Antonio Navalón
The fifth horseman is a figure of recognized existence and presence in most of the catastrophes of humanity. The world is more aware of the four horsemen, although, on the occasions when the fifth horseman appears, the situation ends up being a complete disaster. Being days away from the beginning of the electoral campaigns – and continuing the campaign that started in 2006 with the same idea, the same protagonist, and the same intention – it can be seen that there are neither two planes nor rings in the circus… there is only one. And the fact is that, regardless of coming and going, of holding rallies, of kissing children, or of the never-ending habit of promising social support – all enshrined as constitutional rights – the real campaign consists of definitively ending what is for President López Obrador, the biggest culprit of all the misfortunes of his life.
Neoliberals and neoliberalism. In the eyes of the Mexican leader, that outdated and decadent system used to measure people’s lives by such clear elements as their academic records or the achievements obtained in their lives is the real culprit for the fact that the country has been bled, swindled, robbed and martyred. For López Obrador, those who preceded him and put this type of government into practice based on an ideology and system that has no place in his administration are the source of all Mexican ills. In his government, no one is accountable for the misfortunes other than all those who go against him or his Fourth Transformation. In his administration, no other person is responsible for everything that, in his eyes, could seem like a divine salvation than his own figure. He is the beginning and the end. With him, a new history began in our country, and, as it seems, it will not end until he decides.
However, the other data – reflect a completely different reality from the one that, morning after morning, the president seeks to convince Mexicans who suffer the consequences of his actions. Medicines have disappeared, violence has risen to unimaginable limits, and order and laws are increasingly absent and awaiting their correct application. With their initiatives, elimination of programs and reform proposals, little by little, they have sought to have an increasing number of poor people who depend on public welfare. What is at stake here is to survive with a clear ideological and spiritual concept of what it means to fight – fortunately only for the moment, and let’s hope it stays that way, except for the issue of organized crime – only dialectically against the enemies.
Who are the enemies of López Obrador and of this regime? The decadent, the outdated, and all those who have been formed under the protection of laws and a system that prevented the establishment of everything that the leader of the people wanted to shape in his healthy, wise, and free people. He, who holds power in Mexico, sees himself as a kind of savior who came to break the chains that oppressed the Mexican people and lead them on a path if not of development or growth, then on a path led and marked by the divine finger of their leader.
At this point, it is unnecessary to question much about candidate Sheinbaum’s opinion and point of view about what is happening on the eve of the elections. We assume – and that is a condition of the game – that she thinks precisely in the same direction indicated to her. And the fact is that, otherwise, that would mean one of two things: either she defends all the projects presented on the afternoon of last February 5 – Mexican Constitution Day – as the most extraordinary legal structural change proposed in recent years in our country; or it would mean that the president was wrong in appointing her; or, she will be wrong if she does not follow to the letter, at least in the first year, what has been imposed on her as her campaign program of government, life and existence.
We must be equal to withdraw our checks from the Welfare Bank. We are going to create a system where imagine it, we will have to elect the judges responsible for applying justice in our country. There is no possibility of campaigning outside of what is dictated; this is what we have, and there is nowhere to choose from. Either the parameters and proposals are followed almost as if they were the ten commandments given by Jehovah to Moses, or one will be eaten by the pit of those who continue to worship the golden calf, just as it happened when Moses liberated his people.
As this unfolds on one front, what does everyone else do? To begin with, they cannot continue sinking into the game, the script, or the use of words imposed on them by the one who has it so clear in his head that his six-year term, his policy, and what he offers is total change and the destruction of the system that brought us to this point. We all want to change for the better; the problem is that either Mexican Humanism – as the president calls it – triumphs and the new Mexicans are capable of overcoming the sins of pride, greed, and lust, or imagine what it would mean when we citizens have to elect the judge who will have to judge us.
What can we do in the face of such a great challenge? There is only one way and only one remedy. If you agree, defend it. If you are against it, go, oppose it, and make a campaign explaining what the other side’s proposals mean, but, above all, express the will for change at the ballot box next June 2.
Regardless of what it means to play with such marked cards and under the understanding that, in the end, the campaign and the program will be the one enacted by President López Obrador on February 5 and there is nothing new to offer, the big question to be asked is: at what point is the disconnection foreseen? That is, if she has thought that there is going to be some dissociation between the one chosen to be the candidate and the one who picked her. What is the capacity and freedom of action of the face on the poster to be president amid such a closed and radical program? Is she not going to fulfill it? There is no denying the political astuteness of the president; he has always been the most astute. Now, he has to use that astuteness for several things, not all of them easy.
The first thing that López Obrador has to ensure is that, in these months and once his mandate is over, there will not be the logical swing of political demands that can typically occur in a change like this. Second, and very importantly, he must keep the U.S. lion entertained and tamed. López Obrador could make a pact with Donald Trump – in part – so that the outcome of the November 5 election would be favorable to him, only by pushing migration to the border to flood, drown, and precipitate the Democratic administration and Biden over the cliff. The problem is who can give more personal guarantees to him, whether Trump – who AMLO already knows what he is like – or Biden, who, all in all, if he wins again, will have more capacity to guarantee what, in principle -and despite what Trump promises him – can be granted to him.
In any case, the clouds that are projected on the two elections, so interrelated, are forming what is the cumulus of storms. On the one hand, it remains to be seen how far, when, and how candidate Sheinbaum endures and to what extent for serving a higher good – which in this case is the political program of President López Obrador – she is willing to be only a servant of the Lord. On the other hand, for the other election, gradually on the way to becoming almost the same election, we will have to see how much the situation of open conflict – internal in the first instance, but also with external repercussions and interference – will hold up against a man who, without being president and with only the desire to return to occupy the Oval Office, will have the immigration issue as a critical element. Donald Trump and Joe Biden will have to figure out in the coming months how they will deal with the crucial issue of migration in their campaign speeches. Despite the agreement reached between Democrats and Republicans on the immigration issue, it would only take one decision to blow up the efforts to change the whole scenario. In short, in the end, it is all about destruction.
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