President’s changes creating anxiety
MEXICO CITY — Andrés Manuel López Obrador won over Mexican voters by promising a different kind of presidency, making sometimes theatrical pledges that many wondered how he would fulfill.
Five days into his presidency, he’s holding daily news conferences to report on the status of his agenda, making updates that some Mexicans find hopeful and others worrying. His daily briefings mark a radical change from the previous, more tight-lipped administration.
Since taking office Saturday, some of his most unusual ideas have already been enacted. The former presidential mansion is now open to the public (and the new Alfonso Cuarón film will soon be projected on its walls). The presidential airplane has been taken to California, where the Mexican government will attempt to sell it in a show of austerity. López Obrador is getting around in an old Volkswagen, rather than a glitzy motorcade.
Now, beyond the symbolic gestures, López Obrador is preparing to tackle some of Mexico’s biggest policy challenges. Next week, he said, he will announce a proposal to undo predecessor Enrique Peña Nieto’s education overhaul, though he has released few details, aside from claiming that it was developed “with the consensus of teachers.” In the coming days, López Obrador said, he will speak to U.S. President Donald Trump about migration.
On Tuesday, he struggled to convince investors that despite his recent attacks on neoliberalism — and particularly on Mexico’s newly liberalized energy industry — he won’t stand in the way of a free market. He pointed out Monday, at his first news conference as president, that the markets had gone up during the first day of his term.
“You cannot regulate the market by decree,” he said. “I am in favor of a free market.”
Also Tuesday, López Obrador returned to his stated policy of capping the salaries of public officials, saying at a news conference, “It is dishonest when an official receives up to 600,000 pesos a month [about $29,000]. That is corruption.”
El Universal reported Tuesday that almost 3,000 public employees have filed class-action lawsuits against the government over a law mandating that no bureaucrat can earn more than the president. Because López Obrador set his salary at 108,000 pesos per month (about $5,250), less than half of his predecessor’s salary, the pay of other public servants also has plummeted. According to El Universal, the penalty for government employees caught receiving a higher salary than the president is 14 years in prison.