Schettino on de la Madrid

He sees last week's spat between presidents as yet another example of the Revolutionary regime's basic corruption: 

We must be very clear on this point, because it is fundamental for any serious attempt to recover this country: corruption has turned into a way of life in which we all participate. That's why it has been impossible to confront it. The appropriation of public goods for personal benefit, from the secret presidential partida [a slush fund Salinas is accused of robbing] to the frenaleros [the red towel guys who informally control parking in Mexico's urban areas], is exactly the same; the use of public funds for political projects, whether it is the second story of the Periférico or cooperation with a corporatized union, is exactly the same; taking advantage of the legislative privilege, of the power of the microphone, abusing the ticket window, they are all forms of corruption that we have built over decades. 

For many, the corruption in our country is inherited from the colonial era, because then you could find some behaviors similar to those of the present day. But that's incorrect: a few centuries ago, many behaviors that today must be considered corruption were not considered as such, and they existed not only in the Spanish empire, but in practically the whole world. No. Corruption in this country exceeds by a great deal what one can find in European countries, but also in Latin American nations. It's something we have made ourselves, and it seems to me that we can associate it clearly with the Revolutionary regime. The starting point was Villa's government in Chihuahua. 

One can find other values that guided the regime during the 20th century, but honesty was not one of them. Worse still, corruption, understood as the use of public resources for private benefit, was an inseparable part of the regime. It was indispensable to guaranteeing the recovery of the economy after the Revolution, has Haber, Razo, and Maurer have demonstrated; it was fundamental to allowing the construction and functioning of a corporate regime that required privileges handed out to each one of the groups that sustained it. It was the "Mexican dream": that the Revolution provides you with justice.