When he campaigned for the presidency of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto used the title of his book, “Mexico, the Great Hope,” to explain the record he hoped to achieve and the nation he hoped to build. More than three years into his presidency, it seems more likely that he will be remembered not as the transformational leader Mexicans thought they had elected, but as a politician who skirted accountability at every turn.

On Mr. Peña Nieto’s watch, the Mexican government has swiftly and systematically whitewashed ugly truths and played down scandals.

After Mexican journalists revealed that a government contractor had made a lavish home available to Mr. Peña Nieto and his wife, the president appointed a friend to investigate the matter. Not surprisingly, the inquiry found no evidence of wrongdoing by the president. The journalists, despite meticulous, unimpeachable reporting, lost their jobs.

When the country’s most powerful drug kingpin, Joaquín Guzmán Loera, escaped from prison in July, Mexicans were rightly skeptical about the official account, not least because it was Mr. Guzmán’s second escape. The government claimed that Mr. Guzmán had slipped out through a tunnel he and his accomplices dug unbeknown to prison officials, dismissing the possibility that he had help from the inside. While some officials were arrested as a result of the prison break, the government has yet to fully explain the lapse.