The National Institute of Transparency, Access to Information, and Protection of Personal Data (INAI) held activities in Querétaro as part of National Transparency Week 2024, which began on November 13 in the state capital. Blanca Lilia Ibarra Cadena, INAI commissioner, highlighted that inaccurate claims about the effectiveness of the Institute have been expressed in political discourse, indicating that citizens are about to lose a crucial control mechanism focused on defending freedom of expression and political participation in the formation of a democratic state.
"Mexicans are about to lose an effective control mechanism, whose activity focuses on the defense of two crucial freedoms for the free development of personality, freedom of expression and political participation for the formation of an authentic democratic state."
It was warned that if INAI is eliminated at the national level, as well as specialized and independent institutions like InfoQro in Querétaro, the powers and autonomous bodies themselves will be responsible for resolving controversies without the supervision of an external instance.
Blanca Lilia Ibarra Cadena mentioned that they will seek to engage in dialogue with the three powers of the union to improve INAI and guarantee citizens' rights to access information, considering that the proposed reform would represent a setback in the rights of the population. Adrián Alcalá Méndez, INAI's president commissioner, participated remotely in the start of Transparency Week in Querétaro while attending the discussion in the Chamber of Deputies on the "Administrative Simplification" reform, which includes the possible elimination of INAI. In his words: "Eliminating autonomous bodies and with it the possible extinction of human rights, and I say this because when rights are diluted, they tend to blur and then disappear."
