Illegal crossings into the United States from Mexico declined in June to their lowest monthly level in more than three years, according to preliminary U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data obtained by CBS News.

CBS reported that CBP processed approximately 84,000 migrants who crossed the Mexico-United States border without authorization in June. That’s the lowest number since January 2021, the month Biden took office.

The number of migrant apprehensions last month represents a 29% decrease compared to May, when CBP made 118,000 arrests.

Biden issued an executive order on June 4 that prevented migrants from making asylum claims at the U.S.-Mexico border at times when crossings between legal ports of entry surge.

The new asylum rule — described by the New York Times as “the most restrictive border policy instituted by Mr. Biden, or any other modern Democrat” — has allowed U.S. immigration officials “to more quickly deport larger numbers of migrants,” CBS reported.

However, migrant apprehensions were falling even before the new rule took effect. Border Patrol agents arrested 141,000 migrants in February; 137,000 in March; and 129,000 in April.

A major reason for the decline this year — after arrests reached a record monthly high of almost 250,000 last December — is that Mexican authorities have ramped up enforcement against undocumented migrants.

The National Immigration Institute recently said that almost 1.4 million undocumented foreigners were “rescued” and taken to detention centers or facilities operated by the DIF family services agency in the first five months of the year. In addition to sending migrants to detention centers, Mexican immigration authorities “round them up across the country and dump them in the southern Mexican cities of Villahermosa and Tapachula,” the Associated Press reported in June. 

Following a meeting with U.S. officials in December, Mexican authorities also increased efforts to stop migrants boarding northbound buses and trains.

CBS suggested that yet another factor in the decline in recent months of migrants crossing the Mexico-U.S. border is the increase in temperatures in spring and summer. Migrants often attempt to enter the U.S. in remote desert regions where the heat can be deadly.

However, Biden’s executive order — which includes exemptions for unaccompanied minors — is the main reason why migrant crossings fell again in June, unnamed senior U.S. officials told CBS news.

CBS reported that “in the past week, the average of daily migrant apprehensions fell below 2,000 — or nearly half of May’s 3,800 average, internal CBP data show.”

“That number is also close to the 1,500 threshold the Biden administration set to suspend the asylum restrictions,” it added.

Andrew Selee, president of the think tank Migration Policy Institute, acknowledged the downward trend in border crossings this year. However, he highlighted that the biggest month-over-month drop occurred in June.

“The numbers have been going down before the presidential announcement, but they went down a lot more afterwards, so I think you have to give some credit to that,” he said.

“We have to assume, if nothing else, that in the short term it has dissuaded some people,” Selee added.

Biden highlighted during last Thursday’s presidential debate in the U.S. that illegal border crossings had declined since he issued his executive order on June 4.

Former U.S. president Donald Trump described the reduction as “insignificant” and accused Biden of wanting “open borders.”

“He wants our country to either be destroyed or he wants to pick up those people as voters. And we just can’t let it happen,” Trump said.

With reports from CBS News 

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Sheinbaum, who will take office Oct. 1, and López Obrador traveled from the Edzná Station in Campeche to the Teya Station near Mérida, Yucatán, on Friday.

They boarded the Maya Train again on Saturday to travel from Teya to the Cancún Airport Station in Quintana Roo.

On Sunday, Sheinbaum took to social media to declare that the as-yet-incomplete railroad is “a historic feat.”

“It’s not just the more than 1,500 kilometers [of tracks] built in five years and the beauty of the trip. It’s the recovery of the archaeological sites, the decree of hundreds of thousands of hectares of Natural Protected Areas, the investment in the well-being of dozens of communities,” she wrote on X.

“… It’s also recognizing ourselves in the grandeur of the Maya culture of then and now. Congratulations to all the companies, engineers, workers and military engineers. What has been achieved is something amazing,” added Sheinbaum.

Environmental groups and others have criticized the project, which cut down large swathes of forest to build the tracks. In addition, steel and cement pilings pierced through the roofs of limestone caves along a section of the railroad in Quintana Roo. Experts said the perforations affected the quality of subterranean water and destroyed “archaeological and geological heritage.”

Environmentalists have expressed a range of other concerns about the construction and operation of the US $20 billion railroad, including the potential impact on wildlife.

López Obrador inaugurated construction of the railroad in June 2020, and pledged at the time to complete it in 28 months, or by October 2022. However, the project has faced a range of challenges, including court rulings that have temporarily halted work.

AMLO: Maya Train project will be finished in August or September 

Sections 1–4 of the 1,554-kilometer-long railroad — which link Palenque, Chiapas, to Cancún, Quintana Roo, via Tabasco, Campeche and Yucatán — are already open, as is the northern part of Section 5, which connects Cancún to Playa del Carmen.

Yet to open is the southern part of Section 5 between Playa del Carmen and Tulum, and Sections 6 and 7. The new track will link Tulum to Escárcega, Campeche, and include stations at Bacalar and Chetumal.

