Politics: Human rights body is the latest target of the government
From the moment he took office, the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has been especially outspoken in its denunciations of autonomous bodies, especially those that are mainly focused on economic matters. The energy regulatory and federal competition commissions have received the brunt of these official denunciations, as well as efforts to hamstring their work or replace the officers of such bodies with people who would presumably be more subservient to the current government. But in recent days the administration expanded its focus by launching a blistering attack on the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) after that body dared to criticize administration's efforts to eliminate public funding for privately managed childcare centers to attend to the children of low income mothers.
Beyond the immediate merits of that case, this offensive against the CNDH could be a sign that the current administration is determined to eliminate or domesticate any and all autonomous bodies that might be tempted to assume their responsibility as a counterweight to official decisions and policy. Another reason for concern is the extent to which officials responded to the commission's recommendations not only by rejecting its arguments, but also by alleging that its members are not qualified to express any opinion. AMLO added to the offensive by saying the commission lacks the necessary moral authority “because it maintained a complicit silence when the Mexican State was the main human rights violator, but now acts differently toward us.”
Matters are likely to get even more tense as the CNDH prepares to issue recommendations regarding the illegal militarization of the National Guard and in defense of the labor rights of thousands of former members of the disbanded Federal Police who have been protesting the manner in which they were transferred to the new security force against their will.
The government’s attacks on the CNDH signal a broader strategy to debilitate constitutionally autonomous bodies and concentrate power in the hands of the president, and could be a rehearsal for future attacks against other counterweights to executive power, especially those in the judicial branch and Banco de México.
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