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Now, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador wants to rein in the National Institute for Access to Information, or INAI, the independent body that runs the system. He says it’s expensive and has failed to end corruption.
The effort has revealed a deepening split in Mexico over the very nature of its democracy. To a generation of reformers, the freedom of information system represented a milestone in Mexico’s transformation from an authoritarian state. The institute was one of multiple independent agencies formed to organize elections, investigate human rights abuses and otherwise serve as checks on the powerful presidency. They became “the protective layers of our democracy,” wrote Enrique Campos Suárez, a columnist for El Economista newspaper.
López Obrador, a populist with leftist roots, maintains that the transition to democracy has largely been a sham — benefiting a self-serving elite while neglecting the poor.
“All these administrative structures were created to simulate a fight against corruption, to simulate transparency, to simulate that there wouldn’t be impunity,” he told reporters. “It was all a farce.”
It needs to remain. Obrador needs to get it together.
The effort has revealed a deepening split in Mexico over the very nature of its democracy. To a generation of reformers, the freedom of information system represented a milestone in Mexico’s transformation from an authoritarian state. The institute was one of multiple independent agencies formed to organize elections, investigate human rights abuses and otherwise serve as checks on the powerful presidency. They became “the protective layers of our democracy,” wrote Enrique Campos Suárez, a columnist for El Economista newspaper.
López Obrador, a populist with leftist roots, maintains that the transition to democracy has largely been a sham — benefiting a self-serving elite while neglecting the poor.
“All these administrative structures were created to simulate a fight against corruption, to simulate transparency, to simulate that there wouldn’t be impunity,” he told reporters. “It was all a farce.”
It needs to remain. Obrador needs to get it together.