After a long delay, Mexico’s new national anti-corruption system (SNA) has finally taken effect. President Enrique Peña Nieto promulgated the seven secondary laws required to enact the SNA on 18 July, shortly after their approval by the federal congress. During a ceremony in the presidential residence of Los Pinos, Peña Nieto stressed the importance of public officials being accountable to the Mexican people and hailed a “new era for democracy”. Peña Nieto was also contrite about his own personal affairs, specifically the ‘Casa Blanca’ scandal which broke in November 2014, and has been one of the principal factors behind the erosion of his personal popularity.
President Peña Nieto claimed that the SNA would “eradicate the abuses of those that break the law, those that damage the reputation of millions of public servants who behave in an upright and honest fashion”. He emphasised that the SNA was the second pillar in the federal government’s strategy for combating illegal activities in public administration, complementing the national transparency system. But he underscored the need to deliver some tangible progress. “Until they see concrete results, the public will see in our talk as just that – talk”, Peña Nieto said.
Peña Nieto also confronted his own track record. “I reaffirm that public servants besides being responsible for acting in accordance with the law and with all integrity are also responsible for the perception that we generate with what we do and in this I recognise that I made a mistake”, he said. Speaking during a ceremony at Los Pinos attended by his cabinet, and assorted federal deputies, senators, and governors, among others, Peña Nieto added that “Despite the fact that I acted in accordance with the law, this mistake affected my family, it damaged the presidency and confidence in the government; I felt the indignation of the Mexican people deeply, I understand it perfectly and ask their forgiveness…I humbly apologise over Casa Blanca, I reiterate my most sincere apologies.”
The Casa Blanca case hit Peña Nieto’s credibility hard because it emerged that his wife, Angélica Rivera, had accepted a luxurious property sold to her on favourable terms by a company that was also a beneficiary of large government contracts. The fact that Peña Nieto’s closest political ally, the finance minister Luis Videgaray, benefited from a similar arrangement not only raised conflict of interest concerns but convinced the public that the Peña Nieto administration was insincere in its stated intention to combat corruption.
The political fallout from the Casa Blanca case was significant. In conjunction with the government’s mishandling of the disappearance and presumed murder of 43 trainee teachers in Iguala, Guerrero state, in September 2014, it was the primary cause of Peña Nieto’s plunge in popularity to levels from which it has never recovered.
The coordinator of the right-wing opposition Partido Acción Nacional (PAN) in the federal lower chamber, Marko Cortés, reacted by saying that Peña Nieto’s apology was “a first step” but “insufficient”. He said that Peña Nieto should go “from words to deeds” by allowing an independent investigation to establish beyond any doubt whether there was any conflict of interest or not in the Casa Blanca case.
Transparency and accountability
Peña Nieto proudly proclaimed during the promulgation ceremony that the SNA was the fruit of the active participation of organised civil society, academics and experts, as well as parties across the political spectrum. While the secondary legislation does indeed include the so-called ‘Ley 3 de 3’, which was promoted by civil society, this was diluted by the federal congress.
The ‘3 de 3’ in its original conception would have required all public officials to make a formal statement of assets, tax payments, and business interests. The revision introduced by the federally ruling Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) stipulated that it was not compulsory for public officials to present such a declaration of assets if they deemed that this might affect their “private life or personal data protected by the constitution”.
The president of the federal lower chamber, Jesús Zambrano of the left-wing opposition Partido de la Revolución Democrática (PRD), said that the enactment of the SNA amounted to a “significant step in combating corruption” but was not “complete” because of the amendment of the ‘3 de 3’ proposal. Conspicuous by his absence at the promulgation ceremony was Ricardo Anaya, the president of the PAN, which had supported the SNA. Anaya’s no-show has been widely interpreted as a political calculation not to be associated with a perceived imperfect new system, and a tacit rejection of the PRI’s watering down of the ‘3 de 3’.
New party presidents embrace the spirit
Despite the amendment to the ‘3 de 3’ law, the new president of the PRI, Enrique Ochoa Reza, promptly published a declaration of assets voluntarily despite no legal obligation to do so. Ochoa, who was chosen on 12 July to replace Manlio Fabio Beltrones, the veteran PRI bigwig who resigned after the party’s poor performance in the gubernatorial, state legislative and municipal elections last June, revealed that he earned M$3.5m (US$190,000) for the public positions he held in 2015, and M$2m (US$107,000) for industrial, financial, and professional activities. Ochoa also owns 33% of the shares of the pharmaceutical firm AOZ Famacéutica in Mexico City.
