Ricardo Pascoe Pierce
Supreme Court Justice Minister Jazmín Esquivel is the most evident symbol of the essence of the 4T: hypocrisy, corruption, and abuse. And without a drop of dignity. It would be difficult to find another clear example of how the transformation project announced by López Obrador turned against itself, like the ouroboros, consuming itself without end.
All the good things promised, he turned into the opposite: endless destruction. The Supreme Court of Justice Minister, who should be the ultimate symbol of wisdom, independence, and generosity, faded into the gloom of ignorance, subordination, and pettiness, tied to corrupt powers that be, both political and economic. He is the ultimate exponent of the degradation of the Mexican state.
López Obrador’s logic in power has been to exalt the destruction of the government and state institutions and capacities to fulfill their constitutional tasks. He says it with great pride as if it were his central task in life: to destroy. Not to build but to destroy. He destroyed society’s capacity to be a stakeholder in decision-making. His first act, eliminating day-care centers and shelters for abused women, was a clear announcement of what was to come: to take away society’s initiatives, to make it depend on the hand of the government and, more directly, on the hand of the President, of a person, of the leader, of the dictator.
For López Obrador, citizens’ initiative goes against his political project’s intention, which is to subordinate society to his dictates. Autonomous and independent action by citizens goes against his project and his interests.
Then, the same logic is applied to the autonomous bodies, starting with the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN), continuing with the supervisory bodies of Pemex, the evaluation of corruption and transparent accountability, to arrive, logically, at the intention of destroying the independent electoral bodies, both INE and the Electoral Tribunal of the Judiciary of the Federation.
In all cases, the project was the same. If he could not eliminate the autonomous body, he would colonize it with addicts to his political project, even if they did not know the matter. Hence the justification of “90% loyalty, 10% capacity”.
The still Minister Esquivel is the best example of this policy. That is why the President wanted her to be the President of the SCJN. Precisely to subordinate this power of the Mexican state to his economic and political interests. But López Obrador’s 4T is so twisted at this point in his six-year term that he has lost all ethical and moral reference points in his political work.
And that loss is linked to another factor. As the end of the six-year term approaches, the President is aware of the resounding and obvious failures of the public policies he has promoted and the impossibility of justifying the wasteful spending of public funds under his responsibility. He perceives that he does not have a future of certainty. He is, therefore, desperately seeking legal and political safe havens from a possible barrage of lawsuits against his government, against the officials who carried out his instructions, and against himself at the end of his six-year term.
One of his objectives was controlling the SCJN with Esquivel as its president. That intention evaporated with the collapse of the Minister’s reputation, credibility, and honesty. Her fall opens the door to a Court with the capacity to independently evaluate eventual lawsuits against the 4T government. This is good news for the health of the Republic and bad news for President López Obrador.
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