The financing of 15 million copies makes the López Obrador government “committed to indoctrination,” Omara Ruiz Urquiola tells El Universal.
14ymedio, Madrid, 6 June 2025 — Much has been said about the more than $23 million that the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador invested in hiring 610 Cuban doctors, a process full of irregularities but widely monitored and publicized by the local and independent press in Cuba. Now, it has been discovered that the former Mexican president spent almost as much of the state’s coffers on printing Cuban textbooks.
According to an investigation by Mexicans against Corruption and Impunity (MCCI), reported on Thursday by the newspaper El Universal, the amount spent for this purpose between 2023 and 2024 amounts to 22 million dollars. The process involved three Mexican public entities, which were responsible for financing, printing and distributing the texts that were then used by students at almost all educational levels on the island: early childhood, primary, secondary school, pre-university and special education.
The National Commission for Free Textbooks (Conaliteg), belonging to the Public Education Secretariat, commissioned the work of the Progreso Printer and Binder (Iepsa), based in Iztapalapa, whose majority partner is the State. Once the books were ready, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs handled the shipping from the port of Veracruz to Cuba.
Three Mexican public entities participated in the process, which were responsible for financing, printing and distributing the texts that were then used by students of almost all educational levels on the island
In total, 15 million copies were sent which, according to the MCCI – in collaboration with the Academic Freedom Observatory, headed by the Cuban opponent Omara Ruiz Urquiola and based in Colombia – have, as required, this information on the legal page of the books.
For the investigation, a copy of two contracts was also obtained from Conaliteg with the company Iepsa, one of them dated in August 2023 for printing 5,200,000 books, and another in July 2024 for 9,600,000. The total amount is 387,455,000 pesos ($22 million at the exchange rate of those dates).
“As a result of the cooperation between Mexico and the Republic of Cuba, said country requested our support to print school books because of the lack of materials and technological resources,” says the first contract. It makes clear that the Cuban Ministry of Education asked for help from the Mexican Agency for International Cooperation for Development (Amexcid), which belongs to the Foreign Ministry.
The Foreign Ministry then managed the printing of the 268 titles requested, which were paid by Mexico, as stated in the contract, at the request of the Cuban government. To complement the investigation, documents were requested from the Customs Office attesting to 10 shipments by sea with loads that total, between 2023 and 2024, 14,940,578 copies, slightly above the amount set by contract (14,861,861).
By date, five shipments were made between September 14 and 28, 2023, and two others on October 18 and 20 respectively. According to Veritrade records, a value of less than one cent per copy was reported, although the cost of production would be 24 pesos on average ($1.35 at 2023 exchange rate).
The following year, 2024, two shipments were made in August (6 and 19) and one on September 10. In these shipments, the cost reported at customs did correspond to production costs, averaging $1.2 million.
The following year, 2024, two shipments were made in August (6 and 19) and one on September 10. In those shipments, the cost reported at customs did correspond to the production cost, averaging $1.2 million
Exports were made through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and sent to the Cuban Editorial Pueblo y Educación. Since Mexico was only in charge of printing, the books are produced by Havana; therefore, the contents have the ideological bias that can be expected.
El Universal describes what is not unknown to Cubans. References to the “persecution” and “blockade” of the US abound in various subjects, although especially in books on Moral Education and Citizenship. Interviewed by the newspaper, Ruiz Irquiola says that this turns the Mexican government into a “participant in indoctrination”.
The Mexican newspaper recalls that the López Obrador administration argued “humanitarian reasons” to multiply its support for Cuba, a policy that his successor, Claudia Sheinbaum, seems determined to maintain. Despite the 610 professionals who arrived from Cuba, the population of Mexico without access to health services doubled, according to a report by the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (CONEVAL).
To this support should be added the supply of oil, worth close to 900 million dollars, that the government of López Obrador sent to Cuba in 2023 and 2024.
Translated by Regina Anavy
____________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.