Donald Trump resoundingly won the November 5th U.S. presidential election. It looks like the greatest political comeback in American political history.
Trump is scheduled to take office on January 20th, 2025.
On November 6th, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum tweeted her congratulations: I express my most sincere congratulations to Donald Trump, who won the presidential election of the United States of America. In the name of Mexico, our recognition to the American people for the democratic exercise of their electoral campaign. I am certain that we are going to continue working together in a coordinated manner, with dialogue and respect for our sovereignties, to advance on the broad bilateral agenda that links us together.“
On November 7th, President Sheinbaum tweeted that “We had a cordial call with the President-Elect Donald Trump in which we talked about the good relationship that there will be between Mexico and the United States.” Here’s the photo of President Sheinbaum accompanying that tweet:
Due to the power, wealth and influence of the United States of America, people in other countries are interested in who is going to win a U.S. presidential election. They try to figure out which presidential candidate they think would be better for their country.
So there is much attention given to the U.S. election throughout the world.
The 2024 U.S. presidential election is scheduled for Tuesday, November 5th. This election looks to be a close one, pitting Democrat Vice-President Kamala Harris against Republican former President Donald Trump.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum was asked about the U.S. election and its effect on Mexico in an October 8th press conference.
A reporter asked (my translation): “On another topic, President, about the U.S. elections. What would be the best scenario for Mexico, if Donald Trump wins or Kamala Harris wins?” President Sheinbaum replied: “We are going to work with whichever one wins the election, the presidente [male president] or the presidenta [female president]. Our constitution is very clear in not taking sides for one or the other option; whatever the American people decide, we are going to work with him or her…with whichever of them that wins the election we are going to work well.”
That was a good answer, and realistic. Why publicly pick sides in a foreign election?
The truth is, the president of Mexico has to work with the U.S. president regardless of who it is. To see why, look at the map:
The U.S. and Mexico are neighbors and trading partners. U.S. prosperity is good for Mexico, and Mexican prosperity and stability are good for the United States.
On the controversial topic of immigration from Mexico to the United States, we can expect the government of Mexico (regardless of party) to defend Mexican illegal aliens in the United States and to complain about any crackdowns on them.
Mexico, however, is not just a source of emigration to the United States. It’s also a thoroughfare for migration, with non-Mexicans passing through Mexico to get to the United States.
Let’s look at how AMLO, the previous president of Mexico, dealt with the current and previous presidents of the United States on immigration policy.
AMLO and TRUMP
From December of 2018 to January of 2021, AMLO (Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador) was President of Mexico while Donald Trump was President of the United States.
Trump and AMLO got along quite well, both policy-wise and personally.
Trump wanted the Mexican government to reduce the quantity of non-Mexicans entering the U.S. across the Mexican border and AMLO did that. AMLO also agreed to the Remain in Mexico policy, under which non-Mexican asylum seekers had to remain on the Mexican side of the border while awaiting asylum hearings.
Aside from the policy, AMLO exhibited respect toward Trump even in the bitter end of the latter’s presidential term. In the aftermath of the 2020 U.S. election, AMLO waited 6 weeks to recognize Biden as the winner and criticized the expulsion of Trump from Twitter.
AMLO and BIDEN
AMLO also got along with President Joe Biden. AMLO and Biden were presidents together from January of 2021 to October 1st of 2024.
The Biden administration’s border policy was radically different than Trump’s. Under Biden, the border was drastically loosened, allowing millions of migrants to enter and settle in the U.S. AMLO went along with this also, and spoke well of Biden for not building more border walls.
But then, in December of 2023, with the border situation looking bad for Biden politically, the Biden administration asked AMLO to once again reduce the quantity of non-Mexicans crossing into the United States. So that’s what AMLO did.
This is not, by the way, some crazy conspiracy theory. AMLO freely admitted it in his 60 Minutes interview in March: -Interviewer Sharyn Alfonsi “President Biden called you. He sent his Secretary of State. What did they say to you and what did they ask for from you?” – AMLO [in Spanish/English translation]: For us to try and contain the flow of migration.
