In the face of Aldana’s triumph, linked to Deschamps, AMLO highlights that there are no state unions

Fabiola Martinez and Angeles Cruz

Newspaper La Jornada
Wednesday, February 2, 2022, p. 5

To Ricardo Aldana I don’t identify it personally, assured President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, referring to the winning candidate in the election of the oil union, held last Monday, and as an argument to make it clear that his government has no preference for any character.

There is no favorite candidate, there are no state unions anymore, that is very important, it is part of the changehe pointed.

The president highlighted the importance that for the first time the oil workers used the direct and secret vote, in a process coordinated by the labor authority.

However, he also spoke of the challenges to achieve full democracy in the country. We have to move forward looking for an authentic democracy, and it is everyone’s business, but it starts with somethingcommented to the press.

One day after the elections in which the group identified with Carlos Romero Deschamps, now in the person of Aldana, had a wide advantage, the President chose to highlight the high percentage of worker participation and the guarantee of free and secret voting in the dispute, beyond the complaints about alleged embezzlement with the resources of Petróleos Mexicanos, under the argument that it cannot be cover to anyone but neither accuse without evidence.

About who won and their background, this has to be seen in the Ministry of Labor and in the commission that is going to decide on the result, because it is a process. What we guarantee here is that they could express themselves, that the workers know the candidates and guarantee this free, secret, direct voting mechanism.

Guaranteed that the challenges will be addressed in the corresponding instances in accordance with the law, without benefits for anyone, without protection for anyone, we do not have candidates.

He immediately referred to Aldana. The man was here (on the catwalk of candidates, in the National Palace), but if I meet him now he would have to tell me who he is, because I can’t identify him, well, I haven’t had any relationship with him, that is, I’m not disqualifying him, I just don’t have any link.

He again advised the dissidents not to stop participating, even when the process is not easy, since the country has been permeated, for centuries, with anti-democratic episodes and figures such as the cover-up and the finger. It would be extraordinary to write a book on electoral fraud in Mexicohe added.