KarunaNews Story

Toothless and frail, Gloria Palacios, 84, stooped as she set up her rickety sidewalk shop in a rough neighborhood in Mexico City’s. She was selling peanuts, cigarettes, chewing gum, chocolates and chips and hoping to make about 100 pesos (about $5/day). Happily, the family has a different lifeline. With their house crumbling and bills piling up, the only thing keeping them afloat is a bimonthly transfer of 6,200 pesos ($330) implemented by the government of previous president Andrés Manuel López Obrador for adults over 65. “God bless López Obrador,” said Palacios. “Without him what would we do? I think we wouldn’t even have enough to eat.” When Amlo, as Lopez Obrador is called, took office in 2018, there were nearly 52 million people living below the poverty line: by the time he left office six years later, that number had dropped by 13.4 million, a decrease of almost 26%. Extreme poverty also dropped from nearly 9 million people to just 7 million. In a country that has long suffered from deep inequality and struggled with economic precarity, the steep drop in the number of people living in poverty is a remarkable achievement and suggests Amlo’s policies had a measurable impact on the lives of millions of everyday Mexicans. There is more work to do, though, including getting better health care access for all Mexicans.