Relationship between Media Politics and Cartels in Mexico

The Perfect Dictatorship

Introduction

What is Mexico? How has it come to be in the state that it is today? The film The Perfect Dictatorship represents a Mexico whose leaders in both politics and media are so thoroughly corrupt, and in bed together with one another, that no honest men have a chance of winning a seat in a position of power. Has Mexico always been this way? The fact is that the 21st century is unique in its own ways because of the power and influence of media and the role that crime plays in the lives of the rich and famous. In prior centuries, Mexico faced different issues, different struggles—and if the same kind of corruption was there it was manifested in different ways. One thing that is clear is that the struggle of Mexicans was more genuine in the past than in today (Hamnett, 2019). The Mexican Revolution of the early 20th century was a time when the Cristeros fought fiercely against a revolutionary government that aimed to reshape Mexico (Jaffary et al., 2003). Today, such a fight is not found because Mexico is beyond being subdued: it is veritably enslaved by the upper class villains who work hand in glove with the media empire, sustained all the while by the criminal class (of which they are all a part). It is a Mexico that is caught in a bitter, twisted death spiral. The Perfect Dictatorship makes light of that spiral, by using satire to represent the sad reality of the situation in Mexico today. If, however, there is one thing that is in Mexico’s favor it is this: it has at least retained its sense of humor.

Historical Context/Background

As Hamnett (2019) points out, the war with the US (1846-1848) led Mexicans living under US occupation to become like 2nd class citizens. Even though Mexico and the US have much of the same heritage as products of the Enlightenment and the Revolution, the reality is that the culture of Mexico has been subverted by a power within the US that used and exploited Mexico for centuries (Valentine, 2017). Mexico is also different because in spite of the revolutionary influences that have shaped Mexico in recent history, it has retained a great deal of the Catholic influence that shaped it in the post-Colombian era. That influence has been particularly powerful in Mexican culture because of the relevance of great narratives like the appearance of the Virgin Mary (Our Lady of Guadalupe) and other stories (Rodriguez, 2010). The US, culturally speaking, went in a different direction: it veered towards the White Anglo Saxon Protestant (WASP) culture of England, and immigrant cultures were suppressed ultimately through the promotion of the great melting pot theory, in which all immigrants were expected to assimilate into the WASP culture, with its Manifest Destiny, and serve that vision. In Mexico, the vision that was required of Mexicans following the revolution and the Cristero Rebellion, was one that aligned more with the American way of things. It ushered in a century of corruption and made every Mexican citizen who was not a member of the ruling class into a second class citizen, like those who had lived under US occupation in the 19th century. In his own homeland, Mexicans thus became like outsiders in their own nation.

Comparative Analysis of the Film and Historical Sources

The film The Perfect Dictatorship is named after a poem by Llosa, describing the Institutional Revolutionary Party. The film is a satire of the political situation in Mexico, its ties to Big Media, and the way the criminal cartels work in tandem with corrupt politicians and media leaders to create narratives that are wholly false, all designed to support the moneyed interests and their superficial, self-centered pursuits. Moreover, the film shows how ordinary Mexicans long to take part in this façade because they see TV as a portal to wealth and riches and fame. This is why the film ends with the note that the abducted twins are to become reality TV stars with their own show on Mexican television. Mexican citizens thus participate in their own subjugation to a false narrative and a fake political culture made possible by the fake narratives proffered by television. It is a vicious circle of fakery that everyone, save the one authentic politician, agrees to be part of. The one authentic politician refuses to play ball with these people and is eventually shut out and vilified in the media as a result.

The film supports what the historical sources show is a main problem in Mexico: there is too much money and power affecting the politics and communities of Mexican society. Valentine’s (2017) work shows that the US intelligence community has long been involved in working with the drug cartels in Mexico, which suggests that the corruption of Mexico has had something to do with the aims of the WASP culture of the US. The fact that the Cristeros lost the war in the first half of the 20th century indicates that the Catholic culture of Mexico that had existed was displaced by a foreign culture that had no sympathy for Mexico’s post-Colombian beliefs and values. This fact is reflected in the film The Perfect Dictatorship, which represents the cynical influences and relationships between top-tier politicians, media, and the cartels. It is all one big club and those who make deals are the ones who get to play and rise to the top—like Governor Vargas, who ends up becoming President thanks to the media’s help, even though he has plenty of skeletons in the closet.

The film also depicts how political correctness masks over and hides an underlying system of corruption in Mexico. For instance, it begins with the President committing the political faux pas of making a racial slur. The incident captures national attention and the government has to go into damage control mode, recruiting Television Mexicana to help foster a distraction—a narrative in the media that will draw attention away from the embarrassing “scandal” of the President’s words. The real scandals of course are for worse but they go uncovered by the media because the media is really just the PR wing of the government—yet no one seems to mention it or discuss. The media is very persuasive and effective at doing its job: it keeps the “second class citizens” from questioning anything in reality by focusing all their attention on an alternate reality that the government wants them focused on so that the government can go about its real business, which involves working closely with the cartels.

Yet the media will also use this reality to blackmail political actors into making deals, and that is what happens with Governor Vargas: he is shown on TV accepting bribes from the cartels, and all his concern is focused on his image. No one seems concerned about the reality of the relationship between the cartels and the politicians who protect them. No one seems concerned that the media can hide or expose these stories as they see fit—because they are in on the scheme, too. All that matters is that the image be fixed, and Vargas sets about working with Television Mexicana to help cultivate a more positive image for himself by focusing the TV crews on the good works he has done for his people. But of course the TV crews are greeted by cartels when they arrive on the scene locally. It all only reinforces the fact that Mexico is ruled by cartels, with the politicians serving them more than they serve the people, who truly are “second class citizens” in the big scheme of things. And that is all a result of the fact that Mexico was essentially taken over by a revolutionary cartel in the early part of the 20th century, as Hamnett (2019) show. The post-Colombian Mexico that preceded it was essentially overthrown and in its place was installed a government that mirrored the kind of anti-Christian principles. Christian culture had guided Mexico up to that point and even after it remained a part of the lives of many people in Mexico, as Rodriguez (2010) explains, with faith and dedication and devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe being a very strong tenet among Mexican women and families. Yet the religious life of the nation was subjugated by the revolution, the Cristeros were defeated, and a new Mexico that was materialistic and politically correct was developed.

It was the perfect vacuum for cartels and the criminal underworld to crawl into and come to power in—just as happened during the Prohibition Era in the US at around the same time. The criminal underworld—organized crime—came to power in that era and the cartels were supported in Mexico by the intelligence community in the US, involved heavily in the drug trade (Valentine, 2017). It is not surprising to find, therefore, Mexican citizens being treated as though they were after-thoughts, as though they were second-class citizens—just like when Mexico was taken over by the US after the Mexican-American War of the mid-19th century. Mexico then was dominated by a foreign power, and as The Perfect Dictatorship shows, it is still the case today. The cartels do not form a legitimate government: they rule through corruption, influence, and collaboration that is hidden from the public.