By RICARDO CASTILLO Hunting the Big Five The Mexican Senate gave fast-track approval to a request from President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) to hold a popular consultation on whether to bring to trial five former presidents. The Senate rushed the bill through over the Independence Day holidays (Tuesday, Sept. 15, and Wednesday, Sept. 16). The proposal, which contains only
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Former Presidents to Lose Legal Protection Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) sent a petition to the Senate on Monday, Sept. 14, asking lawmakers to carry out a citizens’ consultation over whether to bring the five past presidents to trial, if charged. With this final request, there have now been three different attempts to bring one
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Chihuahua Governor Seeks Martyrdom In the past two weeks, National Action Party (PAN) Chihuahua Governor Javier Corral has staged two major publicity stunts: First he led a group of 10 state governors to splinter from the National Governors’ Conference (Conago), and then, Immediately afterwards, he permitted a group of farmers to take the federally managed and National
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Wet Politicking in Dry Chihuahua There was a faceoff this week between farmers and the National Guard (GN) at the La Boquilla reservoir on the Conchos River, which feeds into the Rio Grande at the Ojinaga-Presidio border. The GN, in charge of safekeeping the dam, had to withdraw from the facility on Tuesday, Sept. 8, to avoid
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Cleavage at Conago Ten Mexican governors met Monday, Sept. 7, in the northern city of Chihuahua. The purpose of their gathering was to vote on whether to continue to participate in the National Governors Commission (Conago), an organization that aims to be one voice before the president. The outcome of the meeting was that all10 voted to
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By RICARDO CASTILLO The Last of the Sauri-ans The first week of September in Mexican politics was raucous from start to finish. Here is a capsulated roundup of events: It all started on Monday, Aug. 31, with the first vote at the Mexican Chamber of Deputies for the upcoming third and last year of the current legislature. Contending for the
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Haphazard School Kickoff The school year in Mexico kicked off on Monday, Aug. 24, with all of the failures expected from a nation not accustomed to remote education. With classes at home, parents from all over the country complained first about the communications system failure as teachers responsible for their groups groped to find alternative education methods.
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By RICARDO CASTILLO A War of Leaks Ever since the 63-page script containing the accusations the former director of the state-run oil interest Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), Emilio Lozoya Austin, made against a numerous set of former public officials, a small war of leaks has been taking place in Mexican politics. First Lozoya directly accused former Mexican Presidents Felipe Calderón, Enrique
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By RICARDO CASTILLO The People’s Priority The outcome of the private summit between Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) and the country’s 32 governors on Wednesday, Aug. 19, was twofold in focus, covering both taxation and health. held a press conference with the National Governors’ Conference (Conago), hosted by San Luis Potosí Governor José Manuel Carreras, after the four-hour
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By RICARDO CASTILLO First Electoral Blood No sooner had Mexico’s National Electoral Institute (INE) announced that the race for the midterm elections will officially start on Sept. 7, than the first missile was aimed directly at the second political force in the nation, the National Action Party (PAN). A vided allegedly showing Guillermo Gutiérrez Badillo. the private secretary of Querétaro
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