CONCLUSION
The real question is not which U.S. candidate is “better” for Mexico, as Mexico has to work with whomever wins. As far as solving Mexico’s problems, that’s the responsibility of Mexico’s own leaders, not the U.S. or any other country, just as it’s up to the U.S. to solve its own problems.
The U.S. is about to choose its next president and President Claudia Sheinbaum has pledged to work with whomever that is, whether Kamala Harris or Donald Trump. In a similar fashion, previous Mexican President AMLO worked with both Trump and then Biden.
So who’s going to win the U.S. election? That’s the big question now…
This is NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day for September 30th, 2024, of Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS (pronounced Choo-cheen-shahn At-less) over the city of Zacatecas, Mexico. It was taken a few days before September 30th with a drone.
On October 22nd, 2024, Fernando Valenzuela, a great baseball player from Mexico, passed away at the age of 63 in Los Angeles, California. Valenzuela’s life was a real rags-to-riches story, from poverty to sports stardom.
Fernando Valenzuela was born in November of 1960 in Etchohuaquila, a small town in the state of Sonora, northwest Mexico. His parents were poor campesinos (peasants) and Fernando was the youngest of their 12 children.
Valenzuela became a pro baseball player in 1977, playing in various professional Mexican teams.
In 1978, Los Angeles Dodgers scout Mike Brito went to Mexico to scout another player and saw Valenzuela pitching. That was enough. The Dodgers bought out Valenzuela’s contract and brought him to the United States. Fernando was 18 when he signed with the Dodgers in 1979, and he played on several minor league Dodgers teams until September of 1980, when he moved up to the LA Dodgers, playing under the famous manager Tommy Lasorda.
In his 1981 rookie season as a starting pitcher, Fernando had a spectacular beginning, with an 8-0 record including 5 shutouts.
Fernando won the Rookie of the Year Award and the Cy Young award the same season, plus the Dodgers won the World Series.
The young Mexican player had a unique pitching style, and, as reported in Fernando’s Wikipedia article, “In addition to his skills on the mound, Valenzuela was also an unusually good batter for a pitcher.” Fernando had ten career home runs.
Fernando didn’t speak much English in the beginning of his Major Leauge career, but Tommy Lasorda spoke Spanish and talked to him in that language, and catcher Mike Scioscia learned Spanish in order to communicate with Valenzuela.
Fernando Valenzuela played for the Dodgers until 1991, when he was released in a less than optimal situation. Afterwards, he played in both Mexico and the U.S., but his years with the Dodgers are his most famous.
In 2003, Valenzuela began a new career as a Spanish-language radio commentator for the Dodgers and in 2015 switched to television to do the same thing.
Valenzuela was commentator for the Dodgers until shortly before his death, dying of liver cancer on October 22nd.
Here’s the Twitter X announcement from the official Major League Baseball account, dated October 22nd: We are deeply saddened to hear of the passing of former Dodgers great Fernando Valenzuela. “Fernandomania” swept through baseball in 1981 when the 20-year old rookie sensation began the season 8-0 with a 0.50 ERA. The lefthander capped off his incredible year by winning both the NL Rookie of the Year and Cy Young Awards while helping lead Los Angeles to a World Series title. Valenzuela pitched 17 Major League seasons, was a 6-time All-Star, and has the most wins (173) and strikeouts (2,074) of any Mexican-born pitcher. He spent the last 22 years as a Spanish language broadcaster for the Dodgers, who retired his No. 34 in 2023. He was 63.
Here’s a photo of Fernando Valenzuela with U.S. President Ronald Reagan at the White House in 1981:
Fernando Valenzuela is survived by his wife Linda (they’d been married since 1981), two daughters, two sons, and seven grandchildren.
