It is extremely terrible what has happened to us Mexicans, in Mexico City the capital's regent Claudia Sheimbaum, who is like governor, has won the presidential seat, it is the worst, she as a disciple of AMLO, is colluding with the drug state, represents the power of the party in power, "MORENA" which has come throughout these 5 years of mandate little by little invading each sector through drug trafficking, charging floor rights, protection fees to merchants even to irregular businesses that are placed on the streets, really terrible, nothing can be done anymore, they want to modify the constitution, modify the protection law, the plenary session of the senate of the republic, destroy some institutions such as the IFE, the national electoral institute, like this how to remove and put in jail the president of the supreme court of justice of the nation, for opposing AMLO, a minister Arturo Saldivar, was investigated by Norma Piña for being involved in blackmail and now he and Amlo together with Claudia Sheimbaum will try to harm and take absolute power from the Supreme Court, and they intend to establish a new Constitution and take away private property, gradually making us Socialists, even Nicolas Maduro, the dictator, traveled to Mexico days before to give his support to the political party that AMLO represents ( Andres Manuel Lopez Worker) and Claudia Sheimbaum, it is terrible, will we need to flee the country later? As a lawyer I worry about my family, I don't know what we will do
Lets face it, Amlo may not have solved Mexico’s cartel and public security problem but Mexicans very well remember that these problems pre date him and likely blame his predecessors for it.
AMLO did however oversee and implemented economic policies that were well received by the poor and working class. Among my fellow Mexicans and absent the cartel problem, many are bullish on the future of the Mexican economy despite some “growing” pains like inflation.
Many feel like voting for anyone other than Morena would have meant giving up those gains up amidst all the violence. Many clearly love AMLO and his party and many others probably just felt that the country was at least progressing in some capacity with his party in power. I pray that whatever comes next that we can finally see some improvements on the cartel problem
Thanks there Roberto - a great summary of what drove the landslide and of the depth of feeling that AMLO invokes. Like you say, there is real substance to the 4T as well as the rhetoric. It's also interesting that AMLO looked to Claudia Sheinbaum as a successor who is a very different type of politician. I thought this story in Compact was quite an interesting analysis of the 4T... https://www.compactmag.com/article/mexicos-political-revolution/
Marvelous article, very comprehensive and nuanced. It addressed many points i havent seen in either spanish and english media. Thank you for recommending Ioan.
If you would have told me a decade ago that a majority of Mexicans would one day hold a politician in high esteem i would not have believed it.
All the best there Ioan. As always thanks for your fantastic reporting!
Yeah, the writer reached out to me and I met him at the campaign HQ last night - I thought the piece was very good in recognizing the gains of AMLO without just being pure one sided tribalism. There is some interesting writing coming out of these new publications to widen out the viewpoints from mainstream. Abrazo.
I wasn’t a big fan of AMLO early on in his presidency as I was put off by his ‘Republican Austerity’ and closeness to Trump, but I seem to have been swayed too much by the British press as the Mexican working class clearly like him and he seems to have done a good job on wages and pensions
Yeah, I personally think he is a mixed bag - but also think the line of comparing him to big tyrants in elements of the Brit and U.S. press was really off base.
I think he has authoritarian instincts, but less in the Caudillo sense, but more in his embrace of a militarised nanny state where the army builds random things and stuff like vapes are banned for no reason other than he doesn’t like them
I like that "militarised nanny state" phrase. It's also worth noting that the UK and US both spend a bigger percentage of GDP on the military than México...
"the UK and US both spend a bigger percentage of GDP on the military than México..." is the same as saying that Elon Musk spends more on child support than I do on beer.
Fair point but the military's extent into civil society has become more far more pronounced in México under amlo in comparison to the UK/US (though I'm sure the military's activities are popular with the average Mexican)
Yeah, the big difference is the US and UK move soldiers round the globe and all the Mexican army is in Mexico. The army is definitely embedded in public security, which is a nightmare but then so are cartels and like you say most Mexicans still support the army.
From these statistics who is the more militarized country? US population is around 330 million. Mexico's population is around 140 million. The US has around 18000 local police stations with a combined budget of $193 billion dollars. Mexico's military budget is under $10 billion dollars. US military budget is over $800 billion dollars and millions of dollars is spent by cities to purchase military equipment and military equipment is also given to cities by the military.
New York city's policing budget is slightly more than half of Mexico's military budget. Many large cities in the United States spend more than 30-40 percent of their general fund per year on policing. Bridge and highway overpass construction in the United States since the 1970's have been constructed with minimum weight requirements to accommodate heavy equipment such as tanks.
When the United States wants to mobilize it's police and military units domestically, the results can be very impressive and imposing, dwarfing Mexico's capabilities. 9/11 is a perfect example. It did not take long for the entire East Coast of the United States to look like a militarized zone. Road inspections were constant on the freeways monitored by helicopters and jets. If the political will is there, the United States can easily be turned into an armed camp in hours making every Mexican police chief and military commander envious.
