Sheinbaum Announces Construction of 82,000 Housing Units in Chiapas

ByMexico Solidarity

This article by Edgar H. Clemente originally appeared in the September 20, 2025 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

Tapachula, Chiapas. The Wellbeing (Bienestar) programs benefit 1.9 million people in Chiapas, meaning that “there are more beneficiaries than families in Chiapas,” President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo stated this Saturday.

“This means that at least one or two supports are received per family in the state. And it’s an investment of 45.939 billion pesos,” she emphasized during her visit to the southern border.

From one of the poorest states in the country, Sheinbaum said that the Fourth Transformation governments apply the principles of putting the poor first, austerity, and working with the people.

Sheinbaum noted that the increase in the minimum wage has narrowed the social gap, and Mexico is now the second least unequal country [in North America], only after Canada [by Gini co-efficient, recent date is unavailable from Cuba, Nicaragua].

The minimum wage covers 1.6 basic food baskets, and by the end of the six-year term, it will cover 2.5 basic food baskets, Sheinbaum Pardo promised.

The President said her administration is committed to turning Tapachula into “the center, not only of Central America, but also of our country, the first border.” She announced an industrialization plan with two Welfare Development Hubs, the Interoceanic Railway, the modernization of Puerto Chiapas, the rehabilitation of the highway network, and other projects in the state, such as the San Cristóbal-Palenque Highway, the Rizo de Oro Bridge (between the municipalities of La Concordia and Chicomuselo), and so on.

Sheinbaum also pledged that his government will make guaranteed purchases of coffee from Soconusco and double its corn purchases from the Frailesca, and announced the purchase of a factory to produce flour from corn, with the profits from the added value going directly to Chiapas producers.

In Tapachula, Chiapas, President Claudia Sheinbaum pledged to make guaranteed purchases of coffee from the Soconusco region and double her corn purchases from the Frailesca region. Photo: Edgar H. Clemente

The President explained that through the Viviendas del Bienestar (Well-Being Housing Program), 82,000 homes will be built for low-income families in Chiapas alone. Meanwhile, 3,513 Indigenous and Afro-Mexican communities received public funding for projects they will prioritize in their communities.

Sheinbaum Pardo asserted that the humanist governments of the 4T have focused on serving the poorest, unlike the neoliberal governments that governed for the elite. All the presidents who governed before 2018 “left Mexicans in poverty.”

But upon the arrival of former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the country’s model changed fundamentally, and in just six years, poverty was substantially reduced, “13.5 million Mexicans were lifted out of poverty.”

This is because we govern with the most humanistic principle in the world: “the poor first,” which means governing for those who have the least and leaving no one behind.

“Today we are at a time in the entire history of Mexico with fewer families living in poverty,” he noted.

Unlike neoliberal governments that watered from the top down to see if it would eventually come down, now “we water from the bottom up like trees so that Mexico flourishes,” Sheinbaum declared in the completely packed Olympic Stadium in Tapachula.

The President assured that these public policies will continue because, in the case of social programs, they are already constitutional rights.

Additionally, new programs such as support for women recognize the role they play in society from the home, and now with “the first female Commander of the Armed Forces,” women can be whatever they want. “I’m proud of all women.”

Chiapas Governor Eduardo Ramírez asserted that his administration follows the principles of using resources responsibly and emphasized that the governor’s security strategy “has brought peace to Chiapas.”

With the support of President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, “Chiapas is reemerging as the southern giant it is destined to be,” Ramírez declared.