The long-awaited St. Regis Los Cabos hotel at Quivira is expected to open by summer 2026. (Blasson Property Investments)
At least nine new hotels and resorts are slated to open in Los Cabos between now and 2030, adding an estimated 1,000 new rooms to the current inventory of 21,744, and bringing the total number of such properties up from 185 to 194.
The number of new hotels and resorts expected during this timeframe is in line with the pace of recent development. For example, 14 new accommodations premiered between 2015 and 2020, with eight more opening in the last five years. However, what’s really interesting is not the numbers but rather the properties themselves and the luxury brands behind them.
The Park Hyatt Los Cabos at Cabo del Sol opens this month in Los Cabos. (Hyatt)
Los Cabos continues its transformation as a luxury destination
Over the past decade, several prominent luxury hospitality brands have opened hotels and resorts in Los Cabos, including the Ritz-Carlton, Four Seasons, Waldorf Astoria, and Nobu. That trend will continue moving forward, as St. Regis, Soho House, Aman, Raffles and Delano all enter the market.
Here’s an update on what new hotels and resorts are opening and when:
This resort has experienced numerous recent delays, a phenomenon not exactly unknown when it comes to opening new hotels … especially in Los Cabos. However, the Park Hyatt Los Cabos at Cabo del Sol is currently accepting reservations and officially opens this month along La Ruta Escénica, less than 7 miles from Cabo San Lucas.
The Park Hyatt will feature 163 guest rooms and suites, and a host of high-end amenities, including five swimming pools and, at 59,000 square feet, the most expansive fitness and wellness facilities on the Baja California peninsula. Guests will also have tee time access to the Tom Weiskopf-designed Cabo del Col Desert Course.
Soho House has also seen some delays, not to mention confusion about the number of accommodations. When the project was first announced, it was expected to include 70 available accommodations for members. That number will actually only be 15 (12 casas and 3 casonas), albeit with an additional 45 residences and 5 villas built for owners.
Like Park Hyatt, Soho House will be set within the Cabo del Sol development, and when completed, will feature a signature restaurant, a trio of bars, a beach club, and a Soho Health Club with gym and wellness facilities. The architectural firm that designed Soho House, Sordo Madaleno in Mexico City, is lauded in Los Cabos for its elegant work on the iconic Westin Los Cabos and Solaz Los Cabos projects. Estimates for Soho House’s opening are early 2026.
The Soho House in Los Cabos is expected to be an oasis of gracious living when it premieres soon. (Soho House)
Speaking of delays, the St. Regis has dealt with several — from the coronavirus pandemic to labor shortages — since announcing a 120-room hotel and 60 residences at Quivira on the Pacific Coast of Cabo San Lucas in 2017. However, the hotel is on track to open in the summer of 2026, according to the latest updates, and residences are also proceeding apace. Most have been sold, with many owners able to move in by the end of this year.
Guests at the hotel, when it does welcome them, will have access to the Jack Nicklaus-crafted golf course at Quivira, which features some truly spectacular views. The signature restaurant, meanwhile, will be helmed by acclaimed Mexican chef Carlos Gaytan, who earned a coveted Michelin star in 2013 for his Chicago-based Mexique.
The 1,500-acre Costa Palmas development at La Ribera on the East Cape is already home to one luxury resort: the Four Seasons Resort Los Cabos at Costa Palmas, which opened in 2019. In 2026, it should be joined by another, that being the five-star Amanvari from the Swiss boutique luxury hospitality brand Aman.
The resort will feature only 18 freestanding casitas, along with at least 24 residences. The former will be built on stilts with wraparound decks, swimming pools, and access to the onsite temazcal sweat lodge and open-air yoga pavilion. In return for the exclusivity and the attendant personalized service of such an intimate property — Aman typically features staff-to-guest ratios of 4:1 or even 6:1 — casitas are expected to fetch in the neighborhood of US $3,000 per night.
The Oleada Golf Links from four-time major champion Ernie “Big Easy” Els is scheduled to be completed by mid-2026 as part of the 860-acre Oleada development on the Pacific Coast of Cabo San Lucas, nestled between Diamante and Rancho San Lucas. Thus, the golf course will be ready and waiting for guests when the Grand Hyatt opens its 300-room property, reportedly by the end of next year. However, that won’t be the luxury accommodation option at Oleada.
The Conrad Los Cabos from Hilton — the Conrad chain is named for Hilton Hotels founder Conrad Hilton — will join Grand Hyatt at Oleada by 2027 with a property consisting of 130 guestrooms, 40 residences, and, of course, numerous amenities. The design is courtesy of Architectos Legorreta, one of Mexico’s most acclaimed firms.
The 300-room Grand Hyatt Los Cabos at Oleada is expected to open by the end of 2026. (Oleada Los Cabos)
Hospitality brand SIRO from Kerzner International is a wellness specialist. No surprise, then, that the SIRO Palmilla, expected to open in 2027 in the Palmilla Reserve, just over a mile from the iconic One&Only Palmilla, reflects a focus on nutrition, fitness, relaxation and recovery. Perhaps the most intriguing amenity at the 120-room resort will be the onsite Recovery Lab, which will feature everything from cryotherapy chambers and vibroacoustic therapy beds to infrared and oxygen therapies.
Not much is known at present about these properties from luxury hospitality brands Delano and Raffles, since both were only recently announced. The Delano East Cape is expected to open in 2029, as is the Raflles Estera East Cape, but each could experience the sort of delays common to hotel and resort projects in Mexico.
It’s not even known, for instance, exactly where on the East Cape these resorts will be located, although that should be confirmed as soon as construction begins. What is confirmed is that the Delano East Cape will have 117 guestrooms and 60 residences, as well as 100 meters of beachfront access on the Gulf of California (known to locals as the Sea of Cortés). Raffles, meanwhile, will offer 80 guestrooms and 46 residences.
