Elected judiciary takes office
September 1st was a truly historic day in Mexico because the new Supreme Court, elected by popular vote, took office (and other judges and magistrates elected by the same process also took charge). The nine Justices (Ministros) are led by Chief Justice Hugo Aguilar Ortiz, an indigenous Mixtec from Oaxaca State, who immediately showed his commitment to the democratic mandate by holding a symbolic indigenous ceremony before the official inauguration.
Aguilar and his fellow justices agreed to a drastic reduction of their salaries to fulfil the public austerity law forbidding any high public officials from earning more than the President of the Republic (their corrupt predecessors had insisted, via self-interested injunctions, on earning three or four times as much). They also abolished the scandalous inflated expenses and privileges paid to the previous office-holders, and for the first time in decades they opened the Supreme Court building to the public.
President Claudia Sheinbaum attended the inauguration ceremony, but played no active part in recognition of judicial autonomy. The new Court has already begun work considering the huge backlog of cases of corruption and injustice
President Sheinbaum’s First Annual Report to the Nation
Also on September 1st, fulfilling tradition, Claudia Sheinbaum presented her first annual Report to the Nation in a formal ceremony before both Houses of Congress and all high public officials. Strictly speaking she had only been in office for 11 months, but respected the conventional date.
In a speech lasting an hour and 20 minutes she summarised a very impressive catalogue of achievements which demonstrate how her government is indeed advancing the Fourth Transformation of Mexico’s public life begun by former President AMLO. Then in the following weekends she visited individual states, holding rallies in each one where she gave reports with specific data on the achievements in that state: she will continue this until all states have been visited by the end of the month. Then there will be a mass rally in the Zócalo on 5 October. What has been truly remarkable is the enormous popular enthusiasm with which she has been greeted in all of these mass assemblies.
It should be pointed out that the broad range of public investment in infrastructure and productive facilities, coordinated with private enterprise, is part of an overall strategy adopted early this year known as Plan México, the Mexico Plan, promoting national development on a scale which has not been seen for decades.
In the meantime on the night of 15 September from the balcony of the National Palace she gave the traditional Grito (Shout) proclaiming the 215th anniversary of the Independence revolt of 1810, before a packed Zócalo with musical celebrations. She included the names of four women independence leaders, Josefa Ortiz Téllez Girón, Leona Vicario, Gertrudis Bocanegra and Manuela Molina, plus anonymous heroines, indigenous women, Mexican migrants (both women and men), liberty, equality, democracy and justice, and Mexican sovereignty.
Relations with the US and others
In recent weeks the US has only increased its bellicose rhetoric and actions against Latin America and the Caribbean, and indeed the rest of the world. Venezuela has been the main target of these threats, with a US fleet of eight naval vessels including a nuclear-capable submarine marauding around the southern Caribbean. Once again, President Sheinbaum rejected all threats of intervention and Mexico’s defence of the sovereignty of all countries in the region.
Mexico continues to pursue its own agenda in favour of democracy and human rights: relations with Ecuador, suspended after the violation of Mexico’s embassy by the authoritarian government of Daniel Noboa in April 2024, remain suspended following Noboa’s fraudulent re-election and in the absence of any apology. Relations with Peru are also at minimal level since the congressional coup against President Pedro Castillo in December 2022, when AMLO offered Castillo asylum in Mexico; Castillo did not manage to leave Peru and has been in jail since, but members of his family did reach Mexico. Claudia Sheinbaum has maintained Mexican recognition of Castillo, and on 29 August received Castillo’s lawyer; the Peruvian Congress then declared Sheinbaum to be persona non grata.
On 18 September President Sheinbaum welcomed the official visit of the Prime Minister of Canada, Mark Carney. With members of their respective cabinets and diplomats, they held a remarkably cordial meeting, as was reflected in the subsequent press conference. While discussing the forthcoming trilateral negotiations with the US to update the USMCA Trade Agreement, they also agreed on a Mexico-Canada Action Plan to further coordinate their political, economic, social and cultural cooperation.
Prime Minister Carney pointed to the parallel between Plan Mexico and Canada Strong, his government’s response to the tariff pressures from the US. He also quoted Mexico’s historic leader Benito Juárez, “Between Nations as between individuals, respect for the rights of others is Peace”.
President Sheinbaum mentioned the importance of maintaining protection for Mexican migrant workers in Canada, and no doubt she will have stressed the need for Canadian mining companies to respect labour rights and the environment in their Mexican operations. But most relevant was the growing cooperation of the northern and southern neighbours of the US hegemon in their ongoing relationship.
Propaganda and fake news
The opposition and mainstream media are so completely dedicated to propaganda and fabrication that these columns could easily be filled with refutations of their inventions. However, it may be worthwhile giving one or two recent examples.
On 10 September Reuters carried a report that the CIA had been carrying out large anti-cartel operations in Mexico, something not suthorised by the government of Claudia Sheinbaum. Questioned about this, President Sheinbaum denied it categorically, and given Reuters’ recent false report on US Naval operations in the Caribbean (leading to the resignation of one of their long-serving reporters), there is reason to believe the President.
Then on 17 September a report was published claiming that two of the sons of ex-President AMLO were involved in the huachicol (contraband of petroleum products) and had just taken out injunctions to forbid reporting of this. They promptly denied any involvement and also denied responsibility for the injunctions; questioned about this in her 18 September press conference, Claudia Sheinbaum said everything suggested it was a complete fabrication, indeed it appears that the injunctions are not even signed and have no validity. Such slurs are constantly invented to cast doubt on leading figures in the movement and government of the Fourth Transformation.
Opposition antics
As mentioned last time, PAN Senator Lilly Téllez, while in the US, called for US military intervention, and on 21 August was rightly condemned as a traitor by President Sheinbaum. But Téllez is not alone: ex-President Calderón has expressed similar views. Also PRI leader Senator Alejandro Moreno (Alito), already subject to serious corruption allegations, on 27 August made a violent assault in the chamber on the Speaker (President) of the Senate, Gerardo Fernández Noroña and one of his assistants. A sad spectacle which only confirms the opposition’s political bankruptcy.
Labour news
UNI Global Union continues its support for independent labour organising, as the Mexican Telephone Workers Union, affiliated to UNI, celebrated a historic ruling issued by the Rapid Response Panel under the USMCA Trade Agreement on 21 August, determining that there had been a denial of union and collective bargaining rights at the Atento Services call centre in Hidalgo.