AMLO Has a Grand Plan to Transform Mexico, on the Cheap
President Lopez Obrador’s long-standing aversion to public spending, even during the pandemic, threatens to undermine his popularity
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador speaks during a news conference at the National Palace on Sept. 17.
Photographer: Alejandro Cegarra/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
In early July, as Mexico’s tally of Covid-19 cases hit daily records, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador addressed a mostly empty wing of the National Palace, his cabinet sitting several seats apart in the colonnaded hall.
The socially distanced speech was a stark contrast to the events it marked of two years previously, when tens of thousands massed outside on the Zocalo, one of Latin America’s largest squares, to hail the landslide election victory of Mexico’s first leftist president in decades.