This article by Álvaro Delgado Gómez originally appeared in the September 17, 2025 edition of Sin Embargo.
Mexico’s right wing neither understands nor learns: After the shame of having led Mexico’s historic parties to their worst defeat, due to his radical defense of the corrupt privileges of the elites, the magnate Claudio X. González Guajardo hands over the baton to Ricardo Salinas Pliego, another oligarch who, in order to avoid paying the 74 billion pesos in taxes he owes, will now command the “resistance against the regime,” whose leadership he identifies in Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and will weave “alliances” with the opposition to build his presidential candidacy or that of a Xóchitl Gálvez-like candidate.
Only Mexican conservatism thinks it is a good idea to replace an oligarch in progressive disguise, Claudio X. González Guajardo, with another who defends the same interests (his own first and foremost), Ricardo Salinas Pliego, but complemented by an extreme right-wing discourse, openly classist and misogynistic, as well as a confessed admirer of Donald Trump, Javier Milei, Jair Bolsonaro and Nayim Bukele.
If Claudio X. González called teachers “damn delinquents,” Salinas Pliego calls women “swine,” “bitches,” and “welfare whores,” among other misogynistic expressions, and attacks and insults poor Mexicans with classist contempt. The former wore casual shirts and a vest when he went out on the streets; the latter never even sets foot on land: he spends his time in helicopters, airplanes, and yachts.
Salinas Pliego’s project, including his presidential candidacy, is grotesque and even comical, but Mexicans should take him very seriously because he also represents the right wing that openly calls for US intervention in Mexico, including military action on our territory. He is capable of taking up arms: He already did so in 2002, when a commando took over the Canal 40 facilities at Cero del Chiquihuite.
Let’s see: On Thursday, September 11, Salinas Pliego gathered a group of his employees at the Televisión Azteca headquarters to instruct them to spread the word about the nascent “Anti-Crime and Anti-Corruption Movement,” which, with him at the helm, aims to lead Mexico to prosperity and no longer be “a country of dependents.” Just like that.
Although Alejandro “Alito” Moreno and Jorge Romero Herrera, Presidents of the PRI and PAN, were not present, this meeting represents the change of leadership of the PRI-PAN opposition. González Guajardo also did not attend the handover, perhaps out of embarrassment or because he is too busy writing a biography of his father. However, María Amparo Casar Pérez did attend, posing to the left of Salinas Pliego. Jorge Álvarez, of the Citizen Movement political party, was absent, but Enrique de la Madrid, who coordinates their alliances, did attend.
Enrique Krauze and Héctor Aguilar Camín, the leaders of the conservative intellectual establishment, also did not attend the meeting, but it has been documented here that they have a very close relationship with the oligarch through the Ricardo Salinas Pliego Center. Those who did pose for the launch photo were writers Rafael Pérez Gay and Francisco Martín Moreno.
As columnist Lourdes Mendoza reported in El Financiero on Friday the 12th, boss Salinas Pliego had his employees question him about the details of his “move” that, if realized, would make him a presidential candidate in 2030. He would be 75 years old, three years younger than Trump was when he won his second term.
Host Javier Alatorre asked him if his initiative is the start of a political party, but the oligarch clarified that it’s more than an electoral project: “This is much more important. I’m proposing a cultural and intellectual battle, to change mentalities. To change the way Mexicans think and act.”
Host Alejandro Villalvazo asked him if he wants to be president of Mexico—“People want Uncle Richie as a candidate!”—but the tycoon was cautious again: “Well, it’s a friendly audience here. Look, it’s the Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube bubble; the algorithm puts people who think like you in front of you. So you have to be very careful with that assumption.”
What he did emphasize, in response to a question from Sergio Sarmiento, is that he will support the opposition parties: “Yes, I will, and we will also seek alliances with the parties that want to join us. It is very important to unify the more than 40% who are against the regime, although it will be very difficult.”
Salinas Pliego took advantage of commentator Leonardo Curzio’s question to refer, without naming him, to former President López Obrador: “I believe there will come a time when we will have to resist, resist the regime, because it has already become a one-party dictatorship, where the General Secretary of the party rules from Palenque.”
It’s clear that Salinas Pliego has decided to involve his family in defending his interests. His eldest son, Benjamín Salinas Sada, vice president of Grupo Salinas, was pictured at the launch of his movement. Although his daughter, Ninfa, a former congresswoman and senator, was not present, she is the liaison with the Green Ecologist Party of Mexico (PVEM), which is considering breaking away from Morena to eventually nominate him.
Part of Salinas Pliego’s strategy is to play the victim and claim that they want to silence him, imprison him, and even take away his TV Azteca license, as he asserted in response to a question from commentator Ezra Shabot: “Yes, and it’s not a concession, it’s a license, and it’s important to say license because a concession is something they give you for free and that politicians used to give to their friends and relatives. Yes, I think they want to imprison us, they want to torture us like in Venezuela, yes. Being persecuted is the worst thing there is. And what do you think? Besides, about three or four years ago, if I’m not mistaken, we renewed the license and paid 5.5 billion pesos.”
Some may not remember, but the Televisión Azteca concession was awarded to his friend Carlos Salinas de Gortari and ratified by Enrique Peña Nieto. That’s Salinas Pliego. The PRI and PAN (National Action Party) and the right haven’t understood or learned anything. May they do well.
Álvaro Delgado Gómez is a journalist born in Lagos de Moreno, Jalisco, in 1966. He began his career as a reporter in 1986 and has worked in the newsrooms of El Financiero, El Nacional, and El Universal. In November 1994, he joined the weekly Proceso as a reporter, where he was head of Political Information, specializing in political coverage. He has written several books, including El Yunque: The Far Right in Power (Plaza y Janés); El Ejército de Dios (Plaza y Janés); and El engaño: Prédica y práctica del PAN (Grijalbo). El amasiato: El acuerdo secreto Peña-Calderón y otras traiciones PANistas (Editorial Proceso) is his most recent book.
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The post Salinas Pliego, PRI & PAN’s New Leader appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.
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Typical libertarian leader: A treacherous pseudo entrepreneur, set on the idea that the law doesn’t apply to him. Up to his ears in tax debt that dates back decades. Eager to give up his country to his foreign cronies and in service of a small oligarchy drooling at the idea of privatizing every common good and resource of his country has to offer. He will call “communism” any attempt to apply the law to him. and whine in social media about his “freedoms”. A leech, a bloodsucker a dangerous hypocrite hungry for absolute power. This kind of scum should not be anywhere close to government. He must pay his debts to his country and shut the hell up.
