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This article lists events occurring in Mexico during 2020.2020 is the "Year of Leona Vicario, Benemérita (Praiseworthy) Mother of the Fatherland".[1] The article also lists the most important political leaders during the year at both federal and state levels and will include a brief year-end summary of major social and economic issues.
The minimum wage increases 20%, from MXN $102.68 to $123.22 (US$6.53) daily.[19] This is still lower than in Brazil and Colombia, where per capita income is similar.[20]
January 4 – An earthquake with a magnitude 5.9Mw[26] and an epicenter in Unión Hidalgo, Oaxaca was felt in at least states: Oaxaca, Chiapas, Tabasco, Veracruz, Puebla, Morelos, State of México, and Mexico City. No damage is reported.[27]
President López Obrador announces that construction of 1,350 branches of the Banco de Bienestar ("Social Assistance Bank") has begun.[29]
Internet for All, part of the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE), begins operations with a proposed budget of MXN $3 billion (USD $159 million) in 2020 and a planned completion date of 2022.[30]
Popocateptl volcano emits 3 km of smoke. On January 7 and 8, the volcano emitted 155 exhalations, 198 minutes of shaking, and three earthquakes.[36][37]
AMLO promises that obesity will be combatted by a nutrition campaign, not through new taxes.[38]
January 10
A teacher is killed and four people are wounded in the Colegio Cervantes shooting in Torreón, Coahuila. The eleven-year-old shooter committed suicide.[39]
A 21-year-old man is arrested and charged with terrorism for using pepper spray in several stores in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon.[40]
Activists place hundreds of red shoes in Mexico City's Zócalo to protest the murders of an average ten women and girls daily; fewer than 10% are resolved.[44]
Secretary of Education (SEP)Esteban Moctezuma proposes a new scheme for Operativo Mochilla (Operation backpack) wherein parents will be responsible for revising the backpacks of children and staff at schools so as to prevent the entry of guns and other contraband.[49]
Governor Cuauhtémoc Blanco of Morelos says that at least 180 police officers are being investigated for ties to organized crime and drug trafficking.[50]
China announces that two of its banks will lend US$600 million for the construction of the Dos Bocas refinery in Paraíso, Tabasco.[51] Energy Secretary Rocío Nahle makes it clear that the refinery will be built with public funds, but that contractors may borrow money from China or other countries.[52]
January 14
Despite confessing to abusing several minors, Fernando Martínez Suárez will remain a member of the Legion of Christ but he will not perform priestly duties.[53]
The presidential airplane has been returned to Mexico after the government tried to sell it in the United States for a year at a cost of US$1.5 million in maintenance. It may be rented out or bartered for needed goods. 19 other planes and nine helicopters will be auctioned off, with the hopes of raising US$1 billion.[54]
Two earthquakes of 5.3Mw and 4.9Mw respectively, hit at least five municipalities in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Oaxaca. Slight damages but no injuries are reported. There have been 679 earthquakes in Oaxaca this year.[56]
A commando consisting of 150 men armed with assault rifles burn 22 homes and seven vehicles and kidnap five people in two towns in Madera Municipality, Chihuahua.[59]
January 17
AMLO offers 4,000 jobs to Central American immigrants.[60]
The office of the attorney general of Oaxaca reports that investigation into the acid-attack on saxophonist María Elena Ríos Ortiz has finished. Governor Alejandro Murat says there is an arrest warrant for former deputy Juan Vera Carrizal.[62]
Mexico stops thousands of Honduran immigrants on the border with Guatemala.[63]
January 19
Between 1,500 and 2,000 undocumented immigrants from Honduras try to cross the Suchiate River in Chiapas, but are stopped by the National Guard. Groups of 20 or 30 were allowed to try to regularize their immigration status and obtain employment.[64]
Isatech technology of Monterrey offers to pay US$130 million for the presidential plane to use it for commercial purposes and to make it available to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.[69]
22,923 police officers and 2,375 vehicles participate in Mexico City's first Macrosimulacro (Macro earthquake drill).[70]
New data show that homicides in Mexico in 2019 reached a record level.[71]
January 21
A popular poll by U.S. News & World Report places Mexico as the second most corrupt country in the world; Colombia is number one.[72]
Eighteen states have signed up for the new health care program, Insabi.[73]
January 22
Airports in Mexico City, Monterrey, and Cancun, where flights arrive directly from China, are on alert for Coronavirus disease 2019.[74]
Nineteen children between six and fifteen march as community police by the Coordinadora Regional de Autoridades Comunitarias-Pueblos Fundadores (CRAC-PF) in Chilapa de Álvarez, Guerrero. Those over 12 have been issued .22 caliber rifles while younger ones carry sticks.[75]
Dulce Susana Jacobo Cruz, a student at the Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia (ENAH), complains of racist comments and torture of children when she and a group of migrants were detained by authorities at the Estación Migratoria (Migrant Station) of Ciudad Industrial, Villahermosa, Tabasco.[77]
Parents of children with cancer protest for the third day in a row because of a lack of medicine.[78]
In Guerrero, officials announce that children as young as 14 have been recruited to assist local police in local law enforcement efforts. About 20 children have been recruited for an indigenous community police force in western Mexico following a deadly attack blamed on a drug cartel. Some of the children, aged between eight and 14, were handed rifles while others paraded with sticks on a road in the town of Chilapa in Guerrero state.[79]
Calm returns to the Mexico-Guatemala border after 800 Honduran immigrants were arrested on January 23.[80]
January 26 – The Comisión Nacional de los Derechos Humanos (National Human Rights Commission) reports that 2019 saw 35% more complaints about a lack of medicine and negligence than in 2018.[81]
January 27
Twelve governors, all member of PRI, agree to support Insabi.[82]
At least sixty are killed in violence over the weekend of January 24–26 in the state of Guanajuato.[83]
The Supreme Court (SCJN) declares that it is unconstitutional to require a Carta de No-Antecedentes Penales (letter that certifies no criminal record) as a prerequisite for employment.[84]
January 28 – Judge Francisco Castillo González orders a MXN $10 million (US$534,000) lien against journalist Sergio Aguayo and his property for "moral damage" of former Coahuila governor Humberto Moreira (PRI) in an editorial Aguayo wrote for Reforma in 2016.[85] Journalists and human rights activists unite in solidarity with Aguayo.[86]
January 29 – Three notorious criminals, one in the process of being extradited to the United States, escape from the Reclusorio Sur (South Penitentiary) in Mexico City.[87]
January 30
INEGI reports that the Mexican economy contracted by 0.1% in 2019 after growth of just over 2% in 2018.[88]
AMLO says his administration has rescued Pemex from bankruptcy and discusses other energy issues while in Merida, Yucatan.[91]
A Chinese tourist who passed through Mexico City is confirmed to be infected with Coronavirus disease 2019. Nine cases of possible infection are being monitored, but as of today, there are no confirmed cases in Mexico.[92]
February 2 – Candlemas[94] The Museo Nacional de Culturas Populares (National Museum of Popular Cultures) in Coyoacán reports that a record-breaking 126,000 attended the 27th Feria del Tamal (Tamales fair) in one week.[95]
At least eight people including one minor are killed in a shooting at a video-arcade in Uruapan, Michoacan.[97] The unrest seems to be related to the arrest on January 31 of Luis Felipe Barragán (El Vocho), the presumed leader of Los Viagra.[98]
February 4 – The National data protection authority (Spanish: Instituto Nacional de Transparencia, Acceso a la Información y Protección de Datos Personales) (Inai) orders the Ministry of Health to publicize all information about the cost and available of cancer medicine.[99]
AMLO says he wants to eliminate puentes (English: three-day weekends) in the academic calendar beginning July 2020 so that children will learn and appreciate the historic importance of holidays.[101]
Fifteen schools and colleges of the UNAM are now on strike in protest of violence against women.[102]
February 5 to 9 – Contemporary Art Week at four locations in Mexico City[103] Art critic Avelina Lésper destroyed Gabriel Rico's Nimble and sinister tricks (to be preserved without scandal and corruption), worth US$20,000, with a can of soda pop.[104] The fair in "Zona Macro" is considered the most important contemporary art fair in Latin America.[105]
February 6
Activists from Mexico join their African counterparts to support the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).[106]
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says that Russia is in talks to sell military helicopters to Mexico.[108] Hugo Rodriguez of the United States Department of State says that Mexico could be subject to sanctions if the sale goes forward.[109]
February 9 – Strikes in five schools and colleges of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) that were taken over to protest sexual harassment and violence have been returned to university authorities. Others continue in the hands of protesters, and an interuniversity assembly has been convoked for February 10.[110]
February 10 – The Attorney General of Mexico (FGR) promises that the law against femicide will not disappear, but that the laws must be reformed to protect women and children. He notes that homicides have increased by 35% in the last five years, but femicides (Spanish: feminicidios) have increased by 137% in the same period of time.[111]
