AMLO vetoes appointment of 2 INAI commissioners; the institute will go to court

Andrea Becerril and Georgina Saldierna

Newspaper La Jornada
Thursday March 16, 2023, p. 6

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador appealed yesterday to the power conferred on him by article six of the Constitution and, one day before the legal term expired, he objected to the controversial appointments of Ana Yadira Alarcón Márquez and Rafael Luna Alviso as commissioners of the National Institute of Transparency , Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data (INAI), which the Senate held last day 1.

Upon learning of the decision, the INAI determined in an extraordinary session that it will file a constitutional controversy before the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) so that it decides what corresponds, so that the rights of access to information are not affected. due to the lack of appointments of two commissioners.

For the first time in the nine years of its existence, this body held an extraordinary public session, in which the plenary session, currently made up of five commissioners, determined to file said controversy so that its activities are not violated.

The Secretary of the Interior, Adán Augusto López Hernández, communicated yesterday afternoon the resolution of the federal Executive to the president of the Political Coordination Board of the Senate (Jucopo), Ricardo Monreal, who expressed on social networks that this chamber must comply with the rules established in the Magna Carta and present two new proposals to fill the vacancies in the INAI.

Later, the notification was sent to the president of the Senate, Alejandro Armenta, in which the Executive argued that the opinion issued by the United Commissions for Anti-Corruption, Citizen Participation and Justice warned that Luna Alviso (the candidate promoted by Monreal) did not Appears on the list of applicants they had highlighted in the selection process.

For his part, Monreal stated that he will insist on the agreements: Hopefully we will achieve it and we will not jeopardize the work of this very important institution.

Immediately, the coordinator of the PAN, Julen Rementería, sent a message on social networks in which he warned that with this veto, the President seeks to annihilate the INAI. This, in relation to the fact that the institute has been operating since March of last year with only five of its members, and at the end of this one another leaves, since the administration of Francisco Acuña concludes, so it could no longer meet.

However, the Senate can make the appointment of the two commissioners who will occupy the place of the objected, since there is a list of 13 candidates who obtained the highest evaluations among a total of 48 who were evaluated by the members of the Anti-Corruption Commission.

As reported in the session on March 1, the problem arose because Monreal negotiated with most of the opposition the appointment of Ana Yadira Alarcón Márquez, who is considered the standard-bearer of the PAN, due to her affiliation white blue, in exchange for Rafael Luna Alviso, who is a close collaborator of the morenista.

PAN members Damián Zepeda and Xóchitl Gálvez questioned this practice of dues and friendsespecially the election of Luna Alviso, currently responsible for the Senate Legal Department, since he did not appear on the list of the 13 best profiles sent to Jucopo, and from the plenary session they deplored the appointment of INAI commissioner, since he was disapproved and ranked 47th out of 48.

Monreal’s decision divided the Morena group and a large part did not vote for their candidate, since they considered that Luna Alviso is contrary to the 4T and to López Obrador. In fact, Monreal achieved a qualified majority with the votes of the opposition:

Yesterday, in a message on social networks, the coordinator of Morena expressed that “it should not be surprising that the President express his objection, especially in these appointments.