Mexico Flirts With Dictatorship

A plan to amend the constitution would end hopes of freedom and prosperity.

Some of the world’s most notorious dictatorships were born during violent social upheaval, like Cuba in 1959 or Iran in 1979. But many others became police states when elected leaders used their popularity to demolish the rights of political minorities and eliminate institutional checks designed to limit executive power. Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua are in this category.

Knowing this history, Mexicans who want to live in a pluralistic and free republic are on edge about September.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s Morena party candidate, Claudia Sheinbaum, won the presidential election on June 2. Morena also won majorities in both chambers of Congress. But while the new legislators will take their oath of office on Sept. 1, Ms. Sheinbaum won’t be sworn in until Oct. 1.

This may give Mr. López Obrador, over the course of 30 days, power that he hasn’t enjoyed thus far in his presidency. If the National Electoral Institute rules on Aug. 23 that Morena and its allies won a supermajority in the lower house, the electoral tribunal upholds that ruling, and the president can “negotiate” the few votes he’s short of a Morena supermajority in the Senate, he plans to pass a set of radical constitutional amendments.

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