Adriana Maciel Sierra
City Mayors' Latin America Editor

Adriana Maciel Sierra is a Senior Fellow of the City Mayors Foundation and has been its Mexico Editor since 2004. She is a TEFL graduate at Mexico’s UNAM University. In addition to her political writing, Adriana has written and lectured on forensic phonetics. She has interviewed numerous mayors in Mexico, Latin America and other Spanish-speaking countries and, in 2011, presented the World Mayor Prize to Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard.

Articles by Adriana Maciel
| Most recent | Government | Politics | Mayors | Society | Environment | Health | Development | Transport | Metro Mensch |


MOST RECENT
Carlos Eduardo Correa
Mayor of Montería, Colombia
Mayors: After barely two years in office, the Mayor of Montería has been voted the most popular local politician in Colombia. Carlos Eduardo Correa won the October 2011 mayoral elections by promoting business friendly policies and stressing the importance of education. The mayor believes that even in a region that is famous for its agribusiness and produces some of the best cattle in South America, young people must embrace modern technologies and become outward looking. MORE


GOVERNMENT
Local government in Mexico
14 August 2010: The social and political culture of authoritarianism in Mexico, from the time of its break from Spain, when Iturbide made himself emperor (Augustin I, 1822 to 1823) in lieu of any European interest in the position, to the passing in recent years of laws allowing the military to exercise policing powers, appears to be fissuring; the first small crack was, perhaps, the Constitution of the United Mexican States of 1917, which also saw the birth of the party (the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI) that dominated Mexican politics until nearly the beginning of the twenty-first century (and still does, in many respects); the most recent, and by far the most significant, was the creation in March 1994 of the Association of Mexican Municipalities (AMMAC). More


POLITICS
Leftwing candidate achieves
stunning victory in Mexico City
2 July 2012: While the candidate of Mexico’s leftwing Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) came only second in Sunday's (1 July 2012) presidential elections, the party’s contestant for the country’s second most powerful office, the governorship of Mexico City, celebrated a stunning victory. More


MAYORS
Carlos Eduardo Correa
Mayor of Montería, Colombia
1 May 2014: After barely two years in office, the Mayor of Montería has been voted the most popular local politician in Colombia. Carlos Eduardo Correa won the October 2011 mayoral elections by promoting business friendly policies and stressing the importance of education. The mayor believes that even in a region that is famous for its agribusiness and produces some of the best cattle in South America, young people must embrace modern technologies and become outward looking. MORE

Miguel Mancera
Mayor of Mexico City
3 June 2013: When in December 2012, Miguel Ángel Mancera assumed the office of Mayor of Mexico City, it was inevitable that he would be compared to his two immediate predecessors. After all, both Manuel López Obrador (2000-2006) and Marcelo Ebrard (2006-2012) implemented radical changes in the city, often against strong opposition from traditional institutions. Both men also established themselves, nationally and internationally, as leading proponents of socially and environmentally progressive urban policies. But rather than regarding the legacy bestowed upon him as burden, Mayor Mancera views it as a solid foundation on which to build a city that can compete successfully with New York, Sao Paulo, London and Tokyo. More

Iñaki Azkuna
Mayor of Bilbao
2 July 2012: It has been said that Bilbao’s transformation from a declining industrial city in Spain’s Basque Province to an international centre for tourism and the arts has been sparked off by two events: the opening of Guggenheim Museum in 1997 and the election of Iñaki Azkuna as mayor two years later. More

Gustavo Petro
Mayor of Bogotá
2 June 2012: The election of former guerrilla Gustavo Petro as Bogotá mayor has raised hopes among Colombians that 50 years of civil war might be coming to an end. Petro, who assumed his new post on 1 January 2012, fought as a young man with the now defunct leftist M-19 rebel movement and later, as Colombian senator, became the most outspoken opponent of right-wing president Alvaro Uribe. Gustavo Petro’s hefty plurality in the Bogotá mayoral race represented a stunning victory for Colombia's democratic process and a severe setback for US Latin American policies promoted by presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama. More

Alejandro Higuera Osuna
Mayor of Mazatlán
3 April 2012: Alejandro Higuera Osuna is currently serving his third term as Mayor of Mazatlán. With its sandy beaches, the city is a popular tourist location on Mexico's Pacific coast but it has also been named as the 15th most dangerous city in Latin America. Mayor Higuera acknowledges that inter-gang violence remains a problem but he points out that thanks to better police intelligence and equipment the murder rate has dropped dramatically since 2010. Alejandro Higuera is a member of the centre-right party Partido Acción Nacional (PAN). He served as Mayor of Mazatlán from 1999 to 2001, 2005 to 2007 and is now in his third term, lasting from 2011 to 2013. More

Mexican Mayors
19 January 2012: The Mexican Republic consists of 31 states and a Federal District, the country’s capital. Within the 31 states there are 2,377 municipalities with 145,712 local communities of varying sizes. Local government elections are held every three years. The largest cities after the Federal District (Mexico City) are: Puebla, Guadalajara and Monterrey, all with more than one million inhabitants. More

Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard
A liberal reformer and pragmatist
25 November 2010: Marcelo Ebrard, a skilled public administrator educated at France’s elite ENA, was elected as head of the Federal District government in July 2006. Since then he has been dedicated to fight against climate change through ecological measures, and to the creation of liberal inclusive policies and women and minorities’ rights defense with no fear to challenge Mexican orthodoxy. Mayor Ebrard was awarded the 2010 World Mayor Prize. More

