The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, said that he will respect what the political parties decide and the method they use in the selection of candidates for the 2022 elections, when six governorships are elected, among other positions.
“I have already explained that I do not have an opinion on these matters, I will not contradict myself. Just point out that I respect what the parties decide, what the governing bodies of the parties decide and the method they choose to choose their candidates,” the president said.
“I respect what the parties decide and the method they choose to choose their candidates,” said @lopezobrador_ about the candidates for governors in Oaxaca; “Whoever it is, we will continue to support the people.” pic.twitter.com/MjCE4aBePg
— Animal Político (@Pajaropolitico) December 30, 2021
On December 22, the National Executive Committee (CEN) and the Morena Elections Commission elected the list of the six people who will be held by the governorships of Aguascalientes, Durango, Hidalgo, Oaxaca, Quintana Roo and Tamaulipas.
The next day the national leader of the party, Mario Delgado, announced the list of candidates, among which are legislators, former candidates, and those who were superdelegates of the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
In the morning conference on December 30, the president of Mexico was questioned about his opinion in the Oaxaca elections, specifically, to which he responded that “whoever the candidate and the governor are, we will continue to support the people of Oaxaca, more and more, even. Because it is a people, I have always said, extraordinary, exceptional.”
In Oaxaca, the candidate for Morena would be Senator Salomón Jara, who has been a federal and local deputy. He was also founder and state leader of the PRD in Oaxaca, and founder of Morena in that state. In 2016 he was a gubernatorial candidate for that party, but was defeated by PRI member Alejandro Murat.
However, Senator Susana Harp announced that she will challenge the decision that Jara Cruz is a candidate for governor of Oaxaca for Morena. He argued that “in compliance with the parity guidelines, it must be a woman who is the candidate in our land.”
Roads, corruption and elections
Although only the state governorship will be elected in Oaxaca next year, President López Obrador spoke of how municipal presidencies have been elected in the past, without specifying names or parties.
“The procedure for building a paved road is a tender. A contract and usually a contract is given to a company that helped the municipal president with money in the campaign or is a relative of the municipal president or those above: the director of public works or those above,” he said.
“There are some who didn’t even have companies, but since they won their candidates they helped, they suddenly make their company,” he added.
The president named the above shortly after presenting the image of a road in the Oaxacan town of Santa María Yucuhiti.
“I just saw about three days ago a path of those who are being made with the hands of the men and women of Oaxaca … I do not identify the municipality, but I saw it and then it will come out who uploaded it (to the internet),” he said.
The oldest record found through a reverse search of the image led to a Facebook post by “Noticias Iguala Guerrero” on December 22, 2021 with the caption: “The artisan roads in Santa María Yucuiti”.
The construction of these roads is part of the Paving Program of Roads to Municipal Capitals implemented since 2019 in order to give resources to the municipalities so that the inhabitants build the infrastructure.
“For us, Oaxaca means lightening the load. Because within the framework of that culture there is no corruption. They are honest authorities. This may have meant that they made the way and there may have been money left over from them that they used it for something else or returned it (…) So, if the roads are not made like this, next year it will be dirt again,” López Obrador said.
However, the construction of those roads has received several criticisms. For example, as Animal Político reported last August. The Secretariat of Communications and Transportation (SCT) allowed in 2019 the construction of a rural road in Oaxaca at a cost of 24 million 410 thousand pesos, in an area of unstable terrain.
In the end a fragment of that road began to sink, collapsed and had to be removed, and although the agency assures that the necessary studies were made, a response via transparency, the sayings of councilors and the opinion of specialists contradict that version.
The aforementioned road, of 6.84 kilometers, is locatedbetween the municipalities of San Pedro Yolox and San Juan Quiotepec, in the northern highlands of Oaxaca.
“In general, the peoples are very supportive and fraternal and it is part of the extraordinary culture. Everyone has to give tequio – a pre-Hispanic custom that consisted of the cooperation in kind and work of the members of a region to build, repair and preserve its surroundings. There is mutual help and exceptional community social organization, all give service… and they don’t charge and everyone has to give their service,” said the president of Mexico.
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