https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SRKYsCLMos
Friday, June 11, 2021
Colombia: The Crisis That No One Talks About Anymore
https://www.resumen-english.org/2021/06/colombia-the-crisis-that-no-one-talks-about-anymore/
By Alejandra Garcia on June 10, 2021
Photo: radiomacondo.fm
Colombia is no longer news. In the past 24 hours, over 50 people were injured by agents of the Mobile Anti-Riot Squad (ESMAD) during a new night of terror and police brutality. But few outlets of the mainstream media are covering the reality of this Latin American country, whose people have been protesting in the streets against President Ivan Duque for over one month. In fact coverage of this significant countrywide social uprising in the face of violent repression is practically nonexistent in the vaunted news agencies based in the US.
The fact that at least 70 demonstrators have been killed in the country in just one month amid the social outbreak is of no concern to the corporate media, which have echoed Duque’s insults to his own people. “Vandals, terrorists,” the president has called the protesters, who are mostly young people, women, social leaders, members of the LGBTI community, farmers, Indigenous people, and workers.
From time to time, EFE brings out reports on how the protests are coming to an end because social anger has subsided. “The ‘takeover of Bogota’ deflated with a march that was barely attended,” reads its most recent publication, which alludes to the call made by the National Strike Committee (CPN) to Bogota’s citizens to peacefully take to the streets this Wednesday.
A different story is told by Portafolio, a local newspaper: “Thousands of people marched chanting slogans against Duque and police brutality to the Tequendama hotel, where the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) is meeting with NGOs, victims, and institutions during its working visit to the country to verify the human rights situation amid protests.”
Despite the heavy rain that fell on the city, there were balloons, slogans, flags, and tears for the victims of homicide, arbitrary arrests, rape, and police violence. As night fell, the agents of the state returned to attack the capital’s citizens with short and long-range weapons and tear gas canisters.
Videos posted on social networks show a group of demonstrators rushing several bloodied bodies to nearby hospitals. Other videos show people placing makeshift tourniquets over the face of a protester who was hit by a tear gas canister in his eyes.
Twitter has become an indispensable platform for denouncing the police brutality to which Colombians have been exposed. Thanks to these testimonies, the NGO Temblores reports that 70 people have been hit by firearms, 50 journalists have been harassed, assaulted, and detained, and 29 civilians have been arrested for documenting agents’ excessive use of force.
The government remains silent and immobile in the face of the ongoing human rights violations occurring in Colombia. Duque comes out of his burrow to point the finger at other governments in the region as responsible for the crisis he himself unleashed. He has set his sights on Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua, but this is not news either.
It is not a surprise that the Organization of American States (OAS) Secretary-General Luis Almagro has recently requested the suspension of Nicaragua’s membership, due to the “unprecedented onslaught” of President Daniel Ortega against his opponents. It is worth clarifying that the “onslaught” refers to the house imprisonment of opposition leader Cristiana Chamorro, who is under investigation for money laundering, abusive management, and ideological falsehood.
While the OAS sets its sights on Nicaragua, Almagro remains silent on the 1,248 victims of physical violence and the 45 homicides committed by members of the security forces from April 28 to May 31 in Colombia.
The European Parliament, which is also part of Duque’s support network, has not raised its voice against the police brutality encouraged by the Colombian government to contain the protests either. However, it has wasted no time in trying to break relations between Havana and Brussels “for the violations of civil liberties” that are taking place on the Caribbean island.
“Everyone is to be blamed for this crisis: the strike, Santos, Maduro, the pandemic, the Indigenous people, and the cousin of the girlfriend of the neighbor’s son. Everyone, but the government. This is how these rulers are who we have to go through life with, crying when they are not in power and accusing the opposition when they are in power,” said Colombian journalist Adolfo Zableh.
Colombia hurts, it hurts to see it so beaten and alone. But the pain is inescapably necessary, according to Zableh. “At last we understand that public interests are above private interests and that fattening ourselves with our hands full while others starve is the wrong way. The privileged ones have experienced just over one month something faintly similar to what the rest of the country has gone through their entire lives, and Duque is panicking.”
