Mexico: Weekly Newsletter

We hereby share an unofficial translation of the excerpt of the Weekly Newsletter on the situation in Mexico by Sol Rojo.

In politics nothing is by coincidence, and the events surrounding the murder of the municipal officer of Uruapan, Michoacán, confirm this. Let’s briefly sum them up to have a better overview:

1. Carlos Manzo was murdered on the night of November 1, during a celebration in the municipality of Uruapan. Before the events, the municipal officer had requested the State and federal governments support to confront the organized crime in the municipality.

2. The background: the politician was a federal deputy for Morena, and after not being supported by the party for the municipal election, Manzo decided to “be independent” and won the notorious electoral triumph with his “tough” stance on combating crime. Afterwards he started to show a different line than that of the federal government regarding the public security police – staging “super mayor” shows by chasing criminals live, in the style of Bukele.

3. Manzo had already expressed this position, which corresponds to the economic interests of a local big landlord sector and middle bourgeoisie in Uruapan, with clear contradictions with the other sector of the latifundium, more rampant – organized crime.

4. This group of big landlords and local bourgeoisie created the “straw hat movement” and was involved in the national peasant strike, demanding from the Presidency of the republic and the Secretary of the Government the cost of guarantee and security before extortion, threats and aggressions by the organized crime whose protection is granted by several governors in the country. This is an expression of the inter-bourgeoisie contradictions.

5. After his murder, the masses in the State of Michoacán quickly identified the narcotrafficking-governor Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla as the intellectual author of the homicide – there have already been seven murdered mayors during his administration – causing several mobilizations of different types as the one on November 2 (Occupation of the Government Palace in Morelia), on November 3 (The burning of the Municipal Palace of Apatzingan), on November 7 (Strike in Uruapan and other municipalities).

6. The events strengthened the position of the so called “straw hat movement”, which achieved among its first political victories: the swearing-in of Grecia Quiroz (Manzo’s widow) as municipal president of Uruapan and a meeting with Claudia Sheinbaum which, as she stated, “was not to bow to her”.

7. At the same time, the comprador bourgeoisie and the circles of the finance oligarchy made an appearance, flirting openly with the “straw hat movement” mentioning the 2027 governor elections together with the widow of Carlos Manzo – as a first step towards the 2030 presidential elections. We must also mention the staging of mobilizations on November 15 summoned allegedly by the “Generation Z”-movement which reeks of the same old oligarchy that has been working for some time towards a fascist coup and Yankee military intervention under the scheme of a “color revolution” against the opportunist governments of Morena.

8. Sheinbaum’s formal response is the implementation of the “Michoacán Plan”, which is based on 12 points with a total of 100 actions and an expenditure of 57 billions of pesos. A plan really similar to the “war on narcotrafficking” plan by Felipe Calderon, as the population states.

From all of this, a first general conclusion is that today Michoacán is once again a political laboratory in the service of the two factions of the big bourgeoisie which struggle among them for the control of the old State, serving both to Yankee imperialism, placing the masses in a situation of greater weakness before the balkanization process of the national territory and the North American interference.

It will be important to observe the development of the upcoming events and to support the democratic and people’s movements of Michoacán which continue to row against the current in defense of their self-determination and indigenous self-government, as the worthy people of Cherán K´eri do.