A new front has opened between the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and the courts, now due to the president's latest book, Thank you! (Planet, 2024). The opposition presidential candidate, Xóchitl Gálvez, filed a complaint with the National Electoral Institute (INE) in which she accused the president of getting into the electoral process with her book and of indirectly supporting the ruling party's candidate, Claudia Sheinbaum. . Gálvez presented as evidence the passages in which López Obrador praises Sheinbaum and others where she expresses herself negatively about the opposition standard-bearer and now complainant. The INE simply dismissed the complaint, which Gálvez complained to the Federal Electoral Tribunal (TEPJF). Now, Judge Reyes Rodríguez has presented a project in which he proposes that the INE be ordered to reopen the case and weigh the evidence provided by the candidate, which unleashed criticism from López Obrador, who has accused an attempt at censorship comparable to the burning of books Incidentally, the episode has revived the long confrontation between the Executive and the Judiciary. The TEPJF will vote on the matter next Wednesday.
“A magistrate of the Court is also asking that my book be reviewed and banned, that is, it is the Inquisition,” the president said in a conference this Monday, and added with jiribilla that the rapporteur magistrate, Rodríguez, is actually surnamed Franco. . “We are going to wait and see what, to see if the Inquisition puts it in a prohibited book, as it was before,” he added. López Obrador said that, subject to knowing the vote on the matter, the TEPJF seeks that his work be withdrawn from sale to the public, something that, however, Judge Rodríguez's project does not say. “I mean, there's no way I can erase him.” [fragmentos]. Or we can do it like this, so that people acquire it and do not read what is prohibited,” commented the president. In the end, he said that his work, of which 135,000 copies were printed in a first run, is in first place in sales.
The controversy over the president's book comes at a crucial moment in the electoral process, two months before the vote, in a race in which Gálvez is trying to overcome Sheinbaum's advantage in the polls. The electoral authorities have reiterated to López Obrador that he cannot use his popular conference Morning to make political positions regarding the elections, neither for or against candidates or parties, in accordance with the electoral law. The president has criticized these mandates and has asserted his freedom of expression and right of reply. As a last resort, and to try to overcome the restrictions, López Obrador has decided not to give his opinion so much about the race and instead read live some historical sections of his book, passages that, however, always have a political background in terms of teaching. of the past or warning of the future. It is that same book that is now under examination and fueled the discussion about the limits of what in Mexico officials are allowed to express during election time.
Gálvez's complaint
The book Thank you! It was released by Planeta to the press on February 10. That same day, journalistic notes about the content were published. This newspaper reported on López Obrador's demonstrations in favor of the presidential candidate of Morena, PVEM and PT, Sheinbaum, whom the author referred to as “sensitive, incapable of committing injustice and, above all, honest.” The candidate herself published messages on social networks to promote the work. “I am serene and happy because Claudia Sheinbaum, who has replaced me in the direction of the transformation movement, represents a true guarantee that we will have a future of more justice and more honesty in our beautiful and beloved Mexico,” the president wrote. And he added: “With Claudia the continuity of our transformation movement is guaranteed: I have known her for 23 years, we have always worked together and she is a prepared woman, with convictions and, above all, honest.”
López Obrador also criticized the PAN, the PRI and the PRD, which in these elections allied themselves and nominated Gálvez for the presidency, whom the president criticized for his ties with the business class. “As she was born in a town in Hidalgo, they thought that her origin would be useful to offer a supposed popular image, when in reality she is ladino and just as classist and racist as the conservatives of higher rank or level on the economic, social and political scale of the country.” country,” said the president.
These were two of the passages reported by Gálvez to the INE after the book came out and its wide dissemination in the media and in the Mornings. The opposition candidate “argued that these expressions positioned Sheinbaum in advance before the electorate, since they have the unequivocal intention of underlining and highlighting personal qualities, in addition to the fact that some phrases should even be understood as an open request to vote in his favor.” , according to Judge Rodríguez's project. For Gálvez, López Obrador has violated the principles of impartiality, neutrality and equity that, according to Mexican law, must govern all electoral contests.
President and author
At the time, the INE consulted the Legal Department of the Presidency, which assured that López Obrador wrote Thank you! “in his capacity as a citizen, through which he relates aspects of his life, the history of Mexico and his ideological position, a fact that does not constitute an act in electoral matters.” The electoral referee accepted this statement as valid, and added that the president has made comments about the book “in accordance with his exercise of freedom of expression.” […] without any call to vote, a request to vote for or against any candidacy, or demonstrations contrary to electoral regulations.” Furthermore, the INE argued that Gálvez only provided some news links as evidence, and not the book itself, which posed an obstacle for him to investigate. “This authority did not have the reported book, both in its physical and digital form, to directly corroborate the reported facts.”
The electoral referee also maintained that the media publications “respond to an authentic exercise of journalistic work, so the presumption of their legality is considered updated.” The opposition candidate appealed the INE's refusal before the TEPJF, a body of the Judicial Branch. In principle, he alleged that the Electoral Institute dismissed the complaint with an argument on the merits of the matter—that freedom of the press must prevail—a legal qualification that in any case falls to the Specialized Chamber of the Electoral Court to decide, not the INE. , which should be limited to the preliminary study only to dictate precautionary measures. Judge Rodríguez validated this argument, the main reason for asking that the file not be shelved.
Rodríguez has noted the contradiction that, on the one hand, the INE said that it could not corroborate the reported facts because it did not have the book, but, on the other, it described its dissemination and advertising in the media as legal. The magistrate included in his project a reflection on López Obrador's dual quality as president and author. “The legal analysis regarding whether it is valid for a highly relevant political actor—such as a President of the Republic—, in a book of his authorship, which is also published to be marketed during the inter-campaign and campaign stages, make demonstrations explicit in favor of the candidate of her party and against the opposition candidate is an issue that requires, at least, weighing the rights involved in their different dimensions, which evidently goes b
eyond a preliminary study, because it implies a comprehensive legal qualification of the facts, which are only the responsibility of the Specialized Chamber,” he noted.
In addition to the campaigns in the streets, the electoral contest has largely taken place in the offices of the INE and the electoral courts, in a country in which electoral regulations are very restrictive in terms of what politicians and officials can express or not. López Obrador has been constantly denounced for allegedly taking advantage of his conferences to support the candidates of his party, Morena, and attacking his opponents. The restrictions issued against the president have been ineffective. The book represents a new battle front opened by the opposition, in a multi-party game that reaches the Judiciary and feeds López Obrador's narrative that the country needs to purge judges.
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