Federico Reyes Heroles
Neo-authoritarianism or tyranny, we’re already there. When I read the headline of Ricardo Pascoe Pierce’s article, it struck me as exaggerated: “The direct line between Stalin and Sheinbaum.” In an AI image (another splendid edition from SEPGRA), both appear smiling, celebrating. Ricardo comes from the left, a highly educated man. He studied at several universities in the US, in Chile, and at the London School of Economics. He co-founded the PRT with Rosario Ibarra de Piedra and was therefore considered the first Trotskyist deputy in Mexico. From there, he moved to the PRD and was very close to Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas. He later served as Mexico’s ambassador to Cuba at a very delicate time: “You eat and you leave,” from Fox to Castro—a man devoted to public life, academic, serious. Compare Sheinbaum to Stalin?
But Ricardo’s thesis is very clear: “Sheinbaum appointed a veteran Stalinist, a staunch defender of the Soviet electoral model,” the perennial multi-term legislator Pablo Gómez—and a clique of Morena loyalists—as the “ideologue” of the reform. Mauricio Merino has solidly summarized the significance of her proposals (El Universal, 8/11/2025): a regime change in which the majority imposes its rules. Goodbye to plurality. It is an authoritarian, Stalinist drive to control everything.
But Ricardo is not the only prominent member of the old left who has come out to denounce the internal “coup” in Morena against the democratic left. Graco Ramírez, founder of the PST, PMS, and PRD, and who as a legislator promoted independent candidacies and citizen consultations, documented this distortion or betrayal in Contra la regresión autoritaria (Against Authoritarian Regression, Debate, 2024). Recently, Jesús (Chucho) Zambrano (a physicist by training) published The Undefeated Will (Cal y Arena). In it, he recounts his time in the September 23 Communist League and his guerrilla activities that led him to prison. He later joined the PRD, but he would also change. Painfully, Chucho had to bury that party that gave so much to Mexico. Other voices, such as that of Jesús (Chucho) Ortega—also a scientist—PST, PMS, Frente Democrático Nacional with Cárdenas and Muñoz Ledo at the helm, have already spoken out: “Ending proportional representation is ending democracy” (Reforma, 7/7/2025). Jorge Alcocer – PCM, PSUM, PMS, PRD – said the same: “Morena managed to destroy a collective work of many generations” (Reforma, August 10, 2025). There are many voices on the democratic left, such as Woldenberg and Carlos Navarrete.
All of them, like Ricardo Lagos and, on the other side, Patricio Aylwin, had a breakdown and became defenders of democracy. As Churchill said, “He who does not change, changes nothing.”
Pascoe is not exaggerating: Sheinbaum-Stalin. There are very diverse currents within Morena. “No,” another friend on the left told me, “López Obrador is a social climber. Claudia—whom he knows well—is dogmatic.” AMLO corseted her. That’s why many gave her the benefit of the doubt. That is no longer the case. Sheinbaum has made and taken decisions of an authoritarian or tyrannical nature. She defended to the death the destruction of the judiciary and applauded wildly, despite all the irregularities, that “election,” the “accordion election,” which has brought Mexico international ridicule and scorn. We are now in the realm of parody: “We are going to be the most democratic in the world.” She has betrayed the National Electoral Institute; she has reviled an entire branch of government—something unprecedented—accusing the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, without any nuance, of “releasing criminals,” of “usurping the functions of the legislature,” and of “racism.” But the “litigation subject” was something else. Laynez Potisek and the majority of the Chamber had to rule on the public disclosure by the authorities (textbooks) of an illegal recording of a Mexican citizen, Lorenzo Córdova. Revenge?
What will the true left say about the million-dollar watch, to take just one case, of Adán Augusto López and other “jewels” of the Stalinist group?
Let’s weave democracy.
Further Reading: