María Fernanda Castro Maya and Ceci Flores are Mexican advocates for disability rights and missing persons, respectively. (Human Rights Watch / Facebook)
The BBC list of the world’s 100 most inspiring and influential women for 2022 is out — and two Mexicans are on it.
María Fernanda Castro Maya, a disability rights activist, and Ceci Flores, who began searching for victims of forced disappearance after her two sons were kidnapped by criminal gangs, were both recognized for their leadership in their respective fields.
Castro Maya is part of a group of Mexican advocates with disabilities — backed by Human Rights Watch — who promote participation in politics of people with intellectual disabilities. She was also a member of the Mexican delegation to the United Nations that presented a report on disability rights.
According to the BBC, her work includes the incorporation of accessible language in documents related to political decisions. She also promotes inclusion of disabled people in political parties and electoral events.
Cecilia Flores founded the collective Madres Buscadoras de Sonora (Sonora’s Searching Mothers) and has spent more than seven years searching for her two sons. In 2015, armed men took her 21-year-old son Alejandro and four years later, her other son Marco Antonio, 31, was kidnapped by a criminal gang. Her work is born from the fear of dying without knowing what happened to her children, she said. Under Flores’ leadership, the collective she founded has helped locate more than 1,000 disappeared persons in clandestine graves.
“The shortlist reflects the central role of women in conflicts around the world, from the protesters courageously demanding change in Iran, to the female face of conflict and resistance in Ukraine and Russia,” the BBC said.
Among the women listed are other Latin American names like Eva Copa, who the BBC said, “is revolutionizing politics in Bolivia;” Geraldina Guerra Garces, from Ecuador, who fights against femicide and gender violence in Latin America; and Argentinian environmentalist Sofia Heinonen, who worked to restore the Esteros del Iberá — one of the world’s largest wetland ecosystems.
Some world-famous names also appear on the list, including global music phenomenon Billie Eilish, Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska, and actresses Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Selma Blair.
Eduardo San Juan (center) is the only actor in Rodrigo Reyes' acclaimed docudrama, "499." The rest are real-life victims of violence in modern-day Mexico who tell the conquistador risen from the dead their stories. (Photo: courtesy of Cinema Guild)
If you want an education on the impact of the violence of the conquest of the Mexica by Spain on contemporary Mexico, watch the brilliantly crafted movie “499” by filmmaker Rodrigo Reyes.
Made in 2020, this movie’s release was timed to coincide with last year’s 500th anniversary of the conquest of Tenochtitlan by Hernán Cortés in 1521.
The musical background and the stunning cinematography — the latter of which won it the Best Cinematography in a Documentary Feature at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2020 — create a dreamscape backdrop to the increasingly intense stories of victims who have suffered brutal violence in modern-day Mexico.
Labeled as a docudrama, it has elements of magical realism, blurring lines between fantasy and reality, starring the ghost of a Spanish conquistador who wakes up in modern-day Mexico. Played by Spanish actor Eduardo San Juan, he is the only fictional character in the film.
The film’s aim is to imply a through line connecting the Spanish conquest of Mexico to the modern nation’s epidemic of violence and impunity. (Photo: Cinema Guild)
All the victims who the conquistador talks to, however, are Mexicans telling their own real stories as victims of violence.
In making this decision, Reyes draws a parallel between the violent conquest of Tenochtitlan and the harsh reality for many Mexicans today. San Juan is impressive in his portrayal of the weary and bewildered conquistador who is washed up on a beach in Veracruz at the movie’s beginning — knowing where he is but not why.
This nameless conquistador begins a journey over the misty mountains and windswept dunes and bustling villages, the route he took with Cortés as they landed in Veracruz and made their way from there to Tenochtitlan, the site of contemporary Mexico City.
Along the way, this ghostly conquistador hears stories told by victims of violence, which become more intense as the movie progresses. In the background, a narrator brings to life the accounts from diaries of the conquistadors, recounting how the Spanish dehumanized the societies they encountered on their march to the Mexica capital.
One of this anachronistic character’s first encounters is at a school, where he witnesses school children waving the Mexican flag and singing patriotic songs. He interrupts the proceedings to give a speech claiming Mexico for the Spanish crown. But in the middle of it, he loses his voice.
