8M Women’s protest/Oil prices in Mexico will not change

The president congratulates women for having a peaceful protest. AMLO congratulated the women for peacefully carrying out the march during International Women’s Day, although he admitted that there were some unfortunate incidents. Moreover, he assured that the right to protest was guaranteed all over the country. “There was no repression,” he said.

The president thanked women who served as Police, National Guard, the Army and the Marines that helped “avoid confrontations.” In addition, he appreciated the fact that most of the protests were peaceful instead of violent ones and congratulated “all the women that fight for this cause to eradicate abuse and feminicides. It was a numerous, orderly and peaceful national protest.”

Yesterday, feminist groups marched across Mexico demanding to stop gender violence. This year, approximately 75,000 protesters marched in Mexico City . During López Obrador’s government, violence towards women has increased. Last year, Mexico reported the highest number of femicides and rapes with 1,006 and 21,188 respectively. Currently, the country has an average of 10.5 and 11 feminicides per day. Of all femicides, only one out of 10 is reported to the authorities. Of those reported, 95 percent go unpunished, while only 2 percent of the perpetrators end in prison.

Another plane to be sent to Ukraine. Today, a Mexican military plane will be sent to Romania in order to evacuate more Mexicans and Latin-Americans that seek to escape the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. López Obrador commented that his government will collaborate to help refugees. Food and humanitarian help will be sent to people in camps.

Furthermore, López Obrador did not discard the possibility of sending a rescue plane to Russia with the intention of bringing back additional Mexican nationals and reiterated that weapons will not be sent to Ukraine.

Approximately two weeks ago, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said that Mexican citizens and Mexican-Ukrainian families had arrived safely in Mexico from war-torn Ukraine and that, if necessary, more planes would be sent to bring more families back.

Mexican oil prices will not be affected. After US President Joe Biden´s announcement regarding the official prohibition of importing Russian oil and increasing sanctions against the country, President López Obrador said the decision will not affect Mexico’s energy supply.

The Mexican president said the government is preparing a plan in case oil prices increase in an effort to keep electricity production and avoid an increase in the cost of gasoline. “It will not affect us because we have a positive balance between the increase of oil crude prices and the increase of gasoline, since the beginning of our government we have been investing in exploration and well drilling.”

Moreover, the president commented that PEMEX discovered oilfields with “a lot of potential.” Nevertheless, he explained that extraction will not pass the 2 Mb/d, since they are looking to administer the resource because it is considered “an inheritance for future generations.” 

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Click HERE for full transcript in Spanish