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Sheinbaum confirms first formal USMCA review meeting: Tuesday’s mañanera recapped

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MND Staff
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Sheinbaum said that her government is "calm" as it has done everything that it had to do regarding the USMCA review.
Sheinbaum said that her government is "calm" as it has done everything that it had to do regarding the USMCA review. (Juan Carlos Ramos Mamahua/Presidencia)

Sheinbaum’s mañanera in 60 seconds

  • ⚽ Good luck to El Tri: Ahead of Mexico’s must-win round of 32 clash against Ecuador tonight at Mexico City Stadium, Sheinbaum predicted Mexico would win and wished the team good luck, saying she’d watch the match with Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada. Asked about fans who gathered outside the Ecuadorian team’s hotel Monday night trying to disrupt their sleep, she said respect must always be shown to others.
  • 🇲🇽 🇺🇸 🇨🇦 USMCA review meeting Wednesday: Sheinbaum confirmed a virtual trilateral meeting will take place Wednesday, with Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard representing Mexico alongside U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Canada’s trade minister. She said a joint statement may follow, noted that Mexico and Canada have already proposed renewing the USMCA until 2042, and told reporters that Mexico is now awaiting the U.S. response. She said Ebrard will brief reporters on Wednesday’s meeting at Thursday’s mañanera.
  • 🇻🇪 More support for Venezuela: Sheinbaum announced Mexico is sending seven power generators by plane to Venezuela on Tuesday, plus a Navy vessel carrying additional supplies, as the country recovers from last Wednesday’s two powerful earthquakes.

Why today’s mañanera matters

President Claudia Sheinbaum’s Tuesday morning press conference started approximately 12 hours before Mexico’s World Cup football team, El Tri, will take to the pitch of Mexico City Stadium (Banorte) to face off against Ecuador in a round of 32 clash. Adding some intrigue and extra tension to the clash is the fact that Mexico broke diplomatic relations with Ecuador in April 2024 after Ecuadorian police broke into the Mexican Embassy in Quito and detained a former vice president of the South American nation who had been promised asylum in Mexico. More than two years later, diplomatic relations between the two countries have not been reestablished.

A victory over Ecuador on Tuesday night would therefore be extra sweet for Mexico and the Mexican government, although, of course, Sheinbaum didn’t say as much at today’s mañanera.

In addition to wishing the Selección Nacional de México good luck for the match, the president spoke about a trilateral USMCA review meeting that is scheduled for this Wednesday.

While Mexico and Canada have made it clear that they want to renew the free trade pact until 2042, the United States — which has imposed tariffs on various goods from its two neighbors — is playing hardball, with U.S. President Donald Trump even saying earlier this month that he wasn’t seeking to renew the agreement.

While most Mexicans are probably more concerned right now about the outcome of tonight’s match than the outcome of the USMCA, Sheinbaum’s comments on both the upcoming football clash and the free trade pact made today’s mañanera significant.

Sheinbaum wishes El Tri luck 

“Ready for the match?” Sheinbaum’s asked reporters at the very start of her Tuesday morning press conference.

“What are your predictions?” she inquired.

Without making her own prediction on a scoreline, Sheinbaum declared that “obviously Mexico is going to win.”

She said she would watch the match with Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada but didn’t disclose where.

“I’m going out,” Sheinbaum said.

“In a little while, we’ll talk to the mayor … and I’ll tell you later where we’re going because we’re [deciding] between two boroughs [of Mexico City],” she said.

Sheinbaum subsequently wished El Tri good luck for its match tonight against Ecuador.

“Good luck to la selección, stay strong,” she said.

Later in the press conference, a reporter noted that some Mexican fans went to the Mexico City hotel where the Ecuador team was staying on Monday night. Outside the hotel, hundreds of fans made a racket, apparently with the intention of disrupting the sleep of the Ecuadorian players.

Asked what her message to Mexican fans was, Sheinbaum said that respect must always be shown to others.

Trilateral USMCA meeting to take place on Wednesday 

A reporter noted that a new “formal” stage of the USMCA review commences on Wednesday, July 1 and asked the president what her expectations were.

Sheinbaum responded that a “virtual meeting” is scheduled for Wednesday in which high-ranking officials from Mexico, the United States and Canada will participate.

She said that Mexico will be represented by Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard and the United States will be represented by U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. Apparently referring to Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc, who has led USMCA negotiations for Canada, Sheinbaum said that “Canada’s economy minister” would also participate in the virtual meeting.

She indicated that a joint statement could be released after the meeting.

“The idea is that a joint statement can be released. If not, each country will publish a statement,” Sheinbaum said.

She also said she had invited Ebrard to her Thursday mañanera so that he can “provide all the information related to the meeting.”

Asked about the possibility of Mexico, the U.S. and Canada reaching an agreement to review the USMCA on an annual basis in the coming years, Sheinbaum responded:

“There could be several options in accordance with the [USMCA] itself. What could happen is established in the treaty, it can’t be somebody’s new idea.”

Mexico expresses intent to renew USMCA through 2042

Sheinbaum noted that Mexico and Canada have already formally expressed their intent to renew the USMCA for an additional 16 years, and told reporters that “we are now waiting for the United States’ response.”

She said that if a trilateral agreement to renew the USMCA until 2042 is not reached, there will be an additional “review process.”

According to the Atlantic Council, if Mexico, the United States and Canada don’t agree to renew the USMCA, “they will simply be required to meet annually for the next ten years to resolve their differences.”

“Should they fail to do so by 2036, the USMCA will automatically terminate,” the Washington, D.C.-based think tank wrote in an article published in April.

On various occasions, Sheinbaum has expressed confidence that the three countries will reach an agreement to renew the USMCA.

“The agreement is in the interests of the three countries — of Canada, of Mexico and of course of the United States,” she said Tuesday.

Sheinbaum said that her government is “calm” as it has done everything that it had to do regarding the USMCA review. The outcome of the review process “depends a lot on the U.S. government’s position,” she said.

Sheinbaum stressed that the USMCA wouldn’t end “tomorrow” even if the U.S. government decided against renewing the pact for an additional 16 years.

More support for Venezuela 

Sheinbaum told reporters that Mexico on Tuesday is sending seven power generators by plane to Venezuela, where two powerful earthquakes last Wednesday caused major destruction and loss of life.

