Families of Mexico’s disappeared gathered at a cathedral near Mexico City to craft Christmas ornaments bearing the faces of their missing loved ones.

According to official data, at least 115,000 people have disappeared in Mexico since 1952.

(Foto AP/Marco Ugarte)MEXICO CITY – Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Tuesday that his country is doing better than the United States in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, even though Mexico’s per capita death rate is probably higher and the country has vaccinated less than 1% of its population. The United States death toll is around 500,000, but its population is 2.6 times larger. Moreover, estimates of excess deaths in Mexico since the start of the pandemic suggest the COVID-19 toll is now well above 220,000. Mexico has administered about 1.7 million vaccine doses, while the U.S. has given 64 million shots. “The idea is to propose at the G20 the need to declare COVID-19 vaccines as ‘global goods,’ so that they cede their intellectual property rights and all countries can freely produce them,” Fernández said.

(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)MEXICO CITY – The Mexican government announced the country's daily minimum wage will rise by 15% in January to the equivalent of about $7 per day. Minimum wages on the northern border, which are higher due to higher costs of living, will also rise 15% to about $10.70 per day. But the Mexican Employers’ Federation said the increase and the coronavirus pandemic could force hundreds of thousands of small companies out of business. “With the lack of government support and now, with an irrational, illogical increase in the minimum wage with no gradual stages, there is an increased risk that 700,000 business could disappear within the next three months,” the federation said in a statement. “The purchasing power of the minimum wage must be recovered ... over 30 years, workers' salaries were punished.”