Federico Reyes Heroles
Let’s leave the Manichean game. Is Sheinbaum making decisions that are correcting the country’s course? Yes. The most obvious is the shift in security. There are many unknowns: the decrease in homicides and the increase in disappearances. There are others. Be that as it may, Mexico is returning to the PISA test. But was it the decision of the Secretary of Education or compliance with a court order? The supply of medicines is another example; no solution has been found, but the attitude is different: the problem is acknowledged, and measures are announced with delivery dates. Accepting that the tragedy of Acapulco is a state and national tragedy. Will there be a new energy policy?
But, in parallel, other measures are disconcerting that confirm a suicidal path. Continuing and increasing the direct transfer of funds to the population ratifies the populist approach that does not look to the long term. Without better education, a reduced budget, social mobility, and the real advancement of the disadvantaged, it is a deception. The vacillating official position towards the case of the former governor of Morelos, just in the days leading up to 8M, is disconcerting. The same happened with the attitude towards the “mothers seeking”. With a simple presidential gesture, she could have made a change. They search tirelessly with unbeatable hearts but without the support of government technologies and resources. The exponential growth of clandestine graves, of that human horror for which there are no words, doubled during the former president’s administration.
It is evident that the pressure of the former president obliges her to march with caution. But it is this caution that could sink her presidency. This is precisely where the doubts arise. The United States established a clear difference in its tariff crusade between other countries and Mexico. In the initial documents, the quid pro quo was set down in black and white: tariffs for Mexico until they prove that they are truly fighting the drug trafficking – fentanyl in particular – that is killing our fellow citizens. The federal government’s reaction was immediate: to step up negotiations, exchange information, and the illegal dispatch of the 29 capos. But at the same time, the caudillo’s son went to register one of the people most identified with that activity as a Morena militant. What a necessity. What happened in that case was she couldn’t or… she didn’t want to.
That doubt is eating away at Mexico today, generating enormous uncertainty. If she couldn’t, the reading is clear: she is tied up. If she doesn’t want to stop the affiliation, it is a sign that she is a member of the same gang; she thinks the same, whether it is convenient for Mexico or not. In that case, we are facing a significant problem. The President only acts in a corrective manner under enormous pressure: Trump’s demands (security policy), the population’s anger at the lack of medicines, and the court order on the PISA exam. In other words, she was not convinced.
The lack of an ethical guideline on the accused former governor and the measures announced yesterday on the disappeared support this doubt. Among them are several very valuable ones, but why weren’t they applied before? Scavengers and hypocrites are what she called those who spread that cause. The horrors of the clandestine graves had to appear to provoke a reaction. No free and independent initiative has been seen in six months. And the women? The doors of the Presidential Palace had to be protected. A meeting would have been enough to calm things down. What was the Governor of Banxico doing at the rally? Is that a sign?
And the election of the Judiciary? The President has attacked that branch of government on the pretext of any old issue. This implies that she is convinced she couldn’t care less about all the arguments put forward inside and outside of Mexico. However, two dozen entities do not have the resources to carry out the work professionally. If she really wants it, she should support the responsible institutions.
Doubts about her ambiguities are suffocating Mexico.
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