Manuel Buendía and the American Challenge

 Manuel Buendía and the American Challenge

Diego Martin Velazquez Caballero

During these dates, the criminal act that took the life of one of the most important columnists of contemporary times in our country is bitterly remembered. Little has changed in the situation of Mexican journalists since then.

Throughout these years, various reports and analyzes have shown the triangle of the United States, Authoritarianism and Drug Trafficking as the trigger for the violence that has marked our country to the point of configuring it as a Narco Republic oriented towards a Failed State. The Mexican dictatorship lost control of the country when the Cold War ended and became involved in a labyrinth of criminality that US hegemony claims. Mexico has a deep parochial and subject political culture, but North America defines the limits of growth, development and democracy for our country.

The analysis that cost Manuel Buendía his life evidenced the clues that over time have shown the United States as the true narco-empire that promotes drugs and weapons for the benefit of its hegemony. The columnist pointed out the connection that links Yankee imperialism with the business of criminality through the façade of fascism. It is now common knowledge that the United States is the most powerful Drug Cartel.

George Friedman should read Manuel Buendía. If all the money that is conceived as a product of drug trafficking and organized crime reached Mexico, the country would effectively have come out of underdevelopment and backwardness decades ago, the entire nation would have been urbanized. The per capita income from narco-profits would have formed a business class more powerful than the Russian oligarchs and surely the Mexican government would have the weapons of mass destruction to confront North America. None of that is true. Shortly after going through the columns of Red Privada, George Friedman would realize that his vision of Mexico should be reconsidered. Buendía showed that the Reagamaniacs were never going to solve the economic crisis and the US deficit, which is the underlying problem. Neoliberalism dedicated itself to sowing paramilitary groups dedicated to the transfer of drugs and weapons to finance the Yankee hegemony during globalization. The great drug-trafficking washer is called the Pentagon and its bosses work for the CIA. You don't have to have all the resources George Friedman has to prove it.

Manuel Buendía's school of journalism has made it possible to confirm the imprint of Yankee imperialism on the path of drug trafficking and the non-existence of cartels. The historical lesson of his work is the need to seek an alternative development model to the dependency and vocation that the United States has assigned us. Mexico has the obligation to create a socioeconomic model that reduces the disastrous drug violence and the excessive emigration of human resources. The terrible economic results that six-year period after six-year period have occurred for Mexico are not going to change because of the will of the United States. Pentagonism is also destroying American society and its Darwinian liberalism seems doomed to destruction; but Mexico does not have the economic and social capacity to withstand a future like that.

Mexico is forced to rethink its relationship with the United States beyond populist nationalism and reactionary ideology. Neither the right nor the left will be able to govern Mexico if they do not first understand the interests of North America. The American Union is heading for a civilizing war that may have the highest costs for Mexico, it can even be said that they are being paid from now on. The intellectuals of the establishment wasp want things to get worse and will never recognize the significant findings made by researchers like Manuel Buendía. As long as the Mexican political class is not capable of proposing a collaborative game with the United States through the appropriate incentives, which go through consolidating the State, justice as well as liberal democracy, the North American cartel will continue charging high quotas of the right of floor.

The defeat of Bartlismo in Puebla

The defeat of Bartlismo in Puebla

Diego Martín Velázquez Caballero

Political transfugismo has undermined the structure of political parties to promote factionalism and cliques as protagonists of the dispute for power. In Puebla, this phenomenon has characterized the electoral alternations and realignments from the Auxiliary Boards to the Executive Power. Factionalism was regularized by the existence of the Official Party (PRI), as soon as its institutionalization and cohesion weakened, personalisms resurfaced and began to recover their influence and hegemony to the detriment not only of the State Party but of government and social institutions.

