Profitable scandals

By Sofía Guadarrama Collado

In 2005, an attempt was made to remove the political immunity of the head of the Federal District Government, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, because in 2004 he expropriated a piece of land known as El Encino, in Santa Fe, to build a road access. But the owners of the land filed a legal appeal and a judge ordered the suspension. Since then, the head of government had the mentality of "don't tell me that the law is the law", and continued with the construction with the argument that the work was of public interest. He was then accused of contempt of court, and this misdemeanor was used to request his removal from office.

The expropriation of the land and the contempt of court took a back seat, and the political scenario became a strategy, on the one hand, to prevent him from competing in the 2006 elections and, on the other, to strengthen his popularity. The martyr of martyrs was willing to be scourged in public, and crucified in the middle of the Zócalo square in the capital.

Twenty years ago, in April 2005, the PAN and PRI members took the bait and voted in favor of the desafuero, and created a big, big, big monster. 

As a result, there was popular indignation and massive mobilizations. President Vicente Fox understood the magnitude of his mistake and desisted from criminal prosecution, thus López Obrador retained his political rights to compete in 2006. Perhaps Felipe Calderón would have won with a higher percentage. We do not know. But what was very clear was that the desafuero process strengthened López Obrador to reach the presidency in 2018 as Saint Andres.

This week's attempt to remove Cuauhtémoc Blanco's FUERO is not the same, but it was more than obvious that the deputies of MORENA were not going to remove his immunity. To do so would be like shooting themselves in the foot. If they betray one, they betray everyone in the party. That is the slogan. In politics there are scandals that are more profitable than harmful. For MORENA, Cuauhtémoc Blanco's scandal is irrelevant. They do not care about women. They are not feminists. The Women's Secretariat is a pantomime. The 4T does not investigate itself. It won't.

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