Internet: The Dictatorship of the Algorithm
https://www.resumen-english.org/2021/06/internet-the-dictatorship-of-the-algorithm/
By Angel Guerra Cabrera on June 10, 2021
The dictatorship of the algorithm is the title of a very interesting Cuban documentary premiered on the island on June 4 on television (see its official FB page). Directed by Javier Gómez Sánchez, it effectively dismantles not only the economic and political interests behind algorithms, those supposedly neutral mathematical models, but also the intensive use of the Internet by the United States as a weapon in its multidimensional, or fourth generational, war against Cuba. In any war the objective is the annihilation of the opponent, in this case “regime change”, who knows at what human cost in a country historically so guarded of its sovereignty and independence. This statement is not a slogan, it is backed up by conclusive facts such as the defeat of the mercenary invasion of Playa Giron and all the attempts to subdue the Cuban revolution by violent means.
The prolonged and bloody campaign of State terror against the island, also dismantled attempt after attempt, should not be forgotten. In view of these failures, it is significant that both political parties in the United States, from the administration of George W. Bush until today, agree on the soft coup as the magic formula that can suddenly create the perception of a defeated revolution. To achieve this, they make massive and very aggressive use of social networks.
According to official data, Washington invests 50 million dollars annually to promote “democracy” in Cuba, but this figure is much lower than the real one, since the largest part of the funds is a declared secret with the argument of protecting the recipients, or because it is part of the CIA budget. A significant portion is destined to sustain a huge digital media set-up whose sole purpose is subversion, regime change in Cuba, as explicitly stated in the Helms-Burton law of 1996, which is possibly the most barbaric and shameless attempt to give a semblance of legality to the monstrous interference in Cuba’s political destiny. Dozens of groups and individuals on the island receive money from the U.S. taxpayer as “activists”, “independent journalists” or “artists”. In the case of the recently launched Movimiento San Isidro, the sponsorship of the U.S. government and its embassy in Cuba is graphically documented. The movement, of course, is just a figure of speech; it is a pro-U.S. concoction of the worst taste, totally alien to the democratic ideals of which the Cuban Constitution and political order are radical bearers. It was, however, part of the recent attempted soft coup in Cuba and continues to be part of that criminal scheme.
The dictatorship of the algorithm documents the machinery of seduction and terror that Washington is trying to impose on the island through social networks, aimed especially at the new generations. On the one hand, to create a taste in the subject and then attract him by offering him the object that matches that taste. On the other hand, to discipline audiences so that they do not think with their own heads, so that individuals do not dare to express their own criteria, because it breaks with the supposed consensus existing in the group and exposes the offender to the virtual firing squad in the sort of public square that are the networks. In the case of Cuba, the demonization of whoever dares to pronounce words as organic, endearing and typical of the daily life of the island as revolution. Or as odious but omnipresent as blockade or empire. In order to disqualify, terrorize and isolate those who utter them, Washington’s mercenary media have created the label of “officialist”, which frightens not a few young people educated in the idea of rebellion. It is an offensive against nothing less than the revolutionary institutionality in general and the institutions of culture in particular, defective as everything human, but as important as they have been throughout years of revolution to make culture massive and encourage the emergence of talents. All this drama is explained in the film made by a mostly young group of communication scholars, artists, students and a former state security agent, whose approaches are talented, honest, sensitive and up-to-date on the evolution of cyberspace and its ambushes on an international scale.
The Cuban government… has the vigor, the forcefulness, the cultural and moral strength to encourage the debate convened by the eighth congress of the Communist Party of Cuba on the development of the strategy to defeat the imperialist enemy in the battle of ideas in social networks. And also, how to use these networks to form patriotic, socialist, internationalist values, to create ethical standards and aesthetic tastes at the height of the revolutionary project.
Source: La Pupila Insomne, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English
The prolonged and bloody campaign of State terror against the island, also dismantled attempt after attempt, should not be forgotten. In view of these failures, it is significant that both political parties in the United States, from the administration of George W. Bush until today, agree on the soft coup as the magic formula that can suddenly create the perception of a defeated revolution. To achieve this, they make massive and very aggressive use of social networks.
According to official data, Washington invests 50 million dollars annually to promote “democracy” in Cuba, but this figure is much lower than the real one, since the largest part of the funds is a declared secret with the argument of protecting the recipients, or because it is part of the CIA budget. A significant portion is destined to sustain a huge digital media set-up whose sole purpose is subversion, regime change in Cuba, as explicitly stated in the Helms-Burton law of 1996, which is possibly the most barbaric and shameless attempt to give a semblance of legality to the monstrous interference in Cuba’s political destiny. Dozens of groups and individuals on the island receive money from the U.S. taxpayer as “activists”, “independent journalists” or “artists”. In the case of the recently launched Movimiento San Isidro, the sponsorship of the U.S. government and its embassy in Cuba is graphically documented. The movement, of course, is just a figure of speech; it is a pro-U.S. concoction of the worst taste, totally alien to the democratic ideals of which the Cuban Constitution and political order are radical bearers. It was, however, part of the recent attempted soft coup in Cuba and continues to be part of that criminal scheme.
The dictatorship of the algorithm documents the machinery of seduction and terror that Washington is trying to impose on the island through social networks, aimed especially at the new generations. On the one hand, to create a taste in the subject and then attract him by offering him the object that matches that taste. On the other hand, to discipline audiences so that they do not think with their own heads, so that individuals do not dare to express their own criteria, because it breaks with the supposed consensus existing in the group and exposes the offender to the virtual firing squad in the sort of public square that are the networks. In the case of Cuba, the demonization of whoever dares to pronounce words as organic, endearing and typical of the daily life of the island as revolution. Or as odious but omnipresent as blockade or empire. In order to disqualify, terrorize and isolate those who utter them, Washington’s mercenary media have created the label of “officialist”, which frightens not a few young people educated in the idea of rebellion. It is an offensive against nothing less than the revolutionary institutionality in general and the institutions of culture in particular, defective as everything human, but as important as they have been throughout years of revolution to make culture massive and encourage the emergence of talents. All this drama is explained in the film made by a mostly young group of communication scholars, artists, students and a former state security agent, whose approaches are talented, honest, sensitive and up-to-date on the evolution of cyberspace and its ambushes on an international scale.
The Cuban government… has the vigor, the forcefulness, the cultural and moral strength to encourage the debate convened by the eighth congress of the Communist Party of Cuba on the development of the strategy to defeat the imperialist enemy in the battle of ideas in social networks. And also, how to use these networks to form patriotic, socialist, internationalist values, to create ethical standards and aesthetic tastes at the height of the revolutionary project.
Source: La Pupila Insomne, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English
Why Does Joe Manchin Succeed While Progressives Get Embarrassed?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN61De27GAg
An Impregnable Castle
https://www.resumen-english.org/2021/06/an-impregnable-castle/
By Atilio A. Boron on June 9, 2021
Pedro Castillo reaches the final stretch of the electoral recount with a difference of some 80,000 votes in his favor. The only thing missing is the official ratification of his victory, something that should be resolved in the next hours. The ambiguity of the figure is due to the infinitesimal variation that could result from the examination of observed tally sheets, incorrectly filled out or with illegible signatures. But, even so, the victory of the rural teacher is irreversible, and that explains why since Tuesday afternoon the rumor and lie mill of the Peruvian and continental right wing has begun to beat the “fraud” patch. But Adriana Urrutia, the political scientist of the Civil Association Transparency, institution that deployed 1,400 observers in Peru and in the voting centers abroad, immediately rejected this accusation by declaring that “there is no evidence that allows us to speak of electoral fraud”. This affirmation coincides with the one made by the observers of the Inter-American Union of Electoral Organizations and no less than the envoys of the OAS.
