The increase came as a surprise to many motorists. On the Mexico-Toluca highway, the toll increased from 97 to 105 pesos. (Crisanta Espinosa Aguilar / Cuartoscuro.com)
The federal government has lifted tolls on the federal highways it operates by almost 8%.
The Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation (SICT) announced a 7.82% increase effective Tuesday.
It said in a statement that the hike is equal to inflation in the period between December 2021 and December 2022. SICT noted that tolls on the federal network of highways hadn’t increased for a year.
The ministry also said that tolls on federal highways operated separately by the National Infrastructure Fund and the federal highways agency Capufe would increase on March 1.
The objective of the increase in tolls, SICT said, is to maintain “economic balance” in road projects given that the revenue they generate is “used in the management, operation, conservation and maintenance of highways.”
One toll that increased on Tuesday was that for the Mexico City-Toluca highway. It rose from 97 pesos to 105 pesos, a hike that surprised some motorists, according to a report by the newspaper El Universal.
Part of the federal Durango-Mazatlán highway, completed in 2013. (Gob MX)
The Reforma newspaper reported that the toll for the Capufe-operated Cuernavaca-Acapulco highway will rise from 543 pesos to 586 pesos on March 1, while that for the Mexico City-Cuernavaca highway will increase from 126 pesos to just under 136 pesos.
In Mexico’s north, the cost of traveling on the Durango-Mazatlán highway is set to rise to about 721 pesos, an increase of over 50 pesos compared to the current toll.
A migrant lives on the streets of Ciudad Juárez near the U.S. border. (Photo: Cuartoscuro)
Mexico has rejected a move by the United States to reactivate the Remain in Mexico policy, under which asylum seekers must wait in Mexico while their U.S. claims are processed.
The Biden administration has pledged to end the program, which the Trump administration introduced in 2019. The policy is currently suspended, after being terminated and reinstated several times due to contradictory rulings by U.S. courts.
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Biden had the right to terminate the program. However, in December, a federal judge ruled in favor of a lawsuit brought by states including Missouri and Texas, which argued that the Department of Homeland Security had failed to show the policy was ineffective.
After U.S. authorities notified Mexico of the intention to reinstate the program, Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Ministry (SRE)issued a statement on Monday, strongly opposing the plan.
“Faced with an attempted implementation of this policy for the third time, the Government of Mexico, through the Foreign Affairs Ministry, expresses its rejection of the U.S. government’s intention to return persons processed under this program to Mexican national territory.”
The statement points out that 74,000 people entered Mexico under the Remain in Mexico policy under President Trump, compared to 7,500 people under President Biden.
A Customs and Border Protection officer detains migrants crossing into the U.S. (Photo: CBP)
Although the Remain in Mexico policy is officially called the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), it has been criticized by human rights groups for forcing migrants to wait in dangerous border cities where they are vulnerable to exploitation by criminal groups.
The SRE’s statement does not give specific reasons for Mexico’s decision. However, it concludes by saying that Mexico “reaffirms its recognition of the new, orderly, safe, regular and humane access routes for people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, Ukraine and Venezuela to the United States labor market.”
The latter refers to anew immigration plan announced by the Biden administration in January. Under the new protocol , up to 30,000 Venezuelans, Nicaraguans, Cubans and Haitians per month will be allowed to enter and work in the U.S. for two years, providing they pass all relevant checks and do not cross the border illegally. Similar measures were already in place for Ukrainians.
Mexico has committed to accepting up to 30,000 migrants per month expelled under this scheme.
However, questions remain about migrants from other countries, particularly Central Americans. Even while Remain in Mexico has been suspended, the U.S. has continued to expel many of these asylum seekers to Mexico under pandemic-era public health regulations known as Title 42.