Chris Sands is the former Cabo San Lucas local expert for the USA Today travel website 10 Best and writer of Fodor’s Los Cabos travel guidebook. He’s also a contributor to numerous websites and publications, including Tasting Table, Marriott Bonvoy Traveler, Forbes Travel Guide, Porthole Cruise, Cabo Living and Mexico News Daily.
President Sheinbaum told reporters that the Friday mañanera would be brief because she was scheduled to meet French President Emmanuel Macron later in the morning.
(Andrea Murcia/Cuartoscuro.com)
“Today we’re going to have a brief press conference because at 9:40 a.m. the president of France is coming,” Sheinbaum told reporters at the beginning of her mañanera.
Later in the mañanera, Sheinbaum received questions on a range of topics, including the murder of the mayor of Uruapan, Michoacán, last Saturday, and her designation as a persona non grata by the Congress of Peru.
‘Nobody wants young people to get involved with criminal groups’
Addressing the subject of the diplomatic rift with Peru, which has resulted in her being named persona non grata in that South American country, Sheinbaum deferred to the Foreign Relations Ministry’s earlier statement that the deisgnation was based on “false premises” and that the granting of asylum to former Peruvian Prime Minister Betssy Betzabet Chávez Chino was not an intervention in Peru’s internal affairs but rather a humanitarian act as established by international agreement. (Mario Jasso/Cuartoscuro.com)
Asked “what is happening” in Mexico that leads young people to get involved in organized crime, Sheinbaum first pointed out that her government’s security strategy is not just about “the presence of security forces, the strengthening of prosecutor’s offices and arrests.”
Another part of the strategy, she continued, is providing “attention to the causes” of crime, such as poverty and lack of opportunity.
“No Mexican man or Mexican woman, or anyone, wants young people to get involved with criminal groups,” Sheinbaum said without directly answering the reporters’s question.
She went on to claim that young people in Mexico were “abandoned” for 36 years, a reference to what she and others call the country’s “neoliberal” period between 1982 and 2018.
Sheinbaum said that her government’s objective is to give young people “options” so that they don’t look at organized crime as a “life choice.”
Those options are provided “through culture, sport and education,” she said.
“… A security strategy must include the … presence of the police, the National Guard, federal forces if necessary, as well as intelligence, investigation, coordination [between authorities], arrests, and prosecution,” Sheinbaum said.
“But it must also include attention to the causes [of crime], embracing young people,” she said.
“The [political] right was very critical of ‘hugs, not bullets‘ because they said that it was ‘hugs for criminals,'” she added, referring to the nickname of the security strategy implemented by former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, whose government favored addressing the root causes of crime through welfare and social programs over combating criminal groups with force.
“False,” Sheinbaum said of the “hugs for criminals” assessment.
“Nobody ever suggested that. The issue is that you have to take an interest in young people. … We have to do everything we can so that no young person gets involved in a criminal group. That’s our vision and we have to keep working on it every day,” she said.
“That’s what the Plan Michoacán for Peace and Justice is for,” Sheinbaum said, referring to a government initiative developed in response to Manzo’s murder and general insecurity in the state, one of Mexico’s most violent.
“… There has to be more schools, more care, more culture, more sport, so that young people feel cared for and they don’t see joining a criminal group as an option that … appears to be an option that will give them money, but is ultimately a choice of death,” she said.
Mexican government ‘rejects’ Peru’s persona non grata declaration against Sheinbaum
Sheinbaum declined to comment on the Peruvian Congress’ declaration of her as a “persona non grata,” noting that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) already responded to the development.
The Associated Press reported that the Peruvian Congress’ decision on Thursday “was adopted with 63 votes in favor, 34 against and two absent, after a debate in which right-wing congresspersons argued that Sheinbaum has maintained a hostile position toward Peru since she took office in 2024 by backing former Peruvian President Pedro Castillo.”
When the subject came up of the young age (17) of the suspected triggerman in the murder of Uruapan, Michoacán, Mayor Carlos Manzo, for whom the city’s residents are still mourning by leaving up Day of the Dead decorations, Sheinbaum turned the discussion to what her administration considers the need to augment social programs to provide young people with better options than turning to crime. (Rogelio Morales/Cuartoscuro.com)
“The Government of Mexico rejects the declaration of persona non grata against the President of the United Mexican States, Dr. Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, approved by the Congress of Peru on this date, as it is based on false premises,” the foreign ministry said.
The SRE asserted that “Mexico has in no way intervened in the internal affairs of Peru,” and has remained “faithful” to its foreign policy principles and “strong diplomatic tradition.”
The ministry said that the granting of political asylum to “the citizen Betssy Betzabet Chávez Chino was decided in strict adherence to the applicable international law on the matter, which is binding for both Mexico and Peru.”
Chávez served as prime minister under Pedro Castillo and is accused of colluding with the former president on his attempt to dissolve Peru’s Congress in late 2022 when lawmakers were preparing an impeachment vote against him. Castillo’s attempt failed and he was ousted by the Congress. Sheinbaum, like López Obrador, has claimed that he was the victim of a “coup.”
The SRE concluded its statement by highlighting that “the General Assembly of the United Nations has declared that political asylum is a peaceful and humanitarian act, which cannot be regarded as unfriendly by any other state.”
Israeli Ambassador to Mexico Einat Kranz-Neiger scolded Mexico earlier in the year when activists tried to deliver humanitarian supplies to victims of the Gaza war, but now she may have Mexican security forces to thank for her life.
(Israeli Embassy)
The Israeli Foreign Ministry on Friday said that Mexican security services prevented a criminal network from carrying out an Iran-directed attack against the Israeli ambassador to Mexico,.
In a press release, Israel officially thanked Mexico for its role in dismantling the terrorist network.
