These are the comments made by presidents of different countries in relation to the situation with the global pandemic of Covid-19:
Germany: We will do whatever it takes.
France: We are at war, not against another nation or against another army; it is a health war.
Spain: The enemy is the virus. I call for political and citizen unity. A pandemic does not distinguish colors or ideas, and must be fought by everyone.
Colombia: It is the greatest challenge for humanity in recent times.
Israel: The coronavirus joins the deadly epidemics that have plagued humanity. The black plague, cholera and Spanish smallpox.
Italy: We can be separated by a door, a balcony or a street. But nothing and nobody will be able to separate our hearts.
Mexico: “This came to us like a ring on the finger.”
In Mexico, health authorities reported on April 2 more than 1,500 confirmed cases of coronavirus, and 50 deaths.
Also on that date, Mexico’s businessmen met with President López Obrador at the National Palace to try to convince him to grant the necessary economic support, that could save the jobs generated by micro, small and medium-sized companies.
Lopez Obrador already said that there will be absolutely no fiscal help or stimulus from the Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit (Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público), for Mexican businessmen.
In every other country in the world, their presidents and prime ministers are concerned about the health of their people and about the future in which their economy will be affected by the unforeseen economic catastrophe that will end thousands of small businesses, and that’s why they are willing to grant support to preserve millions of jobs.
But the reaction of President López Obrador to the health and economic contingency that is already affecting Mexico is different, he is actually happy about the situation, and in his daily morning press conference he expressed his conviction:
“We are going to get over this. Yesterday I used the term ‘transitory crisis’ for the first time. This is not going to take long, we are going to be strengthened. And we are going to be strengthened because nobody will make us change in our purpose of ending corruption in our country. ”
“That is why we are going to be strengthened, in fact, this situation came to us “like a ring to the finger” (“como anillo al dedo”, is an expression used in Mexico to indicate that something coincides with something else with a high degree of accuracy), this situation will help us to strengthen the purpose of the 4th transformation.”
“The people of Mexico are extraordinary. I want to thank the people very much … because they’re complying with the social distancing measures that were established to avoid more infections. The people are behaving 100% [as they should], they’re showing that the people of Mexico are sensible, not irresponsible,” AMLO added.
It is a fact that AMLO is seeing this terrible situation from the point of view of a politician who only has in mind the consolidation of his personal project. It is the opportunity that circumstances offer him to broaden his electoral base and that is why, what everybody see as a crisis, he sees it as an opportunity.
It is the opportunity to bankrupt thousands of SMEs in Mexico, and the perfect time for the state to take control of the situation. This places Mexico in a similar position to that of Venezuela. Crushing the business sector and allowing the state to take over the country (we all know what is the current situation of that South American country).
This pandemic can leave Mexico with 82 million people in poverty, which AMLO considers good (as incredible as it sounds), since he feels that he will be able to control the population more easily, most likely get reelected, and consolidate what he calls the Fourth Transformation.
The Yucatan TimesNewsroom
