LÓPEZ OBRADOR DISMISSES PRO-DEMOCRACY PROTESTS
President disparages opponents of plan to cut election funds
Mexico’s president lashed out Monday against demonstrators opposed to his plan to cut election funding, belittling their concerns about threats to democracy.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador disparaged the tens of thousands of people who demonstrated over the weekend in Mexico City’s main plaza, calling them thieves and allies of drug traffickers.
“There was an increase in the number of pickpockets stealing wallets here in the Zócalo, but what do you want, with so many whitecollar criminals in one place?” López Obrador said at his daily morning news briefing.
At the root of the conflict are plans by López Obrador, which were approved last week by Mexico’s Senate, to cut salaries and funding for local election offices, and scale back training for citizens who operate and oversee polling stations. The changes would also reduce sanctions for candidates who fail to report campaign spending.
López Obrador denies the reforms are a threat to democracy and says criticism is elitist. He argues that the funds should be redirected to helping the poor.
Riffing on the protesters’ slogan “Don’t touch the INE (National Electoral Institute),” he said their slogans were “Don’t touch corruption,” “Don’t touch privileges,” “Don’t touch the Narco Government.”
“They don’t care about democracy, what they want is to continue with the oligarchy, the rule of the rich,” the president said.
Demonstrators say the electoral law changes approved last week threaten democracy and could mark a return to past practices of vote manipulation. Few at Sunday’s demonstration had any kind words for López Obrador, either.
“The path he is taking is toward socialism, communism,” said Fernando Gutierrez. “That’s obvious, from the aid going to Cuba,” Gutierrez said. López Obrador has imported coronavirus vaccines, medical workers and stone railway ballast from Cuba, but has shown little taste for socialist policies at home.
Sunday’s demonstrators were clad mostly in white and pink — the color of the National Electoral Institute — and shouted slogans like “Don’t Touch my Vote!” Like a similar but somewhat larger protest on Nov. 13, the demonstrators appeared somewhat more affluent than those at the average demonstration.
López Obrador said last Thursday that he’ll sign the changes into law, even though he expects court challenges. Many at Sunday’s protest expressed hope that Mexico’s Supreme Court would overturn some of the changes.
Lorenzo Cordova, the head of the National Electoral Institute, has said the reforms “seek to cut thousands of people who work every day to guarantee trustworthy elections, something that will of course pose a risk for future elections.”