Sheinbaum’s mañanera in 60 seconds
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🖼️ Gelman Collection: Sheinbaum pushed back on critics worried that a trove of Mexican artworks, including several highly valued Frida Kahlo pieces, that are heading to Spain’s new Santander cultural center won’t come back. She insisted the collection returns in 2028 after a two-year loan, and accused opponents of bad faith: “They don’t want to listen.”
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🇲🇽🇺🇸🇨🇦 El Mencho & USMCA: Asked whether February’s military operation that killed Jalisco cartel boss “El Mencho” could benefit Mexico in USMCA renegotiations, Sheinbaum distanced herself from Economy Minister Ebrard’s framing, saying security and trade talks “take their own course,” while reaffirming Mexico wants Trump’s tariffs reduced or scrapped.
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🚛 Trucker/farmer protests: A threatened nationwide highway blockade by truckers and farmers — over highway insecurity and lack of agricultural support — had yet to materialize by mid-morning Monday, with Sheinbaum arguing there was no reason to protest given the government’s “open door” to dialogue.
Why today’s mañanera matters
At her Monday morning press conference, President Claudia Sheinbaum took the opportunity to address concerns about the planned departure from Mexico later this year of the renowned Gelman Collection of artworks. In effect, she used her mañanera — as she has done before— to push back on a narrative that diverts from the official government line.
Also of note at the first mañanera of the week were Sheinbaum’s response to a question about whether the death of Nemesio Rubén “El Mencho” Oseguera would benefit Mexico in trade talks with the United States and Canada, and her defense of the Interior Ministry’s position regarding highway blockades that disgruntled truckers and farmers planned to set up this Monday.
Sheinbaum: Gelman Collection will return to Mexico after 2 years
Sheinbaum displayed an article published by The Guardian under the headline “Mexican art world protests over plan to send Frida Kahlo masterpieces to Spain.”
Gelman Collection of Mexican art on exhibit in Mexico for first time in 2 decades
The Guardian reported that under a deal with the Spanish bank Santander, the privately-owned Gelman Collection of artworks, “currently on public display in Mexico for the first time in nearly 20 years, will return to Spain this summer where it will become a cornerstone of the bank’s new cultural center, the Faro Santander.”
“In announcing the agreement in January, Santander said it would be ‘responsible for the conservation, research and exhibition’ of the collection. But the ambiguity of the announcement, which did not say how long the works would remain in Spain, sparked concern,” The Guardian reported.
“The concern turned to indignation when Faro Santander’s director, Daniel Vega Pérez de Arlucea, told El País that legislation governing the works was ‘flexible’ and that the collection would have a ‘permanent presence’ at the new cultural center,” the newspaper wrote.
Sheinbaum said that while artworks designated as cultural heritage of Mexico — as is the case with works in the Gelman Collection — cannot be sold abroad, they can be exhibited in foreign countries.
She stressed that the Gelman Collection will be exhibited abroad for two years before returning to Mexico. She said that Culture Minister Claudia Curel de Icaza has highlighted that the collection will return to Mexico after two years on “innumerable occasions.”
“Despite this being explained several times, these people insist that the collection will no longer be in Mexico,” Sheinbaum said of people who have signed an open letter raising concerns about the exhibition of the Gelman Collection in Spain.
She asserted that those people “don’t want to listen,” and declared that “the majority are against our government.”
“They can’t understand that the collection will go [abroad] for two years … and will [subsequently] return to Mexico because it is heritage of Mexico even though it is a private collection,” Sheinbaum said.
She highlighted that Santander said in an April 3 statement that the collection is slated to return to Mexico in 2028.
Sheinbaum: Operation against El Mencho ‘not necessarily linked to USMCA negotiation’
A reporter highlighted that on Feb. 24, Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard said that the killing of Jalisco New Generation Cartel leader Nemesio Rubén “El Mencho” Oseguera in a Feb. 22 military operation would benefit Mexico in USMCA review talks with the United States and Canada. He asked the president whether she believed that would be the case.
“I don’t know the context in which Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard made this declaration, [but] let’s say that [the operation against ‘El Mencho’] helps the good relationship we have with the United States on security issues,” Sheinbaum said.
She went on to say that the Feb. 22 operation in Jalisco that resulted in the death of Oseguera is “not necessarily linked to the USMCA negotiation.”
“… The security issue takes its own course and the trade issue takes it own course,” Sheinbaum said.
Mexico began formal USMCA review talks with the United States last month. Sheinbaum is confident that Mexico will achieve a good outcome, even though there are a range of points of contention between the three North American trade partners, including in the area of energy.
Sheinbaum: Government is addressing concerns of truckers and farmers
Sheinbaum highlighted that the Interior Ministry said on Sunday that there is no reason for truckers and farmers to protest this Monday because “the door is open to dialogue, and at the same time” the government has been “addressing the demands they have.”
“So for what reason are they going to protest if there is permanent dialogue?” she asked.
The National Truckers Association and the National Front for the Rescue of the Countryside said last week that a nationwide protest against insecurity on highways, an alleged lack of support for farmers and other problems would take place on Monday, April 6. It was anticipated that the protesters would block highways across Mexico starting early Monday.
However, at 10 a.m. on Monday, blockades hadn’t been set up, according to media reports. Still, it appeared that disgruntled truckers and farmers would block at least some highways on Monday.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies (peter.davies@mexiconewsdaily.com)
