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Mexcentrix – Shelter Services Mexico Outsourcing

Jesus Aguirre

02Oct

Canada-US Reach Deal to Stay in Trade Pact With Mexico

octubre 2, 2018 Jesus Aguirre NEWS

TORONTO (AP) — Canada is back in a revamped North American free trade deal with the United States and Mexico after weeks of bitter, high-pressure negotiations that brushed up against a midnight deadline.

In a joint statement, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said the late Sunday agreement “will strengthen the middle class, and create good, well-paying jobs and new opportunities for the nearly half billion people who call North America home.”

The new deal, reached just before the midnight deadline imposed by the U.S., will be called the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA. It replaces the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement, of NAFTA, which President Donald Trump had called a job-killing disaster.

Trump on Monday morning called it a “great deal,” tweeting that it “solves the many deficiencies and mistakes in NAFTA, greatly opens markets to our Farmers and Manufacturers, reduces Trade Barriers to the U.S. and will bring all three Great Nations together in competition with the rest of the world.”

He added: “Congratulations to Mexico and Canada!”

The agreement reached Sunday gives U.S. farmers greater access to the Canadian dairy market. But it keeps a NAFTA dispute-resolution process that the U.S. wanted to jettison and offers Canada protection if Trump goes ahead with plans to impose tariffs on cars, trucks and auto parts imported into the United States.

“It’s a good day for Canada,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said as he left his office.

Trudeau said he would have more to say Monday.

“We celebrate a trilateral deal. The door closes on trade fragmentation in the region,” Jesus Seade, trade negotiator for Mexico’s incoming president, said via Twitter.

Representatives for the government of Mexican president-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador called a press conference to discuss details of the trade deal on Monday.

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27Sep

US-Mexico trade deal to be released as early as Friday will allow Canada to join later, sources say

septiembre 27, 2018 Jesus Aguirre NEWS

The United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer plans to issue the text of a trade deal with just the U.S. and Mexico on Friday, two sources told CNBC, though the sources added that the release of the text could slip into the weekend. One source said that the text will allow Canada to join onto the agreement at a later date.

The Trump administration has been hurrying to meet a self-imposed Oct. 1 deadline to strike a new North American trade deal. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto will leave office at the end of November.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, said Tuesday that he expects that to see the full text that will be sent to Congress, as opposed to an outline.

Lighthizer, in New York Tuesday, said that that the U.S. would “go ahead” with a deal with Mexico, but left open the possibility of including Canada. He noted that the administration was “sort of running out of time.”

“If Canada comes along now, that would be the best,” Lighthizer said. “If Canada comes along later, that’s what will happen.”

Lawmakers have raised concerns about a two-way trade deal, and some have said that only a three-way pact could be approved by the Senate with a simple majority.

Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., said that a bilateral agreement would require 60 votes, Reuters reported in August. In order to get the trade deal fast-tracked, “the administration must also reach an agreement with Canada,” Toomey said.

Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has said that a bilateral agreement would raise “serious” legal concerns.

Business groups have also argued against moving forward with a deal that excludes Canada.

“It would be unacceptable to sideline Canada, our largest export market in the world,” the heads of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable and the National Association of Manufacturers wrote in a letter sent to Lighthizer last week, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The biggest sticking points to reaching a deal with Canada continue to be over dairy trade rules and dispute settlement.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the Council on Foreign Relations on Tuesday that his focus has been “simply not escalating. Not opining. Not weighing in.”

“My job is very simple. It’s to defend Canada’s interests, stand up for Canadians,” Trudeau said.

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22Sep

TVS Motor Company Announces Mexico Operations

septiembre 22, 2018 Jesus Aguirre NEWS

MTVS Motor Company will soon begin operations in Mexico and it has partnered with a company called Torino Motors which is one of the biggest in the region and is a subsidiary company of the Groupo Autofin. Torino Motors specialises in automobile and retail finance and has been active in Mexico for over 40 years now. TVS and Torino Motors plan to open 40 exclusive stores in Mexico for distribution of TVS two-wheelers. TVS is one of the leading two-wheeler manufacturers and exports to over 60 countries from India.

