The non-oil exports revenue for January was US $39.88 billion according to INEGI. (Depositphotos: Port of Manzanillo, one of Mexico's most important commercial ports).
The value of Mexico’s exports increased 25.6% in January compared to the same month of 2022, the national statistics agency INEGI reported Monday.
Mexican products worth US $42.59 billion were shipped abroad in the first month of the year. The annual percentage increase in the value of exports was the highest since February 2022.
The value of vehicle exports surged 64.9% in January compared to the same month in 2022. (Government of Mexico)
INEGI said that revenue from non-oil exports was $39.88 billion in January, or 93.6% of the total, while oil exports were worth $2.71 billion.
Within the former category, manufactured goods brought in the lion’s share of the export income. Their value increased 28.3% on an annual basis to $37.32 billion, or over 93% of the non-oil total.
Vehicle exports contributed $13.6 billion to that amount, their value surging 64.9% compared to January 2022, while other manufactured goods brought in $23.7 billion in revenue, a 13.8% increase compared to a year earlier.
Agricultural exports, including alcoholic beverages, increased 9.8% to $1.9 billion while mining exports rose 9.6% to $655 million. Oil exports increased 8.9% to $2.7 billion.
The value of all exports was up just over 6% compared to December.
The value of agricultural exports also rose, coming to US $1.9 billion in revenue. (Juan José Estrada Serafín / Cuartoscuro.com)
“The results are very good news in light of the risky environment prevailing at the beginning of 2023,” said Monex analyst Daniel Arias.
The World Bank is forecasting economic growth in 2023 of just 0.9% in Mexico, 0.5% in the United States and 1.7% globally.
Imports to Mexico also increased in January, rising 16.3% to $46.71 billion. Mexico was consequently left with a trade deficit of $4.12 billion in the first month of the year. That figure is 34% lower than the $6.28 billion deficit recorded in January 2022.
Non-oil imports were worth $41.16 billion in January while oil imports (refined fuel) totaled $5.55 billion, INEGI said. The former increased 15.7% compared to January 2022 while the latter rose 20.6%.
Cuatro Volcanes Craft Distillery and Gastropub in Tlaxcala city is a family affair, run by the Vargas Mendoza siblings, including chef Celeste, left, and distiller Ernesto, right, and another sister, Getzany, not pictured. (Photo: Lydia Carey)
Whiskey is not the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Mexican spirits, but a nascent movement is happening here, and why not? Mexico is the land of corn, so why couldn’t its native corn make a Mexican whiskey comparable to the classics north of the border?
A fundamental member of this movement is a tiny distillery in Tlaxcala called Cuatro Volcanes, and if you haven’t heard of it, you will soon.
Ernesto learned the craft in the United States, where he took grunt jobs at microdistilleries there until he learned how to do the process himself. (Photo: Cuatro Volcanes/Facebook)
Founded by Ernesto Vargas Mendoza and his sisters Celeste and Getzany, they are not only serving up some of the country’s most exciting new whiskey, but they are also making brandy, gin and rum, all made with endemic corn, fruit and herbs.
Ernesto has long been fascinated by the distillation process, spending time in Oaxaca with master mezcaleros and binge-watching the TV show “Moonshiners” on the Discovery channel when he lived in the United States. His first venture into distillation was buying a cheap whiskey from Costco and trying to age it himself in a barrel he bought online.
After several years of tinkering, his wife Emily said, “Why don’t you just go and work in a distillery? Wouldn’t that be the best classroom?”
They were living in Washington D.C., and after sending out feelers to a half a dozen distilleries, Ernesto’s lack of experience looked like it would leave him empty-handed. Then the owner of District Distilling Company, a now-defunct microdistillery, offered him the chance to start out with grunt work, like labeling bottles.
Perhaps not surprisingly since it was created out of their mom’s home, Cuatro Volcanes has a cozy, among-friends vibe. On the weekends, they frequently run out of seating. (Cuatro Volcanes/Facebook)
Five months in, he was diving into production. After a second stint, at a Maryland microdistillery, Ernesto knew he wanted to make his own whiskey and spirits.
“I wondered why in Mexico, the place where corn was domesticated, we didn’t have any whiskey that was emblematic of Mexico,” he says. “One of the things they say that’s so special about Kentucky is the high level of calcium in the water and the soil — and it’s the same in Tlaxcala.”
So he bought a simple 70-liter still and started making whiskey in his mom’s garage during his trips home to Tlaxcala.
The distillery has made created some unexpected Mexican spirits, like this “mole” gin, and it continues to experiment with new items like prickly pear and absinthe. (Cuatro Volcanes)
“She never thought it would become something serious, I think. She’s never told me, but I suspect she was like, ‘Oh, this is just an itch that they have that will pass, and then I’ll get my house back.’”
But Señora Mendoza didn’t get her house back. In fact, the living room is now filled with oak barrels, and the upstairs patio has been converted in the Cuatro Volcanes Gastropub, where the curious come from far and wide to try Mexican whiskey as well as corn-based gin, rum made from Mexican cane sugar and lots of other experiments that Ernesto and his sisters are still working on in their mom’s garage (now outfitted with four stainless steel stills, 12 fermentation tanks and one tank for mash).
When the siblings started their project, they were determined to buy local, endemic corn at a fair price and use as many local ingredients as they could. Enter their mole gin, laced with cacao, blue-corn whiskey and cane sugar rum made from the same region where their grandfather used to farm in Pantepec, Puebla.
At a spirits event in Mineral de Pozos, Guanajuato in September. Says Ernesto Vargas of what inspired Cuatro Volacanes, “I wondered why in Mexico, the place where corn was domesticated, we didn’t have any whiskey that was emblematic of Mexico.” (Photo: Cuatro Volcanes/Facebook)
“My grandfather was a farmer, but he also grew sugarcane and made his own cane sugar and sold it in the outdoor markets in the surrounding communities,” Ernesto says. “When I was little, I watched him process it.
