Translated "Avante!"article by Luís Carapinha, Member of the International Department
In Buenos Aires, not only the G20 Summit occupied the international agenda, last week. Lopez Obrador, took over office as the president of Mexico, at the subcontinent opposite extreme. The victory of the main left-wing candidate and the Movement of National Regeneration (MNR Morena) leader in the presidential elections July last was the most expressive post-war outcome, contradicting the current reactionary and imperialism servers advance trend within Latin America. For the first time in 25 years, the Mexican president holds an absolute majority in the two Congress Chambers. The electoral coalition Juntos Faremos Historia, that supported him, won 31 out of 32 federal entities throughout the country.
The right-wing power gale of poles from the PRI and the PAN two mandates, that for decades swept the country, proves the real calamity suffered by Mexico. Although the 15th world economy and the second amid Latin America, it is placed at the top of the most unequal countries of the planet. The neoliberal policies and the “Washington Consensus” rendering resulted in economic stagnation and poverty exponential growth, reaching over 55% of the population. The real salaries decrease and exploitation growth are the reverse of the wealth unprecedented concentration medallion. Emigration grew and the remittances coming from the USA are currently the main budget income source.
NAFTA and the privatization wave public investment cut and the increased indebtedness and external dependence – Pena Nieto, the former president’s last official act was precisely the signing of a new trade agreement with the USA and Canada, replacing NAFTA, a renegotiation carried out under the Trump Administration pressure and blackmail. Tremendous corruption gangrenes policy and the state. The collision among crime, policy and economy, drug cartels impunity and their deep connections with all levels of the state, and even external, particularly with the USA, make Mexico one of the most violent countries in the world. During the current year, more than 28500 assassinations took place. The fighting and drug trade militarization gives place to a fierce and huge political and social repression.
Therefore, this is the Mexican capitalism disastrous panorama and the legacy presented to the new president.
Obrador, on taking the stand, reaffirmed the promise of a political rupture. By announcing the “ restoring of democracy”, and several important social measures and infrastructure investments within the productive sphere. The presence of Nicolas Maduro, president of Venezuela, has great significance before the pressures and the Caracas isolation line, namely within the OEA and the “Lima Group”, to which Mexico belongs.
The “ peaceful and orderly change” announced by Obrador ought to face powerful installed interests along with the subservience relation towards the USA. The great capital ought to sterilize a real change. Within this new situation there exist colossal challenges for the new power and the Mexican left-wing forces, in order to, contradicting the ever long divisions, fragmentation and systemic reabsorbing, not ever defrauding the overwhelming popular vote that rejected the right-wing policy.