Claudia Sheinbaum, a follower of Latin American late progressivism, became the first female president of Mexico. Her inauguration speech was full of soaring rhetoric but, in reality, Sheinbaum’s role is to continue Mexico’s subservience to the United States.
Barbara Funes October 19, 2024
LEFT VOICE
Photo Credit: Alfredo Estrella / AFP - Getty Images
On a windy afternoon last week, Claudia Sheinbaum was sworn in as Mexico’s new president. In her speech at the Palace of San Lázaro, she sought to maintain Mexico’s commitments to the United States and to transnational corporations.
Many presidents and diplomatic representatives from all continents attended this ceremony, including Lula, president of Brazil; Gustavo Petro, his Colombian counterpart; Gabriel Boric, Chilean president; and Miguel Díaz-Canel, president of Cuba. No heads of state from Mexico’s main trading partners, the United States and Canada, attended.
It can be speculated that the United States is focused on the November presidential elections and on the Middle East, with the escalating war in Lebanon. But what is certain is that before the approval of Mexico’s new judicial reform — which includes the popular election of judges, magistrates, and ministers — diplomatic relations were strained between the two countries with the U.S. opposing the judicial reform.
The judicial reform has been endlessly criticized by the right-wing opposition, composed of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI, which ruled Mexico for 80 years) and the National Action Party (PAN, which intensified the country’s militarization beginning in 2006, during the government of Felipe Calderón). In making this criticism, these parties are positioning themselves as the best defenders of Mexico’s capitalists, but the reality is that their administrations, which championed neoliberal policies, never achieved the kind of bourgeois legitimacy as did Sheinbaum’s predecessor and ally, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO).
Sheinbaum’s Promises
Hours after the inauguration, in front of a packed Plaza de la Constitución, Sheinbaum announced her government’s many promises.
“We will never submit to economic, political, or foreign interests,” she said. “We will always work for the supreme interest of the people and the nation.” Yet Mexico’s productive structure has been developed to serve the needs of the U.S. supply chain. South of the Rio Grande, assembly plants receive parts mostly from the United States; once the products are assembled, they are brought back to the United States to be sold.
“We will govern based on Mexican humanism, which is nourished by two pillars: the essence of the native peoples and also the fertile history of Mexico,” the new president proclaimed. But in reality, the government has gone on the offensive against indigenous people’s territories and their relationship with the environment. It has done so by developing megaprojects such as the Transisthmian Corridor and the Mayan Train. Even though large sectors of indigenous communities are beneficiaries of social programs laid out by former Mexico president AMLO’s “fourth transition” reforms, programs that help them subsist, structural poverty remains and will not end under the Sheinbaum administration.
In her address, Sheinbaum gave special attention to education, promising to build more secondary and higher-education institutions, and to expand university enrollment — a measure popular among broad sectors. Yet the study centers created by her party, Morena, such as the Benito Juárez and Rosario Castellanos universities, have been sites of struggle for students, workers, and academics, who have challenged their infrastructure deficits and reliance on precarious labor. Sheinbaum has promised nothing for already-existing public universities such as UNAM.
The new president did promise to maintain minimum wage increases and to seek an agreement with businesses to adopt a 40-hour workweek, another incredibly popular policy. On average, people in Mexico work 48 hours a week; together with Colombia, Mexico leads among the longest working hours in the OECD, an intergovernmental organization that includes 38 countries across the world.
Sheinbaum announced that the proposed National Care System will establish child welfare centers to help families with childcare, particularly day laborers and workers in the manufacturing industry in the city of Juárez. This measure, although it will help women, does not guarantee them free time for their full development; rather it gives them more time to rent our their labor to agribusinesses and other companies for wages. Furthermore, these wages, even with the increases from López Obrador’s government, have not managed to recover the purchasing power lost since the 1970s.
Sheinbaum also announced that a National Council for Regional Development will be created to develop new technological poles and 100 new industrial parks. These government measures are being used to develop nearshoring zones that will expand the Mexican working class.
Finally, Sheinbaum promised that semiconductors will be manufactured in Mexico. Touching on the production chain of lithium, copper, semiconductors, and batteries, this measure aligns with the needs of US imperialism in its technological and economic competition with China, a rationale commonly made for nearshoring projects within the United States as well.
