Correos de México: Difference between revisions

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Correos de México (formerly Servicio Postal Mexicano (Sepomex)) is the national postal service of Mexico.^[1]

In 1986, the government gave autonomy to the Postal Service. This was in response to the need to improve the service, which was considered one of the worst in the world and was now facing competition from private companies.^{[citation needed]}

In order to compete with the private postal services like DHL, UPS, FedEx, Multipack, Estafeta and others the postal service created a new entity, "Mexpost," but more expensive than normal postal service but also more efficient working as a private company but still being part of the Mexican Postal Service.^{[citation needed]}

In 2008, President Felipe Calderón ordered the overhaul of Servicio Postal Mexicano and rebranded it as Correos de México. Along with a new name and new image, the agency was restructured helping to streamline operations, improve performance, and expand postal outlets to non-traditional locations like private businesses.^[1]

Pre-Hispanic precedents can be found in the organization of the Aztecs, who had several types of messengers: the painanis or "light feet" who transmitted religious messages and designs, the yucicatitlantis who carried urgent data to the metropolis, the tequihuatitlantis or messengers of war, and the tamemes who carried goods from any remote point of the Aztec Empire to Tenochtitlan (as an example, they carried fresh fish daily from Veracruz).^[2]

After the discovery and conquest, the Spanish crown considered it essential to establish communication between the New World and the Iberian Peninsula, to send and receive information between both sides of the Atlantic. To that effect, in 1514 Queen Juana La Loca and in her name Ferdinand the Catholic, her father and regent, created the post of Correo Mayor de las Indias, through a Royal Decree. The correspondence until that moment had been in charge of the Casa de Contratación. The new post was created in the image and likeness of the Seville Correo Mayor in the form of a monopoly, which fell to Lorenzo Galindez de Carvajal, the Councillor of Castile, on a perpetual and hereditary basis. Faced with such responsibility and the impossibility of fulfilling the function of distributing the mail coming from the Peninsula to the Indies and vice versa, the system of leasing was used. The holders of these leases, in turn, and by means of powers of attorney, granted permission to those exercising the trade, lieutenants or deputies. After the death of the first owner, the job was transferred from one lessor to another. The position implied the provision of a service and entailed certain privileges or grants; it was developed by a private individual with the supervision and control of the Crown.^[3]

Just as in Lima and Seville the post of Correo Mayor was a royal donation in perpetuity, which would have required compensation from the Crown if the contract had expired. During the period of the delegation no money was handed over for exercising the office.The first delegate was Diego Daza, who died two years after taking office and who had recommended his collaborator Martín de Olivares.^[4] During the reign of Philip II, and by means of a decree issued on May 31, 1579 at the Aranjuez Palace, Don Martín de Olivares was named Correo Mayor de Hostas y Postas de la Nueva España (Main Post Office of Hostas and Postas of the New Spain), which was given to him by the Viceroy Don Martín Enríquez de Almansa, on August 27, 1580.^[5]

Martín de Olivares as a replacement practiced the trade for 25 years (1579-1604) with the same system of delegation and without receiving any money for it. At the beginning of the 17th century, when the practice of selling the royal offices in the Indian spaces began to be common, the delegation system changed for an auction system in which a private individual could pay to become a major mailman. To do so, he had to make a guarantee and win the auction proposal. Thus in 1604, the Viceroy Marquis of Montesclaros and the Secretary of New Spain in the Council of the Indies agreed that the post would be sold for 58,000 pesos. After a month of announcements, three candidates presented themselves to the auction, obtaining the position of Correo Mayor Alonso Diez, who was the first person to pay for a post office in the Indies.^[4]

The Correo Mayor established a system of lieutenants  between the different New Spanish territories, in addition the position implied being Mayor of Mexico City. The position was established for life and not in perpetuity as in Peru. From the first auction in 1604, the Correo Mayor of New Spain acquired the category of "saleable and resignable". The Correo Mayor of New Spain had jurisdiction over a wide territory, from the south of the United States to Guatemala and from Acapulco to Veracruz. Correspondence from (or to) Europe and the Philippines circulated throughout this territory. During the 17th century, when the post was already being sold, it was the Diez de la Barrera (1604-1693) and Ximénez de los Cobos (1693-1760) families who served as Correos Mayores in New Spain.^[4]

