Sheinbaum won’t recognize Ecuador
by David Agren.
Leaders the length of Latin Latin America – including the leftist presidents of Brazil and Chile – congratulated Daniel Noboa on winning re-election as president of Ecuador. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum refused to join them, even as the vote tally showed Noboa besting his rival Luisa González – though the latter alleged fraud without presenting proof.
On the day after the election, Sheinbaum drew on her predecessor’s playbook for addressing electoral outcomes not favouring her political movement’s preferred candidates. “We’re going to wait,” she said at her press conference the morning after. “Luisa, the candidate, doesn't recognize Noboa’s win. We’re going to wait.”
Former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador famously said the same – we’ll wait for the official outcome – after Joe Biden won the 2020 U.S. election over AMLO’s preferred candidate. AMLO eventually recognized Biden’s win – a necessity for a country so dependent on the US economy. Sheinbaum, however, has stated flatly that she won’t recognize Noboa under any circumstances.
Judicial candidates turn AMLO symbols into campaign props
by David Agren.
César Gutiérrez Priego took a recent flight to Cancún in his campaign for a seat on Mexico’s Supreme Court. He made the trip a tour of the mega-projects built by Andrés Manuel López Obrador – the former president whose purge of the judiciary ushered in the judicial elections in the first place.
Gutíerrez, a criminal defence lawyer with a large social media following, made a point of flying from the Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA) – the thinly-used facility in the boonies north of Mexico City championed AMLO and promoted heavily by 4T influencers.
He posted a customary photo from the landmark Piedra del Sol (Aztec calendar) replica in the cavernous AIFA terminal. He also made sure people knew he was taking Mexicana de Aviación, the military-run airline revived by AMLO, which cancelled more than half its routes earlier this year. Upon arriving in Cancún, he took a ride on the Tren Maya, the railway circling the Yucatán Peninsula.
Morena reacts furiously to UN probe into forced disappearances
by Andrew Law.
“There is no forced disappearance in Mexico.”
That was the response from Mexico’s President, Claudia Sheinbaum, to news that the UN plans to investigate forced disappearances in the country. More than 124,000 people have disappeared in Mexico.
Sheinbaum’s claim was quickly supported by her Morena Party. Party members in the Senate passed a motion saying the government had no role in the crisis.
But last Friday, the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances announced it would launch a formal investigation. Committee President Olivier de Frouville said the inquiry was based on three Articles of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons. According to El Financiero, he made it clear that this “in no way prejudges the Mexican state.” Still, de Frouville added, “We have received information that… provides sufficient grounds to support the belief that enforced disappearances are practiced on a widespread or systemic basis.”
Editor’s Note: No cause for celebration
by Andrew Law.
Did Mexico dodge Trump’s tariffs? President Claudia Sheinbaum says yes. She told supporters this week that USMCA survived, that Mexico’s economy is strong, and that they should celebrate.
Mexico may have avoided new tariffs. But unlike various peer nations, it was already under heavy ones. Trump’s 25% tariff on non-USMCA auto imports kicked in Wednesday night. That hits over 40% of Mexico’s car exports. Steel and aluminum tariffs remain. And there’s the 25% general tariff on non-USMCA goods - about half of Mexico’s exports. These are already having impacts.
According to Sheinbaum, this week’s events shows the US “respects” Mexico and has a “good relationship” with it. If this is good, I’d hate to see bad.
Felipe Calderón: Sheinbaum must confront the cartels before they completely capture Mexico
In an exclusive interview with The Mexico Brief’s editor, Andrew Law, former President Felipe Calderón rejects the “drug war” label, expresses support for Claudia Sheinbaum’s stance toward cartels, praises her anti-nepotism efforts, and argues US cooperation is crucial - even under Trump - while expressing hope for Mexico’s future.
The overlooked impact of Trump’s auto tariffs
by Luis Lozano.
Donald Trump is obsessed with imposing tariffs to vehicles made outside the United States, but I do not think he has a clear objective for it other than the protection of American jobs. Let’s assume that works. The issue here is if saving American manufacturing jobs will make American cars more appealing to the global markets. Put a different way: will reviving American automotive manufacturing guarantee that the US keeps up with technological changes being led by Asian brands? Unlikely…
The most important thing that the North American automotive business has experimented with in the last 40 years has been NAFTA. NAFTA created an environment of competitiveness that the US had lost with Lyndon B Johnson’s tariffs. Those tariffs disconnected the industry from other markets and needs, ironically hurting the competitiveness of the American brands. They resulted in the United States losing its ability to lead an industry which it invented for the world. It is impressive to see that the US government making the same mistakes today.
Sheinbaum reaches for AMLO’s script with Jalisco horror
by David Agren.
As the horror of an extermination camp discovered in Jalisco state hit the national headlines, President Claudia Sheinbaum found a familiar victim: former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, her mentor and predecessor, who routinely floated conspiracies and spoke of campaigns against him amid rising crime and violence.
“Leave him alone,” an annoyed Sheinbaum said at a morning press conference, referring to AMLO and the “narcopresidente” accusation. “All that again against President López Obrador, no, when the state prosecutor’s office had the property guarded.”
Sheinbaum won office promising to construct “the second level” of AMLO’s populist political project, the “fourth transformation.” But she’s already abandoned his stated security policy of “hugs, not bullets,” as she fends off U.S. pressure on fentanyl and migrants.
Trump & Sheinbaum find it takes two to tango in the delicate USMCA dance
Since the start of the second Trump administration this January, relations between Mexico and the United States have been active, tense, volatile but overall polite. Despite the US administrations’ tough talk on immigration and trade - including the imposition of some tariffs as in the case of steel and aluminum - and the fact that American unilateral military action in Mexican territory against the cartels still remains a possibility, Mr. Trump has maintained a somewhat restrained demeanor with his Mexican counterpart, President Claudia Sheinbaum.
After a telephone call on March 6, both leaders agreed for a second time to a truce on trade tariffs until April 2 for goods imported to the US under the United States, Mexico and Canada Agreement (USMCA). More notable perhaps, Mr. Trump emphasized his respect for Ms. Sheinbaum and noted that relations are moving along albeit the difficult context. The tone certainly contrasts with that used by the US president with Canada, his other North American partner. As of now, Trump still asserts that Canada should become the 51st state, a notion that not only infuriates Canadians but baffles many Americans.
Misinformation clouds discovery of alleged extermination camp in Jalisco
by Madeleine Wattenbarger.
The news has shaken Mexico. Earlier this month, an anonymous report directed families of disappearance victims to a ranch in the town of Teuchitlán, Jalisco, that the state prosecutor’s office had searched in September.
“When we entered, the door was open,” recounts Norma Ángel, member of the search collective Guerreros Buscadores de Jalisco, which received the report. The group began live-streaming what they found: piles of clothing, hundreds of pairs of shoes, pits of ash with burnt bones. “They’re completely incinerated bones, most of them very small. If you touched them, they fell apart.”
The videos went viral. A media firestorm ensued, fueled by anonymous testimonies that describe the Izaguirre Ranch as a training camp where young people were lured by false job offers and hundreds tortured, killed, and incinerated. The image of the hundreds of shoes moved the country. On Saturday, search collectives across Mexico hosted dozens of simultaneous vigils for the presumed victims of Teuchitlán as part of a National Day of Mourning.