NewsLatin AmericaLopez Obrador: "We have managed to reduce inequality and poverty with better distribution"

Lopez Obrador: “We have managed to reduce inequality and poverty with better distribution”

In a sober ceremony and supported by his most faithful bishops, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador celebrated this Thursday during the presentation of the fourth Government report the recovery of the economy after the pandemic. “We are getting ahead, the economy fell, but we have already managed to recover it to pre-covid levels,” he said from the National Palace accompanied by his Cabinet. The president has downplayed the “technocratic obsession with measuring everything in terms of economic growth indicators” because they do not fully reflect social realities, and has highlighted his strategy of helping “those at the bottom” through a better redistribution of wealth. wealth and greater financial stability. “Without growth, according to the macroeconomic indicator, but with a better distribution of income, we have managed to reduce inequality and poverty,” he said.

Narrow the gap between the richest and the poorest. That has been the axis of the presidential speech this Thursday. One of the achievements that helped achieve that reduction was the increase in the minimum wage, a policy specifically designed for those who have the least, who are also, to a large extent, the voters of the president. “The poorest were the only ones who saw their income grow,” he assured. Given the lack of economic growth, Lopez Obrador has supported the idea that what officials in Mexico should do is apply the example of Benito Juarez and live “in the fair average.” “What is fundamental is not quantitative, but qualitative”, he has said, “economic growth and increases in productivity and competitiveness do not make sense as objectives in themselves, but as means to achieve the well-being of the population”.

Lopez Obrador, during the speech.HENRY ROMERO (REUTERS)

The presidential speech also highlighted as the basis for reducing inequality in the country, greater access to educational programs and the health system and the construction of emblematic works of his six-year term, such as the Santa Lucia Airport or the Mayan Train. Using hard but carefully selected data for the report, he underscored the revenue received by the Administration from him through balancing fiscal policy and the practice of “Republican” austerity. A collection that he celebrated despite the more negative data expected, such as inflation, which is expected to reach 8.2% this year. Lopez Obrador did not want to delve into economic growth indicators such as the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is 2.5% below the pre-pandemic level. “We discard the obsession of measuring everything in growth indicators,” he said, “beyond simple economic growth, the fundamental thing is to banish corruption.”

Lopez Obrador highlighted the importance that the fight against corruption has had in his Administration, one of the historical pillars of his speech that led him to win the presidency. “Corruption is not tolerated and there is no impunity for anyone,” he has said. This government report did not have, as in other years, major allusions or blows to the opposition. It was mainly focused on what was achieved during this six-year term. Among the people who accompanied Lopez Obrador, the three presidential figures closest to the president were in the first row: the Secretary of the Interior, Adan Augusto Lopez; the head of the Government of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum; and the chancellor, Marcelo Ebrard.

In his four years at the head of the Government, said the president, the numbers of violence decreased. A statement deeply debated by specialists and politicians. Without giving importance to those who differ, the president underlined his security policy, headed by the creation of the National Guard, which with the project that he sent this week to Congress, will come under the Ministry of Defense. The battles against human rights violations and racism have turned in recent years, according to Lopez Obrador, into victories. Despite his constant rhetorical combat against the press, he has also assured that in his government “freedom of expression is guaranteed like never before.” But the figures do not accompany him on this point either. 2022 has been the deadliest year for the press in Mexico. At least 15 journalists have been killed so far this year.

In the two years that remain in his government, the president has said that the Fourth Transformation will be consolidated. As he had anticipated on other occasions, the final stretch of his Administration will be focused on carrying out the final reforms that will close his project, such as the security reform of the National Guard, and the realization of public works of great importance, such as the expansion of the telecommunications network, starting up the Dos Bocas refinery or completing the Mayan Train. On the near horizon, food and energy self-sufficiency appear among the objectives that Lopez Obrador will seek to achieve before the end of his six-year term.

The president, accompanied by his wife Beatriz Gutierrez Muller, salutes the flag before giving his report.
The president, accompanied by his wife Beatriz Gutierrez Muller, salutes the flag before giving his report.
Marco Ugarte (AP)

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