Monday, July 14, 2008
Mexican
Officials Still Steering Clear of Accountability
By Patrick
Corcoran
Government accountability is a two-way street: voters
must monitor officials’ actions, and those same officials have to offer a meaningful response when called to account.
Three recent episodes show the uneven application of this process in Mexico.
The first example focuses on Mexico City Mayor Marcelo
Ebrard and the fiasco at News Divine, the nightclub whose reputation for teen drinking and drug abuse piqued the interest
of the city police. A disastrous raid of the establishment a few weeks ago provoked a stampede, during which 12 people were
killed. Police conduct was appalling; aside from beating the partying youths and blocking doorways, the cops carted busloads
of juveniles off to police stations to be stripped and fondled by officials.
Ebrard for weeks resisted a thorough housecleaning,
instead pointing the finger at a handful of street-level cops and the zone commander of the police. But last Tuesday, after
the release of a devastating report from the city’s ombudsman, police chief Joel Ortega and district attorney Rudolfo
Félix both resigned. Ebrard has pushed the city’s legislature to mandate procedural requirements on security operations,
which will hopefully eliminate future News Divines. In effect, Ebrard has let the city know that he recognizes what a crisis
this is. There are still pertinent questions about how this raid relates to the mayor’s crime fighting policies, and
this tragedy will remain a stain on his record, but by ousting Ortega and Félix, Ebrard has acknowledged his government’s
responsibility.
The second case takes us to the federal government.
Several weeks ago, evidence surfaced suggesting that Cisen, Mexico’s intelligence agency, was keeping tabs on opposition
politicians. The use of state apparatus for political ends is inherently an abuse of power, but the reaction was notably muted.
Then, last week, PRI Senate leader Manlio Fabio Beltrones
revealed a series of documents indicating that someone had spied on him and his family. Other political heavyweights –
PRD leader Ricardo Monreal, ex-PAN president Manuel Espino – have come forward with similar allegations. Now that the
aggrieved include some of Mexico’s most prominent officials, the wheels of scandal are churning and the outcry is growing.
Most of those spied upon have been careful not to
accuse President Felipe Calderón of involvement, but presumably someone high up in Calderón’s government is responsible
for the activity. No green functionary would be able to order the monitoring of some of the nation’s most powerful men
without the approval of a superior, nor would the broad questions of strategy implied in the titles of Beltrones’ documents
– Plan of Action, Vulnerabilities, and Recommendations – be of interest to some lowly staffer.
Such speculation may well be incorrect, but it’s
also quite logical, so why isn’t anyone addressing it? Secretary of the Interior Juan Camilo Mouriño denied having anything
to do with the matter, as did Cisen. But if it wasn’t Mouriño or Cisen chief Guillermo Valdés, then who was it? And
why isn’t Calderón, if he had nothing to do with this, publicly furious? Why can’t Mexico get any answers out
of this government?
Calderón is not in the same position as was Ebrard,
since no one died as a result of his government’s misdeeds. After 70 years of authoritarianism, Mexicans may be accustomed
to a certain amount of executive abuse, and the president will probably let the scandal slowly burn itself out. But Calderón
could help usher in a change in attitude. He has a golden opportunity to set an example for all the politicians who’d
love to have his job one day, but instead of exposing the spying, offering apologies, and firing the offenders, the administration
is stonewalling.
The last example centers on León, in the state of
Guanajuato, where an elite municipal police unit was recently captured on video practicing torture techniques. The story,
which first appeared in Excelsior, indicated that after perfecting them on each
other, officers applied the tactics to suspects. Whether or not that was the case, the situation screamed for a thorough accounting
from those in charge.
Instead, citizens of León were given a needless back
and forth about whether or not the practice constituted torture, with human rights groups and the church lobbing accusations,
and the government responding with denials. Rather than contrition, Mayor Vicente Guerrero offered only contempt: “I
don’t give a darn, I know exactly what I’m doing.”
He eventually backed off his combative stance, but
his instinctive defensiveness – as well as Ebrard and Calderón’s tardiness in addressing their own scandals –
shows that accountability is not written into Mexican politicians’ DNA. Too often, politicians owe the public an explanation,
but they don’t give a darn.
——————————
Patrick Corcoran, a MexiData.info columnist, is a writer who resides in Torreón, Coahuila. He
blogs at Gancho.