She said that a Mexican Navy vessel will also transport a range of supplies to Venezuela. Sheinbaum noted that various institutions and organizations in Mexico, including the Venezuelan Embassy, have been collecting supplies to send to Venezuela.

Mexican Red Cross dogs join continental search and rescue effort in Venezuela

 

A team of 250 members of the Mexican military traveled to Venezuela last week to join the search and rescue operations in Venezuela. Red Cross rescue dogs and teams of Mexican rescuers known as “los Topos” (The Moles) have also traveled to the South American nation to search for victims and survivors of last Wednesday’s twin earthquakes.

In addition to military personnel, Mexico sent medical supplies, tools and equipment to Venezuela last week.

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

World Cup brings Mexico US $1B windfall in just 13 days

By
MND Staff
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Mexican fans celebrate in a FIFA Fan Fest
Mexican cities are celebrating this World Cup to the fullest — and revelers are spending accordingly. (Andrea Murcia/Cuartoscuro)

Mexico has welcomed a windfall of 17.5 billion pesos (US $1 billion) in the first 13 days of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, stemming mainly from tourism, consumption and services linked to the tournament, the Confederation of National Chambers of Commerce, Services and Tourism (Concanaco Servytur) said. 

According to Octavio de la Torre, head of Concanaco Servytur, this amount does not include the 5 billion pesos (US $286 million) corresponding to the sale of match tickets.

How El Tri’s perfect group stage created World Cup magic in Mexico: A dispatch from CDMX

De la Torre explained that although the economic boost is mainly concentrated in the three World Cup host cities, including Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey, it is their goal that the economic benefits reach nearby cities.  

He said that places like Zacatecas, Oaxaca, Hidalgo and Puebla have seen an increase in tourism during the tournament.  

Meanwhile, head of the Mexican Institute of Finance Executives (IMEF) Gabriela Gutiérrez told the newspaper El País that although economic activity has increased in restaurants, lodging, transportation and retail, it’s important to keep in mind that the volume of activity is not equal to profitability.  

“We have seen increased occupancy of infrastructure, but what still needs to be evaluated is how much of that spending actually stays in the local economy and how much filters out to international chains, digital platforms or imported goods,” Gutiérrez said. 

Initial estimates from Concanaco indicated that the World Cup would generate a total economic benefit of 65 billion pesos (US $3.7 billion dollars). However, Gutiérrez said this figure should be understood as an estimate of total spending, not necessarily as a value retained within the Mexican economy. 

“A significant portion of this impact will be the reallocation of Mexican household spending towards bars, restaurants, supermarkets, transportation and sporting goods,” she said. “It’s real economic activity, but not necessarily new income for the country. It’s the same money moving faster, with more excitement and with greater sectoral concentration,” she concluded. 

Mexico News Daily

28-year-old man killed by a crocodile on Puerto Vallarta beach

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MND Staff
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beach patrol PV
The tragedy occurred despite the Puerto Vallarta area being on high alert for crocodiles after several incidents last year. (Protección Civil Jalisco)

A 28-year-old Mexico City man was killed in a crocodile attack on a Puerto Vallarta beach, prompting authorities to increase surveillance in coastal areas popular with tourists.

The attack occurred Friday evening, June 26, on Marina Vallarta beach near the Marriott Puerto Vallarta Resort and Spa, according to Jalisco state police.

The man, who was reportedly on vacation with friends, was on the shoreline around 6 p.m. when the reptile allegedly attacked and dragged him into the sea.

His body was recovered early Saturday, more than 12 hours later, about 300 meters offshore near the Estero Boca Negra estuary after an overnight search.

State officials said the death has prompted reinforced safety measures, including increased monitoring of beaches, estuaries and other high-risk zones.

A mesa de trabajo (working group) composed of authorities, specialists, civil organizations and tourism sector representatives will continue tracking the species, according to Jalisco authorities.

Witnesses staying at the resort described a chaotic rescue attempt.

“We thought we saw a man caught in a rip current, so Chris ran into the water and I went right behind him,” Jamie Yetter told NBC Los Angeles.

Her fiancé, Chris Bury, added, “There were no paddles. There was really nothing on the beach to help. We were improvising, trying to do what we could.”

Resort officials said warnings were in place, alluding to the region going into “crocodile alert” mode following several incidents about a year ago.

“The safety and security of our guests and associates are our top priority,” the Marriott Puerto Vallarta said in a statement to ABC News, adding that signage, patrols and caution flags “were and are properly in place.”

Authorities urged the public to heed warnings, particularly near estuaries and mangroves where crocodiles are known to inhabit.

Separate incidents in recent days left two people injured in Colima, underscoring ongoing risks along Mexico’s Pacific coast, where human-wildlife encounters, while uncommon, periodically turn deadly.

Mexico recorded 200 crocodile attacks, 25 of them fatal, over the decade from 2015 to 2024, according to the CrocAttack database, which tracks incidents worldwide. The attacks involved species found along Mexico’s coasts and wetlands.

With reports from Telemundo 52, Notisistema, N+ and ABC News

DEA names Sinaloa Cartel and CJNG as top priorities in fentanyl fight

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MND Staff
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Terry Cole
Cole says that the DEA is "hunting the foreign terrorists responsible" for the fentanyl crisis in the United States. (Screenshot)

Combating Mexican cartels that traffic in fentanyl is the top priority of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the agency’s chief said in a video message last week.

“Every day I walk into DEA headquarters, I’m reminded of DEA’s mission. I see the faces of fentanyl. I see Americans that have lost their lives at the hands of the cartels. DEA is poised to lead this fight against the cartels,” Terry Cole, a former DEA agent and now the agency’s administrator, says at the start of the video that was posted to social media and to the DEA’s website.

“Let me be clear,” Cole continues.

“DEA has never been more focused, more aligned, or more dedicated to attacking the fentanyl crisis than we are right now. Across the globe DEA is bringing the full weight of our global enterprise to this fight.”

Cole says that the DEA is “hunting the foreign terrorists responsible” for the fentanyl crisis in the United States, where the powerful synthetic opioid has caused hundreds of thousands of overdose deaths in recent years. Among the organizations on the United States’ foreign terrorist list are six Mexican cartels, including the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).

In his video, Cole names the Sinaloa Cartel — which was founded by convicted drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo Guzmán” and incarcerated trafficker Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada — and the CJNG, formerly led by the now-deceased capo Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera, as criminal groups that the DEA is going after.

