By RICARDO CASTILLO One thing that sets Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) apart from his predecessors is the high number of women in his cabinet. Out of the bunch, three are being singled out by columnists who are flying out trial balloons depicting them under a group name, las halconas, or female hawks or falcons. Truth be told,
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Alfaro’s Political Ambitions Squelched Up until last week, Jalisco Governor Enrique Alfaro had been looking a lot like a 2024 presidential hopeful. But then all hell broke loose on his would-be candidacy. It all started with the arrest and apparent murder of a 30-year-old construction worker named Giovanni López at the hands of municipal police in Ixltahuacán
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Little Parties on the Skid The Mexican Senate, presided over by Mónica Fernández of the National Action Party (PAN), dissolved the partisan representation of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) and the Social Encounter Party (PES) for not meeting the minimum of five senators to be counted as a party. The PRD, led by former Mexico
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By RICARDO CASTILLO No doubt about it, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s (AMLO) Tren Maya tourist train project is a go. But opposition to AMLO’s “pharaonic” endeavor is hopelessly trying to get its progress suspended, or outright dumped, to no avail. The train is a go, but there are still opponents to it, stemming out of two fronts. Note
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Trembling Back to the Workplace Fearing both the covid-19 contagion and not having money to make ends meet, limited numbers of Mexican auto and construction industries workers reported to work on Monday, June 1. The Mexican tourism industry is being more cautious and postponing opening until later in the month. Unions at the auto, construction and mining
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Like in all news stories, if one does take them at face value, they can have several meanings. For instance, the mass demonstration on Saturday, May 30, to “repudiate the leadership” of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) can be interpreted from several points of view. First, the number and size of the marches, which in
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By RICARDO CASTILLO The New Normal Has Arrived The political debate carried out last week in Mexico over how to go about bringing a solution to the economic standstill caused by the covid-19 pandemic posed a medical, political and economic quagmire. On the one side, there was the voice of Mexican Public Health Undersecretary epidemiologist Hugo López-Gatell announcing on Friday,
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Banxico Foresees -8.8 Growth for 2020 The Central Bank of Mexico (Banxico) presented three separate scenarios for the country’s 2020 economic growth, marking a drastic difference between the “benevolent” and the “drastic” potential outcomes. Banxico’s benevolent forecast said that the Mexican gross domestic product (GDP) would slump by “only” -4.2 percent, while the drastic one put the
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By RICARDO CASTILLO As Mexico tries to get back as close as possible to doing business the way it did just three months ago, the division of opinions of how to go about it is growing exponentially on all fronts. The big question is: How soon is soon enough to open back up for business? On the first front. there
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Jalisco Skids Deeper in Debt As pressure grows on Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) “to make use” of credits available from international funding organizations, the president becomes more adamant and intrinsic about pushing the nation into further debt. Much of that pressure is coming from opposition state governors, who convened last week in Parras, Coahuila,
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