The attacks on Gálvez's son open a political truce between the presidential candidates

An unusual truce, a moment of solidarity, has occurred in the midst of the electoral contest for the presidency of Mexico, carried out for the first time by two women. The circle of solidarity has gathered around Xóchitl Gálvez, the opposition candidate of the PAN, PRI and PRD alliance, after a video went viral in which her son, Juan Pablo Sánchez Gálvez, 26, appears attacking and insulting the employees of a club in Mexico City, months ago. The recording produced harsh criticism of the son, and even questions about the candidate's motherhood and upbringing. Sánchez Gálvez withdrew from her mother's campaign, where he served as a liaison with young people, and apologized publicly. It seemed like it was the beginning of a crisis in the opposition campaign. But, while social networks attacked mother and son, prominent voices were raised from the ruling party to ask for a stop to the increasingly common resource of harming politicians by directing attacks against their relatives. The writer Beatriz Gutiérrez Müller, wife of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and then Claudia Sheinbaum, presidential standard bearer of Morena, came out in defense of Gálvez and her son.

The opposition candidate thanked the gesture of solidarity in the midst of the storm. “For a mother, it's always a difficult time when her children make mistakes,” she said. Gálvez did not hide that Juan Pablo had had conflicts with alcohol and school. At the same time that the harassment on networks grew, interviews circulated in which the candidate had addressed, with candor and without prejudice, the problems of her son, and how she struggled to redirect her path. “I thought she was getting out of hand, I thought I wasn't going to make it,” she said in a conversation. She stopped drinking, dedicated herself to sports, and went to work in the family business, Gálvez explained. “I'm happy for him,” she summarized. “In three years we achieved the change. I would tell mothers: do not let go of your children; Sometimes someone gets angry and you want them to not study. And no,” she maintained. In light of the virulence on networks, the opposition candidate considered that it was a dirty war strategy, intentionally undertaken a few days before the first presidential debate. “It is obvious that they are trying to do it to take away my morale, because they know that you love your children, that you love your family,” she declared. When Juan Pablo uploaded the video apologizing, Gálvez responded publicly: “I hope this experience leaves you with a lesson in your life.” To the press, the candidate commented: “I love my son, but that doesn't stop me from being a mother who corrects.”

While Gálvez faced the crisis with signs of rigidity as well as understanding toward her son, Gutiérrez Müller—who does not consider herself “first lady” nor does she usually participate in government affairs—was the first figure of political weight. on the official side in expressing their solidarity and breaking the cycle of harassment. “I defend and will defend the right that relatives of politicians have to be respected in their person and private life,” she wrote on her social media accounts. “A favor to the politicians in the campaign and their teams: play fair. Maybe it's too much to ask. But, as a Mexican, I reject that family members continue to be 'collateral damage'. The academic also spoke from experience. Her youngest son, Jesús Ernesto, 16, has been the subject of constant hate campaigns on social media since López Obrador became president. Gutiérrez Müller has responded to each of these harassment campaigns with the hashtag “#ConLosNiñosNo”. On some occasions, she has asked the president's adversaries to confront him directly and leave his young son alone.

Beatriz Gutiérrez Müller, in January 2023.Mónica González Islas

In her message of support for Gálvez, the writer reasoned that the relatives of politicians are not responsible for their actions. “As much as they want to link blood relatives (on one side or another) to benefit or harm someone for political reasons, the problem is not with them,” she noted. “The mistakes, mistakes or crimes of someone in the family, as well as their successes, victories or magnanimities, are not transferable or hereditary, I believe, anywhere in the world.” Gutiérrez Müller also addressed a specific message to Gálvez's son: “as an adult, just like me, whatever you have to correct should be dictated to you by your own conscience, as it should be. “That things go well for you in life is my wish.”

This Thursday Sheinbaum deplored the campaign against Juan Pablo Gálvez and asked that the candidates' families not be involved in the race. “My position is that, with children, no. Those of us who are in the race are the candidates and the candidate [Jorge Álvarez Máynez]. And the contest is a matter of proposals, it is a matter of project, and of those of us who participate, but not of the family members,” she said.

López Obrador supported the positions of Gutiérrez Müller and Sheinbaum. “They don't lie, mother. Don't mess with family members. Don't mess with minors. That, if they have a problem with me, let it be with me, not with my children,” he asked this Thursday in his morning conference at the National Palace. The president pointed out that the discussion, within the framework of the elections, should focus on the candidates' proposals and their careers, not on their families. “The most important thing is the project, the trajectory, where it comes from, if it has fought for the people, if it sincerely has respect and love for the people; “That, more than anything else,” he pondered.

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