Is AMLO’s bite worse than his bark?

If you were to translate for a Mexican friend the phrase “his bark is worse than his bite”, your friend might interpret it quite differently than you do. In Mexico the bite (la mordida) is a bribe. Now, although Mexico has a deserved reputation for corruption, other nations are also plagued by public dishonesty. When I lived in Washington, D.C., in the late 1970s the governor of Maryland was

Senator Huey Long

convicted of taking bribes and sentenced to jail. When he and his wife left the governor’s mansion they took with them some of the official furniture. A Mexican who reads Robert Penn Warren’s brilliant book All the King’s Men, about Huey Long, governor of Louisiana from 1928-1932 and a US Senator until his assassination in 1935, would instantly recognize Long’s style of politics. In the UK, a publishing company that employed me for 27 years was found to have bribed an African politician to win a World Bank contract. And it is generally accepted that the City of London's lawyers, banks and financial advisers help to process transactions on behalf of individuals whose sources of wealth may not be entirely honest.

We often take holidays in Sagunto, in the

The Trama Gürtel spread across Spain

province of Valencia, Spain. For many years, I followed in my holiday newspapers the gradual unfolding of a nationwide corruption scandal known as the trama Gürtel (“Gürtel conspiracy”). Valencia was the heart of the racket. The President of the province of Valencia was found to have received a considerable number of very expensive suits from a tailor in Madrid. He had no credit card receipts, he explained, because he had paid in cash. The mayor of Valencia acquired large numbers of designer handbags which she was fond of carrying at her public appearances. The nonchalant sense of entitlement reminded me of stories of corrupt Mexican politicians. The scandal and the associated investigations spread and carried on for years, eventually reaching the highest levels of government and forcing the resignation of the Presidente de Gobierno (Prime Minister) of Spain.

However, although Mexico is not uniquely familiar with corruption, bribery is uncomfortably common, and high level corruption is generally practiced with impunity unless it becomes too brazen. I once met at a party the wife of the police officer in charge of the Mexico City car pound. He had just been jailed for systematic theft of car parts, which had been exposed in a newspaper. His wife was indignant: he had done nothing wrong! Arturo “EL Negro” Durazo, chief of Mexico City police 1976-1982 was found to own several expensive homes, including one in Los Angeles. When asked how he could afford these homes on his modest salary he replied “I am thrifty”. All was well until his patron, president José López Portillo, left office. In 1984 Arturo was arrested in Puerto Rico, extradited to Mexico, tried and jailed and his properties confiscated.

 

Arturo "El Negro" Durazo, centre

Retribution does sometimes reach even those at the highest levels of power. The brother of former

President Luis Echeverría Álvarez in the 1970s

president Carlos Salinas de Gortari was jailed (but not until after his brother left office) for arranging the murder of a politician and money laundering, possibly linked to drug cartels. The hand of Mexican justice even once threatened to put a former president on trial. Luis Echeverría Álvarez, was president from 1970-1976. In the previous administration, Luis had been Secretario de Gobernación, in charge of public order. He is generally suspected to have ordered the massacre of students in Tlatelolco in 1968, and the killing of more students, known as the Corpus Christi massacre, during his presidential term. In 2006 a court ordered his arrest and imprisonment on charges of murder, but he was freed by a federal court before he suffered the indignity of imprisonment.

Echeverría’s near-arrest caused a sensation because tradition dictates that no president allows the prosecution of a predecessor. That tradition may be about to change under AMLO. The administration of his direct predecessor, Enrique Peña Nieto (known as EPN), is reputed to have been notoriously corrupt. Indeed, accusations of personal corruption were made quite early in his presidency (this in itself is very unusual). It was discovered that one of his homes (known as the White House) was built by a contractor to whom he had given contracts while he was governor of the State of Mexico. EPN appointed an official to investigate. The conclusion was that the cost of $6 million was paid entirely by EPN’s wife, a wealthy soap opera actress, from her earnings. Now, it is true that soap operas are a huge business in Mexico, but $6 million is an awful lot of Mexican pesos.

 

EPN and his wife (they are now separated)

In the first year or so of AMLO’s administration, several high-ranking officials of EPN’s government have been arrested and accused of corruption. Some of those charged have claimed that EPN knew all about their activities. One example, of corruption under EPN’s administration is the Estafa Maestra (“Education Racket”). The estafa involved the award of contracts to assorted universities to carry out work on behalf of the federal government. The universities then set up companies to carry out the work but none was carried out. Nobody quite knows where the money paid for work not done ended up. The question now is whether AMLO allows, or at least fails to prevent, EPN being called to testify. If he does, he will have created an important precedent. Indeed, the precedent could be applied to him by his successor should he stray from the straight and narrow.

AMLO at his daily press conference known as la manañera (morning event)

AMLO was elected with a landslide because he promised to reduce violent crime (so far it has increased), to do more for the poor (he has put more money into social programmes) and to end corruption. Whether EPN is to some degree called to account will be a key test of the last promise.

AMLO (left) and Manuel Bartlett (right)

Like many political promises, AMLO's commitment to end corruption is not as simple or clear cut as it seems at first sight. Mexican democracy is relatively new: the first freely elected president (Vicente Fox) took office only in 2000. A large number of senior political figures began their careers under the old system of "managed democracy". Indeed, AMLO himself began his career in the official party, the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party), in his home state of Tabasco. He first campaigned to be elected president in 2006. One of his supporters was Manuel Bartlett Díaz, former Secretario de Gobernación (1982-1988), one of the most powerful cabinet posts, under PRI president Miguel de la Madrid. AMLO appointed his old political friend Manuel as CEO of the Federal Electricity Commission. According to a recent newspaper opinion piece, Mr Bartlett has 23 houses in desirable locations in Mexico worth "nearly 8 million pesos" (some £33 million). In February he accused former officials of the Commission of signing contratos leoninos ("unfair contracts") and proposed international arbitration to examine them. One of the contracts was signed by a company owned by Carlos Slim Helú, Mexico's wealthiest, and immensely powerful, man. A row ensued. AMLO then intervened to reach an agreement and Mr Slim appeared at the president's morning press conference. 

Men and women with skeletons in their closets abound in Mexican politics, and it is almost certain that some member of AMLO's administration have pasts that they would prefer not to be examined closely.

Reading recommendation: those intrigued by Huey Long are recommended to read Robert Penn Warren's book, which brilliantly captures the political flavour of Louisiana at the time.