By RICARDO CASTILLO There’s an old Mexican adage that says that it is cheaper to make a poor deal than to fight a great fight. This might seem to be exactly what happened in the negotiations headed by Mexico’s Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) Director Manuel Bartlett Díaz and seven gas pipeline companies that signed contracts for gas ducts with the
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Do you remember Jose Antonio Meade Kuribreña? In case you don’t, let me tell you that he was the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) presidential candidate handpicked by former President Enrique Peña Nieto to run during the 2018 electoral campaign. Meade finished third in that race. Since then, Meade has seldom been heard from or about. But on
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By RICARDO CASTILLO There was really very little to discuss on Sunday, July 21, during the just-over-an-hour-long meeting in Mexico City between visiting U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Mexican Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard. It was clear previous to the meet that Mexico had achieved the goals demanded of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO)by U.S. President Donald
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Regardless of the fact that the United States still does not have an ambassador in Mexico, diplomatic relations are intensifying to the point that this coming weekend there are two mini-summits planned that will deal with some of the many pressing issues between the two nations. First, Mexican Foreign Relations Undersecretary for North America Jesús Seade Kuri
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By RICARDO CASTILLO On Monday, July 15, U.S. President Donald Trump announced the implementation of a new rule which would deny immigrants who arrive through Mexican territory seeking asylum access through the southern border. Under the new regulation, all Central American asylum seekers on the way to the United States would be required to first pursue safe haven in a
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Just when everyone in Mexico thought President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) and tycoon entrepreneur Carlos Slim had frozen their relationship, last Friday, June 28, they reappeared together in the state of Oaxaca to relaunch the completion of the 150-kilometer-long, two-expanded-lane Milta-Tehuantepec super highway, with an 8-billion-peso investment. Was this event the beginning of the thawing of
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By RICARDO CASTILLO More than three weeks ago, on June 4, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) announced that he would not attend the June 29 and 30 gathering of the Group of 20 – G-20 top economies of the world. “I’m making this announcement in advance now,” he said. “I am not going to the meeting of the Group
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By RICARDO CASTILLO After the threat by U.S. President Donald Trump to impose export tariffs on Mexico if it didn’t stop the flow of migrants coming out of Central America, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) has complied both with stopping Trump from slapping Mexican exports with his blatantly illegal tariffs, but also, cartoonists claim, can trump up his roster
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By RICARDO CASTILLO U.S. President Donald J. Trump is off visiting the queen in England, but he did not forget that he’s got a bone to pick with Mexico. And to remind everyone that “President Trump is dead serious about taxing Mexican imports,” he left behind acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvane, who on Sunday, June 2, kept
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Wherefore art thou, Donald Trump? In reelection limbo, it seems. Over the past two days, the president of the United States has been directing his same old capricious criticism at Mexico, alleging that the United States’ southern neighbor “is doing nothing” to stop the now very dangerous northern flow of desperate migrants from Central American countries. And
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