Events of 2019 in Mexico. The article also lists the most important political leaders during the year at both federal and state levels and includes a brief year-end summary of major social and economic issues.
Mayor Alejandro Aparicio Santiago of Tlaxiaco, Oaxaca was shot dead just hours after being sworn in. Four others were injured. A suspect was arrested in what appears to be a drug-related shooting.[18]
January 31: The Guerra de Dinastías (literally "War of the Dynasties" or "War of the Families") wrestling event takes place in Naucalpan, State of Mexico.
February
February 1: An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.6 hit off the coast of Chiapas.[24]
February 15: "Bahidorá" music festival begins in Las Estacas, Morelos.*March 16: "Vive Latino" music festival begins in Mexico City.[28]
February 16: Radio announcer Reynaldo López and reporter Carlos Cota were shot in Hermosillo, Sonora, in an attack that left López dead and Cota in critical condition.[29]
February 17: Five people have been killed and five more wounded after gunmen burst into a bar Cancun and opened fire. The gunmen are said to belong to the Jalisco New Generation cartel.[30]
An earthquake with a magnitude of 4.7 strikes 46 km west of Colima.[31]
2019 Morelos Open professional tennis tournament begins in Cuernavaca.
February 19: Samir Flores, a leading opponent of the construction of a thermoelectric plant in Yecapixtla, Morelos, was murdered outside his home in Amilcingo, Temoac. Earlier in the week, Rubén Fajardo, another opponent of the plant, was murdered in Jiutepec.[32]
February 21: A German court fines two ex-employers of German gun maker Heckler & Koch for illegal gun sales to Mexico.[33]
February 28: Two people were killed and 10 wounded in a shooting in Sofia bar in Cuernavaca, Morelos. Several popular bars and nightclubs were subsequently closed in protest against insecurity. The police chief was fired on March 2 for the same reason.[38]
March 5: Mexican scientists discover a cave at the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza containing around 200 ceramic vessels in nearly perfect condition. They are believed to be 1,000 years old.[40]
A ruptured sewer line causes a health alert in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco. The 48" sewage line collapsed on March 3.[42]
23 Guatemalan immigrants, including two children, are killed and 33 injured as a bus turns over in Chiapas.[43]
594 paintings that were stolen from Mexico in the 1960s and 1970s are returned by the government of Italy.[44]
March 9: An armed group bursts into a bar in Salamanca, Guanajuato) during government operation against El Marro, leader of the cartel Santa Rosa de Lima, dedicated to the theft of gasoline in Mexico. Fifteen killed, five wounded.[45][46]
At 2:30 p.m. the Popocatépetl volcano sent a column of ashes five kilometers into the air.[50] A smaller explosion occurred four days later, March 18.[51]
About 20 SUVs supposedly belong to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel participated in the Carnaval parade in the Xalapa, Veracruz. Videos of hooded men carrying heavy-caliber firearms circulated in social media.[52]
21:38 local time, fragments of the dome of Popocateptl shoot within 1aone and a half-mile radius.[55] Due to continuing activity, on March 28, based on the analysis of the available information, the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Popocatépetl volcano recommended changing the phase of the Yellow Volcanic Warning Light Phase 2 to Yellow Phase 3, which is a preventive measure against the observed changes.[56]
Between 5:31 and 10:30 a.m., forty-two earthquakes with magnitudes ranging from 1.9 to 4.4, were reported in Oaxaca.[58]
In a landmark decision for freedom of the press, the Supreme Court rules that the attorney general of Veracruz cannot block the Twitter account of a journalist.[59]
Mexican security forces arrest Agustín Medina Soto, a suspected Santa Rosa de Lima cartel operator who worked as a liaison with authorities in Celaya, Guanajuato.[62]
After an explosion recorded this morning by the Popocatepetl volcano, the warning light went up from yellow phase 2 to yellow phase 3, the National Center for Disaster Prevention (Cenapred) reported at a press conference.[68]
Mexico's largest hotel and resort conglomerate, Nayarit-based Grupo Vidanta, has announced the launch of a Mexican cruise line, Vidanta Cruises.[69]
The first contracts have been signed for the Mayan Train project, the general manager of the National Tourism Development Fund (Fonatur) announced yesterday.[70]
The Congress of the Union approves a measure to do away with presidential immunity (el fuero) while preserving immunity for themselves.[73]
March 29: Mexican sports journalist Omar Ivan Camacho, 35, who worked with Noticieros Altavoz de Chavez Radiocast and helped run the Evora Sport website, has been found dead in the municipality of Salvador Alvarado, Sinaloa. He becomes the seventh journalist murdered in Mexico since Andrés Manuel López Obrador became president on December 1, 2018.[74]
Delfino Sánchez Zavala, the delegate-elect from Tejalpa, Jiutepec, Morelos, was shot and killed outside his store. The meeting of the town council planned for Sunday, March 31 was canceled.[76]
The Senate declares that changes to Article 19 of the Constitution of Mexico are constitutional. The reform expands the definition of serious crimes to include corruption, crimes related to hydrocarbons, home invasion, kidnapping, and murder, among others.[78]
A MXN $46 million (peso) robbery was carried out in three minutes at the Guanajuato airport.[79]
The government of Catalonia announces that it supports President Lopez Obrador's request that Spain apologize for its genocide during the Conquest.[80]
April 5: President Andrés Manuel López Obrador declares that the National Guard will be headed by an active-duty military leader.[81]
