(Credit: Hector Vivas / Getty Images)
Editor's Note:
Camilo Egaña is
Camilo's
driver
.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
(CNN Spanish) -
The query of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, on whether to prosecute five former presidents of Mexico (although the Supreme Court replaced the subject by "actors from the past"), for issues such as corruption, possible fraud elections and the war against drug trafficking, passed without pain or glory.
According to data from the National Electoral Institute of Mexico, that consultation barely had a citizen participation of 7.1% and of that percentage, 9 out of 10 voters chose yes.
But 40% of the electoral roll was needed to make it binding.
Even so, the Mexican president affirmed that it had been a "triumph".
The consultation of López Obrador to judge crimes of the past was a maneuver full of traps because he tried - once again - to blame that past for all the national misfortunes.
And therefore your government does not have to take full responsibility.
The convocation also showed that Mexican voters, even the followers of the president, are not interested in ideological skirmishes that seek political profit at all costs, that disappointment and exhaustion are deep and visceral, and that people believe that a country changes only with concrete and honest proposals.
For Latin American populist politicians, the referendum is the best tool of what they consider to be the mechanisms of direct democracy.
But in situations like this, it is really a very sloppy instrument of manipulation: the ruler asks his people what they want and the people, with their answers, take responsibility for the consequences.
López Obrador has submitted the country to five popular consultations: to build the Mayan Train, a brewery in Baja California and two runways in a province airport and to recondition the airports of Mexico City and Toluca, among other matters, mainly of infrastructure.
And nothing portends that the president of Mexico, so prone to referendums, will stop calling them.
I could ask voters, for example, if they prefer Lucía Méndez or Verónica Castro ... or if the pozole should be cooked with the meat of captive enemies - as it was done in pre-Hispanic times - or with chicken or pork. , as it is cooked today.
That for asking does not remain.
AMLO
