Mexiconews

Archaeologists and nearby residents have been intensifying calls for intervention at an archaeological zone in México state where they say looting and destruction have continued unabated. The site, Los Tlateles, consists of about 150 mounds (tlalteles) built on the former Lake Chalco — but it has never been declared a protected archaeological zone. Once covering more than 200 hectares, the Los Tlateles site is down to 10 or 20 hectares, thanks to illegal land sales and settlements. (Google Maps) Nor is it a tourist site or a preserve that people can visit, according to the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH). Moreover, members of the local community have filed amparos (legal injunctions) against INAH that prohibit archaeologists from accessing the site. With that as the backdrop, the labor union representing INAH academics, researchers and archaeologists condemned the looting in a statement last week on social media, according to the newspaper Excélsior. Arch...

Querétaro is poised to become a new hub for medical tourism and highly specialized hospital services once the 2.5 billion-peso (US $145 million) St. Austin Medical District opens for business in September 2027 .  Said to be 35% completed, the new healthcare infrastructure project will compete with leading hospital and medical tourism destinations in the North American private health market, such as Houston, Rochester (home of the Mayo Clinic), Tijuana and Mexico City. Once integrated into the city, the St. Austin project is expected to lift Querétaro to the same level of medical tourism destination as Tijuana and Mexico City. (Solidity Group) The complex is being built along the Fray Junípero Serra corridor in Querétaro city, one of the fastest-growing urban and financial areas in the state, and is being developed by Solidity Group Investments and Pómpano Desarrollos. On its website, the St. Austin project is described as “a medical ecosystem created to support professional growth,...

Mexico entered the week of May 4 already reeling from a bombshell: a U.S. federal indictment unsealed the previous week had charged 10 members of the ruling Morena party — including former Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rocha Moya — with drug trafficking and collusion with the Sinaloa Cartel. By Monday, several officials — Rocha among them — had stepped down and President Sheinbaum was in damage-control mode. Also making headlines were a 5.6-magnitude earthquake in Oaxaca , and NASA-backed news that Mexico City is sinking at up to 10 inches per year due to the over-extraction of groundwater beneath its ancient lakebed. Adding insult to injury, the mayor of Madrid arrived for a tour of Mexico during which she took the opportunity to defend the Spanish Conquistador Hernán Cortés. Didn’t have time to catch this week’s top stories? Here’s what happened in Mexico between May 4 and May 8. Sinaloa crisis deepens: A new governor and more U.S. pressure The fallout from the U.S. indictment of...

A new alliance between the Sowing Life program and the Environment Ministry seeks to restore 32 natural protected areas in Mexico through the planting of some 300 million trees and other plants in 2026, federal authorities announced this week. The new agreement aims to heal degraded ecosystems while shoring up rural livelihoods. Sowing Life, a federal tree‑planting and rural welfare program, pays small farmers a monthly stipend to plant and care for fruit and timber trees on their own plots, often in combination with traditional crops. Launched by the López Obrador administration and expanded under President Claudia Sheinbaum, the program now operates across much of rural Mexico, channeling support to some of the country’s poorest communities while aiming to reforest degraded land and promote small‑scale agroforestry. Authorities in the Sowing Life program signed the deal with Conanp last week, laying out the plan to plant 300 million trees in Mexico’s natural protected areas. (...

President Claudia Sheinbaum on Thursday announced a 140 billion-peso (US $8.14 billion) investment to expand, modernize and rehabilitate Mexico’s natural gas infrastructure. “Our goal is energy sovereignty,” Sheinbaum said, adding that the investment will serve “to expand production capacity of fuels and renewable energy sources, so as not to depend on foreign countries.” President Claudia Sheinbaum announced the investment at her Thursday morning press conference. (Juan Carlos Buenrostro / Presidencia) The funds — provided by the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) and National Center for Natural Gas Contro (Cenagas) — will be used to build and maintain natural gas pipeline and distribution networks. Energy Minister Luz Elena González said Mexico consumes approximately 9 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day, of which only 2.3 billion are produced by state-owned oil company Pemex. As a result, Mexico relies on imports to meet nearly 75% of its natural gas needs, almost all o...

Official data showing a decline in inflation in April was published on Thursday morning and just hours later the Bank of Mexico (Banxico) board voted in favor of cutting the central bank’s key interest rate by 25 basis points. The national statistics agency INEGI reported that Mexico’s annual headline inflation rate was 4.45% in April, down from 4.59% across March. The decline in April came after the headline rate increased in each of the first three months of 2026. Among those applauding Banxico’s latest interest rate cut was President Claudia Sheinbaum, who said the move “activates investment.” (Mario Jasso/Cuartoscuro) INEGI also reported that month-over-month inflation was 0.20% in April, while the annual core rate — which excludes volatile food and energy prices — was 4.26%, down from 4.45% across March. Later on Thursday, a divided Bank of Mexico governing board voted in favor (3-2) of lowering the central bank’s benchmark interest rate fro...