President López Obrador has been criticized by business groups, governors and others for wasting time and attempting to distract attention from his administration’s performance after revealing a document that outlines a possibly fictitious plan for a “broad opposition bloc” against Mexico’s ruling party.
Presidential spokesman Jesús Ramírez read the contents of a “confidential document” entitled Let’s Rescue Mexico at the presidential press conference on Tuesday morning.
Among the supposed supporters and members of the broad opposition bloc, or BOA as it is being called, are opposition parties and lawmakers, business groups, the governors of 14 states, two former presidents, National Electoral Institute councilors, federal judges and national newspapers.
The document, which Ramírez described as an “executive summary” of the BOA’s plan, notes that the president has an approval rating above 50% and that the ruling Morena party is in a good position to be successful at the federal midterm and state gubernatorial elections in 2021.
In that context, it sets out a 12-point plan to improve the electoral chances of non-Morena party candidates.
The document, whose authenticity has been questioned and remains unverified, proposes nominating BOA candidates rather than ones that represent single parties such as the National Action Party (PAN) or the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
It also proposes that the BOA focus on blaming López Obrador and his administration for worsening the unemployment and insecurity situation in Mexico. A media and social media campaign would seek to highlight the failures of the government in those two areas as well as in combating poverty and corruption.
The document also proposes that the BOA send lobbyists to Washington D.C. to highlight damage that López Obrador’s administration is doing to United States investment.
It says that the opposition bloc must emphasize to the United States that the migration of Mexicans to the United States will massively increase if “the unemployment and security crisis deepens.”
The “narrative” that López Obrador is a danger to Mexico and its commercial partners should be perpetuated in the United States and European press, the document says. It also outlines a range of other strategies whose aim is to discredit the government.
López Obrador said the document was sent anonymously to the National Palace by someone who “must be working” with the so-called broad opposition bloc, although he conceded that the document’s validity was uncertain.
The Mexican Employers Federation (Coparmex), supposedly one of the bloc members, said that it has no knowledge of the opposition group. Coparmex said in a Twitter post that it doesn’t participate in or support the “imaginary” BOA.
“We condemn the frivolity of the use of government time and space to present pamphlets, start rumors and cause controversy,” it said.
The Business Coordinating Council (CCE), an umbrella organization representing 12 business groups and another supposed BOA member, also said it had no knowledge of the documented.
Michoacán Governor Silvano Aueroles, another alleged BOA member, urged the president to be serious.
“Enough distractions, concentrate on dealing with the pandemic. People are dying,” he wrote on Twitter.
Chihuahua Governor Javier Corral, yet another supposed BOA affiliate, turned to humor to respond to the government’s apparent claim that opposition forces are uniting against it.
“Up in the [ivory] tower, they’ve discovered us,” he wrote on Twitter, adding that the opposition front is preparing a “catchy” jingle to encapsulate its opposition to the federal government, known colloquially as the 4T in reference to López Obrador’s pledge to implement a fourth transformation as monumental as events that include gaining independence from Spain and the Mexican Revolution.
The association of PAN governors said that López Obrador should be worrying about the health and financial well-being of Mexicans rather than frivolous political matters while the national president of the PRI, Alejandro Moreno, said that it’s regrettable that the state is using its “entire apparatus to attack opposition political parties.”
“Instead of looking for solutions for the country in very serious times … they’re [talking about] conspiratorial ideas to divert attention from what really matters,” Moreno said.
He also said the PRI had no knowledge of the Let’s Rescue Mexico document, while Democratic Revolution Party national leader Ángel Ávila said he didn’t belong to the seemingly non-existent BOA.
Ávila urged López Obrador to focus on the pandemic, the economic crisis and insecurity rather than “politicking.”
Former president Felipe Calderón, who along with his predecessor Vicente Fox, is allegedly a BOA conspirator, also said that he had no knowledge of the document in question.
“I’m not even sure that it exists but if that were the case: 1) the opposition has the right to organize; [and] 2) that the government is spying on [the opposition] is a crime,” he said.
Source: Reforma (sp)
