Normatividad, gestión pública del agua y ambientalismo de mercado en México: un análisis desde los proyectos políticos (2012-2018)

This document aims to characterize the premises and implications that have been given around the debate on water management in Mexico during the sexennium 2012-2018, through the categories of political projects and market environmentalism. In this process, a dispute between two political projects is identified for the definition of water as a matter of public interest. The former subordinates ―from the use of representative democracy― such interest to a perspective of favoring the use of water for economic growth. The second deals with a heterogeneous political project identified as "from below" that resists the processes of privatization and commodification of water, placing as a priority the human right inscribed in article 4 of the Mexican Constitution. The methodological approach is based on a qualitative technique called discourse analysis. The article reviews the debate that took place around the proposed National Water Law initiative. Likewise, the 10 Decrees of Water Reserves published by the Federal Executive in June 2018 are identified; both cases are presented as emblematic of the national debate on water management in Mexico. The review characterizes the domain of the neoliberal political project in water management, which tries to focus on the use of liquid as an input of mega projects under a discourse that even uses as rhetoric the human right to water and an environmental balance.