García Harfuch, the policeman who leads the polls without having raised his hand to be a candidate

The polls are stubborn in declaring the winner of the head of government of Mexico City, in June 2024, the Secretary of Public Security, Omar García Harfuch.

That is the reason why dozens of web pages are wondering these days who García Harfuch is, his life and his miracles.

But the question is not who, but why.

Why does the public award more than 20 points above his supposed political adversaries to a man who has repeatedly ruled out running for that position?

Why do some of the scandals that accompany the career of this policeman with a law degree do not tarnish his image in the slightest?

Why do voters think that the secretary is the ideal figure to steer the destiny of one of the largest and most complex cities in the world in the right direction?

Some reasons can be ventured.

Omar Hamid García Harfuch, 40, is a discreet person in his public demonstrations, which he dedicates to briefly mentioning his achievements in the security of the city, where statistics reflect a notable decrease in homicides and other crimes.

The supposed social tranquility is also measured in the perception of the citizens and it is probable that in the capital they have noticed that police efficiency to fight crime that the local government wields.

Mexico City is one of those few "islands of peace" mentioned by scholars of the violence that is experienced in practically the entire country, one of the greatest concerns of Mexicans.

It is not surprising, then, that in these circumstances the merits of the police chief are valued and he becomes apt to take the helm of the entire ship.

But what really put García Harfuch on the map was what was about to get him out of it: a spectacular attack by the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel with more than 400 bullets that killed his two bodyguards and a woman who was passing by, and who took him to the hospital with three shots to the body.

El Tigre, as he was called among his people, showed bullfighting poise and before entering the operating room he sent a tweet to the entire population telling what had happened.

In circumstances like this, some politicians have seen the path open to conquer the polls, such is the empathy that the case generates among citizens.

"That recognized him among the people as someone who is facing crime and affecting the interests of organized crime," says anthropologist Héctor Tejera Gaona, from the Autonomous University of Mexico (UAM).

Omar García Harfuch, in his office in Mexico City, on July 29, 2022. Hector Guerrero

So far the two experts agree, in everything else, what refers to their immediate political future, they present two almost antagonistic scenarios.

One does not see him as a possible candidate, even though he has the sympathy of the citizens.

The other thinks that he can be the revelation of the season.

And they explain it like this: “The political structure of the city does not contemplate him as a candidate, I do not think that Morena will give him that space, he does not have political networks and in Mexico City, 40% of the vote moves through networks, that is to say , support programs, organized groups, everything in which political organizations can influence families.

He is not doing politics nor does he have a social group that supports him”, says Tejera Gaona.

These drawbacks are for Francisco Abundis a handful of advantages: "The best to govern is the one who does not want to do it, who is not supposed to have that ambition," he says, playing Max Weber.

The shelter under the acronym of Morena "would not matter so much, what's more, it can play in his favor not having those party networks.

After all, a good part of what was lost in the city in the 2021 elections was due to an anti-morena vote.

So this candidate could work.

Morena has a very complicated position in the capital and that is a conjuncture element that suggests that Harfuch may have a chance”.

So, even though he looks politically weak, he looks like a very strong candidate electorally, according to Abundis.

“It happens to him the opposite of what happens to others, who politically have a lot of network,

"The Secretary of Security was caught scantily clad and with his furry puppy between his legs."

The phrase makes you think, but it should be done in the right direction: it is a photo that Internet users have taken to Twitter in which Harfuch appears in a T-shirt and gym shorts fondling a black dog on his lap, sitting on the floor with legs crossed.

There wouldn't be much to comment on, if it weren't for the fact that the policeman rarely sheds an institutional image in public, his hair combed as if he had just stepped out of the bathtub, with the suit well arranged and the tie in his place.

If the photo is not stolen, and it does not appear so, it is the most political gesture that has ever been seen, a one hundred percent campaign image.

Does he really have no intention of jumping into the electoral arena?

🥵 OMAR GARCÍA HARFUCH teaches leg.

👉 With little clothing and with his furry puppy between his legs, the Secretary of Citizen Security of the CDMX was captured, who will be 41 years old on February 25.

pic.twitter.com/KJbVx7zq0A

– Cradle of Crickets (@cunadegrillos) February 17, 2023

"He's handsome, yes, he has a sign, of course he is," says Tejera Gaona.

“But I don't think people see him as having the chance to solve the problems of a city like this.

Martí Batres, Clara Brugada or Ricardo Monreal have more chances.

He is not in the imagination as a plausible candidate, he is more like a rumor that goes around, but he is not playing in political terms, he is a police administrator, not a city administrator ”, he affirms.

This specialist in Political Processes, Citizenship and Participation believes that Harfuch's area of ​​growth is Security.

Many think that, if the current mayor, Claudia Sheinbaum, becomes president of the country, he will be the federal secretary of Security.

Both have expressed their willingness to continue working together.

Again, Abundis disagrees from medium to medium.

He believes that this eminently police profile is "what people are looking for."

"He is a good communicator and charismatic and imposes security."

He has, he says, an advantage over other names that are being considered, such as that of Clara Brugada, party woman and mayoress of Iztapalapa, the territory where the Morenista slogan she prays is best cared for: first the poor.

"If you take Brugada out of Iztapalapa, she no longer has the same strength, however, Harfuch is throughout the city, he already brings up a topic to expose the citizenry."

If after his attack the lights went out for a while, another attack came to turn them on, that of the journalist Ciro Gómez Leyva, who also survived the bullets that crashed in his car on the way home.

That matter, of national relevance, allowed us to show, once again, the best version of the policeman, who soon appeared before the media, instilling tranquility and confidence in the work of the uniformed officers, in a country where the agents do not enjoy the best reputation.

Within a short period of time, street camera footage was released that heralded a rigorous investigation.

A month later, in mid-January, the arrest of 11 people related to the case was announced.

Harfuch's fame grew.

García Harfuch observes the surveillance cameras in his office, on July 29, 2022. Hector Guerrero

What no one questions is that the city is consolidating good police practices and that is not saying little in a country like Mexico.

The paradox posed by the two attacks, that of Harfuch and that of Gómez Leyva, is that the more evident the penetration of crime into the heart of the city, the clearer the sensation of being in the city appeared in the imaginary of the citizens. good hands.

And that is what seems to prevail, beyond the difficulties that the Secretary of Security faced recently, when the evidence emanating from the investigation into the death of the 43 students from Ayotzinapa, once again placed him in his least flattering profile: that of a civil servant haunted by the past of his father and his grandfather,

both in security tasks when some of the greatest atrocities against the population of contemporary Mexican times were committed.

If they were persecuted by the blood of Tlatelolco and the dirty war, Harfuch's photograph was clouded by his presence, documented in Defense papers, in a macabre setting, that of Iguala, on October 7 and 8, 2014, when he was commissioner in the Gendarmerie division of the Federal Police.

He always said that by then he was already stationed in Michoacán, but the indications are stubborn.

Sheinbaum has come out to defend his honesty on several occasions and the stain on the police file seems to have faded over time, like ink on old documents.

Until one becomes a candidate and the sewers become volcanoes.

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