Miguel Angel Sandoval
A few years ago I wrote a book with a title that could be seen as provoking debate or prescient about the future of the country. The title of the book was “Recover politics or lose the country.” In it, an analysis was made of what happened after the plaza in 2015 and the way in which the country’s perspectives were in dispute. It was not at all certain that justice or the fight against corruption would triumph and he said in the introductory notes, “a Thermidorian reaction is still possible” (conservative).
Today this conservative reaction is installed in the country and for this reason the approach is made that in these conditions the country is facing a dilemma: Democracy or Barbarism. In both cases, reference is made to themes that occurred or were coined in Europe from the triumphant or defeated revolutions, but which have a strong influence on what is happening in our country today. In one case it is the French Revolution of 1789, in the other the German Revolution of 1918.
With the idea of recovering politics, reference was made in the first instance to the reform that had to take place in the electoral law and political parties, where the first of the changes or adjustments was to divide the functions jurisdictional elections. That is, to separate the organization of the elections and the process of counting the votes, registering parties, etc., and on the other hand, the issues that could have a judicial nature so as not to turn the electoral issue into a judicial instance. The dejudicialization of politics was imposed. That was the deep meaning of the process to recover politics or failing that, lose the country. In other words, lose democracy.
It is for not having seen and acted in the direction of the recovery of politics, that today we find ourselves in the indicated dilemma. Democracy or Barbarism. Well, that and nothing else is expressed in the annulment of several candidacies with futile pretexts, which in truth do not contribute to the strengthening of democracy and place us before barbarism as a scenario. Everything, speaking in political terms, not judicial, less with emotional charges, but with analysis. I inherit to the exclusion of Roberto Arzú, Telma Cabrera, Pineda, Aldo Dávila, Foppa, etc.
The political process, with the democracy to the tortrix that we have in our country, has resulted in a judicial process, where it is not the political programs or the ideology of the parties that count, but the “faults” or the findings in the partisan activity, as if it were a Comptroller’s study and not a political process. It is quite true that the parties do not do what is appropriate, that many times they have turned the parties into a source of business, not an expression of democracy that, through their institutions, in this case the parties, give them a reason for being the most imperfect of political systems such as democracy (as Churchill defined it).
That is why it is necessary once again to state that we have to recover politics or lose democracy. Well, it is not possible that the magistrates of the electoral court gloat over the idea of canceling the parties at will when it occurs to them, and that society does not say anything about this truly anomalous and undesirable behavior. Even more serious, that the files for the Fouls or failures or findings in the matches, are transferred to the courts, whatever they are, or worse still, that investigation processes are initiated in the MP.
If we think about democracy in the US, the shortcomings, findings or whatever, are aired in a political way and the costs, if any, are political and are expressed at the ballot box. There is no court that removes one or the other. Imagine Trump eliminated from the electoral process, or Kennedy or whoever, and we realize that there is nothing like that. Well, it is not the function of the institutions in charge of electoral processes. The only judges are the citizens who speak at the polls, not with rigged, spurious processes.
In truth, only in the democracy to the tortrix that we have, that this is possible. If this happened in other countries, democracy as a system would have been sent to the trash can a long time ago. Understand: politics is not a matter for judges less than prosecutors, the magistrates of the electoral court have other functions and not exactly judicial. To continue like this is to pervert politics, and, above all, destroy democracy.
