tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40892852396905173062024-03-13T12:47:36.551-06:00Mexico VoicesMexican voices speak to the crisis of building their democracy.Reed Brundagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17821739958830865732noreply@blogger.comBlogger9844125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4089285239690517306.post-32112038000035300802023-01-12T16:28:00.000-06:002023-01-12T16:28:28.916-06:00 Mexico and the Climate Crisis | Private Renewable Energy Projects Are Being Blocked In Order to Give Priority to Government Projects<p>Reforma, Mexico City, January 9, 2023</p><p>By Diana Ghent</p><p>The federal government is blocking the generation of clean energy by private companies.</p><p>Renewable electricity projects are the most affected by the delays and rejections in the issuance of permits by the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) for new generation projects or modifications of existing projects. ...As of November 10, 2022, there were 65 permits pending which, if approved, would add an additional installed capacity of 5,559 megawatts.</p><p>In the past year, the CRE reviewed 55 permit applications...of which 33 private generation requests were denied. All of the requests from the private sector were for wind and solar projects.</p><p>Of the 22 approved permits, 19 were for public natural gas projects and one for a public renewable energy project. Two private applications were approved for companies to extract gas from oil fields and biomass with very little capacity.</p><p>Among those approved with the greatest capacity, those developed by the CFE [<i>Federal Electricity Commission</i>] stand out. These include the Puerto Peñasco solar park, the Pemex Dos Bocas oil refinery, and the Felipe Ángeles International Airport built and operated by Sedena [<i>Secretariat of National Defense, i.e., the Army</i>].</p><p>The list of pending renewable permits includes some that were submitted as early as 2019, before the pandemic was declared.</p><p>Since the current Administration began, the electricity sector has been slowed down with the cancellation of energy auctions and the brake on the development of private projects, mainly from renewable sources. This brake is justified on the grounds that the proposed private projects would negatively affect the reliability of the electrical system and would be detrimental to the dominance of the CFE.</p><p>Óscar Ocampo, coordinator of energy practice for the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (Imco), said that the few private permits that are approved are for small generation projects.</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">"If we look at the permits that are not from the Government, they are about the generation of 10 megawatts or less, like for a sugar mill. They are very small permits, and despite the demands of the T-MEC [<i><a href="https://ustr.gov/trade-agreements/free-trade-agreements/united-states-mexico-canada-agreement" target="_blank">Treaty Between Mexico, the United States and Canada</a></i>], there is no change in policy or greater opening , and that seems to be the route the government intends to follow.</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">"These project cuts in 2022 make this another lost year for the energy transition and the expansion of installed capacity in Mexico," he said.</p></blockquote><p>If the pending permits were to be approved, those just for wind energy would add another 5,800 megawatts [<i>to Mexico's electricity network</i>], and it could come into operation very quickly.</p><p>Some 800 megawatts would come from projects that have already been completed but that require some kind of authorization for their entry into commercial operation. The other 5,000 are already in advanced stages of development and could be completed quickly if it were decided to open the sector, according to data from the Mexican Wind Energy Association.</p><p>Paolo Salerno, a partner of Salerno y Asociados, explained that the brake on new projects is a political position that has been maintained throughout the term of the López Obrador administration and that it affects not only the project developers, but also foreign companies that want to establish themselves in the country and who require reliable energy.</p>Reed Brundagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17821739958830865732noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4089285239690517306.post-73165181809535021652023-01-10T12:15:00.000-06:002023-01-10T12:15:32.877-06:00Mexico Drug War Violence | Mexico's Youth of the Darkest Night<p>El Pais Mexico, January 10, 2023</p><p>By Carmen Moran Brena</p><p>Let's take a look at the prison records of the men who <a href="https://www.elpasotimes.com/picture-gallery/news/2023/01/03/juarez-prison-escape-leaves-dozens-dead-including-10-prison-guards/10981664002/" target="_blank">escaped from the Ciudad Juárez prison last week</a> [<i>on Jan. 1, in the State of Chihuahua</i>]. They certainly did it by force. But men? Their average age could not have exceeded 20. Pompín is 21 years old and convicted of homicide. Luis Carlos is 19. David, 22, is convicted of murder and is two years younger than Adam, also with a death to his credit. Edgar, 23, also has a homicide conviction. At 18, Brian found himself in jail for carrying a gun. El Pecas turned 24 in prison; he was dealing drugs. Manguera, 25, has a kidnapping on his criminal record... Why continue, right? This is hard data and real names.</p><p>There is a problem here that has nothing to do with the police. Too many young people grow old in jail. It is said that they are cannon fodder, as if they were born to commit crimes and no one could change that course. They live very fast because they know their future will be either bars or bullets. </p><p>El Neto came of age as the leader of a criminal gang. He was locked up for kidnapping for more than a decade, until on New Year's Day he organized a spectacular riot, in which 17 people died, in order to get to the streets. And he, himself, only found defeat. A few hours after the police pursuit began, this 29-year-old fell, one by one, to bullets. He sported a black eyepatch that he was not wearing when he was first arrested. Who knows how El Neto grew up?</p><p>You can guess the life of <i>El Ratón</i> [<i>The Rat, </i>Ovidio Guzmán], one of the sons of <i>El Chapo </i>[<i>Shorty</i>] Guzmán [<i>former head of the powerful Sinaloa Cartel, arrested and extradited to the U.S. for trial in 2019</i>], who was captured in Culiacán [<i>in the State of Sinaloa</i>] on January 5. If <i>El Ratón</i> had wanted to study, he could have done it. He didn't go into crime for the money. As a child, he could have had a bicycle, or video game machines of the latest generation, then, as an adolescent, clothes, motorcycles, and cars. Drugs would not be missing at home, nor food. Women, parties, and luxuries, all were available to him. He would say, "You have to live very fast," because, at 32, he is already in jail, like his father.</p><p>But who sent El Neto out to get into trouble in the streets? It is usually blamed on poverty and being very foolish. Thousands of hitmen throughout Mexico are as much <i>el pueblo</i> [<i>everyday people</i>] as those who make up the ranks of the Army [<i>volunteering for the Army is one of the few options for youth for employment</i>]. They are all plain, simple, miserable or malnourished people. </p><p>They were children who one day exchanged a life empty of almost everything for a few pesos [<i>usually first employed by a cartel to be a "halcón", "hawk", i.e. a lookout</i>], to show off their motorcycle on the street while others walked. They ate well, and as time goes on, who knows how many women they might have, or perhaps a tiger in their garden or a tacky-colored pool where they could pass the time during their cocaine comedown. They are the youth of the darkest Mexican night.</p><p>The riot at Cereso [<i>"Center for Social Readaptation",i.e, Prision</i>] #3 began with the noise of bullets outside the Ciudad Juárez prison, where several vans had arrived. Neighbors saw them and told the media that "punks, pure punks" came out of the armored vehicles that contributed to the chaos arranged for the riot. </p><p>Only four days later, in the roar of the machine guns and the fires that were unleashed in Culiacán with the arrest of Ovidio Guzmán, the residents were evicted from their cars at gunpoint by the <i>Los Chapitos </i>[<i>The Little Ones, nickname for the section of the Sinaloa Cartel headed by the sons of El Chapo</i>] recounted the same thing: the attackers were barely out of their adolescence.</p><p>The problem here is one of justice, but one needed long before these young people see themselves before their first hearing at the Prosecutor's Office. It is the best kind of justice, the one that distributes benefits without paying attention to the social class in which one is born. Mexico is full of borders--forget the one with the United States. </p><p>Who drew the line that separates the rich from the poor, those who study from those who kick stones through the streets every afternoon, those who had a father from the abandoned, those who have everything done for them from those who had to do everything? That is the question.</p><p>Where will the 29 who escaped from prison with El Neto be today? On whom will they plot revenge? How many have searched for their mother, spying without entering the same street where she saw them born? Namely, they are simply more work for a poorly paid police force that sometimes goes the way of the criminals.</p><p>In a country with little or no corruption, one would say: take the budget from other departments and add it to education, to health, to wellfare. Then, hurry up and remove them from the Army, for example, before you see 10 more young uniformed men die in a confrontation against one of the youngest drug lords. They are all ordinary people, just like one another. It seems to be an unsolvable equation.</p><p>It is impossible not to remember the great Spanish thinker, legal expert, and brilliant writer, Concepción Arenal (1820-1893), who dedicated her life to improving the conditions of the imprisoned. "Hate the crime and sympathize with the offender," she said.</p>Reed Brundagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17821739958830865732noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4089285239690517306.post-62275435233475901672023-01-07T13:45:00.000-06:002023-01-07T13:45:11.304-06:00Mexico-U.S. Relations | When Biden arrives...<p>Reforma, January 7, 2023</p><p>By Jorge Ramos Avalos*</p><p>When the US president, Joe Biden, arrives in Mexico in a few hours, he will find a polarized, very violent country -with many deaths and increasing control by the drug cartels- and with a strong and popular President who insists on imposing his agenda and who, in that process, is becoming increasingly authoritarian.</p><p>The recent arrest of Ovidio Guzmán in Sinaloa left dozens dead and injured, caused blockades in several cities, and provoked attacks on highways, on planes at the Culiacán airport, and on a military airbase. This is not normal. In any other country, this would have created a national emergency.</p><p>The security strategy has failed. With more than 133,000 murders so far in the six-year term, AMLO's is already the most violent government of the century. And the presidential resistance to a change in strategy forecasts a very difficult two years.</p><p>But Mexico is much more -and better- than its government.</p><p>Biden will also see a young democracy that refuses to stop being one, a creative, joyful, fighting and questioning nation that sees a partner in the United States and, also, an opportunity when things go wrong in Mexico. For decades, the United States has been for many Mexicans an aspiration, an escape valve, and the best option for a second life.</p><p>The ties between Mexico and the United States are very deep. Not only because of the obvious territorial proximity but, above all, because of the more than 37 million people of Mexican origin who live in the north.</p><p>And yet we are so different.</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">"Probably nowhere in the world do two countries as different as Mexico and the United States live side by side. Crossing the border, say, from El Paso to Ciudad Juárez, the contrast is striking: from wealth to poverty, from organization to improvisation, from artificial flavors to hot spices. But the physical differences are less important. Probably nowhere in the world do two neighbors understand each other so little."</p></blockquote><p>This paragraph from the book <u><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Distant-Neighbors-Portrait-Alan-Riding-ebook/dp/B004QZA3C0/ref=sr_1_1?crid=31QV69P7L2A9W&keywords=Distant+Neighbors&qid=1673119525&s=digital-text&sprefix=distant+neighbors%2Cdigital-text%2C145&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Distant Neighbors</a></u> was written in 1984 by The New York Times correspondent Alan Riding. And it is still valid almost four decades later. Mexico and the United States still maintain huge differences in wages and economic growth. In addition, in the last four years, Mexico has become the wall of the United States, just as Trump wanted.</p><p>We are very different but the destinies of both countries are tied together.</p><p>The United States and Mexico share a border that is not a border. Millions have crossed it by swimming, walking through deserts and mountains, or overstaying tourist visas. For the first time since the records were kept, 2.7 million people crossed illegally into the United States, through the southern border, in the past fiscal year.</p><p>The border between Mexico and the United States is drawn with a pencil; it is porous by nature, by history, and by habit. It is full of gaps and holes. No one can seal it. It was created -invented?- after the war between the two countries (1846-1848) in which Mexico lost half of its territory, and all efforts to mark it, secure it, and close it have failed. It is a border imposed by force. It is bothersome and frequently violated.</p><p>And just as immigrants enter, drugs enter. The vast majority of heroin and methamphetamine consumed in the United States - the world's largest drug market - passes through Mexico. More than 80,000 Americans died from opioid overdoses in 2021.</p><p>Distant neighbors? Sometimes we suffer one another, and other times we hug.</p><p>After 175 years with the same border, there are few things that surprise us about our neighbor. The permanent issues in the relationship between the two countries are: </p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>drugs, </li><li>migration, </li><li>the new trade agreement (together with Canada), and </li><li>arms trafficking from the United States to Mexico. </li></ol>Biden and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador will have a lot to discuss. But disagreeing is normal. Each responds to different interests and histories.<p></p><p>In the end, Biden and AMLO know the essential: that Mexico and the United States are so tied to one another that the only solution is to learn to live together.</p><p>The border is just an arbitrary line. </p><p><b><i>* Jorge Ramos Avalos</i></b> <i><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">is a Mexican-American</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journalist" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0645ad; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Journalist">journalist</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">and</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Author" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0645ad; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Author">author</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">. Regarded as the best-known Spanish-language news anchor in the United States of America,</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">he has been referred to as "The</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Cronkite" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0645ad; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Walter Cronkite">Walter Cronkite</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">of Latin America".</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Based in</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0645ad; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Miami">Miami, Florida</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">, he anchors the</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Univision" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0645ad; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Univision">Univision</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">news television program</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> </span><span style="color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noticiero_Univision" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Noticiero Univision">Noticiero Univision</a></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">, the Univision Sunday-morning political news program</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> </span><span style="color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Punto" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Al Punto">Al Punto</a></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">, and the</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> </span><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusion_(TV_channel)" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0645ad; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Fusion (TV channel)">Fusion TV</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">English-language program</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> </span><span style="color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">America with Jorge Ramos</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">He has won ten</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmy_Awards" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0645ad; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Emmy Awards">Emmy Awards</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">and the</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> </span><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Moors_Cabot_Prize" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0645ad; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Maria Moors Cabot Prize">Maria Moors Cabot Prize</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">for excellence in journalism.