Fake news
Once loquacious Peruvian celebrities such as Mario Vargas Llosa and Jaime Bayly have suddenly come to a resounding silence. The former wrote that he “burned with the desire” to celebrate the triumph of the hyper-corrupt Keiko who until a few months ago was the favorite target of his most furious and devastating attacks. As Jorge Luis Borges would say, this somersault was not the product of love but of the terror that his tormented colonialist soul felt at the mere possibility that a man of the people, a humble rural teacher, could achieve what he could not in 1990 and that is to be president of Peru. And now he burns, but with hatred and fury, before the blinding light of a character who he defamed, insulted and fought viciously and relentlessly. Bayly, another spirit colonized to the marrow, got tired of defaming the figure of Castillo; he accused him of being a Chavista, Castro-Chavista, leftist, communist and even insinuated that he could be a “Shining Pathist”. As it happens here in Argentina, pseudo-journalism does not recognize ethical limits of any kind. Its spokespersons can lie on a daily basis and with absolute impunity. The complement of fake news and the media shielding cultivated by the media hit men is lawfare. Whatever Bayly says against the future Peruvian president, there will always be justice to protect the publicist of the empire.
In proportional terms, Castillo took almost half a percentage point advantage over Keiko Fujimori. Undoubtedly it has been a very close election. But to those who claim that that is not enough difference I remind them that in 2016 Keiko lost to another corrupt, Pedro Pablo Kuczinski, by 40,000 votes and 0.20 of the total valid votes. Now the difference is double, in absolute and percentage terms. There is no reason whatsoever to disregard the Cajamarca native’s victory. In democracy, whoever has more votes wins, and Castillo has more than enough. John F. Kennedy defeated Richard Nixon in 1960 by a percentage difference equal to 0.17 percent; why is that percentage good in the United States and a much higher one would not be good in Peru?
Why Castillo won
Castillo’s victory is an encouraging event because it shows that if there is a candidate who faithfully represents and interprets popular sentiment, all the powers of the establishment can be defeated. The businessmen who threatened to close their doors and leave their workers in the street; the lying and manipulative media oligarchy; the traditional political class; high state officials and even most of the Peruvian national soccer players, apart from Vargas Llosa and Bayly, fired against him. Castillo campaigned with zero money, no image consultants and no expensive electoral consultants. He did not need any of that. He won because he listened to the popular clamor, he knew how to hear the voice of the street.
Vargas Llosa got screwed
Not only did he win the election, he also had the pleasure of defeating Keiko by a 65 to 35 percent margin of the votes in Arequipa no less, the home Vargas Llosa his most bitter slanderer who, also for that reason, must be burning like a medieval fire as he wondering how could this happen? He, who was accustomed to alternating between presidents and kings, with ministers and eminences; to being treated with the distinction due to a Marquis of the Kingdom of Spain, was beaten in the land of his birth by a humble teacher from Cajamarca, from Chota to be precise, who overnight seemed to personify the features of some of the most admirable heroes of Vargas Llosa’s novels. Moreover, I would say that many of them must be enjoying the sweet taste of revenge against the writer who created them and who, when he leaves the world of fiction, becomes the mortal enemy of his beloved creatures, eternal dreamers and fighters for a better world.
Source: Pagina 12, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English
Fake news
Once loquacious Peruvian celebrities such as Mario Vargas Llosa and Jaime Bayly have suddenly come to a resounding silence. The former wrote that he “burned with the desire” to celebrate the triumph of the hyper-corrupt Keiko who until a few months ago was the favorite target of his most furious and devastating attacks. As Jorge Luis Borges would say, this somersault was not the product of love but of the terror that his tormented colonialist soul felt at the mere possibility that a man of the people, a humble rural teacher, could achieve what he could not in 1990 and that is to be president of Peru. And now he burns, but with hatred and fury, before the blinding light of a character who he defamed, insulted and fought viciously and relentlessly. Bayly, another spirit colonized to the marrow, got tired of defaming the figure of Castillo; he accused him of being a Chavista, Castro-Chavista, leftist, communist and even insinuated that he could be a “Shining Pathist”. As it happens here in Argentina, pseudo-journalism does not recognize ethical limits of any kind. Its spokespersons can lie on a daily basis and with absolute impunity. The complement of fake news and the media shielding cultivated by the media hit men is lawfare. Whatever Bayly says against the future Peruvian president, there will always be justice to protect the publicist of the empire.
