Mexico calling up military to finish building hospitals

The Mexican army will be used to speed up infrastructure projects in southern state Tabasco that have seen slow progress, local authorities announced, according to a media report. 

The move comes after federal audit agency ASF highlighted irregularities in the use of funds for projects built by the defense ministry. 

According to daily Tabasco Hoy, state governor Javier May Rodríguez said this week that military engineers would step in to finish construction of the Cárdenas and Rovirosa hospitals.

Construction of the Cárdenas hospital has reported severe delays and incomplete pre-construction plans, a situation that has caused more than 300 modifications to the original project, the state’s minister of territorial arrangement and public works (Sotop), Daniel Arturo Casasús, said in October. 

Sotop’s public works undersecretary Victoria Arévalo added that the Cárdenas hospital is one of the 18 projects that the previous state administration – led by Carlos Merino – left unfinished, like construction of the Grijalva bridge which is 55% completed.

“Among the projects that we are detecting to have more impact is the already known Cárdenas hospital, which has seen very little progress compared to what it should have,” Arévalo was quoted as saying. 

At the end of October, ASF published the results of the auditing of public spending in 2023. According to the document, four projects involving construction or expansion of military hospitals and other military facilities registered irregularities in payments amounting to 30mn pesos (US$1.4mn), including overpayments and duplicated or unjustified payments. 

The healthcare infrastructure projects involved are the expansion and equipping of the regional military hospital of Guadalajara in Jalisco state, and construction and expansion of the regional military hospital in Puebla estate.

The widespread use of the military to build infrastructure projects in Mexico has come in for heavy criticism.