After the dismissal of Pedro Castillo from the Presidency of Peru, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) was asked if there is a risk of a similar scenario occurring in Mexico. The president denied it: the population is “very clever”, it is “very fanciful”.
However, several members of the parties that brought him to power assure that, since he took office, AMLO has been the object of a “soft coup” strategy with three components.
Lies from the corporate media, pressure from abroad and protections to sabotage the actions of his Administration, are the ingredients of a plan that would be looking to wear him down to, ultimately, get him ousted.
Slanders from the corporate media
President Lopez Obrador has been the target of a campaign of attacks orchestrated by most of the media, according to members of the ruling party.
At first, to counteract this campaign, the president went out to deny, himself, several of the reports on alleged acts of corruption involving his government.
In a second moment, he designated one day a week to talk about the “slander” published in the media. This section of his morning lecture is called ‘Who’s who in lies’by Ana Elizabeth Garcia Vilchis.
Although AMLO insists that “people no longer believe the lies” that are spread by the corporate media, he has been increasingly leaning on Garcia Vilchis.
The controversial section went from being held once a week, to being held every time the president deems it convenient.
“The number of lies is increasing and the despair of our adversaries, slander will continue to increase,” he sentenced on November 9 of this year.
Paradoxically, Lopez Obrador considers that the press in Mexico “regulates itself”. In these four years, his government’s communication policy has been reduced, basically, to his morning conferences.
President Lopez Obrador put journalists with long experience in charge of several of the public media: Sanjuana Martinez and Jenaro Villamil.
The first was placed as director of Notimex (the government news agency) and the second as president of the Public Broadcasting System of the Mexican State.
Both journalists know in detail the modus operandi of the powers that be. They are supported by their investigations into the power (and abuses) of the Catholic Church and the two main television stations in Mexico.
However, neither of them has managed to strengthen the role of the Government in communication matters.
The media he is in charge of are far from competing with the corporate giants. And neither have they had the capacity to propose their own news agenda.
According to estimates from the Federal Institute of Telecommunications, the audience of open television—where Televisa and Tv Azteca reign— went from 64 to 77% between 2017 and the first quarter of 2022, confirming its leadership as a means of audiovisual consumption.
Accusations from Washington, the European Parliament and the OAS
The Government of President Lopez Obrador has not been exempt from pressure from abroad. Governments and international organizations have launched a series of accusations that have questioned the governability of the country.
In the case of the US, the head of the Northern Command, General Glen VanHerck, declared in March 2021 that at least 35% of Mexican territory was under the control of delinquency and organized crime.
The ‘travel alerts’ made by the Joe Biden government are also added so that US citizens avoid moving to states in Mexico considered “high risk”.
Another burning issue between the two governments is the financing to non-governmental organizations such as Mexicans against Corruption and Impunity AC —in which people who AMLO considers the opposition such as Claudio X. Gonzalez Guajardo have participated—, on behalf of the US Agency for International Development (USAID, for its acronym in English).
On the other hand, in March of this year, the European Parliament warned about a lack of freedom of expression in Mexico, in full discussion of the constitutional reform on electricity, which called into question several of the contracts of European companies, among them, the Spanish Iberdrola.
The OEA has become the opposition’s favorite mailbox for complaints. The leaders of the PAN and PRI have denounced the “interference of organized crime in the elections,” “attacks on institutions,” “political persecution,” and the “installation of a dictatorship.”
The declaration of the Parliament of the Old Continent would have been a way of pressure Congress not to pass the initiativeaccording to Gerardo Fernandez Norona, federal deputy for the Labor Party.
The Organization of American States (OAS), for its part, has become the opposition’s favorite complaint box.
The national leaders of the National Action (PAN) and Institutional Revolutionary (PRI) parties have denounced the “interference of organized crime in the elections”, “attacks on institutions”, “political persecution”, and the “installation of a dictatorship”.
More recently, before the electoral reform vote in the Chamber of Deputies, the OAS rejected the initiative sent by the president.
