How Do You Move Mexico from a State of Impunity to a Rule of Law? Eduardo Caccia - Reforma
go to original October 13, 2016

Mexico’s Battle Against Corruption (WoodrowWilsonCenter)

I can see the San Ysidro border crossing in the distance, one of the busiest crossings in the world. I’m on the Mexican side, on the top of a building. The view is unprecedented for me and most people in Tijuana. The breadth and sleek look of Freeway 5 ends where our country begins. The road becomes narrow like a funnel and it’s not surprising that there are potholes in the pavement. The seasoned driver accustomed to this knows that crossing “the line” means you not only change countries, you also change legal systems.

In the mind of the Mexican or U.S. citizen, a subconscious switch makes a change from “It’s the law” to “the full weight of the law”. There is such seriousness in the first, such lightweightness in the second. On one side, the law is revered, feared and respected, on the other the law is negotiated, circumvented, ignored. Those who cross everyday live both extremes: from the Rule of Law to a state of impunity.

The lack of Rule of Law is perhaps Mexico’s biggest problem in confronting the evils derived therefrom: impunity, corruption, rising crime, a judicial system that works better for criminals than for honest citizens, imbalances in public finances, an inefficient political system, social inequality, and more. How do you move from a state of impunity to a Rule of Law? It’s easy to answer the question, but not easy to do. We must change the Mexican cultural system so there is a gradual but significant change in the conduct of its people.

In societies where the law is respected there is symbolism, not very apparent to the common person, which reinforces the system in favor of the Rule of Law. Because of its influence, the case of our neighbor, the USA, is relevant. All of the U.S. symbolism is a defense of the strength of the law. Patrol cars are big, fast, equipped with technology; police officers are trained and wear the same color throughout the country.

Movies have taught us that the Court is fundamental to the exercise of the Rule of Law. One must go up the stairs to enter a Court (the law above everyone else), walk into a usually imposing building (buttressed with ample Roman columns). Inside, a stern respect for the judge is practiced: people get up and are silent before a person who strategically wears different clothing from everyone else; his black toga is an investiture, not just any symbol, to remind others that that person has a higher power. In fact, the judge sits on a stand higher than everyone else (a sign meaning the superiority of the law).

In The Power of Myth, Joseph Campbell wrote that for the law to have authority, the power of the judge must be ritualized and the subject of myth. This power is communicated to the public through other symbols of the justice system, from the police officer who says "tell that to the judge", to the simple but powerful "Stop" sign, marking a legal line that others obey, "because it’s the law.”

Read the rest at Mexico Voices

Related: Mexico Corruption: Incentives Must Be Removed, Laws Enforced (Mexico Voices)

Related: Mexico Justice System: Abandoned Victims and an Evil System (Mexico Voices)

Translated by Ruby Izar-Shea

Mexico Voices is a blogging endeavor aimed at raising the awareness of U.S. citizens regarding the destructive impact of the U.S. economic policy and the War on Drugs on Mexico - on its people, their economic and physical security and their human rights, on the nation’s dysfunctional justice system, and on the rule of law and Mexico’s fragile democracy. Visit the website at MexicoVoices.blogspot.mx

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