Mexico’s government is not left-wing

Why Mexican politics is devoid of progressive parties altogether.

If the Supreme Court continues to uphold international law, 60,000 criminals will be unleashed onto the streets of Mexico. Better to continue with the practice of “mandatory pre-trial detention” in which suspects are incarcerated without having been convicted (meaning that these 60,000 so-called criminals are actually technically innocent until proven otherwise).

Nayib Bukele would be proud. The only problem is that this statement was made by Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico’s presidential frontrunner of a purportedly left-wing progressive party, Morena.

If Sheinbaum wins much of the head scratching from the international media will likely go on as it has with the current administration under president Andrés Manuel López Obrador. For years, global outlets have struggled to wrap their heads around the Mexican president’s ideological positioning. From the very first days of his administration there was much bemusement about how “Mexico’s leftist leader” cut deals with big business, kept strict fiscal austerity, and—like Sheinbaum—embraced a militaristic and punitive approach to Mexico’s security ills. 

The issue has been the constant assumption that the old labels that once defined the government and the opposition still stick. In truth, the left-right political spectrum in Mexico collapsed many years ago. A different struggle for power has taken its place—part personality politics, but mostly, a contest among party machines vying to expand or protect their clientelistic fiefdoms.