According to the World Justice Project (WJP) ’s 2019 Rule of Law Index , Mexico is more corrupt than Venezuela , more dangerous than Honduras , and its level of access to justice is lower than that of Nicaragua .
Mexico ranked 99 out of 126 countries in the study
, which “measures how the rule of law is experience and perceived by the general public in countries and jurisdictions worldwide based on more than 120,000 household and 3,800 expert surveys ,” according to the World Justice Project’s website.
Index scores range from 0 to 1, with 1 indicating the strongest adherence to the rule of law. In this sense, Mexico scored 0.45, below countries such as Sierra Leone, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Vietnam .
This portrait of state of law adherence is based on eight factors: constraints on government powers, absence of corruption, open government, fundamental rights, order and security, regulatory enforcement, civil justice, and criminal justice . Conversely, Mexico showed a relatively high score on the open government category.
Regarding absence of corruption, the country ranked 117 and scored 0.29, which was even lower than Venezuela. As for order and security, Mexico scored 0.57, right below Honduras.
Mexico also scored poorly terms of criminal justice, ranking 115 with a score of 0.29, below Nicaragua.
As for other fields, Mexico scored highest in open government (0.61) and ranked 35 on the list.
One of the worst countries in the region
The 2019 Rule of Law Index also divides the countries by regions. In this case, Mexico ranked 26 out of 30 in Latin America and the Caribbean , below nations such as Guatemala, Suriname, Ecuador, and the Dominican Republic .
As for the Latin American region, Uruguay ranked highest, with a score of 0.71, whereas Venezuela came in last, with 0.28.
At the global scale, Denmark ranked highest (0.90), followed by Norway (0.89), Finland (0.87), Sweden (0.85), and the Netherlands (0.84) .
WJP investigator Leslie Solís claimed that the index “may help detect strength and weaknesses and encourage governments to take action based on concrete evidence.”
For the full report, click here .
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