Crime and punishment in Peña Nieto’s Mexico

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On July 18, in the National Palace at the en­ actment ceremony of a package of laws to create the National Anti-Corruption System (SNA), in front of an audience composed of hundreds of public officials, and flanked on both sides by the presidents of the houses of the Congress and secretaries of state, Presi­ dent Enrique Peña Nieto “apologized.” These were his words: “Even though I acted in ac­ cordance with the law, this mistake affected my family, hurt the institution of the presidency, and damaged confidence in the government […] I felt the irritation among Mexicans firsthand. I understand it perfectly; for that reason, with all humility, I ask your forgiveness.”

He was referring to the scandal that Carmen Aris­ tegui and her team of journalists sparked in Novem­ ber 2014, when they made public the Peña Nieto family’s acquisition of a mansion (the “White House”) worth several million dollars, that was built by a con­ struction company favored by his government with contracts worth billions of pesos in a situation that appeared transparently to be a typical case of influ­ ence peddling and flagrant corruption.

A Fake Apology As we know, in these times of permanent crisis, it is fashionable for presidents to ask for forgiveness. In the last few years many have, from Paraguay and Argentina to France and Norway. But the outrageous arrogance of the dictatorship of the “peculiar,” “adapt­ able,” and “flexible” Mexican presidency during the greater part of the 20th century has been decisive, so that in 100 years, there are only two such occasions, prior to the recent one by Peña Nieto.

The first was in 1911, when the dictator Porfirio Díaz, from the ship that would carry him to his exile in Europe, declared the he had never done anything to cause the revolution that forced him to resign, and if history found it to be so, he would apologize for it now. The second occasion was in 1982, when a tearful Organization of Education Workers against the school reform has put (Above) Mexican police attack June 19 protest of striking teachers in Oaxaca.

in fashion.

But within this resounding fall of a government that aspired to restore the dominance of the PRI, the struggle of the CNTE (National Organization of Education Workers) against the school reform stands out without a doubt, having put in motion throughout the country the numerous education workers’ unions—mobilizations that since May have put hundreds of thousands of protesters in the streets, resulting in the awakening of others in the working class.

The highlights of the career of decline and illegiti­ macy of the current government consist of a list in which the issue of the «white house»—even though it provoked not just «irritation,» as Peña Nieto said, but great popular outrage—is far from being the most serious. Tlataya, Ayotzinapa, Nochixtlán, greenlight­ ing energy privatization, «education» reform that in reality is labor counter-reform, spiraling national debt, alarming devaluation of the peso, an unparal­ leled boom in corruption in the states and the federal government itself, these are the true highlights that have sunk the Peña Nieto government.

The president asked for «forgiveness» at the an­ nouncement of the new anti-corruption laws that have already brought his absolution, since they in­ clude presidential immunity. In addition, as he didn’t break any law in the matter of the “White House,” it was all legal. The “forgiveness” was for a “mistake” he made, not for a criminal offense.

The “damage to the institution of the presidency” and the «distrust of the government» must have been because the Mexican people are very cynical and at­ tributed the fact to an act of corruption. But no, it was all a misunderstanding of “perception.”

At the same time, and despite the “humble apology,” Joaquin Vargas of the television channel MVS Commu­ nications, driven by Los Piños, is hounding Carmen (continued on page 11, in “Postal workers buy time”)