During her engagement with reporters, Sheinbaum was asked about the alleged political leanings of the Supreme Court, while Security Minister Omar García Harfuch fielded questions related to the training a group of Mexican security personnel is currently undertaking in the United States.

Here is a recap of the president’s Jan. 23 mañanera.

A biased Supreme Court? 

A reporter noted that the newspaper he works for, El Universal, reported this week that the “new” Supreme Court (SCJN) — whose bench is now made up of nine justices elected in Mexico’s first ever judicial elections last June — has handed down at least six rulings in favor of reforms and decrees promoted by former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

He also stated that in the almost five months since the new justices were sworn in, the SCJN has not handed down any ruling against reforms or decrees sponsored by López Obrador or Morena, the party AMLO founded.

The reporter subsequently asked Sheinbaum whether she saw “any bias” toward Morena in Mexico’s Supreme Court, whose nine justices are affiliated with, seen as sympathetic to, or were at least tacitly supported by the ruling party in last year’s judicial elections.

The president responded that the Supreme Court itself would have to answer “those questions.”

She subsequently highlighted that the SCJN now holds “public sessions,” allowing Mexicans to get to know justices’ arguments in support of their rulings.

In the past, Sheinbaum added, decisions were taken “in the dark.”

The president also highlighted that the “previous court” — i.e. the SCJN before the justices elected last year were sworn in — “voted against everything,” a reference to various rulings it handed down against government initiatives during López Obrador’s presidency.

Published on Thursday, El Universal’s report could be cited by government critics as proof that the election of Supreme Court justices in a vote promoted by Sheinbaum — and largely boycotted by the opposition — has led to the elimination of a vital check on executive and legislative power, as they warned would occur.

However, one person who posted the article to social media opined: “Does the Supreme Court have to rule against the government to create justice?”

García Harfuch: Mexican security personnel were invited to undergo training in US

Six days after Mexican security personnel boarded a U.S. military plane at Toluca Airport to fly to the United States to undergo training, a reporter asked García Harfuch to comment on the kind of drills in which they would be participating.

The security minister first stressed that Mexican security personnel’s participation in training in the United States is not a new phenomenon, but rather something that has occurred for “many years.”

He said that the training takes place either after an invitation from a U.S. authority or upon the request of the Mexican government.

“It’s always been like that,” García Harfuch said.

He said that “in this case,” the United States Northern Command extended an invitation to Mexican security personnel to participate in “courses” focusing on “tactical specializations,” including “shooting” and “investigation.”

García Harfuch said that the Security Ministry personnel would stay in the U.S. for around 40-45 days.

Asked whether they were at a military base in the U.S., he responded: “Yes, it’s a base in Mississippi, I think.”

The arrival of the U.S. Air Force plane at Toluca Airport last Saturday came at a particularly sensitive time in the Mexico-U.S. security relationship as U.S. President Donald Trump said earlier this month that the United States would begin targeting Mexican cartels on land. In addition, The New York Times reported on Jan. 15 that the United States was “intensifying pressure” on Mexico “to allow U.S. military forces to conduct joint operations to dismantle fentanyl labs inside the country.”

On Monday, Sheinbaum stressed that the U.S. Air Force plane wasn’t carrying U.S. troops or weapons. She assured reporters that the arrival of the plane in Toluca wasn’t in any way sinister, but rather a routine part of bilateral security cooperation.

However, the president did concede that it would have been better for the Mexican security personnel to have traveled to the United States on a Mexican Air Force plane rather than a U.S. one.

The post Is Mexico’s Supreme Court biased? Friday’s mañanera recapped appeared first on Mexico News Daily

She spoke about the future of the USMCA free trade pact amid increased tension between the United States and Canada (read MND’s story here), while Security Minister Omar García Harfuch announced the arrest of a man in connection with the murder of Bernardo Bravo, who led a lime growers’ association in Michoacán before his death in October. (Read MND’s story here.)

García Harfuch also spoke about the Mexican government’s transfer on Tuesday of 37 cartel figures to the United States, while Sheinbaum briefly commented on the deployment of Mexican firefighters to Chile.

Security minister: Transfer of prisoners to US benefits Mexico  

On Tuesday, García Harfuch announced that “37 operators of criminal organizations who represented a real threat to the security of the country” were flown to various cities in the United States on seven Mexican military planes.

On Thursday morning, he was asked to provide details on the threats the cartel figures posed.

García Harfuch told reporters that in “various” prisons in Mexico, inmates “have the opportunity to continue committing crimes.”

In November, he noted that extortion attempts over the telephone commonly originate in Mexican prisons.

On Thursday, García Harfuch stressed that the transfer of the prisoners to the United States is “for the benefit of our country.”

The handover of 37 people on Tuesday was the third large transfer of prisoners to the U.S. since Sheinbaum took office after transfers last February (29 people) and August (26 people).

With the removal of more than 90 criminals from the country, “what we’re avoiding,” García Harfuch said, “is extortion of Mexican citizens [and] homicides of Mexican citizens.”

He also said that authorities are working to strengthen security in prisons in order to stop crimes being committed from within them.

