MEXICO CITY - Gearing up for a key election next year, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has wielded corruption as both a stick with which to beat political adversaries, and a lightning rod to deflect criticism from his record in office.
Now, videos of his brother receiving cash from a political ally have cast doubt over Lopez Obrador’s upright image, undermining his argument that entrenched corruption has fed chronic gang violence and held back Mexico’s misfiring economy.
The coronavirus pandemic has plunged Mexico into its worst slump since the Great Depression, and the road to recovery looks long and hard with the central bank forecasting gross domestic product (GDP) could shrink by almost 13% this year.
Firing up his base ahead of congressional elections next June by raking through allegations of graft by Mexico’s past leaders, Lopez Obrador has proposed twinning the vote with a referendum on whether to allow ex-presidents to be impeached. (Reuters)