“The region is still growing a lot of sugarcane, even though they are losing a lot of land that was once dedicated to that crop — because it’s cheaper now to just buy processed sugar. Our cane sugar is 100% artisanal.”
Now this tiny distillery — born from one man’s curiosity and hundreds of failed attempts to make a drinkable whiskey until one December 17 when it finally came out right — is leading a movement in Mexico to produce whiskey with some of the best corn in the world.
The team is also dedicated to making their efforts as environmentally sustainable as possible, using solar power to run the distillery, recycling and conserving water and supporting conservation projects around the world.
The gastropub has become a social and cultural center in downtown Tlaxcala city. (Cuatro Volcanes/Facebook)
“Right now, we are working with Azul.org, which engages Latinx people in ocean conservation in California. They were instrumental in the single-use plastic bag ban in California,” Ernesto explains.
Cuatro Volcanes’ business is now booming as people get to know their products. Their location outside of downtown Tlaxcala means that visitors generally show up just to see them and try their spirits, and more are showing up each day. Despite ramped-up production, they haven’t lost their sense of adventure: they’re currently experimenting with prickly-pear brandy and with making their own absinthe.
Sitting in the Cuatro Volcanes Gastrobar, sipping a Black on Black cocktail — lychee brandy, zapote negro fruit and absinthe — along with a slice of Celeste’s famous huitlacoche pizza, there’s a sense of hometown pride and family. Even Ernesto’s mom ventures out to talk to the clientele that have found their way to this hidden cocktail paradise.
Chef Celeste Vargas Mendoza complements the cocktails with intriguing food concoctions using local ingredients.
Live-edge wooden tables cluster around the bar up front, with drinking gourds and clay xoloitzcuintle dog statues scattered about. Ernesto mans the bar, Celeste the kitchen, and even Emily helps out serving tables when the crowd starts to grow. Their only problem now is what to do on the weekends, when it gets so packed that they run out of seats.
But maybe that means that Señora Mendoza will finally the get that apartment her children promised her, and that Cuatro Volcanes will take over the rest of the house at Tepoxtla #12 as their project grows.
Lydia Carey is a freelance writer and translator based out of Mexico City. She has been published widely both online and in print, writing about Mexico for over a decade. She lives a double life as a local tour guide and is the author of Mexico City Streets: La Roma. Follow her urban adventures on Instagram and see more of her work at www.mexicocitystreets.com.
You've made the decision to stay in Mexico long-term, i.e., more than six months. It's time to apply for a visa de residente — a resident visa, which generally allows you to stay a year or more in the country legally. (Photo: Shutterstock)
As many digital nomads have discovered during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mexico gives visitors from many countries a generous six-month (180-day) stay here simply upon arrival. But what if you’re interested in staying in Mexico for the long-term — say, for a few years, or maybe for the rest of your life?
If you’re looking to settle in Mexico for more than 180 days, then you need to apply for a residency visa. You apply for a residency visa not in Mexico but at a Mexican consulate in your home country.
You’ll also need to make sure you can pass Mexico’s financial solvency requirements. This article is a basic guide to what those financial solvency requirements are for the temporary and permanent residency visa.
Any financial solvency requirements will be based on a calculation using Mexico’s minimum wage, which recently went up again, by 20%, to $207.44 pesos (about US $10.80) per day. So be sure that any calculations you make reflect the new minimum daily wage.
Also, before we get into more specifics down below, another thing to bear in mind is that each consulate has different ways of converting the minimum wage into euros, U.S. dollars, Canadian dollars or whatever the currency is where you are from. How much your requirement will depend on the calculations of whichever consulate you use to apply.
So please take this guide as a general compass to kick-start your visa process, and reach out to the consulate where you’ll be applying for exact financial amounts.
While currency conversions may vary from consulate to consulate, the value of income, savings and investments you must demonstrate to qualify for a residency visa is based on a single factor: Mexico’s daily minimum wage. (Photo: Galo Cañas Rodríguez/Cuartoscuro)
Temporary or permanent residency visa: which do I need?
A temporary residency visa can cover a period of more than 180 days to up to four years — how many years is at the discretion of Mexico’s National Migration Institute (INM) after you get your visa. Generally speaking, you are eligible to renew your temporary visa for four consecutive years with little fuss.
A permanent residency visa is for those looking to stay in Mexico indefinitely. It is generally granted to foreigners who plan to be retirees in Mexico (you must be 65 or older for this) or else people who are dependents of a Mexican permanent resident or citizen, or who are the parent or child of a Mexican citizen.
In both cases, applicants must demonstrate financial solvency to guarantee to Mexico that they have the means of providing for themselves and any family members that are coming with them.
Financial solvency requirement for the temporary visa
If you’re applying for a temporary residency visa, to prove financial solvency, you must demonstrate one of the following:
SALARIED INCOME: your income during the past three months must equal or be greater than 100 days of the general minimum wage (as applied in Mexico City), and you must also show proof of current, stable employment outside Mexico for at least one year.
PASSIVE INCOME: the total amount of your investment, savings and pension income over the last 12 months must have an average monthly balance equal to 300 days of the general minimum wage applicable in Mexico City.
What if I need a temporary visa to study in Mexico?
If you’re enrolled in Mexico at a higher education institution, the financial requirements for a temporary visa are significantly lower. You must submit proof of stable employment or pension income or scholarship income over the past three months, and it must equal 60 days of the general minimum wage.
You must also submit proof of your current study program from the higher education institution.
What if I have a family?
