Why has there been a democratic regression?

We have sought to build democracy without promoting a democratic culture among the population. Not only the majority of the population, but also the majority of politicians in Mexico, have no real commitment to democracy. They are democrats when it benefits them; when democracy works against them, they are willing to do anything to win.

López Obrador fought from the opposition for the separation of powers, to end presidentialism and the state party, and as soon as he had power in his hands, he betrayed all his democratic commitments to centralize power in his own person and his party. It's infuriating to see the majority of Morena politicians, who once defended and participated in the country's political transformation, now complicit in democratic regression. They fought for autonomous electoral bodies, for the recognition of pluralism, federalism, and above all, the separation of powers, only to now be promoters of an authoritarian and centralist presidential system. Claudia Sheinbaum was never involved in this struggle; she benefited from the democratic opening, but she never fought for it. She has no commitment to democracy. That's why anything can be expected from her electoral reform. For her, democracy resides in the presidency and in her party.

Our history is not that of a democratic country. Probably the only free election we had from independence until 2000 was that of Francisco I. Madero. The other elections of the 19th and 20th centuries were manipulated by the government in power. There is no democratic culture among the population, and although a political transformation began in 1988, the majority of the population did not participate in this struggle. It was a summit-level agreement involving the government, political parties, opposition politicians, intellectuals, and the media.

The population doesn't appreciate the democratic advances because it didn't participate in this change and, above all, because democracy hasn't benefited it. The problems our country faces throughout this period are the same, and some of them have increased: inequality, poverty, insecurity, poor public education, lack of access to healthcare and medicine, low economic growth, lack of formal jobs, poor public services, and, in general, disorder and lack of development opportunities for all, especially young people.

Until 2000, the people didn't decide who would govern them; the president in power did. Elections were largely a farce, or the results were manipulated to ensure the official candidate's victory.

Since the 2000 election, people have realized that their vote counted, but the long-awaited democracy has not benefited them. This lack of results paved the way for the triumph of populism in the person of López Obrador, who, while establishing policies to restore wages and support the poor, exploited them to consolidate his position and his party.

Morena has the power to do whatever it wants. The fight to remove them from office won't be easy, but the first thing we have to do to achieve this is to raise people's awareness of the importance of democracy, the separation of powers, and a judiciary independent of the government.