The tour ends where it always does
President Claudia Sheinbaum has closed her ‘Honestidad y resultados’ accountability tour with a rally in the Zócalo, days before she enters the third year of her term. The tour followed her second annual report on 1 September, in which she presented the economy as stable despite shifts in US trade policy and volatile energy markets, and framed relations with Washington around ‘cooperation without subordination’. Speaking on Sunday 27 September before thousands of supporters, she said the tour had covered 31 states in 12 days and that around 850,000 people had attended its assemblies. She was welcomed by the capital’s head of government, Clara Brugada.
Sheinbaum chose the anniversary of the consummation of Mexico’s independence to deliver a long history lesson. Starting from Independence to the Reform and the Revolution to then to the Fourth Transformation, which she presented as the latest popular rupture against betrayal; this time 36 years of neoliberal government. She set out five guiding principles: independence, sovereignty, liberty, equality (understood as social justice) and democracy. She also paid tribute to her predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, saying the people ‘rise up with extraordinary leaders’ such as him, and recalled that in 2024 they had decided it was ‘time for women’.
The sovereignty passages carried the sharpest edge. ‘Mexicans do not want interference, interventionism or violation of our territoriality’, Sheinbaum said. Sovereignty, she said, meant that ‘no foreign power, no economic or political elite has the right to dictate the present and the future of our homeland’.
She then listed the constitutional reforms of her first two years. These included education, health and housing as constitutional rights, pensions for older people and people with disabilities raised to constitutional rank, the 40-hour week and the obligation to raise the minimum wage above inflation. She added indigenous and Afro-Mexican peoples as subjects of public law, substantive equality for women, no re-election for any elected office from 2030, a ban on nepotism and an elected judiciary. On sovereignty, she cited the new paragraph in Article 40 rejecting foreign interference, the maximum penalty under Article 19 for foreign agents who violate national territory, the restoration of Pemex and the Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE) as public enterprises and water as a national asset. She also said she expected the Senate to approve on Monday the ban on dual nationals becoming governor, mayor of Mexico City or president. The reform, which amends Articles 82, 116 and 122, has already passed the Chamber of Deputies and was approved by Senate committees on 23 September. Her summary: Mexico now has a new Constitution, and most of the neoliberal reforms have been reversed.
Brugada’s welcome was more combative. She called for popular, movement and national unity ‘when the shadows of imperialist ambition spread once more’, and declared that Mexico ‘is nobody’s backyard’ and ‘extends its hand but never bows its head’.
Mexico at the UNGA: Epicentre stage
With enemies like this, who needs friends? Foreign Secretary Roberto Velasco emerged stronger following some mistaken and perhaps bigoted criticism at his first United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). To a casual and perhaps inexperienced social media follower, Velazco had appeared to answer US President Donald Trump with a speech on diversity. After Trump told the Assembly on 22 September that ‘Mexico is the epicentre of the cartel violence’, a clip of Mexico’s top diplomat speaking about inclusion circulated widely online. The clip, however, in fact dated from 21 September, the day before Trump spoke, and was taken from Velasco’s remarks to the UN LGBTI Core Group, which Mexico co-chairs with Norway. Velasco responded on X on 23 September that non-discrimination, equality, dignity and the acceptance of diversity are a part of human rights dialogue in any democracy. He added that ‘for some reactionaries, defending those values is “the lowest point of Mexican diplomacy”’, a reference to historian Enrique Krauze’s description of the clip. Krauze has not yet apologized at a minimum for getting his chronology wrong.
In his actual address to the general debate on 25 September, Velasco said that Mexico ‘has shown that a country can cooperate closely and respectfully with its partners while fully asserting its sovereignty. That independence is also measured by the protection of Mexicans living beyond our territory.’
He then set out the doctrinal basis of Mexican foreign policy, based on the legal equality of all States, ‘because sovereignty is not measured in armies or material resources. All nations, all peoples, are equal before the law.’ He posited that Mexico’s Constitution already contains the principles of the UN Charter, adding that ‘when my country defends multilateralism, it fulfils a constitutional mandate.’
The remainder of the speech held to Mexico’s established positions. Velasco reaffirmed Mexico’s recognition of Palestine and the right of its people to live in peace within secure and recognised borders as part of a two-state solution. On Cuba, he invoked more than six decades of solidarity, reiterated Mexico’s rejection of the US embargo and of any unilateral economic measure contrary to the UN Charter and pledged that Mexican humanitarian aid would continue to flow. On the succession to the Secretary-General, he argued that reform must extend to the organisation’s leadership: at the United Nations too, he said, it is time for women.