U.S. officials contend that Iran has an extensive overseas network, including in Latin America, that is plotting against U.S. and Israeli targets. (Daniel Augusto/ Cuartoscuro.com)
U.S. and Israeli officials allege that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) planned to assassinate Ambassador Einat Kranz-Neiger this summer. The media outlet Axios reported that the assassination would have been planned since late last year. It also said the operation was purportedly led by a unit of the IRGC that has been recruiting agents throughout Latin America for years, primarily from the Iranian Embassy in Venezuela.
No details explaining how the plot was foiled were made public, nor were specifics about the Mexican operation provided. The Mexican government itself has yet to issue a statement although the press office at Mexico’s Security Ministry told the magazine Proceso that “we are unaware of this information.”
“The plot was contained and does not pose a current threat,” an unidentified U.S. official told the news agency Reuters. “This is just the latest in a long history of Iran’s global lethal targeting of diplomats, journalists, dissidents and anyone who disagrees with them, something that should deeply worry every country where there is an Iranian presence.”
Iranian officials have rejected the allegations, saying they are politically motivated. Iran’s mission to the U.N. in New York declined to comment.
U.S. officials point to the alleged plot as further evidence that Iran has an extensive overseas network, including in Latin America, that is continually plotting against U.S. and Israeli targets.
In its statement, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said that its security and intelligence agents “will continue to work tirelessly” in cooperation with other agencies around the world “to thwart terrorist threats from Iran and its allies against Israeli and Jewish targets.”
Reuters reported that security services in Britain and Sweden warned last year that Tehran is “using criminal proxies to carry out violent attacks … with London saying it had disrupted 20 Iran-linked plots since 2022.”
Several other countries have described an uptick in assassination, kidnapping and harassment plots by Iranian intelligence services, according to Reuters.
An orca swims alongside the carcass of a young great white shark. It's the first time scientists have observed the unusual behavior in Mexico's orcas. (Marco Villegas)
Killer whales in northern Mexico waters have been in the spotlight this week after scientists documented them attacking young great white sharks and devouring their energy-rich livers — a phenomenon previously thought to be limited to South Africa.
Orcas have been seen off the coast of Mexico hunting young great white sharks by flipping them over to incapacitate them before eating their liver. Researchers studying the orca pod say this group specializes in hunting sharks. The orcas are seen on newly-released video turning a shark upside down, which paralyzes the shark after altering its awareness of its surroundings. Then, with the shark in a vulnerable position, they eat its energy-filled liver. #orcas#sharks#mexico
“Orcas in Mexico Have Learned to Attack Young Great White Sharks — by Flipping Them Upside Down and Eating Their Livers,” heralded Smithsonian magazine.
Video evidence captured by marine biologist Erick Higuera has revealed how the killer whales, aka orcas, in the so-called Moctezuma pod coordinate their attacks against juvenile great whites, turning them upside down to induce tonic immobility (a natural state of paralysis), then slicing them open to extract their livers.
“I saw [on the video] that the shark had the liver hanging out on the side, already popped off. And a few minutes later, they came up with the liver in their mouth,” Higuera recalled.
The documented hunts, published Sunday, Nov. 2 in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science, occurred in 2020 and 2022 near La Paz, the capital of Baja California Sur.
“Impossible! It’s a great white shark. Where is it from? South Africa? No, my friend, it’s here in La Paz,” Higuera recounted, describing the moment he confirmed the species on video.
Orcas have specialized hunting techniques that vary by region and prey — such as leaping five meters into the air to attack bottlenose dolphins, as documented by Mexico News Daily in 2021.
But hunting young great white sharks showcases an adaptation new to science.
In the waters off South Africa, the orcas hunt mainly adults, both for a greater quantity of food and to eliminate competition for the same prey, according to Scientific American.
“We suggest that juvenile great white sharks may be, if they aren’t already, a seasonal targeted prey for these orcas,” Higuera explained.
Researchers said they suspect climate change and warming waters — potentially linked to El Niño — may be bringing more great white juveniles into the Gulf of California, also known as the Sea of Cortez, giving the Moctezuma pod more opportunity to hunt them.
“We actually are seeing more presence of great white sharks in the Gulf of California in the last 10 years,” said study coauthor Francesca Pancaldi.
The orcas’ focus on the sharks’ livers — which constitute a quarter of a shark’s body and provide high concentrations of vitamins A and D as well as toxic substances (which is why humans don’t eat them) — demonstrates the animals’ intelligence and dietary efficiency.
“It’s the only thing that’s really worth it for their time,” Taylor Chapple, a marine ecologist at Oregon State University who was not involved with the research told the New York Times. “It’s sort of like they’re going for the cheeseburger surrounded by a bunch of celery.”
While orcas’ predation on white sharks has disrupted ecosystems in the waters off South Africa — leading sharks to abandon traditional aggregation sites — Mexican scientists say continued monitoring is essential as the Gulf’s marine dynamics shift.
Senator Alejandro Moreno, leader of the PRI party, has been one of the most prominent critics of Sheinbaum after the Mexico City groping incident. Pictured: Moreno speaks at a press conference in late August. (Galo Cañas Rodríguez / Cuartoscuro)
The groping of President Claudia Sheinbaum on a downtown Mexico City street plainly illustrated the gender violence women face every day in Mexico, prompting vocal support from female politicians and activists around the world while generating calls for public discussion about the issue.
However, the polarization that dominates Mexican politics has obfuscated the opportunity for national solidarity with regard to a genuine problem plaguing a nation in which an estimated 70% of Mexican women aged 15 and over will experience at least one incident of sexual harassment in their lives.
Brazilian Senator Leila Barros was one of the politicians to condemn the assault. (Leila Barros/X)
Whereas Mexican women voiced outrage over the assault suffered by the president, Sheinbaum’s political rivals accused her of using the incident to distract from another issue: political violence.
Sheinbaum, 63, was attacked while greeting supporters near the presidential palace on Tuesday as she was walking to a public event. A drunken man approached her, put his arm around her shoulder, and with the other hand touched her hip and breast, while attempting to kiss her neck.
