Ricardo Pascoe Pierce
AMLO has launched his troops into a Holy War against the Judiciary. Since Morena is more like a religious cult that considers its leader as the Messiah, it has not been difficult for him to convince his followers of the “ethical necessity” of destroying the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN).
With shouts in the capital’s Zócalo, during his Annual Report to his party, he asked for a show of hands to support the destruction of this branch of Power of the Mexican State. Of course, the branch of power that demanded respect for the Constitution and the Rule of Law. This did not please AMLO, who launched his jihad against Norma Piña and the rest of the Judiciary for not allowing him to modify the laws at his whim.
It cannot be overlooked that at the same time that the Morenismo was voting by a show of hands in the Zócalo, on the other side of the Zócalo, tens of thousands of employees of the federal and capital Judiciary offices and students were protesting against the reform to the fundamental law proposed by the President.
AMLO has managed to turn his personal hatred into the central political cause of the struggle of the party he formed. The speech made by Luisa Alcalde, Secretary of the Interior, before the Congress of the Union at the moment of delivering the last Report of the President was a sample of fanaticism and subjugation that, today, is what reigns within this movement that embraces its messiah.
What is the need to rush the vote on this proposal? It does not exist except for the President’s desire to impose his criteria on the new President. An intelligence study affirms that 33% of the Morenoist legislators oppose the law but feel obliged to vote in favor of it.
Evaluations of the possible outcomes of the approval of the project to dismember the Judicial Power show that a severe crisis has opened between Mexico and the United States. Some believe that there is a strong possibility that the United States will proceed to impose tariffs on Mexico within the next six months. This instability has led to the flight of more than two billion dollars in the last month. That leakage could proliferate. Especially if the United States begins to freeze the accounts of many high-ranking Morena public officials, as some have warned.
This conflict scenario is possible because Biden is not limited in his sphere of action vis-à-vis Mexico. He is no longer a candidate, and that offers him extraordinary freedom. It is possible that in his mind, the time has come to collect the bills that, he would think, AMLO owes him. Zambada’s presence in U.S. hands is the most important intelligence catch the DEA has made in Mexico in decades. It may be the most important catch in its entire history.
There are rumors about the intelligence received by the United States, given Zambada’s presence and collaboration on U.S. soil. It is impossible to know with certainty their veracity. But there is the possibility of a major security destabilization. That would partly explain why the President-elect decided to bring forward the appointments of the new secretaries of the Army and the Navy. She had said it would be done on September 30. However, the conditions of a possible crisis in the country have made it necessary not to delay these appointments any longer.
The Jalisco New Generation Cartel is strengthening rapidly on the northern border, while Sinaloa is consolidating on the southern border. In between, that is, in the rest of the country, the confrontation between cartels is growing. The president, stunned, declares that “hugs, not bullets” has been a success. The new President seconds this, confirming a strategy of “attending to the roots, not the present.”
While the international scenario decays, including the disarray of two future officials responding to an editorial of a US newspaper (Washington Post), which denotes a notorious weakness mixed with hollow rhetoric, the internal security situation is also deteriorating.
Along with this, the economic situation is dramatic. Lies about performance are the fantasy of the public square, but there can be no vain illusions in the rooms where data are processed. Capital flight is real and breaks down the scenario for a stable economy. The specter of an acute recession is real and will cause a disastrous beginning of the six-year term if not stopped in time. Tariffs, as a warning due to the lack of legal certainty in Mexico, appear on the horizon as a real possibility.
Radicalization is the most likely scenario soon. AMLO and Morena will radicalize their discourse and actions. The best defense is to attack when you are still in a position to do so. AMLO offers this last gasp of radicalization to mark the route to be followed by the new President and the adoring masses of Morena.
The Holy War undertaken by AMLO in the last breath of his six-year term is in self-defense. He does not know what may happen to him and his family after October 1, and obviously, he is not sure of the “unrestricted” support of the new President. The action taken against the Judiciary is intended to inflame the spirits of his troops against the landing of neoliberalism on Mexican shores. The two Justices of the Court, Batres and Ortiz, harangue the Morenistas in front of the SCJN headquarters and call on them to obliterate the Judicial Power—the power they serve.
The Holy War has been called to destroy everything that exists of the republican and democratic institutionality in Mexico and hand over those ruins to a supposed new Power: the Popular Power. AMLO’s latest plan is to destroy so that something new may flourish. His war raises the stakes for all Mexicans, who must accept or not what he orders.
[email protected]
@rpascoep
Further Reading: