In Mexico, a referendum was held on Sunday to try ex-presidents for corruption. In accordance with the intention of the current leader of the country, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, it was to open the door to determining court trials for his predecessors. Less than eight percent of Mexicans took part in the vote. It needed the support of 40 percent of Mexican voters to get the green light on the road to initiating the lawsuits.
89-96 percent of referendum participants were in favor of initiating legal proceedings against former presidents. This means – according to comments from leading Mexican news portals – that it was attended mainly by Mexican voters who wanted to demonstrate the belief that former heads of state should be brought to justice, who are under the suspicion that they actively fostered the corruption scandals in which the country has abounded over the years. the past two decades, or have participated in them themselves.
Mexico referendum on trying to prosecute former presidents for corruptionPAP / EPA / Luis Torres
Mexicans rejected the president’s plans
According to a comment by Argentinean El Clarin, one of the leading newspapers of the Latin American left, President Lopez Obrador’s initiative to initiate lawsuits against previous Mexican governments “has been deprived of a political margin of maneuver and the question is how the president will manage to continue his campaign against the corruption of the previous authorities “.
Mexico referendum on trying to prosecute former presidents for corruptionPAP / EPA / Luis Torres
The leader of the main Mexican opposition force, the Revolutionary Institutional Party Alejandro Moreno, commenting on the failure of the referendum said that “Mexicans rejected the plans of the current president.”
Mexican political scientist Federico Berrueto, quoted by the Associated Press agency, believes that the low voter turnout was the result of an inept questioning in the referendum. An extremely intricate question that was asked to voters was: “Do you agree to take appropriate legal action under the constitution to explain the decisions taken by politicians in recent years to guarantee justice and the rights of possible victims of these decisions?”
Mexico referendum on trying to prosecute former presidents for corruptionPAP / EPA / Luis Torres
Fight against corruption
After three years as president, Lopez Obrador, the Associated Press continues, is poorly delivering on his main election promise of eradicating corruption in the country under his predecessor’s rule. The five previous presidents of the country are now alive, and the eldest of them, Luis Echeverria, is 99 years old.
The PA recalls that many of the abuses of power that occurred during their tenure have now expired – “most of the scams they could be held responsible for are mass corruption, waste of public money and bad, criminal economic governance.”
As El Clarin points out, “President Lopez Obrador has delivered very little of what he promised to eradicate corruption at government level in his three years of rule, leading to only a few lawsuits against high-ranking persons.”
Main photo source: PAP / EPA / Luis Torres