Electricity Sector Reform Paused/Minimum Wage Hike

Death from COVID-19 vaccine? President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said that yesterday a person in Hidalgo had died but not from complications related to a COVID-19 vaccine, as had been alleged. “Yesterday, there was an unfortunate case in Hidalgo where a person died after the vaccine was applied. (Some people) believed it was related to the vaccine. Studies are already being carried out with specialists and apparently there is no relationship between the vaccine and the death,” López Obrador said. He also highlighted the rate of the vaccination campaign. “On average, we are going to vaccinate 200,000 to 300,000 people a day.”

Electricity reform. AMLO said his administration was not trying to change the Energy Reform, after a federal judge stopped the application of the recently passed electricity industry law, saying that it could damage free competition in the electricity sector. “We are not canceling the Energy Reform, we are trying to remove the sharpest edges from that reform, what causes the most harm,” López Obrador said. “Companies can continue doing business, but with reasonable profits, that they do not come to steal.”

Minimum wage hike. López Obrador said that he plans to continue increasing the minimum wage and pensions. “I am thinking that the minimum wage will continue to increase because the lag is great. It can be resolved through an agreement, a law, an increase in pensions. We are just going to do it gradually.” The idea is to introduce a law that mandates continued increases.

Lula da Silva. López Obrador applauded Brazil’s decision to annul a guilty verdict against former President Luiz Lula da Silva. “He faced a whole campaign against him and against the movement he represented, so I do celebrate that the authorities of that country have exonerated and cleared former President Lula of guilt and I hope that he and all the social leaders of the world move ahead. Do not stop fighting.” Da Silva was convicted in 2017 of corruption and money laundering related to the state-run Petrobras oil company.

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Click HERE for full transcript in Spanish