Mexico’s week in review: Disaster diplomacy and a persistent peso
President Claudia Sheinbaum spent the weekend before this week began in Puebla, kicking off the 2026 National Reforestation Day from the mountain pass between the Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl volcanoes. There, marking the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, she declared that the Paso de Cortés — named for the conquistador who marched through it in 1519 — would be a great candidate for a new name . On Monday morning, the president’s attention had shifted south: a powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck western Colombia, killing hundreds. Sheinbaum immediately pledged Mexico would send Colombia everything it needed , but the country’s military rescue brigade quickly ran into a diplomatic hurdle, part of a tangle of certification disputes and friction that unfolded even as quietly extraordinary Mexican solidarity continued — not just with Colombia, but with wildfire-stricken Canada as well. Colombia’s quake also revived an old question for Mexico...