Breathe
By Sonia Serrano
A few days ago, the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (IMCO) released the State Competitiveness Index 2023, an analysis of the situation of the states in different areas. In the report corresponding to Jalisco, it is undoubtedly noteworthy that the state ranks last in the perception of corruption.
What does this indicator measured by IMCO mean? As it explains, it is "the percentage of the urban population 18 years and older who consider that corrupt practices in the state government are frequent and very frequent". The reason why Jalisco is the worst entity is because 91% of citizens rated their government as corrupt.
The details that lead the population to consider that their government is corrupt are diverse and the study does not reach that precision of data. But a review of the issues that have caused crisis in the state would be enough to imagine them: the government headed by Enrique Alfaro Ramírez is the one that has contracted more public debt. It is the state that ranks first in disappearances, in bodies rescued from clandestine graves and one of the first in clandestine burial sites. To this we could add the restructuring of transportation that has not improved mobility conditions, the vehicle verification program that has been described as tax collection, or scandals such as the leasing of heavy machinery for 3 thousand 634 million pesos to a businessman with whom Governor Enrique Alfaro traveled to see a baseball game of the Los Angeles Lakers in 2019.
We can also link it to the data that appears in the same IMCO report for Jalisco in the measurement of the rule of law. It is the second to last place in costs per crime, with 4 thousand 771 pesos, in addition to number 24 in unreported crimes, with an alarming percentage: 91.3%.
The presentation even highlights that Jalisco "worsened in five of the eight indicators of the Law sub-index, among which the increase in the costs of crime, unreported crimes and perception of security stand out". In the latter, only 20% of the adult population said they felt safe in the state.
IMCO details that the Law sub-index measures "the public and legal security environment" of the entities, since public security is closely linked to the quality of life of citizens, by safeguarding their physical integrity and their rights through the prevention and elimination of that which jeopardizes their liberties, order and public peace". It also specifies that "it is a determining factor for the arrival of new investments".
The issue of security and justice has become a headache for the current administration. Despite Governor Enrique Alfaro Ramírez's insistence that most crimes are on the decline, citizens' distrust of the authorities has increased the crime rate.
In addition to the above, there is a crisis in the Judicial Branch, where the control from the Executive Branch, especially in the first instance, has led to a constant mobility of judges from one court to another or from one matter to another, to attend to matters according to the convenience of those who are in charge by orders or with the complicity of the state government.
The crisis of the Judiciary has been documented in investigative journalistic works and can even be supported with data from the organization México Evalúa, which in November last year announced that, according to the report "Hallazgos desde lo local 2021", 95.4% of the crimes reported and investigated in the state remained unpunished, "either because there was no reparation for the damage, there was no early exit or because there is no sentence". The percentage of impunity varies according to the crime, but in the case of forced disappearance and kidnapping it reaches 100% and in extortion and intentional homicide 99.7%.
Enrique Alfaro's government is already at its closing. In a very short time, even the movements of those who intend to seek a candidacy for 2024 will begin, so he will hardly be able to straighten the course and seek a way out of the painful place as the most corrupt state government in the country.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of Opinion 51.
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