Alfonso Sánchez Garza
Mayor of Matamoros
31 August 2010: Alfonso Sánchez Garza, 38, elected Mayor of Matamoros on 4 July 2010, is one of the youngest new political faces in Mexico. He won because of his dedication to the poor and needy. The city of Matamoros lies in the northern state of Tamaulipas, Mexico. The Rio Bravo river is its natural border with Brownsville, Texas. It has a population of 462,000 and is part of the Matamoros-Brownsville Transnational Metropolitan Zone. More

The mayor who will rule over
the ‘most violent city on earth’
31 August 2010: Héctor Murguía Lardizábal, the Mayor of Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, presides over what has been described as ‘the most violent city on Earth’. Homicides during 2009 totalled more than 2,660 and between January and August 2010 some 1,860 people were violently killed. On 15 August 2010 alone, 14 people died in a shoot-out in the city’s economic centre. More

Galván Gómez
Mayor of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas
31 August 2010: Benjamín Galván Gómez, a man ‘born to serve’, is the newly elected Mayor of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas. The city in northern Mexico borders Laredo, Texas, and is regarded as a ‘land port’ of first significance. The Río Bravo river forms the boundary and together the two cities constitute the bi-national Nuevo Laredo-Laredo Metropolitan Zone. More

Maria Emília Neto de Sousa
Mayor of Almada, Portugal
13 June 2010: Maria Emília Neto de Sousa was born on 14 November 1944 in São Bartolomeu de Messines, in the District of Faro, Portugal. Since 1987 she has been Mayor of Almada, supported by the left-wing Unitary Democratic Coalition [Communist Party of Portugal (PCP) and the Green Party (PEV)]. Almada is a municipality of Portugal with an area of 70 square kilometers and some 165,000 inhabitants. The city itself has a population of just over 102,000. It is composed of six parishes and is located in the district of Setúbal. The municipality of Almada includes two cities: Almada and Costa de Caparica. The mayor was shortlisted for the 2010 World Mayor Prize. More

Domenico Lucano,
Mayor of Riace, Italy
11 June 2010: Believing that a man is a man with or without legal documents, Domenico “Mimmo” Lucano founded Città Futura (The City of the Future) an association in charge of granting asylum to immigrants and refugees from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Iraq, Somalia, Palestine and Lebanon in Riace, Italy, the village he has been mayor of since 2004. Mayor Lucano was awarded third place in World Mayor 2010 and be given a special World Mayor Commendation for compassion and courage. More

Amazonino Mendes
Mayor of Manaus, Brazil
11 June 2010: Amazonino Armando Mendes was born in Eirunepé, in the state of Amazonas on 16 November 1939. He is the fifth of six children of Armando de Sousa Mendes and Francisca Gomes Mendez. Amazonino was brought up in Saboía close to the River Eirú in the Valley of Juruá, after he went to the capital Manaus where he studied law. His father was mayor of Eirunepé and state deputy in the 50s. Mayor Mendes has been shortlisted for the 2010 World Mayor Prize. More


SOCIETY
Authorities ready to go to war
against criminal street gangs
26 July 2006: Poverty, family disintegration, violence at home, lack of opportunity, poor education, social inequality and drugs. Those are the ingredients of an explosive cocktail making Latin American cities some of the most violent areas of the world. More


ENVIRONMENT
Mexico City seeks green
options for waste disposal
17 February 2009: The authorities are closing down Mexico City’s vast 56 million-tonne garbage landfill site at Bordo Poniente in a year’s time with plans to replace it with a recycling centre. The 420-hectare facility, opened in 1985, can no longer cope with its daily dose of 12,500 tonnes of waste. More


HEALTH
Mexico City parliament votes decisively
for decriminalisation of early abortions
25 April 2007: Mexico City’s legislators have approved reforms to current abortion laws. Under the new legislation, abortions carried out during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy will no longer be a criminal offence. The new legislation focuses on the sexual and reproductive health of women and the prevention of unwanted pregnancies. City Mayors was told that the proposals are also designed to reduce mortality during pregnancy and childbirth as wells as death through back-street abortions. More


DEVELOPMENT
The world’s largest wholesale
market feeds 20 million people
17 February 2008: Spread over an area of 304 hectares, Mexico City’s Central Wholesale Produce Market deals in just about everything from fruit and vegetables, flowers, birds and meat, fish and seafood to dairy products, groceries, sweets, seeds, cereals, tinned products, raw materials and cleaning products – and countless more! In all, it generates more than eight billion dollars annually and supplies the daily needs of 20 million people. It is the country’s largest business centre, second only to the Mexican Stock Market. More

Mexico City and Mexico State cannot
bridge differences over road building
21 January 2007: Work on the construction of a bridge and a six-lane traffic distributor road on protected federal land between Mexico City and the State of Mexico - called “Barranca (ravine) de Hueyatlaco” – which was stopped for more than two years, was recently restarted amid raging controversy. Protesters say that the wealthy owners of real estate companies in the State of Mexico have the most to gain, and they further allege that central government has colluded with those companies. They fears that construction, followed by massive housing development, will destroy one of the city’s last ‘oxygen lungs’ and affect water supply. More


TRANSPORT
Mexico City’s Metrobus system
perfect for cash-strapped cities
17 December 2009: A prestigious award has been conferred on Mexico City’s Metrobus new public transport system for its significant contribution to improving both air quality and generally making life easier for hard-pressed citizens. Bus journey times have been halved and carbon dioxide greenhouse gas emissions have been reduced by 80,000 tons a year. More


METRO MENSCH
Maria and her Animals
There lives in my city an 82-year-old lady who loves animals. Her name is Maria. She has two canaries, about 10 cats and a dog. As a girl, she recalls, she would make plastic shoes for the cats, enjoying herself as she watched them walking around and shaking their paws. More


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