AMLO’s morning press conference: ‘spectacle without value’

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May 5, 2020

López Obrador takes control of the news cycle.

There can be no denying that President López Obrador has a penchant for lengthy political discourse: every weekday morning he appears before reporters at the National Palace in Mexico City to respond to questions during a press briefing that lasts up to two and a half hours.

But how valuable are the daily press briefings when, as the newspaper The Guardian notes in a report published on Monday, the president’s “verbose responses” often don’t provide an actual answer to the question he was asked?

Not valuable at all, says Javier Garza, a journalist in Torreón, Coahuila. He told The Guardian that when AMLO, as the president is commonly known, first began his weekday press briefings shortly after he was sworn in as president in December 2018, they were “a useful and novel method of presidential communication.”

However, the news conferences later became “a predictable spectacle without any value,” Garza said, although he acknowledged that reporters at least have the chance to pose a question to the president, an opportunity that only presented itself very rarely during the governments of many past presidents including AMLO’s predecessor, Enrique Peña Nieto.

“The president has not tried to flee,” Garza said.

But it’s not only long-winded, often evasive answers, that punctuate the president’s 7:00 a.m. pressers: López Obrador is also known for bending the truth.

Verificado, a fact-checking initiative, said in December that more than half of the statements AMLO made in his first year in office were false or misleading. His lies and half-truths extended across a range of government matters including migration, crime, the economy, welfare and education.

More recently, the coronavirus crisis has been subjected to the president’s “looseness with the truth” treatment, with López Obrador claiming at one recent press conference that Mexico’s epidemic curve had “flattened” even as statistics from his own Health Ministry showed that cases continued to steadily rise.

Verbal attacks on past presidents as well as political opponents or those perceived to be – the newspaper Reforma is a favorite target – are also often entwined in AMLO’s wordy responses as are staunch defenses of his government’s policies, actions and plans.

The president’s potshots, impassioned pleas – AMLO often asks criminals to think of their mothers before committing crimes – loquacious lecturing and remarks made in self-defense all add to the theatrics of his daily press briefing on their own, while put together they help him to achieve his overarching aim: to dominate the daily news cycle.

López Obrador is more concerned about dominating the news cycle than the quality of the message he sends, says Federico Estévez, political science professor at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico.

“It works just like it works for [United States President Donald] Trump,” he told The Guardian.

“It doesn’t matter what the quality of the communication is, it dominates the [news] cycle. That’s all it’s about. That’s all it’s supposed to be about,” Estévez said.

The president’s pugnacity in going after both media that covers him less than favorably and his political opponents has riled many Mexicans – including the press freedom advocacy organization Article 19 – but according to a historian at the Iberoamerican University, López Obrador’s tendency to pick fights only endears him more to his ardent followers.

“This is the charm for his followers,” Ilán Semo said. “They believe in him like they would a preacher.”

Source: The Guardian (en)

‘Coronavirus is a lie:’ mob attempts to ‘rescue’ patient from Chiapas hospital

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Susy Buchanan

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May 5, 2020

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Virus deniers outside a Chiapas hospital on Monday.

An angry crowd of around 300 people attempted to storm the Social Security Institute hospital yesterday in Motozintla, Chiapas, after a third patient in the town was diagnosed with the coronavirus.

They demanded to examine the newly-diagnosed patient themselves to determine whether he really had the virus, but doctors and nurses refused them entry.

Friends and family members of the infected patient advocated for his “rescue” from the hospital on social media, convinced that the coronavirus diagnosis is a government conspiracy and health authorities are trying to kill people.

The call to action was spread on the “Mercado Libre Motozintla” Facebook page, which normally functions as a sort of virtual yard sale, where messages urged supporters to leave their homes and march to the hospital.

“Coronavirus is a lie, let’s not fall for it,” one member posted.

The crowd also demanded the stay-at-home guidelines be lifted because, they said, the virus does not actually exist.

The protesters gathered at the health center and demanded a meeting with the hospital’s director and the region’s political representative.

Hospital personnel called in the army and the National Guard to help defuse the situation.

But some Facebook group members were against the protest. “Motozintla has not understood the danger involved in continuing to expose oneself, not complying with the prevention measures against Covid-19, and people continue to believe that this disease does not exist or is a government lie,” one member wrote. “Hopefully soon people will stop believing in email chains and videos that a random person invents just to generate panic.”

