Breathe
By Sandra Romandía
Yesterday was a day of mourning in the Chamber of Deputies. There were no tears, of course, but there were hollow speeches, mechanical applause and the confirmation that Mexican democracy continues to dig its own grave. Morena and its pro-government allies voted for the disappearance of the National Institute for Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data (INAI), that small but powerful beacon that for more than 20 years illuminated the dark corners of power.
The show began early. Official deputies such as Ricardo Mejía Berdeja made an effort to justify the unjustifiable: "I have much more confidence in someone as blameless as Raquel Buenrostro than in PRIAN commissioners", so let us applaud the ingenuity of replacing an autonomous agency with a bureaucratic office directly controlled by the government. Let us applaud, then, the ingenuity of replacing an autonomous agency with a bureaucratic office directly controlled by the government. Long live blind trust!
Meanwhile, from the opposition, voices such as Noemí Luna Ayala, from PAN, tried to put things in perspective: "INAI costs each Mexican six pesos a year. But for the Mayan Train, a project that you say you have already concluded, you allocate 40 billion more". But of course, who needs transparency when we can build trains that will take us straight to authoritarianism?
Congresswoman Verónica Martínez, of the PRI, was even more direct: "With this reform, the last links of political counterweight disappear. This means concentrating power where there is no balance and where, in short, the Executive is in charge of everything". However, her words were diluted in a sea of similar arguments, as if the pro-government legislators had been handed a script from the National Palace.
And then, the jewel of the session. Ramón Ángel Flores, PT deputy for Sonora, accepted without filters what many of us already suspected: "This way we will have more control". Shameful. Because if anything was clear, it is that this vote was not for efficiency or austerity, but for power. More control for a government that hates counterweights and prefers mirrors that only reflect its orders.
To those of us who were attentive to the session, one thing was clear: it was not about debating, but about following orders. The arguments in favor of the reform were an endless echo of terms such as "duplication of functions", "administrative efficiency" and, of course, "austerity". How can we not be moved by the government's capacity for sacrifice, willing to eliminate citizen institutions in order to save insignificant amounts while granting millionaire budgets to its favorite projects?
INAI was not perfect, of course. But if there is one thing I can say from my experience as an investigative journalist, it is that this institute was often the only resource for accessing information that the federal government preferred to hide. During López Obrador's six-year term, refusals to requests for information grew by 50%. Half of the responses were evasive, classified as confidential or simply not answered. It was thanks to INAI that we, as journalists, were able to force the government to hand over data on opaque contracts, diversion of resources and other practices that wanted to remain hidden.
And now, what awaits us? According to the figures, during this six-year term, complaints for denial of information increased by more than 40%. If with an autonomous agency the figures were worrisome, without it we can only expect total opacity. Because, as Commissioner Norma Julieta del Río said, "the government will review itself". A phrase that sounds as absurd as it is dangerous.
INAI was not just for journalists. It was a tool for academics, students, neighborhood leaders, civil organizations and any citizen who wanted to understand how public money was handled. Yesterday was a dark, painful, unbelievable day. A reminder that we live in a country where the unbelievable is no longer surprising. And while official speeches speak of progress, the only thing we are advancing is democratic regression.
Transparency, that right that took us decades to conquer, was buried yesterday under pretexts of austerity and efficiency. But let's not fool ourselves: what was really buried was our capacity as a society to demand accountability. And with it, the little air we had left to breathe democracy.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.
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