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Mexico's murky justice
Chicago Tribune editorial
04/26/05 "Chicago Tribune" - - If they had been filed in Finland, the charges against Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador--disobeying a judge's cease-and-desist order regarding a minor road construction project--might have been a big deal. In Transparency International's 2002 annual survey, Finland ranked first as the world's most corruption-free, law-abiding country. Contempt of court, even in a relatively trivial case, would not be small herring to a Finnish judge.
But Lopez Obrador's civil violation took place in Mexico, which in the same survey ranked 57th out of a 102 countries. Finland scored a 10, while Mexico got a quite murky 3.6 rating. Although there have been some improvements under the presidency of Vicente Fox, corruption in Mexico's law enforcement and judicial systems remains a major-league sport.
Indeed, corruption in Mexico is an inescapable reality--from paying off a cop to overlook a traffic fine to greasing a business deal by taking care of a key bureaucrat. Corruption can reach epic proportions, such as the case of former President Carlos Salinas' brother Raul, who is in prison for ordering the murder of a political leader and has been implicated in the alleged laundering of hundreds of millions of dollars.
So it's curious to watch Lopez Obrador's relatively minor infraction erupt into a major scandal. As a result of an unusually punctilious reading and enforcement of the law, it could cost him the right to run for president in July 2006.
A large portion of the Mexican citizenry is enraged also. On Sunday, as many as a million people filled Mexico City's immense central square to protest the prosecution of Lopez Obrador, of the left-of-center Party of the Democratic Revolution and its likely presidential candidate.
In reality, his case has all to do with next year's presidential election--and the fact that his steamroller popularity makes him a very serious threat to Fox's National Action Party and to the Institutional Revolutionary Party. The latter ran Mexico like its own hacienda for 70 years, until Fox was elected on a reformist agenda in 2000. These two parties--normally at loggerheads--now have joined forces in a witch hunt of Lopez Obrador. On April 7, Congress took the most unusual step of lifting his immunity from prosecution, a perk enjoyed by Mexico City mayors. That opens Lopez Obrador to prosecution and possible conviction, which according to Mexican law, automatically disqualifies him as a presidential candidate.
The maneuvering against Lopez Obrador is as transparent as it is counterproductive. The throngs at Sunday's rally--as well as most national and international media--recognize the case against the mayor as political, not legal.
It's counterproductive because the bogus prosecution has made Lopez Obrador a martyr and further boosted his popularity ratings.
Mexico has a lot riding on the resolution of this case. Five years ago, Mexicans and the entire world watched as the country struggled to emerge from its long history of cronyism and corruption. If Lopez Obrador is disqualified now, it will be a major setback for the world's hopes for reform in Mexico. Worse, it will be a setback for Mexicans' hopes of cleaner government.
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