As an expat in Mexico living off a stronger currency, it's easy to have some conflicting feelings about the rapidly increasing value of the peso. (Angy Márquez)
If you’re like me and earn your money in dollars, a position that most Mexicans see as plenty enviable, you might have conflicting worries of guilt and alarm at the improving performance of the Mexican peso this year.
Gone are the days of getting 21 pesos or more for a dollar…and coming are the days of – gulp – possibly getting 17 or so. (Don’t ask me when or for how long; most of my research turned up such wildly different predictions that anything I repeated here would be ultimately untrustworthy).
All in all, it’s still a great exchange rate; when I first came to Mexico back in 2002, the peso-to-dollar rate was roughly 10-to-one. But the peso’s recent strength has come as somewhat of a surprise, and if the peso happens to get even stronger, a lot of we dollar-earning immigrants are going to have to think very hard about how to reduce our budgets to accommodate a not-insignificant reduction in our spending power.
Why is this happening? Honestly, I don’t know, and I’m certainly not the person to explain it. Whenever I try to make sense of anything in the world of finance, which is basically a collectively agreed-on imaginary concept symbolized by pieces of paper and metal coins (and digital numbers now too, I guess?), I pretty much go brain dead from boredom.
The above article cites higher remittances, increased investment and spending from foreign countries, a weakened dollar, and high official interest rates. How those things translate to currencies being “worth” more or less is not what I’m here to discuss.
My biggest question is regarding how this will affect people “on the ground” who don’t spend their days in the world of the stock market.
I’m on the ground, and can confidently say that things have gotten mighty expensive over the past couple of years, with many food items and household goods nearly doubling in price. Over the past couple of months, it’s done so simultaneously with a reduction in the number of pesos my dollars are worth.
Though there are claims that there’s an end in sight (to inflation, anyway), I don’t think most of us are seeing it. I’m not optimistic that consumer goods will get cheaper; the best I can hope for is that prices will stop rising so quickly. That said, I’m always open to being pleasantly surprised.
Please, finance gods? The 99% of the world could really use some mercy.
But, to me, the bottom of the article on inflation that I cited two paragraphs above says it all: “’Companies’ hesitancy to cut and/or reduce the pace of recent price increases as the economy remains resilient and cost pressures abound’ … could affect the pace at which inflation declines.”
What is inflation, I suppose, if not a feverish upward-bound tornado of prices? On the one hand, the things that companies need to make and sell their products become more expensive, and that expense is most often passed on to consumers with a shrug and an “Inflation, man — we know it’s rough, but what can we do?”
Having shareholders absorb some of those blows in order to keep the same amount of food on families’ tables would simply not be playing the game of capitalism correctly, and they’ve got to have enough money for universe-sized bonuses for the corporate elite, after all!
The problem, of course, is that most of us are not big, important shareholders or CEOs of giant companies. Most of us are also not getting salary or wage increases as a result of these higher prices, and few corporate decision-makers are saying, “Gosh, I guess we’d better pay our workers more now, eh?”
There’s no “rising tide lifting all boats” here; the rising tide is simply drowning some people and keeping most others treading water really, really hard.
Is this really the best we can do, economic system-wise?
None of my Mexican friends (except the person that I personally employ) have received any pay increases as a result of rising costs, and I certainly haven’t either, though admittedly, I could tread water a lot longer than most. I suspect that a slowing inflation is more the result of getting to the top limit of what people are able to pay than it is the wizardry of raising interest rates.
As already pretty freaking privileged immigrants, we are not entitled to a special exchange rate, of course; there will be no “hazard pay” to fight the effects of a weakening dollar and out-of-control inflation. Most of us are already giving ourselves special economic treatment simply by choosing to live in a place without fully embracing the reality of its employment economy (for ourselves, anyway). We’re “gaming the system” in a way; but as many of us are learning, there’s no guarantee that the system will continue to play nice with us.
Well. As any good Buddhist will tell you, the only constant out there is change.
So we’re finally facing it. This is the risk of working in a currency that’s stronger than that of the country in which you reside: there’s no guarantee the low cost of living is going to stay that way.
All Mexicans of a certain age have lived through some pretty serious depreciations of their own currency. I imagine there might be some out there who see this weakening dollar as a bit of cosmic justice, and, hey, they might not be wrong about that.
Still, most of us non-wealthy people are in the same boat. The difference for those of us who haven’t been fully participating in the Mexican economy is that the water’s coming up to the top deck where we’ve been luxuriating; we’re not used to feeling this financially nervous.
Anyway, I’ll be having some humble pie tonight for dessert — if I can find it at a good price.
Sarah DeVries is a writer and translator based in Xalapa, Veracruz. She can be reached through her website, sarahedevries.substack.com
In this week's morning press conferences, President López Obrador addressed the kidnapping and homicide of U.S. citizens in Matamoros, the op-eds criticizing his government and army espionage. (Galo Cañas Rodríguez / Cuartoscuro.com)
Andrés Manuel López Obrador presided over his first morning press conference as president on Dec. 3, 2018, two days after he was sworn in.
On the vast majority of weekday mornings since then he has appeared before reporters to respond to questions and inform the nation – at considerable length – about the actions his government is undertaking to “transform” Mexico.
The daily weekday morning press conferences are known as “mañaneras”. (LopezObrador.org.mx)
The president and his supporters say that the mañaneras – as the pressers are colloquially known – provide the government with the opportunity to convey indubitable, unfiltered information to the public, while critics denounce them as exercises in shameless propaganda.
Monday
Ricardo Sheffield, head of the consumer protection agency Profeco, began the presser with his weekly report on gasoline prices.
The average price across Mexico for a liter of regular gasoline last week was just over 22 pesos (about US $1.20), he said, noting that Redco, Oxxo Gas and Chevron had the highest prices and Total, Windstar and Rendichicas had the lowest and were therefore “allies of consumers.”
Head of the consumer protection agency Profeco, Ricardo Sheffield. (Gob MX)
Sheffield, a former mayor of León, Guanajuato, ceded center stage to the director of the National Tourism Promotion Fund, Javier May, who declared that – despite claims to the contrary – construction of the Maya Train railroad will not damage the environment in the states through which it will run.
