National Pathway Program to Include Nine More States

The Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transport (SICT) announced that it will double the number of roads built during the “Caminos de Mano de Obra” program, as it seeks to provide at least one paved entrance to all municipal capitals in Mexico. 

SICT announced that Guerrero, Tlaxcala, Sonora, Chihuahua, Veracruz, Hidalgo, Puebla, Nayarit and Durango will join Oaxaca in the federal government’s “Caminos de Mano de Obra” program, which prioritizes the use of local manpower and resources. Jorge Nuño Lara, Head, SICT accompanied President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to supervise the program’s advances, which are set to cover 4,165kms. This is equivalent to traveling from Chetumal, Quintana Roo, to Tijuana, Baja California, according to Nuño Lara. 

SICT highlighted that the program will benefit 2 million inhabitants, while generating 72,000 direct jobs and 287,000 indirect ones. The program initially began in Oaxaca in 2019, aiming to pave 199 roads. However, the federal government decided to increase its budget , targeting the construction of 415 paved roads in nine more states by June 2024, explains SICT via a press release. 

The announcement came after Nuño Lara and López Obrador inaugurated the newest roads in the program at San Pedro Coxcaltepec Cantaros-E.C. and Santiago Huauclilla-Nochixtlan. The federal government will grant SICT with a total of MX$18.9 billion (US$1 billion) for this program. In 2023, the program was allocated MX$3.8 billion (US$213 million), according to SICT. The program is set to provide all municipal capitals with at least one paved access road. 

"We have decided through the Community Assembly to continue all the works on the superhighway with monthly reviews and evaluations to verify the progress and solve the agrarian, social, violence and peace conflict," said the Commissariat via a letter turned to the government and Governor of Oaxaca, Salomón Jara Cruz, as reported by MBN.