The Court tells famous brands to bring receipts
The Supreme Court (SCJN) has ruled that the Economy Ministry may continue authorising company names through a fast, automated procedure, even when a name matches a famous trademark, provided mark owners can still seek reinforced protection in the courts. In amparo directo en revisión 7997/2025, decided on 23 September, a six-vote majority backed Minister Arístides Guerrero’s draft and denied Deutsche Telekom AG, the Bonn-based parent of T-Mobile, its amparo against the Ministry’s 2015 authorisation of a Mexican accounting, tax and financial advisory firm trading under the Deutsche Telekom name.
The German group sued in 2020, alleging unauthorised use of its registered mark and unfair competition. It argued that the regulation governing company names left famous brands exposed unless their owners registered the sign in every possible class or already held an official declaration of notoriety, inviting free-riding and consumer confusion.
The Court disagreed. It held that Article 9, section II of the Regulation for the Authorisation of the Use of Company Names (Reglamento para la Autorización de Uso de Denominaciones y Razones Sociales) complies with the principles of legality, legal certainty and normative hierarchy, and sets objective rules for a procedure governed by Article 87 of the Industrial Property Law (Ley de la Propiedad Industrial). Because the procedure is formal and expedited, the Ministry may screen applications on automated criteria without investigating a brand’s reputation. That assessment falls to the courts. When a mark owner challenges an authorisation, the judge must examine notoriety and the real risk of confusion in full, applying domestic law and Article 6 bis of the Paris Convention.
Deutsche Telekom’s challenge failed on the evidence. The courts treated its uncertified printouts of websites, social media profiles and brand valuation reports as insufficient proof of notoriety in Mexico, and the Court stressed that reinforced protection is not automatic. It also noted that ‘Deutsche’ signals nationality and ‘Telekom’ describes an industry, and that a telecoms group and a tax and accounting adviser operate in markets too distant for real confusion. Minister Yasmín Esquivel dissented, arguing that the name was identical to an internationally positioned registered mark and that the Paris Convention should inform the reading of Mexican rules. Minister Giovanni Figueroa dissented on procedural grounds.
Phones off in class, signal still patchy in the staffroom
From 3 November, a Mexican schoolchild who checks a phone at during the school day will be breaking a federal rule. The Public Education Ministry (SEP) has restricted pupils’ use of personal devices throughout the school day, recess included, under Agreement 09/09/26, published in the Diario Oficial de la Federación on 22 September. It covers public and private schools from initial to secondary level, and allows phones only for teacher-scheduled activities with a pedagogical purpose, in emergencies or for reasons of health, disability, accessibility or inclusion. Upper secondary schools set their own limits; universities keep their autonomy. Authorities must hold meetings with parents from 23 September, and states then have 180 calendar days after entry into force to harmonise their rules.
Approval at the top was unanimous: the education authorities of all 32 federal entities backed the agreement in the Consejo Nacional de Autoridades Educativas (Conaedu). Classroom support is softer. In the SEP’s own consultation, 81.2 per cent of education staff favoured national measures, leaving nearly one in five unconvinced.
Teachers’ union sections have responded differently. José Leónides Gallegos Glori, secretary general of Section 29 of the Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (SNTE) in Tabasco, said it would also reach teachers, if gradually. In Zacatecas, Marcelino Rodarte, head of Section 58, criticised the measure for ignoring experts and teachers.
Mexico joins a crowded club. When UNESCO began tracking the policy in June 2023, 24 per cent of countries had a national ban; by March 2026 the share had reached 58 per cent, or 114 education systems. The evidence (at least as far as test scores is concerned) is less settled. In England, Louis-Philippe Beland and Richard Murphy found test scores rose by about 0.07 standard deviations after bans, mostly among weaker pupils. In Norway, Sara Abrahamsson linked bans to less bullying and better grades for girls. A comparable Swedish study found no effect on performance, and a 2024 review found modest effects, stronger on social wellbeing than on results.
Specialists worry more about the drafting. The Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (Tec de Monterrey) found that the restriction is the only binding provision for basic education: the agreement sets no sanctions, grants no express power to hold phones and names nobody responsible for keeping them.
A México Evalúa study published on 24 September accepts the premise but questions the design. Device distraction among fifteen-year-olds rose from 25 per cent in 2022 to 37 per cent in 2025, yet only one in three pupils aged six to seventeen connects to the internet at school. In 2024, 35 per cent of public basic-education schools had computers and internet for teaching, against 80.9 per cent of private ones. The think tank wants rules on who holds a device, who answers for it and what happens when a pupil refuses.
