“Your Airbnb was my home!” Anti-Gentrification Protest in Mexico City

ByMexico Solidarity

This article by Dulce Olvera and Montserrat Antúnez first appeared in the July 4, 2025 edition of Sin Embargo.

Dozens of people protested in Mexico City (CdMx) against gentrification and to demand that the right to housing be guaranteed.

The protesters denounced rising rents and how tourism has displaced people from various neighborhoods.

Many of the businesses which were vandalized yesterday are notorious for labour law infractions, racist practices and illegally monopolizing public space for dining areas.

The mobilization took place at the Lindbergh Forum in Parque México, in the Condesa neighborhood, with slogans such as “gentrification is not progress, it’s dispossession” and “your Airbnb was my house.”

Damage to some businesses was reported, and protesters continued advancing until 7:34 p.m. this Friday. They reached the Estela de Luz (Stele of Light) on Paseo de la Reforma Avenue and Lieja Street, according to the latest report released by the capital’s Citizen Security Secretariat.

The Anti-Gentrification Front MX, one of the groups that called for the protest, insists that gentrification “is a silent expulsion” because it goes beyond a change of landscape.

“They’re raising our rent, closing businesses, destroying our traditions, and forcing us to abandon the places we’ve built with our work and our memories,” the collective stated on social media in one of the messages it shared inviting people to the protest, which was also supported by activists and groups like the Institute for Inequality Studies.

The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) describes gentrification as occurring “when a process of urban renewal and reconstruction is accompanied by an influx of middle- or upper-class people, often displacing the poorest residents of the targeted areas.”

Data released by the Institute for Democratic and Prospective Planning of Mexico City last year showed that 100,000 people each year are forced to leave the capital because they cannot afford to live.

Since August 28 of last year, the Official Gazette of Mexico City published amendments to the Mexico City Housing Law and the Civil Code to curb excessive rent increases, but access to housing remains a concern for the population.