The Uncomfortable Ally Splits Off: Hugo Eric Flores, Now with PAZ, Rails Against Morena

ByObed Rosas

This article by Obed Rosas originally appeared in the September 10, 2026 edition of SinEmbargo, an independent Mexican digital news outlet.

Mexico City, September 10 (SinEmbargo).– Hugo Eric Flores Cervantes, today the national leader of PAZ, accused Morena — his former ally — of having squandered the “moral and social legitimacy” it gained with the 2018 victory of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, of leaving intact the political system it promised to transform, and of contributing to the country’s polarization — even though until mid-August he was a federal deputy in Morena’s caucus, and even though he had backed the movement of the so-called Fourth Transformation electorally through his earlier party projects, from which he benefited.

“The system remained, and we say it with great sadness. I personally do say it with sadness, because what Mexico needed was a profound change in its political system. And when reds or blues or yellows — now maroons — come in, they get comfortable because the system is already established and they make no deep changes. Today we are taking our own path, because we did not betray a single Mexican,” he declared at a PAZ event in the State of Mexico.

Hugo Eric Flores, who led the Social Encounter Party (PES) when it allied with Morena and the PT in the 2018 presidential election, and later the Solidarity Encounter Party (PES) in the 2021 elections, argued that his earlier alliances stemmed from the expectation of a profound change of regime, but claimed that goal was never achieved. Both parties bearing the PES acronym lost their national registration after failing to reach the minimum vote share required by law. Now, with PAZ, he will try for a third time to keep a party project alive, though to do so he will have to run alone in 2027 — as the law requires for new formations — and will have to reach 3 percent of the vote, a minimum he did not obtain in the last two elections in which he took part.

Hugo Eric Flores at a PAZ event
Hugo Eric Flores, national leader of PAZ, accused Morena of betraying the change it promised, even though for years he was an electoral and legislative ally of the 4T. Photo: Cuartoscuro.

“We were never part of Morena; we were only in a coalition,” stated the now-PAZ leader, who claimed that the movement that carried López Obrador to the Presidency had, in 2018, the political conditions to carry out “deep transformations” that, he said, remain pending. “Let those who betrayed the brave honesty be ashamed — those who said they would sweep out corruption from top to bottom. The system remained,” he reproached.

At another event in Toluca, also in the State of Mexico, Flores Cervantes pressed his criticism of the party with which, until a few weeks ago, he shared a bench in the Chamber of Deputies. The PAZ leader also asserted that “the greatest tragedy we have in this country is that we can no longer live in peace,” and questioned governments’ inability to change the insecurity conditions affecting broad regions of the country.

Things did not change; we only changed the color of the government, but the practices remain exactly the same.

Hugo Eric Flores, leader of PAZ

Flores centered part of his speech on violence and disappearances in the State of Mexico. “We know who is harming our families, and we are afraid to go and report them,” he said, attributing that fear to alleged links between criminal groups and authorities: “Why are we afraid? Because they associated themselves with political power.” From there he called on his supporters to face that scenario: “Let us shed our fear.”

Cuauhtémoc Blanco and Hugo Erick Flores
Cuauhtémoc Blanco Bravo and Hugo Erick Flores, national leader of the PES and former federal social-programs delegate. Photo: Margarito Pérez, Cuartoscuro.

The Other Uncomfortable Ally

Throughout his various projects, Flores Cervantes was always described as another uncomfortable ally of the ruling bloc — as are the Green Ecologist Party of Mexico (PVEM) and the Labor Party (PT), which have prioritized the interests of their party leaderships over those of the project they allied with. Hugo Eric, for example, left his post as a federal deputy, which he had won with Morena, and with it abandoned the chairmanship of the Instructor Section, from which he had promised to speed up the impeachment proceeding against the PRI’s national leader, Alejandro Moreno Cárdenas — something that remains up in the air to this day.

Not only that. Hugo Eric Flores Cervantes and his political projects under the PES acronym were the ones that opened Morena’s door to Cuauhtémoc Blanco, whom they nominated for the governorship of Morelos in 2018, while in Baja California — where the PES keeps its registration as a local party — they promoted as candidate for the state government a member of the Hank Rhon family, a clan tied to corruption scandals.

It was on June 25 that the National Electoral Institute (INE) granted PAZ its registration as a national political party, and on July 1 it delivered the corresponding certificate. With that, the organization will have access to 84.4 million pesos from July to December 2026. Like its predecessors, PAZ keeps a structure tied to evangelical sectors and a conservative discourse. Among its public positions, its rejection of abortion stands out, along with other stances that have historically placed it closer to the right than to the left.

In his remarks yesterday, Flores also blamed Morena, the ruling party, for deepening the division among Mexicans — one of the phenomena that, he claimed, his new organization intends to combat. “Today we live in a polarized Mexico, with Mexican men and women divided,” he said, as he announced that PAZ will follow an independent path and seek to present itself as a movement of “peace and national reconciliation.”

Likewise, at his State of Mexico event he questioned the resources allocated to public security against the results obtained. He stated that this year alone 454 billion pesos of the federal budget were approved for that area, and complained that, despite the spending accumulated over recent years, violence and police deficiencies persist. “Enough. Let us shed our fear. Let us take to the streets and proclaim peace,” he said, before closing with the slogan: “Peace for Mexico. Mexico deserves peace.”