In proportional terms, Castillo took almost half a percentage point advantage over Keiko Fujimori. Undoubtedly it has been a very close election. But to those who claim that that is not enough difference I remind them that in 2016 Keiko lost to another corrupt, Pedro Pablo Kuczinski, by 40,000 votes and 0.20 of the total valid votes. Now the difference is double, in absolute and percentage terms. There is no reason whatsoever to disregard the Cajamarca native’s victory. In democracy, whoever has more votes wins, and Castillo has more than enough. John F. Kennedy defeated Richard Nixon in 1960 by a percentage difference equal to 0.17 percent; why is that percentage good in the United States and a much higher one would not be good in Peru?
Why Castillo won
Castillo’s victory is an encouraging event because it shows that if there is a candidate who faithfully represents and interprets popular sentiment, all the powers of the establishment can be defeated. The businessmen who threatened to close their doors and leave their workers in the street; the lying and manipulative media oligarchy; the traditional political class; high state officials and even most of the Peruvian national soccer players, apart from Vargas Llosa and Bayly, fired against him. Castillo campaigned with zero money, no image consultants and no expensive electoral consultants. He did not need any of that. He won because he listened to the popular clamor, he knew how to hear the voice of the street.
Vargas Llosa got screwed
Not only did he win the election, he also had the pleasure of defeating Keiko by a 65 to 35 percent margin of the votes in Arequipa no less, the home Vargas Llosa his most bitter slanderer who, also for that reason, must be burning like a medieval fire as he wondering how could this happen? He, who was accustomed to alternating between presidents and kings, with ministers and eminences; to being treated with the distinction due to a Marquis of the Kingdom of Spain, was beaten in the land of his birth by a humble teacher from Cajamarca, from Chota to be precise, who overnight seemed to personify the features of some of the most admirable heroes of Vargas Llosa’s novels. Moreover, I would say that many of them must be enjoying the sweet taste of revenge against the writer who created them and who, when he leaves the world of fiction, becomes the mortal enemy of his beloved creatures, eternal dreamers and fighters for a better world.
Source: Pagina 12, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English
Matt Taibbi - A Dangerous Moment for the Democratic Party
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbW5oZsaKv4
Mexico: Midterm Elections and the Fourth Transformation
https://www.resumen-english.org/2021/06/mexico-midterm-elections-and-the-fourth-transformation/
By Luis Hernández Navarro on June 8, 2021
The size of the electoral triumph of Andrés Manuel López Obrador in 2018 made some of his supporters believe that an overwhelming victory in the midterm elections three years later would be inevitable. Although the final and definitive results of the voting last Sunday are not yet known, with the information we have so far, it is clear that the MORENA party did not get the votes that they expected and needed.
The Fourth Transformation (the program of Mexican President Lopez Obrador -“AMLO”) won the majority of the state elections. But in Mexico City, which has been his main area of strength since 1988, the party lost in at least nine of the 16 municipal areas ( Xochimilco is still not definitely called) and 12 local Congressional districts. Although, without any doubt, they continue to be the principal political force in the Chamber of Deputies, they did not obtain the absolute or super-majority that they sought from voters in their campaign, and that they need to continue to go forward with their reforms.
MORENA lost, as well, in many of the most important cities in the country, with the exceptions of Tijuana and Acapulco. In Monterrey and Guadalajara, the Movimiento Ciudadano party won; in Querétaro it was the PAN ( National Action Party – the right-wingers); in Puebla it was the coalition of Compromiso por Puebla with Pacto Social de Integración; in Morelia it was the coalition PAN with Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD); in Guanajuato it was the PAN; in Cuernavaca the alliance of PAN with PSD; in Hermosillo it was Va Sonora (a regional party); in Toluca it was the convergence of PAN-PRI-PRD; while in Veracruz the PAN took Medellin, Alvarado, Boca Del Rio and the city of Veracruz itself.
The opposition parties, which were reduced almost to insignificance by the tsunami of 2018, were revived and strengthened this June 6, by means of the right-wing business class. Despite the setbacks suffered in several states, it emerges with enough strength to block or veto government initiatives and to publicly carry on a true conservative opposition (not merely the intellectuals, management groups, and the newspapers) to the Fourth Transformation. It also has gained power in Mexico City that it has lacked in recent decades.
