Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies approved a reform on Wednesday that provides for increases of more than 100% in museum prices and similar increases in the cost of admission to some museums. This approval – 355 votes in favor and 132 against – represents a first step in the remodeling of the Rights rule, which must still pass a final filter through the additional approval of each modified article. A source from the ruling Morena party consulted by this newspaper affirms that the collection figure will be known “at the end of the year” and will be part of the Federal Government’s Income Law.
The increase in prices for foreigners arriving in the country is divided into different points: visitors without work permits would go from paying 860 to 983 pesos, the slightest change of those expected; Foreigners seeking temporary residence for one year would go from paying 5,328 pesos to 11,140 pesos; those who wanted the two-year document, from 7,984 to 16,693; those with three, from 10,112 to 21,142; and the four, from 11,984 to 25,057 pesos. This tax would also impact foreigners who process permanent residence, which would go from costing 6,494 to 13,578 pesos, an increase of 109%.
In Wednesday’s session, Morena legislators and their allies increased rates on 26 products and services. Among these soft drinks, cigarettes, video games and energy drinks and oral serums, a product that has caused a stir among supporters of the Government and its detractors. Claudia Sheinbaum’s Administration has defended the increases by saying that they are a tax on .
The changes made by the deputies also provide for a 50% discount on foreign visas when they can prove that the stay in Mexico is made to “preserve family unity”, due to a job offer or an invitation from an organization to participate in unpaid activities in the country.
This first approval by the Chamber of Deputies comes a few months after the large cities of Mexico marched in protest against gentrification. Fashionable neighborhoods in Mexico City such as Roma and Condesa registered, according to the Propiedades.com portal. Those two demarcations were converted into the epicenter of the unrest against foreigners who transformed the neighborhoods, they are just an example of the situation that ended with the explosion of marches in the capital.
The amendment document highlights the increase in the number and states: “Their permanence in the country has acquired strategic relevance in various sectors. However, this document also entails greater challenges in terms of national security, traceability of people and protection of people,” the document states.
From the Great Temple to Chichen Itzá
They are not the only increases that visitors could see. The reform also provides for an increase in museum ticket prices for different categories. The entrance to category 1 museums, where spaces such as the Templo Mayor, the Museum of Anthropology or the archaeological zone of Teotihuacán enter, would go from costing 95 pesos to 209. Those in category 2, where the archaeological zone of Becán or the Chapas Regional Museum enter, would see an increase in the cost of the ticket from 78 pesos to 156. Those in category 3, with the Historical Museum of Aguascalientes, for example, it would go from 73 to 143 pesos. The modification of the law also provides for category 4, which includes Chichén Itzá, Uxmal, Dzibilchaltún and the Museum of the Mayan People. This last catalog foresees a cost of 104 pesos.
In the case of tickets, the reform also proposes a 50% discount on the cost of the pass to museums in category 1 and a 45% reduction to those in categories 2 and 3 for Mexicans and foreigners who can prove their residence in the country.
From the Presidency they cry out: “”. It is the beginning of one of the statements from the Government of , in which they collected the tourist data for the first semester. Between June and June of this year, the country saw 47.4 million visitors and 23.4 million tourists. These figures were accompanied by the increase in visitor spending by 6.3%, which translated, according to these figures, to 18,681 million dollars.
