In the late 1990s, a senior federal financial sector official told international investors that the continuity of the political regime in Mexico was guaranteed for 24 years.
Of course the opponents were outraged, especially the so-called leftists who had other plans for this country.
Yes, there were 24 years of growing macroeconomic stability, after that watershed marked by Ernesto Zedillo’s government of leaving behind the single, authoritarian party scheme, to give way, at least, to greater partisan democracy.
However, those four six-year terms never had the virtue of knowing how to connect a common development plan, each government wanted to put its stamp on the same thing and they lost very valuable time.
There were, then, 24 years of low economic growth, a poor distribution of wealth, a mediocre fight against poverty, growing public insecurity, and little political expertise to implement structural changes.
Despite the failures, today it is more than clear that this was a more appropriate path but that it required greater vision of the State and more political skill and commitment for its implementation.
There were, at that time, some left-wing politicians who never really got their chance. They were infected by populist remoras that swallowed them and used their shell to achieve power with a supposedly progressive flag, but with a true authoritarian and conservative intention.
Today, those 24 years of continuity are erased and nothing remains of the leftist thinking that could have applied a modern social democracy scheme for the development of Mexico and take advantage of the best of a country with respect for freedoms and with a social focus.
Today we see a vulgar seizure of power, a group of arrogant careerists who jumped on that unique, and hopefully unrepeatable, populist steamroller, and who promise 50 years of this.
What is real about his promised path of half a century is that the setbacks implemented, especially in that phase in which they were made in an unclear way of a qualified majority, is that messing with that mess to the Constitution does mark a path very difficult to return.
It might not be the 50 years that they now predict without another political party achieving a qualified majority, but however long it is, the damage has already been done.
There is no model in the world like the one now applied in Mexico that can boast any degree of success.
Regimes that tend toward totalitarianism end up isolated and their people oppressed and impoverished.
From the worst Latin American examples, such as Cuba or Venezuela, to a hybrid model, which could be the future of Mexico and Argentina.
Argentines managed to save their democracy, but they lost all trust from investors, from locals, international organizations and of course international capital.
When a regime has the ability to destroy the legal foundations of the Constitution to fuel its group ambitions, there is no way to retain any degree of trust in that market.
So, after 24 years of macroeconomic stability and little political expertise, the promise is half a century of this.
The only thing that is clear is that what has been done to date will have economic consequences that we have not yet been able to measure.