April 22: An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.5 had its epicenter in Pinotepa Nacional, Oaxacca and was felt in Mexico City, where the early warning system did not go off. No damages or injuries have been reported.[92]
April 23: David Eduardo Otlica Avilés, the mayor of Nahuatzen, Michoacán, is kidnapped and killed.[93][94]
April 24:
U.S. President Donald Trump accuses Mexican soldiers of pulling guns on members of the United States National Guard in a remote part of Texas on April 13.[95] Trump also renewed his threat to close the border and send more soldiers if Mexico does not block a new caravan of Central American immigrants.[96]
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announces that construction on the New Mexico City airport will begin on Monday, April 29, and that it will be named Felipe Ángeles (1868-1919).[97]
April 25: Daniela Soto-Innes, 28, has been named The World's Best Female Chef by The World's 50 Best Restaurants list. She is the first Mexican woman to be so honored, and she is also the youngest person to be so honored. She works at Cosme in New York City and is co-owner of Atla in the same city. She also worked at Pujol in Mexico City.[98]
April 29: Aidée Mendoza Jeronimo, 18, a student at National Autonomous University of Mexico, is killed by a stray bullet in her classroom. Mendoza Jeronimo was from Tempexquixla, Puebla. She was the sixth woman murdered on the university campus in the last two years.[99]
Members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel gave children presents for Children's Day in several municipalities of Veracruz, including Cordoba, Yanga, Cuitláhuac, Rio Blanco, la Perla, and Amatlan. Governor Cuitláhuac García Jiménez has promised an investigation.[100]
4,000 protesters in Mexico City and 30,000 protesters in 30 cities around the country join the highly promoted "Megamarcha contra AMLO." The march in León, Guanajuato was led by former president Vicente Fox.[107][108]
Businessman Jesús García and another man were killed while two others were injured when they were shot at about 10:00 a.m. in downtown Cuernavaca, Morelos. Garcia was the father of Juan Manuel García Bejarano, who was murdered in 2017 while organizing the traditional Spring Fair in the city.[112]
Robbery of gasoline from a Pemex pipeline in Chiapas caused an explosion. Mixed reports are unclear about fatalities. A similar explosion on January 18, 2019 caused 135 deaths.[113]
Two days after being diagnosed with cancer, singer Vicente Fernández turned down a liver transplant because he is afraid it may come from a homosexual.[114]
UNICEF issues a report that says four children are killed every day in Mexico.[115] Juan Martín Pérez of Redim (Red por los Derechos de la Infancia en México–Network for Child Rights in Mexico) put the figure at three deaths daily.[116]
Continuing the wave of violence in Morelos, five employees of the federal womem's penitentiary in Puente de Ixtla are gunned down on their way to work. Three others are injured. The incident took place at a bus stop located in front of a statue built to honor mothers.[118]
Mexican walker Lupita González has been suspended for four years due to allegations of using the steroid Trenbolone. She is disqualified from the 2020 Summer Olympics, among other events. González plans to appeal.[119]
45 bodies have been found in clandestine graves. 30 bodies were found in Sonora and 15 in Guadalajara, Jalisco.[120]
Death sentences for three Mexicans convicted of drug trafficking in Malaysia are commuted.[121]
The owner of Colegio Rébsamen, Mónica García Villegas, has been arrested and charged with murder in relation to the deaths of 19 students and 7 adults in the September 19, 2017 earthquake.[122]
May 12: Eleven people, including an 8-year-old boy, are killed in a shooting in Chilapa de Álvarez, Guerrero, near Chilpancingo. Also two bodies of men who were apparently tortured were found in Tlaxmalac, Huitzuco, a taxi driver was murdered in Taxco, another man was killed in El Pochote, Teloloapan, and five were killed in Acapulco.[123]
May 14: Mexico City mayor Claudia Sheinbaum announces that 2019 will be the last year that the Mexican Grand Prix will be held because the MXN $400 million (US$20.865 million) fee will be diverted to the Tren Maya. It is estimated that the race generates MXN $8,400 million for Mexico.[124]
For the first time in its 85-year history, the Palacio de Bellas Artes has been used for religious purposes. The opera El guardián del espejo (Guard of the mirror) in honor of Evangelist Naasón Joaquín García was shown at the theater. Authorities are looking into a lawsuit.[126] On May 22, Alejandra Frausto Guerrero, Secretary of Culture, stated that the event was a concert, not a religious event.[127]
Mexican wines win 39 medals, including two grand gold and two gold, at the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles held in Aigle, Switzerland. This puts Mexico in the top 10 best wine-making countries in the world.[128]
"Festival Marvin" music festival begins in Mexico City.[28]
71 forest fires in 18 states have been registered.[129] Classes in preschools, elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, and universities in the Valley of Mexico and other places have been canceled.[130][131] Another report puts the number of fires at 109 in 19 states, but some have been extinguished.[132]
May 20: President Lopez Obrador signs a decree eliminating a special tax break for over 100 of Mexico's largest companies. He says that in the last twelve years, large corporations got away without paying MXN $400 billion in taxes.[138] A few days earlier, Servicio de Administración Tributaria (Mexican revenue service) announced that they will start to withhold taxes on drivers for Uber, DiDi, Cabify, and similar ride services.[139]
