For six months of 2025, fishermen and aquaculturists in Baja California Sur remained without life insurance. Between March and September, the state program that protects them had no current insurance company, due to the low response of companies to calls for public tenders.
Thus, the most recent policy was signed on September 26, 2025, effective until September 26, 2026, by the insurance company Patrimonial Vida S.A. de C.V.
Asked about this period, Yoshio Rodríguez, operational director of the Secretariat of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Agricultural Development (Sepada), acknowledged the interruption of the service. “Before that date, there was no insurance company,” he said.
He clarified that, at the end of the previous policy in December 2024, “a two-month extension” was agreed to avoid total suspension, so in practice the period without coverage was approximately six months.
The Acquisitions, Leases and Services Act of the State of Baja California Sur establishes the general framework for contracting public services, such as life insurance for fishermen. It defines the sequence of the procedure and who is involved in each stage, although the specific times are determined in each call issued by the Ministry of Finance.
The insurance covers 100,000 pesos for death and 50,000 pesos for total or permanent disability, with an annual budget of three million pesos for 2025. Its objective is to provide financial support to fishing families who die on or off the job.
According to Mario Armenta, Undersecretary of Fisheries at Sepada, the program “goes year after year; insurers make their proposal for the tender and whoever meets all the requirements wins”.
He explained that the process “does not depend on Sepada, but on the tender area of the Ministry of Finance of the State Government,” so the agency only provides the list of beneficiaries and coordinates the relationship with the insurers.
In practice, each fiscal year involves a new contract and, almost always, a new company awarded. “There are years in which only one insurance company participates. Other times it's five or six. It's complicated because companies see a lot of risk in insuring fishermen,” Armenta explained. This perception of high risk limits competition and causes delays in the award.
The consequences fall directly on the fishermen. In Comondú, members of cooperatives confirmed that insurance starts every year, but there is a period of months where there is no coverage.
Budget and insurers
Since its creation, the program has fluctuated between 2 and 3 million pesos per year, with variations in the number of insured persons. In 2019-2020, it achieved its highest historical coverage, with 4,984 insured fishermen and a year earlier, in 2018-1019, the highest figure for the cost of the policy was reached by 3.24 million pesos. In 2025, the number fell to 1,174 beneficiaries, despite the fact that the budget returned to the highest levels in its history.
The cost per person has increased as a result of a combination of factors: the aging of the register, the history of accidents during the pandemic and the stricter criteria of insurers.
Armenta specified that “the authorized budget is approximately three million pesos, but the insurance company can offer a lower cost. This excess is reallocated to other support in the sector”, meaning that the total budget is authorized, but the real expenditure is adjusted to the tender failure.
Cooperatives, on the other hand, question the management of these remnants: “If only 1.5 million are spent, the excess doesn't accumulate; it goes to other areas. The fund could be used to improve the policy,” said a representative of Comondú.
Insufficient coverage and unmet goals
The amount of 100,000 pesos per death, effective since 2016, has remained unchanged despite inflation and rising funeral costs. Insured persons interviewed reported that the amount of compensation is largely sufficient for funeral expenses.
Deputy Venustiano Pérez Sánchez, a member of the State Congressional Fisheries Commission, recognized the limited nature of the program: “The coverage is precise and limited to its purpose: to cover the first expenses. It is desirable that they be complemented by other benefits, such as those that cooperatives should offer through Social Security.”
When I asked directly the representative María Guadalupe Saldaña Cisneros, representative of the National Action Party (PAN) in the Congress of the State of Baja California Sur, no answer was obtained regarding the position regarding life insurance for fishermen.
The Fisheries and Aquaculture Sector Program itself sets an average annual goal of 3,000 insured persons, but currently the standard barely reaches 1,174 registrations. “We are still working in the field to identify new beneficiaries,” says Armenta.
The causes of the reduction include legal requirements and the purification of the register initiated in 2022. Lucero explained that “many fishermen do not have their INE or fishing permit in force, and without that they cannot enter the program.” Age restrictions also play a role: “Insurers don't accept people over 70.”
A culture of prevention and limited communication
Sepada recognizes that one of the main challenges is the low culture of prevention among the fishing sector. “If it were life insurance, the standard would be much higher. But since it's death insurance, it's harder to convince people,” said Armenta, where talking to the fishing industry about decisions that involve death can be a difficult process that many decide not to get involved in. On the other hand, life insurance that can provide continuous medical consultation, physical rehabilitation, prosthesis or even organ transplantation could generate greater participation in the sector, reflects the official.
From cooperatives, the observations focus on the lack of prior information on the terms of contracting: “Every year the insurance company changes and the requirements change. There is no previous conversation to explain the clauses to us,” said the financial spokesman for a fishing production cooperative in Comondú, who asked to reserve his name for fear of reprisals.
Another leader added: “We would like there to be a meeting prior to the tender, where they tell us the age limits and clauses. That way there wouldn't be so many left out.”
In fishing communities, testimonies confirm that the insurance has complied with the payments when there are deaths with a maximum of 60 days as established in the tenders.
A permanent program, but with structural limitations
The reform of the Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture Act, approved in December 2024, made life insurance a permanent public policy, which guarantees administrative continuity, not a budgetary increase. “It no longer depends on the will of the government, but it is guaranteed by law,” said Deputy Pérez Sánchez.
However, the reform did not change the operating conditions of the program: the compensations are maintained, the tender remains annual and the periods without coverage are repeated.
“When it comes to insurance, the important thing is not whether it's a lot or a little money, but to have the current service,” Armenta summarized. But ensuring that coverage remains one of the main challenges.
Proposals for improvement
The fishing sector between cooperatives and the Gulf of Ulloa Federation has considered the possibility of establishing a trust or state fund that allows taking out multi-year policies or using unexercised resources to strengthen coverage.
“At the time, we thought of a trust or fund. A state fund managed with a supervisory committee could be created, which would use unexercised money and make it grow year after year,” they proposed.
Meanwhile, the program continues to operate under the same conditions as nine years ago. “We don't ask for it to go away; we want it to get better”, summarize representatives of the fishing sector. “It's not just about supporting us when we die; it's about protecting life while we work.”
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