Throughout the country, and of course in the Metropolitan Area of CDMX, the constant in these weeks has been the blockades of highways, railways, main avenues, customs and border crossings, ports, plus whatever you can think of.
There are several social groups that have decided to take to the streets, with very different demands. From farmers who demand guaranteed prices or compensation, pseudo-teachers who want to avoid working at all costs, transporters fed up with insecurity and violence, to shock “young people” demonstrating for who knows what, among many others.
All this, while the rest of the citizens are totally and absolutely kidnapped, in full disruption of our daily dynamics, without being able to move freely, losing time, money and health, in a country that is already usually chaotic.
And little is seen about the government, federal and local. Announcements of closures and blockades do not seem to reach them. Far from seeing ways to avoid them, and taking the necessary measures to punish them, they sit back and watch how the kidnapping takes place. Even popcorn has to be prepared.
With a particular component. Faced with certain citizen mobilizations that make them uncomfortable, curiously they act firmly, even arresting dozens of people. But given the widespread kidnappings of roads, it seems that they even leave them free passage. Regardless of the consequences.
It is highly worrying to see what is happening. So many groups, some of shock and others genuinely desperate, with so many demands and frustrations, show us a country with growing social crises that we should all be concerned about.
The convergence of so many disagreements is an unequivocal symptom that something is not working in the way of governing. And the incompetence in handling these situations is irrefutable proof that the government has no idea how to address them.
In the times of PRI hegemony, with which so many clueless people like to compare the 4T, these types of episodes were rare. There were seasoned political operators who understood each group and social demand, and were activated at any sign of contingency.
The Ministry of the Interior (Segob) was the pillar of the political and social operation. But these capabilities were available in several departments, particularly core areas such as Sagarpa or SEP. Always with good coordination from Segob and when necessary, with local support.
Of course there were conflicts. But a good part were either deactivated previously, or dissolved in a short time, thanks to that machinery of political and social operation.
Today it is clear that the federal government does not have that operating infrastructure. And it seems that he does not even understand the need and the importance of having it. Showing that, in addition, they have no idea how to build it. There is an obvious lack of fang and experience.
Despite the crises that are being caused in the country’s economic activity, and the social consequences that they entail, we all wonder where the authorities are. Because not on blocked roads or in areas besieged by crime.
The level, intensity and consistency of the current demonstrations automatically evokes the Penyista six-year term, with the intense protest activity that occurred during the structural reforms first, and after Ayotzinapa later.
It’s curious. The discourse of the then nascent 4T, and which was the basis for its 2018 and 2024 electoral campaigns, was that people were fed up with abusive, inefficient and self-complacent governments. That the marches showed a government disconnected from society, that did not listen and did not see.
The presidency would have to be reflecting on something today if in this little more than first year of government the same level of protests are accumulating as with Peña. Or is it that official abuse, inefficiency and complacency are no longer bad?
