Washington supports the opposition march in Mexico in defense of the electoral authority

“The United States supports independent and well-resourced electoral institutions.” With these ten words, the Department of State has entered into the controversy over the reform of the Mexican electoral authority, the National Electoral Institute, the INE. Washington has issued a statement a day after 100,000 Mexicans took to the streets in various cities to defend the autonomy of the organization in the face of the changes proposed by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and his party, Morena. “All over the world there have been challenges to democracy that have tested and continue to test the strength of independent electoral and judicial institutions,” said Ned Price, the Foreign Affairs spokesman for the Joe Biden government.

In this way, Washington recognizes the “intense debate” that is taking place in Mexico between supporters of the government and the opposition, which has found in the defense of the electoral authority the best cause to unite weakened and dissimilar groups. This discussion reflects “a dynamic democracy”, according to the Americans. The State Department, headed by Antony Blinken, indicates that an independent electoral authority and respect for the judiciary are vital to have a healthy democracy. The opposition assures that these are under siege by the Mexican president and the Morena politicians in the Legislative. From the government party, for its part, they have linked the president of the organization, Lorenzo Córdova, with the opposition side.

This is the second comment that Washington issues in the context of the opposition demonstration. “Today we see a great debate on electoral reforms that test the independence of electoral and judicial institutions,” he wrote on Twitter late afternoon. Sunday Brian Nicholsthe Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs, an area where Mexico has great weight as one of the main partners of the United States.

Although Washington indicates in its communiqués that it respects the sovereignty of Mexico, the issue has strained relations between some of the authorities of both countries. Last week, Ignacio Mier, the leader of Morena in the Chamber of Deputies, asked Americans to “keep their comments” on the electoral reform that his caucus pushed through the Legislature last year, popularly known as Plan B.

Last week the legislative process of said reform was consummated. The senators from Morena imposed their majority in the upper house to complete the transformation of the INE, which will see its structure decimated despite the fact that it is in charge of organizing thousands of elections in the country, helping the 32 electoral institutes. Plan B also makes it more difficult to punish public officials who meddle in campaigns. To ensure approval, the majority block, made up of Morena and her political partners, withdrew from the table a clause that allowed the transfer of votes between the parties united in an alliance. This provision, called “eternal life”, was postponed.

In accordance with The New York Times, Morena’s plan B set off alarm bells among US diplomats. The newspaper assures that the United States embassy in Mexico has sent messages of concern to Washington about the background of the electoral reform. The Biden Administration, however, had remained silent on the issue. Until this week’s messages.

This morning, during his daily conference, President López Obrador, as expected, charged the protesters. “Strictly speaking, they don’t care about democracy, but what they want is for the predominance of an oligarchy to continue, that is, a government of the rich, of the powerful; They don’t care about the people,” said the president.

The message issued from Washington not only endorses the role of the electoral authority, a body that ceased to depend on the Executive in 1996, but also recalls the importance of judicial independence. The clash with the judges of the Supreme Court will be the new episode between the fight proposed by López Obrador. It will be the constitutional judges who must analyze the unconstitutionality appeals to which the opposition will appeal to stop Plan B of the electoral reform.

Follow all the international information on Facebook and Twitteror in our weekly newsletter.