AMLO Goes off the Rails – By León Krauze (Slate) / April 2 2020
How to explain the Mexican president’s dismissive, destructive coronavirus response?
Latin American governments have reacted with different degrees of urgency and efficacy to the coronavirus pandemic. Some did so early on. Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele quarantined El Salvador before it even had confirmed cases. In Peru, President Martín Vizcarra locked down his country in mid-March and then worked on a vast economic stimulus package. Others took longer to act on the coronavirus threat but eventually chose to enact strict curfews and social distancing measure to curb the spread of the pandemic. After some initial hesitance, Chilean President Sebastián Piñera set his country on a “progressive quarantine,” while Argentina’s Alberto Fernández called on his country to shelter in place at least “until the end of Easter.” Colombia’s Iván Duque followed a similar path. Others haven’t been as diligent. Ecuadorian President Lenín Moreno had to replace his health minister after a severe outbreak in the country exposed grave flaws in basic health care. Brazil has seen its president, Jair Bolsonaro, turn into a denier and conspiracy theorist around the disease.
And then there is Mexico’s Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Mexico’s president downplayed the threat of the virus for weeks. He suggested social distancing recommendations should be ignored. He soon showed he was willing to lead by (bad) example. Over the past few weeks, as the number cases began to grow, López Obrador kept to his schedule across the country, traveling on commercial airplanes, and went out of his way to flaunt his contempt for the most essential preventive measures. He kissed children and posed for selfies with adoring crowds. He sat down for lunch at a public restaurant. He even declined to use hand sanitizer. All of this while suggesting, astonishingly, that amulets and religious stamps could work as protection against the virus.
López Obrador’s recklessness would perhaps be less damaging if his administration hadn’t followed his lead. Mexico’s government chose to delay most of the quarantine measures other Latin American countries had already implemented. It finally changed course last week, when the authorities called on Mexican citizens to voluntarily quarantine to flatten the rate of contagion.
“This is our last chance,” deputy health minister Hugo López-Gatell said. López-Gatell, an eloquent epidemiologist who has become the government’s public face during the crisis, outlined the emergency in a television broadcast on Tuesday alongside foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard. Mexico’s president was not there.
Continue to article: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/04/coronavirus-amlo-mexico-president.html
