Mexican City (AP). Government failures and active promotion to attract digital nomads have led to fierce protest in the city of Mexico against gentrification and mass tourism, experts say that tension has been increasing for many years.
Criticism arises after Claudia Sheinbaum, President of Mexico, said Friday’s protest was noted by xenophobia, reviving discussions on the city’s influx of the city.
Many Mexicans say they were priced from their surroundings-part because Sheinbaum made 2022 when she was a Mexico Mayor, and signed an agreement with Airbnb and UNESCO to increase tourism and attract digital wanders, regardless of short-term concerns.
“Gringo: Stop stealing our house”
On Friday it came to mind. Most of the peaceful protest of hundreds of demonstrators marched through the city tourism centers with the signs of “Gringing: Stop stealing our homes” and “Housing rules now!”
As the end of March approached, the protesters’ group became violent, breaking shop windows and robbing many businesses. In one case, the protester struck a butter knife at the window of the restaurant where people were hiding, and another person painted “Kill Gringing” on a nearby wall.
“The xenophobic screens seen in that protest must be condemned. No one should say that” any nation is out of our country “even because of a legal problem, such as gentrification,” Sheinbaum said on Monday. “We are always open, brotherly.”
The disappointment has been created based on many years of mass tourism and increasing rental prices on large city roads. The influx of foreigners began around 2020, when the Americans flooded to Mexico to work remotely, avoid coronavirus restrictions and took advantage of cheaper living costs.
Over the years, elderships, such as Rome and Condesa, have increasingly increasingly increasingly in the lush central places with cafes and markets, and remote workers called digital nomads, and there are more temporary housing rented through companies such as Airbnb, which satisfy tourists.
As they have, rent and life prices have risen, and English is increasingly widespread on the streets of those areas. Some groups described this phenomenon as a kind of “neocolonialism”.
Mounting voltage
The Antigentrification Front of Mexico, one of the protest organizations, “completely against” was contrary to the actions of physical violence and denied that the protests were xenophobic. Instead, the organization stated that the protest had been many years of failure of local authorities to solve problems.
“Gentrification is not just the fault of foreigners, but the guilt of the government and these companies providing priority for money to foreigners,” the organization said in a statement. Meanwhile, “Young people and workers’ class cannot afford to live here.”
In its list of requirements, the organization demanded more lease control, obliges local votes in larger development projects in their area, stricter laws, making it harder for owners to discard residents and prioritize Mexican tenants than to foreigners.
The protest of Mexico is due to similar protests throughout Europe, against mass tourism. The tension in Mexico also made it difficult for the broader inequality and Trump’s administration to the US Latin American communities as it increases deportations.
The US Homeland Security Department took advantage of protesters on Sunday to write on the social media platform X: “If you are illegally in the US and want to join another protest in Mexico, use the CBP home program to facilitate your departure.”
Government failures
The cries of protesters about government failures were repeated by experts who said the carpet of the gentrification was both affordable in the city and the long -term inability of the government to regulate the housing market.
Antonio Azuela, a lawyer and sociologist, and others said they see protest as a xenophobic response. The essence of the problem was the influx of “digital nomads” in the city, but it grew out of hand due to free housing laws.
“What has led to it is the lack of regulation on the market,” Azuela said.
For decades, the Mexican government has a few efforts to control the development and create accessible housing.
Lawmakers estimate that the city has about 2.7 million houses and apartments, but it needs about 800,000 more. However, such affordable housing changes, which often appear, are directed to the outskirts of the city, said Luis Salin, a researcher at the National University of Mexico of Mexico.
Exercise “insufficient” laws
Meanwhile, there was a lack of execution, creating developers’ travel services companies like Airbnb, he said.
Today, Airbnb, Inside Airbnb, an organization of the law, which monitors the impact of the company on residential communities through data, is currently on the Airbnb list of more than 26,000 real estate objects. This is compared to 36,000 real estate in New York and 19,000 in Barcelona, where protests also began.
“The government treated housing as its goods,” Salin said. Government actions “are completely inadequate. Nowadays the federal government must be intervened much more.”
Airbnb said it helped last year to contribute to Mexico’s “economic impact” for more than a billion dollars, with the guest’s expenses supported by 46,000 jobs in the city. “We need a regulation based on instead of prohibitions but respect for rights and transparency of liabilities,” the report said.
Last year, the Mexico Government approved the most ambitious lease control Act since 1940 to control prices, and also set short -term lease peaks up to 180 nights a year, but Salin said short -term lease laws were made before a pause to 2026 FIFA World Cup.
And even then, the country’s government will have to take much more action to control the situation, Azuela said.
“It will not end just as Airbnb reigns,” he said. “They will have to do much more.”