We’re entering the closing stretch of the first half of a politically charged 2013. A year ago, Mexico lied under the heat of Presidential campaigns and legislative federal elections. Nowadays, the first storm clouds are appearing on the horizon, thus announcing the end of the “Peña spring” (though some call it “honeymoon” but perhaps the Pact for Mexico wasn’t as much as a marriage as it was a “seasonal concubinage”). With the weakening of the President’s negotiating momentum, if “less complex” matters than the ambitious tax and energy reforms, such as the designation of a vacancy within the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE), the agreements as to when to enact the secondary legislation regarding education and even the Presidential ratification of the telecommunications reform, proceed at a slow pace, what can we expect from an intense and wuthering second half of 2013? In the meantime, there is no shortage of controversial issues.
1- What is “ignited” with the analogue switch-off? On May 28, after Tijuana became – at least for a few hours – the first city to advance towards the digital terrestrial television (TDT) system, this issue began capturing attention of citizens all over the country that ignore that they will experience the same at the end of 2015, at the latest. Whether this action was determined before the recent telecommunications law (which still awaits the signature of President Peña), the switch-off effects are complemented with some dispositions of the reform. The most affected parties are not the about 14 thousand Tijuana homes without digital converters for their TV sets, but the two main concessionaries of analogue TV signals: Televisa and TV Azteca. What are the myths and realities behind the analogue switch-off? What will their benefits be in order to enhance competition within the sector?
2- Miguel Ángel Mancera embraces the federal government’s example: it’s all about image. On June 3rd, the City Mayors Foundation announced that the Mexico City mayor was named “Mayor of the Month”. On its website, City Mayors only highlights merits in his time as Mexico City’s Attorney General, in which crime reduced by 12%. Undoubtedly, this distinction contrasts with unfortunate events that range from the raids against the “killer dogs” in Iztapalapa to the alleged disappearance of Tepito youngsters in Zona Rosa. In short, the Mayor does seem to have a good PR strategy abroad, but perhaps it’s not as successful when measured by the reality of the city as well as the citizens’ perception. How is Mancera evaluated in the first six months of his administration?
3- The key of remittances: first signs of exhaustion? According to the latest report of the Bank of Mexico, remittances of Mexican workers abroad, mainly from USA, have decreased for tenth month in a row in its annual figures (that is to say, comparing the amount of one month with the same month of the previous year). Even if the monthly figures are still a considerable amount (1.9018 billion dollars as of April 2013), the central bank acknowledges structural and cyclical faults that explain the downward trend. However, beyond factors such as the relative strength of peso against dollar, and U.S. unemployment rate, we have to reflect upon a potential regularization of most of Mexicans within U.S. territory. Would this be the beginning of a drastic decrease in the remittances flow towards Mexico?
4- The bad habit of sustaining a “crippled” IFE (and the even worse habit of taking away its civic nature). On May 29, the Federal Electoral Court (TEPJF) decided to urge the Congress’s Permanent Commission to call the Chamber of Deputies to an extraordinary session, in order to choose who would fill the vacancy within the IFE’s General Council which was left by Sergio García Ramírez since last February. This determination came as a result of a complaint issued by PRI, given the refusal of opposition parties to take the voting for some of the final candidates to the Senate. Once again, just like it happened over a year ago, political issues would leave the Institute incomplete. This, not taking into account that, in the next months, up to four counselors would be finishing their period of service. Is it time to re-examine the current “civic partisanship” of IFE counselors’ election?
5- Four years of impunity: the ABC childcare facilities. On June 5th, the fourth anniversary of the death of 49 infants inside the childcare facilities in Hermosillo will be commemorated. In its time, the incident influenced the local election process in Sonora, where PRI members who governed the state as well as the municipality handed over their role for PAN candidates. However, this seemed the only real consequence for any high-level officer who was directly or indirectly involved with the matter. From the owners of the establishment (one of them, a political relative of former President Calderón) to those responsible for authorizing the subrogation of the childcare facilities, a media lynching was all the punishment they ever received. As it usually happens in this sort of cases, in a country where justice procurement is neither swift nor adequate, how profitable is it for authorities to “place a bet on time”?
Antonio De la Cuesta
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