Andrés Manuel López Obrador has reduced poverty in Mexico
But he could have done better
When he came to office in 2018, Andrés Manuel López Obrador pledged to put the poor first. It is one promise Mexico’s president has managed, in part, to keep. The number of Mexicans living in poverty has fallen from 52m to 47m during his term, according to measurements made by the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy, an independent government body. That would count as success at the best of times. That it coincided with a pandemic and Mexico’s biggest economic contraction since the Depression makes it remarkable.
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This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline “A rare success”
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