Greasing the wheels

We have been making two or three trips a year to MX since 2007. Twice, my husband has been pulled over for traffic violations (one of which may or may not have been real) and in both cases, the police were waiting for a bribe. Being polite and adamant about going to the station to pay the fine resulted in us being let go both times. I heard, while we were down there this time, that the authorities, especially in Playa, are really trying to get rid of this behavior, and are trying to get people to report shakedowns.

On the other hand, I have never been pulled over, but I am very meticulous about following traffic laws.

We have never been hassled in any way for any other reason, and in fact, I have found the people down there to be very friendly.

There are some very peculiar laws regarding vehicles that come in from out of the country. They may, in truth, only be driven by the owner of record. I have friends who spend prolonged periods down there with their own truck, and he can drive it and she can't, because of this rule. There does not seem to be any issue with rental cars or other cars with Mexican registration.

Am I the only one who doesn't see the original post? What happened? (We're headed to Tulum/Coz for annual winter vacation next month).

Yes, the bribe situation's alive and well, but it works. Last year we were (marginally) speeding to get from Cancun airport to Tulum so we could find our rented casita in the dark....'got stopped and shaken down by a local cop. We both speak some Spanish (mine Cuban influenced, my b.f.'s Castillan with a British accent). The deal: $80 US or spend a couple of days in court, chasing paper, and probably pay anyway....we considered it worth it.

As for the federales....I've seen more of them since the Sept 11th events. Usually they shake us down for drugs. I've told Neil he should cut his hair....

Barbara

When I studied Spanish 25 plus years ago the advice given was to just expect to spread some money around since it was more or less the only way for underpaid civil servants to make a liveable wage at the time. It fell in the same category as expecting Latin American men to have a mistress or minã.

However times have changed, tourism is big money and public officials in the area are not stupid. They see the impact of a down economy and they saw the impact of the swine flu and drug violence scares on tourism and they know where the real money comes from. The last thing they want to have their LEOs doing is harassing or scaring off tourists.

Given that and the move towards discouraging shake downs by LEOs in MX, Lynn's approach makes a great deal of sense - just keep insisting on escalating it to the "pay the fine at the station" level - especially if you feel you didn't do anything. Odds are he can't afford to have you making a stink about a bogus traffic stop and he'll go away. The bribery thing still works for them only if you pay it.

If you think Mexico is bad, try Afghanistan. I got shaken down for $365,000 of your (if you are an American) tax dollars by the Ministry of Finance while overseeing a USAID program there. They were upset that we weren't paying taxes on the money that we were giving them for agricultural development; I was told either I pay or my passport would be confiscated (best case) or I'd get to visit Pul-e-Charki prison (that's about as worse a case as there is). After that incident, I left the country and would not return. Incredible corruption.

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Originally Posted by Wendy Thurman

If you think Mexico is bad, try Afghanistan. I got shaken down for $365,000 of your (if you are an American) tax dollars by the Ministry of Finance while overseeing a USAID program there. They were upset that we weren't paying taxes on the money that we were giving them for agricultural development; I was told either I pay or my passport would be confiscated (best case) or I'd get to visit Pul-e-Charki prison (that's about as worse a case as there is). After that incident, I left the country and would not return. Incredible corruption.

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I agree the corruption there is monumental.

But to be fair, it's not entirely without a home grown precedent or two.

For example, under US tax law I can only gift $12,500 to someone before they are required to pay tax on the "gift". This is after all money I have already earned and paid taxes on, so taxing the recipient for money I gift to them seems a bit unfair and is taxing the money twice.

More to the point, US government grant awards to universities, non-profits, etc in this country also normally allow the admistration over the grantee, their cognizant agency / administrative overlords to skim off an indirect cost on the total grant amount that is then not available to the actual grantee and is potentially not even used for anything remotely related to the project for which the grant was awarded. The rates are negotiated and while our Department allows 8% I have seen some universities skim off as much as 28% in indirect costs on grants from other departments.

Thus I am not too quick to condemn an Afgan minister of finance when we have entities here who are just as flagrant or more so in skimming off grant funds. And in this case, given the probable amount of money involved, I suspect the percentage of money being requested by the Afgan minister of finance was in comparison a fairly small percentage of the whole - probably less than the 8% figure our department deems appropriate.

I agree it should stop, but we should stop it at home before we start demanding it stop abroad.