Una pequeña mordida

Many Mexicans I have talked to cite corruption as a main reason to work or live in another country. Mexicans are fed up with a system that preys on their integrity and their pocket books, and many are at a loss for how to fix it. The basic problem: in order to obtain a stable, well-paid job, it is necessary to bribe one's way to the top. There is even a hand signal for corruption through bribery - one hand in salute position slicing from the shoulder through the chest.

Transparency International publishes an annual corruption index ranking each country according to a variety of indicators. In 2007 Mexico tied for 72nd with Brazil, China, India, Morocco, Peru and Suriname. Apparently bribes extend to international business, with a high incidence of foreign corporations bribing members of the Mexican government. The Business Anti-Corruption Portal has extensive information on various elements of corruption in Mexico. For those of you who are less inclined to read the fine print, PBS Online has three charts showing the regional distribution of corruption, the average family cost of bribes based on income, and the macroeconomic cost of corruption.

A few of my friends have doled out bribes. One told me that instead of accepting a parking ticket he gave the police officer a 50 peso bribe - a much better deal than the 150 peso ticket.

This is an advertisement against bribery in the Mexican metro:


Corruption has also reached Vicente Fox, the former Mexican president who championed the anti-corruption movement while in office. He is currently under investigation for misuse of federal funds in light of a large feature on his luxury ranch, published in the Mexican magazine Proceso. Fox has since lashed out at Proceso and any other journalist who dares to question him - witness an interview on Telemundo in the US where he became hyper-defensive at the mention of the recent scandal. The interview is hard to decipher, but essentially Fox begins personally insulting the journalist, calling him a "liar" and a "bad interviewer." I'm not sure how well this will bode for sales of his new book, "Revolution of Hope". (I'm reading this book and so far it is very self-congratulatory.)

Some of this corruption can be attributed to Mexican drug cartels, which hold a tremendous amount of power in certain regions of the country. According to an aid worker I know in Toronto, this power has been partially fuelled by post-9/11 policies in the US; increased security at airports and sea ports has forced drug traffickers to resort to the land route to transport drugs. Mexico is the gateway to the US, and so the increased flow of drugs has strengthened the cartels.

This drug culture is even enshrined in its own genre of music - the narcocorrido. The corrido is a traditional style of norteña music that tells a story of love or adventure. The narcocorrido tells a different narrative, glorifying a life of drug trafficking and border-hopping. One of the most famous narcocorrido groups is Los Tigres del Norte:


On a related note, drug use is not too common here - at least from what I have seen. It is similar to Canada - pot (mota) is used casually, and hard drugs are harder to find. I did see some interesting graffiti advocating legal (or "free") marijuana: