Martha Martínez and Claudia Salazar / Reform Agency
Tuesday, April 11, 2023 | 20:57
Five hours after the coordinator of Morena in San Lázaro, Ignacio Mier, assumed that the reform to the Electoral Tribunal would be approved, a rebellion within his caucus stopped the discussion of the initiative in the Constitutional Points Commission.
Around 5:30 p.m., the Morenista Juan Ramiro Robledo concluded the recess decreed at 10:00 a.m. and declared the Commission in permanent session to vote on the proposal that limits the powers of the electoral authority.
This after more than 90 legislators from the Juntos Hacemos Historia coalition demonstrated against the initiative, of which 60 are from Morena.
In the give and take of the negotiation, the legislators of the majority bench rejected the wording requested by the PAN to limit the Court’s margin of action in matters of affirmative action, but they agreed with the wording that delimits it to intervene in the internal life of the parties and in the definition of their leaders.
The legislators, led by Hamlet García and Emmanuel Reyes Carmona, warned that they would not allow a retrograde reform to pass and called on their peers, even those who did not reach San Lázaro through affirmative action, to fulfill their moral and political obligation to vote against the constitutional reform.
The foregoing despite the fact that five hours before, the coordinator Ignacio Mier had denied the possibility of a consultation, as requested by the magistrates and assured that on Tuesday afternoon the opinion would be approved in commissions.
Although the president of the Constitutional Points Commission had already concluded the meeting on Tuesday, one after another, deputies who have emerged from the affirmative actions, took the floor to rebel against the imposition of the reform by the coordination of the bench.
Hamlet García asked that the time to convene the legislators be specified, because those who emerged from the affirmative actions wanted to give their opinion.
The rebellion in Morena began to take shape in the participations that followed.
“We are going to defend the popular causes, we are going to champion the struggles of the peoples,” said Irma Juan Carlos, Oaxacan, president of the Commission for Indigenous and Afro-Mexican People.
Susana Prieto blamed the PAN and PRI for generating “effervescence” in the media, as if it were a reform that Morena is seeking. She demanded that there be an open debate and not in the dark.
The deputy of the transgender community and president of the Diversity Commission, Salma Luévano, rejected the constitutional reform that would prevent the Electoral Tribunal from deciding on candidacies when the affirmative actions determined by the political parties are not fulfilled.
“We are not going to allow this reform, we are going against a regressive reform. There is a lack of more spaces for our populations, they have limited us, we are not going to allow them to take away the little they have given us, we urgently need more spaces.
“It is a decades-long struggle from which we have left blood and life, and we are not going to allow it and we will be defending our population with teeth and claws, whatever, defending rights,” warned the legislator from Aguascalientes.
Upon seeing the Morenista rebellion, the secretary of the Commission, Ismael Brito Mazariegos, unsuccessfully called on his fellow party members to air their opinions at the meeting of the parliamentary group.
Pedro Sergio Peñaloza from Guerrero recalled that he is part of the affirmative action to include candidacies for the Afro-Mexican population and warned that with the reform they would be regressing in acquired rights.
“It is an obligation and a commitment to defend it as far as possible,” he said.
The deputy with disabilities Mónica Herrera recalled that she is also a product of affirmative actions in favor of vulnerable groups and accused that the reform affects this sector.
“The objective of the reform should not be to affect affirmative actions, let’s not go against the groups that we have been building,” he said.
To top it off, Emmanuel Reyes Carmona affirmed that the majority of the bench is against the reform and defended that Morena is the party that has the most affirmative action legislators, so they have the moral quality to reject the reform in question.
“You have to see which side we are on, of reason and justice or with retrograde reform that affects millions of Mexicans (…) We hope that the Commission makes the best decisions and not by political agreement,” he said.
PRI member Carlos Iriarte spoke in favor of the reform being submitted to open parliament consultation.
While the emecista Amalia García questioned that it is intended to leave the leaders of the political parties to comply with the affirmative actions, leaving the Electoral Tribunal “without teeth”, whose function is to guarantee rights and correct wrongs of the political parties.
“That is making calls to mass to the political parties so that they do not exclude the excluded groups, it is a setback for women,” she said.
The president of the Constitutional Points Commission, Juan Ramiro Robledo, left open the possibility that the members be summoned tomorrow to start the discussion that has already been postponed three times.
