OPINION By ÁLVARO SANTOS Part of an ongoing series from the Wilson Center* The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) was born from a threat and a promise. The threat was to eliminate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) altogether despite the huge regional market it helped create. The promise was to make that market more beneficial to the United States, and,
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By JESSICA GUERRERO Mexico’s independent life as a republic began in 1821, 200 years ago. But the first hundred years of the country’s autonomy were dizzying and plagued with numerous internal conflicts. These events and circumstances unleashed the Mexican Revolution that broke out in 1910, and consisted of a civil war between several regional revolutionary forces against the authoritarian regime of
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Negotiations on the controversial personnel outsourcing legislation bill proposed to the Chamber of Deputies by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) on Nov. 12 have been postponed until February 2021, the president announced on Wednesday, Dec. 9. During an early meeting at the National Palace with business leaders and labor representatives, AMLO said that the details
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Jiménez Espriú Resigns After accepting the resignation of Communications and Transportation Secretary (SCT) Javier Jiménez Espriú, Mexican President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) announced this week that the new secretary will be Jorge Arganis Díaz Leal. Jiménez Espriú turned in his resignation last week after AMLO announced that all customs houses were going to be managed by
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By RICARDO CASTILLO U.S. OKs Anti-Covid-19 Exports to Mexico, Canada The U.S. export prohibition of anti-Covid-19 personal protection equipment to Mexico and Canada has been lifted, according to a memo issued by the U.S. Customs Border Protection Agency. The ban included ventilators, mouth covers and balloons, which can now be acquired by Mexico. On Tuesday, April 14, Mexican President Andrés
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By RICARDO CASTILLO The Mexican Senate draft of the new labor subcontracting or outsourcing bill project bill has undergone some major changes so far. It’s also been the subject of deep divisions among senators, some wanting to go the radical route and others obeying lobbying efforts from both foreign and national companies that have so far gotten their way in
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By RICARDO CASTILLO U.S. union leaders were doubtful about backing the signing of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), and rightly so. The fear the AFL-CIO had was that Mexican industrialists would continue milking workers with miserable wages as a fact of life, and its members demanded the right to witness negotiations between unions and companies to protect workers’ rights. This
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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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By RICARDO CASTILLO Both houses of the Mexican Congress are about to embark on a rewriting of the Ley Federal del Trabajo (Federal Labor Law, or LFT). The LFT debate is expected to be multifaceted and particularly interesting, mainly because the administration of the current Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), will undoubtedly favor the exploited and beleaguered Mexican working class.
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