Ochoa went on to disclose a detailed statement of his assets. He revealed that he owns three properties, one in Mexico City and another in the tourist resort of La Paz in the north-western state of Baja California Sur, as well as a plot of land in the western state of Michoacán. Together the three properties are worth M$1.9m (US$1.07m).
Ochoa also owns an eye-catching fleet of 50 Nissan cars which he acquired between 2006 and 2012, and which, according to the local media, he uses as taxis. His statement also revealed an art collection of some 50 pieces ranging in value from M$2,800 to M$290,000.
Not to be outdone, Alejandra Barrales, who was chosen as the new president of the PRD (four days after Ochoa took over the reins of the PRI) following the resignation of Agustín Basave, provided a similarly detailed declaration of assets. Barrales, who was elected by the PRD national council by 264-58 votes, and who left her position as education minister in the Mexico City government to take up the post, earned M$12.4m (US$666,000) in 2015. The majority of this (M$9.7m) comes from industrial, financial, or professional activities.
Barrales also revealed that she owns four properties: two apartments, a house, and a plot of land in the capital, the Estado de México, and the tourist resort of Acapulco in Guerrero state. These properties are valued at a total of M$24.7m (US$1.3m). Barrales also owns two cars and a company called Alabama Transporte.
Governors seek corruption shield
The transparency displayed by Ochoa and Barrales has not been demonstrated by all public officials. Notably, on 11 July the federal attorney general’s office (PGR) filed a legal challenge on constitutional grounds before Mexico’s supreme court (SCJN) against reforms approved by the state legislatures of Quintana Roo, Veracruz, and Chihuahua which it argued contravened the principles of the SNA. “In the anti-corruption fight there can be no exceptions, no local legislation,” the PGR insisted in response to the reforms.
The outgoing governors in all three of these states (Javier Duarte in Veracruz, César Duarte in Chihuahua, and Roberto Borge in Quintana Roo) who leave office between 25 September and 30 November this year, have all faced a series of corruption allegations. Indeed, one of the main reasons for the defeats sustained by the PRI in all three of the gubernatorial elections in these states in June was corruption.
In Veracruz, state deputies created the position of anti-corruption prosecutor and a specialised anti-corruption chamber in the state justice system in advance of the promulgation of the secondary legislation to enact the SNA by Peña Nieto. In Chihuahua, the state legislature also approved a reform creating a special anti-corruption prosecutor, and in Quintana Roo the state legislature approved a new attorney general’s office to replace the current state-level entity and appointed a new head of this body for seven years. The political opposition in all three states accused the PRI governors of trying to protect themselves from future corruption investigations which the incoming governors have announced that they will undertake.
A representative of the PGR, Salvador Sandoval, said the reforms by the state legislatures were inconsistent with the establishment of the SNA in a constitutional reform approved in May 2015 which aimed to “create a system of mechanisms to bring about the end of the abuse of power not to foster it”. Meanwhile, presidential spokesman Eduardo Sánchez said that the federal SNA legislation necessitated uniform national application, and that there could not be any state level adaptations of it.
PRD carries out internal reform
Seven factions of the left-wing opposition Partido de la Revolución Democrática (PRD) agreed to forge a ‘consultative group’ on 25 July which will define the party’s political direction in coordination with the formal leadership committee, Comité Ejecutivo Nacional (CEN). This new ‘consultative group’ will be comprised of governors and PRD legislative coordinators.
The new president of the PRD, Alejandra Barrales, held a meeting with PRD factions to define the details of the ‘consultative group’. Barrales stressed that it would only reinforce not supplant the CEN which would remain in charge in accordance with party statutes. Its remit will be to “help with decision-making and reaching a series of definitions which constantly require exchange of opinions”, Barrales said (see sidebar).
- Tackling extortion
The director of the NGO Transparencia Mexicana, Eduardo Bohórquez, said that it was indispensable that the national anti-corruption system (SNA) assisted the small-and-medium sized enterprises (SMEs) that “face extortion on a daily basis from organised crime and dishonest officials”, as well as their families, many of them on the minimum wage, who have to spend part of their income on paying these bribes.
- PRD internal reforms
The creation of the PRD ‘consultative group’ is a clear response to growing disenchantment with the CEN articulated by Agustín Basave when he resigned as party president in the wake of the PRD’s underwhelming performance in June’s gubernatorial, state legislative, and municipal elections. It also comes at a time when the PRD faces a growing electoral threat from the radical left-wing Movimiento Regeneración Nacional (Morena) led by the twice former PRD presidential candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
