Last year in Mexico’s presidential election Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (aka AMLO) came to power in Mexico). He rode a wave of massive discontent with the previous president Enrique Pena Nieto. Also, he promised an end to official corruption which he calls Mexico’s IV transformation. The other three, he argued, were the War of Independence (1810-1821), the War of Reform (1858-1861) and the Mexican Revolution (1910-1917). The following is a report on the reality of this so-called transformation.
AMLO’s arrival to power in Mexico must be analyzed within the obvious failure of its policies, which, in the late 1970s, represented an option to rescue the capitalist system. Around the world, this failure is evident and demonstrates that the only two options to reorganize the distribution of the world are war and the fake democratic process. The working class is either deceived to accept or openly subjected to the vagaries of the market and the consequent exploitation of raw materials and people.
In Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, Greece and Mexico, the bosses have taken advantage of the distrust and depoliticization of the working class to boost charismatic politician allied to the system. These characters take advantage of the workers’ anger and frustration in the face of the ineptitude, corruption and all-out thievery of the rulers who preceded them, and based on this discontent, they get them elected.
In Mexico, AMLO’s electoral campaign got the workers to accept the candidate’s trap. The leadership of Andrés Manuel simulated an opposition to the governments that have taken the workers to the extreme conditions of exploitation in which they have lived, as well as to a war against drug trafficking that has sown the territory with bodies of the dead and soldiers.With AMLO in power, the consensus and agreements necessary to make legitimate use of force have been developed. Arguing their status as a democratic government that represents the interests of the people, the imperialist projects have been given continuity, which entails confronting the “opponents” of these projects with the use of force or co-optation, and thus obtaining the support of public opinion. In reality, the new government represents with its actions, the interests of capitalists who aspire to have a greater share of power and resources in the country.
This government’s conduct does not represent a change, it essentially benefits for the most powerful sectors of the Mexican bourgeoisie, who see the possibility of breaking with their dependence and submission to US imperialism and the opportunity to conduct business with other imperialists from Europe and Asia. For example, China aspires to have a leading role in the construction of the Mayan train.
For this reason, an adequate environment for foreign investment is guaranteed, with the support of the population gained through a new version of political patronage that promises the redistribution of taxes for the needy. In this way, conditioning the support of the people to the unsanctioned approval of the conditions for the reproduction of capitalism based on extractivism, investment-dependent production for maquiladoras, monopoly and super exploitation.
The megaprojects promoted by the previous governments were continued and multiplied in the 4th Transformation. Since they guarantee big capital’s need to reproduce and to exploit within its territory: minerals, hydrocarbons, exploitation and privatization of gas, construction of thermoelectric plants and gas pipelines.
Thus, instead of seven Special Economic Zones (EEZ), a free zone will be created with six industrial parks along the Isthmus of Tehuantepec-that connects to the ports of Salina Cruz, Oaxaca and Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz- one of the most lagging areas of the country (La Jornada April 25, 2019. Alma E. Muñoz and Fabiola Martínez). It will be called a Trans-Isthmic corridor, as well as the creation of maquiladora parks in the southeast, thermoelectric plants, gas pipelines and energy infrastructure projects with Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. According to AMLO, these projects will also serve to contain the wave of migrants seeking asylum who are facing violence and unemployment in their countries. The United States conditioned the imposition of tariffs on Mexican export products in exchange for Mexico becoming a dam to contain migrants.
One of the first tasks of the newly created National Guard, has been to deploy more than 6 thousand soldiers to stop migrants, but its main mission is to contain social protest, since there are more than 400 environmental conflicts being waged by many social organizations and defenders of the environment; they oppose the effects that the 26 thousand mining concessions produce. The new police state protects the mining bosses and attacks and represses the working class.
The US bosses will benefit tremendously from the industrial corridors planned in Mexico and Central America, since the transportation of goods will be cheaper to reach Asia, in particular China. This situation has similarities with what happened in the Middle East where the imperialists made war to facilitate the transfer of gas and oil where only a few benefited through the death of thousands of people.
The working class must understand that the capitalists will create wars and allow governments such as AMLO’s to guarantee their interests and continue exploiting the natural and human resources of its territory. They will try to make us believe that their shameless implementation of fascism is, in reality, the will of the 30 million people who voted for it. Many workers thought they were voting to the end of decades of social and political injustices but, in the end, AMLO is just delivering the continuation of neoliberalism.
The disappointment of the workers in Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador and Greece in the face of the failures of the “progressive” governments to solve their problems opened the doors for fascist governments. The PLP communists in Mexico and the world fight against the plans of the liberal and fascist capitalists, but mainly we organize our class and educate ourselves so that we understand that communism is the only alternative to the hell of capitalism. Join us!