“Fentanyl is the threat like we’ve never seen before. The Mexican cartels, Sinaloa and CJNG, are priority number one of the DEA,” he says in a part of the video that was shared on social media by the U.S. Embassy in Mexico.

Fentanyl — which is manufactured by cartels in Mexico using precursor chemicals illegally imported from China — has “shattered families, … devastated communities” and “challenged law enforcement at every level,” Cole says.

“The American people expect and deserve the DEA to eliminate this threat, and that is exactly what we are doing,” he says.

After highlighting that the DEA has seized “over 14,000 kilograms of fentanyl and more than 62 million fentanyl pills” since the second Trump administration took office in January 2025, Cole declares that the DEA is pursuing “a fentanyl-free America.”

“That isn’t a catch phrase. That isn’t a slogan. This is our promise to the American people that we are responding with urgency, with resolve, and with the same unbreakable determination that has defined this agency for more than five decades,” the DEA administrator says.

“We are all gas, no brakes,” adds Cole.

The DEA chief’s remarks came the same week that U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin claimed that “there is not one inch of Mexico’s northern border that isn’t covered by a [cartel] plaza.”

Responding to the comment at her morning press conference last Friday, Sheinbaum highlighted that U.S. President Donald Trump recently posted a statement to social media that says that the United States border with Mexico is the “most secure.”

Mullin himself said earlier this month that “under President Donald Trump’s leadership, we are delivering the most secure border in American history.”

For her part, Sheinbaum said, “There couldn’t be a secure border if work is not done on both sides.”

The Sheinbaum administration has adopted a much more proactive approach to combating drug cartels than the 2018-24 government led by former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Security Minister Omar García Harfuch reported earlier this month that between October 2024 and May 2026, authorities dismantled 2,407 clandestine drug laboratories, detained 56,134 people who allegedly committed high-impact crimes, seized 419.3 tonnes of drugs and confiscated 29,572 firearms.

In addition, the Sheinbaum administration has sent more than 90 organized crime figures to the United States to face justice.

Mexico News Daily

Mexico’s National Electoral Institute approves 2 new political parties

By
MND Staff
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With shouts of "Fuera Morena!" (Out with Morena), supporters of Somos México, one of two newly certified political parties in Mexico, celebrate their registration at a rally Sunday near the Monument to the Revolution in Mexico City.
With shouts of "Fuera Morena!" (Out with Morena), supporters of Somos México, one of two newly certified political parties in Mexico, celebrate their registration at a rally Sunday near the Monument to the Revolution in Mexico City. (@SomosMxMexico/X)

Two new parties will be on the 2027 ballot after the National Electoral Institute (INE) granted certification to PAZ and Somos México.

Their official status as political parties gives them immediate access to public funding to the tune of 86.8 million pesos (nearly US $5 million) — 73.6 million pesos ($4.2 million) for ordinary party activities through December, 4 million pesos ($229,000) for gender-specific promotions and 9.2 million pesos ($526,000) for communications, advertising and candidate registration.

Flores
PAZ leader Hugo Éric Flores is a Morena deputy but his original PES party was viewed as right-wing and socially conservative, rooted in evangelical Christianity. (INE/X)

The two parties — one of which says it will work with the ruling Morena party, while the other has announced it will serve as loyal opposition — feature familiar faces and long-standing interests.

PAZ — officially Construyendo Sociedades de Paz (Building Peaceful Societies) — is seen as the stronger of the two new political entities, the latest manifestation of a movement led by Hugo Éric Flores, now a federal deputy with Morena.

Flores founded the Social Encounter Party PES in 2014. Viewed as a right-wing, socially conservative political party rooted in evangelical Christianity, PES joined forces with left-leaning Morena which also earned formal party status in 2014.

After losing its registration in 2018, PES re-emerged as the Solidarity Encounter Party, retaining its acronym and continuing as a Morena acolyte. The rebranded PES lost its registration in 2021 and its leadership restructured its organization and created PAZ.

Despite holding right-wing social views, the movement started by Flores has frequently allied with Morena, in exchange for political survival and influence. PAZ’s current leader, Armando González Escoto, is currently Flores’s alternate in the Chamber of Deputies.

Gonzalo Guízar, a PAZ leader and former federal deputy with PES, said PAZ “seeks a completely cordial relationship” with Morena, but insists the new party will not simply be a Morena satellite. “PES began as a movement long before Morena was formed,” Guizar said.

Somos México (We are Mexico) is led by Guadalupe Acosta Naranjo, a former leader of the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), which spawned Morena.

Somos México traces its roots to the grassroots protests in November 2022 and February 2023 against controversial electoral reforms proposed by then-President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Emilio Álvarez Icaza, the party spokesman, is a former senator (2018-2024) and served as president of Mexico City’s Human Rights Commission from 2001-2009.

Other prominent politicians in Somos México’s ranks include Gustavo Madero (former National Action Party leader and senator), Enrique de la Madrid (Tourism Minister from 2015 to 2018 and son of a former president), Fernando Belaunzarán (PRD federal deputy from 2012 to 2015) and Cecilia Soto (Labor Party presidential candidate in 1994).

Among the hopefuls that failed to earn certification from INE were México Tiene Vida (Mexico Has Life) and Que Siga la Democracia (Let Democracy Continue). The electoral agency said it denied registration to these two applicants due to irregularities during the formation process.

With reports from Infobae, El País, Proceso and El Sol de México

Mexico inaugurates a sterile fly facility in Chiapas to suppress the screwworm population

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MND Staff
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Sterile Screwworm Fly Production Plant in Metapa (Chiapas)
The "Sterile Screwworm Fly Production Plant in Metapa (Chiapas)" will produce 100 million sterile flies a week to suppress the population of the parasite that's disrupting Mexico's cattle trade with the United States. (gob.mx)

Officials from Mexico and the United States inaugurated a US $50 million sterile fly production plant on ‌Saturday in Metapa de Domínguez, Chiapas, near the Guatemala border, aiming to contain the New World screwworm outbreak across Mexico and increasingly the U.S., which is disrupting cattle trade.

The joint development and financing of the plant marks “a major step in protecting the health of all warm-blooded animals,” said Mexico’s new Agriculture Minister Columba Jazmín López Gutiérrez.

