Actor Eduardo Verástegui may run for president of Mexico, says conservative party there ‘is dead’

Sat, 08 Jul 2023 10:00:00 +0000
Religion

Actor Eduardo Verastegui presents the film "Little Boy" at the Vatican Film Library on April 14, 2016. / Catholic News Agency

ACI Prensa Staff, Jul 8, 2023 / 04:00 am (CNA).

Actor, producer and Catholic activist Eduardo Verástegui, who is considering running for president of Mexico, said in a July 5 video that the National Action Party (PAN), traditionally identified as a pro-life, pro-family conservative party “is dead.”

U.S. moviegoers may recognize Verástegui as the producer of "Bella," "Little Boy" and the recent box office success, “The Sound of Freedom.”

In a statement to ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, last month Verástegui asked for prayers to discern whether or not to run for president, and explained some of the reasons that would drive him to make this decision, which included the sad state of Mexico and the hope for meaningful change.

In his recent video he said that “PAN has died and we’re not sure that it’s resting in peace, because it died in a state of disgrace."

He continued: "The leadership of PAN betrayed its membership by imposing a candidate who represents the complete opposite of the values defended by the majority of its followers," he continued, referring to Xóchitl Gálvez, federal senator for PAN and candidate to lead the “Frente Amplio por Mexico” (Broad Front for Mexico) political alliance with her sights on running in the 2024 presidential elections.

Besides PAN, the Frente Amplio por Mexico alliance includes the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).

The current president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, was a member of the PRI from 1976 to 1988, before joining the ranks of the PRD in 1989. He would remain in that political party until 2012. In 2014, he launched his own party, the National Regeneration Movement known as Morena.

PAN, which was started in 1939, was until a few years ago the historical political rival of the PRI, which ruled the country for seven consecutive decades. Finally, in the year 2000, PAN managed to win the presidency, which it held for two consecutive six-year terms: the Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderón administrations.

According to its official documents, PAN is informed by the “millennial traditions: Judeo-Christian, Aristotelian, Thomist, and humanist traditions, that have their origins in the classical Greece of Pericles, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle."

In his video, Verástegui showed a clip of a speech that Gálvez delivered before the country’s federal congress on July 29, 2021, where the senator said that she comes "from the Marxist workers' league” and that her roots are “of Trotskyite origin."

For the Mexican producer, who recently premiered his film ‘The Sound of Freedom” in the U.S. about the tragedy of child trafficking, "the parasites in power killed the PAN with a 666 caliber Xóchitl model shotgun."

"With the arrival of progressive supremacism to PAN, today that party and Morena are exactly the same," he continued.

"But I told you, I've been telling you: All parties are the same," he said.

Verástegui pointed to "the leadership, whose members are promoters of the populist, communist, and Trotskyite left" as responsible.

However, he added, "I have very good news for you: Despite the fact that the majority of the Mexican people have been left without political representation, you’re “not an orphan.”

“Many of us Mexicans who already saw this wave of betrayal coming have been building a movement of patriots that seeks to defend the three pillars that sustain this great nation: God, country, and family. That is why I want to invite you to this movement, to join this army of Mexicans that will not allow our souls to be stolen.

“Very soon,” he announced, “we will let you know how to join this movement.”

“The time has come for unity, family, because together we are stronger. The doors of the Viva México Movement are open. Long live Mexico! God bless you,” he concluded.

Verástegui's video, in Spanish, can be viewed below.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.