The New Mexican Reality for Landau's Appointment
Opinion
As the new incoming US ambassador to Mexico was confirmed by the Mexican authorities (March 19th) in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Christopher Landau will begin his mandate in Mexico with a bright future and many opportunities for those interested in bilateral engagements with the United States. This 55 years old, born in Madrid to the former US Amb. George Landau to Chile, Paraguay, and Venezuela, Landau is an experienced appeals lawyer who was secretary of two conservative judges of the Supreme Court. Yet with no diplomatic experience; however, he studied Latin America at Harvard and speaks Spanish, Landau arrives to Mexico in a critical juncture in democratic politics of the country.
Just after 100 days in office, the current president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, known as AMLO, has an approval rating wavering between 70 to 80%. Representing a new political party MORENA, his election in 2018 represented a moment of change for Mexican politics of the old vanguard Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) which governed the country for 80 years. This is the first time a repressive of the left is in power in over 100 years. Voting on the need for anti-corruption and promoting a new series of transparency initiatives, the electorate sought to elect a president to change the dynamics of the Mexican political system. AMLO has met his promise of honesty and transparency by opening media coverage, where he presents morning discussions for one hour every day regarding his point of view on public policy and policy initiatives. Often these discussions present contradictions from technical realities met by political appointees, AMLO risks over sharing policy strategies before developed and disclosure to the public. Similar to Trump creating a deaf ear to the masses and heavy criticisms of disorganization among the policy elites.
Regardless, the 100 days mark many accomplishments for the president who has met nearly all of his campaign promises. To list a few: closing the airport and paying bondholders fair share for an over-budgeted initiative; opening the Mexican White House and bureaucratic facilities Los Pino's to become a public park and museum for the masses; creating legislation to provide new powers for the military to fight off the drug lords and criminal illegal activities associated with the drug trade; closing the oil ducks which were being used by criminals to steal of oil from the pipelines; minimizing excess expenditures of the state by eliminating at least one undersecretary in all federal agencies; creating new public management reforms like issuing social expenditures go directly to beneficiaries.
With very populist sentiments, AMLO has created a nervous elite because current reforms and dialogue have dislocated their political power from the authority of the state while creating new opportunities for the poor to participate. Critics should be more concerned over the policy content that will be presented in the Economic Development Plan which should come out later next month. This document is created every six years by each New Mexican administration to present policy opportunities in health, education, sustainability, energy, climate, gender, fiscal and monetary policy.
There are legitimate concerns over the concentration of absolute power with a majority in national congress and most gubernatorial races, AMLO has also initiated a few illegal popular referendums for issues such as the airport, train Maya, and current abjection of immunity of past presidents. He has also highlighted names of opposition leaders including academics and highlighting NGO leaders in the morning sessions. But the initiative to eradicate welfare recipients from social, civil and nongovernmental organizations and critique evaluators for social policy who defacto validated public spending is laudable. While the economic forecasts for Mexico are bright, what is lacking with the new president is understanding what the public policy initiatives and proposals will be created, disseminated and implemented in this new administration and how the US can join this crusade. For the American people, Mexico is following the mandate established by the Mexican population which should be respected, endorsed and praised.
Heidi Jane Smith, Economics Professor and Public Policy Coordinator at the Universidad Iberoamericana (Mexico City)
