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 Over the past week, the ultra-conservative daily Mexican newspaper Reforma has been stabbing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) with a wooden knife. In Mexican journalism, it is deemed that wooden knives do not penetrate deep enough to kill you, but for sure getting “stabbed” with one is a nagging nuisance. Persons who criticize politicians use the
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By THÉRÈSE MARGOLIS If there remains any doubt as to whether or not Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) has assumed dictatorial powers, his blatant use of “trial by president” should be proof enough for anyone with even the slightest knowledge of how a democracy is supposed to work. Let me be very clear: The fact that AMLO has
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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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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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By THE PULSE NEWS MEXICO STAFF Mexico’s ruling National Regeneration Movement (Morena) party’s national council voted unanimously to sponsor a nationwide signature collecting campaign to request a public referendum on whether or not to launch legal inquiries into the alleged crimes of corruption by former presidents, specifically, Carlos Salinas de Gortari, Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León, Vicente Fox Quesada, Felipe
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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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By RICARDO CASTILLO A War of Leaks Ever since the 63-page script containing the accusations the former director of the state-run oil interest Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), Emilio Lozoya Austin, made against a numerous set of former public officials, a small war of leaks has been taking place in Mexican politics. First Lozoya directly accused former Mexican Presidents Felipe Calderón, Enrique
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