By RICARDO CASTILLO Mexican President Andrés Manual Lopez Obrador’s (AMLO) uncanny ability to shock people seems to have no limits. His latest stunt to do so was traveling on Delta Airlines tourist class. At the very least, he could have purchased a business class ticket, but he, along with small entourage headed by Foreign Relations (SRE) Secretary Marcelo Ebrard and
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Jalisco Skids Deeper in Debt As pressure grows on Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) “to make use” of credits available from international funding organizations, the president becomes more adamant and intrinsic about pushing the nation into further debt. Much of that pressure is coming from opposition state governors, who convened last week in Parras, Coahuila,
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Critics are screaming their throats out claiming that Mexico is in a deep crisis! The daily answer from President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) seems to be that Brooklyn street expression when you want to put down someone irately pointing their angry piping hot finger at you (straight out of Martin Scorsese’s 1970s classic “Taxi Driver”): “You
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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 AMLO’s Virtual Powwow with G-20 Leaders In what was his first international encounter — even if only virtual — with the Group of 20 (G-20) world leaders on Thursday, March 26, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) vowed the nation’s solidarity with all affected nations and explained his point of view as to how to proceed
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Happy Birthday, Carlos Slim Just as Mexico’s and Latin America’s wealthiest man, Carlos Slim, was gearing up to celebrate his 80th birthday on Tuesday, Jan. 28, the Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT) delivered a special gift that surely the tycoon did not appreciate: a fine for nearly 1.39 billion pesos. The fine applied directly to mismanagement of accounting
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By RICARDO CASTILLO There’s an old practice in Mexican political journalism known as “tying knives” (“amarrando navajas,” if you want the Spanish term.) The term is not political in origin. In fact, it actually refers to the moment before a cockfight when the people in charge of making the birds fight tie a steel blade to the roosters’ spurs. Consequently,
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Opinion leaders in Mexico are calling the new path to private investment led by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) “crony capitalism,” claiming that now they will benefit from AMLO’s turn to the right, even if just a little bit. It must be pointed out that during his first year in office, he did not even enjoy
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By RICARDO CASTILLO … A quick review of the most important news items in Mexico over the last few days…
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