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August 23, 2017

Governors gone wild: Mexico faces a “lost generation” of corrupt leaders

During the colonial period, the Spanish Americas were governed under the 14th-century formula, “Obedézcase, pero no se cumpla”: obey, but do not comply.

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This double legal standard acknowledged the king鈥檚 authority while preventing royal law from encroaching upon local customs and guild privileges.

The affirmative command (obey) came with a built-in negation (do not comply), undermining the rule of law. For Spanish colonies like Mexico, that meant three centuries of whimsically applied justice, which allowed corruption to flourish. Historically speaking, then, is pretty old news in Mexico.

And yet, by any measure, graft in Mexico has reached stunning new highs this year. Over the past five months, three state governors have been arrested abroad while trying to escape justice, and fully eleven of the country鈥檚 32 total governors are currently under investigation or fighting prosecution for corruption.

Today, nearly 90% of Mexicans see the state and federal government as deeply corrupt, according to . Citizens regard corruption as the facing the country, after crime and violence.

 

 

Runaway governors

Among the country鈥檚 many incriminated governors is Roberto Borge, whose state, Quintana Roo, is home to the tourist meccas of Cancun and Tulum.

In June, he was after fleeing accusations of, among other crimes, to drive people off beachfront hotels and homes after court officers connected to his network had seized the properties from their owners.

The August 2016 incidents , spooking international tourists already uneasy about Mexico鈥檚 .

Borge was the third rogue governor rounded up in 2017. In April, after five years on the run, Tom谩s Yarrington, who lead the Gulf coast state of Tamaulipas from 1999 to 2005, was in Italy in a joint operation by Interpol and the Mexican police.

He stands of taking millions in bribes from both the Gulf and the Zeta cartels, two of the most vicious criminal organisations that have .

 

 

Six days after Yarrington鈥檚 capture, former Veracruz governor Javier Duarte (2010-2016) was in Guatemala after months on the lam. He allegedly stole almost , bankrupting his home state in the process.

An investigation by the newspaper found that US$35 million destined for social programmes was paid instead to phantom companies. The Veracruz government has also accused Duarte of meant to pay for chemotherapy for young people with cancer. Rather than receive the medication Avastin, children were dispensed .

 

 

Among Duarte鈥檚 seized by the Mexican government are apartments, luxury ranches, dozens of bank accounts (in Mexico and abroad) and by Joan Mir贸, Rufino Tamayo and Fernando Botero, among others.

His family had no regrets about their ill-begotten wealth. In a notebook believed to belong to Duarte鈥檚 wife, Karime Mac铆as, the phrase, 鈥淵es, I deserve abundance鈥� appears no fewer than .

Power (back) to the people

The exploits of Mexico鈥檚 fugitive governors, which alternately entertained and appalled Mexicans for most of this spring, were a blow to Mexico鈥檚 president, Enrique Pe帽a Nieto.

Duarte was close to the president, who once for his honesty, and all three runaway governors are affiliated with his ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). In 2012, then-candidate Pe帽a Nieto claimed that the party was renewing its ranks with 鈥渘ew politicians who are doing things differently鈥�, naming Borge and Duarte specifically.

 

 

Five years later, political analysts in Mexico are now considering the current political class a of public servants.

The president (who has since 鈥溾�� praising Duarte and his ilk), his arrest and that of Yarrington as a 鈥渇irm message鈥� that corrupt public officials will have to 鈥渁nswer for their actions鈥�.

His administration says it aims to create a that would, at least on paper, give the federal government ample tools to combat corruption. But the , which is dominated by PRI and by its main opposition, the National Action Party (PAN), has for years failed to appoint an anti-corruption prosecutor.

In any case, a by a Senate think tank now shows that scandal-weary citizens are already distrustful of the government鈥檚 proposed anti-corruption efforts, even before they鈥檝e launched.

The legislature鈥檚 failure to act, coupled with the administration鈥檚 recent appointment of the PRI senator Ra煤l Cervantes Andrade as attorney general, has triggered national alarm about nepotism and profiteering.