Claudia Sheinbaum has been President of Mexico since October 1st, 2024. Here is her cabinet:
THE CABINET OF CLAUDIA SHEINBAUM
Secretaria de Gobernación (Secretary of the Interior) Rosa Icela Rodríguez
2. Secretario de Relaciones Exteriores (Foreign Minister) Juan Ramón de la Fuente Juan Ramon de la Fuente is a former rector (president) of the UNAM (the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México) and a former Mexican representative to the UN.
3. Secretario de Hacienda y Crédito Público, SHCP (Finance Secretary) Rogelio Ramírez de la O was the Hacienda Secretary, under President AMLO and agreed to stay on in the same position in the Sheinbaum administration.
4. Secretario de Seguridad y Protección Ciudadana , SSCP (Secretary of Security) Omar García Harfuch
5. Secretario de Economía (Secretary of Economy) Marcelo Ebrard A former Foreign Minister.
6. Secretaria de Bienestar (Secretary of Welfare) Ariadna Montiel Reyes
7. Secretaria de la Función Pública (Secretary of the Civil Service) Raquel Buenrostro Sánchez
8. Secretario de Comunicaciones (Secretary of Communications) La Secretaría de Infraestructura, Comunicaciones y Transportes (SICT) (Secretariat of Infrastructure, Communicaciones and Transport) Jesús Antonio Esteva Medina
9. Secretaría del Trabajo y Previsión Social (STPS) (Secretary of Labor) Marath Baruch Bolaños López
10. SEMARNAT Secretaria de Medio Ambiente (Secretary of Environment) La Secretaría del Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources) Alicia Barcena A former Foreign Minister
11. Secretaria de Energía (Secretary of Energy) Secretaría de Energía (Secretariat of Energy) Luz Elena González Escobar
12. Secretario de Agricultura (Secretary of Agriculture) Secretaría de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural , SADER (Secretariat of Agriculture and Rural Development) Julio Berdegué Sacristán
13. Secretario de Educación (Secretary of Education) SEP Secretaría de Educación Pública (Secretariat of Public Education) Mario Delgado Former Chairman of MORENA party
14. Secretario de Salud (Secretary of Health) Secretaría de Salud (Secretariat of Health) David Kershenobich Stalnikowitz
15. Secretaria de Turismo (Secretary of Tourism) Secretaría de Turismo SECTUR (Secretariat of Tourism) Josefina Rodriguez Zamora
16. Secretaria de Desarrollo Agrario, Territorial y Urbano (Secretary of Agrarian, Land, and Urban Development) SEDATU Secretaría de Desarrollo Agrario, Territorial y Urbano SEDATU (Secretariat of Agrarian, Territorial and Urban Development) Edna Elena Vega Rangel
17. Secretaria de Cultura (Secretary of Culture) Secretaría de Cultura (Secretariat of Culture) Claudia Curiel de Icaza
18. Consejería Jurídica del Ejecutivo Federal CJEF (Legal Advisor ) Ernestina Godoy Ramos
19. Secretario de Defensa (Secretary of Defense) SEDENA Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional ( Secretariat of National Defense ) General de División Ricardo Trevilla Trejo
20. Secretario de Marina (Secretary of the Navy) SEMAR Secretaría de Marina (Secretariat of the Navy) Almirante Raymundo Pedro Morales Ángeles
Stevenson reports that “Residents of Culiacan [capital of Sinaloa] had long been accustomed to a day or two of violence once in a while. The presence of the Sinaloa cartel is woven into everyday life there, and people knew to stay indoors when they saw the convoys of double-cab pickups racing through the streets. But never have they seen the solid month of fighting that broke out Sept. 9 between factions of the Sinaloa cartel after drug lords Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and Joaquín Guzmán López were apprehended in the United States after flying there in a small plane on July 25…
Residents of Culiacan are mourning their old lives, when the wheels of the local economy were greased by cartel wealth but civilians seldom suffered — unless they cut off the wrong pickup truck in traffic.