Seven socially-prominent Mexicans, including Emilio Salinas Occelli (son of former president Carlos Salinas de Gortari) and Ana Cristina Fox (daughter of former president Vicente Fox, Rosa Laura Junco, Loreta Garza Dávila (business leader from Nuevo Leon, Daniela Padilla, Camila Fernández, and Mónica Durán, have been accused of involvement with a sex slave ring known as NXIVM.[147]
The Tigres win the national soccer championship, the Liga MX.[150]
May 27: Pureblood "Kublaigo", ridden by Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, wins the 74th Hándicap de las Américas horse race in Mexico City.[151]
May 28: Alonso Ancira, the owner and president of Altos Hornos de México (Mexico's largest steel mill), was arrested in connection with the 2014 sale of a fertilizer plant to PEMEX, the Mexican-state oil company. The bank accounts of Altos Hornos and Emilio Lozoya Austin, the former CEO of PEMEX, were frozen 24 hours earlier. It is believed that Lozoya will soon be arrested.[152]
Pharmaceutical companies of India and Spain are the first countries to offer the sale of low-priced medicine in Mexico.[154]
May 30: U.S. President Donald Trump declares he will impose a 5% tariff on all Mexican goods imported by the United States starting June 10, 2019. The tax will increase by another 5% every month until undocumented immigrants stop crossing the border.[155]
During the "5th March for Peace", Cuernavaca Bishop Ramón Castro Castro declares that 18 of 36 municipal governments in the state of Morelos are controlled by drug dealers. Governor Cuauhtémoc Blanco, who as mayor had led the marches, was notably absent.[160]
June 3: The government of Mexico City announces its Plan de Reduccíon de Emisisiones del Sector Movilidad ("Plan for Reduction of Emissions in Transportation") with the intent of reducing vehicular-caused pollution by 2024. The plan includes severe restrictions on private and commercial transportation and encourages the use of mass transit and non-polluting transportation.[161]
Cadets at Universidad Policial de Guerrero accuse the training director, Néstor Cruz Rosalino, of sexual abuse. They claim that he makes them strip in front of him in order to see who has "the best female anatomy," and then he leaves with the one he likes best.[163]
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announces that Naasón Joaquín García, leader of the La Luz del Mundo church based in Guadalajara, and four other people, have been arrested in connection with alleged sex trafficking, child abuse, and production of child pornography.[164]
June 5: Six political prisoners, members of the environmental group Defensores de la Tierra, (English: "Defenders of the Land") in Salazar, Lerma, State of Mexico, have been liberated. They were arrested after the police and army helped people from nearby Tarasquillo seized and sold their land to private parties.[166]
June 6: BMW opens a U.S.$1 billion (MXN $20 billion) auto plant in San Luis Potosi. It will employ 2,000 workers and have a capacity to produce 175,000 cars in the Mexican, Latin American, and U.S. markets.[167]
June 7: Mexico's Interior Secretary, Olga Sánchez Cordero, announces that Mexico will send 6,000 members of the National Guard to the border with Guatemala in response to U.S. President Donald Trump's threat to impose tariffs on all Mexican goods unless immigration is lessened.[168] Later the same day, Trump announced that an agreement had been reached, and the tariffs will be suspended.[169]
A judge orders the suspension of construction of the airport in Santa Lucia until environmental and cultural studies have been completed.[171] Three days later President Andrés Manuel López Obrador threatens to publicly expose the parties who are trying to stop the development of the country.[172]
Two men and two women (one pregnant) are shot and wounded inside a police vehicle when it is attacked in Benito Juárez Municipality, Quintana Roo. A young man on a motorcycle was also wounded.[174]
A member of the Agencia Estatal de Investigaciones (English: "State Investigation Agency") in charge of fighting kidnappings was herself kidnapped on Friday in General Treviño, Nuevo Leon. Another agent was shot and killed.[175]
June 15: Four people died and at least 12 were injured when a gas tank exploded in Tepatitlán, Jalisco.[176]
July 2: Two dozen people are kidnapped from a home in Cancun, Quintana Roo.[190] They were rescued the following day, all in good health.[191]
July 3: Shelters for migrants in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, are reported full, and many Central American and Cuban refugees are forced to sleep in the streets.[192]
For the second time, a judge orders the detention of Emilio Lozoya Austin, former director of Pemex, in relation to the Odebrecht scandal. His whereabouts are unknown.[195] Two days earlier, on July 3, Lozoya had asked for witness protection in the case involving illegal purchase of a fertilizer plant.[196]
Mexican authorities announce they have broken up an international human-trafficking ring.[197]
Secretary of Tourism, Miguel Torruco Marqués announces that the Sargassum that plagues Caribbean beaches is a national priority. Hotels in the Riviera Maya are offering guests discounts of up to 25% in order to maintain an 80% occupancy rate.[198]
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador proposes that rural doctors and nurses be paid more than their urban counterparts, emulating Canada, the UK, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway.[199]
50 state agents in Chihuahua rescue 21 kidnap victims who were forced to work in drug cultivation and sleep in a cave at night.[206]
July 14: The burned body of an unknown 12-year-old girl is found in Atizapán de Zaragoza, State of Mexico, an apparent victim of femicide.[207] This is the same day that the body of Lupita Hernández Pérez, 29, missing since June 30 and an apparent victim of femicide, is found in Iztapalapa.[208]
