Ricardo Pascoe Pierce
President Sheinbaum has chosen to deny any version that insinuates misconduct by her party comrades. Her loyalty to her party’s cause and to AMLO is admirable. The price she is paying for that devotion, and will continue to pay, will be her political and personal credibility, in addition to the office she holds. In passing, she is damaging Mexico’s image and reputation worldwide.
In an attempt to cover up her true intentions, the president instructed her paid writers to convince the red circle that everything that happens in the national political arena is the result of an intelligent and bold design by her management team. It is argued that this is a sign of presidential courage and strength of will, because these are missiles aimed at actors within her own movement, not at the opposition.
It is argued that the discovery and exposure of the theft of the century, which is huachicol (fuel theft), was the president’s idea. The move against “La Barredora,” a mafia originally from Tabasco, also came as an instruction from the presidency that the intention to send Adán Augusto López as ambassador to France arose from a meeting at the National Palace. What was the strategy? To start sweeping from the top down.
That is what the paid pens say, whose attempt to glorify the president’s brilliant strategic thinking clashes head-on with reality, even with the president’s own words.
While the paid writers explain one reality, another occurs. President Sheinbaum uses the “mañanera del pueblo” (People’s mañanera) to deny all the accusations heard about members, relevant or unknown, of her movement. She acknowledges “with honesty and courage” her ignorance of essential events in the nation. She is unaware of accusations against members of drug cartels who belong to her party or her government, she does not know who had their US visas revoked, she does not know how and when fuel theft began, She swears up and down that AMLO and his children are honest without providing a single piece of information about the accusations against them, nor does she know how much it costs to give AMLO military custody, transportation, intelligence, and domestic protection at his home in Palenque.
At the time, AMLO said that the President of the Republic is the best-informed person in the country, aware of everything that happens and why. Sheinbaum is the president who flaunts her misinformation and ignorance of virtually everything that happens in the country. Almost everything that happens is a surprise to her. Every day, she denies knowing anything about any issue.
It is President Sheinbaum, therefore, who is reduced to being the “Chief Denier” of the Mexican state. I deny everything, absolutely everything. She absolves all her supporters of any responsibility for acts of corruption, negligence, and obtaining “undue benefits” for their actions and government decisions. No Morenista, inside or outside the government, is capable of dishonest action, according to the president.
The nation has never been so clean and so ungodly at the same time. The huachicol scandal is undoubtedly the largest embezzlement in the history of the Mexican Republic. And it is happening under the watchful eye of AMLO and Sheinbaum. The scandal surrounding Peña Nieto’s White House is child’s play compared to the theft of the century in the Pemex area and the huachicol, committed by Morenistas. Even so, Peña Nieto is not spared.
Sheinbaum uses the “mañanera del pueblo” to cleanse AMLO, his children, the Navy, SEDENA, Morena, deputies, and senators of his party, even the drug traffickers, of their sins. She blesses them. But is it enough for the people to believe in her blessing? She believes that with her high approval rating, the public will accept anything she says, whether true or false. That is why she lies with alarming regularity.
The attempt to carry out two contradictory and simultaneous political operations is bold, but it will fail. The aim is to convince the red circle (read: mainly the United States) that a thorough clean-up operation is underway in the Mexican state. That is what the paid pens are for: to make the narrative that the president is staging a “showdown” against corrupt elements within her own party seem credible, despite its failure. A bold and courageous president, far from the image of a leader tamed and controlled by the corrupt and radicals within Morena.
At the same time, Sheinbaum exorcises all members of her party of their sins and ensures that everyone is exempt from any responsibility for corruption. To this end, she employs the tactic of claiming that she has no evidence to corroborate the criminal associations of anyone in Morena. In that party, which has held power since 2019, the sins of yesterday’s sinners are forgiven, and no one is held accountable for their actions, nor will anyone betray another. As in the most famous mafia, omertà (a code of silence about criminal activity and a refusal to give evidence to authorities) operates as a commitment to silence and non-betrayal among its members. Morena is a well-oiled criminal mafia. And when it comes to omertà, Sheinbaum shines like a star.
AMLO transformed Morena and his government into a cartel. Now they are all part of the criminal pact and are sworn to complicity and silence. AMLO’s genius was to create and consolidate this criminal structure, including Morena, the government, the armed forces, businessmen, and the Sinaloa cartel. He intends to create a new ruling bloc with historic reach. In Marxist terms, he executed a coup d’état against the dominant bourgeoisie. He embedded his own bourgeoisie in power, now with popular features to give it roots in trade unions and peasant organizations. But the bottom line is that Mexico is now ruled by a new bourgeoisie, firmly anchored in criminality. A new Bonapartism has taken hold in Mexico, sui generis, to be sure.
Sheinbaum’s “dual” operation, pretending to crack down on crime while actually advancing the consolidation of her own government’s criminal traits, is doomed to failure. Firstly, because reality refutes the facts. Denying the facts discredits the president and brings her into disrepute, not greater recognition. She can lie ten or twenty times, but reality always prevails. Secondly, because you have to find someone naive enough to believe such a lie. Neither broad sectors of the working and middle classes, intellectuals, the media, nor honest businesspeople believe the narrative offered by the government.
Even the visit of the Prime Minister of Canada was proof that you can lie to some people several times, but you cannot lie to everyone all the time. And even less so if they come from abroad on a courtesy visit. If Mexico does not behave toward its trading partners as a country with a consolidated and upright rule of law, free from the intervention of criminal elements, it runs the risk of having its participation in the USMCA canceled. The Canadian warned of something similar, but in diplomatic terms, during his visit to the National Palace. To ensure that this message was not heard in Mexico, no simultaneous translation was provided for the Canadian at the press conference.
There is no room or time for more deception. The attempt to deceive with the narrative of an attack on crime, but with the malicious intention of continuing to protect criminals within the country, will lead to nothing except the intensification of Mexico’s international isolation. At the same time, its drift toward internal authoritarianism becomes more pronounced. If the electoral reform goes ahead, it will be a sign that the president’s purpose is to consolidate the criminal regime in Mexico, as necessary for the survival of the Morena party in power.
We have been warned.
@rpascoep
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