The Viceroy that Wanted to be King

The Viceroy that Wanted to be King

By: Erreh Svaia

“The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal and hasten the resurrection of the dead.”

William Lloyd Garrison

Luis Videgaray came to public life as the campaign chief of the presidential candidate Enrique Peña, Videgaray managed to build a successful campaign for Peña and was fundamental in the triumph of the so called "New PRI", despite fraud accusations, it was obvious that as a consequence, Videgaray would find an easy way to get into Peña's presidential cabinet, and he did as Finance Minister, his experience in both the private and public service were apparent indicators of a man with a special sensibility and experience and quickly catapulted him as the "right hand" of Peña and the "brains" behind the new government, and fundamental piece of the government hyped by the media as the one to "Save Mexico" and to create the "Mexican Moment", taking advantage of Brazil loss of gas after corruption cases started to trouble that country government.

Videgaray became known as Peña's main advisor, the media calling him "Viceroy Videgaray", but Videgaray role was a more operational one, different from say ideological advisors like Aleksandr Dugin in Russia or Stephen Bannon in the USA, Videgaray strongest moment came when he impulses a controversial tax reform that increased the burden on the tax payer and did little to broad the base, his "star" begun to loose shine and his popularity decreased, and people started to question if Videgaray was as bright as they thought and if the "brains" behind Peña were as effective as everyone assumed, in reality, the painful tax reform was one of the anchors in the country ongoing transition from oil dependency towards a manufacturing economy started on Peña's predecessor administration, as the government grew suspicious towards oil prices, it helped save the government from the faith of oil depending economies like Russia's or Venezuela's, it damaged greatly the inner consumption and targeted the middle class, but strengthened the country’s finances during the global fall of oil prices.

Perhaps Videgaray most controversial moment came when he lobbied the idea of inviting then presidential candidate Donald Trump to the country, considering Trump menacing anti Mexican rhetoric, Videgaray thought it would be a good idea to bring Trump to Mexico in order to start rounding the edges of the future Mexico-USA relationship, in fact, the strategy backfired, Trump's shrinking campaign received a boost after the visit, angered the Democratic Party, offended Mexican society and made cracks within Peña's cabinet, Videgaray's initiative turned against him and he was dismissed from the cabinet as the man who helped Trump, a Mexico enemy to won the elections, Trump even called Videgaray "a brilliant minister", a quote that would become a clue to Videgaray's future.

Claimed by some as a visionary, as the man who saw what nobody saw, the hard to foresee Trump's triumph, the and rumored falsely to be declared as candidate for the Estado de Mexico government, Videgaray was integrated once again into Peña's cabinet, this time as Foreign Affairs Minister, perhaps seen as the only Mexican to be "well considered" by Trump, Videgaray new role was to reshape the relations with the North, or perhaps "clean the mess" he created, Videgaray immediate controversial statement after assuming his new role was that he knew nothing about foreign affairs and that he "came to learn" which created nervous shockwaves through Mexican society, the idea of sending a rookie to negotiate with a despot sounded too risky and put the Mexican economy against Trump's wall.

Today Videgaray is again after president  Peña, the PRI most visible face, considering his public relevance this day and his increasing popularity as the man negotiating with the "Negotiator", it wouldn't be a surprise that he would end up as the PRI designated candidate for the 2018 presidential race, but as Videgaray luck struck after the defeat of Hillary Clinton, a decent showing in the NAFTA negotiations could catapult him into becoming the hottest card in his political party arsenal of candidates, considering that the PRI is far from finished and considering that troubled times scare people and is something that strengthens the PRI ultra conservative stance, giving a chance to Videgaray to once again, resurrect his eroded star and save again his political party, if a man can save the PRI once again and give a sense of counter balance against Trump, for the PRI it would surely be Luis, and for opposition parties like the PAN and MoReNa that's a reason to be alert, never underestimate the resurrecting powers of Videgaray who seems to have more lives than a cat, if his luck doesn’t run out like his actual boss´.