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MEXICO CITY (AP) — In a rare protest against his own administration, Mexico’s environment secretary is decrying a nearly 50% budget cut to his agency and issued a public appeal for more funds.
Environment Secretary Victor Toledo and the heads of ecological enforcement for almost all of Mexico’s 31 states signed an open letter published Wednesday appealing to all three levels of government to increase funding.
The administration of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has cut government budgets across the board since taking office last Dec. 1.
He has been criticized for reducing personnel assigned to fight forest fires and guard the wintering grounds of the monarch butterfly. He also stopped compensation payments to fishermen in the Gulf of California for not using nets that threaten the endangered vaquita porpoise.
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