Ricardo Pascoe Pierce
“The parliamentary republic, in its struggle against the oppositions, was forced to strengthen, along with repressive measures, the means and centralization of government power. All revolutions perfected this machine instead of destroying it”. Marx, Karl. The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte.
The case of the Fourth Transformation in Mexico has worrisome similarities with what Marx said. Contrary to what was promised in the campaign, the last actions of the outgoing President and the first actions of the incoming President are aimed at strengthening the repressive capacities and control of the State over society, the economy, and the armed forces instead of diminishing them.
As time goes by, the lapidary of the saying: “All revolutions perfected this machine (read government), instead of destroying it”. The phrase is chilling: Marx recognized, perhaps even without realizing the historical scope of his observation, that all transformations, which promise to destroy the State of things and offer a new paradise, end up doing exactly the opposite of what was promised.
They end up “perfecting” the state apparatus to better control the opposition and cling to power for as long as possible. Power in defense of their vested interests.
Marx himself offered, as a “historical inevitability”, the communist State as the new paradise of humanity. Remember hearing Mexican communists declare, in the middle of the Congress of the Union, that they were “condemned to vanquish”.
To paraphrase Marx, transformations perfect the government’s repressive capacity instead of converting it into a service to society. The promised transformations always offer more respect for individual liberties, society’s personal and property security, and equitable prosperity. The reality ends up being more State, more repression, and less citizenry.
The 4T has installed itself in political power, quickly taking over the entire Mexican State apparatus with the explicit intention of forcibly imposing its political project on the country. It intends to create a monopoly of alliances and power blocs that will prevent the existence of opposition in Mexican society.
The 4T’s power binge has just begun. There will be no room in Mexico for contrary opinions. It has managed to mobilize an essential part of the Mexican big bourgeoisie in favor of a new authoritarian regime in exchange for absolute security for their investments and profits. The primary guarantor of the agreement is the Armed Forces to fulfill that purpose, even at the margin of civilian power.
Militarization of the National Guard promises to create a force comparable to the Rural Guards of Porfirio Diaz. Just as those Rural Guards served as an instrument of political, military, and physical control of the Porfiriato to the outbreaks of opposition that occurred frequently, so too does the current National Guard, being a creation of López Obrador, serve the same purpose of control over conflictive zones, politically speaking. It is not a police force to improve public security. Others in the towns, neighborhoods, ranches, and urban areas take care of that. The National Guard is, in reality, a force of 130,000 troops ready to disperse public disturbances and guard areas of high social or political conflict.
The militarized National Guard is the face of the new political regime created in the six-year term of López Obrador and in the consolidation process under Sheinbaum. No matter how many UNAM graduates she puts in her cabinet, they will not cease to be subjects of folklore in a great palette to justify that it is the military who are really guiding the government train, now as partners of the new big financial, real estate and industrial bourgeoisie that is assured of a return on its investment.
Within the great allied investors, drug trafficking has an outstanding role as a first-order economic actor that, unlike the other segments of the bourgeoisie, is also an exceptional electoral and social operator. For example, today, drug trafficking is preparing to appoint its judges, magistrates, and ministers based on AMLO’s proposal to elect them by popular vote.
Organized crime is a key element in the alliance structure that gives the new regime sustenance and functionality.
It is up to the government to control the masses, who may become insubordinate if the promised money does not arrive. The masses fulfilled their part of the agreement: they voted for Morena. The Welfare Secretariat, the government office with more budget than Education and Health combined, was crucial to tying the popular vote. In the era of commoditization in extremis, the vote is seen as another commodity in the market. Without this massive vote buying, it is impossible to know what the outcome of the elections would have been.
The pacts around presidential power are of great importance. Apart from ensuring a “good return” for the investments of the Mexican and international bourgeoisie, rules and commitments must be respected. The new owners of political power in Mexico face a problematic act of rhetorical and political acrobatics.
The radical leftist tone clashes head-on with the real conservatism of their pacts and agreements. It is one thing to deal with Cuba, Nicaragua, or even Venezuela and quite another to deal with Mexico’s situation in North America. Mexico is part of the CUSMA/USMCA/T-MEC, the Northern Command, along with the United States and Canada. The countries’ militaries meet regularly, share intelligence, and design joint intervention strategies for the strategic issues of the three countries. They talk about migration, terrorism, oil, and threats, share their Risk Atlas, democracy, drug trafficking, China, Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Brazil, Ukraine, Russia, and the Middle East. It is a complete and complex dialogue.
Mexico can talk with Cuba, Nicaragua, or Venezuela and even be a “special” friend of Russia, but the information and intelligence shared with the United States is another thing. The armed forces are intertwined in unsuspected ways.
The tensions between so many relationship vectors send very contradictory messages within the hegemonic party, which, in turn, sets the precedent of being responsible for everything that happens in Mexico. But that is how the electoral arrangement wanted it. The ruling party will be granted illegal overrepresentation to control Congress and destroy a Judicial Power that stubbornly insists on the applicability of the Rule of Law.
That is, the wise within Morena would say, the optimal State to achieve its objectives. But, at the same time, its purpose is, in reality, to use the popular vote to take over the State as a whole and become an omnipotent political power, invincible and doomed to win in future elections. It enjoys the pleasure of not having to convince: it will simply crush whatever is put in front of it in the form of a protest, a claim, an organized opposition, and the danger of the disillusionment of sectors of the allied bourgeoisie.
Marx did not err in his observation. “All revolutions perfected this machine instead of wrecking it.” With its assault on the National Palace, the 4T confirms what Marx said.
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