‘Doing quite well’ on Promises / Progress in Ayotzinapa case

Reports on campaign promises. President López Obrador said there had been strong progress toward fulfilling all his government and campaign commitments, with positive results. “We are doing quite well despite the anger of conservatives,” he said. The president reviewed a list of 100 old and new commitments and said that most had been completed. “We are producing more oil, having stopped the decline in oil production. New deposits are being found and new reserves,” he said. Regarding CFE, the president stated that the plan that sought to dismantle the federal energy company has been stopped. “We want to strengthen hydroelectric plants,” he said. López Obrador added that in three years, “the problem of saturation of the airport system for the Mexico City metropolitan area will be solved once and for all,” because on March 21, 2022, the new Santa Lucia airport will be inaugurated.

MX$50 billion in savings from canceled trusts. President López Obrador said the federal government intends to save MX$50 billion (US$222 million) from the cancellation of several trusts. “The Ministry of Finance (SHCP) is going to collect, we calculate, about MX$50 billion that were handled without control, without any supervision,” he said. Among his 100 commitments, he highlighted “the cancellation of trusts or any other mechanism used to hide public funds and evade legality.” López Obrador said that his adversaries did not like this initiative, since they are “organic intellectuals or pseudoscientists” who cashed in from every trust, everywhere. “Of course, we are in favor of science; of course, we are in favor of culture. We are not in favor of privilege and corruption,” he said.

Ayotzinapa investigation progress. People under arrest in the case of the disappearance of 43 Ayotzinapa students can become protected witnesses because the pact of silence must be broken, President López Obrador said. “We want to allow detainees to become protected witnesses because there was a pact of silence, and they don’t speak about his. That pact of silence must be broken,” he said. After meeting last Saturday with parents of the students at the Palacio Nacional, six years after the students’ disappearance, the president said the investigation is progressing, noting that there are new arrest warrants and some detainees are already talking about what really happened. “I call on the detainees and their families to help us by unveiling truthful information about the events,” he said. On Saturday, López Obrador said arrest warrants will be executed against non-active Army officials.

Anticipates good news regarding presidential plane. President López Obrador said there will be good news regarding the presidential plane in a few days. “The presidential plane is for sale and I am going to report some good news in a few more days. The raffle has already raised about MX$2 billion and it is still going to be sold, and we're going to get another MX$2 billion,” he said. During his participation in last week UN’s general assembly, President López Obrador took advantage of the opportunity and announced that the luxury aircraft was still on sale, despite having been raffled.

Announces visit to Chihuahua. President López Obrador said that he will visit Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, to monitor the progress of federal programs in the state. “I am going to Chihuahua this weekend. I'm going to be in Ciudad Juárez on Friday,” he said without detailing the rest of the schedule. The president's visit occurs in the midst of a conflict over water in the state and rising tension with Gov. Javier Corral. The president’s last visit to Chihuahua was in January to announce stimulus programs.

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Click HERE for full transcript in Spanish