Obrador changes finance minister | The renon …

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, of the left, yesterday accepted the resignation of the Minister of Finance and Public Credit, Carlos Urzúa, and announced his replacement by Arturo Herrera, until then under-secretary of this portfolio.

After meeting at the presidential office of the National Palace, the president presented a video to the new minister, which he described as "official to the social dimension". López Obrador explained to him that "the economy is always at the service of the citizens", in particular "modest people", and generates wealth "to be distributed".

"Our country is a country with great things but also gaps and contrasts, and it is precisely in the area of ​​inequality that we must work," replied the new minister. Herrera, an economist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and former adviser to the World Bank, said that he accepted the position "with great enthusiasm" and considered it " a great responsibility ".

The new minister was the second from the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit, headed until yesterday by Carlos Urzúa, who resigned due to "economic differences" with the president. "He is not satisfied with the decisions we are making, but we are determined to change the economic policy imposed for 36 years," said López Obrador, who thanked Urzúa for the services rendered.

The president said he wanted to carry out a "transformation" of the country and admitted that "there were sometimes misunderstandings, doubts or hesitations, even within the government".
And he defended his economic policy because, he said, the revenues of the government increased, there is no deficit, the debt has not increased and the peso is "the the strongest currency in the world. " When he entered the National Palace, Herrera said that "the country is doing well" and that "everything is in order" despite the minister's resignation.

However, in a resignation letter broadcast on social networks, Urzúa wrote: "Due to economic disagreements with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and the imposition of officials without knowledge of the Treasury, motivated by the influential personalities of the current government In this administration, public policy decisions have been made without sufficient support and I am convinced that any economic policy must be evidence-based, taking into account the various effects of this policy.You can have and be free any extremism, whether from the right or the left, but these convictions have not found an echo in your government.

Although the letter does not state which person responsible for the conflict of interest was imposed on Urzúa, López Obrador acknowledged receipt and replied that, for the most part, Urzúa had been dismissed as neoliberal. "He (Urzúa) is not satisfied with the decisions we are making. (But) we are determined to change the economic policy imposed for 36 years." As it is a change, a transformation, it is sometimes we do not understand that we can not continue with the same strategies.You can not put new wine in old bottles, "said Lopez Obrador in a video in which he accepted the resignation and appointed Arturo Herrera to its place.

After the resignation of Urzúa, the local currency and the stock market withdrew forcefully, although they recovered some of the lost land after the appointment of Herrera, a market-recognized official. Goldman Sachs said the resignation reflected "friction" within the government, where decisions "could be guided by non-economic or financial criteria" and by people "without the required qualifications".

During these months, the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit imposed on the whole of the administration a plan of austerity advocated by López Obrador, of the nationalist movement of regeneration (Morena), left from the left. Although he has always been cautious, Urzúa supported López Obrador's forecast to achieve annual growth of 4% in the economy by the end of his term in 2024.

The resignation of Urzúa is the most relevant of the six months of López Obrador's government, although it was not the first. In mid-June, and in the midst of the migratory crisis, Tonatiuh Guillén, director of Mexico's National Institute of Immigration (Inami), resigned from his post. The resignation coincided with the resignation of the President of the Executive Commission of Victims of Victims (CEAV) of Mexico, Jaime Rochin, who denounced on June 7 that the administrative changes had reduced the quality of attention of cases by the entity.

Guillermo García Alcocer, president of the Regulatory Commission for Energy (CRE), also resigned in early June. And in May, Germán Martínez, head of the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS), and Josefa González-Blanco, Secretary for the Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat), did the same.

Born on June 9, 1955 in the central state of Aguascalientes, Urzúa is a professor of mathematics and doctor of economics at the University of Wisconsin in the United States. He has been a professor and researcher with Mexican and American academic institutions, as well as a consultant to international organizations such as the World Bank or the United Nations. Between 2000 and 2003, he was finance secretary of the Mexican capital, whose mayor was López Obrador.

Herrera, an economist graduated from New York University, began his career at the Mexico City Finance Ministry when AMLO was mayor and, after leaving the capital, he joined the World Bank as a public policy specialist. Within this institution, he headed the public sector unit, which covers 27 government and financial administration matters in 27 countries.