Like Remain in Mexico, Title 42 has been subject to multiple contradictory U.S. legal rulings. Although a federal judge ordered its termination in November, the Supreme Courtgranted a stay in December after several U.S. states argued their services would be overwhelmed by a sudden influx of asylum-seekers allowed to stay in the U.S. to await processing of their claims
A wall of shipping containers in Ciudad Juárez attempts to deter migrants from crossing into Texas. A number of border states have expressed concerns about the federal government removing barriers to detained asylum seekers waiting in the U.S. while their claims are processed. (Photo: Cuartoscuro)
The Biden administration has expressed its opposition to Title 42 but says its hands are tied due to the Supreme Court ruling, and the U.S. continues to implement the policy.
If both Remain in Mexico and Title 42 are terminated, the U.S. will either have to allow asylum seekers to remain in the country while their claims are processed, or make other arrangements to remove them.
After the SRE rejected Remain in Mexico’s reinstatement, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security told Reuters that the program “has always been contingent on the government of Mexico’s willingness to accept returns” and that the Biden administration would keep trying to terminate the policy through the courts.
The Wixárika are Mexico's oldest indigenous culture that maintain traditions dating to before the conquest. (Photo: Government of Mexico)
The Wixárika — Huichol in Spanish — are the oldest surviving indigenous culture in Mexico who continue to practice their religious beliefs and traditions as their ancestors did centuries ago.
They live in the Sierra Madre Occidental in the central west of Mexico, mainly in the state of Nayarit, where they are a majority ethnic group.
The rugged mountainous terrain provides a natural barrier to acculturation, but their unique culture is now endangered by mining, peyote harvesters and peyote tourism.
Their religious beliefs, based on animism and shamanism, permeate every aspect of their lives: their artwork, rituals, dance, music and even their clothing. Three elements central to those beliefs are deer, maize and peyote.
The Wixárika are divided into five autonomous communities, each with their own religious authority called the mara’akate — a shaman priest — responsible for preserving and teaching their religious traditions.
I asked INAH archaeologist Gibrán de la Torre why the Wixàrika migrated to the Sierra Madre region of Mexico 500 years ago and where they came from.
Gibrán de la Torre is an archaeologist with Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH). (Photo: Sheryl Losser)
“We don’t know,” he told me. “We have found Wixárika artwork from A.D. 450 in Sinaloa. However, there are no Wixárika in Sinaloa today.”
The Wixárika’s highly valued artwork is created by pressing colorful threads or beads into wax. De la Torre said that “the traditional artwork always tells a story — stories of their ancestors, stories about their beliefs, stories about everyday life. The ‘commercialized’ artwork [of the younger generation] does not tell a story.”
He pulls up a picture of a beaded bowl on his computer.
“This was given to the [late 19th-century Norwegian explorer] Carl Lumholtz, who lived with the Wixárika for several years. It was created by a shaman priest and tells the story of Lumholtz’s dog, and longtime traveling companion, who had just died. It was given to Lumholtz to ease his pain and sorrow over the loss of his companion.”
Lumholtz’s book, Unknown Mexico, published in 1902, chronicles his five years among the indigenous tribes of the western Sierra Madre and is considered the anthropological and archaeological bible for understanding Wixárika’s history and traditions.
De la Torre then shows me several photos of traditional Wixárika artwork and points out the prominently displayed peyote plant in the mosaics.
Wixárikas in Mezquitic, Jalisco, receiving vaccinations in September. Through the centuries, the indigenous group has interacted with the modern world but also maintained its pre-Hispanic traditions. (Government of Jalisco)
“The peyote is a very important sacred symbol. Most traditional artwork will contain the peyote, sometimes along with the deer and maize.”
The Wixárika believe that the Blue Deer god helps them find their way in life but that the deer only reveals himself when you can cross the narrow bridge between ordinary life and the world beyond. Consuming peyote, they say, will remove all fears and negative thoughts, allowing you to communicate with the gods. If you can do that, the deer will appear and transform your life.
Deer, maize and peyote are all connected in the Wixárika belief system. The maize cannot grow without deer blood; the deer cannot be sacrificed until after the peyote hunt.
