CNTE Teachers Will Protest at Privatized Pension Companies

ByMaría Cabadas

This article by María Cabadas originally appeared in the March 20, 2026 edition of El Universal.

On their third and final day of mobilizations, following the 72-hour strike, the dissident teachers of the National Coordinator of Education Workers (CNTE) will hold rallies at nine in the morning at companies that operate AFORES and are located on Reforma.

This Thursday, the teachers rejected the dialogue called for by the Secretaries of the Interior and Public Education, led by Rosa Icela Rodríguez and Mario Delgado, respectively, arguing that their demand is to dialogue directly with President Claudia Sheinbaum.

“The Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Public Education called for dialogue with the CNTE, from which we will not obtain favorable responses, because these government agencies lack the capacity to resolve issues.”

“We remind her that it was she who proclaimed that she would repeal the 2007 ISSSTE Law upon winning the Presidency of the Republic,” the CNTE says of President Sheinbaum’s campaign promise.

“We demand the reinstatement of the national dialogue table between the CNUN of the CNTE and the head of the federal executive branch, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo. We remind her that it was she who proclaimed that she would repeal the 2007 ISSSTE Law upon winning the Presidency of the Republic. Today it is clear to us, and we affirm, that she represents a government of neoliberal continuity, safeguarding the interests of the financial oligarchy,” said Filiberto Frausto Orozco, general secretary of Section 34 of the CNTE in Zacatecas.

The leader of Section 22, Jenny Araceli Pérez Martínez, stated that this Friday they will carry out “a central activity and its replication in the states and we will have to return to our federal entities to be able to reorganize and demand that the President sit down and resume the table that she left a year ago.”

The teacher from Oaxaca made it clear that this time, the CNTE will not allow incomplete agreements or lies.

“We will not allow them to gamble on the physical exhaustion of our colleagues, as if there were no solution, as the previous government, represented by Andrés Manuel López Obrador, strategically did. They finally met with us, but their efforts were merely delaying. We want concrete solutions,” he stated.

Pedro Hernández, of CNTE Section 9. Photo: Jay Watts

At the time, Pedro Hernández, leader of Section 9 in Mexico City, stated, “It’s a lie that the President says our demands can’t be met due to financial reasons, and that if she does, she’d have to cut funding for social programs. Of course, that’s not true. She says it would require cutting one trillion pesos from various social programs, but let’s compare that to the 8.2 trillion pesos they have in workers’ savings,” he affirmed.

What are AFORES?
AFOREs (retirement fund administrators) are private companies who manage pensions as individual accounts, extremely restrictive and profitable for finance capital: they were introduced in 1997 and based on the privatized pensions introduced in Chile by the fascist Pinochet. Recent figures reveal 51% of AFORE funds are used to buy Mexican state debt, which means that Mexican citizens are paying significant commissions for a private pension system where finance capital invests over half of their money in sovereign bonds. Many unions and workers organizations have called for the return of a public pension system, with the CNTE suggesting they would voluntarily move all of their pensions Mexico’s public bank and allow the funds to be used for social purposes and to build public infrastructure.

Who Owns the AFORES?
There are 10 AFORES, that as of 2025 manage more than 7.18 trillion pesos (401 Billion USD). The AFORES system, modeled on Chilean fascist dictator Pinochet’s privatization of pensions, have been criticized by international pension industry observers for lacking sufficient oversight. The Mexican government has cited the complexity of the system as a reason not to de-privatize it, which begs the question, if the pensions are too complex to return to the public, how can they be meaningfully overseen and regulated.

AFORES accounts are mandatory for every worker: they cannot withdraw from the system or manage the fund themselves or collectively with their union, such as with the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, which manages over $188 billion USD).

1. AFORE Coppel – Coppel Group
2. AFORE Azteca – Grupo Salinas, owned by Ricardo Salinas Pliego, an ultra-right wing billionaire who is fighting in the courts to not pay the 35.450 billion pesos ($1.8 billion USD) in taxes he owes to the Mexican government.
3. Citibanamex Afore – Citigroup —in the process of being sold (USA)
4. Afore XXI-Banorte – Banorte
5. SURA – SURA Group (Colombia)
6. Profuturo – BAL Group (owners of the high-end department store El Palacio de Hierro)
7. Principal – Principal Financial Group (USA)
8. Invercap – Private investment fund
9. PensionISSSTE – The only public pension, limited to state workers
10. Inbursa – owned by Carlos Slim, one of the richest businessmen in the world, who advocates ending the public pension system and abolishing the retirement age in Mexico.