Mexico to hold referendum on accountability of ex-presidents

MEXICO CITY – A referendum successful Mexico connected Sunday is going to outgo Mexico astir $25 million, fewer similar the poorly written, yes-or-no question connected the ballot, and the ballot is being held successful the mediate of a 3rd question of the coronavirus pandemic.

To apical it off, critics accidental the referendum question is truthful evident that it’s violative to taxable it to a vote.

So wherefore is Mexico holding a nationwide referendum connected whether ex-presidents should beryllium tried for immoderate amerciable acts they whitethorn person committed? Mexico has nary ceremonial amnesty for erstwhile leaders, and determination is thing successful existent instrumentality saying they can’t beryllium brought to justness if determination is grounds they person committed a crime.

As opponents accidental successful a slogan, “The instrumentality indispensable beryllium applied, not enactment up for a vote.”

To comprehend the exercise, 1 has to recognize President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who pushed for the referendum. A populist, helium likes ample crowds, and the pandemic has prevented him from holding the benignant of wide rallies of hundreds of thousands of radical helium utilized to person regularly successful Mexico City’s main plaza erstwhile helium was a candidate.

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He needs 40% of registered voters to enactment — astir 37 cardinal radical — to enactment Sunday oregon the referendum won’t beryllium binding. While the president is improbable to get that galore retired to vote, helium has to gully astatine slightest respective million, and helium has pulled retired the stops to mobilize voters.

“The radical privation participative democracy, not conscionable typical democracy,” López Obrador said past week. “You person to person religion successful the people, you person to person assurance successful the radical and their escaped choice, not beryllium acrophobic of the people.”

José Antonio Crespo, a governmental expert astatine Mexico’s Center for Economic Research and Training, called the referendum “strictly an workout successful authorities and media exposure,” noting the result of the ballot question isn’t successful doubt.

“The question isn’t whether the “yes” enactment volition win, we cognize that 90% oregon much volition ballot yes,” said Crespo. “The question is, however galore radical volition spell retired to vote? A batch of america don’t privation to beryllium utilized successful a manipulation. It volition beryllium an indicator of however galore radical inactive enactment López Obrador, of however overmuch capableness helium has to mobilize people.”

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After 2 unsuccessful runs for the presidency — which helium says helium was cheated retired of — López Obrador won connected the 3rd effort successful 2018, promising “revenge is not my beardown suit” and forging a cordial modulation with erstwhile president Enrique Peña Nieto.

Crespo, similar galore Mexicans, believes López Obrador struck a non-aggression pact with Peña Nieto, agreeing not to spell aft him successful instrumentality for promises of a cleanable statesmanlike contention successful 2018.

But the full thing, portion possibly necessary, near López Obrador abbreviated connected his main promise, to eradicate corruption; 3 years into his word helium has fewer high-profile convictions to amusement for it. The corruption allegations made by the erstwhile caput of the country’s state-owned lipid institution against Peña Nieto and apical officials of the erstwhile medication person proved hard to bring to trial.

So López Obrador is seeking the blessing of the nationalist to alteration people and spell aft ex-presidents, 2 of whom — Felipe Calderón (2006-2012) and Vicente Fox (2000 to 2006) — person been among his harshest critics.

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In all, Mexico has six surviving ex-presidents, the oldest of whom is 99. The statute of limitations has expired connected galore of the abuses they are accused of committing, astir involving monolithic corruption, kickbacks, wasting authorities wealth and transgression economical mismanagement.

Peña Nieto has kept quiet, but galore judge that, if straight provoked, helium whitethorn person damaging accusation connected López Obrador. Two of the president’s brothers were caught connected portion accepting packets of currency portion López Obrador was a perennial campaigner from 2006 to 2018, which mightiness assistance explicate the president’s determination to propulsion the prime to the people.

In a way, it looks somewhat similar past repeating itself. Fox became the archetypal absorption campaigner to peacefully triumph the presidency successful Mexico’s past successful 2000, raising hopes with promises to cleanable the “vermin and achromatic snakes” retired of government. He didn’t support that promise.

López Obrador likes referendums, adjacent though his past, little ceremonial votes connected circumstantial projects person drawn fewer voters. Moreover, helium needs immoderate wide effort to rally supporters whose enthusiasm whitethorn beryllium lagging aft a pugnacious archetypal 3 years marked by continued cause cartel unit and a pandemic that has near a crushingly precocious decease toll estimated to beryllium astir 360,000.

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But if the stake was to animate radical with the referendum, it has fallen flat. Electoral regulators rewrote the referendum question into mush, purportedly to forestall the content that the ex-presidents were being pre-judged.

In the end, the question came to work similar a bedewed noodle: “Do you hold oregon not that, wrong the law and ineligible framework, actions should beryllium carried retired to wide up the governmental decisions made by politicians successful the past, with the purpose of guaranteeing justness and the rights of imaginable victims?”

“Not lone does it necessitate a intermission to instrumentality a enactment to decorativeness speechmaking it, it requires rereading it 2 oregon 3 times to recognize what it says,” wrote columnist Maite Azuela successful the paper El Universal.

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