“Put them in jail”: Mexico in campaign to know if former presidents are on trial or not

Mexico entered the home stretch this Sunday in the unprecedented and controversial August 1 popular consultation campaign on the prosecution of the country’s former presidents for corruption and other crimes, the promoters of which have the enormous challenge of achieving a 40% participation to make it binding. .

“Most people are receptive and willing to participate in this consultation with all their minds. Some say that they put them in prison, that they return everything that was stolen, that they pay ”, Narciso Monsiváis, ciuDadano promoting the referendum in northern Mexico.

The popular consultation next Sunday, the first in Mexican history at the national level, he was summoned by the current president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who came to power in 2018 with the promise to eradicate corruption.

However, the president says he will not vote not to encourage “Vengeance”, so the campaign is in the hands of citizen associations linked to his left-wing National Regeneration Movement (Morena).

“The central issue is that they are accountable to the Mexican justice for crimes against humanity, historic indebtedness and the number of people displaced by the alleged war on drug trafficking, ”Monsiváis explained as his colleagues handed out brochures at the entrance to the metro.

The truth is, the question is not very clear on what will happen if the “yes” is imposed, and it is unclear whether the government will denounce ex-presidents or create truth commissions to compensate victims.

WITHOUT THE EX-PRESIDENTS IN QUESTION

Initially, the consultation would ask whether the government should investigate and prosecute former presidents Carlos Salinas de Gortari (1988-1994), Ernesto Zedillo (1994-2000), Vicente Fox (2000-2006), Felipe Calderón (2006-2012) and Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018).

But the Supreme Court changed the question, which will ultimately call into question Mexicans agree to carry out “actions in accordance with the constitutional and legal framework to undertake a process of clarification of political decisions taken in recent years by political actors”.

Ignoring the change in question, the promoters of the consultation have been campaigning since July 15, covering the streets with the faces of former presidents of this López Obrador calls “the neoliberal period”.

Dressed in a mask from Salinas de Gortari, Juan Carlos Nájera asks passers-by to vote “Yes” in front of the central church of San Hipólito, and there is no shortage of someone who devotes an obscene gesture to him by identifying his characteristic bald head and mustache.

“At the national level, many colleagues do the information work. Together we can move forward so that they are linked in any way and that they return what was stolen “, he explained with a colleague disguised as Vicente Fox who danced on the iconic” Two-legged rat ”by Paquita la del Barrio.

VISIONS FOUND

However, many voices have been raised against consulting citizens under the rule of law if crimes are to be prosecuted.

This is the case with Human Rights Watch (HRW) director for the Americas, José Miguel Vivanco, who called the referendum a “political circus”.

In this sense, the CitizenGO organization has collected 15,000 signatures under the slogan “President, stop the masquerade and apply the law”.

“Here in Mexico we need this type of activity very much, unfortunately I have doubts about how far it can go because we are very corrupt,” said Quetzal, a passerby from the capital.

Anyway, in the street, everyone is clear that the consultation concerns the former presidents: “I think that Peña Nieto should be held responsible for what happened to the students (of Ayotzinapa who disappeared in 2014), ”said Antonieta, a food vendor.

THE CHALLENGE OF PARTICIPATION

The main obstacle of this first popular consultation is that of participation, since 40% of the 93 million Mexicans called to the polls are required to vote for the result to be binding.

A major challenge because the mid-term elections last June had a participation of 53% and this was a historic fact.

Both the promoters of the consultation and those around President López Obrador criticize the fact that the National Electoral Institute (INE) is not doing enough to make the referendum a success.

In a telephone interview with Efe, electoral adviser Martín Faz recalled that the INE asked Congress for a larger budget, but did not give them “not a single peso” more.

“We would have liked to have installed more polling stations,” Faz explained, since there will be 57,000 polling stations across the country, far less than the 163,000 in the last election.

However, he said it was “enough for there to be wide participation” and praised the country’s progress towards “direct democracy”.

WITH INFORMATION FROM EFE

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