By RICARDO CASTILLO Red Alert for Three Kings’ Day There could be no more powerful image over the Christmas and New Year holidays than the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) doctors working out of covid-laden patient wards telling everyone, “We don’t want to see you here. Please, stay home.” Their pleas, however, fell on deaf ears. On Tuesday, Jan. 5,
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By RICARDO CASTILLO It seemed like two years ago, back in December 2018, that then-new Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) had partially paved the rocky road that would lead to minimum wage hikes for 2019. At that time, AMLO managed to achieve a tripartite agreement among business organizations, unions and the new Labor Secretariat consensus regarding the hike.
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By RICARDO CASTILLO New Dollar Revenues Law The Mexican Senate approved a bill on Wednesday, Dec. 9, stipulating that all foreign currencies income flowing into Mexico should stay in the nation and not be allowed to be repatriated to the country of its origin. The board of directors of Mexico’s central bank, Banco de Mexico (Banxico), immediately challenged the bill,
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Joining Forces against Morena The leaders of Mexico’s three largest minority parties met on Tuesday, Nov. 10, with two top entrepreneurs who recently formed a political front called Sí por México (Yes for Mexico) to compete against the ruling National Regeneration Movement in the upcoming 2021 midterm elections. Facebook Marko Cortés of the National Action Party (PAN),
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By RICARDO CASTILLO U.S.-Mexico Trade Despite restrictions on nonessential travel across the U.S.-Mexico border, two-way trade between the countries has continued on a relatively steady course, with a hefty favorable trade balance for Mexico. Figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Tuesday, Oct. 6, indicated that U.S. exports to Mexico during August amounted to$17.047 billion, while Mexican sales to
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By RICARDO CASTILLO U.S. expat-cum-Mexican political activist John Mill Ackerman Rose (to use the Mexican style of writing long names) now is engaged on several fronts that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s (AMLO) opponents are using as potential attacks on his presidency. The one rocking the National Regeneration Movement (Morena) insider politics boat the most is Ackerman calling on the
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By EARL ANTHONY WAYNE, former U.S. ambassador to Mexico
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By RICARDO CASTILLO This is the brief story of a tempest in a teapot, along with a brief analysis of what the political situation in Mexico is in the times of covid-19, at least for the day. The latest political snafu is a lot of fun, but it was also meaty enough to make for 24 more hours of political
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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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By RICARDO CASTILLO The Mexican Senate draft of the new labor subcontracting or outsourcing bill project bill has undergone some major changes so far. It’s also been the subject of deep divisions among senators, some wanting to go the radical route and others obeying lobbying efforts from both foreign and national companies that have so far gotten their way in
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