Locals say the real estate industry is using organized crime intimidation and even arson to clear the way for profits authorities were able to avoid the legally required consultation before approving its construction water — a scarce resource in Mexico City — is being redirected to the luxury building Avoiding community consultation is just one of the strategies real estate companies are using to build and profit while displacing people and destroying environments throughout Mexico These corporations are using a combination of corruption to clear the way for them to build their empires Companies also “look for legal loopholes,” said Mexican researcher and doctor of urban land management Melissa Schumacher Gonzalez She said a core tactic was divide and conquer “Real estate spending has a lot of freedom because it is one of the only ways to finance city growth while authorities often aren’t concerned about coherent alluding to the low public budgets that are common in poorer Global South countries Real estate has “become an easy way to get rich,” she said. The value of property per square meters has multiplied around tenfold in a decade and affording those companies the power and means to buy off authorities “The government is a mafia. There’s little difference between it, the narcos, and the companies. It’s basically a corporate narco state … where everything is merchandise and illegal actions are passed off as legal,” Lila told Truthout. A member of Frente por la Defensa de los Derechos de los Pueblos y Barrios del Anáhuac (Front in Defense of the Rights of the Peoples and Towns of Anáhuac, or FDDPBA) an organization of Indigenous communities in Mexico City that fights for Indigenous rights and the environment Lila described an “implicit threat” against activists and original peoples as “both direct and indirect persecution from direct death threats through to following people and fabricating charges.” In Tlaxcala state, a Nahuatl community leader and Land Defender, Saúl Rosales, fell victim to trumped-up charges and was sent to prison for 50 years in March alleges municipal authorities in her town are colluding with a real estate company that any public works like electricity and water that are approved are for the benefit of that company and that people involved in organized crime are living in the new houses Salgado is of Nahuatl origins and a member of the Collective in Defense of Tlaltelulco Land, an organization of locals which fights for their rights and defends land and their way of life. Her town of La Magdalena Tlaltelulco is one of three municipalities in Mexico with the least access to tap water at 8.77 percent “Most of the houses for sale here belong to the mayor’s company,” she told Truthout People in the community are “normally fighters there are rumors he is linked to drug traffickers and everyone is too scared.” “Angelopolis was planned based on a U.S. study,” said Schumacher Gonzalez. Records show the area was designed by Texas companies HKS Architects and Sasaki with wide roads and a lack of street benches and the North American Free Trade Agreement are associated with modernity or a “benchmark lifestyle,” and the real estate company Grupo Proyecta “subcontracted companies from the United States” to build and continuously expand Angelopolis today Grupo Proyecta has been denounced for paying ejido (common) land owners 4 pesos ($0.25) per square meters to build much more expensive housing then leaving those residents without water as it is redirected to the pools and gardens of the luxury properties “Companies like Grupo Proyecta have evicted original peoples from their properties via fraudulent trials these types of developments are designed for people who are white They aren’t at all planned for children the elderly or for vulnerable groups,” said Schumacher Gonzalez “The real estate construction is for housing that most people here can’t afford… It is leading to the dispossession of our homes and rent or sell to businesses that will give the area a “modern” or Western look in order to attract wealthier white people and tourists Mexico City is being fought over “between real estate capital and citizens, original peoples and communities who defend the water, air, and public spaces,” argued Lila’s organization, FDDPBA, on X (formerly Twitter) dates back to the invasion of the region,” Lila said called the General Land Use Planning Program to “divide up the city like sharing out the cake; the real estate goes here explaining that chain or corporate restaurants with different eating styles food and price points were replacing family-run eateries that use Mexican corn Salgado says that real estate construction has “advanced a lot over the last five years and what they are doing is modifying and accelerating the process of loss of identity within the community.” that has “facilitated people’s readiness to sell their land.” A nearby industrial corridor has seen many people leaving their farms to work in factories like the nearby LIXIL (American Standard) industrial plant “Now people prefer to work in a factory because they see it as bringing more status,” Salgado said “Real estate companies dictate everything,” said Schumacher Gonzalez “The latest urban development plans are clearly done for the benefit of real estate companies pointing out new developments don’t include water treatment or water capture facilities “A lack of trees reduces the amount of rain… All these residential estates and shopping areas are becoming huge heat islands,” she said “They try to turn our land into a business,” said Salgado to maintain our ways of organizing and living in community means we are united in defending what our grandparents defended.” we’re not going to sell out,” Lila promised “The resistance is going to continue because we’re fighting … to continue honoring and dignifying this life we are witnessing a terrifying array of anti-democratic tactics to silence political opposition increase surveillance and expand authoritarian reach Truthout is appealing for your support as Trump and his sycophants crack down on political speech Nonprofits like Truthout could be caught in Trump’s crosshairs as he attacks dissenting groups with bad faith lawsuits and targeted harassment of journalists these attacks come at a time when independent journalism is most needed The right-wing corporate takeover of media has left reliable outlets few and far between with even fewer providing their work at no cost to the reader Who will be there to hold the fascists to account We ask for your support as we doggedly pursue justice through our reporting Truthout is funded overwhelmingly by readers like you Please make a tax-deductible one-time or monthly donation today Tamara Pearson is an Australian-Mexican journalist, editor, activist and literary fiction author. Her latest novel is, The Eyes of the Earth, and she writes the Global South newsletter, Excluded Headlines As Trump and his sycophants work to silence political dissent independent media is a key part of the resistance Support our work by making a one-time or monthly donation to Truthout today whose name is the Aztec word for smoking mountain towers to 5426 m 70 km SE of Mexico City to form North America's 2nd-highest volcano The glacier-clad stratovolcano contains a steep-walled The generally symmetrical volcano is modified by the sharp-peaked Ventorrillo on the NW At least three previous major cones were destroyed by gravitational failure during the Pleistocene producing massive debris-avalanche deposits covering broad areas south of the volcano The modern volcano was constructed to the south of the late-Pleistocene to Holocene El Fraile cone the most recent of which took place about 800 AD have occurred from Popocatépetl since the mid Holocene accompanied by pyroclastic flows and voluminous lahars that swept basins below the volcano Source: GVP, Smithsonian Institution - Popocatepetl information