By RICARDO CASTILLO First Coronavirus Case in Mexico Mexico’s Health Secretariat was notified on Saturday, Feb. 1, by the Los Angeles International Airport medical authorities of the confirmed case of a 37-year-old Chinese national and Wuhan native who had visited Mexico as of Jan. 21. Taxi service company Uber acknowledged that the infected person used at least two of its
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Migrants Try to Barge into Mexico Throngs of Central American migrants Sunday, Jan. 19, continued to gather along the Guatemalan border on Sunday, Jan. 19, with the intent of moving through Mexico to the United States. On Saturday. Jan. 18, approximately 1,500 of the mostly Honduran migrants attempted to stage their first show of force
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XINHUA There’s no denying that 2019 was a turbulent one for Latin America, with protests, violent clashes and a fierce tug of war between conservative and progressive currents in countries long considered bastions of stability. But as the region staggers into 2020 with stagnant or even shrinking growth, many liberal observers are hoping that the first year of this new
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Dos Bocas Bubble Bursts The news was sensational. Chinese Ambassador to Mexico Zhi Qingqiao told reporters during the celebration of a China Day event organized by Mexico’s Economy Secretariat on Monday, Jan.13, that Chinese banks were investing $600 million in the Dos Bocas Refinery, currently under construction in the southeastern state of Tabasco. Immediately after
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Bolivia’s pro tempore president, Janine Añez, has very little governance experience, so she’s decided that to make her stay at the presidency she must pick a fight with other nations. Right after coming to power on Nov. 15, her first move was to break diplomatic relations with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Maduro was most happy with that
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By RICARDO CASTILLO The conflicting crescendo of undiplomatic affairs between Mexico and Bolivia took unexpected proportions on Monday, Dec. 30, as interim Bolivian President Jeanine Añez Chávez expelled Mexican Ambassador María Teresa Mercado as a “persona non grata.” Mexican Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard immediately appointed the current head of the embassy Ana Luisa Vallejo as Mercado’s ad interim substitute.
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Mexico at Odds with Bolivia Diplomatic relations between Bolivia and Mexico are heading toward higher tensions as La Paz demands that Mexico deliver four out of nine people who have sought and been granted asylum in the Mexican Embassy in Bolivia. Mexican Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard announces in early morning of Thursday, Dec. 26, that he would
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By RICARDO CASTILLO There’s an old practice in Mexican political journalism known as “tying knives” (“amarrando navajas,” if you want the Spanish term.) The term is not political in origin. In fact, it actually refers to the moment before a cockfight when the people in charge of making the birds fight tie a steel blade to the roosters’ spurs. Consequently,
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Snafu over Gay Zapata Painting Mexican revolutionary hero Emiliano Zapata was murdered 100 years ago, on April 10, 1919. Over the last century, he became a Mexican Revolution icon, a magic figure with a holy aura. But all hell broke loose this week at Mexico’s Palacio de Bellas Artes (Fine Arts Palace) when, in an exhibit to
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By RICARDO CASTILLO AMLO-Trump: The Art of the Deal The smoke screen left behind on Thursday, Dec 5, by the noisy visit of U.S. Attorney General William Barr cleared rapidly over the next three days as U.S. President Donald Trump and his Mexican counterpart, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) practiced both the art of the deal and quid pro quo
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