Mexico City officials sought to counter charges that presidential frontrunner Andrés Manuel López Obrador tripled the capital´s debt during his tenure as mayor. Rival candidate and former Energy Secretary Felipe Calderón had made the claim in ads, asserting that if elected López Obrador would cause a financial crisis.
Calderón´s campaign ads, which also compare López Obrador to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, have accompanied a narrowing of the former mayor´s lead in presidential polls.
MISLED INFORMATION?
"Frankly I don´t know where they are getting their numbers," said Arturo Herrera Gutiérrez, Mexico City´s finance secretary, speaking at a press conference Thursday in the capital.
According to a comprehensive outline of the city´s finances under López Obrador, the Democratic Revolution Party candidate inherited an inflation-adjusted debt of 35.7 billion pesos (US$3.4 billion) in December of 2000. At the end of 2005 the city´s debt grew 21.8 percent to 43.5 billion pesos, according to the report.
López Obrador left office in July of 2005.
ATTACKS
Calderón, of President Fox´s National Action Party (PAN), began attacking López Obrador in campaign ads last month.
In a poll released April 17 by the EL UNIVERSAL newspaper, support for López Obrador fell to 38 percent from 42 percent in the previous poll by the Mexico City-based newspaper.
Calderón had 34 percent support, up from 32 percent in March, EL UNIVERSAL said.
The nationwide poll of 1,500 voters was taken April 5-8 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points. Presidential elections will be held July 2.
