In his column in “El Universal” Mexican journalist Carlos Loret de Mola analyzed of the first 100 days of the Sheinbaum administration.
The tone is softer. The substance is harsher.
In 100 days, President Sheinbaum has shown that she is consolidating the authoritarian regime without fuss or morning outbursts. It is not just the instruction inherited from her political godfather. It is also her own conviction.
The president’s personal voracity was demonstrated in Morena’s constitutional supremacy law. Not even the most authoritarian AMLO had thought of that.
AMLO and Sheinbaum share the idea that democracy is used to access power and then destroyed from above to remain in it. Nowhere in the world is it considered democratic to make a State Reform without the consensus of the opposition.
And in Mexico, they are doing it. In 100 days, the autonomous bodies disappeared. A reform to the Judicial Branch was approved, which was criticized even by its related specialists, even before the start of a process that, due to its stumbling, uncleanliness, and fraud, made it clear that its only objective is to shore up the interests of the party in power.
In 100 days, the overwhelming political muscle of Morena was demonstrated. But in 100 days, the challenges that are not controlled by majorities in Congress also exploded: security, economy, and Donald Trump.
100 days have served to show that political pacts with drug traffickers are taking their toll and that —half out of conviction and half due to pressure from Trump— in this government, hugs are being replaced by bullets.
In 100 days it is becoming clear that the president has been left with the economy in tatters: a debt of 6 trillion, rating agencies threatening to downgrade the rating, the worst six-year growth in 30 years, the worst year-end worker layoffs in a decade, the dollar up 4 pesos, the stock market down 15%, Pemex worse than before, and a list of expensive and useless works and projects for which there is no budget to cover.
And on top of that, there is Donald Trump. Of the 100 days, 64 were marked by the Republican’s resounding victory and his barrage of threats. It has already cost Trudeau his job.
President Sheinbaum is not in that situation because of the way the government is organized and because she enjoys much greater political capital than the ailing Canadian progressive. Sheinbaum has dodged the attacks and has reacted with some media blows so that they reach Trump’s eyes. But the worst is yet to come: Trump takes office in two weeks.
In 100 days it has become clear: President Sheinbaum has not taken charge. López Obrador continues to rule. As long as she does not deviate from the script, he does not notice or make himself felt. But if she wants to campaign in her style in the first presidential debate, he scolds her and forces her to change course. If she wants to cool down the judicial reform due to the panic it generates in the markets after her electoral victory, he summons her and tells her publicly that the reform will go without changes. If she wants her own pawn in the CNDH, he crushes her and imposes his. In addition, they have their share of power – and they do not seem to see her as superior, but as an equal – AMLO’s son Andy Lopez Beltran, Adán Augusto Lopez, and Ricardo Monreal.
A lot has happened in 100 days. But more could be happening in the next 100.
We need to keep an eye on three things: Trump’s impact, the success/stagnation/failure of the new security strategy, and whether the president finally — without fighting — makes it clear who is in charge here.
Source; El Universal
