Jackie Barbosa: If anyone wants to understand why Mexico has such problems with corruption, it's LITERALLY because their Constitution actually PROHIBITS prosecuting presidents, sitting or retired. That has meant Mexican presidents can and thus generally do whatever they want, legal or not.

I don’t think it’s an exaggeration at all to say the decision threatens the Republic. I might not have said so in 2015, before I saw how triumphantly lawless and autocratic the President could be, and how so many people would applaud it or at least shrug.

My friend and colleague Ken White has written a great thread describing some (but far from all) of the enormous problems with today's decision by Chief Justice Roberts granting Donald Trump criminal immunity on grounds never before accepted by any court. Today's decision threatens the Republic.

If anyone wants to understand why Mexico has such problems with corruption, it's LITERALLY because their Constitution actually PROHIBITS prosecuting presidents, sitting or retired. That has meant Mexican presidents can and thus generally do whatever they want, legal or not.

I want to add that the corruption goes up to and includes murder. Most Mexicans believe that presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta was assassinated on the orders of the PRI and President Salinas: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Do...

Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org

Also, BTW, Lopez Obrador, who has been roundly criticized in the American press as a demagogue with Trumpian tendencies, tried to get the law changed to allow presidents to be prosecuted for past corrupt acts. It passed, but without the required quorum: peoplesdispatch.org/2021/08/02/m...

Majority in Mexico voted to prosecute former presidents, but the turnout was insufficient : Peoples Dispatchpeoplesdispatch.org According to a quick count by Mexico’s National Electoral Institute (INE), an overwhelming majority of voters voted in favor of investigating former presidents. However, the turnout to make the result...

The US AIPACracy corrupts all politicians. Mexico at least does not have AIPAC that bribes all members of Congress. The ones who don't want to be corrupted "die" (or their families).

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