During her Monday morning press conference, President Claudia Sheinbaum congratulated Mexico’s triumphant flag footballers and criticized media outlets for their alleged failure to report on new data on poverty.
In response to one question, Sheinbaum declined to comment, a tactic she regularly uses when she thinks that someone else is better qualified to respond, or when she wants to shut down discussion of a particular issue or scandal.
Sheinbaum congratulates Mexico’s champion flag football team
Sheinbaum noted that the Mexican women’s flag football team won gold on Sunday at the World Games, an Olympics-style event that was held in Chengdu, China, between August 7 and 17.
“What is the name of the sport that is similar to American football? Flag football. The Mexican women won, many congratulations, they beat the United States,” the president said.
It was the second successive World Games at which the Mexican women’s flag football team claimed the gold medal. In both gold-medal matches — in Chengdu this year and in Birmingham, Alabama, in 2022 — Mexico defeated the United States.
¡MÉXICO, BICAMPEONAS DE LOS WORLD GAMES EN FLAG FOOTBALL!🇲🇽🏈
La Selección Nacional brilló en un encuentro trepidante y derrotó a Estados Unidos en una final de alto voltaje con marcador de 26-21.
Un auténtico choque de titanes entre dos potencias que dejaron claro que están en… pic.twitter.com/FUjJj4r8jl— Claro Sports (@ClaroSports) August 17, 2025
“We say in Mexico, ‘pienso en oro’, that’s our signature, ‘think of the gold’, and we came with that mindset to each play of the game,” Mexico’s quarterback, Diana Flores, said after Sunday’s match.
On Monday morning, Sheinbaum also congratulated Mexican athletes who won medals over the weekend at the Junior Pan American Games in Asunción, Paraguay, and the Masters Indigenous Games in Ottawa, Canada.
Asked about her approval rating, Sheinbaum attacks the media
A reporter highlighted that the president has a 74% approval rating, according to the results of a poll conducted by the company QM Estudios in alliance with the Heraldo Media Group.
He also noted that only 56% of respondents rated her work on health care as very good or good, compared to 84% who endorsed her performance in the area of social programs.
Asked about the different poll results, Sheinbaum declared that her government would “keep working” before expressing her gratitude for “the support of the people.”
She then segued into an attack on the media, railing against “many” outlets for not reporting on new data that showed that more than 13 million people were lifted out of poverty during the 2018-24 presidency of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO).
Sheinbaum singled out the newspaper Reforma — which AMLO frequently attacked — and was also critical of what she called “the right-wing Spanish newspaper ABC” for the report it published on Saturday about the supposed plan of López Obrador’s wife, Beatriz Gutiérrez Müller, to move to Madrid.
For the record, Reforma did report on the reduction in poverty during the AMLO years.
Still, the president asserted that many Mexican newspapers were unable to bring themselves to publish stories on “something so extraordinary” as 13.4 million people coming out of poverty.
“Instead of saying ‘that’s good,’ it’s not even a newspaper article,” she said.
“Despite this [media] offensive [against the government], … there is recognition from the people,” Sheinbaum said, returning to the question about the poll results.
“… The support of the people is because we haven’t betrayed them,” she said.
Later in her press conference, while responding to an inquiry about a Wall Street Journal column headlined “Don’t Bomb Mexico, Mr. President,” Sheinbaum asked a series of questions of Mexican and international media outlets that she considers opponents of her government.
“Why don’t they talk about the 13.4 million Mexicans who came out of poverty? Why don’t they talk about how the minimum wage increased, about the welfare programs, about the infrastructure projects that were built and which we’re building now? Why don’t they talk about the 25% reduction in homicides in 11 months?”
Sheinbaum declines to comment on murder of 8 community police officers
A reporter asked the president what information she had received about the murder of eight community police officers in an ambush in Guerrero over the weekend.
She said the crime was spoken about in the daily security cabinet meeting, but told reporters that she would leave it up to security officials to report on the case.
The massacre occurred late Saturday in the municipality of Ayutla de los Libres, located in the Costa Chica region of Guerrero. The ambush occurred in an area where the criminal groups “Los Ardillos” and “Los Rusos” are reportedly engaged in a turf war.
As of Monday afternoon, no arrests had been reported in connection with the crime and it wasn’t clear who perpetrated the attack.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies (peter.davies@mexiconewsdaily.com)
