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
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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
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By RICARDO CASTILLO The past six months have been hectic for Mexico and its Congress as they worked to approve several constitutional amendments that will help ease the nation’s transition into what President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) calls the Fourth Transformation, now popularly mentioned as 4T. Apparently – and this is an educated guess only – AMLO has plans
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Mexican education workers nationwide commemorated Teachers’ Day (Día del Maestros) in many different manners on Wednesday, May15, not excluding expressing their dissatisfaction with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s (AMLO) new education reform, which was fully approved by Congress during the day. AMLO said he’d sign the law immediately so it can be published on Thursday, May 16,
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Every May 15, Mexico commemorates Teachers’ Day. But the festivities – celebrated at every school – public or private – by the millions of students, parents, labor unions, communities and government branches, who pamper teachers that day (even if it is just once a year), may turn out in 2019 to be different from what we’ve had
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By THÉRÈSE MARGOLIS The very astute U.S. political columnist and comedian Will Rogers once quipped: “If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.” Sage advice, and solid counsel that Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) would do well to follow. But even before he took office in December of last year, Mexico’s populist president has been excavating his
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Why exactly did Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) sign a document on Tuesday, March 19, swearing not to seek reelection as president? That question has many answers, but it is extremely odd — this year being 2019, more than five and a half full years before the next presidential term — that any sitting president
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By THÉRÈSE MARGOLIS Just in case you are wondering why Monday, March 18, is an official holiday here in Mexico, it is in observation of the 1806 birthday of five-time president Benito Juárez, a national hero, who helped chase the French out of the country, overthrew the Hapsburg-imposed empire of Maximillian I, and restored the republic under a liberal regime
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By RICARDO CASTILLO As the internal conflict inside Venezuela grows on a daily basis, the numbers of voices in Mexico pleading with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) to declare himself in support of the cause of the now-enormous number of nations (and columnists in Mexico) favoring self-appointed “substitute President” Juan Guaidó over ruling President Nicolás Maduro. On Monday, Feb.
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eNapoleón Gómez Urrutia, head of the Mexican Miners and Metal Smelters Union. Photo: veracruzenlasnoticas.com By RICARDO CASTILLO The wheel of fortune has made a full circle for Mexican Senator Napoleón Gómez Urrutia. In 2006, Gómez Urrutia, then — and still — leader of the Mexican Miners and Metal Smelters Union, fled Mexico Canada-bound, charged with a $55 million embezzlement of union funds. Had he
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