A family moving to Mexico can apply for temporary residency, but be aware that there will be a financial solvency requirement for each adult and each minor child. Ask your consulate for specifics.
I own real estate property in Mexico. Does that qualify me for a residency visa?
Many foreigners are under the impression that owning real estate in Mexico means that getting a Mexican visa is guaranteed. Not necessarily so in practice. (Photo: Jonathan Beckman/Unsplash)
Possibly. There’s no guarantee that owning a home or other real estate in Mexico will alone qualify you for residency. Consulates appear to have discretion when it comes to using this as a qualifying factor.
But if they do allow it, you’ll need to provide an original and a photocopy of the property’s Escritura Pública (the official deed to the property granted before a Notary Public in Mexico). The value of the property stated on the escritura must exceed 40,000 days of the general minimum wage for it to be considered.
Note: real estate ownership will only ever qualify you for a temporary residency visa.
Can I get a residency visa if I have investments in Mexico or conduct business in the country?
Yes, but it only qualifies you for temporary residency.
If you’re an investor in a Mexican company or conduct business in the country, the amount of the investment or value of business conducted must equal 20,000 days of the general minimum wage.
How to show proof: provide original and photocopied documents of one of the following:
The company’s Articles of Incorporation (Acta Constitutiva), granted before a Notary Public in an Escritura Pública (a deed).
Your título de acciones (stock certificates) from the company.
A letter from the company’s administrative body (e.g. a board of directors) or another competent official from the Mexican company outlining the company assets owned by the applicant.
A document proving the applicant owns company assets (this could be physical assets like machines and equipment or intellectual property like ownership of the company’s trademark).
Documentation proving that you are conducting economic or business activities in Mexican territory. Documentation could include but isn’t limited to:
Contracts, service orders, invoices, receipts.
Business plans, licenses and permits
A certificate issued by the Mexican Social Security Institute proving that the applicant employs at least three workers.
Financial solvency requirement for the permanent visa
If you’re applying for a permanent residency visa, you need to show:
Proof of investments or bank account statements with an average monthly balance equivalent to 20,000 days of the general minimum wage during the last 12 months, or
Proof that the applicant has a pension with a monthly income after tax greater than the equivalent of 500 days of the general minimum wage during the last six months.
Where do I need to submit the documents?
Applying for a visa doesn’t happen in Mexico but in your home country, at the Mexican consulate, like this one in San Diego, California. (Photo: Shutterstock)
In the Mexican consulate office abroad nearest to you, except when the consulate specifies you need to send them to the Mexican Embassy in your country.
Be aware that in all cases, consulates expect that you will provide your own photocopies of the documents you are submitting. Don’t expect them to make copies for you when you get there.
Your consulate may even ask to keep originals. If you don’t want to give up your original documents, ask ahead if a certified copy granted before a Notary Public (copia certificada ante Notario Público) can be accepted as an original. A certified copy is considered to be equal to an original unless in specific cases mandated by the authorities. So make sure to ask.
How long will the consulate take to resolve my application?
According to Mexican officials, it will take up to 10 working days in any of the aforementioned cases.
After obtaining my residency visa, are there any other required steps to finalize the residency process?
Yes. If the visa is granted, you must obtain your residency card in Mexico. The deadline to apply for the residency card is 30 calendar days after entering Mexican territory. This can be done at any INM office in Mexico.
Once you have received your visa, there’s still another piece of bureaucracy to do: when you arrive in Mexico, you’ll need to head to any National Migration Institute office within 30 days of entering the country and register to receive your Mexican residency card. (Photo: INM)
Note that this process CAN’T be done at Mexican consulates or embassies. It must be done at an INM office. The consulate only gives you general approval for a visa. INM will be the final arbiter of for how long your first temporary visa will be valid — up to a maximum of four years.
Many foreigners from countries that aren’t required to obtain a tourist visa to enter Mexico (e.g. U.S., Canada, Schengen Area countries; see this link for the full list of countries) are granted at least a year and are eligible to renew upon their first visa’s expiration.
Must I keep the government updated of any change in my status, address or any other?
Yes. You must notify the immigration authority of any change in your marital status, nationality, the address where you live or your place of work within 90 days after said change occurs.
Peru's ambassador to Mexico, Manuel Gerardo Talavera (left), pictured with AMLO in March of last year. (@ElPeruEnMex Twitter)
Peru has withdrawn its ambassador to Mexico due to comments President López Obrador has made about the Peruvian government, but Mexico won’t make any changes to its diplomatic and consular representation in the South American country.
Peruvian President Dina Boluarte announced Friday that she was withdrawing Ambassador Manuel Gerardo Talavera due to López Obrador’s “unacceptable questioning” of her government on repeated occasions.
The president of Peru announced the withdrawal of the ambassador to Mexico on Friday. (@PresidenciaPeru Twitter)
“What happened in Peru is extremely serious,” he said at his Feb. 17 press conference, adding that there were no “legal foundations” for Castillo’s removal and incarceration.
“They don’t respect the will of the people and what there is beneath is a classist, racist attitude because he’s an [indigenous] teacher from the mountains, a humble man,” López Obrador said.
He said last Friday that Castillo’s removed from office by the Peruvian Congress was a “great injustice” and that “the conservatives of Peru” had violated that country’s constitution.
In a televised address, Boluarte charged that López Obrador’s latest remarks violated “the principle of international law about non-interference in internal affairs.”
In response to her decision to withdraw the Peruvian ambassador, Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) said in a statement Saturday that the Mexican government regretted Peru’s decision to “reduce the level of diplomatic relations” between the two countries.
However, the Mexican government “will maintain its diplomatic and consular representation [in Peru] to promote the ties between our people and provide attention to the Mexican community in Peru,” the SRE said.
