Attacks on and by students, a political comeback and the memory of past violence marked the week of Sept. 28 in Mexico. Two 17-year-old students from a prep school affiliated with the Autonomous University of the State of Morelos (UAEM) were shot dead in Cuernavaca on Saturday night, weeks after the Sept. 12 killing of Spanish exchange student Claudia Tacoronte. That brings to six the number of UAEM students murdered in Morelos this year. After students and members of the Somos party protested Sunday outside the state attorney general’s office, President Claudia Sheinbaum announced a special security plan for Morelos on Monday.
On Friday, the 58th anniversary of the Tlatelolco massacre, students, rural normalistas and parents of the 43 missing Ayotzinapa students marched from Mexico City’s Plaza de las Tres Culturas to the Zócalo. In Cuernavaca, students and families of slain youths marched for justice, and some protesters set fire to the exterior of the state government palace, causing no major damage, according to Animal Político. Morelos ranked first nationally in homicide rates among both 13-to-17-year-olds and 18-to-29-year-olds from January to August, the outlet noted.
Former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador resurfaced Wednesday with an 80-minute video message promoting his new book, “Pueblo,” which he dedicated to Sheinbaum, calling her “the best president in the world.” On Thursday, the second anniversary of her inauguration, Sheinbaum cited approval ratings of up to 75%, pointing to polls by FactoMétrica (74.9%) and El Financiero (70%). Meanwhile, Morena named its 17 presumptive candidates for the governorships up for election on June 6, 2027, including ex-Financial Intelligence Unit chief Santiago Nieto in Querétaro and Clara Luz Flores in Nuevo León.
Didn’t have time to catch this week’s top stories? Here’s what you missed.
Ebrard optimistic about trade talks
Bilateral negotiations of the USMCA trade agreement continued in the United States this week. Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard said Thursday that Mexico and the U.S. are getting “closer every day” to new trade terms. Speaking on the sidelines of a G-20 meeting in Milwaukee, Ebrard said he had held a one-hour meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. His priorities are reducing Section 232 tariffs on Mexican autos, steel, aluminum and copper, and preserving preferential treatment for USMCA-compliant goods.
Ebrard, in Milwaukee, strikes optimistic note on USMCA talks — ‘closer every day’
Ebrard said Mexico is in a better position than most countries at the summit, crediting Sheinbaum’s handling of relations with President Donald Trump. An anonymous Mexican official told France 24 that Mexico expects reductions on steel, cars and aluminum and is content to be patient if no deal arrives before the U.S. midterms on Nov. 3. Ebrard also confirmed a “new stage” in relations with India, where talks include tequila, which faces a 150% tariff.
Hurricane Polo hits Baja California Sur, then Sonora
After lingering off Mexico’s Pacific coast for much of a week, Hurricane Polo made landfall in Baja California Sur late Monday near Las Barrancas, in Comondú. It arrived as a Category 2 storm, far weaker than the Category 5 it reached days earlier, when it became one of the most rapidly intensifying storms on record. Before reaching the peninsula, it caused at least four deaths in Jalisco.
Polo dropped 15-30 centimeters of rain on Baja California Sur, but authorities reported no deaths or injuries. “There was more water than wind,” Gov. Víctor Manuel Castro Cosío said. The storm then crossed the Gulf of California and lashed the Sonora coast on Tuesday as a Category 1 hurricane, causing flooding, power outages and downed trees in Guaymas and Empalme.
Vice principal killed in Torreón school attack
On Thursday, two 18-year-old twin brothers who were former students attacked the Number 13 Secondary School in Torreón, Coahuila, with machetes and rudimentary explosives. Vice principal Nery Edith Narváez González was killed, and Security Minister Omar García Harfuch said four people were injured. Students helped restrain the suspects.
At her Friday mañanera, Sheinbaum announced a working group to demand that social media platforms remove content promoting violence. Luisa María Alcalde, Sheinbaum’s top legal adviser, will lead it, and a decree setting platform obligations is expected to be drafted next week. Authorities say the brothers were inspired by attackers abroad whom they learned about online.
Senate passes dual nationality ban for top offices
The Senate approved a constitutional reform on Tuesday requiring exclusive Mexican nationality for presidential, gubernatorial and Mexico City mayoral aspirants. The vote was 86 to 42, with Morena, the PT and the PVEM in favor. The bill needs ratification by at least 17 state legislatures, and would take effect in 2028 without affecting current officeholders. “The presidents of Mexico can only have one flag,” Sheinbaum said Wednesday.
Ayotzinapa: Authorities present 4 new lines of investigation
Twelve years after 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers College were abducted in Iguala, Guerrero, after municipal police stopped their bus on Sept. 26, 2014, federal officials outlined four new lines of investigation on Monday. Sheinbaum had stressed that morning that the case is “not closed” and that the students’ parents had been briefed. The remains of only three students have been identified, and 168 people face judicial proceedings, but no one has been convicted.