“Without a doubt, … the environment in southeastern Mexico will be a lot better than before,” he said after highlighting that cenotes (natural sinkholes), caverns and subterranean rivers “will be protected by the construction of viaducts and cable-stayed bridges” and fauna will have access to wildlife crossings.
May also said that the Maya Train project is “accompanied by the world’s largest reforestation program, Sembrando Vida, through which 50 million fruit and timber-yielding trees are being planted in the southeast of Mexico.”
During his engagement with reporters, López Obrador acknowledged an opinion article by former United States attorney general William Barr that was published by The Wall Street Journal last week under the headline “The U.S. must defeat Mexico’s drug cartels.”
“Barr says that I called off the [2019] arrest of the son of [Joaquín “El Chapo”] Guzmán Loera, Ovidio, because a group with 70 machine guns appeared. That’s exactly why I stopped [the operation] because there was going to be about 200 deaths and we’re not going to bet on massacres, on wars,” he said.
“That’s the mentality of hawks, of conservatives – wanting to resolve everything with the use of force. Violence can’t be combated with violence, evil can’t be confronted with evil, evil has to be confronted with good,” AMLO said.
Among subsequent remarks, López Obrador said he would leave a “list of pending reforms” for his successor as he doesn’t have enough time left as president to put forward all the legislative changes Mexico needs.
“I have to dedicate myself body and soul to finishing the [infrastructure] projects, consolidating the welfare programs and leaving the foundations well set for the transformation of the country,” López Obrador said.
“But other reforms are needed. For example, it’s clear that a reform is needed in the judicial power, but I can’t get involved in that because that power is currently a bastion of corrupt conservatism,” he said.
Toward the end of his press conference, AMLO noted that the value of the U.S. dollar dropped below 18 pesos on March 3 and reminded reporters that the government will hold an event in Mexico City’s central square, the Zócalo, on March 18 to mark the 85th anniversary of the nationalization of Mexico’s oil industry.
Events are also planned for International Workers’ Day on May 1 and Teachers’ Day on May 15, he said, asserting that the government’s “adversaries” won’t attend because they are “against” workers’ rights and public education.
Tuesday
Ninety minutes into the press conference, Tamaulipas Governor Américo Villarreal Anaya broke the news that two of four United States citizens who were kidnapped in Matamoros on March 3 had been found dead.
“One person is injured and the other is alive,” he said over the telephone as AMLO held Security Minister Rosa Rodríguez’s cell phone to a microphone.
“It’s very regrettable,” López Obrador said of the news before acknowledging that the United States government had the right to “speak out” against the incident, “as they did.”
President López Obrador took a call during the press conference from Tamaulipas governor Américo Villareal. (Galo Cañas Rodríguez / Cuartoscuro.com)
“We don’t want [things like this to happen]. We’re working every day to guarantee peace and tranquility and we going to continue working,” he said.
“We very much regret that this happens in our country and we send our condolences to the families and friends of the victims, to the people of the United States and to the United States government.”
Earlier in the presser, National Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval reported that the quantity of fentanyl seized since the government took office on Dec. 1 2018 was a whopping 1,049% higher than the amount confiscated in a comparable period during the government led by former president Enrique Peña Nieto.
A total of 6,115 kilograms of the synthetic opioid has been seized, he said. The army chief also noted that the quantity of methamphetamine seized had increased 92% to 180,995 kilograms.
Back behind the mañanera lectern, López Obrador sent a message to United States Congressman Dan Crenshaw, who has proposed deploying the U.S. military to fight drug cartels in Mexico.
“He should be attending to the causes in the United States that provoke the excessive consumption of drugs, especially fentanyl, which causes … the death of so many Americans,” he said.
Asked about the United States request for consultations on Mexico’s plan to phase out genetically modified corn imports, the president said that the government was seeking to reach an agreement with its U.S. counterpart so that health regulator Cofepris and a “qualified” U.S. agency can conduct an analysis to determine whether GM corn has a negative impact on human health.
“That’s what we’re proposing. Meanwhile, we won’t allow genetically modified corn to be consumed in Mexico,” AMLO said.
“… There is this consultation request but we still have a month and if there’s no understanding [reached] we’ll go to a [dispute] panel. … It’s a very important issue for us, it’s about the health of our people,” he said, adding that Mexico’s decision to phase out imports of GM corn for human consumption doesn’t violate its commitments under the USMCA free trade pact.
“No agreement in the world allows goods that are harmful to health to be bought or sold,” López Obrador said.
“In the … [USMCA] there are clauses that protect consumers, just as the environment and workers are protected,” he explained.
Wednesday
During opening remarks on International Women’s Day, AMLO declared that his government supports “women’s fight in defense of their rights” and asserted that a lot of progress has been made in the area in Mexico.
He also said that women are making an important contribution to the “transformation” his government is carrying out.
“In the government I represent there are more women in crucial roles,” said López Obrador, who has eight women in his 19-member cabinet.
President López Obrador at an event for International Women’s Day with women cabinet members and politicians on Wednesday. (LopezObrador.org.mx)
He added that 70% of the government’s “servants of the nation” – low-ranking officials responsible for the on-the-ground implementation of social programs – are women.
“We attach importance to desk work, but a lot more importance is given to … the work that’s done house by house, work that is done in the streets, in the communities, in the towns. … The transformation we’re carrying out is from the bottom up and with the people, and the driving force of this change is women,” AMLO said.
He also extolled the virtues of social media and his own weekday press conferences.
Despite its “defects,” social media has “emerged as a blessing in recent times,” said López Obrador, who has close to 10 million followers on both Facebook and Twitter.
“It’s more open [than traditional media] and any citizen can speak out. … That didn’t exist before. It was just The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, Excélsior, El Universal, Televisa, [TV] Azteca, W [Radio], Radio Fórmula and that was it,” he said.
“Now … [we have] social media and the mañanera. What would the information situation be in Mexico if the mañanera didn’t exist?”
Ana García Vilchis, the government media monitor. (Gob MX)
One of the newspapers AMLO mentioned was the target of the wrath of the government’s media monitor when she took center stage to present her “Who’s who in the lies of the week” segment. “Everything” in a Wall Street Journal published under the headline “The narco threat to Mexican democracy” is “false,” Ana García Vilchis declared.
