Workers for Mexico's Second-Richest Man Are Told to Vote Against AMLO

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Bloomberg


By Andrea Navarro
May 30, 2018, 5:00 AM CDT
Executives implore workers not to vote ‘out of anger’
Angst across corporate Mexico mounts as July 1 election nears


In Mexico, there is perhaps no more luxurious shopping experience than a stroll through one of El Palacio de Hierro’s 13 stores. At the Perisur location, an undulating, tempered-glass structure on the southern edge of Mexico City, customers can take home a $2,400 handmade Bottega Veneta purse or a $25,535 Bell & Ross men’s sapphire-crystal watch.

The chain is owned by Alberto Bailleres, Mexico’s second-richest man. This wealth -- nearly $11 billion, according to Bloomberg estimates -- has put him in the crosshairs of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the fiery leftist presidential candidate. To Lopez Obrador, Bailleres forms part of the Mexican “mafia of power” that needs to be reined in.

It’s an unnerving message for Palacio de Hierro executives, especially because Lopez Obrador has opened up an 18-point lead over his nearest rival just one month before the vote. So on a recent weekday evening, they gathered Perisur staff in the mess hall for a mandatory meeting. Over the next 40 minutes, they hammered home the message again and again, according to employees present that night: Vote for whichever candidate has the best shot at beating Lopez Obrador; it’s the best chance we have of preserving the economic system that allows us to employ you.

These kinds of tactics are suddenly becoming commonplace across Mexico. Supermarket chain Grupo Comercial Chedraui, mining giant Grupo Mexico SAB, cinema operator Cinepolis de Mexico SA, airline Grupo Aeromexico SAB -- all have begun to nudge their employees in one form or another to think carefully about who they vote for on July 1. Nothing more clearly underscores how rattled corporate Mexico is about the prospect of a Lopez Obrador victory and how high executives believe the stakes are.

Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-30/billionaire-s-employees-get-urgent-warning-as-mexico-vote-nears

[sandensea]

1. A common tale in Latin America (and increasingly in the U.S. as well).

In Argentina, a factory owner practically ordered employees to vote for the right-wing Macri in 2015.

Amid a wave of imports and massive utility rate hikes, the factory recently shut down.

Thanks for digging this up, Judi.

[Judi Lynn]

3. The factory ordered them to for the near-Nazi, and the guy wrecked his business. Wow.

No doubt his jobless former employees would love to have a word with him.

That really worked out so Macri-well, didn't it?

Macri made no secret before the election of his complete endorsement of the military dictatorship which not only tortured and murdered over 30,000 Argentinians, seeing them as their political enemies, often dropping them from airplanes, chained together like paper dolls, into the ocean or the River Plata.

Then the dictatorship moved on to destroy the economy, after treating all its supporters to filling their pockets, including Macri's father.

Whoever deliberately wanted to see Macri win is no friend of the human race.

If it weren't for the helpless workers left without a way to support themselves, one would have to celebrate seeing the factory owner get his reward for acts against the lives of working class people and their families.

Glad you reminded us that we HAVE heard of this in the U.S., after the polarization intensified, as hard as it is to accept. Thanks, sandensea.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Mexico's Lopez Obrador, party widen lead ahead of July vote - poll

MAY 30, 2018 / 6:03 AM / UPDATED 3 HOURS AGO
Reuters Staff
2 MIN READ

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and his Morena party widened their poll lead ahead of an election on July 1, following the country’s second televised debate, a survey by newspaper Reforma showed on Wednesday.

The May 24-27 voter poll showed the 64-year old former Mexico City mayor with 52 percent support, up 4 percentage points from a Reforma survey carried out in late April and the paper’s first poll since the May 20 debate.

 
Lopez Obrador, on his third bid for the presidency, is riding a wave of anger against the ruling party amid rising violence, corruption scandals and sluggish growth.

The poll showed his Morena party, which he founded after his second run, with 42 percent support in lower house votes, up from 36 percent in the prior poll.

More:
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-mexico-election/mexicos-lopez-obrador-party-widen-lead-ahead-of-july-vote-poll-idUKKCN1IV1AR?rpc=401&