Revocation Mandate Collects 10 Million Signatures

Calm Christmas. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador resumed his daily briefings after a short break to celebrate the holidays. He wished viewers a Merry Christmas and noted that unlike the previous year, there was no noteworthy increase in COVID cases over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Last year, Christmas celebrations led to the highest number of COVID-19 infections the country had seen by that time in the pandemic.

Omicron cases. López Obrador addressed the highly contagious omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus that has led to the highest number of infections since the start of the pandemic in several countries, including the US. This has not been the case for Mexico, the president said, as overall cases in the country remain low even though the variant has been confirmed in Mexico.

Deer Park. López Obrador defended the country’s purchase of the Deer Park refinery in the face of criticism regarding the continued use of fossil fuels over renewable energy sources. López Obrador said he was not opposed to the increased use of renewable energy but explained that the transition to sustainability will be slow and take a long time. As a result, it made sense for Mexico to purchase the Deer Park refinery in Texas. The purchase is expected to be completed in January. “We have the resources for that, meaning the budget, because of savings from last year and setting money aside for the purchase of the refinery … I can say that it will be liquidated in January. In January this operation will close,” López Obrador said.

Revocation of Mandate. Despite budgetary challenges and controversy, 10 million signatures have been collected in favor of the mandate revocation process. The signatures now await authentication from  the National Electoral Institute (INE) for the process to continue. The president also called INE’s opposition to the referendum a mistake that should be rectified as it was “antidemocratic” to oppose a constitutional mandate. “I think they committed a mistake and they should recognize it … In politics, you must know how to rectify and not fall into self-indulgence and hold onto things. The court has decided to continue with the process for a mandate revocation, let it be fulfilled, because it is established by the Constitution, the law of laws,” López Obrador said.