On January 31, 2026, at an event in San Quintín, Baja California, President Claudia Sheinbaum publicly scolded legislators of her party, Morena, who had asked her for a photo. A video of the moment spread widely. At her press conference the following Monday, she called it “un regaño caluroso” (a warm scolding).
politics
The Supermachos
In the 1960s, the cartoonist Rius drew Los Supermachos, a political comic set in San Garabato, an invented Mexican village. How he lost it is told in two ways. A 2002 article in Universo, the newspaper of the University of Veracruz, says: “El editor de la revista, presionado por el gobierno, le quitó los personajes a Rius” (The magazine’s editor, under pressure from the government, took the characters away from Rius).
The comics encyclopedia Lambiek says instead that Rius left the series in 1967 after a dispute with his publisher over editorial censorship.
Sending Hints
Mandar indirectas, “to send indirect remarks,” is everyday Mexican usage, also in politics. On December 27, 2021, SDP Noticias reported: “Aseguran que AMLO mandó indirectas en la mañanera a ‘lambiscones’ y ‘aduladores'” (They say AMLO sent hints at his morning press conference to “bootlickers” and “flatterers”).
Letters of Gold
On the Wall of Honor of the Chamber of Deputies, names are inscribed in gold letters. The chamber states its purpose: “mantener vivo el recuerdo de los hombres, mujeres e instituciones que han brindado relevantes servicios a la patria” (to keep alive the memory of the men, women and institutions that have rendered relevant services to the nation).
The chamber’s list of inscriptions since 1994 begins with Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, by a decree published in April 1995. The most recent, by a decree published on March 3, 2025, honors “la Comunidad Mexicana Migrante” (the Mexican migrant community).
The Belisario Domínguez Medal
The Mexican Senate awards the Belisario Domínguez Medal. According to El Financiero, it was instituted by a decree published in the Diario Oficial on January 28, 1953. It goes to Mexicans whose “actividad pública los ha distinguido por su servicio a México” (public activity has distinguished them by their service to Mexico). The decree provided that it be presented in a solemn session of the Senate.
The Moral Primer
In 1944, the writer Alfonso Reyes wrote the Cartilla moral, a primer of moral guidance. Its text states: “La moral nos obliga a una serie de respetos” (Morality obliges us to a series of respects).
In January 2019, the government of President López Obrador began distributing a new edition of 10,000 copies. Expansión reported that the reissue had stirred controversy.
Powers Beyond the Constitution
In 1978, the jurist Jorge Carpizo published El presidencialismo mexicano (Mexican Presidentialism) with Siglo XXI. Among the causes of the president’s dominance, he listed “las amplias facultades constitucionales y extraconstitucionales, como son la facultad de designar a su sucesor y a los gobernadores de las entidades federativas” (the broad constitutional and extraconstitutional powers, such as the power to designate his successor and the governors of the states).
In a text published by the Law Faculty of UNAM, Serrano Migallón writes that legal doctrine calls some of the president’s attributions “facultades metaconstitucionales” (metaconstitutional powers). A footnote there refers readers to Carpizo’s book.
The Democratic Current
A “Documento de trabajo número uno” (Working Paper Number One), dated October 1, 1986, was signed by a group of PRI members, among them Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas and Porfirio Muñoz Ledo. The group, known as the Corriente Democrática, asked the party to open the selection of its candidates to its base. It questioned the dedazo, the method by which the candidate for president was designated.
On March 4, 1987, at the party’s national assembly, PRI president Jorge de la Vega Domínguez said: “En el PRI no tendrán cabida ni la quinta columna ni los caballos de Troya” (In the PRI there will be no room for a fifth column or for Trojan horses). In October 1987, Cárdenas joined another party, the PARM, as its presidential candidate.
The objection was made in a signed document, inside the party. By the end of 1987, Cárdenas and Muñoz Ledo had both left the PRI.
Eight from the City
In July 2024, Expansión reported that Claudia Sheinbaum would bring eight people from her time as head of government of Mexico City into her federal cabinet.
Among them were Rosa Icela Rodríguez, her first secretary of government in the capital, and Omar García Harfuch, whom she named the city’s security secretary in 2019. Ernestina Godoy had led the city’s prosecutor’s office. Jesús Esteva had run its public works ministry since the start of her administration in December 2018.
The Technocrats
Miguel de la Madrid earned a master’s degree in public administration at Harvard on a scholarship from the Bank of Mexico. Carlos Salinas de Gortari took two master’s degrees and a doctorate at Harvard. Ernesto Zedillo completed a doctorate in economics at Yale in 1981. All three became president of Mexico.
The political group around them is known colloquially as the tecnócratas, the technocrats.