The weekly newsletter of the Mexico Solidarity Project

Every issue archived online at mexicosolidarityproject.org

February 26, 2025

 Mexican Women Gain, US Women Lose

Meizhu Lui, for the editorial team

"I will decide”  International Safe Abortion Day, Mexico City, 2022. Marco Ugarte/AP

In what country and in what historical moment a woman gets pregnant can be a matter of life and death. In the 1960s, when abortion was illegal, I was thrown into a total panic when my pregnancy test came back positive. My parents threw me out of the house. But I was lucky. Many other panicked women died from botched abortions in back rooms. The image of a metal clothes hanger makes us shudder.

The laws in Mexico were slightly different — for example, doctors were not criminalized and murdered — but women were thrown in jail with lengthy sentences for terminating a pregnancy.

In the 1960s and 70s, women in both countries rose up to demand reproductive rights. It was not just about the right not to have a child; it was also about the right to have one. Doctors were sterilizing women of color without their consent or even their knowledge.

In the US, women won the right to reproductive choice in 1973, but in 2022, the US Supreme Court overturned that decision. Once again, US women are in a panic; some have already died — all the more outrageously and unnecessarily, since today you don’t need a coat hanger, just an inexpensive, 100% effective pill.

In Mexico, Verónica Cruz founded Las Libres and led the way in winning Mexico’s Supreme Court decision to decriminalize abortion in 2021 and to mandate abortion on request at all federal health institutions. And state by state, Mexico is passing laws to make abortion legal, accessible and free. As US women are losing their rights, Mexican women are gaining theirs.

As a result, hundreds of thousands of US women have turned to Mexico for help. Sisterhood is powerful! Solidarity between women transcends time and place.

For a deeper dive into current news and analysis in English, check out our media website. And definitely see the new English podcast ¡Soberanía! (Sovereignty) with José Luis Granados Ceja and Kurt Hackbarth. 

We're going to Mexico!

The Mexico Solidarity Project is having a face-to-face gathering in Guanajuato, Mexico, March 7 - 12, 2025. The bulletin will not be published on March 12, 2025.  We will return on March 19, 2025.

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Las Libres: Women Helping Women

You began your work in Guanajuato state. Why does it have a particularly anti-women history?

For a long time, the Catholic Church dominated Mexico's political and social system. That was challenged in the 1850s; throughout the 19th century, conservatives aligned with the Church who struggled, often violently, with those wanting Mexico to become a secular state.

After the Mexican Revolution, the 1917 Constitution made the separation of Church and State a national principle. But Guanajuato was intensely Catholic, and in the 1920s, the Church organized the Guerra Cristera (War of the Cristeros) to rebel against the separation. Conflicting ideas about the role of the Mexican state continue, and in Guanajuato, the conservative PAN party and the Church are allied against women.

When did abortion become illegal in Mexico?

Abortion became a crime in 1871, but the law excepted cases of rape or if the mother's life was in danger. Doctors who performed abortions, mostly men, were not criminalized! Only the woman was blamed.

But it’s important to remember that women, no matter where or when, always find their own ways to interrupt unwanted pregnancies, usually within the women’s community. Grandmothers knew which plants could induce an abortion. In the 1970s, in the United States, the clandestine "Jane" collective taught themselves safe abortion procedures. Women in London learned to use household instruments to perform curettage.

But in Mexico, while many abortions were performed out of sight, some women were reported to the police, mostly by health personnel and especially when the conservative PAN party was in power. In 2000, when Guanajuato’s local congress, with a PAN majority, dropped the exception of rape from the penal code, we formed Las Libres and mobilized to ensure that this human right would remain.

Between 2002 and 2010, we found nine women in prison in Guanajuato state, and after much social struggle, we achieved their freedom. But it was a recurring problem. In 2017, at least 200 women were serving time in prisons in various parts of the country simply for failing to carry a pregnancy to term.

What does Las Libres do?

First, we have to get women out of prison; in some states, many remain incarcerated. We have four lawyers on staff. Second, we had to break the silence. 

Then and now, women need to find each other and organize themselves to challenge male domination in private and public spheres.

Most important is the principle of “accompaniment.” Today, it’s easy to terminate a pregnancy with medication, but doing it somewhere, alone, is scary. Just as giving birth is much more comfortable with a “doula” or birth coach, it’s also more comfortable for abortion. A woman can reassure you that what’s happening is normal or give you advice if something less usual happens — support removes the fear and loneliness from the experience.

Decriminalization is not the same as legalizing abortion on demand, but state by state, Mexico is moving in that direction.

Is the legality of abortion limited by the number of weeks of pregnancy, or perhaps to the first trimester?

No!

Is the pill that can terminate a pregnancy the normal form of abortion today?

