LatinNews Daily - 08 February 2024

*Mexico’s government led by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has released more details about how the M$64bn (US$3.75bn) fund, created to bankroll his proposed pension reforms, will be financed. Unveiled as part of his mega reform package, presented earlier this week, the reforms would guarantee pensions equal to 100% of pre-retirement salaries for workers registered in the national security system (IMSS) and federal public workers’ social security institute (ISSSTE) up to M$16,777 a month, and set the pension age at 65. Speaking yesterday at a joint press conference with López Obrador, Interior Minister Luisa María Alcalde identified various sources of finance for the new fund, including the Instituto para Devolverle al Pueblo lo Robado (Indep), which is responsible for managing assets confiscated from criminals; liquidated assets from the rural development agency (FND) that the senate voted to scrap in April 2023; and land sales from the national fund for the promotion of tourism (Fonatur). She also suggested it could be financed through: collecting debts owed by public entities to the ISSSTE, IMSS, and Mexico’s national tax authority (SAT); funding from social security and the national institute of the workers’ housing fund (Infonavit); the potential release of funding from trust funds administered by the federal judicial power (PJF); and through diverting cash from autonomous institutions that López Obrador wants to extinguish in his proposed reform package.