George W. Grayson: Dark Political Cloud Threatens Mexico's Sunshine Law George W. Grayson - U-T San Diego
go to original March 20, 2014

Throughout his run for the presidency, Enrique Peña Nieto emphasized that the “new PRI” would practice government in the sunshine. To lend credence to his promise, he disclosed all of his economic assets within four months of his swearing in on Dec. 1, 2012. He directed his cabinet members to follow suit. Only Attorney General Jesús Murillo refused to divulge his holdings.

Peña Nieto has now had second thoughts about the virtues of freedom of information as evidenced by his eagerness to jettison the country’s highly regarded Transparency Institute, known as IFAI. Created in 2002, the agency enjoyed the vigorous backing of his predecessors, Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderón, both members of the opposition National Action Party (PAN).

IFAI’s goals were to promote citizen access to information, protect privacy, and impel accountability. The five commissioners, appointed for seven-year-terms, took their mission seriously with respect to the 240 public entities over which they have jurisdiction.

Read the rest at U-T San Diego

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!