There is no doubt that we live in times of change with a view to transforming the country model that prevailed in Mexico for decades and that only benefited a small elite made up of company directors transnational corporations, large Mexican businessmen with a foreign mentality and linked to the above, as well as their henchmen in politics —short in stature, with a colonized mind and operating for the first two. In the era that many call “neoliberal” a few got rich—that is, a “rapacious minority”, made up of Mexican billionaires, corrupt politicians at the highest level, and mainly transnational oligopolies. For its part, the nation and its people, that is to say, the majorities, were impoverished —most of whom are poor.
The 2018 apparently marked a turning point in the life of Mexico and with the motto of “first the poor” began a new era that represents a “radical” change in the country’s project and in its model of economic development. And I say “supposes” because that change has not yet materialized. Indeed, that long-awaited Fourth Transformation (4T) that Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) proclaims so much has not yet materialized, given that it requires time, unity, political will and many other things. “Rome was not built in a day” and to consolidate a true transformation in Mexico we still have a long way to go. However, I am hopeful—unlike members of the petty wing of the opposition—that, given the new geopolitics and a new vision, our country could move toward a state of greater sovereignty, equality, and social justice. However, many things are required, a lot of commitment, a lot of will and many reforms —starting with those that require amending the Constitution.
It is true that since 2018 has raised the need to approve various laws and constitutional reforms that are key to achieving the long-awaited and necessary transformation of Mexico. We have, for example, the attempts [no del todo exitosos; más bien fallidos] of judicial reform, electricity sector reform, electoral reform, tax reform, disappearance of some autonomous State bodies, among other reforms, some of a lesser scope and not all of them constitutional. In the decades of the vaunted “structural reforms” (in the framework of the Washington Consensus), we have realized how the laws we have have favored a small minority of national and transnational oligarchs, supported by ladino henchmen and creeps in politics. and in the three powers of the Union.
And in recent years we have Realized that there are still great reactionary interests that resist change and lose their privileges, helped by small colonized and servile minds that remain in Congress and in the judiciary. We have already identified those who, from their seats —and with the help or intermediation of ladino lobbyists, “dead of hunger” and traitors— legislate for large transnational companies and operate as employees of the Mexican oligarchs within the framework of a partisan discipline that coordinated by the owners of big capital. The rottenness of the Mexican judicial system is also clear, where corruption, nepotism, influence peddling, impunity and conflict of interest reign supreme.
In Last dates it has become very clear who (with name and surname) are the sellout legislators and for whom they work. Due to their sentences, those who are corrupt judges who support injustice in all their orders and who betray the country and their position as guarantors of the law have also been clearly identified. It is aberrational how a judge, for example, decides to grant amparo to the current governor of Tamaulipas accused of serious crimes, including organized crime, after Congress approved his removal based on a large file and convincing evidence.
Equally offensive are the protections that judges granted to transnational companies to defend leonine contracts that bleed the country and its people. The painful and scandalous action of Juan Pablo Gómez Fierro, Second District Judge in Administrative Matters, Specialized in Economic Competition, Broadcasting and Telecommunications is the “cherry on the cake” of this series of systematic abuses by unscrupulous authorities who betray their homeland —according to some, in exchange for resources and positions that only money can buy [esto se debe investigar]. In an unexpected and abject decision, Gómez Fierro operates in favor of Iberdrola, confirming what was stated by the president. In fact, this judge, like many others, seems to be at the service of “rapacious minorities”, deciding against the poor majorities and those of us who pay taxes in Mexico.
In these years, we have realized that our judicial and political system in general is worn out and rotten, and that our laws require a fundamental change if what we want to achieve is to transform the development model and consolidate a new nation project . There are many changes yet to be made. It is fair and necessary to change the Constitution in all the orders raised in recent years; In addition, additional fundamental changes to the Mining Law and the Foreign Investment Law are required to avoid the systematic robbery of the nation, as well as reforms to the criminal justice system, the prison system, among many others.
The complexity of the change required in Mexico, the pettiness of servile opponents of big capital and the inconsistencies in the current political system, could suggest an even more radical reform than the set of actions that have been proposed and They have not materialized to date —considering the personal interests and opportunism of some national political and economic actors, as well as the large foreign interests that want at all costs to maintain their businesses and privileges in Mexico.
In order to move towards a fairer and more equal order, it is possible that the Constitution needs to be rewritten. Considering the rottenness of the system and the reaction to change by the big capitalist interests, I put on the table for debate the possibility of a radical constitutional reform project. I propose to discuss the relevance or not of rewriting our Magna Carta in order to move towards a true transformation and avoid the systematic robbery of the nation by foreign interests, transnational companies and powerful investment funds.
The above requires a deep debate and could not happen immediately. It is necessary to secure enough votes to convene the equivalent of a Congress or National Constituent Assembly, and that does not seem possible now, but progress in this direction is in sight. The opposition is in clear electoral decline and some parties (the PRI and the PRD, for example) seem headed for their own destruction. The vote on the electricity reform proposal seems to have opened new fronts of struggle for the government of the Fourth Transformation and its MORENA party and important victories are anticipated in the upcoming elections.
If things continue as they have been up to now, it is possible that the 4T project will obtain the necessary votes to form the constituent assembly and move forward on the path of a new Magna Carta. Would citizen consultation then be promoted and would a pause be put on the era of qualified majorities? More direct democracy, less representative democracy; This would then be the worst nightmare of the Mexican reactionary groups. Certainly an interesting horizon looms.
The Mexican Revolution of 1910 —which for some was not really a Revolution— gave rise to the Constitution of 1917. Little more than a century later, it seems that the country’s priorities have changed and that the needs for a true transformation of the political, social and economic system are pressing. The laws we have today protect predatory minorities. The bitter experience of recent years, I understand, makes it quite clear to us that the so-called “neoliberal” structural reforms benefited a rancid national oligarchy and transnational corporations and that our laws were accommodated for that project. Due to the above, perhaps a revolutionary reform is required that could advance with the elaboration of a new Mexican Constitution.
Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera. Professor-researcher of Politics and Government, specialist in security issues, border studies and Mexico-United States relations. Author of Los Zetas Inc.