FGR report on Interoceanic Train accident to be ready next week

Sheinbaum told reporters that she spoke to Attorney General Ernestina Godoy on Wednesday and was informed that the report the Federal Attorney General’s Office is preparing about the cause (or causes) of the Dec. 28 accident involving the Interoceanic Train will be ready next week.

The derailment of the train in the state of Oaxaca claimed 14 lives, and around 100 other people were injured.

The accident occurred nearly 90 minutes after the six-car Z-line train departed from Salina Cruz, Oaxaca, en route to Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz.

Mexican firefighters battle blazes in Chile 

A reporter noted that a lot of Chileans have been thanking Mexico for sending firefighters to Chile to help battle wildfires that have claimed more than 20 lives.

On Thursday morning, the government of Chile posted a video to social media showing a brigade of 145 Mexican firefighters arriving on an Air Force plane in the southern city of Concepción.

¡Gracias, México! 🇨🇱 🇲🇽

Ya aterrizaron en Concepción 145 brigadistas y más de 360 kilos de carga para el combate de incendios en la zona centro-sur del país. El contingente se desplegará en los múltiples focos de incendio activos desarrollando diversas tareas. pic.twitter.com/TPNl3dDRZp

— Gobierno de Chile (@GobiernodeChile) January 22, 2026

“Thank you, Mexico,” the Chilean government wrote above the video.

Sheinbaum said that Mexico’s National Forestry Commission is coordinating the deployment of Mexican firefighters in Chile.

“Mexico will always show solidarity, always. It is in our essence. Those values come from México profundo [deep Mexico], from the Indigenous peoples,” she said.

“Mexicans have great values that come from those civilizations, values that have to do with brotherhood, solidarity, family support, and love for one’s neighbor,” Sheinbaum said.

By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies (peter.davies@mexiconewsdaily.com)

The post Why Mexico transferred dozens of ‘criminal operators’ to the U.S.: Thursday’s mañanera recapped appeared first on Mexico News Daily

At her morning press conference, Sheinbaum was asked whether the “clash” between the viewpoints expressed by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and U.S. President Donald Trump in speeches at the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting placed “the life” of the USMCA at risk.

“We are going to work so that it doesn’t break,” the president said of the agreement that governs trade worth around US $2 trillion per year.

“And we believe it’s a good idea for the three countries to maintain the trade agreement,” said Sheinbaum, who noted that Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard will travel to Washington D.C. next week “to continue working on trade issues” with U.S. officials.

Even if Mexico, the United States and Canada don’t agree to extend the USMCA during this year’s review process, the pact would not be terminated until 2036. An agreement to extend the pact would ensure its survival until at least 2042. Mexico and Canada’s trade relationships with China will likely be discussed during bilateral and trilateral negotiations, along with things such as rules of origin and the United States’ trade deficit with each of its neighbors.

Sheinbaum remains optimistic that the review process will go well, despite the differences between the U.S. and Canadian leaders.

On Thursday morning, she told reporters that she wouldn’t describe the expression of different opinions by Carney and Trump in Davos, Switzerland, over the past two days as a “clash of discourse.”

“They’re simply different points of view regarding what is happening internationally,” said Sheinbaum, who on Wednesday endorsed Carney’s WEF speech, describing it as “very good” and “very much in tune with the current times.”

Carney criticizes use of ‘tariffs as leverage’

In his speech at the annual WEF meeting on Tuesday, Carney took aim at Trump without mentioning the U.S. president by name.

The Canadian prime minister said that “for decades, countries like Canada prospered under what we called the rules-based international order,” even though “we knew the story of the international rules-based order was partially false” due to factors including that “trade rules were enforced asymmetrically.”

“… This fiction was useful,” Carney said.

“And American hegemony, in particular, helped provide public goods: open sea lanes, a stable financial system, collective security and support for frameworks for resolving disputes.”

This speech *is* one for the history books. But that’s less a compliment, than a coda.

Carney has given us the words to mark the end of the ‘rules-based order’…by acknowledging it never really existed.

It was a collective illusion. That now is over. pic.twitter.com/H4gWysDBmH

— Carole Cadwalladr (@carolecadwalla) January 20, 2026

Canada, Carney continued, “participated in the rituals” of the the rules-based international order, “but this bargain no longer works.”

“Let me be direct: We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition,” he said.

“Over the past two decades, a series of crises in finance, health, energy and geopolitics have laid bare the risks of extreme global integration,” Carney said.

“But more recently, great powers have begun using economic integration as weapons. Tariffs as leverage. Financial infrastructure as coercion. Supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited,” said Carney, who was widely interpreted to be referring to the United States under Trump.

In that context — one that includes tariffs Trump imposed on a range of Canadian goods, and Mexican goods, in defiance of the free trade framework the USMCA provides — the prime minister noted that Canada has been diversifying its security and trade relationships.

“We are rapidly diversifying abroad. We’ve agreed a comprehensive strategic partnership with the EU, including joining SAFE, the European defense procurement arrangements. We have signed 12 other trade and security deals on four continents in six months,” Carney said.

“In the past few days, we have concluded new strategic partnerships with China and Qatar. We’re negotiating free trade pacts with India, ASEAN, Thailand, Philippines and Mercosur,” he said.

Carney said last Friday that “the world has changed” and that improved trade ties with China — the United States’ main strategic rival — sets Canada up “well for the new world order.”

