MI’s Mexico Foreign Press Chatter, Apr. 10, 2025
Foreign press coverage
Following The Economist’s controversial article on Mexico’s ‘’broken economy’’, (which elicited a rebuttal letter to The Economist from the Finance Ministry), this week it was Bloomberg’s turn to wade in. The Bank of Mexico’s controversial rate-cut decision on March 26 was analyzed from a different, more personal, angle in JP Spinetto’s Bloomberg opinion column. Spinetto turned the spotlight on Banxico’s low-profile governor, Victoria Rodríguez Ceja, to argue that her “lackluster” leadership has contributed to a “subdued” central bank that is struggling to curtail inflation. Rodríguez became the first woman to lead Banxico in 2021 and rarely makes public appearances or gives interviews, which Spinetto sees as part of broader weakness in the bank’s communications strategy (to avoid irking Palacio Nacional).
In business news, Bloomberg published a detailed piece on the pros and cons of the Viva-Volaris merger and how it will test the new antitrust regulatory agency, and profiled Mexico’s most aggrieved billionaire, Ricardo Salinas Pliego, who shares Trump’s “love of debt, aggressive tax avoidance and brass-knuckled legal tactics.”
Mexico’s crisis of disappearances was covered by the LA Times and The Guardian (and in a reflexively anti-Morena O’Grady WSJ opinion column) this week after the government issued a contentious new report indicating the registry of over 130,000 missing persons is inflated, and also lashed out at a UN committee’s decision to forward the disappearances issue as a “crime against humanity” to the General Assembly. The Financial Times reported on Guadalajara’s security preparations for the arrival of 3 million tourists during the World Cup, quoting one analyst who noted that it will also be “a very good few weeks for criminal businesses.”
The Guardian also covered a UN special rapporteur’s investigative mission (this one, at the Mexican government’s invitation) to document the impact of environmental contaminants in Mexico, who concluded that the country is facing a “toxic crisis” and has become a “garbage sink” for U.S. hazardous waste. In less bleak news, the debate over the fate of the Gelman Collection (or “Frida Kahlo trove”) got in-depth treatment in The New York Times this week and the LA Times covered the inauguration of the spinoff of Contramar in Las Vegas, “arguably the most significant opening by a Mexican chef in the city.”
Blogs destacados en inglés sobre México
Viri Ríos breaks down the data on Sheinbaum’s approval ratings in Mexico Decoded this week and finds some fresh insights: Claudia has made inroads in demographic groups that AMLO had alienated (middle-class professionals) and lost some ground among the traditional Morena base (rural voters in southern states). Ríos points out that this means “Sheinbaum’s capacity to mobilize voters comes from a fundamentally different place than Obradorism did” and points towards Morena’s momentum beyond its charismatic founder. Ioan Grillo published a comprehensive “risk guide” ranking the safety of Mexican states and cities this week and The Mexico Political Economist profiled the freshly-confirmed 38 year-old new foreign minister, Roberto Velasco. In Materia Gris, Eduardo García argued for putting a “democracy clause” in the USMCA, which he says should apply to all three countries, but seems mostly to envision as a way to put the brakes on the “systematic dismantling of democratic architecture” in Mexico.
- CrashOut Media, Where Is Safer And Where Is More Dangerous To Go In Mexico?
- Mexico Decoded, The Surprising Math Behind Mexico’s President Approval Ratings
- Materia Gris, North America Should Copy Europe: Add a Democracy Clause to the USMCA
- The Mexico Political Economist, The Empirical Diplomat: Who’s the man helming Mexico’s Foreign Ministry?
Photo of the week
People hold pictures of missing persons in front of the National Palace during the commemoration of the International Day of the Disappeared in Mexico City, on 30 August 2019. Photograph: Rodrigo Arangua/AFP/Getty Images
Other articles on Mexico
Mexico’s Ministry of Finance responds to our article on the economy
02/04/26, The Economist
Bank of Mexico: Banxico’s Contested Rate Cut Isn’t the Real Problem
08/04/26, Bloomberg, Juan Pablo Spinetto
Mexico inflation spikes in March, fueling debate within divided central bank
09/04/26, Reuters, Brendan O’Boyle y Aida Pelaez-Fernandez
Mexico’s Low-Cost Airlines Are Merging in a Deal That Raises Antitrust Fears
07/04/26, Bloomberg, Andrea Navarro
Combative Mexican Billionaire Fights His Debts and Sheinbaum
09/04/26, Bloomberg, Michael O’Boyle and Marcelo Rochabrun
Telefonica Sells Mexico Unit to Group for $450 Million
07/04/26, Bloomberg, Andrea Navarro
US Avocado Imports Hit Record 2.6 Billion Pounds on Sports, Cinco de Mayo
07/04/26, Bloomberg, Michael Hirtzer and Daniela Sirtori
Mexico’s Plata Names Ex-Banker Marcos Kantt CFO as Digital Bank Eyes IPO
06/04/26, Bloomberg, Michael O’Boyle
Mexico report downplays ‘disappeared’ crisis. Human rights activists call it a cover-up
06/04/26, LA Times, Patrick J. McDonnell and Cecilia Sánchez Vidal
‘They’re making them disappear again’: families fear Mexico’s missing are being erased
04/04/26, The Guardian, Oscar Lopez
Mexico’s Missing and the Morena Party
05/04/26, WSJ, Mary Anastasia O’Grady
The Mexican cartel stronghold preparing to host the World Cup
07/04/26, FT, Ciara Nugent
Man who co-founded Mexican drug cartel with ‘El Mencho’ pleads guilty in U.S. to conspiracy charge
07/04/26, LA Times, Michael Kunzelman
Mexican President Sheinbaum weighs fracking to curb reliance on US natural gas
08/04/26, AP News, María Verza
Sheinbaum Allies Seek Stricter Rules for Electing Judges
08/04/26, Bloomberg, Alex Vasquez and Gonzalo Soto
US is ‘using Mexico as a garbage sink’ leading to ‘toxic crisis’, UN expert says
07/04/26, The Guardian, Verónica García de León and Erin McCormick
Protests in Mexico Challenge Move of Frida Kahlo Trove to Spain
07/04/26, NYT, Victoria Burnett and Zachary Small
Las Vegas’ most exciting new opening is a seafood restaurant from Mexico City
06/04/26, LA Times, Jenn Harris
The Bay Area’s most radical new Mexican restaurant
04/04/26, San Francisco Chronicle, Cesar Hernandez
Pedro Friedeberg, Whose Hand Chair Drew Outsize Attention, Dies at 90
03/04/26, NYT, Alex Williams
Descargar PDF: Mexico Foreign Press Chatter 10.04.26
