MI’s Mexico Foreign Press Chatter – May 22, 2025

May 29, 2026
12:00 pm

Top stories on Mexico

Grecia Quiroz — the widow of Carlos Manzo who took over as mayor of Uruapan after his assassination in November — was the subject of a profile in the LA Times this week. The piece includes vivid descriptions of Manzo’s hands-on crime-fighting approach (Quiroz says it felt like being married to a superhero) and portrays Quiroz as dedicated to carrying on his legacy, though she governs with a “quieter style”. The article takes a light touch in covering the controversies surrounding some of Manzo’s policies and mentions his admiration of Michoacán’s autodefensas — but not the fact that some of them morphed into organised crime groups themselves. However, the frustration and fear felt by citizens who have suffered violence for decades is palpable, which is giving Manzo’s Movimiento del Sombrero momentum. Manzo was ambitious, dreaming of one day reaching the presidency; it seems his widow, who is considering a gubernatorial run in 2027, also has higher aspirations.

The escalating U.S. pressure on Mexico on multiple fronts continued to dominate foreign press coverage. The NYT reported on a brazen directive from an associate deputy attorney general instructing U.S. federal prosecutors to “triple” indictments of Mexican officials as news broke that two of the former Sinaloa officials who were indicted earlier this month had surrendered to U.S. authorities. Reuters reported that Sheinbaum has instructed any Morena officials with links to corruption to resign, according to unnamed party sources. Good luck.

In other security news, AP reported on the country’s “invisible displacement crisis” in the wake of the recent violence in rural Guerrero that has forced hundreds to flee their homes, and the LA Times/Puente News Collaborative covered disappearances in Guadalajara — where 58 clandestine graves have been found within city limits just since January 2025 — as the city is “abuzz with renovation projects” in preparation for the World Cup.

In business and economic news, Bloomberg’s JP Spinetto argued that the decline in gross fixed capital formation — which peaked in July 2024 and has been falling steeply since — is the key metric (in an economy spoiled for choice) to watch in tracking Mexico’s meagre growth. Spinetto attributes this decline mostly to Morena policies like the judicial reform and mixed messages from the government towards the private sector, but also notes there was a similar pattern early in AMLO’s administration before investment recovered and grew again post-pandemic. The improvised cancellation of Royal Caribbean’s Perfect Day gigantic beach club and water park in Mahahual — a billion dollar international investment project once touted by Sheinbaum’s administration — was also covered in Bloomberg this week.

The feverish preparations ahead of the World Cup were covered in multiple outlets. The Guardian reported on the backlash to Clara Brugada’s “ajolotización” of the capital, (another week, another foreign press ajolote story) while AP covered the rush to finish renovations at the Benito Juárez airport and a new advertising campaign by the Mexican Football Federation to discourage fans from homophobic chants that have become “an unwelcome feature at matches involving Mexico and its fervent fans for two decades”.

Notable blogs in English on Mexico

Viri Ríos analysed the reactions to CDMX Mayor Clara Brugada this week, who the city’s rich “love to hate”. Ríos presented polling data that shows how socioeconomic level correlates with approval of the one-time mayor of Iztapalapa borough, whom she describes as uniquely despised by upper-class chilangos (beyond political differences). Ríos contrasts Sheinbaum’s popularity in the educated middle class; though this may say more about urbane, highly educated Sheinbaum than Brugada, who seems to have a base of support similar to AMLO’s. On CrashOut, Ioan Grillo dives into the stats on overdose death reductions in the U.S. (down 38% in the most recently published data) and the multiple factors that could be driving it, including the crackdown on fentanyl traffickers in Mexico (as of April, seizures at the U.S.-Mexico border had dropped 86% since their 2023 peak). The Mexico Political Economist returned to the topic of Pemex this week and the replacement of CEO Víctor Rodríguez Padilla with the CFO, Juan Carlos Carpio, noting that production and investment stagnated during Rodríguez’s tenure and that the company remains a financial liability and a political hot potato for Sheinbaum’s administration. And Miranda Intelligence’s daily Substack covered key developments in energy, fintech, public affairs and politics in Mexico.

Mexico Decoded – The Mayor the Rich Love to Hate

MXPE – Pemex health check: Scraping the bottom of the barrel

CrashOut by Ioan Grillo – Mexico Hammers Fentanyl While US Overdose Deaths Drop

Miranda Intelligence daily reports on Substack

Photo of the week

Workers transport a roll of foam next to the FIFA World Cup trophy during a guided media tour of the renovation site at Benito Juárez International Airport, in preparation for the 2026 World Cup, in Mexico City, on Tuesday, May 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)