Zedillo uses a right-wing newspaper: “Democracy is dead”

Zedillo described Sheinbaum as an accomplice of López Obrador, who, he said, comes from the “old PRI, the authoritarian” in which he asserted “the important thing was to maintain power” and of which he was also a part.

Mexico City, October 25 (However).– Claudia Sheinbaum “He has been an accomplice of López Obrador in the destruction of Mexican democracy,” the former PRI president says this Saturday Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon in an interview for the Spanish newspaper The World.

In the talk with the journalist Maite Rico, Opinion columnist of the Madrid newspaper, described as right-wing, he attacks again against Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) and against “his heir”, the first female President in the history of Mexico.

In an interview, in which the author highlights him for his role as “driver of the political transition in Mexico”, a man who emerged from poverty and who contributed to the fall of the PRI, Zedillo Ponce de León affirms that with López Obrador and Sheinbaum Pardo they have destroyed the institutions in Mexico.

For the umpteenth time, the PRI member, who since leaving the Presidency of Mexico in 2000 has lived in the United States and has worked in companies such as Union Pacific, favored by the privatization of the railroads during his mandate, affirms that “the pillars of Mexican democracy have been destroyed.”

According to Zedillo, AMLO began this demolition and “there were those who thought that his heir, Claudia Sheinbaum, would distance herself from her godfather upon becoming president, as is tradition in Mexico. But that has not been the case.”

Asked if a turnaround can be expected from the President regarding the policies of López Obrador, the historic leader of the Mexican left, Zedillo explained:

“I don’t know. I don’t know Dr. Sheinbaum, but she has been López Obrador’s accomplice in the destruction of Mexican democracy. I do not comment on her policies in other aspects, I limit myself to pointing out her leading role in the demolition of this democracy. She enthusiastically contributed to López Obrador’s constitutional reform to destroy the Judiciary. It was practically during her administration that the National Police was handed over to the Army and several supervisory bodies are eliminated. And the electoral reform, which will kill the conditions for balanced competition, is also happening under his mandate.”

According to the former president, who during his six-year term unleashed the greatest economic crisis in Mexico, increased the armed conflict of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) in Chiapas and was complicit in impunity in massacres such as that of Aguas Blancas in Guerrero – where 17 peasants, including minors, were artfully murdered –, with Claudia Sheinbaum in power, the division has been suppressed of powers and counterweights.

Zedillo highlights that Mexico is today an authoritarian state. “They have dismantled the rule of law and the control bodies, such as the one in charge of transparency. They have ended judicial independence: choosing judges by popular vote is a farce typical of autocratic regimes and was also done with a fraudulent election. And to shield all this, Sheinbaum has for practical purposes eliminated the Supreme Court as a constitutional court. The Government, which controls Congress and the state legislatures, can approve constitutional modifications definitively, without any court being able to object to them. It is a case of authoritarianism unique in the world,” he says.

In addition to highlighting “authoritarianism” in Mexico, Ernesto Zedillo also claims about a police state.

“They are militarizing security. The National Guard now depends on the Army and will be able to investigate crimes outside the public ministry. The causes and terms of preventive detention have been extended. In addition, they have begun recruiting the Armed Forces, which in Mexico had been historically exemplary. Now, by constitutional mandate, they must do what Congress orders, and that includes managing economic activities without transparency or accountability. It is a way to gain their complicity. to stay in power, as has been seen in Cuba, Venezuela or Egypt. And that is very serious,” says the man who is accused before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) for his responsibility in the Acteal Massacre, where it is claimed that the Mexican Army armed the paramilitaries who murdered civilians.

The interviewer asks again about AMLO, and very appropriately, “let’s say that López Obrador has applied the manual of the perfect tyrant.”

In effect, Zedillo responds, “everything is part of one objective: to create a hegemonic party regime to ensure continuity and impunity. First threshold: make the electoral processes always favor them by tilting the conditions massively in their favor. If there is controversy, ensure that it is always resolved in their favor. And if still, as in Venezuela, people decide that they are fed up and vote for the opposition, having control not only of the authorities elections, but also of the Judiciary and the public force to trample on the popular will.

The second threshold, explains the PRI member in the interview published this Saturday in The World“it is political repression, through a series of mechanisms, from investigation to preventive detention and the annulment in practice of the right to protection, as well as the open attack on independent critics of the government. Nothing is new in this framework, it is enough to take a tour of authoritarian regimes throughout history. The only difference with other experiences in Latin America is that now they disguise themselves as democrats and make a Constitution tailored to them.”