[Mexico] AMLO restates his focus on poverty, battling corruption

from El Universal

BY KELLY ARTHUR GARRETT

As though to change the channel from ongoing raucous controversies about his opponents´ attack ads and his own refusal to join the first candidates debate, presidential front-runner Andrés Manuel López Obrador spent Tuesday morning attending a relatively somber policy forum, where he reiterated his proposal to focus government policy on attacking poverty and corruption.

"Corruption in Mexico has been the fundamental cause of social and economic inequality," he told a gathering at Mexico City´s Polyforum Cultural Siqueiros. "Other factors enter into it of course, but this monstrous inequality we are suffering has to do with the corruption that´s reigned for so long in our country."

The forum on "Equality and Well-Being" was organized by the Consulting Council for an Alternative National Project, a group run by Party of the Democratic Revolution co-founder Porfirio Muñoz Ledo and closely identified with the López Obrador campaign.

Some two dozen academics representing various disciplines filled two hours with public policy commentary before the candidate spoke. Economist Rolando Cordera, who did postgraduate work at the London School of Economics, may have summed up the thrust of the discussion when he said, "Inequality has evolved into a kind of culture in Mexico, and that has to change."

When López Obrador took the mike, he went straight into the campaign themes that have been buried in recent days by charges from the National Action Party (PAN) that his candidacy has received support from Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, and that the Federal District was thrown into deep debt during his leadership from 2003 to 2005. The charges have not been proven.

PAN ads have repeatedly called López Obrador "a threat to Mexico." That tactic has stirred a backlash from numerous Mexican intellectuals, including writers Carlos Monsiváis and Elena Poniatowska, herself a target of PAN barbs because of her support for López Obrador.

"This election comes down to a dispute between two opposing projects," the PRD candidate told the forum. "In a very pronounced way in recent years, the government has become a service committee for a minority, an instrument for maintaining and increasing privileges for that minority. What we want is a government that represents all Mexicans."

The current migration crisis, López Obrador said, is a direct result of the misplaced priorities of the current PAN administration, and its immediate Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) predecessors. "It didn´t used to be so difficult to get ahead in Mexico," he said. "Now it´s impossible. The only option unfortunately is to emigrate, to abandon the country in order to get ahead."

On another current issue, López Obrador also obliquely criticized the Fox administration´s role in the recent removal of the head of the miners union.

"The government can´t interfere in the internal affairs of unions," he said. "At the same time, an atmosphere must be created that guarantees democratic unions. It´s unacceptable that unions still exist that don´t respect workers´ right to a secret vote."

Even with the forum´s emphasis on pure policy discussion, the candidate couldn´t escape addressing recent polls that show a slight dip in his lead, as well as the possibility that an empty chair will be placed on the debate floor on Tuesday in his absence.

Swarmed by reporters after his speech, López Obrador downplayed the debate controversy. "After saying I´m a danger to Mexico, whether there´s an empty seat or not is a minor matter," he said. "They´re free to do whatever they think is convenient. I´ll be at the June 6 debate."

He also brushed off PAN claims that new polls can be interpreted as revealing a virtual tie between him and Felipe Calderón, which would be a major comedown for the PRD candidate who has been leading the polls for three years.

"It´s all marketing," López Obrador said of the PAN claims. "We´re doing fine, a good eight or 10 points ahead."