Meeting with an industry that "only seeks to sell its products and make profits at the expense of the health and lives of its consumers," is contradictory and dangerous.

This article originally appeared in the May 23, 2026 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

Mexico City. Civil society organizations advocating for the right to health expressed their rejection of the meeting held between officials from the Federal Commission for Protection against Sanitary Risks (COFEPRIS) and representatives of the tobacco industry, in order to “strengthen the exchange of strategic information, surveillance and sanitary control regarding the marketing of illegal cigarettes.”

In a statement, they expressed “strong disapproval” of the meeting with members of the National Council of the Tobacco Industry and the National Chamber of the Transformation Industry, which was publicized on Thursday on COFEPRIS’ social media accounts, which they considered violates Article 5.3 of the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).

This framework establishes that States, when establishing and implementing their tobacco control policies, must protect them from “the commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry, in accordance with national legislation.”

In response, Erick Antonio Ochoa, director of Salud JustaMx, described it as “alarming and deeply regrettable” that before World No Tobacco Day, which is commemorated every May 31, “the authority in charge of protecting the health of Mexicans opens the door to those who have historically sought to sabotage public policies for tobacco control in our country.”

He added that the instruments of the agreement, such as the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products, already include specific control and cooperation mechanisms to combat smuggling, “without resorting to the tobacco industry. On the contrary, you don’t let the foxes run the henhouse,” he added.

For her part, Dr. Guadalupe Ponciano, from the Interinstitutional Committee for the Fight Against Tobacco, stated that COFEPRIS is the body in charge of protecting the population against health risks, “and what greater danger is there than the consumption of tobacco and its new products, which causes the death of more than 60,000 Mexicans each year.”

It is contradictory, and even more dangerous, to violate an international treaty like the FCTC, he stated. Especially when meeting with representatives of an industry that “only seeks to sell its products and make profits at the expense of the health and lives of its consumers.” The FCTC guidelines are clear: “There is a fundamental and irreconcilable conflict between the interests of the tobacco industry and those of public health.”

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