The USMCA free trade agreement has governed trade between Mexico, the United States and Canada since 2020. (LopezObrador.org.mx)
A dispute panel has ruled in favor of Mexico and Canada in a disagreement with the United States over content rules for vehicles under the USMCA free trade pact.
Mexico and Canada filed a complaint against the U.S. over the interpretation of auto-sector content rules a year ago.
Under USMCA — the North American free trade agreement that superseded NAFTA in 2020 — 75% of a vehicle’s parts must be made in the region in order for the vehicle to qualify for tariff-free status.
Mexico and Canada argued that if a “core part” of a vehicle, such as its engine or transmission, is made with 75% regional content, the free trade agreement allows the figure to be rounded up to 100% when calculating the overall requirement for regional content.
In contrast, the United States view was that “core part” content cannot be rounded up when calculating the regional content percentage of an entire vehicle.
Mexico and Canada warned that the U.S. interpretation could prevent Mexican and Canadian manufactures from qualifying for duty-free trade in North America.
The dispute panel sided with those two countries, saying in a ruling last Wednesday that the U.S. interpretation was “inconsistent” with the USMCA. In accordance with the trade pact, the United States must now reach agreement with Mexico and Canada on how the panel’s decision will be applied, or else face the possible imposition of retaliatory tariffs.
“We are reviewing the report and considering next steps,” said Adam Hodge, an official with the United States Trade Representative’s Office. He said that the U.S. would “engage Mexico and Canada on a possible resolution to the dispute.”
Hodge described the panel’s ruling as “disappointing” and asserted that it could result in “fewer American jobs.”
The decision will allow more Mexican auto makers to qualify for duty-free exports. Mireya Novo / Cuartoscuro
Tatiana Clouthier, a recently-departed federal economy minister, said that the decision was “excellent news” in a video posted to Twitter, while Canadian Trade Minister Mary Ng said in a statement that Canada “”is glad to see that the dispute settlement mechanisms in place are supporting our rights and obligations negotiated in USMCA.”
Mexico’s Economy Ministry said in a statement that, “in the coming days, Mexico will begin a process of dialogue and cooperation with its trading partners.”
Flavio Volpe, president of Canada’s Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association, said that the dispute panel decision is “good for Canada and Mexico.”
In a separate USMCA dispute, the United States and Canada last year challenged Mexico’s nationalistic energy policies, arguing that they are inconsistent with its trade agreement obligations. The three countries are attempting to resolve that dispute without the intervention of a dispute panel.
In a social media post, Governor Samuel García announced on Sunday that he was bound for Davos, Switzerland, to participate in the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting (Jan. 16-20), which hasn’t been held in the alpine town since 2020.
“We are heading to Davos to attend the World Economic Forum to meet with world leaders and CEOs of the largest companies,” posted García. “Keep an eye on my networks because I will keep you posted on the actions we’ll take to continue generating sustainable wealth in #NuevoNuevoLeón. Let’s go!”
As the only Mexican governor invited to the gathering of politicians, business leaders and billionaires, García said he will attend as part of the International Affairs Commission of the National Conference of Governors.
Ya estamos en el World Economic Forum en Davos, Suiza, representando a México y a Nuevo León. Estamos listos para llevar más inversiones y aprendizajes al país y al estado. pic.twitter.com/W1bhWZOdyY
He also said he is having face-to-face meetings with executives from Heineken, Didi, Uber and “very important companies” from India and Asia. García intends to participate in the World Young Leaders of Davos.
Cancún to have a lucha libre theme park
Fibra Uno, a real estate investment trust, will invest 130 million pesos (US $6.92 million) to open “Luchatitlán”, a theme park dedicated to the culture of lucha libre wrestling in Cancún, Quintana Roo.
Rendering of “Luchatitlán” theme park, set to open in March in Cancún. (@VisitandoCancun Twitter)
The tourist attraction is set to open in March and will be located at La Isla shopping mall. The arena will hold 580 spectators and have a Mexican wrestling hall of fame, stalls selling snacks and a cantina with capacity for 220 people.
