Is AMLO losing the battle against COVID-19?

Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is being tested by the global Covid-19 pandemic. He was elected in part due to mounting frustration with slow economic growth, stark inequality, shocking levels of violence and a widespread perception that elected officials were more interested in abusing their power than in governing effectively. Once in office, however, Lopez Obrador has disappointed many of the people who previously supported him. He shows little interest in the details of policy-making and continues to campaign rather than make a serious effort to govern.

In 2020 he has ramped up his attacks on political rivals and critics in the media and insist that the overall dynamic of life is improving in Mexico. His favorite refrain is repeating that he has “other data” to support his views. Week by week, the evidence continues to mount that Lopez Obrador’s stubbornness and incompetence are killing tens of thousands of people in Mexico.

Mexico is doing limited testing to identify confirmed cases, but as of September 27, 2020 Mexico has recorded 76,430 officially confirmed Covid-19 deaths. The real toll could around three times higher. Throughout the course of 2020 I’ve been sharing news articles that document and explain Lopez Obrador’s track record during the Covid-19 pandemic.

On September 7, I tweeted this Wall Street Journal article which explains, “Mexico is running out of death certificates due to the high death toll brought by the coronavirus pandemic and federal bureaucratic snafus, delaying burials. The higher-than-normal deaths have caused a shortage of certificates in working-class communities of the country’s most populated state, the State of Mexico, as well as in Mexico City and Baja California state.”

On September 7, I also tweeted this Associated Press article which cites an Amnesty International report that flags Mexico as having the world’s highest number of health workers to die of Covid-19. The article explains, “Mexico had reported 1,320 confirmed COVID-19 deaths of health workers so far, surpassing the U.S. at 1,077, Britain at 649, and Brazil at 634.”Recommended For You

On September 8, I tweeted this article from Mexican newspaper El Universal which explains that the official tally of Covid-19 deaths in Mexico could vastly undercount the true impact of the virus. If “excess” deaths are included, the death toll could be as high as 190,000. The article explains that, “the official deaths due to Covid-19 reported by the Ministry of Health represent just a fraction of the real fatalities.”

On September 23, I tweeted this New York Times article which explains  the despite how hard Mexico’s economy has been hit by the virus, Lopez Obrador’s “Government spending to countervail the pandemic in Mexico is among the lowest in the world, and that will most likely condemn millions to sustained and, in the eyes of numerous economists, unnecessary struggles.” One resident in Mexico City explained that without help in the form of unemployment insurance or food aid, “It’s either go out there and face the virus, or sit here and starve.”

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