The dispute between Morena and the opposition in the Senate over the appointment of at least one commissioner of the National Institute for Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data (INAI) has already reached the rostrum of the Upper House, taken since the afternoon on Thursday by the senators opposed to the ruling party, who even spent the night in the venue in order to to force their Morenista peers to reach an agreement.
This Friday, the legislators of the so-called containment bloc, which remain throughout the senatorial rostrum, reiterated that they will not move from their protest until they reach an agreement in the Political Coordination Board that allows not only the vote of an INAI commissioner, but its endorsement, to avoid what happened on Thursday when Morena agreed to vote for a candidate, although in the end they did so by issuing their ballots with a rejection.
Armed with blankets, pillows and sleeping bags, the senators from the National Action (PAN), Institutional Revolutionary (PRI), Citizen Movement (MC), and the Plural Group parties woke up on Friday without yet receiving a response from the Morena legislators.
Since Thursday night Ricardo Monreal, leader of the Morenista bench, received an official letter from the opposition in which they request an “immediate meeting” of the Political Coordination Board (Jucopo) in order to reach a consensus to unlock the issue of INAI, an organization that has not been able to meet throughout April because it only has 4 of its seven commissioners in office.
Monreal, without leadership
The problem is that Monreal’s leadership among the senators that he formally claims to lead, in fact is diminished to the extreme, since the agreements that he has reached with the opposition have in the end been ignored by the morenistas.
This was already recognized on Thursday night by Ricardo Monreal himself, who accepted that his “leadership is undermined, perhaps it is the most difficult part in the five years that I have led” the Morena bench, he said.
“When other colleagues believe that it is better to join another team, they accept the recommendation of the person in charge of that team,” lamented Monreal.
The loss of power of the even leader of the official bench in the Senate is due to the fact that this nor does he have any influence within his party and in the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, so he cannot offer his co-religionists any position or candidacy in exchange for them casting their vote in favor of a candidate for INAI commissioner that allows that body to function.
“Since I cannot offer a political future, nor can I offer any position to my colleagues, Well, I understand that they are also looking for their security and their continuity in the exercise of the function, but I am aware of that and I have no qualms about acknowledging that I have this deterioration,” Monreal told the press.
Ergo, in practical terms, the senators from Morena will only vote on the instructions of whoever guarantees them a post from the public treasury in the immediate future, given the proximity of the 2024 general elections.
They analyze alternative headquarters
With this, the struggle between the opposition and Morena for the appointment of the vacancies that remain in the INAI not only affects the intention of the official party to approve the various laws that the Chamber of Deputies endorsed this week, among which are the rules that the Insabi and the Conacyt disappear, and the reforms that transfer the Maya Train to the Army permanently.
From the official caucus, it was already anticipated that these legislative changes could be approved in a session that would take place in an alternate seat of the Senate, given the blockade of the rostrum by the opposition.
In other words, the position of the senators from President López Obrador’s party is to keep the INAI inoperative, since the constitutionally autonomous body cannot make any decision if it does not have a minimum of five commissioners.
For a year, from April 2022, the INAI met with that number of members of its Plenary, since the Senate did not choose during that period the two vacancies that opened up since the end of March last year.
Subsequently, on March 1, 2023, the Upper House elected as commissioners Ana Yadira Alarcon Marquez already Rafael Luna Alviso, but these were vetoed by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on March 16, while on the last day of that month a new vacancy was opened at the INAI, so the institution has no longer been able to hold sessions in the last 28 days.
According to a recording that was leaked to the press, in a meeting held by the Secretary of the Interior, Adán Augusto López, and the Morena senators, the federal government’s head of domestic policy commented that “the ideal world” for this administration is that the INAI remains in those conditions, with the vacancies that prevent them from deciding on the human right to information of the Mexicans.
MORE NEWS:
surya palaces Journalist and lawyer, specialist in legal analysis and human rights. She has been a reporter, radio host and editor.