Mexico City Anti‑Gentrification Protest — A Local Expat Perspective

I’ve been walking these streets for years now, from San Ángel to Centro Historico, Roma ect, and for all the charms of this chaotic, soulful city, one moment in early July hammered home a painful truth.

I was in Parque México on July 4 when the chants started: “Gringos, stop stealing our home!” I watched teens and adults from places Tepito and Iztapalapa, as far as Ecatepec and Neza not Condesa, throw rocks at cafés they’d likely never set foot in. They marched through Roma and Condesa neighborhoods packed with expats and digital nomads breaking windows and looting shops. Graffiti reading “Kill a gringo” scarred the glass. Tourists ducked as chaos spiraled.

I realized just how absurd the narrative has become.

Because this anger wasn’t born on Wi-Fi and latte culture. it was born in classrooms with broken chairs, in neighborhoods forgotten by policy, starving for opportunity.

So many of the protesters don’t even live in the tourist zones they disrupted. Why explode in aggression there?

It was a deliberately staged rebellion, not aimed at the corrupt or powerful elites, but at the foreigners.

While it’s easy to frame this as just xenophobia, I wante to break down the article a little more. I want to go over some of the history an my thoughts.

MORENA’s Response: How this politically ascendant party scapegoats foreigners to divert blame from its own structural failures.

The Pandemic & the Youth: Why a lost generation, deprived of education and opportunity, find purpose in anti‑gentrification rage.

Inflation & Money Myth: How global price pressures, central‑bank policy, and Mexican fiscal choices matter far more than short‑term rentals.

The Gringo‑Pricing Trap: Why locals mistakenly blame foreigners for price hikes that businesses soon reapply to Mexican customers.

Reality Check: What tourists actually contribute, what fair regulation would look like, and how to balance community and capitalism.

Morena’s Narrative

Under President AMLO and Claudia Sheinbaum, CDMX has flirted with digital‑nomad branding. In 2022, Sheinbaum, the then‑mayor struck a deal with Airbnb and UNESCO to transform the city into a tourism magnet. Today, over 26,000 Airbnb listings pepper the city, more than anywhere else in Latin America. Rent‑caps and short‑term limits were legislated but delayed until after the 2026 World Cup rolls through fueling current chaos. They knew prices were already rising, but did it anyway.

Watch Sheinbaum's Clip Here

In public speeches, local officials now frame this short‑term rental boom as a foreign invasion easier rhetoric than admitting they failed to build pathways for affordable housing. So protesters smash windows of expat hotspots, thinking renters are next, almost pleased to believe they’re targeting rent‑oozing outsiders. The politics of displacement, too: easier to blame tourists than tackle zoning, construction, or lack of tenant rights.

Mexico’s president calls march against mass tourism ‘xenophobic.’ Critics blame government failures

Lost Youth in a Pandemic Void

I crossed paths with dozens of young people that night teenagers with flash tattoos, slang on their lips, fury in their eyes. A couple of them said they’d left school early. But people should know the that pandemic kicked everyones ass.

Schools shut for like 18 months during COVID. Online classes were optional, unsustainable especially when not everyone has internet, dropout rates spiked in mexico. Now, a lot of these people are even more stuck: no boleas (part-time work), no bebes (baby‑bounced dreams).

So they came to Roma and Condesa to let walls hear their scream. The violence isn’t JUST xenophobia it’s also a but of desperation. But by targeting tourists and cafés, they misunderstand who holds the keys. The city, in many ways, left them behind.

Inflation: National, Not Nomadic

Walk into any mercado, and they’ll tell you prices are out of control. And they are thanks to..

Pandemic supply chain fallouts

Peso‑printing sprees followed by teens rate hikes.

Lack of affordable housing stock, tangled permits, and urban bottlenecks.

At 17 percent interest rates, families are squeezed between cost‑of‑living heat and loan sharks breathing down their necks. But what the graffiti monsters don’t get is that Airbnb didn’t create inflation global policy did. And it’s not just here: every country is feeling the burn.

The Gringo‑Pricing Con Game

I want to single one out: the so‑called gringo precio. I’ve overheard vendors whisper “150 pesos for tourists,” before glancing funny. But then a neighborhood café silently shifted menu prices for everyone. That sweet 80‑peso quesadilla? Now 120. That’s price creep in action.

By the time locals realize they’re paying more, they lash out at tourists because the gringo is visible. But the real exploiters are weak regulations and opportunistic vendors.

I have had multiple conversations with foreign haters over the years. Some poor, some also rich and still out of touch. A lot of them believe foreigners should pay more because they have higher purchasing power. They cheer it, foreigners deserve to get scammed.
But then when the prices rise for everything.. its the foriegners fault

What Do Tourists Actually Do?

Uncomfortable facts:

Airbnb’s footprint: $1 billion added to the CDMX economy, supporting some 46,000 jobs.

Tourists eat, shop, ride Ubers, visit museums.

Local cafés in Roma renovated thanks to tourist coffee lines.

Public coffers swell with VAT, hotel taxes, and tourist levies.

Now, am I blind to displacement? But banning all foreigners will only sink the service industry they helped build.

What do I think needs to happen?

Enforcement: short‑term rental caps must kick in today, not in 2027.

Redirect tourist funds: invest in youth, schools, infrastructure in periphery neighborhoods.

Reconnect education: post‑pandemic catch‑up for lost years, especially for working‑class kids.

Regulate pricing: hold vendors accountable especially those who silently bake tourist surcharges into price lists or even flat out scam them.

I also. want to hear from you:

• Have you experienced gringo pricing firsthand?

• Are you a digital nomad or local worker affected by rent hikes?

• What’s one meaningful change you’d fight for in CDMX?

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