The following day, Sheinbaum announced that she would press charges against the man and urged state officials to scrutinize laws and procedures to make it easier for women to report such assaults.
A few hours later, Senator Alejandro Moreno suggested the incident may have been staged “to divert attention from the issues that most concern Mexicans,” referencing the recent murder of the mayor of Uruapan, Michoacán, the seventh mayor murdered in that state since 2022.
“The government doesn’t want people talking about what happened in Michoacán, about the murders, the crimes, about how it has been overwhelmed by drug cartels,” Moreno, a member of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) said. “That’s why it created this big, crude, vile and hypocritical distraction to try to deceive public opinion.”
National Action Party (PAN) Senator Ricardo Anaya asked ironically, “If they can’t take charge of the president’s security, how are they going to secure the country?”
Activists and supporters described these accusations as a perfect example of how women who suffer such assaults are revictimized by authorities.
“It’s always about disparaging and not trying to understand what happened,” María de la Luz Estrada, director of the National Citizen Observatory on Femicide, said.
A special report published by the newspaper El País pointed out that, by attacking Sheinbaum, the suspect told every woman — from executives to teachers, cleaners, lawyers, or gardeners — that it doesn’t matter who they are, what job they have or what position they hold.
“They are vulnerable simply for being women to a violence that, to varying degrees, millions of women suffer daily all over the world,” the El País report said.
Ingrid Beck, an Argentine journalist who produced the report “Online Gender Violence Against Women with Public Voices” for the United Nations Programme for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, called the attack on Sheinbaum “an opportunity to talk about sexual harassment.”
“[The attack on Sheinbaum] demonstrates … that we are very far from being protected, safe or simply alive. It seems as if that is still the exception and not the rule. It intimidates women in politics and can cause others to not even dare to be involved, or to make younger women afraid,” she said.
This same point — with a twist — was made by Ceci Flores, the leader of a collective of relatives searching for missing loved ones who has criticized the administration for failing to adequately address the issue of the “disappeared.”
“Our president only needed a few meters outside the palace to become a victim,” she wrote on social media. “That’s the Mexico we all walk every day: Iif we’re lucky it’s assault, if we’re not they kill or disappear us.”
The central bank was influenced by slow economic growth and an inflation rate within expectations, but the future is uncertain.
(Banco de México/on X)
Mexico’s central bank (Banxico) cut its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points on Thursday, setting it at 7.25%, its lowest since May 2022.
The cut marked the 11th straight meeting in which the Board of Governors lowered borrowing costs and the third consecutive time the rate was reduced by a quarter-point.
Banco de México Deputy Governor Jonathan Heath (right), shown here with Luis de la Calle, founder of the think tank México Cómo Vamos, has long urged a go-slow approach to interest rate cuts. He may have made some progress: The latest cut was not accompanied by hints at further easing at the next meeting, as had been the case in previous months. (Moisés Pablo/Cuartoscuro.com)
Though the move was widely expected, analysts noted that Banxico struck a more cautious tone on the outlook for further easing, citing a weak economy and declining to offer guidance beyond its next meeting on Dec. 18.
That refusal represents a change in its forward-looking guidance, which had consistently indicated further cuts. Some analysts believe this change suggests the monetary easing initiated in 2024 will pause next year, while others anticipate that only an unexpected shock would halt the cycle.
The economic contraction was caused by weakness in the industrial sectors: manufacturing, mining, construction and energy. This situation suggests the possibility of a longer monetary easing cycle to stimulate the local economy.
“We anticipate a rebound in annual inflation in early 2026 as a result of the effects of tax increases,” economists at Banamex said in a note.
In a statement explaining its interest rate decision, Banxico said it considered the behavior of the exchange rate, the weakness shown by the economy and the possible impacts of changes in trade policies at a global level.
The central bank acknowledged that tariff measures imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump “continue to add uncertainty to the outlook” and could lead to “inflationary pressures.”
“The Governing Board deemed it appropriate to continue the cycle of reductions [which] is consistent with the assessment of the current inflationary outlook,” Banxico said, while also emphasizing lingering risks from stubborn core inflation.
Banxico cited upside risks to inflation, including currency depreciation, persistent core inflation, disruptions from geopolitical conflicts and cost pressures.
Core inflation, which excludes volatile food and fuel prices, stood at 4.28%, unchanged from the previous month.
Banxico did revise its forecast for annual headline inflation downward, now expecting it to close 2025 at 3.5%, compared to the previously estimated 3.6%.
Guadalajara's deep-rooted traditions and status as a 2026 FIFA World Cup host city helped snag it a spot on Condé Nast's annual travel list. (Sergio Rodríguez/Unsplash)
Guadalajara has earned a top spot on Condé Nast Traveler’s much-anticipated travel list, “Best Places to Go in 2026.” The magazine’s annual guide, released this week, also highlights the Riviera Nayarit — further cementing the rising profile of the stretch of coast north of Puerto Vallarta.
Guadalajara made the global list, standing out among thousands of places considered by the publication. Meanwhile, the Riviera Nayarit was recognized as a leading destination in the North America and Caribbean subcategory, which includes the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.
Let’s discover what made the Riviera Nayarit and Guadalajara part of the coveted list.
“As the epicenter of traditions synonymous with Mexican culture — mariachi, ceramics, tortas ahogadas, and of course, tequila — Guadalajara has been ready for the spotlight,” Condé Nast says.
Jalisco’s capital was featured in the list for its significant cultural, creative, and tourism potential, as the city gears up to host major international events in 2026. These include the FIFA World Cup, the Guadalajara International Film Festival, and the Guadalajara International Book Fair (FIL), all of which solidify its position as a cultural capital of Latin America.
