AMLO Says Mexico Not Canceling Contracts Amid Fight With Goldman

05/21/2021

Source: Bloomberg

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said his country isn’t in the business of canceling contracts with private companies even as he shied away from directly addressing a battle between Mexico’s state-owned power company and Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

“We’re recognizing the contracts in all cases. I don’t have details about this operation. I’ll get information and I’ll provide it here, but they’re not canceling the contracts,” Lopez Obrador said, discussing the issue publicly for the first time. He spoke about the dispute between the utility he’s championed and the U.S. bank during a press conference Friday.

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Mexico’s president is giving the armed forces new powers

04/29/2021

Source: The Economist

MEXICO CITY

The maya train, a 1,500km-long railway that is due to run through the Yucatán peninsula, is one of Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s pet projects. But rather than entrust the job to world-class architects or engineers, Mexico’s president has given it to military men. Last year he said the armed forces would build several sections of track, later adding that they would also operate part of the line. In March it was revealed that the army would not only construct and run the railway, but also keep all the profits from it, too.

The story of the Maya train hints at the rising influence of the armed forces under amlo, as he is known. During his campaign in 2017 he promised to remove soldiers from the streets and criticised the army for human-rights abuses. But since becoming president he has given them more and more power. They have not held such sway since the end of Mexico’s military-led government in the 1940s.

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Mexico’s president is giving the armed forces new powers

04/26/2021

Source: The Economist

THE MAYA TRAIN, a 1,500km-long railway that is due to run through five states in the Yucatán peninsula, is one of Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s pet projects. But rather than entrust the job to architects or engineers, Mexico’s president has given it to military men. Last year he said the armed forces would build several sections of track, later adding that they would also operate part of the line. In March it was revealed that the army would not only construct and run the railway, but also keep all of the profits.

The story of the Maya train hints at the rising influence of the armed forces under AMLO, as he is known. During his campaign in 2018 he promised to remove soldiers from the streets and criticised the army for human-rights abuses. But since becoming president he has given them more and more power. They have not held such sway since the end of Mexico’s military-led government in the 1940s.

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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 attorney general escalates fight with U.S. over former minister

1/20/2021

Source: Reuters

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican Attorney General Alejandro Gertz said on Tuesday he was considering elevating to international courts a dispute with the United States over Mexico dropping an investigation into a former defense minister.

Gertz said the U.S. Department of Justice had effectively declared ex-defense minister Salvador Cienfuegos innocent when it sent him back to Mexico and dropped U.S. charges against him after he was arrested in California last year.

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Once a Trump-Basher, Mexico’s Leader Misses Him Already

1/18/2020

Source: The New York Times

MEXICO CITY — President Trump called Mexican migrants rapists, threatened his neighbor with a trade war, kicked tens of thousands of asylum seekers out of the country, built up the border wall and promised to make Mexico pay for it.

Mexico’s president is a big fan.

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Mexico publishes heavily edited probe of exonerated general

1/17/2020

Source: The Associated Press

MEXICO CITY (AP) — One day after Mexico angered U.S. officials by publishing an entire 751-page U.S. case file against former Defense Secretary Salvador Cienfuegos, the Mexican prosecutors who exonerated him released their own version — but with so many pages wholly blacked out it was almost impossible to tell what they’d found.

The report released Sunday by the Mexican Attorney General’s Office included a 226-page stretch with every page blacked out, followed shortly thereafter by a 275-page stretch of blacked-out pages.

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Mexican president mounts campaign against social media bans

1/14/2021

Source: The Associated Press

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s president vowed Thursday to lead an international effort to combat what he considers censorship by social media companies that have blocked or suspended the accounts of U.S. President Donald Trump.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s administration is reaching out to other government to form a common front on the issue.

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Mexico could cancel private prison contracts, says president

1/13/2021

Source: Reuters

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico’s president will seek better terms for the government in private prison contracts signed by his predecessors, he said on Wednesday, adding that he could cancel them if better deals cannot be reached.

The private prison contracts were much too expensive and represented the worst of privatization, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said at a regular government news conference.

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Mexican regulators ban showing president’s full conferences

1/13/2021

Source: The Associated Press

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s election regulatory agency announced Tuesday it will ban media outlets from transmitting at full length President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s daily morning news conferences.

The temporary ban is aimed at ensuring equity in the country’s June congressional and state elections, after opposition parties complained that López Obrador uses the conferences to tout his public works projects and criticize opponents.

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