Zedillo kicks the hornet's nest

The reappearance in the media of former President Ernesto Zedillo upset the Fourth Transformation government, not only because of his statements but also because of the political jealousy they have for the former president, internationally recognized for having pulled Mexico out of one of its deepest economic crises.

Zedillo told a prestigious magazine that Morena had destroyed democracy in the country, criticized the militarization of public security, and of course, the so-called judicial reform.

From the National Palace, President Sheinbaum responded and challenged him to talk about Fobaproa, Aguas Blancas, Acteal, the disappearance of the Court, among other issues recorded during the 1994-2000 period.

The accounts supporting the President immediately echoed her remarks, but not with the impact they would have desired.

In fact, those who joined in the criticism of Zedillo were unable to respond to the counterarguments of those who share the former president's political views.

And they return to debate about the drug graves , the multi-million dollar fraud at Segalmex ("it had some problems," Sheinbaum said on Friday about the embezzlement of nearly 20 billion pesos), the businesses of the friends of "Andy" López Obrador and his brothers, etc.

Zedillo came to stir up a hornet's nest; his statements don't contradict reality and are supported by a significant segment of the population dissatisfied with the government's decisions.

Furthermore, those who accuse Zedillo of being a pawn of the "PRI-PAN" party don't know the former president.

During his term as president, Zedillo distanced himself enormously from the PRI, so much so that he was the first to recognize Vicente Fox 's victory even before the then IFE made it official.

This prevented a rebellion by PRI members, who were ready to take to the streets to defend "the triumph" of Francisco Labastida Ochoa. Minutes after the then-president's message, Ochoa acknowledged the PRI's first defeat in a presidential election.

Reluctant even to interact with the media, his administration was austere out of necessity, as he took over a bankrupt country, but he had the merit of leaving it, in his last year of government, with economic growth of 7 percent.

He wasn't the champion of democracy (nor was López Obrador), but he must have done something right if his opinions continue to bother the ruling party.

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Incidentally, taking advantage of the trip, the aspiring Supreme Court minister, César Gutiérrez Priego, son of General José de Jesús Gutiérrez Rebollo, the "anti-drug czar" sentenced to 40 years in prison for organized crime, threatened to release audio recordings his father had inherited that would prove the ties between Zedillo's political family and drug trafficking.

The candidate said that his father (who died of a brain tumor in 2013) left him some cassettes in which the former president's then-wife, Nilda Patricia, can be heard talking with drug traffickers .

He said he will present the audio recordings "in the coming days" and asked everyone to "stay tuned."

But don't think the ministerial candidate is seeking the spotlight. No.

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In Teocaltiche, the Jalisco island ruled by drug traffickers due to the inaction of Pablo Lemus's government, José Luis Pereida Robles, the president of the municipal PRI (National Action Party), who was also the City Council's secretary of government, was assassinated yesterday.

That municipality has been the scene of massacres and kidnappings, despite the presence of the National Guard and the Army.

Until when?

@adriantrejo