February 11 – The diffusion on social media of graphic photographs of the dismembered cadaver of Ingrid Escamilla, victim of a brutal femicide, disturbs the nation.[112] The Ministry of Home Affairs (SEGOB) promises an investigation.[113] The sighting is later confirmed by the National Civil Protection Coordination, stating that no damage was reported.[114]
At a supper for the 200 most important business leaders in the country, guests were pressured to commit to buying blocks of raffle tickets for the Presidential airplane.[116]
February 12–16: San Miguel Writers' Conference & Literary Festival, San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato[117]
The Banco de México (Bank of Mexico) cuts interest rates for the fifth time in a year.[118]
February 14 – Family members of victims of violence against women and feminists protest the President's silence on the issue by painting the walls and doors of the National Palace.[119] AMLO responds "No soy un presidente surgido de la élite, insensible, simulador. Estamos haciendo todo lo que nos corresponde, y se va seguir informando y deseo con toda mi alma de que se reduzca la violencia y que no se agreda a las mujeres, eso es lo que deseo." ("I am not a president emerged from the elite, insensitive, simulator. We are doing everything that we must, and I will continue to inform and I wish with all my soul that violence is reduced and that women are not added; that is what I want.")[120]
February 15
Thousands protest against femicide in Mexico City and other parts of the country.[121] The naked body of an unidentified girl between 10 and 14 is found in a plastic garbage bag wrapped in a sack in Tláhuac, Mexico City.[122]
February 16 – Ten Mexicans who were evacuated from China to Paris due to the COVID-19 pandemic return to Mexico after a 14-day quarantine in which they tested negative.[124]
February 18
Claudia Sheinbaum announces that the search for missing children will begin as soon as they are reported missing, instead of waiting for an official police complaint.[125] The Autoridad Federal Educativa de la Ciudad de México (Federal Educational Authority of Mexico City) explains that if a child is not picked up by a parent or guardian within twenty minutes of school closing time, the child should be taken to the local police.[126]
Reforms against sexual harassment go into force at the UNAM.[127]
Alfonso Durasno, Minister of Security, says that seven of ten weapons used by organized crime in Mexico are imported illegally from the United States.[133]
February 21 – Mexico City mayor Claudia Sheinbaum promises that city employees who join the Woman's Strike on March 9 will not be penalized by the city government.[135]
February 23 – Lawyer Juan Collado, former husband of Leticia Calderón who has close ties to former presidents Calderón and Peña Nieto[136] is formally accused of money laundering and association with organized crime.[137]
February 23 – 25 – Carnaval de Mazatlán, Sinaloa[138]
February 24 – A protest happens at Playa del Carmen over public access to a supposedly "private" beach.[139]
February 25
The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the parents of Sergio Hernandez Guereca cannot sue the U.S. Border Patrol for the teen's 2010 death. Mexican prosecutors had charged Agent Jesus Mesa Jr. with murder, but the U.S. government refused to extradite him.[140]
February 26 – Mexican authorities refuse permission for a cruise ship registered in Malta to dock in Cozumel, Quintana Roo, because she carries a passenger presumed to be infected with Coronavirus disease 2019. The ship was previously denied access to ports in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.[142] On February 27, AMLO reversed the ruling, saying it would be "inhuman" to prohibit people from disembarking.[143]
February 28
The first two Mexican confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been identified by the Health Ministry. Family contacts of the patients have been placed in isolation.[144]
The National Human Rights Commission (Mexico) announces that its president, Rosario Piedra Ibarra, will receive MXN $159,227.83 monthly, some $5,000 more than what her predecessor, Luis Raúl González Pérez, received and $51,000 more than President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, despite a law that prohibits any government employee from earning more than the president. Despite the official policy of austerity, other top officials will also be paid more than López Obrador.[145] The third and fourth cases were confirmed on February 29.[146]
The Mexican stock market closes the week with a 4% decrease in value due to fears of Covid-19. The peso also loses 2% of its value.[147]
Former Nayarit governor Roberto Sandoval Castañeda and his wife and children are banned from entering the United States due to corruption.[148]
February 28 – March 1: Electric Daisy Carnival (electronic music), Mexico City[149]
February 29 – An appeals court in San Francisco rules against the U.S. government's "stay in Mexico" policy for asylum seekers, although the ruling is stayed until March 2.[150]
In a concession to the junk food industry, a judge from the Juzgado Séptimo de Distrito en Materia Administrativa (Seventh District Court in Administration) rules that companies do not have to label the sugar and fat content of their products.[151]
Patricia Rosalinda Trujillo Mariel, Operational Coordinator of the National Guard, is fired for corruption.[152]
March 3 – A study by Código Magenta reveals links between the company that collected signatures for Jaime Rodríguez Calderón ("El Bronco") during his 2018 presidential campaign and money laundering.[153]
March 4
Six bank accounts controlled by La Luz del Mundo (English: Church of the Living God, Pillar, and Ground of the Truth, The Light of the World) are frozen by the Unidad de Inteligencia Financiera (UIF) (English: Financial Intelligence Unit) because of sex scandals involving child pornography and sexual relations with minors.[154]
The Ministry of Health reports 1,455 cases of dengue fever, a 104.6% increase over the same period in 2019.[155]
March 6
The airline Interjet is near bankruptcy as it owes the federal government MXN $3 billion (US$150.6 million) and it is threatened by losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, AMLO proposes establishing a new airline in Mexico.[156]
A shootout between police and members of an auto-theft gang leaves nine dead, including one police officer and a civilian bystander in Tlaquepaque, Jalisco.[157]
Three people have died and 55 others require special medical attention after the Pemex hospital in Villahermosa, Tabasco, administers expired medicine.[158]
March 7
"Time for Women 2020" festival in Mexico City[159]
Proceso says the government of the United States has evidence linking former presidents Peńa Nieto and Calderon and several generals and admirals to narcotics trafficking[160]
March 8 – 15,000 people participated in the Women's March in Monterrey.[161] 80,000 march in Mexico City.[162] Hundreds march in Tlaxcala;[163]Ecatepec, State of Mexico; and Oaxaca.[164]
Crude oil prices fall to US$24.43 a barrel, the lowest price since 2016. The peso loses 4.83% of its value compared to the U.S. dollar, at $21.17/dollar, as the world worries about the COVID-19 pandemic.[169] The Mexican stock market fell 6%.[170]
March 10
The City of Mexico will publish the names, photographs, and other information about individuals convicted of sexual crimes, including femicide, human trafficking, sexual tourism, and abuses against minors.[171]
Mexico City bans gatherings of groups of more than 1,000 people.[181]
March 14–15: Festival Vive Latino (rock and Latin music), Mexico City[149] The festival goes on as scheduled, despite fears of the COVID-19 pandemic. Temperatures of the 70,000 people who attend each day are taken at the door and anti-bacterial gel is widely distributed. 26 cases of the virus are reported in Mexico, including 11 in Mexico City.[182]
The Health Department reports 82 confirmed and 171 suspected cases of COVID-19.[184]
The Catholic Episcopal Conference of Mexico recommends suspending masses and other large group gatherings. Priests can continue with private masses.[185]
The Mexican Stock Exchange closed for 15 minutes this morning after dropping 7.12% upon opening. This also happened last March 12. After reopening, the market fell by 8%.[188]
Interjet announces it will reduce its seating capacity by 40% as a health measure.[189]
The first death from COVID-19 in Mexico is reported. The 41-year-old man attended a concert on March 3 and was hospitalized on March 9. He also had diabetes.[190]
Twenty-five cases of measles are reported in Mexico City. The outbreak began in the Reclusario Norte (Northern penitentiary) last week.[191]
Mexican crude oil prices fall to their lowest level (US$12.92 per barrel) since 2002.[192]
March 19 – A group of protesters block downtown Cuernavaca.[193]
A new report (in Spanish) by the Mexican Centre for Environmental Rights (Cemed) shows that at least 83 land rights and environmental defenders were murdered in Mexico between 2012 and 2019. 40% of the 2019 incidents of harassment and murder were the responsibility of state officials such as police officers, national guard, and local prosecutors.[195]
March 21 – A Mexican Navy helicopter crashes during an anti-kidnapping operation in Zongolica, Veracruz. One police officer is killed and ten military personnel are injured.[198]
March 23
The World Health Organization (WHO) says Mexico has entered Phase 2 of the COVID-19 pandemic with 338 confirmed cases. This includes cases where the sick individuals did not have direct contact with someone who had recently been in another country.[199]
76% of the voters in Mexicali, Baja California, voted that the partially-built brewery owned by Constellation Brands should not be completed. Only 36,781 people participated in the poll.[200]
Mexico City reports 67 cases of measles, ten of whom had been vaccinated.[201] There are 60 cases of COVID-19 in the city.
