mexico institute

MCALLEN, Texas - Mexico expert Duncan Wood says the state he is paying most attention to in Mexico these days is Nuevo León.

Wood is vice president for strategy and new initiatives at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C., and senior advisor to the Mexico Institute, which is housed within the Wilson Center.

Wood spoke at three events in the Rio Grande Valley recently. At each one he praised the leadership of Nuevo León governor, Samuel Alejandro García Sepúlveda.

Wood handed out a slideshow print-out at a breakfast event hosted by the CEO Club at the McAllen Country Club. It showed that Nuevo León is currently capturing 72.2 percent of Mexico’s near-shoring. The data was sourced from GBM and CRB.

Here are Wood’s remarks about Nuevo León and its “Tesla moment.”

To read the new stories and watch the news videos of the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service go to www.riograndeguardian.com.

REYNOSA, Tamaulipas - Of the 32 states in Mexico, Tamaulipas is the fourth most “peaceful,” according to a report published by Vision of Humanity.

“Yucatán was once again the most peaceful state in Mexico, followed by Tlaxcala, Chiapas, Tamaulipas and Nayarit,” the report states.

“Reflecting the great divergence in violence levels across the country, the average homicide rate in the most peaceful states was 9.2 deaths per 100,000 people, compared to an average rate of 74.6 in the least peaceful states.”

Details of the report were first publicized in the Rio Grande Valley by Duncan Wood, vice president for strategy and new initiatives at the Wilson Center and senior advisor to the Mexico Institute, on his recent visit to the region. Neither the Wilson Center of the Mexico Institute played any part in producing the report.

At a breakfast event hosted by the CEO Club at the McAllen Country Club, Wood said Tamaulipas was reportedly the fourth most peaceful state in Mexico. Some members of in the audience chuckled when he said it. Wood acknowledged the findings of the report seem hard to believe.

Wood brought up the report in a Q&A after his speech. Paul R. Rodriguez, CEO of Valley Land Title Co., asked the question. “What about the elephant in the room has to be security. Where do you think Mexico stands there?” Rodriguez asked.

Wood gave a detailed response about national security in Mexico in general. He then addressed Tamaulipas specifically.

“I was looking at the data on security header of this trip. I wanted to look at how Tamaulipas is doing. And weirdly enough, there's a Peacefulness Index. It’s a Global Index, but then the index on Mexico was recently released. And Tamaulipas was classified as the fourth most peaceful state in Mexico,” Wood said.

After murmurs from the CEO Club members, Wood responded:

“Yeah, yeah, exactly. It doesn't make sense, right? So I asked some of my colleagues, how do you explain this? And one of them took the time to write to the folks who authored the report.”

Editor's Note: Go to the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service website to read the full story.

To read the new stories and watch the news videos of the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service go to www.riograndeguardian.com.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - On August 10th and 11th the Border Trade Alliance sponsored a virtual two-day conference called Building a Competitive U.S.-Mexico Border, hosted by the Mexico Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C.

Each year the border conference brings together policymakers, business leaders, and local elected officials for a dialogue that focuses on improving border management to strengthen the competitiveness of both the United States and Mexico. 

This year's event placed specific emphasis on trade, travel and health as guest speakers considered how the border region will recover from the myriad impacts of COVID-19. 

The seventh annual-high level "Building a Competitive U.S.-Mexico Border" conference hosted by the Mexico Institute and the Border Trade Alliance featured panel discussions with U.S. and Mexican public and private sector officials bringing sought-after perspectives to two days of discussion on border management.

To watch a video of the two days of discussions, click here.

Attached is the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service’s audio podcast of the event.

To read the new stories and watch the news videos of the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service go to www.riograndeguardian.com.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar says he learns more about border policy from the Mexican government than he does the Biden Administration.

The Laredo Democrat’s criticism of the White House’s approach to border security and immigration was voiced in a keynote address he gave at the Mexico Institute’s 7th Annual Building a Competitive U.S.-Mexico Border Conference.

In a Q&A following his remarks, Andrew I. Rudman, director of the Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute, asked Cuellar what metrics the Biden Administration has put in place to reopen the U.S.-Mexico border to so-called “non-essential” travel. 

Cuellar responded that he and U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, added language to an appropriations bill last December that dealt with ways to reopen the border. However, he said the Biden Administration is not taking any notice.

“We exactly asked them, hey, tell us your metrics, be more transparent, tell us how you are going to open up the border. Right now we are working in a void. Nobody understands what they (the Biden Administration) are doing,” Cuellar said.

“They don’t listen to people at the border. I am not talking about myself. I am talking about the businessmen, the county judges, the sheriffs, the mayors, the folks and the businesses at the border. So, there is no… as you mentioned… the key is, there are no metrics.”