</span></i>@jorgeramosnews</p>Reed Brundagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17821739958830865732noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4089285239690517306.post-54143806639312278382023-01-05T12:10:00.006-06:002023-01-05T12:16:47.975-06:00Racism in Mexico Continues to Be a Significant Problem<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com.mx/arraigado-racismo-en-mexico/" target="_blank">Forbes Mexico</a>, June 2, 2020</p><p>By María Fernanda Navarro</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i><b>MV Note:</b> This article is two and a half years old, but we just happened upon it in our internet wanderings. It is also from an English language source, Forbes. However, it is from their Spanish language edition. It also consists primarily of an interview with Julio Vallejo, director of the Pigmentocracy Foundation, an organization focused on "transforming the current narrative and image of brown skin in Mexico". As the topic of racism in Mexico is significant and it presents a Mexican voice, we deemed it appropriate for translation now in Mexico Voices. </i></p></blockquote><p style="text-align: left;">On May 23, the name of Yalitza Aparicio, the Oaxacan actress who starred in the film Roma, appeared on Twitter's trending lists after she made public her participation as a columnist for The New York Times newspaper on her social networks. The responses to this tweet ranged from congratulations and displays of pride to insults, questions regarding her talent and ability to act and write, and even insults to her physical appearance.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Yesterday, the Mexican actor Tenoch Huerta sparked a debate on social networks about whether Mexicans were victims or perpetrators of racist acts, after he posted a message on his twitter account warning that although it was important to show support for the protests taking place in United States, it was necessary to address and put a face to this phenomenon that also affected the country.</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">"When we finish supporting the much-needed anti-racism movement in the United States, can we talk about racism in Mexico? Or will that subject remain taboo?"</p></blockquote><p>Racism in Mexico, unlike in the United States, is a latent problem but so deeply rooted in Mexican culture that it goes almost unnoticed; warns Julio Vallejo, director of the Pigmentocracy Foundation, an organization focused on "transforming the current narrative and image of brown skin in Mexico."</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">"In Mexico, since its inception in Independence, we have said, 'Here there are no longer castes, the caste system [<i>of the Spanish</i>] is removed (...) From now on, we are all <i>mestizos</i> [<i>mixed race indigenous and Spanish</i>]. We are all the same.' </p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">"So the conversation was eliminated. We kept it in the drawer and that allowed it, in practice, to develop as a very sophisticated and silent form of racism. It is not so obvious; it is confused with classism, with the supposed standards of beauty, with the difference from "good people". It has never been an open conversation ”, Vallejo warned in an interview with Forbes Mexico. </p></blockquote><p>However, racism is palpable in the "glass ceilings" or the low presence of brown-skinned people in political, academic, business and even media elites.</p><p>In fact, the skin tone of Mexicans is a factor that determines the job opportunities they access, the level of studies they reach and even the income they receive, confirms the study prepared by Oxfam Mexico, “Inequality Speaks for My Race: The impact of ethnic-racial characteristics on the inequality of opportunities in Mexico”.</p><p>The discrimination and inequality faced by members of ethnic-racial groups such as indigenous and Afro-descendants is related, to a large extent, to belonging to families with greater socioeconomic disadvantages, the study points out.</p><p>For example, the publication details that: </p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>26.4% of ... indigenous, did not finish primary school [<i>through 6th grade</i>]; </li><li>23.9% of ... black or mulatto were in this situation, and </li><li>10.7% of those considered white or <i>mestizo</i>. </li></ul>At the other extreme of the education spectrum, that is, those who did complete higher education are:<p></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li> 8.5% of the indigenous population;</li><li>12.4% black or mulatto, and </li><li>25.5% were white or mestizo.</li></ul><p></p><p>To a great extent, acts of racism, warns the director of Pigmentocracia, occur when a person who does not have the physical characteristics of the elites "sneaks" into those circles, as in the case of Yalitza Aparicio.</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">“Racism as a social construction, uses physical characteristics to differentiate between you and the other. The more visible that characteristic is, the more efficient the system is at marginalizing. In Mexico, skin color is that control variable, where the upper class has an immediate identification as to who does not belong to it, and when someone like Yalitza filters upwards, the upper class goes crazy”, said Vallejo.</p></blockquote><p>Vallejo puts his finger on the sore spot and warns that in the collective imagination the life of a white child is worth more than that of an indigenous person. He gives as an example of a publication that went viral a few years ago in which it was denounced that a blonde girl with green eyes was selling chewing gum on the streets of Guadalajara.</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">“Everybody was outraged that a five-year-old girl was selling gum on the corner, when we see that every day with indigenous or brown children and nobody does anything.”</p></blockquote><p>Addressing the issue is a good start. Despite the fact that this phenomenon has occurred in Mexico since its inception as a nation, the debate about racial discrimination is just awakening, and it must focus on a series of reconciliation policies and a culture of respect, before "many people start to get angry." .</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">"(In the protests and riots in the United States) you can see a future potential that we don't want for Mexico, but perhaps these things can happen. What is happening in the United States is the result of accumulated racial sentiment, and in Mexico that resentment is more and more alive, more and more awake and more and more angry. So, we will have to see what happens when more people start to wake up and are angry," Vallejo concluded.</p></blockquote><p><a href="https://www.forbes.com.mx/arraigado-racismo-en-mexico/" target="_blank">Spanish original</a> </p>Reed Brundagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17821739958830865732noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4089285239690517306.post-4311853417285304152023-01-04T13:57:00.039-06:002023-01-04T14:13:46.518-06:00Mexico Supreme Court | President López Obrador Criticizes Court Ministers for Not Electing His Preferred Judge as Court President<p>Reforma, Mexico City, January 4, 2023</p><p>By Claudia Guerrero and Antonio Baranda</p><p>In his morning press conference today, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador [<i>aka AMLO</i>] criticized the votes of the Ministers [<i>justices of the Supreme Court</i>] that led to <a href="https://mexicovoices.blogspot.com/2023/01/mexico-supreme-court-norma-pina-elected.html" target="_blank">Norma Piña beingf elected to the presidency</a> of the Court.</p><p>The President went over the votes for the two final candidates: Norma Piña, who obtained 6 votes, and Alfredo Gutiérrez Ortiz Mena, who obtained 5.</p><p>López Obrador said that the outgoing president of the Court, Arturo Zaldívar, Loretta Ortiz and Margarita Ríos-Farjat, all of whom sympathize with him, voted for Gutiérrez Ortiz Mena.</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">"In the end, there were two candidates, attorney Piña and attorney Gutiérrez Ortiz Mena. There were two who sympathize with us, the president of the Court, Arturo Zaldívar, and Loretta (Ortiz), who voted for Ortiz Mena.</p><p style="text-align: left;">"We already had the vote of the president, the vote of Minister Loretta (Ortiz), the vote of Minister Margarita (Ríos-Farjat), who we also nominated [<i>to the Court</i>] and...the vote of the former president of the Court, (Luis María) Aguilar, plus the candidate's vote, so there were five."</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">"And for Ms. Piña, there were four lawyers: (Javier) Láynez, (Jorge) Pardo, (Alberto Pérez) Dayán and (Juan Luis) González Alcántara. And Yazmín (Esquivel) made 5 and the vote of Mrs. Piña made 6. So, that's how it was, 6 to 5. Why don't they say this in the media? [<a href="https://mexicovoices.blogspot.com/2023/01/mexico-supreme-court-norma-pina-elected.html" target="_blank">The votes were published yesterday.</a>] Doesn't it seem strange to you?" </p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i><b>MV Note:</b> Yasmin Esquivel, nominated to the Court by AMLO, was thought to be his choice for the presidency. However, her legitimacy as a minister recently fell under a shadow for allegedly plagiarizing her thesis for her law degree. It is curious that she became the swing vote for Minister Piña and that AMLO said nothing about her defection from his "sympathizers" on the Court.</i> </p></blockquote><p>Today, on its front page, Reforma published the votes of the magistrates, precisely at the time AMLO was speaking of them.</p><p>The President once again criticized the highest court for its decisions, which, he said, do not help <i>el pueblo</i> [<i>meaning</i> <i>the majority of Mexicans who are ordinary, lower-middle-class, working class and poor people</i>]. He reproached the Court,</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">"...Tell me if you know of a Court decision that has helped <i>el pueblo</i>. There are none." </p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i><b>MVNote:</b> AMLO constantly criticizes the Court for rejecting various of his executive orders as unconstitutional.<a href="https://mexicovoices.blogspot.com/2022/12/regarding-president-andres-manuel-lopez.html" target="_blank"> He also criticizes the upper-middle class, the wealthy, and any person or organization that critizes him as being "fifis"</a>, i.e., self-centered, concerned only with their own interests, and opposed to the needs of "el pueblo". For AMLO, Mexico is sharply divided between "us vs. them".</i></p></blockquote>Reed Brundagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17821739958830865732noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4089285239690517306.post-21027061990100645352023-01-02T16:26:00.253-06:002023-01-04T12:37:37.074-06:00Mexico Supreme Court | Norma Piña Elected First Female President of the Court, Seen as Act of Judicial Independence from President López Obrador<p>Reforma, Mexico City, January 2, 2023</p><p>By Victor Fuentes</p><p>Minister [<i>Justice</i>] Norma Piña Hernández today became the first woman to preside over the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation and the Federal Judicial Council [<i>which oversees the entire federal court system</i>], until the end of 2026.</p><p>...The voting of the ministers was a nail-biter. In the first round, Piña had three votes, with two for each of the other four candidates, who could vote for themselves, forcing everyone to participate in the second round.</p><p>Javier Laynez, with two votes, as well as Alberto Pérez Dayán and Yasmín Esquivel, each with only one, were eliminated in the second round, opening the way to the final round between Piña and Minister Alfredo Gutiérrez Ortiz Mena.</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i><b>MV Note:</b> Yasmín Esquivel was nominated to the Court by </i><i>President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, aka AMLO, who m</i><i>ade clear she was his favorite for the presidency. She is now under a shadow for evidently having plagiarized her thesis for her law degree.</i></p></blockquote><p>The election was not decided until the last vote was cast when Minister Jorge Pardo announced his vote for Piña. </p><p>...(T)he career judge and magistrate, with 34 years of work in the Federal Judiciary, thus prevailed over four other candidates. In the final round, she obtained six votes, against five for Gutiérrez Ortiz Mena. </p><p>This is a historic election, not only because of the gender issue, but because it returns the presidency of the Court to a career judge after the four-year period during which Arturo Zaldívar was the first "external" member [<i>a lawyer who had never been a judge</i>] to head the Court.</p><p>Alluding to the lack of clarity about the possible winner, even in the last minutes, in her initial statement, Piña said,</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">"Uncertainty is a presupposition for freedom...I recognize the very important decision of the full Court to break what seemed like an inaccessible glass ceiling. I feel very strong because I feel that [<i>all women</i>] are here; we have placed ourselves for the first time in the central position of this Court, demonstrating to others and...to ourselves that 'yes, we can.'" </blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i><b>MV Note:</b> The grito or shout, "¡Sí, se puede!", "Yes, it can be done!" is a central one in Mexican protest demonstrations. </i></p></blockquote><p>Piña has been one of the Ministers most critical of the policies and reforms of the current Government [<i>of AMLO</i>]. An analysis done by Reforma of 18 votes of the Plenary [<i>Full</i>] Court between 2019 and 2022 in matters relevant to the current administration found that Piña voted against the administration's interests in 83 percent of those matters, surpassed only by Luis María Aguilar, a former president who swore in his colleague today.</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i><b>MV Note: </b>The Mexican Supreme Court is composed of eleven ministers (justices) divided into two "chambers" of five ministers each. The First Chamber hears appeals of criminal and civil cases. The Second Chamber hears government administration and labor cases. The president, who serves a four year term, does not participate in either chamber. The "Plenary" or full Court of eleven ministers hears cases that a chamber is unable to resolve or to make a final determination regarding the constitutionality of a law. </i></p></blockquote><p>Opposition leaders and legislators, businessmen, members of government advisory councils, and electoral judges unanimously welcomed the Court's decision and agreed that, with its decision, the Ministers had exercised their judicial autonomy. In their opinion, it is a sign of the Court's independence in the face of much criticism by President López Obrador of the body [<i>for not agreeing with him regarding a number of his executive orders that have come before the Court in regard to their constitutionality</i>].</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">"The independence of the Federal Judiciary will be very important for the preservation of constitutional order and for the future of our democracy," said Lorenzo Córdova, president of the INE [<i><a href="https://mexicovoices.blogspot.com/2022/12/mexico-electoral-reform-morena-and-its.html" target="_blank">National Electoral Institute</a>, under a major legislative attack by AMLO to cut its size and powers significantly</i>].</p></blockquote><p>Marko Cortés, the president of PAN [<i>National Action Party, the leading party in the "Opposition" in the Congress to the majority held by AMLO's Morena, Movement for National Regeneration</i>], also praised the appointment.</p><p>The Mexican Business Council and the Business Coordinating Council [<i>representing Mexican business interests </i><i>nationally</i>] also joined in the celebration.</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i><b>MV Note:</b> <a href="https://mexicovoices.blogspot.com/2022/12/mexicos-economy-president-lopez-obrador.html" target="_blank">AMLO has been consistently critical of "neoliberal", capitalist business interests</a> in investments and profits as being counter to his declared populist agenda, which he calls The Fourth Transformation of Mexico. Popularly abbreviated as "The 4T", he maintains that his administration, with</i><i> its proclaimed revolutionary, populist goals</i><i>, is equal in significance to the War for Independence from Spain, 1810-1821, the Reform Period of the presidency of Benito Juárez, 1860s-70s, and the Mexican Revolution, 1910-1917. </i></p></blockquote><p>Piña Hernández was nominated to the Court at the end of 2015 by then President Enrique Peña Nieto, and she is the last career judge to come to the Court as the four appointed by AMLO have been "external" lawyers...Last November, she surprised her colleagues, breaking with the tradition of discretion in these contests by announcing her candidacy in an interview in the newspaper, El País. </p>Reed Brundagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17821739958830865732noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4089285239690517306.post-36544857661115352482022-12-23T16:30:00.003-06:002022-12-23T16:32:01.904-06:00Mexican Culture | A Tropical Christmas<p>Reforma, Dec. 23, 2022</p><p>Juan Villoro*</p><p>Sometimes the customs of a famous country are celebrated in another that is nothing like it and has little chance of carrying them out.