Mexico's president wants to guarantee people pensions equal to their full salaries when they retire

Mexico’s president has proposed giving people pensions equal to their full salaries at the time they retire, something no other country _ even those much richer than Mexico _does

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico’s president said Monday he will propose guaranteeing people pensions equal to their full salaries at the time they retire, something done by no other country, not even those much richer than Mexico.

It was among a raft of 20 constitutional reforms that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has almost no hope of getting passed in the eight months he has left in office, but which could be part of a bid to attract voters in the June 2 presidential elections.

It may be just electioneering: López Obrador leaves office in September, and he really wants his party’s candidate, former Mexico City mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, to win the presidential elections. He apparently hopes the promise of full-wage pensions could also help win his Morena party the two-thirds majority in Congress it needs to amend the Constitution.

But analysts say it may also be an attempt to set the agenda for the next administration by saddling any future president from Morena with high — and expensive — expectations.

“It's an election year, so all these reform initiatives can be seen as something to get people to vote for Morena,” said Gabriela Siller, the director of analysis at Nuevo Leon-based Banco Base. But she notes it is also “a way of setting the political agenda for the next administration, a way of placing his imprint on the next administration.”