Headlines from Mexico

1. Federal authorities started to investigate the alleged diversion of more than $17,000 million pesos from the funds Mexico City’s Airport Group (Grupo Aeroportuario de la Ciudad de México) had allocated for the construction of Mexico’s New International Airport in Texcoco, which the federal government officially canceled earlier this month.

   Read more: El Universal, Forbes, El Imparcial

2. The federal government deployed Army and Navy forces to oil refineries in Salamanca, Guanajuato; Ciudad Madero, Tamaulipas; Salina Cruz, Oaxaca; Minatitlan, Veracruz; and Cadereyta, Nuevo León, as well as to Pemex terminals and storage facilities in the State of Mexico and Queretaro in order to battle fuel theft.

   Read more: Milenio, Excelsior, Reforma,

3. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador noted that he would not enter into a verbal confrontation with President Trump regarding the proposed border wall and said that Trump’s insistence is motivated by internal politics and a clear desire to win reelection in the upcoming 2020 president election. This declaration came after President Donald Trump addressed the American public on Tuesday and asked Congress to approve a budget of $5.7 million dollars to construct a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

   Read more: El Economista, El Universal, Milenio 

4. Consumers in the states of Hidalgo, Mexico, Jalisco, Michoacán, Guanajuato, and Querétaro experienced fuel scarcity after the federal government closed Pemex pipelines plagued with illegal fuel taps as part of its strategy against fuel theft. Fuel scarcity hit Mexico City earlier this week and panic buying of gasoline further exhausted service stations in several municipalities of Mexico’s capital.

   Read more: El Economista, Milenio, El Universal

5. Representatives of Pemex and the Secretariat of Finance met investors, analysts, and credit rating agencies in New York City to explain and defend the federal government’s plan to tackle fuel theft and to strengthen the finances and the profitability of the state-owned oil firm.

   Read more: Milenio, El Economista, El Universal