The conquistador has been silenced — now he must just listen.
“There is a lack of listening in our world,” Reyes explained on David Peck Live in 2020. “People of power refuse to listen to victims of power.” It’s important to listen, he says, “even when it’s uncomfortable.”
Some of the scenes are jarring: the conquistador walks atop a mountain of trash and sees a jet overhead — flying over a shantytown. He reflects on past victories as he walked this same route 500 years earlier. Speaking to himself he recounts how “as we came upon temples, we burned them to the ground.”
Filming a scene from the documentary “499.” (Photo: Cinema Guild)
Along his journey, he listens to the story of a young man who father was murdered by drug criminals. “He was a journalist and an activist; they kill you for being either one,” the son states sadly.
He comes across a group of people using hand drills to drill in fields seeking the smell of death emanating from the ground, meaning that they have found a clandestine grave. The conquistador meets a woman grieving for her son who disappeared five years ago.
The victims’ stories become more and more intense. When he gets to the outskirts of Mexico City, the music stops and allows the mother of a 12-year-old girl who was brutally murdered to painfully tell her story in complete and harsh silence.
He listens as a former soldier tells him how he became an expert at torture. He watches migrants attempt to jump on moving trains traveling north to the Mexico-U.S. border — risking life and limb in their desire to escape violence. Some make it, others do not. It induces a contradictory sense of hope and futility.
As the conquistador traverses a mountain of trash in the beautiful and magnificent country they conquered 500 years earlier he asks himself, “What happened to my treasure? What happened to my glory?”
Reyes seems to be saying there is no glory in the apocalyptic conquest of the Mexica by the conquistadors and that this is the result. “For me, there is a very direct connection between what happened during the conquest and what is happening today,” he told Mexico News Daily.
One beautiful scene in the movie occurs when the conquistador stops to watch a performance of the indigenous Danza de los Voladores — a cultural dance believed to be of Mesoamerican origin. He watches as the four men tethered by rope to a 30-meter pole seemingly fly through the air around it.
Reyes shows us the richness of the culture and traditions the Spanish attempted to destroy.
Rodrigo Reyes premiered “499” in Mexico at the Morelia Film Festival in 2020. (Photo: FICM)
The movie explores the brutal legacy of colonialism on Mexico in a stark manner, made even starker by the beauty of the landscape and the accompanying musical score. Reyes portrays Mexico’s endemic violence as part of the colonial legacy still being enacted 500 years later.
Even though the conquistador begins to question his values by the end of the movie, no amount of remorse can make up for the pain and suffering of the indigenous peoples he and his fellow soldiers conquered.
“For many in Mexico, the conquest hasn’t ended,” Reyes said at a forum at San Diego State University following a screening of the film. “I thought it was important to show how we have internalized this conquistador. Sometimes we don’t understand how important history is. My responsibility as an artist is to break through to deeper truths.”
At the completion of the movie, Reyes took the film back to the victims interviewed along the way for them to view and discuss — setting up community viewings in each of the 11 locations where they had filmed.
“For me, the film was not finished until it was taken back to Mexico and shown to the people along the route,” he told Mexico News Daily.
Reyes was born in Mexico City in 1983, and at 39 is considered one of the most potent new voices in independent cinema. He currently lives in the United States. The making of “499” received financial support from the Tribeca Film Institute, the Sundance Film Institute, and the Mexican Film Institute.
Reyes has directed numerous films depicting the experiences of Mexicans living both in Mexico and the United States. His body of work includes the documentaries “Lupe under the Sun” and “Purgatorio.”
Reyes’ “499” is available to watch streaming (in Spanish without subtitles) on YouTube and the FilminLatino website.
499 - Official Trailer
Sheryl Losser is a former public relations executive and professional researcher. She spent 45 years in national politics in the United States. She moved to Mazatlán last year and works part-time doing freelance research and writing.
Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard at a meeting of representatives from the Pacific Alliance in November. (Alianza del Pacífico Twitter)
A meeting of Mexican, Peruvian, Chilean and Colombian officials that was scheduled to take place in Lima next week has been postponed due to the dramatic political events that unfolded in Peru on Wednesday.
The Congress of Peru voted to oust Pedro Castillo – who took office in July 2021 – due to “moral incapacity” in an impeachment trial held just hours after he attempted to dissolve the legislature by decree.
