FILE PHOTO: Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador holds a news conference at the National Palace in Mexico City, Mexico, March 17, 2020. REUTERS/Henry Romero
April 3, 2020
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Friday dismissed calls to ease Mexico’s debt obligations with external creditors, saying the country could manage and would continue to meet its commitments.
“I don’t agree with cancelling public debt. I don’t agree with that, not even in getting an extension,” he told a regular government news conference. “We have the capacity.”
Senior politicians in the leftist president’s own party have in recent days proposed that creditors ease Mexico’s external debts to help the country emerge from the coronavirus crisis.
But Lopez Obrador said he regarded the issue as non-negotiable, noting that foreign powers had in the past used Mexico’s debt obligations as a pretext to meddle in the country’s affairs, including launching invasions.
(Reporting by Dave Graham; Editing by Julia Love and Bill Berkrot)
