blow to transparency

A democracy of results demands transparency. Because without transparency it is practically impossible to generate the trust that we citizens demand regarding the management of resources and public management in general. Contrary to the logic of a democratic country, since April the Inai, the autonomous institute in charge of guaranteeing the fundamental right of access to information and the protection of personal data, has received a severe blow, since it is unable to meet due to direct instructions from López Workshop.

On March 15, the president vetoed the two vacant commissioners who had been approved by a qualified majority in the Senate. A few days ago Latinus revealed the premeditated intentions of the National Palace with some audios in which the Secretary of the Interior, Adán Augusto López, is heard telling senators from Morena that what is convenient for the president is that there should be an “impasse”; that is to say, the “ideal world” that AMLO was looking for and that he achieved with his veto, is a Mexico where there is no transparency.

Mexico is going from bad to worse in this area. According to the 2022 International Competitiveness Index, our country is in 35th place out of 43 countries evaluated, losing six positions since 2015 and remaining in the “lower middle” category of the Political System sub-index, precisely this section is the one that qualifies democratic legitimacy and the quality of our transparency.

In these times where federal officials do not explain their activities and there is no information about public works, their planning and invested resources, INAI has become the only tool available to Mexicans. While from 2015 to 2018 the INAI received 26.8 review resources per day, in AMLO’s six-year term this figure doubled, that is, there is less and less public information of interest and citizens have to resort to the transparency platform to know the institutional work.

Even as a representative, it is practically impossible for me to obtain government information. When I was a federal legislator, it was thanks to an appeal that I filed with the Inai that I obtained the cost-benefit analysis of the Dos Bocas Refinery and I found out that there were no feasibility studies, and I continue to obtain data on the platform about the napkin works that Sedatu and various local projects are developing.

What is the seriousness of the Inai being inoperative? Precisely that it does not resolve the 500 review resources that are requested every week, and therefore does not instruct the agencies and institutions to deliver information such as contracts, budgets or files that they cleverly hide or classify so that no one can have access. In addition, it should not be forgotten that the Institute also heads the National Anti-Corruption System, in other words, decapitating the Inai, they also deal a fatal blow to the fight against corruption.

I have had to share national forums with Blanca Lilia Ibarra, president commissioner of the INAI and I have corroborated that she is a woman committed to transparency and accountability, that is why I celebrate the constitutional controversy that they have initiated before the Supreme Court of Justice, and I respectfully ask Judge President Piña to resolve it as soon as possible.

Are we so bad that they seek to hide all the information? It is that, and also because they are corrupt, because inefficiency and opacity is also corruption.