Despite President López Obrador’s crusade against it, corruption has increased over the past year, according to the majority of respondents to a recent poll.
Conducted by the Reforma media group and the organization Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity (MCCI), the poll found that 53% of respondents believe that corruption has worsened. Only 22% of those polled said that corruption has decreased.
Published in a new report about corruption and impunity by MCCI, the poll found that 38% of respondents believe that the president is corrupt himself, an increase of 16 points compared to 2019.
Lorena Becerra, a deputy director of data at Reforma, noted that people’s perception of López Obrador as an honest politician has deteriorated even though he takes great pains to portray himself as austere and someone who is concerned about the wellbeing of the people.
“This is not good news for him,” she said.
The Reforma/MCCI poll also found that only 43% of respondents believe that López Obrador is doing a good job combating corruption, a decline of 27 points compared to last year’s survey. The same percentage said that they believe corruption will worsen in 2021.
“The outlook is not very encouraging for the president,” Becerra said.
Presenting the MCCI report on Wednesday, the organization’s president said that many people continue to suffer from corruption in their day to day lives.
“Our poll confirms it and so do those that other media outlets have released,” María Amparo Casar said.
While López Obrador has a strong – albeit declining – approval rating, the president’s public policies, including those aimed at eliminating corruption, don’t have the same level of support, Amparo said.
Sofía Ramírez, an MCCI researcher and coordinator of the new report, said that women have become increasingly disenchanted with López Obrador and his anti-corruption drive.
“In 2019, women were a lot more optimistic than men with respect to the evaluation of the combating of corruption by the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador,” she said. “In contrast, in 2020 we see that women assess the government’s anti-corruption actions worse than men.”
Ramírez said that the percentage of women who believe that López Obrador is doing a good job combating corruption declined 30 points in this year’s poll compared to that of 2019.
“We’re starting to see an awakening of that half of the population,” she said.
In his second annual report to the nation on Tuesday, López Obrador declared that his government won’t be remembered for being corrupt but rather its “main legacy will be the purification of public life in Mexico.”
But in addition to the the Reforma/MCCI poll, an index developed by the the Americas Society/Council of the Americas and the global risk and strategic consulting firm Control Risks that was updated in June determined that corruption had slightly worsened over the previous 12 months.
Three corruption analysts who recently spoke with the newspaper El Economista spoke out against the federal government’s approach to combating corruption, charging that it should broaden its focus beyond high-profile former officials and make greater use of the National Anti-Corruption System (SNA).
Federal authorities have initiated proceedings against former Pemex CEO Emilio Lozoya and former cabinet minister Rosario Robles but they should also be investigating acts of corruption committed by current government officials and members of the ruling Morena party, said Maureen Meyer, vice president for programs and director for Mexico at the Washington Office on Latin America.
Source: Reforma (sp)
