The weekly newsletter of the Mexico Solidarity Project

Every issue archived online at mexicosolidarityproject.org

February 28, 2024/ This week’s issue/ Meizhu Lui, for the editorial team

Making political platforms: “I’m all ears”

It’s been said that humans have two ears and one mouth because we should listen twice as much as we talk.

Usually, politicians design their platforms with a few friends — and of course, some high-priced marketing consultants thrown in. When they come to our town, they tell us what they’ll do. They talk, we listen.

What if we talked and they listened?

Renata Turrent was appointed by Morena’s presidential candidate, Claudia Sheinbaum, to be on her 10-member pre-candidacy team to help develop her political platform. This was not business as usual.

First, like US president Abraham Lincoln, hers is a “team of rivals.” Three of the people she chose for her team vied with her for the Morena nomination.

Second, the team members came from diverse professional and social backgrounds. Several served in Congress; one was the Secretary of Economy under AMLO. Renata is an independent journalist. An actress was named as the cultural liaison.

The team members didn’t dream up ideas for Claudia’s platform out of their heads. Their role was to go out and gather as many ideas and concerns from as many people, organizations, and institutions as possible. Each set up their own meetings, but then they all met together to explore the convergences. 

Claudia’s approach in the pre-campaign period gave Mexico a flavor of how she will work as president: she connected issues and sectors, united former rivals around the single goal of moving the 4th Transformation forward, and she practiced teamwork. But above all, she will make sure that before she uses her mouth, she’ll be all ears.

Check out our new MSP weekly English language podcast, Soberanía!  José Luis Granados Ceja and Kurt Hackbarth entertain as they slice and dice the events of the day, revealing what is hidden under the piles of news trash.

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Claudia Sheinbaum’s Team: Go and Listen!

Claudia Sheinbaum is Morena’s presidential candidate, and you were chosen to be one of ten people on her pre-candidacy team in November. What was your particular responsibility?

It was both exciting and humbling to be selected as one of the ten members of her team. I’m only 37! I admit that I was terrified. I felt a huge responsibility to Claudia and to the country to do a good job. 

It was also scary because of the opposition from the right-wing. There were attacks on me and my family, and I have a 3-year-old.

I hadn’t worked with Claudia directly, but she noticed my work on the online news site Sentido Común and on social media, and she wanted a communications person who knew how to work all the channels. While most of the team members have academic backgrounds, she liked the everyday language I use to explain policy and politics.

Ayotzinapa Normal School/ photo: edomex.com

My role was to be the Liaison with Academic Sectors to get their input on developing Claudia’s campaign platform. She wanted to hear not just from the big elite universities like UNAM or private universities, but also from, for example, teacher colleges in rural areas such as Ayotzinapa, where 43 students were disappeared in 2014. I solicited participation from young academics and visiting professors to bring in new voices.

Every week via zoom, I held “office hours,” an open space for people from educational institutions to bring their ideas; they were encouraged to write one-page proposals for Claudia’s platform.

What areas of expertise did the team members have, and did they meet together regularly? 

We covered 12 areas, each coordinated by an expert. Issues included the transition to clean energy, Department of Justice reform to stop corruption and impunity (Arturo Zaldivar resigned from the Supreme Court to work for Claudia), cultural endeavors, and much more. 

Because we met weekly as a team, we weren’t in silos but able to intersect across issues. For example, “women in science and technology” crossed both academic and women’s rights areas. We had a common calendar, and we had joint forums as well as sector-based ones — the teamwork was excellent.

The bottom line for Claudia is that she’ll negotiate with those who disagree with Morena, but their wishes can’t conflict with the principles of the 4th transformation. Therefore, Iberdrola and Exxon had to agree that they will continue business under the authority of the state, and the state will be the entity driving the transition to clean energy. And they agreed — amazing!

Via YouTube, we held Dialogues for Transformation where the public heard what we were discussing and could give their own input. My role was also to communicate to the public everything that was discussed in the team’s forums and conversations. 

