When left-wing elites seize power, they often succumb to the same luxuries they condemn on the right, betraying their promises of austerity. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum criticized this in her morning press conference.
The recent scandal involving Andy López Beltrán, son of former Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who was caught leaving a Prada store in Tokyo and staying at a five-star hotel, is a prime example. This episode, along with the controversy surrounding his brother José Ramón, who previously lived in a mansion in Houston, highlights an abysmal disconnect between Morena’s rhetoric of humility and the actions of its key figures.
The psychology of power explains this contradiction: access to privileges erodes empathy and normalizes luxury as a “reward” for struggle, according to studies such as those by Dacher Keltner.
This phenomenon is not unique to Mexico. In Argentina, the “VIP Vaccination Center” of Alberto Fernández’s Peronist government revealed how leftist officials benefited from privileges in the midst of the pandemic, while in Venezuela, Chavista “bolichicos” flaunt wealth abroad, contradicting socialist rhetoric.
These cases reflect an uncomfortable truth: leftist elites, by integrating into the capitalist system, adopt its codes of consumption and status, diluting its ideals. Socialization in powerful environments, as cultural psychology points out, leads them to assimilate the values of global elites, from private jets to luxury boutiques.
The left in power faces an existential dilemma: how to transform a system they end up serving? The lack of internal self-criticism perpetuates these contradictions, stigmatizing dissent as treason. Without robust accountability mechanisms, leftist elites will continue to fall into hypocrisy, eroding confidence in their projects.
The López Beltrán case is not just a scandal; It is a reminder that power seduces everyone, regardless of ideological color.