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Jalisco shines its culinary credentials as host of the Michelin Mexico Guide opening ceremony

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Michelin Mexico Guide dignitaries
The dignitaries responsible for the famed Michelin Guide have honored Jalisco's culinary traditions by choosing its capital Guadalajara to host the May 20 opening ceremony of the 2026 version of the Michelin Mexico Guide. (Nathalie Desplas/X)

The 2026 version of the Michelin Mexico Guide, set to be unveiled in May, will feature three new states — Jalisco, Puebla and Yucatán — all three of which have strong culinary identities that set them apart from the rest of the nation.

Jalisco in particular is drawing special attention as its capital Guadalajara has been selected as the host for the guide’s opening ceremony on May 20 at the renowned event venue Edén Benavento a mere month before the city hosts World Cup games. It will reveal new Michelin Star recipients and other honorees in the food world.

Animalón in Baja California’s Valle de Guadalupe, was one of the first Mexican restaurants to receive a Michelin star.(animalonbaja.com)

“Jalisco’s exceptional gastronomic heritage and vibrant food culture make it the perfect setting for this year’s ceremony,” Gwendal Poullennec, International Director of the Michelin Guide, said in a statement. “We’re excited to meet there with chefs, restaurateurs, and industry leaders to celebrate Mexico’s remarkable contributions to the global culinary scene.”

The announcement follows Michelin’s recent expansion in Mexico, with the inclusion of the three new states. When it arrived in Mexico in 2024, the guide covered the restaurant scene in five states — Oaxaca, Baja California, Baja California Sur, Quintana Roo and Nuevo León — plus  Mexico City. 

The advent of the Mexico Guide that year confirmed Mexico’s solidifyng reputation as a global culinary player.

 “The 2026 ceremony in Jalisco will not only be a celebration of excellence but a recognition of Mexico’s growing influence in international gastronomy, uniting heritage, innovation, and community on one of the industry’s brightest stages,” Poullenec said. 

The state’s tourism establishment has not been shy about capitalizing on the prestige that Michelin is affording to Jalisco, going so far as to say that “Jalisco is Mexico.”

 “When we say that Jalisco is Mexico, we say it with great responsibility, humility, and pride,” state Tourism Minister Michelle Fridman Hirsch said. “Every time we travel, the first things people ask us about are tequila, mariachi, and charrería (Mexican rodeo). But we also have many well-known figures from Jalisco. Think of Gael García Bernal and Guillermo del Toro in the film industry; Checo Pérez, Canelo Álvarez, and Lorena Ochoa sports. Or when it comes to music, Carlos Santana, Alejandro Fernández, Maná, and Ximena Sariñana. We have some truly outstanding figures.” 

Meanwhile, Ignacio Alarcón Rodríguez Pacheco, president of the National Chamber of the Restaurant and Seasoned Food Industry (Canirac) said that seeing Guadalajara as a host city for the Michelin Guide Mexico ceremony places Mexico “at the epicenter of the international conversation,” in addition to serving as a “global tourism promotion platform.”

With reports from Chilango

13 Mexicans have died in US custody during the Trump administration

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Velasco and Sheinbaum
Roberto Velasco Álvarez, deputy minister for North America in the Foreign Relations Ministry, reviews with President Sheinbaum what's known about the 13 Mexican ICE detainees who died while in custody in the U.S. (Mario Jasso/Cuartoscuro)

Thirteen Mexican citizens have died while in the custody of U.S. authorities in immigration-related matters during the current Trump administration, Mexico’s Foreign Relations Ministry reported Wednesday, calling the situation “unacceptable.”

The causes of the deaths are still under investigation, but Deputy Foreign Relations Minister Roberto Velasco said two occurred during ICE operations, four were suicides and one was the result of a shooting into ICE installations that happened to hit a Mexican in custody. The other six deaths were from medical complications.

de la Fuente
Speaking Wednesday at President Sheinbaum’s mañanera, Foreign Relations Minister Juan Rámon de la Fuente said Mexico’s consular system in the United States is being urgently modernized and strengthened in order to better protect Mexicans in the United States, who are the primary targets of ICE’s aggressive and sometimes deadly operations. (Mario Jasso/Cuartoscuro)

Velasco said that the victims ranged in age from 19 to 69 and suffered their fate in several different states across the nation, from California to Florida. He added that two lawsuits have already been filed by family members, while the remaining cases are under legal review.

“We seek justice for the families of these people who very sadly lost their lives,” said Velasco. 

President Claudia Sheinbaum, who had earlier demanded a full U.S. investigation into the death of a 19-year-old Maya man in the United States, also condemned the deaths of fellow Mexicans while detained by U.S. authorities. “We have stated that we do not agree with these forms of detention (…) and we will continue to insist that the cases be investigated to determine the causes of death,” she said during her Wednesday morning press conference.

Foreign Relations Minister Juan Ramón de la Fuente said that his ministry has responded to the detention of 177,192 Mexicans since the beginning of Trump’s second term by strengthening its network of 53 consulates in the U.S. to improve services and better protect Mexican citizens. As of today, 13,722 remain in custody in the U.S.

“We are trying to standardize all consular services so that there can be more efficient, timely and consistent attention in the largest consular network in the world,” Juan Ramón said, pointing out that “no other country has as many consulates in another country as Mexico has in the United States.” 

The modernization and digitization of Mexico’s consular network have helped to increase capacity and reduce the need for in-person visits, he said. 

Over 31 million pesos (US $1.7 million) has been allocated to the “Mexico with M for Migrant” program, which supports the legal processes of Mexican nationals living abroad. 

With reports from El Economista and Milenio

How rich is rich in Mexico: How much does the upper class earn, and what does their world look like?

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Mexico-City, Mexico - August 22, 2021 - cars and Berger store in the upscale Polanco neighborhood
In Mexico City, Avenida Presidente Masaryk is one of the places to be if you have ample disposable income and a penchant for the finer material things in life. (Shutterstock)

In Mexico City, Avenida Presidente Masaryk is one of the places to be if you have ample disposable income and a penchant for the finer material things in life.

Located in the capital’s Polanco district, the avenue is lined with stores of many of the world’s best-known luxury brands: Gucci, Cartier, Tiffany & Co, Dolce & Gabbana, Rolex, Louis Vuitton… the list goes on.

In the market for a Mercedes or an armored luxury vehicle of your choice? Head to Masaryk, named after Tomáš Masaryk, the first president of Czechoslovakia.

Fancy living in Armani Residences Masaryk? On sale now.

I recently walked the entirety of Avenida Masaryk, which stretches for almost three kilometers from Calzada General Mariano Escobedo to Avenida Ferrocarril de Cuernavaca.

I wasn’t shopping, walking off a meal at a high-end restaurant or visiting the Embassy of Cuba — a kind of communist enclave on a highly capitalist street — but rather pondering this article, the third and final part of a series on class and wages in Mexico.

I began with this story on minimum wage and informal sector workers and continued with this report on what it means to be part of the middle class in Mexico.

