Mexico's Fox Fishing for Corruption
Summary
Mexico's President-elect Vicente Fox has pledged a zero-tolerance
policy against corrupt politicians, senior military officials and
government bureaucrats. Previous Mexican presidents have made
similar promises before taking office, but did little or nothing
while serving their terms because the corruption was associated
with the ruling Party of the Institutional Revolution (PRI). Fox,
who ended the 71-year reign of the PRI July 2, is serious about
rooting out corruption. But he likely will cause major
confrontations with thousands of public sector union leaders and
with local bosses who traditionally have lived on economic and
political patronage dispensed by the PRI.
Analysis
Mexican President Vicente Fox says one of his first actions Dec. 1,
the day he assumes the presidency of Mexico, will be to order an
in-depth audit of "each and every" government office. "The hooks
are already out," Fox said at a press conference Nov. 7, while
pledging a national crusade against corrupt politicians, senior
military officials and government bureaucrats. He said his
government would target very high-level corruption from the outset.
"We expect to take a few sharks to jail," he said. "Not big fish,
but sharks."
Catching the sharks of Mexican corruption will be a dangerous
undertaking. Fox's anti-corruption crusade is aimed directly at the
deeply entrenched and corrupt system of political patronage created
by the PRI during its seven decades in power. Dismantling this
system will put Fox on a collision course with thousands of
government union leaders. Fox also will be challenged by local PRI
bosses, or "caciques", whose power and wealth are based on decades
of trading votes for the PRI in return for a share of the economic
and political spoils. With the PRI out of power, party discipline
is already breaking down.
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Last week, public sector union bosses gave Fox a glimpse of the
challenge that awaits him as president. When former President
Ernesto Zedillo's government denied its 1.6 million bureaucrats a
traditional, end-of-term political loyalty bonus PRI governments
paid every six years without fail, thousands of angry public
workers walked off their jobs and tied up traffic in downtown
Mexico City for six days. The government finally caved in and
agreed to a settlement that will cost Mexican taxpayers more than
$500 million.
After the turmoil subsided, spokesmen for Fox hastened to announce
his government did not plan any large-scale layoffs of public
workers. However, Fox's determination to make the Mexican
bureaucracy more efficient and honest ensures public protests and
strikes by government workers will occur more frequently.
A bigger headache for Fox will be groups such as the National Torch
Movement, an organization created in 1974 by radical agronomy
students and poor farmers who fought against the injustices of
abusive PRI bosses in Indian villages. While the movement was
created to fight the PRI, its leaders were quickly seduced into
joining the PRI in return for a share of the party's economic and
political largesse. The group numbers more than one million members
and has an organized presence in all 32 Mexican states. Its leaders
have been vital cogs in the PRI's party machinery for years because
they can channel the potential radicalism of Mexico's 40 million
indigent into militant support of the PRI at election time.
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Since the PRI lost its monopoly on power, however, party discipline
is breaking down; competing groups that once supported the PRI are
now turning against each other. In August, a gun battle between
Torch Movement members and a rival group of PRI supporters in
Chimalhuacan, a poor community about 12 miles from Mexico City,
left 10 people dead, 98 wounded and 204 jailed. Most of the dead
and injured were Torch Movement members. The fight was over control
of the local city hall, and it was a harbinger of conflicts Fox may
face as he tries to make Mexican politics less corrupt and more
democratic.
Fox is sincere about attacking political and bureaucratic
corruption, but as president he will be forced to make compromises
with groups whose economic and political survival depends upon
Mexico's decades-old tradition of political patronage. Moreover, as
he tries to break up the old PRI system, Fox also will be
dispensing patronage to his supporters, potentially exposing his
government to charges of corruption by his political opponents.
Fox is acutely conscious of his vulnerability. In fact, the
president has delayed announcing the composition of his Cabinet due
to new grueling background checks that include relatives, friends
and business partners. Fox will seek to avoid open conflict while
pushing bureaucratic reforms to weed out corruption.
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