Ricardo Pascoe Pierce
First things first: will the recall exercise take place or not? There have been, and continue to be, big dark clouds over the process and the problems facing its realization.
One of those clouds concerns what exactly will be voted on should the election be held. It should be an exercise driven by citizens disconnected from the government, demanding the revocation of the presidential mandate. But, oh surprise, the one who has taken over the process and promotes its realization is the President himself, not seeking its revocation but longing for its ratification. The constitutional definition of the recall has been perverted to turn it into the ratification of an increasingly autocratic President, who was elected for six years.
Another black cloud has been the collection of “citizen” signatures requesting the “ratification, not revocation” of the presidential mandate. The collection of signatures has been a government operation, not free citizens. Most signatures were collected from beneficiaries of government social programs, forced to cooperate with public officials known as Servidores de la Nación (Servants of the Nation), under threat of losing their benefits if they refused to sign. The President proudly announced that they had gathered 10 million signatures, without realizing that he was revealing that it was a government-funded exercise, which is blatantly illegal under Mexico’s current electoral legislation. Of those signatures, more than 45% have inconsistencies, as verified by INE (National Electoral Institute), which suggests illegal manipulation of official documents by the officials who submitted them. The corresponding criminal charges should be filed against these federal officials.
A third cloud overshadowing the recall event refers to the fact that the government and Morena are using the debate on the financing of the election to discredit INE and is even pushing for the imprisonment of its most prominent members, starting with Lorenzo Cordoba, its Chairman. López Obrador has been trying to remove the members of the INE since he came to power, as he does not want independent referees overseeing the elections but rather operators subject to his will. The destruction of INE has been a long-cherished goal of his.
In this confusing, politicized, and cloudy environment, a ” revocation” election is being prepared for next April 10. For the result to be legally binding, at least 40% of the electoral roll, which would be about 36 million voters, must participate. The President and his followers say that they gathered 10 million signatures, but INE’s evaluation is that, so far, at least 50% are false signatures. And if the other 50% are the product of coercion and blackmail, the truth is that the Morenista “army” lacks all legitimacy.
It is worth remembering that, before the August 1st exercise, which called for the trial of all former presidents, polls showed that a large majority of Mexicans were determined to vote in favor. At the time of the vote, between 6% and 7% of the possible voters voted, denying what the polls said that a large majority was going to vote for the initiative.
These exercises of supposed “popular consultations,” invented by the government to legitimize and endorse its resentments and historical prejudices, do not represent any attraction for most Mexicans. Furthermore, the call to participate in an event whose primary objective is to polarize and divide Mexican society does not offer a compelling incentive for participation. The 10 million signatures presented by the government are a buffoonery where the only ones fooled are the President and his followers.
The result of the recall vote will be the same as it was last August 1: low citizen participation, almost exclusively by those addicted to Morena and the President, plus a few more clueless people.
Even so, and with few votes, the President will boast of his pyrrhic victory. As of August 1, the exercise will be irrelevant due to low participation and lack of legitimacy.
Due to this situation, the free society will have to define its position on what to do before the April 10 calling. The recall seems to be the ideal moment to achieve three objectives.
The first objective is the creation of a robust national front against the polarization and the evasion of its public responsibilities that the government intends to promote with this exercise. Citizen organizations, political parties, and professional associations, as well as business organizations, public and private educational institutions, women’s movements and peasant organizations, trade unions, and indigenous peoples: all, have a place in the effort to articulate and direct our energies towards the recovery of the country’s leadership, ignoring the government’s game of evading its responsibilities by promoting a delegitimized consultation and without falling into the polarization it is trying to achieve.
A second objective is to call upon the citizens NOT to promote the vote and much less to vote on April 10. In this case, abstention is an active and participatory political act by not falling into the government’s game of promoting an event for its self-satisfaction and polarization. It is a fact that a large majority of the 90 million possible voters will boycott this election. The act of not voting is the best way to raise the voice against an incompetent government with deaf ears.
The ultimate goal is that the recall election offers a public space for all social sectors to articulate, express, and promote their most heartfelt causes, denouncing a frivolous government that, instead of solving the country’s problems, evades them by organizing useless events such as the one we are discussing. This will even be the ideal moment to find out how much the election will cost the taxpayers and, therefore, how that amount should be eliminated and instead be used to solve the urgent problems of a society suffering from unemployment, shortages, the effects of inflation, corruption and the deterioration in the quality of life of all while growing insecurity.
During February and March, we must articulate campaigns in defense of the educational institutions that are suffering the government’s attack against them, both private and public, and raise the voices of millions demanding the protection of the environment and the planet, as well as the purchase of medicines for all, especially for children with cancer. We must also demand an effective security policy, repudiating the current coexistence policy with organized crime. And to propose the reorientation of public spending towards economic stimulus for the creation of jobs, rejecting the policy aimed at saving PEMEX from itself and the construction of works such as the Mayan Train and the Felipe Angeles airport which do not prove to have economic viability. It is the wrong policy of throwing good money into bad projects.
Today, the country’s priority is to put the demands of society in the number one place on the national agenda, removing from that place the useless recall process promoted by the President. The people first, and then, if there is time, interest, money, and patience for it, the wishes of the political bureaucracy.
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