President Andrés Manuel López Obrador explained that the dirty campaign against the Pension Reform conducted by TV Azteca is due to the fact that the company runs the Afore AZTECA pension fund manager. This Afore must repay more than 1.8 billion pesos (US$100 million) to the IMSS, but has only returned slightly over 19 million pesos (US$1.1 million).
The head of the Ministry of the Interior, Luisa Alcalde, explained that the Pension Reform will guarantee that workers who earn up to the average salary of those affiliated to the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) will be able to retire with 100% of their salary, through a solidarity supplement. This reform is aimed at workers who pay into the IMSS and began working after June 1997, as well as state employees who are in the individual accounts plan and who will be retiring after this new law enters into effect.
Sources of financing for the Pension Fund for Well-Being, which will guarantee payment of the solidarity complement: 75% of the funds will come from property seized by the Institute to Return What was Stolen to the People; resources derived from the liquidation of the National Rural Development Bank; 25% of the net profits obtained by the Felipe Angeles International Airport (AIFA), Mexicana de Aviación, and the Mayan Train, (among others); debts owed by public sector entities to the Tax Administration System (SAT) and the Mexican Institute for Social Security and Services for State Workers (ISSSTE), and resources from unclaimed and inactive Afore accounts.
Debunking falsehoods about the Pension Reform:
-It is false that it will confiscate or expropriate Afore accounts.
-It is false that the funds of active workers over 70 years of age will be expropriated.
-It is false that the Pension Fund for Well-Bring will be managed by the Well-Being Bank.
Even though the Afores’ managers are obliged to transfer the funds from the unclaimed accounts to the IMSS, they have not complied. By 2023, there were 259,945 such accounts, containing a total of over 41.54 billion pesos (US$2.42 billlion), but the Afores have only transferred 946 million pesos (US$55.13 million).
