Luis Rubio
The country lost its way when it began to privilege economic decisions over political criteria. Things went well when leaders emanated from the people made decisions that separated -and, in fact, subordinated- the economic power and the interests of the elites to the political power. Therefore, the solution to the problems of the country -from security to the growth of the economy- lies in a change of vectors: from now on, the government will establish priorities and society -including all its social and economic components- will have to adapt. The result will be good because I am not corrupt.
This is a change of paradigm: the criteria that have governed the functioning of the country over the past thirty years will disappear, to give rise to a model of society that proved successful in the past and that should never have been abandoned because, in contrast with what followed, the previous one produced economic growth, social mobility, employment and political stability. It is no coincidence that Mexican society lived in peace, order and without violence. Our mandate is to restore the balance that privileged the people as a priority.
The message is transparent: Mexico can solve its problems if it heeds its internal causes, something that was abandoned with the change of economic strategy and the beginning of the reforms from 1982. That economic policy caused poverty and inequality because it did not generate enough growth to employ young people who, due to lack of opportunities, ended up in organized crime. The government will reorganize the political structure because therein lies the key to solving the country’s economic problems and, therefore, the issue of security.
At the heart of the country’s ills lies the corruption that characterized all previous governments, which cannot be prosecuted because there is not enough space in all of the country’s jails. However, as long as everyone is aligned, as was the case in the sixties, the mafia of power that produced all this corruption will disappear and the economy will be transformed to meet the needs of the people.
In terms of security, the strategy has been wrong because it was not understood that the police, military, drug traffickers and criminals -all of them- come from the people and the people are always good. Therefore, we must attend to the symptoms and consequences instead of fighting the causes. Violence is not a solution but, rather, the cause of the problems that affect us today. El Chapo, since he comes from the people, is good and deserves amnesty.
The world that the country abandoned after the sixties worked because the hierarchy of things was prone to development. The State ruled and defined objectives, priorities and rules, assuring benign results for the society. Infrastructure spending set the stage for private investment. The government controlled the private sector via permit requirements and the unions were disciplined through corrupt leaders. The governors were the implementing arms of the presidential priorities. The recreation of that structure requires an inward looking perspective, maintaining effective control of the governors, a new unionism driven by the State and the subordination of the economic power to the political power. The following months we will see the implementation of this new political structure and its results, in terms of economic growth and social peace, will become evident.
Everyone fits into the new project, as long as they accept the new rules -and are willing to give up the freedoms that they have enjoyed in these decades and legal certainty- and this is equally true for citizens, unions, businessmen, governors, investors from abroad, governments of other countries and the financial markets. To the extent that all these key players in Mexican society understand and join the project and respect the rules of the game of the new president imposes, progress will be unstoppable. Success depends on there being the will to address the country’s problems and to bring the people on board, because Mexico is a poor country that has been the victim of abuses by nationals and foreigners.
The previous governments went astray because they did not understand that the solution was in plain sight, in our own past. It was not necessary to look abroad, adapt the education system to the demands of globalization and search for social mobility in the chimera of exports, but to reactivate the domestic market, protect domestic producers and provide for young people who do not study or work. Instead, they engaged in frivolous pursuits: they accepted the imposition of rules from abroad, subordinated national interests to the market and business criteria, built pharaonic infrastructure projects, denationalized our oil resources and decimated the industry that lies at the heart of the development of the country, in the past and in the future.
The project is clear, and the vision leaves no doubt about what the new government wants to achieve. Its challenge lies in ensuring that the reality adapts to the project, because if not, too bad for reality.
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