Now, in this article, I focus on the upper class, the wealthy elite of Mexico, people who could go on a shopping spree on Masaryk without a second thought.

A (very) brief history of wealth and class in Mexico 

The accumulation of wealth is certainly not a new phenomenon in the land now occupied by Mexico.

In pre-Columbian times, rulers in civilizations including the Mexica and Maya became wealthy through the tribute system and long-distance trade in goods such as jade, obsidian, turquoise, quetzal feathers and cacao, “one of the most important means of exchange in Mesoamerican cultures,” according to the Bank of Mexico Museum.

Within the Mexica civilization, there was a nobility called the pipiltin, whose members owned land and enjoyed a range of special privileges. Below the pipiltin in class and status were the pochteca, merchants who brought luxury goods back to Tenochtitlán from distant places.

After Tenochtitlán was conquered by Hernán Cortés, his Spanish forces and a large contingent of Indigenous allies, including the Tlaxcalans, established the colony of New Spain, and Spaniards displaced the Indigenous elite to assume the highest positions in society.

During the colonial period, peninsulares (Spaniards born in Spain) and later criollos (Spaniards born in New Spain) acquired great wealth through silver mining, large agricultural holdings known as haciendas, and the encomienda system, which granted them the right to extract tribute and labor from Indigenous communities.

In 1536 — the year after New Spain was established as a viceroyalty — the Mexican Mint began operations and for three centuries made colonial coins, allowing currency wealth to be accumulated.

Wealth remained concentrated in people with Spanish (and other European) ancestry after Mexico gained its independence from Spain in 1821, and two centuries later, the color of a Mexican’s skin remains “an effective shortcut to locate people within the social hierarchy,” the magazine Nexos wrote in a 2019 article.

What the first pesos looked like in 1864
What the first “pesos,” as we know them today, looked like in 1864. (Bank of Mexico)

During the Porfiriato — the period of more than three decades in the late 19th century and early 20th century when Porfirio Díaz was in power — “foreign investment poured in, railroads and industry boomed, and a small elite prospered” in Mexico, notes the website Explaining History.

The Mexican Revolution led to a major redistribution of land in Mexico, but deep economic inequality persisted in the 20th century.

“The extensive literature on economic inequality in Mexico since 1950 suggests that income inequality has been consistently high and increasing,” wrote economic historians Diego Castañeda Garza and Erik Bengtsson in a recent academic paper.

The upper class today 

In 2021, INEGI said that the average upper-class household income was 77,975 pesos (US $4,430) per month.

As I wrote in my middle-class story, “with prices having risen considerably in recent years, it would be reasonable to say that such household income in Mexico City and other expensive areas of Mexico would not make a family upper class” today.

So, how much does a Mexican family really need to earn to be considered upper class? In short, considerably more than INEGI’s upper-class average.

According to Gustavo Prado, a social commentator, futurist, author and founder of the consumer trends agency trendo.mx, there is an “upper-middle class” of people in Mexico made up of 5 million people who earn at least 90,000 pesos per month.

He asserts that the real Mexican upper class, people who earn at least 1 million pesos (US $56,600) per month, “share one single trait: they don’t live in Mexico,” but reside mainly in the United States and Europe and come home every now and again to visit. While that assertion is undoubtedly an exaggeration — there are, of course, very rich people who live in Mexico — there is some truth to it, as a lot of affluent Mexicans live outside the country, including close to 40,000 people who obtained legal residency in Spain and Portugal last year. Their move to the Iberian Peninsula was described as a “silent exodus of the Mexican elite” by Forbes.

While the INEGI data is now outdated in terms of the income required to be part of the upper class, it did reveal that only a very small minority of Mexicans reached the threshold in 2020. Six years later, it remains the case that only a very small percentage of the Mexican population can truly be considered upper class.

In its “Quantifying the Middle Class” report, INEGI said that just under 430,000 households (1.2% of the national total), and just over 1 million people (0.8% of the population) were upper class in 2020 based on their monthly income.

The statistics agency also reported that Mexico City had the highest percentage of upper-class households (3.1% of the total in the capital), followed by Nuevo León (2.8%), Colima (2.6%), Querétaro (2.4%) and Yucatán (2.3%).

The states with the lowest percentage of upper-class households were Guerrero (0.2%), Tlaxcala (0.2%), Hidalgo (0.2%), Tabasco (0.3%) and Veracruz (0.3%).

In contrast to lower-class and middle-class Mexicans, upper-class people generally have a “more diversified income structure,” according to the news magazine Proceso.

In an article published last August, Proceso said that income from the rental of properties and investment returns make up a “considerable portion” of the total earnings of upper-class Mexicans. Many rich Mexicans inherited much of their wealth, making work optional in some cases.

So, with ample money and possibly lots of leisure time, how do upper-class Mexicans (or at least upper-middle-class people) in Mexico live?

According to Prado, they frequently travel to the United States, especially affluent Mexicans who live in northern cities such as Monterrey and Tijuana. In addition, rich Mexicans typically live in coveted residential areas (see below), drive expensive cars, send their children to exclusive schools, eat at the country’s most-renowned restaurants, shop in luxury stores — such as those that line Masaryk — and take lavish overseas trips. They may well have memberships to exclusive sports clubs and golf courses.

Among Mexico’s rich are a significant albeit undefined number of so-called “whitexicans,” a subculture consisting of a group of people who are both mocked and envied.

In a Mexico News Daily article published in 2024, Bethany Platanella wrote that “this class of Mexicans have lighter skin (but not always!), nice clothes, branded purses and a team of housekeepers in their exquisite and modern apartments.”

In a separate MND article, Gabriela Solis wrote that the “whitexican” label “reveals what has been apparent in Mexico since the Spanish colonization, but until a few years ago, was very little acknowledged or part of the conversation: that most of Mexico’s high-class population is white.”

Mexico’s wealthiest people and families 

There is the upper class — and then there is Mexico’s mega wealthy.

At the top of the heap is a man who is very well known in Mexico and beyond, an octogenarian who was once not only the richest person in Mexico, but also the wealthiest person in the world.

Born in Mexico City in 1940, just under two years after Lázaro Cárdenas nationalized Mexico’s oil industry, Carlos Slim Helú has a net worth of US $125 billion, according to the most recent Forbes “World Billionaires List“, making him the 16th richest person in the world.

Carlos Slim
Carlos Slim Helú has a net worth of US $125 billion. (Graciela López/Cuartoscuro)

Slim, whose ancestry is Lebanese, gained much of his immense wealth from his 1990 acquisition of the then state-owned telephone company Telmex, but he has a diverse business portfolio across a wide range of industries, including retail (Sanborns, Sears), construction, energy, mining and banking. He lives in Mexico City.

The other Mexicans among the world’s top 200 billionaires, according to the Forbes list published March 10, are:

  • Germán Larrea Mota-Velasco (and family): The CEO of Grupo México has a net worth of $67.1 billion, making him the world’s 30th richest person. His wealth is mainly derived from metals and mining.
  • Alejandro Baillères Gual (and family): With a net worth of $19.5 billion, Baillères is the world’s 140th richest person. Forbes writes that he “and his five siblings are the heirs to the mining fortune built by their father Alberto Baillères, who died in 2022.”

