Survey: Mexicans paid $2.58 billion in bribes last year

Apr. 16, 2008 04:54 PM

Associated Press

MEXICO CITY - Mexicans spent a whopping $2.58 billion in bribes in 2007, some 42 percent more than they doled out just two years ago, according to a poll released Wednesday.

The survey, conducted by the nonprofit group Transparency Mexico, showed that 197 million bribes were paid nationwide in 2007 - compared to 115 million in 2005.

That's almost two for every living Mexican, given the country's population of about 105 million. Bribes ate up about 8 percent of family incomes here in 2007, the study said.

"It has become a habit here in Mexico, and that makes me angry," 30-year-old law student Sarahi Sanchez said. "It hurts, because Mexico is more than just its government. Mexico is not all about corruption. Mexico has art and culture and beauty."

The poll found that while more people are giving out bribes, the average bribe was smaller: about $13, compared to $17 in 2005.

Smaller bribes include those shelled out to avoid traffic tickets or pay off informal "parking attendants," private citizens who block off sections of public streets and force drivers to "tip" them for giving them a space. The attendants, in turn, pay police for the right to operate.

Mexico arrests model police officer for extortion

REUTERS
12:27 p.m. February 13, 2008

MEXICO CITY – A two-time Mexico City ”policeman of the year” has been arrested on suspicion of extorting money from illegal “car-watchers” who demand tips for curbside parking.

Police said Alejandro Garnino, who was awarded Mexico City's highest police honor in 2005 and 2006, is suspected of charging up to 1,000 pesos ($94) to allow dozens of car-watchers to operate outside one of Mexico's largest stadiums.

“It is a shock to all of us. His conduct was such a shining example,” an official at Mexico City's police force said Wednesday. He said Garnino turned himself in Monday night.

Corruption plagues Mexico's underpaid police forces, where officers regularly take bribes to turn a blind eye to offenses from traffic violations to kidnapping and drug dealing.

Mexican gangs try to bribe army as drug war flares

By Lizbeth Diaz
REUTERS
7:53 a.m. February 8, 2008

TIJUANA, Mexico – Mexican drug gangs are trying to corrupt the army into siding with them in a turf war near the U.S. border, threatening to blunt President Felipe Calderón's offensive against the cartels.

Military men from generals to foot soldiers say they are being offered up to hundreds of thousands of dollars to turn a blind eye to shipments or call off anti-drugs operations in Baja California state, where there has been a surge of violence this year.

“These groups are coming to us to try to negotiate, to take us over to their side, trying to break us down,” Gen. Sergio Aponte, who co-heads the military operation in Baja California, told reporters.

Since the late 1990s, Mexico has convicted at least five army generals for taking drug money, including the man who was once its anti-drugs czar and led the war against the gangs but was later found to be on the payroll of the Juarez Cartel.