Mexico: Freedom of Information Laws a Model; Not So the Practice

  •  mexico city
  • Inter Press Service

Mexico has suffered a setback in terms of government transparency and access to public information, according to Thomas Blanton and Kate Doyle, experts with the Washington-based National Security Archive (NSA). In an interview with IPS, Blanton said that while Mexico's system of access to information is institutionally strong, and even serves as a model worldwide, government officials routinely ignore Federal Institute for Access to Public Information (IFAI) decisions, with no consequences.

It is incredible 'that the attorney general, who should be the first person to abide by the law, chooses to disregard the IFAI's decisions,' said Blanton, director of the NSA, an organisation at George Washington University that collects and publishes declassified documents acquired through the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. He predicted that the next battles over access to public information in Mexico would play out in the Supreme Court.

'The culture of secrecy lives on, which is a worldwide problem, but in Mexico it is more difficult because of the levels of corruption. The IFAI cannot punish unless people go to court,' Blanton said. Doyle, head of the NSA's Mexico Project, said restrictions on access to information from public entities have been stiffened in the second administration of the conservative National Action Party (PAN), under President Felipe Calderon, who took office in late 2006.

'This is a difficult time now in Mexico with regard to access to information, because they have realised (in the government) that these laws are causing problems, and they don't like it,' said Doyle. The NSA analysts are in Mexico to take part in a week of activities launched by México Infórmate, a civil society initiative that promotes the application of laws safeguarding access to information, to enable citizens to keep the government under scrutiny and monitor the use of public resources and the way the authorities make decisions that affect society as a whole.

The week of events, which started Monday, will involve at least 75 activities in different states. In 2002, the government of then president Vicente Fox (2000-2006) of the PAN passed the Federal Law of Transparency and Access to Public Government Information, which gave rise a year later to the creation of the IFAI and a system of requests for information that covers more than 200 federal offices.

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