The SRE said it is committed to “keeping the channels of diplomatic communication open for the benefit of both societies” and expressed its hope for a “democratic solution” to the “prevailing disagreements” in Peru.
At least 60 people have died in incidents related to recent political protests in the country, Reuters reported Saturday.
Protests in Peru since the arrest of former president Pedro Castillo have left at least 60 people dead since December. (Twitter @JuanfranTorres)
“Human rights groups have accused [Peruvian] authorities of using firearms on protesters and dropping smoke bombs from helicopters. The army accuses protesters of using weapons and homemade explosives,” the news agency said.
López Obrador, whose government has provided asylum to Castillo’s wife and children, accused the Boluarte administration of ruling “with bayonets and repression – with force.”
The president, who purports to uphold a constitutionally-enshrined principle of non-intervention in the affairs of foreign countries, also said Friday that the decision to remove Castillo was a discriminatory one and related to the presence of “vested interests” in Peru.
“He’d been in office a month or two and [opposition lawmakers] were already requesting his removal because … [they couldn’t] accept that a representative of the poorest people, of the indigenous people won. Unfortunately there is a lot of racism and classism and a lot of vested interests in Peru because it’s a country with a lot of natural resources and the natural resources are coveted by large multinational companies supported by foreign governments,” López Obrador said.
“We’re talking about gas, we’re talking about copper, gold, silver and lithium. In addition, they exploit the people, loot their natural resources [and] there is a lot of poverty. All this is what leads to these decisions to remove legal, legitimately constituted authorities,” he said.
The Maya Train will have 42 vehicles that pass through 34 stations and stops in southeastern Mexico. (Illustration: Fonatur)
The Maya Train, the passenger and cargo rail route that will travel around the Yucatán peninsula, will begin operations on Dec. 1, the military-controlled rail companyTren Maya S.A. de C.V. announced on Monday.
Óscar Lozano Águila, the company’s general director, was one of several officials to report on the progress of the controversial 1,554km rail loop during President López Obrador’s morning press conference.
“It will be one of the best rail systems in the world,” said Javier May Rodríguez, general director of the National Fund for Tourism Promotion (Fonatur). “Its trips will be safe because they will have [state of the art] technology.”
He said 42 trains will operate on the railroad, which will pass through 34 stations and stops in five states — Tabasco, Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatán and Quintana Roo. It will use both ground and air surveillance to achieve its“vision of zero accidents,” May said.
“The systems it has will guarantee that when there is an interruption on the track by a log or a rock, we detect it from the control center and automatically the train stops,” Lozano Águila explained.
He said state oil company Pemex will supply the train’s fuel, which he said would be less polluting than the fuel commonly used in Mexico because it will contain only 10 parts per million of sulfur rather than the usual 500 parts per million.
Óscar Lozano Águila, general director of Tren Maya S.A. de C.V., the Sedena-operated Maya Train company, said the train would operate on fuel produced by Pemex and on electricity generated by the Federal Electricity Commission.
Officials announced in 2020 that the train system would be a hybrid, with some parts of the route running on electricity and some parts on diesel fuel. Lozano’s Monday figure of 10 ppm of sulfur indicates that the train will be using environmentally friendlier ultra-low-sulfur diesel (ULSD), which contains 15 ppm of sulfur or less.
Lozano told reporters that the fuel would be produced at Pemex’s Deer Park Refinery in Deer Park, Texas, and at the Pajaritos refinery complex in Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz.
He said the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) will provide the electricity system, adding that this infrastructure will also increase energy availability across the region.
“All this will allow our train to move at 160 km/h for passengers and 109 km/h for cargo,” he said.
Diego Prieto Hernández, general director of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), said that the preconstruction archaeological rescue process was already nearly complete in five of the project’s seven sections, with over 45,000 structures registered and preserved.
Among the objects found include a sculpture of a female ruler holding a bound prisoner by the hair, in the archaeological site of Ek Balam.
Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval González said his ministry (Sedena) will allocate 4,931 National Guard members, 28 drones, five helicopters and three air bases to provide security to the project.
The company Maya Tren S.A. de C.V. is operated by the Sedena, and Lozano acknowledged in the press conference that 138 of its 338 staff are military personnel. The Maya Train project has drawn criticism in the past for its tight connection to the military.
One of the four AgustaWestland AW109 military utility helicopters bought by the Enrique Peña Nieto administration in 2013 that will be used to surveil the Maya Train route. The current administration unsuccessfully tried to sell the four helicopters in 2019, according to Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval.
The railroad is also controversial for its potential impact on the region’s jungles, underground cave system and archaeological sites. Environmentalists have brought several legal cases against the project, arguing that it is driving deforestation and threatens the rights of local Indigenous communities.
However, the Maya Train has long been a key project of the president, who has invoked national security to push it forward, despite legal injunctions. AMLO argues the train will boost local development by providing rapid mobility around the region’s 26 archaeological zones.
The train’s planned opening date will mark the fifth anniversary of his taking office.
“We are talking about the communication of the ancient Mayan cities,” AMLO stressed at the press conference. “Without a doubt, it is the most important train — ecologically, touristically and archaeologically — in the world.”
Tesla will provide more details on its manufacturing investment in Nuevo León tomorrow. (@Tesla Twitter)
Tesla will build a plant in Monterrey, Nuevo León, President López Obrador announced Tuesday after speaking with CEO Elon Musk a day earlier.
“The plant will be set up in Monterrey with a series of commitments to address the problem of water scarcity. It’s good news, the entire Tesla company is coming. … I understand that [the plant] is going to be very big,” he told reporters at his regular news conference.
Elon Musk (pictured) and President López Obrador spoke on Friday and Monday about Tesla’s investment in Meixico. (Creative Commons)
López Obrador said last week that Nuevo León wasn’t the best option for the electric vehicle manufacturer because “there’s no water” in the northern border state, where harsh water restrictions were implemented last year amid a severe drought.
