Mexicans See Their Nation in Moral Decline

A majority of Mexicans is convinced that their nation is in moral decline. They feel far safer at home than on the street. And raising their children is their most important goal in life--more so than wealth, fame, power or personal happiness.

A survey of 1,500 Mexicans from all walks of life last month reveals such insights into how America’s southern neighbors view their society.

This freeze-frame look at a nation where poverty and lack of opportunity drive hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants across America’s southern border each year reveals a vast reservoir of cynicism. But it simultaneously highlights Mexicans’ capacity for endurance and hope, traits deeply rooted in Mexican culture: Despite their deep concerns about poverty, crime and corruption, Mexicans appear fairly optimistic about their future, and almost two-thirds said they are satisfied with the way their lives are going, compared with nearly 80% of Americans.

Moreover, from moral values to politics, a poll by the Los Angeles Times and the Mexico City newspaper Reforma, along with its sister paper El Norte in Monterrey--which also included 1,572 Americans--found many common values in two nations that are economic and political poles apart. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Mexicans and Americans share the view that their nations are in moral decline; and both feel safer at home than on the street and say a good life for their children is their most important goal (tied with marriage among Americans).

Unemployment and inflation predictably topped the list of major problems that Mexicans said their nation faces today--an opinion that prevails despite their government’s recent declaration that the crisis that hit the Mexican economy in December 1994 is ending.

*

“The government says that everything is good, that we are experiencing growth,” explained Carla Romo, 22, a student interviewed for the poll in Mexico City. “But when you see that there is more unemployment . . . you can’t continue throwing out these lies to anyone.”

Beyond economic issues, the majority of Mexicans polled shared a suspicion of a government that they view as corrupt and as the principal cause of their nation’s moral decline.

Many indicated that they think President Ernesto Zedillo has yet to succeed in his stated principal goals: reducing corruption, developing true democracy, curbing crime and guaranteeing personal security. More than two-thirds said they feel corruption has increased, while many feel democracy has not.

They said faith in their government institutions is down. Eighty-two percent said they trust their government to do what is right only sometimes or hardly ever; just 11% said mostly or always.

And Mexicans’ opinion of their political system and parties is overwhelmingly negative, the poll found.

When Mexicans were asked which of the three major parties they support, nearly a third said “none of the above”--as many as those who named the long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, known as the PRI. The mainstream political groups clearly have a tough task ahead of next year’s key state and local elections, which will include the first-ever direct voting for Mexico City’s mayor.

Nearly a third also said they sympathize with none of the mainstream parties. Thirty percent said they sympathize with Zedillo’s PRI, including 14% who strongly back the party; 22% said they sympathize with the leading opposition National Action Party, or PAN, including 7% who expressed strong support for PAN; and just 8% sympathized with the left-leaning Democratic Revolutionary Party, or PRD, including 3% who voiced strong support for the PRD.

When queried on voting preferences, 29% said that, if presidential elections were held that day, they would vote PRI, 23% favored PAN and 9% said PRD. But the largest group--one in three--was undecided or said they wouldn’t vote. And about three in 10 said Mexico needs a new opposition party.

Pablo Ayala, who works as a temporary farmhand in the fields around Tepoztlan, about an hour’s drive from the capital, singled out the PRI’s economic policies for criticism. The party, he said, “has not made good on even a third of its campaign promises. . . . We have received nothing. Nothing!”

His village has taken a lead role in rejecting traditional government. A peasant organization literally ran local officials out of town a year ago, and the village has been governed by a “people’s council” ever since. The issue: a new corporate retreat that included a golf course that local residents said would destroy the environment.

“Looking back, we succeeded in saving our ecological resources and the village heritage,” Ayala concluded. “But of course, there are no jobs.”

Hector Ramirez, 24, a lawyer surveyed in the state of Michoacan--which of Mexico’s 30 states sends the most illegal migrants to America--was more general in his political assessment.

“We live in a republican system with one party in power and basically one opposition party, the PAN,” he said. “And then there are some nine other parties, but there is so much division between them. Anyway, what the PRI does to win elections is pay people off. They give money to the really poor people to assure votes for the PRI.”

The PRI has consistently denied such charges, but civic and activist groups say they have documented scores of cases of the PRI directing government subsidies to influence elections.

*

“Simply put, in Mexico, there is no democracy. If there is no respect for democracy on the part of the executive, then we will never be able to change anything or fight corruption,” said Ramirez.

Zedillo had vowed to usher in a new democratic order in his six-year term--a promise he repeated Sept. 1 in his second state of the union speech. The Yale-educated economist has pushed through sweeping political reforms and targeted corruption at all levels of government, including with the 1995 arrest of the former president’s elder brother, Raul Salinas de Gortari, on charges of murder and other crimes.

But the Times/Reforma poll results showed that most Mexicans, like Ramirez, remain unimpressed: About 40% said Mexico is no more democratic now than it was three years ago, and 19% said there is less democracy now. One-third said Mexico is more democratic.

On the corruption issue, more than two-thirds said they think bribery of public officials has increased in the past three years. Mexicans also listed corruption as the nation’s third-biggest problem, behind the economy and inflation. Running a close fourth: bad government.

The government also was cited by 40% of the Mexicans as one of the causes of moral decline in their country--a deterioration reflected partly in soaring crime. Nearly one in three said they or a member of their family had been a crime victim.

In subsequent interviews with the Mexicans who were polled, the connection between the two issues was clear.

The economic situation and government policy “have a lot to do with [crime],” said Carlos Lopez, 31, who works in construction in the capital. “People who have three, four or five kids and who don’t have a job, well, they need to get their money somewhere through violence. They think of robbing someone or burglarizing a store.”

