Academic and writer John Ackerman. Photo: Google

By KELIN DILLON

After losing both the controversial presidential mandate revocation and electricity reform bill within the space of one week, Mexico’s ruling National Regeneration Movement (Morena) – the party of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) – has begun fighting among itself, with U.S.-born writer and academic John Ackerman suggesting that Morena must fix its internal tensions – and fast – as it may be “the last chance to revive the party.”

A vocal critic Morena President Mario Delgado, Ackerman suggested that the party look away from its opposition (which AMLO himself branded as “traitors” for not passing through his reform in the Chamber of Deputies) and take personal accountability for its own back-to-back losses, rather than continue trying to deflect blame.

“It’s not all the fault of external adversaries, traitors, the media sold to the oligarchy or fake Democrats who head the electoral authorities. We Morenoists are also to blame,” said Ackerman in a column for daily Mexican newspaper La Jornada, a publication known for leaning in López Obrador’s favor.

“The polls should have overflowed in favor of the president. But the exact opposite happened. Instead of increasing the vote, it was reduced by half. In 2018, 30 million citizens voted for López Obrador, but in 2022, only 15 million did,” continued Ackerman, pointing out that AMLO has been polling much higher presently than he did when he won the presidency in 2018 and when Morena “was in a much less favorable situation than it is today,” and, subsequently, should’ve resulted in a better turnout for the mandate revocation vote.

Ackerman went on to suggest that Morena could have accomplished its constitutional reform goals had it not lost more than 50 seats in the Chamber of Deputies during the June 2021 midterm elections, implying that Delgado’s ineffective leadership as Morena’s president let the party’s representation in local governments “squander” AMLO’s widespread popularity due to “overconfidence in its mercenary armies.”

“The future of the Fourth Transformation will depend on the capacity for self-criticism and autonomous mobilization of the Morenoist militancy in favor of rectifying the course before it is too late,” said Ackerman.

Continuing Morena’s troubles, the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) opened investigations into alleged financial crimes committed by Morena members Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum and federal Secretary of the Interior Adán Augusto López, relating to their purported illegal promotion of the April 10 presidential mandate revocation. This includes claims of abuse of authority and embezzlement, particularly after Augusto López utilized a state-owned military plane to promote the vote.