Antonio Navalón
I would like you to stop for a moment and analyze what it means that in Mexico, we have had more than six years of uninterrupted campaigning. Millions of Mexicans thought that the rhetoric, promises, and actions that characterize a political campaign would end last July 1, 2018, when López Obrador – after so many years – finally achieved his goal of wearing the presidential sash. However, this did not happen. Not only did the campaign continue, but it is uncertain at this point whether the exercise of governing took place.
Now imagine being in Claudia Sheinbaum’s place. A faithful servant to the designs and wishes of the president who has finally seen the fruit of her efforts by being elected as the defender of the Fourth Transformation, although it is really as if she were a sort of honorary president. The moment Claudia Sheinbaum received the baton of command from President López Obrador – the true architect of this revolution – she also received the charge and responsibility to defend and strengthen the structures of the 4T. However, it was never clarified – and it can only be explained through facts – if, with that act, she already received the powers or only the title that would allow her to train in the entire exercise of power. The doctor, with the academic discipline she possesses and for having that degree based on her own merits, immediately understood that the baton of command is to be exercised. And rightly so, power never stays on the ground, and if the one who can exercise it does not, the one who comes behind will pick it up without hesitation.
With some subtle elements, Dr. Sheinbaum has already made the first big test. And it is a definitive test by any way you look at it, after all, proposing, insisting, and promoting the candidacy of Omar García Harfuch to become the new Chief of Government of Mexico City -which is the most significant flow, mine and reserve of votes of Morena- is a very risky move. To begin with, because García Harfuch is a controversial and mediatic Mexican, or was since he was born due to his genetic and family ties. One need only recall his mother, María Sorté, a renowned soap opera actress, and, more importantly, his father, Javier García Paniagua, who is now deceased but was once head of the Federal Security Directorate and also served as a PRI leader.
With PRI foundations, it is curious that García Harfuch has emerged as a faithful and convinced apostle of the 4T. However, let’s look at the national panorama. It is easy to identify hundreds of characters that one day were militant and defended a specific ideology or political party and the next day radically changed their interests and way of thinking. All this not only provokes an absolute vacuum of consolidated ideologies but also of congruent, developed leaders with solid proposals to improve the course of the country. In any case, regarding Omar García Harfuch and the support received so far, there is still the possibility that his good condition as a servant of the Mexican state will be a fundamental piece for Dr. Sheinbaum.
The most interesting thing about who will be the candidate that Morena will present to govern Mexico City is that, unintentionally, it will be a fundamental change on the bases and on how the party had been acting up to this moment. Up to this point, everything was straightforward; even the president made the rules clear: it was enough to have 10% efficiency and 90% loyalty to guarantee success and the future. However, this has changed.
I invite you, dear reader, not to waste time trying to understand this system. It is the one we have, and most likely, it will not change in the short term. Naturally, the limits of human beings are only established by what we allowed or because there was no way to stop what was set in motion, and we reached the point where we are today.
Dr. Claudia Sheinbaum has already won the first election in the form of a poll that placed her as the ideal one to continue and defend the movement started by Andrés Manuel López Obrador. It was an internal poll; however, with the governors and the different government agencies, she was already behaving as if she had already won the presidential election, acting as if she already had all the apparatus of the Mexican State at her disposal.
It is endearing to see the national leader of Morena, Mario Delgado, accompanying her and acting as a squire and shadow in all of Sheinbaum’s tours. Meanwhile, she continues building her lists, determining her trusted people, and, above all, deciphering who will be part of her government.
Somewhere, someone must have wondered what electoral offer Dr. Sheinbaum has to offer. After such an intense and sustained dedication for such a long time, the point will come when we will inevitably find ourselves with the fact that everything has already been said. There is nothing more to offer, or we are governed by some geniuses capable of making an electoral offer over the same country that has witnessed the countless promises made to it and that so few results have been given to us in return.
We Mexicans have witnessed and sometimes participated in the mobilizations that leaders can provoke. We have listened to countless speeches, and we even get our hopes up every six years, thinking that whoever comes next will genuinely make the change that our country needs so much. Rulers come and go. Today, there are two women in the race, one of them being the one who is significantly ahead in the race so far. And amidst all this, Mexico’s long-awaited emergence is still pending.
Claudia Sheinbaum is formally in charge of leading and defending the 4T. We all know that. We also know that she has and counts on the complete confidence of her predecessor and that – hopefully, for our sake – she has some proposals to make to the people of Mexico. But the real question is: how will it differ from everything we have been offered so far? The only thing that is clear to us so far is the fall of her enemies in the internal Morena race and that she is already beginning to exercise as the winner of the elections yet to be held.
It is one thing to belong to the party that currently governs the country and to have all that support it represents. It is quite another thing to offer a comprehensive program to a country unless it no longer has anything to fight for or hope for. Honestly, I do not believe that the latter is Dr. Sheinbaum’s goal.
I do not know if López Obrador’s people are the chosen ones. Still, I can say that he brought them to a land where he has positioned himself as the sole, absolute holder of power without the division of powers being part of the menu offered to its citizens. However, his case is unique. I doubt it will be replicated in whoever succeeds him, not only because of the overwhelming amount of votes won in 2018 but because of his determinant and particular way of doing things.
The thing with messianic leaders is that nothing that happened to them is repeatable or inheritable. There are many examples of leaders whose regimes ended with them. In any case, we must be aware that the rules of the game – not the ones Dr. Sheinbaum has created for herself, which are based on Lopezobradorismo, but the rules of the game that have prevailed and that gave President López Obrador the victory in 2018 – were very different from the ones that have currently been established. And that, naturally, affects the people who choose how they want to live and how they would like to be governed.
Whether working, having aspirations and prospering is still a crime or an advantage must be answered. It is necessary to resolve what the entrance of a government that had promised to demilitarize the country and ended up leaving the most significant military structure that our country has had since the time of the Revolution means. It is also necessary to answer as to what universe Mexico belongs to, who its true allies are, whether or not it wants to be part of the CUSMA/USMCA/T-MEC, and if it seeks to have an economic development model that is compatible with its neighbors to the North. In short, with what remains after these last six years, we must ask ourselves if whoever arrives will be capable of inventing another country that gives certainty and hope. In this regard, it remains to be seen whether those who surround and advise Dr. Sheinbaum can achieve the undertaking or whether it will be the continuation of a campaign that seems to have no end.
To prove, once again, that one thing is the plans of men and another is the will of the gods, last Wednesday, a category five hurricane, Otis, devastated the coast of the state of Guerrero. This hurricane has been the most powerful hurricane to affect the Mexican Pacific coast since there is a record, surpassing Hurricane Patricia of 2015. It is common knowledge that the government of Guerrero had the opportunity to anticipate and warn so that its citizens could better defend themselves in the face of what happened. However, it is also true that no one could have foreseen that the cyclone that started as a tropical storm would end up becoming a hurricane as disastrous as Otis has been, and it was even more challenging to know that it would do so in such a short space of time.
The overwhelming force of Otis obliged President López Obrador – in a strange logistical maneuver that only he and his team could justify – to travel by land to Acapulco one way and by air on his return to see the situation with his own eyes, and I would like to understand, to show empathy with the victims. In any case, assuming that presidents are not responsible for natural catastrophes, they are responsible for what happens in their aftermath. The images of President Lopez Obrador’s express visit to Acapulco represent a government that is stuck, stranded, and using the Armed Forces so that the administration can get out of the mud it is stuck in.
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