Still, the United States is by far Canada’s largest trade partner, and the Canadian government remains firmly committed to the USMCA despite Trump’s rhetoric and its decision to ease trade barriers on China, at a time when Mexico is taking the opposite approach.

While Mexico’s decision to increase tariffs on Chinese goods could benefit it in the USMCA review process, Canada’s decision to ease duties on certain products from the East Asian nation — including on a quota of 49,000 electric vehicles per year — could complicate its trade talks with the United States.

Trump responds

Trump hit back at Carney in his WEF address on Wednesday, calling the Canadian prime minister ungrateful.

Referring to a proposed missile defense system for the United States, he said:

“We’re building a golden dome that’s going to, just by its very nature, going to be defending Canada. Canada gets a lot of freebies from us, by the way. They should be grateful also. But they’re not. I watched their prime minister yesterday. He wasn’t so grateful, they should be grateful to us. Canada lives because of the United States. Remember that Mark, the next time you make your statements.”

Trump: “Canada lives because of the United States”

Canada lives because the United States failed to annex us in 1775 and 1812. pic.twitter.com/ZlS9xm1d3f

— Riley Donovan (@valdombre) January 21, 2026

Trump also spoke glowingly about tariffs, which he has previously described as “the most beautiful word … in the dictionary.”

“With tariffs, we’ve radically reduced our ballooning trade deficit, which was the largest in world history,” he said.

Trumps’ remarks in Davos came eight days after he asserted that the USMCA provides “no real advantage” to the United States and is “irrelevant” to him.

“I want to see Mexico and Canada do well, but the problem is we don’t need their product,” he said Jan. 14.

“… We don’t need cars made in Canada, we don’t need cars made in Mexico, we want to make them here. And that’s what’s happening.”

Trump also said that having the USMCA or not “wouldn’t matter” to him.

Trump says he doesn’t care about USMCA; Sheinbaum says US businesses do

“I think they want it, I don’t really care about it,” said the U.S. president, who in the past has floated the possibility of the United States entering into bilateral trade deals with each of Mexico and Canada.

While Trump claims that the United States doesn’t need Canadian goods, The New York Times pointed out in a report published on Tuesday that “the majority of the oil the United States imports comes from Canada.”

Companies in the U.S. across a range of sectors, including automakers, are dependent on inputs that are made in Mexico. In light of the economic integration across North America, Sheinbaum has said she is “very optimistic” about the USMCA review.

Sheinbaum to seek calls with Trump and Carney 

Sheinbaum told reporters on Thursday morning that she hasn’t recently spoken with Carney, but would seek a call with him.

“We’re going to try to have a conversation, and of course with President Trump [as well],” she said, adding that they would discuss “all the negotiations that have to do with the trade agreement.”

Carney visited Mexico last September, at which time he and Sheinbaum pledged to deepen ties and work to strengthen the USMCA. Earlier this week, Canadian Governor General Mary Simon traveled to Mexico and met with Sheinbaum at the National Palace.

Sheinbaum spoke to Trump last week, but their conversation focused on security issues.

After the 15-minute call, Sheinbaum said she and Trump agreed to another call soon in order to discuss “other issues,” including trade.

In a future trade-focused call with Trump, Sheinbaum’s main aim — it would appear — will be to convince her U.S. counterpart of the relevance and vitalness of the USMCA, including by emphasizing that the United States does indeed need Mexican (and Canadian) goods.

By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies (peter.davies@mexiconewsdaily.com)

The post Sheinbaum sends Economy Minister to D.C. to shore up USMCA ties as Canada clashes with the US appeared first on Mexico News Daily

At President Claudia Sheinbaum’s morning press conference, García Harfuch said that “an individual nicknamed El Botox” had been detained “a few minutes ago” in an operation carried out by federal and state security forces in Michoacán.

En un operación conjunta de @Defensamx1 @SEMAR_mx @SSPCMexico @FiscaliaMich y autoridades del estado de Michoacán fue detenido el Carlos Alejandro N “Botox” objetivo prioritario y generador de violencia en Michoacán. Principal extorsionador de limoneros y responsable de varios… pic.twitter.com/HlpOlEqwVt

— Omar H Garcia Harfuch (@OHarfuch) January 22, 2026

“El Botox” is César Alejandro Sepúlveda Arrellano, alleged leader of Los Blanco de Troya, a crime group described in media reports as the armed wing of Los Viagras, a criminal organization affiliated with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

García Harfuch said that Sepúlveda is “responsible” for extorting lime growers and other agricultural producers, and for homicides, including that of Bravo, who was killed last October.

He said that the suspect attempted to escape from the address authorities raided on Thursday morning, but a female security agent detained him. The arrest reportedly took place near Apatzingán, a municipality in the notoriously dangerous Tierra Caliente region of Michoacán.

García Harfuch said that “a woman very close to” Sepúlveda was arrested around midnight on Thursday. He noted also that three people within Sepúlveda’s “close circles” were detained last week.

On social media, García Harfuch wrote that “El Botox,” who has previously spent time in prison, was a “priority target” of authorities and a “generator of violence in Michoacán,” one of Mexico’s most violent states.