The facility is expected to eventually produce up to 100 million sterile flies a week to suppress the screwworm, a parasite that burrows into the flesh of warm-blooded animals and can be fatal if untreated. However, concerns remain about whether it is possible to produce enough sterile flies to eradicate the screwworm. 

Mexico confirmed its first screwworm case in November 2024, and the pest has since traveled northward through Mexico and into the U.S. The first animal case in the Mexican border state of Durango was confirmed in early June, with a total of 27 animal cases having since been confirmed in the United States. 

Mexico launched cross-agency and industry efforts to contain the spread and impact of the pest in November 2024 and has since inspected over 5.3 million head of cattle. Still, the screwworm has infected over 30,000 animals in Mexico to date. 

In addition to the Chiapas plant, the U.S. announced last year plans to develop its own sterile fly facility in Texas. 

“Our countries have beaten this before, 40, 50 years ago; we will beat the New World screwworm again,” U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said during the opening ceremony of the Chiapas plant. 

President Sheinbaum praised the new plant as an example of the benefits of Mexico-U.S. cooperation. “Animal diseases, pests and the challenges of food safety aren’t limited by borders,” she said. “In the face of those challenges, the best response is to team up, share our experiences and ⁠build solutions ​together.”

The U.S. has kept its border mostly closed to Mexican live cattle since May 2025, disrupting a trade that previously supplied more than 1 million animals to U.S. ⁠feedlots each year. Mexico is now forced to export meat rather than live cattle. 

With reports from Reuters, AGDAILY and El Financiero

How El Tri’s perfect group stage created World Cup magic in Mexico: A dispatch from CDMX

By
MND Staff
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The view of Mexico City Stadium, filled with 2026 FIFA World Cup spectators, before the kick-off match against South Africa
For the past two weeks, MND's Peter Davies has witnessed the World Cup action from Mexico City's stadium, streets and sidewalks. (Peter Davies)

The group stage of the 2026 FIFA men’s World Cup is now over and the knockout stage has begun, with Canada becoming the first team to reach the round of 16 thanks to a 1-0 victory over South Africa in Los Angeles on Sunday.

The Mexican team, known as El Tri or more formally la Selección Nacional de México, gets its chance to reach the round of 16 this Tuesday night when it takes on Ecuador at the Mexico City Stadium (aka Estadio Azteca).

El Tri to play Ecuador in Mexico City on Tuesday

The first two weeks of the tournament were an exciting — and emotional — time for Mexican football fans both here and abroad in places such as New York, where large numbers of Mexicans celebrated the 1-0 victory over South Korea and bonded with fans from the East Asian nation.

In Mexico City, a seemingly incredulous 800,000 people (per Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada) descended on Paseo de la Reforma and the Angel of Independence monument to celebrate Mexico’s win over Czechia last Wednesday night, a victory that gave El Tri an unprecedented perfect record in the group stage of the World Cup — three wins, zero losses, zero ties, six goals scored and zero goals conceded.

I’ve been lucky enough to witness some of the World Cup action up close — well, from the media tribune high up in the stadium — and have experienced some of the broader World Cup vibe in Mexico City, one of the tournament’s sixteen host cities. Here are some observations from the past two weeks or so in the axolotl-adorned capital — a kind of “World Cup notebook” largely based on things I jotted down in my notebook while watching matches, or wrote in my mind as I traveled to and from Mexico City Stadium.

For El Tri — and Mexico — a dream tournament … so far 

The 2026 World Cup opened at Mexico City Stadium on June 11 and there hardly could have been a better start for El Tri, which defeated South Africa 2-0. Mexico continued its winning ways in Guadalajara with a 1-0 victory over South Korea on June 18 before returning to “El Azteca” for a dominant 3-0 triumph over Czechia on June 24.

Many millions of Mexicans will be hoping, wishing — praying! — that this racha (streak) of wins continues with a victory over Ecuador on Tuesday night, and then continues some more with a triumph in the round of 16 clash, possibly against England, scheduled for this Sunday at Mexico City Stadium. Could Mexico, with Álvarez, Jiménez, Rangel et al., go further in a World Cup than it has ever gone before? Only time will tell.

The first day of the tournament in Mexico City was also a success for FIFA and the governments of Mexico and Mexico City. While protests occurred, they didn’t cause major disruptions to the World Cup opening ceremony and first match, although they did indirectly shut down a key public transport route for fans after they left the match (see below).

To date, it’s hard to argue that the World Cup in Mexico hasn’t been a success. While international visitor numbers might not have been as high as anticipated, the group stage of the tournament generated an economic impact of around US $1 billion for Mexico, according to the Confederation of National Chambers of Commerce, Services and Tourism.

There are now just three remaining matches to be played in Mexico: a round of 32 game between the Netherlands and Morocco in Monterrey on Monday night, Tuesday night’s clash between Mexico and Ecuador and a round of sixteen fixture at Mexico City Stadium on Sunday that will hopefully involve El Tri.

Mexico’s wins have sparked exuberant celebration

Three wins in three World Cup group matches. El Tri had never achieved this feat before 2026. And didn’t Mexican fans enjoy the three victories!

You’ve probably seen photographs and videos of hundreds of thousands of fans packing Paseo de la Reforma in the vicinity of the Angel of Independence after Mexico’s victories. The exuberant celebrations — as rain fell in the capital in some cases — speak for themselves. Similar scenes have been seen in many other parts of the country, albeit with fewer revelers, including around the iconic Glorieta La Minerva in Guadalajara. (Yes, the rubbish left behind isn’t a great look.)

Guadalajara fan fest June 11
Fans have taken over the streets in Mexico’s World Cup capitals, watching matches from public squares, parks, taquerías and everywhere in between. (IVAN VILLEGAS/CHIVAS ©2026)

Mexicans, it seems, don’t just celebrate World Cup victories — they feel them, in a way that seems distinct from fans in many other countries. The joy is visceral, and it’s shared: with family, with friends, with complete strangers.

President Sheinbaum put it this way: “Sorry [ahem, why the apology?!], what people experience in Mexico isn’t experienced in the United States or Canada.” In Mexico, she said, there is “happiness,” a very warm welcome for World Cup visitors and great “jubilation related to the World Cup” — on the streets, in public squares and elsewhere.

Even Mexicans opposed to the staging of the World Cup in Mexico — people who believe that addressing the nation’s various problems, including the missing persons crisis, must take precedence over the hosting of a football tournament — have supported El Tri and screamed with joy when la selección has scored. This viral video aptly explains the contradiction, the “cognitive dissonance.”

