Peña Nieto’s impatience

President Enrique Peña Nieto lacks the patience and the tact required in the Mexican political moment following the disappearance and killing of students in Ayotzinapa.

The Mexican leader has reasons to be frustrated. He wished her tenure would be remembered for Mexico’s modernization and his significant reforms like the oil industry laws. But history says that it’s the unexpected events and how they are addressed, what marks a presidency. This seems to be the case with Peña Nieto.

Los Pinos did not understand the significance that the disappearance of students would achieve. Today, several months later, it still feels that they don’t get it. How else to explain their messages of not getting caught up in this crime, calling to move on to address what’s important for the future of México.

An intense investigation resulted in more than 90 detainees and fugitives, as well as the establishing a narrative of what happened in the Cocula garbage dump according to testimonies by detainees. The President also announced changes in the police force to put an end to the incestuous relations between local authorities, drug lords and officers.

This is all good. But it’s not enough for a society that thinks that the confessions were obtained through torture, and does not trust its own political and judicial system. Peña Nieto didn’t kill the students, but the system allowed the confluence of events that led to the killings. Peña Nieto is today the head of this discredited system, and his missteps, like in the case of his own “White House”, have brought their own image problems.

It does not help either the fact that 42 people remain disappeared whose death has not been confirmed. The presidential hurry reflects a lack of sensibility towards the families and the society that supports their claims.

México will overcome Ayotzinapa with concrete facts, not with words and promises. The transparency of the judicial process and the results of the police reforms designed by Peña Nieto will help overcome this traumatic experience.

Mexico needs a leader able to guide this process with patience and strength, to manage the unexpected and take stock of reality, instead of rushing his own agenda overtaken by events