López Obrador, the president who distracts Mexicans and flirts with the textbook of Latin American populism

Convinced that the transformation and rebuilding of the country depend on him and his government, AMLO is willing to follow the handbook of the Latin American populist leader. Become an enemy, reform the constitution to stay in power, have your own justice. This same who filled Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales, Daniel Ortega and tried so many others with a different chance.

The first step will be to try to be eternal. Taking advantage of the 80% popularity he enjoys and the flowery spring of the first days of his government, López Obrador He made an obscene proposal for the story: reform the 1917 Constitution to re-elect.

This historic Magna Carta cost seas of blood. It started in 1910, with the overthrow one year after the dictator Porfirio Diaz who will hold the presidency for 30 years. The struggle for basic civil rights was worth the lives of millions of Mexicans. The exploit was started by Francisco Madero, which under the motto "effective vote, no re-election"He managed to get the despot out, and in 1913 the father of that company would be executed.

The head of state seems to suffer from amnesia and has forgotten the seeds of the revolution.

But AMLO (as he likes to be called, in the best style FDR o JFK) continues his maneuvers. As in these daily marathon press conferences of nearly two hours. A grimace that may seem democratic, but because there are few questions and eternal answers. Manage times and themes, creating an information barrier. He has a weakness for speeches, like other regional caudillos.

The writer, journalist and editor of the magazine Nexos Esteban Illades There is also talk of the "symbols" that the President recreates and its use. "He does it to set up a story. By doing things that are well, keep the public's attention permanently. These symbols are also used to mark a distance from the past. Although, in practice, his government is very similar to the previous ones, these laws make it different, even if it is not the case.

For the moment, according to the intellectual, nothing that he said has been transferred to a meaningful public policy. "If he tells us, for example, that he travels in a compact car, he builds an oil refinery without doing any environmental impact studies and, s & # 39; He does it, he does not disclose it. So their symbolic actions do not correspond to their practical actions", Explain Illades. No more distraction maneuvers.

López Obrador he also has on his horizon another chapter of the populist textbook: justice. Every day, he dedicates lines on the subject. "We have a very good relationship with the Supreme Court which it is being renovated"He said last Thursday, three days before his proposal:"There, you must proceed to a renewal, I say it in very respectful terms. The functioning and attitude, the behavior of judges, magistrates and, of course, ministers must be reconsidered"

He's careful: he's talking about "the autonomy of the powers"… but society itself and parliament should make decisive progress in controlling this process so as to make it as crystal clear as possible and not end in a la carte justice.

The Mexican boss also boasts: "Corruption tolerated in the country is over"Are the unacceptable ones still standing?" Disconcerting: there are no official complaints or convictions for such crimes despite the fact that AMLO He accused the presidents who preceded him and "conservatism"and to"neoliberalism"who has sown evil in the nation.

Another distraction was that of his transfers. He has sold 70 aircraft of the official fleet. He argued that a president could not rely on a luxury plane in an impoverished country. You are right. He promised to fly by commercial lines, like any citizen. However, the archives of tickets that are issued in your government. For the moment, this information is under a trap.

Although entertaining, another sensitive subject is forgotten: drug traffic. The figures given by the National Defense Secretariat (SEDENA) the newspaper L & # 39; economist They are blunt. In the first quarter of his administration, drug seizures were almost nil. More if compared to identical periods of Felipe Calderón and Enrique Peña Nieto.

AMLO managed to get the narcos barely four kilos of cocaine, one of opium gum, five heroin and 30,000 marijuana. Data from its predecessors in its first three months of management was clearly better. Calderón managed to seize 1,469,199 kilos of cocaine against Peña Nieto, 1,331,332 during the first three months; opium gum: 10,883 as against 149,638; heroin: 4.173 vs. 19,883; marijuana 79,800 c. 102,831,671 pounds.

The argument will be obvious: the confiscation policy of previous presidents has failed to end the narco. That's true. As is also his policy, so far, has not prevented millions of pounds of drugs reaching consumers in Mexico and the rest of the world until now in 2019.

"López Obrador is just beginning to understand how difficult it is to deal with Trump. For the moment, his predecessor did not change much, he even went further than him. In terms of speech, the change was slight; while Enrique Peña Nieto responded to the attacks, he chose to say that he respects to solve the problem", he replies Illades.

The warning from the North American president would result in a hard economic blow if he was not accionado properly. More in a man who does not want to touch the trade with States Unitedwhich represents billions of dollars. "We are in favor of free trade. We will not participate in any trade war", the former mayor of the capital had said hours before knowing the opinion of the White House.

The level of transactions between the two countries was $ 610 billion in 2018. From this total 346 billion were exports of Mexico the United Statesaccording to the official data of the Secretary of Economy from the country of Latin America and the United States Census Bureau. The level was maintained during the first month of AMLO in front, moving China and Canada as major customers and suppliers of Northern energy.

López Obrador he must begin to deal with the outstanding issues and abandon the games. The blame Spainfor example from the conquest of America five centuries later is as absurd as to claim the Indo-Europeans or the Celts for the subjugation exercised on the Iberian ancestors of the Neolithic Even these distraction tests can be counterproductive: 60% of Mexicans did not agree with the challenge to Felipe VI.

Finally, Nicolás Maduro. López Obrador flirts with the epic speech proposed by the chavist dictator. A rhetoric – accompanied by crimes against humanity – that led to the collapse of the richest country in the region. It will be necessary to be attentive: AMLO maybe you're tempted and start using Francisco Villa o Emiliano Zapata in each of his speeches turning the story. Another distraction while continuing with the style manual that Latin America wants to leave in the past.