Source: El Universal (sp)

As virus numbers show signs of dropping, sargassum makes a return

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MND Staff

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May 5, 2020

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Before the coronavirus pandemic, insecurity and sargassum vied for the title of biggest deterrent to tourism in Quintana Roo.

Now, as Mexico and countries around the world confront the Covid-19 crisis, the smelly, unsightly seaweed is returning to the beaches of the Caribbean coast state.

Large amounts of sargassum invaded the beaches of Isla Holbox – an island located off the northern tip of the state – on Monday, leaving both sand and seawater discolored. The unwelcome arrival was the first of the annual sargassum season, which normally runs for several months.

Sargassum also began washing up on beaches in the Cancún area last week, although not in large amounts.

But plenty more seaweed is set to wash up on Mexico’s Caribbean coast beaches in the months ahead. The Optical Oceanography Laboratory at the University of South Florida (USF) reported in March that there was a considerable increase in sargassum density in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of the Americas.

The map published Monday by the Cancún sargassum monitoring network. Blue indicates sargassum-free, green very low amounts and yellow moderate.

The proliferation of the macroalgae is directly related to warmer sea temperatures in the world’s second largest ocean.

The USF lab said that there is a high risk that massive amounts of sargassum will wash up on Mexican beaches, especially those located along the Caribbean coast of Quintana Roo.

“This situation may continue into summer, and the overall amount is likely to be similar to that in 2015,” the lab said.

The quantities are not predicted to exceed the record levels seen last year, but the news is still a blow for the tourism sector, which is hoping that visitor numbers will rebound quickly starting as early as next month. The coronavirus crisis has devastated Mexico’s tourism industry.

However, with Cancún seeing a drop in confirmed coronavirus cases, the resort city’s hotel association last week announced an aggressive new campaign to bring visitors back to the region. Its success, however, may not only depend on keeping the city’s coronavirus outbreak under control but also having clean beaches in Cancún and the Riviera Maya region.

To that end, Navy Minister Rafael Ojeda held a virtual meeting last week with Quintana Roo Governor Carlos Joaquín and the mayors of six coastal municipalities during which they discussed strategies to prevent the arrival of sargassum and the plan to clean up the seaweed that does make it to the beach.

María Lezama Espinosa, mayor of Benito Juárez, the municipality where Cancún is located, said that the aim must be to keep beaches clean during the coronavirus emergency period so that they can be reopened as soon as restrictions are lifted.

The navy, which last May was given responsibility for combatting the seaweed’s arrival, and other authorities have used sargassum-gathering vessels and barriers to prevent the weed from reaching beaches but large quantities have nevertheless continued to wash up on shore.

As a result, seasonal demand for sargassum shovelers has been high and is expected to remain so as hotel owners, tourism operators and authorities strive to keep beaches as clean as they appear in glossy travel brochures.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Coronavirus leaving more people in poverty and inequality: activists

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Susy Buchanan

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May 5, 2020

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One issue is the lack of water. 'Everyone says wash your hands, but with what?'

Human rights activists warn that the coronavirus epidemic has deepened poverty and inequality for vulnerable sectors of Mexico’s population, including indigenous communities.

During a May 2 virtual forum organized by the group Citizen Action Against Poverty, a number of regional participants described their concerns for the communities they serve, and measures they are taking to address current and future challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic.

Jeannette Arriola, founder of indigenous rights group Pro Zona Mazahua, said the health crisis has further limited indigenous communities’ access to health services and food.

Her organization, which operates 13 health centers in Chiapas, has been overwhelmed, serving more than 1,000 patients in the last several weeks, a number they typically see in an entire year as government health systems are failing them.

The Pro Zona Mazahua clinics provide general health and dental care but also monitor for coronavirus symptoms. Those patients are sent to other health institutions.

Arriola also noted that the pandemic has exacerbated the lack of access to running water. Most of those she serves collect rainwater for basic needs. “Everyone says ‘wash your hands and wash them well,” but in these communities, with what water? With what soap?” she said.

