Translated By: Amanda Coe
Human tragedies multiply in a country corroded by corruption. Every day we accumulate murders, disappeared persons, feminicide, murdered journalists and a widespread violence that is threatening to make 2017 the most violent year of Enrique Peña Nieto's administration.
In this terrible context of death, corruption scandals are adding up in the different spheres of government, gradually showing the degree of infiltration of criminality in the country; so called drug trafficking, huachicoleros [gasoline robbers] or corruption.
Today, we know more about governments’ actions and omissions that arise from the very weakening of the State, human rights violations, and the creation of a halo of impunity from which a series of illicit actions are carried out, ranging from simple robbery to the creation of organized crime networks that threaten the lives of all Mexicans every day.
Corruption scandals in our political class and the growing human rights crisis that we are experiencing began to push society to take action to send clear messages to governments about how we have increasingly and together become fed up: the mass marches in response to Ayotzinapa [attacks on and disappearance of 43 normal school students in Sept. 2014], protests of military abuses, murders of journalists, and many others.
The year 2016 was marked by a movement to combat corruption by gathering civil organizations, journalists, academia, business owners, and the general public in order to demand that a comprehensive system to prevent, prosecute, and punish corruption in the country be created. This is how the National Anti-Corruption System was born, which today is tottering due to the Executive Branch’s and the Senate’s refusal to create open and participatory designation processes.
The process for designating the anti-corruption prosecutor has been delayed because of political struggles that don't eliminate the possibility of said individual being politically controlled. The Mexican president has not kept his committment to civil society--undertaken in the Alliance for the Open Government--to establish an open process, with citizen participation, for designating judges [special judges for cases of corruption]. These obstacles join a long list of reform implementation processes dedicated to destroying democratic institutions and ensuring political alliances.
These processes present a complicated scene at the state level, where in several cases there seems to be prior agreements about the composition of the local Citizen Participation Committees which establish a system of quotas [divvying up of positions among the political parties], not to mention in the appointment of other key figures such as anti-corruption prosecutors and heads of auditing institutions.
Moreover, the public agenda on transparency has yielded to that of corruption without having been consolidated. States continue to show severe defects in access to information, whether due to errors in electronic systems, lack of training of officials who continue to view requests for information as a citizen’s whim, or to weakened agencies responsible for transparency due to a lack of funds, political control of their directors, or demonstrated incompetence.
There is still a need for a study of the quality of information that offices provide in response to requests to access information or that they proactively publish. From a citizen's perspective, information must support action, whether to gain access to social programs, demand rights be guaranteed, or launch citizen participation processes.
Today we live in a country with good quality laws, but with serious problems in their implementation, or even with attempts to undermine the laws’ possible successes. Creating national systems and advanced laws will remain dead letters if we do not continue to address those spaces where private or political interests continue to prevail over public interest.
So what we do? Instead of complaining about the dark scene before us, it is an opportunity to transform our anger into concrete collective actions that contribute to reforming this country.
A few Ideas:
1. Intervene in designation processes:
It is in these processes that those who will be the heads of institutions responsible for guaranteeing rights or serving as a counterbalance to power are determined. You can go to the designaciones.org web page or tweet to @designaciones to find out about the processes that we are monitoring and to be involved in demanding transparent processes.
2. Demand an "open parliament" [state congressional process] in creating state anti-corruption systems:
States are in the process of creating local anti-corruption systems. We provide information about demanding a process where their decisions are transparent, they are accountable and they include citizen participation.
3. Join the open advertising challenge:
The president and governors have a tendency to spend excessively on promoting their image or using public funds to punish and reward media, depending on the type of information they publish [federal and state governments have huge media budgets for "official publicity".]. That is why we launched the #OpenAdvertising challenge to demand that rationality be applied to this excessive spending and to lay the groundwork for the democratization of the media [eliminating government support and influence].
We will not solve the problems of this country in a snap, nor will we do it in a couple of years; this is a long journey that requires that everyone be involved. It is imperative for the public to get involved, join forces and start generating proposals for change. Spanish Original
*Renata Terrazas studied Political Science and Public Administration in the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences of the UNAM. She also studied at the University of California, Berkeley and at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. She joined the Fundar Center for Research and Analysis in 2008. Since 2013 she has coordinated its Index of the Right to Access Information in Mexico (IDAIM), which measures the quality of transparency laws in Mexico (available at www.idaim.org.mx). Her agenda focuses, above all, on transparency and accountability in the states and municipalities of the country.