Morena finishes its line-up, and the Greens collect the change
San Luis Potosí came first. Elí César Cervantes Rojas prevailed over local deputy Carlos Arreola, after his name had leaked in the state a week earlier. Citlalli Hernández stressed that San Luis Potosí is the only state where Morena will run without a coalition. The Partido Verde Ecologista de México (PVEM) had made clear that its candidate for governor would be Ruth González, wife of Governor Ricardo Gallardo, and that it would run separately if Morena declined to nominate her.
In Tlaxcala, Ana Lilia Rivera beat the state capital’s mayor, Alfonso Sánchez, whose supporters walked out. Sonora went to Senator Lorenia Valles Sampedro over five rivals, amid complaints of interference by Governor Alfonso Durazo, prompting party leader Ariadna Montiel to call for unity. Nayarit went to Jasmine Bugarín, a PVEM senator on leave, after the gender quota displaced the reported survey leader, Héctor Santana. Baja California Sur went to Manuel Cota, a PVEM federal deputy on leave and son of Leonel Cota Montaño, a former governor and former head of Seguridad Alimentaria Mexicana (Segalmex).
Nuevo León produced the least expected result. Clara Luz Flores, until recently head of religious affairs at the Interior Ministry, prevailed over Tatiana Clouthier and Waldo Fernández. She ran for Morena in 2021 and finished fourth, after a campaign overshadowed by her denial that she knew Keith Raniere, the NXIVM founder later sentenced in the United States to 120 years in prison. A video then emerged showing the two in lengthy conversation, and she admitted she had lied.
Chihuahua closed the evening. Cruz Pérez Cuéllar, twice mayor of Ciudad Juárez, beat Senator Andrea Chávez and promptly called Governor Maru Campos a sell-out. He has pursued the governorship for more than a decade. He left the Partido Acción Nacional (PAN) in 2015, lost the 2016 race as the Movimiento Ciudadano candidate and joined Morena within a year. In 2020 he was accused of appearing on former governor César Duarte’s secret payroll; in 2021 the Chamber of Deputies declined to strip him of his immunity. The day’s results left ten women among the seventeen coordinators.
The first ten were Nora Ruvalcaba (Aguascalientes), Pablo Gutiérrez Lazarus (Campeche), Rosa María Bayardo (Colima), Santiago Nieto (Querétaro), Imelda Castro (Sinaloa), Beatriz Mojica (Guerrero), Carlos Torres Piña (Michoacán), Eugenio Segura (Quintana Roo), Verónica Díaz Robles (Zacatecas) and Julieta Ramírez (Baja California).
The PVEM’s tally is the real result of the week. Two coordinators are its own, in Nayarit and Baja California Sur; it keeps San Luis Potosí for itself; and Segura, a Morena senator long associated with the party, carries Quintana Roo. The Partido del Trabajo (PT) secured none. Analysts read Chávez’s exclusion as Sheinbaum taking control of areas that had drifted from or defied her and warned that the National Palace must now reconcile with the losers before they become defeats in 2027.
Chatter Box
Digital Economy Law reaches committee
The Chamber of Deputies’ Finance Committee has prepared its draft on the Digital Economy Law for Digital and Electronic Payments. It will take up the bill on 1 October, the day after Finance Secretary Édgar appears before the plenary. President Claudia Sheinbaum used part of her press conference on Thursday to promote the bill. It will, she said, encourage electronic payment and reduce in-person procedures, which helps combat corruption, and will allow people to open a bank account online for balances of up to MXN130,000. José Antonio Peña Merino, head of the Digital Transformation Agency (ATDT), set out the baseline: 85 per cent of payments under MXN500 are still made in cash. The government aims to reduce that share to half or less through CoDi and the Sistema de Pagos Electrónicos Interbancarios (SPEI), which by law charge no fees to either payer or merchant. Petrol stations and motorway toll booths will come first.
The bill would empower the SHCP to prohibit cash in certain places, including toll booths and petrol stations, and to determine which sectors must go fully digital and which may continue to accept cash. Peña Merino told deputies that most toll booths and petrol stations already have the necessary equipment and that the tag readers on motorways were fully replaced in August. He added that Banco del Bienestar’s 38 million account holders will soon be able to use SPEI and CoDi through its app.
The UIF wants to meet everyone behind the trust
The Financial Intelligence Unit has published two resolutions updating the official formats that anyone carrying out vulnerable activities under the Anti-Money Laundering Law must use to register with, and file notices and reports through, the SAT’s AML portal. The resolutions appeared in the Diario Oficial de la Federación on 24 September. The new registration format takes effect on 1 February 2027 and the format for notices and reports on 1 June 2027. Three changes stand out: a broader list of obligated parties, beneficial ownership information in every notice and a monthly report that must be filed even when there is nothing to report.
