•ABOLISH: President Andrés Manuel López Obrador insisted Friday on his plan to abolish Mexico’s independent regulatory agencies, ranging from the country’s antitrust commission to the access to information body, in what experts see as a return to an era of centralization of power.
•AUSTERITY: Alleging they have only helped to masquerade corruption and that they are too costly to maintain, López Obrador said that his office will propose legislation in February for his government’s ministries to absorb regulatory functions of all agencies.
•CENTRALIZATION: “This goes against the checks and balances of public deliberation. This has very serious implications for the democratic development and means concentration of power”, said Jacqueline Peschard, who served as president commissioner of Mexico’s access to information body.
•LEGAL: According to experts, López Obrador would need to push a constitutional reform in order to abolish the independent nature of regulatory agencies like the Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT). If united, opposition parties have the power to stop such reform in the Mexican Senate.