The now ex-president had planned to establish a “government of exception” and called for fresh legislative elections. Opposition politicians and allies of the leftist leader – including his vice president Dina Boluarte – accused him of carrying out a coup attempt. Boluarte was sworn in as president Wednesday afternoon.
President López Obrador had been scheduled to pass on the leadership of the four-nation Pacific Alliance to Castillo at a summit in the Peruvian capital next Wednesday.
President López Obrador in a 2021 meeting with former president of Peru, Pedro Castillo. (Cuartoscuro)
However, Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Twitter that the Dec. 14 summit has been postponed due to the “latest events in Peru,” which included the arrest of Castillo by national police.
He said in another post that “Mexico laments the latest events in Peru” and supports “respect of democracy and human rights for the good of” the Peruvian people.
For his part, López Obrador expressed regret that Castillo faced “an atmosphere of confrontation and hostility” from the beginning of his “legitimate presidency” due to “the interests of the economic and political elite.”
In the same Twitter post, AMLO added that the hostility the ex-Peruvian president experienced “led him to take decisions that were used by his adversaries to carry out his removal.”
He has previously expressed support for Castillo, and even sent a delegation to Peru late last year to advise him as he faced attempts by the conservative opposition to remove him from office.
The ousting of Castillo came a day after Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the current vice president of Argentina and a former president and first lady, was found guilty of corruption and sentenced to six years in jail, although she currently has immunity that protects her from arrest.
In a Twitter post on Tuesday night, López Obrador expressed his “deepest solidarity” with Fernández de Kirchner and said he had no doubt that the vice president was “a victim of political revenge and a vile, anti-democratic act of conservatism.”
The vice president – found guilty of directing public roadworks contracts to a family friend while president and first lady – can remain in office as she attempts to have her conviction overturned.
The five candidates for Arturo Zaldívar's post as Chief Justice of the Mexican Supreme Court are, left to right: Norma Lucía Piña Hernández, Yasmín Esquivel Mossa, Alberto Pérez Dayán, Alfredo Gutiérrez Ortiz Mena and Javier Laynez Potisek. (Photo: SCJN)
Five Supreme Court (SCJN) justices are vying to succeed Arturo Zaldívar as chief justice of Mexico’s highest court.
Zaldívar’s four-year term as the court’s presidente, or chief justice, will conclude at the end of the year, and the 11 SCJN justices will elect his successor in early January.
The successful candidate will also become head of the Federal Judiciary Council (CJF), which oversees Mexico’s courts and judges.
Two women are aiming to become the court’s first female chief justice, while three men have also formally joined the contest. All five candidates have presented lengthy documents in which they set out the objectives they would pursue as chief justice and CJF head.
The current Supreme Court Chief Justice, Arturo Zaldívar, seen here at his last press conference in the position on on Nov. 16, finishes his term at the end of 2021. (Photo: Galo Cañas Rodríguez/Cuartoscuro)
Brief profiles of the candidates, and summaries of their proposals, appear below. You can also read each candidate’s CV and their statements of objectives (in Spanish) at the SCJN website.
Justice Yasmín Esquivel Mossa
Esquivel has a PhD in law from Anáhuac University and worked as a public official in all three levels of government for over three decades before becoming a Supreme Court justice in 2019.
Among her proposals is to establish a commission of former SCJN justices to advise the sitting chief justice. She also advocated greater transparency of SCJN rulings and its use of public resources.
In addition, Esquivel said that civil society should have the opportunity to help create judicial policies that improve access to justice.
Justice Alfredo Guttiérez Ortiz Mena
Guttiérez completed law degrees at the National Autonomous University and at Harvard University. He worked in private practice before his appointment to the SCJN in 2012.
One of his proposals is to improve the internal administration of the Supreme Court, “demonstrating our rational and austere management of resources.”
Guttiérez set out a vision for an efficient and disciplined judicial system that is unconditionally committed to the country.
He also said that courts should be able to hold “virtual trials” and advocated the establishment of tribunals to hear environmental matters.
Justice Javier Laynez Potisek
Laynez studied law in Mexico and France before working as a federal legal official and judge. He was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2015 and became president of its second chamber in 2019.
