Lainez, reiterated the IFJ’s solidarity and support for the struggle of Notimex workers during a visit to the camp on 30 September. Following the announcement of the closure of the agency by Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador in April 2023, the workers, who have been on strike for three years and seven months, are demanding recognition of their situation and compensation measures. According to the authorities, the closure of the agency will take place once the situation of the hundreds of journalists and employees has been resolved.
On the shutdown of Notimex, Lainez told unionised workers that: “it has been a hard blow because the Mexican state news agency has always been a benchmark news provider in Latin America.” She reiterated the IFJ condemnation of the Mexican government’s attitude and demanded reparation measures "not only for the economic and emotional damage but also the moral damage that comrades have suffered due to the union struggle and collective agreement’ defence. The recognition of the rights they are legally entitled to is not enough. They must be compensated.”
Lainez highlighted that despite the pandemic and difficult times, workers are standing tall in the camp to this day “defending journalism, the public media and union struggle.”
In February 2020, the camp was set up following the dismissal of more than 200 Notimex workers, 80% of whom were women. After more than a three-year locked strike without answers, the federal government announced in April 2023 that the agency would be liquidated “because it is no longer necessary,” according to official sources.
The government’s move is a deliberate blow to journalism and the right to information, not only because of the large number of media workers and employees who will lose their jobs, but also because of the lack of a public media with decades of history and work at the service of the Mexican people's right to receive information.
The IFJ Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean, through its Vice President, reiterates its solidarity with the Notimex strikers and demands an urgent solution to the claims and demands that have been unfairly postponed. The resolution to the conflict cannot be the closure of the agency, which, if it is to be completed, must be done with unrestricted respect for the labour rights of its workers and with the corresponding reparations to those who for more than 1300 days have been holding a strike against layoffs and cutbacks.
In the most dangerous country in the region for journalists, the closure of one of the oldest public media only deepens the crisis faced by Mexican journalists.