the difference?
In keeping with Mexico’s capital-centric history, the answer has to do with Mexico City. And, like much that happened in the first decades of the country’s existence as an independent nation, it also has something to do with Antonio López de Santa Anna.
Mexico City’s Zócalo has undergone many changes over the centuries. (Galo Cañas/Cuartoscuro)
The square with many names
Officially called Plaza de la Constitución, the Zócalo in Mexico City, at nearly 47,000 square meters in area, is one of the world’s largest public plazas. It has changed dramatically over the centuries. In precolonial Tenochtitlan, the area that is now the Zócalo was a large open space bordered by the city’s sacred precinct to the north and by the palaces of the Mexica (Aztec) kings Moctezuma II and Axayacatl to the east and west. If this area had its own Nahuatl name, it has been lost to history.
When the Spanish and their Indigenous allies seized Tenochtitlan in 1521, conquistador Hernán Cortés tasked Alonso García Bravo, one of his soldiers, with redesigning the city’s layout. It was García’s work that produced the future Zócalo. At this point, like its counterparts across Latin America still are today, Mexico City’s main square was known as the Plaza de Armas or Plaza Mayor or Plaza Principal. Sometimes, in reference to the viceroy’s palace — now the National Palace — the square was called the Plaza del Palacio; other times, it was enigmatically called the Plaza de las Ánimas, or the Plaza of Souls. The plaza still, however, lacked an official name, and it would be two centuries before it would get one.
You might guess that the Zócalo’s formal name, Plaza de la Constitución, references one of Mexico’s six constitutions. But you would be wrong: The document the capital’s main square is named after is actually the Spanish Constitution of 1812. This notably liberal constitution played an important role in the crisis of the Spanish Empire and the independence of its colonies in the Americas. When it was ratified in Mexico — then still New Spain, but with the independence movement well underway — the Plaza Mayor was renamed in its honor.
Mexico City’s main square finally had its very own name, but it still wasn’t the one we know it by today, and its equivalents in towns and cities across the country were still called Plaza Mayor or Plaza de Armas. To get to the Zócalo, we have to jump forward in time to the early republic.
Painter Cristóbal de Villalpando painted this view of Mexico City’s Plaza Mayor in 1695, featuring a partially ruined Palace of the Viceroys. (Bibliothecamex)
1828 and the Parián Riot
Throughout the colonial period and into the 19th century, the Plaza Mayor was home to Mexico City’s central marketplace. As the center of the country’s political life, the square was also the stage where the capital’s residents expressed their discontent and, therefore, the scene of riots that repeatedly sacked the market and destroyed the businesses there.
The final iteration of the Plaza Mayor market, called the Parián, was built after the city’s hungry masses destroyed the previous market and part of the viceroy’s palace following a major harvest failure in 1692. The riot that destroyed the Parián took place in the aftermath of the September 1828 presidential election, the country’s second as a republic.
When the conservative Manuel Gómez Pedraza beat liberal independence hero Vicente Guerrero for the presidency, he was widely understood to have won because the election was indirect, with votes being cast by state legislatures.
Two weeks after the election, Guerrero’s fellow independence leader Antonio López de Santa Anna rose in revolt in Veracruz, demanding that the elections be annulled and all Spaniards be expelled from the country. In late November, soldiers of the Mexico City garrison barricaded themselves in a city armory, echoing Santa Anna’s demands, and on December 4, groups of plebeian rioters ransacked and burned the Parián, the center of Spanish commerce in the city. Gómez Pedraza fled the city, and Guerrero was sworn in as president the next year.
Santa Anna’s monumental column
The planned monument, pictured in an 1843 projection, was never completed.
The Parián never recovered from the events of 1828. Successful merchants took their business elsewhere, and the market became an eyesore. In the early 1840s, López de Santa Anna — who had stood aside when conservatives overthrew Guerrero in 1830 — was serving in one of his longest stints as president and decided he’d had enough.
In July 1843, the San Carlos fine arts academy published a notice for what we might now call an urban renewal initiative: A competition would be held to design a monument to commemorate the heroes of Mexico’s independence. It would stand in the Plaza Mayor, soon to be cleared of the blighted Parián.
The winner of the competition was the Spanish architect Lorenzo de la Hidalga. Describing his project, one friend wrote that it was to comprise an octagonal base with an independence hero represented on each angle. Their remains would be interred inside the base, which would support a column with an internal spiral stair to be topped with a statue representing the republic. Sound familiar? This is almost an exact description of the Angel of Independence that now stands on Mexico City’s Paseo de la Reforma avenue.
De la Hidalga’s monument was never built due to the political shakeups of the 1840s and Mexico’s debt-constrained finances — except for one part.
Santa Anna laid the cornerstone for the monument’s octagonal base on Independence Day in 1843. It was completed eight days later. Then the money ran out. But the column’s base remained in the square for decades, and it was this structure that gave the plaza the name we call it by today: the word “zócalo” literally means “plinth” or “base.”
From Mexico City, the habit of calling a city’s main square its zócalo spread throughout the country. The practice became so widespread that, despite being the original zócalo, Mexico City’s main square is often called the Zócalo Capitalino, or zócalo of the capital, to distinguish it from the rest.
The plinth that gave the Zócalo its name was briefly unearthed in 2017. (Melitón Tapia / Instituto Nacional de Arqueología e Historia)
Although it’s not used in other Spanish-speaking countries, the word’s Mexican connotation is so well known abroad that the Royal Spanish Academy’s (RAE) dictionary definitions of the word include “a city’s main plaza, especially Mexico City.”
And the base the plaza is named for is still with us: In 2017, during renovations of the Zócalo, it was uncovered by archaeologists just north of the monumental flagpole that stands in the plaza’s center.