Pro Zona Mazahua is collecting food, masks, personal hygiene and cleaning products for families in the community where she works, as well as guaranteeing them access to health clinics.

Malcom Aquiles of World Vision Mexico, an organization whose “Fields of Hope” initiative focuses on the sugar cane and coffee fields of Veracruz and Oaxaca, said that the epidemic has forced them to rethink their aid strategies and awareness campaigns.

His organization has increased its focus on agricultural, day-laborer families and preventing a possible increase in child labor due to the coronavirus pandemic. He warned that in the coming weeks he expects the number of minors working in the fields to skyrocket, as will poverty, malnutrition and violence, including sexual violence against children and adolescents.

Patricia McCarthy of the Yucatán Family Civic Front said she is working with citizen groups and business organizations to help feed the poor. For months, she says, they have placed shopping carts outside supermarkets where people can place donations, which are then taken to a collection center, sorted by volunteers, and distributed in coordination with municipal and local governments.

One generous donation amounted to 1,000 kilograms of pork.

One of the measures taken by The Hunger Project México, a non-profit that works in highly marginalized communities, is making sure information on coronavirus precautions and sanitary measures is made available in the indigenous languages of the populations they serve, said Roberto Baeza.

Forum participants are asking all levels of government to channel their efforts to help those in need with food, health care and information on how to stay safe during the coronavirus pandemic.

They agreed that President López Obrador’s familiar refrain of “the poor first” is not enough if public policies are structurally inadequate.

Source: Reforma (sp)

Over 3,600 people removed from beaches in Mazatlán, Sinaloa

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Cody Copeland

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May 5, 2020

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A lifeguard patrols a beach in Mazatlán.

Authorities in Mazatlán have removed over 3,600 people from the municipality’s beaches during the quarantine period ordered in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The municipality’s closed beaches operation has observed an increase in the number of people removed from the beaches as the quarantine continues into May.

A total of 798 people were removed in the week of April 27 to May 3, 160 more than the week before. In total, authorities have removed 3,648 people from the beaches during the quarantine period.

The majority of those gathering on the beaches were locals, but authorities did report small numbers of tourists as well.

The closed beaches operation is one of the primary actions taken to mitigate the spread of Covid-19 in the city by the Mazatlán government, which reiterated its call to residents to remain in their homes and practice physical distancing when outside on essential business.

The federal government closed all of the country’s beaches on April 2, but enforcement has been a point of contention between authorities, tourists, locals and members of the media.

Authorities in Puerto Vallarta were forced to step up their quarantine measures after a video of Canadian tourists verbally and physically attacking a local reporter went viral in early April.

Meanwhile, other coastal tourist destinations are looking to the future. Preparing to see visitors return on June 1, hotels in Quintana Roo recently announced a promotional campaign to attract tourists when they are allowed to travel safely again.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Government contractor denies getting help from his father

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Susy Buchanan

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May 5, 2020

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León Manuel Bartlett, owner of Cyber Robotics Solutions.

The owner of Cyber Robotics Solutions, a high-tech medical equipment company, has denied a report that his company sold over-priced ventilators to the Social Security Institute (IMSS) and that he benefited from the fact that his father, Manuel Bartlett Díaz, is the director of the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE).

On April 17, the company, owned by León Manuel Bartlett Álvarez, was awarded a contract worth 31 million pesos, around US $1.3 million, to provide 20 ventilators to IMSS. Each cost the health service 1.55 million pesos or US $65,000.

According to an investigation by Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity (MCCI), Bartlett’s ventilators came in at 85% more expensive than the cheapest models previously purchased by the government.

In an interview on Milenio Television on Monday, Bartlett explained that there are different calibers of ventilators, some more expensive than his. He emphasized that his company complied with the terms of the contract and the ventilators are now being used to keep patients alive.

“They are not overpriced,” he insisted. “This is the market price given the situation and the urgency of the pandemic.”

Bartlett was adamant that he received no help from his father in winning the contracts. “I am 43 years old, I have been working since before I was 20 years old, always independent of my father,” Bartlett said. “My father has never helped me, you can ask anyone you like. I have never received any favors because of him.”

