Chocolate Cars/Calica Case

Chocolate Cars. President López Obrador announced that the regularization program for “chocolate cars” (old vehicles that cross the border without permission, mainly from the US) will be extended for three more months. The program was expected to end on March 31, 2023. “The regularization program for foreign cars will be extended three more months. We do this because it helps us in terms of security issues. There are crimes committed in these vehicles and we cannot identify their real owners.”

Since March 19, 2022, more than 1,319,438 million vehicles have been regularized in Mexico. Although initially, the initiative was only valid for one year expiring on Dec. 31, the president has decided to extend the life of the strategy for more months. The extension will continue in the following 14 states, where these types of vehicles transit the most: Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas, Baja California Sur, Sinaloa, Zacatecas, among others.

Calica case. President López Obrador asked members of the panel in charge of the Calica case to analyze the environmental impact that the company had in Quintana Roo. “We have an unfair lawsuit. I call on those who are part of the panel that is resolving this controversy with the US company and the Mexican government to learn about the territory, the destruction and the ecocide that this company is causing."

The Calica case has confronted the Mexican government and Vulcan Materials for years. In 2019, Vulcan Materials requested arbitration against the Mexican government under USMCA regulation due to revocations of its port concessions. The company asked for a US$1.1 billion compensation stating that the government’s actions were unilateral. In response, in February 2022, López Obrador proposed the company to withdraw the lawsuit in exchange for resources to transform the company’s limestone production facility into a tourism project.

Despite reaching an agreement in April 2022, the president accused the company of not complying with it later in May, as extraction activities continued even though the company did not possess the required permits. As a result, López Obrador instructed SEMARNAT to stop all operations at the company’s facilities. The company declared it did have the required permits and announced it would take legal action against the Mexican government.

Guacamaya Leaks. President López Obrador accused the Guacamaya collective, derived from the cyberattack on the Ministry of Defense (SEDENA), of having links with international organizations. In addition, he accused the group of having a smear campaign against his government.

In October, 2022, various media outlets reported on a leak made by activists that stole six terabytes of information from September 2016 to September 2022. Moreover, these leaked documents disclosed military contracts, security operatives and the president's state of health. Other key documents revealed the army´s deployment across the country as well as the use of airships.