It is noteworthy, however, that in spite of the pandemic, the economic crisis, the insecurity and discontent of the middle classes, the Fourth Transformation has only suffered resounding defeats in the country’s capitol. This is no small thing. This fact shows the extent to which the undoubted approval that Lopez Obrador retains in public opinion served as a barrier to the disaffection being shown more broadly at the polls.
There is an accumulated sense of unease among artists, academics, scientists, intellectuals, teachers and students of education, feminists, environmentalists, human rights defenders, and victims’ associations that was not expressed directly in favor of any party or candidate – except in Mexico City – but was shown by voiding the ballot or writing slogans on it. Part of this anger was disseminated by social media, showing photos of ballots crossed out or with slogans such as “Tamir Lives,” “Where is Wendy,?” “Long live Mactumactzá and Teteles,” “Land, Water, and Liberty,” “Marichuy” “Against the Femicides and Disappearances,” and many others. To measure the extent of this sort of protest is almost impossible.
The electoral results are bad news for the two main figures hoping to be the MORENA candidate in the next presidential elections: Claudia Sheinbaum and Marcelo Ebrard. On the other hand, for the third contender, Ricardo Monreal, they are not bad. Gabriel Garcia came through as a political operative.
Claudia Sheinbaum is the biggest loser of this episode. She put two very low level people in front of the elections, whom the public ignored completely. Her policies of alliances was disastrous and many of her candidates did not come through. The MORENA party in Mexico City ended up in tatters, exhausted in the fight and damaging others with abundant “friendly fire.”
Mario Delgado, Marcelo’s man heading up the party, agreed to a huge number of undesirable candidates, making agreements with organized crime factions, as well as with old time functionaries of the PRI or with the Greens, to the point at which he converted MORENA into a political organism just like those that the best members of this party have fought against for decades. At the same time, he failed to fulfill many agreements established with his own party stalwarts and left many important and conscientious strugglers off the list of candidates aspiring to represent the people. The results he delivered leave a lot to be desired. The demand for his resignation is like a landslide.
Oddly enough, in spite of the re-positioning of the parties in the national political scene, it didn’t go very well for the leaders of the PRI, PAN, or PRD either. Everything seems to indicate that Alejandro Moreno lost his Campeche stronghold, and the only thing that gives him some breathing space in the ranks is that Adrian de la Garza, who threatened to overtake him in Nuevo Leon, was also defeated. The PAN triumphs seem to be more the work of the governors or of the candidates themselves, rather than of Marko Antonio Cortés. And their leadership – defeatist and corrupt – killed themselves off long ago under the Aztec sun.
Although their results in some states were mediocre, everything seems to indicate that the attempt of the Movimiento Ciudadano Party (MC) to locate themselves as a hinge party (or key coalition partner) between the two main parliamentary blocks has been successful. Their win for the governorship of Nuevo Leon and in cities like Monterrey and Guadalajara, and their competitiveness in Campeche, give them some territorial reach and resources.
MORENA got through the test of the midterm elections. However, their triumph is far from the results that they needed to be able to go forward with their vision for the country. Along the way, they have lost an important segment of the middle classes. In national politics, times are coming that are even more complex than those we have lived through up to now.
Source: La Jornada, translation Resumen Latinoamericano -English
The Fourth Transformation (the program of Mexican President Lopez Obrador -“AMLO”) won the majority of the state elections. But in Mexico City, which has been his main area of strength since 1988, the party lost in at least nine of the 16 municipal areas ( Xochimilco is still not definitely called) and 12 local Congressional districts. Although, without any doubt, they continue to be the principal political force in the Chamber of Deputies, they did not obtain the absolute or super-majority that they sought from voters in their campaign, and that they need to continue to go forward with their reforms.