Guadalajara is the capital of Jalisco, a state known as the birthplace of mariachi and tequila. (Daniel Augusto/Cuartoscuro)
The publication also highlights the welcoming nature of its residents (tapatíos) and the cultural experiences the city offers: pottery workshops, tequila tastings, innovative cuisine and immersive experiences that invite visitors to enjoy its everyday life.
“While Guadalajara has long been a gem of a destination, evolving quietly while neighboring cities get more attention, the spotlight is shining a bit brighter,” the magazine concludes.
Riviera Nayarit
Spreading along Mexico’s Pacific coast, the Riviera Nayarit extends for over 300 kilometers along the state bearing the same name. It starts at the mouth of the Ameca River bordering Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, in the south and stretches to Boca de Tecapán, near the border with Sinaloa, in the north.
Notable tourist destinations in the area include Nuevo Vallarta, Bucerías, Punta de Mita, Sayulita, San Pancho, Rincón de Guayabitos, Chacala and San Blas.
The Riviera Nayarit, known for small towns and laid-back beach vibes, runs roughly 300 kilomters along the coast north of Puerto Vallarta. (Visit Mexico)
Condé Nast highlights the destination’s balance of luxury, authenticity, sustainable tourism and development, as well as its extraordinary variety of experiences, pristine beaches, nature reserves and coastal communities that blend hospitality with local culture.
“The Riviera Nayarit is a quiet, scenic slice of coast boasting over 200 miles of golden beachy nooks that Mexican travelers have long retreated to — but now it’s receiving infrastructural boosts that are effectively setting out the welcome mat for others,” the magazine says.
New developments like the Tepic-Riviera Nayarit International Airport, golf courses and fine dining are also highlighted as part of its appeal. Rosewood Mandarina and One & Only Mandarina are just a few of the high-end resorts in the area, which has also drawn big-name chefs to open restaurants like Cacao (by Enrique Olvera), Rubra (by Daniela Soto-Inés) or Toppu (by Diego Muñoz and José Mascarós).
ReSiMar has brought communities together to care for the environment which sustains them. (ReSiMar)
At dawn in Juluchuca, on Mexico’s Costa Grande, a chorus of herons rises from mangroves that only a generation ago withered and choked under cattle and coconut monocultures. Today, brackish water snakes through the estuary, shrimp flick in the shallows, and kids test the clarity with homemade kits. What began at Playa Viva, an off-grid eco-resort 35 kilometers south of Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo, as a small experiment in healing land has now become a seed for ReSiMar — a model for restoring watersheds and rebuilding communities “from ridge to reef” all along Mexico’s Pacific Coast.
The roots of regeneration
Two decades ago, long before ReSiMar had a name, master permaculture designer Odin Ruz arrived to survey a scarred landscape. Coconut-palm monocultures had drained the wetlands and killed the lagoons. A few early planning sessions by the Regenesis Group had helped outline the project’s broad vision, but it was Ruz who translated that vision into practice.
ReSiMar began at Playa Viva, an eco resort 35 kilometers south of Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo on Mexico’s Pacific Coast. (Playa Viva)
“Before we started building, the most important thing was to observe,” Ruz said. “We waited two years for the permits, so I used that time to study how the water moved, how the mangrove breathed through the different seasons.”
Ruz’s team reopened blocked estuary channels, planted red, white, and black mangroves, and mapped the entire property according to natural water flow. “The first design you make on a piece of land establishes how everything will be developed from there,” he said. “It was about sowing in the permaculture.”
One of the biggest obstacles was the skepticism from nearby fishermen who had long cut mangroves to clear their nets and “clean up” the landscape.
“We had to talk to the fishermen,” he recalled, who had seen their shrimp catches decline precipitously.
Restoring confidence
“You have to restore the mind of the people before you can restore the ecosystem,” Ruz said. By linking shrimp abundance to mangrove health, he slowly turned adversaries into allies.
Behind the venture stood hotel founders David Leventhal and Sandra Kahn. Their modest idea — to build a small lodge that lived lightly on the land — set the tone for what Leventhal later called “luxury in nature.”
Reforestation efforts are part of the commitment to permaculture at Playa Viva. (Playa Viva)
Ruz led the permaculture project for around a decade before leaving in about 2016. He stays in touch with the owners and still visits occasionally. He describes how the transformation can be felt as you enter the land, noting that the contrast from the degraded surroundings to the regenerated core of Playa Viva is immediate.
Walking through Playa Viva’s gate, visitors leave behind dust and dryness for an immersive, living oasis. It’s like going from a black and white movie to one in color. After cresting a dune, you see beautiful constructions hiding among the trees and flowers, linked by these little trails from one cabin to another.
From eco-resort to ReSiMar
Over the nearly two decades since Leventhal and Kahn bought the land, the dusty pastures of Juluchuca gave way to a vibrant mangrove forest, lush gardens, a revived lagoon, and a growing trickle of guests drawn by the experiment. By 2018, that experiment had formalized into ReSiMar, a collaborative program linking Playa Viva with the nonprofit Legacy Regenerativa México, led by systems designer James Honey, Mexico Director for LegacyWorks Group.
The story of regeneration at Playa Viva is centuries deep. Long before building began, the team researched Playa Viva’s ancient use. The earliest known inhabitants of this region were the Cuicatecos, an Indigenous people whose culture was shaped by contact with powerful neighboring civilizations — first Teotihuacán, then the Toltecs. Archaeologists note that the Toltec and Teotihuacán influence reached deep into rural societies, bringing advanced technologies, social organization and art to the region.
“Before David and Sandra even put a shovel in the ground here, what they did was work with Bill Reed to create a history of place,” said Kerry Skinner, Playa Viva’s marketing and special projects manager. “We have information on the land here, dating back from the artifacts … showing that the community created agricultural terraces that we now use on our permaculture farm as swales to plant water. That history of place really dictates everything that we do.”