“The journalist Mary Anastasia O’Grady warned … that the [recently-approved] electoral reform weakens the National Electoral Institute [INE], which could result in insecurity at the next elections because drug traffickers could take advantage and increase the theft of ballot boxes as well as threats and murders of candidates that don’t agree with their plans,” she sad.
“She also says, ‘Now [AMLO] wants to slay the electoral watchdog, which may be one of the last lines of defense against a narco-state.’ What do you know? Curiously this text is supported by a report drawn up by the [opposition] PRI, PAN and PRD [parties], where alleged acts of terrorism are reported. However, the scenario painted by the U.S. media outlet is part of the fake news that is circulating to attack President López Obrador,” García said.
“To the people of Mexico we reiterate: the electoral reform is limited to modifying the structure of the INE; it doesn’t affect its functionality nor limit the fulfillment of its tasks,” she added.
Thursday
“Good morning, we’re late because we got a cleansing, a good incense smoke cleansing,” López Obrador joked at the beginning of his press conference because it was being held in what he calls the “bunker” of former security minister and convicted drug trafficker Genaro García Luna.
“… National and foreign visitors came here,” he said of the erstwhile police intelligence center located near Chapultepec Park in Mexico City.
“But it was a complete sham, they weren’t working to pacify Mexico, [the bunker] was just a front. And it was very costly. You’ll see how much it cost,” AMLO said, adding that contracts for its construction were assigned directly without a competitive tendering process.
Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez later reported that construction of the facility – now occupied by the National Guard – cost an estimated 3.34 billion pesos (about US $185 million at the current exchange rate).
#GarcíaLuna construyó un túnel para conectar su oficina con el #búnker, un espacio que no alcanzó su objetivo de integrar los sistemas nacionales en una sola base de datos. pic.twitter.com/ixMZVsMn6I
— Rosa Icela Rodríguez Velázquez (@rosaicela_) March 9, 2023
A video posted to the public security ministry’s Twitter account showing the “bunker”, now occupied by the National Guard.
It was opened in November 2009 – during the presidency of Felipe Calderón – and “presented as the Federal Police Intelligence Center,” she said, noting that it has above-ground and underground sections and was “supposedly connected to more than 600 points in the country and 169 Federal Police offices and stations.
“… The reality … is that this space was mainly used by García Luna … to show off the supposed intelligence strength and work of the Federal Police. They filled this center with screens to impress people,” Rodríguez said.
“Then president Felipe Calderón publicly declared that, based on the United States police series 24, he decided to build a technological system like that he saw on television. The person in charge of fulfilling this idea was García Luna, who at that time was said to be the best police officer in Mexico but who today lies imprisoned in jail in Brooklyn, New York,” she said.
AMLO answers questions from the press inside “the bunker” on Thursday. (LopezObrador.org.mx)
Turning to non-“bunker” related matters, AMLO made it clear that his government wouldn’t allow the U.S. military to come into Mexico to combat drug cartels, as some Republican Party lawmakers have proposed.
He challenged those lawmakers to change their attitude toward Mexico, “or starting today we’ll begin an information campaign in the United States so that all the Mexicans [who live there], our compatriots, know about this treachery, this aggression from the Republicans toward Mexico,” he said.
“If they continue with this attitude we’ll insist that not one vote from Mexicans, from Hispanics, [is cast in favor of the Republican Party],” López Obrador said.
He added that Mexico could take a complaint about the military intervention proposal to the United Nations.
“[First] we want to see the reaction of other lawmakers from the Republican Party, see what they think,” AMLO said.
Friday
After previewing Mexico’s match against Colombia in the World Baseball Classic on Saturday, López Obrador was forced to turn to a much more serious issue: allegations that the Ministry of National Defense (Sedena) used spyware against journalists and a human rights defender during the term of the current government.
AMLO discussed the World Baseball Classic at Friday’s morning press conference. (LopezObrador.org.mx)
A reporter informed AMLO that “official documents” were published on Tuesday “that confirm Sedena spied on civilians in your six-year term despite this being illegal.”
“The first thing I’d like to ask you, president, is whether you were informed of this and whether you authorized it,” said Nayeli Roldán of the news website Animal Político.
“Investigation must be carried out, not espionage, which is different,” López Obrador responded.
“… We maintain that carrying out investigations, doing intelligence [work] is very important in order to not use force [against alleged criminals], intelligence is better than force,” he said.
The president denied that the army had done anything illegal, saying that it had only carried out intelligence work with the National Intelligence Center in order to “know about movements and operations of organized crime.”
“… We don’t spy on anyone, it’s not the time of the neoliberal governments. We made the commitment not to spy on any opponent. The case you are mentioning of this human rights defender [Raymundo Ramos] was reported here by a colleague of yours, pointing out that he has ties, alleged ties with crime groups in Tamaulipas,” AMLO said.
Raymundo Ramos, member of the human rights committee of Nuevo Laredo, at a press conference about the “spy army” documents. (Moisés Pablo Nava / Cuartoscuro.com)
Questioned about alleged spying on two journalists, López Obrador asserted that there is “no instruction” to spy on any journalist and attributed the entire Ejército Espía (The Spy Army) investigation – carried out by media outlets and civil society organizations – to a desire to discredit his government.
“… Journalism is useful to citizens when it’s professional and objective, when it’s close to the people and far from power, but your journalism isn’t close to the people, you’re at the service of the oligarchy, of those who felt they were the owners of Mexico, those who dedicated themselves to looting Mexico,” he said during a lengthy exchange with Roldán.
In response to subsequent questions, AMLO said that school dropout rates had declined “considerably” largely due to the availability of government scholarships for students and declared that a “thorough” investigation into the Matamoros case involving four U.S. citizens was taking place.
He also said he had a “very good” meeting on Thursday with United States Homeland Security Adviser Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall.
“We addressed the fentanyl issue, [smuggling of] weapons [into Mexico] and the issue of respect for the sovereignty of our country,” AMLO said, alluding to the calls for the U.S. military to combat Mexican cartels.
“… On Monday Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard will preside over a meeting in Washington with all the consuls of Mexico in the United States to report what we’re doing to support the U.S. so that fentanyl doesn’t arrive,” the president added.
