Mexican president backs plan to ditch transparency institute

FILE PHOTO: Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador speaks during a news conference at the Secretariat of Security and Civilian Protection in Mexico City, Mexico March 9, 2023. REUTERS/Henry Romero

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Friday backed a proposal to scrap Mexico's freedom of information body, adding it to a planned bonfire of autonomous watchdogs and regulators that he argues are unnecessary and hostile toward him.

Lopez Obrador, who has frequently lambasted the body known as INAI for its Spanish initials, made his comments after the head of the Mexican Senate, his ally, presented a bill to eliminate the national transparency institute.