An important change is in how Claudia’s government will measure success. For example, in the medical field, we will measure success by improvements in the public’s health.

The team was half women. Did Claudia, you, and the other women on the team influence how the work was done? 

As a woman, you see the world differently. For one thing, you think about impacts on women and children. Last year the media asked, “Are we ready for a woman president?” That’s like asking, “Are you ready to be a parent?!” But with two women nominated from the two main party coalitions, at least we don’t have to bother with that question! 

AMLO initiated the law that requires an equal number of men and women in Congress. His ministry is also half women. Under former president Peña-Nieto, only two out of nineteen ministers were women, and before AMLO’s presidency, only ten were ministers in the whole history of Mexico. 

But Morena is the only party that has feminists organized within it. And under AMLO, even PAN was influenced to practice greater gender equality as Morena’s initiatives began to change cultural attitudes toward women. 

As mayor of Mexico City, Claudia reduced femicides by 50%. She created subsidies for children and older people, taking some of the burden of care off women, and she also intends to institute universal pre-school programs. So, we may well see an upsurge in support for her candidacy among women.

In the pre-candidacy period you gathered input, and in the official interim period (January 19 to February 29), the program was developed. Now what?

Even before the pre-campaign period began, Morena held 300 popular assemblies and produced a document outlining the ideological principles and programs for a Morena presidential platform. It’s the basis for the detailed program that will finally be unveiled to the public when the official campaign period begins on March 1. Candidates are not allowed to speak publicly about their program until that date.

AMLO is a hard act to follow. What about Claudia makes you believe she’ll be an effective president of Mexico?

Claudia will face something difficult when she’s first elected. People love AMLO — he served as the nation’s moral compass. When he leaves office, it will be hard for people to let go — and they will grieve. 

But I believe Claudia will overcome the obstacles and deepen the 4th transformation of Mexico. She is resolute, tested in politics, has a long history in the left, and as a scientist, bases her decisions on facts.

I’m prepared to do all I can to help her succeed, now, and for the next six years.

Sorry!  We failed to note that last week’s Reflection by David Raby was excerpted from his original article in Labour Outlook.

The Dirty Campaign Arrives Right on Cue

It’s election time in Mexico. The official campaign period won’t begin until the first of March but the opening salvos have already been fired. Headlines in both the US and Mexico have been inundated with sensational — but baseless — accusations seeking to besmirch President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. The latest New York Times piece purports to link his previous election campaigns to dirty money from organized crime. While he’s not running, they want the tar from their brush to rub off on AMLO’s probable successor, Claudia Sheinbaum, and to raise doubts that her election will be honest.

As my co-host over on the Soberanía podcast Kurt Hackbarth noted, the smear campaign in the US media has already had three acts. The first was a piece in the Texas Observer asserting that anti-democratic AMLO would manipulate the results of the coming election. The second was a coordinated hit piece from ProPublica, DW, and InSight Crime, a fact-free attempt to link AMLO’s 2006 campaign to illicit financing. And Act Three hit the boards this past week when Alan Feuer and Natalie Kitroeff published a poorly sourced piece in the New York Times alleging links between organized crime groups and AMLO’s successful 2018 run. 

According to former Mexican foreign secretary Marcelo Ebrard, the accusations are likely coming from the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), as fallout over the contentious relationship between the US agency and the Mexican government after AMLO curtailed their ability to wantonly operate in the country. This fact raises the worry that more than just a smear campaign, we’re watching a destabilization effort unfold. 

While US government spokespeople have stated clearly that the US is not investigating AMLO, Ebrard said he was told that the DEA operates with a surprising degree of autonomy. It is not unreasonable to think that there are powerful interests willing to exploit the DEA’s grudge in order to advance their agenda. They want to defeat the Morena government, which has for the first time since 1938 taken back control over its own natural resources; they would love to return to business as usual under corporate candidate Gálvez.

