By THÉRÈSE MARGOLIS

It’s official.

Both Mexico’s National Electoral Institute (INE) and the Electoral Tribunal (TEPJF) that oversees it have now ruled definitively on Wednesday, April 28, that both Félix Salgado Macedonio (with an impressive political portfolio of legal accusations against him, running the gamut from alleged serial rapist to assumed multi-million peso embezzler to probable lackey for drug cartels) and Raúl Morón will not be allowed to run as the ruling National Regeneration Movement (Morena) candidates for the governorships of Guerrero and Michoacán, respectively.

The reason that both candidates were ousted from the June 6 midterm election rosters is that both allegedly did not correctly report the sources and amounts of their campaign funding, as specified in Mexico’s electoral laws.

But while Morón accepted his defeat graciously (he protested and filed appeals through the normal legal channels, but that was to be expected), the same cannot be said in the case of Salgado Macedonio, who not only threatened to halt the entire electoral process in Guerrero if he was not reinstated, but warned that he would “have the head” of president of the INE, Lorenzo Córdova, unless there was a reversal of the institute’s decision.

And even now, Salgado Macedonio is still trying to find a loophole to keep running, suggesting on Wednesday, April 28, that his daughter, Evelyn Salgado, should be his official replacement, thus ensuring he has a proxy voice to lead the state of Guerrero. (That idea was soon shot down by the INE and even Morena, but don’t write Salgado Macedonio off quite yet. He is bound to find yet another way to maneuver his political stranglehold on the state.)

But as disgraceful as Salgado Macedonio’s behavior has been, it is not nearly as embarrassing for Mexico as that of his close friend and political ally, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), who defended his bosom buddy and declared the INE “anti-democratic.” while completely ignoring the fact that Salgado Macedonio had committed criminal intimidation against the life of Córdova.

AMLO, who it seems it not content to simply hold a solid majority in both Mexico’s lower house Chamber of Deputies and its Senate, and who has railed against predecessors, opposition parties, NGOs, independent bodies, judges, lawyers, journalists and anybody else who dares to question his dictatorial mandates, has spent the last three days lambasting both the INE and the TEPJF in his daily two-hour (or more) diatribes loosely disguised as press conferences.

When one reporter pointed out to the president on Thursday, April 29, that “the law is the law,” and the INE electoral law clearly states that all campaign funding and sources must be reported prior to the candidate’s official registry, AMLO simply said that, in this case, the “law doesn’t matter.”

And therein lies the crux of the problem with AMLO.

Unfortunately, in just about every case that AMLO decides to ram through his will, it seems that the law doesn’t matter (such as with his controversial electricity reform, Tren Maya tourist train, Santa Lucia airport, cellular telephone monitoring bill, and … well, the list goes on … all of which have been declared illegal and/or unconstitutional).

For AMLO, there is only one law, and that is that his power is absolute.

How does this not constitute a dictatorship?

…April 30, 2021