July 15: Three former employees of Mexico City's Secretaría de Administración y Finanzas (Secretary of Administration and Finance) office are arrested for transferring over MXN $190 million (US$9.9 million) to a private bank account.[209]
Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, former head of the Sinaloa cartel, which became the biggest supplier of drugs to the U.S., is sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years.[210] President Lopez Obrador insists that the money seized in fines legally belongs to Mexico.[211]
The National Action Party announces that it plans to expel the seven deputies in Baja California who voted to extend the governor's term from two to five years.[212]
The Federal Telecommunications Institute announces that starting August 3, there will be a simplified way to call both landline and mobile phones across the country.[214]
400 environmental groups insist that the government prosecute the mining company Grupo México for a recent sulphuric acid spill in the Sea of Cortés.[215] The Congress of the Union also demands that the Attorney General prosecute the company.[216]
Bank accounts of 19 Mexican companies that have sold food to Venezuela have been frozen. Charges relate to low quality, high prices, and money laundering.[217]
The Spanish newspaper El País reveals that Juan Collado, the personal lawyer of former president Enrique Peña Nieto, moved US$120 million (MXN $229 million) to 24 accounts in banks in Andorra. Collado used the money to acquire property in Acapulco and Miami in addition to two large airplanes.[229]
August 1: 280 cases of dengue fever have been confirmed in Oaxaca after the death of a 5-year-old boy. Fifteen cases are considered grave (serious).[233]
August 2: The government of Mexico will provide Internet access throughout the country through the establishment of a subsidiary of the Comisión Federal de Electricidad called CFE Telecomunicaciones e Internet para Todos (CFE Telecommunications and Internet for All).[234]
Seven supposed kidnappers are lynched in Cohuecán, Puebla.[241]
After three years, a group of mothers of missing persons known as Colectivo Solecito calls off the search for bodies in Veracruz, in the largest clandestine cemetery in Latin America. Since 2016, they have found 298 skulls and 22,000 human remains.[242]
Twenty bodies have been found in Uruapan, Michoacan—some dismembered, some in bags, others hanging from bridges.[243] Fourteen people, including two minors, are arrested two days later.[244]
Mexican athletes have won 27 gold, 24 silver, and 44 bronze, a total of 95 medals, at the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, Peru.[245]
August 12: A public passenger van was burned by extortionists along the San Juan Zitlaltpec route in the State of Mexico. This was the 21st such attack along the same route.[248]
August 14: Bosque de Chapultepec wins the "International Large Urban Parks Award 2019" from the "World Urban Parks Association."[249]
A group calling itself #FueraJuecesCorruptos has convoked a march against corrupt judges on August 18.[255] Hundreds of people march.[256]
Judith Abigail Jiménez Pulido, 28, missing since August 9, becomes the 54th victim of femicide in Puebla in 2019.[257]
August 19: 194 exhalations, 428 minutes of quaking, 3 minor explosions, and 3 earthquakes are reported in the last 24 hours in Popocatépetl. The alert level remains at Yellow, Phase 2.[258]
August 21: Six federal police officers have been charged with murder for their supposed involvement in a police operation that left nine dead in January 2015 in Apatzingán, Michoacan.[259]
September 1: President López Obrador gives his Primer Informe del Gobierno (State of the Union address) before 400 legislators, governors, and business leaders, emphasizing his efforts to end corruption and help the poor.[266]
Gildardo Lópéz Astudillo "El Gil", who is suspected of involvement in the 2014 Ayotzinapa, Guerrero kidnapping and probable murder of 43 students, has been released after a judge rules the evidence against him was based on torture and intimidation.[269]
September 8: 3 killed and 2 missing in Tlajomulco de Zúñiga, Jalisco due to flooding of La Culebra.[274]
September 11: TheComité de Derechos Humanos (Human Rights Committee) in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, says that state police killed eight civilians on September 5 and falsely claimed they were members of the Cártel del Noreste drug gang.[275]
Accounts of the Universidad Popular de la Chontalpa are frozen in relation to the Estafa Maestra.[276]
Three underage (14 and 17 years old) hitmen are killed by municipal police while in the process of murdering 19-year-old Julián Adán Rodríguez in San Luis Río Colorado Municipality, Sonora.[277]
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador leads the 209th Grito de la Independencia from the National Palace in the Zócalo of Mexico City. He cried ¡Viva! twenty times.[278]
One person dies and at least 16 are injured due to a fireworks accident in Xalapa, Veracruz.[279]
Parachutist injured during the Independence Day parade in Mexico City.[280]
A group of armed men burn a bus used for public transportation in Acapulco, Guerrero.[281]
September 18: French auction house Millon auctions off 120 pieces of Pre-Columbian Mexican art in Paris, over the protests of Ambassador Juan Manuel Gómez Robledo. The art is believed to be stolen or counterfeit.[282]
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announces that the anti-cancer medicine bought from France has arrived in the country.[286]
September 22: Following Tropical Storm Lorena, theCoordinación Nacional de Protección Civil declares a state of emergency in La Paz and Los Cabos, Baja California Sur.[287] The storm also caused flooding in Guerrero, Michoacan, Colima, and Jalisco.