In an address on Friday President López Obrador and Sheinbaum inaugurated a new museum at the Edzná archaeological site. Afterward, the president said that the entire Maya Train railroad would open “at the end of August” or in “the middle of September.”

“We’re going to conclude the whole Cancún-Tulum-Chetumal-Calakmul-Escárcega circuit, we’re going to finish the 1,540 kilometers of tracks,” he said.

López Obrador said he was “very proud” of the progress on the project, perhaps his government’s most ambitious infrastructure endeavor. He said it provides improved access to a region of great cultural and historical importance.

“The Maya Train was conceived [as a means] to once again connect the ancient Maya cities,” he said.

“… There is no other region in the world like what the Maya nation was and continues to be. … There isn’t … such a large region where a great culture flourishes. There are [other] important places. There is Athens in Greece, of course, but here there are several ‘Athens’ in just the Maya world,” López Obrador said, mentioning archeological sites such as Palenque, Chichén Itzá and Calakmul.

The president has long argued that the construction and operation of the Maya Train railroad will bring economic and social benefits to Mexico’s historically disadvantaged south and southeast. Sheinbaum has expressed her agreement with that view.

Maya Train could be extended to the port of Progreso 

Sheinbaum told reporters in Yucatán on Saturday that her team and the current government were looking at the funding the Maya Train railroad will require in 2025 in order to consolidate the passenger service, and commence freight services.

She also said she was analyzing a proposal from Yucatán Governor-elect Joaquín Díaz to extend the Maya Train. Díaz hopes to connect the railroad to Progreso, a port city north of Mérida on the Gulf of Mexico.

Díaz, who will be the first Morena party governor of Yucatán, has a so-called “Maya Renaissance” economic plan for the state. The plan includes an extension of the Maya Train railroad to Progreso. Sheinbaum met with the incoming governor in Mérida on Friday.

With reports from El Universal, La Jornada, N+, EFE and Debate

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A methane explosion at the Pasta de Conchos coal mine in Coahuila claimed the lives of 65 miners in February 2006. Only two bodies had been recovered until Friday, when additional remains were brought above ground.

Specialized rescue workers including National Guard personnel entered one of the chambers of the now-defunct mine late Friday afternoon and retrieved the remains of one miner.

The newspaper El Financiero reported that one “apparently complete” body was recovered.

As of Monday morning, authorities hadn’t released any official information about the recovery operation.

The remains were reportedly taken to a morgue in Saltillo, where DNA testing will seek to establish the identity of the victim. Family members of the deceased miners said it would take three weeks for a positive identification to occur.

Coahuila Attorney General Gerardo Márquez Guevara said that the Federal Attorney General’s Office would lead the efforts to identify the remains.

Relatives were present at the former Grupo México mine in the municipality of San Juan de Sabinas when the remains were recovered on Friday.

Martha Iglesias, daughter of deceased miner Guillermo Iglesias, told El Financiero that she and other family members saw the “complete skeleton” of one victim.

The recovery of the body came two weeks after the Interior Ministry (SEGOB) announced that human remains had been found in a mine chamber 146 meters underground.

“After more than 18 years since the terrible event, and four years since rescue work began on the instructions of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, it was possible to reach one of the places where records indicate 13 miners were working on the day of the accident,” SEGOB said in a statement on June 12.

Family members are hopeful that more bodies will be recovered in the near future.

Claudia Escobar, widow of Raúl Villasana, said it was “very moving” to see the remains of one of the victims brought above ground.

“It’s like a dream come true for us — a very difficult dream because it’s reopening a wound and everything we went through [after the miners were killed],” she said.

The federal government announced a “Justice Plan for Pasta de Conchos” earlier this month, and is already providing a range of assistance to the families of the victims.

Family members would like to see Grupo México held accountable for the Feb. 19, 2006 tragedy. The company, a conglomerate with interests in various sectors, is led by billionaire businessman Germán Larrea.

The Centro Prodh human rights organization has asserted that substandard security conditions at the Pasta de Conchos mine exacerbated the effects of the methane explosion.

It said that “security failures” were reported at the mine since 2000, and that in a “final inspection” carried out in July 2004, 43 “direct violations” of security and hygiene regulations were detected.

Forty-eight remedial measures were ordered, many of which were “extremely urgent,” Centro Prodh said.

“However, authorities failed to supervise the correction of the defects detected,” the NGO said.

Grupo México carried out a rescue operation after the accident, but was only able to recover the bodies of two miners. The company suspended its rescue efforts in April 2007, saying at the time that continuing the operation would place rescuers’ lives at risk.

Centro Prodh noted that the families of the victims asserted that “the reason for the suspension” of the rescue operation was that if the bodies were recovered, “the terrible work conditions in the mine would be revealed and this would result in criminal and economic penalties, and even the withdrawal of the company’s [mining] concessions.”

