On Saturday, March 2nd, at Auditorio La Isla Merida, the Yucatecan journalist Carlos Loret de Mola conducted a conference about the presidential succession and the electoral scenario heading toward the June 2 election.
Carlos Loret de Mola is a Mexican journalist who has been at the forefront of exposing cases of corruption involving the family members of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO). Loret de Mola, who is the grandson of a former governor of Yucatán and the son of a writer and journalist, has a long career in the media, having worked as a reporter, anchor, columnist, war correspondent, and radio host for different media outlets, such as Televisa, El Universal, and W Radio.
Carlos Loret de Mola conducted a presentation in which he spoke at the beginning of the only two good things that have characterized Lopez Obrador’s six-year term, the first is the good macroeconomic situation in which Mexico currently finds itself (which is largely due to factors external and unrelated to the AMLO administration), and the second, the preservation of the USMCA.
He referred to how Obrador squandered the opportunity to be one of Mexico’s greatest presidents, as a consequence of his bad decisions, such as the cancellation of the Texcoco Airport in Mexico City, and and the terrible management of his administration in health matters during the COVID-19 pandemic, just to name a couple.
Loret de Mola addressed the issue of political and social counterweights, such as the SCJN (Mexican Supreme Court), the representatives of the opposition parties in Congress, the INAI (National Institute for Access to Information), the free press (of which Loret is a leader in Mexico), and of course the Civil Society that has taken to the streets to express its disagreement with the AMLO’s government several times during the six-year term.
He mentioned several interesting points that, thanks to the counterweights, AMLO could not and has not been able to achieve, such as modifying the constitution to extend the term of the president of the SCJN (Arturo Zaldivar), naming a Minister of the Court at its head who has proven plagiarism of her professional thesis (Yasmin Esquivel), appointing a subject accused of rape as governor of a state (Felix Salgado Macedonio), taking full control of the National Electoral Institute, disappearing the National Institute of Access to Information (INAI), and make a population register with biometric data of all the inhabitants of Mexico, to mention the most outstanding.
Loret de Mola spoke about the 14 days in which the governor of Nuevo Leon, Samuel García, announced his candidacy for the presidency and dominated the conversation on social networks, and therefore, the national political agenda, without any type of serious proposal, whether political, economic, social or commercial, using only totally and absolutely trivial and worthless arguments such as the color of his shoes, images of his wife and his baby, etc.
The Mexican journalist highlighted the great work of the Mexican Supreme Court of Justice (SCJN), which has not allowed the president’s initiatives to modify the constitution to be approved.
Regarding Claudia Sheinbaum, Carlos Loret pointed out that her strategy is simply to repeat everything that Lopez Obrador has said during his six-year term, and basically, let him be in charge of her political propaganda, since that is AMLO’s expertise, to run a campaign.
He said that opposition candidate Xochitl Galvez had a brilliant start when she just announced her candidacy, but later lost momentum when she wanted to confront rival Claudia Sheinbaum directly, since the Morena presidential candidate did not show any signs of wanting to debate. So her campaign team suggested that she should directly attack President Lopez Obrador with the problem of insecurity, and from that moment on, Galvez has begun to have much better results.
As for Jorge Alvarez Maynez, candidate of the Movimiento Ciudadano political party, Loret de Mola explained that he completely lacks the strength to be considered a serious candidate for the presidency of Mexico.
Loret de Mola has been a vocal critic of AMLO’s administration, which came to power in 2018 with the promise of eradicating corruption but has been accused of undermining democratic institutions, transparency, and the rule of law. Loret de Mola has revealed several scandals involving AMLO’s relatives, such as:
- His brother Pío López Obrador, was caught on video receiving cash from a former government official for AMLO’s political movement in 2015⁵. Loret de Mola faced a lawsuit from Pío, who accused him of defamation and moral damage, but the case was dismissed by a judge in February 2024.
- His son José Ramón López Beltrán, was exposed by Loret de Mola for living in a luxurious apartment in Houston, Texas, worth more than $1.2 million, while being the leader of AMLO’s party in the state of Mexico⁷. Loret de Mola also revealed that José Ramón had a close relationship with a businessman who received contracts from the government-owned oil company Pemex.
- His cousin Felipa Obrador, was reported by Loret de Mola for owning a company that obtained contracts worth more than $365 million from Pemex and other state agencies, despite having no experience or infrastructure in the energy sector. Loret de Mola also disclosed that Felipa Obrador had ties with a former director of Pemex who is under investigation for corruption and money laundering.
Loret de Mola’s investigations have sparked public outrage and calls for accountability, but have also provoked attacks and threats from AMLO and his supporters, who accuse him of being part of a “conservative” and “neoliberal” media campaign against the government. Loret de Mola has always defended his journalistic work as a duty to inform the citizens and to challenge the power, regardless of who is in office.
Loret de Mola is currently the director of Latinus, a digital media platform that covers news, analysis, and opinion on Mexico and Latin America. He is also one of the proposed moderators for the presidential debates in 2024, as part of a coalition of opposition parties that seeks to challenge AMLO’s party in the upcoming elections.
San Miguel Times
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