The registration catalogue now extends to those who carry out vulnerable activities through trusts, joint ventures or other legal vehicles. It also covers public and private facilitators of alternative dispute resolution, customs agencies and anyone who clears goods without a customs broker. Trust-based structures must disclose their composition in a new Annex A, identifying the trustee, the trust officer, the settlors and the beneficiaries; other vehicles must declare their type and members. Mediators must state whether they are public or private, and participants in customs operations must specify the capacity in which they act. Trusts and similar vehicles must also appoint a compliance officer under Annex B. The officer must be a natural person, and their date of birth becomes a mandatory field.
The practical work begins well before the deadlines. Obligated parties will need to review the legal form through which they operate as well as the activity itself. They will also need to update their SAT registration where the new categories apply to them and rebuild their know-your-customer files to cover every participant in fiduciary and associative structures. Identifying, retaining and updating beneficial ownership data for each client will no longer be a background duty but a line item in every filing.
Mexicana doubles the fleet
Mexicana has taken delivery of its tenth aircraft, an Embraer 190-E2 registered XA-MXK, which landed at the airline’s hangar at Felipe Ángeles International Airport on Saturday. The state-owned carrier now has half of the 20 Embraer E2s it plans to operate: five 195-E2s seating 132 passengers and five 190-E2s seating 108. The new aircraft must still complete the procedures and meet the requirements of the Agencia Federal de Aviación Civil (AFAC) before it can carry paying passengers, after which the airline says it will enter regular service. Mexicana says the additional aircraft will allow it to increase capacity gradually, strengthen routes and raise frequencies, in the interest of affordable and efficient connectivity for the country. Its track record counsels patience. The carrier is approaching its third anniversary still short of the 20 destinations it promised at launch, and it had already cancelled eleven routes weeks before it began operations.
Korea comes to Mexico
President Claudia Sheinbaum received South Korean President Lee Jae Myung at the Palacio Nacional on 24 September, the first state visit by a South Korean head of state since Park Geun-hye’s in April 2016. The two leaders reviewed the Mexico-Korea Action Plan 2026-2030, a new roadmap for bilateral cooperation. They also signed instruments covering economic, financial and development cooperation, academic mobility, culture, tourism, science and technology, intellectual property, agriculture and security. Artificial intelligence, digital transformation and emerging technologies were singled out for closer cooperation. Both sides presented Plan México as an opportunity for Korean firms, more than 2,000 of which already operate in Mexico, in sectors including automotive, pharmaceuticals, infrastructure and transport. Bilateral trade reached US$29.673bn in 2025. The leaders also explored establishing a K-pop culture centre in Mexico and a Mexican cultural institute in Korea.
Cofepris wants to see the recipe first
Mexico’s rules on food additives have undergone their first structural overhaul since 2012. A new agreement from the Health Ministry, published in the Diario Oficial de la Federación on 21 August and in force from 17 November, replaces the previous framework and ends a convenient practice. Until now, when a product or category was missing from the official lists, manufacturers could simply adopt the standards of the Codex Alimentarius or of the United States, Canada or the European Union and proceed. From November, they will first need the health regulator Comisión Federal para la Protección contra Riesgos Sanitarios (Cofepris) to evaluate and authorise the use, on the basis of exposure calculations and consumption data for the Mexican population.
The agreement makes several further changes. The lists of permitted substances will be updated on a fixed schedule, definitions have been clarified and the approved sources for flavourings have been widened. For the first time, the agreement also sets its own contaminant limits for additives and colourings.
The Court divorces the Wife Law
The Supreme Court on Monday struck down the provisions in San Luis Potosí and Durango that required parties to alternate the gender of their candidates for governor at every election, coalitions included. Minister Lenia Batres’s draft held that fixing permanently the gender of who may compete restricts disproportionately the right to stand for office and the parties’ freedom to organise themselves, and that any such limit needs a precise basis in the federal Constitution, which it lacked here. The Court drew a line between parity, which is a constitutional mandate, and alternation, which is one tool among several to achieve it and need not be imposed automatically. In Durango the rule was due to apply from the 2027–2028 process; the Court also upheld Durango’s rule allowing parties in common candidacies to agree in advance how votes cast under a shared emblem are split.
In San Luis Potosí the ruling lands on a sore point. The reform was nicknamed the “Wife Law” because it was read as clearing the way for Ruth González, wife of Governor Ricardo Gallardo, to succeed him, and the Court’s decision came on the same day Morena confirmed it will face the Green Party there after declining to nominate her.
Contacto:
Laura Camacho
Directora Ejecutiva de Asuntos Públicos de Miranda