Commenting on this association, R Dilip, Senior Vice President – International Business, TVS Motor Company, said, “We are delighted to partner with a reputed, well-known company such as Torino Motors, who come with over 40 years of experience in Mexico. We look forward to the market knowledge that they will bring on board. Their insights will allow us to personalise our offerings to suit the customers of Mexico and their vast network of distribution will ensure maximum reach in the country. Together with Torino Motors, we are determined to create customer delight in the country.”

TVS will be offering a slew of products in Mexico starting from XL100 HD, HLX 150 along with the Stryker as well. Additionally, TVS will also launch its entire Apache range of motorcycles which includes Apache RTR 160, Apache RTR 180 and the Apache RTR 200 along with the Apache RR 310. Coming to scooters, TVS will launch the Wego along with the NTorq 125 and its step through scooters, the Rockz and the Neo.

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19Sep

Private sector challenges AMLO’s claim that Mexico is bankrup

septiembre 19, 2018 Jesus Aguirre NEWS

He is beginning to explain he won’t be able to achieve everything, suggests one business leader.

Business leaders have challenged president-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s claim that Mexico is bankrupt.

Speaking Sunday at a rally in Tepic, Nayarit, to launch his so-called “Thank You Tour” following his landslide victory in the July 1 election, López Obrador said the current state of the nation’s finances could limit what his government can accomplish but pledged that no campaign promises would be broken.

“We’re going to honor our commitments and we’re not going to fail the people of Mexico. Possibly due to the circumstances, because the country is going through a very difficult economic and social situation, possibly due to the bankrupt situation the country finds itself in, we won’t be able to achieve everything that is being demanded but we are going to achieve, let it be clear, everything, everything that we proposed in the campaign,” he said.

The comment contrasts with the incoming president’s statement earlier this month that there is economic stability in the country.

Responding to the president-elect’s remarks, the president of the Business Coordinating Council (CCE) accepted that Mexico has to confront a range of challenges but rejected the bankruptcy label.

“We have enormous challenges: security, efficiency of spending, [the need] to invest in connectivity, [to develop] more talent, but the government has never stopped paying its international commitments and there is the possibility of growing at 4% if the right public policy is made. There are options to believe in a promising future,” Juan Pablo Castañón said.

Addressing the same business conference, the chairman of Kimberly-Clark de México, Claudio X. González, also contested the use of the word bankrupt.

“I don’t agree with the use of this adjective, but I do agree with the fact that we have to be realistic that he will not be able to do everything . . .” González added.

“What I think he’s trying to point out is that there are very difficult situations, without a doubt, security is one of them, impunity is another, the energy situation . . . is something that he has to act on immediately . . .”

The business leader declared that López Obrador has to find a balance between “pragmatism and preaching” in order to stimulate confidence, which in turn will encourage investment.

“The balance will be crucial because we won’t be able to build the investment we need without confidence — the most important word for investment. We need pragmatism to drive investment,” González said.

Gabriela Siller, head of economic analysis at financial group Banco Base, said that government debt in Mexico currently stands at 44% of gross domestic product (GDP), which she described as high, but she added that the country isn’t bankrupt because it has the capacity to meet its financial obligations.

She interpreted López Obrador’s remark as a nod to the fact that the incoming government — which will take office on December 1 — will have limited resources to play with and will therefore need to carefully prioritize its spending.

“If he wants to do new projects, he will have to make cuts to government expenditure in some areas in order to be able to increase in others.”

“Mexico is not bankrupt . . . I’m very optimistic, if you read everything that he [López Obrador] said in this very dramatic comment, he is beginning to explain that he won’t be able to achieve everything because there is not enough money to do everything, there are not enough resources or time,” he said.

 

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16Sep

Intrigue, impasse persist over NAFTA as Canada-U.S. talks drag on

septiembre 16, 2018 Jesus Aguirre NEWS

WASHINGTON — Chrystia Freeland was not happy.

With trilateral NAFTA talks having been on hiatus for most of the summer, the foreign affairs minister was in Berlin, barely one full day into a week-long diplomatic mission to Europe, when news emerged that the United States and Mexico had forged their own trade alliance in Canada’s absence.

By Aug. 28, Freeland was back in Washington, hosting a meeting at the Canadian embassy, where sources say she gave members of the Mexican negotiating team a piece of her mind.

“She brought them in for that purpose,” said one source familiar with the encounter.

By all indications, things haven’t improved much.