</p><p>I am referring, of course, to Christmas, a pagan rite that centuries later became associated with Christianity and later with the taste of the New England colonists for giving thanks by eating turkeys (although Thanksgiving occurs in November, its gastronomic impact extends to Christmas Eve). In Mexico, all this is exotic, which increases the enthusiasm to participate in the confusion.</p><p>In my childhood, greater emphasis was placed on Three Kings Day [<i>January 6, Epiphany, the last of the twelve days of the Christmas Season</i>] than on Christmas Eve. But the proximity to the United States brought the delivery of gifts forward to December 24. Like so many sports heroes who are replaced by an upstart, the Child God was replaced by Santa Claus.</p><p>All culture is made of mixtures. The curious thing is not that we have assumed other people's habits, but rather that we do so with passionate fervor as if the destiny of the country were pulled by sleighs. There's no way the evidence can mitigate our winter passion. </p><p>In December, it is hot in most of the country and at noon a sun of justice falls. In this climate, children in schools draw snowy landscapes, and cars are adorned with fake reindeer antlers. On television, advertisers report that Mexicans in tune with the season are blond, wear scarves, ice skate, and give away the most expensive whiskey. After the commercials are over, The Grinch is broadcast for the umpteenth time.</p><p>What does that have to do with us? Christmas trees do not abound in the Mexican landscape; if you discover more than ten, that qualifies as a National Park. However, to satisfy our Nordic longings, nurseries have sprung up that offer fir trees in sizes ranging from S to XL. The alternative option is to buy a plastic tree made in Taiwan that is dismantled after Three Kings Day and stored away until the following Christmas.</p><p>The fact that Santa Claus comes from the North Pole tests the children's belief system. How does he manage to beat the city traffic, park his sleigh and get into houses where there is no chimney?</p><p>Also, the Christmas diet contravenes customs. Perhaps influenced by the peaceful atmosphere, we eat less chili than ever, we prepare cod without much of an idea of how to remove the bones, and for hours we inject a turkey that no one knows how to slice with wine and spices. Why don't we appeal to our ancient culinary wisdom? </p><p>My opinion is that we don't want to deprive ourselves of the sense of extravagance that Christmas brings. Is there anything rarer than being happy in the company of relatives that we have avoided all year? This magnificent feeling of unreality is reinforced if we eat strange things.</p><p>For years, my father was in charge of cutting the turkey because he had studied medicine for two years, and that allowed him to distinguish a muscle from a nerve. He was replaced by a cousin who was a noted taxidermist until one day he broke his arm and I had to take care of the task...</p><p>Why is there nothing Mexican on the menu? To demonstrate that we have not lost our identity, we include two dishes that we do not eat again all year: romeritos and huauzontles. These are vegetables submerged in thick mole sauce, difficult to chew, and worse, to digest. They are not the stars of the night. We accept them as supporting actors who remind us, in an uncomfortable but necessary way, that we do not forget our vernacular essences.</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i><b>MV Note:</b> <u>Romeritos</u> with mole or romeritos, is a typical Mexican dish whose main ingredient is the leaves of the romerito (Suaeda spp.), a wild plant that shows up in cornfields. The romerito is bathed in a mole (a thick sauce made of many ground spices, chilies and various other ingredients), usually mole poblano (includes chocolate, bannana, raisins, almonds and many spices), with shrimp powder added. It is traditional for Mexican Christmas... With the intense flavor of the mole and the aroma of romeritos, this dish has a strong indigenous component. (<a href="https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romeritos_con_molehttps://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romeritos_con_mole" target="_blank">Wikipedia en español</a>)</i></p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i><u>Huauzontle</u> is the indigenous Nahuatl name for Chenopodium berlandieri, a species of the genus Chenopodium, native to North America similar to Chenopodium quinoa, i.e., quinoa. (<a href="https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chenopodium_berlandieri" target="_blank">Wikipedia en español</a>)</i></p></blockquote><p>This gastronomic disorder is followed by sugar-coated almonds and <a href="https://www.turronescandela.com/en-alicante-nougat-10/" target="_blank">Alicante nougat</a> [<i>a hard nougat made from a base of toasted almonds, honey, sugar, and egg white</i>], which explains why, on Christmas Night, there are so many dentists on call.</p><p>Will the future bring new features to the party? Yes, provided they are foreign to us. Mexico, as the poet Ramón López Velarde loved, is "faithful to its daily image" throughout the year, but takes vacations from itself on Christmas Eve. The reason seems to be the following: we are convinced that happiness comes from afar. Surrounded by bad news, we long for a distant glow to light up the sky.</p><p>Like the couple of outsiders who found kindness for strangers in Nazareth, at Christmas we do everything possible to feel like strangers in our own home, and thus, we discover a surprising way of being ourselves.</p><p><b>*<i>Juan Villoro</i></b><i> won the Herralde Prize for his novel <u>El testigo</u> [<u>The Witness</u>], the Vázquez Montalbán International Journalism Prize for his book on soccer, <u>Dios es redondo</u> [God Is Round], and the Ibero-American José Donoso Prize for his body of work. He has taught at UNAM [National Autonomous University of Mexico], Yale, Princeton and the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona. Among his children's books, <u>Professor Zíper</u> and <u>La fabulosa guitarra eléctrica</u> [<u>The Fabulous Electric Guitar</u>] stand out.</i></p>Reed Brundagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17821739958830865732noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4089285239690517306.post-30386404133242200062022-12-22T18:13:00.011-06:002022-12-22T18:21:36.803-06:00Mexico Government | A Wasted Presidential Term<p>Reforma, Mexico City, December 22, 2022</p><p>Manuel J. Jauregui</p><p>In economic terms, the six-year term of the Lopez Obrador administration that going by is equivalent to a six-year term that is being wasted. It is certainly news that we Mexicans do not want to hear on the eve of Christmas 2022.</p><p>At the end of this administration, [<i>on December 1, 2024</i>], <a href="https://mexicovoices.blogspot.com/2022/12/mexicos-economy-president-lopez-obrador.html" target="_blank">the size of our economy will be just slightly larger than what López Obrador received in 2018</a>. Stuck in the mire of mistrust towards his government, he has barely managed to improve a few centimeters in an immense quagmire of delays.</p><p>Not growing implies many negative things, the most important being that, with millions of new workers entering the job market every year, the unemployment/underemployment rate remains high. Without work, around 5 million Mexicans enter the basement of poverty each year. Deficiencies, needs, poverty and, with it, despair grow.</p><p>With lower income dispersed in the population, the demand for goods and services is reduced, which reduces the strength of companies, reduces their investment capacity, and their contribution to the well-being of society. When reviewing the CAUSES of this mediocre performance in the economic field, the effects of the PANDEMIC must be pointed out: the 8.5 percent contraction in our GDP has been a tremendous blow.</p><p>Could our government have done anything to lessen the blow? Yes, of course, by implementing incentives of all kinds, from [<i>reducing</i>] taxes and bureaucratic paperwork to providing credit and incentives. But it decided not to do it. However, while the lack of pandemic and post-pandemic support may be the most important contributor, it is not the ONLY one.</p><p>The HOSTILE climate for investment and entrepreneurship deployed by the Government has greatly harmed economic performance. López Obrador has insulted and described foreign and national companies -without any proof or reason- as "thieves". Constantly, he expresses disdain for business, displaying a communist attitude towards concepts such as "profits", treating them as something reprehensible, instead of considering them as a stimulus to efficiency, productivity, and competitiveness.</p><p>He has declared a bureaucratic war by his government against clean energy and against those who invested in this advanced field <i>[<b>MV Note:</b> <a href="https://mexicovoices.blogspot.com/2022/11/mexico-energy-policy-spanish-energy.html" target="_blank">by making the "tramites", procedures for gaining permits, so complex as to be virtually impossible to complete</a></i>]. He has canceled contracts for energy production with private companies- which is vile looting, nationalized lithium production, entrenched himself in the monopolization of [<i>the energy market by</i>] Pemex [<i>government-owned oil company</i>] and the CFE [<i>Federal Electricity Commission</i>], and has failed to contain inflation with his Plan that threatens producers and distributors instead of balancing supply with demand.</p><p>He has generated tremendous DISTRUST by trampling on laws and/or changing them when it is not convenient for him. He does not show respect for rules or concepts related to checks and balances, which are the basis of any democracy. He forgets something very basic and necessary: in a democracy the power of the rulers is LIMITED, it is not absolute.</p><p>And in addition to the HOSTILE climate for business, business and productive activity in Mexico are carried out in a CLIMATE of INSECURITY and VIOLENCE that, whatever they say and whatever they do, they cannot control. Let us add to this the incessant march towards the MILITARIZATION of the Country, with the consequent WEAKENING of our CIVIC institutions that have been displaced in their functions by the military. [<i><b>MV Note:</b> The military is used now, <a href="https://mexicovoices.blogspot.com/2022/11/mexico-violence-mexico-supreme-court.html" target="_blank">not only to "fight the drug war"</a>, but also to build railroads and airports and then operate them</i>.]</p><p>This militarization is ...an inclination towards absolutism, which is far from conducive to trust. Without trust, there can be no investment and without investment, economic growth becomes impossible.</p><p>The numbers for economic growth for this administration (0.3% per year to 2024) highlight, therefore, the...concatenation of factors, almost all attributable to bad government, to one more concerned with CONTROLLING and CONCENTRATING power in the hands of Mr. López Obrador than in raising the standard of living of Mexicans.</p><p>Mr. López Obrador is close to completing a THOUSAND "MORNING NEWS CONFERENCES", in which he has dedicated himself predominantly to DESTROYING instead of BUILDING, in ATTACKING those who disagree with him, and not in proposing concrete plans to promote the progress of Mexico.</p><p>The paradox is that he does not realize that he has generated a circle of perpetual criticism: no one in his right mind can condone his aggressiveness, harshness, and bellicose attitude. He, himself, generates the criticism that annoys him and feeds his perennial WRATH. When will this vicious circle be broken?</p>Reed Brundagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17821739958830865732noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4089285239690517306.post-67347098736458602282022-12-21T20:55:00.036-06:002023-01-04T14:26:11.121-06:00Mexico's Economy | President López Obrador Promised Economy Would Grow from 4% to 6% Annually; It is growing at 0.3%, Worst in Six Administrations<p><a href="https://www.reforma.com/transforman-economia-es-la-peor-en-seis-sexenios/ar2523896?utm_source=bcm_nl_noticias_reforma&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_noticias_reforma_20221221&utm_term=usr_suscriptor" target="_blank">Reforma</a>, Mexico City, December 21, 2022</p><p>By Azucena Vasquez</p><p>The Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador promised to grow the economy at a rate of 4 percent per year and end with 6 percent. However, if the predictions of the Bank of Mexico (Banxico [<i>the autonomous government bank, like the Federal Reserve in the U.S.</i>]) are realized, the national economy will have an average annual growth of only 0.3 percent for this six-year administration, the lowest rate of the last six administrations. </p><p>Analysts point to the uncertainty generated by the governance of the López Obrador administration as one of the main causes of the country's economic stagnation. Thus, the result of the six-year term that ends in 2024 would only be higher than that registered in the government of PRI [<i>Party of the Institutional Revolution</i>] member Miguel de la Madrid from 1982 to 1988, when the average annual advance was 0.06 percent.</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i><b>MV Note:</b> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miguel_de_la_Madridhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miguel_de_la_Madrid" target="_blank">De la Madrid</a> inherited a severe economic and financial crisis from his predecessor <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_L%C3%B3pez_Portillo">José López Portillo</a> as a result of the international drop in oil prices, the consequent recession and raising of interests rates on debt. This resulted in making Mexico's external debt crippling and it defaulted on payments of it months before De la Madrid took office. </i></p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i>The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the U.S. government, together, bailed out Mexico from its debt. In exchange for their rescue, they required that de la Madrid introduce sweeping neoliberal policies to overcome the crisis [including selling off state-owned businesses such as the bank, railroads, the telephone company and mines]. This was the beginning an era of "neoliberal", market-oriented presidents in Mexico, along with austerity measures involving deep cuts in public spending. </i></p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i>In spite of these reforms, De la Madrid's administration continued to be plagued by negative economic growth and inflation for the rest of his term. The social effects of the austerity measures and inflation were particularly harsh on the lower and middle classes, with real wages falling to half of what they were in 1978 and with a sharp rise in unemployment and in the informal economy [those working day to day for cash] by the end of his term. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miguel_de_la_Madrid" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a></i></p></blockquote><p>Although the Covid-19 pandemic affected the Mexican economy, beginning in 2019 it was already showing a decline, largely due to the uncertainty generated by the cancellation of the New Mexico International Airport (NAIM), said Gabriela Siller, director of Economic Analysis from Banco Base [<i>a Mexican business and asset management bank</i>].</p><p>In addition, during the pandemic in 2020, no fiscal support policy was implemented, such as a deferral of tax payments, so that companies could overcome the crisis generated by the pandemic. Although this enabled the Mexican government not to borrow more, it generated a drop in GDP, she added.</p><p>The specialist consulted regarding Banxico's predictions believes that the three main factors that are hindering economic growth are governance, inflation, and external conditions. At a specific level, the problems of public insecurity also stand out. Additionally, gross fixed investment has not grown to its full potential as a result of the uncertainty about governance, Siller added.</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">"[<i>The government</i>] has not been an internal engine of growth, rather it has slowed down the economy. The drivers of the Mexican economy have come from abroad: from exports, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and remittances [<i>from Mexicans working in the U.S</i>.]," she said.</p></blockquote><p>Although Direct Foreign Investment could have been 50 billion dollars this year, it is estimated that it will reach only 37 billion dollars, due to capital outflows generated by uncertainty.</p><p>In addition, Ms. Siller of Banco Base points out that if the per capita economic growth of the country is analyzed based on the forecasts of the central bank, in the six-year term of López Obrador there will be a contraction of 4.2 percent, the second largest drop, behind that reported in the De la Madrid six-year term, when it was 7.9 percent. <a href="https://www.reforma.com/transforman-economia-es-la-peor-en-seis-sexenios/ar2523896?utm_source=bcm_nl_noticias_reforma&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_noticias_reforma_20221221&utm_term=usr_suscriptor" target="_blank">Spanish original</a></p>Reed Brundagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17821739958830865732noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4089285239690517306.post-82933094398166635822022-12-19T20:07:00.009-06:002022-12-19T20:08:59.059-06:00Mexico Electoral Reform | Legislation Delayed Until February Due to Conflict Over Protecting Existence of Small Parties<p> Reforma, Mexico City, December 17, 2022</p>Claudia Salazar y Martha Martínez<p>The stubbornness of the PT [<i>Workers Party</i>] and PVEM [<i>Green Party</i>] deputies over obtaining the possibility of transferring votes through coalitions of parties running shared candidates, the so-called "eternal life" clause added in the Senate to the electoral reform legislation, derailed the approval of plan [<i>until the Congress reconvenes on February 1</i>].