In Mexico, the Law Bites the Shoeless

What happens when a nation's elite no longer values the truth for its own sake? What happens when the custom of "sayings things as they are" becomes rude?

Last week Marco Sánchez Ruiz, a businessman from Sonora with a Texas can-do attitude, was sworn in as the new director of the Business Coordination Advisory Consejo Coordinador Empresarial, the most prestigious business organization in Mexico.
 
Before legislators, ministers, labor leaders and governors, not to mention the crème de la crème of Mexican business society, Mr. Sánchez claimed that nearly every problem the nation faced (i.e., corruption, poverty, unemployment and violence) all had one root: unlawfulness.
 
According to Mr. Sánchez, the nation's only hope was "if everybody transformed their own personal vision".
 
"In Mexico nearly all our problems start with illegality: piracy, tax evasion, vote rigging, abuse of the public trust and even failure to respect small rules".
 
What a breath of fresh air! A northerner with a sharp tongue in Mexico City telling it like it is to the seasoned political class.
 
"We Mexicans must once and for all confront illegality" warned Mr. Sánchez. 
 
In Mexico, every rat has a tail
 
In fact, most of the politicians and execs in that room owed their success (at least in part) to their abilities to bypass, skirt or simply break the law.
 
But there was something else even more important that people rarely mentioned: Mexicans (especially ambitious ones) considered breaking the law as an affirmation of who they are, an expression of a deeply sustained way of life that derives from principles rooted in how things are in Mexico.
 
Why this is true is beyond the scope of this entry. But it always begins when people sense deep, unresolved ambiguity in their surroundings.
 
Ironically, none of the elected officials in the room were required under law to pay income taxes. They were all corrupt (to speak only of minor offenses) yet protected by fuero, a legal shield used extensively by Mexican politicians to avoid prosecution.
 
In other words, they were legally immune.
 
The businessmen and corporate execs in the room, among the richest in Latin America, enjoyed what citizens of any modern nation would call class impunity; nearly any legal complication was fix-able on the basis of contacts and money.
 
But these are trifles, common knowledge that ordinary Mexicans take for granted.
 
The real truth was that none of what Mr. Sanchez said was even thinkable unless everyone in that room - members of a deeply elitist society - were willing to renounce privileges that defined a fundamental part of who they were and what they were about.
 
Any takers?
 
Although Mr. Sanchez is a businessman, he knew well enough to speak as a politician. His language was earnest (just like Sonora!) yet concealed, provocative without being in any way too specific (taboo at such a gathering in the capital).
 
"Nearly every difficulty we Mexicans face as a nation starts with illegality," he resounded.
 
"Si Señor!" responded the crowd. Most in the room - politicians, corporate execs and so-called juniors with perks and impunity that would astound their 1st world counterparts - clapped heartily.
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Filed under  //   corruption   elitism   hypocrisy   Mexico   politics  

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Why Chile Turned Right

As darkness settled in central Chile on the 3rd day after the Great Quake of February 2010, residents wielding metal pipes on the outskirts of Los Ángeles placed wooden barriers to block intruders from entering their neighborhood. 

"We're trying to take care of the little we have here," said Ana Bedois, a 34 year-old mother of three infants. "We're here all night, first the mothers then the fathers".

Hobbesian Order

Thomas Hobbes once wrote that without Order imposed by higher authorities, people tend to act "without restraint" in order to dominate their neighbors. When this occurs, there is:

"no Industry... no Culture... no Knowledge... no Arts; no Letters; no Society; and worst of all, continuall feare and danger of violent death; and the life of man (is) solitary, poore, nasty, brutish and short."

And so in Chile, for a few short yet interminable days, restraint had broken down.

Merely Economic?

Many claim that Chile suffered from deep-rooted poverty and injustice, which explains, at least in part, why so many disaffected people broke into their neighbors' homes.

But the resulting turmoil seemed to be about more than just poverty. It seemed to be about danger and disorder, the piercing discomfort that something like this could happen at any time not just here but in New York, Paris or Shanghai.

Curiously, Hobbes based his thinking on the assumption that dictators arise because people will do nearly anything to avoid living in fear. That's how he justified dictatorship, a quid pro quo of security for freedom.

In Chile, the Law in many towns broke down to two simple rights: the right to live free from attack and the right to defend oneself if this right was violated. 

So when power and phone lines went down in Concepción, many law-abiding citizens keenly felt the State's absence.

