TheEconomistNovember 30th 2019 31
1
S
ince 2003the boringly named Asset Ad-
ministration and Disposal Service, or
sae, has sold off cars and houses seized by
Mexico’s government mainly from smug-
glers and tax-dodgers. The saeused to split
the proceeds among the police, the judicia-
ry and the health service. Andrés Manuel
López Obrador, Mexico’s president since
December 1st last year, has jazzed things
up. He now refers to the saeas the “Insti-
tute for the Return of Stolen Goods to the
People”. In June he promised 25.7m pesos
($1.3m) from an auction of ill-gotten goods
to two poor indigenous villages in the
southern state of Oaxaca. At a televised
news conference, the president gave giant
cheques to their mayors.
The episode sums up much about the
presidency of Mr López Obrador, who is of-
ten known as amlo. It shows his dedica-
tion to fighting graft, his flair for political
theatre, his indifference to institutions
and his belief in the virtue of ordinary peo-
ple, among whom he counts himself. “To
look like they were fighting corruption,”
past governments “created so many rules,”
he said at the cheque handover. The two
lucky villages will be able to spend the cash
as they like, without oversight. Mexicans
“are an honest people,” says the president.
“Corruption occurs from above, not from
the bottom up.” His folksy way of fighting
corruption is working for him. At a time
when citizens across Latin America are re-
belling against their leaders (see Bello),
amlohas an approval rating of nearly 60%.
He is right to be preoccupied with cor-
ruption. In Transparency International’s
Corruption Perceptions Index of 180 coun-
tries, Mexico shares 138th place with Rus-
sia. amlo’s fulminations against sleaze in
the previous government of Enrique Peña
Nieto helped him win a landslide victory in
the presidential election in 2018. For amlo,
corruption is not just one of Mexico’s big-
gest problems but practically its only pro-
blem. Eradicate it, and poverty and crime
would cease. Honest tax officials would
raise so much money that painful fiscal re-
forms would be unnecessary. Anger at cor-
ruption binds amlo’s motley coalition,
which ranges from left-wing activists to
evangelicals. All believe in his incorrupt-
ibility. He cut his salary in half, puts in 16-
hour days and flies commercial.
But the stolen-goods institute reveals
the flaws in amlo’s anti-corruption policy.
Rather than building institutions to fight
graft, he offers himself as the main bulwark
against it. Worse, contend amlo’s critics,
he uses the campaign to weaken institu-
tions and opponents. He pounces on his
critics’ misdeeds and ignores those of his
allies. Though untempted by wealth, amlo
is greedy for power. The government’s ap-
proach to fighting corruption is like setting
off fireworks to provide illumination rath-
er than building an electricity grid, says De-
nise Dresser, a columnist.
Corruption-fighters during Mr Peña’s
scandal-plagued presidency faced repri-
sals, but they also made headway. Journal-
ists and ngos, some financed by rich busi-
nessmen, uncovered the biggest scandals,
including the first lady’s acquisition of a
house from a construction firm with gov-
ernment contracts. They capitalised on the
uproar to form a movement to create “a sys-
tem to catch the scandals”, says Max Kaiser,
Mexico
It’s all about him
MEXICO CITY
amlois using a crusade against corruption to accrue power and cow critics
The Americas
32 Cubabringsbackthedollar
33 Bello: The street and the politicians
Also in this section