</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i><b>MV Note: </b>The Workers and Green Parties are small parties, but they use their votes in Congress to tip the balance of power in the way they see is most favorable for them. They are now allies of Morena [the Movement for National Regeneration]. </i></p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i>Morena was started in 2012, by currrent President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, aka AMLO, as a grassroots campaign tool in his presidential run as the candidate of the PRD, Party of the Democratic Revolution. When AMLO lost that campaign, he left the PRD, complaining that it had not adequately supported him. He then worked to get Morena qualified as a legal political party. He achieved this in 2014. </i></p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i>He was Morena's presidential candidate in 2018. He and Morena's congressional candidates won by a landslide, the latter winning a two-thirds majority enabling them to pass constitutional amendments. Morena had suddenly decimated the traditional parties, becoming the dominate political force in Mexico. </i></p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i>However, in the 2021 midterm congressional elections, Morena lost its majority in the Senate. It needed the votes of the Workers and Green Parties to achieve a simple majority to pass "secondary" laws, i.e. those that are not constitutional amendments. </i></p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i>AMLO has blamed the National Electoral Institute as being part of "frauds" that caused him the loss of the presidency in both 2006 and 2012. Under the guise of saving money, he proposed constitutional amendments to cut it severely. Not able to gain the two-thirds majorities to pass these, he then proposed a "Plan B" of secondary laws with the same aim. </i></p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i>The Workers and Green Parties saw the changes in how elections are to be run, with indivisible slates of candidates from each party and voters required to vote for one slate, as threatening their possibility of achieving the 3% of total votes cast required to remain legal parties and receive government funding. </i></p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i>Therefore, they have demanded that some means of guaranteeing their continmued existence be included in the electoral legislation. A way to do so was, at first, included in the lower Chamber of Deputies' version, but then removed at AMLO's insistence. The same scenario is now being repeated in the Senate. However, as Congress has adjourned until February1, nothing further can be done to resolve the conflict until then. </i> </p></blockquote><p>If the objective of the federal government was to push the National Electoral Institute (INE) to do "more with less", the little parties took the opportunity to incorporate elements that the original proposal of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador did not have.</p><p>On Thursday night, the Chamber of Deputies approved a hold on the legislation that the Green Party reluctantly presented and after efforts by the Secretary of Interior Government Affairs, Adán Augusto López, to remove the "eternal life" clause. He did this after the Senate had already adjourned.</p><p>Thus, the INE gained time until February, when it is expected that the legislative process will be resumed and the windows for the application of the electoral reform will be running.</p><p>At his Thursday morning press conference, the President slapped Congress' hand by threatening to veto his own electoral reform if the wording that guaranteed the distribution of votes in a coalition was maintained.</p><p>In the Chamber of Deputies, after a meeting in the Secretariat of Internal Government Affairs, the PVEM was forced to propose the withdrawal of the wording. This was endorsed by Morena and the PT. Nevertheless, this stalled the electoral reform.</p><p>According to legislative procedure, when a Chamber (in this case, the Chamber of Deputies) makes a modification to a bill that has already been voted on by the reviewing Chamber (in this case, the Senate), the legislation is returned again to the other chamber in order for it to say whether or not it accepts the change. The elimination of the wording forced the Chamber of Deputies to return the bill to the Senate, but it had already adjourned its session and could no longer address the issue.</p><p>A scenario to unlock the matter would be to call an extraordinary session, but the Opposition does not see [<i>i.e., will prevent</i>] that there are the votes needed in the Permanent Committee of Congress [<i>that oversees affairs when Congress is adjourned</i>] to achieve the two-thirds majority required for it.</p><p>The other scenario is to wait until February 1 for the Senate to address the issue of electoral reform, when the next regular session begins.</p>Reed Brundagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17821739958830865732noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4089285239690517306.post-77410838345447739782022-12-18T19:19:00.005-06:002022-12-18T19:19:59.527-06:00Mexico Electoral Reform | Opposition Legislators Celebrate Vote by Sen. Ricardo Monreal, Leader of President's Party, Morena, Against Electoral Reform Laws Sponsored by President López Obrador<p><a href="https://www.reforma.com/reconoce-oposicion-a-monreal-por-votar-contra-plan-b/ar2522023?v=2" target="_blank">Reforma</a>, Mexico City (December 15, 2022).-</p><p>By Martha Martinez</p><p>Yesterday [<i>Wednesday, Dec. 14</i>], in the context of the voting on the electoral reform...Sen. Ricardo, head of the Morena caucus, voted against the proposal of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and his own party, believing that it violates the Constitution.</p><p>Opposition deputies celebrated Sen. Monreal's vote. PRI [<i>Party of the Institutional Revolution</i>] leader Alejandro Moreno said that Monreal's position was an act of integrity shared by millions of Mexicans.</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">"It was something that he had announced. He is a person who is consistent in what he has said, what issues he has pointed out. He is a teacher, he has taught students [<i>as a professor of law</i>], and we all know that. It is not just Ricardo Monreal's position. It is also the position of millions of Mexicans to have unrestricted respect for the Constitution."</p></blockquote><p>Rubén Moreira, the coordinator of the PRI in the Chamber of Deputies, was confident that the Morena coordinator in the Senate knows what he is doing.</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">"Everyone knows how he votes, everyone. I'm not going to congratulate him, either, because he knows what he is doing," he said.</p></blockquote><p>The coordinator of Citizens Movement, Jorge Álvarez Máynez, recognized Monreal for being the first government-aligned caucus coordinator in the history of Mexico to go against a presidential initiative.</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">"We must recognize the civic value of Ricardo Monreal's action. Never in the history of Mexico has a coordinator of a party group allied with the president fought presidential legislative initiatives, calling them unconstitutional and publically saying why they aren't constitutional," he said from the Senate podium.</p></blockquote><p>In contrast, the vice coordinator of the PT [<i>Workers Party, ally of Morena</i>], Gerardo Fernández Noroña, was confident that Monreal has made a wrong decision from the political, legal, and historical points of view.</p><p>Although in his daily morning press conference this Thursday morning, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador rejected any purge of Monreal from Morena, Fernández Noroña did not rule out the possibility of the senator joining the ranks of the Opposition.</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">"About the hypocritical vote of the Senate coordinator, well, I think that yesterday he immolated himself politically speaking. He made a wrong legal, political and historical decision. And, well, the Opposition knows whether it will receive him in its arms, given its absence of [<i>presidential</i>] candidates...," said Noroña.</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i><b>MV Note:</b> There is much speculation that all of this has to do with jockeying for presidential nominations in 2024. Vamos a ver, we shall see. </i></p></blockquote><p><a href="https://www.reforma.com/reconoce-oposicion-a-monreal-por-votar-contra-plan-b/ar2522023?v=2" target="_blank">Spanish original</a> </p>Reed Brundagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17821739958830865732noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4089285239690517306.post-70003442220847218582022-12-18T18:36:00.003-06:002022-12-18T18:36:14.576-06:00Mexico Electoral Reform | Ricardo Monreal, Head of Morena in Senate, Defends His Unprecedented Vote Against President López Obrador's Electoral Plan<p><a href="https://www.reforma.com/perfila-monreal-voto-en-contra-de-plan-b-electoral/ar2521508" target="_blank">Reforma</a>, Mexico City, December 14, 2022</p><p>By Mayolo López</p><p>Senator Ricardo Monreal, head of the Morena caucus, in casting his vote against the "Plan B" of the electoral reform, as promoted by President López Obrador, defended it as due to the legislation's unconstitutional character.</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i><b>MV Note:</b> Morena is the Movement for National Regeneration, founded by current President López Obrador, aka AMLO, in 2014. With its <a href="https://mexicovoices.blogspot.com/2018/07/mexico-presidential-election-lopez.html" target="_blank">overwhelming victories</a> in the presidential and congressional elections of 2018, it is now the predominate political force in Mexico. AMLO dominates the party and virtually no one disagrees with him, let alone over <a href="https://mexicovoices.blogspot.com/2022/12/mexico-electoral-reform-morena-and-its.html" target="_blank">his major legislative assault on the National Electoral Institute</a>.</i></p></blockquote><p>He said,</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">"I want to clarify that (this vote) is a strictly a personal matter. It does not involve the congressional caucus in which I participate. It is a matter that leads me to assume full responsibility for it, including the outcomes, the consequences of whatever this results in. This is how my life has been, both publically and politically. It has never been easy for me to make decisions." </p></blockquote><p>In the opinion of the senator, who gave his vote from the podium, the package of six laws </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">"seriously violates the Constitution, taking into account established doctrine, the jurisprudence, the general principles of law. I affirm and maintain that some of the laws that may be approved tonight can distance themselves from constitutional principles."</p></blockquote><p>Monreal evoked the figure of [<i>President Benito</i>] Juárez [<i>president during "The Reform Period" of the 1860s and 70s</i>] in expressing his attachment to the Constitution.</p><p>He said,</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">"This is not a rhetorical, false or demagogic exercise. It is an exercise of genuine concern for our democracy. It is a matter of a personal nature and it should not offend anyone. No one should be surprised that we carry out our actions with integrity." </p></blockquote><p><a href="https://www.reforma.com/perfila-monreal-voto-en-contra-de-plan-b-electoral/ar2521508" target="_blank">Spanish original</a> </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"> </p></blockquote><p style="text-align: left;"> </p>Reed Brundagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17821739958830865732noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4089285239690517306.post-66515159646727000382022-12-15T21:01:00.015-06:002022-12-18T16:02:36.508-06:00Mexico Electoral Reform | Morena and Its Allies Pass Legislation Severely Cutting the National Electoral Institute<p><a href="https://www.reforma.com/morena-y-aliados-si-tocan-al-ine-aprueban-plan-b/ar2521483?utm_source=bcm_nl_noticias_reforma&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_noticias_reforma_20221215&utm_term=usr_suscriptor" target="_blank">Reforma</a>, Mexico City, December 15, 2022</p><p>By Mayolo López and Erika Hernández</p><p>Last night, Morena's [<i>Movement for National Regeneration</i>] plurality, together with its allies in the Senate, carried out a blow to the structure of the National Electoral Institute (INE), which, according to members of the electoral institute's governing body, puts voter registration, the counting of votes and the control of expenditures at risk, among other central activities of the national democratic voting institution.</p><p>The approved reform also greatly reduces the size of the Professional Electoral Service [<i>administrative personnel</i>] and merges the structures of the INE and the regional-level voting organizations. At least 2,175 Professional Service employees will be laid off as regional boards go from having permanent staff to being temporary [<i>functioning only during the periods of election campaigns</i>]. This represents 84.6% of positions. In addition, another 2,000 administrative workers will be dismissed.</p><p>According to a diagnosis released by the current eleven governors of the electoral institute, the so-called "Plan B" eliminates the structure of permanent subdivisions within the INE and reduces the Professional Electoral Service to a minimum, which will result in preventing having qualified personnel to supervise the elections.</p><p>In the voting on the reform, the Morena fraction gained the support of the legislators of the PT [<i>Workers Party</i>], PVEM [<i>Mexico Green Party</i>], and PES [<i>Social Encounter Party</i>], with 69 votes in favor compared to 53 votes against by the Opposition. The opposition votes included those of the Morena caucus leader, <a href="https://mexicovoices.blogspot.com/2022/12/mexico-electoral-reform-sen-monreal.html" target="_blank">Ricardo Monreal</a> [<i>which was extraordinary</i>], and that of the president of the Legislative Review Committee, Rafael Espino.</p><p>Before casting his vote, Monreal said</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">"I want to make clear that this is strictly a personal matter. I am not naive. I know what I am up against. The only thing I want is for the Constitution to be respected." </p></blockquote><p>After Monreal cast his vote, he was applauded and embraced by opposition leaders. </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i><b>MV Note:</b> In the past, Monreal has been a close ally of President López Obrador, but has distanced himself in the runup to the voting on the electoral reform. This joining the oppostion to López Obrador's wishes may have to do with his possible hopes to be the opposition's candidate for the presidency in 2024. López Obrador openly supports <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudia_Sheinbaum" target="_blank">Dr. Claudia Sheinbaum</a>, Head of Government of Mexico City. See: </i><i><a href="https://mexicovoices.blogspot.com/2022/12/mexico-electoral-reform-sen-monreal.html" target="_blank">Sen. Monreal, Head of Morena Caucus in the Senate, on the Hot Seat with Electoral Plan B</a></i></p></blockquote>Without the strength to prevent the coup against the INE, opposition senators raised banners describing the passage of the legislation as "treason against the Homeland" that was being encouraged by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador [<i>aka AMLO</i>].<p>Germán Martínez, from the Plural Group [<i>caucus of independents</i>], said from the podium:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">"Don't tell me that democracy was born in the 4T manger .... You want to silence the INE forever," </p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i><b>MV Note:</b> "The 4T" is short for the Fourth Transformation, AMLO's designation of his administration as a revolution in Mexico's government equal to the War for Independence from Spain, the Reform Period of the government of Benito Juárez and the Mexican Revolution.</i></p></blockquote><p>Clemente Castañeda, the coordinator of Citizens Movement, stated with assurance that the purpose of "Plan B" is to </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">"dismantle the electoral system as a whole, focusing the weapons on the election referee. There is a deep hatred of the INE in this reform."</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i><b>MV Note:</b> President López Obrador has long been critical of the INE and its predecessor, the Federal Electoral Institute, accusing them of being a party to "electoral frauds" responsible for his losses in the presidential elections of 2006 and 2012.</i> This "electoral reform" <a href="https://mexicovoices.blogspot.com/2022/11/proposed-electoral-reform-is-it-reform.html" target="_blank">is seen by his critics as his act of revenge</a>.</p></blockquote><p>César Cravioto, from Morena, argued that the reform seeks to end the privileges of interest groups, and he left handkerchiefs on the podium for the opponents to wipe "the tears from their faces."</p><p>Last night, René Miranda, director of the INE's Federal Register of Voters, submitted his resignation from office, arguing that the reform will impact the supervision of the voter registration roll. In addition, the coordinator of International Affairs of the INE, Manuel Carrillo, announced his retirement.</p><p>In exchange for having voted in favor of the so-called electoral "Plan B", the PT and PVEM received a so-called "eternal life clause" which guarantees their survival as political parties through the transfer of votes [<i>between parties running coalition candidates</i>]. Senator Israel Zamora, of the PVEM, presented an amendment that will protect the existence of the little parties through coalition agreements [<i>sharing candidates with Morena, which is by far the largest and most popular party</i>]. The amendment obtained 58 votes in favor and 49 against.