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Lopez Obrador Proposes Trillion-Dollar World Plan for 'Fellowship and Well-Being'

November 10, 2021

Mexico News Daily

President Lopez Obrador addressing the UN Security Council's meeting on exclusion, inequality and conflict, November 10, 2021

 

López Obrador proposes trillion-dollar world plan for ‘fellowship and well-being’

The president told the UN Security Council that his global poverty relief initiative would help 750 million people

Mexico News Daily, Tuesday, November 9, 2021

Mexico will present a major global poverty-alleviation plan to the United Nations in the coming days, President López Obrador said Tuesday during an appearance before the organization’s Security Council.

Speaking at U.N. headquarters in New York, López Obrador claimed that the intergovernmental organization has never done anything substantial to benefit the world’s poor.

“But it’s never too late to do justice. Today is the time to act against marginalization, attending to the causes and not just the consequences,” he said.

“In tune with this idea, in the coming days the Mexico representation will propose a global plan of fellowship and well-being to the General Assembly of the United Nations. The objective is to guarantee the right to a dignified life for 750 million people who survive on less than two dollars a day,” López Obrador said.

The president, on just his second trip outside Mexico since taking office in late 2018, said Mexico’s proposal could be funded by three different sources: an annual 4% “voluntary contribution” from the world’s 1,000 richest people; a similar contribution from the world’s 1,000 biggest companies; and a contribution of 0.2% of GDP from each of the G20 members.

Lopez Obrador in his role chairing the UN Security Council’s meeting on exclusion, inequality and conflict.

“Reaching this income goal, the fund could make use of about one trillion dollars annually,” López Obrador said. He suggested that the U.N. could award certificates to individuals, companies and governments that support the plan.

“The resources of this fund must reach the beneficiaries directly, without any intermediaries,” AMLO said, echoing remarks he has made about welfare distributed in Mexico.

“Because when funds are delivered, supposedly to help poor people or non-governmental organizations, … in many cases the money stays in bureaucratic apparatuses to pay for luxury offices and to keep advisors [on the payroll], or it’s diverted and ends up not reaching the [intended] beneficiaries,” he said.

López Obrador said the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund could collaborate on the fellowship and well-being plan, and proposed carrying out a census next year to identify the world’s poorest and neediest people.

Once the target population has been identified, resources would be distributed to seniors and children with disabilities and impoverished students would receive scholarships, he said.

AMLO also said that money could be set aside for tree-planting and youth apprenticeship programs, such as those already in operation in Mexico. In short, he would like to see his government’s social programs rolled out around the world.

President López Obrador said his plan to alleviate global poverty could be funded by donations from the world’s richest companies, people and governments. CREATIVE COMMONS

“I don’t believe, I say it sincerely, that any of the permanent members of this Security Council will oppose our proposal because this is not about nuclear weapons or military invasions, nor does it place the security of any state at risk. On the contrary, it seeks to build stability and peace through solidarity with those who most need our support,” López Obrador said.

“I’m sure that everyone, the rich and the poor, donors and beneficiaries, will be calmer with our consciences and we will all live with greater moral force.”

Earlier in his address, the president delivered a lengthy diatribe against corruption. “It would be hypocritical to ignore that the planet’s principal problem is corruption in all its dimensions: political, moral, economic, legal, fiscal and financial,” he said.

“It would be senseless to omit that corruption is the main cause of inequality, poverty, frustration, violence, migration and serious social conflicts. We’re in decay because never before in the history of the world had so much wealth accumulated in so few hands through cronyism,” AMLO said.

“… What are we doing in Mexico? We’ve applied the formula of banishing corruption and allocating all the money freed up [as a result] to the well-being of the people under the criteria [of] for the good of all, the poor come first.”

AMLO proposes trillion-dollar plan for 'fellowship and well-being' (mexiconewsdaily.com)

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AMLO’s anti-corruption czar resigns after his lavish Guatemala wedding

Santiago Nieto said he didn't want the incident to affect government's transformation project

Mexico News Daily, Tuesday, November 9, 2021

The head of the federal government’s Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) has resigned in the wake of controversy surrounding his lavish wedding celebrations in Guatemala last weekend.

Santiago Nieto, President López Obrador’s anti-corruption czar, announced his resignation on Twitter on Monday night, explaining that he didn’t want to have a negative impact on the government’s project to transform Mexico.

“Due to criticisms derived from the actions of third parties related to a personal and transparent event, I decided to present my resignation as head of the UIF. My loyalty is with President López Obrador, my love for [my new wife] Carla Humphrey,” he wrote.

Nieto’s resignation came after some of his wedding guests – who flew south on the same private jet – were detained at the Guatemala City airport because police found US $35,000 in undeclared cash in a suitcase that belonged to the personal assistant of the general director of El Universal, one of Mexico’s leading daily newspapers.

Erika Telich told police that the money belonged to her boss, Juan Francisco Ealy, and that he took it to Guatemala because he planned to use it to pay for medical expenses in Los Angeles, where he intended to travel on Monday after the wedding.