“The idea is to bring Mexican popular culture closer to international tourism that arrives in Cancun,” said the CEO of Fibra Uno, Gonzalo Robina. Ticket prices are estimated to range from US $69 to US $109 per ticket.
Robina noted that while the industrial sector is still the primary focus for the company, their retail shopping center portfolio had given them “surprises”, as occupancy of commercial spaces increased.
Tesla offers discounts of up to 24% in Mexico
Tesla failed to meet Wall Street’s estimates for the fourth quarter of 2022 due to logistical disruptions, the persistent chip shortage, the slowdown in markets such as China, and inflation.
Hence, Tesla announced a worldwide price reduction of up to 20% on their cars. In Mexico, the discount reached up to 24% on the Model Y SUV (from US $84,083 to $US 63,859).
In addition to the reduced prices, Tesla is promoting gas savings to entice buyers.
According to Tesla’s calculations, the average Mexican drives between 15,000 and 25,000 km per year and “the cost of electricity to run the Model 3 is up to seven times less over the same distance.”
Reuters reported that Tesla owners can deduct up to $250,000 pesos (US $13,304), depending on their tax regimen, and are exempt from paying the tax on new cars (ISAN). In some states, Tesla owners also don’t pay the annual vehicle ownership tax (tenencia).
Oxxo launches a drive-thru coffee shop
The municipality of Apodaca in Nuevo León is host to the first Andatti Drive, Oxxo’s answer to Starbucks and Tim Horton’s.
In a statement, Oxxo said that Andatti has been the most recognized coffee nationwide within its stores, making it the most consumed coffee brand in Mexico.
According to Oxxo, Andatti Drive will be focused on offering drive-thru lanes, advanced order service, a rewards system through its own app and home delivery through various platforms.
Among Mexico's major export markets to countries in Africa is food products. (Photo: Indigoai/Istock)
Mexico’s largest trade partner is easily the United States, but it also has commercial relationships with nations located far beyond the region in which it is located.
Among the country’s lesser-known trade partners are numerous African nations, and the federal government is seeking to increase Mexican exports to that continent.
In a statement published last Saturday, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (SADER) noted that it has been collaborating with the government of Nigeria in order to increase the shipment of Mexican products to the country.
Nigeria is a supplier of hibiscus flowers to Mexico (known here as flor de jamaica).
It also said that the government is aiming to “increase the presence of Mexican products in Africa in the medium term.”
“… Currently, Mexico trades food with Nigeria, Benin, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Uganda, Egypt, Morocco, Zimbabwe, Kenya, South Africa, Mozambique, Ghana, Democratic Republic of the Congo and [the Middle Eastern nation of] Oman,” SADER said.
The products shipped between Mexico and those countries include sesame, hibiscus flowers (known here as flor de jamaica), rice, strawberries, corn, apples, cacao, walnuts, pears tobacco, chicken, lobsters, sea bream (mojarra) and sardines, the ministry said.
“… Africa currently has a population of 1.3 billion people, and its birth rate is among the highest in the world, so its population is predicted to double by 2050 and [the people of Africa] will require more food,” the ministry said, underscoring the potential for growth in Mexico’s trade relationship with African countries.
Elaborating on Mexico’s collaboration with Nigeria, SADER said that the two countries had signed a “work plan for the safe export of hibiscus flowers from the African nation to our country.”
Francisco Ramírez y Ramírez, an official with agriculture sanitation authority Senasica, and Vicent Isegbe, a Nigerian agriculture official, signed the document in the presence of Nigeria’s ambassador in Mexico and representatives of the hibiscus flower industries of both countries, the ministry said.
Ramírez, the statement said, noted that “the agreement establishes that Nigerian authorities will certify exporting companies that comply with the requirements that Senasica demands, such as the correct cleaning and quarantine treatment of containers and the placement of traps to detect the presence of pests.”
Isegbe pointed out that flor de jamaica is an “emblematic product” of Nigeria due to its quality and widespread availability. According to the Senasica statement, he also said that Nigeria has “reliable tracing mechanisms to provide guarantees to importing countries.”
