{"id":19144,"date":"2026-05-01T12:00:39","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T18:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/miranda-partners.com\/news-and-content\/miranda-intelligence\/foreign-press-chatter\/mis-mexico-foreign-press-chatter-apr-24-2025\/"},"modified":"2026-11-05T21:32:26","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T03:32:26","slug":"mis-mexico-foreign-press-chatter-apr-24-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/miranda-partners.com\/es\/news-and-content\/miranda-intelligence\/foreign-press-chatter\/mis-mexico-foreign-press-chatter-apr-24-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"MI\u2019s Mexico Foreign Press Chatter \u2013 Apr. 24, 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

Top stories on Mexico<\/strong><\/h4>

The Washington Post broke the week\u2019s first major foreign press story: two of the four victims of a fatal car accident on a remote road in Chihuahua on Sunday were CIA officers. The Americans were traveling in a convoy from the site of a clandestine drug lab \u2014 \u201cone of the largest ever located\u201d according to Chihuahua AG C\u00e9sar J\u00e1uregui \u2014 and were initially reported to be US Embassy personnel, but after the WaPo story was published on Tuesday (credit for the initial scoop goes to independent reporter Luis Chaparro), various other outlets confirmed the CIA connection.<\/p>

President Sheinbaum has denied that she or her security cabinet had knowledge of the intelligence officers\u2019 presence in Chihuahua, though PAN Governor Maru Campos claimed otherwise, and state officials have insisted that the agents didn\u2019t actively participate in the raid (which would be illegal if the federal government wasn\u2019t informed). A later story in the LA Times (copublished with\u00a0Puente<\/a>\u00a0Noticias\u00a0Collaborative,<\/a>\u00a0a bilingual nonprofit newsroom that covers stories from Mexico and the U.S.-Mexico border), further thickened the plot, saying there were four CIA officials present, with two of those dying in the car crash, and revealing that this was at least the third time that CIA agents had \u201cjoined authorities\u201d in counternarcotics operations in the border state this year. The LA Times headline called this a \u201csurprising turn\u201d in the cartel war, though given the agency\u2019s history in Mexico \u2014 drone surveillance, help tracking down El Mencho \u2014 reactions were more indignant and suspicious than surprised.<\/p>

An interesting development in foreign press coverage of Mexico highlighted by the CIA story is increasing collaborations between resource stretched news organizations like the WP, LA Times, El Pais, even the NY Times and investigative news NGOs funded by the general public, foundations, and rich philanthropists like Puente News, ProPublica, ICIJ that are home to some of the most experienced Mexico-focused foreign journalists (Alfredo Corchado, Steve Fisher, Tim Golden, Isabella Cota, Ginger Thompson, and many others). Read more about Puente News\u00a0aqu\u00ed<\/a>.<\/p>

One Mexican ex-security official told the NYT it\u2019s \u201coutdated thinking to claim this [close coordination] violates sovereignty\u201d. Sheinbaum has asked for answers from the US government but instead of waiting for hell to freeze over, has put more focus on where the blame lies domestically. Campos and the state attorney general have been asked to appear before the Senate next week.<\/p>

Mexico made more global headlines after a 27-year-old man opened fire on tourists at the Pyramid of the Moon in Teotihuac\u00e1n on Monday, killing one young Canadian woman and injuring 13 others (including two children), before being surrounded by National Guard members and killing himself. Various outlets reported on evidence indicating the killer was inspired by the Columbine school shooting (on the same date in 1999), and on the increased security implemented by the government in response. Sheinbaum, who noted that \u201cwe\u2019ve never seen anything like this in Mexico\u201d, has said that x-ray scanners will be installed at major archaeological sites.<\/p>

USTR Jamieson Greer\u2019s meetings with Sheinbaum and Ebrard were nearly buried in the news pileup at the beginning of the week, but the takeaway is that if the USMCA survives, it will no longer guarantee free trade. Reuters reported that Greer told Mexican business leaders that \u201ctariffs are here to stay\u201d for the automotive and steel industries, and AP followed up with Ebrard saying Mexico \u201cshouldn\u2019t be nostalgic\u201d for the era of tariff-free trade. \u201cWhat we are looking for is how to reduce them.\u201d Ni modo.<\/p>

In other economic news, Reuters published an in-depth report on the Maya Train\u2019s \u201cbroken pledges\u201d of economic development and Bloomberg reported on new (more favorable) regulation for private electricity generators. In cultural coverage, Oaxacan weaving was a theme, with a profile of a trans weaver from Oaxaca in AP and the debate over threatened marine mollusks used by the Mixtec people to dye textiles in the NYT.<\/p>

Blogs destacados en ingl\u00e9s sobre M\u00e9xico<\/strong><\/h4>

This week, CrashOut by Ioan Grillo covered the recent femicide case of 21-year-old Edith Guadalupe Vald\u00e9s in Mexico City, which \u201csparks horror, anger and desperation\u2026having the same ingredients as thousands of other femicides that have scarred the country\u201d. The Mexico Political Economist brought historical context to the CIA story, looking at the agency\u2019s Cold War operations in Mexico \u2013 including the fact that at least two Mexican presidents were informants \u2013 and their echoes today. In Mexico Decoded, Viri R\u00edos analyzed why the left is declining in Latin America, pegged to last week\u2019s summit of progressive leaders held in Barcelona, highlighting Mexico as \u201cthe closest thing available for a left blueprint\u201d in the region. Eduardo Garc\u00eda wrote in Materia Gris that the Supreme Court\u2019s recent decision to uphold the government\u2019s authority to freeze bank accounts without a court order risks undermining legal certainty. And Miranda Intelligence\u2019s daily Substack over the week covered key Mexico Culture, Fintech, Public Affairs, and Energy developments.<\/p>