Ricardo Pascoe Pierce
I remember hearing Alejandro Aura say, “López Obrador governed without a drop of joy”. He was referring, of course, to López Obrador when he was head of government of Mexico City. Alejandro saw an aggressive, opportunistic, and very unempathetic attitude in López Obrador’s actions and behavior towards the citizens during his administration.
Aura’s comment comes to mind when observing how López Obrador conducts himself in 2023, now as president. The congruence is astonishing if a direct line is drawn between that ruler of the capital and the president. In other words, if Lopez had been studied more carefully in 2000, anyone would have realized how he would behave as president of the republic.
He used justice politically to persecute his opponents. He turned the public budget into a booty for his political use, alleging “savings” disguised as austerity but for his benefit and financing of his future presidential campaign. Part of the design of his campaign was the support program for senior citizens. The allegation of austerity was to justify demanding that all government officials in the capital city contribute 10% of their salaries every two weeks “to the cause”. Non-cooperation with the levy was grounds for dismissal. Although everyone was obliged to pay the levy, he also plundered the retirement and savings funds of the police, the employees, or wherever he found a remaining fund. He plundered the city’s finances to finance his campaign and his family’s life. And he won the goodwill of a newspaper for the rest of its life, giving it an extraordinarily valuable building where it has been operating ever since.
So much cash was deposited by AMLO’s operators in the movement’s accounts with names like “Honestidad Valiente, AC” (brave honesty) that the banks raised the probability of the illicit origin of so much cash. That is when the use of crazy mouse operations began to become popular within Morena, where the same people lined up 10 or 20 times a day to deposit small sums of money, thus managing to evade the authority’s auditing activity. López Obrador’s movement thus began to forge close ties with organized crime because it was crime that taught them how to launder money.
They continue to use this method to this day. In the 2018 elections, they used money laundering to hide what they were actually spending. It must be assumed that the methods of laundering public and private funds are still being used now with the campaigns of the so-called corcholatas.
From 2000 to date, the methods of governance exercised by López Obrador are the same. And so is his treatment of the people. He is not a feminist, but with a pro-women discourse, he surrounds himself with submissive and self-sacrificing women who blindly believe that feminism means doing whatever the boss orders them to do, even going against their principles. In that sense, AMLO is a sort of Charles Manson, having created a fanatical sect around him.
The role of lies and the creation of an alternative narrative based on “other data” is also crucial to the success of his way of exercising power. Of course, governing a city, regardless of being a capital city, is not the same as governing an entire country. But the creation of alternative narratives is always helpful.
He had already created, in the 1990s, the narrative of Salinas as a sinister character while defending Zedillo. In the early 2000s, he created the concept of the power mafia as a valuable object of hatred and the enemy to be defeated. That mafia included Salinas, PAN members, businessmen, and a few more dupes. From 2006 onwards, AMLO had Calderón as a perfectly defined object of hate. Years later, the PRI, PAN, and PRD parties approved the reform to the energy sector, and that served as a pretext to label them as traitors to the nation. And today, he walks around criticizing those he labels neoliberals and conservatives. Those who disagree with him inevitably fall into one or both categories.
Carlos Ahumada and René Bejarano’s imprisonment occurred almost simultaneously during his tenure as head of government. Ahumada was so severely treated that, in protest, he sewed his lips together in protest against his isolation and the psychological torture to which he was subjected. In contrast to this situation was that of Bejarano, his former private secretary, who was filmed receiving money in bags and his pockets. Bejarano had exceptional prison conditions, with access to various personal services, and was granted parole when AMLO asked the judge to do so.
Rosario Robles was spared from going to jail at that time. But López Obrador had the experience reserved for her when he became president. She spent two years in prison while AMLO satisfied his intimate need for revenge against her. And he tried extraditing Ahumada from Argentina to serve a sentence in Mexico for revenge. Although Ahumada’s extradition was unsuccessful, it made the world aware of his thirst for revenge for past grievances. Revenge is his thing.
With so many epithets on the tip of his tongue and so many things about his own conduct to hide, polarization fell like a glove. That is the excellent distractor when what is sought is to evade solving problems. Polarization is the instrument par excellence of the populist, left and right. Democracy is an obstacle to their governments.
Today his only objective is not to govern the country but to ensure the imposition of his party in the presidential elections of 2024. Nothing else matters to him. If he is allied with organized crime and the military united in a “front for Mexico”, then so be it.
While this whole model goes on as it was predictable since the times of the Mexico City government, today, President Lopez Obrador governs sour, angry, spitting hate-like flames from his mouth. When he laughs, it is because he is mocking someone or some people, but he never smiles or laughs joyfully. Never. Bent as he is on collecting old and present vendettas, he has no time to be happy.
Aura was absolutely right: AMLO governs without an ounce of joy. And the country burns.
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