The Solidarity Caravan (with cameras) arrives in Hidalgo
It seems that the itinerary of the president Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo is tighter than the schedule of a delivery person on sale day. After marking her assistance card in Tamaulipas, our tireless leader appeared this Saturday, October 18 in Hidalgo, because what better plan for a weekend than to personally supervise the support for the affected families? One can almost imagine the logistics: “Okay, team, today it’s time to smile for the photo and show that the government is in the game, literally, against the floods.”
There, in the picturesque Acopio Center of the Juan Guillermo Villasana Airport, the meeting that we all expected took place: the protocol hug and the look of serious concern with Governor Julio Menchaca. The setting was so perfect that you could almost hear a community manager whisper in the background: “Make sure the aid boxes are in the shot, please.” It was then that the state president, with the solemnity of someone announcing the trailer for a superhero movie, declared: “We began another day of supervision and work in support of Hidalgo families.” One wonders if “journey” is the new euphemism for “lightning tour with high photogenic value.”
The ISSSTE also marks a presence (and keeps score)
But the supporting cast could not be missing. To give a touch of medical drama to the situation, Martí Batres Not content with this meticulous examination, Mr. Batres proceeded to release a piece of information that sounded more like a quarterly sales report than a humanitarian report: “In the ISSSTE hospitals of Hidalgo, Puebla, Veracruz, San Luis Potosí and Querétaro, 194 affected people have been received and treated.'” 194! A number so specific that it inspires absolute confidence, or perhaps makes us wonder if someone had to make a spreadsheet at midnight to get the figure ready for the photo. It’s comforting to know that, amid the chaos of extreme rainfall and natural disasters, hospital bureaucracy keeps its records impeccable. Will there be a special stamp for the file that says “Rain Damage, Seen by Principal”? The entire scene is simply moving. While ordinary citizens fight to save their belongings from the mud and water, the government leadership walks through the assistance centers for victims as if they were on a tourist route of the calamity. “And to your left, you can see a family that lost their home; to the right, the bags of aid that will arrive…eventually. Don’t forget your photos for the press release.” It is the eternal ballet of politics in the face of climatological emergencies, where the perception of action is as crucial as the action itself, or perhaps a little more. You cannot deny the work of the rescue teams and the health professionals who are on the front line, doing the heavy and anonymous work. But one can’t help but smile cynically at the spectacle of senior officials arriving, supervising and reporting with a numerical precision that would make an accountant blanch. It’s almost as if they believe that our capacity for wonder is so low that we settle for seeing them appear at the scene of the event, like bureaucratic superheroes who resolve crises with the magical appearance of their presence and a couple of statistics. In the end, the message is clear: the federal government and its allies are “on the ground.” And what better way to demonstrate it than with a careful choreography of meetings, statements and numbers that, we hope, will translate into tangible and effective help for all those who have seen their lives altered by the fury of nature. Because, at the end of the day, what it is about is reconstruction and resilience, not just filling albums with official press clippings. Did you find it an irreverent look at current events? Don’t be left with the irony, share this article on your social networks and help us make a different perspective viral. And of course, explore more content related to national politics and climate events on our site.
