La Jornada: Jorge Carrillo Olea*
Translated by: Alexander Graham
Everything that has a beginning has an end; an unavoidable law of life that brings to mind the Latin maxim sic transit gloria mundi, literally meaning: thus passes the glory of the world. It was often used to remind those in power, emperors and popes alike, of the fleeting nature of worldly triumphs and for Peña, it would seem that everything is coming to an end.
Mexico in Peace, an important part of his National Plan for Development, serves to be remembered. At the beginning of 2013, the then newly appointed President explained that this initiative would ensure progress in democracy, governance and public security. Something recent events would bring into question.
Democracy does not exist if members of the press are killed or kidnapped. This supposed governance is nonexistent if there are no shared goals between the government and its people, it is nonexistent if agreements on major national issues are replaced by autocracy. Democracy does not exist when violence is used to impose rules, and it does not exist if the people are restricted in judging the actions of those who govern, as is being attempted by making discretional an imposition of the suspension of constitutional guarantees (Article 29 of the Mexican Constitution).
In terms of public security, his plan simply has no defense: it is impossible to claim public security when faced with the criminal violence documented on a daily basis: enforced disappearances by the police, aggravated kidnappings, homicides, extortion. The government shields itself behind apathetic explanations and statistics that do not reflect the human suffering taking place.
The lack of meaningful progress in the President’s Mexico in Peace initiative can be explained by his capricious manner of governance, his disregard for institutions, his faith in improvisation and his stubbornness in defending failed decisions. This is what has impeded any reasonable progress in these three particularly delicate areas. It is to the reader to decide whether democracy, governance and security is today any better than it was a few years ago.
In other branches of his plan: Inclusive Mexico, Mexico with High-Quality Education, Prosperous Mexico, and Mexico with Global Responsibilities, the results haven't been as they were predicted to be either. For three years presidential addresses, to the point of annoyance, were based on the appraisal of the Pact for Mexico [package of reforms in education, labor law, finance, taxation, telecommunications and energy, (oil and electricity].
At the same time they are sidestepping the commitments they made in their own plan: that of social inclusion in every government action which aimed at guaranteeing the people a chance to exercise their constitutional rights and to reduce the inequality gaps. On the part of the people, there are no postitive feelings regarding that.
Nobody would currently recognize the Prosperous Mexico that was promised as part of the National Plan. Few could declare themselves happier today than they were, back in those promising days, unless of course, back then you were well-off. Indeed, today the richer are even better off than those at the time the promise was made. With an increasing number of people living below the poverty line (53.2% of the population according to the Council for the Evaluation of Social Policy (CEPAL)) to talk of prosperity would be laughable.
In the eyes of the international community the Mexico of today is not a prouder or more satisfied country than it was at the start of Peña’s term. Let’s see: the White House [home of president's wife built and financed by Higa Group, government contractor] corruption scandals and others; Ayotzinapa, the bitter nature of the Tlatlaya case [soldiers' execution of surrendered criminals]; the farcical escapes of El Chapo, the conundrum of our ambassador in DC, the threats made to Human Rights NGO’s. Designating their preferred enemy as the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI), part of the Interamerican Commission Human Rights, who the government themself invited to come.
In front of foreigners, we are stained by incidents like the hacker Sepúlveda [apparent hacker hired by Peña Nieto presidential campaign to spy on and disrupt opponents' campaigns], the Moreira and Fidel Herrera [corruption] cases; our reticence position on the renewed relations between Cuba and the US; the mess that is our electoral bodies, whether due to government authorities or political parties. All this, coupled with the lenience of our own Foreign Relations Secretary, only deteriorates an already hurtful image. This apathetic stance towards foreign policy, apart from constitutional principles, could not yield a better result.
Other than this evaluation and the pre-electoral anticipation in the run-up to 2018 [presidential and congressional elections], more proof of the disorder taking place is that there appears to be a sense that things are drawing to a close. For a thousand reasons, everything is being anticipated. What luck Peña and we Mexicans will have if the following 20 months are not the fall into the abyss that López Obrador [leader of leftist party Morena], and with good reason, predicted for us.
The party is over, neither the circus nor the dwarves got any better. We are submerged in an environment of insipid mediocrity. For the president, it is only time to keep his head above water, to pretend, to act, to negotiate guarantees for his future and to kick the brownnosers. Only the firing of the twenty-one gun salute remains. And so we will have to spend these coming months. It was the conventional lesson for most Presidents that political and social serenity was the respected formula up until the last year of term. Only in this case, the last year of the term has already arrived. Discipline has been watered down, the reins loosened. Spanish Original
*Jorge Carrillo Olea, retired General (Army) and Mexican politician (PRI), served as Governor of Morelos from 1994 to 1998.