Translated by Rebecca Nannery
It seems that Mexico is stuck in a maze, or perhaps even a swamp. In mazes it is difficult to oriente oneself, to know where you are or to find the way out. In swamps, the counsel says, the more you move or kick, the more you’ll sink. Sure, these metaphors are not perfect, but in the difficult and confusing times in which we live, it is better to try to orient ourselves, stop stupidly kicking and try to create a way out.
I know that at election times, the different candidates or parties claim that they hold the keys to Paradise, that they have the a magician's hat from which they can pull every virtue and that they are capable of promising the moon and the stars in order to win the vote. However, I fear that the challenges facing the Mexico of today are so deep that only taking them on and processing them together through good politics involving public debate, can we try to break through.
Whatever may be said, we have advanced democratically. Competitive elections, the balance of constitutional powers, the exercise of freedoms, the alternations of the party in power, are all there and it would do good to remember what was going on in Mexico 30 or 40 years ago to show that.
That being said, this same process, by dismantling the authoritarian order, whose apex was constituted by the President, broadened the margins of freedom for many actors (governors, big companies, churches, the media etc.) and generated gaps and new spaces for those who had infiltrated (legally or illegally) different social forces, including criminal gangs, thereby multiplying the degree of complexity of government management.
It is necessary to highlight our advancement in terms of freedoms, coexisting together, the autonomy of powers, amongst others, but it will not be possible to do it if we don’t open our eyes and try to reform the things that are weakening our appreciation for the things that make democracy possible.
The obvious fault is that corruption goes unpunished and the spiral of violence has disrupted and disrupts the lives of millions. Nothing corrodes the esteem of public institutions more than the phenomenon of documented corruption that goes unpunished and nothing hurts social coexistence more than the spiral of violence that leaves a trail of dead, disappeared, and tortured people, broken families and a craving for revenge. As an antidote for corruption, only two remedies have been invented: imprison those responsible and recover of all dishonestly gained property and in order to stop the violence, we need to combat the criminal gangs without State institutions infringing or violating human rights.
However, if we look deeper still, beyond what is visible to public eyes, there lies the breeding ground that feeds our social issues, none other than a spilt society itself. At the center of politics should be an ambition to gradually weaken the abysmal inequalities that curse our country and take millions of Mexicans, who because they are poor cannot exercise their own rights, out of poverty. For this to happen, there needs to be an economic policy which goes beyond concerns about financial stability and inflation and puts at its core the vast inequality that grips and strains this country.
“If this is not the case,” said Rolando Cordera, “the legitimacy that democracy confers on the State will tend to be corroded by growing social demands but without agreement…” (“Another Turn of the Screw”, Voz y Voto, Nº 291, V-17).Due to the fact that a socially polarized country is no good breeding ground for democratic relationships and that fruits will not be born from nothing, we must create, yes create, what the CEPAL [Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean] calls social cohesion, a feeling of belonging to a national community that can only be achieved if the fruits of a collective effort are distributed equally.
Perhaps the way out of the maze, or the swamp, requires the creation of a goal and this, I believe, must be that of economic growth with equitable redistributions, along with the fight against corruption and the search for security for all within a framework of unrestricted respect for human rights. How easy it is to write, yet how difficult and monumental a task to complete.
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José Woldenberg holds an undergraduate degree in Sociology and a masters in Latin American Studies from UNAM, where he is a professor in the Faculty of Political and Social Science. He was the first president of the Federal Electoral Institute. His most recent books are "Disenchantment", "Noblesse oblige", "Politics, Crime and Delirium" (Cal y Arena), "A Minimum History of the Mexican Democratic Transition" (El Colegio de Mexico) and "Mexico: the Difficult Democracy" (Taurus).