</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">"This agreement does not violate the constitutional requirement. This option provides the power for the parties to make coalitions," he said.</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i><b>MV Note:</b> The Mexican Constitution requies that political parties receive at least 3% of the vote in each national election in order to retain their registration as a party and, thus, receive government funding and be able to continue to participate in subsequent elections. The Workers and the Green Parties fear that, with the new electoral system, they will not be able to achieve the 3% cut off.</i></p></blockquote><p>Without the six votes of the Green Party and the five of the Workers Party in the Senate, the electoral package that weakens the National Electoral Institute (INE) would not have passed.</p><p>This amendment <a href="https://mexicovoices.blogspot.com/2022/12/mexico-electoral-reform-amlo-orders.htmlhttps://mexicovoices.blogspot.com/2022/12/mexico-electoral-reform-amlo-orders.html" target="_blank">has been disavowed by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador</a>, who distanced himself from the measure that had been originally incorporated in the legislation in the Chamber of Deputies.</p><p>The coordinator of the Plural Group, Emilio Álvarez Icaza, made the accusation that this protection of the small parties was "a payment for favors" so that PVEM and PT would vote for the package of electoral laws.</p><p><a href="https://www.reforma.com/morena-y-aliados-si-tocan-al-ine-aprueban-plan-b/ar2521483?utm_source=bcm_nl_noticias_reforma&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_noticias_reforma_20221215&utm_term=usr_suscriptor" target="_blank">Spanish original</a></p>Reed Brundagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17821739958830865732noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4089285239690517306.post-36477590164653835442022-12-10T21:44:00.001-06:002022-12-10T21:44:25.132-06:00Mexico Electoral Reform | Sen. Monreal, Head of Morena Caucus in the Senate, on the Hot Seat with Electoral Plan B<p><a href="https://www.reforma.com/el-senado-y-monreal-a-prueba-con-plan-b-electoral/ar2518449?utm_source=bcm_nl_politica_reforma&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_politica_reforma_20221210&utm_term=usr_suscriptor" target="_blank">Reforma</a>, Mexico City, December 10, 2022</p><p>By Mayolo Lopez</p><p>Ricardo Monreal, leader of Morena in the Senate, will be on trial next week, not only for the course he lays out for the so-called "Plan B" of secondary electoral laws [<i><a href="https://mexicovoices.blogspot.com/2022/12/mexico-electoral-reform-morena-imposes.html" target="_blank">passed by the Chamber of Deputies last Wednesday</a>, the same day it was presented by the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, aka AMLO</i>], but also due to the position he assumes with his own vote. Morena's radical wing in the Senate acknowledges that if the coordinator votes against "Plan B", the party's unity would crack.</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;"><i><b>MV Note:</b> Morena, the Movement for National Regeneration, was originally created by López Obrador in 2011 as a grassroots movement to campaign for him as the presidential candidate of the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), for the 2012 election. When he lost that election, he accused the PRD of not sufficiently supporting his candidacy. He left the PRD and worked to make Morerna meet the legal qualifications to become an official political party, which it succeeded in doing in 2014. He then became its candidate for president in the 2018 election. </i></span></p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;"><i>When it became apparent that AMLO had overwhelming popular support and was going to win, many members of the traditional three major parties, the PRD, the PRI [Party of the Institutional Revolution, which, by opportunistic policy choices and autocratic means had held hegemonic contol of power in Mexico from the 1930s to the 1990s], and the PAN [conservative National Action Party which held the presidency from 2000 to 2012] left their parties and joined Morena. AMLO welcomed them. Some of his original followers, who were committed leftists, did not, seeing them as opportunists.</i></span></p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;"><i>These leftists form the "radical wing" </i></span><i>of Morena, and totally aligns themselves with AMLO's desires for what he calls his "Fourth Transformation" of Mexico [the first three being the War of Independence from Spain, 1810 to 1821, the Liberal Reform period of the 1860s and 70s under President Benito Juárez, and the Mexican Revolution, from 1910 to 1917 </i><span style="background-color: white;">]</span><span style="background-color: white;">.</span></p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i>Ricardo Monreal (born September 19, 1960 in Fresnillo, Zacatecas) is one of those who switched parties to join Morena. He has switched parties many times in his political lifetime. He holds a bachelor's degree in law and a Ph.D. in administrative and constitutional law. He worked as a professor of law for several years and was involved in several activists farmers' organizations during the 1980s.</i></p><i>In 1991 he became president of the state chapter of the PRI. He then represented the PRI twice in the Chamber of Deputies and once in the Senate. In 1998, after losing the PRI nomination for governor of Zacatecas, he left the PRI and joined the PRD, where he won its nomination for governor. He then won the three-way election with 44.6% of the votes. <br /><br />After finishing his term as governor in September 2004, he briefly considered competing for the 2006 PRD presidential candidacy. Instead, he joined the presidential campaign of Andrés Manuel López Obrador. In the general election of July 2006, he was elected to the Senate for a six-year term for the PRD. In 2008, he left the PRD to join the small Workers Party [PT]. In 2011 and 2012, he was campaign manager for the presidential campaign of AMLO. </i></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"> </blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><i>Since, at the time, the Mexican Constitution prohibited anyone's reelection to any office, he became a deputy in the Chamber of Deputies from 2012 to 2015 for the Ciitizens Movement party. </i><i>In 2015, he joined Morena. </i><i>From 2015 to 2017, he was delegation (borough) head of the Delegation of Cuauhtémoc in Mexico City. </i></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><i><br />In Morena's landslide victory in the 2018 general election, he was elected a senator. Later that month, his fellow Morena senators chose him as head of their caucus. In 2021, he was elected President of the Governing Board that oversees the operations of the Senate</i>. [<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricardo_Monreal" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>] </blockquote><p style="text-align: left;">Senator César Cravioto, the spokesman for <span style="background-color: white;">the radical wing </span>considers that Morena's vote must be by consensus, although the bill that was approved by the Chamber of Deputies could be modified. "But it has to be by consensus and with the party members unified," he stressed...Cravioto expects the Morena caucus to vote "in one direction and that there will be no fissures, that there are no divisions."</p><p>Senator Monreal has avoided saying whether or not he is going to support "plan B" in electoral matters, arguing that he still has not had time to become acquainted with the more than 400 articles [<i>taking up three hundred pages</i>] that were modified by Morena's deputies and their allies [<i>by</i> <i>simply adopting the draft delivered to them by the administration the same morning</i>].</p><p>The reform contemplates, among other things, the administrative downsizing and reorganization of the National Electoral Institute (INE).</p><p>This Monday, the Governance and Legislative Studies Committees will rule on the bill sent by the Chamber of Deputies. Morena has the votes to push for their immediate approval in order to bring them to the full Senate on Tuesday, the 13th.</p><p>The radical group ... is made up of the general secretary of Morena, Citlalli Hernández; Héctor Vasconcelos, Antares Vázquez, Ovidio Peralta and Napoleón Gómez Urrutia [<i>formerly the leftist leader of the Miners' Union</i>], among others.</p><p>If Monreal were to decide to vote against the reform, it would precipitate his break with Morena and a number of other senators would follow him [<i>a list of names is given</i>]...</p><p>Senator Germán Martínez, founder of the Plural Group, maintains that Monreal must define his position:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">"between appearing on a ballot ...to be Morena's candidate [<i>in 2024</i>] for [<i>Head of Government of</i>] Mexico City or leading the Opposition at the national level. I want to know if Monreal is negotiating with Morena for his candidacy in Mexico City or he is negotiating with the Opposition at the national level not to touch the INE [<i>National Electoral Institute</i>].</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">"Monreal holds the key to democracy or anti-democracy. Given that responsibility, he must be required to commit himself. As López Obrador says: 'define yourself: you cannot be with God and the devil'." </p></blockquote><p><a href="https://www.reforma.com/el-senado-y-monreal-a-prueba-con-plan-b-electoral/ar2518449?utm_source=bcm_nl_politica_reforma&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_politica_reforma_20221210&utm_term=usr_suscriptor" target="_blank">Spanish original</a> </p>Reed Brundagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17821739958830865732noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4089285239690517306.post-242304407241491202022-12-09T15:36:00.016-06:002022-12-09T15:47:52.802-06:00Mexico Electoral Reform | AMLO Orders Benefits to the Workers and Green Parties to Be Removed from Electoral Reform Legislation<p>Mexico City, December 09, 2022</p><p>By Claudia Guerrero</p><p>At his Friday morning press conference, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador [<i>aka AMLO</i>] announced that legislators had promised to remove the "shield" from the electoral reform approved in the Chamber of Deputies that would enable the small parties allied to Morena [<i>the Movement for National Regeneration, founded by López Obrador</i>] to maintain their legal registration [<i>eligible to participate in elections and supported by government funding</i>] in case they do not reach [<i>the </i><i>required </i><i>minimum of</i>] 3 percent of the [<i>national</i>] vote.</p><p>...The PVEM [<i>Mexico Green Party</i>] and the PT [<i>Workers Party</i>] have been fundamental in achieving legislative majorities for [<i>the López Obrador</i>] government's legislative initiatives as they provide the minimum differences in votes over the opposition...</p><p>The President said:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p>"Changes were made to the electoral reform and now Adán [<i>Adán Augusto López Hernández, Secretary of Internal Governemnt Affairs</i>] is going to explain what those changes consisted of and how the legislators themselves have already promised to remove those additions".</p></blockquote><p>Earlier this Friday, REFORMA reported that in exchange for the Workers Party (PT) and Green Party (PVEM) legislators' support of Morena, the government's "plan B" for electoral reform was modified to guarantee registration and resources to those little parties. [<i><b>MV Note:</b></i> "<i>Plan A" consisted of changes to the Constitution that did not achieve the two-thirds majority of congressional votes required for passage.</i>]</p><p>The reform to secondary laws approved by the Chamber of Deputies [<i>immediately after being received shortly after midnight on Wednesday morning from the Secretary of Internal Government Affairs</i>] included, in the case of candidates shared by multiple parties, the option to transfer votes [<i>between the allied parties</i>] and the minimum vote of 3% only needed to be achieved in a majority of states [<i>i.e. 17 of 32</i>], rather than nationally, as a requirement to maintain registration as a political party.</p><p>In the press conference at the National Palace, the Secretary of Internal Government Affairs announced that yesterday modifications were made to the legislation passed by the Chamber of Deputies since the text is unconstitutional.</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">"There are three modifications to the original legislation. In article 15 of the General Law of electoral processes an addition was made. It [<i>originally</i>] says or said that to preserve its registration, a national political party had to obtain at least 3 percent of the total vote cast. Yesterday, the president of the Senate's coordination board told me that a proposal that had been presented by the small parties' politicians as part of the working document was, by error, included in the final legislation. So, it was passed.</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">"The change consists of a statement that if a party did not receive 3 percent of the total vote cast but they received 3 percent in at least 17 state elections, they could retain their registration. This is an unconstitutional text. In fact, there is already a ruling on this from the Supreme Court of Justice regarding a past electoral process [<i>Two new, small parties did not achieve the 3 percent cutoff in the 2018 election and, thus, lost their status and funding as official parties.</i>]. Yesterday, they recognized the error."</p></blockquote><p>López Hernández explained that the deputies asked the Chamber of Senators to modify the text and that they have even discussed the matter with Ricardo Monreal, leader of the Morena senators and president of the Political Coordination Board.</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">"Last night, I spoke with the president of the Senate board and with the presidents of the committees, and the modification will be made. The bill will be returned to the Chamber of Deputies so that they can...rectify the error. For sure, they will vote [<i>on the change</i>] next week and then return it [<i>to the Senate</i>]." </p></blockquote><p>...The maintenance of the registration of the PT and PVEM parties that have been on the verge of losing it in recent elections translates into millions in public financing.</p><p>Between 2018 and 2022, the PT has received 1,244,719,046 pesos [<i>US$63 million</i>] while the Green obtained 1,670,881,242 pesos [<i>US$84.6 million</i>]. Together they would add up to almost 3 billion pesos [<i>US$150 million</i>], an amount similar to the savings that, according to AMLO, would be achieved with the implementation of Plan B which reduces the size of the INE [<i>National Electoral Institute</i>], combines its subdivisions and centralizes electoral processes [<i>from a state to a national level</i>].</p>Reed Brundagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17821739958830865732noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4089285239690517306.post-50980064695982452452022-12-07T14:11:00.011-06:002022-12-07T14:22:30.436-06:00Mexico Electoral Reform | Morena Pushes Through Legislation Cutting Structure and Powers of the National Electoral Institute<p><a href="https://www.reforma.com/impone-morena-poda-en-el-ine/ar2517047?utm_source=bcm_nl_noticias_reforma&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_noticias_reforma_20221207&utm_term=usr_suscriptor" target="_blank">Reforma</a>, Mexico City, December 7, 2022</p><p>By Martha Martinez and Claudia Salazar</p><p>Early this morning, with unusual haste by means of a legislative initiative presented minutes before its discussion, Morena [<i>the Movement for National Regeneration</i>] and its allies approved reforms to six laws that remove powers from the National Electoral Institute (INE) and combines the Federal Electoral Court with it.</p><p>As these are reforms to secondary laws [<i>ones detailing the specifics of the implementation of Articles of the Constitution</i>] that do not require a two-thirds majority vote, the pro-government alliance passed the laws by a simple majority.</p><p>The Opposition accused Morena of "a coup" and called the process "dirty" and "illegal". Various opposition speakers presented motions to suspend the debate of the bills and send them to committees [<i>the usual first step in the legislative process</i>], but they were rejected. </p><p>...Citizens' Movement [<i>MC</i>] deputy Salomón Chertorivski noted that the decision was unprecedented.</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">"It is a spurious reform, a shameful procedure. I anticipate that the Senate will not dispense with the normal procedures and the [<i>legislation</i>] will have to be discussed. If they vote in favor, we will see them in [<i>the Supreme</i>] Court. Now, there is a precedent of their voting unilateraly, so they will do this to us again. It's the powers that be."...</p></blockquote><p>After the round of opposition speakers presented their positions, the deputies of the opposition bloc left the full session of the Chamber of Deputies in protest of the "legislative dirtiness" and did not participate in the vote.</p><p>At the podium, PAN [<i>conservative National Action Party</i>] member Jorge Triana said that AMLO [<i>President Andrés Manuel López Obrador</i>] was promoting "a gross sabotage" of the 2024 [<i>presidential and congressional</i>] electoral process. Surrounded by PAN deputies, who covered their mouths with stickers that had the legend, "Let Mexico speak", Triana then led the exit from the chamber in silence.</p><p>The members of Morena and its allied parties yelled "Out with the traitors!"</p><p>Morena member Leonel Godoy said that the opposition´s abandonment showed an undemocratic attitude and affirmed that the reforms to 6 secondary laws were intended to save 3 billion pesos [<i>US$150 million</i>].