The Washington Post - USA (2022-04-10)

SUNDAY, APRIL 10 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ M2 A

The World

ISRAEL

Counterterrorism

raid leaves 1 dead

Israeli soldiers killed a
Palestinian militant in the
occupied West Bank on Saturday
during a raid in the hometown of
a gunman who carried out a
deadly shooting attack Thursday
in Tel Aviv.
The Palestinian Health
Ministry said 13 people were
wounded in Saturday’s exchange
of fire in the city of Jenin. The
Palestinian Islamic Jihad
claimed the man who was killed
as a member of the militant
group.
The Israeli military said its
soldiers were conducting a
counterterrorism operation in
the area and opened fire at
gunmen who shot at them.
Residents said the troops
surrounded the home of a man
who on Thursday night opened
fire in a Tel Aviv bar and killed
three Israelis. He was shot dead a
few hours later in a firefight with
Israeli security forces.

Israel’s Defense Ministry

announced a series of

restrictions on the Jenin area

Saturday, prohibiting passage

through its main crossing into

Israel. Jenin is considered a

stronghold of Palestinian

militants.

— Reuters

IRAN

Nuclear industry not

negotiable, Raisi says

Iranian President Ebrahim

Raisi said Saturday that Tehran

would not give up the right to

develop its nuclear industry for

peaceful purposes, and that all

parties involved in talks to revive

the 2015 nuclear accord should

respect that.

Eleven months of indirect

talks between Iran and the

United States in Vienna have

stalled. Both sides say political

decisions are required by Tehran

and Washington to settle the

remaining issues.

“Our message from Tehran to

Vienna is that we will not back off

from the Iranian people’s nuclear

rights... not even an iota,” state

media quoted Raisi as saying in a

speech marking Iran’s Nuclear

Technology Day, while reiterating

Iran’s stance that its n uclear

program is for peaceful purposes.

— Reuters

Australian leader calls May

election: Australian Prime

Minister Scott Morrison has

called for a May election that will

be fought on issues including

Chinese economic coercion,

climate change and the

coronavirus pandemic. Morrison

on Sunday advised Gov. General

David Hurley as representative of

Australia’s head of state, Queen

Elizabeth II, to set the election

date. Morrison announced later

in the day that Australians will go

to the polls May 21.

Guangzhou joins Shanghai in

citywide coronavirus testing:

Shanghai announced another

round of mass coronavirus

testing, while the southern

metropolis of Guangzhou said it

will do the same for all 18 million

residents, as authorities

accelerate efforts to curb China’s

worst outbreak since the early

days of the pandemic. Shanghai

Deputy Mayor Zong Ming also

announced tweaks to the

government’s lockdown policy

for the city of 25 million. Overall

measures remained stringent,

however, as residents living in

communities with coronavirus

cases in the past seven days are

barred from leaving their homes.

Syria claims Israel carried out

airstrikes: S yrian air defenses

confronted an “Israeli air

aggression” Saturday in the

country’s central region, Syrian

state media reported. “At 6:45 pm

today, the Israeli enemy launched

an air aggression from the north

of Lebanon, targeting some

points in the central region,”

state media said, citing a military

source. Israel’s military declined

to comment.

Jordan’s king to have spine

surgery: Jordan’s King Abdullah

II is traveling to Germany on

Sunday for spine surgery. The 60-

year-old monarch has “a

herniated disc in the thoracic

spine,” the kingdom’s Royal

Hashemite Court said. His

intermittent spine pain is “a

result of parachute jumping

during his years of service in

special operations.”

— From news services

DIGEST

NARINDER NANU/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

Young Sikhs p erform the traditional Punjab bhangra folk dance

ahead of the Baisakhi harvest festival in a wheat field in Amritsar,

India, o n Saturday. The mid-April festival not only celebrates the

harvest, but some believe it also marks the beginning of the new year.

