President Peña presented the 2013-2018 National Development Plan (PND). The aforementioned document outlines the strategy, goals and lines of action that, according to the Federal Government, will allow Mexico to “capitalize on the historical opportunity of undertaking a thorough shift…”. However, a brief look into the PND is enough to understand that it is not a strategic document of national transformation but one which outlines a government style based on stale guidelines and past idealized ghosts. It is not a coincidence that, for each of its five axis, the plan references five different PRI icons in its times as an hegemonic party: Genaro Estrada, Jaime Torres Bodet, Lázaro Cárdenas, Adolfo López Mateos and Antonio Ortiz Mena. Let us see the linkage between them.
Firstly, PND looks forward to establish a “Mexico with Global Responsibilities” that “defends and promotes national interests abroad through a vigorous foreign policy”. Nevertheless, Peña is only recovering to the very detail – unlike their PAN predecessors – the “Estrada Doctrine”, which prescribes a low profile foreign policy as well as a reluctance to intervene in the affairs of other countries. To name but a few examples: the immediate acknowledgment of Maduro’s triumph in the controversial Venezuelan Presidential elections, as well as Peña’s silence over the US migratory issue.
Secondly, there is a definition of a “Mexico with Quality Education”, which will make the transition to a “knowledge society”. Torres Bodet’s educational aims of national unity established intense programs in classrooms, schools and communities and also focused on teacher training. This centralistic approach can be observed in the education reform proposed by Peña, in which one of the priorities is the creation of an institute that can evaluate the teachers’ performance through standardized tests as a way to have political control over teachers.
Thirdly, there is a description of an “Inclusive Mexico” which will “integrate the country as a society with substantial equity, cohesion and equality”. This is what Lázaro Cárdenas did with worker and rural unions with the aim of incorporating popular claims in concrete political action. Through a corporate presidential rule supported by most of the population, Cárdenas reorganized social policies. Nowadays, Peña decided to legitimate his government through the involvement of civil society, which seeks to make a place for itself in the political process, it is also a sector of growing electoral capitalization. Even if it was futile, Mexican society was consulted for the contribution of ideas to a PND that was already in place.
Fourthly, there is an allusion to a “Peaceful Mexico” which will “strengthen our social pact, bolster trust in government, boost democratic participation and reduce crime rates”. López Mateos is attributed with the inclusion of the country into modernity and a stabilizing period which took place under the auspices of the Alliance for Progress during the Kennedy administration. This is the way in which a series of repressions and internal violent problems with several unions were kept away from the public during his government. Peña also attempts to sell the image of a country in the middle of a peaceful transformation, but in reality it hides serious internal conflicts such as the takeover of several areas by the organized crime, the rise of self-defense forces and the teachers’ union problem.
Finally, there is a definition of a “Prosperous Mexico” which will “give an adequate infrastructure for the sustainable growth in productivity in an economically stable environment”. Regarding this point, Peña appeals to the spirit of Ortiz Mena and the stabilizing development model, the archetype of high growth and economic development in Mexico. However, the main feature of that time, along with the rest of Latin America but not with Asia, was protectionism and lack of domestic savings. In the meantime, the current President intends to underpin the image of a new “Mexican miracle” in his (so far) successful reforms, despite the fact that, in some regions, the country keeps falling apart.
Looking back to the past does not imply failure, but if that past is turbulent and is sought in a different context, it appears to be very difficult that, as Peña states in the PND, “the rights of Mexicans will move from paper into practice” and achieve “a Mexico in which every single person can write its own success story and be happy”. This is the heart of the matter: the project represents an era in which both Mexico and the rest of the world were radically different from today. Coherence is obtained by becoming abstracted from the modern world, creating a sense of opportunity that can only be achieved by recognizing vicissitudes and circumstances regarding the 21st century.
CIDAC
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