Democratic Progress in Mexico

 

Last week, Mexico's official statistical agency reported that 13.4 million people had been lifted out of poverty during AMLO's 2018-2024 government.

The main factors were a steady rise in the real minimum wage, year after year, and the "social programs" -- direct government payouts to people.

So for example AMLO instituted a pension for everyone over 65. It is a modest amount, and some complained that, in keeping with his administration's slogan "Por el bien de todos, primero los pobres" [For the good of all, first the poor], it should have been means-tested. But he said no, let's just do it, give all seniors a debit card and every couple of months, put some money in it. 

Likewise "scholarships" -- in reality just payments to families -- as a bribe for students to go to school. Again, the debit card does the trick.

And to make sure everyone can get one, the government has created what is in essence a huge consumer national bank, El Banco de Bienestar -- quite literally,  "The Welfare Bank." Now it is promoting a scheme for Mexicans in the United States to send remittances to the debit card of relatives in Mexico at a lower cost than competing services like Western Union.

President Claudia Sheinbaum (who took over last October) has kept expanding these programs, starting  with a pension for women beginning at age 60. For women from indigenous peoples, it already started. For other women, those aged 62 have started as well, the younger women start next year, as the government's redistributive capacity expands.

At the same time, Dr. Sheinbaum reported this morning in her daily news conference that foreign direct investment for the first two quarters of 2025 was a record-smashing $34+ billion, doubling the record set by the last full year of a neoliberal government in 2017 with then-President (now Spain resident on account of Spain forbids extradition of people like him) Enrique Peña Nieto.

This while Mexico's economy has become increasingly government-led: joint public-private infrastructure projects such as a railroad land canal between the Atlantic and Pacific to supplement and/or provide an alternative to the Panama Canal. It means cargo ships larger that Panama can handle could arrive on the West Coast, the containers put on trains to cross to the Atlantic, where their cargo could be redistributed so containers headed to Houston or New Orleans could go on one ship, those destined for Europe or the East Coast another.

Why do I suspect this is really important? Because that 13.4 million figure is truly astonishing after decades of neoliberalism during which the number of poor kept rising.

Last Sunday, trying to get material for Radio Migrante's Monday show, I kept doing Internet searches looking for major media in English that had covered it, or even minor media, and found nothing.

On Monday I finally found this on the Guardian: 

‘Historic’: how Mexico’s welfare policies helped 13.4 million people out of poverty

The Left Wins in Mexico : Again

 On our blog. 

https://www.dsanorthstar.org/blog/the-left-wins-in-mexico-again

 

Claudia Sheinbaum’s Victory Is a Triumph for Mexico

BY

KURT HACKBARTH

 

Claudia Sheinbaum has won Mexico’s presidential election in a landslide. In her victory speech, she paid homage to the social movements of the past and promised to continue MORENA’s impressive record of social progress.

 

…So far, Claudia Sheinbaum holds a thirty-point lead over her conservative rival, Xóchitl Gálvez, 58.3 percent to 28.7 percent, with third-party candidate Jorge Álvarez Maynez coming in at 10.5 percent. According to projections made by the National Electoral Institute, Sheinbaum’s final total was expected to fall within a range of 58.3–60.7 percent, outperforming all but a pair of final preelection polls.

According to the institute’s conteo rápido, or fast count, the landslide was expected to carry over into Congress as well, with MORENA and its allies winning up to 380 of 500 seats in the lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, and up to 88 of 128 seats in the Senate. This would put the center-left coalition within range of its ambitious goal of achieving a qualified majority of two-thirds, which would allow it to pass constitutional reforms on its own (together with the state legislatures it controls). And not only did MORENA win the all-important mayorship of Mexico City with candidate Clara Brugada, the MORENA coalition is also set to pick up at least six of the eight governor’s races up for grabs.