Laynez indicated he would adopt a collaborative approach if elected chief justice of the SCJN, noting that the position is about representing the other 10 justices.
“The decisions within our sphere of work have to be collective, broad, emerging from internal dialogue and always thinking of the judicial power as a whole. There is no space for individualistic projects,” he wrote.
As chief justice, Laynez said he would work to combat the backlog in Mexico’s judicial system (some suspects languish in prison for years without trial) and publish SCJN rulings more promptly.
Justice Alberto Pérez Dayán
A constitutional and administrative law specialist, Pérez completed a doctorate degree in law at the National Autonomous University before working as a lawyer and a judge in various courts. He was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2012.
Like Laynez, Pérez indicated he would be a collaborative chief justice, and advocated the appointment of more women to high-ranking positions in Mexico’s judiciary.
Pérez also advocated greater transparency in the judicial system and argued that Federal Judiciary Council meetings on administrative matters should be public. In addition, the justice emphasized his commitment to the policy of zero tolerance for corruption in the judiciary.
Justice Norma Lucía Piña Hernández
A law and education graduate, Piña was a judge in various lower courts before her appointment to the SCJN in 2015.
As chief justice, she said she would ensure that the independence of the judiciary is upheld.
Like her colleagues, Piña advocated for greater transparency of the SCJN’s work and pledged to create a “Unit of Scientific and Specialized Knowledge” to advise justices on matters beyond their legal expertise.
She also highlighted her commitment to combating corruption within the judiciary and improving the administration of the SCJN and CJF.
Members of the military confronted civilian gunmen this morning in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas. (Valor por Tamaulipas Twitter)
An early morning shootout on a highway in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas on Wednesday resulted in the military killing seven gunmen presumed to be members of the Northeast Cartel, news sources were reporting.
Mayor Carmen Lilia Canturosas informed her Facebook followers at 5:44 a.m. that she had received reports of the shootout and warnings about potential outbreaks of retaliatory violence throughout the city.
“Attention family,” the 2021 electee wrote. “A few minutes ago, I was informed about SDR [an alert system] in different parts of the city. The situation is now under control [according to] security authorities. However, take precautions and stay alert to avoid incidents.”
The shootout occurred nine days after the Nov. 28 arrest of Heriberto Rodríguez Hernández, alias “El Negrolo,” a leader of the Cártel del Noreste (CDN) accused of being responsible for violence in the city. His apprehension unleashed gunfire and panic in the city of 460,000 that’s directly across the border from Laredo, Texas (population 256,153).
The wave of violence included confrontations, blockades and the burning of vehicles.
The United States has a consulate in the Mexican Nuevo Laredo, and shortly after El Negrolo’s arrest, it “received reports of multiple gunfights throughout the city,” according to a security alert issued by the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City on Nov. 28. “Seek secure shelter. Notify friends and family of your safety. Monitor local media for updates,” the alert advised.
After more than a week of violence, a battalion of 300 sent by the Ministry of National Defense (Sedena) arrived in Nuevo Laredo on Monday, Dec. 5, to reinforce security efforts. But according to one report, they were simply replacing some 350 soldiers who had just left Nuevo Laredo for a military base in Apodaca, Nuevo León.
Over the weekend, the violence subsided a bit, but on the night of Tuesday, Dec. 6, social media users began reporting blasts and gunfire in various parts of the city, prompting authorities to suspend classes for Wednesday.
Early Wednesday, state Secretary of Security Sergio Chávez García reported an attack on the military, with preliminary reports stating that seven civilian gunmen were killed and four vehicles and weapons were seized.
Reports said the incident occurred south of downtown on the Nuevo Laredo-Monterrey highway, which terminates in the north at the Gateway to the Americas International Bridge into the United States.
Local schools released a statement through the Regional Centers for Educational Development (CREDE) that classes for Wednesday had been suspended, “in order to preserve the safety of students, teachers and staff of the educational community,” as stated by César Bolaños Hernández, head of CREDE Nuevo Laredo.
Public transportation, which had been suspended during last week’s violent outbreaks, was suspended again for a few hours Wednesday morning, but then restored with “precautionary measures.”
The Delegation of Public Transport posted on Facebook at 9:43 a.m. that 100% of routes are operational; however some “are experiencing delays and adjustments to their route due to road closures” resulting from security actions.
