Mexican President to deliver state of union address
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) will today deliver his second official state of the union address.
AMLO’s speech is expected to address the negative social and economic effects of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Mexico has Latin America’s second-highest death toll with 64,158 fatalities and third-highest number of infections with 595,841 cases reported. As such, the government’s lenient lockdown measures, which fell short of those implemented by neighbouring countries, have sparked major criticism.
Today, the Mexican president is likely to reframe the debate around issues of economic well-being and public safety in the context of the current global health crisis. As AMLO faces plummeting approval ratings and the International Monetary Fund estimates a 6.6% contraction for Mexico’s economy in 2020, the speech will likely lay out a new framework for the president’s ambitious political transformation project, the co-called Fourth Transformation.
Besides highlighting his administration’s accomplishments—most notably, the rescued trade partnership with the US and reforms to the poorly performing state oil company Pemex—expect AMLO to reaffirm his commitment to the efficient reallocation of state resources and economic austerity measures aimed at addressing Mexico’s public debt problem.
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