Mexico’s Walmart – Bribery?
So have you heard about the "Walmart Bribery Scandal"? I certainly have. And living here in Ixtapaluca, where I once heard we had the world’s highest grossing Walmart, I thought I would stop by briefly and comment.
wherever he turns he prospers.
Proverbs 17:8
As I understand it, here’s what’s been happening. On April 21st, the New York Times published this article – Vast Mexico Bribery Case Hushed Up by Wal-Mart After Top-Level Struggle. The article was long and detailed – basically claiming that Walmart in Mexico had been doing business with bribes. Especially highlighted was the bribes that exchanged hands to get permits to build.
Now I’m no fan of Walmart – but this is not about the pros and cons of the retail store that so many either love or hate.
But it is an interesting case in point when it comes to business in Mexico, and international relations.
Walmart isn’t the only business that has recently rapidly expanded in Mexico (another would be Canada’s Scotiabank, whose growth has been phenomenal). But I can’t imagine what other business has matched its growth. Suddenly, Walmart owns retail stores all over the country, and that’s not all – restaurants, wholesale stores, even a bank – if Walmart didn’t bring it to Mexico, it bought it when it got here.
And what is going to be the reaction if you tell people in Mexico that people in Walmart were taking or giving bribes?
Yeah? So?
Is this supposed to shock us?
That’s how business is done in Mexico, they might say. Does that make it right? Of course not.
And I’m not suggesting that everyone in Mexico takes bribes, or that there are more bribes here than in any other country.
But there is a certain expectation that bribery is out there. And the opportunity arises frequently.
What if it’s so completely a part of a culture that it has simply become a way people get paid? There are workers here who live on tips – that’s all the wages they receive. But there are also workers who are paid very little, because the expectation is that they will be able to care for their family with the extra money they get from bribes.
What if that has become the only way to do business? What if you can’t build a home, or build an orphanage – without bribes passing hands somewhere?
I’m not suggesting that’s the case here, just trying to help you look at it a different way. The fact of the matter is, sometimes the line between bribery and honest business is not as clear as we would like it to be.
So if the expectation here is that all businesses are involved in bribes, how should we feel about Walmart getting singled out? (And I’m not saying whether the claims of bribes are true or not.)
In one of the news articles I read, the first reaction of the Mexican authorities was that they had nothing to investigate.
What if the authorities have to use bribery as a means to investigate the bribery case of one business on a street of other businesses that have done the same? Just how well is that investigation going to go?
Ah, but Walmart is a US company, and so a lot of fuss can now be made on both sides of the border. The Mexican government can pledge to help its friend the USA in the investigation (as the saying goes – Poor Mexico, so far from Heaven and so close to the United States). Presidential hopeful Enrique Peña Nieto can say forceful things like "This is an endemic vice, a vice that leads us nowhere". And everyone can have something to talk about and complain about for a while.
for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted
and subverts the cause of those who are in the right.
Exodus 23:8
So let’s wait and see what happens with this one. But before you get too shocked, remember that bribery might not be as far away from you as you think. That store you shop at might have been involved in something similar somewhere along the line, and I’m not just talking about Walmart, and I’m not just talking about Mexico.
Pray for peace and justice, and try to take the time to think through the issues. Sure, we should pray for peace and justice in this case, and in Mexico – but not just here.
And we really shouldn’t be so surprised by injustice when we see it.