Even the unexpected ends in habit when you have learned to bear it.
Julio Cortazar
Every democracy has elements of fragility. The Mexican is no stranger to the phenomenon of democratic recession that occurs in the world due -mainly- to the attacks of the president, his party and his collaborators.
In the 2018 elections, just over 15 million voters, without being militants or followers of the current official parties, went to the polls and legitimately exercised their right to vote, most likely punishing the PRI and the PAN, benefiting the current president only to get him to the Presidency of the Republic, also to grant him the legislative majorities in both chambers.
They did not imagine, despite the warnings of the president himself – who did not deceive anyone – that he would send the institutions to hell; the effects of its measures and occurrences; that his main policies would consist of weakening the constitutional order, as well as the norms that sustain our democracy; that he would act in a growing opacity, and would impose an iron polarization. Nor could they see that, once the Presidency of the Republic was assumed, a restoration of absolute presidentialism would begin in our country.
However, it cannot be ignored that each of that enormous number of voters could have been facing much more pressing challenges or problems, individually and on a daily basis, than the future of the country, so many could have voted out of inertia.
It is known that one of the aspects of the polarization promoted by the president is aimed at violating institutional neutrality, attacking those who differ from their way of thinking, particularly Court Ministers, communicators and prominent media that report on reality. national, same that tries to distort day by day.
Last Wednesday, as if it were the official commemoration of the 30th Anniversary of World Press Freedom Day, in the section “who is who in the lies” of his morning conference he sent this message: “there are media that are factories of lies and of manipulation, information media, written press, radio, television, radio conductors, television conductors…” Of course there are media, columnists and cartoonists who skew information, without a doubt the least; among those, those who have aligned themselves with the president and operate as sounding boards for the “morning.” It seems that it is increasingly dangerous to think with a critical attitude in our country.
Liquidating Notimex, with the justification that the daily appearances of the president in the morning fulfill the function that corresponded to that news agency, is a mistake.
Of the twenty reforms approved in the questioned session held by senators from the government bloc in the courtyard of the Xicoténcatl mansion on Friday night and early Saturday morning of the last weekend of April, some have already been published in the Official Gazette of the Federation.
One of these provisions is the decree that reforms, adds and repeals various provisions of the General Health Law, with the purpose of regulating the Health System for Well-being, through which the INSABI, created in November 2019 by decree, disappears which implied the disappearance of the National Commission for Social Protection in Health, in charge of operating Seguro Popular. INSABI was launched without operating rules, without a conceptual or administrative structure which, unfortunately, resulted in a great failure to the detriment of Mexicans. Its extinction leaves an administrative disorder, contracts in execution for a value of 5 billion pesos and more than 15 million Mexicans without health services.
An important part of the provisions approved and published increase civil tasks and activities to military and marine. Such is the case of the decree that amends, adds, and repeals various articles of the Organic Law of the Federal Public Administration, the Organic Law of the Mexican Army and Air Force, the Airports Law, and the Aviation Law. Civil, in terms of Protection of the Mexican Air Space, which establishes that the armed forces may implement actions to guarantee that air operations in the national territory are not carried out for illegal purposes or threaten national security. Likewise, the parastatal Grupo Aeroportuario, Ferroviario y de Servicios Auxiliares Olmeca-Maya-Mexica SA de CV, controlled by the Ministry of National Defense, is authorized to manage airports and operate a newly created airline.
Also, by virtue of the decree that amends, adds, and repeals various provisions of the Federal Rights Law and the General Tourism Law, it is established that the Mayan Train will receive 80% of the resources obtained from the payment rights of foreign visitors, which has been administered by the National Fund for the Promotion of Tourism (Fonatur). Likewise, it grants the army control of the Mayan Train for an indefinite period, through the aforementioned public military company.
In 2020, the president announced that the cost of the Mayan Train would amount to 130 billion pesos, by May of this year 221 billion have been applied to it and in the expenditure budget for this year they assigned 140 thousand million, that is to say that the investment So far it amounts to 361 billion pesos, an amount equivalent to 277% of the figure announced in mid-2020 and its progress of work is 58%. Its path has been erratic and the consequences that already affect the environment such as the fauna, flora and groundwater of the Yucatan peninsula will be catastrophic.
Regarding the General Law on Humanities, Sciences, Technologies and Innovation, which modifies Conacyt, it is worth highlighting the purpose of “putting an end to neoliberal science”, the exclusion of public and private universities and the inclusion of the military in his advice, an absolutely ideological presence that adds to the militarization process that is taking place in our country. It is worrisome that this new provision hurts academic freedom, the autonomy of public research centers and therefore the rights of future generations in the matter and restricts the country’s scientific and technological development.
The armed forces have increasingly become the president’s reference, they have received orders that go beyond their natural powers and occupy spaces of civil order, without a doubt it is a high-risk game.
We are obligated to prevent multiple expressions of discord and polarization from continuing to advance in the country where our children and grandchildren will live. This is one of the main reasons why in this series The Culture of Peace insists on the convenience of take advantage of civil dialogue and mediation.
With mediation it is possible to eliminate violence, remember that Justice “forces”, the State “imposes” but in mediation agreements are made. The main challenges for its consolidation and expansion still consist of getting more people to participate in the process and encouraging the political will of the authorities to recognize its revolutionary value.
The construction of a culture of peace and harmony is only possible with a positive contagion that generalizes the practice of dialogue in all spheres of social interaction.
*The author is a lawyer, negotiator and mediator.
Twitter @Phmergoldd