</p><p>Carlos Puente, of the Green Party, supported the vote made in favor by his party for "Plan B", "because the opposition closed any spaces" for an agreement. The PVEM [<i>Mexico Green Party</i>] amended the government bill to add provisions guaranteeing that the changes in the electoral law would not affect their party's registration and would allow them to keep surpluses in their public financing for several years. [<i>MV Note: The Green Party is not a pro-ecological group but a small party that uses its seats opportunistically in Congress to support whoever is the likely winner, (now Morena) thus serving to tip the balance of power.</i>]</p><p><a href="https://mexicovoices.blogspot.com/2022/12/mexico-electoral-reform-morena-gives-up.html" target="_blank">In a united front, the opposition block</a> (PAN, PRI [<i>Party of the Institutional Revolution, which held hegemonic control of power in Mexico from the 1930s to the 1990s</i>], PRD [<i>Party of the Democratic Revolution, a leftist coalition</i>] and MC) had previously contained the intention of the president to suppress the INE through a constitutional reform. However, the Secretary of Internal Affairs, Adán Augusto López, at midnight, delivered to the Congress the so-called "Plan B" with non-constitutional modifications to secondary electoral laws.</p><p>Among the most important changes is the disappearance of INE directorates [<i>subdivisions</i>], the removal of its strategic Executive Board, making state electoral bodies temporary, and reducing the number of electoral district boards from 300 to 260.</p><p>The reform also modifies the beginning of the electoral campaign period from September to November of the year prior to an election, to avoid the oversaturation of citizens.</p><p>It also merges the PREP, an early count that accumulates the counts of polling stations, with a real-time vote count so that the results are known the same night as the election.</p><p>Electoral "Plan B" also expands electoral rights that until now did not exist or were only implemented through INE guidelines or in pilot tests. It endorses promoting minority candidates, establishing the obligation of the parties to guarantee candidacies for elective positions to young people, indigenous people, Afro-Mexicans, people of sexual diversity, migrants, and the disabled.</p><p>The vote of Mexicans residing abroad is also made more flexible, by allowing them to vote online not only with their voter identification card but also their passport or consular registration. Currently, voting abroad is done by land mail and online, but those interested must start the process months in advance.</p><p>It is also proposed to guarantee the vote of people who are in pretrial detention. In the last two elections, the INE has implemented pilot tests of this. Another new aspect is that the electoral officials take a ballot box to the homes of people with "a disability and in a state of prostration" so that they can vote.</p><p><a href="https://www.reforma.com/impone-morena-poda-en-el-ine/ar2517047?utm_source=bcm_nl_noticias_reforma&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_noticias_reforma_20221207&utm_term=usr_suscriptor" target="_blank">Spanish original.</a></p>Reed Brundagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17821739958830865732noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4089285239690517306.post-4863351551354588102022-12-05T15:06:00.000-06:002022-12-05T15:06:34.160-06:00Regarding President Andrés Manuel López Óbrador | Where I Went Wrong<p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Reforma, Mexico City, December 5, 2022</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">By Jesus Silva-Herzog Marquez*</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">This past July, the New York Times opened a space on its pages for its commentators to point out a significant error that they had made in their criticism...</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Times exercise seemed exemplary to me and it invites me to think precisely about my central mistake about the Lopez Obrador regime. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Four years into the government, it is worth looking for the central error of my criticism. The most serious and grievous error that I can identify in my portrait of Andrés Manuel López Obrador [<i>aka AMLO</i>] is having seen in him a pragmatic fiber that was, in reality, a simulation. I was wrong to see in the decisions of the candidate in his third attempt at the presidency and as President at the beginning of his term, a plumb line of realism. I believed that the enormous historical ambitions of the new President would lead him to transcend his sermons and seek concrete realization. I was wrong. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">There can be no pragmatism in a man who lacks elementary curiosity about the world, who does not feel the slightest respect for the knowledge of others, who is not looking for reliable information but for acquiescence. There can be no pragmatism in a leader who is not capable of reconsidering the course if things do not go as planned.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">More than his speeches, always composed of effective simplifications, the team he chose for his cabinet gave the impression of reasonably pragmatic leadership. I believed that his invitation to moderates and people with administrative experience was an expression of a desire for dialogue and results that could channel a revolutionary ambition. I imagined that the invitation implied respect. It was the opposite. I believed that the opinions of his cabinet members would be taken into account so that public policy would be based on the evidence, so that decisions would conform to the law. Instead, they were decorations for his capriciousness. Some were ignored, others left as soon as possible.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Manichaeism has prevailed over realism. The fantasy of the historical break has prevented us from appreciating a reality that is much more stubborn than ideology. It is impossible to maintain a pragmatic balance when the world evades it. The "fourth transformation" [<i>López Óbrador's vision of his administration</i>] was reduced to the story of the "transformation". </span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">By demonizing neoliberalism, the possibility of forming an accurate diagnosis of reality was canceled. Given the ideological dictate, it has not been possible to notice [<i>political</i>] strengths or successes in the recent past. Everything, in bulk, has been sent to the dump. The entire inheritance was cursed. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Politics, more than reform, thus became exorcism. And removing the neoliberal demon from Mexico became not a matter that requires practical judgment, a timely evaluation of alternatives, a constant examination of results, but rather a few formulas repeated each time with greater vehemence.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">I will have been wrong in many other things. The mistake that is most obvious to me is that I saw in AMLO a pragmatist who would temper the radical in him. If that man ever existed, he disappeared very quickly.</span></p><p><b>*<i>Jesus Silva-Herzog Marquez</i></b><i> studied Law at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and Political Science at Columbia University. He is a professor at the School of Government of the </i><i>Monterrey </i><i>Technological Institute. He has published "The Old Regime and the Transition in Mexico" and La idiotez de lo perfecto (The Idiocy of the Perfect). From his columns in the cultural section of Reforma, he has published two books of his essays.</i></p>Reed Brundagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17821739958830865732noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4089285239690517306.post-65259472530049032722022-12-01T13:06:00.013-06:002022-12-01T13:14:38.645-06:00Mexico Electoral Reform | Morena Gives Up on Electoral Reform For Now; Will Pursue 'Plan B' in 2023<p><a href="https://www.reforma.com/dan-perdida-reforma-electoral-ven-plan-b-para-2023/ar2513596?utm_source=bcm_nl_noticias_reforma&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_noticias_reforma_20221201&utm_term=usr_suscriptor" target="_blank">Reforma</a>, Mexico City, December 1, 2022</p><p>By Claudia Salazar, Martha Martinez and Francisco Ortiz</p><p>Morena's allies in Congress admitted yesterday that the constitutional reform in electoral matters "is not going to happen", and they announced a plan for a process of "agreements" to achieve the proposed changes in 2023 via "secondary" laws [<i>laws derived from constitutional statutes that establish the details for the implementation of those statutes</i>].</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i><b>MV Note:</b> Unlike the U.S. Constitution, which only primarily defines the three-part structure of the national government and defines the powers of each branch, the Mexican Constitution contains the foundational laws for virtually every dimension and aspect of the government´s structure and function. Therefore, constitutional "reforms" are required for virtually every significant change in government structure and function.</i></p></blockquote><p>PT [<i>Workers Party deputy</i>] Gerardo Fernández Noroña, a key figure in the electoral negotiations, told REFORMA,</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">"It is evident that the (constitutional) reform is not going to pass because we do not have the two thirds vote" required. "Now, we are moving to a process of building agreements for reforms to the secondary laws, where the Opposition could join us. If they don't want to, we don't need them, because there is a basic agreement between Morena, PT and PVEM [<i>Mexican Green Party</i>]." </p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i><b>MV Note: </b>While Morena, the Workers Party and the Green Party are publically presenting a united front regarding the electoral legislation, </i><i>actually there have been significant objections by the two small parties to parts of the electoral changes proposed by the president, Andrés Manuel López Óbrador [aka AMLO]. One of the proposed changes is that elections will be transformed from individual candidates competing for each office to each party creating a list of candidates for all offices in each state and voters only having one vote, for the list of one party. </i></p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i>This is seen by the two small parties as threatening the reduction, if not possibly the elimination of their representation in Congress. This would eliminate their role and, thus, their power as being needed by Morena [the Movment for National Regeneration, founded by AMLO in 2014] to provide majorities in Congress. </i></p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i>It also threatens their financing by the government, which depends on the percentage of the vote they achieve in each election. Most seriously, it threatens their very existence, as parties are required to recieve a minimum percentage of the vote to remain registered with the government as official parties eligible for funding and for competing in elections.</i></p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i>Given the statement by the Workers Party deputy, evidently these diffrences are being negotiated with Morena and an agreement is being worked out, but where that process stands has not been made public and no changes to the legislation to address their concerns have been announced.</i> </p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i>The "Oppositon" consists of a more or less united front calling itself Va por Mexico, Go for Mexico, formed for the 2018 presidential and congressional election by the PRI [politically opportunistic Party of the Institutional Revolution, which held a hegemony of government power at all levels from the 1930s to the 1990s], the PAN [conservative National Action Party, which broke the hegemony of the PRI and held the presidency for two terms, from 2000 to 2012] and the PRD [Party of the Democratic Revolution]</i></p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i>The PRD arose from an unstable coalition of various leftist groups brought together in 1988 to back the presidential candidacy of Cauhtémoc Cárdenas, son of leftist President Lázaro Cárdenas [held office 1934 to 1940]. Cárdenas, a famous and convinced leftist, had left the PRI over its adoption of neoliberal capitalist economics for Mexico, replacing its state-ownership of much of the economic structure and opening the country to foreign companies and investors. Cárdenas lost by a narrow margin after a reputed "crash" of the electoral computers, so the election was widely viewed by Mexicans as a fraud. However, the PRD has never held national governmental power.</i></p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i>President Andrés Manuel López Óbrador [aka AMLO] was the PRD's presidential candidate in 2006 and 2012. He lost by less than 1% of the vote in 2006 and charged fraud. The charges were not upheld by the Electoral Institute or Electoral Tribunal [court]. This is seen by some critics as the reasons for his proposed changes to weaken these institutions. A</i><i>fter his loss in 2012, h</i><i>e left the PRD in anger for what he claimed was its lack of support. </i><i>Morena, originally a</i><i> grassroots, activist organization that AMLO had personally created</i><i>, provided most of his actual campaign support structure and personnel. </i></p><p style="text-align: left;"><i>In 2014, AMLO succeeded in getting Morena qualified for designation by the government as an official political party, thus gaining government funding and the right to compete in elections. In 2018, quite remarkably, it won the presidency by an absolute majority of all votes [53%], something never before achieved since three parties began competing in 2000. It also won a two-thirds super-majority in both chambers of Congress, giving it the power to make changes in the Constitution and, thus, in the laws underlying every part of the Mexican government. It also won a majority of governorships and state legislatures. With all this political power, in one fell swoop, it virtually obliterated the power of all three </i><i>traditional major </i><i>parties. </i></p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i>However, in the mid-term elections of 2021, Morena achieved only a simple majority in the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Congress; hence its present political weakness in being able to unable pass any Constitutional amendments without the support of some members of opposition parties. This gave a significant piece of political power back to the opposition. In this case, it has succeeded in stopping constitutional "reforms" to the structure and functions of the electoral system currently run by the National Electoral Institute (INE).</i> </p></blockquote><p>The coordinator of the Morena deputies [<i>in the Chamber of Deputies</i>], Ignacio Mier, declared that the deadline to make electoral changes will now be in April 2023, [<i>formal presidential and congressional campaigns will start that autumn</i>]. He said that this does not mean that the constitutional reform will not be discussed next week [<i>the Congress ends this term in mid-December and does not reconvene until April</i>].</p><p>From this point on, the focus of Morena's activity will be on the replacement of INE directors, which is scheduled to take place in April of next year, and on the reforms of secondary laws. That is, the discussion of the secondary laws will coincide with that of the renewal of the directors. Four of the [<i>eleven</i>] INE directors are up for reelection or replacement. Among them are Lorenzo Córdova [<i>president of the council from 2014 to 2023</i>] and Ciro Murayama, with both of whom Morena has had confrontations [<b>MV Note:</b> A<i>h, the plot thickens!</i>]. </p><p>The process for renewal of directors begins on December 13 with the call for nominations </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><b>MV Note:</b> <i>The Congress, the political parties and the voting public can make nominations. Congress then chooses the directors from the list of those nominated. This has, in effect, led to each party getting to name a portion of the eleven directors equal to its share of seats in Congress</i>. </p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i>Hence, Morena will be able to name a majority of the council members, which it wants to reduce from eleven to seven</i>, <i>ostensibly as part of an economic motive to reduce the cost of the INE by reducing the size of its staff. López Óbrador has abruptly, drastically, and unsystematically reduced the size of much of the Mexican government bureaucracy in the name of saving money. He is using the saved money for subsidies to the poor and to unemployed and out-of-school youth [so-called Ninis], his political base.</i></p></blockquote><p>Mier pointed out that the electoral reform initiative in secondary laws will include modifications to the operational structure of the INE, such as the merger of the Training and Organization directorates, which would generate savings of nearly three billion pesos [<i>US $157 million</i>].</p><p>The modifications in secondary laws are the so-called "Plan B" that AMLO has announced as an alternative to his electoral reform, given the impossibility of having two-thirds of the votes in the Chamber of Deputies for a constitutional change.</p><p>Fernández Noroña, vice coordinator of the PT in the Chamber of Deputies, denied having differences with Morena in regard to the constitutional reform because "it is a matter of governmental structure on which (they) agree" with President López Óbrador, but, he insisted, the only reason this option will not succeed is the lack of votes.</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">"It is evident that the (constitutional) reform is not going to happen because we do not have two thirds of the votes. The details of the reform are inconsequential [<b>MV Note</b>: <i>Hum, the devil is in the details!