OPINION By THÉRÈSE MARGOLIS On Thursday, Jan. 27, the daily newspaper Infobae published an article noting that in 90 percent of the legal cases “investigated” by the Mexican government’s so-called Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists (MPPDDHP), no convictions are ever delivered. This figure came from the administration’s own Interior Secretariat (SeGob), which oversees the MPPDDHP office, following
Read more
By THE PULSE NEWS MEXICO STAFF Just days after Mexican journalists Margarito Martínez Esquivel and José Luis Gamboa were killed on Jan. 17 and Jan. 10, respectively, yet another reporter, Lourdes Maldonado of Tijuana’s Semanario del Séptimo Día, was murdered on Sunday, Jan. 23, presumably for her legal disputes with former Baja California Governor Jaime Bonilla. Maldonado, who was shot
Read more
By THÉRÈSE MARGOLIS Despite protests from legalists, constitutionalists and lawmakers alike — including from President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s (AMLO) own leftist National Regeneration Movement (Morena) party — the president’s “initiative” to extend the four-year term of Supreme Court Chief Justice Zalvídar easily passed the Mexican Congress on Friday, April 23. The controversial bill, which extends Zaldívar’s stint another two
Read more
By THE PULSE NEWS MEXICO STAFF Baja California Governor Jaime Bonilla, who famously failed in his attempt to extend his mandate three years beyond his elected two-year term, is now courting new political controversy by trying to expropriate a privately owned golf course in the middle of Tijuana. On Monday, April 19, the leftist National Regeneration Movement (Morena) governor offered
Read more
By RICARDO CASTILLO Political Lockup No sooner had Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) backed down Friday, Jan. 22, on permitting states government and private businesses to purchase anti-covid vaccines, then the 10 governors belonging to the opposition group Federalist Alliance (AF) fired back, complaining that AMLO’s change of mind had come “too late.” “The authorization to join this
Read more
By RICARDO CASTILLO Vaccination Rush There are reports of complaints from all over Mexico that throngs of “influential” persons want to use their jobs in government to be the first in line to get access to the much-desired anti-covid vaccines. In Nogales, Sonora, on the border with Arizona, the Social Security for Government Employees (ISSSTE) officials pointed a finger at
Read more
By RICARDO CASTILLO Pressure to Restart Work Pressure on the Mexican government to get the economy going again is mounting from all sides. Health Secretary Jorge Alcocer, who is responsible for determining which municipalities and industries can reopen, however, does not yet have an answer. “In general there are approximately 990 municipalities applying to restart, but only about a third
Read more
By RICARDO CASTILLO Mothers and Doctors The Mexican Public Health Secretariat, the National Social Security Institute (IMSS) and the National Institute for Social Security and Services for State Workers (ISSSTE) reported that the 9,600 female doctors on call due to the covid-19 spent Sunday, May 10, Mother’s Day, on duty. The report was made by the nongovernmental organization Mom Doctors,
Read more
By RICARDO CASTILLO Don’t Whine Later! The programmed meeting of the Permanent Committee of the Mexican Congress to discuss the revamping of the administration’s Expenditures Bill has been postponed for at least two weeks due to the expanding coronavirus pandemic. Chamber of Deputies Majority Leader Mario Delgado Carrillo said that he had talked over the phone with Senate President Mónica
Read more