Independent Candidates Group, #Ahora, Is an Idea in Search of Power in Upcoming Elections Adrian Lopez Ortiz - Sinembargo
go to original March 2, 2017

On Sunday, in the emblematic Plaza de las Tres Culturas de Tlatelolco, a group of citizens presented their new political movement, #Ahora [#Now].

MV Note: The Plaza of the Three Cultures (of Mexican identity: indigenous, Spanish colonial and Mexican) was the site of the Tlatelolco massacre of student protesters in 1968. A mile north of the Zócalo, which is the main Mexico City plaza and location of the National Palace, it is a hightly symbolic place politically.

“The party is over!” Emilio Álvarez Icaza told the political class during his opening speech.

What is #Ahora? According to their official webpage:

“Ahora is an initiative made up of ordinary people who want to change the conditions of impunity and corruption, inequality, poverty and exclusion, insecurity and violence, to recover the process of democratic change in Mexico.”

#Ahora has puts forward Álvarez Icaza, a well-known academic and activist, as an independent candidate for the presidential elections in 2018 and aspires to become a national citizens movement organized in an austere and straight forward way, sticking to a clear internal Code of Ethics that completely rejects all forms of corruption.

MV Note: Emilio Álvarez Icaza is the former executive secretary of the InterAmerican Human Rights Commission, which created the Interdisiplinary Group of Independent Experts (IGIE) to review the Mexican government's investigation of the disappearance of the 43 Ayotzinapa students in September 2014. See also: Emilio Álvares Icaza Launches Presidential Candidacy.

The model is based on a basic organizational unit, the circle. A group of five people, freely and openly joined together who make their presence known their through the movements official website.In other words, the model relies on the organizational abilities of the Mexican people. It is a vote of trust, a challenge to corporatism [PRI's (Party of the Institutional Revolution) traditional system of government from 1930s to 2000, incorporating all major sectors of society in organizations paid for and controlled by the party], but also a real challenge for a country that is known for not agreeing on most things, without formal hierarchical structures.

The political diagnosis of #Ahora serves to justify its creation;

“the political parties in Mexico are not democratic, neither in the way that they appoint their leaders, nor in the process for selecting their candidates.

“There is an abyss between the elite and the Mexican people. We do not feel represented or included in decision making; democracy is empty because there are no people there.”

In the face of this void in representatiom, #Ahora has committed to taking coordinated action based on two principles: to develop a governmental program that is capable of offering solutions to Mexico’s main problems, and to build a selection of candidates to be on the ballot in 2018.

Read the rest at Mexico Voices

Related: Mexico Elections: Challenges of the New Citizen Candidate Option (Reforma)

Translated by Rebecca Nannery

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

Photo: Topsy.one

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