Breathe
By Sofia Guadarrama Collado
Marcelo Ebrard Casaubón began his political career in 1981 at the age of 22 as Secretary of Planning and Budget. From there he jumped from the Popular Housing Renovation Program to the elaboration and approval of the General Law of Ecological Balance and Environmental Protection, to the general direction of the Federal District Department, until he was appointed secretary general of the PRI in Mexico City. He entered the big leagues of Mexican politics when he was only 30 years old, as secretary general in the Federal District government, while Manuel Camacho Solís was regent and Carlos Salinas de Gortari, president of the Republic.
That young official had to deal with, and sometimes bribe, a rowdy politician named Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who frequently invaded the Zócalo square with contingents brought from Tabasco.
He resigned from the PRI in 1995, switched to the PVEM, then to the PRD and ended up in the clutches of López Obrador.
Marcelo Ebrard could have been president in 2012. He had everything to beat Enrique Peña Nieto -an approval rating of 74.4% for his administration as Head of Government of Mexico City, a majority that did not want the PRI to return, another majority that did not want López Obrador either, the support of the PRD, the PAN's doors open and a handful of PRI members who knew and trusted him- except the blessing of AMLO, who at that time still had a very bad reputation among the electorate for the blockade of Reforma in 2006 . The proof is that in 2012 he lost the elections.
Andrés Manuel López Obrador put Marcelo Ebrard's foot down time and again so that he would not become president. The first one, in 2012, when he snatched the right, even though Ebrard had won in the polls. Why? Simple, because he could, he already owned the PRD and because his intention was to come first. Always him. First him, then him and finally him. He convinced him that, if he won in 2012, Ebrard would be the candidate in the 2018 elections. Gee, Marcelo, you know what López is like.
Ebrard must have known that this could happen. He saw it in the six-year term of Carlos Salinas de Gortari, who had made a pact with his friend Manuel Camacho Solís to run him for the presidency in the 1994 elections.
Just like Muñoz Ledo in the six-year term of Echeverría; Reyes Heroles in the six-year term of López Portillo and Bartlett in the six-year term of De la Madrid, Camacho Solís believed that the dedazo was assured.
According to his expectations, if his political godfather, Manuel Camacho Solís had been president, Ebrard would have been his Secretary of the Interior and at 40 years of age, in 2000, he would have been the PRI's presidential candidate. Something that did not happen, as the best candidate was Luis Donaldo Colosio. Frenchman Joseph-Marie Cordoba Montoya, Carlos Salinas de Gortari's advisor, imposed Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon and Manuel Camacho Solis lost his chance to become president forever.
In 2023, Ebrard again fell into AMLO's trap and ventured into campaigning to be MORENA's candidate for the presidency. Again, López Obrador put his foot down. He never had any intention of letting him pass. And he will never let him be president of Mexico. For one simple reason, Marcelo Ebrard is not from the left. Nor is he from the right. He has always been a centralist.
If he were to become president of Mexico, he would dissociate himself from the MORENA project and create his own project, as he did in Mexico City, when he was head of government: promoted the decriminalization of abortion; defended the rights of the LGBT community with the City of Freedoms project, supported programs that took care of Climate Change, established the Ecobici system, the Prepa Sí program, expanded the alimony for senior citizens, created a special intelligence unit against money laundering, made significant changes to the Historic Center, built the hospitals in Tláhuac, Iztapalapa and the Ajusa, Iztapalapa and Ajusco Medio in Tlalpan, expanded the Metrobus system by 350% and carried out many public works, including the construction of Metro Line 12, his biggest disaster after the fire at New's Divine nightclub, in which 12 people died in a failed police operation and the lynching of federal police officers in San Juan Ixtayopan, in Tláhuac.
After his failure in MORENA's internal elections, many people believed that Ebrard would leave the party. It was also said that he would create his own party. And when he reported that he would remain in MORENA, it was said that his career was over. He fared worse when it was announced that he would be Claudia Sheinbaum's Secretary of Economy.
Why has he not distanced himself from López Obrador? Some say it is out of loyalty since AMLO saved his skin in the cases of Tláhuac, New 's Divine and Line 12 of the Metro. Some analysts have suggested that it is out of fear that Lopez will bring his dirty laundry out into the sun or open investigation files against him. Others believe that he has no blood to deal with the PRI and the PAN. But the realityis that he is a pragmatic, patient, persistent, bold, negotiator and survivor. He has a very tough skin and nothing that is said about him affects him.
Last week, Marcelo Ebrard received a leave of absence from the Senate for an indefinite period of time, for two reasons: the first was already known by all: he will be the future Secretary of Economy. And the second: not to vote in favor of the Judicial Power Reform, which has caused the peso to depreciate 20%, from $16.44 to $20.06.
Marcelo is an old sea dog. It is perfectly clear to him that the Reform is a rave by López Obrador and that the only thing it will achieve will be a gigantic conflict with our main trading partners, the United States and Canada, with whom 3.1 million dollars are exchanged every minute thanks to the T-MEC.
With what face are you going to try to convince the Americans not to take out the 232,280 million dollars they have invested in our country? not to withdraw the 232,280 million dollars they have invested in our country?? With the only card he can play: I did not go. I did not vote for the Reform. I am on your side here. Excuse the stupidities of the former president of Mexico.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.
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