Mexicans’ passion for World Cup football has extended beyond Mexico’s matches. On Sunday, I went with my family to the official FIFA Fan Festival in the Zócalo, Mexico City’s main square, where the sizable crowd of mostly Mexican fans lived every moment of the match between Canada and South Africa, letting out gasps, cheers, groans, screams and virtually every other audible expression of emotion you can think of as they watched the action on the giant screen.

An exhilarating stadium experience 

Each of the three times I attended a World Cup match at Mexico City Stadium this month, the experience was exhilarating and unforgettable. Of course, the raucousness reaches its crescendo when Mexico (or Colombia as the case might be) scores a goal. On five occasions so far this tournament, El Tri has found the back of the net in Mexico City, sending the vast majority of the 80,000+ fans into raptures.

The time between goals is liberally peppered with deafening chants of “!Olé!” or “¡México, México!,” of impromptu renditions of “Cielito Lindo,” of waves (Mexican, of course!) sweeping around the stadium, of piercing whistles when opposition teams maintain possession for longer than is liked (or deemed acceptable), and all manner of other collective expressions of staunch support for El Tri.

If only words could do it justice…

When Colombian fans took over Mexico City Stadium earlier this month, they created their own unique and equally — or dare I say more? — rambunctious atmosphere (see below).

The Colombians arrive with energy galore 

There was a smattering of South Africans at Mexico City Stadium on June 11, and foreigners from many countries around the world have enjoyed watching the World Cup from Mexico City. But, from my point of view at least, the quadrennial tournament didn’t really become a major international event in the capital until hordes of Colombians arrived for the June 17 match against Uzbekistan.

Colombian fans
On the eve of their national team’s World Cup opener, a multitude of enthusiastic Colombian fans turned the area around the Angel of Independence into a sea of yellow. (Galo Cañas/Cuartoscuro)

The atmosphere they collectively created in the stadium, in the streets around the stadium, in the metro, in central Mexico City and wherever else they went in numbers was simply fantastic. A sea of yellow, a cheerful chorus of carnivalesque Colombians, a brigade of bogotanos here, a mass of medillenses there.

Outside the stadium, I could see the economic impact Colombians were making on Mexico City in real time — in the OXXO and 7-Eleven-bought beers they were drinking, in the tacos they were eating in stadium side streets. Of course, that was the small (albeit not unimportant) potatoes of economic impact — the more meaningful one came from money spent on accommodation, in restaurants, in shops and in bars in Mexico City, and subsequently in Guadalajara, where Colombia defeated the Democratic Republic of Congo last Tuesday.

On June 17, after downing their pre-match beers, los colombianos created a home match atmosphere for Los Cafeteros inside “The colossus of Santa Úrsula,” as “El Azteca” is colloquially known. A rapturous rendition of the National Anthem of Colombia provided a brief but fierce lesson in patriotism that left me wishing that I was Colombian myself just so I could participate in the camaraderie.

When Colombia’s Daniel Muñoz toed a lofted pass into the back of the net in the 40th minute, the tens of thousands of Colombians in attendance had the collective strength and voice power to bring the house down. But a 60th minute goal from Uzbekistan to tie the match precipitated minutes of quiet and tension — Colombian fans became a dormant volcano — … until BOOM!! A 65th-minute goal by Luis Díaz reinitiated the joviality, and everything was right with the (Colombian view of the) world again.

The CDMX public transport system has been impressive 

I live in a southern neighborhood of Mexico City that is about 10 kilometers north of Mexico City Stadium. Prior to each of the three World Cup matches I attended this month, I walked around 10 minutes to the Parque de los Venados metro station on Line 12 and traveled two stops along that line before disembarking at the Ermita station to change to Line 2. I then journeyed two stops down Line 2 to Tasqueña station, where I changed to the light rail (tren ligero) to complete the trip to the stadium.

Despite large numbers of fans traveling to the matches, my public transport trips were orderly and relatively quick. After the Colombia-Uzbekistan and Mexico-Czechia matches, large crowds gathered outside the stadium’s light rail station, but getting onto the platform and onto a train was much quicker and much easier than I anticipated. Overall, I have been satisfied and pleasantly surprised by the efficiency of the Mexico City public transport system as it came under increased pressure on match days.

For me, the only public transport hiccup on match days has been the suspension of light rail service on the opening day of the World Cup due to damage protesters caused to stations and objects they threw onto the tracks. In the absence of other transport options, that left me — and thousands of others — with a long walk to the Tasqueña metro station, but, in the company of happy fans, the walk was a jubilant and enjoyable one that seemed shorter than it actually was.

The little moments that matter 

Yes, the World Cup is about money, perhaps as much as it’s about football (or soccer if you prefer). Fans have complained about “rip-off” ticket prices and the greed of FIFA. These complaints are hard to dismiss. But what has heartened me are the interactions between fans of opposing teams in and around Mexico City Stadium, interactions that simply wouldn’t have occurred had they not been facilitated by the World Cup. As I watched friendly engagements between Colombians and Uzbeks, I wondered, do these countries have embassies in each other’s countries? (Answer: They do not). In the absence of formal diplomatic relations, Colombians and Uzbeks — supporting their national team as it competed at a World Cup for the first time — conducted well-meaning, unofficial football-based personal diplomacy. It was a joy to see.

Over the last couple of weeks, I have seen similarly friendly interactions between Mexicans and South Africans, and between Mexicans and Czechs. Such amiable engagements no doubt also occurred in and around stadiums in Atlanta, in Kansas City, in Toronto, and in Monterrey. The friendly relationship between Mexican and Korean fans, whose teams faced off in Guadalajara, is famous and dates back a number of years.

Have you heard the chant “¡Coreano, hermano, ya eres Mexicano!” (Korean, my brother, you are now Mexico!)?

These unlikely human interactions between people from different countries and cultures may be brief in many cases, but at a time of significant conflict in the world, maybe they are more meaningful than we think. Perhaps the FIFA Peace Prize should have been awarded to “the football fans of the world,” rather than U.S. President Donald Trump.

Community — and World Cup fever — via Panini 

In May, I bought the Panini World Cup 2026 album and a few packets of stickers as a way to get my four-year-old son interested in the tournament. It was a bit of a slow burn at first, but 18 days after the World Cup began — and after countless cries of “¡gooooooool!” emanating from our television set (and perhaps my larynx on occasion, too) — I can say my son is a World Cup enthusiast, if not an avid, minute-by-minute watcher of games.

