▲ During the tribute paid yesterday at the National Palace.Photo Presidency
Alonso Urrutia and Emir Olivares
The newspaper La Jornada
Tuesday, August 20, 2024, p. 11
On this occasion, the morning press conference was shorter to make time for the long-standing tribute to Mexican migrants that took place in the central courtyard of the National Palace. With the participation of musical groups and members of folkloric ballets from the Ministry of National Defense and the National Guard, a show of vernacular music and regional dances was performed in their honor.
Designed to be seen on the federal government’s social media, only President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and the Secretaries of the Navy, Rafael Ojeda, of Public Security and Citizen Protection, Rosa Icela Rodríguez, of Foreign Affairs, Alicia Bárcena, and of the Interior, Luisa María Alcalde, made up the only audience at the Palace. There were no migrants present.
From early on, López Obrador opened the conference by announcing that it would be shorter than usual to make way for this tribute. Once again, he celebrated the contribution they make to Mexico by supporting the national economy with the 65 billion dollars that, according to projections, will be sent to the country this year (up to June, 31 billion dollars had been received in remittances), a figure that exceeds the weight of the 40 billion dollars of foreign direct investment that is also expected in 2024.
This extraordinary figure is just a fraction of the 338 billion dollars that migrants generate annually, 265 billion of which remain as a contribution to the US economy. In total, he stressed, they generate the equivalent of Colombia’s gross domestic product, which is why, he said, they deserve a tribute.
After the conference, López Obrador moved to the central courtyard where the military deployment that starred in the spectacle was already waiting for him: the Army and Air Force Music Bands; the Army mariachi; the Folkloric Ensemble and the Folkloric Ballets of the National Defense and the National Guard.
Almost an hour of a musical tour through almost all the regions of the country: The dance of the old men, from Michoacán; the dance of the deer, from Sonora; the dance of the iguana, from Guerrero; the bamba from Veracruz; the querreque, from Huasteca; the alazanas, from Jalisco or the dance of the pineapple flower are part of the repertoire performed, dedicated to migrants, by the military.