But the cartel factions have turned to new tactics, including a huge wave of armed carjackings in and around Culiacan. Cartel gunmen used to steal the SUVs and pickups they favor for use in cartel convoys; but now they focus on stealing smaller sedans.
They use these to go undetected in their silent, deadly kidnappings.
Often, the first a driver knows is when a passing car tosses out a spray of bent nails to puncture his tires. Vehicles pull up front and rear to cut him off. The driver is bundled into another car. All that is left for neighbors to find is a car with burst tires, the doors open, the engine running, in the middle of the street.
Talking on a cellphone can get you killed.
Cellphone chats have become death sentences in the continuing, bloody factional war inside Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel. Cartel gunmen stop youths on the street or in their cars and demand their phones. If they find a contact who’s a member of a rival faction, a chat with a wrong word or a photo with the wrong person, the phone owner is dead. Then, they’ll go after everyone on that person’s contact list, forming a potential chain of kidnapping, torture and death. That has left residents of Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa state, afraid to even leave home at night, much less visit towns a few miles away where many have weekend retreats.
“You can’t go five minutes out of the city, … not even in daylight,” said Ismael Bojórquez, a veteran journalist in Culiacan. “Why? Because the narcos have set up roadblocks and they stop you and search through your cellphone.”
And it’s not just your own chats: If a person is traveling in a car with others, one bad contact or chat can get the whole group kidnapped.
That’s what happened to the son of a local news photographer. The 20-year-old was stopped with two other youths and something was found on one of their phones; all three disappeared. Calls were made and the photographer’s son was finally released, but the other two were never seen again.
There’s a daily death count.
The State Council on Public Safety, a civic group, estimates that in the past month there have been an average of six killings and seven disappearances or kidnappings in and around the city every day. The group said about 200 families have fled their homes in outlying communities because of the violence.
Even a hospital is not off limits.
…Last week, gunmen burst into a Culiacan hospital to kill a patient previously wounded by gunshots. In a town north of Culiacan, drivers were astonished to see a military helicopter seeking to corral four gunmen in helmets and tactical vests just yards from a highway; the gunmen were shooting back at the chopper.
What about the Mexican federal government?
President Claudia Sheinbaum’s response to all this has been to blame the United States for stirring up trouble by allowing the drug lords to turn themselves in. “Sinaloa practically didn’t have homicides” before the two drug lord’s capture on July 25, Sheinbaum said. “Starting with that, a wave of violence was unleashed in Sinaloa,” she said. Her claim is easily disproved: the cartel factions had been killing each other for years, albeit at lower levels. But it illustrates the government’s head-in-the-sand approach: Sheinbaum and her predecessor, former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, had little problem with the existence and local dominance of drug cartels as long as they didn’t make headlines.
What is the government doing to stop it?
Now that the violence has boiled over, the government has sent in hundreds of army troops. But irregular urban combat in the heart of a city of 1 million inhabitants — against a cartel that has lots of .50-caliber sniper rifles and machine guns — is not the army’s specialty.
Squads of soldiers went into a luxury apartment complex in the city’s center to detain a suspect and they wound up shooting to death a young lawyer who was merely a bystander.
[Estefanía] López, the peace activist, has been asking for soldiers and police to be posted outside schools, so children can return to classes — most are currently taking classes online because their parents judge it too dangerous to take them to school.
But police can’t solve the problem: Culiacan’s entire municipal force has been temporarily disarmed by soldiers to check their guns, something that’s been done in the past when the army suspects policemen are working for drug cartels.
The local army commander recently acknowledged that it’s up to the cartel factions — not authorities — when the violence will stop.
Peace activist Estefanía López “A lot of businesses, restaurants and nightclubs have been closed for the past month.” That’s bad for the local economy.
Estefanía López sums up the situation thusly: “In Culiacan, there is not even faith anymore that we will be safe, with police or soldiers.“
At the customary September 16th Independence Day military parade, the Mexican Army (Ejército Mexicano) premiered a new armored vehicle it recently acquired, the Ocelotl, from the Nahuatl word for jaguar. (In articles about the vehicle, I’ve seen it spelled both “ocelotl” and “ocelot”.)