The Michoacán Attorney General’s office accuses Sepúlveda of both planning the murder of Bravo and carrying it out. A warrant was issued for his arrest before he was taken into custody on Thursday morning. The Milenio newspaper reported that Sepúlveda recently posted videos to social media in which he asserted that he didn’t murder Bravo and that he was in fact a defender of the citrus industry in Michoacán.

The arrest of the suspect came three months and one day after Bravo, president of the Apatzingán Citrus Growers Association in Michoacán, was found dead in the front seat of his pick-up truck, killed by a bullet to the back of his head.

The next day, García Harfuch announced that a man identified as Rigoberto “N” had been detained.

“As a result of investigative work following the homicide of Bernardo Bravo, leader of citrus growers in the region, an operation was carried out in Michoacán … during which Rigoberto “N” was arrested,” he wrote on social media on Oct. 21.

“The detainee is identified as one of those responsible for collecting extortion payments from lime producers in Apatzingán,” García Harfuch wrote.

Though Rigoberto “N” was not charged with the murder of Bravo, he is suspected of playing a role in his death.

Before he was murdered, Bravo had been urging lime growers in the Tierra Caliente region of Michoacán to resist the extortion scheme that has long plagued producers in the area.

The US Treasury Department announced sanctions against ‘El Botox’ last year

Last August, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced that it was “sanctioning two notorious Mexican cartels — Carteles Unidos (a.k.a. ‘United Cartels’) and Los Viagras — and seven affiliated individuals linked to terrorism, drug trafficking, and extortion in Mexico’s agricultural sector.”

One of the sanctioned individuals was Sepúlveda.

“César Alejandro Sepúlveda Arellano, a.k.a. ‘El Botox,’ is a Los Viagras leader responsible for the killing of a citrus producer,” the Treasury Department said in an Aug. 14 statement, released more than two months before Sepúlveda allegedly murdered Bravo.

In the same press release, Treasury wrote that “Los Viagras has extorted avocado and citrus growers, cattle ranchers, and entire towns to generate revenue.”

Highway blockades reported after arrest 

Highway blockades set up by armed civilians were reported at three different points in the Tierra Caliente region of Michoacán following the arrest of Sepúlveda. Two of the blockades were set up in Apatzingán and one in the neighboring municipality of Buenavista.

It is relatively common in Mexico for crime groups to set up highway blockades in response to arrests, and to hinder additional actions against their members. Sometimes the blockades include burning vehicles, but that didn’t appear to be the case in the Tierra Caliente region on Thursday morning.

With reports from Reforma, El Universal, Milenio and Latinus

The post Alleged extortion boss ‘El Botox’ arrested in central Michoacán appeared first on Mexico News Daily

She also offered some advice to cell phone users to help them avoid becoming victims of crime, and took a moment to endorse the speech Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney made on Tuesday at the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

Here is a recap of the president’s Jan. 21 mañanera.

Sheinbaum: Don’t answer telephone calls from unknown numbers 

Late in her press conference, Sheinbaum told reporters that Mexico was one of a small number of countries where mobile telephone SIM cards could be purchased without the need to show identification.

However, as of Jan. 9, that is no longer the case.

Sheinbaum said that the previous situation made it easy for people to commit crimes over the telephone, including extortion and fraud.

The government’s objective now, she said, is for every SIM card — or chip as a SIM is commonly known in Mexico — to be “linked to a person.”

“As that happens, it will be much more difficult to use a phone … [to commit a crime], Sheinbaum said.

That said, the president acknowledged that many calls with a criminal intent are now being made with “numbers that come from outside Mexico.”

Sheinbaum subsequently advised Mexicans not to answer calls from numbers they don’t recognize.

“It is important that we do not answer calls from numbers that are not identified in our contacts,” she said.

Responding to privacy concerns related to the need to register and link a cell phone number to one’s personal identity, Sheinbaum stressed that telephone companies rather than the government stores people’s personal information.

She indicated that authorities, when investigating a crime facilitated by the use of a telephone, can ask for information from telecommunications companies as they seek to establish the identity of the perpetrator.

Sheinbaum praises Carney’s WEF address

Early in her Q&A session with reporters, Sheinbaum praised Prime Minister Carney for his speech in Davos.

“[It was a] very good speech by Carney, by Prime Minister Carney, I don’t know if you heard it,” she said.

“[It was] very much in tune with the current times,” Sheinbaum said.

During his address, Carney asserted that the rules-based international order is undergoing a “rupture, not a transition.”

The Canadian prime minister “never mentioned President Trump by name, but his reference was clear,” wrote The New York Times, noting that “the speech came as President Trump doubled down on his threats to take Greenland away from Denmark.”

Mexico’s ‘advantages’ as an investment destination, according to Sheinbaum

A reporter asked the president what message her government was seeking to send to international investors at the WEF meeting in Davos, where Environment Minister Alicia Bárcena and Altagracia Gómez, head of the government’s Advisory Council for Regional Development and Relocation, are representing Mexico.

“That Mexico is open to private investment from different countries, to foreign direct investment,” Sheinbaum responded.

She also said that Mexico’s representatives would promote the Economic Development Hubs for Well-being, new industrial corridors that will be located in various states across the country.

