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 RICARDO CASTILLO Just as the dust is beginning to settle from last week’s approvals and denials fray of new national political parties by Mexico’s Electoral Tribunal (TEJPF), the National Electoral Institute (INE) carried out Sunday, Oct. 19, two pending elections that had been suspended due to the covid-19 pandemic in the states of Hidalgo and Coahuila. INE President-Councilor Lorenzo
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Although only one out of seven new applications for registration as a political party was accepted last Friday, Sept. 5, by Mexico’s National Electoral Institute (INE), that does not mean the quest for registration is over for those dissatisfied with the decision. The only party admitted for registration was the Solidary Encounter Party (PES). Three of the
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Covid-19, Imported From Italy Mexican Public Health Undersecretary Hugo López-Gatell informed the public on Sunday, March 1, that there are now five confirmed cases of Covid-19 (also known as novel coronavirus), plus 11 suspected cases. Hence, he said, the nation is not in a state of emergency. López-Gatell said that the outbreak of the virus in Mexico
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By RICARDO CASTILLO There are two ways of looking at Mexico’s 2021 midterm elections: On the one hand, there will be the anticipated participation of the country’s seven existing political parties. On the other, there are still-undetermined organizations seeking registration with the National Electoral Institute (INE), and it is not clear whether they will get in or not. According to
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By RICARDO CASTILLO “Iron Lady” Named Tax Collector Raquel Buenrostro Sánchez was appointed as Mexico’s new Tributary Administration Service (SAT) director on Thursday, Dec. 18, by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO). She replaces Margarita Ríos-Farjat, now the 11th member of the Supreme Court of the Nation. Buenrostro (whose last name literally means Good Face) was promoted to the
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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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By THÉRÈSE MARGOLIS As my esteemed colleague Ricardo Castillo pointed out in his column on Friday, March 8, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) is due to present a self-styled analysis of his first 100 days in office on Monday, March 11. And as Castillo duly noted, the left-leaning AMLO is expected to “blow his own horn” about his
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Everyone was expecting a second upstaging of Mexican President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador by the former teachers’ union leader Elba Esther Gordillo on Sunday, Aug. 19, and Monday, Aug. 20. The first upstaging came on Aug. 8, when Elba Esther was exonerated by a judge of all charges that had kept her a prisoner in a federal
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