Almost one year after the accident, the widows of the miners won an injunction that gave them access to internal Grupo México documents, which revealed it had been operating the Pasta de Conchos mine under less than optimal safety conditions since at least 2000.

However, no company representatives, or government officials, were held legally responsible for the deaths of the 65 miners.

More recently, 10 miners died in an accident at the El Pinabete coal mine in Coahuila in 2022, and two miners were killed last year in an accident at another mine in the northern border state.

With reports from El Financiero, Milenio, Reforma and Radio Fórmula

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However, he stressed that Mexico would “defend our right” to lithium, a highly sought-after metal that was nationalized in Mexico in 2022.

Last Friday, Ganfeng and two of its subsidiaries, Bacanora Lithium and Sonora Lithium, filed a “request for the institution of arbitration proceedings” with the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes.

The dispute between Ganfeng and Mexico is over the federal government’s cancellation of concessions granted in 2011 for the Chinese company’s proposed Sonora Lithium Project.

Ganfeng told its investors last August that Mexico’s General Directorate of Mines said it had failed to meet minimum investment requirements between 2017 and 2021, resulting in the cancellation of nine lithium mining concessions it held for its project.

The company has asserted that its subsidiaries have presented “ample evidence of their compliance with the minimum investment obligations,” and had in fact “significantly” exceeded them.

At his morning press conference on Thursday, López Obrador acknowledged that there was a dispute over “a few” lithium mining concessions, and said it was the result of the Mexican government’s view that “lithium belongs to the nation.”

He said that the federal government believes that concessions were previously issued in a “generic way, not specifically for lithium, but for mining” in general.

“And we think [Ganfeng’s concessions] don’t apply” for lithium mining, López Obrador said.

Nevertheless, the government will “seek an agreement” with the company, he said.

“Relatively recently, three months ago, the person in charge of Chinese diplomacy was here and I spoke about the issue. There has to be an agreement because lithium was nationalized and we don’t want private companies to participate. Yes, there can be a [public-private] partnership, but with the predominance of the national interest,” López Obrador.

“… That is the only issue we have and we’re going to go to these international panels to defend our right,” he said.

Peter Secker, the UK-based CEO of Bacanora Lithium, said late last year that Ganfeng had formed the view that it was not “legally valid” to cancel the company’s concessions in Sonora. The president of the Mexican Mining Chamber has expressed the same view.

Secker said the company would defend its ownership of the lithium mining concessions, including in Mexican courts. But he also said that Ganfeng was open to forming a joint venture with Mexican authorities to carry out the project in Sonora.

The government created a state-owned lithium company, Litio para México (Lithium for Mexico), but there are significant doubts about its capacity to mine lithium on its own. The potential lithium reserves in Sonora are in clay deposits that are technically difficult and expensive to mine.

“Ganfeng has the money to do this. It’s got the technology, and it has the people to develop this project without any assistance from the government. However, we have had discussions with the government over the last few years and, and we’re happy to work with the government. We just need to sort out their apparent attempt to cancel the licenses,” Secker said last October.

“… It would be silly for the government not to work with Ganfeng to develop a strategy,” he said.

It remains to be seen whether the government will seek to enter into a joint venture with Ganfeng and its subsidiaries.

The Finance Ministry has estimated that lithium reserves in Sonora — where Mexico’s largest potential deposits are located — could be worth as much as US $600 billion. There are smaller deposits in other states including Baja California, San Luis Potosí and Zacatecas.

Lithium is in high demand because it is a key component of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and green energy storage. The alkali metal can thus play an important role in the transition to clean energy.

Based in Shanghai, Ganfeng is one of the world’s leading lithium miners and battery makers.

With reports from El Financiero and Reuters 

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Biden, 81, is the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee, but his performance at last night’s debate led to increased speculation that he could be replaced by a younger candidate.

Trump, 78, is certain to be the Republican Party’s presidential candidate, even though he is now a convicted felon.

Illegal immigration into the United States from Mexico is set to be a major issue in the Nov. 5 presidential election, while the opioid crisis — mainly fueled by illegal fentanyl smuggled into the U.S. from Mexico — is also a significant concern for many voters.

Mexico and the United States collaborate on immigration issues and the fight against fentanyl, but some politicians in the U.S., especially Republicans, argue that Mexico isn’t doing enough to stem the flow of migrants and narcotics across the two countries’ shared border.

Below you’ll find a selection of remarks made by Biden and Trump during Thursday night’s presidential debate relating to immigration and other issues between Mexico and the United States.

Immigration and border security 

U.S Customs and Border Protection encountered a record high of almost 2.5 million migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border in fiscal year 2023, which ended in September.

Arrests of people crossing illegally from Mexico into the U.S. reached a record monthly high of almost 250,000 last December, but the numbers decreased significantly in the first five months of 2024.

