AMLO Welcomes The Deal, Rails Against U.S. Government And Critics Of Electoral Law
Feb. 28, 2023—Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced today that Tesla plans to build a new electric vehicle plant in Monterrey, Mexico, the second largest city in the country. He hailed the investment as something that would bring well-paid jobs to the region.
The new Mexico-based factory will join a Tesla fleet of factories: four in the United States, one in China, and one in Germany. Furthermore, it will benefit from $369 billion worth of U.S. subsidies for clean energy that Congress included as part of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. The company is likely to announce more details Wednesday during its planned “Investors Day.”
The news comes as countries and companies recalibrate their supply chains amid geopolitical pressures. It also comes during a week when tens of thousands of Mexicans rally against a proposed package of election reforms opponents say would weaken democracy.
While the two issues are not directly related, it is worth looking at both changes: the economic and political. As much of the world shifts alliances based on a competition between democracy and autocracy, where will Mexico fit? In recent years, Mexico has drawn closer to the communist countries of Cuba and China. Moreover, López Obrador refuses to condemn Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. Critics say AMLO is rapidly taking the country back from an authoritarian past. But AMLO argues otherwise.
Mass Protests Over Funding For Election Oversight
The proposed changes in Mexican law would reduce the size of an oversight body called the Instituto Nacional Electoral. Critics worry the changes could enable López Obrador’s party to manipulate the result of the 2024 presidential election.
According to reporting in the Associated Press, the initiative would cut funding for training of citizens working polling stations, reduce sanctions on candidates who don’t report campaign spending, and reduce salaries of election officers. The Mexican Senate approved it last week on a 72-50. But it has strong opposition among legal advocates and in the streets.
The New York Times reported that over 100,000 people marched in the streets of Mexico City alone. Other protests took place around the world in protest of the proposed changes. The U.S. State Department issued a carefully worded statement in support of the electoral body:
“Around the world, we have witnessed challenges to democracy that have tested and are testing the strength of independent electoral and judicial institutions. Today, in Mexico, we see a great debate on electoral reforms on the independence of electoral and judicial institutions that illustrates Mexico’s vibrant democracy. We respect Mexico’s sovereignty. We believe that a well-resourced, independent electoral system and respect for judicial independence support healthy democracy.”
State Dept. on Feb. 27, 2023
AMLO Rails Against U.S. Government, Media
López Obrador, also known as “AMLO,” came to power promising to root out corruption and neoliberal politics of the past. Today, he is echoing a similar theme.
In comments to the press Monday and Tuesday, the Mexican president railed against the U.S. State Department, U.S. media outlets the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, and the economic elite. While AMLO made an exception for U.S. President Joe Biden, whom he said he respects, he blamed others in the government for Mexico’s corruption problems, election fraud, and narco-state.
“So, enough of hypocrisy, we are going to change the world, we are going to transform public life, we are going to purify public life in the countries and we are going to establish, as in Mexico, humanism and in the world universal brotherhood,” López Obrador said.
Regarding the electoral anges, López Obrador said, “It is a law to lessen the tendentious participation of an apparatus that has always been controlled by the oligarchy.”
Opponents, however, say it would consolidate power in Mexico from two parties to one and from a democracy to a dictatorship.
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