<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A40332-2003Sep7?language=printer> The Washington Post washingtonpost.com Mexican Town Forgoes Law for Order Mayor Abolishes Traffic Fines in a Bid to End Bribery by Police Officers By Kevin Sullivan Washington Post Foreign Service Monday, September 8, 2003; Page A15 ECATEPEC, Mexico -- Park where you like, speed if you want to, run a red light, don't bother renewing your driver's license and let that seat belt flap in the wind. Nobody's going to bust you as long as Mayor Eruviel Avila Villegas is in charge. Avila's first official act when he took office last month was to abolish parking and traffic fines in this city of 2.5 million people just north of Mexico City. Avila, 34, a soft-spoken lawyer with curly hair, is nobody's anarchist. He's just looking for radical new ways to solve one of Mexico's most annoying problems: cops demanding bribes. The mayor's theory is that if police officers can't threaten drivers with tickets, they can't shake them down. "We are renewing and revolutionizing our city," he said. "People will always speed. They will always park illegally. But this way they won't have to pay bribes." Many Ecatepec residents said they feel liberated by the policy, which gives them at least a temporary respite from the money-grubbing officers who are among the great nuisances of daily life in Mexico. "This isn't a gift -- this is something we deserve," said a delighted Guadalupe Flores, 38, who works in a hotel in this working-class city. Police are less happy, some for obvious reasons, and others because they said they fear chaos when unchecked human nature is the only law on the streets. "People know we can't do anything and they laugh in our faces," said officer Erasmo Rosas Buenrostro, who has been armed with nothing more than a whistle since Avila confiscated all the ticket books in town and piled them up on his desk in city hall. It is impossible to calculate the cost of corruption in Mexican life, although Francisco Barrio, who was known as Mexico's anti-corruption "czar" when he was federal comptroller, estimated that it could be as high as 9 percent of the gross domestic product. The head of Pemex, the state oil monopoly, has said corruption costs the company $1 billion a year. Bribes are paid for everything from getting a car inspected to persuading the phone repairman to come before Christmas. A survey by Transparency Mexico, the local branch of Transparency International, showed there were at least 200 million shakedowns a year, two for each of Mexico's 100 million people. As officials have become more open about the economic and social costs of police corruption, several initiatives have been launched, including the purging of entire police forces and starting over in some towns. In Mexico City, police chief Marcelo Ebrard recently began paying his officers a cash bonus for making an arrest. The idea is to make being clean more lucrative than being dirty. But with police typically earning just a few hundred dollars a month, and with no pension when they retire, officers on the beat still tend to behave as if every driver were an ATM. In Ecatepec, Avila said, a dozen of the city's 177 traffic officers simply stopped showing up for work when the new policy was announced on Aug. 19. Police here earn an average of about $420 a month, but some were adding as much as $2,000 a month to their salaries with bribes from drivers, several officers said. They said those who disappeared have probably moved to other cities and taken jobs in police departments that still tolerate bribery as a way to beef up low salaries. Ecatepec is a sprawling city of humble barrios where those lucky enough to have work commute by bus to jobs in Mexico City. It is part of the leathery hide of poor, tough cities that ring the capital in Mexico state. Avila said it's the kind of place that requires radical new ideas to root out nasty old habits. He dismissed criticism that the policy would bring chaos to the streets, saying, "I don't think anybody's going to say, 'Let's go to Ecatepec because they don't have laws.' " He said drunken driving and other criminal offenses would still be punished. He said he believed people would behave responsibly without the threat of fines for routine traffic offenses, and he said the policy so far seems to be working. Avila is not worried about losing revenue from traffic fines. "For every peso that went into the city's coffers, five went into the pockets of the police," he said. "The social benefit of doing this is greater than what we lose in revenue." Avila said that if the anti-bribery scheme works, he plans to extend it to other city departments; his next step will be to eliminate most city building permits. "We should trust our people and give them a chance," Avila said. "If they don't respond well, we'll have to go back to the old way." One day recently, a long line of cars was parked next to the town square, exactly where the roadway is painted with huge yellow and white "NO PARKING" signs. Jose Cruz Hinojosa, 39, said he was picking up his daughter from school and would not be illegally parked for long. Cruz said he definitely liked the mayor's campaign to wipe out corruption, but added, "This one change is not going to stop it." Traffic police officer Manuel Hernandez stood just up the street, shaking his head. He said he would certainly have ticketed Cruz and the others a few weeks ago, but now he can't. "The people know they can run red lights, they can do anything they want," Hernandez said, with obvious disgust. "It's not good, but what can we do?" Avila said he doesn't mind a few angry officers because he is determined to improve the image of his city and its police department. He has his work cut out for him. Earlier this year, 42 Ecatepec officers were arrested and charged with selling drugs to children. Officers have been charged in recent years with the murder of a 10-year-old they were trying to kidnap for ransom and a string of robberies that left 17 people dead. Last year, Ecatepec also became the punch line to a national joke when it was disclosed that Avila's predecessor had given himself a salary of almost $540,000 a year. When Avila took office, he immediately reduced his salary to $108,000 a year, fired the old police chief and set out on his zero-tolerance anti-bribery policy. In many ways, Avila is also part of a national effort to change the image of his political party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI. Corruption and mismanagement became endemic in Mexico during the PRI's 71-year single-party rule, which ended when Vicente Fox was elected president in 2000. Since then, the PRI has tried to polish its image and, thanks in part to Fox's sputtering attempts at government reforms, won big in national midterm elections in July. In Ecatepec, the PRI has taken back the reform agenda: Avila's overpaid predecessor was from Fox's National Action Party, or PAN. Avila is trying to soften the blow to police officers by increasing other benefits. He said he is doubling the value of the monthly packet of basic foodstuffs that each officer receives to $100. He said he will change officers' hours -- now 24 hours on, 24 hours off -- to regular eight-hour shifts. And he said the city will begin paying for uniforms and repairs to patrol cars. As in many Mexican cities, the officers here have had to cover these costs. "The police don't have the trust of the people," Avila said. "I want to give them the means to be honest." -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'