On April 24, 2020, I wrote an editorial entitled: “AMLO and the manual of the perfect tyrant,” where I mentioned how Andrés Manuel López Obrador would use “propaganda” to his benefit. A year after that publication, it is more than evident that his government is moving towards a rancid presidentialism, in the purest style of the old PRI. Towards tyranny and autocracy.
If there is something we should learn and remember from history, it is the many men and women who have dazzled the masses with speeches of change only to become worse than the system or government they overthrew. López Obrador’s government is one of those. In his years as president, the poor have grown as never before. A medical system was dismantled, which was superior to what exists now, although it was not the best. In its worst moments, not even the PRI dared to condition the health of Mexicans in exchange for their vote.
Such is the impunity and arrogance of AMLO and the members of his party that in the last month alone, we have seen aberrant things and situations, without shame, that portray the president and his party in full body.
Money with full hands for baseball when there are no medicines in public clinics, direct relatives are running for Congress, contracts without bidding that benefit his immediate family or people close to him. A candidate accused of multiple charges of rape, another long-handed candidate grabs the ass of a female candidate, who comes out to apologize to her aggressor despite a video, which was later manipulated by the same party to deny the action. We cannot leave aside the lying candidate who denied having links with the sex sect NXIUM, and comes out in a video, holding a pleasant conversation with Keith Raniere, who on Tuesday, October 27, 2020, was sentenced to 120 years in prison for sex trafficking and other crimes. We continue adding up, and we find the pedophile congressman who was removed from office but kept his immunity and additional benefits, a candidate for a councilman who shot three waiters for not paying a bill, the Morena brigade member who attacked an elderly man, the nephew of Martí Batres who savagely kicked a woman at a soccer game, and the list can go on and on. With López Obrador, everything happens, but nothing happens… and least of all to those who live under the protective mantle of the “tropical messiah.”
“Who does not know history it is condemned to repeat it,” says an old saying, and in Mexico, we are on that path. In Nazi Germany, Joseph Goebbels elaborated a series of principles based on others that already existed and perfected them. These points are still valid today, and Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador follows them to the letter. So much so that his system of government is based on a compilation of strategies and tactics historically followed by dictators around the world and, more specifically, in Latin America. AMLO is no different. He seeks the same as all of them, to perpetuate himself in power directly or indirectly through a scheme of control, subjugation, and indoctrination.
In his morning conference, AMLO uses Goebbels’ “Principle of simplification and the single enemy” by adopting a single idea, a single symbol, and individualizing the adversary into a single enemy. In our country, it is the “conservatives” the “Fifis” who “exploit” the “good and wise people.” For this, it is crucial to confront Mexicans every day. To repeat the same lie that after a thousand times will become a truth. To do this, it is necessary to divide. Rich against poor. “the Fifis,” the “conservatives,” the “neoliberals.” Meanwhile, their social media handlers exploit national rancor that has always existed: “the privileged whites” against the “bronze race” as posted by Viridiana Rios on Twitter, adding to the negative charge of people like actor Tenoch Huerta, who openly comments that those who have achieved something was simply because “they were born with the right color and the right family.” Divide and conquer, says the adage… and this government sure has known how to divide.
In this morning, as a good autocrat, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador seeks what is known as “The cult of personality,” a concept that systematically seeks an elevation to almost religious or sacred dimensions. Hence, the mornings are used as a religious pulpit where AMLO presents himself as a divine figure. A savior of the country that is on the verge of the abyss, and for this purpose, he uses his “front-row journalists” to exalt his image.
Another principle widely used by AMLO’s “Cuatro-té” government is the control of the mass media. If they cannot control the traditional media, they will have to change the digital media narrative. That is the reason for the “friendly” journalists that cover the morning press conferences. They never ask, never question AMLO or the government. They praise and applaud. For the traditional media, there is another formula. Fear, pressure, and coercion.
Every time a journalist questions AMLO or his government actions, thousands of bots launch themselves against him. These “bots” publicly post the journalist’s home address, private telephone number, and family information. To the above, we must add that the president in his morning conferences is dedicated to denigrating those journalists and “Fifi” media groups whom he calls “filthy rags.” López wants submissive newspapers, radio, television that applaud and do not question. If they do not do so and do not submit to presidential power, there will be other ways, the “Financial Intelligence Unit” to go after them.
AMLO knows that as Goebbels said, “to achieve power, money and total control are required.” Hence, it is not surprising to see why he has been hoarding the country’s money for almost three years and just as dangerous, the control in Congress and the country’s militarization. Keeping the army happy guarantees their loyalty. But he must go further. It is necessary to have total control, and for that, it is also essential to control the Judicial Power. That is why the “NO” reelection of Zaldívar but rather an “extension” of two more years. What’s next? You may ask first of all: the electoral authority—next, the autonomy of the Bank of Mexico and then, our children.
Indoctrination is fundamental to perpetuate the dictatorship. Indoctrination equals votes and popular support. Hence, billions of pesos are destined to López Obrador’s social programs delivered without accounting to anyone, but always in gigantic acts of propaganda. Not to mention the disastrous alliances of AMLO and MORENA with the teachers’ unions that have done so much damage to the country. Nothing guarantees better indoctrination in the classrooms. Those children will vote in the future.
Since AMLO follows a precise methodology to perpetuate himself in power, new actions aimed at controlling the masses will begin to emerge in the not too distant future. From the payment of favors to the elites such as Salinas Pliego or Carlos Slim, who this government has favored, other “privileged” people are punished to the masses’ delight.
Corollary
“A lie repeated a thousand times becomes a truth.”
Andrés Manuel López Obrador lies up to 80 times every day in each morning press conference according to the report “The Value of Truth” by the organization Vital Signs. According to the report, the president resorts to half-truths and unverifiable data in order not to touch on issues related to the pandemic, militarization, economic crisis, or clean energy.
After more than two years in office (he took office as president on December 1, 2018), López Obrador is about to double the 23,000 lies of former U.S. President Donald Trump during his entire term (2017-2021) as counted by The Washington Post. Andrés Manuel is the king of lies and half-truths.
Three questions on the air.
The first one, I asked a year ago and again now: Do you believe López Obrador? That same man whose messages are primarily full of lies? The one who has promised not to be “reelected” and not to perpetuate himself in power?
José E. Urioste Palomeque
Times Media Mexico
Merida Yucatan, Mexico
April 27, 2021
