200 DAYS
Shenbaum is already halfway through 200 days of government.
She has been faced with a very difficult situation. Uncertainties and changes that are seen every century, which are capable of breaking nations. Very few people are prepared for something like this.
But she is the least prepared.
Because her ambitions and plans are entirely local, short and medium term, subject to loyalties and fragile alliances. And because she accepted the influence of the previous president as an ideological definition and as a political limitation.
Every week something happens that becomes evidence of both genetic weaknesses, with which she accepted to take the position of president of Mexico.
During his entire six-year term, the previous president, Obrador, sent initiatives and proposals to the legislative power with an instruction that was always fulfilled: the deputies of his party approved them without complaining and without making any changes. This spectacle had never been presented before… except in the previous political stage of Mexico, between the thirties and eighties of the twentieth century, in which there was a State party.
Proposal that Obrador sent to the Legislative Power, proposal that passed without complaint. In ridiculously short times, even hours. Only those reforms or modifications in which the opposition formed a block to not approve them did not pass. But that was only possible in one of the three legislatures during Obrador’s government, because in the other two legislatures that occurred in his six-year term his party obtained a majority in the Legislative Power, so that his initiatives passed as he wanted: without complaint.
Sheinbaum began the first year of what administratively can be called “her” government, presenting herself along with her entire political faction new legislative initiatives that Obrador could not send through the legislative calendars. There was no problem: since Obrador still retains political control of the party, his legislative initiatives passed as always: without complaint, without hesitation. He used one of those phrases that chauvinistic women love: “without changing a comma.” And so they passed, without changing a comma, just as he ordered them, just as he wanted.
Just two weeks ago, at the beginning of February, Sheinbaum sent her first initiative to the legislative branch, one that she wants to push, one that she developed, one that she wants to define, to create her government.
The initiative was voted against by her party.
It was not approved by the same people who four months ago approved without even reviewing the initiatives that came to them from the president. This time they did not hesitate to reject the proposal.
In a democracy, the Legislative Branch serves to discuss laws and make them as flawless as possible. The refusal to question Obrador’s laws and the refusal to approve Sheinbaum’s fully illustrate the current state of Mexican politics, of the party in government and of the person who today nominally holds the position of president of Mexico.
None of this is good for the country.
Sheinbaum’s weakness or mediocrity (it is not clear) does not gain her presence or authority over Trump. Nor does it give her authority within her party (which is supposedly her arm before the legislative power!). It is not a good sign for national and international businessmen.
Sheinbaum’s first year is being very, very difficult. Trump’s arrival at the White House complicated everything.
At the end of February, something unprecedented in all of Mexican history happened.
In a move that has shaken the security landscape in Mexico, the Mexican government carried out an operation on February 27 to transfer 29 high-profile drug traffickers to the United States.
In an operation with more than 3,500 security elements, it transferred 29 drug traffickers to the United States. This transfer was not a formal extradition, but a movement under national security cooperation agreements. Among the criminals handed over are very relevant figures of organized crime, such as: Rafael Caro Quintero: One of the founders of the Guadalajara Cartel. Miguel Ángel Treviño Morales (“Z-40”) and Óscar Omar Treviño Morales (“Z-42”): Leaders of Los Zetas. Antonio Oseguera Cervantes, brother of “El Mencho” leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, brother of Amado Carrillo.
This transfer is considered one of the largest movements of high-profile criminals in recent Mexican history.
Never before has the Mexican government handed over so many criminals to another government. Under no circumstances. It raises many questions about cooperation between Mexico and the United States in the fight against drug trafficking. It has also generated debate about the legal process used, since by not being an extradition, certain protocols and legal protections are avoided.
The “transfer” of 29 “generators of violence” to the United States was “an act of authority that has no precedent,” boasted Omar García Harfuch, head of the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection (SSPC), who asserted that the decision was made by the security cabinet and added that “the president of the Republic,” Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, had “nothing to do” with it.
The cause behind this extraordinary event is Donald Trump’s pressure against Mexico. Trump has threatened Mexico since he took power. Everything revolves around drug trafficking and illegal immigration. Trump acts as if both phenomena were completely and entirely Mexico’s responsibility, and as if it were Mexico’s exclusive responsibility to attack them.
It is not so. But that does not matter.
The fact is that Trump does not hesitate for a second to threaten and execute orders to impose all kinds of problems against the Mexican economy, which is very, very weak today.
What could be Sheinbaum’s first great act of authority, the first great executive decision in her government is… to obey Trump’s and execute an unprecedented and unique act until now in the entire modern history of Mexico. No other president had ever done anything even similar.
It is not a sign of authority.
She has the legal power to do it.
She did not do it because she decided to, as the secretary of security said, it was not done because it is a cog in a new way of organizing the government of Mexico.
It was a reaction hoping to reassure and satisfy Trump.
