The New Anticorruption System of Mexico, the civil society claims against the interest of the political class (1/2)

In the last elections, the governing party (PRI[1]) got 5 victories out of 12 in the local states, a total disaster when the Party president´s bet was as high as 9 victories. On the other hand, PAN[2] obtained 7 states and now it will be governing most states than ever before.

 The unexpected results of this election have a simple explanation. The most important topic at this moment on the Mexican society is the incredible and unpunished corruption in the country.

At the beginning of the year a group of think tanks used a newly acquired power of the civil society to get in the legislative agenda a New Anticorruption System (NAS). The idea of this was to build a national system that works, without any loose ends, with clearly definitions about crimes, responsibilities and functions. Opposed to the segmented, unclear and subject-to-political-factors system in force.

The debate in Congress got the attention of all society. On one side, PRI and its allies made their own proposals and fought for taking the bluntest parts of the original proposal (also the ones with more media attention, such as the one that requires all public servants to disclose their linkages of interest, their wealth and fiscal declarations); on the other hand, PAN and the leftist party, PRD[3], pushed to pass the proposal with all its elements.

As the elections got closer, the legislators decided to stop the discussion and continue after the electoral process. As a result the society expressed its discontent by voting against the PRI.

As a damage control, the PRI accepted an extraordinary legislative period with the intention of approving the NAS.   

Last week, the extraordinary legislative period was held and the NAS was approved in general vote; but the part of the proposal that gives its name “ley 3 de 3” (in reference of the above mention disclosure obligations[4]) was subject to a polemical vote, where PRI and allies finally won with a simple majority in the absence of some left wing senators, to limit the scope of the disclosure to a non-public declaration.

The approved NSA has left no one satisfy with its shortened scope and other bias. This makes hard to imagine a happy ending against corruption, neither for society nor for PRI, which depends on the media impact that “ley 3 de 3” will have. In case people make the PRI reliable of the limited results, they would be in trouble running a competitive campaign for 2018 presidency.

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[1] PRI – Partido Revolucionario Institucional.

[2] PAN – Partido de Acción Nacional.

[3] PRD – Partido de la Revolución Democrática.

[4] …disclose their linkages of interest, their wealth and fiscal declarations.