La Jornada: Rental of Chapultepec Castle to FIFA was for a cultural diplomacy event: SC

The Secretary of Culture, Claudia Curiel de Icaza, assured yesterday that the rental of Chapultepec Castle to FIFA for its gala dinner – for one million 300 thousand pesos – was “for us an event of cultural diplomacy because it gave visibility to our country as host.”

He ruled out that the complaint filed by researchers from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) before the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) for this fact proceeds because “there is no violation of any law, it was made under the norm that must be: payment for use of rights.”

President Claudia Shein-baum Pardo specified that, in this case, the FGR has to investigate, but “administratively it is resolved in a different way.”

In the morning, Curiel de Izaca pointed out that at the dinner there were “guests from more than 200 countries, considering that Mexico is the headquarters of the World Cup, and I would say that it is the cultural host as a power of this very important event in the world.”

Regarding the complaint, he commented that the director of the INAH has already spoken with “many” of the investigators “and it does not proceed because there is no violation of the law.”

Curiel de Icaza also reported that between 2024 and 2026, more than 57.4 million visitors were registered, which represented an increase of 18 percent, in the 184 museums and 195 archaeological zones in the country, and highlighted the exhibitions that currently exist.

He highlighted the opening of the Textile Museum of Indigenous and Afro-Mexican Peoples, in the Historic Center of Mexico City, to which the President’s mother, Annie Pardo, donated a collection of family huipils.

When showing a photograph from when she was little showing an Amuzgo huipil, the president commented that her mother “was always a lover of cultures, textiles, crafts and knowledge of the great civilizations prior to the arrival of the Spanish, and those of now.” And since the family traveled throughout the country visiting archaeological sites, he made a collection of huipils “from when we were little” and it is now exhibited in that museum.

Within the framework of the Social World Cup, Curiel de Icaza mentioned that the infrastructure for museums has been strengthened with an investment of 400 million pesos and spoke of a substantial increase in visitors due to the Soccer World Cup.

He highlighted that among the most visited exhibitions is the Ball Game, one of the most important ancestral ceremonies.