After the drama, the controversies in Mexico.
Three days after the Mexico City metro accident that claimed the lives of 25 people, allegations of mismanagement of this public transport shake the left in power, but President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador has vigorously denied any connection with his policies.
Criticizing "the austerity that kills", the employers' union Coparmex on Wednesday accused the city of Mexico City of having cut back on "the essential areas and of vital importance", such as the metro.
"The maintenance of the metro has a sufficient budget, authorized by the Legislative Assembly of Mexico City. What does austerity have to do with it?", Replied Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador (nicknamed " AMLO ") during his daily press conference.
The leftist president, who refuses to grant direct aid to companies during the Covid-19 pandemic to prioritize the health system and social spending, accused the Coparmex of "bad faith and irresponsibility", and to be an "ultraconservative association, a sector very prone to corruption".
A union of metro workers, for its part, claimed to have alerted the city hall of Mexico City last October to the poor condition of the skytrain bridge which collapsed on Monday, without being listened to.
"The workers are afraid, we have no guarantees," complained to the daily Milenio a union official, Jesus Urban.
While criticism was mounting, cranes were still at work overnight from Wednesday to Thursday to clear the crash site in a very poor area in the south of the capital, where the families of the victims began to bury their families. relatives.
Legislative in me
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"Justice will be done," AMLO promised Wednesday.
"Nothing will be the same as before," he insisted.
Words that may not be enough to calm the storm raised by this tragedy which has moved the whole world.
In the eye of the storm, two leaders close to the president: the current Minister of Foreign Affairs, Marcelo Ebrard, who developed and inaugurated the line in 2012 as mayor of the capital, and Claudia Sheinbaum, who currently holds this post .
Both seemed, however, to be the best placed of the Morena party candidates who will run for AMLO's succession for the 2024 presidential election.
Ebrard, 61, played a leading role in purchasing Covid-19 vaccines, while Sheinbaum, 58, halos that Mexico City is performing very well in the face of the pandemic, with only 20% occupancy of intensive care beds in the capital.
The accident also occurs a month before the legislative elections of June 6, during which the Morena party, in power since 2018, will play its majority in the Chamber of Deputies.
"This disaster is undoubtedly exploited in the political field," analyst Hernan Gomez Bruera told AFP.
Line 12, deemed "accursed", "was Ebrard's jewel but it was shattered," notes analyst Martha Anaya for AFP.
The Mexican press has been in charge for 48 hours to recall the overrun of 70% of the initial cost of the project inaugurated in 2012 for a total of $ 1.2 billion, and the failures noted from its implementation.
For Martha Anaya, the criticisms are all the stronger as AMLO has shown "little empathy" for the victims and has not visited the disaster area, nor has sent "a message of condolence".
"Lopez Obrador's problem is that he does not know how to react to the tragedies involving his people, and there he has no one to blame. He still cannot put the 25 dead on the account of neoliberalism", continues -it.
The results of the investigation opened by the prosecutor's office and the independent expertise of the Norwegian cabinet Det Norske Veritas also risk undermining the president and his party, who have promised to fight against deep-rooted corruption in the country.
Mexico, stronghold of the left
To defend himself from being also corrupt, Marcelo Ebrard assured that his administrative responsibility in the project had ended in 2013 and that behind the accusations were hidden "political motives".
"Sheinbaum also had two and a half years to review the structure. Local residents complained that there were problems and she should have ordered a thorough examination," said Gomez Bruera.
Trying to look good, Claudia Sheinbaum refused on Wednesday to talk about the possible impact of the accident on her political career.
Political analyst Martha Anaya, however, excludes any immediate electoral repercussions.
"Maybe in Tláhuac, the neighborhood where the accident took place, it will subtract voices, but that's it," she said.
Mexico City, which has 9.2 million inhabitants, has been ruled since 1997 by the left.
Authorities have also started a review of metro lines that pass over bridges, especially due to Mexico City's muddy basement where earthquakes are frequent and violent.
With AFP
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