Hibiscus flowers are most commonly used in Mexico to make agua de jamaica, a refreshing nonalcoholic drink, but they can also be used in dishes such as tacos.
You might drink your next agua de jamaica in Mazatlán, Mexico City, Puerto Vallarta or La Paz, but the flowers to make the beverage just might have been shipped across the Atlantic from Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital.
At President Lopez Obrador's daily press conference on Monday, Mexico City's Metro Director Guillermo Calderón shows an image of a Metro car safety cylinder that helps keep Metro train cars attached. It was missing after the accident, he said.
The latest mishap on the Mexico City Metro system has been partially attributed to a loose screw on a train component.
Two adjoining cars of a train traveling on Line 7 became detached from each other on Sunday afternoon.
Videos posted to social media show smoke emanating from the train after the two cars disconnected, which officials blamed on a loose cable making contact with an electrified guide bar and creating a short circuit.
Metro director Guillermo Calderón told a press conference Monday that the cars uncoupled because the component joining them together had one loose screw and another screw whose head had been sheared off.
“When the security cylinder came off [and] the cars separated, cables made contact with the electrified guide bar and produced a short circuit with a din and smoke,” he said.
Calderón said that the detachment wasn’t due to a lack of maintenance on the train in question, noting that it had been serviced on time on Jan. 5.
“It’s not a matter of maintenance because these safety elements are checked,” the Metro chief said.
He described the incident as an “atypical and unusual case,” noting also that “the safety ring that fastens to the [security] cylinder wasn’t found during the inspection of the tracks.”
Calderón’s explanation suggests that the train’s components were tampered with in an act of sabotage.
The National Guard has been patrolling Metro stations ever since an accident on Line 3 on January 7 claimed three lives. Officials discussing both the Line 3 and the Line 7 accidents have implied but stopped short of saying both are due to sabotage. (Photo: CDMX Metro/Twitter)
The incident and three other “atypical” occurrences on the Metro system — including the unauthorized extraction of a black box from a train involved in the fatal accident on Jan. 7 — have been referred to the Mexico City Attorney General’s Office for investigation.
“Premeditated and malicious acts [have occurred],” Mexico City Governance Minister Martí Batres said Monday.
Mayor Sheinbaum said that government critics were quick to claim that Sunday’s incident was related to a lack of maintenance on trains, but asserted that wasn’t the case.
What happened has been clearly explained and it will be up to the Attorney General’s Office to investigate and locate those responsible, she said.
The train car uncoupling occurred just hours after Line 12 of the Metro system — the scene of an accident in May 2021 that claimed the lives of 26 people — partially reopened.
Service resumed on the underground section 20 months after the entire line — the system’s newest — was closed.
The increase in business travelers is also expected to boost Mexico's top airport operators. (Suhyeon Choi / Unsplash)
Nearshoring, or companies moving operations closer to home, rebooted the arrival of foreign business travelers in 2022 with almost half a million businesspeople entering the country.
According to the Migration Policy Unit of the Ministry of the Interior, from January to November 2022, there were 463,508 business visitors who entered Mexico — a jump of 107% compared to all of 2021 but only half the number of business travelers who arrived in 2019.
In January 2022, 20,559 business travelers arrived in the country. As the year progressed and more companies relocated from Asia to Mexico, the arrival of foreign visitors increased. In November, it amounted to almost 58,000 business travelers.
Monex, a Mexican foreign exchange company, revealed in December 2022 that of all the air traffic coming in and out of Mexico, 21% corresponds to business travel largely fueled by nearshoring. Most of those travelers carried out business in Mexico City; Monterrey, Nuevo León; Cancún, Quintana Roo; Querétaro city, Querétaro; and Guadalajara, Jalisco.
The Mexico City International Airport specifically registered the arrival of 238,715 business travelers in 2022. This figure is 118% higher than that registered in 2021 but still only represents 49% of the business travelers who entered the country throughout all of 2019.
Alejandrina Salcedo, chief economist at the Bank of México (Banxico), said in December 2022 that business tourism had a steeper drop than tourism in general and although business tourism has shown a recovery, it has not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels.
She added that border cities have shown a “greater recovery” that can be associated with business tourism and with nearshoring, which is especially relevant in the northern states.
