I had the privilege of being invited to the annual report of the municipal president of Santa María Colotepec, Oaxaca. Professor Carmelo as he is known here. The Prof is empowered. Almost a quarter of the highway that is being built from Oaxaca capital to Puerto Escondido-Huatulco passes through its municipality. Which has given him the opportunity to see the President of the Republic more than three times and the governor several more times.
That fact and AMLO’s declaration in public that he had his full support have him working, active and unbeatable in almost everything he proposes. On the good side, it can be said that the report gave a sample of works, detailed expenses and the will to leave things built for the benefit of the community that he presides. On the bad side, however, I believe that the municipal president and, I suspect that the issue is repeated in hundreds of municipalities in the country, lacks a long-term vision, at least explicitly.
It is not uncommon for rulers to confuse doing, and sometimes a lot, with a general project of government. There is no talk of the diversity of the spaces that are governed. Specific strategies to address inequality are omitted. Priorities are not established so that the works are carried out in an orderly and planned manner. There is no talk of the national context and inflation problems, there is a lack of job creation and investment, in short.
The matter does not seem to me to come out of nowhere. The same thing happens to the federal government. Behind its declaration of having ended corruption, very difficult to believe according to Inegi and its emblematic works, the only visible position of the 4T refers to recovering sovereignty in energy matters. As if at some point we had lost it as a legal and material reality.
Works and projects have been piled on to the federal government, but it does not yet have a long-term vision. There is no concrete strategy for job recovery. No measures are envisaged to contain inflation and to give businessmen confidence that there will be investment and therefore growth.
If this year, in addition to electoral matters, the government has a pending task, it is to define projects and tasks for the second part of the six-year term.
Professor Carmelo can be understood, because it is at the municipal level, where the great errors or virtues of the federal or state government end up appearing, but the AMLO government, lacking in the strategic definitions is unforgivable. A lack of definition of context, planning and priorities affects the entire country. Nothing more, but nothing less too.
Lawyer, political scientist and economist
Guest column
Essayist and interested in legal and justice issues. currently a professor at the UNAM Law School.