The autonomous constitutional bodies, once again attacked and four of them threatened with disappearance during this last year of government, are ultimately the result of a fight against a challenge as old as Mexico’s two centuries of independent life: the need for public institutions solid organizations that deal with issues of collective interest with technical solvency, political independence and organizational strength as a source of trust and elemental stability.
The value of having institutions that protect us from the risks of leaving complex and essential matters to the discretion of a single person or a group, without counterweights, considering the transitory nature of public power and the natural limitations in knowledge and capacity of any person, no matter how popular or enlightened he or she may be.
Its relevance is not only in limiting the probability of the commission of abuses or omissions of the traditional powers of the State, as well as against de facto powers, but also in having competent institutions.
For that we need an autonomous Bank of Mexico, concerned with preserving the value of the currency and distinguishing between the money of the governments in power and that of all. An INE that organizes free, fair, reliable electoral processes, preventing governments or parties from being judge and party. An Inegi that provides reliable statistical information and an Attorney General’s Office focused on always reducing impunity, not based on “the agenda” of the rulers in power. Same with the CNDH or the Institute for the Evaluation of Education, which was extinguished during this six-year term.
All of these organs have been under attack. Whether through discursive disqualification, budget reduction, imposition of officials without autonomy credentials, blocking appointments in key vacancies and with legal initiatives against their independence. Now, to disappear the INAI, the Cofece, the IFT and the Energy Regulatory Commission, the latter previously deprived of its autonomy.
The reasons given could not be more empty: “they are useless,” “supposedly autonomous because they do not serve the people.” They are revealing of the true motivation, the same one behind the permanent harassment against the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation: concentration of power without counterweights. The commitment to a system of government of arbitrary will and preponderance of opinion of rulers in power on any matter, even if they lack knowledge about it.
There is talk of them being “onerous”, when their annual spending is a tiny fraction of a federal budget marked by discretionary spending and without results, with a debt that doubled in this six-year term. How much can monopolistic practices or discretion in the management of public and private information cost citizens more than the government?
That is why we need an autonomous INAI that guarantees the right of citizens to public information, which due to this condition, except for exceptions defined by law, belongs to everyone, and the protection of personal data, which because they are private belong to each of us. who. They are rights, not concessions of free interpretation by rulers and bureaucrats.
Through its platform, the INAI has resolved more than 100 thousand complaints against public servants who deny information. For the first time, the population gained access to clinical records and has learned about emblematic cases of corruption, from the purchase of mattresses in embassies to the Casa Blanca, Master Scam and Segalmex cases, or key information in cases of human rights violations, such as Ayotzinapa. , ABC Nursery or San Fernando.
We need an independent Cofece, which ensures the efficient functioning of markets and the containment of monopolistic practices that end up making goods and services more expensive, preventing alternatives and blocking the freedom of enterprise.
In its 10 years of autonomy, it analyzed more than 1,500 market concentrations with a value greater than 22 billion pesos. It has imposed fines of more than 14 billion for anti-competitive behavior and it is estimated that for every peso assigned it returned almost six to society in economic well-being.
In the same sense, a Federal Telecommunications Institute is required to regulate the radio spectrum, networks and public broadcasting and telecommunications services.
After 10 years, it reached the highest level recognized by the International Telecommunications Union for a regulator. Communications prices decreased by 31.5%, while inflation in said period was almost 57 percent. The participation of the predominant economic agent was reduced by 35% in the fixed broadband market and 16% in the mobile broadband market.
The most worrying thing is that the same unfounded and simplistic accusations have been made before to the INE itself, and we could well see them against other institutions, be it the Bank of Mexico or the Inegi.
That is why this regression to the democratic rule of law must not be allowed. It would be like an endorsement of the potential return to the era of democracy simulated and limited by the “meta-constitutional powers” of the system of presidentialism and hegemonic party. What we have left behind since the 90s with the democratic transition, of which constitutionally autonomous bodies are a part.
Or worse. Let us remember that in 1928, President Plutarco Elías Calles called for moving from the era of caudillos to that of institutions. In fact, given the complexity of the challenges of the nation and the world, we need more autonomous State bodies, not fewer.