Is Anyone Surprised That Walmart Bribes the Mexican Government?

As if Walmart wasn't already having a rough day in the media, The New York Times just published a devastating piece on the company's habit of paying off Mexican officials to get what it wants. We're not talking a few bucks here to get out of an inspection or a couple hundred pesos there to speed up the permit process. We're talking about millions of dollars worth of bribes that gave Walmart de Mexico, the company's branch south of the border, the power to pretty much do what it wanted. In one instance, it even paid an official to adjust a map designed to create a protective zone around the region's priceless pyramids. World heritage be damned. If Walmart wants its store in a convenient location, Walmart will get its store in a convenient location.

The details really do make Walmart look pretty evil. After "traveling to dozens of towns and cities in Mexico" and collecting "tens of thousands of documents related to Wal-Mart de Mexico permits," The Times found that Walmart bribed local and national officials to build 19 stores, sometimes in "environmentally fragile" areas and other times without construction permits. Some individual stores required nearly a million dollars in bribes for Walmart to get what they wanted. This passage from the Times exposé sums up the problem well:

Wal-Mart de Mexico was an aggressive and creative corrupter, offering large payoffs to get what the law otherwise prohibited. It used bribes to subvert democratic governance -- public votes, open debates, transparent procedures. It used bribes to circumvent regulatory safeguards that protect Mexican citizens from unsafe construction. It used bribes to outflank rivals.

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/business/2012/12/anyone-surprised-walmart-bribes-mexican-government/60095/