Mexico. Interview with party leader who supports Claudia Sheinbaum’s candidacy

Deputy Alberto Anaya, National Coordinator of the Labor Party (PT), analyzed the prospects for victory of the candidate of the “continuity with change” that represents the forces that currently support President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. “The experience of other electoral processes has taught us not to let our guard down and to continue making the best efforts so that the number of votes we achieve is as high as possible,” he assured. He warned that “we are alert because our adversaries are joined by a dangerous international extreme right trend, which encourages ignoring the electoral results.” In interview with ElSiglo.cl The leader explained the content of the Fourth Transformation promoted by López Obrador and Sheinbaum, the challenge of having a majority in Congress and referred to the wave of attacks and murders of candidates in the electoral process next June in Mexico.

Hugo Guzman. Journalist. “The century”. 5/11/2024. All polls show Claudia Sheinbaum as the winner of the presidential election on June 2 and serious analyzes indicate that she will be the new President of Mexico. Is that assured, do you still maintain a strong campaign?

Indeed, the majority of the surveys show results in favor of our candidate, Dr. Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo. However, the experience of other electoral processes has taught us not to let our guard down and to continue making the best efforts so that the number of votes we achieve is as high as possible. To graph this, we tell our followers that, like in baseball, it’s not over until “the bottom of the last inning falls.” The electoral campaigns – the presidential one and other positions in dispute – must close with the greatest effort and be accompanied by a broad mobilization of the people so that popular support for the Government and transformation proposal that we promote from the coalition “Let’s continue making history” is evident. ”. We hope that a good result will allow us to implement what we call Plan C, which basically consists of achieving, in addition to the presidency, a qualified majority in the Chamber of Deputies and Senators and thus being able to overcome the legislative boycott by the opposition forces. In this six-year term that is ending, we have learned that to advance in the deepening of the process of changes initiated by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, some constitutional modifications are essential that provide legal certainty to the transformation process. Hence the importance of leading electoral campaigns to strive until the last day to obtain the best results and to ensure that the majority will of the people is heard.

Claudia Sheinbaum is the candidate of Morena, the PT and the Green Party, forces that support President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. He installed this Fourth Transformation based on a project of profound progressive changes in Mexico. Does it represent continuity, in what phase does Sheinbaum find this process of the Fourth Transformation?

The notion of the Fourth Transformation has historical significance. The term “fourth transformation” refers to the vision of President López Obrador who thus qualifies his political project, which seeks to be linked to three key moments in the history of Mexico. The War of Independence, which began in 1810 and concluded in 1821, was a movement led by Miguel Hidalgo and José María Morelos against the colonial bond and marked the first steps to proclaim the abolition of slavery. The Reform War, a period of transformation between 1858 and 1861 led by President Benito Juárez who promoted the Reform Laws to separate the Church from the State. The Mexican Revolution, a fight against the dictatorship of more than 30 years of Porfirio Díaz. That movement was led by Francisco I. Madero and Emiliano Zapata. At the end of the conflict, the Constitution of 1917 was promulgated, which currently governs the country. As you can see, these are long-term processes and the spirit of the Fourth Transformation consists of giving strategic continuity to the modernization and democratization of Mexico, both linked to the idea of ​​seeking the good of all, giving priority to the most vulnerable sectors. affected by the previous system. So then, we can affirm the idea of ​​continuity as effective, but in that vision of adding new stages to a long historical process of transformations. At the same time, each stage involves updating institutions and expanding the forms of people’s participation in the construction of a new society. That is, continuity with change. Continuity of the historical project and deepening the advance towards new stages to build a Mexico with equity and social justice.

What dangers do you see in the campaigns and operations of the right in the face of the electoral process and the possible victory of Sheinbaum? There is a lot of talk about attacks on social networks, about resorting to technicalities to declare the electoral process annulled.

Indeed, voices are beginning to be raised from the most conservative sectors of the opposition right that anticipate the facts and already question the legitimacy of the upcoming electoral process. Seeing that a victory is announced from our coalition, instead of accepting its defeat, it is likely that arguments will be raised to justify the partial or total annulment of the results. Even President López Obrador has warned about an eventual “technical coup” as he called it. For this reason, as we already pointed out, it is vitally important not only to guarantee the cleanliness and legitimacy of the elections, but also that massive citizen participation neutralizes any destabilizing attempt. We believe that any action that seeks to ignore the popular will is destined to fail; especially if these are millions of women and men who at the polls express their desire to consolidate and deepen a process that represents their aspirations. Of course we are attentive and alert because our local adversaries are joined by a dangerous tendency of the international extreme right, which encourages them to ignore the electoral results when they are adverse and resort to dirty war in the major media in an attempt to delegitimize the elections and, eventually, the triumph of our forces. We are committed to ensuring that the electoral process is carried out with absolute cleanliness and generates full confidence in national and international public opinion. The maneuvers that rush to advance the disqualification will confront the evidence of the vote and the willingness of the people to enforce their will for peaceful and free changes.

