Translated from Spanish Although most states in Mexico have implemented laws banning single-use plastics, the growing e-commerce boom following the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed a loophole in these regulations. In Mexico City (CDMX), where 30% of the country’s e-commerce consumers are concentrated, packaging plastics used by platforms like Amazon and Mercado Libre are still not
From July 2023 to January 2024, Empower conducted dozens of interviews and reviewed hundreds of documents from the Global South to identify opportunities, strategies, and innovations about how to address the phenomenon of the corporate capture of the State, which is a fundamental pillar of corporate power and an anti-democratic force that emerged from advanced
Translated from Spanish At least 12 members of the campaign teams of those seeking our votes to become the next president of Mexico have or had links with companies from the health sector or the food, sweetened beverage, alcohol, and/or tobacco industries, which could represent potential conflicts of interest when providing advice to the candidates
Translated from Spanish Five years after signing the USMCA, when the United States, Mexico, and Canada committed to banning the import of products made with forced labor, Mexico is the only one of the three countries that does not publicly recognize Xinjiang, China, as a vulnerable region and has not investigated goods made with forced
Translated from Spanish The companies Dahua and Hikvision, which have Chinese State participation and are suppliers of video surveillance cameras for that government, include in their supply chains companies established in Xinjiang, a province where the use of forced labor and other human rights violations are reported. Although, with the signing of the United States-Mexico-Canada
Translated from Spanish The budget for the National Institute of Social Economy, responsible for implementing and operating strategies for the development of cooperativism in Mexico, has fallen by 88% since the beginning of the presidential term of Andrés Manuel López Obrador in 2018. In Mexico, cooperativism has become intertwined with populist social policies, which has
Translated from Spanish Aleatica’s business and political networks have allowed the company to operate roads through questionable concessions and stock market operations, while at the same time taking legal action against the right to protest on public roads, which contributed to the criminalization of a human rights advocate. Law firms, current and former public officials,
Translated from Spanish While the United States bans the acquisition of Chinese technology for mass video surveillance due to national security risks, these devices are being used on the Mexican side of the border. Cities in four northern Mexican states have facial recognition equipment with capabilities for mass surveillance and at least one, Ciudad Juárez,
Translated from Spanish Given that reporting on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors is not mandatory or standardized in Mexico, listed companies in the Mexican stock market can report on their ESG goals and risks at their discretion. These three criteria are increasingly sought after by investors, mainly in Europe and the United States, driven
Translated from Spanish For Latin American startups, moving capital has been especially difficult in their home countries. For this reason, they have had to turn to fast-growing banks with a risk-prone investment culture where private capital companies have chosen to deposit their money. However, lax supervision by the banking authorities, as well as imprudent management
Translated from Spanish From telemedicine to nutrition and healthy habits, these are just a few of the areas of the health industry where the Mexican Health Foundation (Funsalud, in Spanish), a private organization, influences public policy through different strategies, such as lobbying, agreements with public hospitals, and contracts with public universities for research and development.
Translated from Spanish A new kind of anti-undocumented immigrant wall is being erected along the U.S.-Mexico border. It is a digital border wall built with technologies ranging from the use of artificial intelligence and biometric data for surveillance to “non-intrusive” technologies, such as the use of X-rays and gamma rays to inspect cargo vehicles. After
Translated from Spanish Escaping capitalist logic, reinvesting profits and generating fairer and more democratic working relationships are some of the historical objectives pursued by cooperativism, an economic model that is kept alive thanks to local, national and international projects that envision it as an alternative way of doing business. Companies such as Telpin in Argentina
Translated from Spanish Eleven Mexican companies listed in the U.S. stock market could become the first Mexican firms to be obligated to disclose their practices in accordance with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria, according to new regulations from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Riding the ESG wave, which also resonates in Europe,
Translated from Spanish Investments by Mexican Retirement Fund Administrators (Afores, in Spanish) in Real Estate Investment Trusts (FIBRAs, in Spanish) grew by 8.7% over the past year. While this represents diversification for the savings of workers who assign the administration of their retirement funds to private companies, the fact that Afores increasingly invest in FIBRAs
Translated from Spanish Deploying the argument that public security institutions are “guarantors of transparency,” President Andrés Manuel López Obrador gave the Armed Forces administrative control of Mexico’s customs, both at interstate points as well as main ports of access into the country. However, the opacity in the administration of the sector and the insistence about
Translated from Spanish In the context of budget increases for the fight against drug trafficking during Felipe Calderón’s presidency, the Veracruz Public Security Secretariat gave at least 140 million pesos to six irregular suppliers during the Javier Duarte gubernatorial administration. The private companies that received this money do not comply with legal requirements, as they
Translated from Spanish Since it was created in 2003 until some of its clauses were modified in 2013, the Official Mexican Norm (NOM, in Spanish) 187, which regulates the distribution, uses, and limits of nixtamalization, additives, naming, and distribution, among other things, of corn products in Mexico, partially benefited the interests of companies such as
Translated from Spanish The Attorney General’s Office of the State of Veracruzfailed to report 53 clandestine graves discovered by federal agenciesin that state between 2000 and 2020. In Mexico, there is no single inter-institutional or standardized registry of clandestine graves almost five years after the Mexican General Law on the Forced Disappearance of Persons, Disappearances
Translated from Spanish Aleatica – formerly OHL México – twice had to modify its financial statements for overvaluing its assets, by order of the National Banking and Securities Commission in Mexico. The company, which was accused of corruption during the presidency of Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-18), received investment from at least one Mexican pension fund
