Governors mock Dr. López-Gatell
Yesterday, PAN governors didn’t want to recognize if, for them, Dr. Hugo-López Gatell is still a reliable spokesperson. The situation has changed so much that Aguascalientes governor Martín Orozco joked about the numbers López-Gatell releases every day: “I’m like Gatell, multiplying by the number you thought… but no (sic),” when talking about unemployment. This way, Hugo López-Gatell went from being used in memes to being publicly mocked by governors.
Politics over data
During the first news conferences hosted by Dr. Hugo López-Gatell, the essential part was the COVID-19 data. Now, it seems like the important part is politics and his confrontation with some media outlets. Now, for a whole week, he no longer announced the number of coronavirus-related deaths registered. For a week, the numbers have been published on a government website at around 7:30 PM; however, last night it was different because the numbers weren’t published until 8 PM when the news conference was over. Also, health authorities failed to mention that Mexico registered more deaths than Italy.
What’s going on with the presidential plane?
Last week, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said that the fate of the presidential plane could be decided today. As you might remember, he asked Banobras director Jorge Mendoza to provide more details regarding its sale. Also, the head of the National Lottery, Ernesto Prieto Ortega, was asked to inform about the sale of raffle tickets. Nevertheless, it is unlikely that the government announced the airplane was sold.
Government departments oppose transparency
Sources from the National Access to Information Institute (INAI) said that although several government departments deny the existence of information when citizens request information through the National Transparency Platform, people are not giving up. This week, the INAI registered another case where someone requested information from the National Commission for the Search of Missing Persons, specifically concerning the resources spent in Tamaulipas; however, the government department under the Interior Ministry said the information didn’t exist, but once the INAI intervened, it said the information would not be released for two years. The INAI ordered the government to release the information and we’ve been told that cases like this take place every week.
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