Ambassador Ken Salazar (left), U.S. Homeland Security advisor Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, President López Obrador and Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez (far right) at Thursday’s meeting. (@lopezobrador Twitter)
“It will be reported that in our time [in government] the largest amount of fentanyl has been confiscated, six tonnes. Do the math, … each kilo of fentanyl is a million doses and what we’ve seized is six tonnes – 60,000 kilograms,” López Obrador said without acknowledging his multiplication mistake.
A happy Missouri fisherman shows off his catch at the Aguamilpa Dam. Although the dam's on the polluted Santiago River, it's far away enough from the industrial zone that you can eat fish caught here — as long as they're cooked.
How a river could be both heavenly and hellish at the same time is hard to imagine, but such is the state of Mexico’s Río Santiago these days.
The river flows out of Lake Chapala, makes its way to Guadalajara — where it nearly encircles the city — and then works its way through a string of dams before finally spilling into the Pacific in Nayarit.
Horrible pollution of the Santiago near Guadalajara by some 600 factories, along with raw sewage from thousands of homes, seem to be responsible for widespread cancer and kidney failure among those who live on the river’s shores and breathe its noxious vapors.
Outrage at this state of affairs has provoked an unusual proposal by some of Mexico’s economists — with worldwide backing.
It’s called “shame economics” and proposes to impose a kind of duty or tax on all the factories near the river, based on the net worth of each, without assigning blame to anyone.
“Find a solution,” say the economists, “or the duty will go up.”
The Cola de Caballo waterfall, once the pride and joy of Guadalajara, now spews filth into the Santiago River.
The amount of the fine would reflect the cost of health care for the afflicted and also the loss of income, water sports and tourism along a once magnificent river that no one can approach because of the stench.
The Santiago River’s untouchable beauty is immediately apparent to those few people who have walked its tree-lined shores at the foot of the magnificent canyon that forms the northern boundary of greater Guadalajara. Visually speaking, the rocky river bed, backed by sheer red cliffs 500 meters high, is picture-postcard perfect.
But postcards have no smell.
What is the city of Guadalajara losing because of this situation?
This old photo shows the Arcediano suspension bridge, which marks an area of haciendas and orchards on the banks of the Santiago.
San Antonio, Texas, has shown the world how to turn a pretty river into fame and fortune. The city’s celebrated River Walk — billed as “The Number One Attraction in Texas” — brings in over 11 million visitors per year that are delighted to sip coffee at quaint cafés as they watch the river flow.
Imagination and good taste has turned the River Walk into a successful attraction, but the Santiago, as it flows along the northeast corner of Guadalajara, has a natural beauty that far surpasses anything that the San Antonio River has to offer.
As you walk downstream along the riverbank, watching the water swirl and eddy through great moss-covered rocks shaded by tall, lovely trees, you gaze in awe at a towering red canyon wall on your right, while hot springs cascade down the gentle slope on your left. Here we have all the ingredients for a combination River Walk and spa that any city in Europe would long ago have transformed into a first-class tourist attraction.
Then, 8 km downstream, we come to the beautiful little Puente de Arcediano, which crosses the river.
Constructed in 1894, this was only the third suspension bridge to be built on the entire American continent, a testimony to the importance of this section of the Santiago before pollution turned it into a sewer.
This area around the bridge was bustling with activity in Guadalajara’s early days. Near here were located haciendas surrounded by fertile fields and orchards that took advantage of the semitropical climate at the bottom of the canyon, supplying Guadalajara with mangoes, papayas, sugarcane, oranges and caracolillo (peaberry) coffee beans.
About 300 km downstream, at Las Cuevas, the Santiago has cleansed itself of pollutants from Guadalajara.
This was also the spot where donkey caravans crossed the river, transporting goods between Guadalajara and Zacatecas.
And 43 km km northwest of the Arcediano Bridge lies the Santa Rosa Dam, which has created a gorgeous lake on the Santiago with a sharply rising carpet of green topped by the 500-meter-high red canyon wall on one side. On the opposite shore, there’s a veritable sea of blue agaves stretching as far as the eye can see.
But this fairytale lake is dead quiet: no lakeside cabins, no fishermen, no water skiers, no laughter. No, this lake of unspeakable beauty is also a cesspool of unspeakable odors and poisons.
The Montezuma cypresses on the Santiago River may be long-lived, but today they are dying because of the polluted water.
How much money is lost to Guadalajara because an idyllic lake located only an hour’s drive from the city’s Ring Road is unusable? The amount needs to be calculated and added to the shame economics duty imposed on the Santiago’s polluters.
From the Santa Rosa Canyon, the river flows into the state of Nayarit and somewhere along the way, a miracle occurs: the river actually manages to cure itself!
Years ago, I stumbled upon a pueblito in that part of Nayarit called Las Cuevas. As I drove down its few streets, I saw a boat in front of every home. Because the only stream I knew of in the area was very shallow, I couldn’t imagine what the boats were for.
Finally I asked a local man.
“Well, here at Las Cuevas, we are blessed with something not every village can enjoy,” he told me. “You can’t see it from here, but at the bottom of the canyon behind our village lies the Santiago River, right before it enters the Aguamilpa Dam. Our favorite pastime is to go boating there — and, of course, catch fish.”
“What? You actually eat fish from the Santiago River? “
The author enjoying one of the natural hot springs along the shore of the Santiago at the north end of Guadalajara.
“Yes, the dam is full of lobinos (bass), really big ones, and they’re really tasty!.”
I wondered whether 300 km of winding river could remove the coliforms, chemicals and heavy metals that contaminate the river upstream. So I consulted Dr. José de Anda, who specializes in natural ways to purify sewage.
He told me that at this distance, the waters of the Santiago show no influence from the pollution in the Guadalajara area. “But they still suffer from local contamination. The worst thing we found in these waters were parasites. So, as long as you fry or cook these fish, you can eat them.”
The river finally ends its long journey from Lake Chapala to the sea 20 km north of San Blas in Nayarit.
The small Colimilla hydroelectric dam lies at the northeastern corner of Guadalajara and is no longer in operation.
Will these economists’ shame economics idea succeed in restoring the entire Río Grande de Santiago to its former splendor?
If we all pull together, it just might happen.
The writer has lived near Guadalajara, Jalisco, since 1985. His most recent book is Outdoors in Western Mexico, Volume Three. More of his writing can be found on his blog.
