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| César Camacho, President of PRI, Luis Videgaray, Secretary of the Treasury, Miguel Osorio Chong, Secretary of Government Relations; Gustavo Madero, President of PAN; Jesús Zambrano, President of PRD. Photo: Miguel Dimayuga |
Proceso: Arturo Rodríguez García
The complaints by the PAN and the PRD regarding the use of public resources for electoral purposes in the state of Veracruz has led President Enrique Peña Nieto to suspend all public activities related to the Pact for Mexico, which is his first crisis.
Around 2:00 AM today, the President of the Republic announced that he was canceling presentation of the Financial Reform Initiative, which was scheduled for this morning, in order
"to open a space for dialogue in order to overcome the misunderstandings and to enhance the Pact (for Mexico)."The decision was taken after PAN President Gustavo Madero Muñoz announced yesterday that he would not participate in public activities of the Pact for Mexico, due to the posture assumed by the President in backing the Secretary of Social Development [SEDESOL], Rosario Robles and the Governor of Veracruz, Javier Duarte.
On Wednesday, April 17, the PAN released 13 hours of audio and video recordings in which it showed a network of SEDESOL officials and the government of Veracruz agreeing on actions to use social programs for electoral purposes [MV Note: There is an election of the governor this coming July].
On Friday, April 19, Peña Nieto backed Robles in a speech, telling her not to worry about "criticism" and disqualifying the opposition.
Gustavo Madero said yesterday that the President's response seemed to give consent to the illegal use of public resources, so on Saturday he informed the Secretary of Government Relations, Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong, of his withdrawal from public activities of the Pact for Mexico.
His position was compounded by the leader of the PRD, JesÚs Zambrano, who also announced he would not participate in today's event. Madero and Zambrano, respectively, stated that their withdrawal only included participating in public activities of the Pact.
The statement issued by the President refers to the position of these party leaders who "have expressed differences that are of public knowledge," and says that the government will spare no effort to continue the Pact.
"The reform agenda contained in the Pact is the overriding objective that has managed to summon the political forces to work together," says the statement in calling for dialogue.The Pact for Mexico is an agreement reached at the beginning of the government of Peña Nieto, in which the federal government and the PRI, PAN and PRD, the political parties with the largest electoral representation, agreed on a common agenda of issues. Since the beginning of the administration, it has enabled education reform, and telecommunications reform has been voted on in Congress. The financial reform bill was third in line in the purported consolidated agreement on the agenda.
According to the official site of the Pact for Mexico, among the nine operating rules established since October, it was expected that the coming July state electoral competitions would not deter the work of the Pact's Governing Council, composed of government and party representatives, which strictly has not occurred, as the PAN is only withdrawing from public events. Spanish original