Messi, Mbappé, Cristiano Ronaldo, Julián Quiñones, Raúl Jiménez and Alphonso Davies, among various other footballers’ names, now roll off my son’s tongue regularly, as do the names of the 48 competing countries. Inquiries of “Dad, can you play football [in our living room]? have become more and more frequent.

In addition to helping to create “World Cup fever,” the act of collecting Panini stickers (estampas in Spanish) helps create community. If you want to complete your collection, it’s basically mandatory to gather with your fellow collectors at public swap meets. Over the past month or so, I’ve handed over and received countless estampas in front of the iconic Palace of Fine Arts in the historic center of Mexico City, where literally hundreds of Panini aficionados congregate on a daily basis, and at the Oasis Coyoacán shopping center in southern Mexico City — another mecca for sticker-swapping football fans.

Just as World Cup fans from different countries have meaningful interactions in and around stadiums, Panini sticker collectors do the same, sharing their passion for football as they try to help each other complete their sets. Personally, I’ve engaged with many Mexicans, young and old, at these swap meets as well as people from Uruguay, Spain and Germany, among other countries. Kids, moms, dads, uncles, aunts, grandmas and grandpas all huddle together with a glint in their eyes as they search for those elusive estampas they need.

The unofficial mascot that’s outshining the official ones

If you haven’t heard of Merlin, the “World Cup duck,” yet, perhaps you’ve been living under a rock (no offense intended!), or at least not reading Mexico News Daily’s World Cup section!

Merlin the World Cup duck is now a registered trademark

I think it’s fair to say that Merlin’s popularity has exceeded that of the official 2026 World Cup mascots. Does anyone remember their names?

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

MND Local: Is Cabo San Lucas finally ridding itself of the ‘Gray Ghost’? Plus, fallout from the hit-and-run accident that injured 17 people

By
Chris Sands
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The 'Gray Ghost' in downtown Cabo San Lucas
The “Gray Ghost” is an unfinished hotel property that has been haunting downtown Cabo San Lucas Marina since the early 1990s. (The Oppenheim Group Real Estate)

Although the first hotel in Los Cabos was built in the 1950s, the first few decades of tourism were defined by a dozen or so pioneering hotels. It wasn’t until the 1980s and 1990s that the first real building boom occurred, as the area grew from just over 2,000 rooms in 1990 to nearly 8,000 by the close of the decade. “Steel and stucco are on the move everywhere you look, and suddenly, Los Cabos has a skyline, still patchy, but indicative of what is obviously just around the corner,” wrote Larry Dunmire in the Spring 1989 edition of “Baja Traveler.”

What was right around the corner for one notable hotel project of the era, however, was a historic peso devaluation, followed by a union dispute with the Revolutionary Confederation of Workers and Farmers (CROC) that left the construction unfinished. That hotel, known by locals as the “Gray Ghost,” has been haunting Cabo San Lucas’ downtown skyline as an eyesore ever since. 

Plans for the ‘Gray Ghost’

That’s not to say there haven’t been signs of improvement. In 2014, one of the investors in the original project, Eduardo Sánchez Navarro — president of Grupo Questro, and the most accomplished local developer since the original pioneer hotel builders — managed to negotiate a settlement with the union, thanks to the intervention of then-President of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto, opening the way for a future without a hulking monument to failure marring picturesque marina views.

Still, it was another eight years before a new conception of the property, A Place at Cabo, was unveiled. Since then, much has been done under that banner to bring the area around the “Gray Ghost” back to life, opening open-air restaurants and shops accessible from the marina boardwalk and from Marina Boulevard.  

The “Gray Ghost” itself remains standing — or crumbling, depending on one’s perspective — although for how much longer remains to be seen. Sánchez Navarro has announced a recent deal with Universal Studios (though the company has not publicly affirmed its commitment) to build a 150-room hotel on the site of the long-stalled construction project, with a 1,500-seat theater to host live concerts and performances. 

But there is still no definitive timeline for the projected opening. So the long wait continues.

A tragic occurrence that didn’t have to happen

“I am appalled, as is the entire community, because we are not at all accustomed to such acts here; in the history of Baja California Sur, there has never been anything like this,” Secretary General of the Los Cabos City Council, Alberto Rentería Santana, told El País, following a hit-and-run incident in which a car accelerated into a crowd of revelers in downtown Cabo San Lucas in the hours after Mexico’s 3-0 win over Czech Republic in the World Cup on June 24, injuring 17. 

The driver, a 52-year-old identified only as Óscar “N”, was subsequently pulled from the car and beaten by the enraged crowd, which led to him being hospitalized in serious condition. So that makes 18 who were injured in the tragic event; plus the trauma done to the wife and two children of Óscar “N”, who were in the car, and witnessed the savage aftermath. 

The sad part, for those affected and for the reputation of Los Cabos, is that it was all preventable — but to understand why, it’s first necessary to give some background on the intersection where the incident occurred, and on the infrastructure challenges that Cabo San Lucas specifically, and Los Cabos generally, are still struggling to try and overcome. 

Unmanageable growth and traffic issues

Los Cabos had about 10,000 residents in 1970. But by 2020, that number had grown to over 350,000 (including more than 200,000 in Cabo San Lucas) … and it’s still growing. Tourism has likewise exploded, increasing over 130% in the last decade alone. The strain this has put on local infrastructure and traffic is, as might be imagined, immense. 

Los Cabos, in its approach to urban planning, has tried to overcome some of these issues by establishing large transit corridors to expedite travel; and, on a municipality-wide basis, the creation of the Autopista Cabo San Lucas – San José del Cabo (Airport Toll Road) in 2015, the recently finished Fonatur roundabout project and a proposed Eje Interurbano (Interurban Axis) are positive steps forward.

Jesús Bojórquez Luque, in his 2014 academic assessment of the challenges, “Evolución y planeación urbana en la ciudad turística de Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur,” noted that local government had taken important action “to reverse the chaotic situation that resulted from the city’s rapid growth since the 1980s, and which manifested itself in the inability of the three levels of government to project harmonious growth and provide adequate services to a large population attracted by the development of tourism.”

