Living in Guadalajara or at lakeside, it’s easy to develop a smugness about the winter months. Back home, friends are scraping windshields and salting driveways; here, you’re eating lunch outdoors in December and January. The joke among longtime expats is that our region only has two seasons — warm, and less warm.

After the count in Mexico’s 1988 presidential election was suddenly and inexplicably halted, the man who had been leading it was later declared the loser. At the time, I had only a passing interest in Mexican politics, and what I did not fully understand was that the defeated candidate, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas — who died on October 28 at 92 — officially lost but achieved something more durable than the presidency: he shattered the aura of invincibility that had protected the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) for six decades.

On October 14, President Claudia Sheinbaum signed a decree binding tech platforms to better protect minors online.

Covered companies include Meta, TikTok, Google, X, Apple, Microsoft and Huawei, as well as other social, gaming and app-store services.

Trade negotiations between the United States and Mexico are advancing, with President Donald Trump stating this week that the two neighbors are “very close” to signing what he called a “great agreement” to reduce the U.S. trade deficit with Mexico. 

On October 12, the opposing ideologies of the U.S. and Mexican administrations were once again on full display.

In Mexico, President Claudia Sheinbaum marked the date as the Day of the Resistance of the Indigenous and Afro-Mexican Peoples (Día de la Resistencia de los Pueblos Indígenas y Afromexicanos), rather than the traditional Día de la Raza. She highlighted that Indigenous and Afro-Mexican communities are leading the ongoing discussions on forthcoming legislation guaranteeing their rights, and she hosted a dialogue with their representatives at the National Palace.

In Washington, President Donald Trump took the opposite course. He reaffirmed the federal holiday as Columbus Day, issued a formal proclamation praising the explorer’s “valor, adventure and ingenuity,” and used the occasion to push back against the famed navigator’s critics. At a White House event, he boasted that his administration had “resurrected” Columbus and hailed him as an American hero (* see below).

The contrast is basically about two competing ideas of national identity.

In recent decades, Mexico’s view of Columbus has shifted dramatically from a celebrated historical figure to a symbol of colonial oppression. The change reflects a broader movement to refocus the nation’s identity story on its Indigenous roots.

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A win for right-wing Flávio Bolsonaro in Brazil’s presidential runoff on October 25 would be a heavy blow to the Latin American left.

He edged incumbent Lula in the first round on October 4, with about 47 percent of the vote to Lula’s 45 percent. Colombia has already swung right, and a Bolsonaro victory would leave a thinning left bloc: Mexico, Cuba, Nicaragua and Uruguay, plus a Venezuela now governed under heavy U.S. pressure.