</i>] because it is a matter of government structure and we are companions of the President and on the side of Morena on this," he said.</p></blockquote><p>The coordinator of the PVEM, Carlos Puente, also confirmed that the pro-government majority does not have the votes for a constitutional reform.</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">"We know that the votes (for the electoral reform) are not going to be enough. We have to review the proposal, and I hope that, between now and February, we can create adjustments for a clearer electoral model," he said.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: left;">So, Morena and its allied parties have given up as lost the electoral reform via constitutional changes. 'Plan B' will be developed during the winter of 2023 and presented in April [<i>in the next session of Congress</i>].</p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.reforma.com/dan-perdida-reforma-electoral-ven-plan-b-para-2023/ar2513596?utm_source=bcm_nl_noticias_reforma&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_noticias_reforma_20221201&utm_term=usr_suscriptor" target="_blank">Spanish original.</a></p>Reed Brundagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17821739958830865732noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4089285239690517306.post-37658910091836951472022-11-30T11:51:00.023-06:002022-11-30T12:09:40.769-06:00Mexico Electoral Reform | Mexico Should Stop Its President’s Latest Antidemocratic Maneuver<div><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/28/mexico-lopez-obrador-democracy-protests/" target="_blank">Washington Post</a>, November 28, 2022</div>By the Editorial Board<br /><br />The United States is not the only North American democracy at risk from a president’s belief that he is a victim of election rigging. In Mexico, left-wing populist Andrés Manuel López Obrador <a href="https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/RS22462.html#_Toc233685351">lost the 2006 presidential election</a> by less than one percentage point, cried fraud, and refused to concede even after election courts unanimously rejected his claims. He then mobilized supporters to blockade [<i>el Paseo de la Reforma</i>] a busy [<i>and politically symbolic</i>] thoroughfare in the nation’s capital. <blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><i><b>MV Note:</b> El Paseo de la Reforma is not just any urban "thoroughfare". It starts at the foot of Chapultepec Castle, once the home of Mexican presidents on Chapultepec Hill, and, mid-way, it is dominated by a tall, narrow pedestal supporting the golden Angel of Independence statue. That is the starting point of virtually every political protest march held in Mexico City. They always end in the Zócalo, the huge plaza in front of the National Palace, symbolic center of the Mexican government and home of the President. </i></div></blockquote><div><div><br /></div><div>Though Mr. López Obrador ultimately relented and presidents from other parties governed through 2018, he <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/mexican-president-who-says-election-fraud-cost-him-win-2006-refuses-congratulate-biden-1550387">remained obsessed</a> with 2006. Now that he is president — <a href="https://mexicovoices.blogspot.com/2018/07/mexico-presidential-election-triumphal.html" target="_blank">having won an undisputed election in 2018</a> — Mr. López Obrador is bent on remaking the electoral system he still blames for cheating him more than 16 years ago.<br /><br />The <a href="https://mexicovoices.blogspot.com/2022/11/mexico-electoral-reform-morena-persists.html" target="_blank">president’s proposals</a> threaten the system’s independence and with it <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/mexico/mexico-dying-democracy-amlo-toll-authoritarian-populism-denise-dresser?check_logged_in=1">Mexico’s hard-won transition</a> from authoritarianism to multiparty democracy. The crucial institution Mr. López Obrador seeks to transform — the National Electoral Institute — signed off on his 2018 win. He nevertheless portrays the panel, known by its Spanish-language initials, INE, as biased, elitist, and wasteful of taxpayer money...</div><div><br /></div><div>Public opinion polls show that substantial majorities of Mexicans approve of the INE’s work. <a href="https://www.venice.coe.int/webforms/documents/default.aspx?pdffile=CDL-AD(2022)031-e">A recent European Union fact-finding mission</a> concluded that Mexico’s existing system works and enjoys public trust — and that Mr. López Obrador’s plan “carries an inherent risk of undermining such trust.”<br /><br />An increasing number of Mexicans rightly suspect that Mr. López Obrador is trying to perpetuate his party’s [<i>Morena, the Movement for National Regeneration, founded by López Óbrador in 2014</i>] dominance even after his term ends in 2024, mimicking the authoritarian system that prevailed under the Institutional Revolutionary Party during the 20th century...</div><div><br /></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><b>MV Note:</b> In the election of 2018, in both chambers of Congress, Morena won supermajorities of two-thirds of the members needed to make changes to the Constitution. It also won a majority of the heads of sixteen boroughs in Mexico City, state governorships and state legislatures. It lost its supermajority in the lower Chamber of Deputies <a href="https://mexicovoices.blogspot.com/2021/06/mexico-government-morena-loses-absolute.html" target="_blank">in the mid-term 2021 elections</a>, but still holds a simple majority there.</i></div></div></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i>López Óbrador's proposal to change the INE and other electoral components involves constitutional changes. Lacking a supermajority in the Chamber of Deputies, he is unlikely to achieve those changes. So the congressional delegates of his party, Morena, have a "Plan B" , i.e., to pass so-called "secondary" legislation, i.e. legislation specifying particular changes in general laws, in order to achieve as much as possible of López Óbrador's plan.</i></p></blockquote><p><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/28/mexico-lopez-obrador-democracy-protests/" target="_blank">Read full editorial</a></p>Reed Brundagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17821739958830865732noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4089285239690517306.post-41693922584526763442022-11-30T10:32:00.000-06:002022-11-30T10:32:45.539-06:00Mexico Violence | Mexico Supreme Court Upholds Keeping Military Carrying Out Police Duties<p><a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/mexico-high-court-upholds-keeping-military-police-duties-94175642" target="_blank">ABC News</a>, November 30, 2022</p>Mexico’s Supreme Court has upheld a constitutional change that allows the military to continue in law enforcement duties until 2028. The court ruled against appeals that argued law enforcement should be left to civilian police forces. Critics warned President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is militarizing the country, and ignoring the separation of powers.<p><a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/mexico-high-court-upholds-keeping-military-police-duties-94175642" target="_blank">Read full article</a></p>Reed Brundagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17821739958830865732noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4089285239690517306.post-89843021286118951782022-11-28T15:18:00.012-06:002022-11-28T15:25:30.439-06:00President López Obrador Had 1,787 Vehicles at His Service to Carry Demonstrators to His March<p> <a href="https://www.reforma.com/mil-787-camiones-a-su-servicio/ar2511712?utm_source=bcm_nl_noticias_reforma&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_noticias_reforma_20221128&utm_term=usr_suscriptor" target="_blank">Reforma</a>, November 28, 2022</p><p>An exercise by Grupo REFORMA documented the use of 1,787 vehicles to transport supporters of President López Obrador [<i>aka AMLO</i>] to 25 points in Mexico City near the area of the counter-march led by the President yesterday.</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i><b>MV Note:</b> <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/mexicans-protest-presidents-electoral-reform-plan-2022-11-13/" target="_blank">Two weeks ago, a march was held by citizens to oppose "reforms"</a> <a href="https://mexicovoices.blogspot.com/2022/11/mexico-electoral-reform-morena-will-use.html" target="_blank">proposed by AMLO to the National Electoral Institute (INE)</a> which organizes and oversees Mexican elections, as well as to the electoral process:</i></p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><i>He would reduce the number of council members who oversee the INE and have them elected by popular vote (Morena has the support of a majority of voters).</i></li></ul><p></p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><i>Popular referendums would become legally binding if they received the support of 33% of registered voters. </i></li></ul><p></p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><i>Also, instead of individual candidates competing for votes, in each state, each registered party would present a list of its candidates for all offices up for election and voters would cast a single vote for one of the lists. </i></li></ul><p></p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><i>AMLO'S "counter march" was intended to demonstrate that his reform has more supporters than the opposition.</i></blockquote><p style="text-align: left;">The comparison, made street by street, recorded the license plate number, the origin, and the type of vehicle used by the organizers. The comparison showed that there were:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">One thousand 87 buses, 8 [<i>double</i>] Metrobúses [<i>of the Mexico City government</i>], 319 microbuses, 265 vans, 84 private cars, 20 combis [<i>a type of van</i>], and 4 taxis. </p></blockquote><p>The REFORMA team worked from dawn yesterday with numbered forms and obtained photographic records of the 1,787 vehicles, both their license plates and the type of vehicle. Only parked vehicles were examined.</p><p>About 40 collaborators participated in the exercise, including those who work in the field, photographers, videographers, designers, and information analysts. During the inspection of the vehicles, one REFORMA collaborator was attacked and beaten by bus operators on Sullivan Street, near Insurgentes. </p><p>Morena [<i>The Movement for National Regeneration</i>] party members thus mobilized thousands of supporters of President López Obrador... </p><p>Claudia Sheinbaum, Head of Government of Mexico City, reported that, according to a report from the Secretariat of Citizen Security [<i>police</i>] of the capital, about 1.2 million people attended the counter-march called by AMLO.</p><p>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFez1yLynNw&t=186s</p><p><a href="https://www.reforma.com/mil-787-camiones-a-su-servicio/ar2511712?utm_source=bcm_nl_noticias_reforma&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_noticias_reforma_20221128&utm_term=usr_suscriptor" target="_blank">Spanish original</a></p>Reed Brundagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17821739958830865732noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4089285239690517306.post-49246192532747337982022-11-27T12:55:00.003-06:002022-11-27T13:00:23.321-06:00Mexico Energy Policy | Spanish Energy Company to Close Its Gas Stations in Mexico Due to López Obrador Administration Energy Policies<p> <a href="https://www.reforma.com/cierran-gasolineras-totalenergies-por-politicas-de-la-4t/ar2511334?utm_source=bcm_nl_noticias_reforma&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_noticias_reforma_20221127&utm_term=usr_suscriptor" target="_blank">Reforma</a>, Mexico City, November 27, 2022</p><p>The energy policies of the so-called 4th Transformation [<i>President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's (aka AMLO's) name for his six-year-long administration</i>] have already scared away an international investor in the fuel sector.</p><p>The [<i>Spanish-originated, now worldwide</i>] firm, Total Energies Mexico, announced yesterday that it will leave the country as far as providing gasoline is concerned, due to the new federal regulations in the sector.</p><p>Its gas stations operate in 16 states of the country, mainly in the center and south, and together with the stations, they will close their Bonjour self-service stores.</p><p>Farid Benyahia, director of RED TotalEnergies Mexico, said in a statement that the closing date will be December 29. He said,</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">"The gasoline sector has been strongly affected by the new regulations of the current government. It was not possible to continue with the development of our investment in Mexico. (For this reason) the decision was made to stop the supply of fuel and, therefore, also the SHOP FOOD AND SERVICES area to which the Bonjour stores belong."</p></blockquote><p>Last year, the government's Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) temporarily and for no apparent reason closed various petroleum storage terminals through which fuels are imported, mainly gasoline and diesel. One of the closed terminals was in Tuxpan [<i>in the State of Veracruz, on the Gulf of Mexico</i>], through which gasoline is imported via ships from companies such as Total, Repsol [<i>Spanish-based multinational</i>], and Marathon [<i>U.S. company <span face=""Gotham A", "Gotham B", Gotham, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: #f4f4f4;">operating the nation’s largest refining system</span></i>]. All of these operate service stations in the country.</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i><b>MV Note:</b> Until 2014, all oil exploration, extraction, processing and sale was controlled by the state-owned company, PEMEX. In August of 2014, an <a href="https://mexicovoices.blogspot.com/2014/08/mexico-pena-nieto-promulgates-energy.html" target="_blank">energy reform act</a> was passed by Congress, opening the oil business to private domestic and foreign investors. PEMEX, while continuing to be state-owned, would be required to compete with these new investors for access to new oil supplies and for the sale of the resulting products, such as gasoline. </i></p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i>The current president, López Obrador, has sought to reverse this reform for being "neoliberal", i.e. establishing a </i><i>competitive, </i><i>free, globally-open market. He is seeking to return control of oil to PEMEX, thereby regaining state control of the industry in Mexico. Unable to gain a full reversal of the reform, which involved changes to the Constitution, the López Obrador administration is seeking other ways to regain control.</i></p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i>One is by instituting numerous bureaucratic regulations that private businesses must comply with in order to gain permits for their business to operate in Mexico.</i> C<i>alled "tramites" in Spanish, t</i><i>hese bureaucratic stumbling blocks are a notorious, centuries-old technique used in Mexico to stalemate a governmental procedure and thereby prevent persons or organizations from aquiring rights or powers to which they are supposedly entitled by the Constitution or subsidiary, "secondary" laws. </i></p></blockquote><p>The National Organization of Petroleum Distributors (Onexpo, [<i>an industry group</i>]), indicated that, as of this past August, the CRE had between 100 and 150 service station projects on hold because they were awaiting some permit or revision. So far this year, fewer than 200 permits have been granted, a figure well below the more than 600 that were granted before the start of the AMLO administration. [<i>In other words, tramites are well at work here.</i>] </p><p>According to Onexpo, each service station costs about 25 million pesos [<i>US $1.3 million</i>] to build. Multiplied by the 150 that are pending approval for construction and operation, the investment withheld [<i>from the Mexican economy</i>] amounts to about 3 billion 750 million pesos [<i>US $194 million</i>].</p><p><a href="https://www.reforma.com/cierran-gasolineras-totalenergies-por-politicas-de-la-4t/ar2511334?utm_source=bcm_nl_noticias_reforma&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_noticias_reforma_20221127&utm_term=usr_suscriptor" target="_blank">Spanish original</a></p>Reed Brundagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17821739958830865732noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4089285239690517306.post-76489567832213899662022-11-26T19:47:00.002-06:002022-11-26T19:47:58.763-06:00Mexico Rule of Law | Mexico's President Orders the Secretary of Public Security to Disobey the Mandate of Judges to Release Prisoners Held Without an Indictment<p> <a href="https://www.reforma.com/ordenan-desobedecer-el-mandato-de-jueces/ar2510858?utm_source=bcm_nl_noticias_reforma&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_noticias_reforma_20221126&utm_term=usr_suscriptor" target="_blank">Reforma</a>, Mexico City, November 26, 2022</p><p>Yesterday, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador ordered the Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection (SSPC) to disobey the mandates of the judges when the intent is to release criminals as a "holiday".</p><p>In his daily morning press conference, the President instructed the officials to refuse to abide by the decisions of the judges and asked them to respond in writing to the release orders, arguing that they have "other information" about the charges or processes against the defendants and thus prevent them from leaving prison.</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">"I have already told them in the Ministry of Public Security that, if [<i>the person is charged with</i>] clearly an act of corruption, that they hold them, that they send a letter to the judge, saying: I can't [<i>release them</i>], because I have other information, and that they continue to hold them!" !" he blurted out.