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Amlo heralds Mexico's new dawn with 7am presidential press conference Mexico's new president creates truth commission to investigate 43 missing students
(about 5 hours later)
Mexico’s newly inaugurated president has hit the ground running, with his pledge to govern as a common man and end decades of secrecy, heavy security and luxury enjoyed by past presidents. Mexico’s newly-inaugurated president Andrés Manuel López Obrador has ordered the creation of a truth commission to re-examine one of the country’s most notorious unsolved crimes: the kidnapping and presumed murder of 43 trainee teachers who disappeared after they were attacked by cartel gunmen and corrupt police officers.
Andrés Manuel López Obrador sported slightly ruffled hair at his first early morning news conference as president on Monday, which started at 7am local time. The president promised the commission will investigate all angles of the September 2014 attack in the city of Igualá, 185 km south of Mexico City, which targeted students from the Ayotzinapa college.
“Isn’t that a change, that I am here, informing you?” López Obrador asked reporters. While past presidents have very seldom held news conferences, López Obrador promised to do so on a near-daily basis, much as he did when he was mayor of Mexico City from 2000 to 2005. Students who survived Mexico’s night of bloody horror accuse army and police
The incident was one of the most infamous crimes committed during the government of López Obrador’s predecessor Enrique Peña Nieto, becoming a symbol of rampant impunity and injustice amid the country’s militarized war on organized crime.
Families of the missing students repeatedly expressed their frustration with the official investigation, which was based partly on confession obtained through torture, and which was not allowed to examine the activities of the Mexican army on the night of the attack.
“I assure you there’s not be impunity in this sad, painful case nor in any other,” López Obrador said at announcement in the National Palace.
“I hope that we will soon know the truth. That there’s justice and an example is set so never again human rights are violated in our country, so that no other Mexican suffers the disappearance of their children.”
Peña Nieto’s government attempted to enshrine an official version of the incident –described as the “historical truth” – which found that the missing students bodies were destroyed in a massive fire at a rubbish dump, but independent forensic experts found that there was no evidence to support that narrative.
On Monday María Martínez, mother of missing student Miguel Ángel Hernández Martínez, asked the president to “pull us from this garbage dump Enrique Peña Nieto left us in”.
López Obrador was sworn in Saturday in a ceremony rich in symbolism and long on promises. The man commonly called Amlo declared dead Mexico’s “neoliberal” era and spelled out a 100-point plan – everything from building trains and refinery to providing students with stipends to calming the country.
López Obrador also received the “staff of command” from Mexico’s indigenous communities, whose concerns, the president said, would come first.
He opened the former presidential palace Los Pinos to the public, where thousands poured in to watch his swearing in, stroll the gardens and tour the empty mansion in which López Obrador refuses to live.
López Obrador has made austerity his calling card. He travels in a chauffeured Volkswagen Jetta and takes commercial flights. The presidential aircraft, a Boeing 787, was flown out of the country Monday and will be put up for sale.
President Amlo takes power with vow to transform Mexico – but can he deliver?President Amlo takes power with vow to transform Mexico – but can he deliver?
López Obrador, known as Amlo, took his first airplane flight as president on Sunday, boarding a commercial aircraft with the rest of the passengers. He has promised to sell the presidential jet as an austerity measure. On Monday, he held his first early morning press conference at 7am, in keeping with his pledge to end decades of secrecy. “Isn’t that a change, that I am here, informing you?” López Obrador asked reporters.
López Obrador arrived at Mexico City’s National Palace in the same white compact car he used before taking office on Saturday. López Obrador refused the military bodyguards used by past presidents and travels with a small staff of aides who provide security. He usually travels tourist class. He started the practice as Mexico City mayor, allowing him to dominate TV and radio news – a moved compared by some to Donald Trump’s tendency to start each day with a barrage of tweets.
“I feel safe, protected and supported by the Mexican people,” López Obrador said. On Monday, the US president tweeted his congratulations to López Obrador, saying: “We will work well together for many years to come!”
He also claimed that the number of murders had declined on Saturday and Sunday, his first two days in office.
In the first 10 months of 2018, homicides in Mexico have run at an average of just over 80 per day.
But López Obrador said the average over the weekend was about 50, according to initial reports. He cautioned that those totals are preliminary and still under review.
The president and his staff said necessary work would continue to safeguard the foundations already built at the proposed new Mexico City airport project he plans to cancel in favor of expanding existing airports.
Officials have not determined what will be done with the vast foundations built on a former lakebed known as Texcoco. But some further work is needed to keep the slabs from decaying or sinking.
López Obrador has promised to protect investors who bought bonds to fund the construction, but on Monday the airport fund issued an auction offer to repurchase $6bn worth of the bonds at a price of 90 cents to $1 on the dollar of principal amounts, suggesting some bondholders may take a haircut.
Andrés Manuel López ObradorAndrés Manuel López Obrador
MexicoMexico
AmericasAmericas
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