Health crisis or economic crisis?
As 2021 began, Mexico and the world faced a terrible dilemma: closing businesses or implementing stricter health measures. A decision that was made at the dawn of a global economic crisis and with a greater need for resources for medical care.
With it clear that health measures would continue, our labor and real estate specialists once again pointed out options for the productive society. They spoke of modernizing labor relations through teleworking, of alternatives for converting offices into housing, and of the “dark kitchens” or “ghost kitchens” phenomenon, as new opportunities for the weakened restaurant industry.
The state of health emergency was declared, which does not contingency, because that single word would open the door to legalizing non-compliance with contracts, collateral damage began to appear: violations of environmental legislation, which also included the works on the Mayan train and the first signs of bankruptcy in the hardest hit sectors.
It must also be said that there were signs of recovery of foreign investments in some states such as CDMX, Nuevo León, Querétaro, State of Mexico and Jalisco, but they encountered obstacles due to the paralysis of immigration procedures for the foreign executives who accompany them.
There was also an atmosphere of constitutional controversies before the Supreme Court, or at least of injunctions, against bills such as the one on the electric industry; the initiative to establish a cell phone registry, which threatened the protection of personal data; the increasingly distant legal certainty to promote investments in clean energy, such as hydrogen; and the blunders in health regulations that have closed the doors to a true promise: the hemp industry. Our legislators continue to confuse marijuana, a variant with a psychoactive compound, with hemp, a non-psychoactive plant, which serves as raw material to produce biofuel, textiles, cosmetics and components for the construction industry, among others.
In the middle of the year, pressure again prevailed due to the imminent entry into force of the legislation on outsourcing, characterized by the lack of clarity of its regulations, which did not contemplate or calculate the complexity of labor relations and third-party contracting for key industries, such as the automotive industry. The above, coupled with the threat of criminal taxation that comes with non-compliance, a situation that our specialists pointed out to the public.
And to be fair, despite legislative contradictions and absurdities, the defense of the Constitution, the autonomy of key institutions and the rule of law were maintained. As was the defense of the environment.
At the beginning of the year, the dilemma seemed clear: “society or economy”, “future or present”. Today, it is fading. One of our partners told the media: “The productive society, with the wounds of the pandemic, will take savage capitalism out of the game.” I would add that statism and savage congresses will also be eliminated, but that will be the subject of the next installment.