Migrants typically enter Mexico at the country’s southern border with Guatemala before making the long, arduous and dangerous journey to the northern border on buses, atop trains, in tractor trailers and on foot. Mexican authorities detain and deport significant numbers of migrants, but many others make it to the northern border before attempting to make asylum claims in the United States or cross into the U.S. illegally.

Biden on immigration

“When … [Trump] was president, he was … separating babies from their mothers, putting them in cages, making sure the families were separated. That’s not the right way to go,” Biden said early in the debate.

The U.S. president claimed “there are 40% fewer people coming across the border illegally*” since he issued an executive order in early June that prevents migrants from making asylum claims at the U.S.-Mexico border at times when crossings between legal ports of entry surge.

* PBS News fact-checked the statement and determined that it was “mostly true.”

Trump on immigration

“We had the safest border in the history of our country [when I was president]. … All he had to do was leave it. He decided to open up our border, open up our country to people that are from prisons, people that are from mental institutions, … terrorists,” Trump said.

He later said that Biden “allowed millions of people to come in here from prisons, jails and mental institutions,” a remark PBS News determined was significantly exaggerated given that just over 100,000 noncitizens with criminal convictions were arrested in the past three years.

On Biden’s June 4 executive order, Trump said:

“Now all of a sudden he’s trying to get a little tough on the border, he came out with a nothing deal and it reduced [immigration] a little bit. … It’s insignificant, he wants open borders. He wants our country to either be destroyed or he wants to pick up those people as voters. And we just can’t let it happen.”

Trump also asserted that “because of [Biden’s] ridiculous, insane and very stupid policies, people are coming in and they’re killing our citizens at a level that we’ve never seen.”

“We call it migrant crime*. I call it Biden migrant crime,” he added.

* Reuters reported in April that “a range of studies by academics and think tanks have shown that immigrants do not commit crime at a higher rate than native-born Americans.”

Trump and Biden debate the fentanyl crisis 

Around 107,500 people died from a drug overdose in the United States in 2023, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Fentanyl — large quantities of which are manufactured by Mexican cartels with precursor chemicals imported from China — were responsible for almost 70% of the overdose deaths.

In recent years, Mexican and U.S. authorities have increased their cooperation on the fight against fentanyl, and the issue has been a key focus of bilateral security dialogue.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken acknowledged last month that the current Mexican government has seized “a record amount of fentanyl” — more than eight tonnes between December 2018 and May 2024.

Some Republicans, including Trump, have advocated the use of the U.S. military in Mexico to combat Mexican drug cartels, two of which — the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel — pose “the greatest criminal threat the United States has ever faced,” according to Drug Enforcement Administration chief Anne Milgram.

Biden on the fentanyl crisis

“[The entry to the U.S. of] fentanyl and the byproducts of fentanyl went down for a while. And I wanted to make sure we use the machinery that can detect fentanyl, these big machines that roll over everything that comes across the border, and it costs a lot of money. That was part of this deal we put together, this bipartisan deal,” Biden said.

“More fentanyl machines, more being able to detect drugs, more numbers of agents, more numbers of all the people at the border. And when we had that deal done, he went and he called his Republican colleagues and said ‘don’t do it. It’s going to hurt me politically,'” he continued.

“He never argued it’s not a good bill. It’s a really good bill. We need those machines. … And we’re coming down very hard in every country in Asia in terms of precursors for fentanyl. And Mexico is working with us to make sure they don’t have the technology to be able to put it together*. That’s what we have to do. We need those machines.”

* As The New York Times noted, it was unclear what Biden meant when he said that “Mexico is working with us to make sure they don’t have the technology to be able to put it together.”

He was possibly referring to Mexican authorities’ efforts to stop criminal groups from obtaining pill presses and other machinery used in the production of fentanyl. 

Biden’s assertion that Mexico is working with the United States on the fight against fentanyl is correct.

Trump on the fentanyl crisis

“We were doing very well at addiction until the COVID came along. We had the two-and-a-half, almost three years of like nobody’s ever had before, any country in every way. And then we had to get tough. And it was the drugs pouring across the border, … it started to increase,” Trump said.

“We got great equipment. We bought the certain dog. That’s the most incredible thing that you’ve ever seen, the way they can spot it. We did a lot. And … we were getting very low numbers. Very, very low numbers,” he added.

“Then he came along. The numbers — have you seen the numbers now? … The amount of drugs and human trafficking in women coming across our border, the worst thing I’ve ever seen, at numbers that nobody’s ever seen — under him because the border is so bad. But the number of drugs coming across our border now is the largest we’ve ever had by far.”

* Drug overdose deaths in the United States have increased during the Biden administration compared to the Trump years. The number of overdose deaths last year was 17% higher than 2020, the last full year of the Trump administration, and 52% higher than 2019.

Trump’s immigration plan: Deport undocumented migrants en masse  

Trump was specifically asked about his plan to deport large numbers of undocumented migrants, which could affect millions of Mexicans who live and work in the United States.

