By RICARDO CASTILLO Covid-19 Vaccine Funds Assured The Mexican government wields, for starters, 20 billion pesos “we have saved because there is no more corruption nor luxuries” to vaccinate every Mexican, said President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) while on tour in Puebla over the weekend. At the same time, he called upon every Mexican to not be overconfident before
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Hunting the Big Five The Mexican Senate gave fast-track approval to a request from President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) to hold a popular consultation on whether to bring to trial five former presidents. The Senate rushed the bill through over the Independence Day holidays (Tuesday, Sept. 15, and Wednesday, Sept. 16). The proposal, which contains only
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Former Presidents to Lose Legal Protection Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) sent a petition to the Senate on Monday, Sept. 14, asking lawmakers to carry out a citizens’ consultation over whether to bring the five past presidents to trial, if charged. With this final request, there have now been three different attempts to bring one
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Chihuahua Governor Seeks Martyrdom In the past two weeks, National Action Party (PAN) Chihuahua Governor Javier Corral has staged two major publicity stunts: First he led a group of 10 state governors to splinter from the National Governors’ Conference (Conago), and then, Immediately afterwards, he permitted a group of farmers to take the federally managed and National
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Wet Politicking in Dry Chihuahua There was a faceoff this week between farmers and the National Guard (GN) at the La Boquilla reservoir on the Conchos River, which feeds into the Rio Grande at the Ojinaga-Presidio border. The GN, in charge of safekeeping the dam, had to withdraw from the facility on Tuesday, Sept. 8, to avoid
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XINHUA Mexico’s public debt will remain stable over the coming years despite the damage to the economy in 2020 caused by the novel coronavirus (covid-19) pandemic, President Andrés Manuel López Obrado (AMLO) said Wednesday, Sept. 9. AMLO’s administration submitted a budget proposal for 2021 that aims to reduce the so-called Historical Balance of the Public Sector Financial Requirements to 53.7
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Cleavage at Conago Ten Mexican governors met Monday, Sept. 7, in the northern city of Chihuahua. The purpose of their gathering was to vote on whether to continue to participate in the National Governors Commission (Conago), an organization that aims to be one voice before the president. The outcome of the meeting was that all10 voted to
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By RICARDO CASTILLO The Last of the Sauri-ans The first week of September in Mexican politics was raucous from start to finish. Here is a capsulated roundup of events: It all started on Monday, Aug. 31, with the first vote at the Mexican Chamber of Deputies for the upcoming third and last year of the current legislature. Contending for the
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XINHUA Mexico’s economy is facing a “high degree of uncertainty” because it is still difficult to predict the duration of the covid-19 pandemic and the impact that the virus containment measures will have, the Central Bank of Mexico (Banxico) said in a report on Wednesday, Aug. 26. “The evolution of the covid-19 pandemic is still in progress both globally and
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Haphazard School Kickoff The school year in Mexico kicked off on Monday, Aug. 24, with all of the failures expected from a nation not accustomed to remote education. With classes at home, parents from all over the country complained first about the communications system failure as teachers responsible for their groups groped to find alternative education methods.
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