Human tragedies multiply in a country corroded by corruption. Every day we accumulate murders, disappeared persons, feminicide, murdered journalists and a widespread violence that is threatening to make 2017 the most violent year of Enrique Peña Nieto's administration.
In this terrible context of death, corruption scandals are adding up in the different spheres of government, gradually showing the degree of infiltration of criminality in the country; so called drug trafficking, huachicoleros [gasoline robbers] or corruption.
Today, we know more about governments’ actions and omissions that arise from the very weakening of the State, human rights violations, and the creation of a halo of impunity from which a series of illicit actions are carried out, ranging from simple robbery to the creation of organized crime networks that threaten the lives of all Mexicans every day.
Corruption scandals in our political class and the growing human rights crisis that we are experiencing began to push society to take action to send clear messages to governments about how we have increasingly and together become fed up: the mass marches in response to Ayotzinapa [attacks on and disappearance of 43 normal school students in Sept. 2014], protests of military abuses, murders of journalists, and many others.
The year 2016 was marked by a movement to combat corruption by gathering civil organizations, journalists, academia, business owners, and the general public in order to demand that a comprehensive system to prevent, prosecute, and punish corruption in the country be created. This is how the National Anti-Corruption System was born, which today is tottering due to the Executive Branch’s and the Senate’s refusal to create open and participatory designation processes.
The process for designating the anti-corruption prosecutor has been delayed because of political struggles that don't eliminate the possibility of said individual being politically controlled. The Mexican president has not kept his committment to civil society--undertaken in the Alliance for the Open Government--to establish an open process, with citizen participation, for designating judges [special judges for cases of corruption]. These obstacles join a long list of reform implementation processes dedicated to destroying democratic institutions and ensuring political alliances.
These processes present a complicated scene at the state level, where in several cases there seems to be prior agreements about the composition of the local Citizen Participation Committees which establish a system of quotas [divvying up of positions among the political parties], not to mention in the appointment of other key figures such as anti-corruption prosecutors and heads of auditing institutions.
Moreover, the public agenda on transparency has yielded to that of corruption without having been consolidated. States continue to show severe defects in access to information, whether due to errors in electronic systems, lack of training of officials who continue to view requests for information as a citizen’s whim, or to weakened agencies responsible for transparency due to a lack of funds, political control of their directors, or demonstrated incompetence.
There is still a need for a study of the quality of information that offices provide in response to requests to access information or that they proactively publish. From a citizen's perspective, information must support action, whether to gain access to social programs, demand rights be guaranteed, or launch citizen participation processes.
Today we live in a country with good quality laws, but with serious problems in their implementation, or even with attempts to undermine the laws’ possible successes. Creating national systems and advanced laws will remain dead letters if we do not continue to address those spaces where private or political interests continue to prevail over public interest.
So what we do? Instead of complaining about the dark scene before us, it is an opportunity to transform our anger into concrete collective actions that contribute to reforming this country.
A few Ideas:
1. Intervene in designation processes:
It is in these processes that those who will be the heads of institutions responsible for guaranteeing rights or serving as a counterbalance to power are determined. You can go to the designaciones.org web page or tweet to @designaciones to find out about the processes that we are monitoring and to be involved in demanding transparent processes.
2. Demand an "open parliament" [state congressional process] in creating state anti-corruption systems:
States are in the process of creating local anti-corruption systems. We provide information about demanding a process where their decisions are transparent, they are accountable and they include citizen participation.
3. Join the open advertising challenge:
The president and governors have a tendency to spend excessively on promoting their image or using public funds to punish and reward media, depending on the type of information they publish [federal and state governments have huge media budgets for "official publicity".]. That is why we launched the #OpenAdvertising challenge to demand that rationality be applied to this excessive spending and to lay the groundwork for the democratization of the media [eliminating government support and influence].
We will not solve the problems of this country in a snap, nor will we do it in a couple of years; this is a long journey that requires that everyone be involved. It is imperative for the public to get involved, join forces and start generating proposals for change. Spanish Original
*Renata Terrazas studied Political Science and Public Administration in the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences of the UNAM. She also studied at the University of California, Berkeley and at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. She joined the Fundar Center for Research and Analysis in 2008. Since 2013 she has coordinated its Index of the Right to Access Information in Mexico (IDAIM), which measures the quality of transparency laws in Mexico (available at www.idaim.org.mx). Her agenda focuses, above all, on transparency and accountability in the states and municipalities of the country.