The Controls of Power in Crisis: Between Institutional Capture and Citizen Resistance

Abstract

Introduction

1. Two Constitutional Reforms Contribute to Democratic Backsliding

The judicial reform of September 2024, approved in the last two weeks of López Obrador's administration, and the constitutional reform of December of the same year, with Claudia Sheinbaum already in office, which eliminated the INAI (National Institute for Transparency, Access to Information and Personal Data Protection) along with six other autonomous bodies—three of them constitutionally autonomous (IFT, Cofece, and Coneval)—marked the culmination of the dismantling of institutions that check power and balances, key pillars of a constitutional democracy. However, these two reforms were not the product of spontaneous, abrupt, or surprising decisions; they resulted from a calculated, coordinated, and systematic process that had been brewing for six years during AMLO's administration, within the context of extreme political polarization, fueled both in government rhetoric and practice.