Rejecting the “War against Drug Trafficking” and the Denial of Militarization
The new president criticized the “war against drug trafficking,” which intensified under Calderón’s government, leading to disastrous consequences for Mexico. Sheinbaum maintained that “security and peace are the fruit of justice.” She defended the strategy introduced by López Obrador, based on four principles: addressing the causes of drug use, strengthening the National Guard, using intelligence and investigation, and coordinating among different agencies. Addressing causes, she explained, means ensuring the right to education, housing, and decent work for Mexico’s youth.
Sheinbaum emphasized that the National Guard will be strengthened as part of the military with the recent constitutional reform and said it would be wrong to call this militarization. “In our country there is no state of exception, there are no human rights violations. What there is now with the Fourth Transformation is more democracy, more freedoms, and the true rule of law that we are going to build with the change in the Supreme Court and the judiciary. Next week we will announce the national security strategy,” said Sheinbaum.
But Sheinbaum is contradicted by the securitization of civilian life in Mexico, as can be seen in the administration of airports, ports, customs, the Mayan Train, and in public displays of force like the “parades” of vehicles carrying uniformed members of the army and the National Guard in all cities, including the capital. Not to mention the deployment of concrete barriers in the capital’s main square on September 20, when protesters gathered to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the abduction of 43 students from the Escuela Normal Isidro Burgos.
Building an Alternative to the “Humanization of Capitalism”
Progressives often claim that governments like Sheinbaum’s, and that of her predecessor, are “left-wing” because they force certain businesses to pay more taxes. Yet such governments fail to carry out significant fiscal reform or redistribute wealth.
Meanwhile, workers face continued precarity and still lack benefits like vacations, Christmas bonuses, and social security. And when the government ratchets up militarization, this inevitably leads to more state crimes, such as the Tlatelolco massacre and forced disappearances. The working class should not be satisfied with a government that claims to be anti-neoliberal but is unwilling to push back against the interests of transnational corporations and defend its working class.
Those of us who demand justice for the disappeared as well as an end to violence against women, job insecurity, militarization, and megaprojects developed for the benefit of capital must forge an independent path outside the bourgeois parties in government. A party that fights to end Mexico’s subordination to US imperialism while advancing a socialist perspective against all forms of exploitation and oppression.
Originally Published in Spanish on our sister site La Izquierda Diario
Translated by Noah Thurston
On a windy afternoon last week, Claudia Sheinbaum was sworn in as Mexico’s new president. In her speech at the Palace of San Lázaro, she sought to maintain Mexico’s commitments to the United States and to transnational corporations.
Many presidents and diplomatic representatives from all continents attended this ceremony, including Lula, president of Brazil; Gustavo Petro, his Colombian counterpart; Gabriel Boric, Chilean president; and Miguel Díaz-Canel, president of Cuba. No heads of state from Mexico’s main trading partners, the United States and Canada, attended.
It can be speculated that the United States is focused on the November presidential elections and on the Middle East, with the escalating war in Lebanon. But what is certain is that before the approval of Mexico’s new judicial reform — which includes the popular election of judges, magistrates, and ministers — diplomatic relations were strained between the two countries with the U.S. opposing the judicial reform.
The judicial reform has been endlessly criticized by the right-wing opposition, composed of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI, which ruled Mexico for 80 years) and the National Action Party (PAN, which intensified the country’s militarization beginning in 2006, during the government of Felipe Calderón). In making this criticism, these parties are positioning themselves as the best defenders of Mexico’s capitalists, but the reality is that their administrations, which championed neoliberal policies, never achieved the kind of bourgeois legitimacy as did Sheinbaum’s predecessor and ally, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO).
Sheinbaum’s Promises
Hours after the inauguration, in front of a packed Plaza de la Constitución, Sheinbaum announced her government’s many promises.
“We will never submit to economic, political, or foreign interests,” she said. “We will always work for the supreme interest of the people and the nation.” Yet Mexico’s productive structure has been developed to serve the needs of the U.S. supply chain. South of the Rio Grande, assembly plants receive parts mostly from the United States; once the products are assembled, they are brought back to the United States to be sold.
