Mexico's Independence Day and Its Democracy: ¡Viva! Power of Civil Society Sinembargo
go to original September 16, 2014

At this historical moment, Mexican institutions can boast they are independent but, more than 200 years after shaking off the yoke of the Spanish crown, there have been very few advances in freedom, respect for human rights, tolerance and environmental care. That is, the nation moves forward as an autonomous government but not in its humanistic development and, therefore, has slid backwards significantly in education, science and development.

Today, we are not a free society because exercising the freedom to build and improve the living conditions of Mexicans has not been a priority for any government that came after the triumph of the independence feat when Vicente Guerrero and Agustin de Iturbide sealed their victory with the Acatempan Embrace on February 10, 1821, fourteen days later enacted the Plan of Iguala, and later, on September 27 of that same year, gained Mexican independence from the kingdom of Spain. That freedom has been limited by federal and state governments that, under the cloak of opacity and lack of accountability have turned their territories into totalitarian kingdoms.

In over 200 years, Mexicans governments have had neither the vision nor the courage to submit to accountability, because it’s more convenient to control and reduce society to continue enriching families that come to power with one hand in the front and the other in the back, and leave loaded with riches… In our time, they are even more brazen. They have even become the protagonists of their own soap operas, and from popular magazines and media show off their economic status, but not their morals, because those are always in question.

However, the 2014 scenario shows that the various social struggles, the thousands killed and persecuted, the blood spilled, have not been in vain. As never before in these more than 200 years, civil society has an important and fundamental role to pressure government to meet its obligations that, according to the Constitution are only: provide education, health and security, and be a bastion for the protection of the country’s natural resources.

Read the rest at Mexico Voices

Translated by Ruby Izar-Shea

Mexico Voices is a blogging endeavor aimed at raising the awareness of U.S. citizens regarding the destructive impact of the U.S. economic policy and the War on Drugs on Mexico — on its people, their economic and physical security and their human rights, on the nation’s dysfunctional justice system, and on the rule of law and Mexico’s fragile democracy. Visit the website at MexicoVoices.blogspot.mx

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