Cuellar said border communities would like to know when land ports of entries are going to reopen to Mexican visa holders. He pointed out that before the coronavirus pandemic, 18 million Mexicans crossed the border each year, spending $19 billion in the United States.

“We are just at a whim of the administration and I just wish the administration would understand this. And every time I have talked to the secretary I have told him. With all due respect they give me answers that do not really make sense,” Cuellar said.

Editor's Note: To read the full story go to the Rio Grande Guardian website.

Editor's Note: The attached podcast contains the raw audio from Congressman Cuellar's remarks at the Mexico Institute’s 7th Annual Building a Competitive U.S.-Mexico Border Conference.

To read the new stories and watch the news videos of the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service go to www.riograndeguardian.com.

HARLINGEN, Texas - The Mexico Institute of the Woodrow Wilson International Center Scholars and the Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center of the Atlantic Council host a webinar recently on Mexico's upcoming mid-term elections.

The election takes place June 6. It will be the largest election in Mexico’s history with electors choosing candidates for over 21,000 offices. 

The election marks the halfway point in President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's term of office. Analysts see it as a referendum on his first three years in office. 

“The outcome of this election will determine the extent to which López Obrador can implement his agenda and national reforms. With a weak and divided opposition, López Obrador's ruling party, Morena, is expected to maintain control in Congress,” the Mexico Institute says.

Among the speakers was Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, a former associate professor in the Department of Public Affairs and Security Studies at UT-Rio Grande Valley. Correa-Cabrera is now associate professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. Her areas of expertise are Mexico-U.S. relations, organized crime, immigration, border security, social movements and human trafficking.

"What is this election about? It is about two political forces,” Correa-Cabrera said.

“One, of course, is AMLO’s project, the Morena project, with all its limitations and strengths. And, also, the groups that try to restore the previous regime - the regime that López Obrador called the neoliberal regime.”

Correa-Cabrera added: "I don’t think that the United States understands the complexity of Mexico today. And why is this? Because when I read some of the statements, for example, in terms of security or energy, it's if as in the United States there is this idea that we are in the 1990s or we are in the first decade of the twenty-first century and we’re not like that." 

Andrew I. Rudman is director of the Mexico Institute. During the webinar, he said: "All elections are important, and each is described as more important, more consequential than the last. But, at the risk of following that hyperbole, I would argue that this election is indeed the most important and consequential in Mexico's relatively brief democratic history, with significant political power at stake."

Editor's Note: To read the full story go to the Rio Grande Guardian website. 

To read the new stories and watch the news videos of the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service go to www.riograndeguardian.com.

WASHINGTON, D.C.- The Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute hosted a webcast to discuss the latest report from Mexican thinktank Signos Vitales. 

“The Pandemic in Mexico: The Scope of the Tragedy” is a two-part analysis of  the devastating economic impact of COVID-19 in the country. 

Duncan Wood, director of the Mexico Institute, moderated the discussion with panelists Eduardo Gonzalez-Pier, fellow at the Center for Global Development; Valeria Moy, general director of the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness; and Enrique Cardenas, president of Signos Vitales.

Major points included the country’s delayed response to the pandemic, miscommunication and tension between local and federal agencies, the resulting GDP loss, a bleak forecast and, finally, lessons learned.

"It would be shameful is this crisis goes go to waste, and, by that, I mean there are very important lessons of what cannot happen with our health sector,” said Gonzalez-Pier. “We should start thinking about what all these numbers mean to avoid mistakes and identify what was gone right so that that we learn from this. "

He continued: “We need to share with the rest of the global community what happened in Mexico … Our assessment is not only for Mexico; it is also of global concern. The learning that might come from this exercise will have externalities for the better working of our governments."

To read the new stories and watch the news videos of the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service go to www.riograndeguardian.com.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - In light of Mexican President López Obrador's visit to the United States to meet with President Trump this week, the Wilson Center's Mexico Institute hosted a dialogue with experts on the state of U.S.-Mexico relations.

The webinar was titled "AMLO, Trump, and the Bilateral Relationship." It was moderated by Duncan Wood, director of the Mexico Institute.

The panel consisted of Earl Anthony Wayne, a former U.S. Ambassador and Mexico Public Policy Fellow & Advisory Board Co-Chair at the Mexico Institute, Roberta Jacobson, a former U.S.-Ambassador to Mexico and Advisory Board Member at the Mexico Institute, Gerónimo Gutiérrez Fernandez, a former U.S. ambassador to the United States and former managing director of the North American Development Bank, Alejandro Moreno, professor of political science at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM), and Carlos Heredia, a Mexican economist and associate professor at the China Studies Unit of the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE) in Mexico City.

"Presidential visits are always important," Wood said.

To read the new stories and watch the news videos of the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service go to www.riograndeguardian.com.