Pockets of affluence in Mexico City and beyond 

One favored place of residence of Mexico’s wealthy elite is Lomas de Chapultepec in Mexico City, which has been identified as the neighborhood with the highest income per capita in the national capital. Anyone seeking to purchase one of the stately homes in the neighborhood better be well-heeled.

On the real estate website Inmmuebles24, the purchase prices of various homes in the neighborhood are listed not in Mexican pesos but in millions of US dollars. One home is on sale for an impressive (or intimidating) US $11.8 million.

Lomas de Chapultepec is located just across Anillo Períferico, Mexico City’s outer beltway, from Polanco, making it a convenient location for captains of industry and other business executives. I walked over there from Avenida Masaryk to wander the streets and get a better feel for the neighborhood. Apart from the luxurious residences on leafy streets, another apparent, albeit perhaps stereotypical, sign of the wealth in the area was a glass cabinet filled with cigars in a small Chedraui Selecto supermarket.

Wealth in the form of residential properties is not just on display in Mexico City, but all over the country.

Every large city in Mexico has exclusive neighborhoods with rich residents. Among them are Del Valle in the Monterrey metropolitan area and Puerto de Hierro in greater Guadalajara.

Inequality in Mexico 

A key takeaway from this MND series on social classes is that wealth distribution is deeply unequal in Mexico, as it is in many Latin American countries, and, indeed, in nations around the world.

According to a February 2026 report by Oxfam México, Oligarchy or Democracy, the richest 1% of the population — around 1.3 million people — receives 35% of total income and holds 40% of the country’s private wealth, while 18.8 million Mexicans lack access to adequate nutrition.

While more than 13 million Mexicans exited poverty between 2018 and 2024, according to official data, “extreme wealth concentration has become entrenched in Mexico” over the past three decades, according to the Oxfam report.

“Ultra-rich Mexicans have never been so numerous or so wealthy as they are today,” the report states.

Still, the vast majority of Mexicans — more than 99% of people, according to the 2020 INEGI data — are not part of the upper class. More than 60% of Mexicans are considered lower class, many of whom are workers who largely live paycheck to paycheck, such as various people I spoke to along Insurgentes Avenue in Mexico City last year.

Mexico is one of the 15 largest economies in the world, and some of its very rich citizens — including sports stars, actors, film directors, musicians and businesspeople — represent Mexico admirably on the world stage.

But at home, tens of millions of lower-class and middle-class Mexicans — including street vendors, taco cooks, cleaners, teachers and journalists — are highly laudable representatives of Mexico as well — hardworking people who strive to support themselves and their families, and do their bit to make Mexico a better place every single day.

By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies (peter.davies@mexiconewsdaily.com)

Uber and licensed taxis settle their long dispute by joining forces in CDMX

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waiting for a ride
The new pact allows taxi drivers and riders to piggyback on Uber's app system. (Rogelio Morales/Cuartoscuro.com)

Uber, the longtime nemesis of Mexico’s licensed cabbies, is now their partner — at least on paper.

Thirteen years after launching in Mexico, Uber announced Tuesday what both sides called a “historic” alliance with MX Taxi that will let users request licensed cabs inside the app via a new taxi option, with destinations ordered in advance and fares pre-calculated.

fares
Both parties are calling the agreement historic, as it gives Uber and MX Taxi the option of working cooperatively. (Rogelio
Morales/Cuartoscuro)

The price will be based on what a normal taximeter would charge using government‑approved taxi rates, not Uber’s own fare structure. There also won’t be any dynamic pricing, such as fares based on supply and demand or time of day.

MX Taxi taxistas won’t operate as Uber drivers, but their cars will now use Uber-style safety features such as insurance, 24/7 support and RideCheck. Credit card payment can be made within the app, although in some cases, cash will be accepted if preferred.

The deal is being called national, but the rollout will effectively be city by city, not an instant switch everywhere, according to those involved.

Initial implementation is centered on big markets — especially the World Cup host areas of Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey. Uber’s taxi option is already available in CDMX, with about 3,000 to 3,500 cabs participating in the pilot phase, out of a total of some 45,000 licensed cabs in the capital.

The deal comes less than three months before Mexico co‑hosts the 2026 World Cup and as authorities brace for millions of extra taxi and Uber rides. 

Uber has already launched Uber Shuttle in Mexico City, a system of vans/buses with fixed routes and schedules at lower prices than its traditional services.

CDMX Secreta has issued a primer on how to hail a taxi in Mexico City using the Uber app.

MX Taxi is a Mexico City–anchored association of licensed, concession-holding taxi drivers; it is present around the country though not necessarily in every city.

With the deal, MX Taxi will plug into Uber’s massive pool of riders but keep its own brand, tech and dispatch systems.

Uber general manager Félix Olmo said the alliance responds to “demand in Mexico, whether local or from tourists, and the demand that is coming with the World Cup, which exceeds the possible number of drivers that exist.”

Spokesman Erasto Vázquez called it a “new era” for a union that lost an estimated 60% of its street presence after Uber’s 2013 arrival and saw active cabs fall from roughly 100,000 to 45,000.

​The truce does not resolve the most explosive battleground: Mexico City International Airport (AICM).

Uber maintains that a disputed court injunction allows it to keep operating at airports under “legal protection,” but the Navy‑run AICM and the federal Transport Ministry insist that app‑based services are not authorized inside the federal zone and have used the National Guard to push them out.

In recent days, however, AICM has started setting up a designated waiting and pickup zone for Uber and DiDi vehicles, located approximately eight minutes on foot between terminals 1 and 2.

With reports from Expansión, El Economista and Mexico Business News

New poll: What do Americans think about Mexico and the Mexico-US relationship?

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Flags of Mexico and the U.S. shown at a civic event
The poll was conducted this month by Echelon Insights in conjunction with the U.S.-Mexico Foundation, the American Chamber of Commerce of Mexico and the Mexican Association of Industrial Parks. (Shutterstock)

President Claudia Sheinbaum is now approaching the 18-month mark of her six-year term, while U.S. President Donald Trump has been back in office for just over 14 months.

During this period, Mexican and U.S. officials have declared that the bilateral relationship is going very well, although there have been various pressure points. Think tariffs, threats of military strikes on Mexican cartels, an accusation from the White House that the Mexican government has an “intolerable alliance” with drug trafficking organizations, a declaration by Trump that he doesn’t care about the USMCA.

Still, Sheinbaum and Trump get on — although they are yet to have a formal bilateral meeting — and the former frequently asserts that the bilateral relationship is based on mutual respect.

Despite this, an El Financiero poll we reported on last September found that a majority of Mexicans — 56% of 1,000 respondents to be exact — believed that Sheinbaum was doing a bad job managing the relationship with Trump, while 51% said that the bilateral relationship was bad or very bad.

But what do Americans — i.e., U.S. voters — think about Mexico and the Mexico-U.S. relationship?

