MEXICO CITY – Mexico experienced a 2023 marked by the presidential race ahead of the June 2024 elections and tensions and agreements with the United States government on issues such as fentanyl and the migration flow.
But he also experienced the global success of the artist Peso Pluma and the advance of the devastating Hurricane Otis in the city of Acapulco on the Pacific coast.
These are the 10 news stories that shaped the country in 2023
1. MEXICO WILL HAVE A PRESIDENT
In 2023, Claudia Sheinbaum, former head of government of the Mexican capital, was elected as the ruling party's pre-candidate for the June 2, 2024 elections. She has always been cited as President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's favorite to face Xóchitl Gálvez, the Broad Front's rival candidate for Mexico.
Although more candidates have yet to be identified, they are leading the polls, meaning the country will most likely have its first female president, something activists and academics say is very relevant year-round when considering the roots of machismo in Mexico.
2. WORLDWIDE SUCCESS IN THE FEATHERWEIGHT
Jalisco singer Hassan Emilio Kabande, known as Peso Pluma, occupied the top spot on the world charts for much of the year with the song “She dances alone,” which he performs with Eslabón Armado, and made it to the “30th” list Under.” 30″ from Forbes magazine.
The artist sang at the Coachella festival in California, one of the most important in the world.
With his success, Mexican music, especially corridos tumbados, a genre that he leads together with others such as Natanael Cano or Junior H, triumphed all over the world.
3. INCREASE IN THE MINIMUM WAGE
On December 1, López Obrador announced that Mexico's minimum wage would increase by 20% in 2024. Thanks to the consensus of the government, employers and unions, it will rise from 207.44 pesos per day ($11.92) to 248.93 pesos ($14.31).
In 2023, authorities agreed to a 20% increase in the minimum wage, benefiting 6.4 million workers.
4. Increase migration flow
During the year, the migration crisis has escalated to record levels, with the number of people from Central American countries, Venezuela, Cuba and Haiti arriving in Mexico to reach the United States numbering in the millions.
The United States Customs and Border Protection agency said its agents encountered 2.47 million migrants at the border with Mexico in fiscal year 2023.
5. HURRICANE OTIS
In the early hours of October 25, Hurricane Otis, rising from intensity 1 to intensity 5 in less than 10 hours, made landfall in Acapulco, in the southern state of Guerrero, breaking the record for hurricane intensity in Mexican history. and caused more than 50 deaths.
It caused such devastation that traders and businessmen could hardly resume their activities, and Acapulqueños assure that help from state and federal local authorities is not enough.
6. CHAOS CASE AYOTZINAPA
The emblematic case of the 43 Ayotzinapa students who disappeared in the southern state of Guerrero in 2014 has not yet been solved.
Although López Obrador promised at the beginning of his term that the case would be resolved after he left the presidency, the year 2023 has been a year of dissatisfaction for the parents of the students, especially due to the refusal of the Mexican army to comply with the request of the Interdisciplinary Group independent Experts (GIEI) from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) who had to leave Mexico because it was not possible to move forward with the case.
7. INAUGURATION OF THE MAYA TRAIN
On December 15, López Obrador gave the starting signal for his star project, the Mayan Train, by inaugurating the first stage, 473 kilometers between Campeche and Cancún, of this “great work” at the San Francisco Campeche train station.
The president ignored criticism from environmentalists and called it “politics.”
8. FENTANYL
The Mexican and United States governments collaborated in 2023 to combat the use of fentanyl, a drug that caused the deaths of more than 70,000 people due to overdose in 2023.
According to recent investigations from Washington, fentanyl is manufactured in Mexico, with precursors shipped from China, which both deny, and then shipped to the United States.
9. FIRE AT THE CIUDAD JUÁREZ IMMIGRATION STATION
On March 27, 40 migrants died and another 27 were injured in a fire at the immigration station in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, in the north of the country.
Due to this fact, the representative of the National Migration Institute (INM), Francisco Garduño, was linked to the process. On August 13, the government began compensating families of fire victims totaling 140 million pesos ($8.2 million).
10. Capture of Ovidio Guzman
On January 5, 2023, Ovidio Guzmán, one of Joaquín “el Chapo” Guzmán's sons most wanted by the United States, was arrested in Culiacán in the northern state of Sinaloa, an arrest that led to various blockades, shooting attacks, and the burning of cars in said city.