Politics: Unethical practices and luxury lifestyles spark crisis in Morena, calling into question its very identity
A large part of the appeal of the Fourth Transformation (4T) and Claudia Sheinbaum (and before her, Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador) has been its repeated message that it alone has taken the moral high ground in a country whose political system is riddled with corruption and assorted ills, with the result being that the political parties are fully discredited in the eyes of society. Indeed, the watchword of the 4T has been “don’t lie, don’t steal, don’t betray”. But this is now being placed in the spotlight due to recent scandals involving top Morena lawmakers, office holders, and leaders. Evidence that has recently surfaced points to such public figures enjoying if not flaunting sumptuous and luxurious life styles out of reach of 99% of the Mexican public.
The tabloid-like sensationalism has shattered the short-lived myth that “we’re nothing like them,” in reference to the other parties. The Morena rank and file are particularly outraged. Those touched by the scandals of opulent spending on vacations abroad include heavyweights such as the party’s leaders in the Senate and Chamber of Deputies, Minister of Public Education Mario Delgado, and AMLO’s son who happens to be Morena organizational secretary Andrés Manuel López Beltrán.
The behavior of these Morena legislators, officials, and leaders, beyond revealing personal expensive life-style tastes, exposes some of the characteristics of the political movement to which they belong and its style of governance. These operate as objective conditions that facilitate such individual behaviors, turning them into a structural problem and posing a challenge for the strength and survival of Morena in the future.
For now, Sheinbaum and Morena President Luisa Maria Alcalde have responded on two levels: damage control, seeking to question or minimize at least some of the allegations, and at the same time and more importantly, insisting on approval of a code of conduct based on principles of leaders living humbly, adhering to the tenets of republican austerity, and avoiding at all costs the scenario of "a rich government with a poor people".
Given that Sheinbaum largely inherited the situation from AMLO, the question remains whether or not she will distance herself from her predecessor and put her house in order. Will she risk the internal unity of the 4T and Morena by sanctioning high-level public officials who violate the movement’s code of ethics? Mexico’s future may largely depend on how these questions are answered.
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