Mexico proposes pension fund boost, public insurer to end CNTE strike

Mexico's federal government has proposed bolstering the public pension fund PENSIONISSSTE and exploring the creation of a public insurance company. This initiative comes as the National Union of Education Workers (CNTE) enters its fourth day of a national strike. The Ministry of the Interior (Segob), led by Rosa Icela Rodríguez, reiterated its condemnation of violence and vandalism, regardless of the source.

The ministry expressed disapproval of the protests' impact on Mexico City's mobility and the disruption of access to the Historic Center. Segob, in conjunction with the ISSSTE and the Secretariat of Public Education (SEP), presented this proposal as a strategy to gradually advance public and solidarity principles for the benefit of individual account holders, responding to the CNTE's demand for the repeal of the 2007 ISSSTE Law.

Martí Batres Guadarrama, director of ISSSTE, explained that the proposal stems from an analysis of the detrimental effects of the 2007 reform, which replaced the public, solidarity-based pension system with individual accounts largely managed by private retirement fund administrators (Afores). Batres highlighted PENSIONISSSTE, the sole fully public Afore, as a viable option to improve pensions within the current individual account framework.

Additionally, the Mexican government is considering establishing a Public Insurer dedicated to managing and distributing monthly pensions for retirees, in coordination with PENSIONISSSTE. This public insurer is presented as a significant measure, as no public entity currently fulfills this specific role. The Secretary of Public Education, Mario Delgado, also reaffirmed President Claudia Sheinbaum's commitment to dissolving the USICAMM, acknowledging the voices of teachers nationwide.