September 23: On behalf of the government of Mexico, President Lopez Obardor apologizes to Martha Camacho Loaiza, leader of the communist guerrilla group Liga Comunista 23 de septiembre, who was tortured in 1977.[288]
Former attorney general of NayaritEdgar Veytia is condemned to twenty years of prison in the United States for drug dealing.[290]
A group of soldiers are ambushed in Leonardo Bravo, Guerrero; three soldiers killed.[291]
On the fifth anniversary of the 2014 Iguala mass kidnapping, the government reopens the investigation, calling former Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam to testify and offering a MXN $10,000,000 (US$500,000) reward for the capture of Alejandro Tenescalco Mejía, one of the principal suspects.[292]
A group of masked protesters break windows and burn a bookstore in Mexico City on the fifth anniversary of the 2014 Iguala mass kidnapping.[293] President Lopez Obrador clarifies that the vandals are not left-wing anarchists but right-wing conservatives.[294]
Flecha Roja bus line announces the suspension of services along the Mexico City-Santiago Tianguistenco, State of Mexico, route, following the hijacking of their buses by students at the Escuela Normal Rural Lázaro Cárdenas de San José Tenería. Four other routes are also affected.[306]
Jesús Orta resigns his position as Secretaría de Seguridad Ciudadana (Secretary of Public Security) and is replaced by Omar García Harfuch, chief of the investigative division.[307]Proceso magazine notes that García Harfuch has been investigated by the U.S. government and linked to both the Ayotzinapa kidnapping case and the Guerreros Unidos drug cartel.[308]
Three more individuals implicated in the Ayotzinapa kidnapping case are freed. Judge Ventura Ramos has freed 29 prisoners implicated in the case in the past month.[310]
Las Comisiones Unidas de Procuración y Administración de Justicia y de Igualdad de Género (The United Commissions for the Procuration and Administration of Justice and Gender Equality) in Puebla vote against decriminalization of abortion and legalization of same-sex marriage. The penalty for abortion is reduced from five to one year.[311]
Organizers of the Premio Batuta de México (Baton Prize of Mexico) withdraw Placido Domingo's name just two days prior to giving him the prize due to charges of sexual harassment.[312]
October 7: Mérida, Yucatán is chosen by Readers’ Choice Awards as the "best small city in the world."[313]
October 8: 10,000 taxi drivers block traffic for twelve hours in a protest against Uber and Cabify in Mexico City.[314]
October 10: Nadine Gasman, head of the Instituto Nacional de las Mujeres (Inmujeres) reports that 267 women and girls are victims of violence every day in Mexico.[315]
October 11–20: XIX International Book Fair in the Zocolo of Mexico City.[316]
Popocatépetl volcano has produced one explosion, 117 exhalations, and 709 minutes (almost 12 hours) of quaking in a 24-hour period. Gas and light ash have been seen, and the area remains in "Amarillo Fase 2" alert.[320]
Voters in Baja California express their opinions on whether to extend Governor Jaime Bonilla's term from two to five years.[321] According to a poll, 84.25% (53,419 voters) approve the five-year term.[322]
800 people organized by the Canadian group "Choir!Choir!Choir!" sing With a Little Help from My Friends and other songs by The Beatles on the border near Tijuana as a protest against U.S. immigration policy.[323]
Construction of the new "General Felipe Ángeles" airport in Zumpango, State of Mexico, begins; the airport is scheduled to open on March 21, 2022. It is expected to cost MXN $75 billion (US$3.9 billion).[332]
Eduardo Arturo Bailleres Mendoza is relieved as warden of the penitentiary in Culiacán after 49 prisoners escaped on October 17. He had been in charge for 11 months.[334]
Five Mexican chefs are awarded Michelin Stars: Indra Carrillo, "La Condessa" in Paris; Paco Mendez, "Hoja Santa" in Barcelona; Cosme Aguilar, "Casa de Enrique" in New York; Roberto Ruiz, "Punto MX" in Madrid; and Carlos Gaytan, "Ha" in Xcaret.[335]
October 22
Activists on social media call for a boycott of Kimberly-Clark de México paper products after CEO Claudio González X. Laporte reports the company will no longer invest in Mexico.[336]
A group of mayors who belong to opposition parties (PAN, PRI, and PRD) was repelled with tear gas when they tried to force their way into the National Palace for a meeting with President Lopez Obrador.[337][338]
Police find 42 skulls and other bones in a narco-tunnel in Tepito, Colonia Morelos, Cuauhtémoc, Mexico City. Police also are revising the charges against 27 people who were arrested but then released by a judge on October 22.[344]
October 27 – Daylight saving time ends; turn clocks back one hour.[82]
328 minutes (5.4 hours) of quaking and 231 exhalations are reported in the Popocatépetl volcano over the past 24 hours.[345]
October 29 – A children's party in Iztatapala is shot up, resulting in two adults killed and eight children injured.[348]
October 30 – A riot at Atlacholoaya penitentiary in Xochitepec, Morelos, leaves six dead, including "El Ray", a leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel; 15 are injured.[349]
Police free a toll booth from 30 people who were charging drivers MXN $200-$500 in Huimanguillo, Tabasco. One killed and nine arrested.[353]
An international human trafficking ring is taken down and 387 migrants are freed.[354]
November
November 1
The Bank of Mexico reports that transfer payments from Mexicans living overseas increased by 13.3% in September 2019 compared to September 2018, and by 9.3% in total for the first nine months of the year. This represents US$26.98 billion (MXN $515.6 billion).[355]
Hundreds of people, mostly women, march in Mexico City against femicide.[357]
At least five people are killed in a shooting in a tianguis de autos (bazaar of used cars) in Uruapan, Michoacan.[358]