The ventilator purchase was revealed Sunday in a report by journalist Carlos Loret de Mola, who also wrote that Cyber Robotics has been awarded at least seven government contracts worth 162 million pesos.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Coronavirus cases continue to increase but testing rates remain low

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MND Staff

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May 5, 2020

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Testing rates remain low and fluctuate daily. — Testing rates remain low and fluctuate.

The federal Health Ministry reported more than 1,000 new Covid-19 cases and 117 deaths on Monday as Mexico enters its third week of phase three of the coronavirus pandemic.

Director of Epidemiology José Luis Alomía said that 1,434 new cases had been detected in the previous 24 hours, taking Mexico’s accumulated total to 24,905.

He told reporters at the nightly coronavirus press briefing that the 117 new coronavirus-related deaths increased the death toll to 2,271. An additional 190 fatalities are suspected to have been caused by Covid-19 but have not yet been confirmed, Alomía said.

The health official also said that there are 13,143 suspected coronavirus cases across the country and that 100,041 people have now been tested.

Testing rates remain low in Mexico compared to many other countries – less than 800 people per 1 million inhabitants have been tested to date – meaning that many Covid-19 cases, especially mild or asymptomatic ones, inevitably go undetected.

Health Ministry data shows that the number of tests conducted on a daily basis has fluctuated during the most critical phase of the coronavirus outbreak in Mexico even as the World Health Organization urges countries to test as widely as possible.

Just over 5,900 people were tested on April 28, more than on any other day since Covid-19 was first detected in Mexico at the end of February, but only 2,603 people were tested last Saturday. The number of tests performed on Sunday dropped even lower to 2,048 before spiking to 4,202 on Monday.

The number of tests carried out on a daily basis across all of Mexico is much lower than in some individual cities in the United States, such as Los Angeles, where about 10,000 people are now being tested every day.

The newspaper Reforma reported that even health workers with coronavirus-like symptoms have found it difficult to get tested for Covid-19.

While testing has not ramped up during phase three, the number of confirmed cases and deaths has increased significantly since the commencement of the most critical stage of the pandemic.

When Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell declared the start of phase three two weeks ago, there were 8,772 confirmed cases and 712 deaths. Since then, cases have increased 184% to 24,905 and deaths have risen 219% to 2,271.

The coronavirus death toll as of Monday. milenio

Of the confirmed cases, 6,696 are considered active, Alomía said, meaning that that number of people tested positive after developing Covid-19 symptoms in the past 14 days. However, the number of new cases the Health Ministry reported in the past two weeks – 16,133 – is considerably higher.

Mexico City continues to lead the country in terms of both accumulated and active cases, with 6,785 of the former and 1,801 of the latter. México state ranks second in both categories, with 4,201 and 1,031 cases, respectively.

Baja California is third for accumulated cases with 1,808. More than half of those cases were detected in Tijuana, which ranks second behind Iztapalapa, Mexico City, for accumulated cases among Mexico’s more than 2,000 municipalities.

Tabasco has the third largest active outbreak in the country with 325 cases. Veracruz has seen its case numbers increase sharply over the past week, with 423 new cases reported, taking the total in the Gulf coast state to 803.

Colima is the least affected state with just 30 accumulated Covid-19 cases, of which only six are considered active. The small Pacific coast state has recorded four coronavirus-related deaths, fewer than any other state.

At the other end of the scale is Mexico City, where 499 people have now lost their lives to the infectious disease. Baja California has the second highest death toll with 251 fatalities followed by México state with 208.

At the municipal level, Tijuana has recorded the highest number of deaths with 185 followed by Culiacán, Sinaloa, and Gustavo A. Madero, Mexico City, where 124 and 94 people, respectively, have passed away after testing positive for Covid-19.

Mexico’s fatality rate is now 9.1 per 100 confirmed Covid-19 cases, over two points higher than the global rate of 7. Among those who have lost their lives to the disease here are five pregnant women and 15 people aged below 25.

Source: Milenio (sp), Reforma (sp)

Buy now eat later: Heineken launches plan in support of restaurants

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Cody Copeland

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May 5, 2020

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Heineken México has announced a voucher program designed to support restaurant owners and wait staff during the difficult economic times caused by the coronavirus.

The beer maker’s Por Tu Restaurante (For Your Restaurant) campaign aims to support 10,000 bars and restaurants across the country, including as many as 50,000 servers and other staff.

