President Pe\u00f1a presented the 2013-2018 National Development Plan (PND). The aforementioned document outlines the strategy, goals and lines of action that, according to the Federal Government, will allow Mexico to \u201ccapitalize on the historical opportunity of undertaking a thorough shift\u2026\u201d. However, a brief look into the PND is enough to understand that it is not a strategic document of national transformation but one which outlines a government style based on stale guidelines and past idealized ghosts. It is not a coincidence that, for each of its five axis, the plan references five different PRI icons in its times as an hegemonic party: Genaro Estrada, Jaime Torres Bodet, L\u00e1zaro C\u00e1rdenas, Adolfo L\u00f3pez Mateos and Antonio Ortiz Mena. Let us see the linkage between them.
\nFirstly, PND looks forward to establish a \u201cMexico with Global Responsibilities\u201d that \u201cdefends and promotes national interests abroad through a vigorous foreign policy\u201d. Nevertheless, Pe\u00f1a is only recovering to the very detail \u2013 unlike their PAN predecessors \u2013 the \u201cEstrada Doctrine\u201d, which prescribes a low profile foreign policy as well as a reluctance to intervene in the affairs of other countries. To name but a few examples: the immediate acknowledgment of Maduro\u2019s triumph in the controversial Venezuelan Presidential elections, as well as Pe\u00f1a\u2019s silence over the US migratory issue.
\nSecondly, there is a definition of a \u201cMexico with Quality Education\u201d, which will make the transition to a \u201cknowledge society\u201d. Torres Bodet\u2019s educational aims of national unity established intense programs in classrooms, schools and communities and also focused on teacher training. This centralistic approach can be observed in the education reform proposed by Pe\u00f1a, in which one of the priorities is the creation of an institute that can evaluate the teachers\u2019 performance through standardized tests as a way to have political control over teachers.
\nThirdly, there is a description of an \u201cInclusive Mexico\u201d which will \u201cintegrate the country as a society with substantial equity, cohesion and equality\u201d. This is what L\u00e1zaro C\u00e1rdenas did with worker and rural unions with the aim of incorporating popular claims in concrete political action. Through a corporate presidential rule supported by most of the population, C\u00e1rdenas reorganized social policies. Nowadays, Pe\u00f1a decided to legitimate his government through the involvement of civil society, which seeks to make a place for itself in the political process, it is also a sector of growing electoral capitalization. Even if it was futile, Mexican society was consulted for the contribution of ideas to a PND that was already in place.
\nFourthly, there is an allusion to a \u201cPeaceful Mexico\u201d which will \u201cstrengthen our social pact, bolster trust in government, boost democratic participation and reduce crime rates\u201d. L\u00f3pez Mateos is attributed with the inclusion of the country into modernity and a stabilizing period which took place under the auspices of the Alliance for Progress during the Kennedy administration. This is the way in which a series of repressions and internal violent problems with several unions were kept away from the public during his government. Pe\u00f1a also attempts to sell the image of a country in the middle of a peaceful transformation, but in reality it hides serious internal conflicts such as the takeover of several areas by the organized crime, the rise of self-defense forces and the teachers\u2019 union problem.
\nFinally, there is a definition of a \u201cProsperous Mexico\u201d which will \u201cgive an adequate infrastructure for the sustainable growth in productivity in an economically stable environment\u201d. Regarding this point, Pe\u00f1a appeals to the spirit of Ortiz Mena and the stabilizing development model, the archetype of high growth and economic development in Mexico. However, the main feature of that time, along with the rest of Latin America but not with Asia, was protectionism and lack of domestic savings. In the meantime, the current President intends to underpin the image of a new \u201cMexican miracle\u201d in his (so far) successful reforms, despite the fact that, in some regions, the country keeps falling apart.
\nLooking back to the past does not imply failure, but if that past is turbulent and is sought in a different context, it appears to be very difficult that, as Pe\u00f1a states in the PND, \u201cthe rights of Mexicans will move from paper into practice\u201d and achieve \u201ca Mexico in which every single person can write its own success story and be happy\u201d. This is the heart of the matter: the project represents an era in which both Mexico and the rest of the world were radically different from today. Coherence is obtained by becoming abstracted from the modern world, creating a sense of opportunity that can only be achieved by recognizing vicissitudes and circumstances regarding the 21st century.<\/p>\n
CIDAC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Pe\u00f1a presented the 2013-2018 National Development Plan (PND).
\nThe aforementioned document outlines the strategy, goals and lines of
\naction that, according to the Federal Government, will allow Mexico to
\n\u201ccapitalize on the historical opportunity of undertaking a thorough
\nshift\u2026\u201d. However, a brief look into the PND is enough to understand that
\n it is not a strategic document of national transformation but one which
\n outlines a government style based on stale guidelines and past
\nidealized ghosts. It is not a coincidence that, for each of its five
\naxis, the plan references five different PRI icons in its times as an
\nhegemonic party: Genaro Estrada, Jaime Torres Bodet, L\u00e1zaro C\u00e1rdenas,
\nAdolfo L\u00f3pez Mateos and Antonio Ortiz Mena. Let us see the linkage
\nbetween them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4656,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[30],"class_list":["post-3186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-weekly-political-analysis","tag-political-analysis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3186"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4553,"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3186\/revisions\/4553"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}