Their rivalry has lengthy been a topic of hypothesis by pundits, and on Tuesday, two of Mexico’s brightest political stars have been within the highlight for all of the incorrect causes.
After the lethal subway prepare crash in Mexico Metropolis, public anger on Tuesday turned towards town’s mayor, Claudia Sheinbaum, and a former mayor who’s now Mexico’s international minister, Marcelo Ebrard.
Each are extensively seen as doable successors to President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
“Completely nothing can be hidden,” Mr. López Obrador stated at a information convention on Tuesday morning. “The folks of Mexico should know the entire reality.”
However even because the president spoke, the political fallout was evident at his information convention. Each Ms. Sheinbaum and Mr. Ebrard confronted harsh questioning from reporters: she for the doable failure to detect faults that led to the lethal crash, and he for overseeing the development of a subway line tormented by accusations of mismanagement and corruption.
Publicly, at the least, the 2 political heavyweights introduced a united entrance.
“We’re in settlement to unravel this and work collectively to search out the reality and know what prompted this incident,” stated Ms. Sheinbaum, who prevented blaming any authorities figures for the accident.
Mr. Ebrard, requested whether or not he feared being held in the end accountable for the tragic accident, denied any wrongdoing and stated he would cooperate with the investigation.
“When you’ve got nothing to cover, you don’t have anything to concern,” he stated. “Like anybody else, I’m topic to regardless of the authorities decide, however much more in order a high-level official, as somebody who promoted the development of the road.”
Mr. Ebrard was mayor of Mexico Metropolis from 2006 to 2012, and the subway line, often called the Golden Line, was one of many landmark initiatives of his administration.
The crash occurred a month earlier than legislative elections that the governing occasion, often called Morena, is predicted to dominate. Mr. López Obrador — additionally a former mayor of the capital — has a excessive approval ranking all through the nation however is much less fashionable in Mexico Metropolis.
Ms. Sheinbaum and Mr. Ebrard are each members of Morena, and each are vying to succeed Mr. López Obrador as president when his time period ends in 2024.
Mr. López Obrador, who campaigned on bettering Mexico’s infrastructure, has spearheaded formidable public transportation initiatives since taking workplace in 2018, together with practically 1,000 miles of railway stretching throughout Mexico. He has sought to create a legacy by a number of landmark initiatives and, quickly after taking workplace, stopped the development of a half-built airport {that a} rival occasion had began to construct for Mexico Metropolis.
Although the development was superior and the federal government had spent billions of {dollars} on the airport, Mr. López Obrador scrapped it to construct one other airport at a special location, reimagining the mission in his identify.
But the president’s flashy initiatives have come on the expense of extra pressing wants, together with water infrastructure issues in a rustic more and more burdened by droughts and Mexico Metropolis’s subway system, a key mode of transportation for the sprawling capital’s inhabitants of practically 22 million.