"If the government doesn't lay down a heavy hand soon" said one young mother, "the situation will soon get out of control".

In a word, this was about fear.

The Monster

In a place where many people remember what life was like under the junta, the military is a divisive symbol.

But something happened after the quake... not just about what Chileans thought about the Army, but what they thought about themselves.

In the days after the huge tremor - when aftershocks struck daily and city buildings buckled - people went to bed thinking about losing their possessions.

In towns like Arauco and Cañete - where the jolt had completely knocked out power and communication - residents prayed for the Army.

Just days before, they would have been unnerved by the sight of soldiers on the street.

The Bible

Much was exaggerated, the result of hysteria and panic; most people can't assimilate fear at such short notice. 

But many Chileans sensed, more starkly than ever before, nature's nasty and brutish undertones.

In the Book of Job, it says: 

"If you lay a hand on him

You will remember the struggle...

Any hope of subduing him is false;

The mere sight of him is overpowering...

When he rises, the mighty are terrified."

This terrible sea creature, Leviathan, also symbolized human nature or - put differently - who we often are in the absence of Order.

When Hobbes wrote Leviathan, his message was clear: we disobey this great force at our own peril.

Many Chileans recently had a "mere sight" of this force; it now appears the political consequences may be "overpowering" indeed.

 

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Filed under  //   Chile   earthquake   Latin America   law and order   natural disaster   politics  

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La Jornada is a Party Organ

Last week Orlando Zapata Tamayo, a Cuban political prisoner encarcerated since 2003, died at Havana's Combinado del Este prison after 85 days on hunger strike.

Mr. Zapata, 42, was arrested on charges of "disrespecting authority" and sentenced to 3 years behind bars. This sentence was later increased to 25 years because of his protests at jail conditions.

His death marks the first time in nearly 40 years a Cuban activist starved himself to death in protest against government abuses.

Since Mr. Zapata had been declared a "prisoner of conscience" by Amnesty International, the news of his death appeared in nearly every major world publication (including every Mexican daily) with the exception of one: La Jornada.

The Principled Left

On the La Jornada web site, a banner daily appears called "Reflexiones de Fidel Castro", a link which takes you to a chronological listing of every public event, directive and utterance made by the great Cuban leader. 

The banner has graced the publication's site since it first went online and represents the moral imperative (in a sense, the soul) of the publication.

In Mr. Zapata's case, the reasoning goes like this: since the Castro brothers officially deny the existence of any political prisoner on Cuban soil (except in Guantánamo), there's no reason for La Jornada (or any Cuban publication) to mention Zapata's death. 

The fact that the story appeared in every other Mexican news channel only makes the omission more principled.

Politics over Journalism

Mr. Zapata's mother, Reina Luisa Tamayo, told the Miami newspaper El Nuevo Herald that her son had been "murdered" by Cuba's authorities. "They managed to do what they wanted," she said. "They ended the life of a fighter for human rights.''

Laura Pollan, a dissident from the group known as Ladies in White, told the BBC: "He wasn't a murderer. He wasn't a thief. He wasn't a rapist. He was simply a young man who wanted a better future for Cuba."

But Castro's neo-Stalinist regime and (of course) La Jornada claim otherwise. How can prisoners be mistreated if they don't exist? 

Most La Jornada readers would consider Mr. Zapata and Cuban human rights activists in general to be CIA stooges. Somehow - though without apparent explanation - they blame Mr. Zapata's death on the U.S.

The fact that Mr. Zapata's trial - and the trials of 74 other dissidents jailed in 2003 for "disrespecting authority" - was closed to the public is merely a yanqui distraction, a convenient capitalist ploy neatly contained (and rendered inert) by neo-Marxist theory.

What was Mr. Zapata's real "crime"? Perhaps he made contact with the U.S. Office of Exterior Affairs in Havana, or received letters from Miami-based compatriots.

The bottom line is that the gringos once tortured suspected terrorists in Guantánamo - ergo anything used by Cuba or La Jornada can be justified.

Whether law abiding citizens are jailed and tortured by the Cuban authorities for expressing their opinions is a trifle in the context of the Great Revolution and all it (still) represents to left-wing Mexican "intellectuals".
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Filed under  //   Cuba   journalism   liberty   Mexico   politics  

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The Temptation of Friendship: The Latin America Unity Summit

This week Latin American leaders were in Cancun for the Latin America Summit, a major gathering focused on Latin American affairs and featuring the Mexican president seated smack between Raul Castro and Hugo Chavez. 

