During the morning conference, President Claudia Sheinbaum once again lashed out against former President Felipe Calderón. This time it was over a video circulated on social media showing him aboard a yacht with his wife, Margarita Zavala, and one of their daughters.
Sheinbaum's attack came in response to a question related to a news story about an alleged trip by Andrés Manuel López Obrador to Cuba on a private jet. Far from clearly denying it, the president diverted the conversation to Calderón, stating:
"There's another former president who was on a yacht, who said he didn't have a job, that he was in poverty, living in Madrid. Who knows with what resources, but now he's been seen on a yacht. Yes, I saw the video."
Capturas del video donde aparece el ex presidente
But she didn't stop there. Sheinbaum took the opportunity to repeat her party's old accusations against Calderón:
"They have a conservative former president who, moreover, left the war on drugs, who came to the presidency through electoral fraud. In fact, he shouldn't even be called a former president, yes, he held the presidency, but he was a spurious president. And now he enjoys being on a yacht."
These statements contrast with the call that Sheinbaum herself made days earlier to "leave" López Obrador "in peace" in the face of criticisms of his term. AMLO's term is already considered the most violent in Mexico's contemporary history.
La presidente Claudia Sheinbaum
The double standard did not go unnoticed among analysts and social media users, who pointed out the hypocrisy of demanding respect for AMLO while insulting and slandering opposing former presidents.
In the viralized video, Calderón is seen on the deck of a Lagoon brand boat, apparently on a family outing. The former president has repeatedly claimed that he doesn't have a formal job and lives modestly since his presidential pension was withdrawn by decree of López Obrador.
Morena's hatred toward Calderón: a long-standing political enmity
Morena's resentment toward Felipe Calderón is not new. The enmity began in 2006, when Calderón defeated López Obrador in one of the closest and most controversial elections in recent history.
Since then, López Obrador and his close circle have labeled him as a "spurious president." Claiming without solid evidence that the result was the product of electoral fraud.
Calderon venció a AMLO y éste nunca se lo perdonó
Added to this is the "war on drugs," launched by Calderón during his term, the security strategy that was harshly criticized by Morena. But AMLO's administration ended up intensifying the military deployment and generating a greater number of homicides, without significantly reducing the power of the cartels.
The narrative of hatred toward Calderón has become a recurring tool to divert attention from the current government's failures. However, it is ironic and even absurd to compare AMLO with Calderón, when Calderón was, by the numbers, a much better president than AMLO.
