It’s utterly discouraging to see how impunity is so widespread worldwide. Let me use Nicolas Sarkozy’s case. The former President of France, sure, just got sentenced to three years in jail for corruption. But allow me to reiterate that you will find impunity no matter where you are or where you go.
Sarkozy was found guilty and convicted of attempting to bribe a judge in 2014 when he was no longer the French president. Yet, he tried to seduce the magistrate by offering him a prestigious job in return for information about a separate case.
Christine Mée, the Lord of Justice that handed down the sentence, said the conservative politician was fully aware what he was doing was wrong. Mée specifically convicted the ex-president of influence-peddling and violation of professional secrecy.
My problem is that the man will not set one foot in jail, not even for a minute. Instead, he gets house arrest for one year, which means he has to wear an electronic GPS-equipped anklet. But really? Are we supposed to believe this is a punishment that will teach this corrupt politician a lesson?
Amnesty International recently published a report revealing that peaceful protesters and human rights observers in France were arbitrarily arrested and prosecuted.
“Disproportionate restrictions on protests in post-lockdown France are a continuation of a disturbing pattern that has seen peaceful protesters under assault from the police and the justice system. When people are detained for releasing balloons or holding banners, it has a deeply chilling effect on lawful protest,” said Marco Perolini, Amnesty International’s Europe Researcher.
“Thousands have been arbitrarily fined, arrested, detained, and prosecuted for peaceful activities which should not be considered offenses. Peaceful protests have been banned under draconian COVID-19 powers and hundreds of protesters fined,” he added.
So, we clearly see a highly unfair delivery of justice, where people that are personalities get away with crimes for which others would undoubtedly pay time in jail.
Most crimes go unpunished in Mexico
In Mexico, impunity among politicians and public officials is far more noticeable and prevalent. Impunity in Mexico is rampant. According to Aristegui Noticias, it is as high as 99.3% in Mexico.
Spanish newspaper El Pais recently wrote an article explaining how the case against former Mexican oil zar Emilio Lozoya has become a farce. It talks about impunity as well. In another article, El Pais says that overall, femicides in Mexico go unpunished 89% of the time. It says, however, that in states like Morelos, femicide is free as there are no cases where the attacker has been convicted.
Lozoya, the former head of Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX, the state-owned oil company), was arrested in February 2020 in connection with the Odebrecht bribery scandal. Lozoya himself is accused of complicity and money laundering worth millions of dollars.
He was arrested in a luxury villa in Malaga, Spain, and under Mexico’s requested, extradited back to the Latin American country on 19 July. Mexican President Manuel Lopez Obrador said that Lozoya’s case would serve as an example for other corrupt politicians.
“The arrest of Emilio Lozoya is a lesson to those who for many years felt they owned Mexico,” Lopez Obrador, popularly known as AMLO, said. “It used to be that you could not touch the untouchables, but today that is forming part of history, and so Lozoya’s case is a sort of a heads up so corrupt officials understand that corruption is no longer tolerated in Mexico.”
Well, I doubt profoundly that politicians will learn from Lozoya’s case because one year after his arrest in Spain and about eight months since his extradition back to Mexico, the man has not set one foot behind bars. And just in case you thought that was not enough, he was brought back to Mexico in a private jet with all the amenities and, upon arrival, was taken to a costly hospital for a check-up.
All I can say is that I know for a fact that if it were me that was arrested, I would be thrown into an over-populated cell and forced to eat with my hands or even from the floor. I know because I’ve been there.
One last case of impunity
Very briefly, the same happened with the case of Salvador Cienfuegos, the former Mexican Secretary of Defense, who US police arrested in Los Angeles accused of drug trafficking. He has not been convicted and, in fact, has not even been investigated in Mexico. Instead, AMLO accused the US Drug Enforcement Agency of fabricating accusations against the ex-military official. But before that, AMLO said that the arrest of Cienfuegos was an unequivocal indication of his predecessors’ decadence and their neoliberal policies. He even warned that his government would go after others involved with Cienfuegos. It never happened, and Cienfuegos roams freely as he were, let’s use AMLO’s words: an untouchable. Bunch of BS if you ask me.
Mexico Tribune 