BY MARY BETH SHERIDAN

mexico city — N early four years
after he won a landslide victory,
President Andrés Manuel López
Obrador is facing the kind of poll
numbers that would make many
politicians flinch.
Less than one-third of Mexi-
cans think their country is on the
right track, according to a survey
by El Financiero newspaper. On
nearly every important issue —
crime, the economy, corruption —
the government’s ratings are sag-
ging.
And yet around 60 percent of
Mexicans approve of López Obra-
dor’s performance, polls indicate.
On Sunday, the longtime leftist
icon is expected to receive over-
whelming support in a recall vote.
It’s one he’s called on himself.
López Obrador has cast the ref-
erendum as an exercise in “direct
democracy” by a man of the peo-
ple, a contrast to the corrupt, self-
interested leadership of the past.
“Why not promote the participa-
tion of the people to decide if the
president should continue on, or
resign?” he asked at a recent news
conference.
Why not? Mexican opposition
parties charge the referendum is
an $80 million exercise in propa-
ganda, aimed at strengthening the
president’s hand and distracting
people from the government’s fail-
ures.
There’s no shortage of those.
Newspapers are filled with stories
of gory massacres committed by
organized-crime groups. Mexico’s
gross domestic product is growing
at an anemic 2 percent annually,
and the economy hasn’t yet re-
turned to its pre-pandemic out-
put. The United States is express-
ing alarm about López Obrador’s
efforts to give the government a
bigger role in electricity produc-
tion, a move that could affect bil-
lions of dollars in foreign invest-
ment.
“The only thing that matters to
this type of character is popularity,
because he doesn’t have much de-
livery of results,” said Luis Rubio,
president of Mexico Evalua, a
think tank.
Yet there’s little doubt López
Obrador will win handily. That’s
partly because the opposition has
called for a boycott. But it’s also
due to the president’s popularity.
The level is particularly remark-
able at a moment of political and
economic turmoil in the hemi-
sphere, in which many leaders,
from President Biden to the lead-
ers of Argentina, Colombia and
Brazil, have seen their poll num-
bers tank.
Analysts cite several reasons for
López Obrador’s continued sup-
port. One is Mexicans’ traditional
deference to the sitting president.
Several recent Mexican leaders
maintained similarly high ratings
during much of their six-year
terms.
“We have a presidential cul-
ture,” said the political scientist
Alejandro Moreno, head of polling
for El Financiero. “You close ranks
around the leader.”
But what many people don’t un-
derstand, writer Jorge Zepeda Pat-
terson said, is that López Obrador’s
2018 victory was a watershed for
Mexico’s political system. Mexicans
were discouraged by the failure of
their young democracy to tackle the
legacy of corruption left over from
71 years of one-party rule. Mean-
while, the export-led growth model,
built around the North American
Free Trade Agreement, had been
highly successful in some areas, but
left millions of people behind —
this, in a country already suffering
glaring inequality. More than half
of all Mexican workers still labor in
the informal sector.

López Obrador channeled the

frustration with politics as usual.

“The opposition acts as though

the discontent is something López

Obrador is producing by his dema-

goguery, by tricking people, by his

discourse. What they don’t realize

is, it’s the opposite,” Zepeda Patter-

son said. “López Obrador reached

the presidency because of this dis-

content.”

Even when people don’t think

their lives are improving, “They

think, ‘Well at least he knows our

names. At least he defends us. At

least he questions the rich, who

have left us in this position.’ ”

López Obrador is a polarizing

figure. He uses his daily news con-

ferences to bash political oppo-

nents, academics, civil-society

groups, journalists and other crit-

ics as agents of the wealthy elite.

For all his bellicosity, though, he

has not raised taxes or carried out

major expropriations. He defend-

ed the continuation of NAFTA.

He’s been a peso-pincher rather

than the kind of free-spending

leader normally associated with

leftist populism. He’s raised the

minimum wage but carefully

guarded the stability of the peso.

Zepeda Patterson said the presi-

dent’s incendiary narrative could

be a strategy to maintain his popu-

larity despite the meager results of

his economic policies. “If he

couldn’t achieve popular support

by carrying out a real fight against

the elites — which he hasn’t done

— he could conduct a verbal fight,”

he said.

The president’s party has

launched an election-style cam-

paign to persuade people to turn

out for the vote. “You’re not alone,

AMLO” proclaim billboards erect-

ed around the country. Despite the

effort, though, analysts believe the

referendum is unlikely to draw the

required minimum of 40 percent

turnout that would make its re-

sults binding.

Nonetheless, it will probably

have political consequences. Ló-

pez Obrador has been on a crusade

against the National Electoral In-

stitute, charging that it is biased

against him. The autonomous in-

stitute, which played a key role in

Mexico’s democratization, has de-

nied the claims. But if turnout is

low on Sunday, the president is

expected to blame the agency. The

institute has said the government

didn’t allocate it enough funding

to set up more polling stations.

López Obrador could also use

the results of the vote as a cudgel

to prod lawmakers to approve

some of the most sweeping legisla-

tion of his presidency. This week,

the Congress is expected to vote on

a constitutional amendment that

would overturn a 2014 reform that

opened the electricity sector to

foreign investment.

López Obrador has argued that

access to electricity is a social right

and the government should over-

see the sector. Critics say the meas-

ure would leave Mexico increasing-

ly reliant on domestically produced

dirty fuels while discouraging the

flow of funds the country’s manu-

facturing sector needs to grow.

Luis Carlos Ugalde, a political

analyst, said whether Sunday’s

vote is legally binding is beside the

point. “What’s relevant for López

Obrador is the mobilization and

the propaganda,” he wrote in a

column for El Financiero. “And

that will have occurred.”

For Mexico’s president, recall vote little threat

Andrés Manuel López Obrador, with a 60 percent approval rating, calls the referendum an exercise in ‘direct democracy’

ALFREDO ESTRELLA/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, center, walks with women during an International Women’s Day event in Mexico City on March 8. López

Obrador faces a recall vote Sunday, which he called himself. Analysts doubt it will draw the required minimum of 40 percent turnout to make its result binding.

ALFREDO ESTRELLA/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

A billboard in Mexico City advertises the recall vote on López Obrador. His

party has launched an election-style campaign to boost turnout.

ULISES RUIZ/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/ GETTY IMAGES

Opponents of the Mexican president, who contend the referendum is

propaganda, protest the recall vote in Guadalajara, Mexico, on April 3.