Mexico’s plan to decentralise its federal departments to take population pressure off Mexico City (above) is far behind schedule, with only eight of 32 having relocated. Photo: File.
The Mexican Government’s ambitious plan to move more than 30 federal ministries and departments out of Mexico City to various locations around the country mostly remains just that – a plan – five years after it was proposed.
Just eight of 32 departments slated for relocation have moved. The decentralisation is only partial or in the early stages of execution in some of those cases.
Before he took office in late 2018, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announced a plan to decentralise the Federal Government by moving numerous departments to different cities across the country, supposedly to ease population pressure in Mexico City and spur development elsewhere.
At the time, Mr Lopez Obrador said the country’s “exacerbated centralism”, with practically the entire Federal Government and many major businesses in Mexico City, had led to overpopulation in the capital, while smaller cities remained underdeveloped.
In a statement, the President’s office said the campaign promise to decentralise the Federal Government was still expected to be fulfilled during the current six-year term of government, which ends on 30 September next year.
While eight departments have begun the move, others, answering questions from journalists, said their decentralisation plans hadn’t been acted upon for a range of reasons, including a lack of resources.
In addition, many public servants have expressed their opposition to moving out of Mexico City.
In a letter sent to Mr Lopez Obrador, Ministry of Environment staff said moving the department would break up families, especially in the case of married officers working for different departments.
The employees also said the decision to relocate the ministry failed to take into account the fact that many of them had mortgages, and didn’t consider the education situations of their children, whose schooling would be disrupted.
With just under a year left in office, Mr Lopez Obrador appears to be far more focused on completing public infrastructure projects than moving government departments out of the capital.
Mexico City, 30 September, 2023