Just before the meeting got under way, Mr. Chavez burst into the room with his left hand held high, shouting "Viva Mexico". Minutes later he approached Mr. Calderon with his arms open wide, singing at the top of his lungs México lindo y querido.

The Venezuelan leader then grabbed his Mexican counterpart by the lapels and smothered him in a friendly bear hug. 

Mr. Calderon was all smiles.

At long last, the sister Republics were together - a fraternity of 33 nations representing the largest geographical bloc in the world. And Mr. Calderon, the host, basked in the warmth and flavor that only a gathering of Latins and Caribeans could provide. 

Jorge Castaneda, Mexico's former foreign minister, commented that Mr. Calderon was finally in his mero mole

Gone from memory were the images Mr. Calderon used in his campaign to vilify Mr. Chavez (and win the presidency). Gone was the perennial power dispute between Brazil and Mexico. 

For Mexico is first and foremost a Latin nation - a land of hard-working merchants and festive markets; of pre-Hispanic ruins and sunny beaches and warm embraces. Latin America fervently needs Mexico... and Mexico is an historic part of Latin America.

Yet Mexico is also a hybrid, a country whose economic strength is firmly linked to its North American location. Without these links, would it really be thinkable to compare it to Brazil, an immense nation with a homegrown airplane industry and nuclear manufacturing facilities?

"Felipe!" exclaimed Lula da Silva before the two men embraced effusively. Mr. Calderon was ecstatic, swept by the camaraderie of his compatriots.

So when he later stood proudly to announce the formation of a new bloc of Latin and Caribbean nations that would exclude the US and Canada (and include Cuba), most commentators  - at least in Mexico - immediately interpreted it as an affront to his NAFTA partners. 

Yet images of Mr. Calderon - a conservative churchgoing Mexican - belied this image: he beamed self-confidence and bonhomie. Keep in mind that Mr. Calderon is a "friend" of the US - a stalwart ally in the fight against crime. 

What's wrong with this picture? I thought.

Where's Uncle Sam?

Today an article appeared in the NYT that described the gathering as a "diplomatic success". I could only think: "Brilliant!", the official announcement of a new block that excludes the U.S. made in America's backyard by a conservative U.S. ally. 

Which means that Mr. Calderon - with the backing of his North American partners - went to Cancun to "snub his nose" at the Anglos. 

In sum, he got his cake and ate it too, the perfect combination for a Mexican politician, a true believer in Friendship and Dialogue.

Perhaps for this reason, the Mexican leader felt in his mole: the back slaps, embraces, animated gestures and of course the warm body language that only Latins on a sunny beach could deliver. The "rude guys" from the south - Correa, Chavez, Evo and Ortega - were playing nice, at least for now.

"Today marks the day when Mexico," said Hugo Chavez "this profound, heroic nation, has given re-birth to Bolívar's great dream".

Mr. Calderon smiled broadly, firmly in his element.
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Filed under  //   diplomacy   foreign relations   Latin America   Mexico   politics  

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The Mexican Untouchables

In Mexico, the rich and powerful enjoy privileges that common people in most nations couldn't imagine.

Where else could the governor of a state smaller than Rhode Island (Queretero) receive a bigger salary than the British prime minister?

Inequality, of course, goes beyond economics: according to a first-of-its-kind study, Mexicans recently discovered that governors and state executives can steal, embezzle and defraud taxpayer money without any possibility of prosecution.

The 2009 federal evaluation, "Public Servants’ Responsibility at the State Level", revealed that only 7 out of 32 states have laws in place that penalize governors (and their executive staff) for embezzlement, stealing or any other type of misappropriation.

As one newspaper recently stated: "Mexican governors perform their duties with complete impunity. They arise each morning knowing that they're untouchable".

Which is why in Mexico, the rich and powerful really are above the law.

The study also claimed that only 3 states - Hidalgo, Puebla and Quintano Roo - sanction the misappropriation of state funds, meaning that in 29 states, governors are immune from prosecution for stealing any type of government money.

PAN party leader Manuel Clouthier recently complained that Mexican state authorities are "totally exempt from prosecution: there's neither transparency nor accountability".

In Mexico, impunity starts at the top and permeates every niche and cranny of society.

It's part of the culture, something people "naturally" expect. Like the Aztec kings who ruled on the basis of divine right, Mexican leaders act with the knowledge that they can steal, blackmail and threaten (among other so-called "crimes") without ever being held accountable. Governors, mayors, union leaders, police officials, bureaucrats and federal politicos are all - in their own way - simply above the law.