The peyote hunt happens in Wirikuta — “where the sun is born” or “where the world originated” — located in the desert area of the Sierra de Catorce in San Luis Potosí, where the peyote grows. This is also the site of their religious ceremonial center.
The hunt, made twice a year and led by a shaman, is a 400-km trek for the Wixárika, following the same sacred path as their ancestors. Along the way, they stop at sacred rivers, streams and caves, where the shaman ingests peyote and makes offerings to the gods.
Upon reaching Wirikuta, the traditional sacred ceremony begins. When a peyote cactus is found, the pilgrims ritually throw spears at it — the heart of the deer god.
An indigenous member of the Wixárika people in rural San Luis Potosí collects peyote, which is an important part of their culture and daily life. (Iván Stephens/Cuartoscuro)
The peyote is shared with the pilgrims, and the mitote — a shared vision — begins, sometimes while dancing in a circle. Additional peyote is then gathered to take back to their communities for other rituals.
Unfortunately, in the last 30 years, Wirikuta, and the peyote, has become endangered: in 2010, Canadian mining company First Majestic Silver acquired rights to reopen a colonial-era silver mine in the Sierra de Catorce. National and international NGOs, prominent Mexicans, environmental and indigenous rights groups have joined with the Wixárika in opposing the mine’s reopening.
Although Wirikuta is located within a natural protected area (ANP), the Wixárika’s appeals to the Mexican government to protect this sacred land were to no avail. The mining project is currently paused, awaiting environmental impact studies.
De la Torre doesn’t believe there is much that can be done to protect the sacred site.
“This is not their [the Wixárika’s] land. They don’t even live on the land. They have no protections under the law.”
Mining is not the only threat.
In 2009, First Majestic Silver bought mining rights in Real de Catorce, a mining ghost town located within the Wixárika’s sacred land. The Wixárika believe mining would threaten the area’s ecosystem, putting the peyote that grows there in jeopardy. (Photo: Rafael Saldaña/Creative Commons)
Peyote harvesters make a living, though illegal, by harvesting and selling it. De la Torre says, “Some have begun drying the peyote plant, grinding it up and selling it as mescaline. They harvest large quantities of peyote, depleting the crop.”
In the 1970s, the writer Carlos Castaneda — then a student at the University of California in Los Angeles — popularized peyote, and since then, “peyote tourists” have been coming to San Luis Potosí in increasing numbers searching for their own recreational mystic journey.
The Wixárika are careful to rebury the roots and place offerings on top so that the peyote will regenerate, but outsiders don’t know how to properly harvest it, and they destroy the cactus’ roots, meaning the peyote won’t grow back.
Under the best of circumstances, it takes 10 to 15 years for the plant to rebound after being harvested.
“The peyote is disappearing,” de la Torre says. “The Wixárika must walk further and further to find the plants.”
The only legal protection the Wixárika have is the right to consume peyote as part of their religious ceremonies.
Wixárika peyote collectors on the pilgrimage to the sacred Wirikuta site. Each carries a basket they’ll fill with the hallucinogen. (Photo: Johannes Neurath/INAH)
I asked him whether anything can be done.
“I don’t think so. If the peyote disappears, their culture disappears. We have hundreds, maybe thousands of cultures in Mexico that have disappeared,” he said.
“The world is changing around these tribes. They either transform their culture, or their culture will die.”
Sheryl Losser is a former public relations executive and professional researcher. She spent 45 years in national politics in the United States. She moved to Mazatlán in 2021 and works part-time doing freelance research and writing.
Originally from Monterrey, Fabrizzio Ulloa now lives and studies in Switzerland. (Prix de Lausanne Twitter)
Monterrey dancer Fabrizzio Ulloa Cornejo won first place in the prestigious Prix de Lausanne 2023, an international classical ballet competition held in Switzerland since 1973. Ulloa is the first Mexican to ever win this award.
“I almost fainted. I was shocked because it was something I always dreamed of and I always took it lightly and never really thought it could happen,” Ulloa said in a phone interview with Debate newspaper.