However, he said Tuesday that Tesla had committed to using recycled water in its entire manufacturing process, even for car paint.
“I spoke with Elon Musk on two occasions via videoconference, Friday night from Chetumal and yesterday morning. He was very receptive, understanding our concerns and accepting our proposals,” López Obrador said.
The construction and operation of the new plant will entail “considerable investment” and generate a lot of jobs, he added without offering specifics.
López Obrador said that Tesla’s first plant in Mexico will entail “considerable investment.” (@Tesla Twitter)
López Obrador said that Tesla will provide additional information about its investment on Wednesday, when the Austin-based company has an investor day, and that additional commitments will be announced next week. The automaker’s plant in Nuevo León will be its first in Mexico.
“I want to thank Elon Musk, who was respectful, attentive and understood the importance of addressing the water problem,” López Obrador said.
The announcement that Tesla will build a plant in Monterrey brings to an end a lengthy period of conjecture about the company’s intentions. Musk visited Nuevo León last October and met with Governor Samuel García, triggering speculation that Tesla would set up a factory in the state.
Hidalgo later emerged as a possible location for a Tesla plant, partly because of its proximity to the Felipe Ángeles International Airport, while other states such as Michoacán and Veracruz sought to lure the automaker.
García – a young Citizens Movement party governor who frequently touts the foreign investment that has flowed into Nuevo León since he took office – declared on Twitter Tuesday morning that the establishment of a Tesla plant in the state capital is a victory for Mexico, Nuevo León and “all of us.”
“[We’re] very happy. Thank you very much to the president and to Elon Musk for the confidence,” he said in a video message posted to his Instagram account.
García asserted last Friday that Nuevo León had enough water to accommodate a Tesla plant.
“We’re going to work hand in hand with Tesla to clarify and prove that [the company] doesn’t use water destined for human consumption. What they use is treated [water] and [the amount] is minimal,” he said.
The Musk-led company also faced concerns about water scarcity when planning a new factory it opened in Germany last year.
A growing number of foreign companies are investing in Mexico to take advantage of the country’s proximity to the United States, its free trade agreement with the U.S. and Canada and the availability of affordable skilled labor.
AMLO shared this photo of a sculpture at the Ek Balam site along with a blurry image of a creature in a tree that he speculated could be an "alux." (@LopezObrador/Twitter)
Little known outside the Yucatán Peninsula, the alux has captured headlines around the world the last few days after President López Obrador shared a photo he claimed was of the mythological Mayan creature on Saturday.
Although many thought it a joke, it wasn’t clear if AMLO was serious or not.
Les comparto dos fotos de nuestra supervisión a las obras del Tren Maya: una, tomada por un ingeniero hace tres días, al parecer de un aluxe; otra, de Diego Prieto de una espléndida escultura prehispánica en Ek Balam. Todo es místico. pic.twitter.com/Tr5OP2EqmU
On his social media accounts, AMLO shared two images with the post:
“I share two photos of our supervision of the Maya Train works: one, taken by an engineer three days ago, apparently of an aluxe; another, by Diego Prieto of a splendid pre-Hispanic sculpture in Ek Balam. Everything is mystical.”
Internet users quickly reacted to the alux image stating that the same photograph has circulated on the internet for at least two years now. The ongoing controversy over the environmental impact of the Maya Train also stirred up chatter online as the president’s post went viral. And it left many wondering: what is an alux?
An ancient Mayan clay figurine that may represent an alux, or elf-like mythical creature. (Wikimedia Commons)
Considered a mischievous woodland spirit in Mayan folklore, the aluxes (a-loo-shez) are small goblins or elves said to live in natural places such as jungles, caves or cenotes. According to legend, these goblins dress as people and play tricks on those who do not leave offerings when building a house or preparing soil for the milpa (corn field).
A few comments on the post even warned that AMLO should not have published the alux photo without proper protocol. That is because aluxes are said to be very helpful if treated with respect and offerings, but if scorned, they can exact revenge.
In 2010, aluxes were blamed for Elton John’s stage collapse at the ancient site of Chichén Itzá, after organizers supposedly failed to ask the mythic creatures for permission to hold the concert.
The Public Works Minister at the time, Francisco Torres Rivas, said that unlike the concerts of Plácido Domingo and Sarah Brightman, Elton John didn’t follow the sacred ritual to ask for permission.
“The aluxes are tougher (más cabrones) than INAH [National Institute of Anthropology and History],” another official commented.
One of Huamantla, Tlaxcala's famous sawdust carpets, created every August for its Noche Que Nadie Duerme (Night When No One Sleeps) festivities. Last year, the municipality attained a Guinness record for the longest sawdust carpet, at 3,939.53 meters long. (Photo: Webcams de México)
I first came upon the tiniest state in Mexico by accident two decades ago. I was hurtling down the Huamantla-Puebla highway when an incongruous castle with orange turrets appeared to our left.
My guide told me that it was some kind of hotel, giving me the perfect pretext to ask to stop and investigate. It was only at that point that I realized we were in what felt like a “no man’s land” that was called Tlaxcala.
The Hacienda Soltepec hotel was an odd mixture of cheerful and imposing, with a small chapel to the right, a pretty courtyard and an elegant wooden reception desk where I was surprised to find out that, in addition to a buzzing restaurant that was a magnet for fine families from around Mexico, there were squash and tennis courts, a gym and a sizeable heated indoor swimming pool.
There began a series of visits to the state of Tlaxcala — hosted and inspired by Javier Zamora, from an old Tlaxcalan family who bought the 17th-century hacienda in the late 1940s.
