Policy disagreements that led to this week’s shock resignation by Mexican Finance Minister Carlos Urzua are to be expected during a major transformation such as the country is undertaking, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador declared this week.
While some conservative commentators and critics tried to use Urzua’s departure from the cabinet as a metaphor for an administration in disarray, the president was having none of it.
“It is normal that there are discrepancies and differences even within the government, but the important thing is that we continue the advance without problems,” Lopez Obrador told reporters at his regular morning press briefing. He said the country’s finances remained strong, and there would be no backtracking on the National Development Plan approved by legislators, which seeks to lift millions of Mexicans out of poverty.
In a strongly worded resignation letter, Urzua criticized the president for appointing officials who are largely motivated by extremist political ideology and lack sound economic backgrounds.
An unrepentant Lopez Obrador moved quickly to replace Urzua with Finance Ministry Sub-Secretary Arturo Herrera Gutiérrez, noting that cabinet disagreements that play out in the full public glare are a sign of a healthy democratic system. Lopez Obrador boldly predicted there would be more resignations, but that they would also be good for democracy.
Lopez Obrador was correct in stressing that Urzua’s departure would not have a destabilizing effect on the nation’s currency. The peso and stock market dropped a few percent on the news but both soon recovered, making the grim predictions of some columnists known for their opposition to Lopez Obrador look foolish.
Nonetheless, the criticism of Lopez Obrador from fiscal conservatives will continue as the debate rages on how he intends to fund his major infrastructure projects – a $US8 billion oil refinery and the US$7 billion Tren Maya – at the same time as billions of dollars in handouts are given to jobless youth, the elderly, the indigenous and the socially disadvantaged.