By RICARDO CASTILLO This article is about Mexico’s new (literally from the Spanish) Law of Dominium Extinction or Expired Ownership Domain, approved last July 24 by the Mexican Senate and similar in some ways to the one known as Eminent Domain in the United States. The law is being questioned by a number of deputies such as Tatiana Clouthier (Morena)
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By RICARDO CASTILLO The word “recession” currently seems to be striking terror in the heart of most Mexicans. And given the humongous volume of antagonism President Andrés López Obrador (AMLO) is confronting, the word is even more threatening to his opponents. Not only that, AMLO is fighting a war of economic terminology in which the truth is in the voice
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By RICARDO CASTILLO On Monday, July 8, the Baja California state assembly approved by a majority vote a bill to extend the governance period of newly elected Governor Jaime Bonilla Valdez from two to five years. Bonilla Valdez was elected last June 2 to govern for two years. Normally, Baja governors are elected to govern for six years. Elections
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Just when everyone in Mexico thought President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) and tycoon entrepreneur Carlos Slim had frozen their relationship, last Friday, June 28, they reappeared together in the state of Oaxaca to relaunch the completion of the 150-kilometer-long, two-expanded-lane Milta-Tehuantepec super highway, with an 8-billion-peso investment. Was this event the beginning of the thawing of
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By RICARDO CASTILLO The next round of elections in Mexico is just around the corner. slated for Sunday. June 2. There will be political activity on different basis in six different states. Clearly, the attention will be most focused in the states of Puebla and Baja California. where elections for governor will be attracting the bulk of attention. They are,
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Even though it’s been approved by the Chamber of Deputies, and will surely be fast-tracked by the Mexican Senate, the integration of the National Guard (GN) remains a farfetched endeavor. The approved bill provides for the GN to section off Mexico into 266 different commands. Initially, the National Guard will be made up of as many as 50,000 officers from the
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By RICARDO CASTILLO The good news is that by moving the Mexican Army to take over Pemex oil refineries, refined fuels theft stopped almost overnight. The bad news is that, nowadays, the residents of the Guanajuato, Querétaro, Michoacán, Jalisco and State of Mexico (Edoméx) can´t get a liter of green or red gas for their vehicles. Theft stopped, but the
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By RICARDO CASTILLO The rumblings of the upcoming Constitutional Wars are growing thunderous in Mexico’s cloudy political skies. Over the past two weeks, the group of 12 National Action Party (PAN) governors across the nation are threatening a rebellion against the “dictatorship” of President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) and his majority in both houses of Congress through the National
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Unwittingly, Mexico has now returned to the exact same quagmire that it revolted against more than 70 years ago: the one-party political system. Today, the National Regeneration Movement (Morena) has both the presidency and a majority control in both houses of Congress, winning 53 percent of the vote in the July 1 elections. For at least the next three years, whatever
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By RICARDO CASTILLO The new Chamber of Deputies president, Porfirio Muñoz Ledo, is a master of political discourse and parliamentary procedures. During the “installation” (to use the Mexican term for inauguration) of the two houses of Congress last Saturday, Sept. 1, Porfirio, at age 85, presided over the inaugural process of the 64th Legislature. And in so doing, he showed his experience
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