“When the referee stops
calling the fouls,
we are no longer facing
a competition: we are
facing an
announced result.”
Do not be fooled.
The 2027 election does not begin when the ballots appear or when candidates formally ask for votes.
The political battle has already begun.
And Morena arrives with a formidable advantage: it controls the Presidency of the Republic, has an enormous territorial structure, governs a large part of the country, and has a political machine that has been warming up for months.
The truly uncomfortable question is another one: Where is the referee?
Because the National Electoral Institute cannot become a spectator sitting in the front row while the competitors get a head start in the race.
Much less when the INE itself knows the problem perfectly well.
In May, electoral councilor Arturo Castillo put on the table what he called “the elephant in the room”: the early political processes related to the 2027 elections.
It was not a casual complaint.
It was raised within the INE’s own General Council.
Castillo warned that the parties were already carrying out activities that could affect the fairness of future elections and proposed rules to monitor them and prevent undue advantages.
So no one can claim to be surprised.
The referee was warned. And there is an even more delicate precedent.
During that discussion, it was recalled that, leading up to the 2024 presidential election, hundreds of complaints were filed related to the so-called corcholatas and their early activities.
History seems determined to repeat itself. First, an internal procedure is invented.
Then come the tours.
Then the walls, billboards, meetings, territorial structures, polls, and propaganda appear.
Finally, the candidacy arrives.
And when the campaign officially begins, the favorite horse has already been running for months.
The INE and the Suspicion
The INE formally inaugurated the 2026–2027 electoral process on September 10.
Federal primary campaigns, however, are scheduled to begin until January 4, 2027, while campaigns will begin on April 4.
So the question is elementary:
What are those who are touring territories, building structures, promoting names, and positioning political ambitions doing right now?
They may call it party organization.
They may call it informational assemblies.
They may hide it behind polls.
But citizens have the right to ask where ordinary party activity ends and an early campaign begins.
And this is where the responsibility of Guadalupe Taddei and the INE General Council comes in.
The Institute was not created to watch as parties stretch the law until they break it.
It was created to guarantee fairness.
Because a democratic election does not only require the votes to be counted correctly.
It requires that no one arrive at election day after having run half a marathon while everyone else was forced to remain at the starting line.
Claudia: President or Political Boss?
Claudia Sheinbaum also faces a greater political and constitutional obligation.
She is President of all Mexicans.
Not just of Morena.
And that is why every electoral statement made from the National Palace must be examined under a microscope.
Sheinbaum has said that, if there are acts constituting early campaigning, it is up to the INE and the Electoral Tribunal to determine it.
But precisely for that reason, the INE has to act with absolute independence.
There cannot even be a suspicion that the referee measures the ruling party with one yardstick and its adversaries with another.
Electoral autonomy is not presumed.
It is demonstrated.
And it is demonstrated by setting limits on the powerful, not merely by punishing the weak.
Andy and Tabasco
Our Tabasco deserves special attention.
Andrés Manuel López Beltrán has become one of the figures generating the most controversy heading into 2027.
In August, during a session of the INE General Council, a representative of Somos México directly accused Andy of being involved in an early campaign and announced an electoral complaint.
The accusation does not amount to a ruling. But it does force us to ask:
Is the INE investigating with the same intensity with which it would act if the person being accused belonged to the opposition?
Because Andy is not just any party member.
He is the son of former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. The man who thinks he has Tabasco written into his name.
He is an important figure within Morena. And any potential candidacy of his in Tabasco would inevitably carry enormous national significance.
That is precisely why he needs extraordinary scrutiny.
Not extraordinary privileges.
And While Mexico Campaigns, Washington Talks About the Cartels
There is also another explosive ingredient heading into 2027: the United States.
Marco Rubio has just used a brutal expression to refer to Mexican cartels:
“The head of the snake is these cartels in Mexico.”
The U.S. secretary of state maintained that they represent a threat to the Mexican state, mentioned the murders of candidates, judges, and journalists, and stated that these criminal organizations must be confronted.
He also said something Mexico should listen to carefully: Washington expects to do so in cooperation with Mexican authorities.
The text circulating on social media goes much further and claims that the United States is weeks away from carrying out unilateral military actions.
The latter is not demonstrated by Rubio’s statements.
And precisely because this is such a serious matter, we should not turn a political interpretation into an established fact.
But what has been confirmed is already sufficiently concerning.
Donald Trump’s government is placing Mexican cartels at the center of its security agenda.
And this could end up contaminating Mexico’s 2027 election.
Just imagine what would happen if, over the coming months, Washington announced new sanctions, visa cancellations, investigations, or case files against figures connected to Mexican politics.
The electoral earthquake would be monumental.
Morena Has a Problem
Morena can win elections.
What it cannot claim is the right to play without a referee. And Claudia Sheinbaum has to decide what legacy she wants to leave.
She can act as President of Mexico and guarantee that no government structure is used to electorally favor her movement.
Or she can become Morena’s great campaign boss from the National Palace.
The two things simultaneously are incompatible with a democracy that aspires to a truly level playing field.
And the INE faces its own dilemma.
It can regain authority, set limits, and demonstrate independence.
Or it can reach June 6, 2027, having become nothing more than an administrator of polling stations after allowing the election to be politically decided many months earlier.
Because modern electoral fraud does not necessarily need stuffed ballot boxes.
It can be built through early propaganda, resources, government structures, permanent exposure, and electoral authorities incapable of imposing limits.
The 2027 election has already begun.
Morena knows it and is taking advantage of it.
The opposition should know it.
Claudia Sheinbaum, of course, knows it. And Guadalupe Taddei does too.
Therefore, if nine months from now someone asks when the playing field began to tilt, let no one answer that it was on election day.
The playing field is tilting now, if those in power play while the referee looks the other way.
And when a referee knows about the fouls, hears the complaints, and still does nothing, it is no longer enough to ask whether he was negligent.
The question Mexico will inevitably end up asking will be much more serious:
Independent INE or a tolerant referee for the party in power?
How does Claudia Sheinbaum want to go down in history?
Source: tabasco.quadratin