Seventy-three cases of measles have been confirmed in Mexico City and the State of Mexico.[205] There are 196 confirmed cases (7 deaths) of coronavirus in Mexico City and 119 infections in the State of Mexico. Nationally, there have been more than 2,000 murders since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in February.[206]
March 31 – A riot in a migrant detention center in Tenosique, Tabasco, leaves a Guatemalan man dead and four people injured. The detainees were worried about a possible COVID-19 outbreak.[209]
AMLO issues a decree to abolish 100 public trusts related to science and culture; the Finance Ministry (SHCP) will receive the money directly.[210] The move is expected to save MXN $250 billion (US$10 billion).[211]
A shoot-out between presumed drug dealers results in at least 19 deaths in Ciudad Madera, Chihuahua.[212]
Mexico registers 2,585 homicides in March—the highest monthly figure since 1997—potentially breaking last year's record total for murders.[213]
April 7 – PAN conditions its support for less money for political parties on an abandonment of the Dos Bocas and Mayan Train infrastructure projects.[216]
April 8
President López Obrador says that fifteen large companies owe MMX $50,000,000,000 in taxes.[217]
April 16 – El Universal reports that several federal investigative units are looking into the wealth of former President Enrique Peña Nieto. AMLO says that any decision to prosecute will depend upon a referendum.[223]
April 20 – Drug cartels hand out aid packages of rice, pasta, cooking oil, and other household supplies.[224] Javier Oliva Posada, defense specialist at the UNAM, commented that the packages reach a small number of people, but that they are designed to gain public and extend territory. Oliva Posada also noted that cartels are facing a shortage of supplies from China and a tightening of the border along the United States.[225]
The United States pressures Mexico to reopen factories with military contracts despite worker fears of contacting COVID-19. Lear Corporation acknowledges there have been coronavirus-related deaths among its 24,000 employees in Ciudad Juárez, but refuses to say how many.[230]
COVID-19 pandemic: The number of reported cases passes 10,000.[231]
April 23
COVID-19 pandemic: Mexico surpasses the 1,000 deaths figure.[232]
Bank of Mexico (Banxico) issues a new MXN $20 commemorative coin to honor the 500th anniversary of the founding of city and port of Veracruz. It is smaller and lighter than previous coins and has twelve sides.[235]
As Ricardo Ahued, administrator of the customs agency of the SAT, departs to run for the Senate, AMLO says corruption in the agency is a ″monster with 100 heads.″[236]
April 26 – Mexico′s National Institute of Migration (INM) empties the 65 migrant detention centers it has across the country by returning 3,653 people to Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras in the hope of preventing outbreaks of COVID-19.[237]
April 29 – Police in Yajalón, Chiapas, open fire on people who were protesting against a checkpoint that left their community isolated. Residents of neighboring Tumbalá complain that the checkpoint make it impossible for them to access governmental and banking services and that it seemed to be related to a belief that Tumbalá has a high rate of coronavirus infection. Checkpoints have been installed in about 20% of Mexico's municipalities, which the federal government has declared illegal.[239]
April 30 – Twenty-one deaths and 44 people hospitalized for drinking adulterated alcohol in Jalisco.[240]
Christopher Landau, the American Ambassador to Mexico, asserts that protecting the lives of Mexican workers is less important than making sure the American military machine operates without a glitch. Many maquiladoras (assembly plants) along the border are being kept open to produce medical products for the U.S. market, even though the same products cannot be sold in Mexico. At least three people have died at European Schneider Electric, a factory in Tijuana, and 14 have died at an automobile parts factory in Ciudad Juarez. Three confirmed and five suspected COVID-19 deaths can be traced to Regal Beloit in Juarez.[242]
Luis Rodríguez Bucio of the internal affairs unit of the National Guard announces that it has fired one of its officers after pictures of him celebrating with known criminals in Puebla circulated on social media.[245]
AMLO cancels expensive wind and solar energy projects.[246]
May 2
COVID-19 pandemic: Mexico surpasses 2,000 deaths due to the COVID-19 pandemic on May 2.[247]
The United States Department of Commerce announces that the Mexico-U.S. sugar agreement will continue for five years. Mexico faced accusations and fines for dumping, but these will be suspended. Mexico is allowed to export 421,901 metric tonnes (465,067 short tons) of sugar to the United States.[248]
61 forest fires are reported in fifteen states.[249]
The Secretariat of Labor and Social Welfare singles out Grupo Elektra (10,000 employees), Autofin, and Hyplasa (more than 100 employees each) that refuse to close during the pandemic despite not providing essential services.[253]
The arrest of Óscar Andrés Flores Ramírez, sets off a wave of homicides in Cuauhtémoc, and Venustiano Carranza, Mexico City, as extorcionists and drug dealers fight for control of La Union Tepito gang.[254] 261 homicides have already been reported during the month of May, with Guanajuato (46), Jalisco (32). and State of Mexico (21) leading the list.[255]
May 5
The traditional parade in Puebla is canceled.[256]
Eleven prisoners escape from a prison in Zacatecas.[259]
May 8
COVID-19 pandemic: More than 3,000 deaths related to the pandemic are reported.[260]The New York Times reports that the federal government is underreporting deaths in Mexico City; the federal government reports 700 deaths in the city while local officials have detected over 2,500.[261]
May 16 – COVID-19 pandemic: Mexico reports more than 5,000 deaths.[274]
May 18
COVID-19 pandemic: Phase One of the government's plan to reopen the economy begins in 269 municipalities in 15 states.[270] Mexico reports more than 50,000 cases.[275]
A judge rules the conviction and nine-year prison sentence of former Verzcruz governor Javier Duarte de Ochoa; however, he rules in Duarte's favor regarding the illegal adquisition of property.[276]
May 20 – Alfonso Durazo of the Secretariat of Security and Civilian Protection (Mexico) reports a 1.66% decrease in murders from March to April this year. The highest numbers were in Guanajuato (1,534), State of Mexico (982), Chihuahua (906), Michoacán (886), and Baja California (880). Femicides dropped 10.25% to 70, and robberies fell 33.29%.[277]
A 6.1Mw earthquake is reported 173 kilometres (107 mi) east-southeast of San José del Cabo, Baja California Sur. No damages and no tsunami were reported.[279][280]
May 25 – COVID-19 pandemic: Mexico reaches a record of 3,455 new cases and 501 new deaths in one day. The daily death rate approaches that of the United States, where there are 620 deaths in one day.[282]
May 27 – Jaquelina Escamilla, head of the Women's Institute in Oaxaca de Juárez, Oaxaca, is fired for not broadcasting an anti-abortion video on the municipal media site. Abortion is legal in Oaxaca.[283]
May 28 – COVID-19 pandemic: Leaders of the LXIV Legislature of the Mexican Congress convoke their counterparts from nine other Latin American countries to discuss a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Latin America has 706,798 confirmed cases and 38,384 deaths.[284] Maximiliano Reyes Zuñiga, Assistant Secretary of Foreign Affairs (SRE), proposes three measures to finance the recuperation of the region, including a 3% tax on billionaires.[285]
May 29 – FEMSA agrees to pay MXN $8.79 billion in back taxes.[286]
May 30
Seven people including a local drug lord are killed and two are injured at a party in Tierra Blanca, Veracruz.[287]
