This week Pope Francis described Mexico as terrifying and expressed fear of the "Mexicanisation" of his native Argentina. Amnesty International denounced enforced disappearances and the use of torture by security forces. Donald Trump criticised the "reign of corruption" in business circles. And, after receiving an Oscar for 'Birdman', the director Alejandro González Iñárritu appealed for a "better government" and described the injustice and impunity in his country as unbearable.
A year ago Mexico was riding a wave of optimism in global financial circles, approving a raft of economic reforms and preparing to open its coveted oil sector to private finance. President Enrique Peña Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), elected in 2012, brokered an agreement with opposition parties, a major advance in a country where the opposition had refused to even accept election results, citing fraud.
The PRI ran the country from 1929 until 2000, combining populism with repression, and rewarding a clique of loyal businesspeople with lucrative contracts and political fiefdoms. It also forged secret ties with criminal organisations as police, army and government laid down strict operating rules and enjoyed a share of the proceeds.
The defeat of the PRI marked the end of an era. In 2006 President Felipe Calderón, of the National Action Party, declared war on criminal gangs – prompting a surge in violence. Since then more than 100,000 people have died and 25,000 have disappeared as cartels have splintered and multiplied, expanding their activities.
Mexico’s mafia now controls “tax” and “justice” issues in many rural areas, charging weekly protection money and intimidating or killing off opponents.
It was widely hoped that the return of the PRI would restore official control over criminal groups, but the situation has gone beyond the government’s control. Someone goes missing every five hours, and death is the almost inevitable outcome.
President Peña Nieto pledged to shake off the party’s old image, but the disappearance of 43 students in September, at the hands of police and cartel gunmen, has haunted his administration.