Perhaps not coincidentally, the Cuicatecos are noted by scholars for possessing a remarkable traditional ecological knowledge — managing biodiversity, regulating hunting and gathering, and maintaining sustainable relationships with their forests and animals. Their worldview equated the health of the land and animals with the well-being of the community, and communitarian rules for conservation remain vital to their culture today. The last speaker of the Cuitlatec (Cuicatlateco) language died in the 1960s, leaving no descendants.
A legacy of sustainability
The legacy of the Cuicatecos’ respect for nature is continued at ReSiMar. (Google Arts and Culture)
This legacy of careful management — and the belief that land, water and community are inseparable — finds new life at Playa Viva. Honey described ReSiMar as “a living laboratory for watershed regeneration” organized around five nodes — water, permaculture and agroecology, education, terrestrial conservation and marine conservation — that are woven together by governance, storytelling and financial sustainability. “It’s about connecting communities from the mountains to the sea,” he said. “When people understand the whole system, they begin to act as one watershed.”
Skinner helps translate that science into everyday experience for guests and partners. “For Playa Viva, the aim is always to give guests a different kind of tourist experience,” she said. “You really can make a positive impact when you travel beyond just flying and flopping and having a nice time. Whether it’s releasing a baby turtle or sitting down with community leaders to hear about our restoration work.”
Measuring the change
Nearly 20 years after Ruz first redrew the hydrology map, the results are visible and, importantly, measurable. According to Honey, ReSiMar monitors biological and social indicators across the 30-square-kilometer watershed.
“One of the pieces I’m most excited about is our citizens’ water monitoring that’s taking place now,” said Honey. “We have a water coordinator. The citizens’ water monitoring is a way for students, parents, agriculturalists, ranchers and ejido members to go out, and via several natural indicators … they’re looking at what’s happening with their water.” Citizens Water Monitoring is a program of Fondo para la Comunicación y Educación Ambiental (FCEA). The group’s staff are the innovators behind, among others, Mexico’s premier portal on water issues: Agua.org.mx. The system FCEA has developed, based on simple natural indicators like bugs in the water or plants on the banks, is being used by another major conservation organization, Fondo Mexicano para la Conservación de la Naturaleza. Over 30 watershed restoration efforts across Mexico are now monitored by citizens with this method.
Students are now at the forefront of environmental change in Juluchuca’s watershed, according to Honey, and they’ve earned the new title of eco-agentes. Over the coming year, youth and local residents will collect data and start asking what actions they want to take next.
The restoration of the Juluchuca watershed has been a group effort. (Center for Responsible Travel)
When children spark these challenging conversations, adults are more inclined to rethink longstanding community habits, such as livestock or chemical management, Honey points out.
“These are tough things. It’s how we’re managing our cattle, how much pesticide or herbicide we’re spraying on our mangoes,” he said. “This is really exciting, to think about youth asking those questions and leading the early action. We humans all tend to listen to our youth.”
A new curriculum
ReSiMar developed a formal year-long regenerative education curriculum in partnership with Enseña por México and Mexicanos Primeros — one designed to restore “sensitivity, observation and creativity in students.”
As Skinner explains, “That curriculum that was born here in this watershed is now like a formalized project proposal that could be rolled out in schools across the country. Enseña por México and Mexicanos Primeros both have collaborated on this project and formalized our regenerative education curriculum into a replicable guide. The aim is for it to be rolled out in schools across Mexico and beyond.” Education advocates say the impact is already visible. Patricia Vazquez, CEO of Mexicanos Primero, notes: “Investing in education is investing in regeneration itself. Through our partnership with MIA, the Juluchuca summer learning camps showed that when children learn at their real level and reconnect with nature, their progress in reading, math and confidence grows in just weeks — proving that the future we want starts in the classroom.”
The quiet revolution: women at the center
The project’s most transformative design may be social: the expansion of leadership and agency to local women for the first time in the community’s history. The permaculture team’s founding of the Juluchuca Women’s Cooperative has meant much more than adding hands to the farm or introducing seasonal crops like turmeric and moringa. For many participants — some recent college graduates, some mothers — the cooperative is redefining possibility in a place where women’s public roles, farm management and ecological leadership were rare until now.
ReSiMar’s isn’t just changing the landscape. It’s changing the roles of women in the community, too.(ReSiMar)
Beyond the Women’s Cooperative, four femaleMexican node leaders are running ReSiMar on the ground: Ximena Rodríguez, Osmaira Hernández, Larissa Hernández and Viridiana Contreras.
“I can’t help but think that when the entirety of the operation is run by young women,” Honey reflects, “that that is not in every single moment changing our collective assumption about what is possible. And so that may be perhaps our biggest impact. It won’t be in the acres, and it won’t be in the curcuma, and it won’t be in the turtle yields. But it may very well be in what we will see one generation along the line because of who these women are and what they’re doing in that community.”
Nature-oriented design
Playa Viva is designed to blur the boundary between human dwelling and thriving ecosystem. The resort operates completely off-grid through solar arrays and battery storage, its water managed by systems that capture, filter and reuse greywater. Buildings are raised with bamboo, local woods and adobe, crafted to allow breezes and birdsong to pass through wide, open walls. From the moment visitors arrive, they move along winding trails under the forest canopy, passing native plantings that restore the old dune and estuary corridors. Every structure sits lightly on the land, clustered carefully to maximize shade, breezes and vistas, while leaving wildlife corridors intact.
The communal heart is the dining area, intentionally designed for meeting others. “The communal area — even the dining room is one big piece,” explained Ruz. “You sit down, and somebody’s on your side, and you start talking. It’s what’s called social architecture —the space is meant to bring people together, not separate them. Here, you’re kind of obligated to interact by how it’s planned.”
Education as Regeneration
If women’s leadership is the most transformative aspect of ReSiMar’s design, education is its clearest metric for change. The project’s regenerative curriculum, created with Enseña Por México and Mexicanos Primero, now moves from pilot to practice in Juluchuca’s schools. It’s “a formalized project proposal that could be rolled out in schools across the country,” as the team describes, aiming to restore “sensitivity, observation and creativity in students.”
