By MARK LORENZANA In the midst of a debate plagued by accusations of vote buying, disqualifications and insults, the plenary session of the Mexican Senate — with the majority vote of senators under Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO)’s leftist National Regeneration Movement (Morena) and their allies, as well as the majority of legislators from the Institutional Revolutionary Party
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By MARK LORENZANA On Wednesday, Sept. 14, Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies approved a proposal to use the Armed Forces for public security tasks until 2028, but according to Ricardo Monreal, upper-house leader of the leftist National Regeneration Movement (Morena), the proposal might hit a snag in the Mexican Senate. The initiative has been moved to the Senate, and is scheduled
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By MARK LORENZANA The public-security strategy of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) is facing a possible review in the Mexican Senate, and the opposition bloc is demanding changes in the fight against organized crime, chief among them strengthening the state police and creating a professional civilian body in charge of public security. Damián Zepeda, a senator from the conservative National
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By MARK LORENZANA As an extreme drought grips Nuevo León, a state in the northeast region of Mexico — making water increasingly scarce — thieves have resorted to illegally tapping the biggest water reservoir in the state, El Cuchillo Dam. The water crisis in Nuevo León has worsened in the last six months that its state government, headed by Governor Samuel García, has
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By RICARDO CASTILLO A recent vote at Mexico’s lower house Chamber of Deputies denying President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) the approval of his electricity reform left the impression that the country is politically “polarized,” that is, evenly divided in two political factions. AMLO’s supporters at the chamber missed the two-thirds majority goal they needed to pass the reform, which
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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 collective memory in Mexico may be short these days, but it was a long haul until Wednesday, July 22, to pick the four new National Electoral Institute (INE) councilors that just took over their posts. Once the Chamber of Deputies approved the four from a choice of 20 pre-candidates, the storm was over and a political calm
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Politicking Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) tossed a boa constrictor into the national political swamp on Tuesday, June 9. No doubt all political toads, snakes and even crocs and other amphibians quietly swimming around jumped out of the water, scared as hell. AMLO had his press secretary Jesús Ramírez Cuevas read aloud a document that
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Thus far in Mexico’s Covid-19 pandemic, 13 state governors are criticizing the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO). Whatever he does, he does wrong in the eyes of these 13 beholders. In return, AMLO and his supporters are claiming that at least 11 of the 13 governors, who should be running their states according to
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Reverse Remittances While the Central Bank of Mexico has already begun whining about the potential drop in dollar-denominated remittances from the roughly 36 million Mexican workers in the United States, down to $29 billion in 2020, its U.S. counterpart, the Federal Reserve (Fed) is reporting that as of last January and through Thursday, April 2, Mexican investors
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