By RICARDO CASTILLO Once upon a time, back on Dec. 2, 2012, when former Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto appointed Rosario Robles Berlanga as the Social Development (Sedesol) Secretary, this columnist published an article in The News – then the only English-language daily in Mexico – claiming that Rosario was “a woman for all seasons” and “a survivor.” That may
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By RICARDO CASTILLO What came as a shock to the Mexican political system last Friday, July 5, was not that the nation’s fiscal (attorney) general managed to get a judge to issue him yet another arrest warrant against former Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) Director Emilio Lozoya Austin, but that the arrest warrant also included his mother, wife and sister, Gilda Austin,
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Is there anything left for Mexico’s Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) and Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) to celebrate now that they have been diagnosed as last-stage, end-of-life patients? Maybe not, other than the fact that in their deathbeds they are still desperately clinging to life. The stories of the two parties is extremely different, although their
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Echoes of the mysterious meeting Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) had with Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, last March 19 are now thundering across the political landscape. The following day, as reported by Pulse News Mexico, AMLO said, “Basically, we dealt with the issue of (joint) development cooperation, and about the possible signing of a
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By RICARDO CASTILLO How well are relations between Mexico and the United States doing? Or to be blunt about it, how are relations between U.S. President Donald Trump and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO)? According to a clique of prophets of doom that gather every Wednesday night in a Mexican commentary program called “Tercer Grado” (“Third Degree”) on
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Mexico’s new brand of diplomacy is about to undergo its first acid test. On Friday, Jan. 4, the Foreign Relations ministers or secretaries of the 14 Latin American nations that make up the Lima Group (a multilateral body that was established following the Lima Declaration on Aug. 8, 2017, in the Peruvian capital under which representatives of 17 countries
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto is leaving office with a bang. Today, Friday, Nov. 30, he is in Buenos Aires meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to sign the would-be final draft of the new North American Free Trade Agreement, or whatever it is called nowadays. (I say would-be because on
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By RICARDO CASTILLO The Mexican writ of legal protection, or amparo, is a juridical resource for those who know they could stand accused of a wrongdoing. Historically, it’s unprecedented in the nation for a standing president to request an amparo which he will use in the near future. But as the old adage goes, there’s always a first time and that
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By RICARDO CASTILLO U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is visiting Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto on Friday, Oct. 19. Pompeo is in a political tour visiting Panama and Mexico. apparently to discuss the volatile political and security situations both in Venezuela and Nicaragua. Yet surely Venezuela and Nicaragua can be ranked as priorities number two and three when confronted
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By THÉRÈSE MARGOLIS Mexican Foreign Relations (SRE) Secretary Luis Videgaray spoke by phone with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, on Saturday, Oct. 13, to assure Beijing that the newly drafted United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) will in no way impede economic relations with other countries, according to an SRE press release. The new USMCA, which, if approved by the congresses of
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