</p></blockquote><p>However, legal specialists are of the opinion that AMLO's call is, in itself, criminal conduct that undermines the autonomy of the Judiciary. Jorge Lara, former Legal Deputy Attorney of the extinct PGR, said,</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">"What the President expressed places him in the position of possible commission of various types of crimes against the administration of justice, as contemplated in article 225 of the Federal Penal Code." </p></blockquote><p>He also explained that officials who heed the presidential call risk being prosecuted and removed from office.</p><p>Estefanía Medina, who was the director for the implementation of the Accusatory Penal System in the General Inspectorate of the PGR, pointed out that the defense of a crime is a legal category that would be applicable to the President's order. She also described his statement as self-contradictory.</p><p>The presidential directive was announced in response to the Supreme Court's annulment of the 2019 reform of criminal law which imposed mandatory preventive detention for people accused of certain tax crimes, including the issuance of tax receipts for non-existent activities... </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i><b>MV Note:</b> Preventative detention is the imprisonment of a person when it is suspected they may have committed a crime but police and prosecutors do not have sufficient evidence to merit an indictment. International law considers it a violation of civil liberties and the Mexican Supreme Court has so ruled.</i></p></blockquote><p>For their part, deputies from the opposition parties charged that the instruction violates the rule of law, human rights, the Constitution, the Judiciary and the separation of powers.</p><p><a href="https://www.reforma.com/ordenan-desobedecer-el-mandato-de-jueces/ar2510858?utm_source=bcm_nl_noticias_reforma&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_noticias_reforma_20221126&utm_term=usr_suscriptor" target="_blank">Spanish original</a></p>Reed Brundagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17821739958830865732noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4089285239690517306.post-65686810086852245602022-11-26T13:44:00.002-06:002022-11-26T14:25:03.633-06:00Mexico Electoral Reform | Morena Will Use Same Strategy of Passing Secondary (Implementing) Legislation It Has Used to Pass Other Reforms, Thus Excluding Any Opposition<p><a href="https://www.reforma.com/perfilan-con-electoral-ruta-de-la-energetica/ar2510421?utm_source=bcm_nl_politica_reforma&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_politica_reforma_20221126&utm_term=usr_suscriptor" target="_blank">Reforma</a>, Mexico City, November 26, 2022</p><p>By Claudia Salazar and Martha Martinez</p><p>Regarding the proposal for political-electoral reform, the Morena [<i>Movement for National Regeneration</i>] faction in the Chamber of Deputies [<i>lower house of Congress</i>] plans to repeat the formula [<i>it has used for other regressive reforms</i>] of imposing the vision of the president without room for negotiations. </p><p>The strategy is to present legislation that is a copy of the initiative presented by the president [<i>Andrés Manuel López Obrador, aka AMLO</i>], without accepting any negotiation with the opposition parties for modifying the bills, and then blaming the Opposition for not attending to the demands of citizen's.</p><p>As happened with the reform of the provision of electrical power [<i>returning priority control to the state-owned Federal Electrical Commission, CFE, after a reform by the previous administration of Enrique Peña Nieto opened the electricity market to private competition</i>], with the electoral initiative, Morena, which holds a simple majority in the chamber, is ignoring the proposals and remarks made in the Open Parliament that was convened to analyze the issue and on which 20 million pesos [<i>US$1 million</i>] were spent.</p><p>As happened with the energy reform, the President's electoral proposal [<i>which proposes changes to the Constitution</i>] is headed for defeat next week because it will not reach the two-thirds of the deputies' votes required for constitutional changes.</p><p>In a joint session of the Electoral and Political Reform, Constitutional Issues, and Government committees, Morena presented draft legislation that incorporated the most controversial aspects of the presidential initiative.</p><p>The reform abolishes the National Electoral Institute (INE) and proposes a new body called the National Institute for Elections and Consultations [<i>Referendums</i>] (INEC). It also proposes changing the method of electing councilors for the INEC governing commission and judges of the electoral courts [<i>courts that only hear complaints of violations of election law</i>]. </p><p>Furthermore, it modifies the system for electing congressional deputies and senators. Instead of individual candidates competing for votes, lists of candidates proposed by each party in each state will be presented for voting. [<i>Citizens will vote for one party's entire list.</i>] Debate on the legislation will resume next week.</p><p>Two weeks ago [<i>Sunday, November 13</i>], <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/mexicans-protest-presidents-electoral-reform-plan-2022-11-13/" target="_blank">tens of thousands of citizens</a> all over the country marched in different locations with the motto, "INE is not to be touched", rejecting the disappearance of the INE and demanding that the deputies vote against the legislation.</p><p>For the coordinator of Morena [<i>deputies</i> <i>in the Chamber of Deputies</i>], Ignacio Mier, the citizens' protest was not significant [<i>likewise, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/mexicos-president-dismisses-mass-protest-against-electoral-overhaul-2022-11-14/" target="_blank">President López Obrador dismissed it as insignificant</a></i>]. He said that it was led by "the elite" and the mobilization was "minimal", but the leaders want to give the perception that it was "gigantic", which it was not.</p><p>For this reason, he said, the Electoral and Political Reform Committee distributed draft legislation that followed the president's initiative. From Morena's point of view, it will reduce the cost of the electoral institution and electoral councilors will be impartial...</p><p>...During the joint session of the committees, the deputy coordinator of the PRD [<i>leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution</i>], Elizabeth Pérez, pointed out that, despite the fact that a Special Working Group was created by consensus to analyze 107 proposals on electoral matters, it never met. The PRD member lamented that the draft legislation released yesterday, which will be voted on by the full Chamber of Deputies on Monday, is the same one sent by the president.</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">"Yes, the INE is abolished and it is changed to something called INEC; government propaganda is replaced by information campaigns, and radio and television time available to the INEC is reduced to 12 minutes a day in non-electoral time periods," she warned.</p></blockquote><p>PAN [<i>conservative National Action Party</i>] deputy Humberto Aguilar said that it is foreseeable that Morena and its allies intend to impose a "predawn raid" by presenting reforms to secondary [<i>implementing</i>] laws, their so-called "plan B", which will not need the votes of the opposition parties to approve it quickly.</p><p>He recommended that Morena not attempt the disappearance of the INE, the OPLES [<i>state-level electoral organizations</i>], and the state electoral tribunals via secondary laws, nor reduce public financing for regular activities of political parties, nor touch the composition of state legislatures or city councils [<i>the proposed legislation reduces the funding and size the latter</i>]. If they do, he threatened, the opposition will resort to the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN).</p><p>The deputy of Morena, Hamlet Almaguer, said that the central points of the constitutional initiative can be transferred to secondary laws and there the votes of their legislators and allied factions are sufficient for passage [<i>only a simple majority is required</i>].</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">"With Plan B, we are going to insist on using secondary legislation. The transformation of the country is gradual and we are going to persist until a less expensive democracy is achieved," said the legislator.</p></blockquote><p><a href="https://www.reforma.com/perfilan-con-electoral-ruta-de-la-energetica/ar2510421?utm_source=bcm_nl_politica_reforma&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_politica_reforma_20221126&utm_term=usr_suscriptor" target="_blank">Spanish original</a> </p>Reed Brundagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17821739958830865732noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4089285239690517306.post-54603293167916323372022-11-24T13:09:00.008-06:002022-11-24T13:10:44.998-06:00Mexico Electoral Reform | Morena Persists on Pushing Law Through Congress Attacking the National Electoral Institute's Power<a href="https://www.reforma.com/se-aferra-morena-en-golpear-al-ine-con-reforma/ar2509363?utm_source=bcm_nl_noticias_reforma&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_noticias_reforma_20221124&utm_term=usr_suscriptor" target="_blank">Reforma, Nov. 24, 2022</a><br /><br />By Martha Martínez y Claudia Salazar<p>The pro-government majority in the Chamber of Deputies ignored <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/mexicans-protest-presidents-electoral-reform-plan-2022-11-13/" target="_blank">the demonstrations</a> that defended the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instituto_Nacional_Electoral" target="_blank">National Electoral Institute</a> (INE) in the streets [<i>on November 13,</i> <i>a week ago this past Sunday</i>] and public opinion by presenting, yesterday, a reform proposal that insists on replacing the INE with another body that would be elected by popular vote.</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i>MV Note: The current INE's governing council members are appointed by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congress_of_the_Union" target="_blank">Congress</a>, with each party having a share of members equal to their propotion of members of Congress. The Institute is then "autonomous", i.e., free of any responsibility to be accountable to any other branch of the federal government. This is in order to prevent any influence on its actions or decisons regarding its operation of the national system of voting.</i> </p></blockquote><p>The initiative is based on the proposal made by the President (<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9s_Manuel_L%C3%B3pez_Obrador" target="_blank">Andrés Manuel López Obrador</a>, aka AMLO</i>) which seeks the centralization of the election preparation, execution, and oversight by proposing to eliminate the state electoral institutes and centralizing the entire process in an electoral agency in Mexico City.</p><p>Another key point is to create an institute for elections and consultations [<i>public referendums</i>] (INEC) with its members elected by popular vote and to reduce the electoral council from 11 to 7 members. </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i><b>MV Note: </b>Critics of the proposal, primarily progressive voices in the press and community, hold that the popular election of the council members will assure that the party receiving the majority of votes will control the council and its decisions. Since the 2018 presidental elections, Morena (the Movement for National Regeneration founded by AMLO in 2014) has held the majority in both chambers (houses) of Congress. Thus, the proposal is seen as self-serving to Morena.</i></p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i>The opposition also rejects AMLO's proposed use of public "consultations" (referendums) t</i><i>o decide major political issues. H</i><i>e has introduced them to the political process without any constitutional amendment to give them a legal foundation. He presents this as being "popular democracy" i.e. democracy of "el pueblo", the common people (his base of those primarily of low income or the abject poor, a majority of Mexico's population). </i><i>His critics see these referendums as a way to go around the constitional structure of a representative Congress and the opposition political parties that are part of it and which are now joined in an alliance against him. </i></p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i>AMLO's proposal also sets a percentage of only 33% of registered voters needing to be in favor </i><i>of such referendums </i><i>to make their results legally binding. That would give major decision-making power to a relatively small number of registered voters [in Mexico, all adults are automatically registered to vote] Although they currently have no legal foundation, he has already held such "consultations", which have had low voter turnout, to decide such issues as the abandonment of the construction of a new Mexico International Airport. </i><i>The massive demonstration against the proposal, held a week-ago Sunday, was led by these critics.</i></p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i>As this article point</i>s out, <i>Morena (led vociferously by the president) has <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/mexicos-president-dismisses-mass-protest-against-electoral-overhaul-2022-11-14/" target="_blank">dismissed the significance of the level of popular opposition to the proposal</a>. However, the actions of the opposition have affected AMLO's strategy to change the council via a constitutional amendment, which requires a two-thirds majority vote. Morena lost this level of representation in the Chamber of Deputies in the mid-term 2021 elections, and a coalition of opposition parties is opposing the reform. Their number of deputies is sufficient to prevent the legislation from gaining a two-thirds majority. </i></p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i>So, AMLO is now proposing that if his original proposal of a constitutional amendement does not obtain the two-thirds majority of votes required, he will propose legislation that will only change specifics in the "secondary" legislation that was passed to implement the original constitutional amendment establishing the INE. Such changes only require a simple majority, which Morena continues to hold in both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. </i></p></blockquote><p>Furthermore, according to the new proposal, the members of Congress will be cut from 500 to 300 deputies and from 128 to 96 senators. Also, deputies and senators will be elected by multi-member lists created by each competing political party in each state, thus eliminating direct election of--and direct representation by--individual members. </p><p>Without taking into account proposals from other parties, Morena and his allies presented the draft opinion with the full texts of the Presidential initiative. The project was presented during a meeting of the United Committees for Electoral-Political Reform, Constitutional Issues, and Governance amid protests from the opposition.</p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alejandro_Moreno_C%C3%A1rdenas" target="_blank">Alejandro Moreno</a>, president of the Governance Committee and whose party, Morena, could provide a simple majority for the legislation, reiterated that his party will not support any reform that harms the INE, the Electoral Tribunal (<i>special courts that only hear complaints of violations of the electoral laws</i>, or any institution that is part of the country's electoral system.</p><p>Moreno, who is also president of the PRI [<i>Party of the Institutional Revolution, which held hegemonic power in Mexico from the 1930s to the 1990s</i>] stated that the cost for his party for not supporting the President's reform will be less than what it would be if they voted in favor of it.</p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignacio_Mier_Velazco" target="_blank">Ignacio Mier</a>, coordinator of Morena [<i>in the Chamber of Deputies</i>], warned that if the opposition votes against the initiative, they will be "shooting themselves in the foot." For Mier, everything changed after the march on November 13, where hundreds of thousands of citizens demanded not to touch the INE. After the march, Mier admitted, the opposition regrouped, "seeing party interests," and thereby eliminated the possibility of negotiating a joint electoral reform. Mier assured that there could still be an agreement with opposition legislators. However, he reiterated that his caucus is already working on an electoral reform for secondary laws.</p><p>Salvador Caro, from Citizen's Movement [<i>a small opposition party that isn't part of the coalition opposition</i>] said,</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">"This proposal weakens the INE, distorts the electoral system, centralizes the electoral processes, and weakens political representation; that is what they are promoting."</p></blockquote><p>The coordinator of deputies of the PAN [<i>National Action Party, conservative and part of the opposition coalition</i>] Jorge Romero, described Morena's proposal as toxic and regressive and questioned the veracity of Mier's proposal to revise the secondary legislation.</p><p>The United Committees will meet on Monday, November 28 to rule on the initiative. It is expected to pass and then will go to the full Chamber of Deputies the following day for a vote.</p><p>According to Morena's deputy coordinator, <a href="https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonel_Godoy_Rangel" target="_blank">Leonel Godoy</a>, in the event that it does not reach a simple majority, they will have proposals for modifications to the secondary laws ready that same week.</p><p><a href="https://www.reforma.com/se-aferra-morena-en-golpear-al-ine-con-reforma/ar2509363?utm_source=bcm_nl_noticias_reforma&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_noticias_reforma_20221124&utm_term=usr_suscriptor" target="_blank">Spanish original</a></p>Reed Brundagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17821739958830865732noreply@blogger.com