Gabbard’s comments undercut Sheinbaum’s resistance narrative
by David Agren.
A new intervention from US President Donald Trump’s camp is casting doubt on portrayals of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum standing up to Trump’s hardline immigration policies. Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s Director of National Intelligence, praised Mexico’s role in stopping migrants before they reached the US border - but credited that action not to Sheinbaum’s resolve, but to pressure from Trump.
“The President of Mexico told me, sir, she turned around over a half a million people in Mexico before they ever reached our border,” Gabbard told Trump. “We should be counting those as deportations because they never even made it to the border because she turned them around because you forced her to. So those are all people that never even came here because they got the message because you were so aggressive.”
The comments raise questions about Sheinbaum’s efforts to portray herself as a defender of Mexican sovereignty, as she gains praise at home and abroad for her handling of Trump’s threats and demands.
Claudia Sheinbaum’s stoic diplomacy faces its limits
by Andrés Rozental.
Much has been written and said about how Mexico’s President, Claudia Sheinbaum, has managed to avoid the kind of treatment Donald Trump has often reserved for countries with which he has grievances. Some analysts have compared her approach to that of former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who took a more combative stance. Trudeau responded to Trump’s provocations - like his comments about making Canada the 51st state and imposing tariffs on Canadian exports - with reciprocal actions and direct criticism. In contrast, Sheinbaum has never explicitly threatened retaliation. Nor has she directly confronted Trump on major bilateral issues such as migration and drug trafficking - topics Trump campaigned on and has made central to his administration.
Her relatively low-key approach to dealing with Trump, calling for patience and delay before responding to the US President’s constant assaults on Mexico, was seen by a majority of Mexicans, and many international pundits, as a model for how to “manage” a relationship with the author of The Art of the Deal.
Notwithstanding generalized applause for her stoicism and her high popularity, I believe it important to judge whether Sheinbaum’s strategy of accommodation has actually benefitted Mexico more than Chinese, European or Canadian reactions in dealing with Trump.
Mexico’s federalism is under pressure - again
by Gerónimo Gutiérrez.
Andres Manuel López Obrador and to large extent his successor, President Claudia Sheinbaum, are criticized for concentrating political power – even to the detriment of democratic principles and norms. This criticism essentially stems from a tendency to overlook – if not undermine – the separation of powers, from dismantling of autonomous regulatory agencies or placing them under direct control of the Executive, and from an explicit decision not to interact or negotiate with opposition parties unless absolutely necessary.
To be fair, these power-concentrating actions have been possible thanks to the fact that, since 2018, Mexico’s ruling party (Morena) and its satellites have enjoyed strong voter support which granted Mr. López Obrador and President Sheinbaum comfortable legislative majorities including the supermajority needed to reform the constitution. In sum, where the current regime appreciates a historic democratic transformation of Mexico supported by the “will of the people”, its critics see the dismantling of democracy from within the regime.
Be that as it may, one development that has received less attention is the centralization of power and the public purse at the federal level of government, something that is not new to Mexico but that had gradually receded over several decades.
How illegal logging is fueling CDMX forest fires
by Madeleine Wattenbarger and Axel Hernández.
“Because I saw they were destroying the forest, I had to come take care of it,” says Jorge Luis Morales of his decision twenty years ago to join the Teporingos forest-protection brigade.
Wildfires and illegal logging threaten the forest around Morales’s home community of San Miguel Topilejo, Tlalpan, where last week flames ripped through about six hundred hectares of woods. Burns have worsened since 2020 thanks to combustibles left behind by illegal logging operations.
Topilejo sits on the far southern edge of Mexico City, where it harbors 6,000 hectares of a community ecological reserve. Part of the capital’s recently dubbed “water forest,” the area remains governed by a communal land-holding structure. The brigade members, part of the Topilejo community, work year-round to reforest, prevent blazes and keep the trees healthy. “We take care of the forest so that Mexico City can have water,” Morales says.
Sheinbaum won’t recognize Ecuador
by David Agren.
Leaders the length of Latin Latin America – including the leftist presidents of Brazil and Chile – congratulated Daniel Noboa on winning re-election as president of Ecuador. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum refused to join them, even as the vote tally showed Noboa besting his rival Luisa González – though the latter alleged fraud without presenting proof.
On the day after the election, Sheinbaum drew on her predecessor’s playbook for addressing electoral outcomes not favouring her political movement’s preferred candidates. “We’re going to wait,” she said at her press conference the morning after. “Luisa, the candidate, doesn't recognize Noboa’s win. We’re going to wait.”
Former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador famously said the same – we’ll wait for the official outcome – after Joe Biden won the 2020 U.S. election over AMLO’s preferred candidate. AMLO eventually recognized Biden’s win – a necessity for a country so dependent on the US economy. Sheinbaum, however, has stated flatly that she won’t recognize Noboa under any circumstances.
CDMX nightlife crackdown hits independent cultural spaces
by Madeleine Wattenbarger.
It was 8pm on a Thursday in March when officials from the Mexico City Institute of Administrative Verification (INVEA) showed up at La Caña, a seafood restaurant, LGBTQ+ bar and cultural center in the Doctores neighborhood. But the routine code check soured before it began.
“They arrived with excessive violence, with riot police, with high-calibre weapons,” recalls Ali Gua Gua, musician and representative of the cooperative-run space. “They came in pushing people, taking their tostadas away, yelling.”
La Caña hosts free concerts, literary events and cultural activities nearly every night. To make ends meet, it operates as a restaurant, with a permit that allows for the sale of alcohol with food. The night when the INVEA arrived, one table of diners was still awaiting their dinner order with two beers on the table. The officials seized on the momentary lapse: “They said, no, this isn’t a restaurant, this is a bar, and we’re going to shut you down.”
Judicial candidates turn AMLO symbols into campaign props
by David Agren.
César Gutiérrez Priego took a recent flight to Cancún in his campaign for a seat on Mexico’s Supreme Court. He made the trip a tour of the mega-projects built by Andrés Manuel López Obrador – the former president whose purge of the judiciary ushered in the judicial elections in the first place.
Gutíerrez, a criminal defence lawyer with a large social media following, made a point of flying from the Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA) – the thinly-used facility in the boonies north of Mexico City championed AMLO and promoted heavily by 4T influencers.
He posted a customary photo from the landmark Piedra del Sol (Aztec calendar) replica in the cavernous AIFA terminal. He also made sure people knew he was taking Mexicana de Aviación, the military-run airline revived by AMLO, which cancelled more than half its routes earlier this year. Upon arriving in Cancún, he took a ride on the Tren Maya, the railway circling the Yucatán Peninsula.
Felipe Calderón: Sheinbaum must confront the cartels before they completely capture Mexico
In an exclusive interview with The Mexico Brief’s editor, Andrew Law, former President Felipe Calderón rejects the “drug war” label, expresses support for Claudia Sheinbaum’s stance toward cartels, praises her anti-nepotism efforts, and argues US cooperation is crucial - even under Trump - while expressing hope for Mexico’s future.