A poll conducted this month by Echelon Insights in conjunction with the U.S.-Mexico Foundation, the American Chamber of Commerce of Mexico and the Mexican Association of Industrial Parks sought to find the response to that question.

A total of 1,033 U.S. voters were surveyed in the poll, titled “U.S. Voter Attitudes Towards the U.S.-Mexico Relationship.”

Here are some key takeaways.

Mexico’s ‘net favorable brand image’ has declined over the past year 

Poll respondents were asked whether they had a favorable or unfavorable opinion of eight countries, including Mexico, Canada, China and Russia.

Forty-four per cent of those polled said that they had a very favorable (13%) or somewhat favorable (31%) opinion of Mexico, whereas 38% said they had a very unfavorable (12%) or somewhat unfavorable (26%) view of the United States’ southern neighbor. The remainder of respondents either had no opinion of Mexico or hadn’t heard of the country (1%).

Mexico thus had a “net favorable brand image” of +6 with Americans who participated in the poll. That rating was on par with Israel, but well below the “net favorability” scores of Canada (+58) and the United Kingdom (+54).

The other countries included in the poll — Venezuela, China, Iran and Russia — all had negative net favorability scores.

Mexico’s score declined 14 points from +20 last April and 16 points from +22 last May. It is up four points from a recent low of +2 in December.

Cartel activity is the top reason why Mexico is seen as a bad neighbor

Almost six in ten of those polled (59%) said that “cartel activity coming across the border” is a way in which Mexico is a bad neighbor to the United States.

This is also Trump’s top concern about Mexico. In that context, his administration designated six Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations early last year.

Almost half of respondents (47%) identified “the spread of fentanyl in the U.S.” as a reason why Mexico is a bad neighbor, even though the Mexican government has ramped up efforts to stem the northward flow of the synthetic opioid and other narcotics.

More than one-third of respondents (35%) said that Mexico is a bad neighbor because it “enables unauthorized migration across our southern border,” while 22% said the same because the country is a “national security or terror threat.”

Around one in five respondents said that Mexico is a bad neighbor because it is “sending migrants that compete unfairly with U.S. workers” (21%), and because it “pulls manufacturing and jobs out of the U.S. and into Mexico” (21%).

Twelve per cent of respondents said that Mexico is a bad neighbor because it is “too close with China,” although the Sheinbaum administration recently imposed new and increased tariffs on goods from the East Asian economic powerhouse.

Fourteen per cent of those polled said that none of the seven things mentioned above made Mexico a bad neighbor to the United States.

Tourism is the top reason why Mexico is seen as a good neighbor 

Asked to identify ways in which Mexico is a good neighbor to the United States, 52% of poll respondents cited “tourism between the two countries.”

The percentages for the six other listed ways were as follows:

  • “Economic relationship that benefits the U.S.”: 45% (Mexico and the U.S. are each other’s largest trade partner).
  • “Cultural exchange between the U.S. and Mexican people”: 43%
  • “Collaboration on law enforcement/anti-cartel activity”: 33%
  • “Cooperation on migration at the southern border”: 24%
  • “Collaboration on national security/anti-terrorism activity”: 24%
  • Cooperation to counter China’s influence“: 13%

One in ten of those polled said that none of the reasons listed above made Mexico a good neighbor.

Only 4% of Republicans consider Mexico a very good neighbor 

“Thinking about the U.S.-Mexico relationship, do you think Mexico is a good or bad neighbor to the United States?”

All 1,033 respondents to the poll were asked to respond to that question.

Four in ten of those polled said that Mexico was either a “very good neighbor” (14%) or a “somewhat good neighbor” (26%).

Almost one in ten respondents (9%) said that Mexico was a “very bad neighbor,” while 19% said that the country was a “somewhat bad neighbor” to the United States.

The remainder either said that Mexico was “neither good nor bad” as a neighbor (26%) or that they were unsure (6%).

Among respondents who identified as Republicans, just 4% said that Mexico is a “very good neighbor,” while 21% said the country was a “somewhat good neighbor.”

Almost half of Republicans surveyed said that Mexico was either a “somewhat bad neighbor” (33%) or a “very bad neighbor” (15%).

In contrast, just 9% of Democrats polled said that Mexico was a “somewhat bad neighbor” (6%) or “very bad neighbor” (3%).

A strong majority of respondents who identified as Democrats said that Mexico was either a “very good neighbor” (24%) or a “somewhat good neighbor” (33%).

A strong majority of Democrats oppose a blanket tariff on Mexican goods 

Asked whether they supported or opposed the imposition of a tariff on “all goods coming into the U.S. from Mexico,” 76% of respondents who identified as Democrats said they were against such a measure. Almost six in ten of such people (57%) said they were “strongly” opposed to a blanket tariff, while 19% said they were “somewhat” opposed.

In contrast, 64% of Republicans said they supported a tariff on all Mexican goods. Almost four in ten of such people (38%) said they “somewhat” supported such a measure, while 26% said they “strongly” supported a blanket tariff on imports from Mexico.

Among respondents who said they supported tariffs on Mexican goods, 55% said they saw the duties as a way to “put pressure on Mexico to take action on migration, drugs, or crime.”

Trump has used tariffs — namely, 25% duties on non-USMCA compliant goods — in this way.

The other reasons why people said they supported tariffs on Mexican goods were:

  • “To raise revenue for the U.S. government”: 41% of respondents in favor of tariffs cited this reason.
  • “Because I generally think tariffs are good”: 30%
  • “To make Mexican-made goods more expensive in the U.S.”: 22%
  • “Because Donald Trump supports them”: 17%

A majority of all respondents (61%) said that (additional) U.S. tariffs on goods from Mexico would either make their cost of living “somewhat more expensive” (38%) or “much more expensive” (23%).

Almost half of respondents are unsure whether the USMCA should be extended 

Poll respondents were also asked whether the United States should extend the USMCA free trade pact, which the U.S., Mexico and Canada will formally review this year.

Just over four in 10 respondents (41%) said that the U.S. should extend the agreement, while 49% said they were unsure whether the U.S. should support an extension of the pact.

Only 10% of those polled said that the United States should not extend the USMCA.

Even if Mexico, the United States and Canada don’t agree to extend the USMCA during the upcoming review process, it would not be terminated until 2036. If the three countries do agree to extend the USMCA, the pact will remain in effect until at least 2042.

The poll also found that 14% of Republicans believe the USMCA shouldn’t be extended, compared to just 7% of Democrats who don’t support an extension of the six-year-old trade agreement.

In order to make the USMCA a “fair deal” for the United States, a majority of Republicans said that the pact should “make sure factories and businesses stay in the U.S.” (51%) and “make sure American farmers and ranchers can sell their products in Canada and Mexico (51%).

A majority of Democrats (53%) said that “reducing tariffs within North America” is needed to make the USMCA a “fair deal” for the United States, whereas only 29% of Republicans said the same.

A majority of Democrats (53%) also said that “lowering prices on everyday goods” would make the USMCA a “fair deal” for the U.S., while 49% of Republicans said the same.

