"The New York Times is Unethical" / Asks People to Save Funds

The New York Times is famous but unethical. President López Obrador criticized foreign newspapers for reporting that the Mexican government is falling short in recording all COVID-19 infections and deaths. “The New York Times is a famous newspaper, but unethical,” he said and lamented that when the US outlet published on Thursday a feature criticizing his management of the pandemic, “conservatives, their spokesmen, journalists, corrupt politicians and organic intellectuals” unleashed a coordinated effort to disseminate it. “I think they even knew that the report was coming. The truth is that a transformation is taking place in Mexico and conservatives are upset,” he said.

Asks people to save funds. Funds given through support and loans by the government to the population to face the COVID-19 economic crisis must be used for savings, since this is one of the main lessons learned in the pandemic, President López Obrador said. “We need to promote the culture of saving, this is one of the lessons that the pandemic and the neoliberal model are teaching us,” he said.

Maya Train fifth section. The construction of the fifth section of the Maya Train will start next June, President López Obrador said. “This month, four contracts were awarded to four companies for building around 900 kilometers, from Palenque to Cancun. In mid-June, we are starting the fifth section from Cancun to Tulum and we still have two sections pending,” he said. The president announced that next week, FONATUR and Maya Train Director Rogelio Jiménez Pons will detail a report on the project.

Reactivation plan is next. President López Obrador reported that on Wednesday or Thursday his government will present the strategy to restart activities after the COVID-19 contingency. “We are presenting how are we going to return to normal, both territorially and within sectors,” he said, but warned that plans could change pending the evolution of the pandemic. The president said today he is meeting with health ministry members to discuss the gradual reactivation. He said that 25,000 health workers were hired before the health emergency.

Five percent of companies fail to comply. So far, 95 percent of companies are complying with health and safety measures, Minister of Labor (STPS) Luisa María Alcalde said. In her Monday report on companies that do not provide essential services, Alcalde detailed that companies that have refused to close are mostly in sales, repairs and maintenance of vehicles, retail stores and non-essential goods trade.

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Click HERE for full transcript in Spanish