Mexico Proposes 10-year Revolving Door Ban in Attempt to Curb Corruption

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Mexico's president. (Photo: Alejandro Cegarra/Bloomberg)

In the name of austerity, the government of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has slashed budgets, fired thousands of federal employees and cut salaries since he took office on December 1.

Now, his party has also decided that high-ranking government officials may not work in private sector industries they once regulated for a period of 10 years after leaving government. The measure, aimed at ending the revolving door between the public and private sectors and cracking down on corruption, is one of the strictest in the world – well above the average three-year ban common among the 36 member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Agustín García Robles, a legislator with the ruling Morena party, described the Republican Austerity Law as a measure that establishes public employment as a "vocation of service rather than a means to enrich oneself at the expense of the people". García Robles cast one of 321 votes in favour of the bill last week.