According to Banxico’s report on regional economies to the third quarter of 2022 — in which it accounts for business tourism based on data from Google Trends and billing — four northern cities have registered higher levels than those reached prior to the pandemic: Chihuahua city and Ciudad Juárez in Chihuahua, followed by Tijuana in Baja California and Hermosillo in Sonora. These cities are export-oriented (Chihuahua is the top exporting Mexican state), specialized in manufacturing production and stand to benefit the most from nearshoring.
The other two cities profiting from nearshoring are Celaya, Guanajuato, and Guadalajara, Jalisco, which specialize in the food and beverage industry, two sectors less affected by the pandemic.
Nearshoring is also expected to boost Mexico’s airports in 2023. On Wednesday, Reuters reported that Mexico’s airports would likely see a boost owing to tourists staying at resorts and an increase in nearshoring.
The country’s top airport operators — Asur, GAP and OMA — recorded passenger growth of more than 20% in December compared to the same month in 2019.
While Asur and GAP were boosted by tourism out of Cancún and Tijuana, the growth of OMA — which manages and operates 13 airports in the Central and Northern region of Mexico — was fueled by business trips.
According to Monex, all three groups are expected to register strong earnings this year, with Asur expecting to grow 38.4%, GAP 37.6% and OMA 34.6%, Monex said.
A rendering of "Tho' Parque Nuestro", a large-scale park project that would include both public and private investment. (Gob Mérida)
Renán Barrera Concha, mayor of Mérida, Yucatán, announced on Jan. 9 plans to build Tho’, a new public park in the Altabrisa neighborhood.
Mayor Barrera described the project as “innovative” because it would be built in collaboration with the private sector, and with participation of the residents of Mérida. His government will convene broad citizen participation on what they’d like to see in the park. Currently, some of the municipality’s 600 parks are being renovated and redesigned with this model.
To build the park, Barrera and Yucatán’s governor Mauricio Vila Dosal have agreed to a scheme of land exchange – the City Council would exchange a property in the Maya neighborhood for the 8-hectare (20 acre) property in Altabrisa.
Mérida mayor Renán Barrera presents the Tho’ park project on Jan. 9 (@AyuntaMérida Twitter)
If the project is approved by the city council, it would require an investment of 100 million pesos (US $5 million) and would begin construction in Q3 of 2023.
Governor Vila said he will give all necessary support to Mayor Barrera for the construction of the park, which would be larger than the city’s El Centenario park and zoo, and includes archaeological remains on site that will be protected.
Barrera emphasized that Tho’ would be a park for all residents, not only for those who live in Altabrisa. However, they chose the site because northwest Mérida has a lower proportion of public green spaces. “We monitor the deficit of public spaces per inhabitant,” explained the mayor.
The park would be designed as self-sufficient and self-sustaining, meaning that the cost of maintenance would not be borne by the city. According to Barrera, this is a trend that’s already happening in other parts of the world, but it would be the first such park in Mérida. The park will have a commercial area to cover maintenance expenses.
Presentation of the Tho’ project to investors is still pending, but according to the Diario de Yucatán newspaper, Barrera trusts that the project will be of interest to investors.
Smoking is now prohibited by federal law in open-air public spaces like restaurants, parks and beaches. (Moisés Pablo Nava / Cuartoscuro.com)
A revised law that bans smoking in all public places and prohibits retailers from displaying cigarettes took effect on Sunday.
The General Law for Tobacco Control “amounts to one of the most stringent anti-smoking laws in the world,” according to a BBC report.
People are now explicitly banned from smoking in outdoor public places such as parks, town squares and beaches as well as offices, hotels, restaurants, schools, stadiums, shopping centers and entertainment arenas. Smoking is already banned in many of the aforesaid indoor spaces.
The anti-smoking law also prohibits all forms of advertising and promotion of cigarettes including sponsorship arrangements involving tobacco companies. Retailers such as the ubiquitous convenience store Oxxo are no longer permitted to stock tobacco products in open view of customers.
