The November Protests in Mexico - A Flash of Fury or Orchestrated Opera?

Mexico woke up one Monday morning to find itself suddenly, spectacularly enraged. Videos flooded TikTok. Facebook feeds burst into flames. News anchors panted and panicked    over “historic mobilization.” And for a moment, it looked as if the entire republic had collectively marched into the streets to declare a nationwide “¡Ya basta!” (basically – We’ve Had Enough!)

Then came Tuesday.And the whole thing evaporated faster than a promise proffered by Trump.

A protest this intense and this short always leaves a question lingering in the air like tear gas at an ICE infested elementary school. Was this authentic civic outrage or a masterclass in manufactured dissent?

The truth, as usual in Latin American politics, is a complicated cocktail. One part genuine fury and frustration. One part opportunism orchestrated by oligarchs. And more than a splash of foreign fingerprints.

A Sudden Storm with Suspicious Symmetry

Most social uprisings grow like weeds – fast but not overnight.This one appeared fully formed, choreographed, and suspiciously synchronized. At first even I, your serial skeptic thought it was 100% genuine. The young people. The old people. The TikToks and the flashpoint moment of murder. However. Within days of a mayor’s assassination in Michoacán, which was an undeniably horrifying event – anonymous TikTok accounts began circulating identical videos condemning the government. New Facebook pages emerged with professional-grade branding. Influencers who had previously posted only gym selfies and lip-syncs suddenly discovered a passion for politics. And a tidal wave of anti-Sheinbaum messaging surged across platforms like a TikTok Tidal Wave. All this made me suspicious. And a suspicious Frederick is a Finder of Facts! I found out thousands of the inciting social media accounts were new. Thousands more were not even based in Mexico. They came from the USA.

Would anyone be shocked that the USA might be motivated to discredit the woman who has repeatedly belittled, and banned the new Northern Dictator from his desires for invasions and reduced price resources like rare-earth minerals? Not this slightly left-leaning independent!

Because nothing says “solidarity with Mexican citizens” like a battalion of freshly minted accounts created from IP addresses in Texas, Florida, and Virginia. The same states where U.S. agencies, think tanks, and contractors quietly outsource “digital influence operations” – yes, that’s a government thing in every modern country now.

The United States does not want a stable Mexico.

A stable Mexico becomes economically competitive.

A stable Mexico can’t be bullied by a buffoon in trade negotiations.

A stable Mexico negates the narrative of “poverty-stricken war zone”.

So the United States plays its favorite geopolitical game: destabilize softly, blame loudly, benefit quietly.

The Salinas Factor – In Mexico, FOX’s Rupert is a Ricardo

Who knew Mexico had their own FOX News? I didn’t until I started looking into all this. Ricardo Salinas Pliego. He is the country’s closest analogue to Rupert Murdoch, except with more swagger and slightly better tailoring. Through TV Azteca, ADN40, and an ecosystem of smaller outlets, he commands a formidable empire of right-leaning rhetoric.

Salinas has a long history of disdain for AMLO or Sheinbaum. He launched multiple fear-based campaigns warning of communist socialism, when Obrador was running for office. He has continued these attacks, non-stop, since Obrador and then Sheinbaum were elected. The problem he has is that while his claims that corporations  care better for the citizens than countries do, things keep getting annoyingly better for the lower and middle-classes under his liberal adversaries. More people have been brought out of poverty than ever in Mexican history – and that’s bad for businesses seeking poverty-wage labor.

His cousin, Dr. Roberto Salinas León, sits high within the Atlas Network – the global consortium of libertarian think-tanks known for promoting privatization, contradicting climate change, and a penchant for regime-change in any Latin American country that starts to improve things for the lower and middle classes. While Atlas Network did not orchestrate the protest outright, its ideological fingerprints were visible enough to earn an honorary mention.

When a political moment arrives that can lessen a left-leaning administration, the Salinas syndicate seizes the moment. They amplify adversarial attitudes. They accelerate anger. Then they send it across every screen in their syndicate.

Sorting the Facts from the Fiction – The Difference Between What I’d Like to Believe and Reality

Investigative work requires uncomfortable discipline: pointing out which claims survive scrutiny and which dissolve under light.

Some grievances were real. Fear of cartel violence has been simmering for years. The assassination of a public official is enough to ignite any population’s nerves.

But other claims circulating online were pure invention.

The myth that all protest accounts were foreign or fabricated is false. Multitudes were Mexican, some were bots, and some were opportunistic content creators with more ambition than accuracy.

The suggestion that AMLO and Sheinbaum have “done nothing” against cartels is also untrue. Their administration has deployed extraordinary military resources, captured high-profile cartel leaders, and expanded federal security programs. Whether their strategy is effective is debatable. Claiming they have been inactive is not. But expecting anyone to solve a problem that is decades old and billions of dollars deep, is as foolish as believing a US president who claims he can make Mexico pay for a wall.

And the claim that the protest was entirely synthetic because it only lasted a day is logically lazy. Mexicans protest with intensity, not duration.

The Brutal, Boring Truth - Most People Do Not Study Their Own Country’s Politics

I’ve talked politics with a LOT of people, here in Mexico. It’s interesting. It’s fascinating. I learn a lot. And I come to the same realization:

People everywhere – not just the USA – are too distracted or busy to bother with the boring world of their own country’s political machinations. They consume political narratives the way Americans consume hamburgers. Quickly and without thinking too much about what is actually inside.

This civic laziness is how the United States ended up with a pedophile, convicted sex predator, felon and conman who stole from children’s cancer charities, as its president.  

Because in modern politics, the less the citizenry scrutinizes their politicians and political process, the easier the manipulation becomes.

So while the Mexican people aren’t nearly as ignorant as their MAGA counterparts, they’re similar to the US Citizenry in that they’ll spend more time watching novellas than analyzing policy positions and proposed legislation. Thus is the plight of the masses, nowadays. FS