The destruction of the INE and democracy: not in our custody

There is nothing more dangerous than an ignorant person with initiative, although in this case, the president’s ignorance Andres Manuel Lopez Obradorits advisers and related legislative groups worked for democracy, even if that was not their intention.

And I explain.

Every autocrat like Lopez Obrador Its objectives are the absolute concentration of power and its extension, for which it requires the weakening or the co-option of the other powers of the Republic, read Legislative and Judicial Power; eliminate intermediaries such as civil associations, universities, science and the media; reduce the financial, material and operational resources of autonomous state agencies and institutions, including electoral ones; and amend the Constitution and regulatory laws whose spirit hinders the centralization of power.

Hence the attempt to Lopez Obrador and his party to reduce the INE and take away its autonomy. This is how, in the logic of giving himself all the power to guide and control the electoral processes, in particular that of 2024, he began a process of provoking electoral reforms in a way marked both by his totalitarian profile and by his profound ignorance of the law. .. and parliamentary processes, the latter being beneficial in providing us with legal elements to stop it.

But so that as citizens we can seriously defend the INE and our democracy, we must know step by step all the violations that López Obrador and his legislators have followed during this process:

1. The federal executive sends in April 2022 an initiative for constitutional reforms in electoral matters to the Chamber of Deputies (Original camera) which is ruled by the corresponding Commissions to be able to submit it to the vote of the Plenary Assembly.

2. On November 13, citizens mobilize in a large national march to defend the INE and in which about one million Mexicans participated. This mobilization pushed the legislators of the opposition parties, in particular from the PRI and close to its national leader, to change their position in view of their previous favorable declarations.

3. López Obrador is informed that he will not be able to count on the minimum 334 votes required for his initiative to be approved -any constitutional reform requires qualified majority voting in both chambers and in local congresses-.

4. Against the backdrop of the rejection of other constitutional reform initiatives, The Executive decides to withdraw it and present a Plan B on December 6 and, with manifest ignorance of constitutional law, decides to transfer these constitutional amendments to 6 secondary laws whose approval by Congress requires only a simple majority. It should be noted that these laws are hierarchically below what is mandated by Magna Carta, which means they cannot oppose what is expressed in the Constitution, which they do.

5. This new package of reforms is submitted to the Chamber of Deputies without being submitted for discussion, study and analysis to the corresponding Commissions as established by the regulations.. In other words, with great ignorance of parliamentary procedure, it was approved in plenary session of the Chamber of Deputies without the mandatory opinion of its Committees.

6. On December 7, Plan B divided into two opinions was received by the Chamber of Senators (chamber of revision) and discussed in plenary session on December 14, where several breaches of legislative procedure were also highlighted. with changes not previously reported.

7. The first opinion on the General Law on Social Communication and the General Law on Administrative Responsibilities was voted without modification, returned to the Chamber of Deputies and sent on December 15 to the federal executive for publication in the official gazette on December 27 of the same month.

8. The second opinion is modified in the Senate and returned to the Chamber of Deputies which, after threats of censure from López Obrador himself, does not accept said modifications(1) and eliminates them again in violation of the legislative procedure and of Article 72 of the Constitution).

9. The notice is again sent to the house of revision on December 15, but since the regular period of sessions of Congress ended on that day and without the call for an extraordinary periodthe discussion is postponed to the next period of February 2023.

10. Finally, On February 22, the plenary session of the Senate approved the second package of pending electoral reforms, clarifying from the legislative branch the plan of President López Obrador to remove the autonomous character of the INE, opening the door to chaos, to the ungovernability and political and social instability derived from uncredible electoral results and, therefore, from newly elected governments delegitimized.

There is no doubt that the publication and approval of this Plan B leads to original defects in its elaboration with an unconstitutional article, in its improvised presentation and in the violation of the parliamentary process also unconstitutional.

About the extemporaneity of plan B What makes it objectionable from there is that it was introduced in December 2022 and Section 105 of the Constitution states that “federal and local election laws shall be enacted and published at least four -ninety days before the start of the electoral process in which are going to be applied, and during this time there will be no fundamental legal changes”. It should be noted that the 2022-2023 electoral processes involving the State of Mexico and Coahuila officially began on November 16, 2022, a month before the presentation of Plan B. This is why The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation “admitted for investigation” on February 21 seven actions of unconstitutionality promoted by various political parties, deputies and senators, against the decree published at the end of December and granted its suspension so that it does not affect the current elections, that is, the Constitution remains intact until the electoral process is concluded and the plenary session of the Court does not pronounce judgment.

As for unconstitutional spirit of plan B, the modifications that establish the destruction of the executive, technical, management, supervisory and district structure of the INE, as well as the imposition of the new national and local structures, are in conflict with the professionalism of the electorate, with management principles of security, legality, independence, impartiality, maximum publicity and objectivity of its function; with the separation and distinction of the functions of the various organs which compose it; with the establishment of the General Council as the supreme management body; with the autonomy of the electoral authorities (INE and the Electoral Tribunal of the Judiciary); with the sovereignty of the federative entities; with political participation rights and the protection of electoral rights; with the separation of powers; and with the principle of equity, which is embodied in the constitutional articles 41, 74, 99, 134, 254 and 261.

The conclusion of this attempt to destroy the INE and democracy in Mexico requires the commitment of the judiciary to legality. However, it is clear that López Obrador will exert all kinds of pressure against the 11 ministers of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation and the Electoral Tribunal of the Judiciary of the Federation, as he has done before with the legislative power, intimidating , threatening and pointing the finger at its members so that they avoid declaring the unconstitutionality of their reforms.

This is why the clear participation of Mexicans in the control of the deliberations of the Supreme Court and the Electoral Tribunal and the demand that they fulfill their main function: to ensure respect for the Constitution becomes essential.

This February 26, Mexico is defended, let us take to the streets to express our rejection of these reforms and demand that the Supreme Court and the Electoral Tribunal declare their unconstitutionality and that they be annulled, because we have allowed ourselves to be influenced and intimidated by the federal executive and failing in its responsibility, then yes, Mexico would formally be a failed state.

Written by Marcela Jiménez (@marcelajim) Executive Director, save democracy. This column originally appeared on México Social.