Three-way talks with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Mexican Economy Secretary Ildefonso Guajardo have not taken place since, and none are imminent. Freeland is spending Monday in Ottawa for the return of Parliament.

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12Sep

Toshiba Expands Mexico Footprint with Building Grand Opening in Guadalajara

septiembre 12, 2018 Jesus Aguirre NEWS

GUADALAJARA, Mexico–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Sep 11, 2018–Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions and Toshiba America Business Solutions celebrated the opening of their collective 38,000-square-foot building in Guadalajara, Mexico, yesterday with a ribbon-cutting attended by government officials, representatives of academic institutions, media and clients. Toshiba has invested 2 million U.S. dollars to further modernize the company’s products and solutions development center. The move signals Toshiba’s increasing presence in Mexico’s technology hub.

Jalisco Economic Development Secretary, José Palacios Jiménez; Head of the Investment Promotion Unit of the Municipality of Zapopan, Alfredo Aceves Fernández; and Consul-General of the Consulate-General of Japan, Osamu Hokida joined Toshiba’s President and Chief Executive Officer, Scott Maccabe; Chief Operating Officer Gregg Margosian; Senior Vice President of Research and Development Mike Yeung as well as Vice President of Human Resources, and Administration James Fornabaio at the ribbon-cutting. The event also featured Toshiba clients Grupo Alsea, Costco and Kidzania.

“We were pleased to be joined by so many esteemed people today,” Maccabe stated. “Toshiba’s expansion in Mexico is a central element of our global growth strategy. Toshiba’s expert team in Guadalajara produces the products and services we offer worldwide and is instrumental to our company’s success.”

Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions is the global market share leader in installed retail point of sale technology. Many of the most successful retail brands around the world, from smaller regional retailers to 60 percent of the top 25 global retailers, choose Toshiba products and services. In Mexico, Grupo Alsea, Costco and Kidzania have definitively improved the shopping experience for their vast array of loyal customers by implementing our electronic point of sale technology.

“The investments in the state of Jalisco have multiplied importantly,” said Palacios Jiménez. “Toshiba is a Japanese company that has demonstrated its trust in the state, which is an honor. The state of Jalisco has received 11,500 million dollars in foreign direct investment, a historic data. It’s precisely because of the trust of companies in Jalisco. In 2017 Jalisco generated the largest number of employment of any state in the country, also a historic number, 93,000 jobs. Everything is for you, we must only facilitate your investment experience.”

“Toshiba is a company that has reiterated its commitment to Mexico by generating jobs and training its people, as well as committing to the care of the environment,” Hokida stated. “I am convinced that this extension will be of great benefit for the Bajío region. I would like to reiterate the gratitude to the Mexican government for its support of Japanese companies. Currently there are 633 Japanese persons living in the state of Jalisco. I would like to point out that feel great here thanks to the warmth of the people.”

Toshiba Mexico has increased its staff from 48 to 298 employees since beginning operations in the country in 2006. Toshiba’s Guadalajara operation has also undergone significant growth by expanding from 36 to 164 employees since that time.

Toshiba repurposed furniture, IT equipment, lighting and even carpeting at the company’s new location, demonstrating its continued commitment to maintaining a more sustainable planet.

About Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions

As the market share leader in retail store technology, Toshiba’s Brilliant Commerce ™, enables retailers to deliver engaged shopping experiences, gain actionable insights and provide frictionless checkout.

With a global team of dedicated business partners, we deliver innovative commerce solutions that transform checkout, provide seamless consumer interactions and optimize retail operations that are changing the retail landscape. To learn more, visit toshibacommerce.com or engage on Twitter @toshibagcs.

About Toshiba America Business Solutions, Inc.

Toshiba America Business Solutions (TABS) provides multifunction printers, managed document services and digital signage for businesses of all sizes throughout the United States, Mexico, and Central and South America. The company’s award-winning e-STUDIO ™ copiers and printers provide quality performance with the security businesses require.

Complementing its hardware offering is a full suite of document workflow, capture and security services including Encompass ™, the company’s industry-acclaimed Managed Print Services program. Encompass enables clients to print less and optimize workflow while improving energy efficiency.

TABS’ Ellumina ™ digital signage offering includes all of the hardware, software and services needed to implement dynamic and interactive digital signage installations.

