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The Corruption Of Political Parties In Mexico

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Mexico, when compared to other nations, is not frequently recognized as having the most stable governmental or regulatory bodies at the helm. Unfortunately, more often than not, this country which has undergone its fair share of reform and improvement over that past century, is still associated with a corrupted government, ineffective domestic policy, and frequent cartel-related violence. The cause of this being that in many parts of Mexican politics, including telecommunications regulation, these issues do still exist to some extent. While in many ways Mexico resembles some of the most “free” nations in the world in paper, their ability to carry out their own policies is lacking and proving detrimental to the nation’s citizens and telecommunications …show more content…

Following the Mexican Revolution There was really only one party that stepped up and seized control of a nation in political chaos at the time. Following the assassination of the 1928 president elect, the president at the time, Plutarco Elias Calles, founded the National Revolutionary Party. The party was later renamed the Institutional Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario Institucional, PRI in Spanish). Over the next 71 years the PRI dominated every presidential election to remain in power and its members used their position for personal gain and attainment. After centuries of controlling the nation, the PRI gained the reputation of a corrupt party frequently engaging in electoral fraud. One of the PRI’s most powerful tools in keeping power was its manipulation of the media and its regulators. For example, the 1917 Mexican Constitution protects Mexican citizens’ rights to free speech by stating “the exchange of ideas is to be left undisturbed with the exception of those ideas that are an attack on morality, an attack on a third party, provoke crimes, or disturb public order” (Hernandez-Garcia 2012). The PRI was able to take the very vague phrasing of this constitutional right and use it to their advantage. In this definition of free speech, the definition of morality and public order is left up to the discretion of the government and media regulators. As a result, the PRI was able to censor or fine journalists and media outlets that published stories portraying the party in a negative light and claim it was one of the exceptions to free speech. As a result, the PRI was able to remove most, if not all, of their critics from national media and instead only journalists who praised the PRI were heard. Eventually this lead to self-censorship from many journalists and diminished the possibility of differing opinions being heard in the news.

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