Public servants who are found guilty of torture could be sentenced to 20 years in jail after a reform to Jalisco State Penal Code was approved by Congress just prior to the holiday recess. The new law includes psychological as well as physical torture in its definition and is designed to prevent, sanction and eradicate the crime. The revised Penal Code legislates against “any public official who performs any act which inflicts mental or physical suffering on a person for the purpose of aiding a criminal investigation.”

Mexico’s Interior Ministry (Secretaría de Gobernación) will operate an amnesty program for illegal immigrants in the country beginning January 2 and running through December 31.

Despite the recent peso slide and concerns about inflation and low growth in 2015, Mexico’s Central Bank board members have decided not to increase interest rates, which currently stand at a record low of around three percent.

The new iphone 6, the capture of Chapo Guzman and President Enrique Peña Nieto’s political reforms were among the most popular Google searches in Mexico for 2014. The search engine’s platform “The Year in Search” also reveals that Mexicans were worried about Ebola and the case of the disappeared students of Ayotzinapa. 

2014 Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafza has expressed sympathy with the Mexican student who interrupted last week’s medal ceremony in protest at the suspected massacre of 43 Ayotzinapa students in Guerrero.

Low-cost Mexican airline VivaAerobus will start offering flights on the popular Guadalajara-Dallas route as of March 28, 2015.
The Monterrey-based  carrier will use Airbus A320 aircraft and operate out of DFW’s International Terminal D three times per week.