TABS provides content creation and management, displays, integration, installation and project management services as well as financing for solutions ranging from a single screen to the biggest arenas and stadiums. For additional information, please visit business.toshiba.com.

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10Sep

US President Donald Trump turns up the heat in trade conflict with China

septiembre 10, 2018 Jesus Aguirre NEWS

Washington DC: President Donald Trump threatened Friday to slap tariffs on all of the Chinese goods imported into the United States, ramping up the already tense trade relations with Beijing amid ongoing talks with Canada and the EU. His comments, which contradicted the more diplomatic remarks earlier Friday from his top economic adviser, sent the stock market plunging amid fears of the economic damage that could result from the multi-front trade war he pursues.

The United States already has punitive tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese goods in place and another $200 billion are “in the hopper” and “could take place very soon,” Trump said. But he told reporters traveling with him to Fargo, North Dakota that “behind that, there’s another $267 billion ready to go on short notice if I want.” That would cover virtually all the goods imported from the world’s second-largest economy.

“That totally changes the equation,” Trump said. White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow just hours before said talks with Beijing were continuing to try to defuse the conflict, and that he was hopeful that a solution could be found. And there have been more positive signs in talks with North American partners as well as with the European Union.

US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer held another day of meetings with Canada’s Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland on a rewrite of the North American Free Trade Agreement, after reaching a deal last week with Mexico. However, Freeland left Washington without a deal in hand and the schedule for any future talks was uncertain.

Lighthizer is due to meet on Monday in Brussels with EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom to resolve the dispute ignited when Trump imposed steep duties on all steel and aluminum imports. And Freeland is due to attend a Liberal Party meeting on Wednesday and Thursday prior to the opening of Parliament.

– China a ‘bigger problem’ –

“China, right now, is a far bigger problem,” Trump said. “I’m being strong on China because I have to be.” The deadline for public comment on the next wave of punitive taxes on $200 billion of annual imports from China expired Thursday, so Trump could impose the tariffs immediately.

He previously had threatened to hit 100 percent of imports from China if the country failed to address US concerns over theft of US technology and barriers to American goods and investments. Trump has had Beijing in his crosshairs since he took office and has applied increasing pressure to try to convince it to change its policies, allow more US imports and reduce the $335-billion US trade deficit with China.

China so far has retaliated dollar-for-dollar with tariffs of its own on US goods but since it imports less than $200 billion in goods a year from the United States, it has run out of room to match the punitive measures. But businesses warn there are other ways China can strike back, through regulations and other administrative means, or even through sales of its large holdings of US Treasury debt.

The last effort at a negotiated solution came in late August with meetings between low-level officials, but nothing came of it. In Beijing, China’s Commerce Ministry said Thursday it was ready to retaliate.

“If the US dogmatically implements any new tariff measures against China, China will have to take the necessary countermeasures,” commerce spokesman Gao Feng told reporters. Those steps include slapping tariffs on $60 billion of US imports, Gao said.

– NAFTA talks 24/7 –

Trump said talks with Canada to revise the 25-year-old NAFTA were “moving along” but again called the agreement “one of the worst trade deals in history.” “Canada has been ripping us off for a long time. Now, they’ve got to treat us fairly,” he said, and again threatened to impose duties on cars produced in Canada.

Last week, Washington reached a new deal with Mexico and is pushing to sign a revamped NAFTA before December 1, when the next president takes over in Mexico City. Following meetings on Friday, Freeland told reporters the issues were “complicated” but that officials were working “really at this point 24/7.”

However, she seemed to have a different position than Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo on the relationship between the NAFTA talks and the US steel and aluminum tariffs. Guajardo said Thursday it would be “very strange” to sign a new NAFTA “when this trade war is pending.”

“So the idea would be to table a solution to these trade aggressions before signing,” Guajardo said at a conference in Mexico City. But Freeland said on Thursday the metals tariffs and NAFTA talks “are entirely separate” – although she again called them “unjustified and illegal.

“The NAFTA talks between Washington and Ottawa have been hung up over Canada’s insistence on retaining a dispute resolution mechanism in Chapter 19 and US objections over Ottawa’s tight controls over the dairy market.