Santiago Canton, head of the Organization’s Electoral Mission, presented a report stating that Mexico “does not require profound reforms to continue guaranteeing the full exercise of suffrage,” and criticized the “unfounded attacks” against the electoral referee.
Amparos: sabotage through the courts
Another of the ingredients of the strategy that seeks to derail President Lopez Obrador is the sabotage against his government actions and several of the reforms approved in Congress.
The battle through the Judiciary began after the cancellation of the New International Airport of Mexico Citylocated in Texcoco (State of Mexico).
The #NoMasDerroches collective, made up of various civil society organizations, and of which Claudio X. Gonzalez Guajardo was a part, filed injunctions against the decision to cancel the megaproject.
The objective of the judicial resources was not only to maintain the airport works initiated by the Government of Enrique Pena Nieto, but also to sabotage the construction of an alternative airport.
Those filed against the New International Airport located in Santa Lucia were followed by others against the Mayan Trainone of the flagship works of the so-called ‘Fourth Transformation’.
Judicial appeals have also been filed against constitutional reforms, secondary reforms, and decrees issued by the Executive Branch.
The cases of constitutional reform to create the National Guard (and legalize the work of the Armed Forces in terms of security), the secondary law in electrical matteras well as the presidential decree that limits the use of glyphosate and transgenic corn.
Until now, however, none of the appeals filed has prospered. None of the infrastructure works have been cancelled. And neither the reforms nor the presidential decree have backed down.
However, in the case of the Mayan Train, for example, the injunctions have made it necessary to stop some sections of the work for several weeks, while awaiting a judicial resolution.
The risks within the 4T: overconfidence and lack of democratization of the media
Several of those who make up the ‘Fourth Transformation’ warn that a “soft coup” against the government of President Lopez Obrador is underway.
The one who has made the most pronouncements is Rafael Barajas Duran, director of the National Institute of Political Training of the party in Government, the National Regeneration Movement (Morena).
The cartoonist has pointed out that the corporate media has sought to discredit the Government: sand exaggerate their mistakes Y there is excessive exposure to reports that point to alleged acts of corruption.
The objective, according to Barajas Duran, is to demoralize and cause the population to fall into despair, to come to the conclusion that the current government is the same as the previous ones.
For his part, Gerardo Fernandez Norona has argued that it is not unreasonable to think about the removal of the president who, in his opinion, has proposed some initiatives that put him in danger.
For example, faced with the constitutional reform to eliminate the jurisdiction, the legislator voted against it. He said that, if the initiative is approved, President Lopez Obrador would be left unprotected (for not having jurisdiction) and could be taken to prison for a crime invented by the right.
They had already tried it through the impeachment process in the 2000s, the legislator recalled, when, due to an alleged administrative fault, they sought to strip AMLO of his political rights. The people fortunately managed to stop the outrage, Fernandez Norona pointed out.
From the opposition parties and in not a few media the president is accused of being “authoritarian”, “undemocratic” and “populist”. Paradoxically, where this strategy has obtained the greatest dividends is in Mexico City, where the “hard core” of ‘lopezobradorismo’ resides.
Until now, the president appeals to that same popular support. However, as members of the progressive movement warn, his government is not exempt from stumbling before a “soft coup.”
The media campaign against him is not very different from the “dirty war” of 2006, the one that branded him a “danger for Mexico,” the one that catapulted his main adversary, Felipe Calderon, into the electoral preferences.
Today, from the opposition parties and in not a few media outlets, the president is accused of being “authoritarian”, “undemocratic” and “populist”.
He claims that he “destroys institutions,” “violates the law,” and is on his way to turning Mexico into a “dictatorship.”
Paradoxically, where this strategy has obtained the greatest dividends is in Mexico City, where the “hard core” of ‘lopezobradorismo’ resides. In the 2021 midterm elections, Morena and her allies suffered a monumental setback.
The leaders of Morena, including Secretary General Citlalli Hernandez, blamed their debacle on the “dirty war.” And they recognized that they were unable to neutralize it.
In short, if the excess of confidence in the popularity polls persists and progress is not made in the democratization of the media, the danger will remain latent in the National Palace.
If you liked it, share it with your friends!
Source: RT
