In recent weeks, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has received glowing reviews. New York Times columnist Lydia Polgreen described Sheinbaum’s Mexico as “a beacon”, especially for the immigrant community. A few weeks before that, in a hagiographic profile also published in the Times, Michelle Goldberg praised Sheinbaum as “the anti-Trump” — “a shining exception to the reigning spirit of autocratic machismo”.
High praise indeed. But it’s dangerously misguided.
The kindness of strangers in Mexico City notwithstanding, the country remains a nightmare for immigrants. And though Sheinbaum has handled President Donald Trump’s bullying deftly, her own autocratic impulses are alive and well. She seems intent on dismantling Mexico’s democracy — a project initiated by her predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, which she is now enthusiastically pursuing.
In his final major decision in power, López Obrador pushed a far-reaching judicial reform through a pliant legislature, undermining the separation of powers and strengthening the supremacy of the executive branch — now headed by Sheinbaum, his political disciple. The government had also dismantled independent watchdog agencies.
In recent days, Sheinbaum’s government has advanced a new “reform bill” targeting the telecommunications sector, granting itself regulatory powers redolent of those claimed by other authoritarian regimes. Mony de Swaan, Mexico’s federal telecommunications regulator from 2010 to 2013, described the government’s bill as a “highly discretionary, regressive law”.
“All oversight of telecoms — which used to be collegial — would now fall under the purview of just one person”, de Swaan told me, referring to José Merino, head of Sheinbaum’s newly established Agency of Digital Transformation and Telecommunications. If enacted, the reform bill would open the door to controlling measures that could curtail essential freedoms in Mexico, especially now that judicial counterweights have effectively disappeared. The opposition has already given it a hashtag: #LeyCensura — the censorship law.
These latest attacks on Mexican democracy are serious enough to have sparked a public war of words between Sheinbaum and former president Ernesto Zedillo — an unprecedented confrontation in the country’s modern political life.
In a lengthy essay published recently in Letras Libres magazine (where I work as an editor), Zedillo did not mince words. “Let us not be fooled”, he admonished. “Our young democracy has been murdered”.
Much like in the United States, Mexico’s former presidents rarely comment publicly on national affairs after leaving office. Zedillo, who concluded his presidency a quarter of a century ago, has since devoted himself to teaching at Yale University. He said little during López Obrador’s six years in office. His essay marks an unprecedented turning point in Mexico’s public debate and provides a stark warning about the true state of affairs in the country.
For Mexico’s former president, the intention behind the reforms enacted by López Obrador and Sheinbaum is clear.
“What was the true nature of the … transformation in power?” Zedillo asks, referring to López Obrador’s so-called fourth transformation of Mexico, the name he chose for his far-reaching political project. “In the final months of his administration and the first months of his successor, Claudia Sheinbaum, the riddle was fully resolved: the promised transformation was the replacement of our young democracy with a tyranny”.
When asked about Zedillo’s accusations, Sheinbaum resorted to a familiar tactic often deployed by her predecessor: an ad hominem attack before the gathered press corps. “Our political adversaries are looking for new spokespeople”, Sheinbaum said. “Now it turns out that Zedillo is a stalwart of democracy. Imagine that!”
The confrontation escalated. Zedillo published a response, accusing Sheinbaum of reiterating “almost word for word the falsehoods that her predecessor expressed for many years as part of his demagoguery to deceive the people”. He added that Sheinbaum “has chosen to avoid reasoning and resort to disqualification instead”.
Sheinbaum didn’t budge. “Zedillo lacks the moral authority to speak for Mexico”, she insisted.
Attempted character assassinations and deflection are no substitutes for addressing the legitimate concerns the former president raises. Sheinbaum’s tone might be softer than that of the combative López Obrador, who targeted journalists and critics with reckless aggression. But this does not make her any less of an aspiring authoritarian. Not only has she fully embraced her predecessor’s judicial reforms, but she is also seeking to expand and further entrench her power.
Sheinbaum’s Mexico is no beacon. If anything, it’s a flashing red warning light — a cautionary tale of how democracies steadily erode under years of institutional assault by autocratically minded politicians.
León Krauze is an award-winning Mexican journalist, author and news anchor.