Yes. The pills are 100% safe and effective. These over-the-counter pills were originally used for gastric ulcers. Then women in Brazil discovered that they had a second use! Today, women have four options. They can buy them at a pharmacy or go to an organization like Las Libres — we’ve given out 100,000 pills in the last three years — or go to a public clinic. If you have the money, you can go to a private hospital.

The vast majority of women choose to go to an organization like Las Libres because they get support from other women and because it’s free.

Mexico will soon celebrate Indigenous and Afro-Mexican women. Do they have particular reproductive health issues?

Indigenous women are the most advanced when it comes to knowing how to terminate a pregnancy; they have hundreds of years of experience! They have their own excellent health providers whom they prefer. It’s when they migrate to parts of Mexico without a large Indigenous community that problems arise.

A recent issue has been the recognition of Indigenous midwives as legitimate providers of birthing care. While midwifery has been approved, Indigenous women want recognition of their traditional practices, which are passed down by elders — not recognition only for midwives trained in schools. But in a way, they don’t need to be recognized; there are no legal repercussions for assisting births.

Afro-Mexicans have not yet made any unique health demands.

Has Las Libres inspired other women in Mexico and elsewhere to follow its model?

And yes, our model is being adopted by others. In Mexico alone, over 1,000 networks help women exercise their right to reproductive choice! We continue to remind women around the world that terminating a pregnancy with the pill is 100% effective, safe, and inexpensive.

To make progress, women must engage in civil disobedience, as they have always done when their rights are curtailed. Disobey! Demand your rights! And organize!

Drones Over Mexico   

In response to US Department of State Public Notice 12672 formally declaring six Mexican organized crime groups as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO), US President Donald Trump’s key advisor Elon Musk glibly posted, “That means they’re eligible for drone strikes.”

We need to hear Musk’s statement as a warning.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Todd Zimmerman, the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA’s) special agent in Mexico City, said we should understand the FTO label as a message to the leadership of organized crime groups in Mexico.

Using bellicose language, Trump himself has said that Mexico is “essentially run by the cartels.” His nominee to head the DEA, Terry Cole, has used similar language, aimed at laying the groundwork for US intervention in Mexico. Cole accuses the Mexican government of being “complicit” and working “hand-in-hand” with drug traffickers.

Cole’s intention is to plant the seed that only US military action can take down the drug traffickers to stop the “thousands of pills [that are] flooding the streets and killing our citizens.”

Officials like Trump, Cole, and Musk (who only weeks ago was widely derided over his Nazi salute) are at best far-right ideologues, if not outright fascists.

As Maya Angelou said, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”

We cannot afford the luxury of comforting ourselves by pretending they may not be serious about attacking Mexico. To oppose this threat isn’t about defending cartels, as some erroneously claim, but rather about defending Mexican sovereignty.

We already have proof that direct US intervention only leads to more bloodshed and violence. The US-backed so-called “War on Drugs” launched by former Mexican President Felipe Calderón in 2006 only served to worsen public safety. In addition, they engaged in widespread human rights abuses and did nothing to actually stem the drug flow into the US. In fact, the US kidnapping of Sinaloa Cartel boss Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada has only unleashed a wave of violence in Sinaloa that has still not abated.

Fortunately, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is unwavering in her defense of sovereignty. At a recent press conference, she said:

The Mexican people will not accept under any circumstances interventions, interference or any other act from abroad that could be harmful to the integrity, independence and sovereignty of the nation.

Sheinbaum recently proposed a series of constitutional reforms to strengthen and protect national sovereignty, including requiring Mexican government consent for all foreign investigations or prosecutions of crimes on its territory and imposing the harshest penalties possible for arms trafficking and foreign activities that violate sovereignty. Mexico will also expand its lawsuit against gun manufacturers following the new FTO designation, accusing them of complicity with so-called terror groups.

She already had a commitment from the United States to do more to end arms smuggling into Mexico. Sheinbaum has also apparently gotten through to Trump regarding the problem of US drug consumption, with the US president pledging to take steps to address the root cause of drug trafficking — the demand inside the US.

The Mexican population wants a long-lasting solution to its security problems, just as much as the US population wants an end to its opioid crisis. Despite Trump’s bluster, Mexico has maintained that it is willing to cooperate with the US on these issues. After a scandalous article in the New York Times about “secret drone flights over Mexico to hunt for fentanyl labs,” Sheinbaum quickly cleared up that the drone flights were done in collaboration with and at the request of her government. These flights, with the support of Mexico and respect for Mexican sovereignty, are precisely the type of cooperation that Mexico has always engaged in and is willing to do with the US

The impact of the United States’ assassination policy via unmanned aircraft, also known as drone warfare, on civilians is widely documented and condemned. The Intercept reported that the White House plays fast and loose with the standards and procedures for conducting assassinations via drones, while deliberately understating the impact on civilians.

