- A tourism protest in Mexico City turned violent with storefronts smashed and foreigners harassed.
- The catalyst for the protest was skyrocketing rents and the transformation of neighborhoods due to increased tourism.
- Protesters are demanding stricter regulation of housing laws and tourism levels.
What started as a peaceful protest through the streets of Mexico City on Friday against a surge in tourism and rent prices turned violent as a small group of people began smashing storefronts and harassing foreigners.
Throughout the day, protesters marched through neighborhoods that are popular with tourists as well as inside Metro stations and near the U.S. Embassy. Over a dozen businesses were damaged as masked protesters smashed through windows and looted high-end businesses in the tourist areas of Condesa and Roma, drawing condemnation from officials.
The protest demonstrated the growing frustrations of many of the city’s residents who have “watched rents skyrocket and old neighborhoods turn into swanky developments as the city has become a major tourist destination and a base for many so-called digital nomads,” according to The New York Times.
Graffiti on shattered glass read “get out of Mexico” and protesters held signs with sayings such as “Gringos, stop stealing our home,” and “Pay taxes, learn Spanish, respect my culture.”
On Monday, Mexico’s president Claudia Sheinbaum condemned the actions of protesters as “xenophobic,” according to ABC News.
“The xenophobic displays seen at that protest have to be condemned. No one should be able to say ‘any nationality get out of our country’ even over a legitimate problem like gentrification,” Sheinbaum said. “We’ve always been open, fraternal.”
What was the protest about?
The protesters in Mexico City are demanding stricter housing laws and legislation to help regulate tourism levels, according to Fox News.
The frustrations that led to the protest were built from years of mass tourism and rent prices rising in large swaths of the city. This influx of foreigners started around 2020, “when Americans flooded into Mexico City to work remotely, dodge coronavirus restrictions and take advantage of cheaper living costs,” per ABC News.
The number of Americans living in Mexico went up 70% between 2019 and 2022.
ABC News reported that many Mexicans say they have been priced out of their neighborhoods. This is in part because of an agreement Sheinbaum signed with Airbnb and UNESCO to boost tourism and attract digital nomads in 2022, when she was Mexico City’s mayor.
As certain neighborhoods in the city have become more populated by foreign tourists and remote workers, there have been more temporary housing units rented out through companies such as Airbnb.
As this has happened, rent and living prices have skyrocketed and English has become more common. Some people have referred to this phenomenon as “neo-colonialism.”
One of the organizations behind last weekend’s protest was the Mexico City Anti-Gentrification Front, which said it was against the acts of physical violence. The group also denied the allegations that the protest was xenophobic.
The organization’s list of demands called for “greater rent controls, mandates that locals have a voice in larger development projects in their area, stricter laws making it harder for landlords to throw out residents and prioritizing Mexican renters over foreigners,” per ABC News.
Tourism protests have been happening around the world
The protest in Mexico City comes on the heels of a wave of similar protests across European countries that rallied against mass tourism.
In June, people on the Spanish island of Mallorca and in Barcelona sprayed tourists with water guns in a demonstration to “cool down” tourism, Fox News reported.
Other cities that have held their own tourism protests including Venice, Italy and Lisbon, Portugal.
Fox News reported that some other international vacation destinations implemented taxes as a way to curb tourism.