Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum took aim at businessman Ricardo Salinas Priego on Thursday, after a report she submitted found that she was linked to a network of accounts promoting this Saturday’s march by young people who identify as Generation Z. “I told them it’s a tough campaign going on, but we’re out in the streets and people are happy, and it’s better to pay taxes than to pay for a campaign,” Sheinbaum said. With this comment, the president narrowed his eyes at the Supreme Court’s ratification this Thursday. With the ratification, the businessman will pay nearly 50 billion pesos (an amount not yet specified) to the national treasury in unpaid debts for up to 17 years.
Sheinbaum spoke at an event in Tecamac, Mexico. So he rejected the possibility of the government becoming authoritarian and called for democracy. “We believe in democracy, we believe in freedom. But as[former President Benito]Juárez said, ‘no one and nothing is above the law.'” The president has defended his coalition in recent weeks, which has been shaken by the security crisis in Michoacán and the explosion of the Gen Z movement of young people born since the late 1990s, with large marches planned in various cities across the country next Saturday.
The president criticized the move last week and has advocated for an investigation to determine its origins. Sheinbaum said the movement had no real origins, and in a report released at a morning briefing, the movement’s mobilization was due to a “clear digital strategy” promoted by the government. bot, influencera politician associated with an opposition party. Opposition parties are trying to capitalize on the Gen Z movement, but some supporters reiterate that they do not have a partisan ideology. Mexico’s president defended himself by saying, “There may be young people who don’t agree with us, and that’s part of democracy, but it’s very important to know how this mobilization was organized.”
Sheinbaum defended the event, saying the promoters had no connection to Gen Z and that there was “evidence” that this was a “political operation.” “We also had funding from overseas,” he says. Some figures, including former President Vicente Fox (2000-2006) and another current politician, joined the wave of generational movement and called on people to join Saturday’s march. Uruapan’s new mayor, Grecia Quiroz, the wife of her predecessor Carlos Manso, who was assassinated in early November, distanced herself from a telephone conversation after a meeting with Mexico’s security chief, Omar García Halfuchi. Quiros denied at the press conference that he led the November 15 march, saying, “I want them to know that we are not leading the march.”