The Culture of Peace, Electric Holy Week


If his hatred could be turned into electricity, it would light up the entire world.

Nicholas Tesla

This Holy Week pleased the ruling party to promote the legislative process around the presidential initiative for electrical reform.

Everywhere, except in the ruling party, warnings are heard about how harmful it would be to approve the electrical counter-reform that seeks, under the pretext of national security, to transform the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) into a tobacconist and restore the monopoly organization in the electrical industry. If approved in its terms, it would have serious repercussions on the economy; in ecology; the financial markets; it would increase mistrust to invest in Mexico and would damage public finances, our relationship with the world and, in a very particular way, with the United States by violating the T-MEC. We cannot ignore the consequences of actions against our most important trading partner, on which our economy depends.

In addition, it would not comply with other treaties such as the TIPAT, corresponding to the Asia Pacific region.

An issue that should concern many is that the Afores have invested, from their retirement savings, more than 80 billion pesos in the electricity sector, practically half of which is in CFE stock certificates which, in the event of Once the initiative is approved, the CFE will have to pay. Will you pay them?

The purpose of canceling the generation of clean energies and the suspension of permits to individuals in the matter of hydrocarbons, which would include the expropriation of assets, is worrying; also the threats to companies that, in addition to generating clean energy for self-consumption, are employers of hundreds of thousands of people. Is the success of companies in our country a sin?

The discouragement of investment, the violation of international treaties and the environment of lack of certainty and legal security that is built is inexplicable. It does not seem to be possible to measure how catastrophic the closure of sources of employment would be to turn workers into dependents of the government with a miserable income, derived from gifts that will be increasingly difficult to cover.

The mechanical approval of presidential initiatives by the majority in the Legislature, submitted by blind faith, reveals a serious lack of legal filters and economic analysis to support them.

In these days it will be possible to know what the opposition deputies are made of, in whom the trust has been placed that they will come and vote against the initiative, despite being Easter holidays. Their absence or abstention will not be acceptable because it would seem that they ignore that for populism to consolidate and grow its power, it is essential to modify the legal framework and the submission or destruction of the National Electoral Institute, which is in the President’s sights , of legislators, collaborators and related ministers, among others.

Last Sunday, the mandate revocation consultation was finally held. Despite the display of power, the factious and illegal use of the State apparatus and resources, the manipulation and confusion of what said referendum meant, neither the ruling party nor the President achieved their purpose. As has been reported, the vote obtained in favor of remaining in office ranged from 15 million votes coming, in a large proportion, from those in charge and beneficiaries of public welfare programs threatened by government emissaries. That number of votes represents half of what was achieved in 2018.

With this “ratification” consultation and the one held last year, supposedly to prosecute former presidents, the essence of that noble mechanism of participatory democracy has been perverted and distorted. This without counting the waste of billions of pesos in both cases.

Sadly, the President, public servants of the three powers, governors and the leadership of the ruling party, have failed Mexicans in complying with the electoral rules that they did not comply with. Now they intend to transfer their responsibility to the INE by proposing its destruction.

We are witnesses of constant controversies and conflicts caused by the National Palace that harm, through disqualification, defamation and confusion, the institutions that balance power or promote harmonious and sustainable development, as if the perverse objective were that, in exercise of a deep-rooted and expanding resentment, we are all worse off as long as those who have something lose it, even if no one gains anything.

We live in a world and in a country in which concord, a positive quality close to kindness, is a hallmark that is dangerously weakening. We have the obligation to avoid the factors that make discord the predominant engine of social interaction in order to ensure that harmony prevails in the social fabric.

President López Obrador is the one who has the power and influence to resume the leadership of the Mexican State in accordance with the Law, which is the best thing we have given ourselves to achieve a harmonious coexistence and avoid abuse in the exercise of power. It is time for me to reflect and modify his policy to direct it towards restoring the social fabric. It is essential to redirect government actions to resume the course of national development. More than giving away fiscal resources, it is convenient to promote training for work and life. Let us adopt an economic strategy in favor of the most vulnerable so that they can enjoy dignity through work, not alms that debase and degrade as a supposed act of kindness.

True kindness allows you to recover the stolen peace and overcome the negative feelings that cause discomfort and suffering, it is a matter of honesty, its exercise should not be selective or the product of calculation and electoral manipulation.

This serious crisis that affects everyone demands that we use the power of reason and goodness.

*The author is a lawyer, mediator and negotiator.

[email protected]

Twitter: @phmergoldd

Pascual Hernandez Mergold

Lawyer and professional mediator

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