Hundreds of protesters, mostly driving luxury cars, participate in caravans in Mexico City and other cities to demand that AMLO resign.[288]
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announces a "new normal" of partial reopening with a road trip to Cancun and the inauguration of construction of the Mayan Train.[290]
MORENA proposes an increase in taxes on tobacco, alcohol, and sugary soft drinks with the additional income going to support public health.[291]
Meteorologists predict between seven and nine major hurricanes and between 15 and 19 named storms this year.[295] Tropical Storm Cristobal makes landfall in Astata, Campeche, 20 kilometres (12 mi) from Ciudad del Carmen and 75 kilometres (47 mi) east of Frontera, Tabasco causing flooding and driving people from their homes. In addition to Campeche and Tabasco, the states of Yucatan, Chiapas, Quintana Roo, Oaxaca, and Veracruz were affected.[296]
June 5 – Three police officers including the commissioner are arrested in connection with the May 5 beating death of Giovanni López.[299]
June 6 – Ten people are shot dead at a drug rehabilitation center in Irapuato, Guanajuato. Guanajuato reports 1,500 homicides this year.[300]
June 7
Seven police vehicles and a motorcycle are destroyed during a riot in San Pedro Cuajimalpa, Mexico City, while preventing the lynching of a driver who began shooting into a crowd following an auto accident.[301]
With 117 murders, June 7 is the most violent day in Mexico this year.[302]
June 8
AMLO explains that a US$1 billion loan from the World Bank is not new debt but is a routine loan that was solicited last year.[303]
The death toll from adulterated alcohol in Guerrero reaches 18.[304]
June 9
Official news agencyNotimex shuts down until an agreement can be reached with striking workers.[305]
June 10 – A health clinic and city hall are burned by armed inhabitants of Las Rosas, Chiapas after the death of a peasant, apparently from COVID-19.[307]
June 11
Police in San Pablo Huitzo, Oaxaca, hand over two young men accused of theft to local citizens; one is lynched. The state human rights commission (DDHPO) has received 120 complaints of police abuse including two prisoner deaths this year.[308]
The WHO reports a decrease in malaria in Latin America, including Mexico, although there are fears that many cases are going undetected as sick people stay home instead of going to hospitals.[309]
June 14 – Caravans of at between 50 and 900 luxury cars in 12 states demand that AMLO resign.[310]
June 16 – AMLO says that Mexico will sell fuel to Venezuela for humanitarian purposes if requested.[311]
June 23 – A magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck two kilometers northeast of Crucecita, Santa María Huatulco, Oaxaca at 10:29 a.m. with a depth of 22.6 kilometres (14.0 mi).[313] Thirty aftershocks, including one of 5.4 Mw were reported.[314] Nine deaths and more than 2,000 damaged homes were reported in the state. 46 million people in a dozen states across the country felt the earthquake.[315] There are reports that the alarm system did not work in some parts of Mexico City.[316]
June 24 – A giant dust storm from the Sahara Desert hits southeast Mexico.[317]
June 25
A six-hour gunfight for control of the Sinaloa drug cartel leaves 16 dead in Tepuche, Sinaloa.[318]
The Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel is accused of a bomb attempt at the Pemex refinery in Guanajuato after several of the cartel's leaders were arrested on June 20. The cartel is infamous for fuel theft and extortion.[319]
June 26 – Mexico City Police ChiefOmar García Harfuch is wounded this morning after he and his bodyguards were attacked by 50 heavily armed members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. Two police officers and a civilian woman were killed; García Harfuch is reported stable. Twelve of the attackers were arrested.[320]
Twenty-eight people are killed in a mass shooting at a drug rehabilitation center in Irapuato, Guanajuato.[322]
COVID-19: Mexico becomes the country with the seventh greatest number of deaths with 28.510, surpassing Spain. Mexico has 231,770 confirmed cases of infection, tenth in the world.[323]
July 7 – Remains of a second student killed in the 2014 Iguala mass kidnapping are found and identified in Cocula Municipality, Guerrero. The remains were not found in the waste dump where the bodies of the students were previously said to be burned.[327]
July 8
In his first foreign visit, President López Obrador flies commercially from Mexico City to Atlanta and then to Washington, D.C. to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump to discuss trade, investment, health issues, and combatting organized crime.[328] AMLO and Trump sign a joint declaration pledging to build "a shared future of prosperity, security, and harmony."[329]
Two adult and three minor females are killed in an apparent reckong among gangs in El Gavillero, Nicolás Romero, State of Mexico.[332]
July 10 – 2014 Ayotzinapa kidnapping: Mexico seeks the arrest and extradition from Canada of Tomas Zeron, former head of the Criminal Investigation Agency that wrote the now-discredited "historical truth" about the kidnappings.[333]
July 11 – COVID-19 pandemic: Mexico surpasses the United Kingdom with 295,268 reported cases.[334]
July 12 – COVID-19 pandemic: Mexico becomes the country with the fourth greatest number of deaths in the world with 35,006, surpassing Italy.[335]
July 13
A network of eight to twelve doctors who worked with funeral homes to falsify death certificates related to both the September 19, 2017, earthquake and the COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico City is revealed.[336]
The United States promises a $47 million (MXN $2 billion) aid package to fight drug traffic in Mexico.[337]
July 16 – WHO warns about an alarming drop in childhood vaccinations in Mexico.[338]
July 17
President López Obrador announces that the Mexican Armed Forces are in charge of customs at border crossings and seaports to combat corruption and drug smuggling.[339]
The Comité de Sanidad Vegetal de Quintana Roo (Plant Health Committee of Quintana Roo, Cesaveqroo) issues an alert for a plague of American grasshoppers that could also affect Campeche, Chiapas, Hidalgo, Oaxaca, San Luis Potosí, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Veracruz, and Yucatán.[342]
July 18
A video showing 20 armoured vehicles and heavily armed paramilitary soldiers shouting pura gente del señor Mencho ("pure people of Señor Mencho"), a nickname for Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, is attributed to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), circulates in social media.[343]
Twenty young businessmen are kidnapped and one killed while on a "Vallartazo," or tour, from Guadalajara to Puerta Vallarta, Jalisco.[344] The CJNG drug cartel has reportedly demanded ransom, but nothing has been heard from the men in a week.[345]
July 21 – Three women are arrested for human trafficking as 23 children between 3 months and 15 years old are rescued in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas.[348]2+1⁄2-year-old Dylan, whose disappearance from a market sparked the investigation, is still missing.[349]
July 22 – AMLO proposes major reforms in pensions.[351] Bank stocks go up.[352]
July 23
The government announced 20 actions to repair the damage done during the Acteal massacre of 45 people including children in Chiapas in 1997. An Acuerdo de Solución Amistosa (Friendly Solution Agreement) is to be signed on September 3.[353]
The volcano Popocatépetl had its most active day of 2020 with 1,348 minutes of quaking, plus emissions of gas, water vapor, and ashes.[354]
July 25
Former Secretary of the CDMX is Rosa Icela Rodríguez is named coordinator of ports and seacoasts.[355]
