OPINION

By THÉRÈSE MARGOLIS

Despite orders from the powers that be (make that, power that be) for all government employees to put on their marching shoes and show their “solidarity” for the leftist government of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) in his egocentric march of self-adornment on Sunday, Nov. 27, and despite reports from Tepito merchants and others that they were forced to participate in the charade (along with a mandatory two companions) on threat of having their businesses shut down by local authorities, the president’s grand parade of everybody-loves-me turned out to be a major dud.

Compared to the totally voluntary March for Democracy in support of the Mexican National Electoral Institute (INE) on Nov. 13, with a million-plus participants nationwide, AMLO’s participate-or-risk-losing-your-government-job-or-state-handout-subsidies march was anything but impressive.

According to most accounts, less than 100,000 “supporters” turned out for the president’s chaotic march-for-me-or-else ego-fest.

And chaotic it was, with reports of pushing, shoving and even rioting, as bussed-in marchers oscillated between jostling for key positions next to their political idol and snapping selfies with him and his favorite cabinet members.

The disorder and the apparent directional fortitude of many of the participants resulted in the march from Mexico City’s Independence Monument to the Zócalo — which was calculated to take three hours — extending into five tumultuous hours.

When the crowd — or about half of it — finally reached the Zócalo main plaza, AMLO offered a glorified public State of the Nation Address, enumerating his accomplishments — real and otherwise — over the course of the last four years.

He also made promises that he would “soon” announce a 20-percent increase to the minimum wage and that Mexico will soon have universal healthcare, something he has been promising since he took office in December 2018 and immediately began to disassemble the nation’s medical safety nets for the uninsured, leaving thousands of Mexicans without essential medications, including children with cancer.

Overall, AMLO’s march was ho-hum at best.

But AMLO was not discouraged. With or without (primarily the latter) the blessing of the Mexican people, he has announced that he will dissolve the country’s most important electoral institution come hell or high water, by hook or by crook (i.e., his get-around-the-petty-inconveniences-of-the-Mexican-Constitution Plan B) and damn the torpedoes, or any insubordinate citizen who gets in his way of his eradicating the last semblance of democracy in Mexico.

And as for the uninspiring turnout for his mandatory show-me-you-love-me march, well, chock it up to the Soccer World Cup.

After all, most Mexicans were glued to their TV screens on Sunday, watching that nail-biting Croatia-versus-Canada game.