MORENA lost, as well, in many of the most important cities in the country, with the exceptions of Tijuana and Acapulco. In Monterrey and Guadalajara, the Movimiento Ciudadano party won; in Querétaro it was the PAN ( National Action Party – the right-wingers); in Puebla it was the coalition of Compromiso por Puebla with Pacto Social de Integración; in Morelia it was the coalition PAN with Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD); in Guanajuato it was the PAN; in Cuernavaca the alliance of PAN with PSD; in Hermosillo it was Va Sonora (a regional party); in Toluca it was the convergence of PAN-PRI-PRD; while in Veracruz the PAN took Medellin, Alvarado, Boca Del Rio and the city of Veracruz itself.
The opposition parties, which were reduced almost to insignificance by the tsunami of 2018, were revived and strengthened this June 6, by means of the right-wing business class. Despite the setbacks suffered in several states, it emerges with enough strength to block or veto government initiatives and to publicly carry on a true conservative opposition (not merely the intellectuals, management groups, and the newspapers) to the Fourth Transformation. It also has gained power in Mexico City that it has lacked in recent decades.
It is noteworthy, however, that in spite of the pandemic, the economic crisis, the insecurity and discontent of the middle classes, the Fourth Transformation has only suffered resounding defeats in the country’s capitol. This is no small thing. This fact shows the extent to which the undoubted approval that Lopez Obrador retains in public opinion served as a barrier to the disaffection being shown more broadly at the polls.
There is an accumulated sense of unease among artists, academics, scientists, intellectuals, teachers and students of education, feminists, environmentalists, human rights defenders, and victims’ associations that was not expressed directly in favor of any party or candidate – except in Mexico City – but was shown by voiding the ballot or writing slogans on it. Part of this anger was disseminated by social media, showing photos of ballots crossed out or with slogans such as “Tamir Lives,” “Where is Wendy,?” “Long live Mactumactzá and Teteles,” “Land, Water, and Liberty,” “Marichuy” “Against the Femicides and Disappearances,” and many others. To measure the extent of this sort of protest is almost impossible.
The electoral results are bad news for the two main figures hoping to be the MORENA candidate in the next presidential elections: Claudia Sheinbaum and Marcelo Ebrard. On the other hand, for the third contender, Ricardo Monreal, they are not bad. Gabriel Garcia came through as a political operative.
Claudia Sheinbaum is the biggest loser of this episode. She put two very low level people in front of the elections, whom the public ignored completely. Her policies of alliances was disastrous and many of her candidates did not come through. The MORENA party in Mexico City ended up in tatters, exhausted in the fight and damaging others with abundant “friendly fire.”
Mario Delgado, Marcelo’s man heading up the party, agreed to a huge number of undesirable candidates, making agreements with organized crime factions, as well as with old time functionaries of the PRI or with the Greens, to the point at which he converted MORENA into a political organism just like those that the best members of this party have fought against for decades. At the same time, he failed to fulfill many agreements established with his own party stalwarts and left many important and conscientious strugglers off the list of candidates aspiring to represent the people. The results he delivered leave a lot to be desired. The demand for his resignation is like a landslide.
Oddly enough, in spite of the re-positioning of the parties in the national political scene, it didn’t go very well for the leaders of the PRI, PAN, or PRD either. Everything seems to indicate that Alejandro Moreno lost his Campeche stronghold, and the only thing that gives him some breathing space in the ranks is that Adrian de la Garza, who threatened to overtake him in Nuevo Leon, was also defeated. The PAN triumphs seem to be more the work of the governors or of the candidates themselves, rather than of Marko Antonio Cortés. And their leadership – defeatist and corrupt – killed themselves off long ago under the Aztec sun.
Although their results in some states were mediocre, everything seems to indicate that the attempt of the Movimiento Ciudadano Party (MC) to locate themselves as a hinge party (or key coalition partner) between the two main parliamentary blocks has been successful. Their win for the governorship of Nuevo Leon and in cities like Monterrey and Guadalajara, and their competitiveness in Campeche, give them some territorial reach and resources.
MORENA got through the test of the midterm elections. However, their triumph is far from the results that they needed to be able to go forward with their vision for the country. Along the way, they have lost an important segment of the middle classes. In national politics, times are coming that are even more complex than those we have lived through up to now.
Source: La Jornada, translation Resumen Latinoamericano -English
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