How many modern liberators do you know? Two Three?. Those that official history has placed us in primary and secondary education, without a doubt, tell us in their textbooks about those brave men and women who faced the system to impose new ideas, who changed the world and with it the course of the history.
That was more or less the proposal of a man named Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta, a liberator who challenged the status quo of Mexican politics in 1994.
In the framework of his tragic anniversary today “March 23” it is necessary to remember the nostalgic narrative of his tragedy and the utopia of the Mexico he longed for.
The year 1993 was closing, the then President of Mexico Carlos Salinas de Gortari was preparing his departure and had not yet chosen the candidate who would continue his legacy in the country, everything indicated that Manuel Camacho Solís would be the ideal person to continue with the modernity that he had brought Salinas to Modern Mexico, Camacho “said the analysts of that time” was “the covered one” promised succession in diplomatic and economic matters, but above all, his candidacy would allow President Salinas to continue participating in the decisions of Mexico, which is why which appeared in all the projections to the elections of August 1994.
However, during the month of January of the following year, the PRI and the President faced the decisive date, between media scandals and political cheers, Carlos Salinas de Gortari shook the rumors about the presidential candidacy with an iconic phrase: ” Don’t fool around, there is only one presidential candidate”, it being understood that this would be Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta, who, like Manuel Camacho, was also on the list of potential candidates.
Colosio, a political professional but also a man with ideals, knew that the door of the pines could only be opened from the inside, and from the inside he had to build his candidacy. The combination of this partisan discipline of a man with a long career within the PRI and his liberating ideas made Colosio the perfect candidate that Mexico at that time needed, a series of unfortunate events for Salinas, “such as the emergence of the Zapatista movement in Chiapas » made Luis Donaldo create paper castles in his mind, utopian ideas that, upon learning of them, put the status quo of power at risk, above all because it evidenced bad practices and promised in turn to unmask wolves in sheep’s clothing, which is why he began to become an “uncomfortable candidate” for the men of power, creators of the system and of the same political class that had power by the handle.
His comments on authoritarianism and his democratic vision put a political heritage of more than 70 years in trouble. Against the current, on March 6, 1994, before the Mexicans, he expressed what the media would later call his death sentence.
In an emblematic speech at the monument to the Revolution in Mexico City, he promised to “reform power to democratize and end any vestige of authoritarianism”, his message did not leave him to interpretations, he was forceful with every word. “I see a Mexico that is hungry and thirsty for justice, of people aggrieved by the distortions imposed on the law by those who should serve it, of women and men afflicted by the authorities or by the arrogance of government offices, we know that the origin of the evils lies in an excessive concentration of power that gives rise to abuses… and excesses.” “A new balance in the life of the republic”, “it is time to reform power”, “to block the path to Influencerism” among other phrases that marked the line between Salinas de Gortari and caused the emergence of a man as a hero for the struggle of an almost utopian Mexico.
Luis Donaldo represented the feeling of a people that felt alienated from the authorities, that without knowing it, needed an ideologue who would come from power to confirm what the whole country assumed but that no one dared to say. With these words, Colosio confirmed his distance from the President and the system, put an end to the rumors that he could be replaced by Camacho Solís and won the affection of the people, but also; he was left completely alone.
That utopian dream lasted only 17 days. On March 23, 1994, in the Lomas Taurinas neighborhood in the City of Tijuana, the dream of a different Mexico came to an end, two shots changed the history of a people with just claims and who envisioned a new course for history in the presidential candidate. from the country.
The utopia of Luis Donaldo 28 years after his death is still the cause of the politicians and policies that we live in Colosio, an ideology to build a different Mexico.
Many of our old practices no longer work, they have become mere political routine and are still being carried out. We are far from a partisan politics with ethics of responsibility and public morality, on the contrary, we continue to justify the bad decisions of the candidates we nominate. We do not have a policy that proposes ideas, but we continue to practice politicking that is only based on discrediting the adversary. We did not realize that we ran out of triumphs guaranteed by the system and clientelism, until we lost them.
Like all liberators in history, Luis Donaldo ended up dead for fighting for his ideals, it seems that prison or bullets are the destiny for those who dream of utopias and face the challenge of building them.
See you next time
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