International

Sheinbaum forgets the migratory issue on her first visit to the northern border as president

The president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, visited the border this Saturday for the first time since she took office, where she practically forgot about people on mobility and the migratory situation in the northern region of the country.

Despite the fact that in recent days various activists, civil organizations and municipal authorities demanded significant changes in migration policies, the president did not mention a word about it and even avoided the meeting with the press.

Sheinbaum visits the border

The president was received by a large group of supporters at the Rosarito Beach Convention Center, located about 25 kilometers from the Tijuana border, where she offered a speech focused on the presentation of her welfare programs.

During her speech, President Sheinbaum limited herself to saying that, with the Fourth Transformation, “we claim Mexican workers and in particular our brothers who live on the other side of the border, who are heroes and heroines of the homeland.”

“(People) who do not abandon their families, who do not abandon our country, because that is how we Mexicans are, we love each other, we help each other, that is the strength of the people of Mexico,” he said.

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Continuity of social programs

On other issues, Sheinbaum took advantage of his visit to the border to reaffirm the continuity of the welfare programs promoted by former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

“Thanks to our senators and deputies, who are also servants of the nation and the people, all the programs will continue; the universal pension, support for young people, pension for people with disabilities,” he said.

In addition, he recalled his campaign promises, and anticipated three new welfare programs, “corresponding to the second floor of the transformation”: support for women between 60 and 64 years old, public school students up to the basic secondary level, which implies all public school students up to secondary level; and the home-to-home health care program for older adults.

In addition, he recalled his commitment to install pharmacies in each Banco del Bienestar branch from the second quarter of next year, so that “people can go there to pick up their free medicines.”

“Those are the three main programs, but we are also going to build a million homes throughout the country, in addition to bookkeeping,” he said.

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Judicial reform is not authoritarianism

Regarding judicial reform, Sheinbaum said that “on June 1st of next year we will elect the judges, magistrates and ministers of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, because now they say that we are authoritarian, but how are we going to be authoritarian, if what we want is for the people to elect the Judiciary.”

“It is the mandate of the people and the president of the Republic is to fulfill that mandate,” he insisted, amid suspensions by judges, accusations for attacking judicial independence and Sheinbaum’s argument that it is impossible to stop the application of the most recent judicial reform to elect judges

International

MEPs Approve Plan That Could Fast-Track Rejection of Some Asylum Claims

With an overwhelming majority of 408 votes in favor, the European Parliament backed the creation of a list of safe countries of origin for asylum seekers.

People coming from Colombia, Egypt, India, Bangladesh, Kosovo, Morocco and Tunisia who apply for asylum in the European Union could see their requests rejected on the grounds that the bloc’s 27 member states consider those nations safe. Applicants would have to prove their individual circumstances, showing evidence of persecution or specific risks if they were to return.

At the same time, while their applications are processed or their return is arranged, migrants could be transferred to third countries outside the EU if the bloc has an agreement with them, if the individuals previously transited through those nations, or if they have family or cultural ties there. The measure provides legal cover for the creation of processing centers beyond EU territory, similar to an initiative previously pursued by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in Albania.

Tuesday’s vote reflects the tightening of European migration policy in recent years, despite asylum applications having fallen by more than 20% last year and the issue not ranking among citizens’ top concerns, according to recent surveys.

International

Chile Unveils Latam-GPT to Give Latin America Its Own AI Model

Chile on Tuesday launched Latam-GPT, an initiative aimed at providing Latin America with its own artificial intelligence model in a field largely dominated by U.S. companies, while seeking to reduce biases identified in existing systems.

The project is led by Chile’s National Center for Artificial Intelligence (CENIA), a private corporation funded with public resources.

Latam-GPT is backed by universities, foundations, libraries, government agencies and civil society organizations from across the region, including Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Ecuador and Argentina.

“Thanks to Latam-GPT we are positioning the region as an active and sovereign player in the economy of the future. We are at the table — we are not on the menu,” President Gabriel Boric said during the presentation of the initiative on national broadcaster Televisión Nacional.

The tool aims to break down prejudices and prevent Latin America from being portrayed as a single, uniform reality, Chile’s science minister, Aldo Valle, told AFP.

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The region, he added, “cannot be merely a user or passive recipient of artificial intelligence systems. That could result in losing a significant part of our traditions.”

Despite its name, the initiative is not an interactive chatbot. Instead, it is a large regional database trained on Latin American information that can be used to develop technological applications, the minister explained.

International

Mexico Rises Slightly to 141st in Global Corruption Perceptions Index 2025

Mexico improved by one point in its rating and climbed to 141st place in the 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) published Tuesday by the anti-corruption organization Transparency International, which gave the country a score of 27 out of 100.

The slight increase in score comes after Mexico recorded its lowest CPI result in history in 2024 during the final year of former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s term, also scoring 27 out of 100. The CPI is widely regarded as the main global measure of perceived public-sector corruption, where 0 represents high corruption and 100 denotes very low corruption.

Within the region, Mexico ranks above only Guatemala (26), Paraguay (24), Honduras (22), Haiti (16), Nicaragua (14) and Venezuela (10), but trails key economic peers such as Brazil (35) and Chile (63).

Among the 38 member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Mexico ranks last. In the G20 grouping, it sits in the penultimate position, ahead of only Russia. Experts say Mexico’s persistently low score reflects ongoing challenges in curbing corruption and protecting public funds.

Transparency International’s report also highlights structural corruption issues that have allowed organized crime to infiltrate politics and weaken governance, as well as risks to journalists covering corruption.