Mexican president speaks out on his health

Mexico City, Jan 22 (EFE).- Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador addressed the nation Saturday on the subject of his health after undergoing cardiac catheterization.

“I spent the night in the Central Military Hospital and I’m already back here in the Palace, very calm and very content because we must complete the work of transformation,” he said in a video message.

Lopez Obrador said that the catheterization was to carry out an “exploration of the arteries and the heart” as a follow-up to a stress test he did two weeks ago.

The 68-year-old leftist president, popularly known as AMLO, suffers from high blood pressure and had a major heart attack in 2013.

The government came under fire for not disclosing until Friday evening that the president was in the hospital, even though he went there immediately after his daily morning press conference.

The initial statement also failed to mention the catheterization.

AMLO said Saturday that the procedure had been scheduled for last week, but had to be delayed after he became infected with Covid-19 for the second time in 12 months.

“They found that the arteries were fine, without obstruction, and the entire process lasted half an hour,” he said.

Seeking to reassure Mexicans about the state of his health, AMLO said that he takes medication to control his blood pressure and has been getting regular checkups since the 2013 heart attack.

“I went to the hospital two weeks ago and had a stress test and the doctors, the specialists, decided that I had to have a catheterization,” he said.

While expressing confidence that he will complete his six-year term, which ends in December 2024, the president said that he had drafted “a political testament” to ensure the continued orderly functioning of the government.

Mexico does not have a vice president. If the president should die in office, the head of the Cabinet takes charge on a provisional basis until Congress elects an interim head of state.

“I cannot govern a country in a process of transformation, I cannot – with these antecedents of heart attack and hypertension – responsibly conduct my work, which is intense, without taking into account the possibility of the loss of my life,” AMLO said. EFE ppc/dr