Backlash against Mexico City gentrification echoes global anger at overtourism and rising rents

Members of various anti-gentrification collectives in Mexico City hold a protest, demanding that the capital's authorities halt what they call a new proliferation of foreigners. Photograph: Gerardo Vieyra/NurPhoto/Shutterstock

The protesters tore through the city chanting angry slogans and leaving a trail of destruction in their wake: shattered glass, broken doors and furious graffiti – “get out of Mexico.”

Some, dressed in black, smashed windows of local businesses. Others marched peacefully but carried signs with angry messages: “You’re a colonizer not a fucking ‘expat’”; “Gringo go home.”