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
In 2016, Elon Musk selected Jose Fernandez to create the space suits used in the Dragon capsule that docked with the ISS on Sunday. The Dragon launch is the first American manned space launch in almost a decade. It signal’s America’s return to space. Whenever space travel and Mexicans are mentioned in one sentence many… Read More Hispanic SpaceX Space Suits
Depending on what media outlet you are reading you are likely to get two or more versions of the real story. This has been true for years because biases are part of what is published for public consumption. Take for example remittances from Mexicans working in the United States, both legal and undocumented and the… Read More Mexican Remittances And Covid-19
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
On Saturday, March 28, 2020, the Mexican Air Force with the help of Mexico’s Foreign Relations Department evacuated 134 Mexican citizens from Cuba. The Coronavirus COVID-19 had stranded the Mexicans in Cuba. The air force flew a Boeing 737-800 to Cuba. In addition to returning the stranded Mexicans, the air force flight also returned 39… Read More Mexican Air Force Evacuates Mexicans From Cuba Due To Coronavirus
The Texas Revolution was about a small ragtag group of people intent on avenging their dead at the Alamo while protecting their way of life from an onslaught of a bloodthirsty invading army trying to kill them. That is the gist of the history taught in American schools today. Thousands of visitors visit the Alamo… Read More The Texas Revolution Was About Slavery
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
There exists a disconnect about the relationship between México and the United States. In México, the U.S. is generally seen as the Goliath to the north, while in the U.S., Americans see México as the source of drugs and undocumented immigration. The U.S.-Canada border is the largest land border between two countries. It gets very… Read More Understanding the US-Mexico Relationship
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
A few days before Christmas, a woman – which does not deserve to be named – ran over a 14-year-old girl because she “was Mexican”. But the woman wasn’t done. She hit another 12-year old boy the same day. One would think she was done with the mayhem. But no, on the same day she… Read More Killing Mexicans
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
One of the things I hear most often is how poverty-stricken México is. The way poverty is portrayed about México it makes it sound like there are thousands of starving people sleeping on the streets. If you buy into the hype, then you would expect to trip over homeless people on your morning strolls throughout… Read More Poverty in the US versus in Mexico
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
Remember when Donald Trump told everyone that México sends “rapists” to the US? As a Mexican immigrant I took his rhetoric about México sending its worst personally. Since then I have been on a mission to show Trump’s hypocrisy when it comes to immigrants. The latest example of hypocrisy is how Trump talks about Mexican… Read More Remember How Mexico Sends Its Worst? How About Saudi Arabia?
For many years I carried the hidden secret that people in the U.S. would make fun of my government. Jokes about beans, poverty and corruption were/are pervasive. México, like all countries, has its problems but U.S. people (the arrogance of Americans forgets that America is a continent) don’t seem to notice or understand their own… Read More The World Laughed At Donald Trump – Again
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
While most of you reading this today were not looking, México deported an Islamic terrorist. Many point their finger towards México for terrorists targeting the country although the fact is that México has yet to be proven as a source of Islamic terrorism to the country. As a matter of fact, the northern border is… Read More Mexico Deports Terrorist
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
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
Ever since the immigration deal with México to avert the punitive tariffs Trump had threatened was announced, Donald Trump has been defending the “deal” as a “win” for him. On Tuesday, Donald Trump held up a folded piece of paper arguing that it contained the “secret” deal with México that he said México would disclose… Read More El Chapo and the Secret Immigration Deal
Donald Trump’s threat to impose punitive tariffs against México last week exposed simmering cracks in the Republican-Trump relationship that were mostly kept under wraps until now. As I have written previously, the Republicans were content to stay out of the Trump controversies so long as Donald Trump continued to deliver on putting conservatives on the… Read More GOP-Trump Cracks Showing
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
Indeed it would be very poignant if México is the linchpin that leads the Republicans to break with Donald Trump. As I wrote earlier, the Republicans do not like trade tariffs as they support open global trade. It was the Republicans – with the leadership of Ronald Reagan – that brought NAFTA to fruition. México… Read More Will Mexico Cause the GOP to Break with Trump
Today is the day to remember D-Day – the day that more than 160,000 Allied troops landed on Normandy to retake Europe back from Nazi Germany. D-Day was a collaboration of many nations, one of which was México. It is poignant that Donald Trump is remarking on D-Day from the American-centric point of view which… Read More D-Day and Mexico
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
By now most, if not all of you, know that Donald Trump has threatened a tariff war with México by announcing he plans on imposing a five percent tariff on Mexican goods entering the United States starting next Monday. Trump has threatened to increase the punitive tariffs up to 25% if he does not get… Read More Breaking Down the Latest Trump Mexico Trade War
Did you notice the steel lie? No, not the Steele Dossier but the lie about the national emergency about steel. On March 1, 2018, Donald Trump declared a national emergency and imposed tariffs on steel. On May 31, 2018, Canadian and Mexican steel were also subjected to steel tariffs. The problem is that Trump’s “emergency… Read More Did You Notice The Steel Lie?