4 in 10 respondents are happy that US is co-hosting World Cup with Mexico and Canada

Forty-one per cent of poll respondents said they were glad that the United States is co-hosting this year’s FIFA men’s World Cup with Mexico and Canada.

President Sheinbaum on stage next to Trump and Carney, holding a paper reading Mexico
About half of the polled U.S. voters seemed not to care much at all about the United States’ role as a co-host of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. (Presidencia)

One in 10 of those polled said they wished the U.S. wasn’t co-hosting the tournament with Mexico and Canada, while 49% said they didn’t really care either way.

A majority of Democrats (53%) said they were happy the U.S. is co-hosting the event with its two neighbors, but only 31% of Republicans said the same. Fifteen per cent of Republicans said they wished the U.S. weren’t co-hosting the World Cup with Mexico and Canada, while 7% of Democrats said the same.

A total of 104 World Cup matches will be played in the U.S., Mexico and Canada this June and July. U.S. cities will host 78 matches, while Mexico and Canada will host 13 matches each.

Mexico and South Africa will play the opening match of the tournament in Mexico City on June 11.

By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies (peter.davies@mexiconewsdaily.com)

Sheinbaum addresses school shooting yesterday in Michoacán: Wednesday’s mañanera recapped

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At her Wednesday morning press conference, Sheinbaum called Tuesday's shooting at a Lázaro Cárdenas school — where a 15-year-old allegedly killed two female teachers — "very painful in many senses." (Juan Carlos Buenrostro/Presidencia)

Sheinbaum’s mañanera in 60 seconds

  • 🏫 School shooting in Michoacán: Sheinbaum called Tuesday’s shooting at a Lázaro Cárdenas school — where a 15-year-old allegedly killed two female teachers — “very painful in many senses.” The suspect had posted an Instagram video referencing misogyny and school shootings, linked to the “incel” online subculture. She called it an “isolated incident” and announced plans to expand a mental health program already in place in some middle schools.
  • 🇺🇳 Mexico stands by Bachelet for UN: Despite Chile’s new president Kast withdrawing his country’s support, Sheinbaum reaffirmed Mexico’s backing of Michelle Bachelet for UN Secretary-General — a role no woman has ever held. “We believe Bachelet is an ideal person to lead the United Nations,” she said, citing her two presidential terms and human rights work.
  • 🧱 On the border wall: Asked about the U.S. expanding its border wall — reportedly now cutting through national parks and wilderness — Sheinbaum said it’s Washington’s call, but made Mexico’s position clear: “We prefer to build bridges, not walls.” She pushed development cooperation as a more effective tool to address migration.

Why today’s mañanera matters

At her Wednesday morning press conference, President Claudia Sheinbaum responded to Tuesday’s shooting at a school in Michoacán. Unlike the United States, school shootings are very rare in Mexico, and Sheinbaum is determined to make sure that their incidence doesn’t increase.

Also of note at today’s mañanera was the president’s reaffirmation of Michelle Bachelet’s candidacy to become the next secretary general of the United Nations. The former president of Chile has lost the support of the Chilean government, but Sheinbaum is convinced that Bachelet has what it takes to lead the world’s preeminent intergovernmental organization.

The president said last month that “it’s time for a woman” to lead the UN, and her opinion on the matter has certainly not changed.

Sheinbaum: School shooting is ‘very painful’ 

Sheinbaum said that the shooting in a school in the port city of Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán, on Tuesday in which a teenage boy allegedly killed two female teachers is “very painful in many senses.”

2 teachers killed in shooting at Michoacán high school

“One, the death of the teachers at the hands of this young person with a long gun,” she said.

“And everything appears to indicate that they … were the people he was looking for,” Sheinbaum added.

Before the shooting, the alleged perpetrator of the crime, a 15-year-old boy identified as Osmer H., “shared a video on Instagram with references to hatred toward women and school shootings,” according to the newspaper El País.

“… The content Osmer shared is associated with the ‘incel’ universe, a digital subculture made up of men who call themselves ‘involuntary celibates’ and who share extremist discourses on masculinity,” the newspaper wrote.

Sheinbaum said that her government wanted the shooting on Tuesday to be an “isolated incident” that is “not repeated.”

She went on to say that the government is planning to broaden the implementation of a mental health program that is already being taught in some middle schools.

The program, Sheinbaum said, is aimed at young people the same age as the boy who allegedly perpetrated the shooting in Lázaro Cárdenas.

Mexico to continue support Bachelet’s candidacy for UN secretary general 

After a reporter noted that the government of Chile, now led by President José Antonio Kast, had withdrawn its support of Michelle Bachelet’s candidacy for secretary general of the United Nations, Sheinbaum said that her administration would continue supporting the former Chilean president in her quest to head up the UN.

Earlier this year — before Kast had replaced Gabriel Boric as president of Chile — Bachelet was formally nominated as a candidate for UN secretary-general by Mexico, Brazil and Chile.

Michelle Bachelet was formally nominated as a candidate by Mexico, Brazil and Chile at a ceremony in Santiago on Monday.
Michelle Bachelet was formally nominated as a candidate by Mexico, Brazil and Chile at a ceremony in February. (@GabrielBoric/X)

Sheinbaum said that she would soon speak by phone to Bachelet, who served twice as president of Chile (2006-2010 and 2014-2018) before becoming the UN high commissioner for human rights.

She said that the reasons why Mexico supports her candidacy “continue to be valid.”

“She’s a woman with a lot of experience. She was president of Chile twice, she’s a woman who seeks peace in the world, a woman who has ideas about the construction of rights and the peaceful resolution of conflicts,” Sheinbaum said.

“… We believe that Bachelet is an ideal person to lead the United Nations, and we’ll continue supporting her,” she said.

Since its establishment in 1945, the United Nations has never been led by a woman. A new secretary-general will be selected later this year and replace António Guterres at the helm of the UN on Jan. 1, 2027.

‘We prefer to build bridges, not walls’ 

Asked about the expansion of the border wall between the United States and Mexico, Sheinbaum said it was a matter for the U.S. government.

“We believe there are other mechanisms to reduce migration,” she said, specifically citing “cooperation for development,” including in Western Hemisphere countries from which large numbers of people have emigrated in recent years.

“… There is a phrase that several governments have used, not just us,” the president added.

“We prefer to build bridges, not walls.”

The Washington Post reported last Saturday that “the Trump administration is building hundreds of miles of border wall through iconic national parks, public lands and ecologically sensitive wilderness, empowered by provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill that provided $46.5 billion in funding and a 2005 law that waived dozens of environmental rules for border security projects.”

Citing an analysis of U.S. Customs and Border Protection data, the newspaper also wrote that “despite illegal crossings dropping to historic lows, DHS and the Defense Department plan to construct more than 1,350 miles of new border wall in the Southwest” of the United States.

