President López Obrador has asked for one more year to begin seeing the change he promised to bring to Mexico.
Speaking at his regular news conference on Tuesday, the president said that significant progress has been made since he took office 11 months ago.
“It’s a process, I can say that we’ve advanced and we’re going to continue to advance . . .” López Obrador said.
He added that he will give a full rundown of the government’s many achievements in a report to be presented on December 1, the first anniversary of his presidency.
Notwithstanding the government’s progress, López Obrador said that in order to establish fully the bases of his so-called Fourth Transformation, his administration needs to complete its second year in office.
He previously said that the foundations of the profound change he promises to bring to Mexico would be in place after the government completed its first year.
The president told reporters that by December 2020, he intends to have a framework in place that ensures that laws can’t be changed to allow the corruption of yesteryear to resume.
Cracking down on corruption is a central aim of the government and López Obrador’s pledge to do so was a major factor in his landslide victory in last year’s election.
The president listed a number of goals that he expects government’s legislation to achieve.
Among them: preventing future presidents from purchasing luxury planes, living in mansions and cutting pensions and other financial support to senior citizens, the disabled and the poor.
He also said that his government is aiming to prevent its successors from being able to give away the nation’s assets to private individuals or companies, cancel tax obligations of the rich and powerful, allow officials to earn exorbitant salaries and reestablish the Estado Presidencial Mayor, the institution formerly charged with protecting the president of Mexico.
López Obrador said that more time is also needed to reduce the insecurity and violence plaguing the country,
He reaffirmed his commitment to do so in a non-confrontational way “without massacres” perpetrated by government forces and with full respect for human rights.
The government is under increasing pressure to reconsider its security strategy as Mexico looks likely to set a new record this year for annual homicide numbers.
A string of violent acts has heightened scrutiny of the government’s security plan and there even appears to a growing rift between the president and the armed forces.
Thirteen police were killed in a cartel ambush in Michoacán on October 14, at least 13 more people were killed the same week after an attempt to capture one of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán’s son triggered a wave of cartel attacks in Culiacán, Sinaloa, and nine members of a Mormon family were shot and killed on Monday in an ambush near the Sonora-Chihuahua border.
Source: El Economista (sp)