“President Trump, … you’ve said that you’re going to carry out, quote, ‘the largest domestic deportation operation in American history,’ unquote. Does that mean that you will deport every undocumented immigrant in America, including those who have jobs, including those whose spouses are citizens, and including those who have lived here for decades? And if so, how will you do it?” asked CNN’s Jake Tapper.

After railing against “migrant crime,” Trump accused Biden of opening the United States borders before he declared:

“We have to get a lot of these people out and we have to get them out fast, because they’re going to destroy our country. Just take a look at where they’re living. They’re living in luxury hotels in New York City and other places. Our veterans are on the street.”

For his part, Biden announced new immigration rules last week prior to the presidential debate. The new rules will allow certain undocumented spouses and children of U.S. citizens to apply for lawful permanent residence without leaving the country. As many as 400,000 Mexicans could obtain permanent residency in the U.S. through the program and eventually become American citizens, according to Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs official Roberto Velasco.

Mexico News Daily  

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Four of five Banxico board members including Governor Victoria Rodríguez voted in favor of leaving the benchmark interest rate unchanged. Omar Mejía, the board’s newest member, voted in favor of a 25-basis-point cut.

It was the second consecutive monetary policy meeting at which the Banxico board decided to maintain the 11% rate. The bank cut its key rate by 25 basis points from a record high 11.25% in March.

The latest decision came after the national statistics agency INEGI published data on Monday that showed that the annual headline inflation rate increased to 4.78% in the first half of June, up from 4.69% across May. That’s well above Banxico’s 3% target.

Headline inflation has been on the rise since March, but the annual core rate — which is closely watched by the central bank — has trended down in the same period.

Banxico said in a statement on Thursday that its governing board “assessed the behavior of inflation and its determinants, as well as of inflation expectations” before the majority vote in favor of leaving the key interest rate at 11%.

The central bank said that the recent depreciation of the Mexican peso “impacts the inflation forecast upwards,” but added that “its effects are partly offset by those associated with the greater weakness exhibited by economic activity.”

Banxico said that headline inflation is “still expected to converge to the target in the fourth quarter of 2025,” but noted that that forecast is subject to a range of upside risks, including “greater foreign exchange depreciation” and “the intensification of geopolitical conflicts.”

The bank said that its board concluded that “the challenges and risks in both sides of the balance” call for a continuation of prudent monetary policy.

“Looking ahead, the board foresees that the inflationary environment may allow for discussing reference rate adjustments,” Banxico added.

However, it stressed that “actions will be implemented in such a way that the reference rate remains consistent at all times with the trajectory needed to enable an orderly and sustained convergence of headline inflation to the 3% target during the forecast period.”

Gabriela Siller, director of economic analysis at Mexico’s Banco Base, said earlier this week that her team expected two additional interest rate cuts this year, “but toward the end of the year, when conditions are better.”

How did the peso react to Banxico’s rates decision?

Neither the interest rate decision nor President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum’s announcement earlier on Thursday of five additional appointments to her cabinet had a major impact on the USD:MXN exchange rate.

The peso closed at 18.33 to the dollar on Wednesday, and had depreciated to 18.46 just before the Banxico announcement, the El Economista newspaper reported. At 5 p.m. Mexico City time, the peso was trading at 18.47 to the greenback, according to Bloomberg.

The peso has depreciated almost 8% against the dollar since the June 2 elections due to concerns that the ruling Morena party and its allies will be able to get a range of controversial constitutional reform proposals through Congress.

The Morena-led coalition won a two-thirds majority in the lower house and fell just short of a supermajority in the Senate, putting it within reach of the numbers it needs to approve the proposed reforms.

The Bank of Mexico didn’t mention the election results in its statement, but did say that “the presence of idiosyncratic factors generated high volatility in Mexico’s financial markets.”

With reports from El Economista and El Financiero

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Sheinbaum, who will be sworn in as Mexico’s first female president on Oct. 1, received Joly at her “transition headquarters” in the Mexico City borough of Iztapalapa. Mexico’s future foreign affairs minister Juan Ramón de la Fuente also attended the meeting.

Sheinbaum revealed on X that she spoke about “the future” of the Mexico-Canada relationship with Joly and the “importance” of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the free trade pact that superseded NAFTA in 2020.

“The foreign minister’s main interest is to know our position on USMCA,” she told a press conference on Wednesday.

“We agree with her and the idea of strengthening the agreement,” Sheinbaum said.

The USMCA, the product of trilateral negotiations that began in 2017, is scheduled to be reviewed in 2026. While expressing support for a strengthening of the pact, Sheinbaum said she believed the review would be “minor.”

The president-elect also said she and Joly discussed “the possibility of maintaining and increasing [the number] of work visas for Mexicans” interested in working in Canada.

The two countries collaborate on the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program, in which tens of thousands of Mexicans travel to Canada to work every year.

Sheinbaum also told reporters that she and Joly discussed Canadian investment in Mexico, and Julian Assange’s release from prison after the Wikileaks founder accepted a plea deal from the United States.

“We acknowledged his fight for freedom of speech and the right to information. We were very pleased that he was finally released,” she said.

For her part, Joly said on X that she and Sheinbaum discussed “how we can continue to strengthen the Canada-Mexico relationship and advance our shared priorities as North American partners.”

The Canadian government said in a statement that the foreign minister congratulated Sheinbaum on “her historic electoral victory that will see her become the first woman president of Mexico.”

The statement also said that Joly, Sheinbaum and other officials “reflected on 80 years of friendship and robust relations between Canada and Mexico.”

“… While highlighting the 50th anniversary of the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program and its successes, Minister Joly and her counterparts underscored the importance of regular migration pathways for both countries’ economies,” the Canadian government said.

“They agreed to continue to regularly review the broad range of issues affecting mobility, including visa processes, to support safe and orderly migration.”

Among other issues, the Canadian government statement said that Joly and Sheinbaum “discussed the importance of collaborating to advance North American economic competitiveness” and “the need to work together to combat climate change.”

Joly also met with Mexico’s incoming economy minister Marcelo Ebrard, with the former saying on X that they discussed the “importance of working together to advance North American economic competitiveness and how our counties can collaborate to expand trade and investment.”

In an interview with the El Universal newspaper, the Canadian foreign minister weighed in on the proposed judicial reform President Andrés Manuel López Obrador sent to Congress earlier this year.

The proposed reform — which if approved would allow citizens to directly elect Supreme Court justices and other judges — is a decision for the Mexican government, “but at the same time we hope that a country like Mexico respects the rule of law,” Joly said.

She emphasized the need for stability and predictability in Mexico because “it’s difficult to invest in a business environment where there are too many risks.”

Among other remarks, Joly said that Canada, Mexico and the United States have the opportunity to establish a “fully integrated” supply chain and to be “one of the most successful [economic] partnerships in the world.”

With that comes an opportunity “to bring lots of Mexicans out of poverty, increase the middle class in Canada and Mexico, and fundamentally be a hub for talent and innovation,” she said.

“I’m really optimistic, but at the same time we need to do the work. So that’s why I’m here,” Joly said.

With reports from Milenio, Quadratín and El Universal

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Sheinbaum, who will take office on Oct. 1, announced that Luz Elena González Escobar, a former finance minister in the Mexico City government, will be her energy minister, and David Kershenobich Stalnikowitz, ex-director of the National Institute of Medical Sciences and Nutrition, will be her health minister.

Raquel Buenrostro Sánchez, the current federal economy minister, will become public administration minister, a role in which she will have responsibility for the ongoing government fight against corruption.

Sheinbaum also announced that Jesús Antonio Esteva Medina, the current public works and services minister in the Mexico City government, will be her infrastructure, communications and transport minister.

The fifth and final cabinet appointment the president-elect announced Thursday was Edna Elena Vega Rangel as minister of agrarian, land and urban development. Vega is currently a deputy agrarian, land and urban development minister.

Sheinbaum described her new appointees as a “great team,” and noted that Buenrostro, Esteva and Vega will remain in their current government roles for the time being.

“They have double duty because they’ll be participating in all the transition processes,” she said.

Two of the appointees, González and Esteva, were members of Sheinbaum’s government when she was mayor of Mexico City between 2018 and 2023.

The president-elect has now named 12 members of her cabinet.

The day after her landslide victory in the presidential election, Sheinbaum announced that current Finance Minister Rogelio Ramírez de la O would remain in his role after Oct.1, while last Thursday she named five additional ministers and the executive legal counsel.

Among the key appointments still to be announced are the interior minister, security minister, defense minister and welfare minister roles.

Based on the announcements made to date, Sheinabum’s cabinet — made up of six men and six women — is as follows:

• Economy minister: Marcelo Ebrard
• Environment and natural resources minister: Alicia Bárcena
• Finance Minister: Rogelio Ramírez de la O
• Minister for science, humanities, technology and innovation: Rosaura Ruiz
• Foreign Affairs Minister: Juan Ramón de la Fuente
• Legal counsel to the president: Ernestina Godoy
• Agriculture and rural development minister: Julio Berdegué
• Energy minister: Luz Elena González Escobar
• Health Minister: David Kershenobich Stalnikowitz
• Public administration minister: Raquel Buenrostro
• Infrastructure, communications and transport minister: Jesús Antonio Esteva Medina
• Agrarian, land and urban development minister: Edna Elena Vega Rangel

What are the backgrounds of the new cabinet appointees?

Luz Elena González Escobar

The soon-to-be energy minister served as administration and finance minister during Sheinbaum’s 2018-2023 mayorship in Mexico. She has degrees in economics, law and urban management.

