Politics is full of paradoxes. It turns out that situations, characters, facts, and sayings that seem distant, contrary to each other, have a surprising similarity. What one attacked ends up defending when in another position. This often happens when moving from opposition to governing. Sayings as an opponent begin to haunt the ruler, alleging consistency. Anyone in politics inevitably experiences changes: going from being cursed in the square to signing restrictive policies in the office. Except in the case of López Obrador, who never abandoned the cursing but made it public policy.
Of course, the exercise of power entails natural wear and tear that worsens with situations beyond the control of those in government: natural disasters, ideological and geopolitical rearrangements in the world, wars, epidemics, are factors that completely alter the path outlined in the original plans. When such events occur, true calamities for rulers, they often mark governments with a before and after. Naturally, much of what happens afterward depends on the reaction the ruler implements in the face of adversity. Treating a thorny, complicated, or tragic issue as if it were an everyday matter is a sure path to disaster. This is known, but no matter how much it is documented—as in Barbara Tuchman’s book The March of Folly—it keeps happening. No one learns from others’ experiences.
Enrique Peña Nieto was going full steam ahead in his presidency. He had appeased the opposition—basically bought it, both left and right—with the Pact for Mexico and was shaping up as a new project of a Mexican politician from the PRI ranks. Two events derailed him: Ayotzinapa and “the White House.” Both happened in his second year of government. From those cases and the president’s poor reactions, his government staggered until it ended in complete discredit.
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There is a certain Peña smell in this second year of Claudia Sheinbaum. Everyday problems have been hit by the Trump whirlwind for some time, a complication that has only worsened despite the president’s best efforts. The economy has slowed down. The result of her Judicial Reform, encouraged and fiercely defended by her, is a resounding failure that increasingly drives away national and foreign investments. The president’s Supreme Court is a pathetic circus that horrifies anyone. Mexico City is falling apart while the president’s companion decides to draw axolotls on the streets to, according to her, beautify it. “Before everything was gray,” she says without realizing that gray refers to Sheinbaum’s city government.
But the height has been the way she has handled the gigantic issue of “the extraditables” to the United States. It is evident that we are not facing just any problem, but the president believes she can face it as if it were a matter with the PAN party. By talking about the issue every day, she has only transmitted a terrifying insecurity that borders on openly covering up those wanted by U.S. justice. Her responses have been misguided, demagogic, and contradictory. She has put her party to say barbarities against the neighboring country; her legal advisor practically called them drug addicts; the Senate cynically protects a criminal wanted by the Trump administration. The president demands proof to defend a colleague, not the country she governs; Morena is mired in corruption and scandal, if not in collusion with organized crime. The situation is slipping out of her hands, and she believes she can fix it in the morning press conferences. She opens flanks everywhere, fights with everyone: the press, the opposition, Salinas, Hernán Cortés, Bolivia, Argentina, and of course, the gringos who want to violate sovereignty. Economic growth is only a good wish for the coming year, the Americans tighten the screws more and more, and the lady does not stop talking every day, generating greater confusion. She appears with a stern expression and a bitter tone. And it is no wonder: the country is stuck and there is a certain Peña smell in the air.
@juanizavala