Mexico remains a vacation location of choice for many people worldwide. Despite nearly non-stop negative publicity, more Americans and Canadians visit Mexico for vacation (and as expats) than any other country. Mexico is unique in being near the top of two different international indices: best place to visit/live, and worst degree of corruption. When you see the other nations on the corruption index, you notice right away they are places you might not even consider visiting: Pakistan, Iraq, Nigeria, and Myanmar for example.
You don’t have to take my word, or some organization’s statistics, to believe Mexico has a corruption problem. Mexican Presidente López Obrador has cited rooting out corruption as a top priority, and his recent effort to eliminate petroleum theft by closing gas pipelines–despite the ensuing gas shortages and a tragic explosion–demonstrates his seriousness.
All of which means Mexico is a place where a visitor is likely to see corruption. And what does that corruption look like? To the visitor, the quintessential picture of Mexican corruption is the overweight transito, or traffic cop, pulling you over for no reason and demanding some mordida (“bites” literally, but a bribe in español). For the most part, it appears harmless, and the way some visitors talk about it, it almost seems to be a required part of an adventurous trip to Mexico.
Expats, too, have their share of transito and mordida stories. One interesting difference is they usually begin with the expat admitting they were either driving without a seat belt, making an illegal left turn, or missing a license plate or emissions sticker (all civil violations in Mexico), thus giving the transito an excuse. The story ends the same way, however: a mordida request.
Yet if you live in Mexico long enough, you get to see what corruption really looks like. The true face of corruption is crime and violence. Here is how that works.
Corruption is… the result of a decadent political regime. We are absolutely convinced that this evil is the main cause of social and economic inequality, and also that corruption is to blame for the violence in our country.
Presidente Andrés Manuel López Obrador
In a society based on law and order, police impartially enforce laws, courts determine guilt and innocence, and the people trust these institutions to act justly. The classic depiction of Lady Justice is blindfolded, as she favors neither rich nor poor, but strictly decides on the merit of the case. In a corrupt society, all these relationships and rules are, well, corrupted. Something besides the truth and merits determines justice: it may be money, power, the whim of the strongman, or the party’s doctrine. Because merit and truth no longer matter, relationships with the new source of justice become all-important.
In Mexico, the federal and state governments all changed as a result of the election last year. The party controlling many legislatures and local governments also changed, and the new Presidente presides over a party he just created. Needless to say as a result, all the patronage relationships were re-arranged. Meanwhile, new municipal administrations came to power to find no money in the accounts (the last administration took it), equipment missing, ridiculous contracts already signed, and secret development agreements uncovered.
This changeover is especially evident every six years, when the federal government changes leadership, as Mexican Presidentes are limited to a single six-year term. During the extended government transition (the election was in July, the federal administration begins on December 1st) there is usually an increase in crime. Police don’t know who to arrest and who to protect, because who is in charge now won’t be in charge soon. Criminals are more active, especially as the holiday month of December begins and there are more people with more money out and about. And this election cycle, the various drug cartels are involved in a re-shuffling of the plazas, as the local drug franchises are known.
As you see, corruption manifests itself in the underpaid cop asking for graft roadside, but it also leads to ineffective or seemingly random law enforcement, a lack of necessary resources (no cars/no gas=no cops), or an opportunity for some quick gains via crime and violence. And we haven’t even gotten to the whole “drug money buys influence” side of the ledger.
In the second part of this post, I’ll take the topic of corruption down to a more personal level.
Bob & I look forward to the 2nd part.
It sounds as if Mexican ‘corruption’ changes hands with Administrations and trickles down to the individual level. Perhaps we don’t see America’s corruption in quite the same way because, while it changes hands (depends on the party in power), it trickles down to groups of individuals.