Breathe
By Gloria Piña, investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker. She specializes in coverage of gender, human rights and corruption issues.
In addition to political power in the state of Mexico, the Morenista Higinio Martínez has also obtained business benefits for his family members.
Two nephews of Senator Higinio Martínez, now part of the campaign team of the candidate for governor of the State of Mexico, Delfina Gómez, benefited from public works contracts in the municipality of Texcoco, where the Morenista has governed on two occasions.
The nephews' business began when Martinez came to power, with the creation of five family companies that have obtained public resources amounting to 18 million pesos from 2020 to 2022, as we published in EMEEQUIS.
This report was made with the analysis of the information of contracts and public bids of the government of the State of Mexico, however, the economic slice for the companies could be greater, for everything that is not reported by the local governments.
Despite the existence of Transparency Obligations Portals to inform about the resources they spend and with whom they spend them, the agencies usually disclose half of the information. They upload empty files, with broken links, or simply do not disclose them in order to keep them hidden.
Transparency and accountability on the way in which the rulers use the treasury, and in his case, how the Morenista Higinio Martinez benefits his close ones, are at risk by the disqualification of the National Institute of Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data, INAI.
The plenary of the body that defends the right of citizens to know has been paralyzed since March 31, when it lacked a quorum to meet. There are three pending vacancies for commissioners, which prevents them from continuing to work, since the minimum number of officials is five, but there are only four.
INAI functions as an arbiter between citizens and government agencies.
When we want to know information about the powers, activities or expenses of our rulers but they refuse to hand it over, this body is the one that intercedes to demand that it be disclosed.
This is why this platform has been an indispensable tool in journalistic work, from which stories and cases of corruption that the government sought to keep secret have been unveiled.
With this same platform, I was also able to produce the report "Las Sobrevivientes Olvidadas por la Justicia" (The Survivors Forgotten by Justice), in which the women that the government has wanted to ignore are told: the survivors of feminicidal attacks.
The authorities keep records of women who die as a result of femicide, but not of all the cases that were left on the verge of death, whose investigations must be carried out through the figure of attempted femicide.
Among the data that the authorities were unaware of is that out of 1.7 million attacks of extreme violence against women, there are only 781 cases reported as attempted femicide, that is, less than 0.004%. This shows the omission of the authorities to investigate and punish these crimes.
What is the danger that INAI will cease to function in its entirety? That citizens will not know what is going on inside the government and that we will not be able to be part of the decisions that are made.
This is the responsibility of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who has used his powers to try to eliminate the autonomous agencies and prevent INAI from continuing, promoting opacity to know how governments act.
The message from this government has been blunt about INAI and they would prefer it not to exist at all, as they consider it an useless and costly body, when the reality is quite the opposite and it puts at risk the right to information of all citizens.
"The INAI is a bureaucratic burden that has served little or nothing to prevent corruption and guarantee transparency, it is an onerous, opaque and unnecessary expense that today is defended by those who love simulation," wrote on his Twitter account the Secretary of the Interior, Adán Augusto López.
The Moreno administration likes to unveil the incongruities of other governments, but not its own.
What this government refuses to acknowledge is that it was thanks to INAI that corruption scandals of previous governments were made public. Vicente Fox's Toallagate, the death counts and massacres of Felipe Calderón's government, Enrique Peña Nieto's White House, the Master Swindle in Sedesol, the Mexico City Real Estate Cartel in which the former head of government Miguel Ángel Mancera participated. These were revelations that even benefited the consolidation of Morena and its arrival to power.
These examples suffice to show how necessary INAI is, not only for journalistic work, but also for the right to know of all citizens.
Government transparency and accountability are fundamental for the consolidation of an informed and democratic citizenry, capable of making decisions. Because as the meme says, knowledge, in this case information, is power.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of Opinion 51.
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