Bureaucrats and backhanders

The paperwork is dwindling, but bribes persist

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Readers' comments



The work permit application for foreigners really is as strange as this article states. As a female, I didn't have to answer any moustache questions (thankfully!), but I had to state whether my hair was black, brown, red, blonde, or dyed blonde, and I had to let them know if my lips were think, thick, or medium, among other questions that not only had me laughing but also looking in a mirror to figure out the answers! I thankfully never had issues with corruption the two years I lived there, but I do know many others that were affected. I'm happy to hear that there have been improvements in the last number of years. I moved home 8 years ago, but Mexico always remains dear to me.


I lived in Mexico for six years as an expatriate retiree, returning just last year, and I think the article fairly reflects the situation. Having said that, I must report that in that six years which included at least 6 long driving trips across Mexico either to the US and other locations within the country, I was never stopped by police although expatriate lore is replete with stories of unwarranted stops. My wife was stopped once, in our first month in the country, for an illegal left turn, which she made, and did ask the officer if she could pay him for the fine, an offer he happily accepted.

The fact is that the police, especially locals, are woefully underpaid and poorly trained, and the mordida is an accepted way of life. This is probably true of others in low-level positions of authority as well. However, I was never asked for an illegal payment by immigration, customs, or the health service.

As for the Wal-Mart story, both my wife and I had the same reaction when the story broke: "A business payed bribes to get things done (shrug). Why is this a story? Of course, they paid bribes."

I honestly think it will never change.

Alfonso Tapatio

While there is no denial that corruption still is a problem in México, the special report miss represents the process of paying driving tickets, I recently had to pay, a “driving the wrong way” ticket and I did not go to any police station, but to a collection office for the state of Jalisco, where I live, took one our tops.
This I did to get a 50% discount for prompt payment, otherwise I could have waited to pay my annual car driving fee and pay using a Credit Card thru internet.
The same holds thru for quite a few licenses or payments, I believe that the reason we Mexicans still talk of corruption as a big deal is because many of us are less willing to live with it.
In any case it takes two to tango and yes, we need to reduce red tape to reduce corruption, but in many cases as with internet payments of taxes and electronic invoices, that has begun to happen, and we are far better that 12 years ago.

Have you ever ran a business in Mexico? Have you had to obtain construction permits or licences to operate a legitimate business? If the answer is yes to any of the above, then you would know that corruption is still rife in Mexican bureaucracies, especially in state and municipal governments. Simply put, no governor or municipal president that I know of has endeavored to root out petty corruption in his or her administration. Mexico is a corrupt country, where hundreds of thousands of bureaucrats and policemen are so accostumed to take bribes and extort money from ordinary citizens and businesses alike, that they are willing to fight for what they see as a god-given right. This is one of the tragedies of Mexican federalism. For crying out loud, Mexico is perceived to be more corrupt than many Sub-Saharan African countries such as Rwanda. Think about that!

No I have not worked on construction, but I did ran a small software / hardware sales and services business and while government was not our focus we did some deal in Jalisco, Sinaloa, and Guanajuato and only once did we were asked for a kickback in more than 10 years.
Different from your experience I have seem efforts at municipal level to reduce petty corruption, for instance renewing your drivers license in Guadalajara takes one hour, and nobody ask you for any bribe, the only exam you take is for your vision. Now if you can't drive or need glasses and don't want to use them, maybe you can get it with a bribe, that I don't know.
I also own a small bakery and while getting the permits was not as simple as it should be, I was not overly taxing and I have never have to pay anything behond taxes and licenses so.....
I don’t know the size of the deal you were involved, I assume they were way bigger. As per perception of corruption in México being worse than in sub-Saharan, perception varies wildly from country to country, for instance based on perception on the OECD study of competitiveness for 2012 the Spaniard rated their education system below Mexico’s while flattering I don’t see how that can be correct. It only their perception.
I do know that much needs to be done, do not miss understand me, but I still believe that we are better than 12 years ago.



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