Does Mexico Even Have a Government?

Just who do the people claiming to run the country actually deal with to get something done? Who do they order to do what? Just what does the president of Mexico do? What does Mexico's Congress of the Union actually legislate? How do they enforce the laws they pass? Do they even pass laws? What do these people in the tailored suits do all day besides standing around looking like they are in charge?

Since the future of a country can be found in its history, it is fitting I think, to take a quick look at the colorful political history of Mexico:

We begin with the overthrow of Emperor Montezuma and the brutal Aztec empire in 1520 by Hernan Cortez and his band of either the bravest adventurers to ever have walked this Earth or the greediest. Montezuma is executed by his own people who felt he had enabled Cortez.

After 304 years of indigenous suppression, exploitation and slavery, Spanish rule collapses in 1824, Mexico's first constitution is established and in 1828 the arguably first president of Mexico, Vincente Guerrero, is elected...kind of.

The next year Guerrero is overthrown in a coup by vice president Anastasio Bustamente who is then overthrown by forces loyal to Manuel Gomez Pedraza who was apparently overthrown earlier in 1828. After a series of bloody battles, Pedraza is again president, Bustamente goes into exile and Guerrero is executed.

General Antonia Lopez de Santa Anna takes over in 1833 and holds onto power off and on for the next 21 years.

After much turmoil, the tenacious Santa Anna is overthrown for the final time in 1854 and sent into exile, A new Constitution follows in 1857 and the civil War of Reform is waged to defend it. France then intervenes in 1861 to establish Maximilian I as King of Mexico.  

In 1867 France abandons the unfortunate Maximilian and he is executed. Anti-Maximilian revolutionary Benito Juarez rules during the Restored Republic era but his administration is marred by corruption and political reprisals and then he drops dead of a heart attack in 1872.

Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada succeeds Juarez but is overthrown and exiled in 1876 by General Porfirio Diaz. General Diaz is exiled too in 1911 when the Mexican Revolution takes place between 1910 and 1920, touched off when the 80 year old Diaz was “re-elected” to another term as president.

Former revolutionary Francisco I Madero succeeds Diaz in an actual election but is assassinated along with his brother and Vice President Pino Suarez in 1913 by the forces of General Victoriano Huerta. This plunges Mexico into revolt and General Huerta flees the country in 1914.

The death toll during the Mexican Revolution has been estimated as one tenth of the total population and where names of famous peasant revolutionary leaders like Emilano Zapata and Pancho Villa become known to the world. They are both later assassinated.

Venustiano Carranza becomes president in 1917 and manages to serve a full 3 year term but in the following election tries to put a surrogate up for the presidency and as a result is assassinated. A new Constitution follows.

In 1928, president elect Alvaro Obregon is assassinated. A political party system is then instituted as a measure to provide continuity in the event of future assassinations. This turns out to be a good idea.

Mexico makes out well economically during WWI and WWII with the emergence of state-run industries. Since 1945, the governing of Mexico has stabilized between the two major political parties; Partido Revolucionario Institucional or “PRI” and the Partido Accion’ Nacional or “PAN”. 

But since that relative "Golden Era" the Mexican government, chiefly the PRI which held power for 71 years until finally unseated in 2000, has been glaringly ineffectual in growing the Mexican economy, providing jobs, education or even attempting to stop the flow of drugs, people and death from that nation. And in fact, Mexico has become one of the most dangerous places in the world. 

With Presidential and Congressional elections to be held on July 1, 2018 incumbent Enrique Pena Nieto is ineligible under Mexico’s Constitution from running for a second term. There are also elections in 30 of the 32 states.  A new president will therefore be elected to again try and fail to do what all his predecessors had tried and failed to do.

Only now the death toll in Mexico is reaching the most absurd proportions to the point where the numbers are almost beyond belief for a nation right next door to our own. And of course, we see the carnage spilling onto the streets of these United States. Living near our boarder with Mexico must be filled with anxiety and dread. 

I see these guys in nice tailored suits saying they're going to do this or that to "combat the drug problem" living lives of luxury while a large portion of the Mexican citizenry has to worry about holding onto their lives. What passes for a government appears powerless against Mexico's organized crime families. 

Or is it that they are one and the same? 

With Mexico's Interior Ministry reporting 29,168 murders in 2017 which is totally meaningless and one could guess that it's probably double that number since this figure is only for tracked investigations. That doesn't count disappearances, unreported homicides, unidentified (headless) bodies in the streets and who-knows-where mass graves. But even in doubling that figure, it still doesn't approach what is going on in Venezuela. Can you imagine?

Then there are the caravans of people from other South American Hell Holes streaming through the country on the way to the United States. Nothing seems to get in their way as they march straight to the U.S. boarder. Mexico doesn't care. let 'em through as long as they aren't staying. What is it to them? It's not their problem.It isn't like they are Allies of the United States or anything.

And then they have the nerve to stand there with straight faces and say that WE, the people of the United States, should be taking care of these people, the ones they've ignored for generations. What balls! They should be ashamed to even show their faces.

What is going on in Mexico isn't a Democracy. It's a Dictatorship where the heads of state and seats of Congress are shuffled between the same Gang of Landed Elites. They may be in charge of the government but they aren't in control of the country. Even to the casual observer, Mexico appears to be in a state of chaos.

And the seat of government holed up in Mexico City is fine with that. They don't care if you have a job, they don't care if you have a school to go to, if you have enough food, a roof over your head, they don't care if you leave, they don't care if you stay and they don't care if people are shooting at you.

That's Mexico.

The government of Mexico has long ago thrown in with the Drug Cartels and therefore have negotiated themselves out of the line of fire. Anything they claim they are doing to "combat the Cartels' is merely just a show. They are partners in this crime against the people of Mexico. And ultimately they expect the United States to take care of the fallout of their corruption while they live well.

Very well.