On May 17th, 2016, in the midst of the celebration of the National Day of the Fight against Homophobia, the Mexican president, Enrique Peña Nieto launched an initiative to legalize same-sex marriage, surprising even the LGBTTTI community. This bill submitted to Congress would amend the Constitution and the federal civil code, allowing same-sex couples to wed nationwide. Although this bill might seem like a subsequent action to the Supreme Court’s decision on gay marriage from last summer, it is an unexpected turn from Peña´s administration.
The announcement of this bill comes at a time in which president Peña’s approval ratings hit its lowest point in March, 2016, with only 34% of popular approval according to Mexican newspaper Reforma; as Guillermo Velasco said to the newspaper, it is the lowest rating ever recorded for a Mexican president. This fact is coherent with the outburst that the scandals of his administration –which include massive corruption, a prison break, and 43 missing students-, have caused. The president’s team efforts to retrieve his image have gone low enough to drift away from his agenda into a sensationalistic move that progressives would praise.
Peña was even unfaithful to his principles, for he became president as a candidate of PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) -his lifelong party- that has a center-right political position; before this bill, he was never identified as an allied of the gay community and their right to marriage.
This announcement, as a chess move, raises the party’s levels of approval as elections in 15 states and in Mexico City take place this next Sunday. This move takes for granted the importance of this issue, jeopardizing the future of the social structure based on the family by prioritizing popular headlines and a rainbow picture filter.
I agree with those European scholars that say that Latin American democracies are still an experiment, a toy with which voters play every once in a while, and a necessary transition towards efficient governance. It might sound like Joseph de Masitre’s idea that “a country has the government it deserves” might be applicable for Mexico, because Peña’s constituents caused our current situation. But I still refuse to believe that Mexican society truly deserves a president who dared to sell the value of family at the cost of an opportunistic political move.
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