González has held a number of other positions in the Mexico City government, including the directorship of the capital’s Passenger Transportation Network in the early 2000s.

She will succeed Miguel Ángel Maciel Torres as energy minister.

Sheinbaum has pledged to invest billions of dollars in a renewables-focused energy plan, but is also committed to continuing support for the debt-ridden state oil company Pemex.

David Kershenobich Stalnikowitz

Mexico’s next health minister is a veteran medical doctor and surgeon with more than 50 years’ experience in the field. The octogenarian has also worked as a professor of medicine at the National Autonomous University (UNAM).

Kershenobich was general director of the National Institute of Medical Sciences and Nutrition between 2012 and 2022.

He will succeed Jorge Alcocer as health minister.

Raquel Buenrostro Sánchez

The soon-to-be public administration minister was appointed economy minister in 2022 after Tatiana Clouthier resigned. Before that, Buenrostro was head of the federal tax agency SAT for almost three years.

She has served in a range of other government roles, including as a high-ranking official in the federal Finance Ministry. She has degrees in mathematics and economics.

Buenrostro will succeed Roberto Salcedo Aquino as public administration minister.

Jesús Antonio Esteva Medina

The future infrastructure, communications and transport minister has been the minister of public works and services in Mexico City since 2018, when Sheinbaum became mayor.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Esteva was the Mexico City government’s director of infrastructure projects and subsequently worked as UNAM’s director of planning and infrastructure evaluation.

He has an undergraduate degree in civil engineering and a master’s in structural engineering.

Esteva will succeed Jorge Nuño Lara as infrastructure, communications and transport minister.

Edna Elena Vega Rangel

Mexico’s next agrarian, land and urban development minister was general director of the National Housing Commission for almost four years before becoming a deputy minister in the ministry she will soon lead in 2022.

Vega has also held a range of public roles in Mexico City, including head of the capital’s Housing Institute.

She has undergraduate and doctorate degrees in sociology, and a master’s in urban planning.

Vega will succeed Román Meyer Falcón as agrarian, land and urban development minister.

Mexico News Daily 

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Mexico’s bilateral relationship with the U.S. is “always difficult.”

“Mexico has immense potential. We just need to open the door.”

They are among the remarks Mexico’s next economy minister, Marcelo Ebrard, made during an interview with La Jornada.

The Mexico City-based newspaper published its interview with the former foreign affairs minister on Wednesday, six days after President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum announced the appointment of her erstwhile rival for the ruling Morena party’s presidential nomination as her economy minister.

Here is a selection of Ebrard’s remarks.

On his appointment as economy minister 

“This was the product of a conversation I had with Dr. Sheinbaum, thinking of the years ahead and the great task for the 4T* – [the construction of] its second story,” Ebrard said.

* The “fourth transformation,” or 4T, is the name of the political project initiated by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. The term inherently equates the importance of the current “transformation” of Mexico to that of its independence from Spain, the enactment of 19th century liberal laws collectively known as La Reforma, and the Mexican Revolution.

On the United States and its trade relationships and policies 

“The United States is becoming a country on the defensive because it senses growing competition with China and suddenly realized they’re very dependent [on the East Asian country]. The United States will need Mexico to be able to compete [with China],” Ebrard said.

He also said there is “growing protectionism” in the United States and that Mexico is therefore faced with a “a different political position in the U.S. to that we saw some years ago.”

“That is the main risk. There is a kind of protectionist consensus [in the United States]. That’s why the review* of the trade agreement with the United States, and the trade relationship with them in general, could be more complex,” Ebrard said.

* A review of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), a free trade pact that superseded NAFTA in 2020, is scheduled for 2026.

On the USMCA review  

Ebrard said that the USMCA’s dispute settlement system* needs to be improved.

“We must strengthen the dispute resolution system, with the panels, where you can present your arguments to avoid unilateral measures,” he said.

Changes are also needed in other areas, Ebrard said. One issue he cited was labor mobility, an apparent reference to a need for workers to be able to move more freely across national borders in North America.

What is needed, Ebrard said, is to “bring a series of regulations into line to favor Mexican companies.”

“We have to support transport companies, for example, which have always had disadvantageous conditions,” Ebrard said, apparently referring to trucking and rail companies that move goods around the region.

“We have to limit unilateral decisions, like what happened in the avocado case, he added.

“… We should try to limit that as much as possible. That’s what we should seek in the review of the agreement, which, we must clarify, is not a renegotiation, but a review.”

Ebrard also said that, “unlike the [NAFTA] renegotiation in 2018,” which resulted in the creation of the USMCA, a “very important geopolitical factor” will be at play during the 2026 review — “competition between the United States and China.”

* Mexico is currently engaged in disputes with the United States over its energy policies and its stance on genetically modified corn.

On Mexico’s relationship with the United States 

“The bilateral relationship is always difficult” because the two countries have “different interests,” Ebrard said.

