Jaime Rodríguez, the cowboy-politician who earlier this year became Mexico’s first independent state governor, has promised to pursue more than 100 corruption cases in the northern state of Nuevo León.

Speaking in the state capital, Monterrey, “El Bronco” announced plans to reorganize the state attorney general’s office to focus on corruption cases and reeled off a list of government agencies open to investigations: the local metro, waterworks, public works and finance departments, along with projects undertaken by his predecessor.



“We have the delicate task of pursuing crimes of corruption,” he said on Monday. “This is something new in the country.”



Rodríguez rode into office on a wave of discontent against political parties – considered the most corrupt institutions in Mexico – and pledged to clean house in a state once famous for thrift and industry, but scandalized by crime and corruption in recent years.



His tough-talking ways are attracting national attention and putting him in position to challenge for the presidency in 2018 as an outsider candidate.

Yet analysts say corruption in Mexico is less a canker in the body politic than a structural component of the political system. And a key part of that system is the state governors – like “El Bronco” – who over the past 20 years have gained enough autonomy to allow them to ride roughshod over any attempts at keeping them accountable.

“The big problem in Mexican politics today are the governors,” says Ilán Semo, political historian at the Iberoamerican University. “Previously, a governor was the president’s peon” – especially in the days of one-party rule – “but these are feudal lords.”



Rodríguez’s current popularity bears comparison with a similar moment in 2000, when another self-styled ranchero, Vicente Fox, swept into office, upending seven decades of one-party rule with an anti-corruption and clean government agenda, only to disappoint voters.



Mexico has since plunged in corruption perception surveys, while violence, inequality and dissatisfaction with democracy have worsened. Political analysts say that the difficulties demonstrate the depth to which improper practices are rooted in the political system and timidity with which politicians, political parties and society at large have acted.



“Corruption is what keeps the mafia in good running order. Corruption is what keeps bad, big business in good running order against consumer interests. In the end, it’s the progenitor of all other public ills,” says Federico Estévez, political science professor at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico.



Talk of combatting corruption has consumed the chattering classes, with calls for a variety of measures such as increasing independent candidacies, implementing a newly approved anti-corruption system or importing an international commission against impunity – similar to the body which earlier this year brought down Guatemala’s president.

While Guatemala, Honduras and Brazil have all pursued and prosecuted senior politicians and businessmen accused of corruption, Mexico increasingly looks like a Latin American laggard.



“We aren’t doing anything close to what the Brazilians are doing in terms of punishing corruption,” said Manuel Molano, adjunct-director of the Mexican Institute of Competitiveness thinktank.



Allegations of corruption in Mexico go to the very top.



Last year, President Enrique Peña Nieto, his wife and finance minister were revealed to have all purchased properties from prominent government contractors. He subsequently appointed an acknowledged friend of the finance minister to the comptroller’s office and ordered an investigation. The investigation – released in August – found nothing amiss. Few expressed surprise.



“Corruption is a system in Mexico,” says David Arellano Gault, public policy professor at the Centre for Teaching and Research in Economics. “It is a way of doing business, doing politics, and worse of all, a normal way of understanding politics.”



Graft is so enmeshed in everyday life that garbage isn’t collected, mail isn’t delivered and criminal investigations often aren’t opened without extra-official payments – euphemistically called “tips”. Mexico ranks 103rd in Transparency International’s annual Perceptions of Corruption Index, down 39 spots in a decade.



But taking actions against politicians is often difficult, observers say, since the political class protects itself, justice is selective and impunity is rife. Few politicians end up in prison despite rampant suspicions, while those that do probably violated unwritten rules

When politicians do end up under investigation, “it’s not because the [judicial] system worked,” said Eduardo Bohórquez, director of Transparencia Mexicana. “It’s because the pact was broken.”



Peña Nieto has enacted a new Anti-Corruption System, which strengthens auditing and the comptroller’s office, along with creating a special prosecutor’s office and courts. The enacting legislations is still required, however.



Others are pushing for outside intervention modeled on the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (Cicig) – controversial in Mexico, where the political culture is suspicious of foreign involvement into internal affairs.



“Politicians in Mexico would not accept such a thing,” said Arellano.