By RICARDO CASTILLO The Last of the Sauri-ans The first week of September in Mexican politics was raucous from start to finish. Here is a capsulated roundup of events: It all started on Monday, Aug. 31, with the first vote at the Mexican Chamber of Deputies for the upcoming third and last year of the current legislature. Contending for the
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By THE PULSE NEWS MEXICO STAFF Mexico’s National Electoral Institute (INE) on Friday, Sept. 4, denied the political organization founded by former President Felipe Calderón and his wife Margarita Zavala the right to be considered a political party. The group, known as Libertad y Responsabilidad Democrática (Freedom and Democratic Responsibility), or simply México Libre (Free Mexico), was denied the right
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By RICARDO CASTILLO A War of Leaks Ever since the 63-page script containing the accusations the former director of the state-run oil interest Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), Emilio Lozoya Austin, made against a numerous set of former public officials, a small war of leaks has been taking place in Mexican politics. First Lozoya directly accused former Mexican Presidents Felipe Calderón, Enrique
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Just last week, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) extended the presence of soldiers on the streets of the nation to support the efforts of municipal and state police, along with the now-one-year-old National Guard (GN) in the fight against crime. The move was seen by AMLO’s critics in the conservative press as “unconstitutional” and “illegal.”
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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 Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) has called on his opponents to agree to a political “truce” in order to abate an anti-AMLO tidal wave of fake and not-so-fake news that has recently been unleashed on Twitter and which AMLO claims is being fed by troll farms. As an example, AMLO pointed to one tweet out
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Covid-19, Imported From Italy Mexican Public Health Undersecretary Hugo López-Gatell informed the public on Sunday, March 1, that there are now five confirmed cases of Covid-19 (also known as novel coronavirus), plus 11 suspected cases. Hence, he said, the nation is not in a state of emergency. López-Gatell said that the outbreak of the virus in Mexico
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By RICARDO CASTILLO The INE Registration Rush Is On The registration of new organizations that want to become Mexican political parties that claim to have complied with all stipulations made by the National Electoral Institute (INE) began over the weekend. The first to file the request was came last Friday, Feb. 21, the Solidarity Encounter Party (PES), on Friday, Feb.
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Lozoya Nabbed in Malaga Former Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) Director Emilio Lozoya Austin was finally found and arrested in Malaga, Spain, by the Spanish police. The news was broken personally in radio interviews on Wednesday, Feb. 12, by Fiscal General Alejandro Gertz Manero. “It was a long pilgrimage (to track down Lozoya Austin) with the arrest warrant we
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By RICARDO CASTILLO There are two ways of looking at Mexico’s 2021 midterm elections: On the one hand, there will be the anticipated participation of the country’s seven existing political parties. On the other, there are still-undetermined organizations seeking registration with the National Electoral Institute (INE), and it is not clear whether they will get in or not. According to
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