AMLO does not bode well for the future of Mexico
By Barnard R. Thompson
While near daily reports of corruption and scandal
in the Mexico City government may be a growing monotony for outsiders they continue to dominate Mexico’s national news. Actually, coupled with the political machinations and at times bizarre antics of Andrés
Manuel López Obrador, the Federal District’s mayor, the scandals and their domino effects continue to make headlines
internationally.
As well, that which foreigners may find wearisome
is in reality of global significance — as what is in play is the future of Mexico and its role in international relations. All of this because López Obrador, AMLO in the print media, has his sights set on
the Mexican presidency in 2006.
And this must be of concern to observers worldwide
as AMLO increasingly shows his true colors and less than stellar values.
Up until the 1980s, in his home state of Tabasco
and in the Federal District, the politically embryonic AMLO was active in the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). However he broke with the PRI in 1988, not for ethical reasons but because he failed
to win that party’s gubernatorial candidacy for the Tabasco state elections. The
ambitious AMLO then moved into a leftist coalition that was later to further merge and become the Democratic Revolution Party,
or PRD.
In 1988 and again in 1994 AMLO unsuccessfully ran
for the governorship of Tabasco on the left-wingers’ ticket, in 1995 losing to a probable PRI-engineered fraud. Next the aspiring leader moved to Mexico City and there, in the centralistic capital
of all things political in Mexico, AMLO’s meteoric rise in the PRD led to his 1996 election to a three-year term as
national president. And in 2000 he won the coveted Mexico City mayoral race.
Working like a cacique with portfolio among the lower
classes of the Federal District — virtually a nation within a nation with a population of 8.6 million people, since
taking office the politically expedient populist mayor has proven to be a master illusionist.
But in more recent months things have started to breakdown and the people are now seeing that the marvel is more like
magic realism.
While the PRD mayor drives around in an economy car,
his chauffeur it turns out is paid more than many corporate executives make in Mexico.
And most of the AMLO deputies have late model luxury sedans at their disposal.
The multimillion-dollar contract given to the firm
headed by former New York City mayor Rudy Guliani, to cleanup crime in Mexico City, has proven to be more show then accomplishment. In other words, crime still abounds — and that includes crime within the Mexico
City government.
And then come the more recent scandals.
It would be hard however to claim no smoking gun
when nearly US$2 million is missing from the Mexico City treasury and there are video recordings of AMLO’s finance chief
gambling it away in Las Vegas, videos that were broadcast on Mexico’s national news.
Too, it would be difficult to deny that an AMLO kitchen cabinet insider was taking bribe money when the whole thing
was caught on tape, another video that was shown worldwide.
But AMLO, rather than confront the problems and ferret
out the real culprits yelled bloody murder as he blamed, and continues to blame, anyone and everyone — including a number
of U.S. entities — for plotting against him. As such, AMLO has proven to
be a conspiracy theorist extraordinaire, however he has failed to produce promised evidence and proof each time he has vowed
to do so.
A last straw for the U.S. government came when AMLO
revealed a classified report during one of his daily news conferences. The document,
by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the U.S. Treasury Department, had been obtained through a U.S.-Mexico agreement
on financial information sharing that specifies material will be kept in strictest confidence.
But AMLO, having no regard for agreements, treaties
or trust, flagrantly used the document to supposedly show that Mexican federal officials knew of the videos showing corrupt
acts before he did, which he alleges is some how proof of a plot against him.
The actions of AMLO regrettably forced U.S. officials,
on April
21, 2004, to suspend the bilateral agreement with Mexico until safeguards, guaranteeing that unauthorized persons will
not have access to or use of sensitive financial information, can be assured. In
the meantime, AMLO has helped to reopen doors to money laundering, drug traffickers and terrorist financing that were in fact
being cooperatively closed through the joint efforts of Mexico and the U.S.
