That impression only grew as we advanced towards the Angel and then up to the Monument to the Revolution, more and more and more people. While we were doing this tour, a second impression: the slogans, those unequivocal songs that always communicate the identity of a protest. “The INE is not touched!”, “That’s why I came, to defend the INE!”, “Total support for the electoral referee!” It was not so much a question of claiming López Obrador, perhaps well aware that he does not listen, that his thing is now just to provoke, entrench himself and repeat insults. Rather, it was a question of very explicitly covering the institution that it symbolizes –for historical reasons that José Woldenberg explained very well in his speech ( https://bit.ly/3AezESS )– the possibility of democracy in Mexico.
But if we didn’t do it for the president, then who would listen? My impression was that, from the start, the recipients were the opposition parties, on whose votes the electoral reform proposed by the Executive depends, several of which acknowledged receipt in advance (PRI, PAN and PRD), supporting a march that, without However, it was not his. Later, so that Morena would listen, especially those who have aspirations and sooner or later will go out to ask for the popular vote (yesterday Monreal declared that in the Senate they will not incur regressions against citizen conquests). Finally, so that the citizens themselves listen: so that they recognize themselves by organizing, resisting, in defense not of a party or a political figure, but of an electoral institution that has given us elections as free and fair as there have never been in this country.
“The INE is not touched”, this is how the march in defense of the INE was experienced in CDMX
At the end, a group of friends went to a cantina in San Rafael. There I checked the news from other cities where there were also mobilizations on my cell phone. Fourth impression: it was not just a chilango groping, it was a nationwide urban blockade. Impossible not to interpret this data in light of three trends. One is that since 2021 Mexico City is ceasing to be the electoral stronghold that it was for lopezobradorismo. Two, that the democratization of the late 20th century was a process with marked urban accents that developed, as it was said at the time, “from the periphery to the center.” And three, that around 80% of the Mexican population lives in urban locations.
The government’s response has oscillated between contempt and condemnation. For something they’re not supposed to care about, they’re putting a lot of energy into it. My colleague Mauricio Dussauge wondered well on Twitter: “If the march is so insignificant, why so much effort to delegitimize it?” Fifth impression: they are nervous, surprised, confused. In his script there is no room to interpret these facts in a pluralistic way or with a minimal sense of reality. Not because his reaction was predictable does he stop looking numb, ailing, recalcitrant. Too convinced that only they embody change, they cannot accept that the winds may be changing and not necessarily in their favor.
