Considering that all national autonomous institutions, not only public universities, are suffering harassment, Professor José Woldenberg stressed that governments must understand that the independence of certain institutions is essential for the construction of democracy.
“To attack the autonomies, is to attempt against an institutional arrangement that benefits everyone, including the governments themselves, that although they may live with some tension with those institutions, that is in the genetic code of the relationship,” he considered.
When participating in the Seminar in defense of autonomies and institutions, José Woldenberg indicated that autonomous bodies such as the UNAM, the INE, the Bank of Mexico, the Judiciary suffer from harassment from the federal government, and anticipated that this is due to the fact that the central administration does not understand the role of these institutions.
He mentioned that these organizations are going through a difficult time, and some of them will know how to face these challenges, and others like the CNDH have been distorted, “because more than defending citizens from acts of power, it is understood as a government institution.”
“It gives the impression that they want to align this entire constellation of institutions to the presidential will. I get the impression that the model you have in mind is that of going back to a Mexico of the 50s, 60s or 70s of the last century, where in effect, extreme presidentialism concentrated practically all the constitutional, but also meta-constitutional, powers. . In other words, the president was not just another act of politics, not even the predominant actor, he was the actor who subordinated all the institutions to his will.
“What I think is not understood from the government is that democracy is not only that (the celebration of elections), democracy also implies a regulated, fragmented, monitored power and formulas so that individuals and legal entities can defend themselves from acts of authority, and this is what gives me the impression that it is not on the radar of the present administration, and for this reason it is wanted that the powers of the State, the Legislative and the Judicial, were subordinate to the president. Also that the organs of the State were not autonomous, that the civil organizations were aligned by the power, that the mass media reproduced practically without criticism what emanates from the Presidency of the Republic ”, he explained.
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx