Ricardo Pascoe Pierce
Over the past four weeks, we have been shocked by a series of explosions at the Dos Bocas refinery. For at least three months, there has been an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico—a spill that was initially hushed up and then denied by the government, until public outrage brought it to light. In the wake of three recent accidents in mining areas, which claimed the lives of workers, the involvement of organized crime has been revealed in every case. In the USMCA negotiations, the United States has denounced the collusion between unions and organized crime, starting with the oil and mining industries and extending to the automotive sector. All these cases occur, within their respective contexts, due to official corruption.
In the case of the TransIstmico train accident, the Attorney General’s Office exonerated the track contractor—including AMLO’s son—and the government of all responsibility. It accused the train conductor and his assistant of being responsible for the incident that killed 14 people and left more than 100 injured. Investigations into high-profile corruption cases in Mexico since 2018 have stalled: SEGALMEX, with an embezzlement of 15 billion pesos; the massive theft of over 200 billion pesos in the case of the “huachicol” tax fraud; irregularities at BIRMEX involving cost overruns of 13 billion pesos; and the multi-million-dollar contracts at PEMEX, INSABI, and PROFECO are all cases that have been reported but ignored by the authorities. In the face of this, the 4T government’s response is to deny, conceal, and blame third parties.
The mega-projects of López Obrador’s administration, all of which cost three times what was originally budgeted, are a burden on the public treasury that could last for at least the next twenty years. They are loss-making, insolvent projects incapable of generating profits over their useful life. I am referring, obviously, to the Maya Train, the Dos Bocas refinery, the AIFA airport, and Mexicana de Aviación. And we must add the decades-long payments to the contractors laid off from the original international airport in Texcoco, a project abruptly canceled by AMLO after a rigged referendum that was in no way representative of the Mexican people’s opinion.
This list does not include the blatant and cynical corruption displayed by the so-called Tabasco Group, created and financed by the generosity of Mexico’s former president, a native of Tabasco. The same man, incidentally, lives on an estate rebuilt by the Mexican Army and enjoys the support and security of a supposedly nonexistent presidential guard and a fully equipped hospital to attend to his medical needs.
In addition to the above, and adding a politically troubling factor, the inclusion of the Mexican Army and Navy in the state’s construction and productive activities has undoubtedly created a new hotbed of corruption. The inclusion of the Armed Forces in activities not constitutionally within their purview puts them at risk of discredit. And so it has happened, starting with the Navy, which was previously considered the cleanest and most honest branch of all Mexico’s Armed Forces. But it turns out that they were involved, at their highest levels, in the most notorious corruption case of the 4T governments: the fiscal fuel theft.
To consolidate its acquisitions and business operations, the Army created a special corporate entity to manage its businesses. It is called GAFSACOMM, comprising 26 companies, all created and managed with public funds and without any obligation to disclose their expenses, in accordance with the provisions of the National Security Law. It manages various airports across the country, railways, airlines, and numerous hotels, bars, restaurants, and nightclubs. Senior and mid-level officers in the Mexican Army compete to take charge of managing these businesses, which are a source of instant wealth.
López Obrador’s political project and the 4T needed to bring the Armed Forces under control so they would not oppose his plan to remain in power indefinitely. Evo Morales, Hugo Chávez, and Díaz-Canel advised him that the best way to achieve this goal was to grant Armed Forces commanders unrestricted access to vast amounts of economic resources, both state and private. And boy, does the Tabasco Group know all about that!
The ruling party’s policy of denying, concealing, and accusing third parties continues. Everything indicates that the steps to transform Mexico into a paradise like Venezuela, Bolivia, or Cuba are: first, to eliminate all public mechanisms that allow verification of government spending; second, to restrict public access to information; and finally, to gain control over oversight bodies. The number one enemy of the 4T is accountability and transparency.
Over the past seven years, the 4T government has worked systematically to eliminate all these obstacles—namely, accountability, public information, and oversight of government spending. All autonomous bodies dedicated to these activities were strategically eliminated outright, subordinated to a hierarchical structure within the government, or completely taken over by Morena party members. The latter is what happened with the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation and is what is now being sought with the General Council of the National Electoral Institute.
The proof that the 4T has largely achieved its objectives is evident in the facts recounted here. All the illegal acts are in the public domain, and those responsible are free from any legal action by the Mexican state. The destruction of Mexico’s democratic institutions is the essence of Morena’s political project. They are destroying democracy while claiming they are creating more democracy.
But we Mexicans are not the only ones who know this. The world watching us knows it too and confirms it. And the world also evaluates Mexico and its prospects through that lens. The review of the USMCA will not escape that evaluation. When people talk about Mexico abroad, they mention corruption, drug trafficking, violence, beautiful beaches, and tequila—in that order. Unless you’re a Spring Breaker, in which case you mention them in reverse order.
In Mexicans’ perception of corruption in the public sector, the view persists that it is high and widespread. Transparency International reports this. It measures corruption in 180 countries. The study finds that, in the opinion of Mexicans, Mexico remains in 126th place, indicating the persistence of widespread corruption. This index should be correlated with the index on access to information, as a citizen’s and human right. Incredibly, Mexico ranks second in the World in terms of lack of access to information, second only to Afghanistan. Countries like Serbia, Sri Lanka, and Gambia rank slightly higher. The list of 180 countries continues.
The explanation is simple. The 4T does not want us to know how the public budget is spent. It does not want us to ask about the destination of the new debt incurred by the federal government. It does not want us to have clear and detailed information about the corruption of its comrades in the government and the party. And it certainly does not want us to have data on corruption in the Armed Forces. This is because they have no intention whatsoever of punishing their members for their criminal conduct.
Morena operates like a cartel: to snitch on one is to betray them all. Betrayal is punished by death, as both Sergio Carmona Angulo and Rear Admiral Fernando Rubén Guerrero Alcántar likely realized in their final moments. Morena doesn’t play fair. What is at stake is prison in the United States for many of them, because their “system of government” was built on a foundation of corruption.
Without corruption, the 4T vanishes in a heartbeat.
@rpascoep
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