safety.
There’s a particularly stupid movie called “La dictadura perfecta” that describes the success of a politician thanks to briberies to a large TV station here in Mexico. The movie generally talks about the lack of ethics by everyone and how the special interests always win out.
Well, what happened here? The smoke hasn’t really settled, so we can’t see a clear picture; we can’t tell how Obrador is bound to govern or why he’s acting as he is. At the moment his sole goal has been to integrate his government into the current federal one. Some have referred to it as a “parallel” government. Where Peña Nieto’s staff is helping Obrador’s settle in. Obrador himself has taken part in the rounds of NAFTA negotiations and with other foreign affairs ordeals. All of this before receiving the certificate of victory, but it wouldn’t have mattered, he won, OK?
No one will let you forget that Obrador finally won. He spent more than 75 million dollars, twelve years, and two parties getting to the National Palace. But its OK, Obrador is what the people wanted. He’s the perfect dictator in that sense. Popularity pardons all missteps, if you don’t think so, just ask Donald Trump. Whose cuts in many places have affected mostly people that voted for him, yet Republicans stay loyal to him and (most of) his agenda.
All that said, lets talk about a coincidence: 30 years. It’s been thirty years since a President won with a simple majority. Zedillo had 48.7%, Fox had 42.5%, Calderon had 35.9% and Peña Nieto had 38.2%. Who won this simple majority in 88'? Well, it was Carlos Salinas, with 50.7%, and Obrador in 2018, with 53.2%.
For twenty four years Mexico has had presidents who did not win the hearts of a majority of the people they served. This obviously causes issues of division because in truth, we’ve been undermined by them. But Salinas did not win the elections in 88' in fact those elections were absolutely fraudulent. Go check Miguel Dela Madrid’s biography where he says that Segob’s computers basically failed on purpose on that night. The night where Cuauhtemoc Cardenas was supposed to win. Cuauhtemoc Cardenas is, to put it mildly, Mexico’s best politician and a true inspiration. Had he won in 88' Mexico would be a completely different country: A better one in my honest opinion.
Who oversaw the electoral system back then? Well, no one other than Manuel Bartlett, the man who coincidentally was chosen by Obrador to run Mexico’s Federal Electrical Commission; our electricity company. Does this put in doubt Obrador’s victory?
I, for one, think it doesn’t, but it undermines his true intensions. We all know he hasn’t even gotten to hold any power, but the choices he makes will impact how people view him and many felt betrayed by him when he chose Bartlett or when he forgave criminals, or any number of weird things he’s done. Things that if a PRI President did people would loose their shit. But since Obrador is Obrador. He’s forgiven.
This is the worst case scenario: where Obrador kneels to the people who’ve held the power for longest and for the worst. People that voted for him wanted change, they only got a new name thus far. Honestly, deep down, we all knew it was going to happen. We don’t need to give him a chance to govern to judge how he might govern given his past.
It reminds me of when Americans wanted to give Trump a chance to govern before criticism him. But Obrador already held elected office, and he already disappointed us once. I just hope Olga Sanchez, the VP basically, does a good job: she’s the one that has all of my trust.