President’s health

For years, the famous French president Francoise Mitterrand He hid that he had prostate cancer. He used the government apparatus so that no one would know, and even told his doctor Claude Glauber that his condition was a “state secret.”

Stories abound Diseases From Superiors In power and how it was hidden. It’s as if the disease makes them look vulnerable. They explain that the citizens do not want a human being in the leadership, but a kind of untiring god. In Mexico – speaking of extremism – the case of President Luis Echeverria is so well remembered that he said he had never gone on vacation. In light of the trials against him, I wish he killed less and took more leave.

This undemocratic atmosphere seems to permeate leaders who do not want to appear weak while citizens have the right to know with certainty the health status of their ruler, even from a campaign to assess who votes and what could be scenarios. Final term.

In the United States, the president is not required to go to the doctor or reveal his health condition, but since Ronald Reagan, all leaders have undergone an annual clinical examination and published their findings. It is a tradition that carries a clear message to the public opinion: the president is fit to rule. Even Donald Trump, reluctantly, made his medical examinations transparent and understood what this information represented to provide certainty to citizens not only in his country but the world. This is why many civilized nations have a legal obligation – or at least the unwritten rule that is inevitable – to make the health conditions of a head of state transparent.

Not in Mexico. Presidential candidates are not required to publish their medical exams, and there is no practice to do so. Worse yet, they seek to hide them. Presidents try to hide if they are sick and when they come to report something, it is because it cannot be hidden.

On Sunday, the President of Mexico reported that he had contracted the Coronavirus. The next day, Interior Minister Olga Sanchez Cordero, in charge of replacing the president in many of his duties, led the morning conference. When he said the president was “fine, he’s strong,” he didn’t actually report anything about Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s health.

It was worse when (she concluded from her medical experience … as a lawyer) that she reported a good health diagnosis and listed the reasons: “The president is stable and soon he will recover, I am sure. He is an optimistic man, a true representative of the people, a responsible leader, a role model, a leader who inspires us all. “. Up to now the official medical report.

Twelve hours later, the physician and undersecretary, Hugo Lopez-Gatel, argued that no details would be provided about the president’s health out of respect for his privacy.

The president’s health is in the public interest and the federal government must explain precisely how the Mexican head of state does and what treatment he receives. Citizens have the right to obtain evidence of their state of health, not half-truths or praise for their character (where was that “moral force, not contagious force”?). All this gives the citizen the certainty that the president is receiving the necessary care and that he continues to rule. It is central to the stability of an important country on the international stage.

And of course I hope he gets back soon.