Avilacamachismo has become one of the preponderant factionalisms in the entity, it is configured as a cacicazgo but it is also a social muégano that involves people, communities, intermediate bodies, educational and religious systems as well as public entities. During PRIATO's trajectory, presidents Adolfo Ruiz Cortínez, Luis Echeverría and Carlos Salinas de Gortari were opposed to the avilacamachista cacique interests by conscience or circumstance. Bartlismo is produced from these conditions, perhaps a clique that could be configured as an opposition bloc to Avilacamachismo given that it achieved government control on two occasions and was outlined as the way through which MORENA could retain ownership of the state executive power. Things have changed and the succession in Puebla is conditioned by the processes that Avilacamachismo is experiencing.

Rafael Moreno Valle tried to establish a Neoavilacamachismo that, linked to the Atlacomulco Group, would rise as a national faction: the Morenovallismo. The elevation was so high that the fall was terrible, but in Puebla the avilacamachista moorings remained solid and Bartlismo has not been able to weaken them, much less break them. Lopezobradorismo, like Cardenismo, has preferred pragmatic coexistence instead of confrontation and this leaves Bartlismo and Morena in the orphanage.

Moreno Valle sought a factionalist emancipation that resulted in conflicts for the Avilacamachismo, the Atlacomulco Group and the PAN against the succession of 2018. Even the Lopezobradorismo considered the alternation in Puebla through the split of the avilacamachistas, the confrontation with the morenovallistas was total and Finally, Morena reached the state government with the connivance of some avilacamachistas and even morenovallistas. Hence, the succession in Puebla follows this canon while Bartlismo and other morenista groups operate in a weakened and ineffective way. Raymundo García García considered Bartlism, in its marine dimension, as a "diminished, parochial, pedestrian, porril, cacique elite, without vision regarding public administration and modernization." There are many similarities with the avilacamachistas, although for some, there are also significant differences. The truth is that in the face of Bart's lack of power, certain followers still preferred integration with the avilacamachismos modernized by morenovallismo. The Bartlismo that was represented with the presidential superdelegation resulted in looting, abuse and inefficiency. The Federal Delegation was the great lost opportunity not only of Bartlism but also of the Fourth Transformation.

Avilacamachismo takes control in Puebla under the consent of Lopezobradorismo, as in the times of General Lázaro Cárdenas. The avilamachista vertex is now represented by the far-right mayor of the capital who, despite the presidential criticism, should not be forgotten that it was the first perspective considered by Morena to confront morenovallismo. The PRIANRD under the route of pragmatic multiparty alliances, as well as a deeply divided Morena party with no preponderant factions in sight, constitutes the ideal path for the Avilacamachista Family -of which the state government is also a part- to remain in the control of the entity.

The dark shadow of Lopezobradorismo, as well as the dark shadow of Cardenismo, makes Puebla one of the most backward states in the country. Social indicators never improve significantly. The cacicazgo is maintained through the provost of other regional, administrative and corporate caciquisms that enjoy full health within the state, the public administration and other social bodies.

What changes in Puebla are the indicators of anomies and pathologies, each six-year period they increase for the benefit of the avilacamachista muégano.

Image 1. Avilacamachismo 

Source.  Pansters, W. G. (1998) Política y poder en Puebla. Formación y ocaso del cacicazgo avilacamachista, 1937-1987. México, D.F. y Puebla: Fondo de Cultura Económica y Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla

The dark shadow of López Obrador in Puebla II

 The dark shadow of López Obrador in Puebla II

Diego Martin Velazquez Caballero

The local press has carried out interesting analyzes regarding the signs left by the visit of President López Obrador during the parade of last Cinco de Mayo. Despite how debatable the ideas of proximity and estrangement between Barbosa and AMLO sound, the truth is that there is little disposition of lopezobradorismo towards the entity. The type of relationship that prevails between Miguel Barbosa and the president of the republic means that the avilacamachista structures remain immovable.

Just as the social base of Gilberto Bosques Saldivar had to go into exile and suffer avilacamachismo, the Pueblan left -if such a complex tribalism can be called that- does not appear in the political spectrum of the entity. López Obrador maintains the Pact of Honor and Justice that continues to make Puebla an island of the old regime.

