Mexico

This chapter explores the state of Mexico’s electoral democracy circa 2004. Looking at the role of the media, which reveled in scandals, and at the widespread political corruption, the chapter concludes that the two are intertwined.

Father Marcial Maciel, a protégé of Pope John Paul II, was one of the most powerful churchmen involved in a pederasty scandal that has shaken the Catholic Church in Mexico to its foundations.

In the world of illegal drug trafficking, rampant homicides, and mass incarceration, Mexicans have turned to new spiritual figures, some based on Afro-Caribbean deities, to find hope. This chapter describes the deities and their adherents, in particular the foot soldiers of the drug cartels, whose lives are often treated as expendable.