This week marked three years of President López Obrador’s political project, which he calls The Fourth Transformation. The mission is to eradicate corruption from political life, for which transparency is seen as essential. This is where the morning press conference comes in.
Sporadically informative and rarely boring, the Mañaneras have become a spectacle of their own. Here’s a round-up of the week’s most noticeable moments.
Monday
Government projects reported smooth progress Monday, including the Mayan train, but anger was afoot in the media. A newspaper published two harmful stories early in the day. Safety information for the construction of the train has been withheld in the search for funds and private companies have said the schedule for completion is unrealistic.
Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez Velázquez came to stay up to date on femicides. She did not shy away from her public duty: the number of femicides had increased by 7.1% annually; Eight states accounted for 57.4% of the investigations.
A cutting question came from the audience about the public referendum on August 1st. It is asked whether former presidents should be investigated for corruption. The journalist had prepared himself: “Article 35 of the constitution, which defines the right to be heard, stipulates in its eighth section in paragraph five that the hearing must be held on the same day as the federal elections,” he said. So why wasn’t the question put to voters on June 6th?
“When the initiative was sent for consultation, it was suggested that it take place on election day; However, members of the opposition bloc did not accept it, ”said the President coolly.
Tuesday
The Covid-19 report opened the procedure on Tuesday: By the end of the week, the number of cases should have increased by 15%.
A question about the delivery date of cancer drugs provoked ranting the media for the silence under the old regime when drug suppliers “benefited from people’s health”.
Referring to the Spanish newspaper El País, the president said: “It is a Spanish publisher dedicated to protecting Spanish companies that dominated Mexico … It was like the second conquest. The Spanish companies came and conquered Mexico as a land of conquest. “
Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez gives her weekly crime report.
He named the petrol company Repsol, the construction company Obrascón Huarte Lain and the electricity company Iberdrola as three perpetrators. “[Iberdrola] even to have committed the offense of taking the former President Calderón as an advisor … a mockery, ”he said.
Then a pause to ask Sonora. When it struck 9:00 a.m. in Mexico City, it was only 7:00 a.m. in Sonora, and those tuning in from the northwestern state were being pleaded by the president to get vaccinated. Vaccinating the north of the country has become a priority for the government hoping to convince US officials it is safe to reopen their common border.
Wednesday
The birthday celebrations formed the start of the conference on Wednesday. The National Guard was two years old when it was still in its infancy.
Then something new. In an action that surprised journalists, the so-called “Who’s Who of Lies” or the fake news patrol was broadcast for the first time. Morena’s party insider Ana Elizabeth García Vilchis was given the honor of delivering the weekly reports, which aim to summarize misinformation by the media about the government.
“Reuters Institute shows Mexico has the lowest level of trust in the media since 2017, rising from 55% to 43%,” she said, showing her trust in at least one media company.
Claims in the media, some of which were clearly false, were read out and quickly rejected. Last week, a newspaper claimed journalists were being spied on by the administration. The story was wrong, García said, because the president said this: “Here on June 24th, the President of the Republic claimed that it was wrong for reporters and columnists to be investigated and spied on,” she said.
Later, a media figure received unusually high praise. Political cartoonist Antonio Helguera, who died on June 25, received a tribute from the President. “All people contribute, but there are those who are essential … It will be very difficult to replace him because he was a good citizen, a patriot and a person who defended righteous things,” said the president.
Thursday
In a highly unusual development, there was no mañanera on Thursday. Instead, a kind of ceremony to celebrate three years in power, officially known as “the third year of the historic democratic triumph of the Mexican people”.
In reality it meant a long speech by the President and no room for questions from journalists.
The big issues were tackled. In the years of a global pandemic, the government has done well on the health front, the president said. “Our country is not … at the forefront of Covid deaths,” he said. Mexico ranks in the top 1% of countries in terms of mortality from Covid-19.
The president announced the historic tortilla prices on Friday.
AMLO, as the president is commonly known, added that the government’s record was also on crime. No new criminal gangs had been formed during his tenure, and there had been no “massacres” throughout the election season. In Guerrero, he said, no candidate had suffered aggressive acts.
For comparison: In Veracruz, 152 acts of attack were recorded.
Friday
The fake news patrol two days earlier had disheveled a few feathers. According to a journalist, the feature is an attack on human rights, said the UN.
“Well, that’s a very sensible interpretation by those who don’t want a debate on ideas … they just want a monopoly of the truth … that’s the most undemocratic thing possible,” replied the President.
A subject came up that was of undeniable national importance. Tortilla prices rose, the price per ton of flour rose from 1,500 to 1,600 pesos (about $ 76 to $ 81).
“25 years ago, 30 years ago, the minimum wage made 50 kilos of tortillas possible. When we came to the government, the minimum wage was six kilos of tortilla, ”said the president.
“Look what [former presidents] Salinas and Zedillo and Fox, Calderón and Peña have… seen the minimum wage deteriorate, ”he added.
Shortly afterwards, AMLO called up the last mananera of the week and hurried off to pack his bags for a weekend trip to Sonora.
Mexico News Daily
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