On January 7, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced that plans are afoot to eliminate a selection of decentralized and autonomous agencies regarded as inefficient and costly. Among them is the National Institute of Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data (INAI), whose creation he has described as a “facade to make transparent the dismantling of the State during the neoliberal era”.

The bill, set to reach Congress in the first days of February, proposes transferring INAI’s duties to the Secretariat of Public Function, thereby rendering them no longer independent. Following the announcement of the plans, INAI issued a statement denouncing the proposed reform as a “regression in Mexico’s democratic history”. In the same vein, the civil society organization Mexicans Against Corruption warned that the disappearance of INAI would prevent proper oversight of the government’s actions.

INAI is an autonomous body enshrined in the constitution tasked with upholding human rights and protecting personal data and access to information. To eliminate or modify its functions, Congress must approve a partial amendment to the Constitution with a special two-thirds majority in each chamber followed by ratification from Mexico’s 17 sub-national congresses. The bill is likely to face difficulties in the Senate, where four opposition blocs have already said that they will not support it.