Who is behind Mexico’s Gen Z protest

MXPE Weekly Essentials ft. Chinese automakers in Mexico, $2.6 bn in back taxes, and other highlights in Mexican politics, policy, and markets from the past week.

MXPE Weekly Essentials. Only the most important news in Mexican politics, policy, and markets from the past week.

Last week’s highlights:

• Honey, I shrunk the kids—In a previous “Don’t get distracted by…” section, The Mexico Political Economist covered the announcement of the so-called Gen Z march against president Claudia Sheinbaum’s government. Despite claims to be representing Mexico’s youth, the Gen Z groups cited as organisers of the protests came out to say they were not involved. The largest and most influential group behind the demonstration was repurposed from a previous X account for the protest having previously only posted messages in support of Venezuela’s opposition. The movement has no public-facing organisers. Doubts over who was really behind the march became so prominent that even Grecia Quiroz, the widow and successor mayor Carlos Manzo—whose murder was purportedly the reason the demonstration was called—came out to say that she was not taking part.
  The protest happened on Saturday, and while there was a substantial turnout (in the tens of thousands across the country), most of the attendees were over 50. It begs the question, why call a protest “Gen Z” when it clearly wasn’t organised by them? The answer is branding.