Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum Would Examine Role of Military in Companies

(Bloomberg) -- Mexico’s leading presidential candidate Claudia Sheinbaum intends, if elected, to evaluate the military’s role in the corporations that have been placed under its control by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

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“We have to evaluate how it’s working and, in any case, change the situation,” the frontrunner said Friday when asked whether the companies — including the new state-owned airline and the Maya Train line — should be administered by civilians. “For now, that’s the way it is.”

AMLO, as the president is known, presided over an expansion of the military’s power and reach that has left it richer and bigger than ever. If Sheinbaum wins, the president’s protégé will have limited options for reining in the armed forces, at least in the short term. In 2022, AMLO changed the constitution to allow the military to handle public security until at least 2028.

Read More: Mexico’s Murders Top 170,000 as AMLO Directs Military Elsewhere

Sheinbaum also spoke about the National Guard during a banking convention held in Acapulco. She said it should be moved under the Defense Ministry. Echoing AMLO, as the president is known, she said that having the Guard under Defense didn’t automatically make it a military institution.

Sheinbaum also said the growth in construction seen in the past six years was thanks both to the army and private companies that were involved in the Maya Train and other projects.

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