The first line stems from analysis of phone records, which identified 17 new suspects and calls between Guerreros Unidos members and staff at funeral homes and the health sector. Investigators say an Iguala funeral parlor owner who also ran forensic services used a student’s phone, prompting searches. In October 2025, authorities found a human femur, a firearm and an unregistered crematorium oven. Searches between March and June 2026 turned up hundreds of bone fragments, dental prostheses and bullet casings, now under expert analysis.
The second line, based on three students’ phones later used by a municipal official, a police officer and people close to an ex-public servant, strengthens the hypothesis that 17 students were taken to the Iguala municipal lockup. The third identified a new suspect who was 14 at the time and whose July 30 statement implicates Guerreros Unidos members. The fourth concerns the concealment of courthouse security video from that night, which led to the arrests of a former judge and inspector and the Aug. 6 arrest of former Guerrero Gov. Ángel Aguirre.
Deputy Interior Minister Arturo Medina said 17 soldiers face prosecution but that the army as an institution is not accused. Tomás Zerón, the former head of the Criminal Investigation Agency, remains at large in Israel.
Oaxaca prosecutors investigate six municipal presidents
After the Sept. 23 arrest of Juchitán Mayor Miguel Sánchez Altamirano over alleged ties to a CJNG-linked group, the Oaxaca Attorney General’s Office has opened cases against six other municipal presidents, all tied to Juchitán. Attorney General Bernardo Rodríguez said they come from “different political affiliations.” A warrant was issued for Mariano Rosado, Sánchez’s second-in-command, and Emilio Montero resigned as head of the state’s public education institute. The Isthmus of Tehuantepec has recorded 957 murders since 2022, 70% linked to the “Los Cromos” gang.
Airlines abandon Tulum
Aeroméxico suspended its Tulum flights after Sept. 30, and Volaris then announced it will end service starting Jan. 7, 2027. The airport handled 471,500 travelers from January to June, a 33.2% drop from last year, and beachfront hotel occupancy was below 20% by mid-September. Volaris pointed to rising costs for foreign visitors, including a planned 35% increase in the non-resident fee.
Peso nosedives as growth, jobs and exports impress
Peso returns to 18 to the dollar
The peso weakened to 18 per U.S. dollar on Monday, a 6.2% drop from the month’s strongest close of 16.89 on Sept. 4. The newspaper El Financiero blamed risk aversion, higher oil prices after Trump rejected an Iranian proposal on the Strait of Hormuz, and a tighter U.S. Federal Reserve, which raised its rate by 25 basis points to 3.75%-4%. The peso ended Friday at 18.16, and Banco Base’s Gabriela Siller said it could end the year near 2025’s close of 18.0080.
The slide came just after the MND Peso Index™ found the peso to be 5.8% overvalued in early September, its highest reading yet, comparing a 16.98 Banxico FIX rate with an MND Peso Rate of 17.96. With the peso now near 18, that gap has largely closed, at least for now.
Economy grows 3.3% in July
Mexico’s economy grew 3.3% year over year in July, the strongest monthly result of 2026, according to INEGI, with services up 4% and the secondary sector 2.4%. Pantheon Economics’ Andrés Abadía said July puts the third quarter in a “much stronger position than expected,” but that one month doesn’t make a sustained recovery.
Employment tops 60 million
Labor Minister Marath Bolaños said Monday that 60.7 million people were employed at the end of August, up 1.2 million from a year earlier. He didn’t mention that 55% of workers are in the informal sector.
Exports surge, led by computers
Exports rose 40.4% annually in August and 29.3% through eight months, reaching a record US $549.4 billion. Non-automotive manufacturing, mainly computer equipment, was up more than 63% in August. Mexico exported nearly $83 billion in servers, 93.9% of them to the U.S. Analysts flagged the dependence and reliance on Asian suppliers, with Taiwan providing about 44% of key inputs.
Looking ahead
- Morelos security: Sheinbaum said the federal government will coordinate with Gov. Margarita González Saravia on where support is needed, and Interior Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez has been in touch with the UAEM rector. Cuernavaca Mayor José Luis Urióstegui has warned that security leadership could change if there are no results within two weeks.
- Social media decree: Security Minister García Harfuch said work on a decree setting obligations for platforms to detect and remove violent content is expected to begin next week.
- Dual nationality reform: The bill heads to the state legislatures, where Morena holds majorities. Sen. Jasmin Bugarín, who was born in Los Angeles, has pledged to renounce her U.S. citizenship.
- Trade and the peso: Tariff talks continue ahead of the Nov. 3 U.S. midterms. The peso’s gap with the dollar could widen if the Fed raises rates again next month.
Mexico News Daily
This story contains summaries of original Mexico News Daily articles. The summaries were generated by Claude, then revised and fact-checked by a Mexico News Daily staff editor.
