Attacks on drug trafficking and corruption mark Mexico’s second presidential debate

Opposition candidate Xóchitl Gálvez stepped up her attacks on Sunday in Mexico’s second presidential debate, accusing the ruling party candidate Claudia Sheinbaum of being a “liar” and a “narco-candidate,” who defended herself once morest the results of the government of the current president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Gálvez, from the Fuerza y ​​Corazón por México coalition, stated in the first block of the meeting, whose central theme was the economy, that the ruling National Regeneration Movement (Morena) “has become a narco-party.”

“The main economic problem for Mexicans is extortion and the collection of fees. Criminals already have a party. Morena has become a narco-party. You and your family don’t have enough money, food is more expensive every day and there is an explanation for this: criminals charge a fee to producers,” he said.

Sheinbaum, former head of the Government of Mexico City (2018-2023), defended herself by recalling that “the only declared narco-government that has existed is that of Felipe Calderón (2006-2012) of the PAN. As of December 1, 2018, the economic model in our country changed. The old model, neoliberalism, which the PRIAN candidate represents, meant privatizations with corruption,” she responded.

While Gálvez insisted that she is “the candidate of the PRI, the PAN and the PRD, and of millions of citizens. And you are the candidate of a narco-party because this is the promotion that Morena makes on social networks and, in addition, they worship Santa Muerte.”

The toes cross attacks

The Morena candidate, who leads all the polls, repeated her strategy from the first debate, on April 7, of referring to Gálvez, in second place, as “the PRIAN candidate” and now called her “the candidate of corruption.”

While Gálvez, who in their first meeting called her an “ice lady” and “cold and heartless,” now repeatedly called her a “liar” and even accused her of being a “narco-candidate.”

“I might call her a narco-candidate,” said Gálvez in response to an accusation of alleged real estate corruption in Mexico City made by Sheinbaum.

With signs, Gálvez recalled the scandal of the briefcases with money that Sheinbaum’s now ex-husband, Carlos Ímaz, received when in 2004 he was delegate of Tlalpan, an internal district of the Mexican capital.

Sheinbaum also said that Gálvez’s company obtained 17 million-dollar contracts when he was head of the now-defunct National Commission of Indigenous Peoples in 2006.

In addition, the PRI, PAN and PRD candidate recalled the collapse of line 12 of the Mexico City subway, where 27 people died in May 2021, and the Enrique Rébsamen School, where 26 people died in the 2017 earthquake, mostly children, when she was mayor of Tlalpan.

*With information from EFE*