Until the end of the seventeenth century, complaints and claims about the "Correo Mayor" were limited to occasional issues, delays, poor service or lack of security, and during the two centuries in which the post of Correo Mayor was active, none of them were relieved of their responsibility, and they carried out their duties until their death or their resignation.^[6] In 1697, however, the Mayor of New Spain, Pedro Ximénez de los Cobos, was accused of defrauding the Royal Treasury, and the denouncer was José Sarmiento de Valladares, Count of Moctezuma and Viceroy of New Spain.^[4] The accusation led to a confrontation between the highest viceregal authority and a member of the political elite born in Mexico City. By then, the post of Mayor allowed him to act as a Mayor with voice and vote of the city where the title had been acquired, which allowed him a real defense. Ximenez de los Cobos lived in the capital of New Spain (Mexico City) and worked with a network of lieutenants. His responsibilities were to guarantee the circulation of official documents within the viceroyalty and to provide sufficient logistics for the overseas mail to transit from the ports of Acapulco and Veracruz to Mexico City and other final destinations. In the most important cities it had a series of lieutenants who developed and guaranteed these missions. The accusation of fraud was widely echoed and the process involved an extensive memorial at the Council of the Indies, but in the end no action was taken against the person involved. The witnesses of the viceroy and the evidence presented were insufficient and this allowed Ximenez de los Cobos to reassert his position, which he abandoned in 1720 after resigning in favor of a relative. The judicial process implied a better administration and organization of the service, and in practice it led to a greater accounting of the trade, a documentary habit that facilitated in 1764 the elaboration of a complete survey of the cost of communication of the viceroyalty, which would be fundamental when addressing the Borbon reforms.^[4] With the Bourbon reforms, also the postal services were transformed. In 1794 the Ordenanza General de Correos, Postas y Caminos was promulgated. In 1794, during the mandate of Godoy, the Ordinance  developed by his predecessor, the Count of Aranda,  was published . This legal body dealt extensively with all aspects related to those in charge, employees and services of the Post Office, both in the peninsula and in all American territories. It also established the functioning of the postal administrations, the estafetas or the Casas de Postas, gathering in this way all the subjects that had arisen throughout the century.^[7][8]

On February 17, 1907, President Porfirio Díaz founded the "Palacio Postal" (Postal Palace) also known as the "Quinta Casa de Correos" (Fifth Postal House).^{[citation needed]}

But Mexico has had a postal service since 1580. The office's main job was to communicate the vice royalty of New Spain with the metropolis, Spain.^{[citation needed]}

In 1921, Sepomex was in need of an international regulatory and unified postal service, and the Mexican government participated in the formation of the "Unión Panamericana de Correos" (Panamerican Postal Union) in Buenos Aires. In 1931, Spain joined the union, which changed the name to "Unión Postal de las Américas y España" (American and Spain Postal Union.) In 1990, Portugal was added to the union, which again changed the name to "Unión Postal de las Américas, España y Portugal" (American, Spain and Portugal Postal Union).^{[citation needed]}

In 1933, by presidential order, the Postal service took control of the telegraph service in Mexico, creating the office "Dirección General de Correos y Telegrafos" (Executive Director of Postal Service and Telegraphs). ^{[citation needed]}

In 1942, the President ordered the separation of the postal service and telegraph into two entities.^{[citation needed]}

• Postal codes in Mexico

• Official Site (in Spanish)
• Mexico's postal service looks to monopoly as a solution to its financial woes. By Day, Paul Publication: Business Mexico

Date: Wednesday, May 1, 2002

• Mexico may Bypass Mail for Overseas Vote Las Vegas Sun
• Going postal: little used and mistrusted, Mexico's state postal system works overtime to prove itself by Amy Guthrie. July, 2005

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