Additionally, Chávez, the security secretary, advised citizens to “take precautions and stay vigilant” even though it had been reported that the situation was under control.
The world-famous Mexico City shrine to the Virgin Mary could see more than 8 million visitors this year, many of them pilgrims who've traveled thousands of miles. (Photo: Mike Peel/Creative Commons)
After two years of restrictions due to the pandemic, pilgrimages to reach the feet of the Virgin of Guadalupe on Tepeyac Hill might hit an all-time record this year, officials with the Catholic Church noted this week.
Every year from Dec. 9 to 12 — except in 2020 and 2021 — millions of faithful from all over Mexico travel to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which stands on Tepeyac Hill (Cerro Tepeyac) north of Mexico City.
Some pilgrims travel hundreds if not more than 1,000 miles to make it there. As many as 8 million visitors have participated in the tradition in a single year, according to the Catholic weekly Desde la Fe. And this year, on the 491st anniversary of Saint Juan Diego’s vision of the Virgin Mary (known in Mexico as Guadalupe) in 1531, the total could soar even higher.
“The celebrations for the ‘Morenita of Tepeyac’this year will finally take place with the normality with which they had been done for generations until the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced the ecclesiastical and civil authorities to take restrictive measures in favor of the citizenry,” said an editorial in Desde la Fe headlined “Bienvenidos, peregrinos” (Welcome, pilgrims).
The altarpiece of the Virgin of Guadalupe at her basilica in Mexico City. (Photo: Google Art Project)
Many pilgrimages are already underway, and others are preparing.
“What is a fact is that the pilgrims have been waiting impatiently for this moment,” the editorial continued, “and they will not miss the opportunity to get going again to bring their prayers, supplications and thanks to the Virgin of Guadalupe to her sacred house.”
If the number of pilgrims at the basilica near Mexico City mirrors the record-breaking numbers in October in Jalisco — for the annual, 9-kilometer procession from the Guadalajara Cathedral to the Basilica of Our Lady of Zapopan — “we could have a historical record of visitors to Tepeyac,” the editorial concluded.
That being the case, the Archdiocese of Mexico is calling on motorists to drive responsibly and asking pilgrims to take necessary precautions in order to reach their destination safely. The Church also wants citizens to be respectful of the pilgrims, for example, when they are crossing the street in large groups.
The faithful receiving communion outside the basilica in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo: Creative Commons)
Desde la Fe published a “Pilgrim’s Kit,” which included tips such as consult your doctor before any major physical undertaking, bring a sleeping bag if you plan to sleep in the church and wear a reflective vest so you can be spotted easily on roadways.
Dec. 12 is Día de la Virgen de Guadalupe, the day on which Juan Diego’s final vision of the Virgin Mary was recorded. Though schools and most businesses will be closed, the day of honor for Mexico’s patron saint is not a federal holiday.
But it is a religious feast day with many associated activities. Many children dress in traditional costumes (many as Saint Juan Diego) and are blessed when they attend Mass, which the Church holds as obligatory for all Catholics on that day.
There are 132 temples in Mexico City alone dedicated to Guadalupe, as well as 74 in Guadalajara and 32 in Morelia, Michoacán — and 81 dedicated to Guadalupe (as well as three to Saint Juan Diego) in the municipality of Tlalnepantla de Baz (population 672,000) in México state. And Guadalupe is only one of many invocations of the Virgin Mary throughout Mexico with temples of their own.
This short video gives you some glimpses inside the basilica and also what the plaza looks like packed with the faithful.
The Basilica of Guadalupe’s rector, Monsignor Salvador Martínez, is asking those who enter, especially on the busiest days of Dec. 11 and 12, to use face masks to avoid a resurgence in COVID-19 infections.
“As Pope Francis points out,” Martínez said, “the time has come to infect us — not with some virus, but with love, empathy, respect and enthusiasm.”
On Dec. 17-18, a festival of "light and wind" in Teotihuacán is one of several upcoming cultural events worth a visit. (Shutterstock)
The history of Mexico City in maps
If you’re interested in a glimpse of Mexico City during pre-Hispanic times, or at other moments in its centuries of history, the Usted está aquí (You are here) exhibit at the Museo de la Ciudad de México is for you.