I think the main fear is the growing power of the military leading to a coup down the line, probably not in the short-term though as the military isn't currently able to control cartel activity
I predict she will support the oligarchy while throwing carrots to the poor. It seems to be standard neoliberal policy these days. And they keep winning. so why not?
That is actually an interesting question. Some of the narcos are definitely among the rich but then you get some weird dynamics. I met a guy who went to a private school in Sinaloa and was in a class with Ovidio Guzman but looked down on him as the thought he was dumb and had ostentatious tastes. But certain people in the class would follow Ovidio and want a part of that. There is a lot of small town gangsters right now though as well and a lot of their workers. Organized crime has its own class system.
Hi Ioan, great report, above all objective, something that we Mexicans ourselves are sorely lacking. Claudia Sheinbaum has been very clear in her first message of 100 points to work on, and although as you rightly said, it is not very clear what she will do about organized crime she did mention that she will “address the causes and get young people out of crime” in addition to strengthening the national guard and the protocols for searching for people. It seems a good initial speech, considering that she even announces the search for a prosperous and connected republic, with jobs and fair wages. While we see if he keeps his word, Mexican society has a lot of work to do as a society.
Yeah, indeed. We can hope things have touched bottom now and might start to get better. But then again, it could just go new depths. All best there friend.
It will be interesting to see what happens. I’ve been reading some reports that are trying to bill this as “woman comes into a bad situation and is elected”, but I don’t see that at all. From what you said she was fairly well connected to AMLO. I look forward to your reporting on how this progresses.
"How the mighty have fallen'' What the F, happened to PAN, PRI ? they Merged? Their candidate sounds like Macron? A banker in sheeps clothing... Obviously i havent been keeping up, i must have gotten distracted
Yeah, what a decline. I think they need to figure out how to repackage themselves as a new party or something - the PRI-PAN-PRD is a mess. What a change, from the presidency to a handful of seats each.
CLAUDIA SHEINBAUM IS THE WORLD'S MOST POPULAR PRESIDENT
"The Mexican Peacekeeping Force has been highly effective in containing flare-ups after the Minsk 3 agreement ended the war in Ukraine," said UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
"Their experience in cultivation and chemical manufacturing has also been a boon to the Ukrainian economy. Exports of drugs to Transnistria, Moldova and Romania have tripled, reducing regional tensions. The USA has played a crucial role by labelling all weapons with a DO NOT FIRE WHEN USING DRUGS warning label.
Consequently, we are requesting that Mexico's government consider expanding its efforts to Taiwan where there's discontent among young adults after the United China Party banned the use of locally-made semiconductors in game consoles. The owners of the Call of Duty franchise have labelled this as discrimination against friendly killing games which were dominating the Top 10 chart. As the UN, we remind gaming companies that Call of Peace games can be made profitable with appropriate marketing, especially when aimed at toddlers."
When reporter Ioan Grillo asked President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, for comment on the UN's intention, she sighed before responding that they'd love to help, but quelling the American Civil War was proving labour intensive.
They'd yet to persuade Canada to open border crossings to let aid trucks through, and the floating pier they'd constructed in Miami had unfortunately floated away to Cuba. However, that will help the export of cigars to Haiti which in turn can be airdropped on Florida to assist nicotine withdrawal victims."
Yeah, if América falls apart the rich refugees pour over the border and México makes bank. Like in World War 2 that was boom time for the Azteca nation.
Well appreciated friend. I'll check out your insight in the South Africano election. Damn it's a big election year. We are about to get Starmer in England. And in the U.S., who knows?
Imagine the improved election result if everyone watched The Labour Files. Starmer may be heading for a big win but I reckon smaller groups, like the Worker's Party, will improve their position, and thus have a chance at increasing next election. Let's enjoy the EU election before thinking of the USA :)
Thanks, be good for people to know what's happened in South Africa. After all, we're are on the international stage regarding BRICS and Palestine, so how this turns out has more implications than our health.
Just a nit-picky fact. Technically, Kim Campbell (although unelected) was Prime Minister of Canada for 4.5 months in 1993. Re: "first woman 'president' in North America".
