No one would begrudge someone a vacation after a series of “grueling workdays,” would they?
If you’re the son of Mexico’s former president and a high-ranking official with the ruling Morena party — and you stay at a luxury hotel in Tokyo while on vacation — the answer is definitely yes.
Andrés Manuel López Beltrán — son of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) and Morena’s current secretary of organization — came under under intense criticism from opposition party politicians and others after it came to light that he had gone on vacation to Japan and was staying at The Okura Tokyo, a five-star hotel.
López Beltrán, commonly known as Andy, was also photographed leaving a Prada store in the Japanese capital, which only added to the criticism of the son of a president who regularly spoke of the virtues of “republican austerity” and styled himself as a common man and anti-corruption crusader.
Ricardo Anaya, a former presidential candidate who is now the National Action Party’s top senator, accused AMLO’s son and Morena party politicians in general — among whom are others who have recently vacationed abroad — of “hypocrisy” and declared them “frauds.”
“They say that they live in the middle ground, but they take the most expensive trips a person could take,” he said Wednesday, referring to López Beltrán’s trip to Japan as well as the recent European vacations of Morena politicians including Education Minister Mario Delgado and Deputy Ricardo Monreal.
Focusing specifically on López Beltrán’s trip, Anaya asked:
“Which account did the money come out of to pay for the plane ticket? With which account or card was the accommodation paid?”
The PAN senator added: “They have salaries of 60,000 pesos [per month], but they take trips that cost hundreds of thousands of pesos.”
Anaya’s implication — and the insinuation or accusation of many others — is that Morena party politicians are living large on the public purse, engaging in corrupt activity, essentially stealing from the Mexican people. As expected, the politicians in question deny this.
Still, at the very least, López Beltrán, Delgado, Monreal and other Morena politicians are not living frugally, critics say, and are therefore not upholding the values of austerity so frequently extolled by Morena’s founder, ex-president AMLO, who declared on countless occasions that “there can’t be a rich government with a poor people.”
‘We are not the same, we are not corrupt’
On July 26, a journalist with the news outlet Latinus posted photos to his X account that showed López Beltrán and a Morena deputy getting their breakfast in a restaurant at The Okura Tokyo.
“Right now, Andy López Beltrán and the Deputy Daniel Asaf, the former right-hand man of AMLO, are having breakfast at the buffet of The Okura Tokyo, a renowned five-star luxury hotel,” Claudio Ochoa wrote above the photos.
En estos instantes, Andy López Beltrán y el diputado Daniel Asaf, exmano derecha de AMLO, desayunan en el bufet del hotel Okura de Tokyo, un reconocido cinco estrellas de lujo.
La gorra y los lentes oscuros en sitios cerrados es lo de hoy en el Morena Tour. pic.twitter.com/H6wNgHStk7
— Claudio Ochoa Huerta (@ClaudioOchoaH) July 27, 2025
It was this post that triggered the recent anti-Andy furor, and led to many questions being asked about his conduct.
Some of those questions were directed to President Claudia Sheinbaum, AMLO’s successor, political protégé and chief perpetuator and defender of his “fourth transformation” — an ongoing Morena-backed national project whose stated central goals include ridding Mexico of corruption. The political project is deeply rooted in the idea — either a truth or fallacy depending on one’s political persuasion — that those in power today are not the same as the corrupt (or allegedly corrupt) ruling class of the past.
Like his father said many times, López Beltrán says he is definitely not the same as the politicians who allegedly “looted” Mexico during the country’s so-called “neoliberal years” between 1982 and 2018.
On Tuesday, 10 days after the Tokyo hotel photos of him emerged and as the public outcry continued, the high-ranking Morena functionary evidently felt it was time to respond to the avalanche of criticism he has faced and thus posted an “explanatory note” to his Instagram account.
His key points? López Beltrán said:
- He made a request to go on vacation to Morena national president Luisa María Alcalde.
- He paid for the trip with his own money.
- He decided to take a vacation to Japan after a series of “grueling” workdays.
- He took a commercial flight to Tokyo from Seattle.
- He paid 7,500 pesos (about US $400) per day for his hotel stay, which included (his now infamous) breakfast.
In his statement, López Beltrán took aim at his “adversaries” and “the hypocritical conservatives,” who he claimed “sent their spies to photograph me and harass me in order to undertake a political lynching campaign filled with hate, classism and slander, such as that I traveled in a private or army plane and stayed in a hotel that costs 50,000 pesos [about US $2,700] per night.”
He said he wasn’t surprised by the “aggression” directed toward him, but added that he didn’t want “the people who trust us” to “doubt our principles and values.”
“We’re not the same [as past politicians], we’re not corrupt and in my case, I learnt from when I was a child, possibly before others, that power is humility, that austerity is a matter of principles and that one must live in the middle ground as [former] president [Benito] Juárez advised,” López Beltrán wrote.
“… We will never forget to make our public life a straight line and we will follow the example of our President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo in not lying, stealing or betraying the people of Mexico,” he wrote.
Sheinbaum urges politicians to live modestly
On Sunday, July 27, the day after the photos of López Beltrán were published, and as Delgado and Monreal were facing criticism over their European vacations, Sheinbaum spoke at an event in Mexico City at which a new cable car project was presented.
“There can’t be a rich government with a poor people,” she said during her address, borrowing a line from her political mentor.
“What does that mean? We don’t want corruption in government, the resources of the people belong to the people of Mexico. The rulers [or political class] must live in la justa medianía, as Juárez said,” Sheinbaum said.
La justa medianía — a term López Beltrán used in his statement — can be translated as “the middle ground,” or “the fair (or exact) middle ground,” or “just moderation.”
The term is related to the philosophical “golden mean” or “golden middle way.”
In addition to using the term to urge politicians to live modestly, Sheinbaum also said that public resources “must never go to the pockets” of politicians.
When asked about López Beltrán’s trip to Japan at her press conference the next day, the president said:
“Power is exercised with humility. That is my position and will always be my position. People have the right to visit one country or another, but we have a political responsibility that has to do with the movement we represent and the principles we represent. Much of our thinking has to do with the thinking of Juárez, which is, ‘There can’t be a rich government with a poor people.’ So all of us, at the time we are performing a public position, have to behave appropriately. … Everyone has to be recognized by their history and by their behavior, always.”
Sheinbaum stressed that everyone, including public servants and politicians, has the right to take vacations — and indeed the number of days workers are permitted to take off was doubled during the López Obrador administration.
However, “luxury trips” and a “luxurious life” are not compatible with the “transformation movement,” she said last Friday.
Sheinbaum, who took a commercial flight to Brazil for last year’s G20 Summit, ruled out going on vacation herself any time soon, saying that she has to work and attend to her “many responsibilities.”
Asked on Wednesday about López Beltrán’s statement, the president declined to comment on it, but indicated that she has a good relationship with the Morena official, saying she gets on with everyone, even her “adversaries.”
One thing’s for sure though. Sheinbaum would much rather be speaking about government projects, policies and achievements than responding to questions about the extravagant international travel of politicians and officials affiliated with the movement she leads.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies ([email protected])