The Ocelotl is already being deployed, to two simultaneous Mexican Army operations:
Sinaloa – Ocelotl vehicles have been sent to the state of Sinaloa to deal with the conflict between two factions of the Sinaloa cartel. On October 10th, 100 Special Forces soldiers arrived to Sinaloa with 10 Ocelotl vehicles.
Michoacan – Ocelotl vehicles have been sent to the state of Michoacan to deal with the problem of cartel extortion of lemon producers, which has caused packing facilities to be shut down.
The Ocelotl armored vehicle is produced by the Streit company, headquartered in the United Arab Emirates. It is a modified version of Streit’s Cobra 4 LAMV (Light Armored Multipurpose Vehicle).
Here are some characteristics of the Ocelotl armored vehicle:
Automatic transmission with V6 Turbo Diesel engine.
An 80 liter tank, allowing it to travel 400 kilometers without refueling.
Maximum speed of 140 kilometers per hour.
Able to withstand explosives and high-caliber weapons.
A 360-degree rotating turret in which various weapons can be mounted.
Capacity to carry 11 soldiers .
The parade is over and this may be the Ocelotl’s trial by fire. How will it acquit itself ?
Columbus Day, October 12th, commemorates the day Christopher Columbus brought Western Civilization to the New World. All New World nation-states, incuding both Mexico and the U.S. – are results of that.
In Spain, Columbus Day is known as Día de la Hispanidad (Day of Hispanicity). In Spanish-speaking Latin American countries it was traditionally known as Díade la Raza, Day of the Race, referring to the Mestizo Race, produced by a fusion of Spaniards and Indians.
In recent years though, in Spanish-speaking Latin America just as in the U.S.A., Columbus’ stock has been going down.
In 2020, then-President AMLO changed the name of the celebration in Mexico to Día de la Nación Pluricultural, Day of the Multicultural Nation.
On October 12th, 2024, on her Twitter X account, President Claudia Sheinbaum posted this (my translation throughout): “The 12th of October is neither the Díade la Raza nor the Día de la Hispanidad. Christopher Columbus discovered America for the Europeans, but in our continent (Western Hemisphere) and particularly in what we now call Mexico, there were already great civilizations and cultures of which we females feel proud and we males feel proud [it’s awkward in Spanish too]. The arrival of the Spaniards more than five centuries ago represented subjection and even elimination of the original peoples. To offer apologies for the crimes committed is not shameful, on the contrary, it makes peoples greater and brings them nearer.”
Unsurprisingly the thread has many replies. A few examples:
From Ro: “I feel very proud that you are my President, Doctor. Thanks for defending the Original Peoples who deserve apologies for the barbarities and atrocities committed during the invasion of these lands. I love you very much.”
From Pedro_A: “To recognize abuses would be a good gesture on the part of Spain.”
From Andrés L.A.: ” ‘Great civilizations’ which sacrificed children and were cannibals. Madam, I remind you that you are tweeting in Spanish and that Mexico is one of the countries that most maintains the cultural heritage of Spain. It’s not bad to pick up a book from time to time.”
From Emilio Yitzhak: “Say it in Nahuatl [language of the Aztecs] and not from a palace constructed by the Spaniards.”
It’s true that the Pre-Columbian cultures, such as the Maya and Aztec, had some great accomplishments. There was a lot of violence in that area too, however. Were it not for the arrival of the Europeans, the current nation-state of Mexico would not exist. The majority of Mexicans have both Indian and Spanish ancestors, so none of them would exist either.
The best approach is for Mexico to respect both their Indian and Spanish ancestors, while working to make the Mexico of today a better place.
How about starting with bringing down the Mexican murder rate? People talk about the killings of hundreds of years ago, how about people being killed today?
