Federico Reyes Heroles
Arguments are the essence of democracy. It is very healthy for our threatened democracy that former President Zedillo has broken his self-imposed silence and returned to the debate.
“In recent months—under López Obrador’s administration—and the first months of his successor, Claudia Sheinbaum, the riddle has been clearly solved: the promised transformation was, in reality, to replace our young democracy with a tyranny.” Step by step, since 2018, institutions and checks and balances that took decades to build have been destroyed. And they are going for more.
The first step was using the presidential megaphone—now ratified—and its repetitions, which distort and misrepresent the flow of information. Fear reigns on licensed radio and television, which shows the intention of the 4T. Layoffs, phone calls, and open threats have inhibited the free flow of ideas for almost seven years.
Of course, there are still spaces, such as Excélsior, where opinions can be expressed without restrictions. Perhaps the licensees believed that the evil would be temporary. Today, it is clear: it is part of the plan. The brazen proposal of the Digital Agency, which included intervention in content and the cancellation of licenses, came from the Presidency.
The tally is devastating: weakening of the finances of the National Electoral Institute; penetration and control of the General Council; co-opting of the Electoral Tribunal; control of the Attorney General’s Office; expansion of preventive detention, PPO, disappearance of autonomous bodies: National Institute for Access to Information (Inai), National Economic Competition Commission, National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy, Energy Regulatory Commission, National Hydrocarbons Commission, Federal Telecommunications Institute. The National Human Rights Commission is drowning in inconsistencies. The paroxysm is the disappearance of a professional and independent judiciary. The co-optation of the Armed Forces –$$$– continues apace. How sad. The perverse design is trans-sexennial.
Zedillo is right, Mexico is already an authoritarian regime on the road to tyranny. Last September, speaking before the International Bar Association, Zedillo clearly warned about judicial reform: “… a set of constitutional reforms that will destroy the judiciary and, with it, bury Mexican democracy and what remains of its fragile rule of law.” The response: disqualifications and rhetoric.
Zedillo is blamed for Fobaproa. They forget that it was created to rescue the Mexican banking system and prevent a paralysis of the payment system. Of course, there were crooks and abusers, some of whom are now close to the 4T. Improvisers also misused public resources. The same happened with Segalmex, Birmex, Pemex, CFE, and many more.
A serious approach should incorporate a counterfactual reading: We know what happened with Fobaproa, but we cannot even imagine what would have happened to Mexico without it. Let’s calculate a “corralito”—the restriction in Argentina in 2001 on cash withdrawals in the face of financial panic—but multiplied… by four.
Incidentally, Argentina’s economic growth forecasts for 2025 are 5%. Under Zedillo, the economy grew by an average of 3.5%. Under AMLO, the average was 0.9%, the lowest in 36 years. If we do not experience a decline in 2025, we will have done well.
Zedillo is now calling for a reciprocal audit with an independent international auditor to audit Fobaproa, which is around $20 billion, against the emblematic works of the 4T. Excellent idea. The Dos Bocas refinery alone has already reached $20.959 billion and is not producing. Add to that the New Mexico City International Airport, 332 billion pesos; the National Institute of Health for Welfare, 409 billion pesos; the Maya Train, 500 billion pesos; result: 1,241,000, or another 62 billion dollars. Additional minor details: Segalmex, 15 billion pesos. They buried the Inai because it cost a thousand. Zedillo’s political reform took the majority away from the PRI in 1997, the first election for Mexico City arrived, Cárdenas, and—no small thing—it allowed the opposition to win the presidency in 2000, Fox. Now they are going after the pluris, the touchstone of Mexican democracy.
They don’t care about pesos; they lose out, that’s how tyranny works.
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