By RICARDO CASTILLO Unemployment: Mexico’s New Nightmare Over 555,000 Mexican workers lost their jobs in April alone. Those who lost jobs in May are not yet counted in a report issued on Tuesday, May 12, by the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS). The bulk of the lost jobs, according to the IMSS, was in manufacturing, including high-employment maquiladoras, auto industries and
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Financial desperation and back-to-work decision-making just as Mexico enters what is expected to be the peak of its covid-19 pandemic are definitely poorly timed. But then, that’s the reality the Mexican government is facing today. As of Tuesday, May 12, Mexico’s National Health Council announced the approval of four agreements for a progressive lifting of stay-at-home measures
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Pressure to Restart Work Pressure on the Mexican government to get the economy going again is mounting from all sides. Health Secretary Jorge Alcocer, who is responsible for determining which municipalities and industries can reopen, however, does not yet have an answer. “In general there are approximately 990 municipalities applying to restart, but only about a third
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Mothers and Doctors The Mexican Public Health Secretariat, the National Social Security Institute (IMSS) and the National Institute for Social Security and Services for State Workers (ISSSTE) reported that the 9,600 female doctors on call due to the covid-19 spent Sunday, May 10, Mother’s Day, on duty. The report was made by the nongovernmental organization Mom Doctors,
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By RICARDO CASTILLO USMCA to Take Effect July 1 The trilateral trade treaty known in the United States as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), in México as the T-MEC, and in Canada by the same old term as the previous accord, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), will most definitely go into effect on July 1. The announcement was
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Extended Isolation The full containment of the Covid-19 pandemic in Mexico will require much time than originally planned, so the stay-home period may have to be extended from the original April 30 to May 30, said Public Health Undersecretary Hugo López-Gatell, who is in charge of monitoring the spread of the disease. The announcement was made during
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Frustrated Entrepreneurs Business and politics have intentionally been kept centralized in Mexico City for decades in Mexico. But that arrangement seems to be falling apart as a result of the divide between commerce and industrial chambers leaders, specifically, Carlos Salazar Lomelín of the Business Coordination Council (CCE), Francisco Cervantes of the Industrial Chambers Confederation (Concamin) and Antonio
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Covid-19 Protection Arriving Mexico received the first plane load of medical materials from China on Wednesday, April 8, to supply its hospital personnel nationwide of much-needed protection while caring for patients infected with Covid-19. Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said that Mexico paid $56.481 million to acquire 180,000 pairs of globes, 16,174,000 surgery masks and 11.5 million
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By RICARDO CASTILLO “He slammed the door on us!” That quote is from Mexico’s Business Coordination Council (CCE) president Carlos Salazar Lomelín regarding the meeting he and other business leaders had on Monday, April 6, with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) concerning the nation’s booming unemployment quagmire. AMLO said his doors are open, but that he disagrees with
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Private Hospital Expropriations Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) published an executive order on Friday, March 27, awarding the federal government the right to “make use of all medical sectors, public, social and private, in the regions affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.” In short, private hospitals may be privatized for pandemic use only. The decree, published
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