Mexican tycoons testy after presidential candidate labels them ‘corrupt influence traffickers’
Billionaires say Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, front-runner in the July 1 election race, is undermining confidence in the country’s private sector
Mexico’s leading business groups are fuming after leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the favourite to win the country’s July presidential election, called several billionaires influence traffickers who benefit from corruption.
At a campaign appearance this week, Lopez Obrador, a two-time presidential runner-up, accused members of Mexico’s business elite of impeding democracy and conspiring to keep him out of power now and in the past, and he named names.
Among those he singled out were billionaires Alberto Bailleres of conglomerate Grupo Bal and German Larrea of mining giant Grupo Mexico along with businessman Alejandro Ramirez, the chief executive of major cinema chain Cinepolis.
“The group of businessmen who in the strict sense are not businessmen, they are influence traffickers, not businessmen, who benefit from the current economic policy, from corruption,” he said at a campaign rally in Veracruz state. “To all of them I say don’t worry … the only thing that could happen that they won’t like is that they’re not going to continue stealing and they’re not going to have the privilege of giving orders.”