These trips included the capital city of Tlaxcala, where, in addition to the colonial churches, monastery and arches, I was enchanted by the old Xicohténcatl Theatre and a visit to a traditional maderería, where I had a mini wooden baseball bat carved and painted for my youngest child; the walking sticks of San Esteban Tizatlán are one of the state’s signature folkcrafts.
I also had a long and colorful night in August where I took my kids to soak in the annual party held for the Virgen de la Caridad in Huamantla — fireworks and funfair included —aptly known as Noche que Nadie Duerme (The Night When No One Sleeps).
A couple walks toward Tlaxcala’s misty, mysterious Malinche, or Malintzin, volcano, known before the conquest as Matlalcueitl, or “Lady of the Green Skirts.” (Photo: Barbara Kastelein)
One of my top Mexican memories of the last 30 years belongs to Tlaxcala: a 4 a.m. hot-air balloon ride of soaring beauty with my daughters and mother, with its unforgettable view of the Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl volcanoes at sunrise, the rolling green contours of the land below and birds fluttering under our basket as we silently drifted.
I kept going back — for a visit with an archaeologist to the vibrant murals of Cacaxtla and to the ancient site of Xochitecatl, the latter with a unique spiral pyramid and said to have had a matriarchal society.
I also went on a pulque-permeated Huamantlada, where I watched lunatic youths run in front of incensed bulls in the quaint streets of a colonial city of Otomí origin.
There was a jaunt up the Malinche, a.k.a. Malintzin, volcano — known before the conquest as Matlalcueitl, meaning “Lady of the Green Skirts”) — Tlaxcala’s highest peak at about 4,440 meters. Now one of the region’s main ecotourism destinations, it’s soon to become a magnet for mountain bikers.
I also experienced some delirious days of Carnaval, enjoying Tlaxcala’s festival of costumes, dance, feathers, masks and whips that erupts in communities throughout the state in the run up to Lent.
Barbara Kastelein with performers from the Carnaval in Tlaxcala. (Photo: Draper Shreeve)
But until the vision of Soltepec first loomed to my left on the highway, I wasn’t even sure whether Tlaxcala was a city or a state (it’s both).
My ignorance wasn’t unusual, and 10 years later, Tlaxcala state still receives less than 0.3% of Mexico’s tourists. About 95% of its visitors are nationals — most from the adjoining state of Puebla.
So last May, when attending Tianguis Turístico, Mexico’s international tourism trade fair, I strolled to Tlaxcala’s stand to find out ¿Qué onda?
I was both tickled and touched by the slogan that tourism authorities had chosen to promote their destination: Tlaxcala sí existe (Yes, Tlaxcala exists).
Don Juan Aragon, who’s been making the traditional beverage pulque for 50 years, at Tlaxcala’s Pulque Museum. (Photo: Malena Díaz)
There are many reasons why Tlaxcala has gone unnoticed for so long, the most obvious being its struggle to find an image — let alone a voice — when under the shadow of the much richer and more powerful state of Puebla, which almost envelops it, bordering its little neighbor from both the north and south.
Furthermore, in the game of superlatives, while the state is home to the oldest church in Mexico and can boast some of the earliest colonial architecture and art, overstatement isn’t really Tlaxcala’s thing.
It is the proud home to Latin America’s first and only organic golf course (at the Hacienda Soltepec), and last year it made the Guinness World Records for achieving the longest sawdust carpet (3,939.53 meters) during the Noche Que Nadie Duerme festivities. But Tlaxcala’s allure is the deeper, uncommodified culture that is too intuitive to put your finger, let alone a marketing label, on.
The rhythm here is pueblerino; people are warm, but no one is in your face. The skyline stretches in all directions, with mountains of ever-changing cobalt, white, slate, purple and jade.
This is verified by visitors from France, Germany and Switzerland who have been quietly enjoying it without telling anyone else; it was surely no accident that the most enthusiastic tourists I saw at the foot of Malintzin last fall were two Oaxacan women in their 50s, both involved in hospitality in their home state. They were so impressed that they’d already planned their return with a coachload of other “conscious travelers” to stay for workshops in the eco-hotel Hacienda Santa Barbara the following month.
I would urge readers to get Tlaxcala-bound while the going’s good.
While it’s already too late for Tlaxcala’s Carnaval festivities this year — they ended on Feb. 21 — its distinctive annual celebrations are an example of the distinctive, highly memorable traditions the state has to offer the tourist looking for something a little off the beaten path.
Among Tlaxcala’s distinctive Carnaval traditions are the ancestral dances of the huehues —named after Huehueteotl, the Mesoamerican god of fire. Blending ancient pre-Hispanic customs with the imposed Christianity of the conquerors, they provide a glimpse of the religious syncretism that enlivens several Mexican festivities (the most famous now being Día de Muertos). These dances have been protected by the state, which declared them to be part of its intangible cultural heritage in 2013.
The Hacienda Soltepec hotel is a beautiful as well as convenient place to make your home base while visiting Tlaxcala. (Photo: Barbara Kastelein)
Some activities I recommend in Tlaxcala:
The Hacienda Santa Barbara in Huamantla, which can be reached via its Facebook page or Instagram page, by emailing them at [email protected] or by calling them at +52 246 196 2570. Here you can sign up for activities like a tortilla-making class and a massage.
The Organic Craft and Farmers Market, at the Hacienda Soltepec, open Saturday and Sunday. Find out more on their Facebook page.
My bet is that this little state, which for now asks only that its existence be acknowledged, could emerge into a kind of “new Oaxaca” — with some notable advantages: Tlaxcala is unafflicted by gentrification, blissfully free of spring breakers and is easy to get to (about two hours from Mexico City). It’s also slightly uncharted, so visitors can be surprised.