The opposition and its allies in Washington know that Gálvez has no chance to win an honest election.  Instead they are trying to build doubt about the election as part of a broader effort to potentially overturn the results. The opposition’s gamble is unlikely to pay off. Despite weeks of negative headlines, and even foreign-funded efforts to inflate a hashtag critical of the president, poll numbers have hardly budged. 

True democrats and anti-imperialists must nonetheless remain vigilant, lest the opposition turn to more radical actions in their increasing desperation.

Recent news reports and commentaries, from progressive and mainstream media,
on life and struggles on both sides of the US-México border compiled by Jay Watts

Victor Nava, Mexican president associates reportedly linked to drug cartels but DOJ says he’s not under investigationNew York Post. The dirty war against the Morena project in Mexico continues on, with another serving of thin gruel and unsubstantiated allegations from another outlet against President AMLO: this time from the New York Times.

Dulce Olvera y Obed Rosas, Morena apunta a Atlas Network por guerra sucia. ¿Qué es? ¿Cómo lo vinculan a Xóchitl? Sin Embargo. The Atlas Network es una agencia internacional que se dedica a impulsar el neoliberalismo y combatir a gobiernos de izquierda.

As Mexico’s presidential election approaches, Sheinbaum holds a commanding lead Mexico News Daily. Various polls put Sheinbaum up from 20 to 30 points ahead of her right wing rival Xóchitl Gálvez, who has floundered despite the backing of three major Mexican political parties and USAID front groups.

¿En qué consiste la reforma en materia de vivienda de AMLO? El Soberano. Se argumentó que con la solidez financiera del Infonavit se podrán construir hasta 75,000 vivienda por año y generar alrededor de 1 millón de empleos en el sector de la construcción.

David Sherpardson, US should block cheap Chinese auto imports from Mexico US makers say Reuters. Gringo hypocrisy once again: “free trade for thee but not for me.”

Jorge Covarrubias, El único narcopresidente fue Felipe Calderón: Fisgón Revista Polemón. De forma contundente, Rafael Barajas deja en claro que el único NarcoPresidente a ciencia cierta y totalmente comprobado ha sido Felipe Calderón.

UAW Establishes Solidarity Project to Support Mexican Autoworkers UAW. Mexican autoworker wages have fallen dramatically since the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994

Alejandro Badillo, El Periodismo Como Acto De Valor La Tempestad. En México y en el mundo el periodismo corporativo defiende la ideología de las empresas que lo patrocinan. Sin embargo, hay periodistas que exponen la verdad a costa de sus propias vidas.

Camilo Montoya-Galvez, Biden weighs invoking executive authority to stage border crackdown ahead of 2024 election CBS News. President Biden is debating whether to invoke a sweeping presidential authority that gained infamy during the Trump administration to stage a crackdown on migrants coming to the U.S. southern border.

Clara Brugada Molina, Una Ciudad cuidadora de infancias El Universal. “Mi sueño es incorporar esta visión a la Ciudad de México, donde el espacio público, las calles y la seguridad estén pensadas específicamente para niños y niñas, quienes también representan el presente de nuestra Ciudad.” Clara Brugada es la candidata de Morena a la presidencia de la Ciudad de México.

The Mexico Solidarity Project brings together activists from various socialist and left organizations and individuals committed to worker and global justice. We see the 2018 election of Andrés Manuel López Obrador as president of México as a watershed moment. AMLO and his progressive Morena party aim to end generations of corruption, impoverishment, and subservience to US interests. Our Project supports not just Morena, but all Mexicans struggling for basic rights, and opposes US efforts to undermine organizing and México’s national sovereignty.

Editorial committee: Meizhu Lui, Bruce Hobson, Agatha Hinman, Victoria Hamlin, Courtney Childs, Susan Weiss.  To give feedback or get involved yourself, please email us!

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