Mexico City (Process).– The unusual budget increase and the unexpected and dangerous handover of civilian tasks to the Armed Forces have generated the risk of a military business elite emerging in Mexico, considers independent senator Emilio Álvarez Icaza.
In an interview with Proceso, the legislator warns that the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has exceptionally authorized military engineers and other military commanders to receive multimillion-dollar deposits and public resources in their personal accounts and manage them in cash.
“In recent times, especially in the López Obrador administration, there has been an unusual budget increase for the armed forces, there has been a very notable, unexpected, and I would say dangerous assignment of civil tasks to the armed forces, no only in regards to security tasks; It is public works, distribution of textbooks, the internet, airport administration, it is a large amount of work and for that the Army and Navy have had a state of exception,” he says.
“It poses an extraordinarily risky scenario of increasing acts of corruption in the Armed Forces and generates an extraordinarily dangerous pattern of generating a military business elite, when they exceptionally authorize military engineers or other commanders to receive multimillion-dollar deposits in their personal accounts. public resources and manage them in cash; It is of extraordinary concern, because the formula ‘a lot of money, a lot of opacity, a lot of discretion’ ends in a lot of corruption and we are already seeing it.”
On August 17, the Plenary of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) ordered the delivery of the public version of the asset declarations of 23 military engineers involved in the construction of the Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA).
The resolution of the Court
The resolution of the Court is given one year after a person made his request via transparency because the Legal Counsel of the Presidency challenged the original order of the National Institute of Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data (INAI) to deliver the data required through a national security resource.
In other words, for the Presidency of the Republic to disclose the declarations of assets and conflicts of interest of these public servants put national security at risk.
“The resolution of the Supreme Court is important first, because it underlines and ratifies the character of public servants of the members of the Armed Forces, and second, because it underlines the need to know, not only the patrimonial declarations, but also the declaration of interests that It is an instrument that exists so that those who have a position as public servants, make known the possible contracts, companies, political, commercial or business relationships that they have, so that there is clarity, why? Well, essentially to avoid conflicts of interest ”, explains Álvarez Icaza.
“The Judiciary is taking a very important role in guaranteeing and protecting human rights. This should have been done by the CNDH, but since it was captured and subjugated by Morena and López Obrador, we have an omissive, submissive and silent CNDH, which does not protect rights and does nothing that bothers the power, much less López. Obrador, the Supreme Court is taking a fundamental role.”
The resolution of the Court is final and unassailable, so the Armed Forces must comply as soon as possible. However, they will only be able to deliver the information to those who requested it via transparency, so Álvarez Icaza trusts that it will soon be in the public domain.
He adds that the president has the constitutional obligation to guarantee the exercise and protection of human rights, but points out that the current president considers transparency as a threat and not as a right, which is why he has tried to boycott, block and minimize the INAI’s work on the matter, as it affirms that López Obrador and his government have opted for a public spending policy “of enormous discretion.”
“The president is an example of decomposition in his democratic consistency. As an opponent, he demanded transparency and access to information, and as a ruler what he wants is opacity as a term of relationship. “He believes that he embodies honesty, which is deeply wrong, not only because it is not like that, the facts show that it is not like that,” he comments.
“80% of their contracts are for direct assignments and restricted invitations. In the case of the AIFA, it is probably a more complete example: of 100% of the 2020 contests, 70% were direct awards and 30% were assignments by invitation to three companies, so that all that discourse of opposition, transparency and so on , he went to the pipe ”.
The thawing of the INAI
Days after the resolution of the Court on the declarations of assets of the soldiers involved in the construction of the AIFA, the Highest Court granted the INAI a provisional suspension with which the Plenary Session will be able to meet temporarily with the four commissioners that it currently has in the post.
With this, the Second Chamber of the Court -which was the one that granted the suspension- “thawed” the INAI, which had been unable to hold a full session for four months due to the lack of a quorum, since there has been no meeting in the Senate of the Republic. consensus to designate the missing commissioners and when there were two appointments, these were vetoed by President López Obrador, which caused a backlog of more than 8,000 resources in terms of transparency and protection of personal data.
“The Court established with this that there is a superior right of the people to access to information and transparency, therefore, before the legislative omission of the Senate – which is a legislative omission of corrupt people because the relative majority of Morena has blocking the appointment of the commissioners– what the Supreme Court then establishes is that the legislative omission is attributable to an act of negligence and that it cannot affect the rights of the citizenry”, he explains.
“We are seeing the worst version of López Obrador, we are seeing the systematic corruption of a social movement that comes to power through democratic means and already in power does everything possible to blow up the rules and institutions, not only that they facilitated access to the power, but the democratic normality that we had built with a lot of work, realizing that it had many deficiencies, but what had to be corrected was to strengthen it, not to erode, minimize or destroy it”, he points out.
Through his morning conferences, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has stated that the INAI is of no use and is very expensive for the country.
For Senator Álvarez Icaza, this is a false idea and he considered that both the federal and state governments that act in accordance with presidential orders have not understood that transparency is a basic coexistence between citizens and governments.
“It is an enormous hypocrisy, when as an opposition they demanded it but now as a government they make it difficult. What can be improved? Well, that it has better conditions and that we essentially have the express will of López Obrador and his followers, in terms of federal and local governments, to comply with the law, comply with the Constitution, to guarantee access to information to the people, to improve the times, to stop fighting all the resolutions of the INAI, to stop trying to suffocate it, we already have more than 8 thousand resolutions that could not be attended to because there was no full integration. What do we have to do? strengthen their work, ”he points out.