By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies (peter.davies@mexiconewsdaily.com)

Opinion: What might a regional utopia look like? Part 1

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(Courtesy of the author)

March 16 was the official start of the USMCA review process. It’s the first time the three countries — the United States, Mexico and Canada — will go through this process. Unfortunately, just two are sitting at the table. That’s why this is the perfect timing for the start of a new series: Regional Utopia.

Let’s get started.

By now, it should be clear that trade integration in North America has been, at least in part, a success. Over the past three decades, it has expanded commerce, deepened supply chains and given firms the legal certainty they need to invest and operate across borders. What began as trade has quietly evolved into continental co-production.

Yet this success also exposes its limits. Trade integration was necessary, but never sufficient for sustained, broad-based growth. Perhaps because it was never meant to be.

While North America built one of the world’s most integrated production systems, productivity growth remained modest, industrial expansion uneven and income convergence essentially stalled (you can read more about this in the analysis my co-authors and I wrote for the Inter-American Dialogue). Trade surged, but prosperity did not always keep pace for everyone. The agreement created the platform, but it was not designed to tackle the larger challenge of economic development.

In short, trade integration was only one piece of the puzzle. Many of the most important pieces — infrastructure, talent flows, regulatory alignment, shared industrial strategy — were left undiscussed.

This new series explores those missing pieces: the policies, institutions and strategic choices that could make North America more competitive, more productive and ultimately more prosperous, while spreading the gains more widely.

As the United States, Mexico and Canada approach the practical limits of what trade pacts alone can deliver — and with the USMCA joint review now underway — we face a natural question: what comes next?

My view is that the region must think more holistically about growth. “Fortress North America” makes for a catchy slogan in policy circles, but slogans are not strategy. The real work lies in navigating the political and economic realities that shape cooperation.

First of all, one contradiction stands out. Both the United States and Mexico are navigating sharp political and ideological shifts. Sovereignty, national identity and strategic autonomy have returned to the forefront of debate. At first glance, this resurgence of national priorities seems at odds with deeper regional integration.

How can governments put their own countries first while advancing shared regional prosperity?

The answer is to identify areas where cooperation directly reinforces national interests rather than undermines them. Two objectives tower above the rest: economic prosperity and security. If North America can pursue these goals collectively, the incentives for collaboration will align naturally.

The urgency sharpens in the global context. The competitive arena is no longer national. It is continental.

Competing at that scale demands more than national strategies. No single country in North America can go toe-to-toe with an entire continent alone. An “America First” posture may satisfy domestic politics, but economically it will fall short against a rival bloc. North America must learn to compete as a region.

That requires confronting difficult but unavoidable issues: labor mobility and migration management, regional skills certification, border infrastructure, trade facilitation, regulatory alignment, shared security frameworks, infrastructure corridors, joint energy systems and a coordinated industrial strategy rooted in economic complementarity. In short: building a more robust ecosystem.

For clarity, I group these challenges into three broad categories: people and talent, institutional architecture and industrial co-production.

First, North America must fully leverage its human capital. Our half-billion people must compete with more than two billion across China and its neighbors. Talent needs to move where it is most productive and needed.

This does not mean permanently higher migration flows. Mexico, in particular, needs its young, skilled citizens at home. But more flexible mechanisms — seasonal and circular migration programs, regional professional certifications — could let doctors, engineers, technicians and skilled workers cross borders when needed and source unfilled labor gaps.

Second, our institutional framework must catch up to economic reality. Regulatory coordination can slash friction in trade, investment, and innovation. Mutual recognition agreements — for instance, in pharmaceuticals — could let FDA or COFEPRIS approvals carry weight across borders. Joint border inspections, aligned intellectual property rules and coordinated approaches to emerging technologies like artificial intelligence would further boost productive capacity.

Third, the region must think deliberately about industrial coordination. Fiscal incentives, infrastructure investment, supply-chain strategies, sectoral policies and regional champions should reflect regional complementarities. Policymakers may shy from calling it a customs union, but a deeply integrated production platform will inevitably begin to resemble one.

If managed well, these steps could create a region where opportunity is more evenly distributed, investment and jobs stay within North America, innovation accelerates and economic dynamism helps tackle persistent challenges—from organized crime to irregular migration.

The central argument of this series is straightforward: North America already holds the building blocks of a continental economic system. What it lacks is the political imagination to treat itself as one.

This is not a call for a borderless region, but for strategically managed, efficient circulation of human capital.

It is not reckless outsourcing. It is a complementary, innovative system where the three countries design and build high-value products that sustain well-paid jobs across the continent.

And it is not subordination or diluted sovereignty. It is shared priorities — pursued by confident allies and trusted partners alike, in pursuit of mutually beneficial outcomes.

That is my vision of a regional utopia.

In the essays ahead, I will dig into each of these ideas in detail.

Pedro Casas Alatriste is the Executive Vice President and CEO of the American Chamber of Commerce of Mexico (AmCham). Previously, he has been the Director of Research and Public Policy at the US-Mexico Foundation in Washington, D.C. and the Coordinator of International Affairs at the Business Coordinating Council (CCE). He has also served as a consultant to the Inter-American Development Bank.

2 consumer giants commit US $1.5B to expanding operations in Mexico

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Arca Continental, Mexico's second-largest Coca-Cola bottler behind Femsa, is celebrating a century of operations in Mexico this year.
Arca Continental, Mexico's second-largest Coca-Cola bottler behind Femsa, is celebrating a century of operations in Mexico this year. (Arca Continental)

Two of the world’s largest consumer goods companies announced major investment commitments in Mexico this week, underscoring the country’s continued appeal as a manufacturing and distribution hub despite ongoing trade uncertainties.

Monterrey-based Arca Continental, one of the largest Coca-Cola bottlers in the world, announced it will invest 18.5 billion pesos — roughly US $1 billion — in its Mexican operations in 2026, representing half of a global capital deployment that also covers the United States and South America.

Arca Continental, which is celebrating a century of operations in Mexico this year, said the funds will go toward expanding production and distribution capacity, accelerating digital transformation and launching new beverage categories.

CEO Arturo Gutiérrez Hernández reaffirmed the company’s focus on operational excellence and sustainability, noting that Arca Continental surpassed 50 billion pesos ($2.8 billion) in EBITDA for the first time in 2025 on consolidated net sales of nearly 248 billion pesos ($14 billion).

Swiss food and beverage giant Nestlé, which has maintained a presence in Mexico for more than 130 years, separately announced a $455 million investment in México state.

Of that total, $275 million will be directed to the company’s five existing plants in the area — located in Cuautitlán, Tultitlán and three sites in Toluca — which produce everything from Nescafé coffee and chocolates to Purina pet food and Terrafertil healthy snacks.

Nestlé investment announcement in Mexico
Governor of México state Delfina Gómez attended the investment announcement on Monday. (Delfina Gómez Álvarez/Facebook)

The remaining $180 million will fund a new distribution center in Zumpango with a capacity of 90,000 pallet positions. Nestlé Mexico President Fausto Costa said construction will begin promptly following a formal agreement signed with México state Governor Delfina Gómez. The company currently employs nearly 3,000 people directly in the state.