It is extremely terrible what has happened to us Mexicans, in Mexico City the capital's regent Claudia Sheimbaum, who is like governor, has won the presidential seat, it is the worst, she as a disciple of AMLO, is colluding with the drug state, represents the power of the party in power, "MORENA" which has come throughout these 5 years of mandate little by little invading each sector through drug trafficking, charging floor rights, protection fees to merchants even to irregular businesses that are placed on the streets, really terrible, nothing can be done anymore, they want to modify the constitution, modify the protection law, the plenary session of the senate of the republic, destroy some institutions such as the IFE, the national electoral institute, like this how to remove and put in jail the president of the supreme court of justice of the nation, for opposing AMLO, a minister Arturo Saldivar, was investigated by Norma Piña for being involved in blackmail and now he and Amlo together with Claudia Sheimbaum will try to harm and take absolute power from the Supreme Court, and they intend to establish a new Constitution and take away private property, gradually making us Socialists, even Nicolas Maduro, the dictator, traveled to Mexico days before to give his support to the political party that AMLO represents ( Andres Manuel Lopez Worker) and Claudia Sheimbaum, it is terrible, will we need to flee the country later? As a lawyer I worry about my family, I don't know what we will do
Lets face it, Amlo may not have solved Mexico’s cartel and public security problem but Mexicans very well remember that these problems pre date him and likely blame his predecessors for it.
AMLO did however oversee and implemented economic policies that were well received by the poor and working class. Among my fellow Mexicans and absent the cartel problem, many are bullish on the future of the Mexican economy despite some “growing” pains like inflation.
Many feel like voting for anyone other than Morena would have meant giving up those gains up amidst all the violence. Many clearly love AMLO and his party and many others probably just felt that the country was at least progressing in some capacity with his party in power. I pray that whatever comes next that we can finally see some improvements on the cartel problem
Thanks there Roberto - a great summary of what drove the landslide and of the depth of feeling that AMLO invokes. Like you say, there is real substance to the 4T as well as the rhetoric. It's also interesting that AMLO looked to Claudia Sheinbaum as a successor who is a very different type of politician. I thought this story in Compact was quite an interesting analysis of the 4T... https://www.compactmag.com/article/mexicos-political-revolution/
Marvelous article, very comprehensive and nuanced. It addressed many points i havent seen in either spanish and english media. Thank you for recommending Ioan.
If you would have told me a decade ago that a majority of Mexicans would one day hold a politician in high esteem i would not have believed it.
All the best there Ioan. As always thanks for your fantastic reporting!
Yeah, the writer reached out to me and I met him at the campaign HQ last night - I thought the piece was very good in recognizing the gains of AMLO without just being pure one sided tribalism. There is some interesting writing coming out of these new publications to widen out the viewpoints from mainstream. Abrazo.
I wasn’t a big fan of AMLO early on in his presidency as I was put off by his ‘Republican Austerity’ and closeness to Trump, but I seem to have been swayed too much by the British press as the Mexican working class clearly like him and he seems to have done a good job on wages and pensions
Yeah, I personally think he is a mixed bag - but also think the line of comparing him to big tyrants in elements of the Brit and U.S. press was really off base.
Being a mixed bag or a dictator are the only two options for electability.
Or being or a mixed dictator or an old bag!
ha ha.
I think he has authoritarian instincts, but less in the Caudillo sense, but more in his embrace of a militarised nanny state where the army builds random things and stuff like vapes are banned for no reason other than he doesn’t like them
I like that "militarised nanny state" phrase. It's also worth noting that the UK and US both spend a bigger percentage of GDP on the military than México...
"the UK and US both spend a bigger percentage of GDP on the military than México..." is the same as saying that Elon Musk spends more on child support than I do on beer.
Yeah, or saying that Mark Zuckerberg spends more on skin cream than I spend on Star Wars figures...
:)
Fair point but the military's extent into civil society has become more far more pronounced in México under amlo in comparison to the UK/US (though I'm sure the military's activities are popular with the average Mexican)
Yeah, the big difference is the US and UK move soldiers round the globe and all the Mexican army is in Mexico. The army is definitely embedded in public security, which is a nightmare but then so are cartels and like you say most Mexicans still support the army.
From these statistics who is the more militarized country? US population is around 330 million. Mexico's population is around 140 million. The US has around 18000 local police stations with a combined budget of $193 billion dollars. Mexico's military budget is under $10 billion dollars. US military budget is over $800 billion dollars and millions of dollars is spent by cities to purchase military equipment and military equipment is also given to cities by the military.
New York city's policing budget is slightly more than half of Mexico's military budget. Many large cities in the United States spend more than 30-40 percent of their general fund per year on policing. Bridge and highway overpass construction in the United States since the 1970's have been constructed with minimum weight requirements to accommodate heavy equipment such as tanks.
When the United States wants to mobilize it's police and military units domestically, the results can be very impressive and imposing, dwarfing Mexico's capabilities. 9/11 is a perfect example. It did not take long for the entire East Coast of the United States to look like a militarized zone. Road inspections were constant on the freeways monitored by helicopters and jets. If the political will is there, the United States can easily be turned into an armed camp in hours making every Mexican police chief and military commander envious.
I think the main fear is the growing power of the military leading to a coup down the line, probably not in the short-term though as the military isn't currently able to control cartel activity
I predict she will support the oligarchy while throwing carrots to the poor. It seems to be standard neoliberal policy these days. And they keep winning. so why not?
