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By KELIN DILLON

Late in the evening on Wednesday, Nov. 20, Mexico’s in-power National Regeneration Movement (Morena) and its allies in the Chamber of Deputies voted to eliminate multiple autonomous organizations in favor of absorbing their duties into the federal government.

With 347 votes in favor of the initiative and 128 against, Morena accomplished a major step toward fulfilling the long-term goal of its leader, former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO).

Now, with changes to 14 elements of the Mexican Constitution, autonomous organizations like the National Institute of Transparency (INAI), the Federal Competition Commission (Cofece), and the Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT) will cease to exist as independent institutions.

Instead, according to Morena’s proposal, the IFT will be absorbed into the Secretariat of Infrastructure, Communications and Transport, Cofece into the Secretariat of the Economy, the National System for Continuous Improvement of Education into the Secretariat of Education, and the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (Coneval) into the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi).

The legislation also eliminated the National Hydrocarbons Commission (CNH) and the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) and sent their functions to the Secretariat of Energy.

According to Morena Deputy Olga Sánchez Cordero, the reforms’ goal is to return Mexico to its institutional framework from 30 years prior, one more akin to the government design of the United States or Canada.

However, opposition deputies pointed out that eliminating autonomous institutions may hinder government transparency and could set Mexico back from decades of forward progress.

Morena members also claimed the reforms would save Mexico significant money, something opposition members staunchly denied.

“The expenditure of the autonomous constitutional bodies does not represent even 1 percent of Mexico’s annual expenses,” said National Action Party (PAN) Coordinator Noemí Luna. “Morena comes here to try to justify that the autonomous constitutional bodies are an expense for the country, because since their creation they have represented an expense of more than 30 billion pesos, but they forget that, in just one year, in the budget for 2025 they are giving 40 billion pesos more to a work that, according to you, has already been completed, such as the Tren Maya.”

The reform is expected to be sent to the Mexican Senate on Friday, Nov. 22.