Alonso Urrutia
Sent
La Jornada Newspaper
Friday, February 6, 2026, p. 4
Querétaro, Qro., With a constitutional reform to the Judiciary in the middle and after a rupture caused by the previous person in charge of the Supreme Court, three years later the brand new minister president, Hugo Aguilar, returned to the official commemorations, with which the heads of the three powers of the Union met again on a new anniversary of the Constitution.
In the crowded Theater of the Republic, where the Magna Carta was promulgated in 1917, republican forms prevailed and even the opposition called to close ranks with President Claudia Sheinbaum in these times of siege from the outside.
In her second participation in these ceremonies that bring together the country’s political elite, Sheinbaum emerged victorious before a plural audience, although mostly made up of her movement.
Sober, she listened to the applause – particularly loud – when her leadership in the complex international environment was referred to and, above all, when she harangued fervently in defense of sovereignty. She looked satisfied, wrapped up in the midst of the shocks that this nascent 2026 has brought.
It was a ceremony in which the speakers closed ranks against threats from abroad, although no one mentioned – not even veiledly – the head of the White House, Donald Trump, although everyone knew that he is the origin of these adverse times for the Republic.
“You are not alone, President; you have a firm grip on the helm. Together we will overcome the storm,” said the governor of Querétaro, of PAN origin, Mauricio Kuri.
In the midst of the confluence of characters, the reappearance of a president of the Supreme Court in this ceremony stood out. Distant from political circles, Minister Hugo Aguilar was seen as somewhat isolated, but with his mere presence the distance between powers was left behind.
He was still oblivious to the scandal that would break out hours later on social media, caused by the embarrassing episode in which two of his main collaborators knelt to clean his shoes moments before he entered the historic site.
It was in this same Theater of the Republic, in 2023, where the gesture of remaining seated at the arrival of the then president Andrés Manuel López Obrador by the minister president Norma Piña caused an earthquake in the relationship between powers and opened a long period of tensions that was only resolved with the constitutional reform that led to the election of the Judiciary and accelerated the removal of almost all the ministers of the Court.
The long wait for Sheinbaum’s arrival revealed some realities of national politics. From the outset, the irreverence of the Secretary of the Navy, Raymundo Morales, who arrived almost halfway through the commemoration, stood out. In his place, during the official presentations, was the Undersecretary of Maritime and Port Affairs, Jesús Toledo, who occupied the first row on his behalf.
As the minutes passed, the governor of Campeche, Layda Sansores, was seen alone. Upon his arrival he barely responded with a discreet grimace and a raised thumb, very distant from the way in which he usually exercises power in his entity, when asked about the political instability in Campeche.
Already inside the theater, far from his homeland, he spoke for long minutes with the Secretary of the Interior, Rosa Icela Rodríguez. From a distance, Rodríguez could be seen listening attentively, while the governor tried to give greater eloquence to her explanations with broad movements of her arms.
Afterwards, Rodríguez then went to talk with the governor of Jalisco, Pablo Lemus, most likely about the hectic dawn in Tequila, with the arrest of its mayor, the Morenista Diego Rivera, accused of extortion and links to organized crime.
This time almost all the opposition governors attended, with the exception of the president of Nuevo León, Samuel García. Except for the coldness with which María Eugenia Campos from Chihuahua listened to Sheinbaum’s speech – practically without applauding –, the rest of the PAN members kept the republican forms and celebrated the presidential intervention with applause.
Kuri launched a fiery harangue in favor of Sheinbaum, although accompanied by a diplomatic request to promote inclusive electoral reform. For her part, PAN representative Kenia López also asked to strengthen the electoral system in the face of the “possibility” of a reform, which did not prevent a subsequent greeting with the President who, from a distance, seemed cordial.
Sheinbaum did not look uncomfortable during the ceremony. He even applauded some passages of the PAN interventions. He leitmotiv of his speech – the defense of national sovereignty – was acclaimed by the entire audience.
It was a ceremony without any surprises, in which only the mea culpa of the governor of Sinaloa, Rubén Rocha, upon his arrival at the theater.
–How did you see the Tequila thing?
–If I don’t know about Sinaloa…
