Details on Electoral Reform/Ayotzinapa case

Tulum airport. Due to the increasing traffic at the Cancun International Airport, a new airport will be opened near Tulum to reduce saturation. President López Obrador informed that currently the International Airport in Cancun runs between 500 and 600 daily operations and that the new airport plans to welcome additional tourists since the region is expected to develop even more in the coming years.

The New Airport will be located in the Felipe Carrillo Puerto municipality near Tulum and military engineers will be in charge of its construction together with sections 6 and 7 of the Mayan Train. The president reported 80 military engineers will arrive at the Yucatan Peninsula today joining 75 additional military personnel that arrived there on Saturday to start the project´s construction.

Ayotzinapa case. New findings in the case report the Navy manipulated the crime scene in Ayotzinapa. On Monday, the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) presented its third report of investigations on the case. The GIEI presented a video where one can see the marines altering the scene in a trash dump in Cocula.

AMLO has denied the involvement of the current Minster of the Navy, José Rafael Ojeda, in the matter since he was working as naval chief in Acapulco, Guerrero when the abductions occured. Moreover, the president did not respond if former president Enrique Peña Nieto will have to declare for the case and said that it will depend on Omar Gómez, Head of the Investigation and Litigation Unit of the Ayotzinapa Case.

In 2014, during Enrique Peña Nieto’s administration, 43 students disappeared in Iguala, Guerrero and the government reported they were murdered and calcined by the United Warriors Cartel in a dump in Cocula. According to the previous government, it was the Iguala police who handed over the students to the criminal group. Nevertheless, since the reopening of the case with López Obrador’s administration new findings incriminating Enrique Peña Nieto’s government are popping up. 

Electoral Reform. President López Obrador further explained that the electoral reform he is promoting plans to eliminate local electoral bodies, reduce the number of legislators as well as the budget for the National Electoral Institute (INE) and other political parties. In that sense, AMLO is proposing to replace the INE and avoid higher spending. Moreover, he detailed that the proposal will help eliminate the idea of the institutions having to be at the hands of the political elite.

Since López Obrador took office in 2018, he has insisted on the need to remove corruption from the INE and the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Power of the Federation (TEPJF) and transform them into true autonomous and democratic institutions. López Obrador said that since the current electoral bodies have failed in their democratic duties, he will send a proposal to Congress to change its members and configuration.

Click HERE for full transcript in Spanish