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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | May 2005 
Mexico City Mayor Pledges To Cut Presidential Salary In Half If Elected
 Mark Stevenson - Associated Press
| | Lopez Obrador has cultivated an image of austerity, living in a modest apartment in a middle-class district. |
Mexico City – Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the presidential front-runner, pledged Thursday that he would cut the presidential salary by half if elected and eliminate pensions given to former presidents.
The pledge by the leftist mayor came days after he said he would not live in the park-like presidential residence known as Los Pinos, but rather in the more historic National Palace located at the crowded, chaotic heart of Mexico City.
"I will earn half as much" as President Vicente Fox, Lopez Obrador told reporters early Thursday. He estimated that would still leave him a salary of about 75,000 pesos ($6,800) per month, or around $80,000 per year.
That would imply a tumbling of salaries throughout the federal government due to policies mandating that nobody can earn more than the president.
Lopez Obrador also said that if elected, "I will send a proposal to Congress to eliminate the pensions paid to ex-presidents."
Three former presidents are still alive and all are given lifetime pensions, bodyguards and some expenses by the government.
The pensions are widely resented because most Mexicans believed the former presidents enriched themselves sufficiently from their positions, while leaving the country's economy in ruins.
Lopez Obrador has said he will resign at the end of July to run for his party's nomination in the 2006 presidential race, which he leads in the polls.
He has cultivated an image of austerity, living in a modest apartment in a middle-class district and using a compact car to get to work.
Critics complain that the man who drives the mayor's car earns close to $100,000 per year and that the mayor wears an expensive watch.
Lopez Obrador did not answer when asked if his driver – classified by the city as his logistics coordinator – would get a pay raise or a pay cut if he becomes a presidential employee. |
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