In a day marked by protests and displays of support, Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo inaugurated the IMSS General Hospital No. 13 “September 14th” this Thursday, a project with an investment of 2.4 billion pesos that will benefit 290,000 beneficiaries in the region.
The event, scheduled for noon, was delayed by more than two hours due to various demonstrations. Outside the new hospital, dozens of teachers from Section 7 of the SNTE-CNTE teachers’ union gathered to demand that the mayor resume the dialogue.
The teachers positioned themselves at the entrances to the IMSS hospital, where they displayed banners with the message: “If there is no solution, the ball won’t roll,” and on them was a caricature of the mayor with a ball from the 2026 World Cup.
From the window of her SUV, Sheinbaum listened to a delegation of teachers. The general secretary of Section 7, Isael González Vázquez, handed over a document outlining their demands, while the teachers chanted: “You can see it, you can feel it, the strength of the CNTE!”
At the same time, another group of residents demonstrated with signs demanding the removal of Morena party senator José Manuel Cruz Castellanos, former state Secretary of Health.
The protesters recalled that the legal department of the Chiapas Ministry of Health had filed a complaint against him for alleged crimes of aggravated theft of documents, abuse of authority, improper exercise of functions, and money laundering.
Officials from the federal and state levels, as well as mayors, mobilized hundreds of people in both Tuxtla Gutiérrez and Tonalá to conceal the protests that had been announced by the CNTE and the truck drivers who provided services for the construction of the trans-isthmus corridor.
The day before, the Secretary General of the Government, Dulce Rodríguez Ovando, arrived in the municipality of Tonalá to carry out a political operation and foster dialogue with those who sought to protest the president’s visit.
During her remarks at the inaugural event, Sheinbaum asserted that the Fourth Transformation maintains strong popular support:
“We are strong, our movement is very, very strong. The majority of Mexicans decided on a transformation in 2018. In 2024 we said: the transformation must continue, and furthermore, it is time for women. The vast majority agree; only a few want to maintain the privileges of the past, but that can no longer be.”
The president reiterated that the guiding principle of her government will continue to be: “For the good of all, the poor come first. There can be no development in Chiapas or in the country if the most needy are not attended to.”
Sheinbaum highlighted the importance of the new General Zone Hospital No. 13, which has already begun operations with cataract surgeries, lipoma resections, fistula closures, and electrocautery procedures.
The Director General of the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS), Zoé Robledo, explained that the hospital has 261 beds, 144 for inpatient care and 117 for various other areas of care. The staff comprises 1,691 employees, including 369 medical specialists, and the center has the most powerful magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine in the state.
For his part, Governor Eduardo Ramírez Aguilar thanked the federal government for its support and emphasized that the project represents a “direct benefit” for thousands of families in Chiapas. He also acknowledged the role of the IMSS in strengthening healthcare in the state.
To close her tour of Chiapas, the president toured a section of the Interoceanic Train of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in the afternoon, from Tonalá to Ixtepec, in Oaxaca, inaugurating the stations of Tonalá, Arriaga, Chahuites and Juchitán.
Source: proceso