November 4 – A woman and her four minor children, members of the LeBaron order, are burned alive while driving to Nuevo Casas Grandes, Chihuahua.[359]
November 5
After the death toll in the attack on the LeBaron family along the border of Sonora and Chihuahua, U.S. President Donald Trump offers to send troops to Mexico to fight a war against drug cartels. President Lopez Obrador turns him down, saying Mexico will act para hacer justicia ("to do justice").[360] Five children injured in the attack are sent to a hospital in the United States.[361]
The bank debt acquired by President Ernesto Zedillo in 1994 reaches MXN $97,500,000 pesos per day, reaching US$1,032,236,000, according to Fobaproa ("Banking Fund for the Protection of Savings"). This represents a 1.25% increase in real terms over the last nine months, not counting inflation.[362]
A police officer in Culiacan, Sinaloa, is killed after being shot 155 times.[363]
November 6
Three Mexican tourists are stabbed while visiting an archaeological site in Jordan; one is in serious condition.[364]
In retaliation for police action inside a penitateniary, 10 people are killed and vehicles are burned by Los Mexicles street gang in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua.[368] Another five vehicles are burned the next day.[369]
November 7
Gymnast Alexa Moreno wins the Premio Nacional de Deportes 2019 (National Sports Prize 2019) in the "non-professional" category for her achievements in the vault and for qualifying for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.[370]
November 8
Three police officers killed in Acapulco, Guerrero.[371]
An American teenager is arrested in Nogales, Sonora for gunrunning into Mexico.[373]
100 members of the LeBarón family leave their homes in northern Mexico.[374]
November 10
Reforma reports that Saul Monreal, mayor of Fresnillo, Zacatecas, spent US$70,000 (MXN $1.3 million) in public money to celebrate his daughter's 15th birthday. Monreal is the youngest brother of Ricardo Monreal Ávila, coordinator of National Regeneration Movement (Morena) in the Senate.[375]
Hackers infiltrate the Pemex computer systems, demanding US$5 million in Bicoins.[376]
The World Health Organization declares Mexico the first country in the world to be free from dog-transmitted rabies. The disease is still transmitted by wild animals.[378]
Armed members of Los Dumbos cartel burn two cars and block the Chilpancingo-Acapulco highway near Xaltianguis, Guerrero.[379]
A shootout at a carlot in Cuernavaca, Morelos, leaves three dead and one wounded.[386]
Maribel Cervantes Guerrero, head of the state police in the State of Mexico, reports that several regional police commanders have pacted with organized crime leaders, allowing them to freedom to commit crimes.[387]
José Carlos Ramos Ramos, the new police chief of Celaya, Guanajuato, is attacked by armed men; one bodyguard killed and two injured.[388]
November 25 – Thousands march in Mexico City in demand of elimination of violence against women.[398] 200 women demonstrate in Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl, State of México.[399]
Four police officers and seven armed civilians, members of the Cartel del Norte, are killed in a shootout in Villa Unión, Coahuila. Six other police officers are injured.[401] The death toll reaches 21 on December 1.[402]
Two judges who freed the ex-husband of Abril Perez, a woman who was murdered in Mexico City on November 25, have been suspended.[403]
December
December 1
The oversold Knotfest 2019 music festival in the Deportivo Oceanía Mexico City is canceled after violence breaks out after "Evanescense" fails to perform as scheduled. Unconfirmed deaths are reported.[404]
Before a crowd of 140,000 supporters, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador says he has fulfilled 89 of 100 campaign promises during a rally on the Zócalo of Mexico City.[406]
The Mexican government announced that several suspects had been arrested for the LeBarón family massacre of November 4.[407]
December 4 – The Congress of Yucatan unanimously approves a measure requiring the teaching of the Maya language in schools in the state.[408]
December 8 – Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard recalls Mexican Ambassador to Argentina Óscar Ricardo Valero Recio Becerra after Valero Recio is caught trying to steal an MXN $189 (US$10) book from a Buenos Aires bookstore.[410]
December 9 – Jorge Zapata, grandson of Emiliano Zapata, sues painter Fabián Chairez, the Secretariat of Culture, and the Palacio de Bellas Artes over a 2014 painting that depicts the Revolutionary general as wearing a pink hat and high heels.[411] The following day, four groups of peasants force their way into Bellas Artes and try to burn the painting.[412] Members of the LGBQT community defend the painting.[413]
December 15: Referendum on the Mayan Train in Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatán, and Quintana Roo.[418] 92.3% (93,142) of the voters who participated voted "yes" and 7.4% (7,517) voted "no", with 268 of 269 voting districts reporting.[419]
Former President Felipe Calderón and his wife, Margarita Zavala manage to register their new political party, Mexico Libre ("Free Mexico").[420]
The Comisión de Justicia (Justice Commission) of Morena demands the expulsion of Lilly Téllez from her position as a member of the party's Senate caucus.[421]
December 21 – The Legion of Christ accepts responsibility for 175 cases of child sexual abuse by 33 priests, including 60 minors who were abused by the organization's founder, Marcial Maciel.[423]
Actors, producers, and painters demonstrate outside the National Palace demanding they be paid for their work. "We cannot live on applause!" they shout.[425]
Two are killed in an electrical fire at La Merced Market in Mexico City.[428] This comes just three days after a similar fire destroyed the San Cosme market in Cuauhtémoc borough.[429] In December 1988, 60 people were killed at La Merced in a fireworks disaster.
