Breathe
By Soledad Durazo
Simón Bolívar said that the continuity of authority in the same individual was the term of democratic governments; in Mexico we have not yet seen such continuity in this century, but we have seen the interference of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador over other powers and autonomous bodies.
Not only do we have the sample of the attempt to weaken the National Electoral Institute (INE), the hand of the Government in the decisions of the legislature, the threats against the judiciary and, most recently, last night when it vetoed the appointment of the two commissioners of the National Institute of Access to Public Information, Transparency and Protection of Personal Data (INAI), which had been voted on March 1.
Should we care about the Executive's hand in Senate decisions on autonomous agencies? The answer is yes.
It is not about defending, and I will not do so in this space, the new commissioners, Yadira Alarcón Márquez and Rafael Luna Alvizo, but rather what their arrival at the institute represented: the permanence of the institute after months of having these positions vacant. In addition, this March 31, Commissioner Javier Acuña's term ends, leaving another vacancy.
With the suspension of the two new commissioners, in two weeks INAI will be left with only four commissioners and will thus be unable to meet, as required by law.
Could the veto be the end of this autonomous body?
We do not know. What we can deduce, however, is that this blow by the President demonstrates once again his interest in ending the institutions that are not controlled by the federal government, as he has already shown in past statements, and at the same time it is a blow to the power represented by the President of the Political Coordination Board of the Senate, Ricardo Monreal, who pushed in the Upper House for these appointments to be made before the expiration of the terms that would render the INAI inoperative.
Should we care and worry about all this? Yes! Political struggles cannot leave in vane the right of citizens to have access to the data that is ours, to files that concern us, to figures and statistics that we need to know what our authorities are doing with our money, resources and the power we are giving them.
A president's thirst for absolute control cannot be above throwing away the achievements won by the citizens who organized and promoted legislation for transparency 20 years ago, and with it the creation of the institute. Commissioner Julieta del Río posted on Twitter: "Having incomplete autonomous bodies that are unable to perform their constitutional functions affects the system of balances that we have built over decades of citizen struggles".
Now, is this institute perfectible? Of course it is, but without a doubt it should be a body that we should defend, even with one more march like those called to raise our voice for the INE.
In the meantime, INAI approved yesterday in plenary session to prepare a constitutional controversy to be presented before the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation due to the President's veto and the risk it poses to the survival of the institute.
What will be the outcome of this episode, which is undoubtedly crucial for the history of the country? We do not know.
For the time being, from the civilian trenches, what remains is to support for there to be counterweights and organizations that do not depend on the president, in addition to respecting the rights that we have earned so much, so much, so much work.
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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