Several of Mexico’s top business leaders have lashed out at leftwing nationalist Andrés Manuel López Obrador, warning employees of the “catastrophic effects” of populism and urging them to vote “intelligently” in presidential elections on July 1.
“We have recently heard worrying proposals of nationalising companies, scrapping the energy and education reforms among other ideas that would turn the clock back decades to an economic model that has been more than proven not to work . . . Venezuela, Argentina, Cuba, the former Soviet Union, among others, are witness to that,” Germán Larrea, chief executive of mining, rail and infrastructure conglomerate Grupo México, wrote to his staff and shareholders.
Mr López Obrador, who is leading the race with about 44 per cent support according to a poll of polls by election site Oraculus.mx, used a campaign rally on Tuesday to hit back at Mexico’s second-richest man. “I understand Germán Larrea doesn’t want change — things have gone very well for him,” he said. “Let him not scare anyone and not be afraid himself. We are going to triumph.”
With voters increasingly fed up of spiralling violence and endless corruption scandals, Mr López Obrador — Amlo, as the candidate is widely known — is the frontrunner. But victory for Mr López Obrador could dramatically change the political landscape in Mexico. Many business leaders fear he will pitch one of Latin America’s biggest economies into Venezuela-style ruin.
Mr Larrea’s was the latest in a string of missives in recent days from top business leaders — including the heads of Femsa, the Coca-Cola bottling company; Grupo Herdez, the food company; Grupo Vasconia, the manufacturer of aluminium sheets, tinfoil and kitchen products; and Grupo Chihuahua, the construction company — that evoked the devaluations, galloping inflation and economic crises of the 1970s and 1980s under the presidencies of Luis Echeverría and José López Portillo.
José Ramón Elizondo, head of Grupo Vasconia, told his staff: “We’re all very mad at politicians because of corruption, impunity, insecurity, poor services and the lack of opportunities”. But he warned: “All that can cloud our judgment and could lead us down the road of populism.”
Mexico’s past populist leaders had delivered “catastrophic effects”, Femsa chief José Antonio Fernández Carbajal warned in a video.
Héctor Hernández Pons Torres, chief executive of Herdez, said his company would “be more cautious in our investments” and urged employees to safeguard their own finances.
Mr Larrea, for his part, appealed to employees and shareholders “to vote intelligently”.
Mr López Obrador was branded by rivals “a danger to Mexico” in the 2006 elections, which he narrowly lost amid allegations of fraud.
The business leaders’ attempt to swing sentiment against him were “ill-advised and could easily be counter-productive because it feeds into the López Obrador narrative”, said Gabriel Guerra, a commentator and former government official.
Jorge Buendía, a leading pollster, said: “I don’t think it will have much impact.”
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Mr López Obrador has vowed not to expropriate businesses and pledged to respect investors, although Jaime Rodríguez, the independent candidate known as El Bronco who is last place in polls, has talked of nationalising a top bank.
“We need businessmen to get this country going, to allow us to grow,” Mr López Obrador told a business forum this month. However, he clashed with some top corporate leaders recently, saying they were trying to unite his rivals against him.
One company apparently keeping out of the fray was Soriana, a supermarket group criticised by Mr López Obrador in the 2012 elections for allegedly supplying gift cards used to buy voter support. A printed message on its till receipts read: “Vote freely this July 1.”
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