Carlos Urzua he was a good man and a capable economist. Was also committed to social causeswhich led him to collaborate with Andrés Manuel López Obrador, first as Secretary of Finance of the Federal District from 2000 to 2003, then in his National Project 2018-2024 and finally as Secretary of the Treasury from December 1, 2018 to December 9. July 2019. I really wanted to help make a change.
He was also honest. In July 2003 he resigned from the Secretary of Finance of the Federal District for “personal reasons.” He had a net salary of 69,529.61 pesos per month after taxes (see my article “Lower salaries”, 04/28/2004). He went to Tec de Monterrey to head a new Graduate School of Administration and Public Policy, where he guessed he had a significant increase in his income. He was replaced by Gustavo Ponce, who accepted the discreet salary that AMLO paid, but in 2004 he was caught on video betting thousands of dollars in a Las Vegas casino. Austerity can cost a lot.
Urzúa only lasted seven months in López Obrador's presidency. In his resignation letter he said: “There were many discrepancies in economic matters. Some of them because in this administration public policy decisions have been made without sufficient support. In addition to this, I found the imposition of officials who have no knowledge of the Public Treasury unacceptable. “This was motivated by influential figures in the current government with a clear conflict of interest.” Ignorance and nepotism are also costly.
In recent years Urzúa He offered his views in a series of thoughtful newspaper opinion pieces. In the last one, on February 19, he noted that AMLO “always privileged oil over water.” In 2024, for example, he cut Conagua's budget by 13 percent, despite the drought; He has dedicated 360 billion pesos to the Dos Bocas refinery, and only 280 billion to Conagua in the entire six-year period.
February 12 He questioned the proposal to guarantee pensions of 100 percent of the last salary because “the proposal would have a gigantic budget impact.” Pretending that the amount can be covered with 60 billion pesos from the Institute to Return What was Stolen to the People and the profits of the Mayan Train and the AIFA “is to have no idea of the financial situation of these organizations.”
On January 29, Urzúa wrote: “Accustomed to issuing any order without doing any analysis or asking for advice, President López Obrador will leave the National Palace without having appreciated the capacity of many public servants who work in the institutions of the Mexican State. Those who belong to constitutionally autonomous bodies stand out in particular, because the stability in their employment allows them to specialize better.” He criticized the presidential initiative to end these organizations.
Today I sincerely regret the death of Urzúa. He represented many who, honestly and idealistically, believed in López Obrador and were willing to work with him. It is sad that, instead of listening to him, the president has preferred to apply public policies without support and impose in the SHCP, for reasons of nepotism, officials without technical knowledge. It is irritating that yesterday, after offering his condolences to the family, AMLO took the opportunity to declare himself a victim of a slander campaign. The president thinks that everything revolves around him.
Lozoya
A court has canceled the justified preventive detention that was ordered for Emilio Lozoya. He is not acquitted, but he will face his trial under house arrest. The FGR, which never admits errors, affirms that the judges excluded legally obtained evidence. In reality, preventive detention should be an exception and not the rule.
#Urzúa #idealist