As ReSiMar’s educational model evolves, the results are already visible in the watershed schools. Patricia Vazquez, CEO of Mexicanos Primero, pointed out: “Investing in education is investing in regeneration itself. Through our partnership with MIA, the Juluchuca summer learning camps showed that when children learn at their real level and reconnect with nature, their progress in reading, math and confidence grows in just weeks — proving that the future we want starts in the classroom.”
The “Adopt a Student” program has created a circle of good works. (Playa Viva)
The “Adopt a Student” program — funded by Playa Viva guests and other donors — keeps local kids in school by covering uniforms, materials and fees that otherwise force dropouts. Many of the first “adopted” students now mentor younger children and lead summer programs, creating a virtuous circle for the next generation. Meanwhile, the local women’s cooperative turns skills learned on the farm into small businesses, keeping income in the community and cementing regeneration as a family value.
“Regeneration begins in the collective mind,” Honey says of the strategy. “When people change how they see the land, policy and economy follow.”
Scaling the model
The ReSiMar team is now applying the Juluchuca template beyond Guerrero. LegacyWorks has helped convene regional alliances in Costalegre, Baja California Sur and Oaxaca, where communities and developers are experimenting with ridge-to-reef planning. Honey described a “spiral of impact” that starts small, deepens locally and then expands outward.
The Mexican Forestry Commission (CONAFOR), Mexicanos Primero, Enseña Por México and many other organizations have collaborated, while new tourism investors cite Playa Viva as proof that regeneration can be profitable. The approach, Honey notes, is about “creating common vision, space for everyone. And then the results give back far beyond what you gave. That’s fundamental. And we’ve known that for a long time.”
With reporting by Chris Havler-Barrett
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.
Comex paints have colored Mexican homes, not to mention pants, since the 1950s. (Comex)
In an attempt to refresh my lovely little Mexico City apartment, I recently painted an accent wall in my dining area. Naturally, I purchased the paint — a subtle shade of eggplant — from one of Mexico’s ubiquitous Comex paint stores.
Since that fateful day, I’ve been fascinated (one might even say obsessed) with the impressive number of Comex paint stores around the city. The Cuauhtémoc borough alone is home to at least 10–15, and more than 4,000 can be found across Mexico. How did that happen? In a world of Sherwin-Williams and Pintucom, how did Comex colors sweep the Mexican nation?
More than 4,000 Comex stores can be found in Mexico. The number of walls painted using its products, meanwhile, is in the millions. (Comex)
Comex’s history turns out to be a story far more interesting than I could have anticipated.
Fleeing anti-Semitism in Syria
Comex’s rise actually begins in the Middle East. The Ottoman Empire’s grip on Syria led to tight controls on Jewish economic activity. With rising anti-Semitism and diminishing financial prospects, Syrian Jews — mainly from Damascus and Aleppo — took advantage of Porfirio Diaz’s welcoming immigration program, which encouraged foreign enterprise.
It was during these years that Marcos Achar Lobatón relocated his family to Veracruz from Syria. Like many Jewish merchants starting over in a new country, he had no money. So he started selling goods door-to-door on credit until he had built enough capital to relocate and open a small hardware store in Mexico City.
The store was called El Gallito. Here, Marcos and his son, José Achar, sold all sorts of home repair items — including paint.
A World War I paint mill changed everything
In the 1950s, everything about the Achar’s professional lives would change. One of the store’s clients was unable to pay a running debt in cash. To pacify the store owners, he offered an old World War I paint mill that he owned in Mexico City’s Independencia neighborhood, plus his labor to help operate it. The offer piqued José’s interest, and he quickly sealed the deal.
The unlikely pair began experimenting with making their own paint. The idea proved sound, and the family opened the first official factory in the San Antonio neighborhood, which covered half a city block. They called it Comercial Mexicana de Pinturas — Mexican Paint Company. It was later abbreviated to COMEX.
Comex began in Mexico City and its paints have since become a staple across Mexico and Latin America. (Bethany Platanella)
At this point, the Achar family had expanded from one hardware store to many, so they sold the product in their stores, plus in other outlets throughout the capital. In an ongoing attempt to ensure their paints were the best quality ones on the shelves, José hired innovative engineers, including some from Germany, to develop competitive products that also sounded fancy — think satin vinyl paint. This quickly turned Comex into a market threat, a fact which wouldn’t go unnoticed by competitors.
The competitor boycott that nearly destroyed COMEX
In the 1960s, eight competing paint companies decided to put a stop to Comex’s success. The parties banded together to coordinate a boycott against Comex products by personally pressuring hardware store owners to stop selling Comex products. José and his employees suddenly saw a wave of product returns and refund demands.
The resulting financial crisis left José with loads of unsold inventory and took Comex to the brink of bankruptcy. But instead of shuttering his factory doors, a tenacious José concocted a strategy that would change the Mexican paint landscape forever. He took that colorful surplus of paint, removed the middleman and sold it himself.
Comex’s first paint shop opened on Fray Servando Teresa de Mier Street in the historic center in the early 1960s, selling Comex paints directly to customers at reasonable prices. As an added boost to his business, José integrated one of the earliest franchise systems in Mexico, turning employees into partners and independent owners, a concept that would lead to rapid growth — and jobs — throughout Mexico City.
Latin America’s leading paint supplier transforms communities through color and art
It’s now 2025, and Comex is Latin America’s leading paint supplier. It currently holds Mexico’s largest market share for decorative and protective paints, and has the most extensive retail presence in Latin America. Its influence extends far beyond commercial dominance, leaning heavily into positive social impact with its artistic initiative, México Bien Hecho (Mexico Well-Made).
