Highlights
– Elite presidential guard officer arrested for selling intelligence to cartels
– Organized crime affects 63 percent of the nations municipalities
– Military likely to be increasing targets for threats and bribes in the near-term
On December 27, 2008, an officer in the presidential guard, Major Arturo Gonzalez Rodriguez, was arrested and sentenced by a court judge to a 40-day provisional detention period to allow for the gathering of additional evidence. Rodriguez allegedly received US$100,000 from drug cartels in exchange for highly classified information on President Felipe Calderon’s travel routes. A communiqué from law enforcement did not indicate a motive for garnering the information, however, local media reported the information was used to avoid crossing routes with the president and his security forces, as Mexican cartels often travel across the region in heavily armed convoys of SUVs.
Cartel infiltration into Mexican law enforcement and top officials is increasingly prevalent despite intensive efforts on the part of the president to counter them. It is likely that high profile cases of corruption will continue to be reported from within local and federal law enforcement, as well as the military in the near-term. However, with the arrival of appropriations from the Merida Initiative, with its emphasis on eliminating police corruption, it is likely that Mexican security forces will see gradual successes against corruptive elements in the long-term.
Institutional Corruption
Rodriguez’s arrest is not the first of its kind in Mexico. In 2005, authorities detained a former travel coordinator for President Vicente Fox on charges of selling information to traffickers, however a judge later dismissed the case. Currently, corruption infiltrates every level of institutional authority in Mexico:
• Organized crime in Mexico, which involves over 25 sectors, including money laundering and human trafficking, are reported to affect 63 percent of the nation’s municipalities.
• Transparency Mexico reported that US$2 billion is spent each year paying bribes.
• On December 9, 2008, International Corruption Day, President Felipe Calderon announced that 11,500 public servants were fined for corruption, totaling nearly US$300 million.
• Under Operation Clean House in November 2008, Mexican authorities detained drug czar, Noe Ramirez Mandujano, on suspicion that he allegedly leaked intelligence to drug traffickers in exchange for $US450,000 a month. Mandujano ran the attorney general’s office that specializes in combating organized crime from 2006 to August 2008.
Police corruption is currently the largest challenge to the federal government’s campaign against drug trafficking. Police departments remain highly susceptible to external financial incentives as they face inadequate job training, lack of education and low wages averaging near $US375 per month. Cartel bribes compete at an average of $US100,000 to $US450,000 per month.
On January 2, 2009, Mexican security officials announced that a new law would be enacted that will create a National Information Center to gather data from federal, state and local authorities to monitor “previous convictions, identification, means of support and methods of operation of criminals.”
• A recent evaluation of 56,000 police indicated over 50 percent were “not recommended.”
• During 2008, over 300 municipal police in Ciudad Juarez were fired for affiliating with organized crime groups.
• In Baja state over 240 law enforcement officers have been let go for failing background checks, including 17 in Tijuana.
Police corruption in Mexico will likely continue to be an ongoing and increasing problem in the near to mid-term. However, the continued introduction of new legislation and harsher penalties for violators, as well as further investments into police training and salary increases will likely allow for a decrease in corruption cases in the long-term.
Military Element
Since 2006, President Felipe Calderon has deployed military troops to cities throughout Mexico, largely those with critical levels of violence, to replace, at least temporarily, corrupt or ineffective municipalities. In these cities, banners have been hung “recruiting” soldiers and former soldiers to trafficking operations, while military forces across Mexico have reported receiving offers from traffickers.
Intimidation appears the cartel’s most recent tactic to infiltrate military barriers, as on December 21, 2008 seven army recruits in Guerrero state were kidnapped and later found dead, bearing the markings of torture; the soldiers heads were publicly displayed accompanied with a message of warning to the military to end anti-drug operations.
Lasting Results to Take Time
President Calderon has aggressively implemented efforts to weed out corruption and crime in Mexico, including Operation Clean House, the consolidation of the twin federal police forces to a singular unit, and the opening of a new police campus in Mexico City where a database is set up to connect disparate police forces and improve intelligence gathering. His commitments to fighting corruption have also initiated installments of the Merida Initiative, a $US400 million plan for antinarcotics aid, which is earmarked to allocate 15 percent to eliminating corruption cases.
It is unlikely, however, that corruption cases will decrease significantly in the near-term, as Mexico’s laws and institutions are currently not suited to counter and enforce infiltration cases. It is likely that reports of military corruption and cartel “targeting” will also increase in the near-term as more troops replace local municipalities.
However, despite the high level of current corruption, ongoing efforts by Calderon, US authorities, and international human rights organizations will provide more legitimate law enforcement institutions in the long-term, but will take time to see lasting results.
