Illuminating the Arts-Policy Nexus 

Que la esclavitud se proscriba para siempre y lo mismo la distinción de castas, quedando todos iguales, y sólo distinguirá a un americano de otro el vicio y la virtud…Que en la nueva legislación no se admita la tortura.

—José María Morelos, 1813

Entre los individuos como entre las naciones, el respeto al derecho ajeno es la paz.

— Benito Juárez, 1867

• Congreso de la Unión, Mexico, Abril de 2003: Ley Federal para Prevenir y Eliminar la Discriminación

Police corruption — an inside view:

• World Policy Journal, Fall 2000: “Everything in This Job Is Money”: Inside the Mexican Police

Reforms in Guanajuato foreshadow Mexico’s future—the profile that presaged Vicente Fox’s triumphal presidential bid four years later

• World Policy Journal, Fall 1996: The Next Mexican Revolution

Decentralization and civic action chip away at authoritarian rule:

• Los Angeles Times, November 1995: Mexico’s new Experiment: More Power to States and Cities

Democracy and human rights

• Mexico: Democracy and Human Rights, INS Resource Information Center, Department of Justice, July 1995.
• Free Trade, Shackled Labor, New York Times, 18 April 1992.

The article that exposed the Salinas myth more than five years before his fall from grace

• World Policy Journal, Fall 1989: Mexico Under Salinas: A Façade of Reform

Misuse and corruption of the army

• Los Angeles Times, August 1999: Latin America: Military Strongmen Just Fading Away (except in Mexico)
• Los Angeles Times, August 1998: The Risk of Using the Army for Too Much
• Washington Post, April 1998: Sham Reform—the court martial of an exemplary general
• Los Angeles Times, January 1998: By Militarizing, Zedillo Only Increases Instability—the wider meaning of the Acteal massacre
• Los Angeles Times, June 1995: Army Shouldn’t Fight War Against Drug Lords
• Christian Science Monitor, July 1994: Hold Mexican military accountable for human rights abuses
• Los Angeles Times, January 1994: Behind the Chiapas Revolt: An Army Allowed to Operate Outside the Law

How Washington misreads and patronizes Mexico, and the consequences

• U.S. neighbors turn away – the wages of indifference, International Herald Tribune, April 2003. Though France took the heat for its promised veto of the U.S. war resolution on Iraq, it was Mexico and Chile that defeated it.
• Boston Globe, February 1999: Presidential Visit: Clinton unwisely snubbed forces for reform in Mexico
• Newsday, January 1998: Mexico Is Spinning Horrors Into Reforms
• Washington Quarterly, Autumn 1997: Facing Political Reality in Mexico
• New York Times Magazine, April 1995: It isn’t the peso; It’s the presidency
• Journal of Commerce, March 1995: Salinas: Privilege and Impunity
• Houston Chronicle, April 1990: Lithuania, Mexico—a U.S. double standard

Outcome of 1997 election: Mexico’s democratic revolution, part one

• World Policy Journal, Fall 1997: Aztec Sun Rising: The Cárdenas Challenge
• Los Angeles Times, October 1997: Andrés Manuel López Obrador — The James Carville of Mexico’s Left Making Political Headway

Electoral fraud and machinations under the PRI

• Este País, Marzo de 1994: Sufragio efectivo: Unas perspectives internacionales
• Sacramento Bee Sunday Forum, October 1991: The election fraud I saw in Mexico
• Proceso, Septiembre de 1991: Denuncia Andrew Reding nuevas modalidades de fraude electoral en México, observadas por él
• New Perspectives Quarterly , Winter 1991: The Politics of Salinastroika: Institutionalizing Impunity?
• Jack Anderson and Dale Van Atta, October 1991: No Viva Zapata
• New York Times, November 1990: “Salinastroika,” Si; Democracy, No
• Newsday Viewpoints, August 1990: A Brezhnev South of Our Border?
• La Opinión, agosto de 1990: La contrareforma salinista: La nueva ley electoral del 14 de julio no satisface las condiciones mínimas para la democracia
• Mother Jones, November 1988: Favorite Son: The heir of Mexico’s greatest reformer saw his election stolen and his friend murdered, and How to Steal an Election: Mexico, 1988
• Electoral fraud, 1988 federal elections: sample burnt ballots, collected from charred piles on a roadside in Guerrero

Political corruption under the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI)

• Newsday, February 1997: U.S. Coddling of Mexico Ignores its Scandals
• Miami Herald, August 1996: Without political reform, Mexico cannot fix its economy
• Pacific News Service, March 1996: Small Town Mayor Gets the Last Word: A Sign of Hope in Stemming Southern Mexico's Lawless Tide
• Christian Science Monitor, December 1995: The Peso and the President: Mexico’s Leadership Crisis
• Los Angeles Times, January 1995: To Insulate the Peso, Adopt a Watchdog With Teeth
• Washington Post, June 1993: Mexico: Corruption From the Top
• Le Devoir, avril 1992: Le Mexique de Salinas ou la fausse réforme des petits copains
• La Opinión, octubre de 1990: México: persiste la corrupción
• Texas Observer, September 1990: Taking Away City Hall: Reform Brings Reprisal in a Mexican Town

A dysfunctional drug war, plagued by corruption

• New York Times, March 1997: A White Flag in the Drug War
• Journal of Commerce, March 1996: Mexico's timid fight against drugs Certification a polite fiction—neither Mexico nor U.S. can afford a real crackdown on drugs
• Arizona Daily Star, March 2002: Mexico’s cartel crackdown good, bad news
• Journal of Commerce, November 1997: Mexico’s addiction to the narcodollar
• Sacramento Bee, January 1996: A drug bust that was just for show
• Washington Post Outlook, September 1995: The Fall and Rise of the Drug Cartels
• The Nation, July 1995, and Senate Foreign Relations Committee, August 1995: Narco-Politics in Mexico

Chiapas: Racism and repression foster marginalization, rebellion

• The Gazette, Montreal, February 1994: Healing scars of racism: Rebellion in Mexico has forced widespread injustices into the open
• Washington Post, January 1994: Rebellion in Mexico
• Los Angeles Times, January 1994: Behind the Chiapas Revolt: An Army Allowed to Operate Outside the Law
• Excelsior, 18 de Diciembre de 1951, primera plana: Jugando a la Guerra Tres Niñitos “Fusilaron” a una Sirvienta. No one even knew the last name of the 12-year-old servant accidentally shot to death by the boys she was taking care of, two of whom (Carlos and Raúl Salinas) would later become prominent; exposure of this 1951 newspaper article during the 1988 presidential campaign may have been the real reason for the imprisonment of Oil Workers’ boss La Quina following Salinas’ inauguration.

Historic documents

• Independence leader—and revolutionary Catholic priest—Miguel Hidalgo’s decree abolishing slavery (1810): Decreto contra la esclavitud, las gabelas y el papel sellado
• Independence leader—and revolutionary Catholic priest—José María Morelos’ 23 points for a Mexican constitution, including the abolition of slavery, racism, and torture (1813): Sentimientos de la Nación
• Liberal president—and full-blooded Zapotec—Benito Juárez’ speech upon his return to Mexico City following the defeat of Emperor Maximilian (1867): Manifiesto al volver a la Capital de la República
• Morelos revolutionary Emiliano Zapata’s manifesto for land reform (1911): Plan de Ayala
• Former president Lázaro Cárdenas’ scathing denunciation of electoral fraud, government-run unions, foreign borrowing, the unraveling of land reform, and treatment of indigenous peoples (1970): Mensaje a los revolucionarios de México