A study of 20 states reveals an excess of 71,315 deaths for the first six months of the year, compared to 2019. Some but not all are related to the COVID-19 pandemic.[356]
July 26 – Hurricane Hanna hits southern Texas and parts of Mexico, causing flooding in a maternity ward in a hospital in Reynosa, Tamaulipas.[357] A section of the border wall collapses.[358] Flloding and fallen trees are reported in Monterrey, Nuevo León.[359]
The Secretaría de la Contraloría General de la Ciudad de México (Mexico City comptroller) reports that between January 2019 and February 2020, 1,680 public servants in the city were sanctioned for acts of corruption.[369]
The state legislature of Oaxaca bans the sales of sugary drinks and junk food to minors.[370]Public Health Nutrition reveals that Coca-Cola has financed pseudo-scientific studies to demonstrate that drinking sugary drinks does not contribute to obesity.[371]
While reiterating the independence of the Attorney General of Mexico (Fiscalía General de la República, FGR), AMLO says that former President Enrique Peña Nieto will have to testify in regard to the accusations of Emilio Lozoya Austin.[378] For the second time, he accuses former president Felipe Calderón of leading narcoestado (druglord state).[379]
Jesús Orta and eighteen other former top police officials are arrested in a crackdown on corruption.[380]
Hugo Bello, leader of the Confederacón Libertad de Trabajadores de México, (Freedom Confederation of Mexican Workers) is arrested for kidnapping and the union's suspected involvement in embezzlement of money destined for construction of the now-defunct Mexico City Texcoco Airport (NAIM) in Texcoco.[381]
August 13
COVID-19 pandemic:
Mexico reports more than 500,000 confirmed cases.[382]
AMLO decrees thirty day of mourning for victims of the pandemic, from August 13 to September 11. This is in addition to the minute of silence offered during the President's daily press conferences.[383]
The company that built the Estela de la Luz in CDMX as a monument to President Felipe Calderón is ordered to pay back MXN $447.1 million for overcharges.[384]
August 14 – Over 1,000 employees of the National Migration Institute (INM) are fired for corruption.[385]
August 15 – The Registro Nacional de Personas Desaparecidas (Nation Registry of Missing Persons) reports an increase in the number of missing children and teenagers. There are 73,000 missing persons in Mexico, with the largest number of cases in Tamaulipas (11,000), Jalisco (10,000), and the State of México (7,000).[387]
Genevieve becomes a Category 4 hurricane as it approaches Jalisco and Baja California Sur. Waves up to 6 metres (20 ft) are reported in Jalisco, Colima, and Michoacán.[391]
COVID-19 pandemic: Hugo López-Gatell declares that the pandemic is clearly in descent as daily cases and deaths decline for six consecutive weeks.[392]
AMLO reveals that President Carlos Salinas de Gortari ceded a 50-year concession to a private company to operate the Port of Veracruz, and that President Peña Nieto extended the concession to 2094.[393]
The Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) of the Treasury Department (SCHP) freezes the bank accounts of Aquiles Córdova Morán, Juan Manuel Celis, and other leaders of the Antorcha Campesina (Torch of the Peasantry) in the states of Mexico and Puebla.[394]
August 19
Two deaths are reported in Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, due to Hurricane Genevieve.[395]
Members of the Sindicato de Telefonistas de la República Mexicana (Telephone Workers' Union of Mexico, STRM) call a national strike in protest of the destruction of their pension system by Telmex.[396]
August 20
Journalist Carlos Loret de Mola of Latinas shows two videos from 2015 wherein Pio López Obrador, brother of the President and head of Morena in Chiapas, received packages of cash from David León Romero, who has been nominated to head the government agency responsible for delivering medicine to the Secretariat of Health.[397]
COVID-19 pandemic: Mexico City passes 10,000 deaths, 17% of the total.[398]
August 21 – AMLO says the money his brother Pio received from David León involved private donations, not bribes. AMLO also expressed his willingness to testify.[399] León Romero says he was a consultant, not a public servant, at the time of the videos, and that he will not accept the position he has been nominated for until this matter has been cleared up.[400]
August 22
COVID-19 pandemic: More than 60,000 deaths are reported.[401][402]
The Human Rights Commission of Guanajuato (PDHG) opens an investigation of police in relation to the arrest of 29 women, including four reporters, during a protest demonstration.[404]
August 24 – Schools reopen across the country.[406][407]
August 25 – The confederation of Gobernadores de Acción Nacional (Governors of National Action Party, GOAN) and opposition parties protest against the 13–0 decision of the Baja California Sur legislature to remove five and sanction three of its members for missing five sessions in a row.[408]
August 26 – Defense Secretary Luis Cresencio opens an investigation involving two dozen soldiers involved in the killing of nine gang members and three kidnap victims in Nuevo Laredo in July.[409]
Grupo Modelo becomes the latest industrial giant to agree to pay its back taxes, MXN$2 billion.[410]
August 30 – Juan Collado, the former lawyer of ex-President Peña Nieto, is charged with tax evasion of MXN #6 million in 2015. This is in addition to earlier charges of organized crime and money laundering, in addition to possible charges for bank fraud in Andorra.[411]
August 31
AMLO criticizes the Labor Party (PT) for its maneuvers to take over the presidency of the Chamber of Deputuies.[412] Due to party defections, PT and PRI are tied as the third-largest political party in the Chamber with 46 seats each.[413]
Gerardo Sosa Castelán, chairman of the board of the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo (UAEH) is arrested for money laundering, embezzlement, and tax fraud. Sosa Castelán had already been implicated in the US$156 million Estafa Maestra.[414]
September 1 – President Andrés Manuel López Obrador gives his Second Informe (Report) in the Legislative Palace of San Lázaro. He says, "En el peor momento está el mejor gobierno" ("At the worst time there is the best government").[415]
September 2
Acteal massacre: The government accepts its responsibility for the December 1997 massacre and apologizes to the surviving victims.[416]
Luz María de la Mora, Undersecretary for Trade, announces that trade between Mexico and the United States in the first quarter of the year amounted to US$290 billion, making Mexico the largest trading partner of the United States.[417]
September 2 to 7 – Hay Festival Querétaro will be online.[418]
September 8 – Opposition Senators demand accountability from Rosario Piedra Ibarra, president of the National Human Rights Commission, in relation to the occupation of the Human Rights Commission headquarters by a group of feminists.[423] The occupation began on September 3, and demonstrators say they may occupy other facilitities if their demands are not met.[424]
September 9
Two demonstrators are killed by the National Guard while protesting against sending water from La Boquilla Dam in Chihuahua to the United States as stipulated in a 1944 treaty.[425]
The SCHP presents its 2021 budget without proposed increases in taxes or debt. Infrastructure projects such as the airport of Santa Lucia and the Mayan Train plus the health sector are given priority.[426] Tourism (mostly for the Mayan Train), SEDATU, SEDENA, National Electoral Institute (INE), and the TEPJF are the areas with the greatest increases.[427] The Chamber of Deputies receives an increase, but the Senate and the Human Rights Commission will have budget cuts.[428] The total budget is MXN $6.295 trillion (US 293.6 billion) with projected income of MXN $5.539 trillion (US $258.34 billion) with the largest single item for BIENESTAR (MXN $190 billion).[429]
