Auxiliary Boards and Municipal Federalism in Puebla
Diego Martin Velazquez Caballero
The PAN bench in the state Legislature has promoted one of the important issues, although not very significant for the interests of the local political system. Within the principles that founded the Blue and White opposition, federalism was essential, which is logical in a context of a centralist Hegemonic Party where local governments with different political preferences were systematically blocked. For decades, the few PAN councils where it was inevitable to recognize the transparency of the electoral results were ignored and their administrations tried to be efficient to generate a favorable political trend, especially in the cities where the PAN sought the vote of the conservative middle class. PAN federalism has been changing as state governments and national power reached, the ideas of opposition were accommodating the PRI turncoat, chiefdom and federalist centralism.
The theory of rational choice and liberal democracy, indicate that the ideal is to create new municipalities and allow subordinate communities to emancipate the heads. The Auxiliary Boards in the municipality of Puebla must be constituted as municipalities, because that is what they were, because they more than meet the requirements of the Municipal Organic Law, because the vassalage to which they are subjected is immoral. The history of chiefdom, authoritarianism, racism and discrimination; it goes through the despotism exercised by the municipal heads to the subordinate communities. However, PRI legislators from different political parties have always preferred to develop the socioeconomic structure that feeds the hegemony of the Pueblan oligarchy instead of promoting art. 115 constitutional with all its forces.
In Puebla and Mexico, creating new municipalities would be synonymous with ending chiefdom, clientelism, and the politics of poverty. Maria Amparo Cassar, Mauricio Merino, Enrique Cabrero and many more, in Puebla the role of Doctor César Musalem Jop should be highlighted, they have developed technologies and arguments to justify the creation of more municipalities or federal tax laws that oblige mayors to share proportionally the shares, resources and obligations with subordinate authorities. Puebla and Tlaxcala have legal recognition for the subordinate communities of the municipalities - What a relief! - In other states the issue may be more serious: the citizens of the auxiliary boards do not exist.
The federalist debate proposed by the PAN is significant, I hope that the legislators of his faction take the issue seriously and can finally do something more than a trivial montage. Of the Local Congress, as a whole, it can only be said that it is a perfidious entity against the municipalities and federalism in Puebla. Municipalizing, instead of privatizing, can be realistic to build an authentic opposition discourse. Politics and business are different things, at the local level is where the perverse confusion of both identities causes terrible damage: water, cleaning, security, lighting..., not everything can be solved through outsourcing. The managerial mentality in public affairs only means black market.
The number of municipalities that Mexico and Puebla have, as extensive as it may seem, is negligible compared to the size of local governments that consolidated democracies have. The United States and France are simple samples, but even the same Spain that Hispanic Creoles like so much can be taken as an example. Is the administrative malfunction of the Resurrection or Canoa really more serious for the municipality of Puebla than the white and corrupt elephant called IMPLAN? Doesn't the capital of Puebla deserve a local government based on Mayors or Delegations instead of a municipal administration that can less every day because the growth of the City is more than expansive? That the auxiliary authorities are human traffickers or drug traffickers, only shows that the legislators of Puebla do not know the cacicazgos of the interior of the state nor the corruption and incompetence that the municipal public accounts mean year after year; there is the design of planned failure. Or perhaps they know him to the extent that they lobby him and know how to take advantage of it. Some PAN mayors of Puebla capital and the metropolitan area, in the past, have made courageous and admirable federalist decisions that the oligarchic Congress has been throwing down. The current PAN members should learn from them, who every day identify more with the Barbosista and/or Morenovallista government instead of the nostalgic Gomezmorinian ideal. The pragmatic PAN may be right in the behavior of survival, but we already know how Faustian soap operas of submission end with the governor in office.
Democratic consolidation needs a deep reflection on the municipalities, the discussion in Puebla cannot wait any longer. Beyond progressive issues, the legislative agenda must not ignore the (glocal) municipal debate, municipalities must also become postmodern in the face of a runaway post-Covid world.