The exhibit will run until March 2023, and showcases 12 historical maps of what is now Mexico City, dating as far back as the 16th century.
The main attraction is the Map of Nuremberg – a map of Tenochtitlan made in 1524, based on the letters of Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés.
A 1524 map of Tenochtitlan, known as the Map of Nuremberg. (Wikimedia Commons)
This is considered the oldest map of Mexico City, and shows some of the roadways built by the Mexica that still exist today, including the México-Tacuba, Tepeyac and the Iztapalapa causeway.
The exhibition seeks to recover the territorial memory of the city, starting from its origins.
Hot air balloon festival in Teotihuacán
On Dec. 17-18, the Club Campestre Teotihuacán, a country club, will host the Festival de Luz y Viento (Light and Wind Festival), an event that includes hot air balloons, giant kites and stargazing.
Starting at 6 am, the hot air balloons will be inflated, with take-off happening at 8 am. A food truck area will open at 7 am. During the day, workshops will be held, and there will be live jazz and blues music followed by the display of giant kites at 5 pm.
After sunset, a Christmas forest will be lit with sparkling lights, followed by a performance of ballet folklórico at 6:45 pm. At dusk, floating lamps will be released to fly above the lake, and then telescopes will be set up to see the stars. Participants can also camp at the site.
The ticket price ranges from $195 pesos (US $10) to $2,500 pesos (US $126) and more information can be found here.
Surrealist artist Remedios Varo at the Museum of Modern Art CDMX
“Disruptions of the Real”, an exhibit showcasing 39 works of art by surrealist Spanish painter Remedios Varo, is on display at the Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City from now until March 2023.
The work of Spanish surrealist artist Remedios Varo on display at the Museum of Modern Art in CDMX. (Museo de Arte Moderno Twitter)
Remedios Varo (1908-1963), a Spanish refugee who had been imprisoned by the Nazis while living in Paris, painted most of her work in Mexico between the years of 1940 and 1950.
Some of the artist’s exhibitions have broken attendance records, and since 1964, many have been held in Mexico.
Noche de rábanos (night of the radishes) in Oaxaca
If you’re looking for an unusual Christmas tradition, you may want to try this one from Oaxaca city. Every Dec. 23 since 1897, gardeners have competed there to fashion the best Christmas scenes using carved radishes.
Yes, those are dancing radishes. (Gobierno de Oaxaca)
In recent years, judges have started accepting figures made with totomoxtle (husks of Mexican corn)
The event, which starts at 5 pm at the Plaza de la Constitución, lasts only a few hours and ends with an award ceremony amidst music and fireworks.
The president visiting the under-construction Olmeca Refinery in January. At a press conference Tuesday, he said it would process 340,000 barrels a day of crude oil. (Photo: Presidencia)
The Dos Bocas refinery on the Tabasco coast will be operating at full capacity by the middle of next year, President López Obrador predicted Tuesday.
López Obrador opened the new Pemex facility – officially called the Olmeca Refinery – in July, even though it was unfinished.
He told reporters at his regular news conference on Tuesday that the refinery is currently in an “integration phase.”
“It’s a magnificent project. There’s not another project, another refinery, like it in the world,” López Obrador said, adding that it will process 340,000 barrels of crude per day once fully operational.
The distillation plant at the new Dos Bocas refinery in Tabasco. (Photo: Refinería Olmeca-Dos Bocas/Facebook)
“… It’s now finished, it’s in an integration phase, … but I expect it will be producing at full capacity next year, … the middle of next year at the latest,” he said.
In 2019, the government scrapped a bidding process to build the new refinery on the grounds that the bids submitted by private companies were too high and they would take too long to complete it. Pemex and the Energy Ministry were subsequently given responsibility for the project.
“When the project was put out to tender, the large refinery construction companies wanted us to accept its completion in 2025, but we said: ‘No, we have to finish it by 2023 at the latest,’ and that’s what’s happening,” López Obrador said Tuesday.
He said that the refinery would cost about US $11 billion in total – significantly less than some estimates – and help Mexico become self-sufficient for gasoline and diesel by the end of next year.
The president’s plan to restore Mexico’s oil self-sufficiency not only includes the new Olmeca refinery but also upgrading existing refineries and buying the former Shell Deer Park Refinery in Texas. (Photo: Pemex Deer Park/Facebook)
López Obrador emphasized that his government has invested in the oil sector, and asserted that its predecessors neglected it.
