Democracy must become a habit, emphasized AMLO

Roberto Garduno

Newspaper La Jornada
Monday, April 11, 2022, p. 5

Early, when leaving the Old Palace of the Archbishopric, today the Museum of the Ministry of Finance, where he cast his vote, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador approached the corral where the reporters were, and when asking the population for a message about the consultation, he showed his voter ID with his right hand, and holding his wife’s with his left, declared the duty to make democracy a habit.

The man from Tabasco was impassive, serene, and in less than half a minute he expressed the requested message: The best political system is democracy, there is nothing better and it is like a way of life: there must always be democracy, in the family, at school, at work, in the unions and, of course, in public life And you have to participate. Democracy has to become a habit in Mexico, because that is going to help us so that no one at any level of the scale feels absolute, that no one forgets that the people are in charge, that the people provide and the people take away, the people is sovereign.

Yesterday he was expected from eight in the morning to cross the door of Moneda Street, from the National Palace to the main entrance of the Old Archbishopric. From before, assistants headed by his trusted man, Alejandro Esquer, checked that the installation of the ballot boxes and the electoral stationery were ready for the assistance of the President.

Outside, the reporters, photographers, cameramen and YouTubers were pushed to the front of the viceroyalty building, and two groups of military women –dressed in civilian clothes– were formed as containment barriers covering the sides of the museum entrance. At half past eight, on the corner of Moneda and Correo Mayor, the chords of a mariachi could be heard, and seconds later, almost at the same time, on the other corner, on Moneda and Plaza de El Seminario, a batucada appeared accompanied by of a juggler with hoops.

About five minutes later López Obrador left in the company of his wife, Beatriz Gutiérrez; They came holding hands, in the distance (about 60 meters away) the curious watched and their supporters shouted the usual refrain in their public presentations: It is an honor to be with Obrador! You are not alone, you are not alone!

The man from Tabasco kept pace, stopped to greet the cameras, turned around and went to the door of the former Archbishopric. The poll official made the protocol for all the voters, applied gel and gave the couple a pair of face masks because they were not wearing one.

In the lobby of the López Obrador museum, he was attended by the president of the polling station. This one with the index reviewed the list. “It does not exist, they did not put it; López Álvarez… López… López… how come they didn’t put it, Mr. President! ”, He told him.

So a second poll worker took the list and began searching. The president remained observant and the person in charge got up from his place and asked him to take a selfie. López Obrador agreed, approached without taking off his mask, while listening to the justification of that search –until then unsuccessful–, You make me nervous, Mr President, you are the best president in the world!

Time passed and the index finger of the second polling officer kept looking for the president’s name, who stretched out to look for it too, until he repeated what he had heard from the second table: page 20and another voice completed with a in the corner up to the side.

Ahh, ahh!, the two poll workers rested when they found the name, and immediately handed over the ballot. This is how López Obrador went to the screen, where he wrote Long live Zapata (yesterday was the 103rd anniversary of the assassination of the peasant leader). Then she went to the ballot box, which was a few steps away and waited a few seconds, looked at the cameras and showed the meaning of his vote with the surname of the southern hero. And once captured, he deposited the paper in the polyurethane bucket.

Before leaving the historic building, he agreed to take selfies with the women and men who came to the booth, and with some of its officials. Her wife returned to have her finger smeared with indelible ink and her voting card returned.

Willingly, hand in hand, the couple left the Old Archbishopric. They greeted. One showed her credential and the other showed her finger with ink. And just as they arrived alone, they went alone to the door of the National Palace.