Breathe
By Sofía Guadarrama
Where is Joe Biden, many are asking since Donald Trump won the presidential election. Evidently, in the White House, closing all the pending issues. Matters that we will hardly know, because Joe Biden has been an effective, hermetic and discreet president.
The BBC describes him as a man "firm in his stance on foreign policy, especially in relation to Ukraine and China. He compared Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler". Le Monde, France, describes him as "someone who stood firm and did not let himself be swayed by provocations." Der Spiegel, Germany, describes him as "someone who fulfilled his role adequately."
It was extremely difficult for Andrés Manuel López Obrador to deal with Joe Biden because he never engaged with the theatrics of the Mexican president in his morning conferences. The U.S. president dodged all the stones thrown at him from the National Palace and kept quiet about AMLO's boycott prior to the Summit of the Americas organized by the United States in 2022. But, at the end of his term, he took them all in one fell swoop and humiliated him before the world: he entered his country and arrested the most wanted drug lord, El Mayo Zambada. He ridiculed the Mexican president and continues to do so because he has not given in every time Mexico asks him to explain how the capo de capos was extracted.
Fortunately for the Sheinbaum-Obradorista government -not for Mexicans-, in 10 days (next January 20), Joe Biden will leave office and Donald Trump, who does know how to dance to the tune of the 4T, will take office. Evidently, it will not be Sheinbaum who will be setting the agenda, but Mister President.
Donald Trump's second term has not even begun and he is already setting the world's agenda. It is enough for him to get in front of the cameras for a few minutes and speak for the social networks to go crazy and the printing presses to rush: that Canada will be the 51st State, that China has control of the Panama Canal, that Mexico is run by drug cartels, that he is going to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico or that he is going to acquire Greenland.
As AMLO used to say: "it is pure politicking". Of course, he said it when it was convenient for him and always referring to his opponents.
The next four years will be a string of scandals, but mainly smokescreens. Fourth level distractors to hide their failures and legitimize themselves at the expense of the citizens. As long as Trump and Sheinbaum play a ping pong of back and forth, our nations will sink into ever more severe crises.
But the truth is that populism is a mousetrap. And Donald Trump and Claudia Sheinbaum are leading their respective countries into a pair of mousetraps. From them, we will hardly be able to get out.
All populist governments such as those of Javier Milei, Nayib Bukele, Nicolás Maduro, Miguel Díaz-Canel, Donald Trump or Andrés Manuel López Obrador/Claudia Sheinbaum, aim to dismantle the systems of government established in their countries, indoctrinate their governed under the pantomime of democracy, establish a single discourse, weaken counterweights, demolish critical media, install authoritarian regimes and perpetuate themselves in power, directly or indirectly.
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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