Tlaxcala’s inhabitants are friendly, it’s inexpensive and, refreshingly, it’s one of the safest places in the country. For more general info, try Tlaxcala’s state tourism website (in Spanish).
Barbara Kastelein has been a travel writer since 1997 when she began her first column “Travel Talk” for the Mexico City Times. She now divides her time between England and Mexico and is completing her fourth book “Heroes of the Pacific: The Untold Story of Acapulco’s Cliff Divers” (www.barbarakastelein.com)
The Oxxo chain's first 100% digital cashierless checkout store opened in Monterrey on Feb. 10. (Femsa)
For those frustrated by long lines at Oxxo, here’s some good news: Mexico’s largest convenience chain has opened a cashierless checkout branch in Monterrey where customers simply enter the store, select their products and leave.
The first location of an Oxxo Grab & Go store is the “only one of its kind in Latin America,” according to the company, and is aimed at consumers who want to “make life easier” and save time.
Oxxo Smart Grab & Go in Monterrey, Nuevo León. (Reddit)
Here’s how the digital branch works. First, the customer must download the free mobile app “Oxxo Smart Tec Grab & Go” onto their phone, register their data, and enter account information for a credit or debit card.
After that, a QR code will be generated, which the user will scan when entering the Oxxo Grab & Go. (Remember, there is only one so far — on the main campus of the Tecnológico de Monterrey in Nuevo León.)
From there, the customer will shop as normal, gathering items from shelves, counters and refrigerated cases. But instead of taking them to a cashier, the person will simply head for the exit, and as they leave, the camera and technology system will automatically total up the products and send the customer a receipt on their phone. There is no need to scan barcodes from any of the items.
“Through Grab & Go, we seek to offer a unique shopping experience, driven by technology that is replicable and relocatable in universities, plazas and parks,” said Ricardo Leyva, director of transformation and strategic planning at Oxxo.
Grab & Go locations could also work in hospitals, apartment complexes and office buildings, Oxxo said in a statement.
“The concept is in the evaluation stage through a test in the city of Monterrey, to analyze its feasibility and performance,” Oxxo added.
The store in Monterrey that opened on Feb. 10 is part of a new format called Oxxo Smart that was launched earlier this year by Mexican company Femsa, the retail and bottling giant based in Monterrey. Among its holdings, Femsa controls the largest independent Coca-Cola bottling group in the world and operates the Oxxo chain.
Femsa has been busy in the last week or so, divesting its stake in Heineken beer, saying it’s going to continue at its current rate of opening 800 to 1,000 Oxxo stores a year in Mexico and announcing that it’s going to take another stab at opening Oxxo stores (as many as 900) in the United States.
And in a call with analysts on Friday, Femsa officials indicated that the company will ramp up its focus on its core businesses and invest US $1.7 billion in them in 2023.
“Most of that investment will be in the convenience division, as we continue to expand stores, and there will be increased investment in [the bottler],” said Eugenio Garza, Femsa’s chief financial officer.
Earlier, Femsa reported a 28% decline in its fourth-quarter earnings compared to the same period in 2022, due in part to foreign exchange losses stemming from a strengthening Mexican peso, Reuters reported.
Two years ago, Oxxo began testing self-service kiosk outlets in shopping malls where people could do self-checkout (paying by credit or debit card) and make payments on water, phone and cable bills.
“Grab & Go is one more innovative element that is part of the Oxxo Smart stores, a concept that seeks to offer products and services in customizable formats,” said Lucy González, director Canal Tradicional de Oxxo. “With this proposal, we want to fulfill our mission to simplify the lives of our clients and collaborators, creating memorable experiences.”
Not having to wait behind eight other people when you just want to buy a bag of ice in Zihuatanejo — that will be a memorable experience!
Protesters in cities all over Mexico showed up in the streets to express support for a robust National Electoral Institute, the autonomous electoral oversight body whose powers will be reduced as a result of the recently passed reform law. (Photo: Fernando Carranza García)
Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets across Mexico on Sunday to protest the federal government’s recently-approved “Plan B” electoral reform laws and to demonstrate their support for the National Electoral Institute (INE), a key pillar of the country’s democracy.
Organized under the slogans and hashtags #ElINENoSeToca (Don’t Touch the INE) and #MiVotoNeSeToca (Don’t Touch My Vote), demonstrations took place in more than 100 cities including Mexico City; Guadalajara; Monterrey; León, Guanajuato; Culiacán, Sinaloa; Puebla; Toluca; Querétaro; Mérida; and Torreón, Coahuila.
Mexico City’s government said about 90,000 protesters showed up at a rally in the Zócalo on Sunday. Protest organizaers said the number of attendees was more like 500,000. (Photo: Galo Cañas Rodríguez/Cuartoscuro)
The protests came four days after the Senate approved the Plan B reform backed by President López Obrador, legislation that critics say will significantly weaken the INE and thus pose a threat to upcoming elections.
The reform — put forward after a more ambitious constitutional bill to overhaul Mexico’s electoral system was blocked in the legislature late last year — will slash INE’s budget and therefore force the dismissal of large numbers of staff, diminish its capacity to sanction politicians who violate electoral laws, curtail its autonomy and close some INE offices, among other consequences.
The INE is an autonomous elections oversight body that organizes elections at all three levels of government in Mexico.
Dressed in the INE’s logo’s colors of pink and white, protesters in Mexico City marched from various starting points to the capital’s central square, the Zócalo, located opposite the National Palace, the seat of executive power and López Obrador’s residence.
In Mérida, anti-Plan B activists held their protest at one of the city’s most iconic locations: the Monumento a la Patria (Monument to the Homeland). (Photo: Martín Zetina/Cuartoscuro)
The Mexico City government said that 90,000 people participated in the demonstration, while organizers claimed that close to half a million citizens took to the capital’s streets to defend the INE and demand that the Supreme Court strike down what they see as an illegal reform and a threat to democracy in Mexico.