Fabrizzio Ulloa performs at Prix de Lausanne 2023. (Inbal)
This year’s award was special, since it was given to two dancers. Ulloa shared the prize with Spanish dancer Millán de Benito, age 15.
The competition, which celebrated its 50th anniversary this year, is focused on young dancers (15 to 18 years old) who seek to pursue a professional career in classical ballet.
This year’s contest took place from Jan. 29 to Feb. 4, beginning with 82 candidates, of whom only 22 moved on to the finals. Amongst the finalists was 18-year-old Amaury Zanete Pérez, another Mexican ballet dancer.
Ulloa was a student at the Inbal Higher School of Music and Dance of Monterrey and in 2021, he also won first place in the Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP) Junior Category. In this year’s competition, he participated as a student of the Basel Theater Ballet School in Switzerland, where he currently lives.
The winners (eleven in total) will receive a one-year scholarship to study at any school or ballet company of their choice that is partnered with the Prix de Lausanne.
The Mexican government is sending 150 people to assist following the disaster. (Marcelo Ebrard Twitter)
A Mexican Air Force (FAM) plane bound for Turkey took off Tuesday morning with a delegation to support rescue efforts after earthquakes devastated southeastern Turkey and northern Syria on Monday.
“Following instructions from President López Obrador, a Mexican Air Force plane with rescue teams and specialists will leave in the next few hours,” Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard tweeted Monday night.
Members of the Mexican army, marines and others are on their way to the site of the earthquakes. (Gob MX)
Ebrard also shared photos of rescue dogs joining the mission and of marines wearing helmets like that worn by Frida, Mexico’s beloved rescue dog, who became famous for locating victims after the Sept. 19 2017 Mexico City earthquake. Frida died in November at age 13.
Defense Minister (Sedena) General Luis Cresencio Sandoval said Tuesday morning during López Obrador’s press conferencethat 150 people are traveling with the rescue and support delegation including soldiers, marines, members of the Mexican Red Cross and foreign ministry personnel.
The professional non-profit “Topos” rescue brigade will also be sending members to aid in the search and rescue efforts.
As of Tuesday, the Mexican Embassy in Turkey had no record of any Mexican citizens affected by the earthquakes.
The planned Tulum Airport site showed evidence of major clearing work already done when this photo was taken in December. The project has not yet been given approval by the Environment Ministry, although it was granted provisional approval by law. (Photo: Elizabeth Ruiz/Cuartoscuro)
Friday was the last day of a period of public input on the environmental impact for the proposed construction of Tulum Airport, but some local activists are saying that the inclusion of comments from the process is a sham, given that construction work on the site already reached the 20% mark in the month before the consultation opened on Jan. 9.
President Lopez Obrador announced the 20% figure himself in December at his daily press conference, an assertion that appears to be backed up by photos taken by the news agency Cuartoscuro in December of a long swath of cleared land on the site, and heavy machinery sitting on cleared land.
Animal Político has reported that the project as planned will result in 1.3 million trees being felled at the site to make way for the airport, as well as a military base to be located onsite.
The Defense Ministry (Sedena) is slated to build both the airport and the military base in the Quintana Roo municipality of Felipe Carrillo Puerto, not far from Tulum, on parcels of land owned by the military and the federal government.
The military air base and the airport, which President López Obrador recently announced would open in December of this year, will have the capacity to receive 4 million passengers per year. For reference, that’s a bit less than a tenth of the number of passengers that moved through the Mexico City International Airport (AICM) in 2022 and nearly eight times less than the 30 million that passed through Cancún International Airport in the same year, according to Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transport figures.
Ángel Sulub Santos, an indigenous Maya and member of the U Kúuchil k Ch’i Community Center in the Felipe Carrillo Puerto, told Animal Político that the government “isn’t asking if [they] want or if [they] don’t want the airport. The public consultation does not guarantee the people’s right to prior, free and informed consent. It is not a mechanism for effective participation.”
