Ricardo Pascoe Pierce
There is no point in sugarcoating things. Mexico is hurtling like a runaway train toward the precipice of becoming a country with a single-party political regime, without free elections and with all the legal backing to justify the imprisonment of opponents of the government. It seeks to eliminate power alternation.
The López Obrador-Sheinbaum duo has rewritten the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States. Today’s Constitution bears no resemblance to that of seven years ago. Seven years ago, the Constitution ensured the independence of the three pillars of the Mexican state. The judicial, legislative, and executive branches were recognizably autonomous and functioned as checks and balances on each other. This essential function of checks and balances strengthened and gave confidence to the exercise of citizens’ fundamental rights. It was the cornerstone of the rule of law in Mexico. Despite this, it was a democracy with flaws and shortcomings that needed improvement.
There were autonomous state bodies that freely exercised their guaranteed budgets. Both transparency and accountability functions required public officials to promptly inform citizens about their use of the public budget and the reasons for their procedural and legal decisions in the exercise of their responsibilities. Oversight bodies required transparency in the legality of official actions and decisions.
Other autonomous bodies ensured anti-monopoly competition between public and private economic entities. The existence of these bodies, including an autonomous Attorney General’s Office, was key to combating corruption in the public sphere.
Finally, there were the National Electoral Institute (INE) and the Electoral Tribunal of the Federal Judiciary (TEPJF) as autonomous bodies whose essential function was to ensure fair and balanced competition between political parties during electoral contests. These two autonomous and independent bodies, together, were a cornerstone in giving credibility to electoral competitions and their outcomes. All of that has disappeared with the Morena governments. There are no longer autonomous bodies to control and oversee the federal government’s activities and budget.
The clearest example of this absence is how López Obrador was able to indebt the country to historic levels so that Claudia Sheinbaum could win the presidency and Morena could literally buy control of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies in 2024. This indebtedness is probably the most scandalous example of corruption in public budget management.
But the change in the composition of the judiciary, won through illegal backroom deals, is an act of electoral corruption that has forever tarnished the reputation of the INE and the TEPJF. While under the previous Constitution, political power was balanced among the judiciary, the legislature, and the executive, under the new Constitution, it endorses a pyramidal structure of power in Mexico. The executive branch is above all others, and both the legislative and judicial branches are subordinate to it. With this change to the Constitution, the Republic died.
It also died with the institutionalization of the alliance between Morena and drug trafficking, from the presidency of the Republic to the smallest municipality in the country.
Every day, cases of large-scale theft from the public treasury by members of Morena come to light. The fact is that many of them are now enriched with properties, businesses, and other expressions of wealth whose origin cannot be clearly explained. They are the juniors of the Mexican Revolution. The PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) adults passed on to their children, the Morenistas, the same practices of using the state and the public treasury for their own benefit. And the most remarkable thing about it is that they steal with innate naturalness.
Morena now seeks to eliminate power alternation. For Morena, losing power is a threat to its very existence. Losing power implies the possibility of being discovered in their thefts and alliances with criminality. And they are not willing to do so, much less would it be acceptable to Andrés Manuel López Obrador and his family because the rejection of alternation is already an act of self-defense. It is the defense of the family and its new wealth.
For this reason, the electoral reform aims to be the final nail in the coffin of democracy in Mexico. It is what was needed to ensure that Morena does not lose the next elections in 2027 and 2030. With this reform, Morena hopes to rest in peace, free from the threat of alternation.
Well, that is their intention and desire. But many things still need to happen to see whether they can effectively ward off an alternative with a questionable and unpopular electoral reform. Or if a formidable social opposition emerges against Morena’s authoritarian imposition. That is a real possibility, given that the world is globalized and what happens in one place can influence and determine what happens in another.
Mexico is not an island. The world surrounds us, and everything influences us. It will be very difficult to decree the disappearance of alternation in power without the real consent of the citizenry and without legitimacy beyond our borders.
@rpascoep
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