LÓPEZ OBRADOR TRIES TO ELIMINATE THE MAIN OPPOSITION CANDIDATE

The President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), with an acceptance in the polls of 57%, the political dominance of his ruling coalition (23 governorships out of 32, comfortable majorities in the Chamber of Deputies and Senators) and an economic growth for this year of 3% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), was certain that the parties that support him, the National Regeneration Movement (Morena), a party he created; and his allies the Labor Party (PT) and the Green Ecologist of Mexico (PVEM), would achieve a landslide victory in the 2024 presidential election, where new members of Congress and nine governorships will also be elected.
In the polls, the parties of the ruling coalition have an advantage of between 10 and 15 per cent over the opposition coalition composed of the National Action Party (PAN), the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD); while the Civic Movement party, which is not part of either of the two coalitions, only accounts for 6 per cent of the electoral preference for the 2024 process.

López Obrador illegally initiated (since presidential campaigns officially begin until the third week of November) an anticipated pre-campaign within his Morena party, to define his presidential candidate.
Everything indicates that the president's favorite is the former head of government of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum (AMLO forced the pre-candidates to resign their positions in order to compete for the candidacy); and the other competitors, former Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard; former Interior Secretary Adán Augusto López and licensed Senator Ricardo Monreal (as well as the federal deputy with license from the PT, Gerardo Fernández; and the licensed senator from the PVEM, Manuel Velasco), are only competing to give some legitimacy. to the process.
The president even mocked the opposition for not having viable candidates and for its disappointing results in local elections.
But in the last three weeks PAN senator Xóchitl Gálvez, driven by businessmen opposed to the president (Claudio X. González) and civil society organizations, decided to participate as a pre-candidate in the process to elect the presidential candidate of the opposition coalition, which has been called the Broad Front for Mexico.

The uniqueness of the senator is that she belongs to an indigenous ethnic group of the state of Hidalgo, the Otomí (she speaks it fluently); as a child she sold jellies, and as a young girl she sold tamales to help her with her studies.

Xóxhitl studied Computer Engineering at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), the country's main public university (and one of the top 100 universities in the world); and before the age of 30 she created a company for the maintenance of elevators and air conditioners, which over the years won numerous contracts with national and foreign corporations, as well as government institutions.
In 2000, Vicente Fox of the PAN defeated the PRI that had been in power for 71 years, and within his cabinet he created a Commission of Support for Indigenous Peoples, of which he appointed Xóchitl Gálvez.
At the end of Fox's government, Gálvez returned to his businesses and in 2010, supported by the PAN, Xóchitl Gálvez ran for governor of her home state, Hidalgo, but lost to the PRI.
It was until 2015 that the PAN invited her to compete for a local post in Mexico City, the Miguel Hidalgo Delegation (the city is divided into 16 political-administrative zones, which were formerly called delegations, but since 2018 they are now mayoral offices), triumphing and playing a dignified role.

In 2018, the PAN offered her to run for senator for Mexico City and she won. During her tenure, she has been very critical of the government of President López Obrador, which has generated great animosity from AMLO itself and its governing coalition.

But given the enormous support and admiration that Senator Gálvez’s pre-candidacy has generated in different segments of the population, López Obrador has mounted a smear campaign from his government against Senator Gálvez, accusing her of corruption, without providing any proof, since he says that the contracts (up to 1400 million pesos) that her companies have obtained with private initiative and the government (including with the administration headed by AMLO) have been obtained by “trafficking in influence” and therefore it is not credible that “from selling jellies, now she has become a millionaire. ”

Also, in her daily morning lectures, AMLO has criticized the senator for riding her bike to the Senate, saying she appears to be selling “tamales”; and has questioned her membership of an indigenous ethnic group.
All this shows that AMLO has panicked, because the opposition he described as representing the rich and oligarchs, while he represents the “people,” found a real representative of the people, who is generating enthusiasm, not only among the middle classes (mostly opposed to the AMLO government, which has continually attacked them during his administration), but also grassroots sectors are beginning to express support for the senator.

Likewise, AMLO used his public office to disclose confidential information about the contracts of Senator Gálvez's companies with private individuals, which is a flagrant violation of fiscal secrecy.

And now, a federal deputy from the president's party has sued Gálvez before the Attorney General's Office to investigate her for alleged anomalies in her companies' contracts.

Gálvez has replied that she is ready for any investigation because she knows that she has not committed any crime and that it is all a political persecution of AMLO, because of the fear that the Morena party may lose the presidential elections in 2024.

At the time, AMLO criticized then-President Vicente Fox in 2006 for intervening in the presidential campaign on behalf of PAN candidate Felipe Calderón, considering that this was unfair.
Calderón won those presidential elections, but the electoral authorities considered that Fox’s actions were improper, prompting an electoral reform, promoted by the opposition at the time by López Obrador, to prevent the presidents from intervening in any way in the electoral contest, in order to avoid an unequal competition.

Now AMLO is doing the same thing he complained about in 2006 that led to a series of bans on presidents, and although the electoral authority (the National Electoral Institute) has ordered him not to use his position to attack potential presidential candidates, AMLO is looking for a way to continue doing so, without complying with the law.
All indications are that AMLO’s desperation to keep its ruling coalition in power will continue to generate an unfair electoral process in favor of government candidates, and therefore anti-democratic and prone to violence.