The Mexican army’s military engineers were deployed in Tulum last March to work on the Mayan Train. Critics say it also set up them up to work on the Tulum airport project, although it hasn’t been fully approved yet. (Photo: Elizabeth Ruiz/Cuartoscuro)
Aáron Siller, director of the southeast regional office of the Mexican Center for Environmental Law (CEMDA) agreed. He told the news outlet that the request for public commentary amounts to nothing more than a simulacro (a sham).
“Let’s imagine that the public consultation determines that it is not the ideal place for the construction of the airport: it will not be possible to relocate it, and there has already been an environmental, social and cultural impact [in the community]. This is a simulated consultation.”
Siller also criticized the request for citizen input as a process not accessible to the local population, saying it requests commentary on a highly technical document that is difficult for the general public to understand, requires Internet access to see it, and is in Spanish despite the fact that a large part of the population in the area speaks only the Mayan language.
Work was able to begin on the project before the public input process started because of a presidential decree that has allowed the government to declare López Obrador’s flagship projects to be of public interest and national security, and thus subject to provisional approval while the project goes through the regular permitting process.
“A project can’t be evaluated in five days,” Siller said.
The local population and the scientific community have another concern: the environmental damage that will be caused by the airport’s construction. It is being built on top of the Holbox Fracture Zone and over a karstic system with underground rivers.
The public consultation does not guarantee the people’s right to prior, free and informed consent. “It is not a mechanism for effective participation […].” says local activist Ángel Sulub Santos. (Photo: Maya Goded Colichio))Moreover, the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve, is located near the project site. The environmental and noise pollution caused by the airport could cause serious damage to the aquifer, the subsoil, migratory birds, and other species that inhabit the jungle, Santos said.
“It is not just about the airport but about what is generated around it in terms of environmental, social and cultural impacts,” he said.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Norma Piña Hernandez, seated at front, second from left, attracted attention when she remained seated when AMLO began a speech during a ceremony marking the 106th anniversary of the Mexican constitution. (Cuartoscuro)
President López Obrador declared Monday that he was “very pleased” and proud that the chief justice of the Supreme Court (SCJN) didn’t stand up before he delivered an official address in Querétaro on Sunday.
Norma Piña, who last month became the first ever female chief justice of the SCJN, remained seated when other officials rose to applaud López Obrador before he gave a speech marking the 106th anniversary of the Mexican constitution.
Speaking at his regular news conference on Monday, the president said Piña may have been tired or simply didn’t want to stand up to acknowledge his presence.
“I was very pleased — very, very pleased because that wasn’t seen before; the court justices used to be employees of the president,” said López Obrador, who has been highly critical of Mexico’s judiciary.
“… Since the rule of Porfirio Díaz the division of powers, the balance between the powers was spoken about but in reality the power of powers was the executive,” he said.
“When had a chief justice ever remained seated at a ceremony like that? That fills me with pride because it means we’re carrying out changes, it’s a transformation. It’s no longer the president who gives orders to [Supreme Court] justices, and it’s also a lie when, in an exaggerated way, a dictatorship or tyranny is spoken about.”
López Obrador’s remarks contrasted with those of his communications chief, Jesús Ramírez, who posted a photo of a seated Piña to Twitter on Sunday and wrote that it was “unfortunate that not everyone respected the protocol of the ceremony.”
In her own address on Sunday, Piña said that “judicial independence isn’t a privilege of judges,” but rather “the principle that guarantees the proper administration of justice.”
Mexico City Police Department arrested Carlos Caro Quintero on Monday around noon. (Photo: SSC-CDMX/Twitter)
Mexico City police have arrested a man identified as a brother of notorious drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero.
Police chief Omar García Harfuch announced the arrest on Twitter Monday, saying that Carlos “N” – identified as 61-year-old Carlos Caro Quintero in media reports – was taken into custody in the Miguel Hidalgo borough of the capital.
Convicted drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, founder of the Guadalajara Cartel, who is currently in custody in the Altiplano prison in México state.
