By RICARDO CASTILLO Jiménez Espriú Resigns After accepting the resignation of Communications and Transportation Secretary (SCT) Javier Jiménez Espriú, Mexican President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) announced this week that the new secretary will be Jorge Arganis Díaz Leal. Jiménez Espriú turned in his resignation last week after AMLO announced that all customs houses were going to be managed by
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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
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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,
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Pandemic Traffic Lights On Monday, May 11, the federal government will hold an analytical meeting to establish, perhaps as early as Sunday, May 17, what Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) called “a sort of traffic light” to start reopening the nation’s economy back to business as usual. AMLO said that municipalities where there are no
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By RICARDO CASTILLO This is an article I should have written many years ago, but, at the time, I did not have enough reason to do so. Not until now, when it just so happens that in the natural calendar year of 2020, the second Sunday in May falls on May 10. That, of course, is this coming Sunday. What
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Jacobson’s Hearsay Interview Former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Roberta Jacobson probably regrets giving an interview to reporter J. Jesús Esquivel that ran on Sunday, May 3, in Mexico’s weekly magazine Proceso. Esquivel mangled the information so badly that Jacobson had to send a set of tweets to claim that she didn’t say what Esquivel said she said.
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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
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Budget Change Controversy Harsh times demand harsh measures, and this week Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) sent a bill to the Chamber of Deputies proposing to rearrange the government’s budget to meet the inevitable health and financial crisis looming for the nation. AMLO’s adversaries, through the non-governmental organization México Evalúa (Evaluates) has claimed that the
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By RICARDO CASTILLO This is the brief story of a tempest in a teapot, along with a brief analysis of what the political situation in Mexico is in the times of covid-19, at least for the day. The latest political snafu is a lot of fun, but it was also meaty enough to make for 24 more hours of political
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By RICARDO CASTILLO AMLO: “I’m not an ornamental vase” There must have been more to the matter than met the naked eye. If not, why did Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) raise so much hell over it? On Sunday, April 26, the Mexican Business Association and the investment department of the Inter-American Development Bank (BID) announced that they
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