On October 1st, Alejandro Arcos Catalan became the mayor of Chilpancingo, capital of Guerrero state. It’s a city plagued by two rival drug gangs: the Ardillos and the Tlacos.
On October 6th, the new Mayor Arcos was found decapitated, his head atop a vehicle, with his body on the front passenger seat.
As reported by InSight Crime, “In his first public address, Arcos pledged not to make any pacts with criminal groups and to guarantee peace and security in Chilpancingo, which may have put him in the crosshairs of the region’s powerbrokers. ‘Security requires everyone’s commitment,’ he said after becoming mayor. ‘I call on the three levels of government, businessmen, civil society, and the families of Chilpancingo. I ask you, with my heart in my hand: help me fight and build peace, the peace that we all need.’
On October 10th, Gustavo Alarcon took office as the new mayor of Chilpancingo. (Alarcon, a doctor, had been elected in June as the alternate of Arcos.)
How would you feel if you were in Alarcon’s place? You’re replacing the former mayor who was decapitated, and the perpetrators haven’t been arrested.
It’s morbidly reminiscient of a scene in The Empire Strikes Back, one of the Star Wars movies. Darth Vader chokes Admiral Ozzel to death while immediately designating Captain Piett, standing next to the dying admiral, as the new admiral. Look at the expression on Piett’s face:
But what’s going on in Chilpancingo is reality, not a movie.
As of October 11th, Mayor Alarcon said that he hadn’t been threatened or contacted by the criminal groups and also said he was under the protection of 14 National Guardsmen and 7 Guerrero State officers.
The Mexican federal government has deployed 240 National Guardsmen to the city of Chilpancingo.
My condolences to the family of deceased Mayor Arcos and may the new Mayor Alarcon be kept safe.
The violence in Mexico continues, and in diverse locales:
1. In the eastern state of Chiapas, criminal groups connected to the Sinaloa Cartel battle those connected with the CJNG (Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación). See here.
2. In Sinaloa state, the internecine war between factions of the Sinaloa Cartel continue (see here, here and here) with over 150 dead.
3. The most violent state is currently Guanajuato, where 12 dead bodies were recently found.
4. Alejandro Arcos Catalan, mayor Chilpancingo (capital of Guerrero state) was murdered and beheaded shortly after taking office.
On October 8th, in her morning press conference, President Sheinbaum’s four point security plan was presented. It was first presented by Omar Garcia Harfuch, Sheinbaum’s Secretary of Security and Civilian Protection, then reiterated by President Sheinbaum herself.
Here is a photo from the news conference, with Secretary Garcia Harfuch speaking and President Sheinbaum in the background:
The four points, or axes as they are called in Spanish, are:
Dealing with Root Causes
The consolidation of the National Guard in the Department of Defense
The strengthening of intelligence and investigation
Coordination, in the words of Garcia Harfuch, “among the institutions of the Security Cabinet and also, when necessary, with the state authorities.”
These four axes were reiterated by President Sheinbaum.
Garcia Harfuch said the government had three objectives: 1. Decrease crime, especially murder and extortion. 2. “Neutralize generators of violence and criminal networks with attention to high crime areas.” 3. “Strengthen the ability of prevention and social proximity of local police and improve the dialogue with all sectors of society.”
To effectively fight the Mexican drug cartels is a great challenge.
When you remove one drug baron, another rushes to take his place. Then there’s the problem of corruption and collaboration with government officials. And money laundering.
The cartels have a massive quantity of money available, mostly supplied by their American drug customers.
And nowadays, the drug cartels are not just involved with drugs, but various illicit businesses. (See here).
So how about this Sheinbaum plan? An Associated Press article was not optimistic. It begins thusly: “Mexico’s new president laid out a plan Tuesday [October 8th] to combat drug cartel violence, but analysts say it appears to be largely a continuation of previous policy…Mike Vigil, a former head of the DEA’s foreign operations, said that the new plan appears to be ‘more of the same.’ “