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Why Is Mexico's Sheinbaum Framed as an AMLO Clone? Ari Paul ([link removed])


Claudia Sheinbaum has made history. A leftist from the ruling party and former head of government for Mexico City, she will be Mexico’s first woman and first Jewish president. But all the US press wants to know is whether she is just going to be a puppet of the big, scary outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, popularly known as AMLO.
AP: Mexico’s presidential front-runner walks a thin, tense line in following outgoing populist

AP (5/22/24): "Sheinbaum has to be very careful...to avoid appearing to contradict or criticize López Obrador."

The AP (5/22/24 ([link removed]) ) said Sheinbaum left “many wondering whether she can escape the shadow of the larger-than-life incumbent.” Vox (6/2/24 ([link removed]) ) said, on the issues of government corruption and narco violence, “Now the question is to what extent Sheinbaum will be able to make progress on these concerns while operating under the shadow of her mentor.”

The New York Times (5/30/24 ([link removed]) ) said that "she has an image problem, and she knows it.” The article explained: “Many Mexicans are wondering: Can she be her own leader? Or is she a pawn of the current president?”

A Washington Post (2/28/24 ([link removed]) ) columnist called Sheinbaum AMLO’s “heir,” and wrote that while she “is more of a mystery…she has people worried.” The Christian Science Monitor (5/28/24 ([link removed]) ) also called her AMLO’s “hand-picked successor.” The New York Times (6/4/24 ([link removed]) ) also said that “some observers believe [AMLO] will find a way to continue to exert influence behind the scenes” after he leaves, calling Sheinbaum his “handpicked successor.”

Mary Anastasia O’Grady ([link removed]) , Americas columnist for the Wall Street Journal (5/26/24 ([link removed]) ), went further, saying Sheinbaum is not just an extension of AMLO, but a threat to democracy itself, as she was “handpicked by the president” and “is a symbol of continuity with his agenda.” She accused Sheinbaum of wanting “to crush pluralism and grab control of the Supreme Court,” forcing Mexico to revert “to a one-party state, as it was during the 71-year rule of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.”

By virtue of Mexican law, AMLO can only serve one term. The idea that a party winning two elections in row, potentially tipping the balance of the court, is somehow a reversion to the seven decades of PRI rule is a bit of a stretch; would Hillary Clinton have created a "one-party state" if she had won the US presidency in 2016? It’s also misleading to call Sheinbaum “hand-picked,” as she won AMLO’s support only after a messy intra-party struggle, as is common in the democratic political battlefield (AP, 10/6/22 ([link removed]) ; Foreign Policy, 6/9/23 ([link removed]) ).


** No 'decent alternative'
------------------------------------------------------------
Time: The Tragedy of Mexico’s Election

For Time (5/30/24 ([link removed]) ), the "tragedy" was that few Mexicans wanted to vote for the candidate who represented the two parties that had governed their country for 72 years before 2018.

Time (5/30/24 ([link removed]) ) also complained that Sheinbaum was the “anointed” AMLO replacement, saying the problem of her victory is “how easily this triumph has been handed to her.” “Most Mexicans don’t necessarily adore the current government,” Alex González Ormerod wrote, but they “simply have not been given a decent alternative to vote for.”

This kind of pabulum is an observation any half-educated analyst could have made about a random election in the United States, France or Iran. Yet the fact that there is not a viable pro-rich political movement in Mexico is treated as an existential crisis for the US press.

If AMLO’s record and Sheinbaum’s proposals for her term were so terrible, one might imagine that opposition parties could take advantage of that. “The majority of her support comes from AMLO,” said Andalusia Knoll Soloff ([link removed]) , an independent journalist based in Mexico, in a phone interview. “She appeals to the values of the people of AMLO.” But she added that it is an exaggeration to say she’s made in the mold of the outgoing president, saying it is “untrue that she is a puppet of AMLO.”

What is happening here is the media myth that Sheinbaum, a scientist and successful left-wing politician, somehow lacks any agency of her own, when it is perfectly sensical that AMLO’s party would want to continue many of his policies in a second term. AMLO, like Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela, sits in the American media consciousness as a thuggish caudillo who is undermining the goals of US businesses in Latin America, a kind of act of war against the Monroe Doctrine.


** 'Pragmatic' or 'ideological'?
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Politico: Claudia Sheinbaum Will Be Mexico’s Next President. But Which Version of Her Will Govern?

Politico (6/1/24 ([link removed]) ) wonders whether Sheinbaum will "prioritize efficiency over ideology, or be "a mere puppet of López Obrador" and "follow in his leftist footsteps."

