Ernesto Zedillo , former president of Mexico (1994-2000), proposed approving two transitional articles in the Constitution, which refer to the reform of the Judicial Branch , as well as the revocation of the mandate , promoted by Andrés Manuel López Obrador , to move towards a country in which democracy prevails and to stop what he considered “the destruction of norms and institutions.”
At the conference Challenges and dilemmas in the new geopolitics: Uncertainty and unprecedented risks , during a seminar on economic perspectives organized by the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico (ITAM) , Ponce de León pointed out that the first article would be “to postpone the entry into force of what has been done since September, although it is not about eliminating it.”
“It would be a matter of opening up a space for deliberation, for analysis, to confirm or not that these reforms are in response to good objectives and not to the objective of building a tyranny in our country and destroying the already precarious rule of law that we have,” he said.
The other transitional article would be to nullify, to annul from the Constitution, the so-called revocation of mandate. “It is a cyanide pill that has been left in the Constitution, which has no justification in a presidential regime in which it still exists and I believe that it should exist in our country,” he stressed.
He said that what Mexicans need is a president who governs a country with democratic rules with great authority and power . “That is what we Mexicans need, we do not need a country that is a one-party autocracy, where the real and immense power is exercised by a leader installed hidden in the office attached to the Presidency of the Republic .
She also rejected what President Claudia Sheinbaum said a few days ago about Mexico being perhaps the most democratic country in the world.
“Mexico is not the most democratic country in the world now, but that is its aspiration and it is an aspiration that we Mexicans would support with great enthusiasm,” he said, adding that a country that does not have national unity will not be able to defend its sovereignty or its legitimate interests against the “reactionary forces that threaten to return to the world.”
The professor of Economics, Political Science and Environmental Studies at Yale University also considered that Mexico is facing an unfavorable panorama, since public security is being militarized , with a view to having a police state , in addition to destroying the professionalization of the Judicial Branch, to which is added the cancellation of the right of access to information with the disappearance of the National Institute of Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data (INAI) .
The reforms of the late 20th century, with the participation of all political parties, corrected the historical anomalies of the autocracy. “All of that has been destroyed in recent months and a judicial counter-reform has been approved that destroys the professionalism and independence of the judiciary,” he said.
Ernesto Zedillo said that he is concerned that in just a few months, Mexico seems to have lost the category of being a democratic country , and he maintained that since September our country has become an autocracy of a dominant party like Morena.
He pointed out that when there are no fair rules or institutions in the country to ensure the application of the norms for carrying out a correct electoral competition and there is no independent judiciary, there can be no democracy.
He said that 2025 is a difficult year to talk about economic prospects “because we are seeing the creation of practically a perfect storm that could lead to the breakdown of the international order, which, with many flaws, has certainly sparked World War III.”
He said there is also uncertainty regarding the rhetoric that the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, has made against Mexico, such as the imposition of tariffs.
“We know that perhaps nothing will happen, it’s all a matter of threats and rhetoric, but I think we have grounds for serious concern, not only in Mexico, but in all of Latin America and all countries in the world,” he explained.
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