Resigning with rancour

摘要

In Mexico's leftist populist govern-ment, Carlos Urziia, the social-democratic finance minister, was a reassuring figure. The president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has unorthodox ideas about how to develop Mexico. Mr Urzua (pictured, right) would help make sure, investors hoped, that he pursued them without wrecking the economy. But on July 9th, after seven months in office, he quit, abruptly and noisily. In a venomous letter he said his ministry had been forced to employ unqualified people. "I am convinced that economic policy should be based on evidence" and free from "all extremism, whether of the right or the left". This belief "found no echo" in the government, lamented Mr Urzua. "I've never seen a letter like this in Mexico," says Luis Rubio of ci-dac, a think-tank.