The President, the Individual, and the Constitution

The president talks and talks and, as his chest is not a cellar, he says many barbarities. One of these occurred on February 5 during the ceremony to commemorate the 105th anniversary of the promulgation of the Constitution, when he stated that in its conception “in recent times, throughout the liberal period, instead of moving forward, we went backwards in terms of the rights established in the Constitution; it was not legislated in favor of the people, but in favor of minorities, national assets were delivered to individuals, nationals and foreigners. There were serious setbacks.”

In his assertion, the president makes several mistakes that are worth pointing out because he lets us see his vision of what the State should be and what the role of the individual should be.

First for last. During the “neoliberal” period that we assume covers the period 1983 – 2018, that is, during the presidencies of de la Madrid, Salinas, Zedillo, Fox, Calderón and Peña, no good of the nation was handed over to individuals. The Constitution itself, in its article 27, establishes which are the assets and resources owned by the Nation (basically land, water and all natural resources, whether surface or underground). During the privatization process of government companies, what was sold was iron and, in some cases, the right to exploit a resource was granted in exchange, always, for the payment of a consideration; no asset of the Nation was privatized.

If President López thinks that the exploitation of oil by individuals or the generation of electricity by private companies is to have “delivered” a good of the Nation, he is clearly wrong. In the case of oil, this continues to be a resource owned by the Nation and private companies, under different schemes (payment of a right, shared production or shared utility) the only thing they do is extract it and sell it; the State obtains an income without incurring costs or risks. In the case of electricity, control of the electrical system is held by the State (CENACE and CRE) as well as the entire transmission and distribution infrastructure, activities carried out monopolistically by the CFE.

Let us now go to the first part of the president’s statement. It is precisely during the “neoliberal” period that there were significant advances in the constitutional arrangement in terms of individual freedoms and rights and, consequently, in favor of the people.

First and most importantly, in the reform of June 10, 2011, the name of Chapter I of Title I of the Constitution changed from “On individual guarantees” to “On Human Rights and their Guarantees”. With this simple, but crucial modification, individual, natural and inviolable rights are finally recognized, as well as the obligation of the State to protect and guarantee them.

Second, it is during the “neoliberal” period that several “social rights” are added to Article 4 of the Constitution, which are appropriated and exercised by each individual. Namely: to the protection of health (02/03/1983), to a healthy environment (06/28/1999), to access to culture (04/30/2009), to physical culture and to the practice sports (10/12/2011) and access to drinking water (02/08/2012).

It is also during this period that, in economic matters and with a clear benefit for the people, in 1993 autonomy was granted to the Bank of Mexico, with the mandate to ensure price stability, and Cofece and the IFT were created. which in 2013 were granted the category of autonomous State bodies. There is nothing more harmful to the poor than inflation and the absence of competition in markets.

The president would like an institutional arrangement with an all-powerful state, without checks and balances, one that decides practically everything, including what to think, one in which the individual is just one more cog in that state apparatus. I would like a country without individual freedoms; That’s what he’s been doing for the last three years.

Twitter: @econoclasta