Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, announced a government program that seeks to settle, in many cases, and significantly reduce, in others, the debts owed by small-scale farmers, small producers, and fishermen to the government.

“Today we have the great news that many of those debts have already been paid off, just like the unpayable debts of Infonavit and Fovissste. So today we have great news for all debtors of the National Agricultural Development Finance Agency because their debts are going to be significantly reduced,” the president said during her regular daily press conference.

The loans to be forgiven or reduced had been requested by small and medium-sized producers from the National Fund for Agricultural, Rural, Forestry, and Fisheries Development (FND). According to Sheinbaum, the program’s goal is to provide financial relief to thousands of farmers who owed money to the FND – debts that were unpayable in most cases.

Sheinbaum also explained that many women were manipulated by third parties to apply for loans in their names. These women were then left burdened by the loans and interest until they became unpayable.

Regarding this specific group, the federal government has announced that thousands of women producers with debts totaling approximately 397,551 Mexican pesos (approximately USD 23,000) will not have to pay anything, as their debts will be immediately forgiven, provided they submit the appropriate application. According to data released by the Mexican government, approximately 11,761 women will be eligible to benefit from this measure.

For women with larger debts – that is, between 397,551 and 10 million pesos (about USD 575,000) – a 30% discount will be available, and the remainder of the loan can be restructured through other payment options. According to the government, approximately 1,639 women will be able to benefit from this program.

In this regard, the Sheinbaum administration states that approximately 99.9% of women producers with loans will have their debts settled.

Finally, the government announced that nearly 30,000 male small-scale producers will also be able to benefit from the program, which aims to save thousands of people from unpayable debts. Thus, male producers who owe less than 247,966 pesos (about USD 14,000) will also have their debts fully forgiven.

In this regard, the debt forgiveness program will settle or clear the debts of 99.5% of FND debtors. The remaining 0.5% consists of individuals with different loan terms. Though the Sheinbaum administration announced that these cases will also be addressed, it did not specify how.

Several media outlets reported that thousands of farmers were in a critical situation, not only because of the debts they had incurred, but also because of the extortion they were suffering at the hands of lawyers who were taking advantage of this situation to demand payments from debtors to handle their cases and resolve them.

In this way, tens of thousands of farmers will be able to clear a debt that seemed impossible to pay, and that was causing distress and fueling corruption networks.

The post Sheinbaum to forgive debts for tens of thousands of small farmers appeared first on Peoples Dispatch.

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