Carlos Fuentes - The Eagle's Throne

How many times have you and I pondered together one of the central issues of political life: How should one treat the enemy?

Appease him?

Attack him outright?

Use violence, sever his head?

Defeat him first, only to honor him immediately afterward? Betray him, without letting the ignominy of your victory come crashing down on your own head?

Chop off his head first, never forgetting, “That could have been my own head”?

Turn your defeated enemy into your protector and friend, erecting statues and plaques in his honor — as long as he’s dead?

I’m very worried, María del Rosario. Your rash behavior violates the law of political justice. The political executioner should be invisible. By responding to your purely feminine, maternal emotions you’ve violated your own laws.

Tácito has forced our hand. He’s forcing us to reveal our game, to publicly condemn his shady dealings with MEXEN. Now, more than ever, we have to be extremely careful as we consider our opportunities for attack. Tácito knows we know because you, my impatient friend, told him so without considering the consequences. You tasted the sweet nectar of victory before it was yours. Mistake number one. And Tácito, in his response, has very skillfully proven himself worthy of our own rule: In politics, never make your intentions clear. Act.

You know, Marucha, I’m a man who always has a court in session inside his head. The judge is a “we” and sometimes a plural “you.” Today, the judge sitting in on our case is an “I-you” and he’s telling me, “You trusted this woman with a secret that is the key to my success and my rival’s defeat. But if this woman — my ally — reveals the secret, my rival will destroy both of us.”

That’s exactly what he’s done by going to the press and telling them about our retarded son. Face it, understand it: I, the pre-candidate for the presidency and you, the most renowned female politician in the country, have been reduced to a pair of heartless parents, despicable and callous ogres, two cruel monsters. .

You can breathe easily, María del Rosario.

The president has personally contacted the heads of the five or six major media organizations to tell them:

“Make no mistake. The child is mine. The result of a very old love affair with María del Rosario Galván. Look in the mirror, each one of you, and tell me you don’t have a secret love affair in your past. Kill the piece. I’ve never asked any of you for personal favors in the past. But I’m doing it now because it involves a lady. And, of course, as you well know, the office of the president.”

“But, Mr. President, the person who leaked the news was Mr. De la Canal, your chief of staff. . ”

“Ex-chief of staff. Mr. De la Canal handed in his resignation this afternoon.”

“Mr. President, your interior secretary, Bernal Herrera, has just announced his resignation as well.”

“That’s right, gentlemen. Tácito de la Canal and Bernal Herrera have resigned from their governmental positions so they can devote themselves fully to their respective presidential campaigns. And I’d like to thank both of them for their tremendous service to their country and to me. I think this news is a bit more important than prying into my personal life.”

“You’re absolutely right, Mr. President.”

“Let me reiterate my respect for the integrity and hard work of these two close aides who are leaving us now. They were trusted advisers who were loyal and steadfast to the end. That is the real news of the day.”

“We’ll treat this with the utmost discretion. Say no more.”

“Thank you, gentlemen.”

So proceed with a cold heart, María del Rosario. Remember who we have for a president, and let Tácito start his campaign before exposing the MEXEN scandal. Compose yourself for a few minutes, please, and remember what you said to me the day we decided to keep the boy a secret: “No. If I confess my disgrace, I’ll lose all respect. And even love.”

And I replied, “Never punish yourself for being happy. Don’t forget, we got where we are because we never let feelings drag us down.”

P.S. This tape will be delivered to you personally by Jesús Ricardo Magón, the young man who recently started working alongside your little protégé, the undersecretary of the interior, Nicolás Valdivia, who trusts him implicitly. Once you’ve listened to the cassette, destroy it, just as, as I know, you’ve destroyed all the other recorded messages I’ve sent you. And, María del Rosario, please don’t make me doubt you as I did when I first met you. .

P.P.S. I’ve just had lunch in my office with the editor in chief of the newspaper En Contra, Reynaldo Rangel. I thought that the president had summoned the newspapers and (though televisions are now useless) TV magnates to his office to speak to them personally. But the meeting Rangel described to me sounded very bizarre. Host and guests were separated by a big curtain in the middle of the room. The president didn’t allow his visitors to see him. He carried out the conversation from the other side of the curtain, but since they all know Lorenzo Terán’s voice, and the conversation flowed normally, it didn’t occur to anyone to doubt that it was him. In any event, even if they did have their doubts, it was in their interest to grant the president his request. . But there’s definitely a mystery here. Destroy this tape, please. And I repeat, remember who you are, who we are, don’t let your hormones get the better of you, and don’t break your own rules. Let a cool head rule over fury.

My distinguished colleague and loyal friend, you know how I go about these things. I believe scientists call it “mimicry,” chameleons that change color to blend in with their environment. In other words, if they’re sitting on a rock, they blend in with the rock, and if they are perched on a tree trunk they change their color accordingly. Well, my esteemed Paulina, I find myself at a crossroads. A path that is unpaved, muddy, mucky, a valley of slime, some might call it.

I won’t bother to tell you what you already know. Or perhaps I’ll tell you again so that you get the full picture.

The parties are divided. The president’s party, the National Action Party, has splintered into the ultra-reactionary and clerical faction, the center Christian Democrats, and the left-wing faction that associates itself with liberation theology. The PRI, our Institutional Revolutionary Party, has split into eight groups. The far right, which wants order and repression. Dinosaurs who are gathering dust in the Museum of National Political History. Neoliberal technocrats who keep alive the flame of their goddess Macroeconomics. Nationalists who believe that the re-assertion of sovereignty is the PRI’s raison d’être. Then, the populists who promise everything and deliver nothing. Not to mention the factions of agrarians, unionists, and old bureaucrats dating back to the corporate culture of the Cárdenas era.

Take a look around you. Instead of the great steamroller of the once “invincible” PRI, we’re now facing eight mini-parties in search of lost unity.

And then, on the left, we have the Green parties, but they’re only as green as the dollar bill; the Social Democrats following the European model; the neo-Cardenistas who want to go back in time to 1938; the Marxists of the Leninist and Trotskyist persuasions, and Marxists who read the young Karl Marx and proclaim that Marxism is a form of humanism.

And don’t think I’ve forgotten about the indigenous factions, or the strung-out extremists — both sides, anarchists and fascists.

My method for controlling this circus in Congress, as you know, is to pretend not to notice anything and wear my dunce cap as much as possible. I make myself invisible. So that nobody pays me the slightest attention.