Mexico has entered a new phase of government: the State of Exception, or what is the same, the use of mechanisms employed by totalitarian regimes to control the population.
Enrique Peña Nieto has just initiated his fascist phase in the purest Mexican style by regulating Article 29 of the Constitution for suspension of guarantees [human rights] and establishment of a State of Exception by his own order.
Like any petty dictator, Peña Nieto wants to make history by manipulating the Constitution at will under the pretext that his new authoritarian measure is in place in the event of Mexico suffers an
"invasion, serious disturbance of public peace, or severe danger or conflict."
Let's consider the possible "invasions" that Mexico might suffer. Starting with the United States. Would the northern neighbor be interested in invading our country? Perhaps there is interest in our oil, but I don't believe that it is interested in Mexican citizens; therefore, it is discarded.
Delirium often confuses men sickened by power. The question is relevant: Has Peña Nieto entered into a state of delirium? Everything seems to indicate that the resident lord of Los Pinos [The Pines, Presidential Residence and Offices] feels footsteps on the roof and believes that a foreign power will invade Mexico.
Delirium often confuses men sickened by power. The question is relevant: Has Peña Nieto entered into a state of delirium? Everything seems to indicate that the resident lord of Los Pinos [The Pines, Presidential Residence and Offices] feels footsteps on the roof and believes that a foreign power will invade Mexico.
Perhaps the real story behind the request to suspend guarantees that Peña Nieto sent to the Congress for its ipso facto approval isn't being told. Perhaps what the tenant of Los Pinos really wants is to control social protest, to pacify the rage of the Mexicans who once set fire to the door of the National Palace for the case of the forced disappearance of 43 Ayotzinapa students.
Peña Nieto is afraid. And he believes that it's better to legislate the state of exception, suspension of individual guarantees and the subsequent establishment of a dictatorial regime. Will he be capable of taking this very decisive step in his political career at the point it is being ended when he leaves Los Pinos?
Just in case, the amendment to Article 29 will determine that if there is a "serious disturbance of the public peace" or other acts that might put society ''in serious danger or conflict," he will have the authority to implement a coup d'etat in order to control the rabble, the riffraff.
Peña Nieto's approval ratings are so low that no one in the Executive Branch dares measure them. He has hit rock bottom. Criticism rains down on him. Mexicans are fed up not just with so much [the paltry] increase in the minimum wage as with having to survive on it. They are fed up with the constant human rights violations—and with the unemployment, poverty, hunger; and the official corruption, plundering by politicians, the pickpocket governors, the corruption of the system.
Perhaps that's why Peña Nieto persuaded all the political forces to approve such an attack on the freedom of Mexicans. And so the committee endorsed, without changes and with the votes of PRI [Party of the Revolutionary Institution], PAN [National Action Party], PRD [Party of the Democratic Revolution], PVEM [Green Party], PES [Social Encounter] and Panal [New Alliance Party], the legislation that the Executive Branch just sent in December to obtain the Senate's vote.
The only ones he could not convince were the Morena [Movement for National Regeneration] Deputies Rocío García and Sandra Luz Nahle Falcón, who spoke courageously against the presidential initiative and voted against it.
Those blatantly displaying their true colors were the legislators from the Citizens Movement—Solomón Tamez, who in the end abstained; and this bloc's cowardly coordinator, Clemente Castañeda, who didn't show up to vote.
After this, Mexicans should know that government repression is now legal. If the government represses protests, now it will do so under the rule of law, as in the famous dictatorships of the Southern Cone [Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay].
Perhaps that's why Peña Nieto preferred not to define what is meant by "serious disturbance of public peace." Nor does he define the [nature of a] "conflict'' justifying repression.
This bill grants the Executive wide leeway for maneuvering. Finally, no one can challenge his authority.
What's most serious is that it seems everyone agrees. Allegedly, even the United Nations. According to the committee president, Mercedes del Carmen Guillén Vicente (PRI), they have the "endorsement" of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Mexico.
The other deafening silence is the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), which as usual has not said a peep. CNDH Ombudsman Luis Raúl González Pérez is very busy and cannot contradict his employer, who pays the extraordinary salary González Pérez earns.
Finally, Peña Nieto decided to legalize the state of exception that we are living with, with the Army and Marines in the streets. We Mexicans are suffering under a criminal state, whose authorities—who are supposed to protect us—engage in torturing, disappearing and executing citizens. Institutionalizing it via the Constitution is only one step toward fascism.
The Regulations [implementing regulations] for Article 29 of the Constitution only consolidate the massive violation of human rights that we are suffering. The system is overwhelmed. The system does not work. The government system, the Mexican political system, is rotten.
With this law, Mexico stops being a democracy. Perhaps, it never was. But now it is clear that Mexico is a partyocracy ruled by corruption of the political parties, institutions, officials, politicians, governors, mayors, deputies, senators ...
Clearly, the unanimous agreement was because these gentlemen intend to continue committing all kinds of wrongdoings enjoying carte blanche, now under the name of regulations defining Article 29. It's no wonder that Mexico ranks 58 out of 59 countries for the greatest impunity.
Who will dare bring a constitutional challenge? No one. We citizens are not really represented in any of the institutions that make up the government, not even in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate where supposedly they represent us. But, instead, they have been turned into simple sheep at the orders of the Executive Branch. Where are the remains of separation of powers?
All in all, it behooves us to get prepared. A country without human rights, without freedom, without rule of law, is headed for the abyss ... What's next? Spanish original
Sanjuana Martínez is an investigative journalist focusing on issues of social justice, human rights and gender equality @SanjuanaMtz
All in all, it behooves us to get prepared. A country without human rights, without freedom, without rule of law, is headed for the abyss ... What's next? Spanish original
Sanjuana Martínez is an investigative journalist focusing on issues of social justice, human rights and gender equality @SanjuanaMtz