To put MORENA’s victory in perspective, Sheinbaum is on course to best Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO)’s 2018 landslide victory of 53 percent by some five to seven points. Where AMLO received a historic total of thirty million votes, Sheinbaum will have received some thirty-five million. Similarly, Gálvez was running about ten to twelve points behind the conservative party’s total in that election. In 2018, the conservative parties Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and National Action Party (PAN) ran separately; this year, they ran in coalition. But instead of adding in numbers, the coalition wound up subtracting.

A Refusal to Be Goaded

True to her scientific background, Sheinbaum ran a disciplined, methodical campaign. Taking nothing for granted despite holding a virtually unchanged lead since announcing her candidacy, Sheinbaum racked up the miles, holding three times as many rallies as Gálvez. Where Gálvez veered from one uncosted policy proposal to another, Sheinbaum rolled out a hundred-point program that includes extending social programs and scholarships, continuing annual minimum-wage increases, consolidating Mexico’s push toward national health care, building a million affordable homes on a rent-to-buy plan, constructing seven long-distance train lines, avoiding the maquiladora experience of the 1990’s by mandating that companies investing in the “nearshoring” phenomenon provide higher wages and benefits, and — in what is certain to continue raising the shackles of multinational energy interests — a public sector–led energy transition building on Mexico’s state-owned oil, electricity, and lithium companies.

AMLO Argues for Ending "U S" Embargo of Cuba

 Mexican President Vows Global Push to End 'Inhumane' US Embargo of Cuba

One peace group praised AMLO for "once again providing such an important voice against U.S. imperialism and bullying."

KENNY STANCIL

Feb 13, 2023

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador vowed over the weekend to lead a worldwide movement to end the 61-year U.S. embargo of Cuba.

"We are going to continue demanding the removal, the elimination of the blockade against Cuba, which is inhumane," López Obrador, popularly known as AMLO, said Saturday in a speech attended by Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel.

https://www.commondreams.org/amlo-vows-global-push-end-us-embargo-cuba

AMLO’s Four Years in Power Have Been a Success

 BY

KURT HACKBARTH

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador rose to power on the promise of massive redistribution. So far, he has nationalized lithium stores and lifted the minimum wage by 20%. But to secure these reforms he’ll need to transform the power structures of the Mexican state and media.

Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mexico's president, fist raised, greets attendees during a rally in Mexico City, Mexico, on November 27, 2022. (Jeoffrey Guillemard / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

 

https://jacobin.com/2023/01/amlo-mexico-redistribution-success-government-transformation

 

The U.S. Left Needs to Understand Mexico

The US Left Needs Humility to Understand the Politics of México Bill Gallegos August 2, 2020 México Solidarity Project/Liberation Road

https://portside.org/2020-08-04/us-left-needs-humility-understand-politics-mexico

Trump Temper Tantrum on Tariffs

AMLO a Trump;

AMLO

President Donald Trump: 

I’ve learned about your latest position regarding Mexico. First of all, I want to express that I do not want a confrontation. When facing a conflict in our relationship, no matter how serious, the cities and nations we represent deserve that we turn to dialogue and act with caution and responsibility. 

Mexico’s best president, Benito Juárez, maintained an excellent relationship with his Republican counterpart, Abraham Lincoln. Later on, during the oil expropriation (when Mexico kicked out foreign oil companies), Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt understood the profound reasons that led patriot President Lázaro Cárdenas to act in favor of our sovereignty. Indeed, President Roosevelt was a titan of liberty. Before anyone else, he proclaimed the four fundamental human rights: the right to speak freely, to practice religion freely, to live free of fear, and to live free of misery.

That’s the thinking behind our politics when it comes to the migration issue. Human beings don’t abandon their hometowns because they want to, but because they need to. That’s why, when I first took office, I proposed to partner in helping develop Central American countries by making productive investments that will create jobs and address the root cause of this terrible issue.

