By RICARDO CASTILLO First Electoral Blood No sooner had Mexico’s National Electoral Institute (INE) announced that the race for the midterm elections will officially start on Sept. 7, than the first missile was aimed directly at the second political force in the nation, the National Action Party (PAN). A vided allegedly showing Guillermo Gutiérrez Badillo. the private secretary of Querétaro
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
By RICARDO CASTILLO AMLO to Issue Economic Forecast On Sunday, April 5, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) will issue a revamped economic forecast for year 2020. In the case of the previous forecast, all figures have been toppled by the financial ravages provoked by the Covid-19 pandemic and the global oil market pricing havoc. Regarding the previous forecast,
Read more
By RICARDO CASTILLO That old proverb “don’t do good things that look bad” couldn’t be more timely for Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) regarding his outing on the March 28 weekend. AMLO went to Baja California to visit two main cities. Tijuana and Mexicali, and then moved on to the state of Sinaloa, spending time in the capital
Read more
By RICARDO CASTILLO The cancellation of the Constellation Brands brewery construction in Mexicali has so many political and economic offshoots that they are impossible to cover in one journalistic article. But here are some of them: The people of Mexicali voted against the brewery not because they do not want foreign investment in their region, but because the Constellation Brands
Read more
By RICARDO CASTILLO Corona “Beerus” Brewery Nixed at Border A poll carried out by Mexico’s Interior Secretariat (SeGob) over the past weekend (Saturday, March 21, and Sunday, March 22) resulted in an overwhelming vote against the establishment of Corona beer manufacturer Constellation Brands mega-brewery in the Mexican border city of Mexicali, on the Mexican side of Calexico and Imperial Valley,
Read more
By RICARDO CASTILLO The Baja California state electoral controversy may have finally come to an end. Late Tuesday, July 23, the Baja state congress met at the municipality of Rosarito Beach to confirm that the governance period for Governor-elect Jaime Bonilla Valdéz from two to five years is valid. Early the next day, the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ) in
Read more
By RICARDO CASTILLO The Baja California state Congress majority vote to extend from two to five years the tenure of governor-elect Jaime Bonilla Valdéz is an issue that promises to reshape Mexican politics. (For background info, see my July 15 article on this news item.) Many are against the extension, while others defend it not just because it is the
Read more