Corruption and Organized Crime in Mexico in the Post-PRI Transition

Abstract

President Fox has made the improvement of public safety and reduction in corruption priorities of his government. Backed by an educated urban middle-class electorate, he faces fundamental challenges to the achievement of his goals. These include a legacy of institutionalized PRI (Institutionalized Revolutionary Party) corruption, limited respect for the rule of law, and the penetration of drug trafficking groups into the state structure. Mexico's long border with the United States has contributed to the rapid rise in organized crime and the use of Mexican territory by foreign crime groups. Mexico's past may preclude the transition to a more democratic and open society despite the best of presidential intentions and the desires of much of the Mexican population.