“Today is October 2,” President Claudia Sheinbaum said at the start of her Thursday morning press conference.
“October 2 is not forgotten,” she added.
Thursday is the 57th anniversary of the Tlatelolco massacre, in which hundreds of protesting students were killed by the military in Mexico City.
Sheinbaum expressed her government’s “solidarity” with the students who died on Oct. 2, 1968, and with “all of the political prisoners” of that time.
“This is the first thing,” she said before ceding center stage to Energy Minister Elena Luz González, who outlined two new regulations for the transportation and distribution of LP gas.
Football over finance
A reporter asked Sheinbaum about the criticism the Morena party’s top senator, Adán Augusto López Hernández, faced after he was caught watching a soccer match on his tablet in the Senate during an appearance on Wednesday by Finance Minister Édgar Amador.
The president responded that the issue didn’t concern her.
Asked whether López Hernández’s conduct affected the image of Morena, Sheinbaum responded:
“I’m not going to get involved in that.”
Morena is Mexico’s ruling party, founded by former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Sheinbaum represented the party in the 2024 presidential election.
López Hernández could conceivably see the criticism over his football watching in the Senate as a welcome distraction from the accusations he faces related to the alleged criminal activity of the man who served as his security minister when he was governor of Tabasco.
Hernán Bermúdez Requena, security minister in Tabasco between 2019 and 2024, is accused of heading a Jalisco New Generation Cartel-affiliated crime group called La Barredora. He was arrested in Paraguay last month and is now in a federal prison in México state.
Opposition politicians and others have claimed it is not possible that López Hernández was unaware of the alleged criminal activity of his security minister in Tabasco.
* In case you were wondering, López Hernández was watching the UEFA Champions League match between Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain, which the latter team won 2-1.
A fortified National Palace
A reporter asked the president about the metal barriers that have been installed around the National Palace, located opposite the Zócalo, Mexico City’s main square, in the historic center of the capital.
The barriers were erected ahead of the annual march that takes place on Oct. 2 to commemorate the Tlatelolco massacre.
Sheinbaum said that the barriers have been put up to protect the National Palace during protests for “years.”
“… There are these groups who cover their faces and carry out actions with dangerous devices,” she said, adding that on many occasions they have attempted to set alight the National Palace’s main door.
“If you put police in front of a situation of this kind where there is aggression, there will be a confrontation,” Sheinbaum said.
“And, in addition, you put the police at risk because the Mexico City police, at least, are trained not to repress but simply to contain,” said the former Mexico City mayor.
“So it’s better to put up a physical barrier to avoid this situation, rather than having a confrontation with police officers,” Sheinbaum said.
No plan to break diplomatic relations with Israel
After she denounced Israel’s interception of a flotilla transporting aid to Gaza and called for the immediate repatriation of six Mexicans who were detained by Israeli forces, Sheinbaum was asked whether her government would break off diplomatic relations with Israel.
“Until now it has not been considered,” the president said.
Sheinbaum subsequently highlighted that Mexico was among “the first countries” to file a complaint in The Hague related to the conflict in Gaza.
Sheinbaum calls for immediate return of Mexicans detained by Israel
In January 2024, Mexico and Chile “referred the situation in the State of Palestine to the International Criminal Court for investigation into the probable commission of crimes within its jurisdiction,” according to Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Sheinbaum also noted that her government formally recognized the Palestinian Embassy in Mexico.
“It had not been recognized as such” before, she said.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies ([email protected])
