By RICARDO CASTILLO Ancira Negotiations Imprisoned Mexican steel tycoon Alonso Ancira’s lawyer, José Luis Castañeda, continued negotiations at the Mexico City North Penitentiary late Tuesday, Feb. 9, and finally came up with a figure that his client will have to pay to win his freedom. In an out-of-court negotiation still to be ratified, Mexico’s state-run oil company Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex)
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Gags on Twitter and Facebook? A bill to “regulate the performance of social networks” in Mexico is due to be introduced in Congress this week by Senator Ricardo Monreal. The proposed bill would regulate social network companies like Twitter and Facebook on a national scale and would prevent them from censuring accounts of people or entities that
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Vaccines Registration Underway, Sort of… As of Tuesday, Feb. 2, the Mexican government has opened up its Natonal Vaccination Program of covid-19 vaccines to everyone over the age of 60, allowing those eligible to register on a webpage run by the Interior Secretariat (SeGob). In theory, everyone in Mexico over age 60 — including legal foreign residents
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Back to the Salt Mines Both houses of the Mexican Congress kicked off activities Monday, Feb. 1, after the Christmas sabbatical with an array of very important issues under discussion for voting as soon as legislators feel the bills are ready. It came as no surprise that Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) on Friday, Jan.
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Rumors Abound Ever since Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) announced in a tweet on Sunday, Jan. 24, that he had tested positive for coivd-19 and had gone into quarantine, countless rumors have been flying across the media and gossip mills as to the validity of his announcement. Some critics suggested that AMLO had not, in
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Russian Vaccínea The Mexican Public Health Secretariat on Monday, Jan. 25, published in the Official Gazette the ordinance outlining the purchase of covid-19 vaccines by private citizens, companies and state governments. No doubt, the announcement was rushed to the government’s newspaper spurred on by the announcement that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) was buying 24 million
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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
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By RICARDO CASTILLO AMLO Welcomes Biden Newly instated U.S. President Joe Biden’s inaugural speech on Wednesday, Jan. 20, was welcomed by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), who said it was full of good news. Asked during his Thursday, Jan. 21, press conference whether he felt threatened by Biden, AMLO responded: “We have nothing to object to. On the
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Covid-19 Vaccines Politicized Ever since the Mexican government announcement on Friday, Jan. 15, that “the last batch” of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines — 219,375 vaccine units, to be exact, half the expected number of doses, would arrive in the country Tuesday, Jan. 19, the topic became a focus of a raging political debate. But at the root of that
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