In Cabo San Lucas, however, the city’s traditional downtown center has become choked and bottlenecked by traffic along the two main thoroughfares — Marina Boulevard and Blvd. Lázaro Cárdenas — which, since an expansion project circa 2009-2010, have been linked together with a loop. This traffic is problematic not only for drivers, but doubly so for pedestrians, a large percentage of whom are tourists. Crossing the street in the downtown area is, for the most part, done at one’s peril. 

The worst pedestrian crossing in Cabo San Lucas

Perhaps the most dangerous of the pedestrian crossings is found just beyond where Marina Boulevard and Lázaro Cárdenas converge, at a crossing between traffic lights in front of Plaza Bonita and Los Cabos’ most concentrated nightlife district. This risk was recognized, which led to the implementation some years ago of topes, of the elevated rise variety. But while this did slow down drivers slightly, it didn’t have the intended effect of encouraging them to grant the right of way to pedestrians. Thus, during high-season days, transit cops are often stationed here to help tourists cross the road. 

But when an official presence is really needed is at night. The El Squid Roe and Mandala nightclubs alone often have crowds spilling out the door into the intersection and onto the median that divides traffic lanes on Lázaro Cárdenas. This creates major traffic issues and serious potential for explosive situations, proven recently not just by the hit-and-run accident, but by the widely reported brawl that broke out in the street only 10 days prior in the same place.

Considering there have been honking parades of cars and revelers galore after each of Mexico’s group stage World Cup victories, there should have been a stepped-up police presence at this intersection. According to Rentería, that did occur. But if you look at the videos for either the brawl or the hit-and-run accident, there’s not a police officer in sight. 

The ATP Los Cabos Open tennis tournament will celebrate its 10th anniversary this year

Although big-game fishing tournaments remain the most emblematic sporting competitions in Los Cabos, over the past 10 years, the area has also become a regular host of tennis and golf tournaments sponsored by the ATP and PGA, respectively. The tennis event — The Los Cabos Open, or Mifel Tennis Open by Telcel Oppo, in sponsorship language — came first, premiering in 2016. Since the 2020 event was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, that means the 2026 edition, scheduled from July 27 to Aug. 1, will mark its 10th anniversary.

A lot has changed in the course of the decade. Not only has attendance nearly tripled since Croatian Ivo Karlović won the inaugural event over Spaniard Feliciano López, growing from 12,000 to over 35,000, but prize money has also grown slightly (from US $850,000 to US $909,790), and the location has shifted: from the Delmar International School, site of the first four tournaments, to the Cabo Sports Complex, which has handled hosting duties since 2021.

Tickets for this year’s tournaments are still available

The tournament’s organization and attraction to talent remain, however. The Los Cabos Open is still an ATP 250 series event, welcoming 28 singles contestants and 16 doubles players, among whom are some of the best in the world. Since its premiere, it has showcased many of the best men’s players in the world, including Grand Slam champions Daniil Medvedev, Juan Martín del Potro and Alexander Zverev. 

Cabo Sports Complex and tennis center in Los Cabos at dusk
The Los Cabos Open, an ATP 250 series tournament held at the Cabo Sports Complex in Los Cabos, is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. (ATP Tour)

To find out more about this year’s tournament, including ticket availability, visit the official event website. 

Chris Sands is a writer and editor for Mexico News Daily, and the former Cabo San Lucas local expert for the USA Today travel website 10 Best and writer of Fodor’s Los Cabos travel guidebook. He has also contributed to numerous other websites and publications, including The San Diego Union-Tribune, Marriott Bonvoy Traveler, Forbes Travel Guide, Porthole Cruise and Travel, and Cabo Living. 

The grief we don’t talk about when we move to Mexico, because it’s about something else

By
Charlotte Smith
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An empty bench in a generic park
Losing a dear friend leaves an empty space in our hearts, and, for those of us who have moved to another country, in our conception of who we really are now. (Ann Eel/Unsplash)

We spend a lot of time talking about what we gain when we move to another country.

We talk about reinvention, opportunity, experiences and adventure. We celebrate the courage it takes to leave behind everything familiar and build a life somewhere new. We swap stories about culture shock, visas, learning another language and finding our place in a different country.

Visa application to move to another country
Moving to Mexico will change your life, but it won’t change your feelings about where you grew up, or the friends and cultural touchstones that sustain that connection. (Shutterstock)

What’s being lost

What we talk about far less is what happens years later, when life back home continues to do what life has always done. The weddings we miss. The birthdays we watch through a screen. Family members growing older. Friends whose children we know only through photographs. The quiet, inevitable stretching of distance that comes with building a life elsewhere.

And then, eventually, for many of us, comes something even harder. We lose the people who knew us before.

My best friend, Kenny, died recently.

I thought I understood what grief would feel like. I foresaw the ache of missing him. I knew I’d reach for my phone to tell him something funny or absurd, only to remember that I can’t. Now I replay memories until they become both comforting and painful.

I expected to mourn someone who knew everything about me and loved me through every version of myself, because that’s what Kenny did. He knew me before I knew who I would become. He knew the awkward years, the ambitious years, the phenomenal ones, the reckless ones and the heartbroken ones. He knew my family, my history, the people I loved and the ones who hurt me. He watched me evolve without ever asking me to be anyone other than myself.

A man in a hat and glasses
It was Kenny’s passing that made Charlotte reflect on the nature of living internationally. (Charlotte Smith)

To be fully known and fully loved anyway is one of life’s greatest treasures, and not everyone gets to experience that. I know how fortunate I was, and I will cherish that love and the memories of him for the rest of my life.

Emotional and cultural ties that cannot be broken

But alongside the grief has come something I wasn’t expecting. It’s something I don’t think we talk about enough when we move countries.

Mexico has afforded me more than I ever imagined. I’ve built a beautiful life here. I’m deeply in love with a man who is everything I could have hoped for in a partner. His heritage is Mexican, but he also spent many years living in the United States, as I did between England and Mexico, so we share an understanding of what it means to belong to more than one place.

But there’s still a part of me that belongs entirely to England. Not geographically, but emotionally.

It’s the part made up of shared television references, pub garden jokes, phrases that don’t translate, humor that only really lands if you grew up where I did. It’s rainy afternoons, familiar accents, songs on the radio and tiny cultural moments that don’t seem significant until you realize they’re the building blocks of who you are.

