By RICARDO CASTILLO Voting for a Rigmarole The 11-member Mexican Supreme Court vote to allow a referendum to be held to decide whether to bring to trial past presidents for crimes allegedly committed while in they were in power past last week in two stages. The first stage was to decide if the public referendum is constitutional. The referendum’s constitutionality
Read more
By RICARDO CASTILLO AMLO and Corral Trade Verbal Punches On Friday, Sept. 18, Mexican Security Undersecretary Ricardo Mejía Berdeja named eight well-to-do Chihuahua farming families that he accused of “hoarding” 35 million cubic meters of Rio Conchos water, representing a full 12.5 percent of the water that is owed to the United States. One person alone, Mejía Berdeja said, is
Read more
By RICARDO CASTILLO Debt Restructuring Plan The Mexican Treasury and the National Banking and Stocks Commission (CNBV) launched a national debt relief package to help borrowers and banks alike during the covid-19 pandemic-provoked economic crisis. The plan includes a downsizing of the agreed-upon interest rate and reduces the monthly amount borrowers are currently paying. All news arrangement will have to
Read more
By RICARDO CASTILLO Economic Skid Two of the basic economic indicators, demand and supply, plunged down by 19.4 percent in comparison to the same period last year, according to a quarterly report from the Mexican government official pollster, the National Institute of Geography and Statistic (Inegi). The figures reflect statistics both for home and industry, which had been stable since
Read more
By RICARDO CASTILLO Covid-19 Vaccine Funds Assured The Mexican government wields, for starters, 20 billion pesos “we have saved because there is no more corruption nor luxuries” to vaccinate every Mexican, said President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) while on tour in Puebla over the weekend. At the same time, he called upon every Mexican to not be overconfident before
Read more
By RICARDO CASTILLO Hunting the Big Five The Mexican Senate gave fast-track approval to a request from President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) to hold a popular consultation on whether to bring to trial five former presidents. The Senate rushed the bill through over the Independence Day holidays (Tuesday, Sept. 15, and Wednesday, Sept. 16). The proposal, which contains only
Read more
By RICARDO CASTILLO Former Presidents to Lose Legal Protection Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) sent a petition to the Senate on Monday, Sept. 14, asking lawmakers to carry out a citizens’ consultation over whether to bring the five past presidents to trial, if charged. With this final request, there have now been three different attempts to bring one
Read more
By RICARDO CASTILLO Chihuahua Governor Seeks Martyrdom In the past two weeks, National Action Party (PAN) Chihuahua Governor Javier Corral has staged two major publicity stunts: First he led a group of 10 state governors to splinter from the National Governors’ Conference (Conago), and then, Immediately afterwards, he permitted a group of farmers to take the federally managed and National
Read more
By RICARDO CASTILLO Wet Politicking in Dry Chihuahua There was a faceoff this week between farmers and the National Guard (GN) at the La Boquilla reservoir on the Conchos River, which feeds into the Rio Grande at the Ojinaga-Presidio border. The GN, in charge of safekeeping the dam, had to withdraw from the facility on Tuesday, Sept. 8, to avoid
Read more
By RICARDO CASTILLO Cleavage at Conago Ten Mexican governors met Monday, Sept. 7, in the northern city of Chihuahua. The purpose of their gathering was to vote on whether to continue to participate in the National Governors Commission (Conago), an organization that aims to be one voice before the president. The outcome of the meeting was that all10 voted to
Read more