How do you explain that a candidacy, that of Xóchitl Gálvez, who marks second, is supported by the National Action Party, which is right-wing, and by the Institutional Revolutionary Party and the Party of the Democratic Revolution, which are supposedly social democrats or liberals?

In Mexico, as is the case in other countries, the internal life of political parties is experiencing processes of change where their actions often obey short-term material interests and where ideologies and programmatic offers give way to the pragmatism of the perks and benefits derived from holding public office. In the Labor Party we aspire to hold elected positions to always serve the people, but our adversaries rather seek to gain space to use them. No opposition political alliance seems anomalous to us because they sacrifice ideas for benefits. That is why it should not surprise us that what previously represented the classic division of right, center and left, today represents a sum of interests united by a destructive objective. The opposition’s candidacy expresses, more than a government project, the will to derail the process of the Fourth Transformation. Thus, above positions that might seem contradictory, political parties, elitist organizations and business associations of different types come together around a common objective: to reverse the process of changes initiated in our country and recover its privileges. I take advantage of the question to point out that this is an issue that requires an analysis that goes beyond the crisis of representativeness of the right-wing parties in Mexico and their political/ideological orphanhood. From that perspective, the question today in Latin America and the Caribbean is: Are we witnessing the end of political parties or, on the contrary, are we experiencing a stage of rethinking the forms of political representation and, therefore, of the mediation mechanisms between the State and society?

The number of candidates and political and social representatives murdered in these months, in the middle of the campaigns, is striking.

The issue must be addressed seriously because the violence associated with the elections has had a worrying increase trend in Mexico. Since June of last year, there have been 158 attacks on candidates and people related to the current electoral process, of which 52 ended in murders, among them 28 were pre-candidates and candidates. In addition, there were nine kidnappings and 75 threats. We must specify that, according to the second “Report on Electoral Violence, Process 2023-2024”, prepared by Laboratorio Electoral – an independent center for research, reflection and analysis on electoral issues – indicates that Morena is the party with the highest number of murdered candidates, with eleven; the National Action Party (PAN) with five, followed by the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) and the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). This political violence is aimed at making it impossible through homicide for candidates from different forces to reach the positions to which they aspire. That is to say, these crimes seek to prevent, inhibit or distort the exercise of the popular will. We think that political violence coincides with verbal and propaganda violence that uses the fake news to disqualify parties and people participating in the contest; The media, so-called civil society organizations, operators of bots on social networks and even political and media bodies abroad. The dirty war” is no stranger to political violence and, without falling into conspiracy theories, we are very concerned that organized crime, which in several proven and documented cases is linked to corrupt politicians, is operating in a planned manner to alter the electoral process, its results and their future actions. To the “Let’s Keep Making History” coalition, the increase in criminal actions during the electoral campaign seems harmful. We cannot say the same about our adversaries, who opportunistically seek to profit from fear-based propaganda.

On June 2, in addition, 128 senators and 500 deputies are elected. What is the perspective of these results, will there be a majority of the current ruling party, will the vote be very fragmented, will the right and the current opposition be able to have good results?

We are not inclined to make forecasts or advance figures. We are rather cautious. However, we arrived at the elections with confidence because in addition to the surveys we have confirmed in the majority will of the citizens the desire to go out and vote and give their support to the candidacies of the “Let’s continue making history” coalition. In these elections, two proposals basically confront each other: that of continuing and deepening the process of transformations for the benefit of the population against the intention of reversing the progress achieved and returning to the system of privileges of a minority. Our opinion is that a large majority will choose to maintain the path of well-being and democratization of national life under the slogan “for the good of all, the poor first.” Without a doubt, the right-wing currents still retain some spaces of support, to which sectors resentful or affected by the changes made will be added, but not to the point of endangering the progress of the popular project. It is likely that some bastions of the right will remain in the hands of the opposition bloc, but that only ratifies that this is a democratic process of self-determination and broad participation. We do not make conjectures, we count on the voice of the people.