There’s a Better Way for Mexico to Fight Corruption
The new president promised “zero tolerance.” He’s off to a poor start.
The second-hand Jetta won’t make it betta.
Photographer: Cesar Rodriguez/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Public outrage over corruption helped put Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador into office, but his campaign to clean up the country’s government hasn’t started well. If he means to keep his promise to voters, he needs to change his approach.
To be sure, López Obrador inherited a rotten system. His predecessor Enrique Peña Nieto was an energetic economic reformer, but did little to combat official corruption. Peña Nieto’s wife and top officials were implicated in dodgy real estate deals, and the outgoing president stood aside as other Latin American governments went after participants in the notorious Odebrecht bribery scandal. During his term, the country’s ranking in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index dropped some 30 places, to 135th. The World Bank now ranks Mexico as one of the world’s most corrupt countries.