MXPE Weekly Essentials

Sheinbaum: The last neoliberal, murder falls, grocery war, and other highlights in Mexican politics, policy, and markets from the past week.

“What’s truly unbelievable is that we’re now the ones defending the USMCA,” lamented La Jornada last week. A left-wing, usually pro-government newspaper, its criticism came just days away from the implementation of tariffs on Mexico and the rest of the world by the Trump administration.

Allies and opponents alike have been scratching their heads as to why the party in government, Morena, founded on its opposition to regional free trade back when the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement was the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) continues to support it.

Even more confounding; one the most iconic photos of Claudia Sheinbaum in her youth was one of the now-president of Mexico at an anti-NAFTA rally at Berkeley University, where she was conducting her doctoral research. In the photo, she holds a placard that reads: “Fair Trade and Democracy Now!!”