STAGNANT WATERS

This column by Julio Hernández López appeared in the June 6, 2025 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier daily leftist newspaper.

What are the CNTE’s Demands?
Immediate repeal of the 2007 ISSSTE Law; restoration of a solidarity-based, collective, and intergenerational pension system; the full recognition of retirement based on years of service (28 for women and 30 for men) instead of the age of 65; the payment of pensions based on the minimum wage rather than on UMAs; the elimination of AFOREs as a privatization model (AFOREs are private companies who manage pensions as individual accounts, extremely restrictive and profitable for finance capital); and a profound restructuring of ISSSTE to restore its social character.

Stagnant. The negotiating waters are beginning to produce poor results, further distancing the parties and hardening their positions.

The federal government is refusing to fulfill its campaign promise to repeal the ISSSTE Law, which Felipe Calderón enacted in 2007, and is seeking to confine the issue of pensions, which have been ceded to private banks under the predatory Afore model, to a weak and very provisional Pensions for Well-being scheme. President Claudia Sheinbaum refers the discussion to the Ministries of the Interior and Public Education, and to the ISSSTE leadership.

The National Coordinator of Education Workers (CNTE) is accelerating the pace of confrontation because it believes there is no way out and because it considers dialogue with the government a sham without real results, an endless negotiation for lack of real solutions. In this context, radical segments of the CNTE, such as the Guerrero teachers’ union, have even attempted to break into the Ministry of the Interior, where they caused damage. Yesterday, they attacked the national headquarters of the charro union (SNTE), led by Morena’s plurinominal senator, Alfonso Cepeda, who set fire to the union.

Secretary Rosa Icela Rodríguez recalled that “violence and damage to public facilities do not generate solutions, but rather delay the process of reaching agreements and affect the educational community and society at large.” President Sheinbaum reportedly canceled a trip to Tlapa, Guerrero, amid reports that CETEG teachers would hold protests there. Last night, the CNTE (National Union of Teachers of the National Assembly) met to decide on the next steps, including the possibility of a tactical withdrawal.

The mutual challenges could lead to more acrimonious situations. The Presidency of the Republic has been sharpening its rhetoric against the actions of the dissident teachers, while a bitter rejection of the teachers’ protests is increasing in media and networks aligned with the federal government. The CNTE can see the more or less conciliatory segments being overtaken by the more hardline ones, who consider the federal government, on the issue of pensions and the Afore (annually pension fund pension fund), a staunch neoliberal protector of private banks, mostly with foreign owners, and their enormous annual profits.

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 recently advocated ending the public pension system and abolishing the retirement age in Mexico, and met with Claudia Sheinbaum last week.