“At the end of my period I cancel my phone and disappear”: AMLO

Emir Olivares and Alonso Urrutia

Newspaper La Jornada
Thursday June 2, 2022, p. 3

Once his term ends, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador will definitively say goodbye to the public scene. I cancel my phone and disappearhe asserted in the middle of the Treasury Hall of the National Palace.

Asked about royalties from his most recent book, Half way – which he himself estimates, until December, at 3 million pesos – and why he did not report them in his 2021 asset declaration before the Ministry of Public Administration, he clarified that it corresponds to this year’s income, where he only received his salary as President.

He promised that he will comply with this legal requirement when it is appropriate to declare said earnings, which will be used for his retirement and will be added to his pension – for four positions in the public service – which calculated between 25,000 and 30,000 pesos per month.

“The book -published by Planeta-, don’t get mad, I also apologize, because they are going to say that today I came throwing oil, being smug, it is the one that has sold the most”. And immediately he asked his collaborators for a copy, but the one who promptly responded was a regular morning attendee: he took a copy out of his backpack and passed it to the president.

López Obrador continued: “This book must already be close to 500,000 copies, between 400 and 500,000 copies, it is the one that has sold the most so far (…) And until December, according to the accounts, removing taxes from about a million 500 thousand, I had about 3 million left…”

–If you received it last year, you should have declared it –he was confronted.

-It is that there is a deadline for income, but I do have to make it known -he accepted.

I am already preparing myself because I have two years and four months left (in office). I have the firm conviction of retiring, no partial retirement and accepting invitations to give a conference or accompany an event of a cultural, social, economic nature. Nope! (Or) the opening of a campaign, a party where politicians arrive, even if it belongs to my children, nothing, nothing, nothing. And ask everyone, as far as possible, and I take care of myself, that they no longer appear even in photos. And I cancel my phone and disappearhe claimed.

– Would you participate in your party?

-Absolutely nothing. No visits for political or diplomatic purposes, no charge. That’s why I have to hurry to see if the book continues to sell so that it reaches me (…) One should not be so attached to money or power.

The Executive added that when the temptation of these two elements cannot be overcome authenticity is lost.

Recently, he explained, they gave him his senior citizen ID and to show that, for years, he has not handled credit cards or checking accounts, he showed his pants pockets before the cameras, which looked totally empty.