COVID-19 pandemic: Six former Health Secretaries release a report critical of the government's response to the virus, saying that increased testing and mapping of cases could lead to containing infections in six to eight weeks.[430]
September 11 – Members of the feminist group Manada Periferia complain that male police officers used unnecessary force to arrest eleven adults and eight minors who were occupying the offices of the state human rights commission (Codem) in Ecatapec, State of Mexico.[431]
The CFE estimates damages caused by protesters to La Boquilla Dam at MXN $100 million (US $4.7 million).[432]
September 11–12
Festival Pa′l Tecate Norte (Mexican and Latin music) in Fundidora Park, Monterrey[149] Originally scheduled for March 20–21[433]
Festival Corona Capital (rock and indie music) in Guadalajara[149] Rescheduled from April[434]
September 14 – Pasta de Conchos mine disaster: The government and family members of the 65 victims of the 2006 exlosion reached an agreement on rescuing the bodies and compensating the families.[435]
September 15
Grito de Dolores: AMLO gives his second Grito amidst special health restrictions.[436]
Three hospitals are among the one hundred winners of the for the presidential airplane.[437] A kindergarten in Aramberri, Nuevo León also won.[438]
UIF freezes the accounts of former governor of Chihuahua José Reyes Baeza Terrazas for embezzlement of MXN $129 million (US $6.14 million) related to the Estafa Maestra ("Master Scam") while Reyes Baeza was the director of FOVISSSTE.[440]
September 16 – Independence Day, national holiday
The traditional military parade in the Zócalo is televised but closed to the public.[441]
Fifty-eight health workers from hospitals of IMSS, ISSSTE, Insabi, Semar, and Pemex receive the Condecoración Miguel Hidalgo for their work in combatting the COVID-19 pandemic.[442]
September 17 – The government demands an explanation as to why immigrants in Georgia were forcibly given hysterectomies.[443]
September 22 – Jaime Cárdenas Gracia, head of the Instituto para Devolverle al Pueblo lo Robado (Institute to Return that which was stolen to the People, Indep), resigns and Ernesto Prieto, formerly of the National Lottery, replaces him.[445]
September 23
SAT: The Tax Administration Service reveals that between 2007 and 2018 MXN $413 billion in taxes was forgiven.[446] Of the 647 large contributors whose accounts have been reviewed, two unidentified companies still refuse to pay their debts.[447] The SAT denounced 497 public servants for acts of corruption.[448]
Two Mexicans, Gabriela Cámara Bargellini, a chef at "Contramar," and Arussi Unda, feminist (Las Brujas del Mar) are included in the list of one hundred most influential people in the world by Time.[449]
September 25 – The government reveals that two politically-connected families are behind the demonstrations against the 1944 water treaty with the United States. Demonstrations at La Boquilla dam have left MXN $100 million.[450] AMLO announces changes in the leadership of CONAGUA.[451]
Marches are cancelled but social events are held to commemorate the 52nd anniversary of the Tlatelolco massacre.[452][453]
AMLO deploys 26,000 soldiers on the southern border to block an immigrant caravan originating in Honduras.[454]
October 3
Six police officers and two civilians die in an anbush in San Antonio de Padua, Durango.[455]
Quintana Roo is on red-alert and flooding is expected in Tabasco and Chiapas due to Tropical Storm Gamma.[456]
October 18 – Elections
Coahuila: PRI wins 16 of 32 municipalities with 49.31% of the votes, second place for MORENA (19.3%), and third place for PAN (9.9%).[457]
Hidalgo: PRI wins 32 municipalities, PAN five plus six others in alliance with PRD, and MORENA six plus another five in alliances with PVEM, PES, and PT.[457]
October 27 – Hurricane Zeta makes landfall in Tulum, Quintana Roo, without reports of deaths or major damages.[458]
October 29 – Authorities in the Mexican state of Guanajuato discover a mass grave containing 59 bodies.[459]
November 6 – Twenty-one people are killed and 80,000 are homeless because of Tropical Storm Eta.[460]
November 7 – AMLO cancels his tour after floods in Tabasco kill 20 and damage thousands of homes in Villahermosa, Tabasco.[461] Opening the Peñitas Dam southwest of Villahermosa leaves 184,000 homeless in Tabasco, Chiapas, Veracruz, and Quintana Roo.[462]
November 9 – Cancun police shoot at demonstrating feminists, wounding a female reporter.[463]
AMLO apologizes for insulting Alonso Ancira, president of Altos Hornos de México who was recently arrested in Spain for cheating the Mexican government on the sale of a fertilizer plant. “Yes, I'm offering an apology, now just return the 200 million dollars," said López Obrador.[465]
November 12 – Members of the Attorney General of Tabasco's office remove drinking water and food from a flooded convenience store to distribute among victims of the flooding in Tabasco.[467]
November 13 – The Senate begins debate on recreational use of marijuana.[468]
November 14 – The anti-AMLO coalition (Frente Nacional Anti-AMLO, FRENAA) lifts its demonstration in the Zócalo of Mexico City after one of its members is accused of sex abuse.[469][470]
November 15
COVID-19: More than 1,000,000 total positive cases are confirmed.[471]
AMLO admits that low-lying, indigenous, "poor" areas of Tabasco were flooded to save the city of Villahermosa.[472]
November 16 – Thirteen people are killed and four vehicles are killed when an automobile and a truck carrying LP gas collide on the Guadalajara-Tepic tollway Km. 106.[473]
November 17 – Prosecutors in the United States drop the charges against General Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda so he can be tried in Mexico.[474][475]
November 18 – The Chamber of Deputies approves a Constitutional amendment guaranteeing indigenous languages the same legal status as Spanish.[476]
November 23 – Police in Celaya kill a tamal vendor by kneeling on his neck for ten minutes.[478]
November 25 – LeBarón and Langford families massacre: Three suspects are arrested in connection with the 2019 murder of three women and nine children belonging to a Mormon sect.[479]
December 3 – AMLO says that the government of the United States helped him secure an agreement from Pfizer to secure 34.4 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine, including 250,000 doses in December.[480]
December 4 – Pemex cancels its contracts with Litoral Laboratorios Industriales SA de CV, which is owned by Felipa Guadalupe Obrador Olán, cousin of President López Obrador.[481]
The Secretary of Foreign Relations (SRA) has solicited the extradition of Genaro García Luna, former Secretary of Public Security, who is on trial in the United States for drug trafficking and money laundering.[485]
December 8 – COVID-19 pandemic: Distribution of the vaccine will begin late in December, after the Pfizer vaccine is approved in the United States and by Mexican authorities. First to receive the vaccine will be 125,000 health workers in CDMX and the state of Coahuila; full coverage will take until 2022.[487]
December 10 – Alejandro Encinas, deputy interior minister responsible for human rights, calls upon the State of Veracruz to reopen the investigation into the death of Ernestina Ascencio, a 73-year-old indigenous woman who died after being reportedly raped by members of the armed forces.[488]
December 10—13 – COVID-19 pandemic: For the first time in its 400-year history, the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe is closed. Several metro and metrobus stations in the area are also closed.[489]
December 11
CFE and the government of France sign an agreement to develop geothermal energy in Mexico.[490]