The program will offer customers the option to buy vouchers for future meals at restaurants that have been approved via an online application process. They will be valid once in-house service has resumed.

Depending on the amount purchased, the vouchers also come with two to eight free beers on the day they are redeemed.

The program also allows customers to add a 10-15% tip that Heineken will match until the fund reaches a maximum of 4 million pesos (US $168,000).

Heineken is selling the vouchers online (Spanish only) but as of Tuesday morning the purchase function was not yet available.

Heineken and other beer makers in Mexico halted production in early April after the beverage was listed as a nonessential agro-industrial product by the federal government.

After a month of no production, the country now faces a shortage of beer as the quarantine measures have been extended through May.

Restaurant owners and their employees have been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic. A video of a restaurateur in Sonora breaking down into tears while explaining why he cannot afford to continue paying his employees went viral in mid-April.

However, sparks of hope have begun to glimmer in other parts of the country, as some places begin gradual reopenings. As many as 700 restaurants in La Paz, Baja California Sur, reopened for delivery and take-out with limited staff on Monday.

Source: El Financiero (sp)

Favored government contractor is son of head of electricity commission

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MND Staff

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May 4, 2020

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CFE chief Manuel Bartlett speaks at a presidential press conference.

A company owned by the son of Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) chief Manuel Bartlett has been awarded at least seven government contracts worth 162 million pesos (US $6.7 million), writes Mexican journalist Carlos Loret de Mola in The Washington Post.

In an opinion piece published on Sunday, Loret de Mola wrote that León Manuel Bartlett Álvarez, owner of Cyber Robotics Solutions, most recently received a “spectacular gift” from the federal government on April 30.

Last Thursday, the government awarded the company a 94.9-million-peso contract to supply ultrasound machines to the State Workers Social Security Institute (ISSSTE), Loret de Mola said, emphasizing that there was no competitive tendering process for the lucrative contract.

According to an ISSSTE document published on the government’s online transparency platform CompraNet, the contract was to be signed today.

According to information on CompraNet, Bartlett Álvarez’s company also has other contracts with ISSSTE as well as others with the army, navy and the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS).

The two other contracts with ISSSTE, both to supply medical equipment, are worth a combined 340,000 pesos and both were awarded without a competitive bidding process.

A 23.4-million-peso Ministry of National Defense maintenance contract was also directly assigned to Cyber Robotics, Loret de Mola wrote. In addition, a 4.9-million-peso contract with the Ministry of the Navy was assigned to Bartlett Álvarez’s company without it having to submit a bid.

Cyber Robotics Solutions was also awarded an 8.2-million-peso IMSS contract in February to provide maintenance of surgical robots at a Mexico City hospital. In contrast to most others, that contract was awarded after a bidding process.

Another IMSS contracted awarded to Cyber Robotics is garnering particular attention because it has direct relevance to the coronavirus pandemic and suggests that Bartlett Álvarez made an excessive profit from the deal.

The company won a 31-million-peso contract in April to supply 20 ventilators to IMSS. According to Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity (MCCI), an anti-graft group, the per unit price of 1.5 million pesos was the highest paid by the government for ventilators since the beginning of the pandemic in Mexico.

Another supplier sold similar ventilators to IMSS last month for just 880,000 pesos, or less than 60% of the price paid to Bartlett Álvarez.

Ultrasound contract 'a spectacular gift.' — Ultrasound contract ‘a spectacular gift.’

President López Obrador said on Monday that there will be an investigation into whether the company sold overpriced ventilators to the government, but suggested there was an ulterior motive to the story.

“In this case, the Public Administration Ministry has to do its job, do its investigation and if it shows that this person is responsible, he will have to be sanctioned just like the official who gave this contract,” he said. “But what I want to underline, what’s behind this, is this desire to weaken our government.”

Bartlett Álvarez rejected the allegations in a letter posted to Twitter, the news agency Reuters reported. He said that the contracting process was transparent and that the ventilator prices were reasonable, adding that others supplied by other companies have sold for more.

However, Loret de Mola wrote that the fact that several contracts were awarded to the son of a high-ranking public official calls into question the government’s stated commitment to fight corruption.

