The government of Mexico under its leftist president has taken up a populist anti corruption crusade. And this week end, government authorities are going to auction away dozens of luxury cars that have been seized from corrupt politicians and mobsters as a a part of that anti corruption crusade.

The money that the government would be able to generate from the auction has been vowed to be channelized into social programmes and deprived communities, according ot a statement form the country’s president Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

“We invite everyone to take part,” said López Obrador. He assumed the office of president in December and is a friend of the UK Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn. “Everything that is confiscated [from criminals] will be handed back to the communities, above all the country’s poor communities.”

The Sunday’s auction would comprise of a total of 82 vehicles that has a combined valuation of nearly £1miliion, said Ricardo Rodríguez Vargas, the director of the newly created Institute to Return Stolen Goods to the People.

The vehicles that are to be put up for auction would include a £61,000 Lamborghini Murciélago, a £50,000 Ford Shelby, a red Corvette, a 2009 Hummer, a collection of bulletproof SUVs and, for the less extravagant bidder, a 29-year-old Volkswagen Beetle.

The auction is being held at Los Pinos, a former presidential residence in Mexico City recently converted into a public cultural centre by López Obrador.

The auction was described by Vargas to be an effort by the government to bring an end to Mexico’s “reverse Robin Hood” system by which “things were taken away from the people and given to the corrupt”.

He said: “Not any more. Now, the order is to return these things to the people – who are the legitimate owners – in a quick, clear [and] transparent manner.”

In the coming week, the government would also hold two other auction or such illicit goods or goods amassed through illegal means – one for luxury homes and the other for jewelry.

López Obrador managed to come to power with a landslide victory last July riding on popular public sentiment invoked by his pledge of purifying the entire of Mexican politics which prompted corruption-weary voters to choose him over others. An approval rating of 70 per cent was awarded to him after six months into his six-year long presidential term.

However there are some critics who view that the auction to be held on Sunday is a just a bit more than a means of diverting public attention and claim that there is very little credibility in the promises and pledges made by López Obrador to eliminate Mexico of corruption. “Bread and circuses,” an opposition senator, Javier Lozano, tweeted alongside a photograph of one of the auction’s Lamborghinis.

(Adapted from TheGuardian.com)

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