Seeking to improve understanding, communication, and cooperation between Mexico and the United States by promoting original research, encouraging public discussion, and proposing policy options for enhancing the bilateral relationship.
04/10/2021
Source: BBC
A group of MPs has urged the government to help in the search for an activist missing in Mexico.
Relatives of Claudia Uruchurtu, 48, who went missing after a rally two weeks ago, say witnesses saw her being grabbed and pushed into a car.
04/11/2021
Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune
MEXICO CITY — State police announced Sunday that they have taken over law enforcement duties in Mexico’s Caribbean coast resort of Tulum, relieving a municipal force that has been charged in the death of a Salvadoran woman while being detained.
Lucio Hernández Gutiérrez, the acting state police chief in Quintana Roo state, said the municipal officers in Tulum had systematically violated proper procedure.
04/12/2021
Source: The Los Angeles Times
SABINAS, Mexico — Juan Manuel Briones was 14 when he started working in the coal mines in this remote stretch of northern Mexico.
He toiled underground for nearly two decades, only to be laid off a few years ago as Mexico began embracing renewable energy and weaning itself off fossil fuels.
04/12/2021
Source: The Associated Press
MEXICO CITY (AP) — A Mexican ruling party state candidate accused of rape, who later had his candidacy canceled by regulatory authorities on other grounds, said Sunday he will not allow elections in his home state unless he is allowed to run.
Félix Salgado is running for the governorship of the troubled Pacific coast state of Guerrero. While two women accused him of rape, he has not been charged and was allowed by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s Morena party to continue running.
04/11/2021
Source: The Washington Post
CIUDAD JUÁREZ, Mexico — The message popped up on Pastor Juan Fierro’s phone one recent afternoon. U.S. border agents had expelled another group of Central American families to this Mexican city. Could someone take them in?
Fierro, an evangelical minister, was startled by the request. During most of the pandemic, officials in Juárez had sent newly arrived migrants to a quarantine center for 14 days. Suddenly it was full. “There was no place to take care of these people,” Fierro said. So his staff at the Good Samaritan shelter hauled bunk beds into an empty room and penned it in with battered wooden benches. Within days, the rudimentary “quarantine” center held 23 women and children.
04/08/2021
Source: The New York Times
MEXICO CITY — The sight is jarring against the backdrop of smog and concrete that marks this part of Mexico City, a tangle of freeways and overpasses with old buses rumbling by and belching smoke.
But there, bursting like flowers amid the ashen buildings, they hang in row upon row: piñatas, painted every color, from bright fuchsia to midnight blue to Baby Yoda green. On the sidewalk, a Spiderman piñata stands beside Batman, while Mickey Mouse leans against Sonic the Hedgehog.
04/07/2021
Source: Reuters
NEW YORK (Reuters) -When a left wing populist and a far-right lawmaker rose to power in Latin America’s two largest economies, investors thought they knew who was going to show them the money.
But more than two years and a costly pandemic later, disillusioned investors are now busy shifting from a Brazil that once promised compelling reforms and privatizations into a Mexico expected to benefit from a U.S. economic rebound.
04/08/2021
Source: The Economist
When mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, was elected in 2018 he entered office with an approval rating of 76%, the highest for any new president in recent times. Astoundingly for an incumbent who has overseen one of the worst pandemic responses in the world, he remains popular, with nearly two-thirds giving him the thumbs up (see chart). Yet when it comes to his policies, Mexicans are far less sure of amlo, as he is known.
One of his weaknesses is the economy, which shrank by 8.5% in 2020, the worst slump since the 1930s. Some 47% of voters think he is managing it badly, second only to the share who disapprove of his handling of organised crime (52% think he is doing poorly at curbing gangs). That should worry him. On June 6th hundreds of seats are up for grabs in legislative, local and gubernatorial elections. Morena, the party he founded, which is now the head of a coalition government, leads in the polls. But the election will still be seen as an important test for his brand of populism.
04/08/2021
Source: The New York Times
MEXICO CITY — Record numbers of asylum seekers are applying for sanctuary in Mexico — some after arriving at the southwest border of the United States hoping to find a safe haven under President Biden, but hitting a closed door.
In March, the Mexican government received asylum petitions from more than 9,000 people, the highest monthly tally ever, officials said. And they predicted that the surging demand, evident in recent month, would continue, possibly reaching a total of 90,000 asylum requests by the end of the year, which would also be an all-time high.
04/08/2021
Source: Yahoo! News
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s top diplomat said Thursday his country expects to see “constant and growing” flows of migrants in coming years and estimated the United States must spend $2 billion per year in development aid to stem the tide.
Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said Mexico has proposed investing money in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador and expects the United States to join that effort. Those three Central American countries have been sending the largest number of migrants to the U.S. southern border.
