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.
12/03/19 – Reuters
By Diego Ore
U.S.-based online food delivery service Postmates Inc will close its fledgling operations in Mexico in order focus more on the U.S. market, the company said on Tuesday.
Postmates has offered meal deliveries in Mexico City since late 2017, but failed to notch the same level of growth achieved in the United States. According to the company’s website, the company’s service is available in more than 4,200 cities, covering 80% of U.S. households.
11/13/19 – AP News
Mexico’s Supreme Court has upheld a challenge to the country’s tobacco law for making it hard to sell e-cigarettes.
Current law allows regulated sales of tobacco products, while at the same time it outlaws “selling, distributing, exhibiting, producing or promoting any object that does not contain tobacco” but whose packaging or design “might identify it with tobacco products.”
10/27/19 – PYMNTS
Mobile payments startup Stripe announced its official launch in Mexico, the second-largest economy in Latin America.
While retail eCommerce is expected to grow in Mexico by 35 percent this year, the internet only represents around two percent of the country’s GDP.
10/16/19 – Reuters
By Julia Love, Daina Beth Solomon
In Mexico’s burgeoning startup scene, publicity is the last thing many entrepreneurs want.
Unlike plenty of their P.R.-hungry counterparts in Silicon Valley, Mexican startup founders often decline media interviews, avoid public announcements and suppress details of financial success.
10/09/19 – Nearshore Americas
By Narayan Ammachchi
Mexico is planning to allocate over US$5 million for science and technology-related activities in its 2020 fiscal budget, as the government looks at technology to prop up the flagging economy.
The money is 6.5% more than what was allocated to the sector in 2019, according to the President of the Congressional Committee on Science and Technology, Marivel Solís Barrera, who announced the move on October 4.
6/18/19 – Reuters
By Daina Beth Solomon
Mexico will shorten the 1,525-km (948-mile) route for a proposed “Mayan Train” designed to link tourist hot spots and spur development on the Yucatan Peninsula, an official said on Tuesday, in a move aimed at saving about $287 million in costs.
The change is one of the first major cutbacks to one of the flagship projects put forward by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, whose infrastructure plans have drawn skepticism from influential sections of the business community.
6/18/19 – New York Times
By David Alire Garcia
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he spoke with Facebook Inc’s Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday, inviting the social media tycoon to partner with him in a bid to promote universal internet access in Mexico.
Lopez Obrador posted on both Facebook and Twitter a short clip of his video conference with Zuckerberg in which the president notes that a fifth of Mexico’s population does not have internet access and that he would like better connectivity to help improve social conditions, especially among the poor.
5/26/2019 – NPR
By Lulu Garcia-Navarro and Peter Breslow
A new generation of migrants is arriving in Mexico: young adults who were born in Mexico, raised in the United States and are now returning — some voluntarily, some by force — to the country of their birth. They’ve been dubbed “Generation 1.5.”
5/7/2019 – Bloomberg
By Eric Martin and Andrea Navarro
Mexico’s Finance Ministry plans to announce the roll-out of a landmark tax deal with technology platforms in the coming weeks, a top official said Monday.
Deputy Finance Minister Arturo Herrera confirmed the plans in an interview at Bloomberg News offices in Mexico City, while declining to elaborate. Bloomberg reported in November that the previous administration reached an agreement with Uber Technologies Inc. in which the platform will withhold taxes from partners who gain income from both its ride-hailing and food delivery services.
The country has been looking for ways to boost tax collection that’s the worst among members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The previous administration was also in talks with Netflix Inc. to collect sales taxes from users. Airbnb Inc. had stepped away from talks that would have required the home-sharing website to collect income tax from its hosts.
5/6/2019 – The Verge
By Danielle Mackley
Carlos Casso Castro has been missing since December of 2011. Two days before Christmas, he called his mother, Dr. Rosalía Castro Toss, from his black Mazda. He and his partner were running errands, and yes, he told his mother, they were coming to the family holiday dinner the next day. He hung up. They both vanished.
A social studies teacher in Veracruz, Roberto Carlos is one of more than 40,000 people in Mexico who’ve disappeared since the 2006 outbreak of the country’s war on drugs. Most are victims of organized criminal groups and corrupt state authorities. They all leave behind desperate families — like Dr. Castro, who did what any parent would after the disappearance. She went searching for answers.
