This Thursday, the president Claudia Sheinbaum announced that in February he will send his initiative to prohibit re-election and against nepotism, and that he will prepare and put up for debate, a Electoral Reform to reduce the cost of elections, to eliminate multimembers and lower party financing. In the case of nepotism, he said that he will essentially raise it for the Executive, although he did not rule out that the Legislature will also be considered.
In the case of nepotism, we are proposing that in elections an immediate family member cannot be left as a candidate for any political party of the person who governs, be it President, Governor or Municipal President.
Claudia Sheinbaum, president of Mexico.
A few days ago, the president of the Senate Board of Directors, Gerardo Fernández Noroña, also said that this reform will be discussed in February.
“If I am mayor of any municipality in the country, no relative of mine or wife, husband, brother, sister, children, daughter, nephew, that is, people from close circles, can participate as much as municipal presidents or well, it depends on local regulations, but the adaptation will always be made because it is a federal reform.”
At the local level, inheritances without control
The “inheritance” of executive positions occurs in all parties and mayors are the most examples of the transmission of power between family members.
Political scientist Patricio Morelos recalls that from the municipal level there have been governments that last up to 20 years headed by the same family.
For the co-founder of the consulting firm Poligrama, it is positive if there are good governments, but negative if power reserves are generated and where political alternation is not closed.
“The issue of not inheriting public positions from family members is also closely linked to the issue of re-election, because we see profiles, I am talking about municipal administrations, that can govern two six-year administrations and if after that we go to relatives, we can to see in some municipalities of the country how a family has come to govern for 15 or 20 years,” he points out in an interview.
In all parties there are examples: In the PAN there is the case of the current local deputy in Veracruz, Fernando Yunes Marquez (son of former governor Miguel Ángel Yunes) and who was municipal president of Veracruz from 2018 to 2021 and who “inherited” the position from his sister-in-law, Patricia Lobeirawho is still in office and is the wife of Miguel Ángel Yunes Márquezwho was mayor of Boca del Río and today is a senator.
He recently announced that when his wife finishes her position in the municipality of Veracruz, he will once again seek to be the mayor.
Another PAN member who “inherited” his position from his partner is Enrique Vargas del Villar, current senator of the Republic, Well, at the end of his term as mayor of Huixquilucan, State of Mexico, his wife Romina Contreras She was the candidate and stayed in office.
18 years in power
Among the most emblematic cases is what has happened in the municipal presidency of Tlalchapa, Guerrerowhich to date is monopolized by the Mora family.
The head of that family, Guadalupe Eguiluz Bautistawas municipal president on two occasions, the first from 2002 to 2005 and from 2012 to 2015. The first years she arrived for the PRD and later by Morena.
At the end of his position, he left the place to his daughter Amalia Morafrom 2015 to 2018, and she passed power to her father: Martin Mora Aguirrewho governed until 2021. In that year, his other daughter took office, Tania Morawho would conclude in 2024, but ran and won re-election. When that term ends, the family will accumulate 18 years of government.
In it PRDthis happened in the before Iztacalco delegationin Mexico City, where Elizabeth Mateos She was delegation head from 2012 to 2014, as she left office earlier to compete for a seat as a local deputy; meanwhile, her husband Carlos Estrada Meraz He ran as a candidate to fill that position, which he won and held from 2015 to 2018.
Added to this is that during the Mateos period, relatives of the delegate held various positions in this territory, such as the husbands of her sisters Claudia Ivón and Rosalia Mateos Hernández, who were Édgar Antonio León Salazar and Jaime Delgado Gutiérrez respectively. The first was Head of the Departmental Vehicle Unit, and the second was head of the Departmental Public Roads Unit.
In the former delegation Gustavo A. Maderoin Mexico City, this “inheritance” of positions also occurred. From 2009 to 2012, the expert was in charge of this territory Victor Hugo Lobo. At the end of his period, his then partner Nora Arias Contreras She ran as a candidate for this position and won, leading the delegation until 2015. Three years later, Víctor Hugo Lobo returned as mayor.
This same “heritage” was repeated in the Legislative Assembly of Mexico City, since from 2012 to 2015 Víctor Hugo Lobo was a deputy, and after 2015 to 2018, Nora Arias was a legislator.
In the mayor’s office Venustiano Carranza the same thing happened. The brothers Israel and Julio César Moreno have governed said territory. He did it first Julio Cesar Moreno 2006 to 2009; then his brother Israel Moreno He held the same position from 2015 to 2017, his term ending before and after the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) dismissed him due to a legal problem. In 2018 Julio César returned to office and then passed to Morena, for whom he is today a federal deputy.
At the local level there were also cases by PRI. In the municipality of Cutzamala de Pinzón, in Guerrero, there have been 12 years of governments under the control of the Arce family, whose mandate began with Timoteo Arce Soliswho governed two consecutive terms, from 2015 to 2021, to give way to his wife Rosa Jaimes López for a three-year period, which did not end because he requested leave.
But his substitute was his daughter Mayte Lucero Arcewho concluded his term in office in 2023-2024 and last year he competed and won re-election, so he is currently serving in the fifth three-year term of that family.
