Why US Corporations Are So Threatened by Mexico’s Next President Claudia Sheinbaum

we want to turn our attention now back to Mexico which just had a historic presidential election Claudia Shin Bal was elected president there first woman president of Mexico or of any country by the way in North America or what is known as North America a lot of implications here so to dig into all of this we are very very honored to be joined on the show Once Again by John John arriman who's a professor at The Institute for legal research at UNAM there in Mexico John thanks so much for being back with us thank you Eugene ra a real pleasure to be with you it's I don't know how long was the last time we talked a few years ago a few months here a few a real pleasure real pleasure yeah well hey the pleasure is all ours and maybe let's just start here with uh you know some of the the bigger picture issues as it concerns the election uh for those who maybe don't know I mean who is Claudia Shin bomb she's mayor of Mexico City but what does this Victory really uh represent in terms of continuity or change in terms of uh Mexico trory so this is a huge victory for the left in Mexico and Latin America I would dare say the world uh because in 2018 you know L came into Power after about you know 30 years of intense neoliberal policies um various electoral frauds against him and his colleagues um that was a major achievement but he still didn't have complete control over the government of course because many of the state governments of the legislature itself were really struggling against this this um social political transformation of course the oligarchs the United States this was a a real challenge the big question was whether this was going to be just a flash in the pan or whether this was actually going to be the beginning of a new historic moment for Mexico um now we're six years later 20124 and Morena his party has just swept the entire country um Morena now um governs 24 of the 32 states um they're still doing the final calculations but Marina has also won it looks like 2third majority in both houses of Congress both Senate and the Chamber of deputies um it has also ratified his control over Mexico City and with a a woman who a she was academic she was a professor a climate scientist for a long time um always been politically active a student activist um was mayor of Mexico City um she is uh her platform was to continue on with build the second floor of the fourth transformation um winning 60% of the vote two to one over the second place um candidate SOI Galvis who uh was actually the candidate of almost all the parties together totally different strange bed flower sht you have the pre which is the old authoritarian party the pan Which is the Christian Democratic right-wing party the PRD which used to be the leftwing party which sold out a few about five 10 years ago um they all kind of came together ganged up against lope over and they only got about 28% of the vote against the 60% for cl shamam over the last 30 years of democratic transition no president has gotten that level of support we've had presidents that have gotten you know 37% up to 50% but 60% this is a major mandate it's a major blowout and um this is a big opportunity for the next six years this is a six-year presidency for um clle sh mum to really leave a mark on North America and Mexico and Latin America well I actually think that the is hugely important regionally as well um I you know you're talking about obviously domestically Mexico is a huge country it's it's very very important um it's also in a tough position in a sense because Mexico has this really close relationship with the US I mean the US is its neighbor and obviously because of those 30 years of um of basically like neoliberal leaders you do have a very integrated um uh us being very integrated into the Mexican economy that said having a more Progressive government in Mexico could be very beneficial for progressives across the region um can you talk a little bit about how this could benefit the you know pink tide 2.0 as they like to call it whether you like that framing or not you know um whether it benefit that that you know that move across the region yeah most definitely so when L came in 2018 he was pretty much alone and ideologically speaking actually the only President sitting president who came to to his his um inauguration December 1st 2018 with EVO Morales who was still president of bivia at that time then Maduro showed up last minute unannounced um but basically all the other governments at that moment had already you know the first wave had ended and we were in the middle of rightwing governments all over Latin America since then since the lope over Victory we've had a whole second wave of course and uh and the the continuation of the mor in in in Mexico means a a great still for Latin American Unity because now Mexico is no longer alone we have lud Silva who's come back in Brazil uh we have Gustavo Petro who is been you know a Really Brave International um leader from Colombia you know you know tweeting down Netanyahu live on on X right so um those three those are the three largest countries in Latin America in terms of population Brazil Mexico and Colombia uh now we've had some setbacks of course in Argentina you have this crazy melee figure who's you know thinks he's Trump in South America uh but in general you know you have Bic in in Chile who's you know kind of a Social Democrat um lukewarm kind of guy but he's you know for given the history of Chile and politics he's definitely on the Progressive side so there's a real possibility to uh continue bringing together uh Latin America there's been a proposal on the table for instance to you know get rid of the organization of American states and have that be replaced by Sak which is a community of Latin American Caribbean Nations uh which of course is based in Latin America while of course the OAS is in Washington uh and so there there are lots of different possibilities of rethinking the geopolitical role of Latin America now of course Mexico is very much subordinated to the United States um you know 80 90% of our Commerce ex external um uh Commerce goes to the United States we're also you know between one or two or three major trading partner partner of the United States there's this whole idea that Mexico needs to help the United States in its battle against China commercial battle against China which has kind of permeated through lots of the Mexican political class including unfortunately part of the left and so uh it's going to be interested things to see exactly how things fall on those issues in the in the new government and of course we we can't um we need to put a lot more emphasis but you just mentioned in the beginning that this is the first fale president in the history of Mexico Mexico is supposed to be a macho country yeah we got lots of machos here of course but you have the United States all of the world but actually Mexico is actually not such a surprise that it might seem to people from who who don't know Mexico very well is actually the last you know 101 15 years we've had a real push towards um gender equality yeah Mexico City passed same-sex marriage and abortion before San Francisco you know this is like 20 years ago uh and we have a new constitutional reform from three four years ago