The reason Mexico and countries south of there are such basket cases is because of what I call “Old Europe disease”.
There are three primary founding legal systems in Europe. The first was based in Roman law, which eventually was reformed into Napoleonic law, finally becoming the modern French Code Civil, which dominates the EU.
It is a form of law based on the idea of two classes: the elites who rule, and everybody else. Thus it is designed to maintain this status quo. Justice really only matters if it is advantageous to the elite.
Other charming elements are the presumption of guilt, not innocence, that what is not expressly permitted by government is inherently unlawful (which is why the EU constitution was such a bureaucratic phone book detailing everything that the public were allowed to do), and other things repulsive to those of us raised in one of the other legal systems, Common Law.
Unlike Roman Law, Common Law has its origins in the Germanic tribes. All men were considered warriors, of equal stature, and the most powerful warriors were those who had earned the loyalty of their peers, which could be withdrawn at any time. From this were developed innovations like trial by jury, expert advocates (like lawyers) who would speak on behalf of the accuser and the accused, and a powerful but impartial judge who would oversee the trial but not determine its outcome. Accused were considered innocent until convicted.
From there it migrated to England, where further improvements were made until it became the Common Law we know today.
The third legal system was Viking Law, somewhat different from either of the two, but less influential after the Norman Conquest of England in 1066.
In any event, it was Old Europe mostly under Roman Law that conquered the Americas from Mexico South. And it still haunts them today. (Though officially Napoleonic Law exists in Louisiana, it has almost entirely been replaced in practical terms by Common Law.)
The effects in Mexico are startling. Perhaps only a dozen elite families control almost all the wealth and power. Compare multi billionaires Bill Gates and Mexican Carlos Slim and you can see the difference. Gates has created dozens of billionaires, perhaps hundreds of multimillionaires, thousands of millionaires, etc., and he is fine with that. Carlos Slim has created none outside of his immediate family and very small peer group.
Everybody else works for middle class wages, or minimum wage. None of them will become millionaires.
On the grand scale, this results in huge resentment among the “everybody else” class, which is why in Mexico and parts South, socialism and communism are still very popular, riding on the back of continually simmering hatred of their elites. Fortunately, at least in Mexico, while the elites tolerate peaceful socialists and nominal communists, to agitate as a communist will get that person killed.
Further South, such as in Venezuela, a socialist overthrow results in an amusing dilemma. As soon as the revolutionaries take over, they become the new, wealthy elites and see themselves as above the “everybody else” peasant class.
This phenomenon was even depicted in Woody Allen’s 1971 comedy “Bananas”, which is almost eerie in its accuracy of how things go down there. A vicious circle of elites versus the peasants, that never seems to end. Thus the “Old Europe” disease.
Though there was considerable reform made to the French Code Civil at the insistence of the US after World War II, you still see the underlying sickness of French society, which has been called “anarchy, punctuated by dictatorship”.
Here is the legal systems of the world map (that has several errors, but is close.)
http://mapsof.net/uploads/static-maps/legal_systems_of_the_world_map.png
The Wiki.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_national_legal_systems