Through nationwide work with Mexican civil organizations, government entities, artists and residents, México Bien Hecho has transformed deteriorated urban centers into vibrant, colorful community hubs.
It’s not just interiors that are painted using Comex products. Murals are also commonly painted using them. (Bethany Platanella)
According to PPG Industries, a US-based global coatings and specialty materials company that bought Comex in 2014, México Bien Hecho has worked with over 10,000 volunteers, impacted 26 million people, and restored 500,000 square meters of public space using more than half a million liters of paint in less than a decade. The program has operated in every Mexican state, implementing art interventions that have improved perceptions of security in neighborhoods, boosted local tourism and increased youth sports participation.
Breaking Guinness World Records with paint-can art
Comex has even been awarded a Guinness World Record, thanks to Mexican artist Triana Parera, known for her large-scale portraits and thought-provoking installations. In 2017, the paint giant invited her to Acapulco to design the world’s largest mosaic made of paint cans.
Parera’s creation for Comex — measuring 52.065 square meters and comprising 4,968 one-liter paint cans — depicted a human hand intertwined with a DNA strand, symbolizing the company’s core values of creativity, teamwork and human connection through color.
Once the Guinness World Record was confirmed, Comex then donated all 4,900 unopened cans of paint to local community projects throughout Mexico.
What happened to the Achar family? From paint empire to modern philanthropy
The Achar family’s story didn’t end with Comex’s success. With the family’s fortune now at US $2.3 billion, ranking them No. 22 on Forbes’ Mexico Multimillionaires list in 2023, the Achars have made surprising moves into Mexican football. Marcos Achar Levy orchestrated the $2.3 billion sale to PPG Industries in 2014, partnering in the Celaya FC professional men’s soccer team. Meanwhile, their commitment to philanthropy continues, with Marcos receiving the Anáhuac University Award for Social Responsibility in 2024 for his leadership of the ProEmpleo Foundation. He founded the nonprofit in 1995 to combat unemployment in Mexico.
Comex’s journey of a modest hardware store accepting an old paint mill as a debt payment that became the world’s largest exclusive paint retail network with more than 4,000 stores globally exemplifies how a crisis can become an opportunity when met with innovation, community focus and unwavering determination.
Comex paint covers many public spaces in Mexico. (Bethany Platanella)
The company that once faced extinction now stands as a testament to the power of direct engagement with customers and communities, proving that sometimes the best response to being locked out is to build your own door.
Bethany Platanella is a travel planner and lifestyle writer based in Mexico City. She lives for the dopamine hit that comes directly after booking a plane ticket, exploring local markets, practicing yoga and munching on fresh tortillas. Sign up to receive her Sunday Love Letters to your inbox, peruse her blog or follow her on Instagram.
The president said Mexicans who favor U.S. intervention in the fight against organized crime are the exception to the rule, in remarks at her Thursday morning press conference. (Andrea Murcia/Cuartoscuro)
At her Thursday morning press conference, President Claudia Sheinbaum once again ruled out the possibility of the U.S. military conducting an anti-cartel mission on Mexican soil.
Among other issues, she spoke about the provision of additional support for the victims of recent floods and offered a brief preview of her upcoming meeting with the president of France.
Here is a recap of the president’s Nov. 6 mañanera.
Sheinbaum: Mexicans in favor of a US intervention in Mexico are ‘the absolute exception’
The president reiterated her view that “there won’t be” a U.S. intervention “simply because” in Mexico the people are “united against any interference” or “intervention.”
“No Mexican man or woman, except for a few who are the absolute exception, want an intervention,” she said.
In addition, a poll conducted by Massive Caller in August found that 41.7% of 2,000 respondents “completely agreed” (29.4%) or “agreed” (12.3%) with the U.S. army coming into Mexico to combat cartels.
She said in an interview in August that the U.S. offer to help Mexico fight drug cartels “is absolutely welcome,” and assured a Fox News host that “this is the opinion of the majority of Mexicans.”
Sheinbaum is staunchly opposed to U.S. military action, arguing that it would violate Mexico’s sovereignty and not solve the cartel violence problem.
She revealed in May that she had rejected an offer from U.S. President Donald Trump to send the U.S. army into Mexico to combat drug cartels. Sheinbaum said at the time that she told Trump that Mexico’s territory and sovereignty are “inviolable.”
Additional government support for flood victims
Sheinbaum said that people affected by severe flooding last month in Veracruz, Hidalgo, Puebla, Querétaro and San Luis Potosí will begin receiving additional government support next week.
“On Monday the 10th [of November] distribution of the second round of support through the [state-owned] Well-Being Bank begins,” she said.
The recovery is still underway after devastating floods hit large swaths of central Mexico in October. (Jessamyn Nazario Mendo/Cuartoscuro)
Sheinbaum noted that around 100,000 flood-affected families have already received 20,000 pesos (US $1,075) each from the government.
She said that the amount flood victims will receive in the second round of support depends on the extent of damage their homes sustained.
“In addition there will be support for businesses and support for [owners of] small farms that were affected by the rain,” Sheinbaum said.
Sheinbaum said that various federal officials including her Foreign Affairs Minister Juan Ramón de la Fuente and Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard will accompany her at her meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron in Mexico City this Friday.
She said that a reception will be held for Macron at the National Palace, and that a “private meeting” with the French president will follow.
Sheinbaum reiterated that her government is very interested in speaking to Macron about the repatriation of a pre-Hispanic codex — the Codex Azcatitlan, which is held by France’s national library.
Sheinbaum said that bilateral collaboration on scientific, cultural and innovation issues will also be discussed during Friday’s meeting.
The president attended the G7 Summit alongside Macron and other world leaders in Canada earlier this year, so it won’t be the first time that she meets face-to-face with her French counterpart. On Thursday, Macron was in Belem, Brazil, for a leaders’ summit ahead of the COP30 climate conference.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies (peter.davies@mexiconewsdaily.com)
