Cuahtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano, moral leader of the left in Mexico, has announced that he will no longer be working with the Collective for Mexico, or “Mexicolectivo”, the new opposition front against Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s government, which was only announced this Monday. Cárdenas, 88, has said in a letter that while he helped develop the new political organization, he never did so from the role of organizer and has indicated that he has long announced within the group that that he will no longer form any more part of it. The founder of the Party of Democratic Revolution (PRD) has released his decision hours after President López Obrador lashed out at his former co-religionist for joining the new opposition platform.
The group led by Movimiento Ciudadano (MC), which includes politicians from the old guard of the PRI, PAN and PRD, had assured that Cárdenas would be present this Monday at the launch of “Mexicolectivo” and at the presentation of its founding document called “ Starting point”, which is basically a negative diagnosis by the López Obrador government in the areas of poverty, health, security, education and the economy. But in the end Cardenas didn’t come. Yesterday, MC Senator Patricia Mercado told the press that organizers do not know the reasons behind the absence of the three-time PRD presidential candidate, but that they have faith that he will continue to work together. Today, Cardenas has said his departure from the new front was decided in advance and was due to “political” considerations.
“In the particular case of ‘Punto de partida’, the development of which as a document I have learned over time, I was at no time a convener of anyone to take part in its formulation and subsequent development,” Cárdenas wrote. “At the time I informed those who had invited me to find out more about this project and follow its development process that I would no longer be taking part for political reasons. These are the reasons for my absence from yesterday’s ceremony announcing the Punto de partida-Mexicolectivo project”.
The former rector of UNAM, José Narro Robles, takes part in the collective meeting for Mexico in Mexico City this Monday Sáshenka Gutiérrez (EFE)
The son of former President Lázaro Cárdenas (1934-1940) added in his letter that he usually encourages debate and the formulation of proposals to solve national problems, as in the case of “Mexicolectivo”. “I firmly believe that the debate strengthens our democratic life, that in order to solve the country’s main problems: insecurity and violence, economic lag, social inequality, excessive concentration of wealth, the risks of climate change, etc., a broad discussion of ideas is needed and the more options there are, the more similarities there are between the alternatives presented by the different sectors of our country – including the government – the better the ways that will be decided to address the differing problems. With these ideas in mind, I have tried to encourage the development of various proposals as much as I can,” he remarked.
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