Mexico’s Problem: Laws With Scant Enforcement

By Carlos Luken

In late December, Senator Manlio Fabio Beltrones, President of the Mexican Senate, announced that sweeping legislation would be introduced that, if approved, would authorize a second electoral round. Designed as a solution to Mexico’s dysfunctional voting process, the proposal was cynically disregarded by some and ridiculed by others.

As lawmakers stubbornly continue in their traditional role to reform existing legislation and introduce new bills in an attempt to solve the country’s many maladies, most Mexicans laugh at their efforts and believe that their representatives suffer from legislative myopia.

Most citizens accurately believe that Mexico’s maladies are not caused by a lack of legislation but rather an absence of enforcement. As such they consider legal reforms and initiatives valueless in a country where legitimacy is systematically disregarded by authorities and governing bodies.

In a bizarre twist, Mexican citizens have been cultured to pursue the rule of law only if corruption and impunity fail.