Health regulator Cofepris will be responsible for ensuring compliance with the law, which is expected to have an impact on demand for tobacco.
The federal Health Ministry anticipates that the new law will prevent 49,000 premature deaths and 292,000 cases of smoking-related illnesses over the next 10 years, the newspaper El Financiero reported.
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), an agency of the World Health Organization, noted in a statement last month that Mexico’s Senate unanimously approved an amendment to the General Law for Tobacco Control that established “100% smoke-free environments and a total ban on the advertising, promotion, and sponsorship of tobacco products on December 14, 2021.”
“This amendment represents a historic step forward for Mexico in its anti-smoking policies and reaffirms its role as one of the leaders in the fight against tobacco in the world,” said Cristian Morales, PAHO representative in Mexico.
In contrast, “some smokers are dismayed at the draconian nature of the new law,” the BBC reported, noting that smoking outside private residences will be restricted in many cases.
It remains to be seen how strictly the anti-smoking law will be enforced in a country where approximately 16 million people — one in eight Mexicans — smoke.
According to the BBC, many Mexicans fear that corrupt police will use the law to collect bribes from people who are caught smoking in places where the habit is prohibited.
The subterranean section of Line12 of the Metro, before its reopening on Sunday. (Twitter @Claudiashein)
Line 12 of the Mexico City Metro — the scene of an accident in May 2021 that claimed the lives of 26 people — has partially reopened.
The underground section of the subway route — the system’s newest — and its nine stations were back to carrying passengers on Sunday.
The open-air elevated section of the line, part of which collapsed as a train traveled over it on May 4, 2021, remains closed.
The Line 12 overpass collapsed on the night of May 3, 2021, killing 26 people. Gobierno de México
The underground section was upgraded prior to its reopening to ensure its safe operation, with tracks, ballast and sleepers all replaced and a range of other projects completed.
“These rehabilitation projects were carried out in strict compliance with the guidelines established by the [government’s] technical advisory committee,” Guillermo Calderón, the Metro system’s director, told a press conference on Sunday.
The “safety conditions” along the reopened section are “outstanding,” he said.
Twelve trains will run between the Mixcoac and Atlalilco stations on the subterranean stretch of Line 12, which was built during the 2006–2012 mayoralty of current Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard. It opened in the final year of his six-year term.
The line has been plagued with problems and was partially closed for an extended period in 2014.
Those problems, including the 2021 disaster — the Metro’s deadliest accident since a 1975 crash — could pose a threat to the presidential aspirations of Ebrard as well as current Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, whose tenure has also been tarnished by a fire in the subway system’s downtown substation in January 2021 and another fatal Metro accident earlier this month.
A Metro driver arrives at Tlahuac station of Line 12 during a test run prior to Sunday’s opening. (Twitter @GCalderon_Metro)
Sheinbaum on Sunday defended her government’s management of the capital’s subway system, saying that it has invested heavily in it to ensure its safety and reliability.
“It’s the duty of the mayor of Mexico City to do absolutely everything possible to guarantee the safety of Metro passengers — residents of the city and México state who use this very important mode of transport,” she said.
“The Metro has to continue being a safe space, and effective and useful for the millions of Mexicans who use it daily.”
Mayor Sheinbaum said that work is continuing on the elevated section of Line 12 but didn’t mention any reopening date.
Norwegian company DNV — contracted by the government to conduct an independent investigation into the May 2021 disaster — determined that design flaws and shoddy construction work contributed to the collapse of the Line 12 overpass, where two train cars plunged onto a busy road in the capital’s southeastern Tláhuac borough.
The president shared his thoughts about the North American Leaders' Summit, the Metro accident and electoral campaigns this week. (Photo: Gob MX)
The arrival of United States President Joe Biden in Mexico City on Sunday signaled the beginning of another busy week for President López Obrador, who is now in his final full calendar year as head of state.
AMLO held bilateral talks with Biden on Monday and trilateral talks with the U.S. president and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday. With some diplomatic energy still in reserve, the 69-year-old president sat down with Trudeau to discuss the joint Mexico-Canada agenda on Wednesday.
