The curtain falls on the anti-corruption fight in Mexico
The offices of the Citizen Participation Committee of the National Anti-Corruption System are empty. A thick silence fills the building that a decade ago promised to be the definitive counterweight against mismanagement. Vania Pérez Morales, 41, has just left the presidency. He leaves with a devastating balance.
The system is broken. And she says it without filters.
“Today every day you look at the news and there is a big case of corruption”,
launches the doctor in political science from what was her office. Her bravery in investigating powerful figures earned her recognition, but also put her in the spotlight.
When investigating corruption means challenging organized crime
“Messing with a governor, with a former governor or with high-level public servants, is not only messing with corruption, it is messing with organized crime networks and they put the finger on you,”
explains Pérez Morales.
His last weeks in office were intense: he requested to investigate financial inconsistencies of Adán Augusto López, Morenista coordinator in the Senate. The personal cost has been high.
Mother of a five-year-old girl, she now seriously considers exile. The threats came from anonymous accounts on social networks, but also from public authorities who clearly warned him:
“You chose war, take care!”
While he defines his next step, he temporarily takes refuge in the academy.
A devastating balance: “It’s discouraging”
When asked about the current state of the anti-corruption fight, his response is forceful:
“In 2015… a National Anti-Corruption System was created to respond to citizens’ demands for corruption and impunity. The White House, The Master Scam, the governors who left power with great fortunes… Today there is no State policy.”
And it ends with what is perhaps the most worrying diagnosis:
“With the disappearance of the National Transparency Institute, the right to know is not guaranteed.”
Good intentions vs. political reality
Was everything just promises? Yes, he answers without hesitation.
“Citizens were put in charge of the system so that it would not be co-opted by any party… and what we see in the States are citizens in committees working for the governors.”
His conclusion is lapidary: if institutions only serve a specific government or party, we are predestined to failure. The mechanism designed to audit power ended up emptied, its silent offices witnessing how a fight is extinguished.
Mexican political theater lost one of its most uncomfortable auditors. And with his departure, the possibility of real accountability becomes a little more obscured.
