Flood of Scandals Hits Mexican Politics

Nothing new, but several coming out at once

It's a scandal a day in Mexico: an ex-governor sent to jail, another under investigation, mysterious money popping up in senators' bank accounts, politicians passing stacks of bills on YouTube.

Scandals are nothing new to Mexican politics, but the pace of revelations is accelerating as a more robust democracy and social media have emboldened Mexico's watchdogs, who are increasingly trying to bring the officials to justice or at least publicly shame them. And much of the new attention focuses on scandals in states, where the powerful grip of governors often had masked wrongdoing in the past.

In the latest case, the former governor of southern Tabasco state was charged this week with money laundering and embezzlement and woke up Wednesday in a Mexico City prison.