December 26
A judge refuses to grant legal protection to Rosario Robles against impeachment.[430]
According to Andrés García Aguayo, a researcher at the UNAM, 53% of the amphibians in Mexico are in danger of extinction.[431]
At least 250 families are evacuated due to a gas leak in Tuxpan, Veracruz.[432]
December 27 – A 1,000-year-old Maya palace is discovered in Kulubá, Yucatan.[433]
December 28 – For the second time in just a year, a television series is recorded in a protected area of Xochimilco, Mexico City.[434]
December 30 – The lime extracting company "Cales y Morteros del Grijalva, SA de CV." is closed for damaging the environment over a period of 50 years in the Sumidero Canyon in Chiapa de Corzo, Chiapas.[436]
December 31
At least five vehicles were burned in Villahermosa, Tabasco, in demand of the release of Trinidad Alberto de la Cruz Miranda, (“El Pelón de Playas del Rosario”) and four other members of his drug cartel.[437]
GDP (PIB): €840,025 (MXN $17,655,267) for the first three quarters of the year.[445] INEGI report in January 2020 that the Mexican economy contracted by 0.1% in 2019 after growth of just over 2% in 2018.[446]
Mexican Stock Exchange: 3.3% growth from January–September 2019; close at 43,011.27 points on September 30.[447] 44,300.17 points and 32,194,052 shares traded on December 26, 2019.[448]
Minimum wage: MXN $102.68 daily (16% over 2018).[449]
Population economically active (15+): 57,349,577 (60.2%).[450]
Programme for International Student Assessment (15-year-olds): The OECD ranks Mexico No. 48/63 with 1260 total points; 425 in reading (average 493), 419 in math (average 496), and 416 in science (average 501).
126,577,691 inhabitants with a life expectancy of 75.1 years (#66 in the world), according to the Consejo Nacional de Población (National Population Council).[452] Mexico is the 10th most populous country in the world.[453]
Violence
Murders: INEGI reports a total of 36,478 homicides in 2019, a rate of 29/100,000 inhabitants, basically the same as in 2018. Guanajuato had the highest number (3,974) and Yucatán the lowest (45). Colima had the highest murder rate, 105/100,000 inhabitants.[454]
Femicides: Of 2,833 women murdered by September, 726 (25.6%) are investigated as femicides.[455]
Law enforcement officers killed: 426 as of December 20.[456]
Activists and journalists killed: 10 journalists and 12 activists were killed in Mexico in 2019.[457]
Politicians assassinated: Six mayors[458] and at least four other politicians are murdered during 2019.[459]
Missing persons: 61,637; 97.4% since the beginning of the Drug War in 2006.[460]
April 24 – Maricela Vallejo Orea, mayor (PRD) of Mixtla de Altamirano, Veracruz' murdered. Her husband, driver, and Efrén Zopiyactle Tlaxcaltécatl, the municipal treasurer, were also muredered.[458]
May 11: Wrestler Silver King, 51, younger brother of Dr. Wagner Jr, died of a heart attack during a wrestling match in London.[507]
May 16: The body of former Morelos governor Marco Adame's brother, Humberto Adame Castillo, was found in a ditch in Alpuyeca, Xochitepec. Unofficial sources say Humberto had been kidnapped.[508]
May 17: Julio Ulises Hijuelos Cervera (Mago Chen Kai), magician (b. 1939)
June 11: Journalist Norma Sarabia of Tabasco was murdered outside her home. She is the sixth Mexican journalist killed this year.[514]
June 13: Edith González, 54, Mexican actress (Las noches de aventurera (1998), Corazón salvaje (1993-1994), and Monte Calvario (1986)), ovarian cancer (b. 1964)[515]
June 14: Luis Gerardo Hernandez Valdenego, 31, was shot and killed in Guanajuato by unidentified assailants riding motorcycles. In January 2015 Hernandez Valdenegro had been sentenced to 29 months in prison for the beating of journalist Karla Janeth Silva in September, 2014, but a judge released him after implicating the mayor and police chief in the beating.[516]
June 21: Chilpancingo businessman Misael "El Tigre" Marin is shot and killed. His brother had been kidnapped at one point, and his accountant was killed in May.[517]
The first semester (January—June) of 2019 is the most violent in history, with 17,608 murders, an average of 102.6 daily.[522] June was the most violent month in Mexican history, with 2,249 murders.[523]
Victor Hugo Padilla Nava, director of Public Security in Pilcaya, Guerrero is murdered near Concepcion, along the Pilcaya-Ixtapan de la Sal highway.[531]
The seven Mexicans killed in the shooting at the El Paso, Texas shopping center were: Sara Esther Regalado and Gloria Irma Márquez, (Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua); Elsa Mendoza de la Mora, (Yepomera, Chihuahua); Jorge Calvillo García, (Torreón, Coahuila); Adolfo Cerros Hernández, (Aguascalientes City), Aguascalientes; and Ivan Filberto Manzana (Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua). A seventh victim is unidentified.[540]
