Reforma, Mexico City, December 22, 2022
Manuel J. Jauregui
In economic terms, the six-year term of the Lopez Obrador administration that going by is equivalent to a six-year term that is being wasted. It is certainly news that we Mexicans do not want to hear on the eve of Christmas 2022.
At the end of this administration, [on December 1, 2024], the size of our economy will be just slightly larger than what López Obrador received in 2018. Stuck in the mire of mistrust towards his government, he has barely managed to improve a few centimeters in an immense quagmire of delays.
Not growing implies many negative things, the most important being that, with millions of new workers entering the job market every year, the unemployment/underemployment rate remains high. Without work, around 5 million Mexicans enter the basement of poverty each year. Deficiencies, needs, poverty and, with it, despair grow.
With lower income dispersed in the population, the demand for goods and services is reduced, which reduces the strength of companies, reduces their investment capacity, and their contribution to the well-being of society. When reviewing the CAUSES of this mediocre performance in the economic field, the effects of the PANDEMIC must be pointed out: the 8.5 percent contraction in our GDP has been a tremendous blow.
Could our government have done anything to lessen the blow? Yes, of course, by implementing incentives of all kinds, from [reducing] taxes and bureaucratic paperwork to providing credit and incentives. But it decided not to do it. However, while the lack of pandemic and post-pandemic support may be the most important contributor, it is not the ONLY one.
The HOSTILE climate for investment and entrepreneurship deployed by the Government has greatly harmed economic performance. López Obrador has insulted and described foreign and national companies -without any proof or reason- as "thieves". Constantly, he expresses disdain for business, displaying a communist attitude towards concepts such as "profits", treating them as something reprehensible, instead of considering them as a stimulus to efficiency, productivity, and competitiveness.
He has declared a bureaucratic war by his government against clean energy and against those who invested in this advanced field [MV Note: by making the "tramites", procedures for gaining permits, so complex as to be virtually impossible to complete]. He has canceled contracts for energy production with private companies- which is vile looting, nationalized lithium production, entrenched himself in the monopolization of [the energy market by] Pemex [government-owned oil company] and the CFE [Federal Electricity Commission], and has failed to contain inflation with his Plan that threatens producers and distributors instead of balancing supply with demand.
He has generated tremendous DISTRUST by trampling on laws and/or changing them when it is not convenient for him. He does not show respect for rules or concepts related to checks and balances, which are the basis of any democracy. He forgets something very basic and necessary: in a democracy the power of the rulers is LIMITED, it is not absolute.
And in addition to the HOSTILE climate for business, business and productive activity in Mexico are carried out in a CLIMATE of INSECURITY and VIOLENCE that, whatever they say and whatever they do, they cannot control. Let us add to this the incessant march towards the MILITARIZATION of the Country, with the consequent WEAKENING of our CIVIC institutions that have been displaced in their functions by the military. [MV Note: The military is used now, not only to "fight the drug war", but also to build railroads and airports and then operate them.]
This militarization is ...an inclination towards absolutism, which is far from conducive to trust. Without trust, there can be no investment and without investment, economic growth becomes impossible.
The numbers for economic growth for this administration (0.3% per year to 2024) highlight, therefore, the...concatenation of factors, almost all attributable to bad government, to one more concerned with CONTROLLING and CONCENTRATING power in the hands of Mr. López Obrador than in raising the standard of living of Mexicans.
Mr. López Obrador is close to completing a THOUSAND "MORNING NEWS CONFERENCES", in which he has dedicated himself predominantly to DESTROYING instead of BUILDING, in ATTACKING those who disagree with him, and not in proposing concrete plans to promote the progress of Mexico.
The paradox is that he does not realize that he has generated a circle of perpetual criticism: no one in his right mind can condone his aggressiveness, harshness, and bellicose attitude. He, himself, generates the criticism that annoys him and feeds his perennial WRATH. When will this vicious circle be broken?