A day after it was revealed that the director of the Mexican Space Agency (AEM) had submitted his resignation, President Claudia Sheinbaum dismissed rumors that she was shuttering the agency and invited Dr. Salvador Landeros to stay on.
El Universal newspaper reported Wednesday that Landeros had quit his post as AEM chief, explaining in a Jan. 24 resignation letter that he objected to “the government’s failure to give the agency the attention it deserves, both as regards budget and management.”
Landeros also said that his complaints to the Digital Transformation and Telecoms Agency (ATDT) fell on deaf ears.
“I was told that [AEM] would disappear,” he wrote, “which I consider unfortunate considering all the work it took to create it.”
During her morning press conference on Thursday, Sheinbaum insisted it was all a misunderstanding, saying that the AEM was being folded into the MexSat program, Mexico’s satellite system.
“It’s not disappearing, it is being strengthened,” she said, explaining that the confusion was likely caused by the proposal of a name change for the new agency.
ATDT director José Merino was on hand to provide more details about the proposed merger.
“We have no intention of weakening the AEM,” Merino said, according to Expansión. “Instead, we are merging the two agencies to promote the president’s satellite project and boost ties with academia and [universities] … so as to enhance growth with regard to Mexico’s design capabilities and technology transfer.”
Neither Merino nor Sheinbaum addressed Landeros’ concerns about AEM’s budget, however.
The AEM saw its budget shrink considerably during the Andrés Manuel López Obrador administration.
In 2019, López Obrador’s first year in office, the AEM budget sat at 125.2 million pesos (US $6.1 million). Four years later, the annual budget had shrunk to 69.5 million pesos (US $3.4 million).
An audit carried out by the federal comptroller’s office (ASF) in 2022 noted that the failure to fund the AEM adequately was a risky proposition.
The ASF found that “[T]he limited regulatory, organizational and budgetary structure [at AEM] … not only puts the institutional objectives at risk but also hinders the consolidation and invigoration of the space program.”
Although AEM funding has held steady the past two years (73 million pesos in 2024 and 70 million pesos in this year’s budget), the agency has largely been an afterthought since Sheinbaum took office last October.
The last time Sheinbaum mentioned the AEM, according to El Universal, was on Nov. 27, when she said Mexico would lead a Latin American space mission in 2027.
Astronaut Katya Echazarreta is expected to participate in the proposed mission, which is to include the launch of the first 100% Mexican telecommunications satellite to be developed through a partnership between the government, academic institutions and the private sector.
However, the last press release issued by AEM was published more than a month ago, and the agency’s social media account has since only been reposting about Sheinbaum’s presidential press conferences.
Although Merino and Sheinbaum called on Landeros to stay on the job, Sheinbaum also said that Landeros would be welcome to participate as an external consultant.
With reports from El Universal, Expansión and Latinus
