Mayor says it's working, warnings of anarchy aren't panning out

By LAURENCE ILIFF / The Dallas Morning News

PUEBLA, Mexico – This colonial city with a proud past is using radical new ideas like the "virtual" traffic ticket in an attempt to carve out a future free of corruption.

A virtual ticket is like a regular traffic ticket except for one thing: It does not have to be paid. Ever.

Without fines, bribes dry up. Adiós, corruption.

"This was our first act of government," said Mayor Luis Paredes Moctezuma, who sprang the announcement on unsuspecting poblanos, as residents of Puebla are known, when he took office Feb. 15. "It tells the people that their government believes in them, that their government does not want their money, that it wants to make their lives better."

And the anti-corruption measure is not limited to traffic fines. A whole slew of minor infractions, from prostitution to zoning violations, "are free," according to government ads in this city of 1.4 million people 70 miles southeast of Mexico City.

Armed with polling data, Mr. Paredes said that bribes have fallen by 98 percent. If motorists or others accumulate too many fineless violations, the mayor said, he will personally talk to them about the error of their ways. That approach has already worked, said the mayor, who personally admonished double-parkers in the first days of the campaign.

The Puebla experiment, which critics have charged will lead to anarchy, is part of a trend sweeping across local, state and federal governments after the July 2000
defeat of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which ruled Mexico for 71 years.

Caught up in the democratic euphoria, politicians of every stripe are testing new formulas to attack old abuses.

Those abuses include the so-called "bite," or bribe, that has been a part of every Mexican's life who drives a car, needs a building permit, runs a business or has any
contact with the government.

Anti-corruption campaigns are not new in Mexico, nor are they limited to President Vicente Fox's National Action Party, or PAN, as in the case of Puebla. But they
have been getting more radical by the day.

Mexico City Mayor Andrés Manuel López Obrador, of the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution, slashed traffic fines in half earlier this year in an attempt to get
motorists to pay the fines rather than bribes.

Mr. Fox's interior minister, Santiago Creel, said he applauds initiatives such as these to address local crime and corruption.

"I think the programs should be like that – basically close to the people through the municipalities rather than the old, formal, rigid federal programs," Mr. Creel said
Saturday in Dallas, where he was appearing at the annual convention of the National Association of Hispanic Publications.

"Basically, what is not organized crime is a responsibility that has to be taken by local governments and municipalities."

Meanwhile, the federal government is using sting operations, hidden cameras, lie-detector tests and aggressive audits to identify corrupt employees.

But no one in Mexico, so far, appears to have gone as far as Mr. Paredes, an architect and longtime PAN activist now in his first elective office.

Some Puebla police officers, who deny they have accepted bribes, are livid.

"All of a sudden, the fines are gone," said a 23-year-old traffic officer who asked that her name not be used. "Now there are more accidents, people insult us, there is
no respect for government authority. Punishment is still the only deterrent for some people."

Initially skeptical city residents are starting to enjoy the change.

"The police are angry because their main source of income has been taken away, but almost everyone else likes it," said Luis Alberto Magaña, 24, a university
student. "Corruption is a cultural thing that is tough to break. We have to teach our kids to respect the law."

Mr. Paredes credits Mr. Fox for opening up the political system and giving it a dose of democracy. But the mayor also has praise for politicians from other parties,
including the PRI, who have met with him and shown interest in his plan.

"This is a new Mexico," said Mr. Paredes, 50, from his office overlooking the central plaza and the city's Roman Catholic cathedral. "Many things are possible now
that could not be done in the past. The Fox victory was a necessary condition for that. But it's not enough. We have to do our part."

Critics in Puebla said that Mr. Paredes is using the city as a guinea pig, and the results could be disastrous.

"I would remind the mayor that in his oath of office he promised to uphold the law, and make sure the law is upheld," said Leopoldo de Lara Varela, a PRI leader in
Puebla. "Everyone can now run red lights, run over pedestrians, and I think we are going to see a lot more problems."

Mr. Paredes said that many of his initial detractors have changed their minds.

"Some political actors thought that we were starting a holy war... against them and so they dug their trenches and prepared for war," said Mr. Paredes. "A few days
passed, and they began to see that this is not a battle against anyone. Not even against corrupt officials. It's a battle against corruption."

A month into the program, he said, traffic accidents have not increased and predictions of chaos have subsided.

The virtual ticket, which is filled out like a normal ticket but carries no fine, also includes registering the traffic violation in city computers. If any motorist starts to
accumulate tickets, Mr. Paredes said, he will personally visit the violator's home to talk.

The mayor said he expects corrupt officials to quit in coming months now that their illegal income is gone.

Mr. Paredes also said he expects the no-fine plan to continue for at least six months, probably a year, and maybe forever.

When the PAN-dominated City Council voted to implement the mayor's plan for a 28-day trial period, all six opposition members voted against it. But when the plan
was extended in mid-March, there was only one dissenting vote and five abstentions.

The mayor said his anti-corruption program goes beyond just lifting fines and really consists of coming to an understanding with the population. If people follow the
rules, they will be allowed to keep their hard-earned money rather than give it away in bribes, he said.

He cited a newspaper study estimating that $3.6 million was paid to corrupt officials every year in Puebla, the capital of the state of the same name. That's far more
than the $1.5 million generated through government fines. Mr. Paredes said the lost income could be recovered through better tax collection and more honest
government.

Private bus drivers paid $5 to $10 per day in bribes, for example, while nightclub owners had to kick in several hundred dollars a month to stay open after hours.

Under the no-fine plan, Mr. Paredes told the nightclubs to stop paying the bribes and to stay open as long as they want – so long as neighbors don't complain and
drunks get a free taxi home.

When prostitutes started moving into more central parts of the city, Mr. Paredes said he talked to them, too.

"We asked them if they would rather give their earnings to their children or to corrupt officials, and their answer was obvious. So we told them not to provoke a
backlash" by moving into downtown areas, the mayor said.

Mr. Paredes also has plans to let business groups issue business permits and give residents more say in how their neighborhoods are zoned. The government would
step in only when problems arise.

"One cannot understand Mexico in the 20th century without bribery. It was the oil that lubricated the old system," Mr. Paredes said. "Now, we have to reconstitute
Mexican political culture based on honesty."