President Andrés Manuel López Obrador indicated that The New York Times plans to publish a report on alleged organized crime financing for his 2018 presidential campaign. According to the President, the U.S. media, which has slandered him in the past, is preparing an article based on an alleged investigation by a U.S. government agency, and therefore he is demanding that the Biden administration issue a statement on the matter. The President charged that this is slander, but if there is such an investigation, an official response is required.
The electoral reform proposed by President Lopez Obrador seeks to:
-Reduce public financing of political parties to generate savings of more than 32 billion pesos (US$1.86 billion) from 2025 to 2030.
-Replace the National Electoral Institute (INE) with the National Institute of Elections and Consultations, which will absorb the functions of the 32 state electoral institutions.
-Reduce the number of electoral board members from 11 to 9.
-Strengthen the Federal Electoral Tribunal.
-Select electoral board members and judges by popular vote.
-Eliminate proportional representation (200 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 64 in the Senate).
-Eliminate proportional representation in state legislators, involving 459 seats.
-Reduce the number of electoral board members.
-Guarantee direct democracy. Reduce the percentage of voter turnout required for a referendum to be binding from 40% to 30%.
According to the National Statistics Institute (INEGI), Mexico’s Gross Domestic Product grew 3.2%. “We are one of the countries with the highest economic growth rates in the world,” the President emphasized.
According to a national survey, President López Obrador has an overall approval rating of 77%. However, in at least 15 states, including Guerrero, Sinaloa, Baja California, Tabasco, Yucatán, Campeche and Chiapas, his approval ratings range from 80% to 86%.
President López Obrador reiterated that U.S. politicians use the issue of drug trafficking and migration for political purposes, when the main issue should be to address the root causes of both problems. Mexico helps to prevent the arrival of chemical precursors to the US, while on migration issues it has proposed addressing the causes that force people to leave their place of origin, through investment in poor countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.
