The Modern Mexican Revolution

On September 26th, 2014 forty-three university students disappeared while on their way to protest in the southwest region of Mexico, a rural town called Iguala. Although nobody seems to know exactly what happened, “prosecutors allege the students were killed by a local gang after the police had handed them over to the criminals” (Grodts, Eline. 2014). Because government authorities are thought to be involved, this has consequently spurred a significant amount of revolts all over Mexico asking for the resignation of the country’s current president, Enrique Peña-Nieto, along with other government officials. As the headlines of the disappearance of these students stun thousands around the world, however, these are not the only victims of the government-sponsored violence that has been frustrating Mexicans in recent years. The country has unfortunately been in national, as well as international headlines for crimes like embezzlement, extortion and corruption, involving major political actors such as judges, police officers, and politicians (Estevez, Dolia. 2014). As can be observed then, the revolts occurring ubiquitously around the country are not an isolated direct response to the disappearance of the students in the state of Guerrero, as is commonly perceived, but rather a response to decades of increasing corruption, lack of strong independent democratic institutions, and violence.

The territory that is today Mexico was conquered by the Spaniards in the year 1519 as part of the colonization period that perdured in the country until September 15th, 1810, when Mexico gained its independence from Spain. Shockingly enough, evidence shows that almost 500 years ago, the colonizers were already using corruption as a tool to subdue and control the colonized peoples (Nieto, Nubia, 2014). Corruption, understood as the “abuse of public power for private purposes”, is seen in almost every aspect of colonial life, considering unlawful acts like misappropriation of resources and manipulation of the law were instilled in almost all administrative and institutional practices of the colonial government (Nieto, Nubia, 2014). This gave rise to a political culture of tolerance and uttermost acceptance to the systematic corruption that persists to this day and that is the root to many of the country’s issues. Institutions like the Church, who is supposed to be the holiest entity on Earth to Catholics, especially at that time, and Judicial organ, which is supposed to be the most objective and just, were both entirely corrupt from top to bottom. They acted only in whichever way benefitted them most, more often than not choosing the white Spanish conquistador over the native local indigenous person without merit.

As a result, one can understand how colonialism inevitably made corruption intrinsic to Mexican culture ever since the sixteenth century, as it was mostly a survival tactic for most. This is accurately understood by Luis Angeles and Kyriakos C. Neanidis in their article Colonialism, Elite Formation and Corruption, as they describe “corruption will be highest in societies where the elite are powerful and have little regard for the well-being of the rest of the population” (Angeles, L., & Neanidis, K.C. 2010). Because the conquistadores believed they were undoubtedly superior to the native Aztec population, they implemented the practice of the “encomienda system”, which awarded Spaniard men who were proven loyal to the Crown by giving them indigenous slaves and their labor as a reward for their actions. “This system resulted in serious administrative abuses that led to not only the inhuman treatment of indigenous workers, but also the embezzlement of resources by the local elite,” starting the ongoing tradition that is still unfortunately distinguishing Mexico today. (Nieto, Nubia, 2014).

This superiority complex subsequently created a hierarchical society in which the Spaniards, standing at the top, had immunity to do and act as they pleased, whereas the black and indigenous peoples at the bottom of the pyramid were, and consequently still are, subdued to the control of the crème de la crème. This unequal power dynamic has noticeably transcended into Mexican culture nowadays, replacing the conquistador class only by the dominance of local economic elites over poorer citizens. Not only can this be discerned in the business sphere, where the lower class is continuously treated unfairly with hard physical labor and minimal pay, but in the Judicial arena as well, as elites are often “given a lot of leeway to commit acts of corruption with a sense of impunity and without regard for accountability” (Nieto, Nubia, 2014). It is this lack of effectiveness in the implementation of the rule of law, then, that has generated in Mexicans a growing distrust for their own government, leading only to political and economic chaos, preventing the country from fully developing. According to Robert Rotberg of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, “the criteria for determining the strength or weakness of states include the provision of security, the uniform application of the rule of law, the ability of the populace to participate in free and fair elections with the tolerance of divergent positions, and the provision of essential services such as education and medical aid”(Rorberg, Robert I. 2004). Unfortunately, Mexico has ranked substantially low in all categories for some time now, making it extremely hard for the country to economically succeed to the level of its northern neighboring countries.

This can be largely attributed to corruption, as it is, sadly, the conventional currency for getting things done in most Latin American countries, particularly in Mexico. Because Mexicans were ruled by the same party — PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) — for almost seven decades, this pretty much gave free hand for alternating politicians within the same overarching institution to get their share of the pie, slowly but surely dismantling the entirety of the country’s democratic institutions. By the time another party came along, then, it was no surprise that things did not drastically change as expected, seeing as the damage was too far in deep instilled in the people’s mentality and heritage. “Peña-Nieto has defined corruption, Mexico’s largest hindrance, as a cultural matter” and unfortunately he is mostly correct, seeing as “many citizens have resigned themselves to inevitability of corruption” and rather believe it is sometimes justifiable to pay a bribe (Illades, Esteban, 2014. Sabet, Daniel, 2012).

