Mexico City, July 05, 2021
(At one of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's recent daily morning press conferences) the journalist, Jorge Ramos*, questioned the President (aka AMLO) as to whether his security strategy of "hugs instead of bullets" had failed. The president admitted that violence is not an easy problem to solve.
AMLO: "Of course it is not an easy matter. I already explained that it was a rotten fruit that we inherited," he defended."We have advanced. Now I have other data and I am not (living) in a bubble because I do not like self-deception. That belongs to demagogues and hypocrites. We have difficulty reducing the crime of homicide as much as we would like," he added.
Ramos: "You can't say that having 100 deaths a day is a success."
AMLO: "It is not that I am blaming the previous Presidents without reason, but you know very well, that in the public domain, the criminals were practically in charge of the police and this goes back a long time," the President argued..
Ramos: "What you present as a success and as an achievement isn't. In December 2018, your first month in office, there were 2,892 intentional homicides, and in May 2021, there were 2,963. There isn't any change."
AMLO: "If there is a change, I will give you other information."
Ramos: "The problem is that you present it as something positive and it isn't."
AMLO: "No, I'm going to give you the data for 2018; we don't agree on that, Jorge."
Ramos: "There are massacres, there are deaths, 3,000 a month."
AMLO: "Yes, but it's not the same, it's not the same. There are no longer massacres in the country," López Obrador claimed.
Ramos: "And how about Zacatecas (on June 23 seven persons were killed and seven injured) and Aguililla (in Michoacán, twenty-seven persons were massacred in early April)."
AMLO: "These are clashes between gangs, but they don't involve the State which was previously the main violator of human rights."
Ramos: "It is still your responsibility, Mr. President."
AMLO: "Yes, yes, and I work at it every day."
Ramos: "But there are no results."
AMLO: "Of course there are. I respect your point of view, but I don't share it."
Ramos: "These are the figures of your own government. I got them from your government."
AMLO: "I think they gave you the wrong figures. I have other data. We will give you the data. I recently reported for the first day in some time that we have had a decrease and I repeat that in the case of homicides it is a minimum of 3 percent."
Asked by Ramos about his responsibility in the deaths from Covid-19, the president said:
"But how can I not accept responsibility, if I am President of Mexico."
Ramos: "Are you telling me that the pandemic has been handled well?"
AMLO: "Yes, of course, it has been, and better than in other countries."
Ramos: "But you are saying that we are doing well when in reality, with so many deaths, how can you say that to the families of the victims?"
AMLO: "I don't agree with you. I respect what you say, but I don't share it and I feel that to question our government is a matter of self-interest, of bias. There is no problem and we have a clear conscience," said the chief executive.
When Ramos pointed out that Mexico is the country in the world with the fourth-most deaths during the pandemic and that it has been reported that there are many more deceased, the President defended his strategy.
AMLO: "Mexico ranks sixth. It is in sixth place. Peru has the most in Latin America, Brazil is second, Colombia third, Argentina fourth, Paraguay fifth and Mexico sixth,"López Obrador said in defense.
*Jorge Ramos is a Mexican-American journalist and author. He is regarded as the best-known Spanish-language news anchor in the United States. Based in Miami, Florida, he anchors the Univision news television program Noticiero Univision, the Univision Sunday-morning political news program Al Punto and the Fusion TV English-language program America with Jorge Ramos. He has won ten Emmy Awards and the Maria Moors Cabot Prize for excellence in journalism. He has also been included on Time magazine's list of "The World's Most Influential People".