“Although nothing illegal has yet been proven in Bartlett’s son’s contracts with the federal government, the amounts raise suspicions,” he said.

Similar behavior during the administration of past governments were severely criticized by President López Obrador when he was an opposition leader, he said.

“The president has said that he arrived to clean up the system, that legality is not enough but rather he demands morality and ethics. [Manuel] Bartlett is the face that takes the president’s anti-corruption discourse to pieces,” Loret de Mola wrote.

The journalist noted that two reports last year revealed that the CFE director – a former federal cabinet minister, senator, governor of Puebla and secretary general of the Institutional Revolutionary Party – had failed to declare that he, his partner and his son León are the owners of 23 houses and 12 companies.

“The affair became a scandal,” Loret de Mola said, because since then the main tenet of “lópezobradorismo” – combating corruption – was called into doubt.

Source: The Washington Post (sp), Reuters (en)

Two polls show marked difference in AMLO’s approval rating

By

MND Staff

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May 4, 2020

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AMLO's approval rating (in blue) since December 2018.

One new opinion poll shows that President López Obrador’s approval rating dropped four points in April to below 50%, but another produced rather different results, showing his popularity increased by eight points in the same month to a lofty 68%.

The first was commissioned by the newspaper El Economista and showed that the president’s approval rating fell to 48.8% last month.

The second, published on Monday by El Financiero, shows that AMLO, as the leftist leader is commonly known, still enjoys strong support.

The eight-point spike in the latter poll comes after López Obrador’s approval rating dropped three points to 60 in March from 63 the month before in El Financiero’s previous poll. AMLO’s disapproval rating declined accordingly from 37% in March to 29% in April.

The coronavirus crisis was identified by a majority of respondents as the biggest problem Mexico currently faces, usurping the position occupied by public insecurity in March.

Results since July 2019 show public insecurity in red, economy and unemployment in yellow and coronavirus and health in blue.

But a majority of those polled – 53% – believe that the federal government is doing a very good or good job in responding to the crisis. Only 29% said that the López Obrador administration is not responding well.

The result is a big improvement for the government compared to March when only 28% of respondents said that it was doing a good job responding to the coronavirus pandemic and health issues more broadly.

The more favorable assessment came despite the worsening of the coronavirus outbreak in Mexico over the past month – there were only 1,215 confirmed cases and 29 deaths at the end of March compared to more than 19,000 cases and 1,859 fatalities at the end of April.

Support for the government’s approach to public security also grew in April, with 30% of respondents saying that it is doing a good job in the area compared to just 22% in March. Preliminary figures show that homicides declined 3.5% in April compared to March.

While the president’s approval rating is up and the government was assessed more positively in the areas of health and security, the El Financiero poll doesn’t bear only good news for AMLO, who has now been in Mexico’s top job for almost a year and a half.

Only 27% of respondents said that the government is doing a good job managing the economy, a slump of 16 points compared to March, while more than eight in 10 of those polled said that the coronavirus pandemic has hurt the Mexican economy a lot.

Almost one-third of respondents said that someone in their family had lost their job in the last three months, up from 11% in March, only 21% of those polled described their financial situation as good or very good, down from 33% in March, and just 24% said that their job prospects and economic outlook were favorable.

The economic concerns reflect the sharp downturn in economic activity as a result of the pandemic and the restrictions put in place to contain the spread of the virus. The economy is predicted to go into a deep recession this year, with many analysts and financial institutions forecasting a GDP contraction in the range of 5% to 10%.

López Obrador, meanwhile, has faced criticism for not doing enough to support the economy during the coronavirus-induced economic slump. Several analysts were critical of the spending cuts announced by the president last month, asserting that now is not the time for more government austerity.

However, 59% of poll respondents said that cutting government spending during the pandemic was a good idea while only 36% said that it should increase.

The survey also revealed strong support for cancelling the government’s major infrastructure projects, with almost 70% of respondents saying that the Santa Lucía airport, the Maya Train and the Dos Bocas refinery should all be scrapped and their resources reallocated to healthcare or economic support for citizens.

The survey was conducted in mid and late April among 820 Mexican adults living across all 32 federal entities. The poll’s margin of error is +/- 3.4%, El Financiero said.

Source: El Financiero (sp)