You must also know that we are complying with our responsibility to prevent, to the extent possible and without violating human rights, passage through our country. It’s worth reminding you that, before long, Mexicans will no longer need to go to the United States, and that migration will be optional, not forced. That’s because we are fighting corruption, Mexico’s main problem, like never before! And that’s how our country will become a great power with a social dimension. Our fellow citizens will be able to work and be happy where they were born, where their families, traditions and cultures are.

President Trump: You can’t solve social problems with taxes or coercive measures. How does one transform, overnight, the country of fellowship with immigrants from around the world into a ghetto, a closed-off space that stigmatizes, mistreats, chases, expels and cancels legal rights to those who are seeking —with effort and hard work— to live free of misery? The Statue of Liberty isn’t an empty symbol.

Border Tensions With Mexico Increase

Migrants Are Detained Under a Bridge in El Paso. What Happened? By SIMON ROMERO People rest as they are held by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in an enclosed area beneath the Paso del Norte International Bridge in El Paso, Tex., on Friday. Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times

The surge in Central Americans seeking asylum in the United States is straining facilities across the Southwest border, with Border Patrol processing facilities this week handling thousands of people in excess of the system’s capacity. President Trump threatened to close the border next week if Mexico did not halt “all illegal immigration” into the United States.

El Paso, the Texas border city where the president held a rally in February calling for his wall with Mexico, is emerging as a flash point. Border Patrol agents in the city have begun holding migrant families in an area under a bridge, surrounded by fencing and razor wire.

Photos of the conditions drew attention this week on social media and in news reports. Here’s a look at where the migrants came from, and how they came to be detained under the bridge.

Mexico (AMLO) rejects U.S. plan to extend "Stay in Mexico" policy

Mexico rejects US plan to extend ‘stay in Mexico’ policy for asylum seekers

But it continues to accept returning migrants 'for humanitarian reasons' 

Wednesday, March 13, 2019 

• SHARES

The federal government has rejected the United States’ announcement that it will return asylum-seeking migrants to Mexico to await their immigration court hearings via a second border crossing.

The United States plan, formally called the Migrant Protection Protocols but initially dubbed “Remain in Mexico,” began earlier this year at the San Ysidro border crossing between Tijuana and San Diego, and will now extend to the crossing between Mexicali and Calexico, U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials said Monday.

The Secretariat of Foreign Affairs (SRE) said yesterday that “the Mexican government doesn’t agree with this unilateral measure implemented by the United States authorities.”

Representatives of Morena Meet with Activists in the U.S.

David Brooks. La Jornada

Nueva York. Líderes y activistas de la diáspora mexicana en Estados Unidos se reunieron por primera vez desde la llegada de Andrés Manuel López Obrador a la Presidencia con representantes del nuevo gobierno, legisladores y el liderazgo de Morena para abordar la participación de los inmigrantes aquí en la llamada “Cuarta Transformación”.

Durante un foro comunitario de dos días, La voz de los migrantes en la 4Ta Transformación, en esta ciudad, Roberto Valdovinos, el director del Instituto de Mexicanos en el Exterior (IME), la diputada federal Tatiana Clouthier, de Morena, y Yeidckol Polevnsky, presidenta de ese partido, junto al legislador del Partido del Trabajo Gustavo Fernandez Noroña, se comprometieron ante representantes de comités de Morena en varias entidades de Estados Unidos, junto con académicos, estudiantes, líderes comunitarios y otros simpatizantes, que los migrantes mexicanos radicados aquí formaran parte integral del cambio que se impulsa en México y en la realidad binacional bajo el nuevo gobierno de López Obrador.

AMLO Becomes President of Mexico

AMLO Becomes President of Mexico

Ciudad de México. En la primera acción del gobierno de Andrés Manuel López Obrador, en política interna, la Secretaría de Gobernación anunció un programa intersecretarial para proteger a los integrantes de la caravana migrante que se encuentran en la frontera norte del país.

El plan emergente será operado con instancias de los tres niveles de gobierno; consiste en la revisión de albergues y en el reforzamiento de las medidas de seguridad, en torno a los centroamericanos, mediante un operativo coordinado con elementos de protección ciudadana del gobierno federal, así como elementos estatales, de Baja California, además de los locales, del municipio de Tijuana.