Monday
After Monday’s mañanera opened with a report on gasoline and food prices by consumer protection agency chief Ricardo Sheffield, Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard took center stage and acknowledged President Biden’s arrival at AIFA, the army-built airport just north of Mexico City.
AMLO characterized U.S. President Biden as a “nice person” who was “happy the whole time.” (@lopezobrador Twitter)
López Obrador, he said, accompanied Biden to his hotel (in the presidential vehicle known as “The Beast”) and had a “good conversation” with the U.S. president along the way.
“That’s precisely one of the objectives of these summits, [to cultivate] personal relationships, to appreciate and understand the priorities of one’s counterpart, seek out points of agreement, and it was a good occasion for that purpose,” Ebrard said.
Taking the floor to respond to reporters’ questions, AMLO said he had a “good encounter” with the U.S. leader.
“President Biden is a nice person. He was happy the whole time. We spoke about the issues that we’re going to deal with at today’s bilateral meeting: the immigration issue, issues related to the economic integration of North America…” he said.
Later in his presser, the president sent a message to Texas Governor Greg Abbott, an outspoken critic of Biden’s immigration policies and the United States government’s alleged failure to enforce laws aimed at stemming the flow of migrants into the U.S.
“Maybe the gentleman is Christian and if he’s read the Bible he should know that strangers must be respected and migrants must be treated with affection,” AMLO said of the governor, a practicing Catholic.
“… And if he’s Christian he should also know that one mustn’t lie, one must speak truthfully and not use these matters … for political and electoral purposes. … How many migrants are there in Texas? To start, Texas belonged to our country. … As the Los Tigres del Norte ballad says: ‘I didn’t cross the border, the border crossed me.’ Texas belonged to Mexico, to Coahuila.”
López Obrador also fielded a question about last Saturday’s fatal metro accident in Mexico City.
“The causes are being looked at … and the truth about what happened will be revealed without hiding anything at all,” he said.
Tuesday and Wednesday
With his focus squarely on meetings with the U.S. president and Canadian Prime Minister, AMLO took the rare step of not holding morning press conferences on two consecutive weekdays.
However, he didn’t eschew his predilection for speaking at length, offering an almost half-hour response to one reporter’s question at a joint press conference with Biden and Trudeau on Wednesday.
The “Three Amigos” at a joint press conference on Wednesday (@WhiteHouse Twitter)
“We missed each other, didn’t we?” López Obrador quipped to reporters upon his return to the National Palace for his first mañanera since Monday.
He then declared the bilateral and trilateral meetings of the previous days a raging success before going on to laud the strength of the Mexican peso.
“You already know that our peso has strengthened in a way not seen for half a century or more than half a century. Since we’ve been in the government our peso has appreciated, it’s the currency that has appreciated the most with respect to the dollar,” AMLO said.
Elaborating on the talks with U.S. and Canadian officials, Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard said the goal of a new committee of 12 people from the three North American countries – of which he will be one – will be to substitute 25% of imports from Asia with locally-produced goods.
“We have an enormous job ahead of us, but … we have to do it,” he said.
Later in the press conference, López Obrador told reporters that some people “are using accidents in the [Mexico City] metro” – including that which occurred last Saturday – to “attack” the capital’s mayor, Claudia Sheinbaum.
However, the mayor – a presidential aspirant and close ally of López Obrador – “has all our support,” the Tabasco-born president said, “because we consider her a professional, honest woman with a lot of capacity to govern.”
In response to a reporter’s question near the end of his presser, López Obrador declared that metro passengers are already safe and will be even safer once the National Guard begins patrolling the system.
“Why look after the users of the metro? … Because … the majority of those who use the metro are going to work, … there are millions of them and we have to look after them and we have to improve the service. It’s being done and [even] more will be done,” he said.
Friday
Abandoning the custom of setting his own agenda in the first portion of his presser, López Obrador dedicated the entirety of his last mañanera for the week to responding to reporters’ questions.
“What do you know? We’re going to devote the mañanera to answering all the questions,” AMLO said, adding that the prerequisite for probing the president was not having posed a question during the past 15 days.
