What is the current political situation in Mexico?
Luis Enrique Barrios: In 2006 we witnessed a high degree of social polarisation as a consequence of 25 years of uninterrupted attacks on the working class. The electoral fraud that put Felipe Calderón into power is the typical accident through which necessity expresses itself: there was already an evident heating up of the class struggle before the anti-fraud movement. The fraud turned into a “ya basta” (“enough is enough”) rallying point for millions of Mexicans who joined the struggle to say they were fed up with being ruled in the old way and having their living conditions permanently under attack. However, undoubtedly, in 2007 the movement did not mobilise with the same intensity as the year before, which is natural considering the previous level of activity. Nevertheless, important struggles did develop. In particular I am referring to the struggle of the civil servants in defence of their pension scheme and against the new “ISSTE reform”. This struggle was basically supported by