Asked what “advantages” Mexico offers to investors, Sheinbaum first cited the “hardworking” and “responsible” people of Mexico and the presence of “a government recognized by its people.”

Mexico falls from PwC’s list of top 10 countries to invest in

She also mentioned “certainty” and her government’s vision of investment “not just as a means of growth” but also as “a means of creating employment with wellbeing.”

Citing additional advantages, Sheinbaum spoke about Mexico’s “proximity to the United States,” the “trade openness” it has “with various countries around the world” and “the scheme we are implementing to integrate production chains” in North America.

Although she mentioned certainty as an “advantage” offered by Mexico, the Trump administration’s undermining of the USMCA free trade pact via the implementation of various tariffs on Mexican goods has decreased certainty for investors in Mexico. Some Mexican government initiatives, such as the controversial judicial reform and the disbandment of various autonomous agencies, have had the same effect, according to critics of Sheinbaum and her predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Foreign investment in Mexico increased last year, but the government is eager to attract even more international capital as it seeks to make its Plan México economic initiative a success.

The post Sheinbaum endorses Carney’s WEF speech lamenting ‘rupture’ of world order: Wednesday’s mañanera recapped appeared first on Mexico News Daily

INEGI also published updated data for November showing 1.2% annual growth and 0.1% month-over-month growth.

According to Gabriela Siller, director of economic analysis at Banco Base, the data indicates that the Mexican economy recorded annual growth of 0.65% in 2025, a marked slowdown compared to the 1.5% expansion in 2024. Siller also said that the data — which is subject to revision — indicates the economy grew 1.36% in annual terms in the fourth quarter of last year and 0.97% compared to the previous three-month period.

INEGI’s preliminary data shows that Mexico’s secondary sector (manufacturing and construction) grew 1.2% annually in December, while the tertiary sector (services) expanded 2.9%. INEGI didn’t provide data for the primary sector (agriculture and mining).

On a month-over-month basis, the secondary sector grew 0.1% in December while the tertiary sector expanded 0.2%.

The overall month-over-month growth rate of 0.2% in December was the best result for the Mexican economy in the final month of the year since 2023. In December last year, the economy contracted 1% compared to the previous month, according to final data.

Other need-to-know economic data 

• The Mexican peso was trading at 17.49 to the US dollar at 1:20 p.m. Mexico City time, according to Bloomberg. The peso is stronger now than at any point in 2025.
• Mexico’s headline inflation rate was 3.69% in December, the lowest end-of-year level in five years.
• The Bank of Mexico’s benchmark interest rate is currently set at 7%. The bank’s board will hold its next monetary policy meeting on Feb. 5.

With reports from Expansión and El Economista 

The post The economy expanded 2.3% in December, indicating annual growth below 1% appeared first on Mexico News Daily

The latest transfer came amid heightened security tensions between Mexico and the United States, as President Donald Trump said earlier this month that the U.S. military would begin “hitting” Mexican cartels on land. It appeared to be an attempt by the Mexican government to appease the Trump administration, which has recently ramped up pressure on Mexico to do more to combat cartels and the narcotics they traffic to the U.S.

Mexican Security Minister Omar García Harfuch announced the prisoner transfer on social media, writing on X that “37 operators of criminal organizations who represented a real threat to the security of the country” were flown to various cities in the United States on seven Mexican military planes.

“The action was carried out in accordance with the National Security Act and under bilateral cooperation mechanisms, with full respect for national sovereignty,” he wrote.

García Harfuch said that the Mexican government received a commitment from the U.S. Justice Department that it would not seek the death penalty against any of the transferred prisoners, among whom are members or alleged members of various criminal groups, including the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), the Sinaloa Cartel, the Northeast Cartel, the Beltrán Leyva Organization and the Gulf Cartel.

With the transfer of the prisoners — all of whom were wanted by U.S. authorities — “92 high-impact criminals” have been sent to the United States during the current administration, the security minister said.

Those people “will no longer be able to generate violence in our country,” García Harfuch wrote in a post that included footage of heavily armored Security Ministry vehicles leaving the Altiplano maximum security prison in México state. The transferred prisoners were held in various prisons in Mexico prior to being put on military planes to be flown to the U.S.

The Sheinbaum administration’s first large transfer of cartel figures to the United States occurred last February when 29 people, including notorious drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, were sent north. A second transfer of 26 organized crime figures occurred in August.

Mexico transfers 26 cartel figures to US in second major prisoner handover this year

Since Sheinbaum took office in October 2024, the Mexican government has ramped up enforcement against cartels, arresting tens of thousands of suspects, seizing large quantities of drugs and weapons and dismantling around 2,000 clandestine drug laboratories.

It has recently won praise for its efforts from U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ron Johnson, who wrote on social media last week that the security relationship between the United States and Mexico is the “most cooperative and mutually beneficial … in decades.”

Who was transferred to the US on Tuesday?

García Harfuch said that the criminal group operators were transported to Washington D.C, Houston, New York, Pennsylvania, San Antonio and San Diego.

Among the prisoners transferred to the U.S. were Ricardo González Sauceda, identified as a regional leader of the Northeast Cartel, and Pedro Inzunza Noriega, father of the second-in-command of the Beltrán Leyva Organization.