The group of four American friends were driving in this van with U.S. plates when, according to Latavia McGee's family, criminals struck them from behind and kidnapped them. (Juan Alberto Cedillo/Cuartoscuro)
The Tamaulipas Attorney General’s Office (FGJ) announced Friday that five men had been arrested in connection with the kidnapping in Matamoros of four U.S. citizens, two of whom were killed.
The bodies of Shaeed Woodard and Zindell Brown of South Carolina were found Tuesday. The two men and Eric James Williams crossed the border into Matamoros last Friday with Latavia McGee, who was to undergo a tummy tuck procedure in the northern border city, according to her mother.
The five suspects were arrested on charges of kidnapping and homicide on Friday. (FGJ Tamaulipas)
They came under attack shortly after they crossed the border in a white minivan and were subsequently abducted. A Mexican woman was killed in the incident.
Williams, who sustained a gunshot wound to his leg, and McGee as well as the bodies of Woodard and Brown have been returned to the U.S. by Mexican authorities.
The FGJ said in a statement that five men were arrested on kidnapping and homicide charges. With their hands tied together, the same men were left inside a vehicle abandoned in Matamoros on Wednesday night. They were apparently turned over to the authorities by a faction of the Gulf Cartel, the dominant criminal organization in Matamoros.
The Associated Press (AP) obtained a letter from a Tamaulipas law enforcement official in which the Scorpions faction of the cartel apologized to residents of Matamoros as well as the Mexican woman who was killed and the four U.S. citizens and their families.
From left to right: Latavia McGee, Eric James Williams, Shaeed Woodward and Zindell Brown. McGee and Williams survived the attack and were returned to the U.S. on Tuesday. Woodward and Brown were killed.
“We have decided to turn over those who were directly involved and responsible in the events, who at all times acted under their own decision-making and lack of discipline,” the letter said.
The letter also said that the men had violated cartel rules, which include “respecting the life and well-being of the innocent.”
AP noted that “drug cartels have been known to issue communiqués to intimidate rivals and authorities, but also at times like these as public relations work to try to smooth over situations that could affect their business.”
“And last Friday’s violence in Matamoros was bad for cartel business,” the report added.
U.S. ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar gave a press conference about the Matamoros incident on Friday, emphasizing the need for joint security efforts between the two countries. (Galo Cañas Rodríguez / Cuartoscuro.com)
One theory regarding the criminals’ motive is that cartel henchmen mistook the U.S. citizens for Haitian drug smugglers. There is also some speculation that the Americans were in Matamoros on criminal business as at least three of them – Woodard, Brown and McGee – have criminal records for drug-related crimes.
In its statement, the FGJ noted that a sixth man had been ordered to stand trial on kidnapping charges. He was arrested at a wooden cabin near Matamoros where the U.S. victims were found.
The incident triggered calls from some Republican Party lawmakers for the U.S. military to be deployed to combat cartels in Mexico. President López Obrador has categorically rejected the idea.
Wixárika land defender and attorney Santos de la Cruz Carrillo in 2010, at the beginning of the fight to defend the sacred desert of the Wirikuta from Canadian mining. (Tracy L. Barnett)
This past weekend was an intense and frightening one for many here in Western Mexico — at least among the people who care about the land and Indigenous people: high-profile Wixárika land defender and attorney Santos de la Cruz Carrillo had disappeared on Friday along with his wife and two children, including a three-month-old baby.
They had been taking their pickup truck to a mechanic in a nearby town on the rugged backroads of the Sierra Madre Occidental, near Santos’ community of Bancos de Calitique, Durango, close to the state line with Nayarit. When no one had hear from him in 24 hours and he didn’t answer his phone, his companions reported him missing and demanded that the government launch a top-priority investigation to find the family — alive.
The kidnapping’s timing in itself was suspicious because Santos is the leader of a half-century-long battle to restore nearly 11,000 hectares of invaded Wixárika (also known as Huichol) territory. Just last week I saw that the battle had been won in the courts and that Santos was going home to celebrate this landmark victory with his community.
In Bancos de Calitique, Santos was preparing to begin the next steps of this restitution process when he and his family were disappeared last weekend.
I use the transitive verb form here intentionally, as did other local media, because they didn’t simply disappear. They were taken.
Thanks to his community’s swift and unrelenting efforts and intelligence work on the part of the Nayarit prosecutor’s office, they were found alive and unharmed a couple of days later.
As soon as de la Cruz went missing, his community acted swiftly, with a publicity campaign and a targeted campaign at law enforcement and the government’s Indigenous people’s agency, INPI.
This kidnapping came at a time when Mexico has been named the deadliest place in the world for land defense activists, particularly Indigenous people protecting their ancestral territories, according to the nonprofit Global Witness, which says that 54 environmental and land defenders were killed in Mexico in 2021.
And the problem goes far beyond Mexico, with violence against Indigenous land defenders prevailing throughout the Americas — including the U.S. and Canada. Indigenous peoples, who comprise around 5% of the world’s population, protect an estimated 80% of the planet’s biodiversity. Now, extractive industries are coming full force after these Indigenous lands, seeking to exploit their resources.
Santos’ disappearance hit me hard because he is the first Wixárika person I ever met when I first arrived here in 2010. I met him in the offices of the Jalisco Association for the Support of Indigenous Peoples (AJAGI), the leading group supporting Indigenous peoples’ struggles to defend and recover their territories here in western Mexico.
I went with the team of AJAGI that year to document that struggle and other territorial defense stories that were happening at that time, and it was such an eye-opening trip that it inspired me to come back and work with them to document and support their struggle to save their most sacred site, Wirikuta, from Canadian mining operations. Santos became the key spokesperson and leader of that struggle.
De la Cruz, left, consults with Café Tacvba lead singer Rubén Albarrán, center, at a press conference announcing the Wirikuta Fest, organized in 2012 to raise money for defense of the Wixárika’s sacred territory. (Tracy L. Barnett)
When I saw the announcement that Santos’ long legal fight had at last been won, we connected over social media and I congratulated him. He invited me to his community to come and write about it. I thought of his sweet family, of his spectacularly beautiful community, of his easy laugh and teasing demeanor, of his sharp mind and eloquent discourse in defense of Tatei Yurienaka, the Mother Earth.
