By RICARDO CASTILLO Mexico’s state-owned energy companies Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) and the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) continue to be leading problems for the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO). Both are separate entities that must be dealt with separately. So we’ll start with a look at Pemex, and then consider th CFE a few paragraphs down. Pemex and
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By EARL ANTHONY WAYNE, former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Definitely the outstanding image in Mexico for the week July 8-12 was the stone-cold face of Arturo Herrera Gutiérrez as President Andrés Manuel López Obrador appointed him the government’s new finance secretary. Herrera Gutiérrez looked as if he was attending his own funeral. The fact is that a lot of political pundits noticed the grave gesture, that
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By RICARDO CASTILLO What came as a shock to the Mexican political system last Friday, July 5, was not that the nation’s fiscal (attorney) general managed to get a judge to issue him yet another arrest warrant against former Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) Director Emilio Lozoya Austin, but that the arrest warrant also included his mother, wife and sister, Gilda Austin,
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Although Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) is celebrating the first year of his landslide victory on Monday, July 1, he has actually only spent seven months as head of state. His six-year term began on Dec. 1, 2018. But a year ago, there was no doubt about it, and he began giving orders right from
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Just when former President Enrique Peña Nieto thought Mexicans had forgotten him forever and ever, his name hit back in the news bigtime again on Tuesday, June 18, when a Mexico City daily ran a leaked report linking him to a corruption investigation that occurred during his 2012-2018 shift in office. The news item stated that the
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By RICARDO CASTILLO On Sunday, June 2, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) flagged the initiation of the construction of a new oil refinery at the Tabasco double-cove port known as Dos Bocas. Unlike in the case of his initial move to bring an end to the massive fuel theft that was going on at the state-owned company Petróleos
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By RICARDO CASTILLO With a stroke of his pen, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) on Monday, May 20, eliminated tax waivers for big Mexican corporations that they had enjoyed since year 2000. The tax waivers were perfectly legal. They had been awarded by former Presidents Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderón, and sustained by Enrique Peña Nieto. In total,
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By THÉRÈSE MARGOLIS Who’s to blame for the terrible levels of air contamination in Mexico City right now (the worst levels of small-particle pollution in over five years)? You guessed it: Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) and his bumbling band of inept advisers and cabinet members. Yes, high temperatures, stagnant air and a lack of any relief in
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By RICARDO CASTILLO It was a heyday for all the neoliberal journalists who not only question but will try to tear to pieces any project the still-new administration of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) comes up with. As informed by Pulse News Mexico last on Friday, May 10, Energy Secretary Rocio Nahle García decided to declare the construction
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