Plato y plomo – silver or lead – has been the dominant question in Mexican politics since the end of the Spanish occupation. It is the war cry of the cartels, who have for decades given Mexican politicians exactly and only that choice: be bought off, or be killed off. 37 Mexican political candidates have been assassinated this year alone. They chose lead. The ones who chose silver got elected.
At the top of the Plato Ticket was Presidential candidate Claudia Sheinbaum, the chosen successor to term-limited outgoing President Andres Manual Lopez Obrador. In 2018, Lopez Obrador was elected President on a platform of anti-corruption and opposition to the cartels. And he wasn’t killed for it. On the contrary, Lopez Obrador’s tenure has seen the cartels massively grow their business – expanding from drugs into new streams of revenue in global human smuggling and sex slavery, and building strong relationships with Chinese government-owned and controlled chemical manufacturers who supply the precursor chemicals for fentanyl, meth, and a host of designer drugs now produced in Mexican factory labs. All of which makes it exceptionally clear that far from taking on the cartels, Lopez Obrador was hired by them, as his successor now has been as well.
Obedience to the cartels is one thing – a veritable tradition in Mexican politics – but, unlike her mentor, Sheinbaum also takes office with a super-majority in the Mexican Congress: a mandate to effectively turn Mexico into a one-Party narco state. Sheinbaum will now have free rein to carry out Lopez Obrador’s agenda to eliminate the independent Mexican elections authority and bring elections under the umbrella of the ruling party. Sheinbaum will also move forward with significant changes to the governing structure of Mexico – reducing the size of the legislature by removing at-large seats that were created to expand representation outside the dominant Party. These moves will, effectively, overturn the reforms that broke the institutionally iron-fisted grip of the pre-2000 ruling Party, PRI. Thus, the Sheinbaum / Obrador agenda will almost certainly return Mexico to a one-party state, a one-Party narco state.
To help ensure Party control and insulate their power from the courts – which have repeatedly stopped Lopez Obrador’s power grabbing schemes – Sheinbaum will also move forward with replacing Mexico’s independent judiciary with judges elected and retained on a Party-line vote. In short, Mexicans just voted to end democracy in Mexico.
The consequences for the U.S. will be enormous, because on top of eliminating electoral opposition, the Sheinbaum agenda is also deeply rooted in authoritarian socialism. Lopez Obrador already announced an effort to re-nationalize Mexico’s energy sector and increase government oversight and control of commerce. American industry that has been busily relocating manufacturing and investing in the Mexican economy won’t be spared, and American business leaders would be wise to immediately begin developing plans to divest from their Mexican operations before the nearly inevitable seizures begin.
On the border, it is highly likely that Sheinbaum will cease even the token-cooperation provided by Lopez Obrador’s government, making it impossible to prevent the growing and ever-more frequent cartel-run convoys of South Americans, Africans, Middle Easterners, and Asians from reaching our border.
The left-media has been nearly unanimous in cheering Sheinbaum’s “historic” election as the first female President of Mexico, but what they’re really cheering is an authoritarian takeover of a sovereign nation by the only real power remaining in Mexico: the cartels.
Mexico just voted to become a failed state.
Note: the opinions expressed here are those of Sam Stone only and not his co-host Chuck Warren or Breaking Battlegrounds’ staff.