What happened to him and his family highlights the danger that land defenders face throughout the region — Mexico is the worst right now, and the Wixárika territories are in particular crisis due to cartel activity. Regardless of the fact that Santos and his family were recovered safely, they remain on the frontlines and are very vulnerable, and are far from the only ones.
The work that Santos and his colleagues are doing is a small attempt to shift the balance toward justice, one that reaches back to the times of colonialism. That reckoning has begun in the U.S. and Canada with the #landback movement, and it has taken a thousand forms, with individual landowners in the U.S. and Canada working with tribes to return portions of their ancestral lands, and with Indigenous people themselves occupying treaty lands that have been stolen.
The legal battles being fought by de la Cruz and his colleagues to recover land that has been invaded by non-Indigenous people over the past 100 years are part of that. In that century, the government has not only turned a blind eye to the practice but actually has encouraged it, granting titles to the land generations ago.
A small amount of progress was made when a presidential decree more than 50 years ago acknowledged the problem; the Wixárika communities have been fighting for restitution in the courts — and winning — ever since. But it has been a battle with violent consequences.
A parallel and similar fight has been waged by the Wixárika communities of San Sebastian and Tuxpan de Bolaños of Jalisco state, who also established the ownership of 11,000 hectares across the state line in Nayarit around the ranching community of Huajimic. Those communities saw their leaders killed in the process.
Indigenous activist Miguel Vázquez, left, with Santos de la Cruz Carrillo in Huajimic, Jalisco, reviewing the map delineating the territory being returned to the Wixárika community of San Sebastian. (Abraham Pérez Vázquez)
In 2016, I went to San Sebastián to report on that land restitution and was received by Miguel Vázquez, leader of the movement. I stayed the night at Miguel’s home, ate breakfast at his table with his wife and the tiny daughter who adored him.
I traveled with him to the first land parcel that had been returned after the court officials had signed over the rights. It was a 184-hectare ranch, just a tiny fragment of those 11,000 hectares.
Local law enforcement had refused to accompany them to take possession of the land, and the ranchers of the community of Huajimic — the community whose members had generations ago been wrongly granted title to that land by a corrupt government — blocked the entrance road and threatened violence.
So the Indigenous community organized.
More than 1,000 walked together to the land parcel, taking the back route through the mountains. They took turns accompanying the two families as they set up their homestead, and for many weeks afterward until things had settled down, which was when I came to visit.
Five months later, Miguel and his brother Agustín were dead, shot down in broad daylight by cartel members. It wasn’t until last year that the community had the courage to take up the issue again, this time under the leadership of schoolteacher-turned-authority Oscar Hernández, who organized a 1,000-km march to the nation’s capital to demand support from President López Obrador.
De la Cruz, kneeling in front, second from left, was part of a 1,000-km march in 2022 to the nation’s capital by Wixárika leaders from Durango, Jalisco and Nayarit to demand greater security for their people, targeted by cartels in the region. (Presidencia)
That march led to a visit by López Obrador to the Wixárika territories and a security plan for the region. But security remains highly elusive, as does justice for those who seek restitution of their lands.
Meanwhile, back in Santos’ home territory, after the long legal fight and the victory, the most dangerous part of the work begins. Thankfully, he and his family are OK — for now. But I am painfully aware of his precarious position and that of literally hundreds of Indigenous land defenders.
It is time to stop the impunity and the violence, and time to look within to see what we can do to support Indigenous land defenders like Santos who are putting their lives on the line to defend what remains of the Earth’s wild places. They are doing the work on behalf of all of us.
Tracy L. Barnett is a freelance writer based in Guadalajara. She is the founder of The Esperanza Project, a bilingual magazine covering social change movements in the Americas.
Hundreds of businesses across the country have filed lawsuits against the anti-smoking law since it went into effect in January. (Valtierra Ruvalcaba / Cuartoscuro.com)
The Mexican consumer advocacy non-profit Consumer Power (El Poder del Consumidor) has issued a statement expressing concern about the recent “wave” of lawsuits from businesses fighting the anti-smoking regulation that went into effect in January, which banned smoking in public and open places. The BBC described it as “one of the most stringent anti-smoking laws in the world.”
“From civil society, we call upon the judiciary to not give way before the … interests of businesses and corporations,” said the organization’s legal coordinator, Javier Zúñiga in a press conference.
Smoking is now prohibited by federal law in open-air public spaces like restaurants, parks and beaches. (Moisés Pablo Nava / Cuartoscuro.com)
Zúñiga emphasized that tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death globally, and said that each year, 63,200 people die in Mexico from smoking-related illnesses.
According to the new regulation, smoking is no longer allowed in outdoor spaces, though if considered a 100% smoke-free space, there should be visible signs placed in the area and in all access to public spaces.
People found smoking in forbidden areas may be subject to fines or even arrest for 36 hours. The economic sanctions for smoking or lighting up any nicotine product in smoke-free spaces can be as high as $10,374 pesos (US $551.89).
Restaurants, bars and hotels are allowed to designate certain areas for the exclusive use of smokers, however, no drinks or food can be served in those areas. In addition, these areas must be at least 10 meters away from where nonsmokers are congregated. Commercial establishments in violation can be subject to partial or complete closure — temporarily or permanently, depending on the seriousness of the offense.
The law also prohibits display of cigarette advertising in stores, though on Feb. 21, FEMSA, which owns the ubiquitous Oxxo convenience store chain, won a definitive suspension order against the law, allowing stores to once again display cigarettes for sale.
“The [new regulation] exceeded what the law says. Regulations cannot exceed what the law says. Surely there will be amparos (a lawsuit to seek protection from government rights violations) and they will for sure win,” Vicente Yáñez, president of the National Association of Supermarket and Department Stores, told Aristegui Noticias after the ban came into effect.
“From our point of view, this regulation goes against free trade: it restricts a restaurant from providing its services with a measure that contravenes the development of the economy,” said Víctor Arellano, who represents El Gran León de Oro cantina in Mexico City, in El País newspaper.
The cantina was the first to file an amparo after the new rules were published, and was granted a definitive suspension order by a judge on Feb. 8, allowing the restaurant to operate as it did before the smoking ban (with a designated smoking section).
