Mexico's President: Corruption 'a Cultural Matter'

Call it the “anti-propaganda strategy”: stop talking about the truth and maybe it will go away. From the beginning of his presidency, Enrique Peña Nieto made the tacit decision to change the narrative in Mexico by pushing narco-violence (and the institutional implosion that has come with it in many parts of the country) under the rug and focusing instead on economic reform. The administration stopped parading detainees in front of the cameras, a common practice during the presidency of Felipe Calderon, who saw the struggle not only as a way to gain political legitimacy but also as his own personal mission. Peña Nieto only made an exception when Mexican forces finally apprehended Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman, the world’s most famous drug lord, and even then only showed Chapo ever so briefly, held by the neck by Navy personnel walking him toward a helicopter. After that, the government went silent again—no explanation about what might happen with Chapo out of the picture, and no serious press conferences on the future of his criminal organization or anything else related to the long, bloody war on drugs. For Peña Nieto, it was back to the business of changing the topic.