Unfortunately it cannot be otherwise, but if by this time, 20 years after the beginning of the 21st century, you have not realized that there is a kind of power -corporate- that will do everything necessary to protect their assets and their social status, you live in another world. And that ends up truncating legitimate efforts of those who fight for more equitable societies. Similarly, not realizing it affects yourself.
In any Latin American country that claims to be a democracy, every 4, 5, or 6 years there are ‘free’ elections for President. But no matter who wins, nothing changes. Despite the change in the parties in power, the situation is the same. Or worse for most people: very few live like kings, the upper middle class enjoys the benefits of that system, the middle class is reduced to certain deficiencies and enjoys certain crumbs. But the majority of the population lives in poverty and a high percentage in extreme poverty.
Sometimes, the social situation of that country reaches unsustainable extremes of inequality, repression, poverty or all that together . Every now and then, a change is made after repeated attempts and repeated failures. You elect a politician who may have the best intentions in the world. But the corporate apparatus that has administered the nation for decades – in most cases with the support of the United States – has everything under control so that the policies of that new leader do not work. Or so that they have little impact. In this way, the opposition can guarantee their return in the following elections.
This technique is widely used right here in the United States, although its situation is different due to its economic power. The US is the leading economic power and nothing compares to it, but here there is also poverty, extreme poverty and a middle class that is losing privileges with each passing decade.
That is why Characters like Trump were able to come to power, because they managed to exploit the fed up of the middle class that saw how corporations became richer, jobs disappeared and their economic status weakened. All before the alternation of both parties, without anyone ever offering a real change.
In this country the Republican party plays the protectionist role of the corporate class and does not hide it. Every time he arrives at the White House, his objective is immediately dedicated to helping those who have the most, cutting taxes and eliminating regulations that affect their companies. With the same speed and ferocity, they cut budgets to social programs in the name of the budget “balance”. They act with a crooked and implausible message, claiming that their measures will help the masses. Sooner or later. It doesn’t happen.
But when they are expelled from Washington, their objective is to block everything. Yes, it does not matter if there are programs that help the middle class, minorities or the poor. For them it will always be socialism, a qualifier with which election after election always scares the people. This is what happened to Obama with the Tea Party.
The same thing happens today with the economic stimulus, in the midst of the pandemic: more than a month after the arrival of the Democrats to power, it was just achieved that the House of Representatives approves the package, after an arduous fight.
At the international level, there is no great difference between Democrats and Republicans. Both support national corporations that profit abroad. They will do the impossible so that no Latin American government intervenes in their free action.
Andrés Manuel López Obrador arrived in Mexico in 2018 supported by the majority convinced of that change was finally coming. But now he has the opposition and the owners of the mainstream media playing the role of the Republicans in the United States. They know that if they manage to convince a small group of workers that their leader is as corrupt as any politician, they will have an easy time in 2024, in the next presidential elections.
Another disadvantage for the people of Mexico is that the opposition has been complicit in the looting, abuse and corruption with which the national and foreign corporations have benefited enormously for decades. Right now, these corporations have the United States Democratic Party on their side.
Democrats support foreign corporations. With former Mexican presidents Calderón and Peña Nieto they have done numerous very juicy businesses, as was the case with the Energy Reform.
It is here where the population that does not know how that class in power works – the corporate – plays an important role. That population could end up voting for that system that has plagued Mexico with corruption for more than 78 years with the PRI and 12 with the PAN.
It is only enough to make people believe that Obrador is a politician like everyone else , just as corrupt and to prevent their programs work.
Malcolm X, the leader of civil rights in the United States said that: ‘If you are not warned before the media, they will make you love the oppressor and hate the oppressed.’
I think the same could happen in Mexico if people don’t wake up. Or if you still have lost memory. Or if you do not keep in mind that the class in power will do everything possible to stay there, upstairs, full of privileges that allow it to control the masses.
Agustín Durán is Metro editor of the newspaper Real America News and has lived in Los Angeles since 1992.