Estas acciones serán encabezado por David León, coordinador nacional de Protección Civil; el comisionado Nacional de Migración, Tonatiuh Guillén, y el titular de la Comisión Mexicana de Ayuda a Refugiados (Comar), Andrés Ramírez, quienes se reunieron la noche del viernes en Gobernación con el gobernador de Baja California, Francisco Vega de Lamadrid.

En la reunión de trabajo para definir los pormenores del plan emergente participaron los subsecretarios Zoé Robledo (Gobierno) y Alejandro Encinas (Derechos Humanos, Migración y Población).

Los albergues serán revisados, en especial los ubicados en Tijuana, "a fin de que se determine si son suficientes, además de que se pueden dotar de los insumos básicos necesarios para su buen funcionamiento y que los integrantes de la caravana migrante tengan un lugar digno donde alojarse, entre otras acciones a ejecutarse", dijo Gobernación en el comunicado número 2 de esta adminstración.

Met with the leaders of Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala to plan a way to work together to develop the region and reduce migration. 

What Mexico has offered is:

In Mexico, the government of President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador has signaled it will hold Central American migrants on Mexican soil while they wait to hear whether their applications for political asylum are granted by the U.S. Mexico’s incoming foreign minister said Tuesday the Trump administration should, in return, pay at least $20 billion for a Marshall Plan-style program aimed at developing the economies of El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. It’s not clear what services Mexico would provide migrants hoping to win U.S. asylum. At the crossing between Tijuana and San Diego, U.S. officials are processing only about a hundred claims per day, even as thousands of migrants are living in squalid, open-air camps near the border while they await their turn to apply for asylum. CBP says the migrants may have to wait up to six weeks to have their appeals heard.

For comparison. 

In 2017 the U.S. gave Honduras 750 million for military aid and 67 million for humanitarian and development assistance.

Less for El Salvador. 

Potential Deal With Mexico Could Impact Thousands Of Migrants Stalled In...

 NYT. MEXICO CITY — Leaders of the incoming Mexican government are in talks with American officials to allow migrants applying for asylum in the United States to remain in Mexico while they await a decision — a drastic overhaul of current policy that President Trump suggested Saturday night was as good as a done deal.

While Mexican officials said no decision has been made, leaders of the incoming government are under immense pressure to deal with thousands of migrants lined up along the border between the two countries. The top officials of the incoming administration plan to meet as early as Sunday to discuss the proposal, according to the new foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, who will take office on Dec. 1.
Update.

Ciudad de México. Olga Sánchez Cordero, futura secretaria de Gobernación, desmintió que exista un acuerdo entre el futuro gobierno de México y el de Estados Unidos para exigir a los solicitantes de asilo que esperen en México mientras se procesan sus casos en los tribunales de aquel país, como reportó el diario The Washington Post.

“El futuro gobierno no considera en sus planes que México asuma la condición de tercer país seguro para la atención de los migrantes centroamericanos o de otros países que se encuentran en territorio de México, o para los que lo hagan en un futuro”, señaló en un comunicado.

\

Dijo que para el equipo de transición lo más importante en el tema de las caravanas de migrantes centroamericanas que han ingresado a México es la protección de sus derechos humanos y el auxilio para asegurarles condiciones para su alimentación, salud y alojamiento.

Sostuvo que mantienen comunicación constante con las autoridades mexicanas federales y locales en las que rechace la responsabilidad de prestar ayuda humanitaria a los migrantes y definir su situación migratoria.

La Jornada, D.F. 

Trump plantea pagar 20 millones de dólares a México para que expulse a m...

New government of AMLO says NO!

Leftist Andrés Manuel López Obrador Wins Mexican Presidential Election i...

Migration battles will change.


Donde están los Niños ?

Lopez Obrador's Lead Widens in Mexican Presidential Race Thanks to Trump