Off with the masquerade—in the end, the long-standing claim that
everything was well, and that only a few additional reforms were needed,
was no more than a sham. In 2018, the Mexican electorate reached this
conclusion, showing their discontent in a massive, relentless, and unflagging
display at the polls. A thousand arguments could be added to the people’s
verdict, but the message was clear enough: Mexico was not on the right
course, and the country’s long-awaited transformation was not close to being
reached. Yet it was paradoxical that voting decided such a fundamental issue,
considering that for years, the greatest beneficiary of the 2018 election—
Andrés Manuel López Obrador, leader of the Morena political party—had
devoted himself to discrediting the National Electoral Institute, the same
institution that deemed him victorious. Perhaps it is not much of a paradox,
considering that the victor of the elections still does not recognize the
legitimacy of the vital electoral institutions that made his triumph possible.
Even though his attacks on these institutions had been a central component
of his discourse over the past decade, his negative positions did not prevent
him from becoming president.
With López Obrador’s election, Mexico’s voters ended the myth that had
been a mantra for decades: that Mexico was heading toward a new stage
of development. According to the popular fantasy, which had been in the
making for almost 40 years, only “a few more reforms” or minor adjustments
were needed in order to realign the country’s institutions to benefit the
whole of Mexican society. This fantasy was the product of a series of actions
and decisions, some more mindful than others, that produced concrete
improvements in some parts of the country and some economic sectors but
2 Unmasked
left a large part of the population marginalized. This marginalized group
opted to vote for a candidate who had been a fierce critic of the reforms
implemented over the past four decades. In fact, most of the electorate,
including many beneficiaries of the reforms, chose the candidate who
proposed a different outlook that contrasted with the reigning status quo.
….