“The corrupt neoliberals bet on selling crude oil and buying gasoline. They didn’t build a new refinery in 40 years, something incredible,” López Obrador said.
“I always said it was like producing oranges, selling oranges and buying orange juice. The oil was taken [out of the country], processed in foreign refineries and then they sold us gasoline,” he said.
President López Obrador asserts that he is “rescuing” Pemex from decades of neglect. He notes that Mexico was self-sufficient for gasoline from the time the country’s oil industry was nationalized in 1938 until the early 1980s. (Photo: INAH)
López Obrador, a staunch energy nationalist who was born and raised in oil-rich Tabasco, added that Mexico was self-sufficient for gasoline from the time the country’s oil industry was nationalized in 1938 until the early 1980s.
He has asserted that his government is “rescuing” Pemex from years of neglect and is determined to reinvigorate the economy of Mexico’s southeast with large-scale infrastructure projects, including the refinery, the Maya Train railroad project and the Isthmus of Tehuantepec trade corridor.
Many analysts have been critical of the government’s decision to build the Dos Bocas refinery, arguing that the project diverts resources from Pemex’s more profitable exploration business.
Institutional Revolutionary Party federal deputies protested AMLO's proposed electoral reform during the Lower House of Congress' regular session on Tuesday. (Photo: Mario Jasso/Cuartoscuro)
Human Rights Watch has called on Mexican lawmakers to vote against President López Obrador’s proposed reforms to the electoral system, warning that the changes “would put free, fair elections at risk.”
In a strongly worded statement, Human Rights Watch argued that AMLO’s plan to overhaul and centralize the National Electoral Institute (INE) would eliminate crucial safeguards and seriously undermine electoral authorities’ independence.
“President López Obrador’s proposed changes to the electoral system would make it much easier for whichever party holds power to co-opt the country’s electoral institutions to stay in power,” said Tyler Mattiace, a Mexico researcher at Human Rights Watch.
AMLO’s reform bill proposes a range of measures, including eliminating all state electoral institutes and transferring their powers of dispute resolution to a centralized INE and Federal Electoral Tribunal.
México: La reforma electoral propuesta por el presidente @lopezobrador_ pondría en riesgo las elecciones libres e imparciales.
Los @Mx_Diputados deberían rechazar las modificaciones propuestas a la Constitución.
Mattiace tweeted a call to Mexico’s Congress not to support the proposed constitutional reform, scheduled for a vote by Dec. 15.
INE members, who currently serve staggered, nine-year terms, would instead be appointed every six years, in a single process that would include a citizens’ vote.
While AMLO insists that the reforms will reduce bias and inefficiency in the INE, Human Rights Watch warned that they would expose the authority to politicization and roll back advances that helped bring an end to Mexico’s 71 years of single-party rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in 2000.
“Given Mexico’s long history of one-party rule maintained through questionable elections, it is extremely problematic that legislators would consider a highly regressive proposal that would weaken the independence of the elections authority,” Mattiace said.
Human Rights Watch also criticized the bill’s proposal to end the INE’s mandate to administer the electoral rolls.
“The possibility that the electoral registry could be transferred to the control of the government could contravene Mexican law and international standards for protecting personal data,” the statement warned.
Congress is expected to vote on AMLO’s proposal before the current legislative session ends on December 15.
The president originally attempted to implement the reforms through a constitutional amendment that would require a two-thirds majority, before switching to a “Plan B” that would allow his party to push through elements of the bill as secondary legislation with only a simple majority.
Opposition parties, including the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), have stated that they will oppose the move.
The National Electoral Institute is an autonomous body not only overseeing elections in Mexico, it also has many related duties, such as maintaining voter rolls and drawing up electoral districts nationwide, a job it’s currently scheduled to complete again this month. (Photo: INE)
The reforms have sparked fierce debate in Mexico, with thousands taking to the streets both for and against the bill. Public polls have had very mixed results, with some suggesting approval of the current INE and others showing support for key elements of the reforms.
Human Rights Watch is not the first international observer to express concerns. On November 28, the Washington Post newspaper published an editorial describing the reforms as an “antidemocratic maneuver” and claiming that AMLO was motivated by bitterness over his narrow defeat by Felipe Calderón in Mexico’s 2006 presidential election, in which the INE rejected his claims of fraud.
García announced his interest in a presidential run at the Citizens Movement national convention in Mexico City Monday. (Photo: Victoria Valtierra Ruvalcaba/Cuartoscuro)
Just 14 months after becoming governor of Nuevo León, Samuel García is looking for a new challenge and a new job.
The 34-year-old Citizens Movement (MC) party governor said Monday that he’s interested in contesting the 2024 presidential election.
“Citizens Movement has a lot of very good candidates, and I’m one of them,” García said during MC’s national convention in Mexico City.
He said he didn’t know whether MC would put forward its own candidate for the 2024 election or join a coalition of opposition parties, but he expressed confidence that his party can win the presidency on its own.
Political observers attribute García’s successful run for Nuevo León governor in 2021 as being largely due to his media-savvy campaign run by his wife, online influencer Mariana Rodríguez. (Photo: Mariana Rodríguez Instagram)
The MC leadership subsequently confirmed that the party wouldn’t join the Va por México coalition, made up of the National Action Party (PAN), the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD).
Senator Dante Delgado, MC’s national leader, noted that the party won the governorships of Jalisco and Nuevo León, and the mayoralties of Monterrey and Guadalajara, on its own and asserted that it can also triumph at the national level without “help from parties of the past.”
“We can win the presidency because we govern two of the three most important states in the country. Nuevo León and Jalisco aren’t just among the most populous states, they’re also among the most productive, among those that generate the most [income] for the country,” he said.
“We can win the presidency because we govern two of the three cities that set the country’s agenda – Guadalajara and Monterrey, which together with Mexico City are the epicenters of … [Mexico],” Delgado said.
“… The PAN is the past, the PRI is the past, … [the ruling] Morena [party] and its satellite parties are also the past and only we represent the future. Believe it – Mexico has a better option, and it’s Citizens Movement,” he said.
Citizens Movement (MC) party leader Sen. Dante Delgado believes Garcia is one of three potential MC candidates who could win the presidency. (Photo: MC website)
The senator, a former governor of Veracruz and ambassador to Italy, said that García, Jalisco Governor Enrique Alfaro, or Monterrey Mayor Luis Donaldo Colosio Riojas could represent MC at the 2024 election.
Alfaro said a year ago that he was “more than prepared” to be a candidate, although he stressed he doesn’t have “delusions of grandeur.”
García’s announcement that he will seek the MC candidacy is somewhat surprising because he was critical of his predecessor, Jaime Rodríguez, for taking leave as governor to contest the 2018 presidential election.
In October last year – the month he took office – he said it would be “doubly incongruent” for him to go on a “political adventure” while still governor of Nuevo León.
When running for governor of Nuevo León in 2021, García criticized his predecessor, Jaime Rodríguez, center, for having taking a sabbatical to run for president in 2018. (Photo: Gabriela Pérez Montiel/Cuartoscuro)
Fourteen months later, the soon-to-be father has apparently decided to forget that remark.
García, a former federal senator who is expecting a baby with his social media influencer wife Mariana Rodríguez, said he thinks every day about the state and country in which his daughter will be born. The Mexico he wants his daughter to live in is one free of violence and with opportunities for everyone, indicated the governor, who has faced a range of challenges in his first year in office, including responding to a water crisis and a high-profile femicide case.
In his short time as governor, García asserted that he has shown that a “new” Nuevo León is possible, and predicted that “a new orange Mexico is now coming.”
Orange is the political color of MC, which is also known as Movimiento Naranja, or Orange Movement.
García also said that he doesn’t believe in the political left or right but rather “the future” and “social democracy.”
If he succeeds in becoming MC’s presidential candidate, his most likely ruling party opponent will be either Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum or Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard. One of those two appears most likely to secure the Morena nomination, and both are openly campaigning for the candidacy in 2024.
There is far less clarity about who will represent the PAN, PRI and PRD, which are likely to choose a common presidential candidate. In that context, President López Obrador offered his own (very) long-list of possible opposition candidates in October, saying that a total of 43 people have either expressed interest in vying for the presidency or have been mentioned as potential contenders.
