Funding cuts threaten ancient sites, warn Mexican archaeologists

Sharp reduction in heritage body's budget is part of wider savings due to Covid-19 costs

The Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has often boasted of the strength and longevity of Mexican culture and learning, once saying that when buffalo were still grazing in what is now New York, there were already universities and printing presses in Mexico".

But archaeologists fear that a recent wave of swingeing budget cuts will decimate research into the country's pre-Columbian past, and leave thousands of ancient sites - including Aztec temples and Mayan cities - at the mercy of looters.