Sheinbaum Signs Yaqui Land Restitution Decree; Inaugurates Navojoa Irrigation Canal on Día de las Madres

On May 10, 2026 — Mexico's Día de las Madres — President Claudia Sheinbaum traveled to Navojoa, Sonora, to sign a presidential decree restoring 239 hectares to the Yaqui people, bringing total land restituted under the 'Plan de Justicia del Pueblo Yaqui' to 45,794 hectares since 2019. An additional 7,890 hectares remain in process (potential total: 53,444 hectares). The ceremony also included the inauguration of the first phase of the Navojoa Main Canal — 3.5 kilometers of renovated irrigation infrastructure with 10 km of secondary canals and repairs to 70 sluice gates — representing a 6.5 billion peso federal investment in Irrigation District 038 of the Mayo River. The canal is projected to save 135 million cubic meters of water annually and benefit more than 50,000 people; 30 water concession titles were delivered to ejidatarios and small producers. Sheinbaum announced total investments of 18.36 billion pesos in Yaqui community infrastructure including school dining facilities, water systems, fishing equipment, and agricultural support. At the ceremony she criticized opposition figures for hosting Madrid's regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso and declared: 'Mexico began long before the Spanish arrived,' characterizing the Spanish conquest as representing 'discrimination, violence, slavery, and extermination.' The Yaqui land issue carries deep historical weight — under Porfirio Díaz's military campaigns (1899–1908), Yaqui men, women, and children were subjected to mass deportation to Yucatán's henequen plantations in what historians classify as ethnic cleansing. The ceremony was briefly interrupted by approximately 30 CNTE educators demanding abrogation of the 2007 ISSSTE Law and permanent positions for telesecondary instructors; Sheinbaum offered to arrange a meeting with the Education Secretary and Sonora's governor before the event resumed.