Problems, crises, big or small, personal or institutional, begin to accumulate in the administration Lopez Obrador and the president’s own style of governing, centralizing decision-making as much as possible, even leaving aside his cabinet, the tendency to set macro goals without closely monitoring them while he is diligently dedicated to micromanagement, turn the President into the lightning rod for all those crises for which there are simply no fuses.
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The conflictive chapters are added and two are the most delicate: the economy and violence. According to official data, we are already in a recession: the economy fell again in the last quarter of 2021, by 0.1%, it is the second consecutive quarter in which the economy falls and, given the growing inflationary pressure, there are already analysts who think that we are in a stagflation, one of the most critical situations because the measures that can be adopted to reduce inflation accelerate economic stagnation and, on the contrary, those that seek to promote it generate higher inflation.
The economic situation is critical, but nobody seems to be fully accepting it. And it is a problem of internal politics: the pandemic hit us like the entire world economy, but during 2021 the vast majority of economies have recovered what they lost, especially the United States, and not even with that additional engine have we been able to return to pre-pandemic levels. But let us remember that we have not grown since the beginning of the six-year term: the pandemic exacerbated the situation, but the problem predates it. And it goes through two chapters: legal certainty and investments. The first is very deteriorated and the second are in free fall. And it is a situation that the federal administration itself has created with erratic and unreliable decisions, such as the electricity reform proposal or public investment projects, whose benefits are at least doubtful.
Nor does the growing insecurity help. January is registering very high rates of violence, including clashes between criminal groups and security forces that are qualitatively different from those of the immediate past, as we are seeing in Michoacán and other states. The criminal groups are empowered, they feel strong enough to challenge the state and even to influence economic aspects, such as the increase in the price of basic products, from lemons to avocados. The security crisis cannot be hidden and the murder, yesterday, of a fourth journalist in this month of January, can only exacerbate it.
Another issue that has gone unnoticed, but that when it breaks out will generate another crisis, is the proposal presented by Senator Olga Sanchez Cordero, with the support of the Morena bench, to modify the system of notaries in the country with important changes to article 121 of the Constitution.
The story was told by my partner Bibiana Belsasso in your column Under suspicion, last Thursday, January 27. The initiative includes various points, but the central one, the important one, is that it is proposed that, upon reaching 75 years of age, any notary will lose his or her license as such. For what reason, being in perfect physical and mental health, being a recognized and reliable notary public, will they take away his license, his right to work, from a notary just because he is 75 years old?
The proposal was introduced by Senator Sanchez Lamb in the Permanent Commission and has the support of Morena. It proposes to modify article 121 of the Constitution (it is a reform that would require two thirds of the vote of the senators). If it is approved only in CDMX, the federal government would have in its hands the delivery of 50 new notaries, while leaving out the most influential notaries in the union. That seems to be the only objective of this reform. It makes no sense, and even less so when there are plenty of officials in the federal government who are well over that age and occupy strategic positions. own Olga She is 74 years old and her husband and other relatives have very important notary offices, the prosecutor Gertz Manero he is 82; Manuel Bartlett, 85 years; just like Bernardo Batiz; Porfirio Munoz Ledo, 88; Communications Secretary, Jorge Arganis. 78 years, and the list could go on.
We insist, the initiative does not make sense because, in addition, the career of a notary and managing to have one’s own notary usually implies years of training and practice. In general, the minimum age for a notary is 40 years old, and not in all states, but in Mexico City, all notaries must compete, take refresher courses and be prepared at a good level because their legal responsibilities are each older times.
Certainly, as explained Bibiana In his report, there are opportunists or characters in that guild who end up benefiting from a notary’s office for favors given to a governor or a president. Also, some who have not been sufficiently trained. Nor does it seem to make sense to inherit, without more and as sometimes happens, a notary. But those are the exceptions that can be remedied on a case-by-case basis.
Regardless of that, I see no reason to get rid of notaries over 75 years of age, other than having in the hands of the current administration the opportunity to discretionally appoint dozens of notaries throughout the country. And boy does that mean keeping a significant chunk of power.
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