The Morena bench in the Senate proposed to review the actions of former president Ernesto Zedillo during the banking crisis. This Friday, the confrontation between Sheinbaum and Zedillo came to an end after the president called Zedillo's administration in the 90s 'authoritarian,' mentioning the repression of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) and the Aguas Blancas massacre. Sheinbaum criticized that during that period 'millions of families lost everything, businessmen were rescued, not the people, turning private debts into public debt that is still being paid.'
During a morning conference, Sheinbaum announced her intention to ask the Bank of Mexico (Banxico) to investigate the lifetime pension that Ernesto Zedillo receives, which amounts to 143 thousand pesos per month. The president argued that Banxico has the authority to conduct this investigation since Zedillo worked for a company he himself favored when he was in power. In her intervention, she recalled the economic crisis caused by Zedillo during his six-year term and anticipated that she would expose alleged irregularities of Fobaproa related to him.
On her part, on Thursday, May 1, the controversy between Sheinbaum and Zedillo intensified. Pablo Gómez, head of the Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF), revealed details about the operation of the Fobaproa case during Zedillo's administration. This controversial fund acted by covering private debts through a significant sum of credits, while Zedillo had interests in one of the benefiting companies.
In response to the accusations, Zedillo mentioned that Sheinbaum reacted similarly to his successor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, with insults instead of substantive arguments. The confrontation between the two politicians covered topics such as judicial reform, the lifetime pension of former presidents, and the Fobaproa scandal. The discussion escalated to the point of involving the country's prosecutor, Alejandro Gertz Manero, whom Sheinbaum asked to investigate ongoing investigations against Zedillo and possible links to organized crime.
The conflict began with Zedillo's criticisms of the Mexican judicial reform in an article published in Letras Libres, stating that 'in Mexico, democracy died.' He alluded to the judicial election, pointing out that this method does not respond to how judges are elected in democratic countries. Finally, the debate has taken a more legal turn, and more details are expected regarding potential investigations and actions to be taken concerning the accusations and allegations among the parties involved.
