There is no room for cracks. When Claudia Sheinbaum declared, in front of a packed Zócalo, that her opponents would defeat neither Mexico nor its president, support was unanimous; Likewise for the contingents who no longer returned and were stuck in the surrounding streets, as well as in the pavilion and the front rows of the guest area, where there was not a single significant absence.
Alongside the president, the 24 governors of the 4T, the legal and extended cabinet, and officials of the Office of the Presidency applauded. Below the pavilion, the senators led by Adán Augusto López, the deputies led by Ricardo Monreal, the leadership of Morena with Luisa María Alcalde and Andy López Beltrán in the front row, the leaders of the Greens and the PT, senator Gerardo Fernández Noroña and all those who have a certain power in the party-movement.
This time there were no distractions, rudeness or bargaining at the call of Sheinbaum, who, in six days of December, seems to have achieved what seemed difficult: turning the page on a black November, in which problems, protests and complaints of insecurity accumulated, which ran from Uruapan – after the assassination of Mayor Carlos Manzo – to the march of 15-N, amplified by its opponents and which now pales in front of the image of a full Zócalo, in which it was difficult to walk among the 600,000 people mobilized by Morena.
The President called for celebrating seven years since the start of the Fourth Transformation at the usual location; the Zócalo where the left had been demanding, for decades, freedom, democracy and social justice; the place that was filled a thousand times by the leader of the movement, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, absent from the gathering, but frequently mentioned in the president’s speech and applauded at each reference.
“No matter how many dirty campaigns they finance on social media, no matter how many bot purchases, no matter how many alliances with interest groups in Mexico and abroad, no matter how many communications consultants they hire to invent smears and lies, no matter how many attempts to make the world believe that Mexico is not a free and democratic country, no matter how many commentators or supposed experts who invent fictional stories, no matter how many alliances they want to make with domestic and foreign conservatism, no matter what they do about it all. that: No! “They will defeat the Mexican people, nor their president!” declared Sheinbaum at the start of an hour-long speech, in which he left no subject aside.
First of all, he gave a long assessment of the seven years that began with López Obrador’s coming to power on December 1, 2018, in which he highlighted the “feat” of lifting millions of Mexicans out of poverty and reducing inequalities. Then, one by one, he dismantled the narratives constructed in recent weeks by the opposition, from that of authoritarian restoration to that which proclaims that young people have turned their backs on 4T. And finally, she clarified – to those who still doubt it – that she was elected not only to ensure continuity, but to deepen the transformation project.
He said this after two weeks in which he carried out two chess operations, with high levels of risk: first, dismissing prosecutor Alejandro Gertz Manero to replace Ernestina Godoy, a loyal activist whose appointment was approved not only by pro-government groups, but also by 10 opposition senators. And, secondly, implement a controversial water law that recovers state management of this resource, facing protests in the streets and the rejection of the opposition in Congress, where their seats were perfectly aligned to carry out the reform in just three days.
If anyone had any doubts about Claudia Sheinbaum’s leadership, they were dispelled in just five days, the same ones that passed between the reappearance of former President AMLO, whose new book, Sizedid not overshadow Sheinbaum – nor her meeting with Donald Trump during the World Cup draw, from which she not only emerged well, but also victorious, with the door open to a dialogue soon on the thorny issue of the free trade agreement.
Closure of lines
On Saturday, from the Zócalo, the November clouds were visible from very far away. Several groups of young people marched from different areas of the city to gather in the central square. A large contingent from Mexico’s National Technological Institute stood in front of the National Palace with a banner reading: “Generation Z and all other generations are with you, President Claudia Sheinbaum. » She began her speech with a clear reference to those who marched on 15-N and are already preparing a new mobilization for December 14: “Let no one be mistaken, let us hear it clearly, loud and far: the vast majority of young people are with the transformation of public life in Mexico!
Faced with what seemed to be an awakening of the opposition, the party and the government proceeded to close ranks in force, among which were Sheinbaum’s contenders in 2023 (Adán Augusto, Monreal, Marcelo Ebrard, Fernández Noroña and Manuel Velasco); to his closest collaborators, such as the Secretary of Security, Omar García Harfuch; to the son of the former president and to figures such as Jesús Ramírez, coordinator of advisors and, to this day, one of the executives most loyal to López Obrador.
To all, Sheinbaum also sent a message, almost at the end of the event, so that they adhere to the fair average and not dishonor the principle of austerity that the fourth transformation presupposes: “In our country, where the majority of citizens live on a minimum wage sufficient to cover the most basic things, there can be no moral, ethical or political justification for those who serve the people to live surrounded by luxury or privilege; even less so if they are seen as part of a movement that “We have promised, since our inception, to end the abuse of power.”
After a year of scandals, which are already wreaking havoc on her and her party’s polls, the president also included hers in the warnings. “Let us not forget that true transformation is not only economic and social, it is also ethical and moral,” he said, erasing the smiles of more than one of those present in the pavilion and in the special guests area.
Saturday’s rally ended in the afternoon, giving way to the usual balance of selfies and social media videos, one of the fronts on which the president has called on her people to fight. Under the hashtags #MéxicoConClaudia and #7AñosdeBienestar, the Morenistas continued their activism all afternoon, because in the age of virtual realities, sometimes it is not enough to fill a Zócalo.
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