Politics: Initiatives and recently approved laws represent a worrying setback for freedom of expression and citizens' privacy
Is Mexico advancing, slowly or otherwise, toward an authoritarian state? Many critics of Claudia Sheinbaum’s government think so, and several recent developments would appear to validate such fears. For argument's sake, such developments could be attributable to some overzealous officials or chalked up to inexperienced "yahoos", particularly on the state level. However, unfortunately, a series of laws have also been approved or are in the hopper that would codify undemocratic and authoritarian practices, as well as control of society on the part of the state.
Among the many acts of intimidation and censorship against journalists and critical-minded citizens that put freedom of expression at risk are recent developments in Puebla, Campeche, and Tamaulipas that have attracted national attention. The Puebla Penal Code allows for 11 months to three year’s imprisonment for anyone who uses information and communication technologies to “insult, slander, offend and cause harm” to others, ambiguous concepts that are completely open to discretionary interpretation. In Campeche, the newspaper Tribuna was shut down by a court order promoted by Governor Layda Sansores due to reports on corruption allegations against her when she was mayor of a Mexico City municipality. The newspaper’s former editor, Jorge Gonzalez Valadez, was prohibited by a court from exercising journalism for two years and ordered to pay a 2-million-peso (US$107,000) fine. Similar attacks on free expression have been reported in Tamaulipas and other states, often based on the use of the accusation of “gender-based political violence” to silence critics. On the legal and legislative front, concern has centered on the Telecommunications Law, with its new provisions weakening personal data protection and enabling the interception of private communications.
Despite claims by President Claudia Sheinbaum that the government is firmly committed to defending freedom of expression, a series of legal dispositions points to the construction, despite constitutional safeguards formally in place, of a major government surveillance body with no institutional counterweights to restrain the enforcement of unjustified actions. Indeed, without any mechanisms of supervision or sanctions against those who administer the system of intelligence and citizens’ confidential data, society is left largely defenseless against the risk of abuses, intolerance, and authoritarian trends displayed by those in power.
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