which requires absolutely all Collective public bodies you know like cabinets or the Electoral counsel or the Supreme Court or the Chamber of deputies or the Senators to be absolutely um equal in terms of of of gender parity right so uh the Mexican Congress is 5050 men and women the Supreme Court is just about there through their the recent appointments and so um to have a woman president is very very much um a logical step Within These this progress in terms of gend equality in Mexico and the political sphere in recent years well JN as I'm sure you've seen the ideological offensive in the US and the big press is already on in terms of their their takeaways of the election and there's a lot of talk about you know the planc and the issue of the reforms and the possibility you know the way that I've saw it presented in the economists basically that you know they'll destroy all Regulatory and reform agencies but I know that this is a big factor because it's addressing some of the things Amo was stymied by because of the legal process so if you could talk about sort of this this second Story the plan C and some of the things that uh uh Miss shine bomb has proposed that were very popular but that obviously have already drawn the ey I think of a lot of uh the big business link press around the world yes this is a a bit so for the last 30 years of the democratic kind of transition they call the transition but wasn't actually as fast as people saw it being there's been a very intense um division between the different parties so there have been three major parties pre pan and PRD who have basically divided up um government um and now all of a sudden there's going to be one honic party right uh and this does remind people of what existed before right the pre the part of thetion Revolution dominated the entire political sphere between the 40s and the 80s and so people are saying that what's happening now is a return to the previous system of a single honic party but the thing but the actual story is very different because this single hegemonic party is actually the outsider party right which had been excluded totally through uh from this democratic transition from uh um obviously the previous system as well and so the victory of Lop in 2018 and of K Shan bound 2024 is not really a proeste establishment power grab but it's part of this resistance to um the economic and political powers that be and the blowout the total victories last Sunday was surprising even to those of us who sympathize on the left and it's shocking these International um Financial press because theoretically right especially they're especially worried about the month of September because the new Congress comes in the 1st of September and Claudia sham comes in the 1st of October and L from past February presented a whole array of a dozen constitutional reforms as you mentioned it's called the pl this is the idea that I can get into the history of that but it's called PL because it those these reforms were not originally passed by Congress because Congress was not with Mor didn't have a control over the two-thirds of that of the of of Congress and so they was rejected by Congress that was the plan a and then plan B was that the Supreme Court also through the second version out you know and so the plan C was that that the third version is going directly to the voters and have the voters decide right not Congress or the court you know kind of a a pleite is what we had this last Sunday and so uh what kind of reforms do Lopez talking about he wants to democratize the Judiciary so for instance he wants the Supreme Court U ministers to be elected by popular vote uh this would be a huge change in Mexico of course because the Supreme Court and the Judiciary is sort of the Bastion of conservative thinking as it is in many countries and uh to have it electoral vote for them would turn them into you know the the International Financial press is afraid into these you know populist people who who decide based on you know pop general you know Democratic interests and not on their sort of more abstract interpret interpretations of law in accord with you know economic stability however they understand it you know so that's one big reform form um there's another electoral for he wants to change the way in which the the distribution of the seats in the House and and the Senate um uh is made a pro-indigenous reform giving um more rights to um local communities in Waka and chapis particularly in the southern part of of Mexico uh there's a whole uh the Electoral authorities themselves also have also have this problem that the Electoral authorities tend to be sort of isolated from citizen opinion he wants to the the leader lead counselors and and magistrates electoral jet magistrates also to be elected by popular vote um he wants to he's already done this some part of the way but he wants to um advance in making you know social rights in the constitution rights for um elderly to youth to um have scholarships and support from the state uh there's a whole whole long list of social and and political reforms that he wants to push through and if and with this if these two-thirds actually they're going to it's to the final deis is going to be the next few days by the El authorities but if that actually happens in September he'll basically be able to do whatever he wants and that's kind of scary for these guys another big issue energy reform for instance lithium uh one of the major reforms that lur tried to get through he couldn't get through Congress was uh to nationalize completely the lithium deposits in Mexico you remember this was actually one of the reasons why um EV Moralis was uh um some submitted to fraud um Kur and his his re-election um effort in 2019 um because of the very important strategic nature of lithium Lop would also like to nationalize lithium so all the things are of course going to be of concern to the international press but um are exciting for us here in Mexico because the fact is that these first six years the changes were relatively slow because of all this resistance from the opposition and with this new stage in the next six years that's very important this is a sixy year period not four not three not two it's six years um big things might happen uh but we still have this pressure from the United States that's the that's the the big boot on our neck of course yeah no absolutely for sure well we'll hope for positive developments here in the United States uh to enforce more positive developments there in Mexico but as always John we really appreciate you having you on John Akerman professor at The Institute for legal research at UNAM thank you so much for being with us here on the freedom side thank you Eugene Rak please come visit us soon no once if if Trump comes in November you're gonna have to come running down south to look for democracy here in Mexico City and Mexico City is a wonderful place I don't know if you've ever been there but um it's it's a great place to live and um we'd love to see you guys and and your audience too it's uh please come come get to know Mexico City and Mexico it's a wonderful country absolutely thanks so much John

Channel: BreakThrough News

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Id: R7f1vbFtUZE

Length: 15min 2sec (902 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 07 2024