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Lorenzo Córdova and Mexican People Stand Up to AMLO
Mexico’s next presidential and congressional elections will be happening in July 2024. And for a country with over 90 million voters and 300-plus electoral districts, each election is a huge logistical undertaking — an undertaking that the Instituto Nacional Electoral (INE), the country’s independent election oversight agency, has dutifully executed for the past 30 years. But recent legislation is threatening that decades-long legacy.
Passed Feb. 22, “Plan B” is President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s second bold-faced attempt in less than four months to hobble Mexico’s electoral infrastructure. The previous proposal would have transferred the INE’s responsibilities to another government agency, but was seen as too extreme to get congressional support.
Plan B, while still tasking the INE with administering elections, would slash its budget to the bone, cutting funding for nearly 85 percent of INE staff. The law — if it survives current court challenges — would kneecap the agency’s capacity to implement and oversee free and fair elections.
In light of these troubling developments, for this edition of Hawk of the Week, we are recognizing INE’s president, Lorenzo Córdova Vianello.
Córdova, despite being a nonpartisan official, has not backed away from calling out López Obrador’s attacks on the INE for what they are, “a very clear political strategy, to sell the INE as a biased, partial authority […] If we say nothing, publicly, we are validating the president’s statements.”
Appointed in 2014, Córdova has led the agency for the past eight years, ensuring Mexican elections run as smooth as possible, an important responsibility for a country that has only been a democracy since 2000. However, his term expires this April. But he is not the only one pushing back against Plan B.
Rallying in el Zócalo, Mexico City’s central square, thousands of protestors gathered in late February to oppose the recently passed bill. Carrying pink and white flags — the colors of INE — and chanting “El INE no se toca” and “Mi voto no se toca” (“Don’t mess with the INE” and “Don’t mess with my vote), demonstrators made sure López Obrador and his party, MORENA, got the message: the Mexican people will not let their democracy falter without a fight.
If you are interested in supporting or learning more about pro-democracy organizations in Mexico, below are some groups worth checking out:
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- DataCívica — DataCívica is a feminist, data-science organization that uses scientific methods, databases, and detailed reports to track important issues, like political intimidation, crime, and violence against women.
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- Laboratorio de Litigio Estructural — Founded in 2017, this impact litigation group is dedicated to pursuing court cases that protect the country’s democracy and civil society.
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- Control Tu Gobierno — Focused on strategic partnerships, Controla Tu Gobierno support civic and governmental organizations across the country on a myriad of issues, including water sanitation, anti-corruption efforts, and gender equity.
