Mexico’s president leads massive pro-government march
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador led thousands of people in a massive march through the center of the country’s capital on Sunday ahead of the next general elections slated for 2024.
Mexican presidents are limited to a single six-year term, meaning he cannot run again.
Nevertheless, the president hopes to see his party hold onto power after he steps aside.
Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard and Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, who were at the march, are likely party candidates to run for the next election.
“Mexico is no longer run by oligarchy, now there is a democratic system whose priority is the poor,” the president told people crowding the vast Zocalo square at the city’s center.
The march comes a fortnight after critics of the president’s plan to reform the country’s electoral system came to the streets in tens of thousands, the largest demonstration against his policies so far.
Lopez Obrador, known by his initials as AMLO, says his proposal would improve democracy, limit economic influence in politics and cut advertising time, but his opponents fear the change could presage a power grab.
The plan would reduce the budget of the country’s INE electoral commission and change the way councillors are elected.
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Some people protested on Sunday with coffin-shaped signs marked INE.
“AMLO criticizes the salaries of INE councillors,” wrote columnist Sergio Negrete on Twitter. “With the cost of his ego-boosting march, he could pay the salaries of 11 INE councillors for 43 years and three months.”
Lopez Obrador, whose administration has made double-digit minimum wages hikes for the past four years, proposed that the 2023 increase could land around 20%, and forecast the country’s economic growth would beat expectations.
Supporters, many of whom travelled to the capital by bus, shook hands and took selfies with the 69-year-old head of state as he crossed the square, many waving flags for the ruling National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) party.
Zainab Sa’id