“I think it’s good, they have the right [to contest the election as a coalition],” López Obrador said before describing the PAN-PRI-PRD alliance as a “conservative, reactionary bloc.”
“Of course they’re going to seek, as they have been doing, to stop the process of transformation that millions of Mexicans are carrying out,” he added, referring to his Morena party-led government and its supporters.
“… They want the regime of corruption, injustices and privileges to return. And we want the transformation to advance so that the principal protagonists in the history of our time are the Mexican people, so that there is authentic democracy, a government of the people, for the people and with the people.”
During a lengthy response to another question, López Obrador declared that the federal Electoral Tribunal had banned the “Amlito” doll, a buck-toothed caricature of AMLO that first became popular during his 2006 presidential campaign.
The “Amlito” cartoon will be banned from use in Morena electoral campaigns (@LaChiquisYareli Twitter)
“But only in electoral campaigns,” interjected AMLO’s communications chief, referring to a ruling against its use by political candidates affiliated with the president. “It’s not [completely] prohibited,” Jesús Ramírez added.
Toward the end of his presser, López Obrador outlined tentative plans to visit South America later this year.
“I’ve traveled a lot, I’ve been in the United States four times … and then I was in Central America – Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Belize and Cuba. So I still have to go to the Southern Cone [region of South America and] Colombia, I have to go to Argentina. I have to go to Brazil but I’m not going to Brazil until President Lula comes [to Mexico],” he said.
“And [I have to go to] Chile, I’m invited and it’s very probable that I’ll go for the 11th of September, which is the 50th anniversary of the assassination of [former Chilean] president [Salvador] Allende,” AMLO said, adding that he would likely visit other South American nations on the same trip.
Just as he talked up his relationships with his fellow North American leaders earlier in the week, López Obrador declared that he and his government get on well with the political office holders in South America, where leftists are in power in several countries including Brazil, Colombia and Chile.
“We get on very well with all of them, even the president of Ecuador, who has a business background but is a very good person – the President [Guillermo] Lasso, [and] the president of Paraguay, I think his last name is Abdo, who is also from a center-right movement, but the communication [with him] is very good,” he said.
Female voladoras from Zozocolco, Veracruz posing in Cholula, Puebla. Until nearly 40 years ago, there was not a single woman who participated in the ritual acrobatic 'flying dance' that dates back to before the conquest. (Photo: Oscar Rodríguez)
High above the crowd, five people in colorful costumes ascend a tall pole to flute music. When the moment is just right, four of them throw themselves off the pole simultaneously, with only unwinding cords keeping them from crashing below.
This is the internationally known “dance” of the voladores or “flyers.”
At one time, women were strictly forbidden to “fly,” but more than 30 years ago, that began to change.
Depictions of flyers are found as early as pre-Classic (1500 B.C. to AD 200) Mesoamerica, with participants in costumes of sacred birds — eagles, quetzals and parrots — spinning in the air from a tall tree cut and placed in the ground for the purpose.
For centuries, the world of voladores was one completely closed to women, who were seen as a potential threat to the sanctity of the ritual. (Photo: Government of Mexico)
The first major change it underwent was to designate it a “dance” rather than a religious fertility ritual, likely to keep the Spanish from prohibiting it entirely. The bird costumes gave way to the highly-stylized outfits worn today.
The phallic imagery of the pole piercing Mother Earth to encourage her bounty is easy to see. Considering it’s a ceremony that once meant life or death for the community, it’s also easy to see how performing it correctly would be considered essential — and how changes would be strongly resisted.
With the imposition of Catholicism weakening indigenous religion, it is likely that the beliefs that the ritual was impregnating the earth gave way to other rationale for the insistence on male flyers. As recently as 2007, volador association captain Miguel Tirso Vázques of Zozocolco, Veracruz, described women as having “bad fevers” that create a “risk factor.”
Several decades ago, captain Genero Hernández of Papantla, Veracruz, was more blunt: “Women are evil beings. They bring bad luck and should not be accepted to the dance.”
But the barrier was first broken in 1972 by Isabel Arroyo Cepeda of Cuetzalan, Puebla, causing an uproar in eastern Mexico, where the ritual survives best. Her father, a respected captain named Jesús Arroyo, succumbed to her pleas and taught her to be a voladora (female flyer) in private.