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10Sep

US President Donald Trump turns up the heat in trade conflict with China

septiembre 10, 2018 Jesus Aguirre Uncategorized

Washington DC: President Donald Trump threatened Friday to slap tariffs on all of the Chinese goods imported into the United States, ramping up the already tense trade relations with Beijing amid ongoing talks with Canada and the EU. His comments, which contradicted the more diplomatic remarks earlier Friday from his top economic adviser, sent the stock market plunging amid fears of the economic damage that could result from the multi-front trade war he pursues.

The United States already has punitive tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese goods in place and another $200 billion are “in the hopper” and “could take place very soon,” Trump said. But he told reporters traveling with him to Fargo, North Dakota that “behind that, there’s another $267 billion ready to go on short notice if I want.” That would cover virtually all the goods imported from the world’s second-largest economy.

“That totally changes the equation,” Trump said. White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow just hours before said talks with Beijing were continuing to try to defuse the conflict, and that he was hopeful that a solution could be found. And there have been more positive signs in talks with North American partners as well as with the European Union.

US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer held another day of meetings with Canada’s Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland on a rewrite of the North American Free Trade Agreement, after reaching a deal last week with Mexico. However, Freeland left Washington without a deal in hand and the schedule for any future talks was uncertain.

Lighthizer is due to meet on Monday in Brussels with EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom to resolve the dispute ignited when Trump imposed steep duties on all steel and aluminum imports. And Freeland is due to attend a Liberal Party meeting on Wednesday and Thursday prior to the opening of Parliament.

– China a ‘bigger problem’ –

“China, right now, is a far bigger problem,” Trump said. “I’m being strong on China because I have to be.” The deadline for public comment on the next wave of punitive taxes on $200 billion of annual imports from China expired Thursday, so Trump could impose the tariffs immediately.

He previously had threatened to hit 100 percent of imports from China if the country failed to address US concerns over theft of US technology and barriers to American goods and investments. Trump has had Beijing in his crosshairs since he took office and has applied increasing pressure to try to convince it to change its policies, allow more US imports and reduce the $335-billion US trade deficit with China.

China so far has retaliated dollar-for-dollar with tariffs of its own on US goods but since it imports less than $200 billion in goods a year from the United States, it has run out of room to match the punitive measures. But businesses warn there are other ways China can strike back, through regulations and other administrative means, or even through sales of its large holdings of US Treasury debt.The last effort at a negotiated solution came in late August with meetings between low-level officials, but nothing came of it. In Beijing, China’s Commerce Ministry said Thursday it was ready to retaliate.”If the US dogmatically implements any new tariff measures against China, China will have to take the necessary countermeasures,” commerce spokesman Gao Feng told reporters. Those steps include slapping tariffs on $60 billion of US imports, Gao said.- NAFTA talks 24/7 -Trump said talks with Canada to revise the 25-year-old NAFTA were “moving along” but again called the agreement “one of the worst trade deals in history.” “Canada has been ripping us off for a long time. Now, they’ve got to treat us fairly,” he said, and again threatened to impose duties on cars produced in Canada.Last week, Washington reached a new deal with Mexico and is pushing to sign a revamped NAFTA before December 1, when the next president takes over in Mexico City. Following meetings on Friday, Freeland told reporters the issues were “complicated” but that officials were working “really at this point 24/7.”However, she seemed to have a different position than Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo on the relationship between the NAFTA talks and the US steel and aluminum tariffs. Guajardo said Thursday it would be “very strange” to sign a new NAFTA “when this trade war is pending.””So the idea would be to table a solution to these trade aggressions before signing,” Guajardo said at a conference in Mexico City. But Freeland said on Thursday the metals tariffs and NAFTA talks “are entirely separate” – although she again called them “unjustified and illegal.”The NAFTA talks between Washington and Ottawa have been hung up over Canada’s insistence on retaining a dispute resolution mechanism in Chapter 19 and US objections over Ottawa’s tight controls over the dairy market.

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10Sep

US President Donald Trump turns up the heat in trade conflict with China

septiembre 10, 2018 Jesus Aguirre Uncategorized

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06Sep

From Brazil to Mexico, A Cautionary Tale

septiembre 6, 2018 Jesus Aguirre NEWS

As Mexico’s President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador prepares to take office, the trajectory of Brazil’s Left under former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva offers lessons on the risks of compromising to appease elites.

he current political moment in Mexico, with Andrés Manuel López Obrador soon to take office as president, has much in common with a similar moment in Brazil—when Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was elected to that country’s highest office in 2002. Both Lula and López Obrador represented a left-wing shift in their respective countries’ politics, which generated anxiety among elites. Both campaigned on promises to tackle corruption and economic inequality. And perhaps most important, in both moments, many in Brazil and Mexico hoped that their incoming governments would enact true social change.