General Lázaro Cárdenas allowed the avilacamachista provost in the face of terrible impotence during the consolidation of the regime of the Mexican revolution, is the same thing happening now? It seems so because of all the phenomena that it reveals. The succession in Puebla continues to be the PRI of the DF against the local PRI, but always the PRI even if it is about to lose the record. The PRI cliques and cacicazgos enjoy full health in all the political parties and regions of the state. The progressive left of Morena is notable for its absence and those who usurp the label do not stop sabotaging and collapsing the policies of good government.

There are no elements to ensure which PRI faction benefits from AMLO's visit, but it is certain that Morena does not receive any encouragement, quite the contrary.

The shadow of López Obrador prolongs the conflicts that are not resolved with alternation and that the pandemic has deepened. The water crisis, insecurity, femicides, economic monopolies, injustice, chiefdoms, administrative incompetence and authoritarianism, are the daily pages of local politics and everything seems the ideal scenario for the succession to opt for the mayor of the capital. Order, even if it comes from the center.

The Fourth Transformation has no effect in Puebla, like Cardenism. Regional balances, now called feudalisms, may be necessary for national governability, but at the cost of great local suffering: ordinary citizens who find themselves in the crossfire of groups in conflict and orphans facing absolute impunity. Town of demons.

The electoral reform in México. Will Win?

 The electoral reform in Mexico. Will Win?

Diego Martín Velázquez Caballero 

The proposal of the Fourth Transformation to renew the Mexican electoral system has ignited a singular debate to reconsider the democratic consolidation of the country. With everything and the polarization regarding the procedural and contentious sphere, the electoral institutions in Mexico have plunged into total disrepute. Organizations and courts that were configured as spaces to develop citizenship, legality and democratic political culture; they finally appeared like any other cacique corporatism space. The greatest seriousness corresponds to the onerous costs and the corruption of the legal-electoral structure in a society with so many deficiencies. Without wanting to admit it, the INE is one of the main institutions responsible for the Failed State, it negotiated to impose the worst rulers of all time.

Despite the cacique interests in the electoral fields, this has not been an obstacle to the development of intelligent proposals for many years. The history of electoral institutions is very interesting; however, it depresses how little influence it has had. Manlio Fabio Beltrones's contempt for Giovanni Sartori, for example, constitutes the constant of the invisible power that controls bureaucracies, budgets and progress of the INE/IFE/OPLES. All the effort to study the Mexican elections never served for anything, the Beltrones always prevented any attempt for a serious debate regarding the electoral system that Mexico needs. And there they remain. A few years ago, Denise Dresser terribly lambasted the INE, and now she defends it. What power do the Beltrons have to force someone like that?

Woldenberg, Reyes Heroles and hundreds of other electoral studies have pointed out the importance of Proportional Representation and the Second Round in Mexico. Multiple academics, study centers, thinkers from the different parties, have pointed out that a system of competition and proportionality is more important than the arbitrator. The country has always had excellent scholars of comparative electoral systems, but the political class does not listen or pay attention to them. They are good for student, doctrinal, training courses; but until there. The astonishment of the PRIANRD is ridiculous, they also had a formal academy in this regard.

Reinventing the electoral system in the country is essential to revive political parties and inhibit the promiscuous, turncoat and primitive alliances that the current state of affairs has led to. If the INE is not refounded, if the electoral system in the country is not changed, the political parties run the risk of becoming extinct and that the cacique de facto powers take the free rein of the country.

Political parties in Mexico are entities of public interest, they constitute the peaceful way to fight for power and the agonistic channel so that our differences flow, feed each other and learn. Without parties there is no democracy. The civic education schools are the parties, not the INE.

The political crisis in France is a scenario that must be taken into account for the Mexican case: without parties, any criminal can be president. Who is Macron? What does Macron represent? Nothingness, interventionism, imperialism, inside and outside France. French suicide is a reality and nobody does anything.

The INE must disappear so that the political parties return to their leading, partial, differentiated, intelligent, purposeful role. It is unfortunate the state of all the political parties in the country and to see the way in which the Cacique has closed the door for new party institutes.

Hopefully the debate and the conservation instinct of the political parties manage to design and implement an electoral reform that is right.