Electrical Reform Faces Resistance/Revocation of Mandate

Opposition groups against electrical reform. President López Obrador assured that despite the “Va Por México” coalition announcement that it will vote against the electrical reform, not all opposition legislators are against its approval. Consequently, López Obrador once again promoted legislators to vote freely and for opposition parties to stop manipulating their deputies.

Yesterday, the Va Por México coalition, made up of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the National Action Party (PAN) and the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), announced they will reject López Obrador's electrical reform, which seeks to guarantee the country's energy security and control costs by handing over 56 percent of the country's energy market to the CFE. The coalition say this reform is destructive, regressive and pollutes the environment. In addition, the coalition announced it will propose a new reform that will strengthen the CFE, but will also privilege the generation of green energy.

The revocation of mandate referendum will be held on Sunday. López Obrador said he will participate as a citizen in the revocation of mandate referendum but explained he cannot vote to remain in power or to exit the government. “On Sunday I am going to vote to set an example for Mexican citizens. However, legally I cannot choose either of the two options. But I still want to go vote, because it is my right and it is always important to participate in relevant events.”

On January, Mexico’s National Electoral Institute (INE) received the 2.75 million signatures necessary to hold the country’s first Mandate Revocation survey in history. In this survey, the Mexican people will be asked on April 10 if they want López Obrador to leave or remain in office until the end of his six-year term in 2024. 

COVID-19 infections decrease. Deputy Minister of Health Hugo López-Gatell announced that for the tenth consecutive week, COVID-19 contagions have dropped throughout the country.  In addition, López-Gatell stressed that the fourth wave is reaching its final stage. However, he asked to continue respecting sanitary measures. “Now that the fourth wave is coming to an end, we must not forget the damage it caused and how difficult it was to face it. We have to continue to protect ourselves as more contagion waves could hit the country.”

The Ministry of Health reported that 12 deaths and 706 infections were registered yesterday, bringing the total number of infections to 5,666,921 and death toll stands at 323,235. Regarding vaccinations, the Ministry reported that 193,181,499 million doses have been administered and approximately 85,627,717 million people have been vaccinated, representing 93 percent of Mexico´s adult population.

Patria vaccine shows promising results. López-Gatell said the results of Phase 1 of the Mexican COVID-19 vaccine called Patria have been very promising, for which he expects Phase 2 will have the same success. “The investigation of the Mexican vaccine is making great progress. The results are very promising. It is a vaccine that develops high levels of immunity in a very short time, proving to be superior than other vaccines that have been implemented in Mexico”

According to CONACYT, Phase 1 clinical trials of the Patria vaccine have shown it produces an effective response and cellular immunity against COVID-19. Furthermore, the clinical study in humans, which was carried out between 2020-2021, showed that it is a safe vaccine with few adverse effects. So far, CONACYT has not announced how long the Phase 2 clinical studies will last or when it plans to enter Phase 3.