Cardinal Carlos Aguiar, archbishop of Mexico City, endorses civil unions for gay couples.[491]
Archaeologists find remains of 119 more people in the "Aztec Tower of Skulls".[492]
Samuel García, Citizens' Movement candidate for governor of Nuevo Leon, whines that political opponents question how much he suffered as a child for being forced to play golf with his father or the suffering of families who earn "mini-salaries" of MXN $50,000/month (USD $2507).[496] Conservative former president Felipe Calderón joined the critics.[497] The average salary in Mexico is USD $1,358/month,[498] and 20% of workers make the minimum wage of MXN $123.22/day (USD $6.53).[499]
December 16
COVID-19 pandemic
According to a survey by the Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública (National Institute of Public Health—INSP), 31 million Mexicans, 25% of the population, has been exposed to the virus.[500]
150 members of SEDENA and 50 members of SEMAR begin training for application of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. Vaccination will begin on December 22.[501]
AMLO and United States President-elect Joe Biden discuss a new approach to migration issues during a phone call.[504]
A photograph of Pedro Gabriel Hidalgo Cáceres, state leader of PAN in Tabasco, illegally collecting MXN $10,000 destined for flood victims, circulates on social media.[505]
Two precandidates for mayor from MORENA in Guerrero, Efrén Valois Morales (Pilcaya) and Mario Figueroa (Taxco de Alarcón) are attacked by armed assailants. Valois Morales dies.[509]
COVID-19 pandemic: The first batch of vaccines arrive in Mexico.[513]
A poll by Morning Consult lists President Lopez Obrador as the second most popular president in the word, after India's Narendra Modi.[514]
December 25 – 2018 Puebla helicopter crash: Four people who worked for Rotor Flight Services are arrested in connection with the crash.[515]
December 28 – CFE reported electrical failures in six entities.[516] The National Center for Energy Control (Cenace) explained, ″[T]here was an imbalance in the National Interconnected System between the load and the power generation, causing a loss of approximately 7,500 MW."[517] Later reports indicate that from 12 to 21 entities were effected by the blackout.[518]
December 29 – Dozens of Cuban migrants demonstrate in Ciudad Juarez to be allowed to cross the border into the United States to seek asylum.[519]
December 30 – INE insists that Morena Party remove a video from Twitter entitled Extirpemos el tumor de México until election camoaigns begin on April 3, 2021.[520]
June (TBA) – Hospital de la Salud (Health hospital) is scheduled to oped open with 500 medical and 500 nursing students. The hospital will train medical professionals primarily for community service.[524]
October 10 to 18 – The Monterrey International Book Fair is cancelled.[525]
December 1 – The Instituto de Salud para el Bienestar (Insabi) (English: Institute of Health for Welfare) will go fully into effect and stop charging for services.[527]
Huachicoleros – The FGR says that 850,000 liters (220,000 U.S. gal) of stolen fuel were decommissioned and 94 people were arrested. 2,536 clandestine faucets were found and put out of service.[532]
Economics
Price of crude oil (December 31) – US $47.16 per barrel, a 16% loss for the year.[533]
Transfer payments – Mexicans living abroad, mostly in the United States, sent a record USD $40.6 billion to their families in Mexico. The average payment was $340.[540]
Health
COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico totals – 1,426,094 infections and 125,807 deaths (December 31).[541] 9,579 people received the first dosis of the vaccine (as of December 24).[542]
INEGI reported (August 2020) that the principal causes of death were: heart disease (20.8%), COVID-19 (15.9%), and type 2 diabetes (14.6%). 58.7% of the dead were men and 41.1% were women.[543] Data (January 2021) show 40% ″excessive deaths″ and 954,517 total deaths. Final results will be published in October 2021.[544]
July 10–18-year-old Karen Vega becomes the first model from Oaxaca to be featured on the cover of Vogue México y Latinoamérica magazine.[547]
July 12 – Designer Carla Fernández teams up with ten artisans from Michoacan, Colima, Oaxaca, Chiapas, and Guerrero to make ecological face masks based upon traditional wooden masks.[548]
December 15 – French designer Isabel Marant apologizes for stealing indigenous designs from Michoacán, State of México, Tlaxcala, San Luis Potosí, and Oaxaca.[549]
August 30 – Blanco de verano, directed by Rodrigo Ruiz Patterson, is selected the best Iberoamerican feature-length movie at the Málaga Film Festival. Fabián Corres wins best supporting actor; and Ruiz Patterson and Raúl Sebastián Quintanilla win the award for best script. Arturo Ripstein wins a retrospective award for El diablo entre las piernas.[554]
September 18 – Juana Peñate Montejo wins the Premio de Literaturas Indígenas de América (Indigenous Literature of America Prize, PLIA) for the Chʼol language poem Isoñil ja’al ("Water Dance").[562]
January 14 – Manuel Antonio Casas Camarillo of Oaxaca wins second place in the Golden Classical Music Award in New York City, United States.[564]
January 19 – Actress Yalitza Aparicio made a surprise appearance with Chilean singer Mon Laferte while she sang Plata ta tá at the Palacio de los Deportes. Aparicio held up a hand-written sign that said, "No es mi color de piel, mi clase social, mi cultura o mi preferencia sexual lo que determina quien soy, son mis valores". ("It is not my skin color, my social class, my culture or my sexual preference that determines who I am, they are my values.")[565]
August 18–20: 'Expo Cine Video Television' in Mexico City[570]
August 19–21: 'TecnoTelevision Mexico' at the World Trade Center Mexico City is for professionals in broadcasting, production, and post-production.[571]
February 5–9 – Contemporary Art Week at four locations in Mexico City[103] The fair in "Zona Macro" is considered the most important contemporary art fair in Latin America.[105]
July 1–17 – An open-air art exhibit called Conexión (Connection) where works of art are displayed in windows, doors, walls, and terraces was on held in several Mexico City neighborhoods. Works by Teresita de la Torre, Cole M. James, Itzamina Reyes, Nasser Dłaz, and Alfredo Esparza Cárdenas, among others, were on display.[573]
January 20 – The La Comisión Disciplinaria de la Federación Mexicana de Futbol (Disciplinary Commission of the Mexican Soccer League) disciplines Estadio Jalisco after fans yelled homophobic insults.[583]
February 22 – Rodolfo Cota, goalie for Club León, protests against femicide and may be suspended for three matches and fined MXN $300,000.[584]
February 22 to March 8 – Campeonato Femenino Sub-20 Concacaf 2020 (Concacaf 2020 Under-20 Women's Championship) in the Dominican Republic[585]
Alicia Salgado, nurse union leader (Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores del Instituto de Seguridad y Servicios Sociales de los Trabajadores del Estado de México); tortured to death (body found on this date)[617]
January 4
Félix Alberto Linares, mayor of Ocuilan, State of México; an ultra-light plane crash.[618]
Enrique Montero Ponce, 91, journalist (XEHR) from Puebla[619]
Felipe Antonio Díaz Zamora, Spanish chef in Tijuana, Baja California; murdered.[621]
January 6 – Sergio Fernández, 93, novelist (Los peces (1968) and Los desfiguros de mi corazón (1986)), essayist, and university professor (National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM))[622]
January 8
Jaime Rosas Quiñones, leader of the sugarcane union Confederación Nacional de Propietarios Rurales (CNPR) in Puebla, shot in Izúcar de Matamoros, Puebla. Carlos Valencia Camaño, 44, was also shot.[623]
Gary Hirsch Meillón, legal representative of Marindustrias (a tuna fish company) and former local president of the Red Cross; shot in Manzanillo, Colima[624]