Thus Sheinbaum is viewed with suspicion. Examine, for instance, this summary from Politico (6/1/24 ([link removed]) ), which wondered whether Sheinbaum would govern as "pragmatist" or "ideologue":

On one hand, [Sheinbaum’s] an accomplished physicist with expertise in environmental science and a reputation for pragmatism. On the other, she’s a long-time leftist activist, a close ally and champion of López Obrador—a divisive figure who came to power promising to represent the lowest echelons of Mexican society and, during his tenure, increased social spending to a historic high while simultaneously attacking Mexico’s system of checks and balances.

In what world are these two incompatible things? It’s quite easy that someone can be a devotee of science and also prefer politics that help the poor and working class over the rich—just ask Albert Einstein (Monthly Review, 5/1/09 ([link removed]) ) or Carl Sagan (New York Post, 10/5/20 ([link removed]) ).

But Politico made its particular definitions of "pragmatist" and "ideologue" clear later, when it suggested that "a more ideological and leftist Sheinbaum" might "seek more beneficial terms for Mexico" in upcoming trade talks with the US and Canada, while a "more pragmatic Sheinbaum…could find compromises when discussing trade, and agree on a middle ground for investigating cartels with US support without risking Mexico’s sovereignty." In other words: "pragmatic" means doing what's best for the US, "ideological" means doing what's best for the Mexican people she represents.

The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board (6/3/24 ([link removed]) ) also used this dichotomy. “Markets will be looking to see which Claudia Sheinbaum emerges in office—the ideologue or a more pragmatic deal-maker,” the paper said. It added that she "has promised to put the poor first, but that means Mexico’s economy will need to keep growing.” In the Journal's worldview, this means "policies that attract foreign capital to expand prosperity."


** A new environmental focus
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EcoAmericas: Sheinbaum builds green-policy record as mayor

"For those hoping Mexico will fully embrace climate protection, natural-resource conservation and clean energy policies," EcoAmericas (4/23 ([link removed]) ) last year said Sheinbaum might be "a ray of hope."

Sheinbaum’s climate policies for Mexico City, once known for its terrible pollution, have also bolstered her progressive politics. Visitors to Mexico City today find a world-class capital with clean streets and lovely parks, aided by a large public transit system.

Nature (5/30/24 ([link removed]) ) reported:

[Supporters] point to her time spent governing Mexico City, when she made significant advancements in science by initiating the construction of the world’s largest urban photovoltaic plant, which cost 661 million pesos (US$39 million) to build.

It added that her “administration also established the first rapid-transit network of buses in the city—and in Latin America—that run on electricity.” EcoAmericas (4/23 ([link removed]) ) reported on her environmental policy in Mexico City, saying her agenda included "rainwater harvesting, green-space expansion, watershed conservation, extensive planting initiatives, air-quality improvement [and] waste reduction,” as well as improving the city’s transit system. And the Wilson Center (10/24/23 ([link removed]) ) noted that as environmental secretary in the city government, Sheinbaum oversaw “the creation of the first line of the metrobús, Mexico City’s bus rapid transit system.”

By contrast, AMLO’s unmoored populism put him at odds with climate activists (AP, 8/28/20 ([link removed]) , 3/23/22 ([link removed]) , 11/24/23 ([link removed]) ; Guardian, 11/8/22 ([link removed]) ). Sheinbaum has disappointed environmental activists with promises to increase oil production as president, but has also promised a major investment in green energy (New Republic, 5/31/24 ([link removed]) ). She has vowed “to accelerate the energy transition with new solar, wind and hydropower projects” (Argus, 4/17/24
([link removed]) ). AMLO had “tended to prioritize domestic fossil fuel resources over low-carbon alternatives” (Yale Climate Connections, 4/10/24 ([link removed]) ).

As Reuters (5/28/24 ([link removed]) ) noted, Sheinbaum and the outgoing president are indeed allies, but hardly the same; Sheinbaum, the scientist, took the Covid pandemic seriously, while AMLO fell to anti-mask populism.

There’s a racist connotation against Latin Americans that a second term for a leftist coalition means there is a Svengali calling all the shots without popular consent. With Sheinbaum, there is also the insinuation that a woman could simply not rise to this level without a “strong man” behind her.

It remains to be seen how Sheinbaum will actually govern, but since, like AMLO, she does not promise to accede to every US demand, the US press corps has already settled comfortably into its time-worn tradition of casting the election of a leftist Latin American as undemocratic.
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