From The Office Of The President
Flying high with AMLO
I promise you, this newsletter is not 100% focused on politics. My last 2 articles might suggest otherwise, as will this one. But the political news is flying fast and loose out of Mexico, and I wouldn't want to deny my readers one bit of these juicy morsels. So without further ado, here are three (count them, three) updates from and/or concerning Mexico's president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO, colloquially).
Maybe Plan Z?
I wrote a few months back about AMLO's plan to majorly overhaul and de-fund Mexico's government institution that oversees and runs federal elections, the Instituto Nacional Electoral (INE). This plan was referred to by AMLO as "Plan B", and if you are not familiar with this plan, I encourage you to go back and read that previous article. Well, as expected, Mexico's Supreme Court has struck down several provisions of Plan B - namely, the provisions dealing with limiting INE's responsibilities and its capacity to regulate and sanction political communication.
9 of the 11 justices on the Supreme Court concluded that these changes would have violated constitutional principles of "informed and democratic deliberation", as well as the rights of parliamentary minorities (AMLO's party - Morena - is the majority parliamentary party at the moment).
AMLO's response? "Plan C is coming".
Bye, bye Birdie
When AMLO was elected president in 2018, he promised to sell Mexico's opulent Presidential Plane - a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner. This aircraft was ordered and purchased by former president Felipe Calderón, and was also used by AMLO's immediate predecessor, Enrique Peña Nieto.
AMLO has characterized this jet as an example of the excesses of previous administrations, and as an unjustified burden on Mexico's taxpayers. AMLO has also pointed out that a 787 - which is designed for intercontinental travel - is overkill for Mexico's presidential travel, which primarily occurs within the borders of Mexico. When AMLO travels by plane, he takes regularly scheduled commercial flights.
Spending five years of his six year term trying to find a buyer for the presidential plane (he has tried to sell it to Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and Kamala Harris; he once even proposed raffling it off), he was unable to find anyone interested in the luxury craft. Until this week, when AMLO announced that the government of Tajikistan has purchased the plane for 92 million USD. AMLO announced that some of the proceeds from the sale will go toward the construction of two new hospitals, one in the state of Guerrero, and one in Oaxaca.
Mexico's former presidential plane took off from an airfield in San Bernardino, California - where it was being stored while on the auction block - and landed in the capital of Tajikistan on Monday morning.
A fancy Boeing jet for 2 hospitals in 2 of Mexico's poorest states? Sounds like a good trade to me.
Investing in the future, a pretty good idea unless you're from the U.S.
I recently read a well-researched article about how the United States has been systematically de-investing in public education since the Reagan administration. Some of the biggest losers in this de-investment have been the various forms of student financial aid that U.S. citizens had enjoyed since the G.I. Bill. The engine of the unprecedented economic and technological growth that has catapulted the U.S. into its worldwide leadership role was built by the hands of generations of people who benefited from a state-funded education. But the federal government has taken a hatchet to financial aid, and newer generations of U.S. students have either been discouraged from attending public universities due to the cost burden, or have been saddled with life-crushing debt having borrowed against that cost in order to educate themselves. Public grade schools have similarly been de-funded by an almost ghoulish belief held by conservative politicians that the state should not have to shoulder the cost of "liberal" education. The problem, of course, is that an uneducated public is a divestment in the future of the United States. The U.S. is becoming weaker in science and technology due to the ideological clown show that U.S. governance has become.
Contrast this with Mexico. On Mexico's Teachers Day this last Monday (May 15), AMLO announced an 8.2% salary increase for Mexico's K-12 teachers - a raise that is effective retroactively from January of 2023. AMLO rightly stated that this pay raise is "not an expense, but an investment".
And that's not all. AMLO also announced improved pensions for teachers, as well as improved access to healthcare for Mexico's teachers and other state workers. AMLO called out the recent economic growth in Mexico and vowed that these successes would translate into better pay for Mexico's state workers.
Mexico is bullish on education. In contrast, it is somewhat alarming to witness the rather bearish stance the U.S. is taking.
So in NBA terms, Mexico has sold off the player that was taking up too much space in the salary cap (the plane), in exchange for two future prospects (the hospitals) who could help the team in it's rebuild era? Yep definitley sounds like a good trade!
When I saw the title, I thought this was a dispatch from the Office of The President of Mexico Listo, the venerated Señor Mike Leavy. Which it is, I suppose as well as news from the office of AMLO. Good job on the doble sentido.
Yes, education. So important and I'm glad Mexico is taking it seriously and viewing the costs associated with it as an investment. As you mention, the states are taking a different approach and have been chopping away at the concept for decades. An informed and educated populace might not put the clowns back in charge, I suppose.
I don't know how you keep up on all these things, Mike, but I'm glad you do. Now that the plane promise has been fulfilled, I wonder how long until the federal highways lose their toll booths, another promise, or was that a wishful thinking rumor?