Mexican municipios to blame for problems

Americans may find it strange that Mexico has had to turn to its army in the savage battle now underway against drug traffickers (see a report here by Ken Ellingwood).

They figure it has to do with local police corruption.

But there’s more to it.

The reason police are corrupt is weak local government -- known as municipios – which is the root of much of what ails Mexico.

In the U.S., local law enforcement is the best line of defense against drugs, gangs and crime in general.

Not in Mexico, says Mauricio Merino, a Mexico City political scientist who has studied and written extensively about the municipio.

Since the country’s inception, the municipio has been controlled by the Catholic Church, then, in turn, by the central and state governments.

Municipios never learned to act alone.

Only in 1983 were they made independent, Merino says, and charged with urban services: garbage, streets, parks, planning and patrol cops.

But they didn’t get funding. Of every 100 pesos in taxes, only five were doled to cities (states got 15 and 80 went to the feds). That’s gone up to eight in recent years, but it’s still not enough, Merino says.

Plus, Merino says, mayors can’t be reelected. Every three years, a mayor’s administration leaves and a new one takes its place -– and is just learning the job when its time is up.

So, says Merino, municipios are essays in improvisation. This is why Mexican streets are unpaved, cities aren’t planned, water treatment plants are rare. And local cops are poorly paid, trained and equipped, and thus both incompetent and easily corrupted.

After centuries of municipal submission, “the national government is looking for [local] allies but there’s no one,” Merino says. “They don’t have the participation of local police.”

So the job of fighting dope traffickers is the army’s alone.

-- Sam Quinones in Los Angeles

Photo: Mexican federal police salute during a May ceremony to honor officers recently killed in Mexico City. Three officers, including Mexico's acting federal police chief, have been killed this week as drug traffickers lash back at a nationwide crackdown on organized crime. Credit: Gregory Bull / Associated Press

Comments

[diana]

Corruption is a large dilemma in Mexico, one that requires a critical analysis and the implementation of programs that will produce realistic results. Will the Merida Initiative accomplish this?, it is difficult to predict. However, many lives will be lost in the effort, including the lives of those caught in the middle of the cross fire(innocent victims). To include the military in the efforts to reduce organized crime demonstrates that Mexico is not prepared to handle this war on drugs . If they are unprepared then they should not allow trained soldiers prepared to go to into combat roam the streets of the border towns.

We must also remember that "Machismo" is a problem underneath the surface that contributes to the structure of the Mexican society. Men have participated in corruption way before women where ever able to become involved in Politics or the in the Police force. It is a fallacy to use the female's image in her federal police uniform as an example of what these corrupt officers look like. I am glad to see that women are breaking down the barriers of patriarchy in Mexico and entering industries previously denied to them. However, when I saw the image and the the article attached I was quickly reminded that there is still much work to be done to end "Machismo" bi-nationally.