By David Raby
MEXICO CITY: Scarcely a month has passed since the general elections in Mexico, and despite calling for a recount which no-one except hard-core conservatives takes seriously (when you’re trounced two to one the only rational reaction is to examine the reasons for your failure), the opposition coalition has yet to come up with a coherent strategy.
Outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, with three months left in office, is more popular than ever and tours the country supervising public works he wants finished before leaving office.
He is frequently accompanied by his successor, virtual president-elect Claudia Sheinbaum, whose popularity also continues to grow. Sheinbaum’s firm and methodical preparation for assuming office wins plaudits from business associations, diplomats and social organisations alike.
On June 27 Sheinbaum announced the second set of six cabinet ministers, confirming her ability to unite different tendencies in the governing coalition and to promote talented and respected professionals as ministers.
As head of digital transformation and communications she appointed Jose Merino, a young specialist who has implemented much more efficient systems while in a similar post in the capital city.
The new Energy Secretary, Luz Elena Gonzalez Escobar, is regarded as providing a guarantee for energy sovereignty and transition to renewables.
Health Secretary Dr David Kershenobich is an outstanding medical specialist with humanistic values. Raquel Buenrostro, new head of the civil service, has a strong record fighting corruption in the Tax Collection Department.
The Secretary of Communications and Public Works, Jesus Esteva Medina, is a well-qualified civil engineer with a strong commitment to the Transformation process. In Sedatu, the Regional Planning and Development Ministry which has won great respect for its work in the past six years, we have Edna Elena Vega Rangel who was deputy head of the same department until now. Finally there is Rogelio Ramirez de la O as finance minister, already announced as continuing in his present post. Competence and professionalism are combined with political commitment.
Meanwhile, the president showed determination to move ahead with the constitutional reforms he had proposed and which Sheinbaum and the Let’s Make History coalition had backed in the elections.
The governing Morena party and its allies had won the two-thirds super-majority in the lower house of congress, and was only two seats short of two-thirds in the senate, so it is very likely that the reforms will pass.
Within the past week consultation began with all interested groups on the all-important judicial reform. With his usual political skill, Lopez Obrador has sought dialogue and inclusion without abandoning any key elements of the reform.
On June 27 a dramatic first step took place, with the chamber of deputies (lower house) holding a public discussion session where more than 60 leading judges, magistrates, supreme court justices — most of them hostile to judicial reform — were invited to debate the issue.
Merely attending such an event was a humiliation for many of these judicial bigwigs, whose leader — Chief Justice Norma Pina — had called only a few days earlier for an illegal boycott of the reform.
Another instance of the government’s determination to move ahead was the report in a recent morning press conference by the current minister of communications on progress in road building, in particular the completion of hundreds of local concrete roads built by communities themselves with resources provided by the government, in Oaxaca, Guerrero, Chihuahua and Durango, a scheme now being adopted more widely.
This has ended the isolation of many small towns and villages, and as AMLO said, “if the communities can do this, what else can they do?” Then there is public health, and the universal free system IMSS-Bienestar which I reported on in one town in Campeche.
This week I visited a similar community clinic, this time in Tlahuac, a working-class suburb of Mexico City; like that in Campeche it is open seven days a week, with dental services five days a week. It also has a participatory “The Clinic Is Ours” committee. Such local developments all over the country give a real sense of Transformation, that the 4T is real and should indeed be capitalised. (IPA Service)
Courtesy: Morning Star
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