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The left thrives by feeding resentment, condemning prosperity, pointing a flaming finger of condemnation at the rich and “revenge” on the poor. The same narrative, with minor nuances, is repeated by socialist parrots throughout Latin America, from Argentina to Mexico. With that talking point, they win. By winning, they live largely. We were reminded of this by the investigation published on January 27 by the portal LatinUs and the NGO Mexicans Against Corruption, revealing the luxurious lifestyle of José Ramón López Beltrán, eldest son of the president of Mexico.
Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) became Mexican President riding the banners of the left and humility, and his supposed obsession with the goodness of moderation and poverty has reached the point of making “austerity” the hallmark of his message and the pretext to justify the incessant blunders of his administration while condemning the rich and the middle class as “conservatives” or “posh.”
Possessed by the zeal for justice in socialist tones, AMLO has even proclaimed, like a preacher in the desert, that Mexicans should not “consume in an unhealthy way.” After all, explains the president, “if we already have shoes, what’s the use of more?” Moreover, he promises citizens that “we are going from republican austerity to Franciscan poverty.” It even seems mystical.
However, as it happens with every good leftist politician, the “we are going” to be poor applies to the people, not to the ruling family, and that is very clear when visiting the humble dwellings where the presidential junior enjoys the hated American “neoliberalism.”
AMLO’s luxurious son
José Ramón López Beltrán is 40 years old, and has a phantasmagoric professional trajectory, where no position appears that justifies a life of luxury. To end soon, only in 2018 he said he did not know what he was going to dedicate himself to, and it was only when daddy arrived at the national palace that the prince, together with his brothers, supposedly created a chocolate factory called “Rocío,” whose online store still carries a “coming soon” sign.
And yet, he is doing very well.
According to information from LatinUs and Mexicans Against Corruption, in the last couple of years, José Ramón and his family have lived in two luxury residences in the Houston area, the first of which turned out to be owned by Keith L. Schilling, “a senior executive of Baker Hughes, one of the largest oil companies in the world, with which the Mexican government has contracts in effect for more than 151 million dollars.”
Don’t get the wrong idea. Surely it is not corruption. Surely it is 100% coincidence. Besides, the good thing is that they no longer live there. No sir, now they no longer rent, nor do they live on borrowed money.
They already have their own house, a new residence, recently built for José Ramón and his family, registered “in the name of his partner, Carolyn Adams” (who has been linked to oil companies and the energy sector) and with a market value of close to one million dollars. So, simple and humble.
Furthermore, as icing on the cake, and to match the garage, to the mansion must be added the Mercedes-Benz GLE-Class (obviously registered in Carolyn’s name) in which López Beltrán drives around the streets of the hated capitalist empire, while in Mexico his father the president proclaims “if you can, have a modest vehicle for transportation. Why the luxury?”
Good question: why the luxury, José Ramón, why?
It is not only the fact that the recent prosperity of the presidential family is, to say the least, difficult to explain and lends itself to countless suspicions since the details of the linkage with companies that, curiously, have contracts with the Mexican Government has been one of the traditional forms of Mexican corruption. The underlying problem is that, even if these assets are not the result of influence peddling, they do exhibit (naked and in full body) the hypocrisy of the left, and especially of Latin American socialism.
The same happens with Hugo Chavez, Cristina Fernandez or López Obrador himself. They build the structure of their power based on the condemnation of material wealth and of the United States as a symbol of that “consumption,” but their families take advantage of that same power to enrich themselves in dollars and live the luxuries of the capitalism they condemn.
This is precisely the worst corruption of all: that of rooting in Latin American politics and social discourse the rejection of free enterprise, capitalism and the development that free trade brings as a result. In the most perverse of pettiness, they bind entire societies to the chains of caudillista failure, while they alone escape the prosperity they denied their peoples, while promising to defend them.
Therefore, the least important thing would be whether or not AMLO’s and his relatives’ money was illegal. After all, he who merely steals money is simply a thief; on the other hand, he who steals the present and the future of a country is something much worse.
He is a traitor.
Gerardo Garibay Camarena, is a doctor of law, writer and political analyst with experience in the public and private sectors. His new book is "How to Play Chess Without Craps: A Guide to Reading Politics and Understanding Politicians" // Gerardo Garibay Camarena es doctor en derecho, escritor y analista político con experiencia en el sector público y privado. Su nuevo libro es “Cómo jugar al ajedrez Sin dados: Una guía para leer la política y entender a los políticos”