John M. Ackerman

John Mill Ackerman Rose is an American-born, naturalized Mexican political activist, TV host, and academic at UNAM.

For other people named John Ackerman, see John Ackerman (disambiguation).
In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Ackerman and the second or maternal family name is Rose.
John M. Ackerman
Born
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Education
EmployerNational Autonomous University of Mexico
SpouseIrma Sandoval-Ballesteros
Parents

Early life and education

He is the son of social liberal thinker Bruce Ackerman and the economist Susan Rose-Ackerman, both professors at Yale Law School.

He earned his undergraduate degree from Swarthmore College while he received his MA and PhD in Political Sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Career

Ackerman is a professor of constitutional law at UNAM's Law School, and editor-in-chief of the Mexican Law Review magazine.[1]

He has contributed to international newspapers such as Proceso, La Jornada, El Universal, Reforma of Mexico, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, Houston Chronicle, San Diego Union-Tribune in the United States and The Guardian in the United Kingdom on the topics of corruption control, elections, transparency, accountability, autonomous institutions and citizen participation.

He has also published research results in World Development, Administrative Law Review, Boletín Mexicano de Derecho Comparado, Mexican Law Review, Gestión y Política Pública, Perfiles Latinoamericanos. He has also served as a senior consultant for the World Bank as well as a consultant for the United States Agency for International Development, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, PNUD, Global Integrity, Open Society Institute, International Budget Partnership, Secretary of the Public Function, United Nations Development Programme, Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, the Chamber of Deputies and for the Head of Government of the Federal District.

He is the host of two political talk shows, Diálogos por la democracia in TV UNAM, and John y Sabina with Sabina Berman, broadcast by Canal Once.[2][3] The John y Sabina show has been criticized by the opposition as being government propaganda expensively funded with public money.[4][5]

Political ideology

Ackerman is an activist for left-wing causes and an active supporter of National Regeneration Movement (Morena), a political party, and of its leader Andrés Manuel López Obrador.[6] He is married to Irma Eréndira Sandoval, former member of the cabinet as Minister of Public Administration.[7]

Ackerman defended the government of Nicolas Maduro, saying Venezuela was "much more democratic and respectful of human rights than Mexico".[8][9][10] In the same article, published on La Jornada on 27 March 2017, Ackerman claims there is no electoral fraud in Venezuela, that there is constant media censorship in Mexico, that there are more political prisoners in Mexico than in any other Latin American country and that there is a clear separation of branches of government in Venezuela.[11] He also claimed that Mexico is worse off than Venezuela in terms of corruption, poverty, inequality and violence.[11]

Publications
  • Social Accountability in the Public Sector: A Conceptual Discussion (World Bank, 2005)
  • Leyes de acceso a la información pública en el mundo (Instituto Federal de Acceso a la Información Pública, 2005)
  • Estructura institucional para la rendición de cuentas: Lecciones internacionales y reformas futuras (Auditoría Superior de la Federación, 2006)
  • Organismos autónomos y democracia: el caso de México (Siglo XXI Editores-Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas, UNAM, 2007)
  • Más allá del acceso a la información: Transparencia, rendición de cuentas y Estado de Derecho (Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas, UNAM-Cámara de Diputados-Siglo XXI Editores-Univ. de Guadalajara-CETA, 2008)
  • El mito de la transición democrática: Nuevas coordenadas para la transformación del régimen mexicano (Editorial Planeta, 2015)

Controversies

Comparison of journalists with drug cartel hitmen

On June 27, 2020, the head of Public Security in Mexico City, Omar García Harfuch, survived an attempt on his life which he later blamed on the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.[12] Reacting to the news, Ackerman published a tweet in his personal Twitter account comparing journalists who have been critical of the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador with drug cartel hitmen (sicarios), calling them "media sicarios". Mexico's National Human Rights Commission (in Spanish Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos, CNDH) and Reporteros Sin Fronteras condemned Ackerman's tweet, calling it "irresponsible" given that Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries for journalists.[13][14]

Participation in the technical evaluation committee of the National Electoral Institute

