The EconomistJuly 27th 2019 The Americas 312
1I
t is a tricky time to be in the tourism
business in Mexico. A record murder
rate, and travel warnings, have put some
foreigners off. The number of visitors to
Quintana Roo, the jewel of the tourism in-
dustry, is expected to drop by 30% this year,
due to pile-ups of seaweed on beaches so
big that the navy is helping to clean them
up. Last year the number of visitors to Mex-
ico rose by 2.2m, its lowest increase since- Just as the bad news mounts, Andrés
Manuel López Obrador, the president, has
disbanded the tourism-promotion body.
Oaxaca, Mexico’s second-poorest state,
is a bright exception. The number of for-
eigners flying into the capital, a colonial
gem also called Oaxaca, soared by 49% in
the year to March, a bigger rise than any-
where else. The fame of Yalitza Aparicio,
the indigenous star of “Roma”, a film re-
leased last year, is likely to make the state
still more popular. She is the face of this
year’s Guelaguetza, a festival of indigenous
culture, which ends on July 29th.
The southern state is not for everyone.
D.H.Lawrence, who spent three months
there in the 1920s, thought it “queer and
forlorn”. It is still queer. Teachers spend
more time on strike than in classrooms.
Roads are unpaved and the poverty rate is
70%. But many tourists are undaunted. Oa-
xaca’s Pacific coast is ideal for surfers (and
seaweed-free). Mezcal, a globally popular
spirit, can be quaffed in the villages where
it is made. Mexico’s most indigenous state,
Oaxaca prides itself on its creativity, which
OAXACA
A poor Mexican state bets on tourismOaxacaPobre, pero sexy
J
udgeswieldmorepowerthanalmost
anyoneelseinGuatemala.Thisyear
thesupremecourtdisqualifiedoneofthe
front-runnersforthepresidency.It
allowedthecandidacyofanother,Sandra
Torres,afterprosecutorsdeclinedto
opena corruptioncaseagainstheruntil
thedayafterherimmunity,towhichshe
isentitledasa candidate,tookeffect.The
currentpresident,JimmyMorales,isat
oddswiththeconstitutionalcourtbe-
causeit blockeda proposedagreement
underwhichmigrantsboundforthe
UnitedStateswouldhavetoapplyfor
asyluminGuatemala.Theselectionthis
summerofa newbenchforthesupreme
court,plusscoresofjudgesforappellate
courts,mattersasmuchaswhetherMs
TorreswinstheelectiononAugust11th.
Theselectionprocessisanunusual
one.Deansofuniversitylawfacultiesare
entitledtoa thirdoftheseatson“postu-
lationcommissions”,whichdrawup
shortlistsofpotentialjudges.Therestof
themembershipiscomposedofserving
judges,representativesofbarassocia-
tionsandtherectorofa university.Con-
gressmakesthefinalchoice.Theconsti-
tutionalcourtischosendifferently.The
president,congress,thesupremecourt,
thebarassociationandtheUniversityof
SanCarlos,Guatemala’sonlypublicone,
eachpicka judge.
Thesystembecamepartoftheconsti-
tutionin 1985 andwasextendedin1993.It
wasa waytolessencorruptionbyreduc-
ingtheinfluenceoverthejudiciaryofpoliticiansandtheirfriends.It hasnot
workedasintended.
In2001 thedeanofSanCarlos’slaw
schoolpersuadedtheuniversitytoname
himtotheconstitutionalcourt.Oneof
hissuccessorsrealisedthathecould
expandhisinfluencebyconferringlots
ofdegrees.Thegratefulgraduateswould
manthebarassociations,givingthema
sayoverwhositsonthecommissions.
Theseincentiveshaveledtoa prolif-
erationoflawschools.Inthepast 25
yearstheirnumberhasrisenfromfourto
12.Wheeler-dealersbankrollthecam-
paignsofprofessors competingtobe-
comedeans,forexamplebythrowing
partiesforstudents,whoinsomecases
havea roleinchoosingthem.Somelaw
schoolsarealmostphantoms.DaVinci
University,whoseformerdean,Fredy
Cabrera,wasa presidentialcandidate,
hasa skeletonstaffbutgraduateshun-
dredsofstudents.Thejudgeswho
emergefromthiscomplicatedselection
processareexpectedtoissuerulings
favourabletothepeoplewhomanipulate
it,forexampleontaxcases.
Untila fewyearsagothemostpow-
erfuljudge-pickerwasRobertoLópez
Villatoro,animporterofknock-offshoes
knownas“thesneakerking”.In 2009 he
allegedlyboughtthevotesofbar-associa-
tionrepresentatives bysendingthemto
Spaintostudyformaster’sdegrees.In
2014 heboughta flatfora magistrate.Mr
Lópezisinjailpendingtrial,butthe
professorialpatronagecontinues.Buyanydeansnecessary
Guatemala’s judiciaryGUATEMALA CITY
What happens when professors, not politicians, pick judgesthe anti-corruption dream team are failing
them. True, Mr Bolsonaro’s approval rating
of 33% in early July was the lowest since
1990 for any president after six months in
office, according to Datafolha, a pollster.
But scandals are not the reason. More of-
ten, respondents point to the impact of a
weak economy, cuts to university budgets
and unpresidential behaviour (Mr Bolso-
naro recently called governors of poor
north-eastern states paraíbas, or “hicks”).
Embarrassing headlines have not
stopped parts of his programme from mov-
ing ahead, which was not the case during
the presidency of his predecessor, Michel
Temer. Mercosur, a group to which Brazil
belongs, has reached a trade agreement in
principle with the European Union (see
Bello). A reform of pensions is advancing.
If the corruption fight is to resume,
prosecutors say, both the supreme court
and the president will have to changecourse. Prosecutors hope that the court will
reverse Mr Toffoli’s decision, unblocking
investigations into Flávio and other al-
leged wrongdoers. Progress will depend
partly on whom Mr Bolsonaro chooses to
succeed Raquel Dodge as Brazil’s attorney-
general in September. Mr Bolsonaro has
waffled about whether he will pick one of
the three candidates proposed by the Na-
tional Association of Prosecutors. That
practice began in 2003 as a way of ensuring
the attorney-general’s independence from
politics. Mr Bolsonaro’s choice will be “a
big test of the government’s commitment”
to fight corruption, says Bruno Brandão of
Transparency International, an ngo.
Despite its flaws, Lava Jato offered the
hope that Brazil might end the culture of
impunity that allowed corruption to flour-
ish. The question now is whether that
quest can overcome the damage inflicted
on it by its biggest champions. 7