Ex-President Vicente Fox Says Mexico Needs 'Badass' Anti-Corruption Czar Eric Martin - Bloomberg
go to original August 28, 2016

Former Mexican President Vicente Fox said the nation’s current leader needs to recognize the public’s desire for a stronger hand against corruption, including appointing a czar to oversee anti-graft efforts and investigating governors.

President Enrique Pena Nieto should go beyond the asset declarations required for public officials under the anti-corruption overhaul he ratified last month, Fox said in a telephone interview Friday. Fox, who was president from 2000 through 2006, said the public is losing confidence in lawmakers who legislate only for their own benefit and to protect their interests, and that the trend is worrisome for Mexico’s democracy.

Pena Nieto "needs an effective crusade of punishment against all acts of corruption," he said. "Creating more laws won’t do anything. We need an anti-corruption czar who will be a true badass, who doesn’t tolerate anything or let anything get by him - not any party, any level of government, neither the public nor private sector."

Pena Nieto, 50, has seen his public approval ratings plummet amid dissatisfaction with the government’s efforts against corruption and violence. A poll by Reforma newspaper this month showed his popularity plunged to 23 percent, a level never reached by Fox and the lowest for any president in two decades. The Reforma survey was taken before the Guardian newspaper reported that a businessman paid a property tax on Pena Nieto’s wife’s apartment in Miami and a local news outlet reported he may have plagiarized portions of his thesis when he was in college.

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