MEXICO DAILY NEWS -

Based on the results of the most recent National Survey on Urban Public Security, the national statistics agency INEGI estimates that 2.9 million people paid some 3.4 million bribes in the second half of last year.

Known as mordidas, bribes are frequently sought by employees at government offices who deal with members of the public seeking to complete bureaucratic procedures and by police officers who have stopped people for offenses such as running a red light or drinking in the street.

The INEGI data shows that the payment and receipt of mordidas continues to be the most ubiquitous form of corruption in Mexico.

While individual bribes are usually small — perhaps 50 to 200 pesos — the prevalence of their payment means huge quantities of money change hands.

Marco Fernández, a researcher with think tank México Evalúa and an academic in the school of government at the university Tec de Monterrey, asserted that official data underestimates Mexico’s bribery problem because many people are wary of revealing that they have been victims.

“A lot of the time it’s politically or socially difficult to publicly accept that you gave a mordida, so a lot of the time these numbers are underestimated,” he said.