He said that the suspect is “a member of a criminal group that operates in the north of the country” and that Mexico City police were “alert” to “any situation” that could arise in response to his arrest.
The Mexico City Ministry of Citizens Security (SSC) said in a statement that Caro Quintero was detained in Lomas de Chapultepec, an affluent neighborhood west of the historic center. He was stopped after police noticed the vehicle in which he was traveling had its license plates covered, the SSC said.
It said that police seized a firearm and associated paraphernalia from the vehicle as well as what appeared to be eight kilograms of marijuana and “124 doses” of cocaine.
The arrest comes almost seven months after Rafael Caro Quintero – the founder of the now-defunct Guadalajara Cartel and the convicted murderer of United States DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena – was arrested in northern Mexico.
Caro Quintero was arrested while driving this Mercedes Benz automobile with covered license plates. (Photo: SSC-CDMX/Twitter)
Carlos Caro Quintero previously ran afoul of the law due to the possession of a firearm in the state of Jalisco in 2019 and causing a public scandal in Durango in 2022, according to reports.
The news website Infobae reported that he is one of 11 siblings of Rafael Caro Quintero, nicknamed “El Narco de Narcos.”
Carlos Caro Quintero hadn’t previously been linked to drug trafficking, Infobae said. He grew up in the Sinaloa municipality of Badiraguato, birthplace of imprisoned former Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
The merger of Kansas City Southern with Canadian Pacific is awaiting final approval from the US Surface Transportation Board, expected to come this quarter. (William HamlinTwitter)
Kansas City Southern México (KCSM), which for the moment owns the cross-border freight railroad at the heart of every rail transportation supply chain connecting the United States and Mexico, expects to make an investment of more than US $200 million in Mexico, says its president.
The investment, KCSM President Oscar del Cueto said at a press conference last week, seeks to improve the company’s connectivity and take advantage of nearshoring opportunities.
Kansas City Southern México President Oscar del Cueto.
Del Cueto said that the company saw 14% growth in sales in 2022, while its volume increased 7%, and that in 2023, he expects 7% growth in sales and 2% in volume, driven by the need for shipping by businesses in the automotive sector and the grain industry.
He said he also hopes the company’s numbers will improve once the US $31 billion merger between KCSM’s parent company Kansas City Southern and Canadian Pacific Railway is approved by U.S. officials and the two companies’ new merged railroad line — which will be the only single-line railroad connecting Canada, the United States and Mexico — can begin operation.
Assuming the merger receives authorization from the U.S. Surface Transportation Board, which del Cueto said he expects to happen this quarter and possibly by the end of February, CPKC will have a combined 32,000 km in rail lines crossing the three countries. It also gives the new company access to Kansas City Southern Mexico’s strategic ports of Lázaro Cárdenas, Altamira and Veracruz.
The merger between Kansas City Southern (KCS) and Canadian Pacific will stretch over three countries, which KCS México President Oscar del Cueto said would provide nearshoring alternatives to shipping by sea. (Photo: trains.com)
The merger comes at a strategic moment for international trade, del Cueto said, specifically for Mexico, which is benefiting from nearshoring particularly in the automotive sector, a strategic industry for the KCSM, del Cueto said.
Del Cueto did not address if and how KCSM would be restructured if the STB approves the merger. But he did say CPKC sees opportunity in Mexico after COVID-19’s disruption of logistics and supply chains, which has resulted in backlogged shipping seaports worldwide.
“With nearshoring, especially in the automotive sector, we have seen interest in the arrival of some companies, especially in the Bajío [area], and we are trying to offer a faster service regarding containers,” he said.
As an example, he spoke of what he said were CPKC’s plans to begin moving merchandise by rail from the Lázaro Cárdenas port in Michoacán to Chicago in 5 days.
By sea, the same trip normally takes 26–28 days, he said.
Nearshoring has occurred more in the northern part of Mexico, but CPKC also wants it to happen in the country’s central Bajío region, del Cueto said. With CPKC’s new extended railway, they will also offer three intermodal terminals.
