Mexican President Replaces Economy Minister with Political Ally

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Monday nominated his former campaign chief Tatiana Clouthier to replace Graciela Marquez as economy minister, a change which could give new impetus to his efforts to repair bruised ties with business.

Clouthier, a federal congresswoman and scion of a notable political family, played a major role in Lopez Obrador’s 2018 election campaign. But she initially opted not to be part of the federal government when he took office in December that year.

Lopez Obrador has struggled to make the economy work for him and is falling well short of his goal of lifting growth to an average of 4% per year. Even before the coronavirus pandemic struck, Mexico had slipped into a mild recession in 2019.

The leftist leader has spent much of his presidency at odds with corporate bosses, arguing that past administrations were captive to powerful business interests and mired in graft.

Clouthier, a fluent English speaker, is a gifted communicator and could act as an important bridge between business and the government as Lopez Obrador tries to ramp up growth and brighten the investment climate.

Clouthier’s late father Manuel was the presidential candidate for the business-friendly center-right National Action Party (PAN) in 1988, and the Sinaloa-based family for years had strong ties with what was long the main opposition party in Mexico.

Tatiana Clouthier split from the party in the 2000s, making a name for herself as an independent member of the opposition, and entered the lower house on the ticket of Lopez Obrador’s leftist National Regeneration Movement (MORENA).

A longtime resident of the northern business hub of Monterrey, Clouthier is a strong advocate of renewable energy, a policy area that critics of Lopez Obrador feel he has neglected. He has caused ructions with business leaders over the issue.

Marquez’s departure as minister comes just a few days after another of Lopez Obrador’s chief business interlocutors, chief of staff Alfonso Romo, left the government.

One person familiar with the administration’s thinking said Lopez Obrador was eager to replace Marquez with a figure better able to communicate the message that his government was breaking the nexus of political corruption with business interests.

Lopez Obrador paid tribute to Marquez, an academic who was new to politics when she took office. Marquez will move to the board of Mexico’s national statistics agency INEGI, he said.

Source: Reuters