Although the most renown, politicians are not the only ones guilty of committing this crime. When stopped by a police officer on the streets, bribing them has become standard procedure to most Mexicans, as people feel more scared towards police officers than they feel protected. What many citizens are not fully aware of however, is that a police officer who is willing to accept a bribe to ignore a traffic violation or speed up a bureaucratic process is more likely than not to be willing to accept a bribe from a criminal, only further enhancing violence and deepening the roots of the problem.

This lack of trust in the government’s efficiency to solve crimes and punish those who commit them has thereafter brought along a growing frustration targeted towards the Mexican police, who is, to Mexican perception, today’s most unreliable institution (Sabet, Daniel). Today, “only 22 percent of crimes [are] reported to authorities” mainly because there is an understood societal consensus that nothing will actually happen; “not reporting crime appears rational, given the low probability that the responsible individual or individuals will be arrested or punished” (Sabet, Daniel, 2013). As Rafael Ruiz Harrell argues in his report on the public perception of crime, “without the trust of the population whom they are told to serve, police and public ministers are condemned to ineffectiveness” since they are unable to solve crimes, only further disappointing the victims, their families, and eventually, the entire population (Ruiz Harrell, Rafael, 2007). As a result, only an extremely small percentage of witnesses, accomplices or victims actually come forth with information to the authorities, further perpetrating the vicious cycle of governmental inefficiency; “instead of serving as part of the solution, Mexican police are often viewed as part of the problem” (Sabet, Daniel, 2007). It is this kind of impunity then, that unequally grants preferential treatment to upper class citizens, completely disregarding the interests and needs of the lower class, just like in the colonial period. Because the authorities cannot be trusted to fix the recurring problems, people feel the need to take matters into their own hands, particularly due to the “climate of fear [that has] been building up for several years with gangsters driving around with impunity” (Grillo, Ioan, 2014).

According to data from the World Bank, 22 people out of 100,000 are killed daily inMexico, four times more than the world average and out of these, 17.5 of the cases go unpunished or unsolved at an exceedingly high nationwide average of around 80% (World Bank, 2013. Gordts, Eline, 2012). More than 70,000 people have been killed in cartel-related violence in the past seven years, including not only cartel members fighting amongst each other, but rather civilians, government officials, judges, journalists and prosecutors who have not been compliant with the gangs’ demands (Grillo, Ioan, 2014. Vanden, Harry E., and Gary Prevost, 2014.). Aside from the forty three kidnapped students, “over 25,000 people have disappeared, in some cases last seen in the control of Mexican police or military officials,” breaking families up almost daily. Because poverty in Mexico is almost 40%, “government efforts to eliminate the cartels have been stymied by corruption at various levels, as well as widespread poverty, which has facilitated recruitment into the cartels” (Vanden, Harry E., and Gary Prevost, 2014). The everyday-bloodshed, hence, only acts as a reminder of the ever-long, US-financed war on drugs Mexico is currently undergoing, as years pass by and no strategy implemented seems to be effectively working.

The sad reality is, people are been murdered, kidnapped, raped and tortured almost on a daily basis all over Mexico, and the police, in alliance with the local cartels and drug trade, is doing virtually nothing to solve the issues at hand. The Iguala incident thoroughly shattered Peña Nieto’s supposed effort to clean the country of its corruptive and violent image, as part of his campaign promises in 2012. He committed to a “shift in strategy from focusing on eliminating the cartels, to efforts to reduce violence”; words that have yet to be seen in practice, as violence has only escalated during his term (Vanden, Harry E., and Gary Prevost, 2014). Surprisingly then, after 2 months of controversy regarding the disappearance, Peña-Nieto has yet to give a compelling response to the people about the crimes committed, fueling only further the manifestations. As argued by Esteban Illades in his opinion piece for Al-Jazeera titled Mexico is Teetering on the Edge of the Abyss, “Peña-Nieto’s refusal to address the ongoing political turmoil underscores one inescapable fact: corruption and crime do not have consequences in Mexico” (Illades, Esteban, 2014).

It is this seemingly never-ending vicious cycle then, which prevents Mexico from developing on par with its northern geographical region, United States and Canada, and rather keeps the country stuck with the stereotypes revolving their southern neighbors, the Latin American region. This lack of strong independent democratic institutions who are unable to enforce the rule of law the country needs to develop, along with the never-ending growth in crime rates, and, ultimately, corruption in almost every political level, have transcended in Mexico to the point where people have had to resort to international attention and press to try to get things done. Although President Peña-Nieto has expressed sympathy for the families of the disappeared and condemned violent protests, “in between these two positions, he has so far failed to articulate an adequate political response to the crisis” only further fueling the turmoil and violence currently facing his country (“Major Iguala Demonstrations Sweep across Mexico, Latin America.” 2014). Instead, he opted for traveling to China in the hopes that “if you wait long enough, people will forget or simply accept the grimness they face: Corruption and the lack of rule of law [have] become another fact of everyday life” (Illades, Esteban, 2014). As one can see, then, the revolts occurring currently in Mexico are not an isolated response to the disappearance of the forty three students in Iguala, but rather a consequence to a society who is frustrated about their country’s cultural and political situation and unwilling to let another day pass by where problems do not get resolved or even addressed. Mexico’s story is just an example of the kinds of issues facing almost every Latin American country today. Hopefully, this will serve as a warning to the remaining countries to act before it is too late and people feel the need to revolt on the streets. Works Cited

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