Both companies cited sustainability as a core pillar of their expansion plans, with Nestlé highlighting renewable energy use and zero-waste-to-landfill goals, and Arca Continental noting its inclusion for the fourth consecutive year in the S&P Global Sustainability Yearbook.

With reports from El Financiero

Made in Mexico: From baseball to béisbol

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Baseball in Mexico
Baseball is the second most popular team sport in Mexico, and the Mexico City Diablos Rojos are its premier franchise. (Diablos Rojos/Cuartoscuro)

It’s hard to imagine now, but before football conquered Mexican Sundays, baseball held a central place in the country’s sporting imagination. Sunday afternoons meant radios crackling with play-by-play from ballparks in Mexico City and Monterrey, but also from diamonds in the United States and Cuba — a soundscape in two languages, tied together by nine innings and a bat.

As you might guess, baseball in Mexico has no pre-Columbian roots. It is, instead, a living reminder of the long, entangled history between Mexico and the United States.

How did baseball arrive in Mexico?

Baseball team in 1890s
Club México, founded in 1887, was the first all-Mexican team to officially be formed in the country. (Salón de la Fama del Béisbol Mexicano)

The truth is, historians have never been able to pinpoint the exact moment the game crossed the border. What we do know, in broad strokes, is that by the late nineteenth century, railroad workers, soldiers, sailors, miners, and, of course, U.S. businessmen who sponsored local games were already bringing baseball to Northern Mexico and to the major ports of the era. In a study by researchers at Harvard, one influential theory is that baseball arrived through the commercial and maritime circuits linking the United States, Cuba and Mexico — a triangle of trade that also moved ideas, customs and games.

By the end of that century, baseball was familiar in Mexico City, Mazatlán, Guaymas, Veracruz, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas. Sunday newspapers are full of early box scores and game stories describing matches between Mexican clubs and foreign
teams, written in a tone that makes clear this was no longer an exotic novelty but part of the weekly rhythm of urban life.

Mexican baseball

The first officially documented Mexican club was Club México, founded in 1887. And the first truly emblematic game was played on March 5, 1899, when the American team“Masters” faced the Mexican “Señores.” The Mexicans won by the improbable score of 51-49. From that moment on, baseball in Mexico began to consolidate as a sport followed religiously, Sunday after Sunday, by a growing local fan base. In those early decades, baseball was still a binational activity, with Mexican and American communities alike tracking their teams and heroes on both sides of the border.

The Mexican Revolution, however, changed the tone of the game. Starting in 1910, many foreign residents — fearing for their safety — shut down their businesses and left the country. In the few surviving baseball chronicles from those years, American surnames begin to disappear from lineups and box scores, just as Mexican teams, players and announcers proliferate. The game remains the same, but its center of gravity shifts decisively into Mexican hands.

The Mexican League

The history of the Liga Mexicana de Béisbol (LMB) is, at its core, the story of how Mexican baseball stopped being an archipelago of amateur leagues and became a professional circuit — modeled on the U.S. system, but with its own logic.

After the revolution, baseball in Mexico City was wildly popular yet fractured: rival associations fought over players, ballparks and legitimacy, in what historian Miguel Ángel Esparza calls a “struggle for the diamond.” Businessman Ernesto Carmona
grasped that whoever controlled the parks controlled the sport and secured the concession to Parque Franco Inglés, while sportswriter Alejandro Aguilar Reyes — “Fray Nano” — used his column to argue for a single, unified league with clear schedules and rules, in line with the great leagues to the north.

Pedro “El Mago” Septién
Pedro “El Mago” Septién was a legendary Mexican baseball announcer who left behind phrases that have become part of the game’s lore. (Editorcarolus/Wikimedia Commons)

The turning point came on Feb. 24, 1925, when the main associations merged and founded the Liga Mexicana de Béisbol. The new league launched with six clubs — México, Agraria, 74 Regimiento, Águila, Guanajuato and Nacional — backed by businessmen and military officers who saw baseball as a tool for business, prestige and social cohesion in a postrevolutionary capital.

Its first official game, on June 28, 1925, at Parque Franco Inglés, ended with Club México defeating Agraria 7–5 in 14 innings, a marathon now remembered as the formal birth of professional baseball in the country. Those early seasons were fragile — riddled with financial crises and internal feuds — but over time, the LMB stabilized, expanded beyond the capital and learned to coexist with football and with the gravitational pull of Major League Baseball.

Nearly a century later, with 18 franchises and one of the longest uninterrupted histories in professional baseball, the LMB stands as the platform from which Mexico speaks back to U.S. baseball, not just as a source of players, but as a mature system in its own right.

Baseball in Mexican culture

There are myths, legends, and fully documented anecdotes that testify to the depth of Baseball’s place in Mexican life.

One of the most beloved involves perhaps the most important baseball broadcaster in Mexican history, Pedro “El Mago” Septién. In 1951, during a New York Yankees game, the live feed from the stadium suddenly failed. Septién had to call the remaining innings using only short telegraph dispatches from wire services. A single telegram was enough for him to spin an entire inning’s worth of drama, reconstructing pitches and swings in the imagination of his listeners.

His “magic” was not just in his encyclopedic memory, but in what he could do with language. He left behind phrases that have become part of Mexican baseball lore, like his description of the sport as “a ballet without music, a drama without words, a carnival without showgirls.”

100 years later

Liga Mexicana de Beisbol
The Mexican Baseball League was born a century ago, but the history of the league continues today. (Liga Mexicana del Beisbol)

In a few days, when the Kane County Cougars run onto the field at Estadio Alfredo Harp Helú to face Diablos Rojos del México in the opening game of the Baseball Champions League Americas, the scene will tell a story far larger than the final score.

In the capital of a country where baseball first arrived as a U.S. import more than a century ago, the champion of an American independent league will square off against the reigning LMB champion on Mexican soil, under the umbrella of a continental tournament that puts clubs from Mexico, the United States, Cuba, Nicaragua and Chinese Taipei on the same footing.

This is not a Major League showcase tour. It is something more horizontal: five champions (or near champions) sharing the same diamond in a round-robin format, as if baseball were reminding itself that it is, before anything else, a common language rather than a pecking order of flags.

Almost 100 years after Fray Nano and Ernesto Carmona stitched together that
first professional season in a Mexico City ballpark, professional baseball is once again
placing the city at the center of the map — this time as host of a Champions League of the Americas, in which the LMB acts not as a peripheral guest, but as the home
institution.

From March 24 to 29, the Alfredo Harp Helú Stadium — home of the Diablos, a
regular LMB venue, and a recurring stage for official MLB games — will become, for one week, a small laboratory of the very history this article has traced: a game that crossed the border in the hands of U.S. soldiers, railroad workers and sailors, then returned northward laden with new accents, styles and domestic leagues now solid enough to welcome a U.S. representative as just another contender for a continental title.

