Breathe
By Adela Navarro
If anyone took advantage of the stigma of corruption that surrounded (and surrounds) former President Enrique Peña Nieto, it was Andrés Manuel López Obrador. As a candidate in 2012 and 2018, the rampant corruption of the PRI candidate, first in the State of Mexico and later in the Presidency of the Republic, was the insignia of López Obrador's discourse.
There are several pronouncements in the official pages of López Obrador's candidate, and even in his tweets from 2009 to 2018. In one of his proselytizing speeches, he harangued: "Peña is corrupt, a thief; he trafficked with the poverty of millions of citizens". This is one of the most moderate phrases with respect to what he felt for the one who in 2012 was the PRI candidate for the Presidency of the Republic and who also, according to the Lopezobradorato, bought the votes in that election that he won.
In 2018 he followed up with criticism of Peña Nieto's corrupt government, adding him to the list of former presidents he promised to prosecute and bring to prison.
But once the 2018 presidential election was won, AMLO changed his mind and opinion regarding Peña. He sublimated it and dominated his premise that he won the election, even with 30 million irrefutable votes, because EPN did not intervene in the electoral process, as others did in the past, to prevent him from reaching the Chair of the Eagle.
López Obrador went from giving the benefit of the doubt to his predecessor in power to making him practically untouchable. When he refers to the corruption of the past, to neoliberalism or conservatism, he does so with first and last name to Carlos Salinas de Gortari, Vicente Fox Quesada, Felipe Calderón Hinojosa and even Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León, but never to Enrique Peña Nieto.
The former president of the Republic, emanating from the PRI, lives peacefully abroad, knowing that he is not being persecuted, but protected by the first national president of Moreno.
And it is evident that, should Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo win the 2024 presidential elections, this protection of Peñismo will continue.
This week, some 18 PRI members resigned from the tricolor and the party's Frente to create a "progressive movement" and join Sheinbaum's campaign.
In political positions in 2015 AMLO warned that if there were democracy in Mexico, Peña Nieto, his friends, his compadres and contractor partners would find prison, but over the years what they have found are open arms in Morena for collusion.
PRI members accused of corruption during Peña Nieto's six-year term who seek -more than positions- a political immunity to remain unpunished, uninvestigated, free and in possession of the fortunes they managed to amass in a life dedicated to politics and public office from the PRI, now renounce that political institute in decline and have joined Sheinbaum's cause.
In the height of political promiscuity and cynicism of the PRI class, which has been accused of corruption, they try to wash their bad reputation and stop the investigations against them by joining forces with those they fought against in the immediate past. Knowing that the political future is not tricolor, but cherry, they leave their dignity (if they ever had it) and submit to the officialism.
Indeed, former governors accused of corruption mentioned by the Superior Audit Office of the Federation of large embezzlements in their administrations amounting to billions of pesos and that should be prosecuted by the current government, or referred to as paradigms of corruption in the country by the virtual candidate of Morena for the Presidency of the Republic, are now part of her political entourage of followers. This is the case of Eruviel Avila, former governor of the State of Mexico where he succeeded Peña Nieto; and of Alejandro Murat, a puppy of the most rancid and suspicious PRIism that concluded a government of Oaxaca.
Now former PRI members, both were singled out by the opposition, by the President of the Republic himself and his collaborators, for acts of corruption and excesses in their respective governments or in other areas they headed. As an example, Murat headed Infonavit amidst the controversy of suspicion of abusive acts.
Jorge Carlos Ramírez Marín, also a PRI senator, renounced that party and has joined Sheinbaum and Morenoism after being twice Secretary of State with Enrique Peña Nieto, in Agrarian, Territorial and Urban Development (Sedatu) and Agrarian Reform, and also accused of acts of corruption.
With these "illustrious" PRI members, others joined the Morena and Sheinbaum project, thus guaranteeing impunity for their past careers. López Obrador already anticipated this when in one of his morning conferences, he was asked his opinion about the adhesion of the former PRI members:
"All alliances are good, all of them, when they have a higher objective, the transformation of the country, the benefit to the people, when there is an ideal, a program, when we are not moved by personal interest, no matter how legitimate it may be, but we are moved by serving others. And that is what all the parties in the world do, they ally themselves, as well as politicians and social organizations. It is something consubstantial to politics, if they are good, they are bad, if they have a bad reputation or a good reputation, it depends, doesn't it? It depends on how things are seen.
"Politics is made with women and men, and perfection only corresponds or has to do with the Creator, but human beings, all of us, make mistakes. The important thing is to try to help others, to apply the principle of love for one's neighbor, and even if at some time they have behaved badly, but they decide to change and end up in the last part of their lives helping, being consistent, then go ahead. This is very much present in the story".
It is as simple as that. In one speech, the former PRI members' reputation for corruption was washed away by the grace and work of the President. The only thing missing is Enrique Peña Nieto in the Morenista team for the 2024 electoral process.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.
Comments ()