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Well, we tap dance around this topic all the time. It's a sad commentary on any society let alone one having a hard time protecting it's citizens from narco violence. I've been told by police here that if they pay 3000 pesos to the Chief/Commandante every week- the officers can pick their "plaza", do what they want and drive one of the nicer patrol car units. Corruption or cultural? Does it matter if corruption is so institutionalized that Mexico expects us to simply accept and live here with it? Does it make a difference to people deciding whether moving to Baja is for them?


MEXICO CITY – Police officers renting their patrol cars and uniforms to criminals, and paying supervisors for a particular beat are some of the common corrupt practices that occur in Mexico, where there is widespread social acceptance of corruption, experts said.

“In Mexico, corruption, understood as the use of public resources for private gain, has wide social acceptance and the police are also a product of this society,” Institute for Safety and Democracy director Ernesto Lopez Portillo told Efe.

“You cannot understand police corruption if you do not understand that corruption is part of life and of the cultural codes accepted by Mexican society,” Lopez Portillo said.

A report prepared by the non-governmental Transparencia Mexicana organization estimated that more than 200 million acts of corruption occurred each year in Mexico, with a value of more than 30 billion pesos (about $2.35 billion).

Two police officers were arrested recently in Naucalpan, a city in the central state of Mexico, which surrounds the Federal District and forms part of the Mexico City metropolitan area, for allegedly renting their patrol cars, uniforms and firearms to civilians who staged robberies in the area.

Another police officer was arrested last week for allegedly demanding money from a subordinate so he could stay on the force and patrol a specific beat.

Mexico’s municipal police departments have the weakest institutional structures and are the most prone to corruption, Transparencia Mexicana director Eduardo Bohorquez told Efe.

Members of law enforcement agencies engaged in fighting Mexico’s drug cartels are also more likely to become involved in corrupt practices, Bohorquez said.

Latin American Herald Tribune - Welcome

It's widely accepted because most citizens arn't even aware that there's another way. Police corruption is a given fact just as the sun rising in the East and setting in the West.
The only variable to this is the severity........the amount of money demanded.

Originally Posted by DENNIS

It's widely accepted because most citizens aren't even aware that there's another way. Police corruption is a given fact just as the sun rising in the East and setting in the West.
The only variable to this is the severity........the amount of money demanded.

I don't believe most people don't know there is another way, I do believe they could feel it is so ingrained into their society they feel helpless to change it. It's the legacy the Spanish left them. But it kept growing and growing until we have the situation we are in today where there is no way out.

Originally Posted by Woooosh

I don't believe most people don't know there is another way, .

Let me put it another way.
Believing that there IS another way is like believing in God [not that that's a bad thing].........it's just something they won't be seeing while on this earth, and they know it.

Howsat? [ I like the drummer. Is that new??]

Originally Posted by DENNIS

Let me put it another way.
Believing that there IS another way is like believing in God [not that that's a bad thing].........it's just something they won't be seeing while on this earth, and they know it.

Howsat? [ I like the drummer. Is that new??]

Yeah, I think the "rim shot" icon is new.

It's too late to rid Mexico of corruption. The best they can hope for is a violence-free narco state. Someday Mexicans will revolt in protest when ALL the brains and money have left the country, but not in our lifetime. Mexico is a young troubled country that got off on the wrong foot thanks to the Spanish. But Mexico and Mexicans liked the system of corruption until it recently became too big to fail and now it owns and defines them. They are left with the sad results of their collective decisions and will blame everything else on earth for causing it, but their own institutionalized apathy.

Having spent a lot of years throughout North, Central and South America, I think it is fair to say that police corruption is a common theme throughout Latin America, albeit to varying degrees.

And yes Woooosh, most of them seemed resigned to the fact that there is no (easy) way out of this, although you still see many trying...

I don't mind that Mexico is corrupt at all levels. I really don't. If that's the way it is and if Mexicans want to continue on that path to their demise through social inaction, fine. But don't piss on our leg and tell us it's raining. If you know the police are corrupt, why tell people they will be safe? Accepted and institutionalized corruption is 100% incompatible with most expats morals and values. It is certainly 100% incompatible with creating a climate for investment. It's not how people want to spend their retirements. jmho

When I moved here, the worst I worried about was the $20 traffic stop "mordida" everyone whined about. If someone had told me in advance the Rosarito police would lie to my face, willfully interfere with our family's Federal Rights and allow gang members to make deaths threats against us, I likely wouldn't have moved here in the first place. Once you see the underbelly, it's dark and ugly. Strangely, I don't see it as a negative reflection on the Mexican people around me. None of the problems I have had here were caused by Mexican civilians. Mine were caused by Americans who took advantage of the police corruption for financial gain.