The paralysis in transparency will not be the fault of the President, but of the Senate, warns AN

Andrea Becerril, Georgina Saldierna, Alma Muñoz and Enrique Méndez

Newspaper La Jornada
Friday March 17, 2023, p. eleven

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s veto of the two newly appointed commissioners of the National Institute for Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data (INAI) sparked another debate in the Senate, as the coordinator of Morena, Ricardo Monreal, opened the possibility of restarting the entire process and launching a new call, instead of presenting a second proposal with members of the list of the 13 candidates evaluated in that chamber who obtained the best qualifications.

This position was refuted by members of his bench and the opposition. César Cravioto (Morena) and Damián Zepeda (PAN) argued that in next Wednesday’s session an agreement can be reached, as long as they do not insist on choosing the commissioners based on dues and friends, but to the best profiles, which guarantee impartiality. There was also criticism in the Chamber of Deputies.

They reject the issuance of a new call

At a press conference, Monreal, also president of the Political Coordination Board (Jucopo), said that it will be difficult to reach consensus to appoint the two commissioners, since Now it’s more complicated until you get simple majorities; He warned that for this reason he sees the risk that the transparency institute will be paralyzed and remain without legal force to comply with its determinations.

–Will the second proposals come from that list of the 13 best qualified? –She was asked.

“I don’t know, because it’s not binding,” he replied.

He said that with the other coordinators he must define if a new call is issued or if the second proposal comes out of the forty something vetted applicants.

In another conference, Damián Zepeda indicated that he does not accept who want to scare us with the mat of the dead and say that the INAI is at risk. If it is, it is not because of the President’s veto, but because of the Senatewhich took a year to appoint the commissioners and in the end “the majority of opposition legislators gave a blank check to monreal to impose Luna Alviso, who failed the exam, but very close to him, in exchange for placing Yadira Alarcón. He also denied that it is very difficult to reach an agreement. The problem is easily solved, he insisted, if the two commissioners are selected from among those who achieved the best evaluations.

Meanwhile, Monreal assured that there was no rinses with the PAN, since the entire opposition bloc agreed with the appointments.

There is no attack against autonomous bodies: Mier

In San Lázaro, the coordinator of Morena, Ignacio Mier, commented that the presidential veto of said appointments is traumatic for those who have sustained their political practice on the ideological lightness of not defending the principles that encouraged their creation.

Mier ruled out that it is an attack against the autonomous bodies and considered that the best evaluated were not elected in the Senate, but to those who found support, and that hurts.

Likewise, Rubén Moreira, coordinator of the PRI deputies, supported the decision of the federal Executive, because one of those selected, he said, did not meet the requirements.