Freedom of information in times of crisis: The case of Mexico's war on drugs

Abstract

Transparency guarantees in Mexico presented a serious challenge to its 2007–2012 war on drugs. We use an original database of access to information requests, including both petitions for information and appeals to IFAI. We conduct statistical tests on the databases, finding that transparency is lower on security issues, as expected, but that there are unexpected variations between security agencies, and over time. We then conduct a content analysis of freedom of information requests to determine what drives agency responses, finding that security agencies developed various techniques to deflect petitions for information, such as falsely claiming that information has been provided when it has not, claiming that the information is outside the competence of the agency, that it does not exist, or that it is already in the public domain. Also there are significant differences in transparency between security agencies, possibly explained by their operational roles.

Freedom of Information Audits as Access Advocacy

“…There is variability as it regards different classes of records and different areas of government. Almanzar et al (2018) show that FOI disclosures for security-related records are released at lower rates with less depth of disclosure. There is also variability in FOI performance depending on size of government agency, awareness of the technicalities of FOI, and ideology of government leaders (Saez-Martin et al, 2017).…”

Auditing the State: Everyday Forms of Institutional Resistance in the Mexican Freedom of Information Process

“…Their findings imply that certain topics increase the likelihood of having a request denied, for example, investigative requests which inquire financial matters. Another study by Almanzar, Aspinwall and Crow (2018), focusing specifically on requests related to the ongoing Mexican war on drugs, found that institutions consistently attempted to deceive petitioners by replying that the information did not exist or had already been publicly released, when neither of the two were true. Researchers found that up to one quarter of the total requests related to the war on drugs were answered in this fashion.…”

“…Thus, during the past two decades governmental transparency through Freedom of Information (FOI) Laws has become a standard in modern liberal democracies (Bennett 1997;Ackerman & Sandoval-Ballesteros 2006;Birchall 2011;Relly 2012). However, a recent trend documented by practitioners (Rumbul 2016) and academics alike (Luna 2008;Almanzar, Aspinwall & Crow 2018), consists of governments stating in paper their support for transparency, but in practice implementing various kinds of strategies to limit the flow of information towards engaged citizens, increasing secrecy and opaqueness.…”

Restraining Gulliver: Institutional reform and the strengthening of state capacity and compliance

“…IFAI has no real sanctioning power beyond naming and shaming, thus information failures can persist. Yet research in other areas suggests that IFAI itself holds closely to its role of requiring agencies to provide timely information (Almanazar, Aspinwall and Crow 2017).…”