In 2006, Captain Arroyo died falling from a pole, which some still believe today was divine retribution for teaching her and other women. The struggle for voladoras is ongoing, with more success in some places than others.
Spanish anthropologist Eugenia Rodríguez took this photo as part of her 2011 study of the emergence of female voladoras.
Those who permit women flyers have different rules: some put harsher requirements on women than on men, such as virginity and special prayers of forgiveness to counter the possible “evil” they could invoke.
Most voladoras are found in the Sierra Norte region of Puebla, not only because the Arroyos are from there but also because it has the most flyers and flyer groups in general. Papantla’s flyers may be more famous, thanks to tourist promotions, but they rank behind Puebla overall, and way behind in female participation.
Only Zozocolco has been known to regularly have female flyers, and Papantla did not have its first documented voladora until Sarai Morales in 2019. There are one or two flyer troupes each in San Luis Potosí and Michoacán, but all have at least one female member.
Isabel Arroyo and other voladoras insist that they have every right to fly.
“A woman’s dance … has the same value before the gods. We, too, know how to fly like the birds,” she says.
It’s near-impossible to find hard data about voladoras: compiled numbers, locations and demographic information is nonexistent, and anecdotal evidence is contradictory. Another issue is that most voladoras join very young and leave when they start college or get married.
Jacinta Teresa Hernández at the Los Pinos cultural center in Mexico City before a multistate gathering of traditional dancers in 2021 (Photo: Alejandro Linares García)
One exception is Jacinta Teresa Hernández, who remembers her first jump in Cuetzalan 34 years ago as if it were yesterday. She agrees that she receives a lot of support from her hometown, but not necessarily from voladores in other areas.
“There is still a lot of machismo among the more ‘closed’ Totonacs [Indigenous people of Veracruz, Puebla and Hidalgo] who complain that women take all the attention and who question our motives.”
But it does seem that Cuetzalan and the surrounding areas have the highest acceptance and largest number of active women, with Papantla having the least. Luis Arturo Díaz Rivera, a 26-year flyer and member of the National Council of Voladores, says that younger generations are more accepting of women flyers, which could be a good sign for the future.
Voladoras do garner much attention, but paradoxically it is because it is still considered abnormal.
In 2006, Hernández’s all-female troupe Guerreras del Sol (Warriors of the Sun) were featured on an episode of a Mexican soap opera. In 2009, “Voladora,” a short film about the life of Viviana Guerrero of Zozocolco premiered. In 2011, Spanish anthropologist Eugenia Rodríguez Blanco did an extensive study of voladoras, and in the past year, National Geographic did a story of the women flyers of Cuetzalan.
The National Council of Voladores does not consider the participation of women to be controversial but leaves final decisions to local authorities. They are more concerned with other issues, in particular the commercialization of the ritual.
Voladores performing at Mexico City’s Chapultepec park with luxury towers in the background. Such performances are for economic reasons, not cultural or spiritual ones. (Photo: Fernando González de Cueto)
The voladores who are seen in tourist venues in many parts of Mexico are doing shows of no religious or spiritual value. This is not prohibited by community authorities, but there is strong concern that the meanings behind the “spectacle” are being lost.
Many young people are interested in learning how to jump off the pole but less interested in understanding the meanings behind the actions — and even less in those elements that do not earn tips or fees.
To combat this, the women and men of the national council, as well as of other organizations, have set up schools to teach future voladores — girls and boys — to value all of the aspects of the ritual: the costumes and their fabrication, the pre-jump rituals and even the Totonac language.
It’s been a long and slow process for women to get where they are now in this tradition. Jacinta Teresa Hernández believes that female participation is established but that women are still a ways off from true acceptance and equal participation.
Leigh Thelmadatter arrived in Mexico over 20 years ago and fell in love with the land and the culture in particular its handcrafts and art. She is the author of Mexican Cartonería: Paper, Paste and Fiesta (Schiffer 2019). Her culture column appears regularly on Mexico News Daily.