If you Google “Mexican fighter squadron” or “Mexican f5e” you will come across several news reports reporting the demise of the Mexican fighter squadron. The reports argue that the Mexican Air Force retired its fleet of air superiority Northrup F5e Tiger IIs in 2016. Yet, there were two F5 fighters that performed a flyby in… Read More Mexican Fighter Squadron Back On Duty
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
In an unprecedented turn of events and an unintended consequence of México’s engagement in world affairs it has been accused of an attempted regime change and the attempted assassination of a foreign leader. As if that wasn’t enough, the Mexican government has been accused of being “right-wing” by Venezuela’s Maduro. Venezuela is facing a serious… Read More Venezuela Accuses Mexico of Regime Change
There are some fundamental changes going on in México, that because of the Donald Trump noise, hasn’t been noticed by many. It is change that has been occurring because of a governmental long-term plan that was embarked upon about a decade ago, but its tempo increased recently because of Trump. México has traditionally looked inward… Read More Mexico is Rising
In August I posted a piece on how the Chinese trade war – that Donald Trump is escalating – benefits México bigley as Trump likes to say. (link) I was pleasantly surprised to see The Business Insider publish; “These US trading partners could pick up the slack if Trump’s trade war with China escalates” by… Read More Trump’s War On Chinese Trade Benefits Mexico
There continues to be a false narrative in America that México significantly lags America in quality of life and other world metric comparisons. Many still snicker when parity between México and the United States is brought up in discussions. México has been making great strides in its economy, politics and world parity over the last… Read More Mexico Beats U.S. In Health Care
Airplanes are made up of thousands, if not millions, of specialized parts that require sophisticated and exacting manufacturing. The Boeing Company says that its 747 is made up of over 6 million individual components. México is known for its automotive export market and the recently negotiated NAFTA 2.0 agreement has demonstrated México’s robust industrial market… Read More The Mexican Aircraft Industry
Donald Trump is lying to you about the “new” United States-Mexico Trade Agreement. I know, what a shocker. The reality is that the bilateral trade agreement is NAFTA 2.0. Let me explain. There is a lot of spin, especially from Donald Trump but also from special interest groups like the automotive unions about the revised… Read More Mexico Won Bigly on NAFTA Deal
Donald Trump’s ongoing trade war against China benefits México and I am hoping Trump continues it. Yes, you read that right, I am hoping Donald Trump continues his war on Chinese goods. In fact, I hope that the Trump Administration intensifies it before backing down. As many of you likely know, yesterday, Donald Trump announced… Read More Chinese Trade War Benefits Mexico
As you all likely know, Donald Trump launched his presidential campaign by denigrating México, Mexicans and immigrants. Trump called NAFTA the “worst deal” ever. Donald Trump consistently threatened to scrap NAFTA. Throughout the political rhetoric, renegotiating NAFTA has been happening, often in the background and sometimes out in the open. But things have changed in… Read More The Mexico Factor