By RICARDO CASTILLO The conflicting crescendo of undiplomatic affairs between Mexico and Bolivia took unexpected proportions on Monday, Dec. 30, as interim Bolivian President Jeanine Añez Chávez expelled Mexican Ambassador María Teresa Mercado as a “persona non grata.” Mexican Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard immediately appointed the current head of the embassy Ana Luisa Vallejo as Mercado’s ad interim substitute.
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By RICARDO CASTILLO ,,, A quick review of the most important news in Mexico over the last few days…
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Mexico at Odds with Bolivia Diplomatic relations between Bolivia and Mexico are heading toward higher tensions as La Paz demands that Mexico deliver four out of nine people who have sought and been granted asylum in the Mexican Embassy in Bolivia. Mexican Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard announces in early morning of Thursday, Dec. 26, that he would
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By RICARDO CASTILLO There is no custom in Mexico of having one publication declare a worthwhile personality “the man” (now “person”) of the year like there is in the United States, where Time magazine has been doing for nearly 100 years. But recently, several Mexican journalists have speculated that if there were such a notion in Mexico, who would be
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By RICARDO CASTILLO USMCA Is a Done Deal Happiness is a good trade deal. And a great Christmas gift for Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) since it affords the country a potentially secure economic future once all of the minor hurdles have been cleared. The passage of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA, or T-MEC, in Spanish), which was finally
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By RICARDO CASTILLO “Iron Lady” Named Tax Collector Raquel Buenrostro Sánchez was appointed as Mexico’s new Tributary Administration Service (SAT) director on Thursday, Dec. 18, by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO). She replaces Margarita Ríos-Farjat, now the 11th member of the Supreme Court of the Nation. Buenrostro (whose last name literally means Good Face) was promoted to the
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Let’s not misinterpret facts: For Mexicans, the man who will be on trial in the United States for providing legal protection to the Sinaloa Drug Cartel will not be former Mexican Public Security Secretary Genaro García Luna, but rather his boss, the man who appointed him and protected him in that post from 2006 to 2012, former
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By RICARDO CASTILLO García Luna Refuses Mexico’s Help Shackled and wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, Mexico’s former top cop Genaro García Luna appeared before Judge David Horan of the Dallas Federal Court on Tuesday, Dec. 17. García Luna, who was the public security secretary under former Mexican President Felipe Calderón (2006-2012), declined during his brief 10-minute court appearance his right
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By RICARDO CASTILLO There’s an old practice in Mexican political journalism known as “tying knives” (“amarrando navajas,” if you want the Spanish term.) The term is not political in origin. In fact, it actually refers to the moment before a cockfight when the people in charge of making the birds fight tie a steel blade to the roosters’ spurs. Consequently,
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Additional Tag-ons to the USMCA No sooner had U.S. Speaker Nancy Pelosi sent the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) to the House of Representatives for a vote on Friday, Dec. 13, than Democratic Majority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MA) introduced initiative HR5430, which tags five U.S. inspectors to oversee union elections in private companies in Mexico. Immediately, Mexico’s USMCA
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