Would Vladimir Putin support Eduardo Verástegui?
Diego Martin Velazquez Caballero
During the electoral process that allowed Donald Trump to reach the presidency of the United States, the intervention of Russia in favor of the candidate of the Republican party has been demonstrated. Now that Trumpism and republicanism are rising again, with great strength, in the US electoral process for 2024, the concern regarding Vladimir Putin appears again; and even more so because of the war that NATO is waging with Russia.
In Mexico, the figure of Eduardo Verástegui has grown, there is a disproportionate correspondence between his cause and Trumpist republicanism. But, in addition to sticking to the most extreme Yankee conservatism, Verástegui also accompanies a religious traditionalism that is proving fundamental in the political configuration of the post-covid world. In other words, in the face of the crisis of liberal capitalist democracy represented in neo-extractivist neoliberalism, nationalisms and populisms in various forms make their appearance: leftist, rightist, progressive, ethnic and religious. Samuel Huntington had established that the great protagonist of the clash of civilizations was indigenism, or nativism as the politically correct social scientists want to call it.
Vladimir Putin is the icon of a civilizing resistance against globalist democracy. Beyond justifying or understanding his reasons, the truth is that Putin is the protagonist of the neoliberal American decline. Day by day a struggle takes place where the Russian advance is interpreted as a retreat from the imperialist Western hegemony.
That is why American liberalism is concerned about the growth and leadership of Donald Trump. The Republicans have assumed the historical criticism of North American society towards voracious transnational capitalism, the imperialist farce and social decline. With everything and the racist, aporophobic, quasi-fascist excesses of Trumpism; What is certain is that the accusations and criticisms of the state of affairs in the American Union cannot be ignored. The United States has neglected its own people, as Samuel Huntington and many critical American sociologists once considered progressive have said.
Some consider that Trumpism seeks to meet again with Putinism to end a useless war that brings the end of Western culture closer. As at the time other Republicans interacted with China to balance the Cold War, now it is up to Russia to help –seriously- to balance the geopolitical power of the sleeping Asian giant.
And if all this worries Trumpism in North America, what would happen to Eduardo Verástegui, who is the most Trumpist candidate in Mexico? Will there be in Verástegui's team Russian spies and financial support from the famous Moscow gold? Would there be an understanding between Hispanic Catholic nationalism and orthodox Christian nationalism? Would Verástegui, Vox and Trump be more in line with a Putinist government in their respective regions than with a neoliberal lifestyle? Would Verástegui support a Mexit as proposed by Donald Trump for the health of both nations?
An extremist of Mexican conservatism, a member of the PAN, stated that the Mexican government should contract the Wagner Group to combat drug trafficking in the country since neither SEDENA nor the US intelligence apparatus can do anything. In this argument it can be represented that the Mexican right has stopped demonizing Russia, the same Vox Español recognizes the merit of the policies of internal capitalism that Vladimir Putin generates. Even the Catholic Church has made Russia sacred during the pandemic.
The "friendly" Russia for the Mexican far-right -through Trumpism- constitutes one of the most interesting episodes of the geopolitical secret war that Mexico has always lived through, as analyzed by Friederich Katz. There are several elements to glimpse a competitive strengthening of Eduardo Verástegui towards the 2024 elections.
The exhaustion of the party system and a sterile polarization inasmuch as it has to do with the lack of political proposals of the Broad Front and the absence of an ideological narrative in the Fourth Transformation given the legislative and judicial blockade, open the door to an independent and pro-American candidate. like Eduardo Verastegui. Even his political project can be compared to the case of Emmanuel Macron.
The rise of Donald Trump in US politics could benefit Eduardo Verástegui and bring about a third party in contention for next year's interesting electoral process.