“We came to knock on the doors of the court … [to ask] the justices to not allow the loss of the nation and to say to them respectfully but with complete firmness, ‘Send Plan B to the dustbin of history; don’t endorse an unconstitutional and immoral electoral reform,'” said journalist and former federal deputy Beatriz Pagés in an address to protesters in the Zócalo.
“… They’re seeking to eliminate the [electoral] umpire to twist the decision of citizens [at the presidential election] in 2024,” said the spokesperson for Unid@s, a collective of citizens’ groups.
“The Plan B electoral reform is a fraud foretold. … If we let them steal our votes, later we’ll let them steal other rights and other freedoms,” Pagés said.
Former Supreme Court justice José Ramón Cossío Díaz expressed confidence that the nation’s highest court will invalidate the reform despite “the pressures” the 11 justices are under from “those seeking to take control of” Mexico’s electoral system.
“I’m sure that the justices … will declare that electoral norms that reduce the human and budgetary resources of electoral bodies violate the principles of equity and certainty,” he told protesters in the Zócalo.
A Mexico City protester holds up an an image of a pineapple (piña in Spanish) saying, “Be supreme,” a callout to Mexico’s Supreme Court — led by Chief Justice Norma Piña Hernández — to strike down the reform law as unconstitutional. (Photo: Daniel Augusto/Cuartoscuro)
Opposition parties have indicated they will launch legal challenges to the reform once it has been promulgated via publication in the government’s official gazette.
Retiree Alejandra Orduña, who participated in the Mexico City protest, told the newspaper El País that López Obrador’s aim in putting forward the electoral reform was to ensure that the ruling Morena party stays in power after the 2024 election, at which a new president will be elected and both houses of Congress will be renewed.
“The INE is an autonomous institution that has guaranteed clean elections up until today. This man governing [now] arrived [to power] thanks to the INE, and now he wants to get rid of it and impose rules to perpetuate himself in power along with his followers,” Orduña said.
A couple in their fifties who spoke with El País agreed that “the INE is under threat” due to the approval of the Plan B reform, which, according to the government, could generate annual savings of as much as 5 billion pesos (US $271 million).
The couple, who told El Pais their names were Verónica and José Luis, said they were afraid that López Obrador would continue concentrating power in the executive — an accusation he has faced on numerous occasions since taking office in 2018.
Magdalena Rodríguez, a 70-year-old protester, told El País that she had never been involved in politics but decided to join the demonstration on Sunday because Mexico is in “complete decline” under the rule of the current government.
Anti-Plan B Protesters in Chilpancingo, Guerrero. (Photo: Dassaev Téllez Adame/Cuartoscuro)
“We don’t want to get to communism. [López Obrador] thinks he’s God, but he’s not. He’s not the owner of the country either,” she said.
In Toluca, the newspaper Reforma reported, protesters chanted, “If the INE disappears, the dictatorship appears” and held up signs with the message: “We’re Plan C: constitution, court, citizens.”
The INE’s predecessor, the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE), oversaw Mexico’s transition to full democracy after the country was ruled without interruption by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) for over 70 years until the National Action Party triumphed at the 2000 presidential election.
Poll results published by the Reforma newspaper last November showed that 80% of respondents believe that the INE has played an important role in guaranteeing democracy in Mexico while 71% said that its demise would pose a threat to democracy.
The United States government has been urged by some U.S. newspapers such as The Washington Post to express its opposition to López Obrador’s “remaking” of the electoral system, and on Twitter on Sunday, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere affairs Brian A. Nichols did that in a way, writing that “today, in Mexico, we see a great debate on electoral reforms that are testing the independence of electoral and judicial institutions.”
“The United States supports independent, well-resourced electoral institutions that strengthen democratic processes and the rule of law,” Nichols added.
National Electoral Institute President Lorenzo Cordova, right, at a event on Friday held by Michoacan’s state electoral institute. (Photo: Lorenzo Cordova/Twitter)
For his part, INE president Lorenzo Córdova — a tireless defender of the institute he heads — posted a photo of a packed Zócalo to his Twitter account on Sunday.
“Today I won’t publish my Sunday video,” he wrote. Today is a day of the citizenry, and it’s up to all of us to listen to them.”
The protests, which attracted a more middle and upper-class demographic than many other demonstrations, came three and a half months after Mexicans took to the streets in some 50 cities to defend the INE against the (ultimately defeated) plan to replace it and state-based electoral authorities with one centralized body.
According to an Associated Press report, many demonstrators were “simply wary of the kind of vote miscounting, campaign overspending and electoral pressure tactics that were common in Mexico before the independent electoral agency was created in the 1990s.”
While the Mexico City demonstration was easily the largest in the country, the protests in Guadalajara, Monterrey and León also attracted tens of thousands of people.
However, López Obrador, who remains a popular president, described the gatherings as “very small” given that “there must be about 25 million conservative citizens” in Mexico.
At his daily press conference Monday morning, President López Obrador dismissed the importance of the protests, calling them “very small.” (Photo: Presidencia)
“… When they say ‘don’t touch the INE,’ what they’re thinking is don’t touch corruption, don’t touch privileges, don’t touch the narco state,” he said Monday while acknowledging that citizens “have every right to demonstrate.”
The president — who has rejected claims that the electoral reform places the staging of free and fair elections at risk while touting the billions of pesos in annual savings it will generate — also took aim at the two orators who addressed the protesters in the Zócalo.
“Beatriz Pagés, daughter of [deceased journalist] José Pagés Llergo from [the magazine] Siempre!, is very priista, very conservative,” López Obrador said, using a word for members and supporters of the once omnipotent PRI.