“We already have three available in Toluca, San Luis Potosí and Salinas Victoria,” he said, adding that his company wants to offer containers to move both domestic and international merchandise.
Del Cueto also said that he recently met with Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transport (SICT) head Jorge Nuño to discuss the benefits of the merger.
“We talked about how interesting it will be to have a single railway line in the three countries,” he said, adding that they will be “able to ship in Mexico and with reassurance that it will be the same supplier that takes the merchandise to Canada […].”
Del Cueto mentioned that this was already done case with the Volkswagen company, which transports many vehicles bound for Canada with Kansas City Southern México to the Mexico-U.S. border.
“We exchanged them at the border, and they were going on another railway to Canada. Now we will be a single line. It will be a service without borders, point-to-point, with a single lock.”
President López Obrador attended an event announcing the German carmaker's investment on Friday. (Gob MX)
German automotive manufacturer BMW announced on Friday that it will invest 800 million euros (US $866 million) in San Luis Potosí to produce high-voltage batteries and fully electric “Neue Klasse” vehicles. The company’s statement confirms President López Obrador’s announcement about the investment in mid-January.
The carmaker is investing in expanding its global production network to turn more than half of its global vehicle sales into all-electric models by the end of 2030.
BMW’s San Luis Potosí plant started operations in 2019. (BMW Group)
“We are systematically reconfiguring our production network to move towards electric mobility. In Mexico, we are investing 800 million euros in our plant and creating close to 1,000 new jobs,” BMW’s head of production Milan Nedeljkovic said during an event in San Luis Potosí attended by President López Obrador and the governor of San Luis Potosí, Ricardo Gallardo Cardona.
Approximately 500 million euros (US $536 million) are allocated for the battery assembly center on the company’s existing plant grounds, BMW said, and 500 additional employees will work there. Another 500 jobs will be created in other departments. The production center will cover an area of 85,000 square meters, Fortuna magazine reported.
The remaining 300 million euros (US $321 million) will be invested in adapting and extending the body shop and building a new assembly line to install the battery packs, plant head Harald Gottsche told Reuters.
“With the new investment, our plant in San Luis Potosí will play a central role in the transition of the BMW Group towards electric mobility,” Gottsche said. “The company reinforces its commitment to Mexico and its participation in our production network.”
AMLO, the governor of San Luis Potosí and CEO of the plant, Harald Gottsche (right), tour the facility. (SRE Twitter)
Gottsche added that the existing plant already produces three vehicle models delivered to 74 global markets.
Currently, the San Luis Potosí plant – which started operations in 2019 – has some 3,000 employees and manufactures the BMW 3 Series, 2 Series Coupé, and the new M2, the latter two exclusively for the global market.
A special feature of the “Neue Klasse” model to be manufactured at the plant is that the high-voltage battery is directly integrated into the vehicle structure. Thus, the assembly area in San Luis Potosí is expanding to incorporate this new process into its operations.
“We will start building, constructing the extensions and the new battery assembly in the beginning of 2024, and we will start (to ramp up) production at the beginning of 2027,” Gottsche said.
A BMW auto manufacturing plant. (BMW Group)
BMW’s investment comes hand in hand with its suppliers, as San Luis Potosí’s Ministry of Economic Development announced investments of up to US $300 million each by seven such companies.According to the state’s Economic Development Minister, Juan Carlos Valladeres Eichelmann, the first stage of investment could generate between 200-300 direct jobs.
According to Reuters, “the shocks of the pandemic and two years of supply chain chaos are colliding with a once-in-a-century shift of the industry’s fundamental technology as combustion vehicles give way to electric ones,” and Mexico appears ready to join the shift, at least in manufacturing.
Mexico wants to “attract all that we can,” said Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard in a Thursday interview with Reuters.
Ebrard said companies like Audi, General Motors Fiat Chrysler and Tesla have all expressed interest in manufacturing in the country.