Lopez and others, in addition to citing rising crime, blamed the same perceived decline on the nation’s economic crisis, the entertainment industry, a breakdown of family and “all of us”--society in general.

Student Romo explained: “You see people in the street selling chewing gum or little things like that instead of working in real jobs. And people aren’t well enough educated to say, ‘I will really dedicate myself to this.’ So people lack a lot of will too. And I think this is the reason why the country is going through this period now.”

“This is a very personal point of view,” Lopez added. “My parents raised me to be respectful in many different ways. But now, the situation in society is very difficult. . . . I try to not fall into now-common tendencies like violence, theft, murders and those kinds of things. I try to keep both feet on the ground, and maintain my calm until things get better.”

Lopez said he also has managed to keep his job, unlike seven of his 10 co-workers before the crisis exploded. For them and more than a million others who have lost jobs in the past 20 months, Lopez added: “Their opportunities to find work are slimmer. This generates a certain lowered self-esteem, because of what they must go through and where they must live.

“Many times they live with drug addicts and drunkards, and they have to travel many miles to work. All this is a factor in losing some moral values.”

*

Like many other respondents, including the Americans, Lopez stressed that family is the glue that holds society together. When asked their main goals in life, nearly one in three in Mexico and America alike cited child-rearing first.

“In an economic crisis, the family is the primary reference for support,” said Rafael Funes, secretary-general of the Mexico City-based civic group Family Parents Union. “Family creates a form of solidarity. You share food and living space with them.

“In Mexico, people count more on the family than on government for economic assistance,” Funes said.

“You count on children to ensure an extra hand in the field. There’s also the cultural aspect: The perception of many families is that having children is the symbol for continuity--assurance that your own culture and values will be preserved.”

For Mexicans, success ranked second as a major goal, ahead of marriage, which was third, followed by helping others and personal happiness. For Americans, marriage was as important as children--each cited by 32% of respondents--followed by a successful career and helping others. Personal happiness ranked fifth, but far below the other four in the U.S. list of life’s priorities: Just 8% cited it as their main goal.

As his three children played in the background, Lopez said: “I’ve tried to look at a lot of goals--personal and professional--because, when someone is adhering to a certain work discipline, that ethic also extends to one’s personal life.

“How important is it to have children? Well, I think that is the principal goal. With all the difficult situations we have gone through lately, assuring their future well-being, of course, is one of the most basic goals in our lives now.”

Acting Times Poll Director Susan Pinkus and Helena Sundman of The Times’ Mexico City Bureau contributed to this report.

How Polls Were Conducted

The Times Poll contacted 1,572 U.S. adults by telephone Aug. 3 through Aug. 6. Telephone numbers were chosen from a list of all exchanges in the nation. Random-digit dialing techniques were used so that listed and non-listed numbers could be contacted. The sample was weighted slightly to conform with census figures for sex, race, age, education, region and party identification.

Reforma, with help from its sister newspaper El Norte of Monterrey, conducted face-to-face interviews with 1,500 Mexican adults in their homes from Aug. 1 through Aug. 7. The survey was conducted in 25 states nationwide. The sample was chosen randomly from a list of geo-statistical areas of the entire country, provided by the 1990 census. Seventy-two percent of the sample corresponds to localities of 2,500 people or more, and 28% were localities with fewer than 2,500 people. The sample was weighted slightly to conform with census figures for sex, age, education and size of locality. The margin of sampling error for both the Times and Reforma polls is plus or minus three percentage points. For certain subgroups the error margin may be higher. Findings may be influenced by events that occur while the survey is in the field.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Neighboring Views

Americans and Mexicans respond to a Times/Reforma poll:

* Satisfied with the way your life is going these days:

MEXICO

Satisfied: 64%

Neutral: 3%

Dissatisfied: 32%

Don’t Know: 1%

U.S.

Satisfied: 79%

Neutral: 1%

Dissatisfied: 19%

Don’t Know: 1%

* Satisfied with your life these days compared to five years ago

MEXICO

More satisfied: 39%

Equally satisfied: 21%

Less satisfied: 39%

Don’t Know: 1%

U.S.

More satisfied: 53%

Equally satisfied: 25%

Less satisfied: 21%

Don’t Know: 1%

* Satisfied with current moral values

MEXICO

Satisfied: 37%

Neutral (volunteered): 4%

Dissatisfied: 54%

Don’t Know: 5%

U.S.

Satisfied: 21%

Neutral (volunteered): 1%

Dissatisfied: 77%

Don’t Know: 1%

* How safe do you feel in:

Your community

MEXICO

Safe: 63%

Unsafe: 35%

Don’t know: 2%

U.S.

Safe: NA*

Unsafe: NA

Don’t know: NA

Your home alone:

MEXICO

Safe: 76%

Unsafe: 23%

Don’t know: 1%

U.S.

Safe: 82%

Unsafe: 18%

Don’t know: --

Your neighborhood walking alone at night:

MEXICO

Safe: 49%

Unsafe: 49%

Don’t know: 2%

U.S.

Safe: 68%

Unsafe: 29%

Don’t know: 3%

* Main goal in life (top 5 mentions; up to 2 responses)

MEXICO

Raise children: 31%

Happily married: 22%

Successful career: 29%

Help others: 16%

Be happy: 16%

U.S.

Raise children: 32%

Happily married: 32%

Successful career: 26%

Help others: 25%

Be happy: 8%

* Not asked of U.S. respondents

-- Indicates less than 0.5%

Numbers may not add up to 100% where all categories are not shown.

Source: Los Angeles Times / Reforma Poll