Where rule of law is weak, the only way to prosper is to have connections that will protect you from the vagaries and uncertainties of a vague and uncertain system.
If you have those connections, you are protected and can dare to invest. If you don't have those connections, you are unprotected and must seek to build those connections.
Centralized power and uncertain legal protections always guarantee oligarchy. Have a revolution to centralize the power even more in a supposed effort to get rid of the oligarchy, and you get more oligarchy. Because why? Because the people who are able to navigate an uncertain and politicized economy are the ones who prosper. Where the law doesn't protect you, you need to build personal relationships which will protect you.
Yes, just so.
I have some inlaws here in Vermont that have a Mexican connection on the grandparent level. They recently bought a ruined house in a southern Mexican town, near the cathedral, and are fixing it up. He is a pretty shrewd guy.
One of the first things they did, evidently, was to befriend the chief of police in that area, who gave him the necessary permissions and introductions. Otherwise, forget it.