Analysts Analyze Juanito

After pointing out that political subordinates rebelling against their masters is an ancient law of politics, Jorge Chabat writes that would-be institution buster AMLO is getting his just desserts with Juanito's disobedience:

He [Acosta], who kneeled before López Obrador. He, who promised in public to resign the post so that Clara Brugada could take over. He, whom AMLO belittled by telling him not to get a big head, that it wouldn't be on his own merit that he would win, rather because of the electoral machinery that el Peje and his allies in Iztapalapa managed. And it's evident that his victory can only be explained by López Obrador's electoral operation, but legally he is the delegate. And there is no way to make him fulfill his promise because it wasn't made in an institutional manner. That's why the institutions matter. That's why those who make arrangements outside of them later have no way to insure their fulfillment. Those who conduct politics through informal methods must understand that the results are those that Machiavelli predicted: politicians don't live up to their words --and in a strict political logic they don't have to-- precisely because there are no institutional mechanisms to make them do so.

Similarly, Ricardo Raphael sees Juanito's appeal as turning the tables on AMLO, painting the ex-PRD candidate's supporters as the elites looking their nose down on the man of the people:

He already tasted the sweetness of popularity and he won't accept missing out on the adrenaline derived from this pleasure. Juanito talks and talks. Ever since they chose him at the voting booths, he carries the truth around in his mouth. He is popular truth incarnate. What the people think and what the powers always disdain.

He is a mixture and reincarnation of Pepe el Toro, Cantinflas' Barrendero [street-sweeper], of the most modest of all of the children of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Juanito represents the triumph --always risky, always miraculous-- of the most screwed over.

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Juanito poses on the landing of a stairway. Juanito shows off his silhouette, in a public park. Juanito converses on television with the most popular interviewers. Juanito passes through all of the radio programs. Juanito appears and keeps himself on the front page of the big dailies. Juanito, emblam. Juanito, symbol. Juanito, saint. Juanito, from this moment on: unforgettable.

His popularity is barely getting off the ground. That's how he sees it. Nothing can stop him. The criticism doesn't hurt him, nor do the threats, real or imagined, from his enemies frighten him. When, from Mount Olympus, he is spotlighted for not knowing how to honor his promises, Fuente Ovejuna [a Spanish town featured in a classic play in which poor vassals rise up against a tyrannical master] laughs with him. Since when are politicians here known for honoring their commitments? That's a trait you can demand from other professions, but not from this one.

People have wanted to disqualify him by asserting that he is not prepared to occupy a post so burdened with responsibilities: he doesn't have the education, nor the bureaucratic experience, nor the administrative ability. And he knows it.

From the bottom of the revolutionary and nationalist throat emerges a voice that rescues him: Juanito didn't study at Harvard and that's precisely why he could turn into a great public official. How many times have we heard that the natural wisdom of the people is the best of the tools for governing.