Suicide by centralisation

Sheinbaum has concentrated too much power in too few hands.

The Ministry of Energy in Mexico is chiefly made up of two factions. There’s the team of functionaries that accompanied then-mayor Claudia Sheinbaum in her Mexico City administration, who are currently considered to be truly in line with the president’s political programme. Then there’s the team of academics who accompanied then-professor Sheinbaum at the National University and who were brought on for their technical knowhow.

One could call them the faction of the Scientists and the faction of the Militants. One as green as the other in matters of national politics.

They are both led by Luz Elena González, the elusive Energy Secretary imbued with great power. Her ministry was the only one to have received a whopping 87% increase in this year’s federal austerity budget.

Her job is to fix Mexico’s biggest stumbling block to investment—electricity—and to save the country’s embattled State-run oil company. In short, the future of the Sheinbaum administration sits in no small part in González’s hands.

The Energy Secretary has a big problem though: There is a massive bottleneck to reach her. Not only has she given no interviews since she came to office, González is also unreachable by senior members of her team. One such director told The Mexico Political Economist that they’d had to find backchannels to the Secretary to get crucial information to her.

To make matters worse, this is all on purpose.