Mexico, Opinions Worth Sharing

“I confess that I am co-responsible.”

Photo: on faroinforma.com.mx

Ricardo Pascoe Pierce

It took him 23 years to confess to the crime, but he finally did. Evasive, he admitted it on a September morning in 2023. Better late than never. It is true that, as he suffers from uncontainable verbosity, it was inevitable that, at some point, he would assume it as an unquestionable truth of his administration as head of the Government of Mexico City.

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Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador accepted that the Bando Dos (Decree number two) he issued in December 2000, a few days after formally taking office as head of government, unleashed massive real estate corruption. He said it in his own way, holding others responsible for the pernicious effects of the bando, including bribery. But he accepted that the real estate cartel had been created from that act of his government.

Image: Jovani Pérez/Infobae on infobae.com

With this confession, the City Prosecutor’s Office no longer has to look for culprits. The main culprit has already confessed. It simply has to act by the law.

Screenshot: on https://www.infobae.com/mexico/2023/07/19/amlo-esta-ligado-a-corrupcion-inmobiliaria-en-benito-juarez-el-explica-por-que-es-corresponsable/

In that epic morning speech, the President said, “I confess that I am co-responsible” for the real estate speculation in Mexico City. That is a criminal confession. It is criminal because the former Mexico City Prosecutor, Ernestina Godoy, defined real estate speculation as a crime. For that reason, the Prosecutor’s Office may proceed against the President of the Republic for having established the legal conditions conducive to creating not one but multiple real estate cartels.

Photo: Elizabeth Velázquez on Excelsior.com.mx

So much so that the links and friendships created between real estate developers and AMLO when he led the city persist to this day, with relatives of the developers in relevant positions in the federal public administration, it is the symbiosis between the real estate cartel and politics projected over time.

Image: on sinembargo.mx

To understand what the President is guilty of, it is imperative to comprehend what effects Bando Dos had on the city and its subsequent development. And why there is so much talk of corruption and why it is criminalized.

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The bando itself was illegal. It was unlawful because, without being a legislative act duly discussed and approved, it was a unilateral execution of the local Executive, erasing all the legal instruments of urban administration of the Delegation Programs in force at that time. Legally, the Legislative Assembly had the power to approve them, providing planning and order to the city’s urban development. With the stroke of a pen, AMLO abolished urban planning and introduced the liberation of land use for whoever offered the most money. That was, in concrete terms, the effect of Bando Dos. And real estate speculation was immediately unleashed. Urban neoliberalism.

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The issuance of Bando Dos was, in fact, the first gesture of an authoritarian Executive, ignoring, in this case, the Legislative Branch.

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The effects of Bando Dos unleashed real estate speculation by allowing developers to ignore the limitations and restrictions on land use and to build more floors than those permitted by the Delegation Plans in force at the time. The impact on the political and social structure of Mexico City has been brutal.

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The immediate impact was an increase in the city’s price per square meter. The commercial value of existing buildings, and those built after Bando Dos, skyrocketed. Thus, when a social interest apartment could be acquired for 400 thousand pesos, today it is impossible to find the same apartment for less than one million pesos, despite the “preferential rates” of official agencies such as INVI.

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What has been the impact of this increase in land value due to the real estate speculation unleashed by AMLO, for which he assumes “co-responsibility”?

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The poorest have had to flee the city, looking for a place to live, mainly in the States of Mexico, Hidalgo, Tlaxcala, and even Morelos. How is this silent migration reflected? This is evidenced by the extensive development of low-income housing in these states, mainly in the State of Mexico.

Image: on magis.iteso.mx

When Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas won the city, it had 40 federal districts. Today, Mexico City has 23 federal districts due to the brutal population decrease that the city has suffered during the 27 years of governments shared by the same people between the PRD and Morena.

Photo: on tpr.org

As if that were not enough, the National Population Council (CONAPO) confirms that Mexico City has had the most significant population loss in the Republic in the last two decades. Migration is mainly (although not exclusively) low-income population looking for a place to live at affordable prices. The great irony of AMLO’s unsolicited but freely offered confession about the effects of Bando Dos is that the government created to defend the poor is the one that chases them away from the city. The capital’s population today is primarily middle class with different income levels.

Chart: on sinembargo.mx

Even areas of the country that expel population due to economic marginalization or drug violence have not yet reached the devastating effects of the massive migration caused by gentrification as a model of urban development that has been installed in Mexico City since the unilaterally decreed Bando Dos.

Photo: on elsoldezacatecas.com

So far, the effects of Bando Dos are, on the one hand, that this decree, being illegal, radically transformed Mexico City’s urban development model without any consultation with legislators and professional or business organizations. Then, it made the commercial value of land more expensive by liberalizing land use schemes according to the interests of capital and without consideration of their social impacts. This has led to an accelerated process of gentrification in housing values, office buildings, and the supply of medium and high-end shopping centers. This was followed by an invisible process of expulsion of the city’s low-income population to the peripheral areas of the vast Valley of Mexico and beyond. The population loss has resulted in a radical change in the social composition of the capital and its voting habits. This was evident in the mid-term elections of 2021.

Photo: on wikiwand.com

Mexico City, led today by the left, promoted an example of gentrification for the world, with all the advantages and disadvantages accompanying such a process. The great historical irony of the cartel urban model imposed in Mexico City, for which AMLO is co-responsible by his confession, will most probably see the left expelled from power in the next elections. An election that promises to become a parricide.

Photo: Santiago López on Pexels

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