Ángel Vargas and Fernando Camacho
La Jornada Newspaper
Sunday, November 17, 2024, p. 5
Without the key projects of the previous federal administration, such as the Mayan Train and Chapultepec: Nature and Culture, the cultural sector will suffer a cut of around 28 percent – that is, just over a quarter – in 2025 compared to 2024 , if the draft Expenditure Budget of the Federation (PEF) that was delivered on Friday to the Legislative Branch is approved.
The economic package presented by the Treasury assigns the federal Ministry of Culture (SC) a budget of 12,081 million pesos (mp) for 2025, 4,673 million less than this year, when it was granted 16,754 million pesos, which which represents a decrease of 27.8 percent.
This is the lowest allocation of public resources for culture since the creation of that secretariat in 2015, whose lowest budget had been in 2017, when it received 12,428 million pesos.
The General Directorate of Popular, Indigenous and Urban Cultures will drop from 159.3 million pesos in 2024 to 147.4 million in 2025 (7.4 percent less), while that of Cultural Heritage Sites and Monuments will go from 289.3 million pesos to only 83.2 million (71 percent).
Among the organizations dependent on the SC that will have a more pronounced drop is the National Institute of Anthropology and History, which will have a 45 percent decrease in its funds, going from 8 thousand 6 million pesos in 2024 to only 4 thousand 401 million in 2025.
In the case of the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature, it will have allocations next year for 3,386 million pesos, which means a drop of 7 percent compared to the 3,631 million received in 2024.
Radio Educación will also have a budget reduction of 7.4 percent, falling from 86.5 million pesos to 80.1 million. For the National Institute of Copyright, the decrease will be 6.6 percent (from 78.4 million pesos to 73.1 million), and that of the National Institute of Historical Studies of the Revolutions of Mexico, 7.5 percent (from 37.6 million pesos to 34.8 million) .
As regards the entities supported by the SC, the constant is also the loss of resources from one year to the next. The Cinematographic Training Center, for example, will decrease 4.2 percent (from 30,442 million pesos to 29,158 million pesos); the National Institute of Indigenous Languages, 3.3 percent (from 79.1 million pesos to 76.4 million pesos), and the Trust for the National Cinematheque, 6 percent (from 49.9 million pesos to 46.9 million pesos).
Channel 22 will decrease from 149.9 million pesos to 143.8 million pesos (4.06 percent), and the Tijuana Cultural and Tourist Center Operating Company, from 104.5 million pesos to 100 million pesos (4.3 percent).
Among the few organizations that will have budget increases, even if they are minimal, are the Mexican Institute of Cinematography, which will rise from 308.3 million pesos to 314.2 million pesos (1.9 percent); the Churubusco Azteca Studies, from 28 million pesos to 29.1 million pesos (3.9 percent) and the National Fund for the Promotion of Crafts, from 135.3 million pesos to 135.6 million pesos (0.1 percent).
No resources are contemplated for the Educal bookstore network, which is in the process of merging with the Economic Culture Fund.
