With President Claudia Sheinbaum in Washington D.C. for the 2026 FIFA World Cup draw, Interior Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez took charge of the federal government’s Friday morning press conference.
Here is a recap of the Dec. 5 mañanera.
Rodríguez responds to approval of contentious water legislation
Rodríguez thanked federal deputies and senators for their approval of a controversial water bill that large numbers of farmers have protested against, including by blocking highways in the majority of Mexico’s states.
The legislation creates a new General Water Law and modifies the existing National Water Law.
Rodríguez said that the new legislation will provide “support and certainty” for agriculture and other “productive activities” in Mexico, even though farmers have asserted that the laws will negatively impact their capacity to access water via their existing concessions.
The interior minister said that the legislation will combat water hoarding (acaparamiento) and “the concentration” of water in the hands of a small number of people.
Mega-blockades continue into their fourth day as their effects start to hurt
She also said the legislation will “bring order” to “everything related to water issues.”
“So I think it’s worth congratulating the Congress for [approving] this bill submitted by the president,” Rodríguez said.
She said that farmers’ concerns about the legislation — including that their capacity to bequeath and inherit water concessions would be taken away — were addressed by modifications to the bill that passed Congress.
Rodríguez highlighted that a number of organizations supported the legislation, although it has been vehemently opposed by others, including the National Front for the Rescue of the Mexican Countryside and the Movimiento Agrícola Campesino, a farmers’ group.
She pointed out that organizations such as the National Agriculture Council and the National Irrigators Association came out in favor of the legislation.
Rodríguez said that laws will be promulgated soon via publication in the federal government’s official gazette.
Rdoríguez: Millions of Mexicans now have a biometric CURP
A reporter asked Rodríguez how many people have already applied for and received a biometric CURP, an identity document that contains biometric data, including fingerprints and iris scans.
The interior minister said she didn’t have the exact number, but estimated the figure to be “several million.”
In August, the director of Mexico’s National Population Registry said that 27 million people had completed the procedure to get a biometric CURP.
Rodríguez also said that the government “has done very well” in the work related to the rollout of the biometric CURP. She assured Mexicans that the personal data they provide to obtain the document is safe and secure.
In June, Congress approved reforms to existing laws that allow for the creation of the biometric CURP.
The federal government’s main stated reason for the creation of the document — an enhanced version of the existing CURP (a national ID code) — was to help combat Mexico’s missing persons crisis.
There has been significant controversy about the creation of a new identity document that contains biometric data, with critics raising a range of concerns about the collection and storage of personal information. (Read MND’s explainer on the biometric CURP here.)
6 years of AMLO + 1 year of Sheinbaum = 7 years of the 4T
Rodríguez concluded the mañanera with the presentation of a short video released by Sheinbaum to mark the seventh anniversary of the “fourth transformation” (4T) political movement and to invite supporters to join her in Mexico City’s central square, the Zócalo, this Saturday for a celebration of that anniversary.
View this post on Instagram
“I want to share a reflection with you,” Sheinbaum says in the video.
“This last month, we experienced a barrage of campaigns and slander against what we represent. They’ve invented a number of terrible things and all because we’re a movement that is in power today and which will never split from the people because government and people are the same,” continues the president, whose government was criticized during large protests against insecurity in November.
“We want the well-being of the people, the sovereignty of Mexico, [we stand for] the fight for democracy, for true freedoms,” Sheinbaum says.
“We are the movement of the fourth transformation.”
Backed by the Morena party and its allies, the fourth transformation political project officially began when former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador took office on Dec. 1, 2018.
AMLO, Sheinbaum and others claim that the 4T movement is bringing a peaceful transformation to Mexico that is as important as three previous transformations, namely independence from Spain in the early 19th century, the enactment of sweeping reform laws (La Reforma) in the 1850s and the Mexican Revolution in the early 20th century.
At her Monday morning press conference, Sheinbaum, who now leads the 4T, outlined a range of “results” it has achieved in the past seven years, including lifting more than 13 million people out of poverty and increasing the minimum wage 125% in real terms.
In her video, Sheinbaum invites Mexicans to join her in the Zócalo at 11 a.m. this Saturday to celebrate those achievements, and the seventh anniversary of the 4T.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies (peter.davies@mexiconewsdaily.com)
