Biden and AMLO are off to a rocky start
Cannabis law gets postponed & the almighty Mexican billionaire
Feliz Navidad, Hannukah y Próspero Año Nuevo! México Desde Afuera wishes you a joyful holiday season and a more peaceful 2021. We want to thank each and every one of you, because if something good came out of this year it was the opportunity to get to know you better and provide something of value to the community.
We hope you enjoy this week’s edition. We will be back in your mailboxes on January 7 - unless, AMLO invades Guatemala or something crazy like that.
AMLO-Biden relationship: An awkward start
The Guardian / Bloomberg / The New York Times
The day finally came… after more than 5 weeks AMLO decided to congratulate Joe Biden, after the Electoral College confirmed his victory - leaders like Angela Merkel and Justin Trudeau congratulated him over a month ago.
Unsurprisingly, he didn’t congratulate him on a phone call, but instead in a letter written in Spanish. In it, he acknowledged Biden’s commitment to migrants, and mentioned his plan to develop the Southeastern region of Mexico and support Central American countries as a way of reducing immigration to the US - this was a promise from AMLO’s campaign back in 2018, but that was totally ignored due to Trump’s tough stance on immigration.
Apart from the delayed congratulations, the next US administration is also not happy because the Mexican Congress approved a bill that will limit foreign intelligence and law enforcement officers’ activities in Mexico.
If signed by the President - which is just a matter of days away - foreign agents would lose diplomatic immunity and be obliged to hand Mexican authorities all of the information they gather.
According to Republican Senator Ted Cruz, the Mexican government is undermining security and law enforcement relationships with the US.
Is it really going to change things? Security experts said “the bill was more of a symbolic effort to reassert Mexican sovereignty in front of Biden” and that foreign agents will continue to operate but in more clandestine ways.
We must remember, this bill was introduced after former defence minister, Salvador Cienfuegos, was (temporarily) arrested by US authorities based on US agents’ investigations done in Mexico - which local authorities knew nothing about.
… y por si fuera poco. After the current ambassador to the US, Martha Bárcena, announced she was stepping down (in a not so diplomatic way btw), the president appointed his Minister of Education, Esteban Moctezuma, to replace her. Not only is he someone with zero diplomatic experience - and a bad relationship with Mexico’s own Foreign Affairs Minister (Marcelo Ebrard)- he is also perceived to not really be the President’s pick, but rather Ricardo Salinas Pliego’s, Mexico’s second richest man whose business interests have faced backlash with the US authorities.
Will the Biden Administration like that Mexico sends a lobbyist as an ambassador? Probably not.
🏦 Banxico... the next narco-money launderer?
… another signal of Salinas Pliego’s power
Just last week, the Senate discussed and passed a bill that would force Banxico to buy US dollar bills from commercial banks that had trouble selling them back to the U.S., and introduce them into its international reserves. Why would they have trouble selling them? Tight money laundering controls.
After (literally) everyone outside the President’s party came out to criticize the bill, claiming it would make Banxico buy dollars from dubious origins, its discussion in the Lower Chamber was postponed until February
The big backer of the bill was businessman Ricardo Salinas Pliego, who owns Banco Azteca, a bank with a negative track record with US authorities, which also happens to have difficulties selling its dollar bills to other financial institutions. This bill would have essentially put his problems into the hands of Banxico. Bloomberg
🔪 She stalked her daughter’s killers across Mexico, one by one: NYT
This is a must read piece by foreign correspondent Azam Ahmed. The NYT journalist tells two moving and frightening stories: One about Miriam Rodríguez, a mother from San Fernando, Tamaulipas who, after being ignored by the authorities, became a detective and hunted down the people responsible for the kidnapping and murdering her 20-year-old daughter back in 2014. After helping bring 10 people to justice, she was shot and killed in 2017.
The second story, which is less well known, is that of Luciano Leal, a 14-year-old boy who in July 2020 was kidnapped and later found dead, also in the same town as Miriam’s daughter, Karen. In his piece, Ahmed tells the story of how his family dealt with his the abduction and mourned his death. The New York Times
Half a million Americans flew to Mexico in October. This was still down by a third compared to last October, however, it is in stark contrast to the 80% decline from Europeans and Canadians visiting the country. The upside in this for Mexico is being able to salvage some of the $11 billion a year tourism industry. The downside is an uptick in corona virus cases and deaths, likely increased by American tourism. Mexico now has the 4th highest death toll in the world and the CDC has cautioned against traveling to Mexico. However, some Americans, like Juan Castro who was vacationing in San Jose del Cabo, feel safer in Mexico than back home in California, due to protocols like temperature checks at stores, hotels, and restaurants. Los Angeles Times
⛪ Mexico City’s win against Covid-19
As Covid-19 patients are filling up Mexico City hospitals, hospital bed occupancy rates have risen up to 75% (as of Dec. 15), however the capital city managed to avoid a super spreader event: the celebrations surrounding the Virgin of Guadalupe. In 2019 alone, over 10 million people travelled to the Basilica of Guadalupe. Yet, this year the crowds were non-existent as the Basilica was closed, thanks to the decision of Church officials. Unsurprisingly, federal and local government officials celebrated this as their own accomplishment and even more cynically, they still seem to be in denial about the effectiveness of closing businesses as a way of reducing new cases. Associated Press
🔫 “Almost all of the journalists in Mexico are killed with foreign weapons,”: Cartel Project
As Mexico continues to be one the deadliest countries for journalists, 25 international media outlets have come together to pursue the stories of their murdered colleagues. Last week, they began with the story of Regina Martínez, a fearless reporter from the Proceso magazine killed in 2012 after investigating the links between politicians and drug traffickers.
This week, the Cartel Project dug into the countries that are supplying the guns that kill Mexico’s journalists - the US, Italy, and Israel are among them. The Guardian
🌿 Supreme Court postpones Cannabis law deadline ... again
Cough.. cough.. bro you remembered to double check the marijuana bill for like typos, right? Well as it turns out they didn’t, or at least AMLO is blaming a delay in the marijuana legalization bill on small drafting errors. The new deadline for the law to be passed is now set for April 30, 2021 (a date that is suspiciously close to 4/20). Vice/Reuters
What else we’ve been reading:
Mexico City’s hipster Condesa neighbourhood is witnessing a Jewish Renaissance
Congress passes a law to prohibit… parents from spanking kids
Context: Every Friday, local and federal authorities announce new health measures along with the stoplight signal color that indicates the severity of the crisis in the state (Mexico uses a green, yellow, orange, red stoplight scale) . The situation in Mexico City has been critical since mid-November; however, both the head of government, Claudia Sheinbaum, and the federal health deputy minister, Hugo López-Gatell, have avoided moving Mexico City into the red stage - some say it is because a “greater force” won’t allow them to.
Such a move would cause many businesses to close down, which along with decreasing the number in cases, would also cause major economic damage.
About México Desde Afuera
México Desde is your one stop shop newsletter that brings you the biggest news about Mexico reported by the Foreign Press. If you want to get this newsletter (and a bit of sarcasm) delivered every week straight to your inbox, please subscribe.
Comments on this newsletter?
We’d love to hear your thoughts! Feel free to share them by replying to this email.
Chayote: A word used by journalists to refer to a gift — usually money— that a reporter or columnist receives for writing positive about someone.
AMLO’s quote: And we tell our opponents to calm down. They are bewildered, as the transformation of the country is taking place and corruption no longer reigns, there is no longer influences/special privileges, there are no longer briberies