TMH#11: TARIFF WEEKEND; WHAT'S BEHIND GASOLINE SMUGGLING; ELECTORAL SENIORS TAKE THE OFFENSIVE
July 14th, 2025
Hi, dear readers! This is The Mexican Headline. We are entering our third week in action, and this is the news.
But first, let’s rewind to the weekend…
As I wrote in the Mexican Headline #10, Trump's announcement of a 35% tariff on goods from Canada brought justified fears for the Mexican economy. And it happened: on Saturday, Trump announced a 30% tariff against Mexican goods starting August 1st. Yet unlike past tariff announcements, this one was different in that the Mexican government seemed to have an official response in advance (at the time of the announcement, a committee of Sheinbaum's cabinet was already in Washington for negotiations). And it generally made less of a scandal. Trump's announcement was particularly strong-worded, charging the Mexican government with not doing enough to control the flow of fentanyl onto American soil. Despite that, President Sheinbaum declared she felt "very confident" that an agreement could be reached before the deadline. This announcement muted the news about Ovidio Guzmán's guilty plea for some time, even if it questioned the effectiveness of President Sheinbaum's "cold head" approach.
So, today…
Ever new chapters in the huachicol saga. Once again, Reforma and El Universal seem to be competing for the most in-depth coverage on gasoline smuggling. In last weekend's Week in Headlines, I spoke about how these two papers provided most of the related coverage on the topic with original angles. I wrote about a "transition period" to familiarize readers with new modalities of gasoline smuggling, such as the "customs smuggling" that has been recurrent for the past months. Today, Reforma features an educational piece on the chain of complicities involved in "customs smuggling," which includes renting huge oil tankers, buying millions of liters of gasoline, and renting tank cars and pipes. None of that could happen without awareness from authorities. It follows up on the smuggling network busted a couple of weeks ago and the statements by some of the suspects on possible corruption by police and prosecutors. El Universal keeps reporting on statistical angles, this time on huachicol seizures in the State of Tabasco.
The old guard of electoral authorities took the offensive as it called for a consensual reform of the Mexican electoral system. José Woldenberg, Leonardo Valdés, and Lorenzo Córdova (ex-presidents of the National Electoral Institute or INE, former IFE) put out a statement as part of their membership to the Instituto de Estudios para la Transición Democrática (IETD), a pressure group composed of intellectual center-right figures, scholars and political cadres. This was in response to President Sheinbaum's determination to reform the country's electoral legal framework, criticizing the high cost of elections and "overreach" by electoral authorities. Among other things, the INE crew called for defending an autonomous "referee" for the national elections, which is the role now played by the INE, a fair assignment of public resources, and a fair calculation of legislative seats, as they condemned Morena's supermajority in the current legislature.
But make no mistake, these are highly political figures. For those who don't know, the Mexican electoral system was nothing more than a travesty for many decades. Indeed, it was a well-oiled machine that worked for the hegemonic party (in this case the PRI) to win election after election with virtually no real competitor. After much-lost legitimacy and social unrest, the INE was created as an “autonomous” and "non-partisan" organization. Yet right from the start it was living under pressure from political parties, as they were the ones in charge of designating the public electoral officials, or consejeros, which in turn raised suspicion about the institute’s independence. It came to a boiling point after the 2006 election, which was highly contested and fraudulent to many. Ever since that election, the INE has become a controversial institute and a target for unending reforms. Its last president, Lorenzo Córdova, was an outspoken figure that many saw as an opposition to Morena's governments. He ended up speaking at political rallies and writing opinion pieces for critical media and was sometimes rumored to be in for a possible presidential run.
Now, let's take a look inside!
I really liked La Jornada's story on how the Afores, the individualized savings accounts that are the current staple of the Mexican retirement system, have invested billions of pesos in high-income real estate. For most Mexicans, an Afore doesn't even guarantee a dignified retirement, much less a unit on any of the luxurious developments from these financial instruments which they are inadvertently investing in.
A heartbreaking story in Milenio, which reports on the 135 minors orphaned after cases of feminicide in the State of Guanajuato, the second most violent State in Mexico. This article comes after a gruesome murder of a young woman in Guadalajara in plain daylight.
That's it for today! Let's try to have a great week, everyone. And we'll report on the news tomorrow morning, at the usual time and place. See ya!