My humor is unmistakably English. The rhythm of it and the sarcasm bordering on blunt truth. The expressions I don’t even realize I’m using. My partner listens. He laughs, and he cares. This isn’t about him falling short, because he doesn’t. It’s simply impossible for him to fully inhabit my history.

Kenny could. He didn’t need context because he was the context.

Photo of Big Ben and London Bridge and part of the city skyline against a partly cloudy blue sky.
Despite living and working in Mexico, and loving the country dearly, a part of Charlotte remains forever tethered to England. (Marcin Nowak/Unsplash)

Connections to a former self

He knew exactly why something was funny before I’d finished the sentence. He remembered people I’d forgotten until their names resurfaced in conversation. He carried pieces of my past with me without either of us ever thinking about it.

And now he’s gone.

What I’ve realized is that I’m not just grieving my best friend. I’m grieving one of the last people who held the keys to a version of me that no longer exists in my everyday life.

Living abroad isn’t simply about adapting to a new culture. It’s about existing in two identities at once. There’s the person you’ve become, and there’s the person who made becoming possible. Usually, those two selves coexist quite happily. But grief has a way of exposing the distance between them.

When someone from your former life dies, it isn’t only a relationship that ends. Sometimes it feels as though a witness disappears. Someone who remembered your story without explanation. Who laughed before you’d finished the punchline because they shared the same references. Who knew the roads, the people, the hangouts, the family stories and the versions of you that existed long before your passport carried you to another land.

People often talk about homesickness when they move abroad, but not this. They don’t talk about the strange loneliness that arrives years later, when the people who anchored you to your first life begin to disappear one by one.

The language of grief and the place that made us

We don’t have much language for this kind of grief.

But I think we should.

I’ve spent years building a life in Mexico that I’m profoundly grateful for. This country has given me love, belonging, purpose and a future that feels full of possibility. I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. But grief has reminded me that we never stop belonging to the places that made us.

Home doesn’t disappear because we create another one. It becomes something we carry alongside the life we’ve chosen.

For those of us who’ve emigrated, the people back home become more than friends and family. They become custodians of our history. They remember our voices before they softened or changed. They remember our dreams before they evolved. They remember the person we were before our world expanded.

When one of those people dies, it can feel as though a living archive disappears with them.

Processing the grief of a lost friend

Friends hugging on a sunny hilltop plateau
Whenever we lose friends, we also lose a sense of ourselves that was shared only with them. (Helena Lopes/Unsplash)

I’m still trying to understand that feeling. And honestly, I’m not processing it particularly well. Some moments I feel disconnected from the woman I was before I crossed an ocean. As though there’s a “before Mexico” that now lies dormant somewhere inside me, waiting for someone to remember her into existence.

Kenny did that without even trying.

Perhaps that’s one of the hidden costs of building a life abroad. We prepare people for culture shock, homesickness and bureaucracy. We tell them how to navigate visas, where to find familiar food and how long it takes to settle into a new culture, but we rarely prepare them for the day they realize that someone back home has taken an irreplaceable piece of their history with them.

Kenny’s death has left me mourning not only my best friend but a living connection to the woman I was before Mexico. I’m still here. She’s still here. But the bridge between us feels quieter now.

I suspect I’m not the only person who’s built a life abroad who’s felt this. Many of us have built extraordinary lives here in Mexico. We have partners, families, businesses and communities that make this country home in every meaningful sense. But when loss arrives thousands of miles from the place that shaped us, it asks us to grieve not only a person but the part of ourselves they carried.

Perhaps that’s what those lifelong friendships really are. They’re not just people who know us. They’re people who remember us. And maybe the work of grief is learning to remember ourselves and to carry both lives. To honor the one we’re living now without letting go of the one that shaped us.

I don’t know how to do that yet. But I do know that I was loved deeply by someone who knew me completely. Kenny remembered every version of me, and because of him, I don’t have to be afraid that she’s gone.

She’s part of me still. And so is he.

Charlotte Smith is a writer and journalist based in Mexico. Her work focuses on travel, politics, and community. You can follow along with her travel stories at www.salsaandserendipity.com.

Mexican Red Cross dogs join continental search and rescue effort in Venezuela

By
MND Staff
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Querétaro canines Orly, Balam, Kenai and Halley, who traveled to Venezuela on Saturday as part of the USAR (Urban Search and Rescue) team
Querétaro canines Orly, Balam, Kenai and Halley, who traveled to Venezuela on Saturday as part of the USAR (Urban Search and Rescue) team. (@SRE_mx/X)

Mexican Red Cross rescue dogs have departed for Venezuela to join the search for survivors after two devastating earthquakes measuring 7.2 and 7.5 on the Richter scale hit the South American country on June 24.

The most recent cohort includes Querétaro canines Orly, Balam, Kenai and Halley, who traveled to Venezuela on Saturday as part of the USAR (Urban Search and Rescue) team specializing in search in collapsed structures. 

The dogs join a team of 18 canine heroes dispatched along with 250 Mexican troops following the earthquakes that have resulted in at least 1,400 deaths and more than 3,200 injuries. 

Other countries from the region, including Colombia, Argentina and El Salvador, have also dispatched canine teams to join the search and rescue operations in Venezuela. 

Trained dogs are a fundamental part of search and rescue efforts in the aftermath of natural disasters, as they are able to detect human scent at long distances, even when they’re covered by large amounts of concrete and debris. This ability surpasses the speed of human personnel and even some technological equipment trained for the same task.

Despite their expertise, rescue dogs are also vulnerable to injuries. Max, one of Mexico’s search and rescue dogs, suffered an accident in an area of ​​collapsed structures and was temporarily removed from the operation to receive specialized medical attention. 

Together with his trainer, identified as Fénix, Max entered high-risk areas to search for people trapped under rubble.  

Before the accident, local media reported that the Mexican dog helped locate seven people, including two minors, who were rescued thanks to the coordinated efforts of the emergency teams. 

Mexican military joins Venezuela earthquake search and rescue operations: Friday’s mañanera recapped

Max, who is currently on bed rest, also helped locate and rescue three dogs. 

Mexico has gained international recognition for its skilled rescue dogs, who have historically assisted in natural disasters around the world. Just in 2023, Orly and Balam earned a medal from the H. Fire Department of San Juan del Río after rescuing four people and locating 36 bodies in the aftermath of a 7.9 magnitude earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria. 

With reports from El Financiero, E-Consulta, La Lista and El Espectador  

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