The Mexico of López Obrador, in his first year
A year is not enough to change the course of history, tear down one regime and lift another, change the economic model, and correct structural problems such as violence, insecurity and corruption.
That is why it is difficult to take stock of the effectiveness of Andrés Manuel López Obrador in just one year of government in Mexico, because if one accepts that the change will be structural and not immediately apparent, there would be no reason to expect results in just 12 months.
As a candidate in three elections since 2006, the president set the goals of his administration in the distant and ethereal horizon of “regime change,” the “fourth transformation of the Republic,” “the kingdom of justice on Earth” or, as promised a year ago in plaza el Zocalo: “a modernity forged from below and for all.”
If it is assumed that the neoliberal regime that destroyed the country will succumb, it would be necessary to wait longer to judge whether or not a new economic policy and a social policy that lowered the lacerating levels of poverty has been set in motion.
If you think that the 2018 election was a watershed in the history of Mexico, you have to be patient, because truly tranforming the country will take much longer.
For the country of AMLO, the acronym of the president for which he is known, what is in sight are actions that transformed the landscape: the cancellation of the Texcoco airport, the auction of the presidential plane, the president traveling on commercial flights, the moral card, the massive distribution of Azteca Bank cards among young people and older adults, the morning liturgy and the beginning of the Mayan Train, Santa Lucia Airport and the Dos Bocas Refinery.
The decrease of the president’s salary to 108 thousand pesos (just 5,520 USD) and the placement of this as a maximum limit for (almost) all public servants; austerity policies, the decrease in official advertising spending and the elimination of tax forgiveness are added to the list.
Actions and decisions taken by AMLO are seen as “a catastrophe” by his adversaries, and as the principle of transformation by his supporters.
The dismantling of the “mafia in power,” the separation between the government and the economic power and, above all, the country in which the fellows substitute the hitmen are still pending.
But hugs have not stopped the gunshots and the reality does not correspond, yet, with the country promised by López Obrador.
But the president says he and his party have already laid the foundations for a historical transformation. Not only that, he warns that the foundations of the “fourth transformation” are so solid that if their adversaries return to head the government, they will not be able to rebuild the previous system.
According to data from the Chamber of Deputies, between September 2018 and November 2019, 58 decrees of constitutional and legal reforms were passed, among which are adjustments to 30 articles of the Constitution.
“Strictly speaking, practically and truly, there is already a new constitution that fights corruption, promotes justice and drives democracy,” the president boasted in a message posted on Twitter on November 26.
In that new legal scaffolding, more than in the changes of speech and style, are the real foundations of the country of AMLO, changes that will eventually transform Mexico, for better or worse.
Meanwhile, the country of AMLO remains a mirage built from the president’s own data, an illusion that is recreated every day, with the morning rhetoric that seeks to keep hope alive.
And yet it is a destination that, according to polls, continues to excite millions of Mexicans.
AMLO’S Mexico is still the motto of his campaigns, the nation of “for the good of all, first the poor,” the homeland without corruption or inequality for which 30 million citizens voted.
The country of AMLO is, in effect, the antithesis of the past, but it is also an uncertain future, a country without injustices that we still do not know if one day will exist. (IPS)