Incoming president Joe Biden is facing many issues when he is sworn in on January 20. Among the issues is a challenging relationship with México. Andrés Manuel López Obrador, colloquially known as AMLO has two years left as president of México. Biden not only faces the Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting economic problems, but the… Read More Joe Biden Faces Challenges With Mexico
With corruption and narco-terrorism on the rise in México in 2006, then-president Felipe Calderón declared war on the drug traffickers, mobilized the Mexican military. Calderón set out to reform the Mexican policing framework to deal with the crisis. Calderón appointed Genaro García Luna to transform the federal police into a more-professional civilian organization equipped with… Read More The Conundrum of Genaro Garcia Luna
As some readers may have noted, Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrado (AMLO) has refused to recognize Joe Biden until the court challenges are completed. Some believe that AMLO’s slight of Biden will become an issue for the rest of AMLO’s presidency. AMLO’s term ends in late 2024. The economy and Covid-19 will preoccupy both… Read More U.S.-Mexico Cross Border Trade And Why AMLO Hesitates On Biden
The problem for México is that every so often a Mexican president takes the helm of the country and immediately kowtows to the powers that be. Santa Anna is one such character. Santa Anna is best known for losing almost half of the Mexican territory when he waged an unsuccessful battle plan to quell the… Read More AMLO Meets With The Patrón Today
Many political observers are scratching their heads as to why Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) wants to meet with Donald Trump as his first government to government meeting outside of México. López Obrador has refused to travel abroad during his presidency insisting on holding virtual meetings as he keeps to his promise of austerity measures.… Read More Understanding the Lopez Obrador Lovefest With Donald Trump
On Monday, April 11, Mexican foreign relations minister, Marcelo Ebrard posted on Twitter a clarification on the diplomatic note the Mexican government had sent to the U.S. Embassy recently. The diplomatic note asks the U.S. government for information and documents pertaining to the ATF Fast and Furious operation that allowed U.S. guns to enter México… Read More AMLO, Trump and Fast and Furious
The deal reached on Sunday between Russia, Saudi Arabia and other oil producing nations is not enough to solve the oil price problem. Cutting 9.7 million barrels a day is not enough to save the American shale oil companies. The pandemic has reduced oil consumption so much that the deal won’t be enough to stabilize… Read More Mexico: The Unexpected Oil Deal Winner
We are amid major changes in the global economy and the way we live our lives. Those of us that have lived through the currency devaluations of our countries or other major economic changes mostly understand what is to come. We have lived economic chaos before. Most Americans do not understand how lives will change… Read More The Age of COVID-19
Today, Mexican women are expected to show what it would be like to have a world without women. A day without women has been declared for today in México. Women have been asked to participate by staying off the streets, not going to work and not buying anything during the day. The national strike is… Read More Women, Violence and AMLO
Is México really about to raffle its presidential airplane? That’s the question that I keep getting asked when talking about Mexico’s political state. With Andrés Manuel López Obrador, or AMLO, anything is possible. Like Donald Trump, AMLO likes to push unconventional issues to distract from what is going on the county. So, what’s the story… Read More The Mexican Presidential Airplane Raffle
The news outlets are reporting that Bernie Sanders is surging in the polls. He seems to be leading in Iowa and in New Hampshire. It is still too early to know if he will be the Democrat nominee in November. However, it is clear that voters are voting extremes across the globe. In México voters… Read More Bernie Sanders: Beware of Extremes
I trust you all had an excellent start to 2020. Unless you are completely oblivious to politics you likely know that Donald Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives as 2019 ended. If you aren’t aware than I’m really shocked that you are reading my blog. The impeachment of Donald Trump will now dominate… Read More The Impeachment of Donald Trump
It is with great sadness that I must now admit that the future is bleak with nationalism and xenophobia driving the political agendas of the major countries. Last week’s win by Boris Johnson make this crystal clear. For those that might not remember, Johnson was one of the major architects behind Brexit. His recent campaign… Read More Nationalism Is Now The Future
Last Sunday was the one-year anniversary for Andrés Manuel López Obrador, also known as AMLO, as Mexico’s current president. AMLO won the presidency promising to radically change the politics of the country. He promised to end the violence and reign in the corruption. His promises amount to what he has dubbed as the Fourth Transformation… Read More AMLO One Year Later
Buried behind the impeachment news is a lawsuit that was filed by journalists against the Trump administration. Likely, “fake news” is on the minds of some readers, but this is also about something else – the First Amendment, and U.S.-México intelligence coordination. For most of us, the First Amendment protects everyone but most especially, journalists.… Read More First Amendment Lawsuit Shows Coordination Between US-Mexico on Asylum Seekers
Today is Independence Day in México, well actually it is the continuation as the “Grito” is celebrated the night before. Like the Fourth of July celebrations, today México celebrates its Independence Day. I also get to remind some readers that today is Mexican Independence Day, not Cinco de Mayo. Most readers already know that Mexicans… Read More The Fourth Transformation of Mexico
Andrés Manuel López Obrador colloquially known as AMLO was elected Mexico’s latest president as part of the global wave of populism. Ordinary people feel that the political process is finally acknowledging their needs. Many of Donald Trump’s supporters feel that they have been neglected, thus they voted for Trump. Brexit was also the result of… Read More AMLO and the Failure of Populism
Some of you may have noticed that I missed two days of blog posts last week – Wednesday and Friday. The reason for this is because I was demoralized last week when it became very clear to me that it is immigrants, like me, that will suffer through the 2020 elections. The truth is that… Read More The 2020 Elections Will Be Shaped By Immigration Bashing
Andrés Manuel López Obrador colloquially known as AMLO kowtowed to Donald Trump. No amount of spin will make this stench on AMLO’s administration go away. AMLO has joined the ranks of former Mexican presidents, like Santa Ana, who cave to American demands to save their own skins. México released the contents of the secret side… Read More Mexico Kowtows to Trump on Immigration
As you likely know, there are no Trump tariffs on Mexican products. Donald Trump argues that he got what he wanted from the threat to apply tariffs to Mexican goods and Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) says that dialog worked. There is obviously much spin on both sides of the border. So, let’s break it… Read More The Facts About the Mexico Tariff Deal
As I expected, the Republicans are starting to realize that the repercussions of the Trump punitive tariffs against México will damage America’s economy and their constituencies. The Republicans are historically pro-international open trade. The fluidity of the trade dispute makes it difficult to forecast what the outcome will be. But here is a nugget to… Read More GOP Caving on Tariffs and AMLO on Verge of Channeling Santa Ana
The next seven days will show us what the U.S.-México relationship will be like in the future. Next Monday, as we discussed yesterday, Donald Trump is intending to impose punitive tariffs on Mexican goods entering the United States. On Monday, the punitive tariff is expected to be five percent, increasing up to 25% over the… Read More The Next Seven Days Will Show the Future of US-Mexico Relations
Tomorrow a new phase for Mexicans begins. Andrés Manuel López Obrador becomes the new president of México. AMLO, as he is known colloquially, takes Mexican politics from a left-of-center towards a far-left political ideology. Like the Vicente Fox experiment of wrestling power away from the PRI, there is much hope from a large segment of… Read More The AMLO Experiment Begins Tomorrow
