• ILLEGAL: The unusual solicitation of funds by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador among Mexico’s most prominent tycoons could be considered illegal under Mexican law and also puts those leaders with business links to the US in a tough position due to anti-corruption regulations.
• MILLIONS: Earlier on Thursday, López Obrador said that 75 out of 250 magnates who attended a tamale dinner at the Presidential Palace on Thursday, were able to pledge the equivalent of US 80 million that would be in principle directed to buy medical equipment.
• SURVEY: According to a survey among 570 leaders from Mexico’s civil society, academia and business, conducted by Reforma newspaper, 86% of the respondents thought that the pledge to give money by some businesspeople at the President’s dinner was a product of political pressure.
• AHEAD: “Investors of multinational (companies) see the risk that (the Government) could make the same request to them, one that they cannot meet, and put them in an awkward position”, said Jorge Guajardo, senior director at McLarty Associates, on what could lie ahead.