Mexico new president vows to end ‘rapacious’ elite in first speech

Monday, 3 December 2018 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Mexico’s new President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (with presidential sash) delivers a speech during his inauguration ceremony at Congress, in Mexico City, Mexico 1 December - Reuters

MEXICO CITY (Reuters): Veteran leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took office as Mexican president on Saturday, vowing to see off a “rapacious” elite in a country struggling with corruption, chronic poverty and gang violence on the doorstep of the United States.

Backed by a gigantic Mexican flag, the 65-year-old took the oath of office in the lower house of Congress, pledging to bring about a “radical” rebirth of Mexico to overturn what he called a disastrous legacy of decades of “neo-liberal” governments.

“The government will no longer be a committee at the service of a rapacious minority,” said the new president, who is often nicknamed AMLO. Nor would the government, he said, be a “simple facilitator of pillaging, as it has been.” Lopez Obrador later addressed a massive crowd of supporters in the heart of the capital, promising to put Mexico’s sizeable indigenous minority first in his drive to root out inequality. A major challenge facing the new leader is managing relations with Mexico’s top trading partner, the United States, after repeated broadsides by President Donald Trump against Mexico over illegal immigrants crossing the US border.

Lopez Obrador repeated he was seeking to contain migration through a deal with Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to foster development in Central America and Mexico.

The first leftist to take office in Mexico in a generation also tried to reassure business after markets slumped since the 1 July election on worries about his policies, including the abrupt cancellation of a $ 13 billion new Mexico City airport.

Lopez Obrador reiterated investments in the country of 130 million people would be safe, and pledged to respect central bank independence. Saying his government would make savings by stopping losses from the public purse into the “sewer of corruption,” he promised not to raise national debt or taxes.

But he promised higher wages for the poor and zero tolerance for corruption in his administration.

And in a reference to one of his heroes, the 19th-century Mexican President Benito Juarez, who separated the church and the state, Lopez Obrador said his government would ensure a divide between economic and political power in the country.