Many other restaurants, bars and other businesses across the country have also taken legal action. According to the National Alliance of Small Businesses (ANPEC), which represents more than 225,000 micro-businesses in Mexico, over 700 suits have been filed against the new law in 25 states.
An ANPEC press release published on Feb. 21 characterized the regulation as “prohibitionist” and said it “threatens the 2 million self-employed in small businesses.”
Some businesses have already failed in their lawsuits, including the national VIPS restaurant chain, whose provisional suspension order was denied by a judge last month.
Habano 2000 smoke shop in Mexico City filed an amparo asking to continue advertisement of products made with tobacco, but according to a report in Sin Embargo, the judge denied the suspension as it would “contravene provisions of public order and social interest due to the damage that consumption of products made with tobacco can cause to the public.”
The new consulate in Mumbai, Mexico's Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard said, is Mexico's "first consulate oriented at innovation and investment in science and technology."
Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard officially opened a Mexican consulate in the Indian city of Mumbai earlier this week.
The consulate opened earlier this week with a formal ceremony attended by Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard, center. (SRE)
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) said in a statement that the aim of opening a consulate in Mumbai was to “accelerate relations” with Indian business leaders in sectors including health, entertainment, textiles and agri-food.
At the inauguration, Ebrard said that the relationship between Mexico and India is closer than ever “for several reasons,” including “geopolitical stress and similarities in our positions in the world,” investment flows between the two countries and “the will” of President López Obrador and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to strengthen ties.
According to the Indian Embassy in Mexico, India — the fifth largest economy in the world — had investments in Mexico in 2020 that were worth more than US $3 billion. Mexico — the world’s 15th largest economy — had investments of about $1 billion in India, the embassy said.
Mexico and India established diplomatic relations in 1950 and agreed to enhance their partnership during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, left, to Mexico in 2016 during the presidency of Enrique Pena Nieto, right. (Moisés Pablo Nava/Cuartoscuro)
Last week, the two countries reached an agreement to collaborate on and jointly finance “binational development and innovation projects in several fields,” including ones related to water, lithium, the aerospace industry, biotechnology and vaccines.
The new consulate in Mumbai, Ebrard said, is Mexico’s “first consulate oriented at innovation and investment in science and technology.”
Its opening “will allow us to extend our economic ties and promote initiatives in thriving sectors like textiles, plastic, pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals and agri-food, among many others,” the SRE said.
“In addition, this new consular office will serve as an economic promotion platform in the center and south of India,” the ministry said.
The SRE also said that the consulate will provide protection and assistance to Mexicans in India and issue visas to Indian citizens planning to travel to Mexico for business, tourism and educational purposes.
The families of missing lawyer Ricardo Lagunas and Antonio Diaz were in attendance at the special hearing in Los Angeles. (Prodh/Twitter)
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has called for Mexico to develop a comprehensive national forensic policy to help confront the crisis of disappearances in the country.
IACHR vice-president and rapporteur for Mexico, Esmeralda Arosemena de Troitiño, made the statement during a public hearing on Thursday. The hearing was held in Los Angeles, California and attended by Mexican representatives and led by national search commissioner Karla Quintana.
The Mexican government is struggling to come to terms with the scale of disappearances in the country. (@busqueda_MX/Twitter)
Arosemena acknowledged the government had made efforts to tackle the disappearance crisis, but said more effective coordination between institutions was needed to address the estimated 52,000 unidentified bodies in the country.
“A national public policy that has this concept of responsibility for the articulation, for the coordination, the strengthening of the institutions themselves, endowed with resources, is indispensable,” she said.
The hearing was also attended by families of the missing, including relatives of lawyer Ricardo Lagunes and indigenous leader Antonio Díaz, who disappeared between Michoacán and Coahuila on Jan. 15, and the mother of Víctor Adrián Rodríguez Moreno, who disappeared in Coahuila during 2009.
Families of the disappeared said they felt abandoned by the Mexican government. They criticized “institutional inefficiency,” particularly in cases involving migrants which required coordination with other countries. They also complained that families had been shut out of relevant legislative processes since Dec. 2021.
Esmerelda Arosemena de Troitiño presided over the hearing. (Centro Prodh/Twitter)
“If families do not participate, this [comprehensive policy] will not be achieved either, because they are that internal engine of not only the feeling but the need for truth and justice,” Arosemena agreed.
For their part, the Mexican delegation pointed to advances such as the creation of the Extraordinary Forensic Identification Mechanism and the National Forensic Data Bank (BNDF). Representatives of the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) said this national database of forensic information already hosts the records of more than 15,100 missing persons and 8,000 bodies that are yet to be identified.
“Thanks to this tool we now have a record of 616 clandestine graves from which 1,264 bodies have been recovered,” said Joaquín Torres, general director of the FGR’s Special Prosecutor’s Office for Human Rights.
However, the human rights organizationCentro Prodh questioned Torres’ claim that the BNDF was already in operation. Instead, the NGO said that the Mexican Attorney General’s Office (FGR) has litigated against families who demand its implementation.
The BNDF was established in 2017 through the General Law on the Disappearance of Persons, which stated that the database should be ready by 2019. By 2022 it was still not operational, and several court cases brought by relatives of the disappeared found the FGR was remiss in allowing the delay. The FGR has appealed the decisions.
Mexico’sNational Database of Missing and Unlocated Persons (RNPDNO) currently lists more than 112,000 disappeared people in Mexico. The figure has climbed steadily over the last 20 years, particularly since around 2016.
At the hearing, Centro Prodh stressed that the families’ testimony “shows that disappearances are not yesterday’s inheritance but today’s sad reality.”
The visit of OPEC Secretary General Haitham Al Ghais to Mexico is historic in that it's the first time OPEC's leader has come here. Mexico is a member of the OPEC+ consortium. (Presidencia)
The federal government has found a like-minded energy sector ally in the chief of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), who on Thursday praised Mexico for investing in oil refineries.
President López Obrador — an energy nationalist who has championed the ongoing use of fossil fuels while showing more muted support for renewables — met in Mexico City with Haitham al-Ghais, secretary general of OPEC, a group of 13 countries including Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and Venezuela.
The OPEC secretary general, right, with Economy Minister Rocío Nahle, left, at the World Market of Oil event. (Rocío Nahle/Twitter)
Energy Minister Rocío Nahle also attended the meeting, and later on Thursday hosted a “World Oil Market” event at which al-Ghais was the main draw.
