Ciudad Madero, Tamaulipas. Concluding her visit to the border state, President Claudia Sheinbaum said on August 16 that restoring social rights in health, education and housing depends on defending Mexico’s national sovereignty.
She inaugurated the new IMSS-Bienestar hospital in Ciudad Madero, a 1-billion-peso facility that will serve 500,000 people and replace the 90-year-old civil hospital.
IMSS-Bienestar officials noted the hospital was started during the neoliberal era but left unfinished and deteriorated. Work to rescue it began in 2023 under former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and is now complete.
In her remarks, Sheinbaum criticized privatization policies of the past 36 years, saying they left public hospitals with only about 4,000 new beds while the population and chronic illnesses grew. During the same period, she said, private clinics, pharmacies and hospitals expanded rapidly.
“The private sector has its place, but the public system must be strengthened,” she said, adding that her administration is advancing a Universal Health Service so anyone can be treated at the nearest public hospital regardless of affiliation.
“For us, well-being means sovereignty. There is no freedom or well-being without a sovereign Mexico, and that is what we will continue to defend,” Sheinbaum stated.