“But we have a good chance of succeeding because of the conditions I’ve just mentioned,” he said, referring to the growing economic interdependence of the two countries.

Ebrard said that Mexico and the United States have never previously been as close as they are today “in terms of trade, economic and financial exchange.”

Mexico, which is the United States’ top trade partner, “had never been so important for the United States,” he said.

* At bilateral security talks in late 2023, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that “more than ever before” in his 30 years of experience in foreign policy, “the United States and Mexico are working together as partners in common purpose.”

On the nearshoring opportunity 

“What North American companies that … import technology from Asia want is to bring [production] to North America in order to not depend [on Asia],” Ebrard said.

As an example, he noted that North American electric vehicle companies (such as Tesla) rely on microprocessors that are made in Asian countries. Those microprocessors should be manufactured in Mexico, the United States and Canada, Ebrard said.

“There is a great opportunity” to attract advanced manufacturing companies to Mexico, he said.

Asked what the “pillars” of the Mexican economy will be in the coming years, Ebrard nominated “the relocation” of companies to Mexico, but stressed that foreign investment in Mexico must serve “the country’s interests.”

He also said that Mexico shouldn’t wait around “to see who comes,” but rather “go after the companies we’re interested in having [here].”

Ebrard also mentioned President-elect Sheinbaum’s plan to create “development hubs” and industrial corridors, in which different areas of Mexico, including parts of the historically disadvantaged south, would focus on attracting and supporting investment in certain sectors.

He stressed that “the development, growth and wealth of the country” shouldn’t be concentrated in “just some of its regions.”

“We have to seek to spread out [development and economic growth]. We have to support new companies [in Mexico]. … They’re going to be the pillars [of the economy] in the coming years,” Ebrard said.

“I’m very excited because [Sheinbaum* and I] agree on the ideas. I agree with what the doctor is proposing. Mexico has immense potential. We just need to open the door,” he said.

* Sheinbaum has described the nearshoring trend as a “great opportunity” for Mexico and asserted that it will help drive significant economic growth during the 2024-30 period of the federal government.

With reports from La Jornada 

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Now the president-elect is also in possession of the “bastón de mando de las mujeres,” or women’s baton of command.

On behalf of Mexican women, Senator Olga Sánchez, a former interior minister and Supreme Court justice, presented the handmade symbol of confidence and leadership to Mexico’s soon-to-be first female president at an event in Mexico City on Tuesday.

The event, called “Con Claudia llegamos todas” (With Claudia All Women Arrive), was held at the University of the Cloister of Sor Juana, a former convent where Sor (Sister) Juana Inés de la Cruz — a nun, writer and iconic Mexican woman — once lived.

Sánchez, who served as López Obrador’s interior minister between 2018 and 2021, told Sheinbaum it was an “honor” to present “the women’s baton” to her on behalf of “millions of women who enthusiastically joined our collective cause during these months” and “fought to have this country’s first woman president.”

She noted that the baton was made by artisans from Oaxaca, specifically the southern state’s Mixteca region.

“This baton is an unequivocal sign of the confidence Mexican women place in you — in the woman, politician, mother and grandmother you are,” Sánchez said.

The senator and soon-to-be deputy said the baton is also a symbol of confidence in Sheinbaum’s “vision and commitment to the people of Mexico, especially women.”

Sánchez also read out a list of objectives for the incoming president to pursue in office. They included “guaranteeing a life free of violence for all women,” ensuring equality of opportunities and guaranteeing women’s right to health care.

In an address, the president-elect expressed gratitude for the honor of receiving the “women’s baton of command,” and reiterated her view that she won’t “arrive” in Mexico’s top job on her own, but rather in the company of all Mexican women.

The former Mexico City mayor also said that the “fourth transformation” political project she now leads is a “feminist” movement.

“It always fights for the recognition of all women’s rights. For the good of all, [the nation’s] Indigenous women, Afro-Mexican women and poor women come first,” said Sheinbaum, who will take office Oct. 1.

She noted that she competed against five men to become the ruling Morena party’s candidate at the June 2 presidential election, and asserted that on the first Sunday of this month, “the people of Mexico said: ‘it’s time for women and time for transformation.'”

Sheinbaum said that her government would seek to close the gender pay gap, increase the representation of women in elected positions, and support girls and young women in pursuing their dreams, no matter the field.

She also highlighted that she is committed to providing financial support to women aged 60-64, in recognition of the household and caring work they have done for their families over a long period of time.

Women from a range of fields attended the event, including renowned writer Elena Poniatowska, academic and feminist Marta Lamas and saxophonist María Elena Ríos Ortíz, survivor of a 2019 acid attack. Sheinbaum’s mother, biologist Annie Pardo, also attended the event, held a day after the president-elect turned 62.

With reports from La Jornada, El Financiero, Expansión and Debate 

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