María "Miss Mary" Assaf Medina, 50, English teacher at Colegio Cervantes in Torreón, Coahuila; murdered in a school shooting. The 11-year-old shooter and a 7-year-old girl also died.[626]
Maria Guadalupe Lopez Esquival "La Catina", 21, leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) in Tepalcatepec, Michoacan; killed in gun battle with state and federal security forces.[633]
January 16 – Jorge Navarro Sánchez and Luis Gerardo Rivera, actors in the Televisa series No Fear of Truth died after falling from a bridge during filming near Mexico City.[637]
January 17
Members of the band Sensación murdered by "Los Ardillos" in Chilapa de Álvarez, Guerrero: Jose Julio (37), Crescenciano (37), Israel (24), Antonio (24), Candido (20), Lorenzo (32), Juan Joaquin (42), Marco (36), Regino (15), and Israel (15)[638]
Eduardo Soar Nova López, 42, police officer killed while trying to stop a robbery in Cuernavaca[639]
January 29 – Homero Gómez González, 50, ecologist and president of Comité Administrador del Santuario El Rosario, a Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve in Ocampo Municipality, Michoacán. He was last seen alive on January 20, and a spokesperson for the state human rights commission declared that he believes Gómez González was murdered by illegal forestry interests.[646]
According to the Security Cabinet (Attorney General, Secretary of Security, Army, and Navy), there were 2,300 murders during the month of January 2020, with 104 on January 25. Other estimates put the figure over 3,000.[648]
February 1 – Raúl Hernández Romero, 44, tourist guide in Monarch butterfly sanctuaries in eastern Michoacan; he disappeared on January 27 and was found murdered on February 1. He was the second butterfly activist found murdered in less than a week.[649]
February 8
Humberto Rojas Landa ("Doctor Cosquillas"), 51, a clown doctor in Puebla; shot during a robbery.[650]
Ingrid Escamilla Vargas, 25, a victim of femicide[651]
Sergio Estrada Cajigal Barrera, 88, historian and politician (PAN), interim mayor of Cuernavaca, Morelos (1990–1991), father of Morelos governor Sergio Estrada Cajigal Ramírez; health complications[658]
Miguel Ángel García Tapia, journalist (El Sol de Cuernavaca); COVID-19[709]
Carlos Andrés Navarro Landa, 33, arrested for disorderly conduct and then died in police custody, officially from a heart attack but covered with bruises from a beating.[710]
May 4 – José Luis Orendain Curiel, the first doctor in Nayarit to die of COVID-19[711]
May 5
Giovanni López Ramírez, 30, mason; beaten to death while in police custody in Ixtlahuacán de los Membrillos, Jalisco. His death set off violent demonstrations against police brutality.[712][713]
Jaime Montejo, human rights actist in Mexico City; COVID-19[714]
May 6
Fabián Mauricio Toledo Aguilar, the first doctor in Morelos (IMSS and ISSSTE) to die of COVID-19[715]
Agustín Villegas, 79, singer and composer (b. 1941)[716]
May 15 – Luis Alfonzo Robles Contreras, politician, mayor of Magdalena de Kino, Sonora; shot during crossfire by narcos.[727]
May 16
José Rodrigo Aréchiga Gamboa ("El Chino Ántrax"), gangster; shot in Culiacan[728] His sister, Ada Jimena Arechiga Gamboa, was murdered in a separate incident.[729]
Jorge Armenta Ávalos, journalist, director of media outlet Medios Obson in ,Ciudad Obregón, Sonora; shot. A police officer was also killed and another wouned.[730]
May 17 – Daniela Lázaro Ducoulombier, soccer player (Atlético San Luis); stangled with a rope (possible suicide)[732]
May 19 – Alvaro Echeverria Zuno, 71, son of former president Luis Echeverría; suicide[733]
May 21 – Alfonso Isaac Gamboa Lozano, 39, former head of Unidad de Política y Control Presupuestal of SHCP; shot along with four other members of his family in Temxico, Morelos[734][735]
17,672 people died of SARS-CoV-2 virus in July, an average of 589 people per day.[782] An excess of 130,000 deaths, 55%, were reported between April and July 2020, compared to the same time period in 2019. Only 51,000 of these were officially attributed to COVID-19.[783]
August 3 – Pablo Morrugares, journalist (P.M Noticias Guerrero web site) and his police bodyguard; murdered[785]
August 4 – José Luis Ibáñez, 87, university professor, screenwriter and film and theater director (b. 1933).[786]
August 5 – Tony Camargo, 94, singer (b. 1926).[787]
August 9 – Manrique Mezquita Tadeo, 36, cable television installer in San Marcos Tlacoyalco, Puebla; lynched after being falsely accused of child-kidnapping.[788]
August 10
Oscar Baylón Chacón, 91, politician (PRI: Federal senator and Governor of Baja California) and agronomist; stroke.[789][790]
Ricardo Melgar Bao, 74, professor, historian and anthropologist (b. 1946).[791]
Jonathan Santos, 18, Zapopan, Jalisco; shot in the head. His death raises concerns about homophobichate crimes in Mexico. (Body found on this date)[793]
Juan Nelcio, independent journalist in Coahuila (Velador TV); murdered while in police custody.[807]
Danna, 16, of Mexicali, Baja California; shot (body burned after death).[808]
August 23 – Miguel Antonio Vázquez, politician, municipal president of General Felipe Ángeles, Puebla; COVID-19.[809]
August 24
Victorino Gómez Martínez, politician, municipal president of San Bartolomé Quialana, Tlacolula District, Oaxaca; COVID-19.[810] He was the 19th municipal president to die of the virus.[809]
Sergio Tolano Lizárraga, union leader (Sección 65 del Sindicato Minero Nacional); injuries related to a fall off a horse.[811]
August 25 – Federico Aparicio Calixto, indigenous healer, disappeared while looking for his son in Metlatónoc, Guerrero; shot (body found on this date).[812]
August 26 – Cristian Trinidad, nurse last seen in Huixquilucan on July 17 (body found August 26).[813]
Bianca Alejandrina Lorenzana Alvarado (Alexis), 20, of Cancun, Quintana Roo; killed and dismembered (body found on this date).[852] The police violently repressed protests following her death.[853]
December 5 – Raúl Iragorri Montoya, Cuernavaca businessman (Nissan Cuernavaca) and politician MORENA (Morelos State legislature 1976-1979 and 2003-2006); COVID-19.[873]
December 6 – Jaime Camil Garza, Acapulco businessman and father of actors Jaime Camil and Issabela Camil.[874]
December 8
Yuri de Gortari Krauss, 69, chef (co-founder Escuela de Gastronomía Mexicana).[875]
^Jesus Sedana. "2020, año en honor de Leona Vicario" [2020, year in honor of Leona Vicario]. La Jornada de Morelos (in Spanish). Archived from the original on August 3, 2020. Retrieved January 10, 2020.
^Jimenez, Gabriela (May 27, 2019), "Víctor Manuel Toledo, el nuevo titular de la Semarnat: AMLO" [Víctor Manuel Toledo, the new leader of the Secretary of the Environment], El Sol de Mexico (in Spanish), Mexico City, archived from the original on July 11, 2019, retrieved July 10, 2019
^"Felipe Calderón cuestiona dicho de Samuel García sobre "sueldito"". El Informador :: Noticias de Jalisco, México, Deportes & Entretenimiento (in European Spanish). El Informador. December 15, 2020. Retrieved December 16, 2020. Un sueldito de 40-50 (mil).... y son felices...'.¿En qué mundo viven?
^"Banxico remains on hold in December". FocusEconomics | Economic Forecasts from the World's Leading Economists. December 23, 2020. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
^"Monarcas deja Morelia; se muda a Mazatlán". El Informador :: Noticias de Jalisco, México, Deportes & Entretenimiento (in European Spanish). February 6, 2020. Retrieved June 2, 2020.
^Vergara, Rosalia (December 22, 2020). "Se suicida Juan Bustillos, director de 'Impacto'; deja carta para García Harfuch". proceso.com.mx (in Spanish). Proceso. Retrieved December 22, 2020. Querido hermano: Perdona que acuda a ti para comunicar mi decisión de quitarme la vida en razón de que ya no puedo hacer frente a mis problemas económicos, ni siquiera los gastos inmediatos