Mexico’s Energy Opening Looks Like a Success. Will It Last?
In Nov. 2013, just weeks before Mexico’s historic energy opening was signed into law, two-time presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador sent an open letter to the CEO of ExxonMobil, Rex Tillerson “informing” the executive that Mexico’s oil belonged to its people. López Obrador urged Tillerson to measure the costs of investing in Mexico should the reform … Read more
What Mexico Can Learn from Haiti’s Development Plans
The idea sounds simple: Special Economic Zones (SEZs) offer tax exemptions and cheap labor as hooks to attract investment from foreign companies. Money trickles in, local suppliers get a foothold and the middle class begins to grow. At least, in theory. Mexico is betting big on SEZs, with a new federal law that will create four of … Read more
Latin America Could Cut Its Murder Rate By 50 Percent. Here’s How.
Many deaths are unavoidable. Natural disasters and incurable illnesses can claim lives suddenly, without warning. But there is one untimely death that can be avoided – homicide. It is time for Latin America and the Caribbean to set a bold goal to bring down the murder rate. The region is one of the world’s deadliest. It is home … Read more
Ayude a los boomers a retirarse en América Latina
Leer en inglés Estimado(a) Sr(a) Presidente(a): Los baby boomers de Estados Unidos a menudo parecen representar las importaciones de mayor crecimiento en México. En la región del Lago de Chapala, en donde vivo, una cifra estimada de más de 10,000 estadounidenses –o el doble de ese número dependiendo de la época del año– llaman “su … Read more
The Real Lesson of Mexico’s State Elections
Mexicans from the U.S. border to the Yucatan peninsula issued a strong rebuke to President Enrique Peña Nieto and his ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in state elections on Sunday. The PRI lost governorships in six of the nine states it held going into the vote, including four – Durango, Quintana Roo, Tamaulipas and Veracruz – … Read more
This Week in Latin America: A Close Vote in Peru
Sign up here to get This Week in Latin America delivered to your inbox every Monday. Peru Votes: Peru will choose a new president Sunday in a close runoff election between two center-right candidates. In an Ipsos poll released on May 29, first-round winner Keiko Fujimori held a six-point advantage over her business-friendly challenger Pedro Pablo Kucyznski. However, Kuczynski may yet … Read more
OAS Human Rights Chief: ‘Galling’ Errors, Obstruction in Case of 43 Missing Mexican Students
As president of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), as well as the group’s rapporteur for Mexico, James Cavallaro has been a driving force behind investigating what happened to the 43 Mexican college students who disappeared in September 2014. And he doesn’t pull punches in saying that the Mexican government failed to cooperate with the IACHR’s … Read more
Anger Management and Gun Control? New Ways to Reduce Violence in Latin America
Reducing violence is not about controlling violent neighborhoods or even about controlling violent people. It is about inducing people to control themselves. That’s it. The best policing comes when no police are required. The question is how to achieve this in Latin America, the most violent region in the world and home to countries like … Read more
This Week in Latin America: Brazil’s Government Breakup
Sign up here to get This Week in Latin America delivered to your inbox every Monday. PMDB Decision on Rousseff: It is considered “inevitable” that Brazil’s largest political party, the PMDB, will on Tuesday formally break with the government and support the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff. One party leader tweeted “On Tuesday the 29th, the party will decide to … Read more
This Week in Latin America: Obama in Havana, Venezuela in Crisis
Sign up here to get This Week in Latin America delivered straight to your inbox every Monday. Cuba, Argentina Host Obama: Cuba and Argentina each play host to U.S. President Barack Obama this week, with human rights issues shading both visits. Today, Obama will hold a working meeting with Cuban President Raúl Castro, who will then host a state dinner … Read more
Mexico’s Next Big Chance to Tackle Corruption
Empowered by a political reform that was approved in 2014, Mexico’s top civil society groups, academics and activists gathered last Tuesday in a press conference to present a bill that would establish clear penalties for acts of corruption. This citizen’s initiative, known as Ley 3de3, could be discussed in Congress as early as this spring, … Read more
The Real Reason Behind Rising Violence in Mexico City
Until recently, Mexico City was considered an oasis in a country beset by skyrocketing violence. Even though one in two Mexican adults said they stopped going out at night for fear of being mugged or worse and one fourth of all adult Mexicans were victimized in 2014, the capital was largely exempt. In posh neighborhoods like … Read more
Dismissed as a Drug Crime? How Mexico’s “Old” Media Covered Ruben Espinosa’s Death
Hours after photojournalist Rubén Espinosa and four others were found dead in a Mexico City apartment on July 31, much of Mexico’s traditional media had settled on a theory: This was a run-of-the-mill drug crime. In a video newscast titled “They didn’t kill him because he was a journalist,” Luis Cárdenas López, a reporter for … Read more
AQ Slideshow: Central American Migrants Protest in Mexico
On April 18, as the sun rose high into the sky, a group of several dozen Central American migrants marched along with the Viacrucis Migrante (Migrant Stations of the Cross) towards the Basílica de Guadalupe in Mexico City. The group, led by migrant outreach activist Padre Alejandro Solalinde, sought to draw attention to the problems … Read more
AQ Slideshow: Mexicans Protest On Ayotzinapa Anniversary
On March 26, several hundred protesters gathered around the Angel of Independence in Mexico City to mark the six-month anniversary of the disappearance and apparent massacre of 43 students in the town of Iguala in Guerrero state. Diego Martínez, a skinny 24-year-old medical student standing at the top of the stairs of the monument explained, … Read more
