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Since its appearance in 2020, Brazil and Mexico have been among the most affected countries in the world by covid-19. Their respective presidents, Jair Bolsonaro and Andrés Manuel López Obrador (known as AMLO), have played a leading role in specific policies during the pandemic. Their choices were both singular and counter- intuitive. On the health front, AMLO initially underplayed the seriousness of the situation, and the Brazilian president, Bolsonaro, defended a frankly negationist attitude, with a dramatic balance sheet, without his popularity being seriously affected. On the economic front, they have chosen policies that contradict not only each other but also their own supposed ideological stances. Bolsonaro, who is ranked on the far right, has implemented an emergency transfer program on a scale comparable to those of developed countries and the most massive the country has ever seen. Conversely, AMLO, considered a progressist, provided just a minimum policy package, maintaining his previous electoral program. By adopting a comparative approach and mobilizing a unique and diversified set of data, the objective of this paper is to explore these apparent contradictions. After having established the precise diagnosis of the policies implemented to deal with the crisis and the economic and health situation in the two countries during the 2020-2022 period, we propose an original interpretation grid of the central role played by the two presidents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the first time, Mexico has a presidential administration that defines itself as "post-neoliberal," but, although the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador is the most powerful the young Mexican democracy has ever seen, it is far from dismantling neoliberalism. It is a failed progressivism, and therefore it makes no sense to conceptualize it as "leftist." Por primera vez, México tiene una administración presidencial que se define a sí misma como "posneoliberal" pero, aunque el gobierno de Andrés Manuel López Obrador es el más poderoso que la joven democracia mexicana haya visto, está lejos de desmantelar el neoliberalismo. Se trata de un progresismo fallido, y por lo tanto no tiene sentido conceptualizarlo como "izquierdista". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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