Jorge Elías Espinosa Rafful, former librarian and curator of Library and Museum Victoriano Nieves Céspedes in Ciudad del Carmen, Campeche; apparent murder[556]
A report published October 24, 2019, by El Economista shows that Nuevo León (54%), Sinaloa (41%), and Morelos (40%) are the states with the greatest increases in murder rates during the period July–September 2019. Baja California Sur showed the greatest decrease (-60%).[565]
Enrique Moreno, 63, Mexican-American lawyer, complications from cancer.[571]
Enrique Servín, poet and defender of Indigenous languages; murdered in Chihuahua.[572]
October 11 – Isaías Cantú Carrasco, land-rights activist (Concejo Regional de Autoridades Agrarias en Defensa del Territorio) in Malinaltepec, Guerrero.[573]
Mauricio García León, former director of "Archivos y Notarías" in Puebla; suicide.[582]
Santiago Maravatío, alderman (PAN) from Santiago Maravatío, Guanajuato; missing since September 19, Maravatío was the third alderman from Guanajuato murdered in the last two months. The others were Francisco García Ramírez (Moreno) from Apaseo el Alto and José Luis Saucillo Méndez (PAN) from Comonfort.[583]
October 29 – Carlos Chávez, a driver for Uber Eats, is shot while resisting a robbery in Satélite, Cuernavaca, Morelos.[584]
November 7 – Raquel Padilla, 53, writer, anthropologist, and activist; murder with a knife (classified as femicide) at her home in Ures, Sonora.[592]
November 8
Oscar Marroquín Hernández, traffic police officer in Acapulco, Guerrero; murdered. Two other police officers, both part of the Fiscalía Especializada en la Investigación y Combate al Delito de Secuestro ("Special prosecutor for investigation and combat of kidnapping") were also murdered in a separate incident.[593]
Abril Cecilia Pérez Sagaón, 48, ex-wife of Juan Carlos García, former CEO of Amazon, Mexico, victim of femicide in Mexico City; shot.[599] Garcia was arrested and controversially released.[600]
Jimmy Goldsmith, 60, owner of Loros de Colima of the Ascenso MX soccer league; heart attack.[613]
Javier Terrero, trustee of San Felipe Jalapa de Díaz, Oaxaca; murdered.[612]
Mr. Niebla, (Efrén Tiburcio Márquez), 46, wrestler; infection of the blood (b. February 22, 1973).[614]
December 27 – Alberto Islas Jara, 33, son of businessperson Alberto Islas González, member of Coparmex in Puebla, Puebla; shot while in his car during a robbery.[615]
December 30 – Rubén Darío Galicia Piñón, 66, infrarrealism poet, Historias cinematográficas (1987) and La ciencia de la tristeza (1994), (b. 1953).[617]
December 31 – Luciano Moreno López, former mayor (PRI) of Cochoapa el Grande, Guerrero (2012-2015); shot.[618]
^ ab"Las renuncias en el gabinete de AMLO" [The resignations from AMLO's cabinet], El Universal (in Spanish), Mexico City, July 9, 2019, retrieved July 10, 2019
^Reina, Elena (March 10, 2019). "15 asesinados en la tierra del huachicol" [Fifteen killed in the land of gasoline thieves]. El Pais (in Spanish). Retrieved March 11, 2019.
^Preciado, Tlaulli (March 18, 2019), "Se registra explosión en el volcán Popocatépetl" [Explosion recorded in Popocatépetl volcano], La Union de Morelos (in Spanish), Cuernavaca, retrieved March 23, 2019
^"Generan 42 temblores "enjambre sismico" en Huatulco, Oaxaca" [42 "seismic swarm" earthquakes are generated in Huatulco, Oaxaca], El Universal (in Spanish), Mexico City
^Rocha, Rodrigo (March 23, 2019), "Los Diablos tienen fiesta" [The Diablos have a celebration], Milenio (in Spanish), Mexico City, retrieved March 23, 2019
^Pérez, D. M. (June 20, 2019), "México ratifica el nuevo TLC con EE UU y Canadá" [Mexico ratifies the new Free Trade Agreement with the U.S. and Canada], El Pais (in Spanish), Madrid, retrieved June 21, 2019
^Rojas, Ruben (July 10, 2019). "En Cofece y CNDH podrán ganar más que el presidente: SCJN" [Supreme Court decides that the Federal Commission of Competition Economic and the Human Rights Commission can earn more than the president]. UNO TV (in Spanish). Retrieved July 11, 2019.
^"Dan 55 años a 2 sujetos por feminicidio" [2 suspects are given 55 years for femicide], El Diario de Morelos (in Spanish), September 5, 2019, retrieved September 5, 2019
^Alma E. Muñoz; Néstor Jiménez (September 15, 2019), "Emotivo primer grito de Independencia de AMLO" [Emotional first 'Grito' of Independence by AMLO], La Jornada (in Spanish), retrieved September 16, 2019
^"Fallece Grace Quintanilla" [Grace Quinanilla dies] (in Spanish). El Manaña. February 26, 2019. Archived from the original on April 2, 2019. Retrieved April 1, 2019.
^Sergio Luis Rosas (September 11, 2019), "Recuerdos del ayer: EL PRÍNCIPE RUVALCABA" [Memories of yesteryear: EL PRÍNCIPE RUVALCABA], El Siglo de Torreón (in Spanish), retrieved October 4, 2019
^"Muere José José a los 71 años" [Jose Jose dies at 71], La Jornada (in Spanish), September 28, 2019, archived from the original on September 28, 2019, retrieved September 28, 2019
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