Mexico’s Lopez Obrador denounces USAID funds as ‘interventionist’

Al Jazeera, 5/3/2023

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has issued a letter to the administration of Joe Biden, calling for the United States to end aid to organisations he perceives as opposed to his government.

The letter specifically identifies funds from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), though it does not name the groups López Obrador objects to.

“The U.S. government, specifically through USAID, has for some time been financing organisations openly against the legal and legitimate government I represent,” he said in the letter, dated Tuesday and read during the president’s morning press briefing on Wednesday.

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Journalists rally to defend newspaper in face of ongoing attacks by government

07/30/2021

Source: Mexico News Daily

More than 100 columnists and other contributors to El Universal have put their names to an open letter to President López Obrador to defend themselves and the newspaper in the face of ongoing attacks by the federal government.

“The president of Mexico has mentioned El Universal and its columnists and contributors on several occasions, sowing the idea that all criticism of his administration has an interest unconnected to journalism,” the letter said.

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Mexico bid to sell presidential jet stretches into 3rd year

02/24/2021

Source: AP

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s quixotic bid to sell off the presidential jet has now stretched into its third year, with no sign of a buyer in sight.

López Obrador has tried to lure corporations and business executives, and even pledged to raffle off the Boeing 787 jet, but with no takers.

Ever since he took office on Dec. 1, 2018, the president has vowed to sell off the plane because it is too luxurious. López Obrador prides himself on his austerity, flies commercial flights and has made only one trip abroad.

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Mexico’s military gains power as president turns from critic to partner

11/21/2020

Source: The Los Angeles Times

MEXICO CITY — As a candidate for president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador slammed Mexico’s armed forces and the “mafia of power” that he said controlled them. He accused soldiers of human rights abuses in the country’s bloody drug war and publicly clashed with Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos, then secretary of defense.

But after taking office, López Obrador changed his tune, embracing the same military leaders he had once bashed.

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Mexican business council blasts ‘unilateral’ labor reform push

12/02/19 – Reuters

By David Alire Garcia and Lizbeth Diaz

Mexico’s main business lobby sharply criticized a ruling party senator for what it described as a “unilateral” move to schedule a Tuesday vote on a labor reform that it described as a ban on subcontracting.

The Business Coordinating Council (CCE) said in statement issued late on Monday that Sen. Napoleon Gomez, a member of leftist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s MORENA party, had scheduled a committee vote on the measure without any dialogue with business leaders.

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Mexican president voices regret on growth, but says economy fairer

12/03/19 – Reuters

By Dave Graham

Mexico’s president conceded on Sunday that economic growth has fallen short of his expectations, but said that wealth is now more fairly distributed as he celebrated a year in office riding high in opinion polls, in defiance of mounting problems.

A year ago, veteran leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador assumed the presidency pledging to raise economic growth to 4% per year. Instead, the economy has stagnated and slipped into a mild recession during the first half of the year.

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Mexico stands by Lopez Obrador, poll says, even as violence soars, economy crumbles

12/01/19 -The Dallas Morning News

By Alfredo Corchado

As Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador marks his first year in office on Sunday, Mexicans’ romance with the left-leaning populist leader remains strong.

But a new poll conducted by Mexico City’s Reforma newspaper, co-sponsored by The Dallas Morning News and The Mission Foods Texas-Mexico Center at Southern Methodist University, shows signs of fading enthusiasm as the nation faces weariness over shocking violence and slowing economic growth.

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Mexico bars shipment of glyphosate pesticide

Photo by Martin Lopez on Pexels.com

11/25/19 – AP News

The Mexican government says it won’t allow a 1,000-ton shipment of the pesticide glyphosate into the country, citing health and environmental concerns.

Mexico became the latest in a string of countries to announce bans on glyphosate, the active ingredient in weed killer Roundup.

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Mexican Congress approves budget after protests

11/22/19 – AP News

Mexico’s lower house of Congress approved the 2020 federal budget Friday in an all-night meeting at a convention center after protests and blockades by farm groups surrounding the Congress building.

The protests were sparked by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s policy of giving money directly to farmers and poor families rather than distributing funds through groups that claim to represent them.

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Mexico City debates allowing children legal gender change

Photo by Magda Ehlers on Pexels.com

11/19/19 – AP News

A couple of hundred demonstrators have protested against a proposed Mexico City law that would allow children and adolescents to change the gender listed on their birth certificates.

They would have to be accompanied by at least one guardian to do so.

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