Inzunza, known as “El Señor de la Silla” (The Lord of the Chair), was arrested on Dec. 31. He is accused of running a drug production and trafficking network, primarily dealing in fentanyl, with a direct impact on the U.S. market. The U.S. Justice Department noted last May that “Pedro Inzunza Noriega and his son, Pedro Inzunza Coronel, are charged with narco-terrorism, drug trafficking and money laundering as key leaders of the Beltran Leyva Organization (BLO), a powerful and violent faction of the Sinaloa Cartel.”

Another prisoner sent to the U.S. on Thursday was Juan Pablo Bastidas Erenas, allegedly a logistics operator for the BLO. The Reforma newspaper reported that he had a “direct relationship” with Fausto Isidro Meza Flores, aka “El Chapo Isidro,” leader of the BLO.

Among the other crime figures sent to the U.S. were:

• María Del Rosario Navarro Sánchez, the only woman transferred to the U.S. on Tuesday. The Associated Press reported that she is “the first Mexican citizen to face charges in the U.S. for providing support to a terrorist organization, after being accused of conspiring with a cartel,” namely the CJNG.
• Daniel Alfredo Blanco Joo, an alleged Sinaloa Cartel logistics operator accused of smuggling drugs into the U.S.
• José Luis Sánchez Valencia, an alleged CJNG member who is reportedly an uncle of Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, the Jalisco Cartel’s top leader.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Justice published a full list of the 37 “fugitives” taken into custody in the United States on Tuesday evening.

“Among the fugitives taken into U.S. custody are prolific human smugglers, violent arms traffickers, and alleged members of dangerous drug cartels,” the Justice Department said.

“This is another landmark achievement in the Trump Administration’s mission to destroy the cartels,” said U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi.

“These 37 cartel members — including terrorists from the Sinaloa Cartel, CJNG, and others — will now pay for their crimes against the American people on American soil,” she said.

An ‘offering’ to the US?

Carlos Pérez Ricart, an organized crime expert and academic at the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics, told The New York Times that the latest transfer of prisoners is “an offering” to the Trump administration.

He said that the handover of 37 people on Tuesday is “far from a magic solution” to ward off pressure from Trump. “But at least the Mexican government is buying itself some time,” Pérez told the Times.

David Mora, a Mexico analyst at the International Crisis Group, told the Associated Press that as pressure increases from the Trump administration, “as demands from the White House dial up,” the Mexican government “needs to resort to extraordinary measures, such as these transfers.”

The federal government has rejected that it is giving in to pressure from the U.S. president by making the prisoner transfers.

On Wednesday morning, Sheinbaum said that the U.S. Justice Department requested the transfer of the prisoners, but the decision to send them north was a “sovereign” one taken by her government.

“Lo primero: conveniencia para México”, dice Sheinbaum al explicar el envío de 37 capos a Estados Unidos. Menciona que aunque fue a pedido del Departamento de Justicia de EU, fue una decisión “soberana”. pic.twitter.com/BXLEd4vNOn

— Emeequis (@emeequis) January 21, 2026

“[The interests of] Mexico are put first, above all else, no matter what others may ask for. It is a sovereign decision and is analyzed based on considerations of security policy,” she said.

After the first transfer of prisoners last February, García Harfuch said there was a risk that some of the 29 defendants sent to the U.S. could have been released from prison if they remained in Mexico. Judicial corruption has long been a problem in Mexico, although the current government asserts that its judicial reform, including the popular election of judges, will remedy the situation.

Opposition lawmakers and legal experts have “disputed the political and legal grounds for the prisoner transfers,” Reuters reported.

However, Pérez, the Times reported, “said that the legal and political debate surrounding the transfers have subsided since the first one last year, in part, because Mr. Trump’s military action in Venezuela has made his threats more real.”

Still, National Action Party (PAN) lawmaker Kenia López, president of the Chamber of Deputies, called for transparency regarding the legal procedures involved in the transfer on Tuesday. PAN Deputy Héctor Saúl Téllez asserted that extradition processes aren’t being respected, and called on the government to explain whether there is an “agreement that allows this kind of handover” or whether it is ceding to pressure from Trump.

The latest transfer of the prisoners came eight days after Sheinbaum spoke to Trump by telephone. On Wednesday morning, Sheinbaum said that the handover wasn’t related in any way to her conversation with her U.S. counterpart.

She requested the call in light of Trump’s remarks about striking cartels on land, and after speaking with the U.S. president asserted that U.S. military action in Mexico could be ruled out.

With reports from Milenio, Reforma, The New York Times, AP and Reuters

The post Mexico sends 37 alleged criminals to US in third major prisoner transfer appeared first on Mexico News Daily

Here is a recap of her Jan. 20 mañanera.

Mexico to issue public health care cards 

“This is the new identification card for the universal health care service,” said Deputy Health Minister Eduardo Clark as an example of the credencial was displayed on a screen behind him.

The card, he said, is “the guarantee of the right to health care” for Mexican citizens and eligible foreign residents of Mexico.

People will use their ID card when accessing the services of the public health care providers to which they belong. Those providers include the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS), the State Workers’ Social Security Institute (ISSSTE), IMSS Bienestar and state governments in the eight states that haven’t signed on to the federal government’s universal IMSS Bienestar scheme.

