MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador named his current deputy labor minister, Marath Bolanos, to lead the ministry, he said on Tuesday, the latest in a cabinet shuffle prompted by the ruling party’s nascent presidential contest.
Bolanos will replace outgoing Labor Minister Luisa Maria Alcalde, who Lopez Obrador promoted to fill the newly vacant post of interior minister, an especially powerful post in the president’s cabinet.
Former Interior Minister Adan Augusto Lopez resigned last week to run for the presidential nomination of Lopez Obrador’s leftist Morena party.
The president described the ascensions of Bolanos and Alcalde, both 35, as “very important” and signaling “generational renewal.”
Last week, Lopez Obrador named veteran diplomat Alicia Barcena to replace Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, who also stepped down to seek Morena’s presidential nomination.
Adan Augusto Lopez and Ebrard are among several Morena hopefuls for the top job, aiming to succeed the outgoing Lopez Obrador, who by law cannot seek reelection.
(Reporting by Brendan O’Boyle; Editing by Daina Beth Solomon and David Alire Garcia)
