Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas (et alia) want a New Mexican Constitution

MexiData.info

On Saturday, October 3, in Mexico City, a group of ex-PRD members, associates and friends gathered to formally launch "Por México Hoy" (For Mexico Today), a political action group that is calling for a new Constitution for the United Mexican States.  This, and much of what follows (aside from some commentary – also in italics), according to the Mexican news weekly Proceso (October 3, 2015).

And Cárdenas and friends pledged that their goal is not to become a political party in the future, but to simply form a group to draft the new Constitution.

Yet the claim that there is no new political party in their ulterior plans seems a little hard to believe (to this observer at least).

Reportedly, the leaders of the October 3 gathering included Cárdenas, Porfirio Muñoz Ledo, Clara Jusidman, and Alejandro Encinas.

Cárdenas and a group of abettors first made this proposal in November, 2014; however, supposedly, work on the first documents did not begin until March 21 of this year.

Interestingly, March 21 is the birth anniversary of Mexico's revered Benito Juárez, who was a participant in the drafting of a new Constitution in 1857, a document that led to his constitutional election as President of Mexico in 1861.

"'We are indignant.  We Mexicans are very irritated.  Angry, irritated and worried.  More than 30 years, one day after another, of going backwards: just from 2012 to now there are 600,000 people with nutritional deficiencies; 500,000 without services in their homes; 89 million vulnerable people, that is, lacking one or more basic needs; more than 70 million without social security; with the lowest official minimum wage among OECD countries and Latin American countries; [and] the economy does not grow, whereas social inequality does – as does violence, corruption and impunity,' said Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas."

Cárdenas criticized the federal government without mentioning it directly, and he rejects the "so-called structural reforms" that give away control of Mexico's natural resources, including oil, to foreigners.  This from the son of President Lázaro Cárdenas [1934-40], who decreed the expropriation of the petroleum industry in 1938, according to the Proceso comments.

The piece also notes that Cárdenas questioned the "damaging of educators' labor rights, 'and therefore we can lengthen and extend the list of grievances and setbacks,' which, he said, must change, and this project is destined to that goal in order to change the course of the nation."

Cárdenas added that changes must be made, which before anything else are demands by the people, plus these need the consent and active backing of new projects.

If people remain impassive criminal violence and impunity will continue, with cases such as Ayotzinapa, Tlatlaya, Tanhuato, et cetera, or the outrage against workers in San Quintín, Baja California, or with political prisoners like Nestora Salgado or José Manuel Mireles, among others, he said.

"Cárdenas explained that this group does not have electoral ambitions, [and] they are not meeting in order to promote or oppose candidates.  They are not thinking about forming a new political party, nor are they opposing any; however they will accept militants to join in their objectives."

Porfirio Muñoz Ledo emphasized the youth aspects of the project, because "the lie as a method of governing is simply intolerable," plus young people are making grievances suffered by their elders their own.

The intent, he said, is "to open" Article 135* of the Mexican Constitution in order to convene a new constituent [assembly].

Again, all this – in Mexspeak and considering the political-class history of those, and what is, involved, sounds suspiciously like more than drafting a new Magna Carta, giving people a voice, bettering living standards and services, and guaranteeing civil and human rights.

– Barnard Thompson

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*    Article 135, under Amendments to the Constitution, states:

The present Constitution may be added to or amended. In order that the additions or amendments shall become a part thereof, it shall be required that the Congress of the Union, by a vote of two thirds of the individuals present, agree to the amendments or additions, and that they be approved by a majority of the legislatures of the States. The Congress of the Union or the Permanent Committee, as the case may be, shall count the votes of the legislatures and shall announce those additions or amendments that have been approved.

Translation: Organization of American States

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"Lanza Cárdenas agrupación 'Por México Hoy' para crear nueva Constitución," by Rosalía Vergara, Proceso (Oct. 3, 2015), Mexico, D.F.