You will know them by their crises

The possibility of electing the head of government of the country’s capital has placed at the head of the public administration five constitutionally elected rulers and three substitutes who have had to deal with political crises and each one has faced them in their own way, Alejandro exposes Warehouse.

In an interview, the author of the book “Jefas y Jefes. The political crises that forged Mexico City”, edited by Grijalbo, recounts some of the episodes presented in a historical memory of the governments of the capital, from 1997 to date, supported by newspaper research and interviews with some of the former heads of government and their political operators who, through their own expressions, reveal situations that led to tragedies, political breakdowns and disagreements.

There are pieces of history like when from the war room of the López Obrador campaign it was decided to distance themselves from the Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas campaign for the presidency; the break in the “trip” of the political career of Rosario Robles; when López Obrador refused to agree with Carlos Salinas de Gortari; the turnaround of the city’s leftist project in the six-year term of Marcelo Ebrard and when it “darkened” in the period of Miguel Ángel Mancera, as well as the way in which a wing of Sheinbaum’s advisers wins the game in foolish decisions.

—Is there a constant in the administrations of the 8 heads of government that the country’s capital has had from 1997 to date?

-No. Each one makes his style of government. If there is something, it is political crises and each one resolves them in their own way.

—A few days ago the president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, had a disagreement with Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas. What happened during the administration of the head of government Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas or the campaigns of 2000 would help us understand the relationship between both characters?

—As René Bejarano, Rosario Robles and as the engineer tells me, the problem between them began in 2000, when Cárdenas campaigned for the presidency, but “it didn’t catch on.” At that time, the PRD members were aware that they were not going to win.

And that also happened in López Obrador’s war room; They knew that if they were associated with the Cárdenas campaign it would harm them, because the Vicente Fox phenomenon was very strong.

Bejarano tells me: we put a stop because otherwise the Cuauhtémoc campaign would harm us.

That evidently brought problems, both for Cuauhtémoc and Rosario Robles. Cuauhtémoc, in his book, “Sobre mis pasos” tells a little how he is surprised that López Obrador does not follow him, he even goes so far as to suggest that perhaps López Obrador has two candidates: Cuauhtémoc and Camacho Solís, because we must remember that, During the campaign, Marcelo Ebrard leans in favor of López Obrador and, in the end, that will help him a lot because López Obrador beat Santiago Creel by 4.3 points.

That distance is later revived in video scandals. According to Bejarano, Rosario Robles agreed with former President Carlos Salinas de Gortari that she could once again be head of government and that Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas would be the presidential candidate again in 2006. This again brought about a conflict between López Obrador and Cárdenas.

As Bejarano tells me, since 2000, the relationship between Cárdenas and López Obrador is distant, cold and sometimes hostile at times.

—In the distance, how do you see the passage of Rosario Robles through the headquarters of Government?

—Without a doubt she was a great head of government. The leadership was noted. She was drawing a lot of attention at the time, but she broke her journey. She being a great politician, she suddenly meets Carlos Ahumada and here comes her break, her star is fading.

Then the video scandals arrive, when there are already two sides: López Obrador, against Rosario Robles, Ahumada and those who are adding up.

Rosario Robles ended up expelled from the PRD, supported by Peña Nieto and later in jail for the Master Scam matter.

I interviewed Rosario when he was in jail and he managed to tell me things like that Carlos Ahumada was supporting López Obrador’s campaign, something that was already half known, but the fact that Bejarano himself and Rosario Robles confirmed it for you is clear.

—The drawer that represents López Obrador’s period as head of government has many entrances and exits. What is the episode that best portrays him in his biography?

—I think it’s the video scandals and the lawlessness. Those episodes show the López Obrador of that moment. The one of now is something else.

That bold politician that the opposition makes a victim of, that politician who knows how to find alliances that help him demonstrate what he is talking about, the plot.

There the permanent battle that he has had during all these years with Carlos Salinas de Gortari is shown a lot.

I share in the book a story of how Salinas, when López Obrador is a presidential candidate, Salinas approaches López Obrador because he wants to make a pact. He realizes he can win, but López Obrador obviously says no and doesn’t even sit down with him.

Although in some way everyone has followed López Obrador’s footsteps, in the book all that footsteps are clear, all his political movements to reach the presidency in 2018 and become what he is now.

—What is it that distinguishes the government of Marcelo Ebrard from the previous left-wing administrations in Mexico City. What moment do you keep from that administration?

—Marcelo Ebrard is a neoliberal liberal and that changes the image of the city. He seeks to make it the avant-garde city, but from the most neoliberal sphere, that is, he begins to look for small rights.

There is a history of the decriminalization of abortion that does not arise from a moment in which Marcelo has sat down with the feminists and said let’s go ahead, but from a political motivation.

The initiative is presented by someone close to Cuauhtémoc Gutiérrez de la Torre, who is in jail today and at that time the PRD led by Víctor Hugo Cirigo and René Arce, the Chuchos chicos, take the initiative, steal it from the PRI and champion it .

Not because they wanted to help women in their right to decide, but because they realize that at that moment López Obrador is very close to the Church, through his wife.

They say we are going to set a trap for Marcelo; we are going to tell him that we are going to decriminalize abortion; he is going to say no, because they are very close to the clergy and we are going to take the opportunity to hit him. In the end, what the mutts wanted was to have control of the City, since they were the largest current of the PRD in Mexico City.

But it goes wrong; Marcelo says yes, let’s go forward. At that moment Marcelo takes that initiative and in the end it ends up being approved and Marcelo becomes the poor man, but everything was motivated by a political intention.

—How did Mancera get to the head of government?

—Marcelo reaps what he sowed, Cárdenas, Rosario Robles and Alejandro Encinas, particularly in terms of public safety. That is why his administration seems to be very good, but within his administration there are very dark things. He moves the street vendors from the historic center at the point of prior investigations and threats.

From then on, the administration of the heads of government begins to get dark.

With Mancera that darkness is installed, corruption is installed, the complicity with the PAN. The fact that he did not govern, that he practically left the government to the Serna brothers and Héctor Serrano… In the end, Mancera has been our worst head of government. It is the administration where the left of the PRD is corrupted.

What opinion do you have of the head of government, Claudia Sheinbaum, of the way to face and solve public problems?

—Claudia Sheinbaum arrives in a rotten city. Feminism comes to her, which half does not understand her and then the pandemic hits her and then the matter of the collapse of the Metro.

That leads to the 2021 elections where Morena loses half the city and today she is with a coin tossing how she is going to do in 2024.

There is no conclusion about the doctor’s administration because it is still missing. It seems to me that she is a good ruler, that she means well, but the team around her is the one that fails.

For example, during the pandemic, ivermectin is distributed, and it brought a row to the government.

These types of errors have happened a lot in the government of Claudia Sheinbaum. With the feminists, a part of her team said we are going to sit down with the feminists, analyze what is happening. You have to listen to them. But another part of her team tells her these feminists are not feminists.

diego.badillo@eleconomista.mx