#AMLO in Mexico: What are the two greatest challenges of the new president?
AMLO during the closure of his presidential campaign. Wikimedia Commons.
Among the inordinate challenges that new Mexican president Andrés
Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) must face up to, violence and corruption come out
on top.
With more than 25,000 homicides (70 per day), 2017 was one of the
bloodiest years in last decades in Mexico, a country which is among the 10 most
violent in the world according to the International Institute of Strategic
Studies.
The issue of corruption is also of extreme importance.
According to the Global Index of Corruption, Mexico is ranked 135 out of 180
countries evaluated regarding their approaches to tackle the problem.
The task
facing the new president therefore is monstrous. How can AMLO put an end to
these two problems that plague Mexico today, and Latin America as a whole?
AMLO intends to undertake 12 legal reforms, including an austerity plan that proposes reducing salaries, eliminating certain institutions and decentralising authority.
The Republican Austerity Plan
In an ambitious move that would reform the entire structure
of the state, AMLO intends to undertake 12 legal reforms, including an
austerity plan that proposes reducing salaries, eliminating certain institutions and
decentralising authority.
The idea is tackle the issue of salary gaps,
controlling public spending, and dealing with impunity that acts as feedstock
for corrupt officials.
Eliminating immunity and privileges
Article 108 of the Mexican Constitution prevents any
president from being put on trial for charges of corruption. Additionally, the
concept of immunity in Mexico prevents the likes of senators from being put on
trial during their terms in office.
One of the priorities of AMLO is to end
immunity and political privileges thus opening a path for government employees
to be punished for crimes relating to corruption whilst in office.
Increasing or reducing sentences
Neutralising the wave of violence that has torn through
Mexico is essential if AMLO is to govern with success. One of AMLO’s proposals
in an attempt to tackle violence is to change the focus from repression to
prevention, by promoting policies that deal with poverty and inequality as a
way to decrease violence.
A key element of this new policy would be the
decriminalisation of drugs, starting with marihuana. It is believed that the
war on drugs and clashes between different drug gangs are the main causes of
violent deaths in Mexico.
“Violence can’t be tackled with more violence” says AMLO.
These words show that his strategy could lead towards what he himself has
referred to as a “plan of peace and reconciliation”, including some amnesties.
There
are still many uncertainties regarding how, in practical terms, this would work
in which narco-violence is the rule of law.
With a left-wing government that wishes to place its citizens at the centre of its political pursuits, Mexico has a greater opportunity now more than ever to tackle corruption and violence.
Reducing gender based violence
Mexico is also at the top of the list of countries in which
femicide is most prevalent around the world. According to UN Women, there are
more than 7 femicides every day in Mexico, an alarming revelation that should
be a concern for the next government.
Entities such as the National Citizen
Observatory for Femicide have asked AMLO to declare his strategy to tackle this
terrible and cruel manifestation of hatred towards women and those who do not
conform to gender norms.
Mexico, whose GDP is among the 20 biggest in the world, is
affected by issues that plague the poorest countries of the world that have
been devastated by wars.
However, with a left-wing government that wishes to place
its citizens at the centre of its political pursuits, Mexico has a greater
opportunity now more than ever to tackle corruption and violence in a different
way from the two previous administrations that have only worsened these grave problems.
AMLO will have to prove from day one his capacity to live up
to the promises of his campaign and create true structural changes, making
violence and corruption eradication policies a reality with the world watching.
Will AMLO be the one to implement these changes that have been so eagerly
anticipated by Mexicans for decades?