By MARK LORENZANA In the new “Basic Education Curricular Plan” of Mexico’s Secretariat of Public Education (SEP), high school students in Mexican public schools must learn in their civics subject the infrastructure works carried out by the government, which political party has promoted these works and if they were part of previous campaign promises. These are just a few examples of what
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OPINION By MARK LORENZANA There have been mostly negative reactions to the appointment by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) of Leticia Ramírez as head of Mexico’s Secretariat of Public Education (SEP), to replace Delfina Gómez Álvarez. Ramírez has not been in her position for more than a couple of days, and already the SEP had presented a “New
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By THÉRÈSE MARGOLIS Three years after Mexican students were ranked last among 38 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries in math, science and reading by the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), the country has apparently suspended the tests altogether. Tue Halgreen, a senior analyst at PISA headquarters in France, confirmed the suspension of field tests in Mexico
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By RICARDO CASTILLO It is just now that we are witnessing the devastating political tsunami the victory of now-Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) wrought on the nation’s political system and the parties that competed in the 2018 presidential election. AMLO’s party, the National Regeneration Movement (Morena), swept the election with 53 percent of the vote, while his nearest
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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 THÉRÈSE MARGOLIS The very astute U.S. political columnist and comedian Will Rogers once quipped: “If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.” Sage advice, and solid counsel that Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) would do well to follow. But even before he took office in December of last year, Mexico’s populist president has been excavating his
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Both houses of the Mexican Congress folded on Tuesday, April 30, ending the first part of formal sessions for this year of 2019. There was one surprise as the Senate sent back to the Chamber of Deputies President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s (AMLO) much-touted new law abrogating former President Enrique Peña Nieto’s ill-fated Education Reform. The bill didn’t
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By RICARDO CASTILLO After a long and weary debate on the night of Wednesday, April 24, that extended into the wee hours of Thursday, April 25, Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies voted to abolish the Education Reform “imposed” by former President Enrique Peña Nieto in 2013. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) celebrated the backing he received from this house of Congress
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Suddenly – but not unexpectedly – the once-powerful National Education Workers Union (SNTE) leader Elba Esther Gordillo is back on track to regain the presidency of Mexico’s two-million-member-strong union, the largest in all Latin America. During the administration of former Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018), Gordillo was thrown in the slammer on several charges, including embezzlement
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By THÉRÈSE MARGOLIS After holding a massive two-day protest outside Mexico’s San Lázaro Congressional Palace earlier in the week (which forced Chamber of Deputies President Porfirio Muñoz Ledo to suspend all sessions until Tuesday, March 26) and meetings on Thursday, March 21, with representatives of both the Education Secretariat and the Interior Secretariat (Segob), leaders of the nation’s militant National
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