Closing thoughts

Baseball runs through Mexican cinema, family anecdotes and collective memory as
that sound in the background of long Sunday meals. It ceded ground, over time, to the tidal force of football. And yet, as recently as 2019, 54% of Mexicans still identified as baseball fans; it ranks as the country’s fourth-most-watched sport, and since the opening of Alfredo Harp Helú in Mexico City, interest in Mexican baseball has only grown.

Do you have a baseball memory of your own — on either side of the border? Mine is a
bittersweet mix of sadness and joy, remembering how my grandfather would forbid us from changing the TV channel because he was watching his “beis”, and telling us about his own experience as a player on the TELMEX Team.

A professional Mexican Baseball League pitcher on the pitching mound, about to pitch a ball during a game in a stadium. He is wearing a El Aguila de Veracruz team uniform.
Pitcher Dinelson Lamet of El Águila de Veracruz in 2025. (LMB)

For more info, check out the American Association site for more information on the 2026 Baseball Champions League Americas.

Maria Meléndez writes for Mexico News Daily in Mexico City.

MND Local Guadalajara: Easter week activities and upcoming events

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Guadalajara, Jalisco
Easter week is a great time to visit Guadalajara, for both religious and secular activities and events. (Roman Lopez/Unsplash)

As Semana Santa (Easter week) approaches, locals and visitors who forego the traditional beach getaway for a Guadalajara city holiday will be rewarded with plenty of options. Enjoy your spring break with art exhibits, live music, discounted family entertainment, wine tastings and more.

Discounted cultural activities for families during Easter week

Staying in town for the Easter holiday instead of heading to the beach? There will be no shortage of entertainment options, thanks to Zapopan’s Spring Tourist Tours initiative.

Guadalajara Zoo
Easter week is a good time to visit the Guadalajara Zoo, with tickets very reasonably priced. (Another Believer/Wikimedia Commons)

To promote visitation during what is typically a slow vacation period, various cultural and entertainment options will be offered around the city at free or reduced rates. Between March 30 and April 10, tours will be available to public pools, museums, aquariums, the Guadalajara Zoo and select amusement parks. 

Discounted access is available only on the specific days and times noted below. Here is a partial list of the tours being offered:

Monday, March 30 — Balneario Cañón de las Flores at 8:30 a.m. Cost is 50% off.

Tuesday, March 31 — Los Camachos Parque Acuático at 8:30 a.m. Cost is 50% off.

Wednesday, April 1 — Belén Cemetery (night tour) at 5:15 PM. Cost is free. 

Tuesday, April 7 — Michin Aquarium at 9:30 a.m. Cost is free. 

Tuesday, April 7 — Chivas Museum at 3:30 p.m. Cost: Free 

Wednesday, April 8 — Guadalajara Zoo at 8:30 a.m. Cost for adults is 295 pesos, children 205 pesos.

Wednesday, April 8 — Selva Mágica amusement park at 9:30 a.m. Cost is free.

Thursday, April 9 — Planetario Lunaria at 9:15 a.m. Cost is free.

For more information and to join any of these outings, register online here

Pop visionary Lorde set to perform at Telmex Auditorium in Zapopan

Lorde in Zapopan
Pop superstar Lorde will be performing in Zapopan in April. (Stub Hub)

The singer-songwriter from New Zealand who performs as Lorde is set to play Telmex Auditorium next month as part of her Ultrasound World Tour.

Beloved for her unconventional vocals and emotional songwriting, Lorde broke onto the music scene in 2013 with the smash single “Royals.” The track sold roughly 10 million copies worldwide and earned her two Grammy Awards at the ripe old age of 16. 

Her debut studio album, “Pure Heroine” (she’s always had an abundance of swagger), followed soon after, to massive critical acclaim and commercial success. 

Taking inspiration from a wide range of musical genres, including jazz and soul legends Billie Holiday and Sam Cooke, and indie electronic artists SBTRKT and Grimes, Lorde continues to mature musically. 

Hitting the road this year in support of her fourth studio album, “Virgin,” Lorde mixes electronic synth-pop with storytelling more suited to a woman approaching 30. For a tour selling out plenty of large arenas in the U.S., it’s a gift to have this immensely talented artist playing here in Zapopan at a relatively intimate venue.

Date: Wednesday, April 29, at 9 p.m.

Location: Auditorio Telmex, Obreros de Cananea 747, Complejo Belenes, Zapopan

Tickets: Available at Ticketmaster, starting at 990 pesos, not including fees.

Rocío Sáenz exhibits her Wild Order at MUSA

Rocío Saénz
Rocío Saénz showcases her art at Guadalajara’s MUSA Museum through April 12. (Alondra Ibarra)

A good art exhibit will elicit emotion, challenge preconceptions and hopefully encourage the viewer to think a little differently.  

Rocío Sáenz’s current show Orden Salvaje (“Wild Order”) at the MUSA delivers a multi-sensory experience through works of painting, ceramics, photography and drawings. 

Her vibrant and colorful compositions belie some of the dark themes that inspired them. As a Guadalajara-based artist, Saenz’s work tackles contemporary issues that Jalisco residents are all too familiar with — human violence and disappearances.

I cannot distance myself from the issues that are happening in Mexico, such as missing persons, corruption and the feeling of powerlessness and immobilization,said Saenz.

A self-taught artist born in Chihuahua in 1971, Saenz earned a Master of Fine Arts from the ISA in Havana, Cuba. Her work has been exhibited over the years in Mexico and abroad.

Dates: Through April 12, 2026. Open Tues – Sat: 10 a.m. — 6 p.m., and Sun: 10 a.m. — 3 p.m.

Location: MUSA Museum of the Arts, University of Guadalajara, Avenida Juárez 975, Colonia Americana, Guadalajara.

Cost: It is always free to visit the MUSA.

Taste Mexican wines at the 3rd annual Festival del Vino in Tlaquepaque

Festival del Vino Tlaquepaque
The Festival del Vino offers a showcase for some of Mexico’s finest wineries. (Visita Jalisco)

In its third edition, the Tlaquepaque Wine Festival will feature wine tasting, instruction on food and wine pairings, and gourmet treats for purchase. 

Participating wineries will include Mexican and international brands. And while the full list of wineries isn’t yet published, it includes Mexico’s oldest winery, Casa Madero, as well as newer producers such as Llano Colorado in Baja California and Cava Ortiz in Guanajuato.

And since Mexicans love a good party, there will also be live music, including jazz, flamenco, pop and rock, with DJs keeping things festive late into the evenings.

The tasting venue Casa Agave sits in the heart of Tlaquepaque Centro, a Pueblo Mágico adored by locals for its pedestrian-friendly streets, old-world architecture, colorful holiday installations, art galleries, ubiquitous crafts and live mariachi music — bonuses for those who make the trip.

Date: Friday, March 27, from 4 p.m. to 1 a.m. and Saturday, March 28, from 2 p.m. to midnight

Location: Casa Agave Eventos. Calle Juárez 292, Centro, San Pedro Tlaquepaque

Cost: 950 pesos for Friday and 1,050 pesos for Saturday. Tickets are available on the festival website or from Casa Agave directly.

MND Writer Dawn Stoner is reporting from Guadalajara.