Admiral Morales tried to settle the corruption scandal that involved high -ranking sailors in a complex fuel smuggling network, tax fraud and political murders. His speech tried to perform two operations to clean the name of the Navy. On the one hand, he made it clear that the institution purged itself in a brave and determined way. On the other hand, he closed the case: by dismantling this plot, the institution was clean of any trace of corruption.
President Sheinbaum back The speech of Admiral Morales. He also took the opportunity to say that the accusations against the children of President López Obrador for his possible participation in similar corruption networks are false, as well as the accusations against former secretary Rafael Ojeda.
These statements contradict a previous speech of the president herself, in which she declared that in this case there would be “ zero impunity, Top to where, why the president contradicted himself? Why did Admiral Morales havetened to give folder to the greatest corruption scandal of the armed forces in recent times?
These are transcendent questions for the consolidation of the new political regime, in which it is clear that the Armed Forces will play a central role, but are being defined-in the middle of tensions, pulls and pushes-the dynamics, the rules and the balance of power of the civic-military relationship.
It is difficult to know for sure what happens inside the Armed Forces. These are opaque institutions, hidden under the national security mantle. In addition, although they project an image of cohesion outside, there are rivalries and political disputes between the different military institutions and within each of them. As if that were not enough, militarization has advanced so fast that it is difficult to know which formal institutions and which informal factions remained with each of the public business, budget items and legal powers that have been recently granted.
However, some knots of this web of opacity and confusion can be unleashed. In private conversations, some elements of the Armed Forces have expressed concern about the “deviation” or “denaturation” that military bodies have suffered for the excessive delegation of responsibilities and resources during the López Obrador government.
From their perspective, the military are losing their vocation for the defense of national security, territory and sovereignty because they are focused on work outside the traditional field of the Armed Forces. In addition, some military elements have shown an “excessive business vocation” – a euphemism so as not to say private profit with public resources – so “the risk of corruption in the Armed Forces has grown.”
It can be raised as a hypothesis that Admiral Morales shares this feeling and that is why he cooperated in the investigation to dismantle the fiscal huachicol network. The will of Morales – supported by other military leaders – and the additional political push of the pressures of the United States would have contributed to the leadership of Sheinbaum and Secretary García Harfuch, the Mexican authorities, the Mexican authorities would carry out this operation against the fiscal huachicol.
However, if the Mexican government wishes to continue dismantling corruption networks that involve civil and military officials, there are three open fronts, all of them of enormous difficulty for the president. The first front is the United States: The Mexican government will try to capture average controls to alleviate Washington’s pressure, but will it be enough for the White House or will the pressures increase to capture characters with greater media impact?
The second front is the civic-military relationship: Some military leaders seem willing to cooperate to clean their “excess” institutions, but only if they decide which actions can be considered abuses and who are untouchable. The president would produce huge tensions in the relationship with the military if he crosses any red line, which is especially complicated in this historical moment, in which the State is highly dependent on the military to function.
The third front is fully political: The granting of resources and faculties to the Navy and the Army during this six -year period and the previous one has created the conditions for it to weave irregular business networks and influence peddling between entrepreneurs, politicians and military.