These parallels beg the question of what Mexico’s next president can learn from his Brazilian counterpart. One lesson is that López Obrador should question the efficacy of following a moderate, centrist path of enacting change. Recent developments in Brazil show that such a political approach, based in avoiding structural problems and seeking compromise with elites, empowered Lula’s opponents. Now, Lula’s opposition is dismantling the reforms his government made when he was in power.

Prior to becoming president, Lula was central to the mass protests that ended Brazil’s military government in the early 1980s. His Workers’ Party (PT) was filled with other leftist unionists as well as radical clergy members and social movement leaders. From its start in the late 1970s, the PT looked to communist Cuba for inspiration. Yet, over the course of the 1980s and 1990s, the PT embraced centrist positions to draw in more voters. Instead of demanding socialism, Lula and the PT sought to improve Brazil’s social welfare programs. And in seeking compromise to ease the concerns of business elites, Lula selected José Alencar, a business leader of the center-right Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), as his running mate in 2002. Once in office, Lula accommodated instead of confronted elites over controversial policies such as agrarian reform. This is why when compared to his predecessors, Lula redistributed less land to the social movements that had supported his electoral ambitions since the early 1980s. Still, while Lula was in power, Brazil experienced many progressive changes, including a reduction in economic inequality, a growth in the country’s middle class, and relative political stability.

The story of Lula’s and the PT’s moderate evolution does not end well for the Brazilian Left. Lula is now in jail, convicted in the largest corruption scandal in Brazilian history, which has also implicated and investigated dozens of representatives from the PT and many of Brazil’s other parties. Lula and his supporters claim the corruption charges are politically motivated and designed to sabotage his run for president, which polls indicate he would win. Furthermore, many have noted the dubious measures to secure Lula’s conviction, including the use of unconstitutional means to acquire evidence and a lack of reliable testimony. What Lula’s case shows is that clearly separating political loyalties from the rule of law is next to impossible in Brazil’s increasingly polarized society.

Lula’s downfall occurred after his successor, Dilma Rousseff, elected president with the PT in 2010, was removed from office in 2016 after a politically-charged Senate impeachment trial led by her opponents. Among those who ousted her from power was her vice-president, Michel Temer. Following Lula’s accommodationist style, Rousseff chose the PMDB’s Temer as her running mate. When Brazil’s economy began to stall in 2014, Temer and others from his party distanced themselves from Dilma, in an opportunistic move to secure the presidency. The PMDB eventually voted to abandon its electoral coalition with the PT, costing Rousseff vital support in staving off the impeachment bid. Currently, Temer’s government intends to cut spending for social security and privatize airports, the postal delivery service, and public utilities.

The political direction of the Brazilian Left is unclear. Lula, Brazil’s most popular politician, was planning on running once again for president in this year’s October elections before he was sent to jail. Now, it is uncertain if his candidacy is viable as multiple legal attempts to free him from jail have failed—though efforts are still unfolding. Regardless, the PT has decided to unite behind his run for office. Still, even if Lula can win and take office, what will be his approach? While many on the left have mobilized to support him, it is unclear if Lula will return to his former radical self who sought sweeping redistributive economic reforms. Meanwhile, when Lula is excluded from the race, the presidential frontrunner is the far-right nationalist, Jair Bolsonaro, who not only openly praises dictatorship, but also routinely uses misogynistic, racist, and xenophobic language to mobilize support.

What’s the lesson? Lula and the PT moderated their political positions over the course of a few decades. Now, the party’s accomplishments are being undone by some of the very actors that Lula and Rousseff accommodated. Today, some of Brazil’s most repugnant right-wing leaders are gaining support as the country’s political Left struggles.

Lessons for Mexico

Shifting the focus to Mexico, López Obrador’s incoming government has the potential to make significant changes to Mexican society. This is possible due to the nature of López Obrador’s electoral coalition and the disdain that Mexicans have for their governmental institutions.

