Ricardo Pascoe Pierce
In the next ten days, Mexico will know the size of the confrontation ahead in the presidential race. On September 3, the Frente Amplio por México will announce the result of its method of selecting its presidential candidate, which combines a national poll and citizen voting on a census of approximately 2.2 million people who registered to express their opinion. On the 6th of the same month, Morena will open a white envelope containing the name of the person selected by poll to represent it in the 2024 presidential race.
It remains to be seen what Movimiento Ciudadano decides about its presidential candidacy. It has three options. One option is to join the nomination of whoever represents the Frente Amplio por México through a specific agreement. Another option is to join the coalition grouped by Morena and allies, which means losing all semblance of independence. Finally, it has the alternative of launching its own candidacy outside the two large blocs built, risking losing its legal registration due to its internal splits.
The coming campaigns should serve the country and the citizens to know in depth the government’s problems, which will require serious and responsible solutions. Let us list some of these problems that must be faced without demagogy or ideological simplism.
Health. The dismantling of the health system during this six-year term destroyed the mechanisms for purchasing and distributing medicines nationally and left 33 million Mexicans, adults, and children without access to essential services. It was a strategic mistake of this government to think that the Social Security Institute (IMSS) could incorporate all citizens as beneficiaries of its service when its internal structure responds to another logic: a tripartite relationship between employers, workers, and government. Throwing in millions and millions of new patients will only lead to the deterioration and collapse of the IMSS health system as a whole. Candidates will have to offer viable solutions and refrain from providing ideology and rhetoric as an instrument to address these claims.
Crime. Without law and the rule of law, there is no country. Therefore, we will have to receive very concrete proposals on dealing with this problem, focused on limiting and suffocating the literally insurrectional pockets of drug trafficking in the country. Entire communities are fleeing to the United States in panic because of the country’s kidnappings and massacres every day. In essence, organized crime must be defeated and reduced from being the national security problem it is today to be a public security problem managed by municipal and state police who are well-trained and equipped for the task. This is the only way to end the wave of violence nationwide.
Militarism. The militarization of the country is a problem created by this government. The military cannot and should not be businesspeople and good soldiers. The military must return to its constitutional role. Turning generals into business people is a perverse act of confusing their functionality and creating incentives for their permanent deformation by turning them into actors in the political sphere.
Education. The recovery of an educational system managed with pedagogical and scientific criteria will be the task of the next government. It will have to reject the idea of ideologizing and idiotizing students and, thus, leaving Mexican children without a future. Full-time schools and permanently trained teachers are what a country that intends to progress requires. An enlarged and sufficient budget is the responsibility of a government committed to children.
Foreign policy and economy. Mexico is an essential part of North America first and then of the rest of Latin America and the world. It should not be part of blocs that promote dictatorships or regimes that invade other countries to expand their spheres of influence. Association with the North American economy is a strategic decision that must be made without hesitation or ideological prurience. Economic development and partnership with North America are essential currencies for Mexico’s future governance.
These are, among others, the major issues that the future electoral campaign must address seriously and responsibly, offering credible solutions for each of them. A campaign dedicated to ideological slogans will lead the country to more polarization and self-destruction. And that is not what most of us who inhabit this great country are looking for.
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