President Andrés Manuel López Obrador defended the work of the Army, after businessman Carlos Slim criticized in a press conference the presence of soldiers in this administration, especially their role in the administration of state companies.
Likewise, the president highlighted the five “missions” that the Armed Forces have in the national life of the country, as he pointed out that these are established in the Constitution, such as infrastructure construction and security.
In addition to these, there is also the need to promote social development, the construction of works and care for the population in cases of natural disasters.
In that same vein, the president highlighted: I respect Carlos a lot, we dialogue and debate. We don’t agree on everything. I respect him a lot because he is a hard-working person, who invests for the benefit of Mexico.
Likewise, he expressed that the Mexican businessman is respectful of the presidential investiture, “something that other businessmen do not do,” without mentioning the businessman Ricardo Salinas Pliego, with whom he has confronted.
The president said that in his administration the businessmen have done well, they are verifying that the economic model promoted works: the Mexican humanism that is unique. “We don’t patent it because we want it to be applied everywhere.”
“The Constitution prevented the Navy and Sedena from participating in security. We did renovations and they were allowed to help us. The National Guard was created, which has 130,000 professional and disciplined members,” he said.
On the other hand, he said that one of the missions that the Army has is support in everything that has to do with social development and an example of this he cited was the national vaccination strategy to face the Covid-19 pandemic. .
In addition, he highlighted the function around the construction of works that has to do with the development of Mexico. Emphasizing that he was not responding to businessman Slim, he commented that “if military engineers build for a billion and do it in one year, a construction company from Mexico or abroad, does that same work for two billion and in two years.” .
He added that in our country there are few construction companies that are serious and what proliferated during the neoliberal period of corruption are the contractors that in the example would charge three to five billion for that same work and finish it in five years. He emphasized that with the support of the military the Felipe Ángeles Airport was built and it meant a saving of 120 billion pesos, if we had built them on Lake Texcoco with the construction companies.
He also gave as an example the construction of the Tulum airport and the headquarters of the welfare bank that has 2,750 branches.
The fifth function, he pointed out, is aid to the population in cases of disasters, such as what happened in Acapulco after the passage of Hurricane Otis.