Politics: AMLO’s continuing missteps over “Gray house,” his worst political crisis to date
The scandal that first broke in late January over a luxury Houston home rented by the son and daughter-in-law of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador continues to take a toll on AMLO's political credibility as bumbling attempts at explaining away the issue turn to what appear to be increasingly desperate efforts to kill the messenger and politically polarize the country. By suggesting that his first born son enjoys a privileged lifestyle, the story struck at the heart of AMLO’s claims that the relative austerity of the 4T camp and his administration affords them a moral and political superiority over the corrupt and privileged politicians who preceded him. It also points to a probable conflict of interest in which his administration might be tipping the scales in favor of a foreign oil company. A seemingly ham-fisted attempt at inventing a job for that son revealed a new paper trail pointing to what could prove to be a more credible case of influence peddling involving a prominent real-estate developer.
Unable to deny his son’s lifestyle or credibly explain the source of his income, AMLO’s response to the scandal basically boils down to attacking the people who published the story, especially journalist Carlos Loret de Mola, denouncing him as part of the neoliberal “power mafia” that wants to destroy his political project. By publishing unsourced information claiming the journalist was paid 35 million pesos from various sources in 2021, López Obrador very likely broke the law in an enormous abuse of power to the extent that he used his office of the Presidency of the Republic to violate a Mexican citizen’s right to privacy.
We appear to be witnessing the radicalization of a president who is increasingly irrational in his behavior, inclined to make unforced errors his advisors are incapable of convincing him to avoid, and to lash out at all detractors, including major autonomous institutions. This radicalization is also affecting the broad social and political movement that is Morena in contradictory ways that could diminish its public support.
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