López Obrador’s political party, the National Regeneration Movement (MORENA), the dominant player in the Together We Will Make History (Juntos Haremos Historia) coalition, is new to representative government. The coalition features two other political parties, the Social Encounter Party (PES) and the Labor Party (PT). López Obrador launched MORENA after his second failed presidential run in 2012 with the the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD). His break from the PRD came as its party leaders accepted Enrique Peña Nieto as President in 2012, despite allegations of electoral fraud. MORENA first successfully ran candidates for office in 2015 when it won 35 seats out of the 500 in Mexico’s lower house, the Chamber of Deputies. At this time, none of Mexico’s 128 senators were from MORENA. The PES and the Mexican Labor Party were also minor players under the previous government, with just 19 senators and 12 representatives between the two parties.

Besides winning the presidency with 53 percent of the popular vote, when López Obrador assumes power on December 1, his electoral coalition will have 70 seats in the Senate, with MORENA taking 55, the Labor Party claiming six, and PES carrying nine. Additionally, the coalition in the Mexican lower house will have 303 of the chamber’s 500 seats, with MORENA earning 185 seats, the Labor Party taking 62, and representatives from the PES occupying 56 seats. In just three years, these parties went from fringe actors to controlling Mexico’s legislative and executive branches of government.

Meanwhile, Mexicans have shown an overwhelming disdain for current president Enrique Peña Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), who at one point had a 17 percent approval rating. More tellingly, in a survey conducted across 38 different countries in 2017, the Pew Research Center found that 93 percent of Mexicans were not satisfied with their country’s democratic institutions. Their discontent is particularly focused on the established political parties, which include the PRI, the PRD, as well as the National Action Party (PAN). More so than any other people in Latin America, Mexicans are ready for dramatic social change.

This veritable collapse—principally in terms of the faith that the people have in Mexico’s traditional governing parties—presents an opportunity for López Obrador’s somewhat undisciplined electoral coalition. Compared to Lula’s PT, which steadily moderated its political approach for decades, MORENA is a relatively new political actor. MORENA drew many different people into its ranks in a short period of time, including members of the PRD, PAN, and the PRI, who flocked into MORENA’s ranks earlier this year on more than one occasion. One of the parties in López Obrador’s coalition, PES, is an evangelical conservative party that opposes marriage equality and abortion rights. It also includes soccer star-turned-politician Cuauhtémoc Blanco, who just became the governor of the state of Morelos, who was accused of electoral fraud two years ago. Add to this political mix MORENA’s many committed leftists who have continued to express support to Venezuela under Nicolás Maduro. Of course, there is Obrador himself, who isn’t quite a political outsider. Such diversity begs for unity in terms of policy and ideology. The opportunity is for MORENA to provide direction for its electoral coalition, as well as for Mexico. What has the potential to bind together the representatives that will work in López Obrador’s incoming government is his promise to transform Mexico by ending corruption, engineering domestic economic development, and improving public safety. Such goals are vague, but also potentially revolutionary.

López Obrador’s objectives call for seriously questioning orthodox approaches to law enforcement, economics, and governance. The need is for bold experiments in political action, which may entail land redistribution and new agricultural investment initiatives, reversing Peña Nieto’s neoliberal energy reforms, breaking up the few companies that dominate Mexico’s telecommunications industry, as well as amending the Constitution. More so than any other country in the region, Mexico is ready to consider such changes, as MORENA’s electoral coalition has the chance to advance a bold agenda given its electoral majorities in both chambers. At the same time, such hopes could easily be dashed. López Obrador’s cabinet selections and some of the policy proposals thus far display a centrist, orthodox approach. Others have noted that Obrador has neither seriously threatened private property, nor has a radical program to confront poverty. Apparent agreements with key elites in Mexico’s business community, likewise, parallel Lula’s efforts to calm powerful economic players through making concessions. Still, Brazil’s example illustrates that to pursue centrist policy objectives does not lead to real and lasting social change. Following the political status quo would squander this unique opportunity in Mexican history. When the left took power and Brazil hoped for change, Lula made compromises. Now, Brazil is suffering. The lesson for Mexico: centrism and accommodation fail to generate true change. The present moment is the time for bold political experiments. The Mexican people are ready. The question is—will AMLO deliver?

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