Being under the spotlight is no walk in the park. Just ask Mexico’s president, Enrique Peña Nieto.
When Peña Nieto began his administration in 2012, there was a sense of hopefulness in the country, which allowed him to pass sweeping oil, education, and communication reforms.
View this video on YouTube
But a series of massacres and corruption scandals quickly put a stain on Peña Nieto’s carefully crafted image. The discovery of his wife’s mansion, bought from a favored government contractor, marked a point of no return. Last year, after an unpopular hike in gas prices, his approval rating plummeted to 12% — lower than Donald Trump’s at the time.
Critical calls have grown in tandem with the skyrocketing homicide rate — last year registered more murders than any other since 1997, when the government first began recording homicides.
Peña Nieto even began using the slogan, “The good things are barely talked about but they count for a lot,” that year.
View this video on YouTube
“It seems like bad news is good news for many people,” he said during an interview two years ago, after tripping up over his original phrase.
Peña Nieto insists that people are too quick to say there is corruption behind everything bad that happens, including the sinkholes that opened up across the country last year, killing at least two people.
The outgoing president thinks social media is partly to blame for his tarnished image.
Peña Nieto is a pussy who does nothing but set up his own country for failure. no haces ni madre y tu esposa también parece pendeja
“Sometimes they are very irritating, they like to make very tough accusations,” Peña Nieto said during the unveiling of a new highway project, referring to social media users.
The president has accused critics of being bullies.
But at the end of the day, it’s clear that Peña Nieto has gotten used to the lukewarm reception his words often draw.
Peña Nieto’s office did not respond to a request for comment from BuzzFeed News, but he wants you to know that he’s never had bad intentions.
