Peña Nieto's Inadvertent Truth

Leon Krauze, a Mexican journalist, interviewed Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, as part of a panel of six journalists. He reports on that interview for New Republic:

When my turn came, I asked the president about corruption in Mexico. I wanted to know how Peña Nieto planned to prevent Mexico from turning into Russia, especially now that billions of dollars will be in play due to the recent opening of the country’s energy sector to private investors.

Peña Nieto shrugged off my concern. Corruption in Mexico "is a cultural matter,” he said, not realizing the implications of the sentence. For a second, the room fell silent. Was he saying there was no escaping corruption? 

That is exactly what he was saying; his PRI is notorious for whole-heartedly embracing corruption of every sort. Former Spanish colonies worldwide share this unfortunate cultural attribute.