MI’s Mexico Foreign Press Chatter – Aug. 28, 2026

septiembre 4, 2026
12h00

Foreign coverage on Mexico

The Financial Times reported on the freshly finished Centinela Tower in Ciudad Juárez this week, an intelligence and surveillance centre which includes a situation room “where representatives of foreign governments can work alongside state police”. The story uses the “gleaming new” skyscraper to contrast the attitude of officials in PAN-governed Chihuahua with the stated anti-interventionist stance of the ruling party, in reality more honored in the breach than the observance given the close collaboration between Omar Harfuch and US security apparatus, which has hardened since the revelation of CIA agents’ participation in a raid on a meth lab in April. State security chief Gilberto Loya told the reporter that “we don’t see them [the US] as imperialists, we see them as trade partners” and that “there’s no harm in a little help…we’re fighting the same enemy” (organised crime that is, not Morena).

Mexico’s Finance and Public Credit Ministry took offence at a report in Bloomberg headlined “Mexico Bonds Trade Like Junk After $130 Billion Bailout of Pemex”, responding with a statement pointing to improving credit-default swap (CDS) spreads as evidence of its standing in debt markets, with five-year CDS at 80 basis points, down from 120 basis points when Sheinbaum took office in October 2024. Bloomberg had reported that Mexico is at risk of a junk downgrade and is now paying higher yields than some smaller, lower-rated neighbours such as Guatemala and Panama, despite still holding a higher credit rating. The report blamed Pemex bailouts (US$130 billion between AMLO’s government and Sheinbaum’s so far), which analysts have described as transferring Pemex’s “financial rot” onto the sovereign balance sheet. Bloomberg followed up with another article, sort of ceding Hacienda’s point that UMS risk has come down most recently.

Banxico governor Victoria Rodríguez Ceja, quoted in Bloomberg, echoed Hacienda’s statement in the bank’s quarterly report presentation this week: “While some agencies have pointed to certain risks, they have also recognized important strengths in our country, such as our solid external position, trade integration with the United States, and our ability to respond to episodes of volatility.”

Meanwhile, on the political front, Bloomberg also reported on the response from magnate Ricardo Salinas Pliego following Sheinbaum’s proposed constitutional amendment to bar anyone with dual citizenship from the presidency, or from governorships to ensure “the nation’s interest takes precedence over the interest of any other nation.” Salinas Pliego posted on X: “Guess who holds dual citizenship and that’s how you’ll know why they’re rushing to push through measures that benefit no one and actually harm some people”, seeming to imply that he has double nationality. Another opposition political figure, Julián LeBarón (who has dual Mexico-US citizenship), has publicly come out against the proposal, calling it “brutally unfair”; he is planning to run for governor of Chihuahua in 2027.

The LA Times followed up on Mexico’s increased pressure on the US over Mexican deaths in ICE raids or in custody, but found there has been little progress. As one human rights advocate put it: “The Americans don’t seem to be paying much attention. What Mexico is doing is basically a bureaucratic step with no real response.”

Blogs destacados en inglés sobre México

In CrashOut this week, Ioan Grillo published a video interview with journalist Héctor de Mauleón, whose work is the basis for Netflix’s new hit film “La captura”, about the cops who nabbed El Chapo in 2016. Grillo observed that “Mexico struggles to have cop heroes, while narcos are glorified, and I wonder if they have finally found some.”

The Mexico Political Economist argued that while Mexico’s most urgent problem is a stalled economy, the more insidious problem underlying it is crime (understood more broadly than security to include fraud and tax evasion) noting “there is an equivalent of huachicol fiscal across almost every sector.”

In Materia Gris, Eduardo García analysed Sheinbaum’s response following the brief return of Rocha Moya to office in Sinaloa, crediting the president for swift action — “The political tension generated by Rocha Moya had already begun to dissipate, thanks in large part to an effective political operation by Sheinbaum” — but warning that her challenges are far from over as the US continues to exert pressure on Morena politicians.

CrashOut Media – Behind the Netflix Film, La Captura
MXPE – Mexico’s most urgent problem isn’t its most important
Materia Gris – Sheinbaum puts out the fire, but not the larger blaze
Miranda Inteligencia daily reports on Substack

Photo of the week

Centinela Tower aims to centralise staff and intelligence gathering for Mexico’s Chihuahua state © Jose Luis Gonzalez/Reuters

MI’s Mexico Foreign Press Chatter – Aug. 28, 2026

Foreign coverage on Mexico

Blogs destacados en inglés sobre México

Photo of the week

Top stories on Mexico