And it is that it is not the type of initiative that lopezobradorismo has accustomed us to: badly done, petulant, uninformed, full of demagogic verbiage but empty when it comes to dealing with the reality on which it intends to influence. No, the so-called “Plan B” represents the opposite. It is a maneuver that has a well-calibrated sight, that demonstrates a surgical knowledge of how the logistics of the electoral system work, that he knows exactly what he wants and how to achieve it. I am not referring to its diagnosis or its justification, there abound the common places of the official “narrative” (the favorite media euphemism for not saying the misrepresentations and lies of the president), I mean its substantive content. It is, really, a very competent project… to destroy Mexican democracy.
Because? For several reasons; but perhaps the most serious is that, under the pretext of not a misunderstood but perverse austerity, it violates the autonomy and disrupts the operational capacity of the National Electoral Institute (INE). And the so precise, so deliberate, so joyously butchery way he has to do it – some media have reported that the instruction of the Secretary of the Interior to the legislators of the Lopez Obrador coalition was, literally, “to tear apart the INE” – undermines any credibility to the interpretations that it is not a big deal or that it is not going that way, that perhaps it is an oversight or a lack of legislative technique given Morena’s inexperience in power, or even a product of the fact that the president does not know or not you are well advised. (And I say this because, incredible as it may seem, there are still voices that suddenly entertain this type of speculation). It is not a mistake, it is an unequivocal purpose.
And it is also a hoax; although, equally, clearly intentional. Because it is not that the INE costs too much, it is that it performs multiple functions and has many responsibilities that it fulfills, almost all of them, to the limit of its capacity. Is having a professional institution that guarantees free and fair elections (at least to the extent permitted by law) an unnecessary or onerous expense, a waste of resources? Compared to what? The INE budget for 2023 revolves around 14 billion pesos; the losses of the Federal Electricity Commission between January and September 2022 were around 50; those of Pemex, in 2021, were more than 220; and the estimated losses due to the cancellation of the old new airport in Mexico City (NAICM) are calculated between 100 and 330 billion pesos.
Nothing would be more costly, however, than believing in the austerity ruse and jeopardizing the possibility of effectively exercising our political rights. We are facing a very competent authoritarianism, both to design the dismantling of electoral institutions and to lie about it. What “Plan B” intends is tantamount to demolishing the edifice of democracy, presuming that doing so will reduce housing spending. Lopez Obradorismo will do its political business with the rubble, but tearing down the house we live in will never be a legitimate way to save.
