Federico Reyes Heroles
How do you feel? I was asked as if I had some disease. It was about the election. Sad was my answer. I explained.
When I entered UNAM -in the mid-seventies- there was an atmosphere of mixed emotions. The crushing hegemony of the PRI, the ridiculous solo candidacy of López Portillo, but there was a change at last; it was a difficult-to-digest jumble. The so-called dirty war, 68, 71, weighed heavily. But here, there was no coup d’état, nothing, the military in its institutional role. Now? Great personalities arrived at UNAM fleeing from the multiple coups d’état, Uruguay, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Colombia, etcetera. They saw our country not as paradise but as a safe territory to continue with their positions and expressions. Many arrived in a reflective stage about their mistakes and the enormous cost of radicalization. I established a good relationship with Carlos Quijano, a Uruguayan of the historic left. Clodomiro Almeyda, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Armando Cassígoli, Ruy Mauro Marini, and many others were there. The oldest democracies -Uruguay- had fallen.
Then came the debates in the Juarez Hall for the seminal Political Reform of ’77. Historical characters of the left paraded there, coming from the underground, as well as the leaders of the PDM, the extreme right. The debates were real and very interesting. Thanks to the initiative of the party deputies -1962- and later of the proportional representation, a brilliant group of university students arrived at the Chamber of Deputies and raised the stultified debate. The principle was firm: the Legislative should be as accurate a mirror as possible of plurality. Now, they want it to disappear.
Events cascaded, and reform after reform, the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) gained space, detached from the government, became autonomous, and had brilliant board members and party representatives. The “horseshoe” was a national pride. One more doomed. There were other advances. I remember the talks with Jorge Carpizo about the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) design. Slowly, the media opened up, and new spaces emerged. Now? Economic openness led us to accept the conditions of a global world. The entrance to the OECD forced us to be serious in handling figures and comparing ourselves with the rich. Thus, the syndrome of believing ourselves to be the navel of the world by constantly comparing ourselves with the poorest was shaken. Now there are “other data”.
The alternation of governorships arrived with Rufo. The election of 1997 with Cárdenas as Head of Government and the PRI without a majority in the Chamber of Deputies, a growing plurality. Now. The Judiciary went through a pruning and redesign. It gained strength and independence. With stumbles, but the course was the right one. Fox in 2000 was the litmus test. Nothing serious happened. Zedillo is up to the task. The alternation at all levels was spreading. The country continued to create institutions: the Federal Institute of Access to Information (IFAI), now INAI, and others. It seemed that certain democratic principles had been installed.
2024, after six years of systematic presidential bombardment of these institutions, an overwhelming majority wants it all: zero counterweights, supreme power. Without the slightest dialogue and inventing surveys on the fly, they want to subjugate the Judiciary, the only one with independence we have left. The reforms to the Amparo law and amnesty without limits, even for people who have violated human rights, is an aberration. Sheinbaum speaks of ending the “oligarchy” of the Court. Zero analysis: 85% of the cases are local. AMLO’s mockery of the law has been around for years. The harvest is here, and it is in front of us. Was that an illusion? No. Today, Mexico looks more like a dictatorship than a democracy. Today, democrats are a minority. The narco and authoritarianism are in jubilation. What would those masters say about seeing the military in “N” civilian functions?
All self-destruction saddens me.
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