'Yes, I Stole, But Not Much': Viral Video Shines Light on Dirty Money in Mexico Jan-Albert Hootsen - Vocativ
go to original June 14, 2014

A YouTube video of a speech by Hilario Ramirez Villanueva, a mayoral candidate in northern Mexico, has sparked a national outcry against corruption. (InfoMX NOTICIAS)

Several years ago, when he was mayor of San Blas, a small, impoverished town in northern Mexico, Hilario Ramírez Villanueva would throw lavish parties and give away money and new cars to his constituents.

Now a mango farmer, Ramírez wants to be mayor again, and during a campaign rally last week at the main plaza in town, he told voters about the source of his generosity during his time in office. “I stole,” he said. “Yes, I stole. But not much. There’s not much money to steal from this town. I just scraped a little off the top.”

The audience, most of them local farmers, didn’t seem outraged. Many laughed heartily at the former mayor’s admission. The catch: Ramírez didn’t know someone was filming his speech on a smartphone. He also didn’t know someone would upload the video onto YouTube, or that his words would go viral this week and spark a national conversation about corruption. “It was just a joke,” Ramírez told the Mexican media this week, trying to save face. “I like jokes.”

It’s rare for a politician to cop to bad deeds in Mexico, but most people in this nation of 118 million see their leaders as unabashedly crooked. According to the last year’s Corruption Perception Index, published by the Berlin-based watchdog Transparency International, Mexico seen as one of the top 70 countries on its list, and the top five in Latin America.

But politicians such as Ramírez don’t have a monopoly on theft, bribery or moral depravity. Many Mexicans believe that dirty money doled out to government officials, the police and ordinary citizens runs their society as a whole.

Read the rest at Vocativ

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!