Why mexico is so corrupt

City skyline blinks in nightly ritual to cheer up sick kids. In Zika-stricken Miami, aerial pesticide spray adds to fears. Study details sugar industry attempt to shape science. Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. One telling sign is the way business came to rely on government; not just in terms of policy decisions which affect business in every nation but personal relations with government officials.

Since the nation's founding, few private fortunes were made without colmillo "fang" or cunning , the owner's ability to cultivate ties to the right officials and master the art of "mutually convenient" relationships. In this scheme, the mindset of politicians drove and was driven by the mindset of business leaders: wary, secretive, suspicious, and cynical.

Each group deeply distrusted the other, yet both intermingled in the same tight-knit social and business circles. An entire foundation supported this symbiosis: classism, Catholicism, a gulf between pre-Hispanic and European values, strong authoritarian and elitist traditions, and, of course, corruption. On all sides, trust was minimal. Most transactions were made between family, friends and neighbors. In time, the sense of "us versus them" gave rise to deep-seated paranoia, subtle and often unspoken expectations to keep outsiders outside -- the knowing wink, the sealed lips.

Back in the s, a famous Italian official named Cesari Mori was appointed prefect of Palermo, the capital of Sicily. Mori was a model police officer, later chosen by Mussolini to lead his national campaign against organized crime.

For years, Mori lived in Trappini on the western part of the island. In his writings, he claimed to have "penetrated the Sicilian mind" which he found to be:.

The key to the Mafia's success, he argued, was its ability to understand this complex dynamic and exploit it. And so in Mexico: the entrenched power of monopolists, party bosses, cardinals and mafias are reflections of something much deeper -- a perspective that arose from what Cosa Nostra calls the "painful scars of Absent such a revolutionary change, specific legal reforms can address the symptoms of corruption or other social problems, such as drug activity.

The system itself, after all, is based on corruption. Shusha was the key to the recent war between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Now Baku wants to turn the fabled fortress town into a resort. Argument An expert's point of view on a current event.

By Luis Rubio. December 26, , PM. Tags: Corruption , Economics , Law , Mexico. What in the World? November 12, , PM. Trending 1. Blame Brussels. A Blueprint for Peace in Ethiopia. Latest Analysis. And engaging in politics would mean listening and building bridges and modernizing his views and accepting pluralism in his own party.

It would entail devising a cabinet that included the best people and not those who are unconditionally loyal. It would entail moving beyond the close-knit circle that surrounds him, where many questionable allies remain.

It would entail offering convincing policy proposals and not just impulsive occurrences. He would have to leave behind the rhetoric of constant confrontation and incessant division. He will need to develop a constructive agenda that transcends mere hatred of the established system. An agenda that is based on policy analysis and policy prescriptions. An agenda capable of establishing him and his team as political actors that want to reconcile and modernize the country, not the opposite.

The internal challenges are great; the external dangers are omnipresent. We have witnessed the arrival into the Oval Office of a man without any sort of experience in public office, with a half-visceral, half-vengeful temperament. Incapable of controlling his impulses on Twitter, incapable of addressing the xenophobia, racism, and anti-Semitism that runs rampant among many of his followers.

Now Trump will misgovern as we have seen in the past month, with weakened checks and balances, with a Republican majority in control of Congress and willing to go along in certain areas as long as it gets tax cuts.

Lambasting the media and the courts. Picking fights with allies that are unnecessarily turning into enemies. Using dominant party rule to unleash the Mexicanization of American politics. All that and more. Because there is no reason to believe that the delirious Trump of the campaign trail will eventually become the reasonable politician of the Oval Office.

On the contrary. Many in Mexico are bewildered, anxious, afraid. They are overwhelmed by the feeling that — in the current context — the country has no remedy or solution or path or horizon or salvation. Yet, the real answer is there. It lies in using this internal and external jolt to clean our house and strengthen its walls.

It lies in understanding the foundational problems of corruption and impunity. Corruption has led to growing, harmful, paralyzing costs. It is the main obstacle for the competitiveness of the country. It has created incentives for those in power — the most opaque and prone to cheating — to spend more resources on construction projects. Corruption distorts the economy by inhibiting innovation, competition, and risk-taking, because who you know matters more than how talented you are.

Corruption has turned Mexico into a country of sewers. We fell nine places in the last year, to the 88th spot among countries. And the worst indicators are related to corruption and the justice system. We all know the reasons. A political class regardless of ideological stripe that does not want to lose accumulated privileges and assured impunity. A National Anticorruption System that has started off very slowly and will require autonomous prosecutors.

A police force that was created to be an instrument at the service of the powerful and not a mechanism for the protection of citizens. Even the president insists this is the case. However, this way of thinking and justifying the unjustifiable is profoundly damaging to the country and its citizens because it suggests that Mexico is corrupt due to tradition, habits of the heart, DNA, history.

But if all Mexicans are corrupt by nature, it means that the country has no way out. The problem has no solution. Citizens are corrupt because politicians have created laws to allow corruption, to make it a necessary condition to assure the survival of the current political and economic system based on cronyism. A predatory state creates a predatory society.

A state that breaks laws produces citizens who disobey them, not the other way around. Because what would happen if the contractor who used influence peddling to obtain contracts as was the case of Casa Blanca ended up in jail along with his partner in crime in the government? If the corrupt person — under the law — lost everything? The new anti-corruption system is a small first step to de-normalize what so many do and so few pay for.

It will require an autonomous attorney general, an autonomous anti-corruption prosecutor, sufficient budget, specialized tribunals, and public pressure that does not melt away. Calling to close ranks and use lovely words and emblems and national hymns to confront harsh realities: the reality of free trade, endangered; the bilateral relationship, threatened; a neighbor gone wild.

The dream that was North America, coming to an end. And all of this happening — allegedly — because of Trump, someone we should all confront and criticize daily, not only because of his policies, but because of his temperament. There will be no possible domestication, no conceivable negotiation. Every bad decision since Day One underscores this fact.

The U. And therein the probable results: a constitutional crisis; a confronted, polarized society; a breakdown of international alliances; a possible impeachment, or if not, a great deal of damage. The only ones capable of containing this damage are those who remain angry.