New mandated the president to appoint an for a nine-year term. But Cervantes is a close ally of Pe帽a Nieto, and as senate president he helped the president .

Critics fear his term will amount to a decade of impunity for Pe帽a Nieto, Duarte, Yarrington and other corrupt Mexican leaders.

The lost transition

The PRI, which ruled Mexico for most of the 20th century, has long been tainted by corruption. For 71 years the party used it as an instrument to , distributing wealth and power among its loyal ranks.

When the PAN鈥檚 Vicente Fox was elected as the first non-PRI president, in 2000, Mexicans hoped a had begun. Shortly after he took office, President Fox appeared in a series of TV spots claiming that the time to 鈥渃lean the government of corruption鈥� had arrived.

 

 

But both Mexicans and their newly elected government soon learned how deeply institutionalised corruption was in Mexico. In May 2001, Fox鈥檚 secretary of foreign affairs, Jorge G. 颁补蝉迟补帽别诲补, confessed to the Spanish newspaper that the democratic transition was proving harder than he and the president had foreseen.

鈥淭he most damaging legacy of PRI鈥檚 authoritarianism is not political repression but corruption鈥�, 颁补蝉迟补帽别诲补 said in the May 2001 article.

Rather than end corruption, Fox鈥檚 triumph changed it in unexpected ways.

As the public intellectual Jorge Carpizo once acknowledged, appointing governors was one of a PRI president鈥檚 . During the party鈥檚 uninterrupted seven-decade reign, just a handful of non-PRI governors (and only starting in the 1990s), and governors were expected to be subservient to the president.

Once the PRI lost power in 2000, state leaders no longer owed loyalty to the president. With limited federal oversight, governors 鈥� whose powers include state legislatures, auditors and prosecutors 鈥� enjoyed unchecked power over federal funds allocated to their states. Many have since ruled with high impunity.

颁补蝉迟补帽别诲补 that he saw this coming, and advised Fox to orchestrate a clean break with the PRI, prosecuting corrupt PRI officials.

But the president, who needed the PRI鈥檚 votes in Congress to implement his agenda, rejected this idea, calling his foreign secretary 鈥渃razy鈥� and a 鈥�肠补产谤贸苍鈥� (dumbass). With this hearty dismissal went Mexico鈥檚 chance at a complete transition into democracy and the rule of law.

The generation of governors that emerged has been called the .

 

 

From the new PRI?

In 2012, Mexicans voted PRI into office again, putting the future of accountability for such corruption in the hands of the party that spawned it. The odds of federal action seem bleak.

Back during the colonial period, people who were of abuses (abusos), bribery (cohecho) and other forms of corruption (mala administraci贸n) could file a complaint against public officials, and the king would send an to check things out. If appropriate, the king鈥檚 envoy could suspend the investigated official and give out preliminary punishments for his misdeeds.

Today it鈥檚 civil society that鈥檚 playing the investigator role. In modern Mexico, stronger and a freer media are helping citizens and watchdog groups uncover and, if not end, then at least turn corruption incidents into major public scandals.

In June, activists and journalists revealed that the Pe帽a Nieto administration had been .

Even Mexican youngsters are old enough to be fed up. Last spring, ten-year old 脕ngel Jacinto Toh Nun of Quintana Roo during the annual 鈥淐hildren鈥檚 Parliament鈥� to denounce corruption, berating politicians for 鈥渄oing everything to conserve their privileges, without caring about the misery Mexicans are going through鈥�.

鈥淵ou, members of Congress鈥�, he thundered, 鈥渨hat are you doing to put Roberto Borge behind bars? Are you afraid, or did they [just] find your price?鈥�

 

 

In the current climate, such questions, once posed, aren鈥檛 likely to fade into silence. Sooner or later, the government will be compelled to answer, if only at the ballot box: Mexico鈥檚 next general election is less than a year away.

, Senior Lecturer in Human Rights, Constitutional Law and Legal Theory,

This article was originally published on . Read the .

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