Clark said that the new ID card will come in physical and digital versions. The latter will become available in April.

“What does the card have? First, your full name, your CURP [national ID code], your sex, your place of birth and date of birth, and your nationality,” Clark said.

“And on the back there are two QR codes that allow us to validate the health care provider to which you belong and allow you to check which is your closest [health care] unit,” he said.

“In addition, it also has information about organ donation, which we’re going to request during the registration [process], as well as your blood type,” Clark said.

The Health Ministry official also said that people’s health care cards will be linked to an “electronic medical record” — i.e., their medical history.

“The credencial is a way of linking all this information,” he said.

Clark highlighted that Mexicans have a constitutional right to free health care.

“This is a way of putting a face to that right,” he said.

Clark also said that the card will allow people to know which health care provider they are affiliated with.

“We often don’t know which entitlement we have. … For example, there are students who perhaps don’t know they have IMSS. There are, perhaps, pensioners who, having been married to a person who was a beneficiary of a [health care] institution, have the right [to health care at the same institution],” he said.

Registration process to start in March 

Welfare Minister Ariadna Montiel Reyes told reporters that the government will issue the health care cards to “the entire population of Mexico,” including children.

She said that 14,000 Welfare Ministry workers will work to register Mexicans so that they can receive their cards. Citizens will complete the registration process at 2,365 “modules” to be set up by the Welfare Ministry in an initial stage, Montiel said.

She said that adults will need to provide an official form of identification with a photo, such as a passport or voter ID card, and a document that includes their address in order to register to receive a health care card. Montiel said that people who register will have their photo and fingerprints taken for their new card.

At a later date, people who have registered will receive a telephone call or a text message advising where and when they can collect their physical card, she said.

La #MañaneraEnBreve de la presidenta @Claudiashein:

🪪 Credencial del Servicio Universal de Salud.

🥼 Salud Casa por Casa: más de 10 millones de consultas.

💉 Vacunas suficientes contra sarampión. pic.twitter.com/5XB5jzEDtC

— Gobierno de México (@GobiernoMX) January 21, 2026

Montiel said that the registration process will commence on Mar. 2 in 14 states that have signed onto the federal government’s IMSS Bienestar scheme. The process will begin in other “federalized” states on Mar. 23, and will subsequently take place in the states where IMSS Bienestar doesn’t operate.

How much will the issuance of the health care cards cost?

Sheinbaum said that the government will spend around 3.5 billion pesos (US $198.8 million) on the registration process and the issuance of the new health care cards.

She said that the government’s goal is for “all Mexicans” to get a card.

It remains to be seen how close the Sheinbaum administration will get to achieving that goal.

Many Mexicans who have private health insurance or can afford to pay for private treatment out of their own pocket prefer to seek medical treatment in the private system. Convincing such people to register for a universal health care card could prove to be a challenge.

Toward a more integrated public health care system

Sheinbaum said that the government needs to issue the cards in order to make progress toward a more integrated public health care system.

This year, Sheinbaum said, people will continue to access health care services at the facilities of the health care provider to which they belong. However, she indicated that the public health care system will become more unified at some point in the future, allowing people to access treatment at any public health care facility.

“Let’s suppose that I belong to ISSSTE and I go for treatment at IMSS. Where does IMSS get its money from? From the workers who are affiliated with IMSS, from employers and from the federal government. If an ISSSTE beneficiary [receives treatment from IMSS], … ISSSTE will have to pay IMSS for the treatment of that patient so that [public] health services don’t become unbalanced. For that to occur we have to make what we call a clearing house so that … [payments] are automatic,” Sheinbaum said.

“… When I was mayor [of Mexico City] we did that for the public transport systems,” she said, noting that her administration in the capital created an “integrated mobility” card that people can use on the Metro, in the Metrobús and on various other forms of public transport.

“And then every month we say, ‘Metro, you get this much; Metrobús, you get this much; Trolebús, you get this much,'” Sheinbaum said.

“So the process of digitalization is necessary to enter into a system of this type [for health care], [a system] that ensures that no entity is disadvantaged, but rather that resources are allocated appropriately to each of them,” she said.

“By law, IMSS can only treat its beneficiaries. It could treat others if you pay for the service. Of course, all this has to be developed gradually,” Sheinbaum said, adding that the “first step” is to issue the public health care cards.

The post Sheinbaum announces plan to standardize medical records and care: Tuesday’s mañanera recapped appeared first on Mexico News Daily

According to data from the Michoacán Security Ministry, 1,645 IEDS were neutralized by state authorities last year, an increase of 122.5% compared to 2024. The figure doesn’t include IEDs seized and deactivated by federal security forces such as the army and National Guard.

Crime groups that operate in Michoacán, including the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and Los Viagras, attach IEDs to drones to carry out aerial attacks and also use the devices as landmines and car bombs.

In 2023, the Michoacán government created a police task force called the Explosive Devices and Dangerous Materials Specialized Group to combat the use of IEDs, whose detonation has claimed the lives of civilians, police officers and soldiers in the state.

The newspaper El Universal reported that the group’s efforts are mainly concentrated in the Tierra Caliente and Sierra Costa regions of Michoacán, where organized crime activity is particularly prevalent.