Guatemalan authorities confiscated the cash, which may in fact have been a gift for the newlyweds, according to media speculation.

Another wedding guest, now-former Mexico City tourism minister Paola Félix Díaz, resigned due to the optics of flying into the Guatemalan capital on a private jet when she is the member of a government that – like its federal counterpart – holds itself up as an example of austerity and rectitude.

Although Nieto attributed his resignation to the actions of others, questions have been raised about his capacity to pay for a sumptuous wedding at an exclusive hotel in Antigua, a pretty colonial city just outside Guatemala City. Regardless of whether he paid for it or not, it didn’t look good for the federal government’s anti-corruption chief to host such an extravagant wedding.

López Obrador, who frequently rails against the excesses of past officials and quips “there can’t be a rich government with poor people,” described the events in Guatemala as a “scandalous affair” and advised officials to act with “moderation and austerity.”

The departure of Nieto is a blow for the president, who has used the UIF as a spearhead in his fight against corruption. The 48-year-old former electoral crimes prosecutor worked closely with the federal Attorney General’s Office on high-profile corruption probes such as the Odebrecht case, which threatens to ensnare numerous high-profile former officials.

Nieto’s tenure at the helm of the UIF was not, however, devoid of controversy. Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero last year indirectly accused him of failing to respect the right to the presumption of innocence after he made public remarks about cases involving ex-cabinet secretary Rosario Robles, ex-Pemex chief Emilio Lozoya and ex-Pemex workers’ union leader Carlos Romero Deschamps, among other high-profile former officials.

Pablo Gómez, a 75-year-old former lawmaker considered a close ally of López Obrador, is the new head of the UIF, the president’s office said in a statement.

Gómez is also a National Autonomous University-trained economist and a professor, the office noted, adding that he is well known for his “career in favor of social causes and human rights beginning with the students’ movement of 1968.”

With reports from El Universal and El País 

AMLO's anti-corruption czar resigns after his lavish Guatemala wedding - Mexico News Daily

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US-Mexico land border reopens, reuniting families, sending shoppers north

Most Mexicans were unable to cross the US border for almost 20 months

Mexico News Daily, Monday, November 8, 2021

The United States reopened its land border with Mexico on Monday, almost 20 months after it closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The land border with Canada also reopened, as did flights from 33 countries, including the U.K., much of Europe, China, Brazil and South Africa. 

U.S. authorities are only allowing entry to people who had vaccines approved by the World Health Organization. The Sputnik V and CanSino vaccines, administered to millions of people in Mexico, are not currently on that list.

Mexicans were largely banned from crossing the border during the pandemic, which transformed the lives of many who live in border cities. Seeing family and friends, medical appointments or shopping over the border were all ruled out. U.S. citizens, on the other hand, enjoyed greater freedom to travel between the two countries. 

Traffic levels at ports and in the land crossings were expected to register millions of travelers, hitting levels seen prior to the pandemic, the newspaper El País reported, but Monday’s traffic was not as heavy as expected, according to several media reports.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) stated that visa holders should bring proof of vaccination and verbally indicate their reason for travel at the border. 

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the reopening was a positive decision. “We are pleased to take another step toward easing travel restrictions at our borders in a manner that strengthens our economy and protects the health and safety of the American public … We continue working closely with our international partners to sustainably implement new rules for resuming travel,” he said.

The accepted vaccines for nonessential travel are: Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, Covishield, Sinopharm and Sinovac.

People travelling for essential reasons are not required to be vaccinated until January 2022, when a new phase of border regulations will take force. 

As for under 18s, they will need a negative COVID-19 test taken a maximum of three days before departure, if they are traveling with a vaccinated adult. However, if they are traveling alone or with an unvaccinated adult, they must submit a negative test carried out 24 hours before the trip.

Grandmother Martha Ochoa Moreno, 68, from Ciudad Juárez, was one of many people reunited with loved ones on Monday. She had not seen her 28-year-old granddaughter, Laura Tinajero, since the border closed. Prior to the closure she crossed several times a week to shop and visit family.

“There is nothing like being able to hug [loved ones]; video calls helped us a lot all during those months, but it’s not the same. Today I will finally be able to hug my granddaughter,” she told the Dallas Morning News.

Another relieved family member was 60-year-old Ramón Delgado, from Chihuahua, who saw his sister Bertha Galván, 71, an El Paso resident.

“I was very happy because [we had] not seen each other for a long time since the pandemic began,” said Delgado. “My sister got COVID, not me, and I was scared. And that’s why I really wanted to see her and give her a hug,” he added. 

“There is a lot of emotion to finally be able to hug him; the truth was I was afraid. I thought they were not going to let people through. When he called me and said, ‘I’m here,’ I didn’t believe it,” Galván said. 

The U.S. Embassy in Mexico warned that wait times at borders are expected to increase, and that travelers should plan for longer than normal wait times and exercise patience.

US land border reopens, reuniting families, sending shoppers north (mexiconewsdaily.com)

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