Forbes Releases List Of 10 Most Corrupt Mexicans In 2013

By Lorne Matalon
December 19, 2013
Elba
Courtesy of Wikipedia
Elba Esther Gordillo

Dolia Estevez, a contributor to Forbes Magazine, has published a list of the 10 most corrupt Mexicans in 2013.

The list follows the release of Transparency International's annual corruption index for 2013.

The index shows that Mexico ranked 106 out the 177 countries sampled and on a scale of 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (clean), Mexico scored 34. 

Among the Forbes' list is union boss Elba Esther Gordillo, who was arrested earlier this year.

She is charged with the theft of $200 million of union funds and with amassing real estate holdings in the United States through the use of the illegally obtained union money.
Others on the the list include former governors of border states and the brother of former Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari.
Raul Salinas spent 10 years in jail in connection with a brazen, high-profile political murder of his former brother-in-law.
But a Mexican judge has just ordered the return to Salinas of millions of dollars of property that Mexican prosecutors allege was acquired illegally. 
This ruling took place after Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto assumed the reigns of power one year ago. 

Peña Nieto has said publicly on countless occasions that corruption is an albatross around the neck of Mexico's fledgling democracy.

Following Gordillo on the list is oil union boss Carlos Romero Deschamps.

His reported salary is about $2,000 a month, but his daughter Paulina Romero, shares her lavish travels on Facebook around the world and in private jets. 

Humberto Moreira, the former PRI governor of the border state of Coahuila oversaw the debt of his state rise from $200 million to $35 billion which led to his resignation as president of the PRI.

The PRI's former governor of Veracruz, Fidel Herrera is alleged to have maintained ties to the Zeta cartel as it thrived during his tenure. 

Peña Nieto's uncle Arturo Montiel stands accused by his former wife of kidnapping their three children and manipulating the law to prevent her from seeing them. 

Also in the list are Genaro Garcia Luna, the Secretary of Public Security under former President Felipe Calderon. Garcia Luna has been linked to cartel kingpins like "El Chapo" Guzman, head of the Sinaloa Federation, Mexico's most politically influential cartel.

Alejandra Soto is also on the list. She is the former spokesperson for former president Felipe Calderón and is now a fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School of government even though she never graduated college.

Her mentor Calderón is also lecturing this year at the Kennedy School.

Harvard spokesperson Doug Gavel told the Fronteras Desk that due to student privacy policies he is unable to comment.

The former governor of Tabasco, Andres Granier and that of Tamaulipas, Tomás Yarrington, whose indictment this month by a court in Texas was reported by the Fronteras Desk, round up the list of the top corrupt Mexicans of 2013.

Yarrington is charged with taking in millions of dollars in bribes from the Gulf Cartel in return for allowing it to smuggle industrial-sized amounts of cocaine into the U.S.

The list offers a fascinating glimpse into a phenomenon Mexicans understand all too well: the misuse of public office for personal gain.