President Claudia Sheinbaum missed her Wednesday morning press conference as she traveled to Honduras to attend the summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) in Tegucigalpa.
But on Thursday morning she was back in Mexico City to preside over her regular mañanera at the National Palace, where she spoke about plans to extend two railroads into Central America, among other issues.
Here is a recap of the president’s April 10 morning press conference.
All aboard to Guatemala and Belize!
Sheinbaum noted that she spoke to Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo during her visit to Honduras on Wednesday for the CELAC summit.
She said they discussed “the project to take the Maya Train and the Interoceanic Train to Guatemala.”
She said that the Interoceanic Train railroad — whose main line crosses the Isthmus of Tehuantepec between Salina Cruz, Oaxaca, and Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz — will enter Guatemala at Ciudad Hidalgo, located on Mexico’s southern border in the state of Chiapas.
“Guatemala has to do its projects [to extend the railway into the Central American country] and they’re working on that. … It’s mainly a freight train, although it will also take passengers,” Sheinbaum said.
She didn’t give any timeline for when the railroad might extend into Guatemala.
Sheinbaum told reporters that Guatemala doesn’t want the Maya Train railroad to enter the country in the northern department of Petén, where the Tikal archeological site is located, because there is protected forest there. (Tikal is also the site of a new Mexico-related archeological discovery.)
“So in the case of the Maya Train the option is to enter through Belize and then go down to Guatemala,” she said, adding that the proposal has already been discussed with the prime minister of Belize.
Sheinbaum didn’t mention when the multi-billion-dollar Maya Train railroad might be extended into the territory of Mexico’s two southern neighbors.
Is Mexico preparing a ‘mega expulsion’ of cartel figures?
A reporter noted that Mexico-based British journalist Ioan Grillo reported that Mexico is considering sending 40 cartel figures to the United States.
“The Mexican federal government is looking at carrying out another mass ‘expulsion’ of senior cartel figures from Mexican prisons to U.S. custody, with a list of 40 potential targets including the Jalisco Cartel’s ‘El Cuini,’ or Abigael González Valencia, according to a Mexican source familiar with the planning,” Grillo wrote in an article published Wednesday on his CrashOut Substack site.
Sheinbaum declined to confirm or deny the report.
“The [federal government’s] Security Council has to report on that. … It’s not that the president orders [expulsions or extraditions], no. There is a process that has to be followed,” she said.
Mexico sent 29 cartel figures including notorious drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero to the United States in late February. The day after the extraditions, Security Minister Omar García Harfuch said that there was a risk that some of the 29 defendants sent to the U.S. could have been released from prison if they remained in Mexico.
‘Now we can speak’
A reporter noted that the Federal Electoral Tribunal ruled on Wednesday that the president and other government officials and institutions can promote participation in the upcoming judicial elections — without speaking in favor of or against any individual candidates.
The National Electoral Institute had prohibited federal, state and municipal governments, public institutions and individual officials from promoting Mexico’s first ever judicial elections.
“Now we can speak,” Sheinbaum said.
“On June 1 you have to go to vote for judges, magistrates and Supreme Court justices,” she said.
The judicial elections will be held on the first Sunday in June thanks to a controversial judicial reform approved by Congress last September. The official campaign period for candidates for judgeships began on March 30.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies ([email protected])
