impossible negotiation

No one doubts that, in terms of the 4t, the trades, character and loyalty of Raquel Buenrostro have been of great use. Although only in those terms, because if the measure were institutional strength, administrative relevance, the search for allies for the government and the friendliness of power, Raquel would be seriously disapproved.

There is a dose of arrogance (perhaps unconscious), which is reduced to maintaining that, if some neoliberal idiots could make consolidated purchases, handle the distribution of medical supplies and buy paper, computers and everything else, surely I (Raquel) could too. I can do it through a single window and not only the same, but better because there will be no corruption.

At the beginning of the six-year term, a friend confided the following anecdote to me. Those were times when medicine purchases had to be made urgently, since the end of the year was approaching and there were not enough medicines for the following year. Raquel ordered that official to buy the medicines directly at a lower price than in recent years and to get rid of the distributors who were freeloaders and corrupt. The official, he told me, replied that this was impossible. That the distribution of medicines was a complex matter of logistics, scope and relevance, so if they gave him a year, he could set up a system under the command of the secretary of health, but that it would be impossible to distribute the medicines on behalf of the government. Raquel looked him straight in the eye and said: ahhh bone that you are in collusion with the distributors and against the 4t. The president will know this, she told him. In the following meeting with the president, Raquel accused the official of being disloyal and of having other interests. No one at the table, save one, defended the probity of the accused. The next day he was asked to resign and we already know the rest. Shortages, prematurely deceased children with cancer, management of the pandemic and the purchase of vaccines, a personal competence of officials, etc. A disaster as the supposed traitor had predicted.

His time at the SAT was very similar and stories abound. Now that she is named economy secretary, the message could not be clearer. The president has decided not to negotiate anything with the Canadian and North American counterparts regarding investment and the purchase of electricity. Otherwise, why send Buenrostro?

I have been fortunate to serve Mexico in three negotiations. In the negotiations there is discussion, agreement, meeting points are sought, delaying techniques and public relations are used. At first, the “no’s” are usually put on the table and everything else is searched. The problem is that the president makes at least three mistakes. He believes that his energy sovereignty chapter is above the national treatment chapter (therefore non-discrimination) and the investment chapter. He believes that President Biden directs the consultations and the negotiation and that is not true, in the US and Canada the negotiation is strongly influenced by private initiative and investors. And he finally believes that he is going to reach an agreement, without having economic consequences, which is very unlikely, almost impossible, otherwise the entire T-Mec would fall apart. If an exception can be made here for political reasons, why couldn’t they be made in other parts of the treaty as well? Tatiana should have made it clear to AMLO and the president’s stubbornness should have prevailed.

The matter is so clear that Tatiana surely let her counterparts know that the president would not give in on the matter and that he would leave, because he did not agree. Therefore, our counterparts decided to extend the consultation times. What nobody calculates is that AMLO would send his deafest, most foolish and most loyal soldier to the table, making an impossible agreement in the consultations and launching us into a trial that will be very expensive, as has already been the case between CFE and a construction company. of ducts. A wrong political and economic message derived from ignorance and ideological stubbornness. Nothing more, but nothing less too.