Politics: The generals appear to grow restless
It took almost two weeks for the government to make its best effort to date to explain what happened before, during and after the failed attempt in Culiacan on October 17 to capture a son of imprisoned drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. During that time officials had ham-fistedly tried to field relentless questions and criticisms about the horribly botched operation and the demand for explanations to justify what went wrong and who was to blame.
President López Obrador’s daily morning press conference last Wednesday helped to dispel some doubts about the broader logistics and developments that day in and around the Sinaloa state capital, but not the gnawing doubts as to who had ordered the operation and when top officials learned of the attempt. The next day, he ordered his minister of defense to make known a previously secret anti-drug intelligence Army unit and the name of its commanding officer, and effectively assigned them blame for supposedly undertaking the entire operation without notifying anyone.
The explanation strained credibility and failed to sway public opinion, but did shed light on growing cracks in two of the main pillars of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s political strategy: maintaining a close relationship with the Armed Forces and controlling the media agenda.
There are likely to be long-term consequences from publicly exposing a secret military unit and its commander as part of an effort to shield the president and other top civilian and military officials from blame. By further stirring resentment within the Armed Forces, on whom he is highly dependent for the success of many of his priority projects, including the National Guard, the president could jeopardize whatever may exist in the way of a security strategy.
And given the extent to which the president has been lashing out at reporters for their questions and handling of the matter, he appears to be shredding the favorable relations he enjoyed with the media and the mechanisms through which he had long managed the news cycle.
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