Ricardo Pascoe Pierce
Morena’s aura of invincibility and legitimacy has been severely dented. Perhaps fatally. The stigma of being a “narco party” has already taken hold in the public imagination. Just as Morena used the slogan “Prian” against the alliance between the PAN and the PRI, today the coalition of Morena, the PT, and the Green Party carries its own label: “narco party.”
That “narco” label will be their hallmark from now on. While the movement created by Andrés Manuel López Obrador was supposedly based on the trilogy “do not steal, do not lie, do not betray” as a biblical verse, it is precisely the betrayal of those principles that has been laid bare before the astonished public eye of an entire nation.
The presidential defense at all costs of Rubén Rocha and Senator Inzunza, accused of having won their election in association with the Sinaloa Cartel, has opened the eyes of millions and millions to what truly lies behind the Morena government and its rhetoric. Morena’s alliance with drug trafficking is not only real; it is absolutely active. And it is being defended from the Office of the President of the Republic.
The discredit is evident in the polls—even the traditionally rigged ones—which confirm the decline in support for the presidency and the party. But the polls only scratch the surface of the phenomenon. What is unfolding beneath the surface of society, the economy, and politics is nothing less than an earthquake of incalculable proportions.
Society feels increasingly betrayed by a government and party that offered unprecedented protection to its own, yet failed to deliver. Faced with society’s long-standing problems—public insecurity, inadequate healthcare, and a precarious education system—Morena promised a new dawn. And that hope faded with Morena. It was understandable and, in a way, easy to predict.
The first thing the Morena regime established was a new dawn—but for drug trafficking. The “hugs, not bullets” policy was a cover for what was really happening. The AMLO administration, and now under Sheinbaum, restructured Mexico’s state institutions to accommodate drug trafficking within their ranks. The new officials in security, justice, administration, and public works are either allies of or members of cartels. And that structure of coexistence seeped into state and municipal governments with extraordinary speed and ease.
For it to function “discreetly,” it was necessary to eliminate all the tools citizens had to learn about the decisions of those in power. Discretion was indispensable for the success of the Morena drug trafficking pact. That necessity led to the demise of the National Institute for Access to Information and any other autonomous body that would compel the government to reveal its true intentions. And it functioned successfully during AMLO’s six-year term and the first two years of Sheinbaum’s administration. Until the U.S. government publicly exposed the lie. This is a sad fact, but a real one.
To defend themselves, the president and Morena have invoked a stale brand of nationalism and pushed for a law allowing the annulment of elections involving “foreign interference.” They are terrified by the specter of losing power. It had never occurred to them that they could lose an election, much less power. But suddenly that possibility looms.
Their crisis of legitimacy also has to do with another promise: the deterioration of the healthcare system. It is undeniable that they have no money and are trying to deceive the public with speeches about new hospital openings, even though there is neither equipment, medicine, nor enough staff to meet people’s needs. A people without health is a people broken in body and spirit.
Compounding this breakdown is the deplorable state of education, which offers no future for Mexico’s youth. Only those with the resources to privately educate their children can hope for a possible future for them. The public system is broken because it is not being injected with the necessary resources to create conditions conducive to educating the youth, with educational materials and the technology needed for today’s world, such as internet service.
It seems that the country’s economic collapse is a burden that the government is imposing on the poorest. Without healthcare and without education, millions can barely hope for “government aid”—not to live, but merely to survive. The vision of the country that Morena offers us will lead to total collapse.
Mexicans, in general, each from their own perspective, are realizing the lies of the presidency and Morena. Yes, they lie; yes, they steal; and yes, they betray. Hence, the drop in the polls reflects popular rejection.
The president and her party are panicking. Now they are calling for rallies to “celebrate” yet another report from the president. But she doesn’t realize that she no longer inspires confidence or certainty. She has eroded her presence and image through her daily morning press conferences. Neither her voice nor she herself inspires leadership.
Those accused in the United States of ties to drug trafficking are turning themselves in to their captors. It’s a huge contradiction. Instead of fleeing from their captors, they fled toward them. What does that tell us? That they themselves see the government (federal, state, municipal)—aligned with drug trafficking—as a lost cause. Even Morena’s allied parties are beginning to doubt the wisdom of associating with a party that is closer to being a cartel than a true political party.
An army general fled and took documents that compromise not only the accused from Sinaloa. His documents also implicate generals from López Obrador’s administration at the highest level, as well as officials from the National Palace’s inner circle during both the previous and current administrations. The hard and raw power that López Obrador built is a house of cards. It is not a fortress against any enemy. He built something so fragile that it is crumbling before the nation’s eyes. The country is concluding that each person, on their own, believes this government has no vision. Its officials steal and kill because they can, believing they have the right to live in complete impunity.
The ruling party’s drop in the polls is a response to the collapse of the Morena narrative. The cry echoes in everyone’s ears: “narco government, narco party.” The rally called by Morena in Chihuahua against the governor turned out to be a fiasco because people did not turn out willingly, given a questionable cause and dubious integrity.
Tomorrow, Sunday, a declining presidency is calling for another dubious rally on just any date “to flex its muscles.” The issue is not how many show up. The issue is that the cry of “narco party” will be present in every word spoken in that square. They have no escape now. The narco party promised healthcare and failed to deliver. The narco party promised education and opportunities and failed to deliver. It also promised security but cannot deliver, because insecurity is part of the organic Morena-drug-trafficking agreement, and because it lacks an economic plan that guarantees a prosperous future for Mexicans.
They can hold as many rallies as possible. They will never be able to shake off the label: “narco party.” And they will carry that label until their final defeat.
@rpascoep
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