Mexico

Transforming Monterrey’s Landscape

Monterrey, one of the largest cities in Mexico, has recently become a hotspot for criminal activity and host to a number of violent incidents. An ambitious urban development initiative, however, is set to change the city’s deteriorating reputation. Seventy years ago, an institution that transformed the educational system in Mexico was born, Tec de Monterrey, … Read more

Mexico Will Not Extradite Drug Lord to U.S.

A Mexican judge ruled on Tuesday that Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán will stay in Mexico to face drug-trafficking charges. The former head of the Sinaloa cartel will not be extradited to the U.S. in the near future and will remain locked up in the country’s highest security prison while he awaits trial. Guzmán, who was captured on Saturday after 13 … Read more

North American Energy Integration and the NALS

The three North American leaders—Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and U.S. President Barack Obama—will meet today in Toluca, Mexico. Obama’s agenda is set to focus on trade, education, border security, and drug trafficking. Yet the elephant in the room is the Keystone XL pipeline, whose approval by the United States … Read more

Monday Memo: Turf Battle in Michoacán — Venezuelan Media — Manaus Stadium Death — Keystone Pipeline — Guatemala Massacre

Knights Templar and Vigilante Groups Clash in Apatzingan, Michoacán: Vigilante self-defense groups drove into the town of Apatzingan, Michoacán on Saturday, bolstered by support from local police and army personnel. The town, previously a command center for the Knights Templar drug cartel, has been caught in a bloody battle since the self-defense groups launched an … Read more

NAFTA@20: A Bittersweet Celebration

Read NAFTA @20: Where We Go From Here by Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León here. Read NAFTA @20: The Perils of Partisanship by Thomas F. McLarty III here. Read sidebars on aerospace, medical devices and the automotive sector. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has never occupied a particularly secure place in the public … Read more

NAFTA @20: The Perils of Partisanship

Read NAFTA @20: Where We Go From Here by Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León here. Read NAFTA @20: A Bitterweet Celebration by Carol Wise and Joshua Tuynman here. In his December 8, 1993, remarks at the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), then-U.S. President Bill Clinton observed that the treaty debate had … Read more

NAFTA @20: Where We Go From Here

Read NAFTA @20: The Perils of Partisanship by Thomas F. McLarty III here. Read NAFTA @20: A Bitterweet Celebration by Carol Wise and Joshua Tuynman here. Has the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) fulfilled its promise? I believe it has. NAFTA was conceived first and foremost as an instrument to promote trade and investment … Read more

Narcocorridos Drum up Support for the Knights Templar in Michoacán

Narcocorridos—songs that celebrate drug dealers as folk heroes—have been a part of Mexican culture for as long as the illicit activity has existed in the country. Attempts to censor them from reaching radio airwaves have triggered debates over freedom of speech, as well as outcries from the more liberal media. But as a recent concert … Read more

Mexico’s Energy Reforms Are Good for Canada

Reforms to Mexico’s energy sector were signed into law late last year. The legislation proceeded rapidly from President Enrique Peña Nieto’s announcement of the reforms in August, to the negotiations among the major political parties during the fall, to voting in both houses of Congress, resulting in a majority of the 31 state legislatures changing … Read more

Mexican Government and Vigilante Groups Join Forces

The Mexican government announced a temporary agreement on Monday that will incorporate vigilante groups in the state of Michoacán into national law enforcement. Over the past year, civilian groups have taken arms to combat the violent Knights Templar drug cartel (Caballeros Templarios) based out of Apatzingan, Michoacán. The government moved to integrate the local groups … Read more

Safe Streets, Safe Cities

Discussions of sustainable cities tend to focus on environmental goals such as developing eco-friendly architecture, recycling, and improving the resiliency of urban infrastructure systems. But public or citizen security is an equally important aspect of building a sustainable city. Often, it is the issue that tops the list of citizens’ concerns—and with good reason. Violent … Read more

From “Make-Sicko” back to Mexico City: The Greening of Mexico’s Distrito Federal

Read a sidebar on transportation. Mexico City has one of the world’s most complex concentrations of people. In the early sixteenth century, Mexico City already had 200,000 inhabitants, and the Valley of Mexico almost half a million—which is to say, it has always been one of the world’s largest cities. Due to its longstanding position … Read more

National to City, Diagnosis to Funding

For too long, Latin America’s urbanization has been haphazard and chaotic. As a result, the world’s most urbanized region (with over 80 percent of its population living in cities) became associated with sprawl, waste, inefficiency, pollution, and increasing vulnerability to climate change. But a new approach to this challenge emerged on the sidelines of the … Read more

From the Think Tanks

SEDEREC Mexico City has seen a surge of external and internal migration since the late 1990s. In the report, Ley y reglamento de interculturalidad, atención a migrantes y movilidad humana en el Distrito Federal: Reflexiones, SEDEREC sums up the proposals made by the public and private sectors to the Mexican government over the past 15 … Read more

Para todo mal, mezcal; para todo bien, también

Mezcal used to be sniffed at by Mexican sophisticates as the slightly less respectable cousin of tequila—a fiery peasant’s drink consumed in dark corner bars or rural ranchos in Oaxaca, where 94 percent of Mexico’s mezcal is produced. But that is no longer the case. For many trend-setters in the capital and elsewhere, mezcal has … Read more