That may be the case - let's see and Best there Joe
the only question is whether the cartels count as being part of the oligarchy?
That is actually an interesting question. Some of the narcos are definitely among the rich but then you get some weird dynamics. I met a guy who went to a private school in Sinaloa and was in a class with Ovidio Guzman but looked down on him as the thought he was dumb and had ostentatious tastes. But certain people in the class would follow Ovidio and want a part of that. There is a lot of small town gangsters right now though as well and a lot of their workers. Organized crime has its own class system.
German news media seems to be pretty clear on who the oligarchy is in Mexico. See the second image on this page: https://www.stuttgarter-zeitung.de/gallery.luff-mohr-die-karikatur-des-tages.c2f5c727-5bf6-46c3-ac55-da6d81809f07.html
Wow, that is pretty nuts. How did you find your way into a German outlet? Best there - I might share on Twitter.
Friend sent it to me. Feel free to share it
Hi Ioan, great report, above all objective, something that we Mexicans ourselves are sorely lacking. Claudia Sheinbaum has been very clear in her first message of 100 points to work on, and although as you rightly said, it is not very clear what she will do about organized crime she did mention that she will “address the causes and get young people out of crime” in addition to strengthening the national guard and the protocols for searching for people. It seems a good initial speech, considering that she even announces the search for a prosperous and connected republic, with jobs and fair wages. While we see if he keeps his word, Mexican society has a lot of work to do as a society.
Yeah, indeed. We can hope things have touched bottom now and might start to get better. But then again, it could just go new depths. All best there friend.
It will be interesting to see what happens. I’ve been reading some reports that are trying to bill this as “woman comes into a bad situation and is elected”, but I don’t see that at all. From what you said she was fairly well connected to AMLO. I look forward to your reporting on how this progresses.
Yeah, I think AMLO carefully selected her and she was well into the political machine for a long time. She is an interesting choice at least...
"How the mighty have fallen'' What the F, happened to PAN, PRI ? they Merged? Their candidate sounds like Macron? A banker in sheeps clothing... Obviously i havent been keeping up, i must have gotten distracted
Yeah, what a decline. I think they need to figure out how to repackage themselves as a new party or something - the PRI-PAN-PRD is a mess. What a change, from the presidency to a handful of seats each.
Here in México now we are in really danger, the goverment is a Narco State
All best there Antonio...
CLAUDIA SHEINBAUM IS THE WORLD'S MOST POPULAR PRESIDENT
"The Mexican Peacekeeping Force has been highly effective in containing flare-ups after the Minsk 3 agreement ended the war in Ukraine," said UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
"Their experience in cultivation and chemical manufacturing has also been a boon to the Ukrainian economy. Exports of drugs to Transnistria, Moldova and Romania have tripled, reducing regional tensions. The USA has played a crucial role by labelling all weapons with a DO NOT FIRE WHEN USING DRUGS warning label.
Consequently, we are requesting that Mexico's government consider expanding its efforts to Taiwan where there's discontent among young adults after the United China Party banned the use of locally-made semiconductors in game consoles. The owners of the Call of Duty franchise have labelled this as discrimination against friendly killing games which were dominating the Top 10 chart. As the UN, we remind gaming companies that Call of Peace games can be made profitable with appropriate marketing, especially when aimed at toddlers."
When reporter Ioan Grillo asked President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, for comment on the UN's intention, she sighed before responding that they'd love to help, but quelling the American Civil War was proving labour intensive.
They'd yet to persuade Canada to open border crossings to let aid trucks through, and the floating pier they'd constructed in Miami had unfortunately floated away to Cuba. However, that will help the export of cigars to Haiti which in turn can be airdropped on Florida to assist nicotine withdrawal victims."
Yeah, if América falls apart the rich refugees pour over the border and México makes bank. Like in World War 2 that was boom time for the Azteca nation.
You know your history, and thus our future has never looked better :)
Thanks for the insight.
Well appreciated friend. I'll check out your insight in the South Africano election. Damn it's a big election year. We are about to get Starmer in England. And in the U.S., who knows?
Imagine the improved election result if everyone watched The Labour Files. Starmer may be heading for a big win but I reckon smaller groups, like the Worker's Party, will improve their position, and thus have a chance at increasing next election. Let's enjoy the EU election before thinking of the USA :)
Thanks, be good for people to know what's happened in South Africa. After all, we're are on the international stage regarding BRICS and Palestine, so how this turns out has more implications than our health.
Just a nit-picky fact. Technically, Kim Campbell (although unelected) was Prime Minister of Canada for 4.5 months in 1993. Re: "first woman 'president' in North America".
Love your
Thanks and point taken on Campbell. Canada got in their fast - but México does it bigger!