For governors (as it turns out), there is no law!

That's the history of the nation and it continues today unabated.

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Filed under  //   corruption   government   Mexico   politics  

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A Nation of Lies

Among Mexico City's socioeconomic elite, there's something you learn quickly: saying what you mean and meaning what you say are not that important.

This may ring true for most politicians everywhere, but in Mexico it's not just the political class: it's a commonly understood way among most people to avoid taking a stance. Sure, most Mexicans would claim (as they do everywhere) that "telling the truth" is important, but in reality - especially Mexico City and the southeast part of the country - they place higher priority on other values.

Although dodging the truth when it doesn't suit you is a universal phenomena, Mexicans have raised truth-avoidance to an art form. In business chambers, courtrooms, conference halls and back rooms throughout the nation, people lie to an extent little known elsewhere. In fact, public discourse is measured by how much one can say without saying anything. According to one prominent Mexican investigator, "lying has always been and still is - today more than ever - the principal technique used by Mexican officials to govern."

Why are Mexican politicians and the ruling elite permitted to lie so much? There are many answers to this question, many gray shades that vary according to one's point of view, factors like lack of accountability, poor education, poverty, impunity, repression...

Everyone has a different answer. But the consequence of so many lies - and the reliance on deception by nearly every politician to effectively govern - has produced a feeling among most Mexicans that nobody can be trusted, and that the rule of law and institutions themselves are ineffective.

"Why?" asks Sara Sefchovich "have Mexicans permitted their leaders to lie to such an extent?" The answer -- based on her extensive investigation -- is that Mexicans themselves depend on lies to an extraordinary degree in their daily interactions. Put differently, Mexicans are conditioned to "give people the airplane", a strategy (perhaps "state of mind" is more accurate) to avoid saying things as they are.

"Lying is embedded in Mexican public discourse in such a deliberate, profound, conscious and systematic way that aside from its inevitability it often seems absolutely necessary".

Which is what it has become in the lives of most chilangos: an artifice necessary (or so it seems) to survive.

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Filed under  //   culture   Mexico   politics   society  

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Rule by Man: Justice Mexican Style

 

The following quotes are from an interview with Mauricio Fernández Garza, member of one of the richest families in Mexico and current mayor of San Pedro Garza, the richest municipality in the nation.

This privileged man, now supervisor of the cradle of Nuevo Leon's elite, recently vowed publicly to rid his town of gangsters

He states his case clearly: "We mayors should have greater powers. In my case, perhaps I'll take them anyway, even if they're not given to me in any book"

Mr. Fernández has the backing of the 10 richest men and women in his state, as well as the Army, several prominent state governors, key presidential aides and every major political figure in northern Mexico.

In his own words, he shall "do everything it takes" to get the bad guys out of town - even if it means stamping on a few civil rights.

Not surprisingly, nobody (except perhaps a few frisky journalists) seems to be complaining. "We'll be subsidized by the government, but it'll also be necessary to raise funds privately. We may have to do a few things which I won't really have the authority to do but, frankly, I don't think anybody will complain".

"What if you face impeachment?" asked a journalist at a recent news conference.

"By whom?" replied Mr. Fernández.

"By citizens who disagree with you."

"But who'll know about it?" responded Mr. Fernández. "I'm saying I plan to do things, but I never said I'd give you details."

This week Mr. Fernández shall be received in Mexico City by both the Attorney General and Senate leaders to plan a project to convert San Pedro Garza Garcia into a model for every Mexican town to follow in the nation's war on drugs.

Up to now, no one has questioned Mr. Fernández's plans to take power into his own hands.

One of the journalists asked how long it would take for the promised changes to occur.

"No more extortion or bribes in my town in six months, and let me tell you this: forget about kidnappings."

"Isn't six months a short time?" asked the newspaperman.

"You're asking me and I'm telling you."

All political eyes are now on the mayor. To most of the nation's political elite, his civil rights threat is a non-issue.

As the mayor himself said: "I won't give any details now so nobody can accuse me of anything but being a good Mexican".

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Filed under  //   justice   law   Mexico   politics  

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About

Mine was a clamorous New York childhood spent on boardwalks and in delis between the south shore and the teeming Metropolis. Since childhood, I've strolled with Sicilians and strutted with Latins. Which explains nothing about life in a big Latin American metropolis. Cheers to a big world!