Protection for Candidates/ NAIM Controversy

Plan to protect candidates in the June elections. Minister of Security and Citizen Protection (SSPC) Rosa Icela Rodríguez presented the plan for the nationwide June elections that seeks to protect candidates from political violence. Rodríguez explained that from September 2020 to February 2021, the ministry has registered 73 crimes of political violence, of which 64 were homicides, concentrated mainly in Oaxaca, Guanajuato, Veracruz, Guerrero, Morelos, Baja California and Jalisco.  

Due to the presence of political crimes, the SSPC calls on political parties and authorities to ensure that candidates meet the requirements to be elected. Rodríguez explained there will be working groups established by the Ministry of the Interior (SEGOB), SSPC, political parties and prosecutors to identify possible candidates linked to criminal groups. The plan also includes the armed forces providing security for threatened candidates and SSPC’s territorial protocols that will be evaluated each week. "This review is not only used for this follow-up but for concrete actions. It is clear, as the president said, that the criminal element was inherited, and we will not allow them to decide or threaten the elections. We will do whatever it takes to protect the candidates," Rodríguez said.

Protection for candidates not mandatory. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador applauded SSPC’s plan to protect candidates in the elections and guarantee the right of Mexicans to have free and reliable elections. “There will be protection. We are talking to governors to ensure that there is joint action to protect everyone, especially candidates for municipalities. The protection must be accepted by the candidates because there cannot be a mandatory interference in an electoral process,” López Obrador said. In addition, López Obrador explained that the new plan would be carried out under the instructions of electoral organisms and the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH).

SEDATU focuses on the center and south of Mexico. Minister of Agrarian, Territorial and Urban Development (SEDATU) Román Meyer Falcón announced that during López Obrador’ government, 852 works have been carried out, which are part of the urban improvement programs. These works have generated 300,000 jobs, 196,000 shared homes, 10,000 three-year regularizations and 5 million beneficiaries. Meyer explained that in 2020, SEDATU’s strategy changed and that now the programs are focused on the central and southern areas of the country. “This year, the program seeks to improve the quality of life of the population in the most marginalized neighborhoods. It is our central point, providing them with facilities that they have never had, such as parks, schools, fire stations and police stations,” Meyer said.

INFONAVIT has reduced the debt of more than 1.7 million workers. Director of the Institute of the National Housing Fund for Workers (INFONAVIT) Carlos Martínez explained that the institution has reduced the debt of more than 1.7 million workers since 2019 and that "in 2021, we expect to improve these figures. Since December, we have registered increases in construction and loan placement." Martínez emphasized that the reform of the INFONAVIT Law was made for the benefit of workers and that the government seeks to provide financing with total freedom, directly and without intermediaries. The new law was approved in December 2020, giving INFONAVIT 120 days to establish the new regulations of the program. Among the new benefits is that workers have access to new types of financing, they can buy land for progressive construction and there will be the opportunity to access the savings of the Housing Subaccount. In addition, those citizens who are not currently on the list but have savings in their account can use this resource to obtain credit.

NAIM controversy could have been planned from below. López Obrador said that the initial report from the Superior Prosecutor's Office of the Federation (ASF) on the alleged cost of the cancellation of the New Mexico International Airport (NAIM) could have been made from below. "I do not rule out that what happened to the ASF was planned from below. There are people who come from behind and that the auditor did not review properly. I cannot guarantee that he acted in bad faith, and at the end, they scored a goal on him, as we say colloquially." As a result, López Obrador said that his government must ensure that no crime has been committed and emphasized that transparency is a priority, especially when there are crimes in which public officials are involved.

Click HERE for full transcript in Spanish