A loving and fraternal greeting to the brother peoples of Chile, Peru, Colombia and to their leaders. To the President of Chile, Sebastián Piñera; the President of Colombia, Iván Duque; to the President of Peru, Francisco Sagasti.

I am very pleased to participate in this meeting of the member states of the Pacific Alliance.

My intervention will basically deal with our experience in facing this double crisis: the health crisis —that is, the pandemic — and the economic crisis.

I understand, and we as a country accept, the need to strengthen our relationships in all areas: economically, socially, culturally, and commercially. I would also like to point out that we must all, each according to their reality and to their circumstances, understand that moving towards a new normal after the pandemic also implies accepting that there is a new normal in the world and in our countries.

We can no longer continue with the same strategies. We have to reinvent ourselves in all respects. We can no longer maintain the same economic policy in the same way in which we cannot pour new wine into old bottles. Especially when the policies that have been applied in the past have not yielded results. This is not an ideological matter; it is one of practical judgment.

The pandemic leaves us with very important lessons. Just as it leaves us suffering and sadness due to the loss of human lives, it also teaches us that the public health system should not be abandoned. That it was a serious mistake to bet on the privatization of health, as was also done in the case of education.

Currently, due to this privatization policy, we have a shortage of doctors and specialists. Education and health are not a privilege; they are rights of the peoples.

So, we also have to review, as I said, the strategy that has been applied every time an economic crisis occurs. Before, in the face of a crisis, what was done and recommended, even by international financial organizations, was to resort to credit, put our countries in debt and use that debt to rescue large corporations, both in the productive and financial sectors.

Now, with the crisis that was precipitated by the pandemic, we chose to rescue first the people, the people most in need. We began supporting and reactivating the economy from the bottom up, from the base of the pyramid, upwards.

Support was intensified for social programs, for our Welfare Programs. We advanced the provision of resources for the pension to the elderly so that they did not have leave their homes and were able take care of themselves. Payment to girls and to boys with disabilities, was also advanced. Payment was advanced for 11 million students receiving scholarships.

All of this investment that went to the base of the social pyramid helped to prevent consumption from collapsing. It helped people to have food and to cover their basic necessities. As a result, we managed to get the economy to reactivate soon, and we are already in that process.

It is important for me to inform you that this was reinforced with an extraordinary contribution from our migrant countrymen, who, despite the pandemic, are now sending more resources to their families in Mexico. This year we are going to have record remittances. We are going to reach 40 billion pesos in remittances from Mexicans who work and live in the United States and who send this support to 10 million families in Mexico, an average of $350 per month per family. With this support and with the decision to allocate resources from the bottom up, to the people most in need, we are moving forward.

We did not apply for credits, we did not increase taxes, we did not increase energy prices and we are optimistic. Despite how difficult it has been to face the pandemic and despite the economic downturn, we are sure that we will come out with this formula, with this new strategy.

Of course, as you know, in Mexico we have decided to end corruption. In our diagnosis, even when we were in the opposition, we argued that Mexico's main problem was corruption, that nothing had harmed the country more than the dishonesty of the people in the government and that we had to eradicate corruption, banish corruption.

And now that we are in the government, we are carrying out a program to clean the government of corruption from top to bottom, like the stairs are swept, in the same way in which stairs are cleaned.

We are also finding that fighting corruption is not only a moral issue, but that fighting corruption also means freeing up a lot of funds for development. This is complemented by a republican austerity policy, that is, abandoning luxuries in government. It was very difficult for the people to maintain the government. Now there is austerity and that also means savings.

In Mexico there is no Presidential General Staff. Do you know how many elements of the Army looked after the president, or how many elements made up the Presidential General Staff? Eight thousand elements to take care of the president.

An airplane was bought for the president. We want to sell it and we cannot because it is valued at 120 million dollars. Since it is very luxurious, extravagant, there is no one who wants to buy it. But imagine the size of those excesses, the dimension of those excesses. All of that is over and with the fight against corruption and an austere government we are freeing funds for development.

And, I repeat, there is no need to go into debt or increase taxes, or charge more for gasoline, diesel, or electricity.

And yes, I end up commenting, underlining, that it is very important to rethink about how inefficient the neoliberal economic model has been. Of course, it has been good for minorities, but very bad for the people.

The government has to represent everyone and there has to be a clear division between economic power and political power. When the government is at the service of a minority, you cannot advance.

So, I celebrate this meeting with you. Truthfully, many thanks to President Piñera, who is currently the responsible, the coordinator of this meeting and of the Alliance. His term is coming to an end and I wish the best to President Duque, who is going to take over.

I would have liked to have this meeting in person, but we already know that it is not possible due to health issues, due to the healthy social distance that we must maintain, but this is going to come to an end and we are going to meet in person.

Personally, I would also like to greet the President of Peru. We are very pleased that President Sagasti was elected as president of Peru.  Despite the internal situation, he represents conciliation and we are rooting for him to move forward for the good of his people. And we also support the entry of Singapore into the Alliance and, of course, the entry of Ecuador. We are voting for that and hopefully it can be achieved as soon as possible.

I will just finish by saying that we are going to sign the declarations. In particular, the Santiago Declaration, Santiago de Chile.

Long live Chile!

And long live Colombia!

And long live Peru!

And long live our America!

 

National Palace, Mexico City

December 11th, 2020