Opposition Insignificance & Desperation

ByMexico Solidarity

Editor’s Note: On Wednesday, August 27th, PRI President and Senator Alejandro “Alito” Moreno Cárdenas assaulted Senate President Gerardo Fernández Noroña and a cameraman after the singing of the National Anthem, as the session was being adjourned. Alito Moreno faces five investigations into corruption and improper use of public office from his time as Governor of the state of Campeche, but is protected by immunity as a Senator. He was recently in Washington, DC fueling speculation that he was seeking American assistance. Besides his corruption issues, Moreno is also unpopular within his party, which has been steadily losing votes and experiencing infighting related to his leadership. Alito Moreno’s attack in the Senate came just a day before a planned PRI mobilization in Mexico City at the Angel of Independence.

This column by Julio Hernández López appeared in the August 28, 2025 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

From verbal violence, we have turned to physical violence. From natural internal discord to the agreed-upon service to US interventionism. From the Salinas Group’s bitterness over multimillion-dollar tax disputes (via its congressional spokesperson, Lilly Téllez), and the apparent threat of Alito Moreno’s impeachment, to the back-and-forth, the blows, and the scandal in the Permanent Commission of the Congress of the Union.

It’s desperation over the opposition’s insignificance, over apocalyptic prophecies that take time to be fulfilled, or perhaps never will be. It’s the rant and rage for native reasons. But, above all, it’s the alignment with the interests of the United States, where both the vociferous Lilly, with her ever-changing flags, and the decadent Alito, with his ever-shrinking factions, have come on a supplicatory, subservient, and aligning visit.

Téllez wanders through legislative chambers with proclamations against Adán Augusto López Hernández, not because she’s interested in attacking crime (he doesn’t sweep the floor), since she never denounces the company from which she comes and which he continues to serve. Instead, she uses the harangue against “narco-mongers” to help pave the way for the American hawks’ plans. She explicitly yearns for Trump to come to Mexico to “solve” the problems, presumably including those of outstanding tax payments and the continuation of toxic television concessions.

Alito Moreno is a seasoned political castaway who, in his desperation, has sought various means of support. He has rented votes of three parties to complete qualified majorities in difficult situations for the ruling party; the obvious scabbing in the Xochitla and Xochitla-Gonzalez coalitions; and, now, his transformation into a welcome-mat for the Stars and Stripes to see if that will save him. He has no strong intellectual, doctrinal, philosophical, or civic credentials. Quite the opposite.

Yesterday, in an atmosphere of evolving confrontation in the legislative chambers, specifically in the Permanent Commission, Senator Azteca reiterated, always provocative, her support for the American interventionist arm and, amidst well-founded accusations of being a traitor to the country, the session closed with the protocolary intonation of the National Anthem, although Senator Alito claimed trickery that would have prevented him from speaking from the podium to defend the aforementioned provocateur, who is already becoming diminished, Lilliputian, by so much reiteration.

If football’s VAR were applied—that is, the television replay system that allows the referee to see on screen what his own eye wouldn’t have perceived—it’s clear that the hooligan Alito was the provocateur. In a brutal manner, Moreno tried to restrain Noroña so he’d continue listening to the rebukes and then attacked a San Lázaro employee, whom Alito and other Tricolor [colours of the PRI] fans then beat on the ground.

What happened has accelerated the push to strip Alito of his immunity for some of the many judicially admissible misdeeds he has committed (the Permanent Court is scheduled for this Friday to review the issue). Already on track, it now seems confirmed that he could lose his legislative protection and be at the disposal of the Public Prosecutor’s Office and judges. Other thuggish PRI legislators could join him. The Lilliputian provocateur will continue her tirades, awaiting the American drones.

In Washington and similar circles, this foreseeable outcome will be used for propaganda purposes (against “the dictatorship”), that is, the outrage of some and the likely increased verbal aggression against their boss Ricardo’s potential campaign coordinator. There are many provocateurs, and the hawks in the north are ready to magnify whatever is necessary to “justify” the invasive “surgeries” they have so long planned.

And all this while Nicolás Maduro has pointed out that “Venezuela has been threatened with a nuclear submarine; the Treaty of Tlatelolco, which prohibits the movement, use, and manufacture of nuclear weapons throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, has been violated.”