The complicit silence

Just over a week ago, our country's authorities announced the largest blow against corruption during Dr. Claudia Sheinbaum's administration: the arrest of 14 people, including a vice admiral of the Navy, five active-duty sailors, former customs officials, and businessmen, all involved in illegal hydrocarbon trafficking, what has been dubbed "tax huachicol." The vice admiral who led the gang, Manuel Roberto Farías Laguna, as well as his brother and accomplice, the now fugitive Rear Admiral Fernando of the same last name (a truism that a closed hand is called a fist), are nephews of Admiral Rafael Ojeda Durán, who was Secretary of the Navy during the previous administration.

The event factory, which operates three eight-hour shifts, seven days a week, in our country, led to the capture last Friday in Asunción, Paraguay, of Hernán Bermúdez Requena, the alleged leader of the criminal group "La Barredora," and former Secretary of Security of Tabasco during the administration of current senator and former presidential candidate Adán Augusto López Hernández.

Both the admiral of the awkward nephews and the senator who appointed an individual accused of alleged abuse of power, illicit enrichment, links to extortion, and ties to the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel as secretary of security belong to the silent club, the association of the mute, whose motto is: "A closed mouth doesn't carry blame."

One might think that a seaman like Admiral Ojeda, accustomed to facing storms, would be the first to go on deck to face the storm, but no; the admiral chose the prudence of a submarine in enemy waters.

On the other hand, the Morena senator, faced with the imminent imprisonment of his collaborator Bermúdez, preferred to issue a "press release," which speaks about him but is not signed by anyone. A text written in the third person that I will comment on in parentheses. It begins by saying: "In light of the recent arrest of the former Secretary of Security in Tabasco, Hernán Bermúdez Requena, Senator Adán Augusto López Hernández strongly reiterated (when did he first express this?) his commitment to justice and recalled that it was he himself who requested (he did not make it public out of modesty) that this case be thoroughly investigated and emphasized his full willingness to appear before the authorities when so requested" (singular). (Fully willing as long as it is done in silence.)

In the rest of the apocryphal text, the alleged criminal Bermúdez is not mentioned again, but rather the text becomes a direct attack on the PAN senator Anaya, “those who today demand investigations, should begin by answering to the people of Mexico if it has already been determined that criminal prosecution should not be exercised in the investigations in which Ricardo Anaya himself is involved (…) The same people who today demand transparency, like Anaya, were the ones who remained complicitly silent when the suspicious accidents in which the former Secretary of the Interior, Juan Camilo Mouriño, and Ramón Martín Huerta lost their lives were not investigated. At that time, Ricardo Anaya and his party chose to protect their own rather than tell the country the truth.”

The argument put forward by López Hernández and/or his amanuensis strikes me as puerile. It's like telling an Americanist: América lost, and having them reply: Yes, but Necaxa and Puebla also lost.

There is no cover-up here, what there is is selective silence, which is like a cover-up, but with republican austerity.

In my humble opinion, both cases reveal a constant in Mexican politics: the shielding of allies, the pact of silence, the political calculation that puts personal loyalties before accountability. Meanwhile, we citizens continue to wait for someone to dare sweep the stairs from top to bottom.

Full stop

Trendy slogan: “Bribery is better done in Mexico.”