According to Carlos Roberto Gómez Ruiz, chief of the specialized group, the use of IEDs by cartels and other criminal groups is now common.

“All the criminal factions are using these kinds of explosive devices,” said Gómez, who was quoted by El Universal in a Jan. 15 report.

“Not just here in the state [of Michoacán], in the whole country. Unfortunately, it is a common practice,” he said.

The New York Times reported last September that “like other armed groups around the world,” cartels in Mexico “combine old and new weapons to deadly effect.”

IED attacks in Michoacán

Improvised explosive devices have been used in numerous attacks in Michoacán in recent years. Among the fatal incidents are:

• The explosion of a car bomb outside a community police station in the town of Coahuayana last month that killed six people, including three police officers. The Michoacán Attorney General’s Office attributed the attack to members of the CJNG.
• The explosion of a landmine in the municipality of Los Reyes last May that claimed the lives of eight members of the National Guard. The location where the landmine detonated is part of an area where both the CJNG and the Cárteles Unidos (United Cartels) are vying for control, El Universal reported.
• The explosion of a land mine on a lime farm in the municipality of Buenavista last February that claimed the lives of two workers, including a 15-year-old boy.
• The death of four soldiers in the municipality of Aguililla in a May 2024 attack that was perpetrated by landmines, firearms and drones carrying explosives. The attack was attributed to the CJNG.

With reports from El Universal

The post In 1 year, Michoacán authorities deactivated more than 1,600 improvised explosive devices appeared first on Mexico News Daily

At the end of December 2025, there were 1,029,280 IMSS-affiliated employers in Mexico, a reduction of 2.4% compared to a year earlier.

The decline came after the number of IMSS-affiliated employers fell 1.6% in 2024.

In an economic analysis document, the Center for Economic Studies of the Private Sector (CEESP) noted that the number of IMSS-affiliated employers declined by 25,667 last year.

The research center said that the decline was the largest on record.

“The IMSS results reflect the complexity of listing new employers and keeping existing ones active,” CEESP said.

It said that the reduction in IMSS-affiliated employers was mainly due to the closure (or descent into informality) of businesses with a small number of employees. Such businesses, CEESP said, are least able to afford “the constant increase in labor costs” — including due to annual increases in the minimum wage — and to withstand economic uncertainty.

Oscar Ocampo, economic development director at the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (IMCO), noted that 83% of employers that were removed from IMSS’s list of formal sector employers in 2025 were businesses with five employees or fewer.

“This speaks to how costly it is to be a business owner in Mexico,” he said.

“In this country, it is very difficult for micro and small companies to do business,” said Ocampo, who was quoted in a report by El Sol de México.

What factors make survival difficult for businesses in Mexico?

According to Ocampo, businesses in Mexico, especially small ones, have been negatively affected by the slowdown in economic growth, low levels of investment (although foreign direct investment increased last year), the increase in the minimum wage and the increase in the number of paid vacation days to which formal sector employees are entitled.

The IMCO economic development director also said that extortion negatively impacts businesses. Extortion is a widespread problem in Mexico, and its incidence has increased since President Claudia Sheinbaum took office in October 2024.

Last July, the government launched a new national strategy against extortion as the centerpiece of its efforts to combat the crime, while in November, the Senate passed a new anti-extortion law.

Data from the ANPEC small business association shows that half of all businesses in Mexico have been victims of a crime, El Sol de México reported, and extortion is a particular problem for small businesses. Some such businesses are forced to make large payments on a regular basis to extortionists, a situation that affects their profitability and ongoing viability.

In Cuautla, Morelos, a city that journalist Ioan Grillo recently described in his publication CrashOut as Mexico’s “capital of extortion,” the crime is particularly prevalent.

“The butchers have to pay the maña, the criminals. Every kilo of beef they sell they pay 20 pesos. The tortilla shops pay. The public transport, the buses and taxis pay,” Francisco Cedeño, a local journalist, told Grillo last October.

The outlook for Mexico’s formal employment sector

In its analysis, CEESP wrote that the “signs of weakness” evident in Mexico’s formal employment sector at the end of 2025 could continue this year.

It noted that the number of formal sector employees in Mexico rose by 278,697 last year, representing an increase compared to 2024. However, CEESP pointed out that the figure is “significantly lower” than in previous years, except for “the year of the pandemic” — 2020 — when the Mexican economy contracted more than 8%.

The majority of the formal sector jobs created last year went to digital platform workers, such as Uber drivers and Rappi delivery workers, who were able to move out of the informal sector thanks to the launch of a pilot program that provided employment benefits to them.

CEESP wrote that to a “large extent,” the 2025 job creation numbers reflect “the difficulty of creating quality jobs” in Mexico, which it said increases “the need” for people to seek employment in the informal sector, which employs more than 50% of Mexican workers.

“We have already highlighted on several occasions the need for an environment that facilitates the creation of more jobs by formal companies,” CEESP said.

However, the research center said, “high labor costs” as well as “other factors such as
uncertainty resulting from high levels of insecurity and a judicial reform that could affect the intention to open new workplaces and close some existing ones” will “probably continue to limit the creation of formal jobs” this year.

With reports from El Sol de México

The post Mexico loses 25,000+ formal employers in record decline appeared first on Mexico News Daily