And we wonder why these illegals have no respect for America or our Laws?

http://www.mexidata.info/id1194.html

Monday, January 1, 2007


Mexico’s Problem: Laws With Scant Enforcement



By Carlos Luken



In late December, Senator Manlio Fabio Beltrones, President of the Mexican Senate, announced that sweeping legislation would be introduced that, if approved, would authorize a second electoral round. Designed as a solution to Mexico’s dysfunctional voting process, the proposal was cynically disregarded by some and ridiculed by others.



As lawmakers stubbornly continue in their traditional role to reform existing legislation and introduce new bills in an attempt to solve the country’s many maladies, most Mexicans laugh at their efforts and believe that their representatives suffer from legislative myopia.



Most citizens accurately believe that Mexico’s maladies are not caused by a lack of legislation but rather an absence of enforcement. As such they consider legal reforms and initiatives valueless in a country where legitimacy is systematically disregarded by authorities and governing bodies.



In a bizarre twist, Mexican citizens have been cultured to pursue the rule of law only if corruption and impunity fail.



As a case in point, Mexico’s current election laws set limits on campaign financing, and even provide campaign funding. This over and above operational monies the political parties receive via the electoral institutions from the federal budget. But the law is methodically and deliberately circumvented. Mismanagement scandals are routine as party officials use the funds for personal reasons, political action committees are practically unsanctioned, and campaign overspending is patently tolerated.



Political analysts believe that given the weak legal environment a second electoral round will only exacerbate grievances and, if current laws are not enforced, the second round will end up being a financial and political nightmare.



Mexico’s traditional year-end legislative debate over the federal budget is a much-ballyhooed event that usually takes over the nation’s airwaves for the better part of December. Tax increases and money allotments to different programs are publicly aired and spiced by partisanship. Eventually compromises are made, and income and disbursements are signed into law. Once that happens routine takes over.



It’s commonly known that most budgeting organizations previously doctored their numbers to assign cash cushions that can be smoothly relocated, thus tacitly accepting a free and discretionary use of public resources.



Observers perceive discussing new taxes and tax increases as a futile exercise in a country that is generally acknowledged to have one of the world’s worst tax collection ratios. In this category Mexico ranks dead last on the OECD members list. Mexico’s customs organization and legislation is considered one of the world’s most cumbersome, and as a result most corrupt.



Although the “national sovereignty” debate concerning foreign investment in energy and real estate has all but ravaged Congress for years, there are several examples where events have been allowed to circumvent existing legislation and function normally.



Gaming has been constitutionally outlawed since the late 1930s, but for over half a century every important Mexican regional fair has had a traditional “palenque” (cockfighting arena) with betting loosely sanctioned by authorities as part of the tradition. (In 2004 a Regulation to the 1947 Federal Gaming and Raffles Law was published, which authorizes cockfights at fairs and expositions.)



But federal, state and local officials overlook the operation of gambling casinos that openly operate alongside the palenques. There are also many unlawful casinos and gaming houses operating nationwide, along with inappropriately authorized sport books, bingo parlors and numbers salons.



For the most part prostitution is illegal in Mexico, but it too is thriving. And where police authorities are clueless to find offenders, a taxi driver in any city can swiftly take you to an “open” street or bar were ladies of pleasure are publicly offering their services.



Insofar as the recent U.S. congressional debate and subsequent crackdown on illegal immigration have spurred migrant rights awareness and congressional responses in Mexico, lawmakers have hurriedly proposed initiatives that demand respect of human rights for Mexican migrants. But they ignore needed laws to protect Central American migrants passing through Mexico to the United States.



Because of these and countless other examples of impunity, many existing laws are considered by many citizens as dead letter legislation. Mexicans have understandably grown increasingly skeptical, questioning the very existence of the rule of law or its just application.



What Mexican lawmakers and authorities must recognize is that they are fostering a detrimental environment of cynicism and impunity. Mexico has less of a need for new laws, amendments or initiatives, than for respect of existing laws and real enforcement. And if certain laws are deemed obsolete, they should then be discarded and replaced — but not evaded.



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Carlos Luken, a MexiData.info columnist, is a Mexico-based businessman and consultant. He can be reached via e-mail at ilcmex@yahoo.com.