The conflation of the war on terror with the efforts to end the business of drug trafficking via the FTO designation could foretell a renewed age of loose legal interpretations, where all military-age males in a strike zone are automatically defined as combatants unless the US has explicit intelligence proving otherwise.

The drones over Mexico must not and will not be allowed to carry out this sort of policy. Men like Trump, Cole, and Musk must never be allowed to authorize lethal action inside Mexico.

Recent news reports and commentaries, from progressive and mainstream media,
on life and struggles on both sides of the US-Mexico border. Compiled by Jay Watts.

President Sheinbaum Announces Reforms Against U.S. Interference in Mexico Telesur English. Sheinbaum proposes amending Article 40 of the Constitution to reaffirm that “the people of Mexico, under no circumstances, will accept interventions, interferences, or any other act from abroad that harms the integrity, independence, and sovereignty of the Nation.” This includes “coups d’etat, election interference, or the violation of Mexican territory, whether by land, water, sea, or airspace.”

Trump vuelve a la carga Sin Embargo. "No estoy contento con México ni con Canadá", asegura el Presidente de EU en la CPAC.

Mexico's president warns U.S. against invading to fight cartels after Washington designates them as terrorist groups CBS News. "This cannot be an opportunity for the U.S. to invade our sovereignty," she said. "With Mexico it is collaboration and coordination, never subordination or interventionism, and even less invasion."

Jared Laureles, Nuevamente archivan demanda de titularidad de CCT de la canadiense Linamar La Jornada. En julio del 2024, los más de mil trabajadores decidieron estallar la huelga ante la negativa de la empresa de capital canadiense de negociar el CCT y de reconocer como titular del mismo al Sindicato Nacional Minero, ya que éste cuenta con la constancia de representatividad que lo acredita para llevar a cabo las negociaciones.

Robb M. Stewart, Tariffs Set to Benefit Gold Price and Could Push Canada and Mexico Closer, Alamos Gold CEO Says Wall Street Journal.  “With everything going on in North America right now with respect to tariffs that are being proposed for both Canada and Mexico, we may see stronger ties being built between Canada and Mexico; more investments from Canada into Mexico, and more opportunities,” McCluskey said.

'Embargo de nómina' impulsado por Pedro Haces beneficiaba a negocio de su hija y allegados Aristegui Noticias. La 'cobranza delegada' que impulsó desde el congreso el diputado por Morena Pedro Haces buscaba beneficiar a INMEDIPREST, un negocio de créditos de nómina en el que participan su hija y políticos allegados. La paolémica iniciativa pretendía “embargar” el salario de los trabajadores en caso de que no pagaran sus créditos.

Francisco Dominguez and Roger D. Harris, Southcom’s Double-Speak – Every Accusation Is a Confession Resumen English. SOUTHCOM’s commander hinted that the war on drugs would be the weapon used against ‘creeping multipolarity’, but as Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum noted, organized crime and drug distribution are prevalent within the US itself, the largest market for illicit drugs and the source of most weapons used by the organized crime groups. “Who is in charge of distributing the drug? Who sells it in the cities of the US?…Let them start with their country.”

Pedro Villa y Caña, Ninguna fuerza mundial puede doblegarnos: Sheinbaum El Universal. Destaca la unidad del pueblo mexicano y dice que defenderá la soberanía de acciones extraterritoriales; Trump la felicita por campaña contra el fentanilo.

Michael Wilner, Kate Linthicum and Patrick J. McDonnell, U.S. official says drone flights over Mexico may signal future strikes Los Angeles Times. The hope, DEA special agent in Mexico Todd Zimmerman said, is that the cartels will “step back away from fentanyl, and they’ll just go back to what they’ve always done, which is cocaine and methamphetamines and a little bit of heroin.”

Frida Sánchez, Clara Brugada anuncia que 78 secundarias de CDMX impartirán clases de Náhuatl; buscan reconocer las lenguas indígenas El Universal. En la secundaria técnica No. 28 “Francisco Goitia García”, en Xochimilco, la mandataria capitalina explicó que así como en algunos planteles educativos de la ciudad se dan clases de inglés, ahora los jóvenes podrán acceder a clases de náhuatl, sobre todo en alcaldías como Milpa Alta o Xochimilco, donde hay pueblos originarios.

The Mexico Solidarity Project brings together activists from various socialist and left organizations and individuals committed to worker and global justice. We see the 2018 election of Andrés Manuel López Obrador as president of Mexico as a watershed moment. AMLO and his progressive Morena party aim to end generations of corruption, impoverishment, and subservience to US interests. Our Project supports not just Morena, but all Mexicans struggling for basic rights, and opposes US efforts to undermine organizing and Mexico’s national sovereignty.

Editorial committee: Meizhu Lui, Bruce Hobson, Agatha Hinman, Victoria Hamlin, Courtney Childs, Pedro Gellert.  To give feedback or get involved yourself, please email us!

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