López Obrador, a native of the oil-rich state of Tabasco, noted on social media that it was the first time than an OPEC chief had visited Mexico, and he asserted that he and al-Ghais understood each other well.
The federal government has invested heavily to increase Mexico’s oil refining capacity as the president seeks to make the country self-sufficient for fuel. It has built a new refinery on the Tabasco coast, purchased Shell Oil Company’s share of a jointly-owned refinery in Texas and spent some 50 billion pesos (US $2.7 billion) to upgrade Pemex’s six operational refineries in Mexico.
Al-Ghais, a Kuwaiti oil executive who became OPEC’s chief last August, congratulated Mexico — which is part of a larger OPEC+ grouping of oil-producing nations — for its “vision” in investing in refining capacity at a time when many countries are closing refineries and focusing on growing the renewable energy sector.
Hoy se eligió al nuevo secretario general de la OPEP, Mr. Haitham Al Ghais ocupará el secretariado a partir del próximo 1 de agosto. El @GobiernoMX le extiende una felicitación y deseos de éxito.
Nuestro reconocimiento a Mr. Mohammed Barkindo por la excelente labor realizada. 🇲🇽 https://t.co/bey5D14euV
When Al Ghais became the secretary of OPEC, in January 2022, Mexico’s Economy Minister Raquel Buenrostro made a point of congratulating him on behalf of Mexico on Twitter.
“Investing is key for a successful future because we’re going to need more oil,” he said at the Energy Ministry event.
“… What you are doing … here in Mexico is not just for the country, … it’s for humanity as a whole, you’re boosting global growth,” al-Ghais said.
He said that OPEC members are also investing heavily in oil production and refining, and noted that he spoke with López Obrador and Nahle about the importance of Mexico reaching self-sufficiency for fuel.
Al-Ghais predicted that demand for oil will continue to grow in coming decades and make up 30% of the world’s energy mix in 2045. He asserted that some US $12.3 trillion in global investment in the oil and gas industries will be required by the same year.
“We have to be realistic. Renewables are not enough. Although we celebrate and support the [energy] transition, today we remain in this reality, not because we don’t want more renewables but because they’re insufficient to meet demand,” al-Ghais said.
López Obrador said Friday that the OPEC chief “values highly what Mexico is doing in terms of oil policy.”
“… We wish that oil was no longer used, that fossil fuels were no longer used, that the environment was looked after more, but there are processes that have to be carried out in the energy transition,” he said.
There are not very many electric vehicles on Mexico’s roads currently, but that could change in the near future: both BMW and Tesla have imminent plans to manufacture EVs here. (Tesla)
“… Two or three years ago, there was a campaign from experts [saying] that oil was no longer going to be used, that everything was going to be electric. And it was so powerful that even multinational oil companies began to believe this forecast and started to put their refineries up for sale,” López Obrador said.
After noting that Mexico’s state oil company Pemex bought Shell’s stake in the Texas refinery, he said he regretted not buying “three instead of one.”
Nahle said Thursday that 53 million vehicles in Mexico collectively require over 1 million barrels of gasoline per day.
There are relatively few electric vehicles on Mexico’s roads, but that could change as the manufacture of EVs ramps up here. Tesla and BMW both recently announced plans to make EVs in Mexico, with the former set to build a gigafactory near the Nuevo León capital of Monterrey.
The nation's health regulator Cofepris says it can't be sure that the cannabis-containing products to be sold by the company will be safe. (Isabel Mateos Hinojosa/Cuartoscuro)
Health regulator Cofepris has launched a legal challenge against a court ruling that forced it to issue permits to allow the Mexican subsidiary of a Canadian company to cultivate cannabis and make cannabis products in Mexico.
Xebra Brands announced Thursday that Cofepris had granted its Mexican subsidiary Desart MX (known as Xebra México) “an outright first-mover-advantage in Mexico, by officially issuing corporate cannabis authorizations to — among other permissions — import and acquire cannabis seeds, cultivate and harvest cannabis, process and produce cannabis and sell cannabis products both domestically and through export.”
These are some of the products with cannabis that Xebra Brands appears to be ready to sell in Mexico. (Xebra Brands)
“This represents an important moment for cannabis globally, with the first-ever grant for full cultivation, harvesting, processing and commercial activities to a corporate entity in Mexico,” said CEO Jay Garnett.
The company said in a statement that “there are no restrictions on where in Mexico Xebra can cultivate cannabis, nor on the size of the cultivation facilities, [nor] the volume of processing and manufacturing operations.”
“The authorizations will initially apply specifically to the commercialization of cannabis products with low levels of THC (under 1%),” Xebra Brands said.
THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, is the main psychoactive constituent of marijuana — the substance that gets users high, in other words.
Alejandro Svarch Pérez, head of Cofepris, the agency that has raised concerns. (Presidencia)
Xebra Brands said it would provide an update on its plans for the Mexican cannabis market in the coming weeks. It noted that it announced in December 2021 that “five Supreme Court justices voted unanimously in favor of granting Xebra México an irrevocable injunction to commercialize cannabis products.”
Cofepris, however, believes the authorizations it issued can be revoked.
Without naming Xebra, the regulator acknowledged in a statement that it had issued permits for the “cultivation, processing, production and commercialization of industrial cannabis as well as the importation of seeds, processing of plant material and production of cannabidiol [CBD] oil,” which is used to treat health issues such as stress and anxiety and doesn’t cause a “high.”
Cofepris said it only granted the authorizations because it was “obliged” to do so due to a ruling handed down in a district court.
Jay Garnett is the CEO of Xebra Brands. (Xebra Brands)
“The health authority highlights that it fulfilled its obligations as a public institution, complying with legal orders in the face of threats of fines and dismissals of public servants,” it said.
However, Cofepris added that it “doesn’t have sufficient information to determine that this product [cannabis] is safe for the purposes that the multinational intends to use it.”
“… Due to the serious health risk an authorization of this type represents … appeals have been presented in the Third Collegiate Circuit Court, with which [Cofepris] seeks to reverse and invalidate the authorization in order to protect people’s health,” the regulator said, noting that the Interior Ministry is supporting the legal action.
It was unclear when that court would consider the appeals.
