The lack of robust reforms against drug meddling in electoral processes puts candidates and aspirants seeking a popularly elected position in the next elections in real danger, as warned by legislators and experts in the field. Although the recent votes to elect governor in Coahuila and the State of Mexico were carried out practically without problems, this does not guarantee processes free of violence by 2024, when, in addition to the Presidency, 20,000 positions will be renewed at the federal and local levels, where Town halls are the object of desire for organized crime “because they are the ones that can provide them with territorial impunity.”
MEXICO CITY (Process).– “If we don’t do something in 2024, the drug trafficker is going to influence the elections,” launched the PRI deputy Rubén Moreira Valdez when he saw his constitutional reform initiative stopped to prevent the interference of organized crime in the next elections.
“It is time to send a strong message against drug trafficking. We have to prevent a possible narco-state,” she warned.
The legislative project was formally presented on November 8, 2022 before the Board of Directors of the Chamber of Deputies and transferred to United Commissions: the Political-Electoral Reform, the Interior and the Constitutional Points, the latter, chaired by the legislator of the majority Juan Ramiro Robledo.
According to the Morenista representative, in the last two months of last year, when Plan A of the constitutional reform in electoral matters was being discussed, the refusal to debate Va Por México spoiled the possibility of constructing an opinion that would incorporate sanctions with the loss of registration of political parties, and even the dissolution of municipal governments, if the interference of criminal groups is verified.
“That happens to the opposition for not allowing the start of the electoral period to be extended. Between now and November we would still have had time to do things”, says Ramiro Robledo regarding the declaration of invalidity of the so-called Plan B that the ministers of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation ended up decreeing on Thursday the 22nd.
According to studies, such as that of Etellekt Consultores, in the 2020-2021 electoral process, 102 intentional homicides against people related to politics were registered, of which 36 of them were candidates or aspirants for popularly elected positions.
Other works, such as a report by the consultant Integralia, presented in June 2021, concluded that organized crime “interferes in electoral processes through acts of political violence, campaign financing, interference in candidate selection processes, and acts of intimidation and coercion.” of voters and political operators”.
For Deputy Moreira, the three levels of government, as well as the local electoral authorities, the National Electoral Institute and the Legislative Branch, must work hand in hand to combat this scourge.
growing danger
During his participation in the consultation forums of Morena on the Electoral Reform, last year, the still president of the INE, Lorenzo Córdova, warned about the politicization of organized crime.
The then head of the General Council reflected: “Is there interference by organized crime in the electoral processes? Unfortunately as a State we have failed because we have not been able to build a diagnosis, especially based on what we have proposed in recent years.