“We will govern based on Mexican humanism, which is nourished by two pillars: the essence of the native peoples and also the fertile history of Mexico,” the new president proclaimed. But in reality, the government has gone on the offensive against indigenous people’s territories and their relationship with the environment. It has done so by developing megaprojects such as the Transisthmian Corridor and the Mayan Train. Even though large sectors of indigenous communities are beneficiaries of social programs laid out by former Mexico president AMLO’s “fourth transition” reforms, programs that help them subsist, structural poverty remains and will not end under the Sheinbaum administration.
In her address, Sheinbaum gave special attention to education, promising to build more secondary and higher-education institutions, and to expand university enrollment — a measure popular among broad sectors. Yet the study centers created by her party, Morena, such as the Benito Juárez and Rosario Castellanos universities, have been sites of struggle for students, workers, and academics, who have challenged their infrastructure deficits and reliance on precarious labor. Sheinbaum has promised nothing for already-existing public universities such as UNAM.
The new president did promise to maintain minimum wage increases and to seek an agreement with businesses to adopt a 40-hour workweek, another incredibly popular policy. On average, people in Mexico work 48 hours a week; together with Colombia, Mexico leads among the longest working hours in the OECD, an intergovernmental organization that includes 38 countries across the world.
Sheinbaum announced that the proposed National Care System will establish child welfare centers to help families with childcare, particularly day laborers and workers in the manufacturing industry in the city of Juárez. This measure, although it will help women, does not guarantee them free time for their full development; rather it gives them more time to rent our their labor to agribusinesses and other companies for wages. Furthermore, these wages, even with the increases from López Obrador’s government, have not managed to recover the purchasing power lost since the 1970s.
Sheinbaum also announced that a National Council for Regional Development will be created to develop new technological poles and 100 new industrial parks. These government measures are being used to develop nearshoring zones that will expand the Mexican working class.
Finally, Sheinbaum promised that semiconductors will be manufactured in Mexico. Touching on the production chain of lithium, copper, semiconductors, and batteries, this measure aligns with the needs of US imperialism in its technological and economic competition with China, a rationale commonly made for nearshoring projects within the United States as well.
Rejecting the “War against Drug Trafficking” and the Denial of Militarization
The new president criticized the “war against drug trafficking,” which intensified under Calderón’s government, leading to disastrous consequences for Mexico. Sheinbaum maintained that “security and peace are the fruit of justice.” She defended the strategy introduced by López Obrador, based on four principles: addressing the causes of drug use, strengthening the National Guard, using intelligence and investigation, and coordinating among different agencies. Addressing causes, she explained, means ensuring the right to education, housing, and decent work for Mexico’s youth.
Sheinbaum emphasized that the National Guard will be strengthened as part of the military with the recent constitutional reform and said it would be wrong to call this militarization. “In our country there is no state of exception, there are no human rights violations. What there is now with the Fourth Transformation is more democracy, more freedoms, and the true rule of law that we are going to build with the change in the Supreme Court and the judiciary. Next week we will announce the national security strategy,” said Sheinbaum.
But Sheinbaum is contradicted by the securitization of civilian life in Mexico, as can be seen in the administration of airports, ports, customs, the Mayan Train, and in public displays of force like the “parades” of vehicles carrying uniformed members of the army and the National Guard in all cities, including the capital. Not to mention the deployment of concrete barriers in the capital’s main square on September 20, when protesters gathered to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the abduction of 43 students from the Escuela Normal Isidro Burgos.
Building an Alternative to the “Humanization of Capitalism”
Progressives often claim that governments like Sheinbaum’s, and that of her predecessor, are “left-wing” because they force certain businesses to pay more taxes. Yet such governments fail to carry out significant fiscal reform or redistribute wealth.
Meanwhile, workers face continued precarity and still lack benefits like vacations, Christmas bonuses, and social security. And when the government ratchets up militarization, this inevitably leads to more state crimes, such as the Tlatelolco massacre and forced disappearances. The working class should not be satisfied with a government that claims to be anti-neoliberal but is unwilling to push back against the interests of transnational corporations and defend its working class.
Those of us who demand justice for the disappeared as well as an end to violence against women, job insecurity, militarization, and megaprojects developed for the benefit of capital must forge an independent path outside the bourgeois parties in government. A party that fights to end Mexico’s subordination to US imperialism while advancing a socialist perspective against all forms of exploitation and oppression.
Originally Published in Spanish on our sister site La Izquierda Diario
Translated by Noah Thurston
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