In February 2020 Ackerman was proposed by Rosario Piedra Ibarra, director of the National Human Rights Commission to be a member of the technical evaluation committee of the Mexican National Electoral Institute (in Spanish Instituto Nacional Electoral, INE).[15] This committee has an important role in selecting INE's new directors and Ackerman's nomination was met with criticism due to his close personal and political affinity with the government, and being part of the ruling party's cadre training body.[16][17] Congressman Juan Carlos Romero Hicks from the National Action Party (in Spanish Partido Acción Nacional, PAN) said that Ackerman did not meet the required neutral background, and René Juaréz Cisneros from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (in Spanish Partido Revolucionario Insitucional, PRI) asked the CNDH to reconsider the nomination due to Ackerman's position in a political party.[18] Together with PAN and PRI, two other opposition parties, Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) and Citizen's Movement (MC) contested without success Ackerman's designation, which was confirmed by the Federal Electoral Tribunal.[19]

References
  1. "Ackerman Rose, John Mill". Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas. 18 October 2020. Archived from the original on 2020-10-18. Retrieved 2020-10-18.
  2. "Diálogos por la democracia". TV UNAM (in Spanish). October 2020. Archived from the original on 2020-10-18. Retrieved 2020-10-18.
  3. "John y Sabina". Canal Once (in Spanish). 2020. Archived from the original on 2020-10-18. Retrieved 2020-10-18.
  4. Jiménez, Horacio; Canchola, Alejandra (3 July 2019). "PAN presenta queja contra programas "tendenciosos" de Canal Once" (in Spanish). El Universal. Archived from the original on 18 October 2020. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
  5. Martínez, Marco Antonio (22 June 2019). "Esto ganan John Ackerman, Sabina Berman y Hernán Gómez por episodio". La Silla Rota (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2020-10-18. Retrieved 2020-10-18.
  6. "Ackerman, sin rigor intelectual difunde encuestas falsas". SDPnoticias.com (in European Spanish). 28 May 2017.
  7. "¿Quién es John Ackerman, quien busca evaluar a aspirantes al INE?". El Universal (in Spanish). 2020-02-27. Archived from the original on 2020-10-18. Retrieved 2020-10-18.
  8. "¿A cuál López Obrador creerle? ¿Al de Romo o al de Ackerman?". Excélsior (in Spanish). Excélsior. 3 April 2017. Retrieved 30 June 2017.
  9. "Does AMLO Have a Venezuela Problem?". www.americasquarterly.org. Americas Quarterly. Retrieved 30 June 2017.
  10. "El asesor de López ensalza a Venezuela". www.elfinanciero.com.mx. Retrieved 30 June 2017.
  11. "El canciller traidor". La Jornada. 27 March 2017. Retrieved 30 June 2017.
  12. ""Se hará justicia": lo que se sabe del ataque contra el jefe de policía de Ciudad de México y cómo se planificó". BBC News Mundo (in Spanish). 28 June 2020. Archived from the original on 2020-10-18. Retrieved 2020-10-18.
  13. "Organizaciones de prensa condenan frase de Ackerman contra periodistas • Forbes México". Forbes México (in Mexican Spanish). 2020-06-27. Archived from the original on 2020-10-18. Retrieved 2020-10-18.
  14. "CNDH critica dichos de Ackerman contra periodistas". La Jornada (in Spanish). 2020-06-28. Archived from the original on 2020-10-18. Retrieved 2020-10-18.
  15. Castillo, Elia (28 February 2020). "John Ackerman, ¿por qué es polémico su nombramiento en comité del INE?". Milenio (in Mexican Spanish). Archived from the original on 2020-10-19. Retrieved 2020-10-19.
  16. Ordaz Díaz, Arturo (2020-02-27). "Legalidad de Ackerman para evaluar a candidatos al INE, en el aire". Forbes México (in Mexican Spanish). Archived from the original on 2020-10-19. Retrieved 2020-10-19.
  17. "Acerca de nosotros". Instituto de Formación Política de Morena (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2020-10-19. Retrieved 2020-10-19.
  18. García, Carina; Jiménez, Horacio (27 February 2020). "Inicia con tropiezos relevo en el INE; rechazan perfil de Ackerman". El Universal (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 19 October 2020. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
  19. "TEPJF ratifica a John Ackerman como integrante del Comité de Evaluación del INE" (in Spanish). El Economista. 11 March 2020. Archived from the original on 2 April 2020. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
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